Chapter 9: Preference

A Prince of the Nobillo

Chapter 9: Preference

Rivuk stood outside the door to Lindsay's tower and knocked.

He heard a slight scuffle. "Let me open the door," Lindsay's voice hissed from the other side.

"But your highness, it's my job to-" Carak said.

"Just a minute!" Lindsay called.

It sounded like they were getting along well.

"Come on, it'll make a better impression if I do it," Lindsay's voice said.

"It'll be the same, regardless," Carak argued back.

Rivuk couldn't help but laugh, chuckling as the door finally opened revealing Carak.

"May I present, her highness, Princess Lindsay Ann Weaver."

Carak bowed, revealing Lindsay. The prince's laughter ceased instantly as he stared at her. Her lips were a frosted blue and her complexion shared that same cool hue. On her eyelids, saffola blossoms had been painted in pale pink. Her nails each had a shining stone stuck in the middle of a shimmering pool of blue. Her dress was so deep a shade of purple it was almost black and her long auburn hair was gathered up and twisted so it hung just at the back of her neck, a wavy strand hanging loose before her eyes. She brushed it behind her ear. He suddenly no longer had the desire to go out or, in fact, do anything. He only wanted to stand there for the rest of the night and drink her in.

But this was her evening, not his. Possibly her last one. He'd already warned Deneta not to expect him back tonight just in case he found himself in the forest.

"Good evening, Prince Rivuk," she said with a bow. She came up with a radiant smile.

He was undone.

"You look amazing," Rivuk said, awestruck.

"Shall we go?" she asked, taking his arm.

"Oh, yes. Sorry, just a moment." He dug into his pocket, pulling out a little chain of flowers shaped into a band. "My daughter wanted me to give this to you. She made it."

As if her smile hadn't been bright enough! The corona of the sun could scarcely compete with her now, he thought.

"Oh my God! It's so cute! I'm going to wear it right now." She slipped it on over her wrist. "We'll have to get her something to thank her. What's her name?"

"Deneta." He stared at the dangling flower chain, still stunned. He'd expected her to take it, it was the gracious thing, afterall, then leave it behind. Not put it on! It didn't even remotely match. And then to suggest that they should buy a gift for his daughter? Ask her name?

Lindsay was talking a mile a minute. "Kids like chocolate, is she allowed to have chocolate? I mean I wouldn't want to get her something she was allergic to. Wait, you don't have chocolate. What's the Nobillo equivalent to chocolate? Oh yeah, you don't know what that is. Actually, do Nobillo kids even eat sweets? What does she like?"

He took her in his arms and pressed his brow to hers. "Thank you," he said. "We'll find something nice for her at the arcade."

It turned out he barely had to ask Lindsay any questions for the first part of the evening. The little flower chain had opened the floodgates. She talked of her summer job coaching children in soccer, a sport she said most Earth children played. She said she often got gifts like the bracelet and she made cupcakes for them all at the end of the year, except for Ty, who was gluten-free, she got her her favorite fruit and on and on it went as they strolled through the shops of the arcade arm in arm, though he understood very little of it. Still, he enjoyed watching her talk, watching her hands move with the words, watching the myriad of expressions on her face - he didn't know the game but, somehow, he won with them when Ja'Wanda kicked the season winning goal.

"Do Nobillo children have any sports they play?" she asked.

Rivuk was about to answer that he didn't know, having grown up in the palace, when Lindsay rushed over to a glass window showing off a number of sparkling ornaments.

"Oh my gosh! It's perfect! Can we get her that?" Lindsay pointed to a shining silver ornament shaped like the palace. "Or would she like that one better? It looks just like a snowflake."

"That's one of the symbols of the Immortal," Carak said.

"It is? Tell me what it means. Actually, let's buy the palace one first. She'll like it, right?"

Rivuk nodded.

"Alright, let's get it." She grabbed Carak's arm and drug him into the store with her, much to Rivuk's surprise as he followed after.

________________________________________

Lindsay quickly found the Nobillo store clerk, a smallish man with square glasses and a beaky little nose - As if the Nobillo weren't birdlike enough! she thought. He reminded her very much of a sparrow with his receding tawny brown hair and plump belly.

"How much is it for that palace ornament?" she asked.

The bewildered little man stared up at Carak, barely noticing Lindsay. "It's 400 hecades."

She looked to Carak. "Is that a lot?"

He nodded.

She frowned, looking sadly at the shining thing. "Oh... Thanks anyway." She turned to leave, dejected. It was so pretty, she was sure it would be perfect, too. She would have loved to see Deneta's face when she got it.

She could make her something. She was pretty good at that. She tried to smile as she thought about it. Maybe draw her a thank you card?

Rivuk stepped into the shop, a smile lighting his handsome features. "Lindsay, have you forgotten? You're a princess. You don't need to worry about the cost."

"Princess Lindsay? Prince Rivuk?" The little sparrow-man hurriedly bowed low. "Forgive me, I didn't recognize you. Please, take it as a gift, for your wedding."

"No," Lindsay said. "We've got the money; we want to pay for it. And that one next to it, too."

"You've got a good eye," the man said, taking them both from the little glass display cabinet. "The East Tower symbol of the Immortal."

"Can you wrap up the palace? Make it look really nice." She glanced over to Rivuk. "It's for someone special."

The clerk wrapped it carefully in a filmy purple cloth, tying it with a blue ribbon of fabric. He handed both items to her.

"Thank you," she said and turned to Carak, holding out the snowflake-like symbol. "Here. I know it means a lot to you."

There was a clattering of something heavy to the ground. Lindsay turned to see a Child of the Immortal woman, staring. From her drab and worn clothes, she appeared to be a servant, or, more probably, a slave, to the store owner.

"I- I cannot accept this," Carak said, clearly in shock.

"After all you've done for me this past skell, it's the least I can do," she said.

"But princess, it is highly irregular!" Carak continued to try to object.

The store clerk looked like he might want to object too, but he hadn't found the words.

"Take it," Rivuk said. "As a sign of appreciation from the both of us."

Carak took the little ornament. It looked so tiny in his massive, taloned hand.

Rivuk turned to the shop clerk. "Thank you, sir, for your excellent service to my wife and I." He shuffled Lindsay out of the store.

"I don't understand," she said as they walked away from the shop with Carak walking behind. "Did I do something wrong?"

"In the short term, yes. In the larger scheme of things, you were perfect. You do it so naturally, I didn't even consider you might do something like that."

"Do what?"

"Give." Rivuk said.

"Was it wrong for me to give the ornament to Carak?"

"Children of the Immortal are almost never given gifts, even by the most generous of owners, and certainly never an expensive trinket like that."

"Should I apologize to him? I thought it would make him happy, but I think I embarrassed him."

Rivuk shut his eyes and chuckled a bit. "You're doing it again. You really don't see him as a Child anymore, do you?"

"What are you talking about, of course I do! It's not like I could mistake him for anything else. He's eight feet tall!"

Rivuk laughed harder. "No, that's not what I meant. I mean you know he is a Child of the Immortal, but you don't treat him in the way that's expected. You throw out apologizing to him as though it were nothing, but him being a Child means never having to apologize. You argue with him, you talk to him with no formality, I even saw you take his arm. In public!"

"He's my friend!"

"No, he's not. He's your servant. What he does is out of his duty."

"You mean my slave," she said with disgust.

Rivuk let out a long breath. "Yes, he is a slave."

"Well, maybe I don't want to play Miss'us! Did you ever think about that?"

A smirk played on the right side of Rivuk's mouth. "You've gotten very protective of him."

"Like I said," her words were terse, "He's. My. Friend. Are you jealous?"

"No, you never really belonged to me, so I can't be afraid he'll take you away. He wouldn't, anyway. Envious, maybe. I wish you would grab my hand and pull me into something like that."

She leaned against him as they walked. It felt nice to feel the firmness of his chest again. "You'd better be careful, or you might get what you want."

He smiled. "I hope I do. Listen, I understand you see him as a friend and I don't care how you interact with him in private, but, for his sake as well as yours, try to exercise some decorum with him in public."

Lindsay frowned. For his sake as well as yours. That was a nice way to say she was going to get Carak punished, probably beaten, if she wasn't more careful. "Fine."

Rivuk pulled her close as they stepped out into the square. "By tomorrow, that female Child from the shop will have spread the word to all the Children in the city of what you did. We'll be Prince Rivuk and Princess Lindsay: Friends to the Children of the Immortal. Not that I mind sharing the title with you."

"Why do they call you a friend to the Children of the Immortal?"

"Because I chose a Child as my hest, and because I don't just send them off to fight and die in mass as the kings and princes before me have done. They seem to interpret that as meaning I view their lives as having some value, which, unofficially, is true. Officially, it's about saving money and creating a stronger fighting force with veteran soldiers and creating a sizable disaster response force who are trained for the job, not just reassigned soldiers."

Lindsay wrapped her hand around his as they walked to an open-air café where they sat while Carak stood guard, Children not being allowed to eat at tables in restaurants. Why did Rivuk have to be so damn perfect? she thought. Here she was twice married and now she finally meets Prince Charming? It didn't seem fair.

She wondered if her mom had felt that way. Hagerstown's own Marlee Jo Duncan marrying Bobby Weaver of the Cape Cod Weavers. He was polished and successful from old money and she... lived in the cabin her grandfather built, still sharing a bunk with two of her sisters and making deer jerky by hand.

But she wasn't Marlee Jo Duncan. She was Lindsay Weaver. She'd been raised to shoot a deer and field dress it and then come home and get changed for the winter formal. She was no stranger to either way of life. She'd grown up in both worlds as though it was the most natural thing and now, for the first time, she felt truly divided between them.

She could have Social Justice Warrior Prince Charming, or she could have the woods with the gruff Sirix and her perfect Donil. So perfect. The smartest and sexiest woman she'd ever met. God, she missed those long legs! And her breasts! And the way her face looked when she came...

"Princess Lindsay?" a trio of young Nobillo girls with a floating tiny black holoball brought her back to herself.

"Yes?" she said.

"Can we get a picture with you?"

"Sure. And what are your names?" Lindsay asked as she'd watched her father do hundreds of times. He'd pull out his special Polaroid camera he used for constituents and write both of their names in the white part at the bottom. The only difference was, he had a chance of remembering them. She'd forget the names the moment they were said.

"Thea!"

"Altera!"

"Teloni!"

"Ok, crowd in. Now smile!" She saw the green light of the holoball shutter. "Alright, let's see how it turned out." She swiped her hand in front of the ball, bringing up the image. It was weird to see herself like that when she was still expecting normal Lindsay Weaver in jeans and sneakers, like at soccer camp or volleyball practice or at some house party - it was like she wasn't in the picture at all, but some stunning princess had taken her place when the shutter clicked.

Lindsay signed her name with her finger. "Now you all sign your names, too."

The giddy girls all did.

"Don't forget to send me a copy," she called after them.

She belonged in the woods.

She saw Rivuk chuckling as she turned back to her food.

"What?" she asked.

"One would think you belonged here," he answered. "But you don't. You belong back in the forest."

She looked from him to where Carak stood for confirmation.

Carak nodded slightly. "Or home," he added.

"We know it's possible to get through the Northern Gate like your human friends did," Rivuk said. "Their transmitters stopped not long after they went down there.

"Puh," Lindsay scoffed. "Home? This became my home the moment I first had sex with my wife."

Rivuk raised an eyebrow. "Not your husband?"

"No. Sirix always knew what it was. Neither of us believed I was going to stay. But Donil! I didn't even know I was bi until her! I mean, I guess there were hints, but she hit me like a ton of bricks. Did you see her when you went there?"

"No. I think she was working late at the hospital, Sirix said."

"Well, she's stunning. Stunning! She looks like a supermodel. She should be your Bonat queen. I mean, if she liked guys, which she doesn't." She was talking at a mile a minute again. "And she's so smart, too! Like you know that blue patch that covers my shoulder? That's a skin graft. She invented that! Like invented it! And then, even though she's smart and beautiful, she's so nice! Except to Sirix, sometimes. I miss her so much! But, I mean, after we got together, I couldn't leave her. It would have hurt her too much. I just couldn't. It'd be like leaving you." She covered her mouth quickly. She'd said too much again. What was it about this evening that was causing her to nervously blather about every little thing?

"So, you don't want to leave me?" he said, a sly glint in his eye.

"I never said that. I just wouldn't want to see you hurt."

"You're not going back to the woods tonight, are you? You weren't even planning to."

She crossed her arms and looked away from him. "I'm not going to answer that."

He was grinning now.

"I just wish I could live in both places; you know? Like I could spend time with you and Carak and then go back to Donil and Sirix whenever I wanted to."

"Your world sounds lovely, but that's not our world."

"Then I'll fight to make it my world." Her eyes flashed with determination.

Carak chuckled, Rivuk caught his hest's eyes and laughed, too.

"What's so funny about that?" she demanded.

"I told you she was much like you," Carak said.

"You did. I just didn't realize how much."

"What?" she was getting irritated.

"Forgive me, my wilding, it's just that I said exactly the same words to Carak two lanc ago. They were the words that first set me on this path."

Carak leaned down so no one could hear him. "I always thought it was when you were in your fourth lanc and you came to me weeping and saying that you didn't want to kill any more Bonat and begged me to please not make you."

Lindsay stared at him in shock. "You really did that?"

"It wasn't one of my proudest moments."

"It was one of mine," Carak said.

Rivuk's cheeks actually flushed. Was he...? He'd said Carak was like a father to him; was she actually witnessing what would certainly be a rare moment of a man hearing that his father-figure was proud of him? And the way Rivuk was looking at him! It made her want to cry like an episode of This Is Us.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and plastered on a smile as she addressed Carak. "So, this has all been very repetitive for you, hasn't it?"

Carak nodded with a smile.

"All?" Rivuk asked.

"The same thing. About the Children of the Immortal. After he came to my rescue. I can't do it anymore, I just can't," Lindsay said.

Rivuk stood and offered her his hand. "So, what do you say, my wilding. Will you stay with me and help make this our world, together?"

Lindsay laughed but she couldn't stop her heart spinning inside of her as she looked into his copper eyes. "That is such a line!" She took his hand and let him pull her up. "How about we start at seeing the pyramids of light?"

It was only a short walk from the café to the wide, well-lit path that wended through the three pyramids. As they approached the stairs that led to the path, Lindsay felt a pulsing beneath her feet. "Is that music?" she asked. She listened closely. "It is!" She ran towards the stairs, standing on her tiptoes as if that would give her a better view.

Loud bass pounded into the night as an electric symphony played behind it. She could see from here the strings of yellow lights that made up the walls of the pyramids, all strung vertically from a white metal frame. Inside, she saw fountains squirting up in waist high columns from the burnt yellow and white tile. The columns made patterns and danced to the music as multi-colored lights lit them in different shades depending on the moment.

She turned to Rivuk and Carak, grinning. "Oh my God! It's like a club! Can I go in or are you supposed to watch from outside?"

"You can go in," Rivuk said.

"Hell yeah!" She ran down the steps, feeling the rhythm in her body.

One of the things she'd missed doing the most on Earth was going to clubs and dancing till they shut the place down. She loved getting lost in the music, letting it flow through her body until all sense of time and place disappeared. In those hours, it didn't matter if she was any good at dancing or who else was with her on the floor, it was just her body and the beat pulsing through it.

Parting the stands of lights, she stepped inside. Reflected light of thousands of hanging prisms danced all around her as she slowly turned in bedazzled awe. It was like when they'd first stepped out of the cab in Reno, all the lights and colors!

"Woah!" she cried as a jet of water shot up in front of her. She laughed as drops of water splashed on her. "Rivuk! Carak! Come on!" she tried to wave them in. "Join me!"

They shook their heads. Rivuk raised his hand. "No, you have fun."

"Oh come on! Fine. Girls, why don't you join me?" She waved to the girls from the café who were trying and failing to lowkey stalk her. The girls squealed with delight and ran over to join her.

As soon as they slipped into the pyramid, she splashed one of them. "Bet you can't splash me!" she cried. She and the girls jogged around the fountain jets, screeching and laughing as they played in front of a gathering crowd. "Join us!" Lindsay said, waving them in. Soon the large pyramid was full of people.

"Yikes!" Lindsay cried as flames shot up from the nearest fountain hole where she'd fully expected to hit one of the girls with a blast of redirected water. She yanked her hand back, realizing, a moment later, it wasn't even hot.

She ran her hand through the top of the flame. It gave off no heat! The fire caught along a large, trailing series of curved tracks flaring up as the music changed to something with a fast, throbbing beat.

She raised a hand in the air, her hips already shaking. "That's what I'm talking about! Let's dance!" She began moving her body with the beat. It was her club and, as far as they knew, she was the best dancer on earth and she was going to dance like it.

"Come on, girls, dance with me!" She pulled the black-haired girl in and proceeded to bop back and forth until the girl got the hang of it. She added in some arm movements, which the girls quickly copied and soon the whole place was dancing.