91st day aftr my arrivel

Deer Diary,

ꝇꝆ

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To say that the air in the Star Palace was tense would be an understatement. Falpiyne didn’t really know what was going on but from her education in social etiquette, she had little hardship recognizing that right now was the wrong time to ask questions.

The day before, near the end of the “housewarming party”, the princess had contemplated whether or not to take Falpiyne and her brother with them to meet the messenger but had ultimately decided against it. From what she and Nadine could piece together from the rather cryptic announcement regarding the contents of the message, they had concluded that it had something to do with Nadine’s people. This meant the talks could be potentially delicate, depending on what exactly the Krsnelv wanted from this meeting. Maybe they would even put a prize on the information and therefore, Falpiyne wholeheartedly agreed with the princess’s decision. As much as they had learned so far, both she and Reiykin still made the occasional mistake, and this wasn’t worth risking it. And so, only Her Highness and Nadine would meet the messenger, the latter primarily showing presence and the former talking until it was clear what direction the conversation would go. Once everything was done, the others would hear about it.

At least, that had been the plan.

After the two had entered the meeting room Falpiyne was about to lead her brother away when Reiykin stated he could hear the princess’s voice. A closer look revealed that the door hadn’t been closed properly, a small gap still letting the voices through. But as the heiress was about to rectify the oversight, loud shouting could be heard from inside. It sounded like the princess’s voice, but also off; strange, distorted noises - cries, almost - being mixed into the word. The guards heard it too, barging into the room to check. Through the open door, Falpiyne could see that Nadine had seemingly fallen to the ground. Her Highness stood over her, visibly seething with anger. For the one in the room, Falpiyne had no idea what species of alien it was or how to interpret her facial expression.

Moments of suffocating silence followed during which no one dared to move. Eventually, Nadine got up and walked out of the room and past the siblings. Falpiyne tried to call out to her but the Human didn’t seem to register her words, continuing on in a rather strange way of walking until they lost sight of her behind a corner. Finally, the princess ordered for the guest to be brought to one of the guest rooms.

When only Her Highness, the head maid, and the siblings were left in the small conference room, the princess sank into a chair. Her anger had seemingly vanished and now she just looked incredibly exhausted.

“They brought bad news?” Reiykin eventually asked, eliciting a deep sigh from the princess.

“It depends. For Nadine and in the short term, the news was absolutely horrific. But in the long term, this could be a lead to the colony. Which somehow makes it even worse.”

“Your Highness, if I may,” Falpiyne inquired. “A good long-term means an overall good, correct? So why not continue the talks?”

“I needed to calm down first. Regardless of the situation, reacting like I did just now is… unbecoming of my position. I acted like my parents would have.”

“And Lady Nadine?” Reiykin added.

“She just learned about the passing of someone who seemed to be a close friend to her. I doubt she could keep it up right now even if she was in a better mental state”

“Should we go to her?”

“I don’t know. It might be better to leave her alone for now, but also maybe not. Maybe someone comforting her would be better. But I am too agitated right now, I doubt I could help her like this. First Ones, is it asked too much for a single good moment to last?!”

She threw her healthy arms in the air, but a jolt of pain made her stop the motion. Grunting, she slowly rubbed the splint of her broken arms with her healthy left one.

“I’m sorry, you two. You… weren’t supposed to see me like this.”

She stood up, pausing for just a moment before turning toward the door.

“You two have no tasks for today,” she stated before she left the two alone.

Falpiyne cocked her head.

“Do you think… did she mean we should decide on our own what to do now?”

I if even her Highness was unsure, how then were they supposed to know? Nice as Nadine was to them, the informal tone couldn’t mask the distance between them. Although, her brother had spent a lot more time with the Human.

“What do you say, Duke Reiykin?” she asked, the former tease by now having become a way to ease and comfort. Her adoptive brother didn’t answer immediately, deep thoughts visible on his face. Eventually, he extended his two right arms to her.

“Let’s meet her.”

It wasn’t a question, and Falpiyne didn’t need to answer. She returned his gesture, leading him through the halls of the Star Palace that she by now could navigate without issues. While she didn’t know where Nadine might have gone, she had a hunch; thus, the two entered the east wing. Reaching the guest section, she noticed one of the guest rooms was guarded, but didn’t pay further attention. Instead, she led her brother to the room Nadine used to stay in until just two days ago. A knock on the door stayed unanswered.

“We’re coming in, is that alright?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

As no answer came once again, Reiykin extended his hand, felt down the door, quickly found the handle and opened it. Falpiyne hadn’t been here often and yet, it was enough to make the room feel barren, as what few possessions the alien had were already at her new home. All that was left was the bed, the closet, and a desk with a chair. Even the pile of pillows that used to be on the chair was gone. The desk was also empty safe for some paper, not unlike the one their “NDA” had been written on. As they passed it, a sideways glance revealed the sheets to be almost empty, containing just a few lines of a foreign script, the last word ending in a seemingly incoherent squiggly line. The paper also seemed soaked for some reason, with multiple wet spots being clearly visible.

Finally, she spotted Nadine. The Human sat on the floor near the large window, leaning against her bed. Falpiyne nudged her brother in her direction, a gesture he understood. As they drew closer, the alien girl turned her head toward the two. Her face looked a bit different than usual, most notable being the reddish, swollen skin around her eyes. Mucus ran out of her nose which she tried to pull back in with a quick breath, creating a noise that seemed to startle Reiykin.

“Um… we heard what happened”, he eventually said. Nadine’s gaze fell, then she pulled in her legs and hugged her knees. Falpiyne couldn’t really really read the expression, but she wasn’t ignorant enough to not form an at least rough understanding of Nadine’s current emotional state.

“How… could this happen?” the Human asked, her soft voice shaky and dull. “Claire was always so chipper, how could she… what made her…”

“Wait, what did she do?” Falpiyne asked confused. Wasn’t this about her friend’s death? Unless she… oh.

Nadine shook her head.

“There is only one thing that creates these bruises. And in lower gravity it has to be even worse! How long did she… she…”

She didn’t finish her sentence as her voice broke off once more.

“Is she sitting on the floor?” Reiykin asked quietly, although Falpiyne was sure Nadine still heard it. He seemed to have noticed that the voice came from below them.

“Yes.”

“Can you guide me next to her?”

Falpiyne did as asked, unsure what he wanted to do. She was surprised when he sat down next to the alien girl.

Sitting on the ground was considered highly demeaning for a noble. If one has no chair they are to stand, that was what they had been taught. That a noble sitting on the floor was no different to the common servants. Then again, this wasn’t the first time the pair had disregarded their etiquette lessons.

She waited for a bit, but nothing else came. He merely sat there in silence. In the end, Falpiyne opted to mirror his actions, sitting down on Nadine’s other side, staying quiet as well. As time went on, Nadine seemed to slowly calm down a bit. Maybe now they could help her?

“Do you… want to watch the stars?” Falpiyne asked carefully. Nadine’s head jerked up.

“Watch the stars?” She seemed confused by the question.

“Well, ever since I saw you the first time, watching the stars has become a bit of a habit of mine”, she admitted with slight embarrassment. “It’ll get dark soon, so I thought maybe you wanted to join. I can’t really explain it but it feels… soothing. And it lets me wonder how it is up there.”

“Empty”, Nadine merely said, derailing Falpiyne’s attempt a bit.

“Um, well… it’s not the same here anyway. At home, the night sky is full of stars but here it… isn’t? But, that makes no sense, right?”

“No, it does. You probably can’t see them due to the light pollution.”

Now, Falpiyne was confused for good.

“Light… pollution? But how can light be dirty?”

To her great surprise, a short burst of laughter escaped Nadine’s mouth - despite liquid still flowing out of her eyes.

“It’s not dirty, no. But your estate stands on its own while the palace is surrounded by a huge city. All the artificial light from the city “pollutes” the night sky, so to speak, and the stars become less visible.”

“Oh, that’s why.”

The trio went quiet again, save for some strange noises escaping Nadine’s throat on occasion.

“They might know more,” Reiykin then broke the silence.

“Huh?”

“The messenger. They brought the news, right?”

“Y-yes”, Nadine affirmed, “but… if I go to them… I might see…”

“Maybe, yes.”

Falpiyne was impressed with her adoptive brother. Right now, he sounded very mature when he spoke, like a true duke.

“When... when my parents died and I lost my eyes, I also didn’t want to think about it at that point in time. But I had to since I was their only heir. I couldn't see the pictures, of course, so they were described to me in great detail. What I’m trying to say is: that was the end of it for me. But it won’t be for you, right? Your people are still out there, waiting for you. I might be grasping in the winds here, but didn’t you yourself say that even the smallest detail could give the decisive lead?”

Nadine pondered over his words for a while but then nodded. Her legs shook as she stood up and she supported herself on the wall. It was clear she still didn't want to do it, that she wasn't ready for it, but she had resovled herself. Falpiyne wondered whether this had been the right call, yet she didn't stop her. Eventually, Nadine reached the door.

“The guarded room, just a few doors from here,” she called after her.

“I s-see,” Nadine responded, voice still shaky and face still wet. “Thank you.”

She drew another sharp, quick breath and went out into the hallway.

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Krndl’s cell was rather nice. Probably because it wasn’t made to be one. On the contrary, it was a luxurious bedroom-office-hybrid, far beyond everything she had ever resided in throughout her life. But the captain had no nerve to enjoy any of it. She knew she was not a guest, she was currently being detained in here, making the room a cell in all but name, even if not explicitly said. She was to “wait here”. Guards stood outside, and she doubted they were there for her protection.

What she had spent her entire career being afraid of had now happened: her messing up. And she had done so big time, in front of not one, but two foreign dignitaries of the highest order. Even if she were in a better state of mind right now, she couldn’t have possibly imagined things going worse.

She absentmindedly took her datapad, not that she had anything else to do, and opened the picture again. It was one of the many examination pictures Doctor Mnakr had taken while they had set course back home, specifically the one where the face was the most cognizable.

Following the doctor’s advice, they had first stored their find in the back end of their storage space and turned down the heater in an effort to preserve the body until they reached Hsvegplia. There, in the far too short time they had until their departure, it had been frozen for transport and was now on their ship, back at the port. Krndl was infinitely thankful she hadn’t been stupid enough to bring THAT to the palace. She didn’t even want to imagine how that would’ve ended.

She activated the cropping function and trimmed the picture down to only the head. Would that have been better? It didn’t really make a difference from her perspective. The “Human” representative had recognized the death at first glance, so whatever gave it away had to be something obvious to them. When she compared the two… the light-brown skin tone was different to the other’s pinkish one, but unlikely to be the giveaway. Maybe the blue spots? The way the eyes looked? The large bruise around the neck probably also made things clear to the knowing eye. Krndl’s free hand subconsciously touched her throat as she looked at it again.

Of course, she could’ve also said something first and then shown the picture. Now she was aware of that. But she had been too eager to get the whole ordeal over with as fast as possible, and in her usual reports, she was always expected to get straight to the point. She had never witnessed an official meeting like this to use as a reference.

Or should she have already given more details on what her message was about when she announced herself? But she had always been told that reports were to be first heard by the one they were meant for, especially sensitive ones.

She clicked her beak and put the datapad aside. Excuses and what-ifs wouldn’t help her now. She had screwed up, plain and simple, and she couldn't even imagine what the consequences would be. But she wasn’t given much further time to stress herself over it, and her head snapped up when she heard the door open.