While Jens went into the palace with a decent number of guards, the rest of them escorted the queen, Mun-Hee, and me to the throne room. The Emperor sat on his throne, surrounded by a few dozen guards. His advisor, and for some reason Booker too, stood by his side. The Emperor got up from his throne as soon as he had seen us walk in, racing towards us as fast as his gargantuan body would allow it.

After huffing, puffing, and wobbling his way to us, he spoke:

“I’ve heard what happened. I’m terribly sorry you had to go through that, and I’ll make sure that everyone who is involved in it gets hanged. That being said, we’ve been very vocal about staying where our guards can see you. And I’ve also heard you’ve refused to allow my guards to follow you into that secluded garden.”

“What’s the point of a party if there’s no excitement?” The queen responded in a merry mood.

The Emperor opened his mouth in surprise, his double chin hanging low.

“Besides,” the queen continued, “there are so many ways to kill someone. They could’ve poisoned me or shot me from a distance …”

“The guards are there to protect you from the arrows, and we have tasters for the food …”

“The point is: I prefer taking my assassins head-on, on my terms, instead of waiting for them to come to me.”

“… are you saying you knew about it?”

“Not when I came here. But humans can … feel certain things. We can feel it when someone is watching us, plotting against us, when they don’t mean us well. After consulting with my guard, we’ve decided we can deal with these assassins with ease. After all, they were very amateurish.”

“You could’ve notified my guards at least, if not me.”

“And let the traitors escape? Had we done that, you’d take extreme measures to protect me, and we wouldn’t uncover the traitors in your midst. These assassins weren’t after me. I know it sounds strange, since I’m the one they tried to kill, but they were actually after you.”

“And what makes you say that?” The Emperor said, his ears twitching vigorously on top of his head.

“I’m just a means to the end for them. What they want is to start a war between our people. They know that having me killed here would force my people to retaliate. But they don’t care about me personally. I just got here a moon ago. They didn’t even know that I exist until today! But they do care about your Empire a lot.”

“I … hmm … I admit that I do have a lot of enemies … both from outside and inside my realm,” The Emperor said while stretching his back in discomfort.

“Now that you know what nobles are against you, you can act accordingly.”

“Hmm … that is true … but that’s something for my own guards to handle. I can’t afford to have foreign royals risking their lives for my sake, especially someone like you. That tarnishes my honor.”

“As I’ve said, the royal title is not hereditary in our society. I’ve seen my fair share of danger before earning it, so this is nothing new for me. Consider it an advance payment for the city of Qalo,” the queen winked seductively.

“That … what about your guard? I’ve heard the traitors have taken her. I can’t guarantee her safety.”

“It’s ok, there’s nothing for you to worry about. She’s my guard for a reason. She managed to turn the tables on her captors. In fact, Jens and your guards will be back shortly to notify us they’ve found her.”

“And how do you know that?”

“I share a special connection with my close associates.”

“A special connection … does it have something to do with blood?”

“Absolutely not! Don’t you know that magic doesn’t exist in our world?”

“Hmm … yes, my own mages have told me so. But what other connection could it be?”

“Just how magic doesn’t exist in our world, there are things from our world that don’t exist in yours. You don’t have a word for it because it doesn’t exist here. It’s not a bodily connection but a mental one. We know how to share our thoughts with each other, even over long distances.”

“That’s very …”

A group of guards entering through the door stopped the conversation, with Jens at the front.

“My queen!” He spoke loudly, “We’ve found Anna! She’s alive!”

“But is she ok?” The queen asked.

“That …” Jens started scratching the back of his head bashfully, “that depends on how you look at it. She is hurt, and it appears that she was tortured in a very … specific way, but … she doesn’t seem bothered by it. Truth be told, she looks very … I think you should see her yourself! You know her much better than I do.”

“Take me to her at once!”

I wasn’t sure if I should follow, but Mun-Hee grabbed my hand and started following the queen. Turning around, I saw the Emperor wobbling his way back to his throne. It could be that his form makes walking hard for him, so he couldn’t come with us, or that he thought we may still be at risk. Either way, it doesn’t matter.

Jens and the guards led us through the palace interior. After quite a lot of walking, Jens finally stopped in front of an unassuming, one-piece door.

“This will be very awkward,” he warned us, “She’s hurt, but not a lot. Still, her … indifference is very troubling.”

“Move already!” The queen clearly wasn’t in the mood for conversation. I must say, I didn’t expect a noble, especially a royal, to be so hands-on.

Jens nodded his head reluctantly and walked through the door. The guards and the rest of us followed.

The first thing I noticed was a pile of males in one corner of the medium-sized room. It was a literal pile, the bodies of about a dozen timkik males lay in a heap one over the other. They weren’t dead, nor did they look hurt. Instead, they looked as if their souls were drained, leaving nothing but raggedly breathing husks behind. It appeared as if they weren’t even aware of their condition.

In the other corner, Anna was lying on a spacious sofa with her left hand behind her head. She lay with her legs crossed over, looking into the distance while holding something small in between the fingers of her right hand. It looked like a tiny, white stick that had a little bit of smoke coming out of its end. She had several bruises on her face but didn’t look bothered about it one bit.

“Anna! Are you ok?” The queen rushed towards her without a thought. She wasn’t even trying to cover up the emotion in her voice.

“Took you long enough,” Anna commented in a level voice, bringing the stick between her fingers to her mouth. A tiny but intense flame shone briefly on the other end of it, after which she took the stick out of her mouth, exhaling a big plume of smoke.

I guess that was some kind of healing magic.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t…”

“I’m just kidding,” Anna interrupted the queen, “You’d ruin my fun had you found me sooner. Besides, I’m the one who told you to run away. I’m glad to see you aren’t hurt.”

“But you are!”

“It’s ok, I’m here, your grace” the same mage that was tending to the wounded in the garden stepped next to the queen, “I’ll tend to her wounds.”

As the mage started chanting her magic, the queen forcefully grabbed the mage’s hand.

“Is … something wrong, your grace?” The mage asked, looking rather nonplussed.

“We never tried healing magic on a human, did we?” The queen asked Jens.

“No … as far as I know.”

“So, there’s a chance something could go wrong.”

“It’s a heal …” the mage stopped in the middle of her sentence, her facial expression turning from a casual into a frightened one.

“Look what you did!” Anna protested, “Now she thinks we really are demons!”

“Why would she think that?”

“Because you’re against performing holy magic on one of your subjects!”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“But that’s how it sounds! Tell her mage, is healing magic considered holy?”

“Y-yes, it i-is.”

“And you’re trying to stop her from performing it.”

“But we’ve never tried it on a human before! You’re too valuable to be a test subject!”

“Let’s not forget that we’ve already been subjected to this kind magic before, as soon as we came,” Jens said, “The first thing that happens when you cross the portal is that their mages cast a spell on you to kill all the grms and vajrsis.”

“Yeah, he’s right!” Anna agreed, “And it didn’t hurt us! Although, eating was a real bitch until our gut flora renewed completely. We had to take those damn teblets for several moons straight.”

“That’s what I’m concerned about! What if there is some side-effect to healing a bruise? It’s not the same thing as killing the vajrsis! What if their magic isn’t taking human biology into consideration because it was custom-made for the people of this world! What if it heals you in the wrong way? It’s not like your life is in danger and we have no choice!”

“It will take a very long time for those bruises to heal,” the mage said.

“Not for a human!” The queen retorted, “Those will be gone in a few days!”

“A few days?” The mage’s eyes opened wide.

“Yes, days! So taking the risk isn’t worth it!”

“Isn’t this a great opportunity to prove that we’re not demons though?” Anna pointed out, “This should put an end to that stupid argument.”

“That …” The queen considered it for a moment, letting go of the mage’s hand.

But then, all the humans got the look of utter seriousness, at the same time.

“Fak … Ira is right …” Jens said.

“I … I guess that makes sense …” Anna agreed.

“Ira?” I wondered out loud.

“No, we will not test the healing magic on you,” the queen said, “I appreciate your help, lady mage, but we’ll play it safe this time. As for settling that stupid argument, we’ll do it with someone expendable, not my personal guard. We’ll settle it one day for sure, but not now. Now, tell me Anna, what happened here? What’s with all those guys lying in the corner? I take it they’re your would-be assassins, right?”

“Oh boy, that’s quite a story. A story of danger, excitement, and utter disappointment.”