Tessandra sighed, clearly upset by this.

“Well, I can’t change what has been done,” she pouted, “and if he’s not fine with it, that’s it. I hate guys who think women have to be virgins for them, and that they are sluts if not! I grew up with strong, independent women who did not wait for marriage, and it didn’t make them any worse or better than others. They are even stronger! If he wants a cute, shy girlfriend, well, it won’t be me! He’s just an idiot for pushing his standards on me!”

“T-Tessa, it might not b-be what you th-think it is...”

“What is it, then?! You saw his reaction!”

Naptunie and Cessilia exchanged another look, but they had no response to that. It was hard to understand Sabael’s thought process when he hadn’t said a thing... He didn’t look disgusted or anything, just shocked, and he had walked away without saying anything on the matter.

“Should we just go?” suggested Naptunie. “All those... words we used got us some attention...”

Indeed, Tessandra hadn’t been very discreet during her heated speech, and several people around were glancing at the three girls with suspicious looks.

“Fine,” said Tessa, jumping to her feet. “I’m done eating, anyway, and I need to do something or I’ll keep thinking about it and it will annoy me even more.”

She quickly walked away and threw the leftovers of their breakfast to Krai. Cessilia felt a bit sorry for her cousin as she watched her scold the dragon and send it away. Things really weren’t simple when it came to love... Next to her, Nana leaned in to whisper something.

“So... we should probably avoid going near the Royal Guards’ quarters today? Sab tends to go there and train when he’s upset...”

“I th-think so t-too,” nodded Cessilia.

When Tessa came back, Krai flying off in the distance, they quickly did their best to change the subject. In fact, Nana began by telling Cessilia all about how they had quickly gone back to the castle the previous night and had eaten with the Counselors while getting warmed up in the room prepared for Tessandra. From Naptunie’s recount, Cessilia understood her brother hadn’t accompanied them to the castle, but had immediately gone back to the quarters instead. Nana was smart to carefully avoid mentioning her brother, though, and made her explanation quick and fluid. Then, it was Cessilia’s turn. She summarized in her own words her evening and night with the King, although she left out all the details she felt shy about. Following this, and once they were out of reach of any opportunistic ears, she quickly explained to Naptunie and Tessandra about their past relationship, including her scar, and how her dragon had been lost. Tessandra knew about most of it except for Ashen’s relationship with Cessi, but by the end of it, Naptunie was weeping.

“I can’t believe this...” she kept crying. “This is so beautiful and sad at the same time... That you two were separated because you were from different countries... And what happened to your dragon... And your scar... Oh, god, it’s better than any romance book I’ve read but it’s too many emotions for me.”

Cessilia touched her scar. She still felt a bit embarrassed about it, but she had decided it was time she stopped hiding it. She had retrieved her choker before leaving Ashen’s room, and worn it all morning, but now that she had taken it off to show Nana, she didn’t want to put it back on. That piece of gold felt heavy in her hands, and she felt like it had been keeping her from breathing right for too long now. Strangely, she felt a lot more free now that she wasn’t hiding her scar anymore. It was quite ugly and still got her stares from passersby, but her skin color would get her stares anyway, and she didn’t care about what others thought of it either.

“I’m sorry I d-didn’t t-tell you everything sooner,” she muttered, looking at Tessa. “I th-think t-talking with Ashen helped me a b-bit to p-put things b-back where they b-belonged...”

“I get it,” sighed Tessandra. “I’m just glad if it makes you feel better now... I remember the state you were in after everything happened, and I know the only thing that mattered was to get you better, not just physically. You didn’t talk for so long... I was just glad when I got to hear my best friend’s voice and see you laugh again. Your mom and mine had told me a hundred times not to pry too much, and I already had a rough idea of what had happened anyway. When we got here, I kind of figured the King might have been... somehow linked.”

“So... His Majesty didn’t actually die, but lived in the Dragon Empire?” whispered Nana.

Cessilia nodded. They were wandering in one of the streets right next to the sea, not too crowded at this hour. Naptunie was taking them to the Apothecary in the northeastern part of the Capital, as she had promised Cessilia before, taking a nice long way around.

“He was f-found near the m-mountains,” Cessilia explained. “He was in th-the snow n-near the b-border, half-d-dead... Mother said his hair had p-probably s-started to t-turn white d-due to a c-combined effect from p-poisons and stress.”

“Poison?” exclaimed Nana. “I knew there were many assassination attempts, but...”

“It was,” Cessilia nodded. “I th-think if anyone b-but my mother had t-tried to save him, he would have d-died. On t-top of the p-poison, he was severely injured. It t-took several weeks t-to nurse him b-back to health. I was already s-studying with my mother at th-that t-time, so I helped a lot...”

Naptunie blushed. Just from her expression, they could tell she was visualizing the scene like in one of her romance books. Tessa knew the reality probably hadn’t been so pretty. The Goddess of Water had spent a lot of time in the north with her husband, working on improving medicine for injured or sick soldiers while her husband and sons fought the barbarians from the north or trained. Tessandra had also been trained in the camp, a few years later, so her imagination probably took her closer to the truth.

“Th-that’s how I met Ashen. We d-didn’t know who he was until he t-told us... When he got b-better, Father b-began p-personally t-training him too. Ashen wanted t-to get stronger, t-to one d-day b-be able to fight off his f-father and reconquer his K-Kingdom. He d-didn’t t-talk much about it, th-though. I only heard him t-talking with my older b-brother once...”

“Well, gratitude hasn’t been choking him,” scoffed Tessandra. “For someone who was trained by the War God himself, he should have been a bit happier to see you, no? He didn’t even invite you himself, it turned out to be a scheme of Yassim’s...”

“I t-told you, my father ch-chased him–”

“I would have kicked his butt out of the Empire too if I had found a guy flirting with a girl four years younger, Cessi. I don’t blame your dad on this one, and you and I both know how he and your brothers are protective of you. Seeing what happened next, it looks like they didn’t make such a bad choice, either...”

“Maybe it’s because I am one of his citizens,” said Nana, “but I really do feel a bit sorry for His Majesty now that I have heard all of this... He really seemed in love with Lady Cessi, and to have to brutally leave like that... I am glad he came back and got rid of the tyrant, but still… I am glad you can be together again now!”

“Easy there,” exclaimed Tessandra. “For now, they are not together!”

“I d-do want to win the c-competition fairly,” said Cessilia.

“Yeah, I have a feeling your rivals don’t know what fair means. Did you girls already forget? There was a murder. And that was only the first banquet too. Who knows what those crazy wenches will do next... We can’t lower our guard now. We have to stay together and be cautious in case something else happens. Even if that stupid Sabael has decided to leave us...”

She walked ahead and kept grumbling, leaving Cessilia and Nana behind to feel a bit sorry for her. It was clear she was still thinking about their earlier argument and needed some time to work through this. Meanwhile, Naptunie walked a bit closer to Cessilia.

“Lady Cessi... I get how our King got his white hair and skills now, but I was wondering, you know, about that dragon armor of his...”

“Th-that... I am not s-sure,” confessed Cessilia. “I had n-never seen it b-before. Men in my family d-don’t need to wear something like th-that, so...”

Naptunie’s question had Cessilia intrigued as well. Where did Ashen get his dragon-scale armor from? She was sure she had never seen such a thing before; all the armor her family wore was made of metal or leather, and they really didn’t need it, thanks to the dragon skin that naturally appeared to protect them. Unless in times of war, it wouldn’t have made much sense for them to need extra protection... However, where would Ashen have gotten such a thing, if it wasn’t from her family?

“Here we are!” exclaimed Nana suddenly.

The neighborhood they had arrived at was quieter than Cessilia expected, with fewer people too. All the shops were rather small and all lined up, literally next door to one another. They were all so similar, with the same architecture, one window and one door on the street, their products lined up in front with little stalls and signs, so they had to watch out for the right door or they might enter the next one without realizing. They were all made of stone bricks, covered with something that looked like a foreign variety of ivy, and only the roofs were of different colors from one shop to another. Cessilia noticed several shops had similar little  insignias in front, symbols that felt somewhat familiar.

“Those are the clans’ insignias,” explained Nana. “You may have seen them engraved in the seats of the Lords at the Royal Councils, or on the candidates’ jewelry and clothes. Because the rivalry between most families is rather strong, we tend to show which building or business belongs to which clan to avoid issues. This way, no one can pretend they began a fight not knowing whom the shop belonged to...”

“What of those who don’t have one?” frowned Tessandra.

“Oh, well, they are the independent owners... Those who don’t belong to a clan, or came from the outside. The people of each tribe do tend to buy from their own, so it might be a bit harder for those who don’t have the support of a clan. ...It’s not completely bad, though! Some people are prejudiced against some clans, so they’d prefer to buy from an independent person rather than a tribe’s bigger shop. It requires a lot of money to have an established business in the Capital too, so those people are usually already wealthy enough to maintain their business, or are experts at what they sell. Plus, they get allowances from the Kingdom sometimes, and they also have less taxes from the Commerce Chamber. As long as they don’t get on the wrong side of a strong clan like the Pangoja, they are usually fine!”

“That’s our Nana,” said Tessandra, giving her a little elbow bump. “Knowledgeable as always!”

Nana blushed but smiled proudly, and guided them to one of the shops with an insignia. This shop was obviously an apothecary, even without reading the sign. Their stall outside was flooded with plants, dried or in pots, and tons of little glass containers and parchments. Even before going in, Cessilia recognized the familiar scent of medicine and herbs she would always smell in her mother’s office at the Onyx Castle.

“...So, this sign is...?” asked Tessandra, pointing at it right before they walked in.

“It’s the Hashat Family,” said a female voice as they walked in.

Surprised, Cessilia recognized Lady Ishira, the candidate of the Hashat Family. She was looking very different from when they had met during the first banquet. She was wearing a layered, dark green dress with leaf patterns, and her black hair was only held back by a simple matching headband. She was rather skinny but almost as tall as Cessilia, and her voluminous mane seemed to be three times the size of her face. She also had several tattoos which her dress covered during the event, and wore two prettily crafted wooden earrings.

“Good morning, Princess,” she said calmly. “The eight-shaped snake with the orchid branch is the symbol of my family, the Hashat Family.”

“Lady Ishira,” said Naptunie, a bit surprised.

Ishira greeted her too, and Tessandra when she walked in last. She was helping out rather than shopping as a customer, carrying a little basket with an ensemble of dried herbs Cessilia’s eyes fell on.

“...You are m-making m-medicine for head-headaches?” she guessed.

Ishira smiled.

“You’re really skilled in medicine,” she said. “That’s right. My father has been rather unwell lately, I was hoping to prepare something to heal him... To what do we owe the pleasure of the Princess’ visit in our humble shop?”