"Your Highness?" a surprised voice came out of the console. "I'm sorry, your arrival was scheduled for tomorrow. Also, going by the log, Commander Iyariy should be in charge of your vessel. Did something happen?"

"Yes, quite a lot in fact. We are currently in a captured enemy vessel that is drastically overcrowded, so a landing attempt would be too risky. Please send a carrier to pick us up."

"You are... um... I-I'm sorry, I can't just..."

Silgvani sighed.

"I am Silgvani of Clan Kiyron, daughter of King Kiyrta and Queen Mirvani, and 1st Princess of Hohmiy. Access-Code Furo-Mil-Nogara-/-Ako-Furo-/-Kipa. I get you are just doing your job, but we are all REALLY spent right now."

"...code confirmed, I'll relay your request."

The princess leaned back in her seat. They were finally home.

Despite being surrounded by people who could see her, she allowed herself to just hang in her chair for a while, her homeworld peacefully lying before the blackness of space. After all that had happened, the sight was soothing.

She didn't know how much time had passed when she stood up again. After giving orders to call her when the carrier arrived, she left the bridge and made her way to the captain's quarter.

"Your Highness! I was looking for you, do you have a moment?"

She stopped, only to see a way too excited Doctor Githaiy come towards her.

"Depends. Is it important?"

"Hm, not immediately, but it may become so in the future." She held up her datapad. "I did some research regarding yesterday's... incident."

Silgvani listened up. As much as the involved parties likely wanted to forget it happened - especially Nadine - it was important to prevent a repetition in the future.

"You may carry on as long as you stay tactful this time."

"Ah, of course, Your Highness. I shall. So, when compared among different species, a... solid defecation, while rare, usually happens when a creature frequently eats something it can't fully digest."

The Princess cocked her head.

"If you eat something you can't digest, wouldn't you just vomit it out again?"

"I said not FULLY. We, for example, absorb around 98,7% of the food we eat. Other alliance species show similar numbers. For that reason, it is nowadays almost never seen in sentient creatures or domesticated animals because we know both our and their bodies well enough to optimize the nourishment intake. But, even on Hohmiy, there exists wildlife where it can still be seen. And here comes the interesting part: We Vanaery also had it for the longest time in our history."

"...I never heard that before."

The doctor shrugged.

"Neither have I, and I'm a doctor. Granted, the history of our bowel movement isn't something I would deem to be of public interest, and my education focused on more important matters. But what's even more fascinating is the reason for it. Did you know that we ate kiyrli leaves in the past?"

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Wait, when you say kiyrli leaves, you mean the ones we use for water purification?"

"The very same."

Now, Silgvani's curiosity was actually piqued. Kiyrli leaves were one of Hohmiy's most valuable resources. One of, if not the main reason why their planet was so wealthy and influential was the export of those leaves. Silgvani was no scientist and thus didn't know the details, but the leaves contained something unique that made purifying water incredibly easy and cheap when compared to other methods. And the doctor was telling her they ATE those in the past?

"Why would we do that? Are they even edible?"

"They certainly aren't today. I unfortunately couldn't find too much about it in the mobile databank, so I won't be able to go into too many details before we get home. I'm talking about the time period prior to the Unification War.

"Funnily enough, the reason why we ate them is in some way the same as our use for them now: purifying water. When drinking water and then eating the leaves, they would separate the water from its other contents, and then bind them so the water couldn't reabsorb it. The water, now undersaturated, would try to perform osmosis, but since it couldn't take back its original contents, it would instead detox us and then leave the body with the bad stuff the same way it does nowadays. But unlike today, our bodies would additionally need to get rid of everything bad that was originally in the water and was now bound to the half-digested leaves. And, according to some very old medical texts, this mixture would leave the body the same way... well what we saw with Nadine. But once we discovered how to purify water externally, shortly after the unification war, we switched to drinking water that was already purified, and eating the leaves was no longer necessary."

"But... why even bother when you can just eat them?"

"Because the industrial purification process is WAY more thorough. Ever since that method was discovered, our life expectancy has risen by 30%. And because we haven't eaten kiyrli leaves in so many generations, we have long since de-evolved that ability, so eating them now would indeed just make you vomit them up again."

The princess took a few moments to process all the information she heard before she spoke again.

"Okay, but how do we solve our problem at hand?"

The doctor gave the princess a satisfied expression.

"Well, I purposefully said this process ALMOST never occurs in sapient species. It might be because they are carnivorous, but the Krsnelv have not yet managed to optimize their diet enough to lose this function of their bodies."

I see, the princess understood. When Harbor Town and the Star Palace were built, we made sure they accommodated all species in the alliance. And none of the Krsnelv's ambassadors that visited so far voiced any issues in that regard, which means this was one of the things considered.

"So what you are saying is, we are in fact lucky and Nadine's... toilet-related issues should not be a problem in the Star Palace?"

"We should check to be sure, but presumably."

Those were some good news. But talking about Nadine also reminded her why she had left the bridge in the first place.

When she opened the door to the captain's quarter, she found the little alien sitting on the mattress, wrapped in the blanket and leaning against the wall. Her face had changed color again, it was now fairly pale, except right under her eyes, where it had a shadow of dark blue. Sigvani was somewhat glad the doctor hadn't followed her, because that would have definitely sparked new questions.

"Nadine?"

The alien girl, who had apparently been lost in thoughts, startled and looked up to her.

"I-I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I didn't see you. Ah, I mean Your Highness!"

"It's fine. Were you able to sleep?"

"A bit."

Silgvani felt like the Human's voice sounded even weaker than usual as she said these words. Or was that just her imagination?

"Well, if you are up: we've reached Hohmiy. Want to come to the bridge and take a look?"

"Um, yeah, sure."

No, it wasn't just her imagination. Nadine's voice was different today. Not only did she sound less excited than the princess had hoped, but also somewhat... dull. Was something wrong? Or was that something normal for her kind and she just read way too much into it?

Before she could say anything else, Gehnnat's voice sounded out of the ship's speaker.

"Your Highness, our escort is coming. The Unifier is approaching!"

"Oh, come on, seriously?", the princess mumbled under her breath.

Hearing that, Nadine stood up.

"What's wrong? Who is the unifier?"

At first, Silgvani just wanted to answer, but then she had a better idea.

"Want to see?"