– Prior –
Prior found the small café fairly quickly.
It was rather small, with only a few tables. Everything was decorated in pastel colors—mint, white, and rose. It looked very cozy.
Aside from Kassia and Yina, no one else was there.
As soon as she entered, Yina ran straight toward her. Prior quickly glanced at Kassia; she nodded with a smile.
Prior bent down, lifted Yina off the floor, and spun around with her a few times. Yina laughed joyfully.
Then she set her back down and greeted Kassia with a slight bow.
"Good evening, Princess."
"Sit down, Prior. I was glad you reached out."
Unlike her brother, Kassia had a slightly rough voice, but it sounded warm and pleasant.
Prior nervously bit her lower lip. She hated herself for meeting Kassia with a certain intention. It made her feel insincere.
Finally, she sat down.
Yina sat on a blanket on the floor next to the table, drawing a picture.
"I didn't even know there was a café here," Prior said.
"Yes, sometimes I prefer staying inside the palace. Outside, people watch you, and you always have to be careful," Kassia explained. "What would you like to drink?"
"Can you recommend something?"
"I can."
She tapped something into a small mini-tablet on the table, and shortly after, a servant brought two glasses filled with green liquid topped with something like red crumbs.
"What is that?" Prior asked curiously.
"Matcha latte with rose."
"Oh. I've never heard of that."
She took a sip immediately. "Mhhh, I like that."
Kassia smiled.
"Now I'm curious for a moment. When you say people outside can be troublesome—what was it like when your brother was in the city with Princess Evlina? Evlina didn't tell me anything. I assume they were left undisturbed."
"Yes, that was prepared months in advance. And we also have a law here. Anyone who approaches the royal family inappropriately has to pay a heavy fine," Kassia explained.
"Oh, I see."
"Is it different on Saturn?"
Prior thought. "I never really considered it. But I'm not part of the royal family. Princess Evlina rarely appeared in public anyway. Almost only at official events."
"I see. We also have our Hualin," Kassia added with a wink.
"Hualin?"
"Yes. In short, they are the protectors of the royal family. They often escape most people's notice—but very little escapes them."
"Wow, we don't have anything like that on Saturn."
Suddenly Yina spoke up. "Prior, would you like to wear a green dress?"
Prior looked and saw that Yina was drawing something resembling a figure.
"I'd love to," she replied. Yina immediately picked up a green pencil and continued drawing.
Prior thought again about her actual goal. The sooner she finished, the better.
"Princess Kassia, I wanted to ask you something," she began.
"What is it?"
Prior looked down at her matcha and then said quietly, "Can you tell me what your brother likes?"
Then she looked at Kassia.
Kassia regarded her slightly suspiciously. "And who wants to know?"
"Princess Evlina."
Kassia sighed softly. "And that's why you wanted to meet me?"
"Please forgive me. I truly did want to meet you anyway. But this morning Princess Evlina gave me this task, and I couldn't refuse. I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings!"
Prior felt it was best to be completely honest. She just hoped she hadn't lost Kassia's trust.
Kassia hesitated briefly, then smiled kindly again. "It's alright, Prior. We all have unpleasant tasks we must deal with. Thank you for your honesty. But next time, I want to meet only if it has nothing to do with politics or duty."
Prior nodded in agreement.
"Good. As for my brother: he likes that Tingdao is doing well—and he likes his freedom."
That wasn't exactly helpful.
"And beyond that?" Prior pressed.
"Beyond that?"
"Well, things like: he likes Cheqi, badminton, and…" Prior thought. "…strawberries."
"Strawberries?!" Kassia looked at her in amused disbelief.
"Yes," Prior continued, "and black more than white… things like that."
"And how do you know that?" Kassia asked almost suspiciously.
Oh no. What should she say now?
"Well… from observation," Prior replied.
Kassia thought for a moment. "Then Princess Evlina can find out for herself what Kashion likes. She should do that herself instead of sending you. And she shouldn't pretend to be someone else just to please a person."
Prior liked those words.
"I agree. I think the same way. Authenticity is the most important thing to me," she said.
Kassia nodded, held out her fist, and after a brief hesitation, Prior bumped it.
She liked Kassia more and more.
"Finished!" Yina suddenly exclaimed, standing up and holding out her artwork.
It was a stick figure wearing a green dress, with yellow curly hair and something on its head.
"I drew you as a princess. It's for you."
Prior accepted the drawing and stroked Yina's head. "Thank you, Yina."
Yina sat down again and began another picture. "Now I'm drawing Mama," she announced.
"Sweet," Prior said to Kassia.
Kassia smiled again. "Ah, something I wanted to ask you: what year were you born?"
"221 after the Saturn Settlement," Prior replied.
The Saturn Settlement referred to the year Saturn had been fully terraformed and the first families had settled there.
"Same as me!" Kassia said. "And Princess Evlina? I forgot."
"226."
"Like my brother," Kassia said. "Now tell me—what do you like to do in your free time?"
"Oh, that's hard to say. A lot." Prior laughed. She quickly decided not to mention Cheqi or science. "I like music," she said instead.
"Me too. Shall we go to a concert sometime?" Kassia suggested.
"I'd love to."
Kassia pulled out her tablet and showed her which musicians she liked.
The conversation remained relaxed and easy, and they realized they had a lot in common.
The next day, Prior told Evlina that she hadn't been able to find out much—only that Kashion cared about Tingdao's well-being and valued his freedom, as Kassia had said. Evlina received it rather unsatisfied.
Now Prior was sitting with Yin again.
"Cheqi," Yin said. "Oren mentioned Prince Kashion is quite obsessed with it at the moment."
That was nothing new to Prior.
"And Oren said he noticed something else."
"Oh?" Prior asked.
"Yes. Prince Kashion has been smiling more lately. That's a good sign for the princess, isn't it?" Yin said.
Prior immediately thought of Kashion's smile in the palace garden—and suddenly found herself smiling too.
"You see? Everything will be fine," Yin commented on her smile. "He surely likes the princess."
Prior nodded. Who wouldn't like such a woman?
She considered messaging Evlina. She didn't feel like telling her in person the next day and possibly seeing her reaction.
She did not want to mention Cheqi. That was her thing. Not Evlina's. Evlina had always spoken about it rather dismissively. And what good would that information do anyway? Prince Kashion himself had mentioned that he had spoken to Evlina about Cheqi. But was he really that obsessed with the game? Prior had to laugh softly again. In her mind's eye, she was sitting across from him at the Cheqi board once more. It truly had been an exciting game.
Finally, she began typing:
"Princess Evlina, Yin couldn't find out much either. But there is something positive: Oren mentioned that Prince Kashion has been smiling more lately, and that surely has something to do with you."
Prior simply could not imagine that it might have anything to do with her.
– Kashion –
The next few days passed the same way for Kashion.
He steadily improved at Cheqi, needing less and less practice.
During the meetings, he kept noticing that Prior was never there. One might almost think she was avoiding him. But there was no reason for that.
Again and again, he looked at his unchanged Cheqi board. He shook his head. Was he really waiting for Prior to simply show up and continue the game? He felt almost foolish.
On the evening of the third day, he lost patience. He had to do something himself.
An idea came to him.
When Oren sat across from him in his room, Kashion said, "Find out whether the council members or scientists need any information or data from Laboratory 1."
"What for?" Oren asked.
"Then I will obtain the data from Laboratory 1."
Oren stared at him in disbelief.
"You want to obtain the data? I don't think you've ever set foot in the laboratory. Why do you want to handle this personally? The scientists can do that themselves."
Kashion shook his head. "As ruler of a realm where science is one of the most important resources, I need to start engaging with it more. Do this: postpone the meeting by a few hours and bring me the necessary information. Tomorrow, before the meeting, I'll go to the lab. I need to show some presence there."
Oren still looked puzzled, but then said, "Very well, Your Highness. I'll get to work."
Tomorrow, Kashion thought—and smiled.