First Pov

A few weeks has passed since the "uneventful" council last month. It has been harder than usual maintaining the balance and harmony inside the palace and keeping all the secrets hidden but overall the situation is well under control,for the time being.

Angelica is continuing her studies. As expected she excels at field practise but she finds it difficult to understand the theoretical parts. I can't blame her,normally a child-carrier would just study one theory per week meanwhile Angelica must comprehend three in one day.

The Dark Queen is busy chasing Johanna around the multiverse and thankfully she hasn't shown any signs of suspecting anything. I dare to hope that she will continue to be fooled for a long time.

Speaking in which I better call Paimon today to check on the Princes.

A few hours later in the Great Queen's office

"Your majesty,what a pleasure."

"Good evening to you as well Paimon. Are you busy right now? Can we talk? Is that boiling oil I'm hearing?"

"Yes,Im making kiri kaua."

"Kiri kaua?Why would you cook for 3 days? That thing weighs at least 5 kilos."

"I know but Haures needs more energy than usual. I managed to do a spell inside his body that created a space that can host Thanos's energy which by the way has already started transforming itself into a body. His soul was already connected with energy lines with Haures's soul but now some of these lines have started recreating themselves into blood vessels in order to carry nutrients to the growing body. However this procedure does not have a high success rate. New lines are created every day,some of them disintegrate,some remain energy lines and only a few manage to successfully turn into blood vessels. You can imagine the number of new lines that has to be created every day. Thankfully by the end of the second month it will be over but in the meantime....Haures's body is under immense stress and he needs vast amounts of energy. Not to mention that the energy that is produced by the destruction of energy lines is not reused but instead it is transferred into Haures body like a waste product so on top of all that he is also highly energetic.

"I understand but still I find it hard to believe that he will eat such an animal by himself. You will not be much of a help because you don't eat a lot anyway. You are hiding something. I can tell just by the sound of your voice."

"Fine but promise me you wont start yelling. I need Johanna to run an examination on Haures. I may know a thing or two but at this stage I would like him to be observed by an expert.So I arranged to transfer myself where she is,take the blanket thus switching places for her for a few days while she comes here and takes a look at my brother. That's the reason I'm cooking for three days."

"I can not understand how the word "danger" seems to be unknown to you."

"Oh come on,Eve,your plan was full of errors from the beginning. If you think that I will let my brother go through this without proper medical supervision then I think we need to introduce ourselves again."

"My plan was not perfect but it was the best that was heard. I didn't hear you propose anything else."

"I don't deny it but you need to accept that some risks must be taken."

"If you get discovered by the Dark Queen,if she catches you it will be the end. You don't have Johanna's stealth or quick-thinking."

"However I know how to hide amongst humans. Don't worry,I wont get caught. Have some faith in me. I have to go,I think I can hear Haures practicing his aim throwing vases."

"Ok good luck and keep me posted."

After he hung up,I felt relieved. Finally I had a few moments to myself to calm down and think.Unfortunately, I was not so lucky because a few seconds later a knock was heard on the door.

"Come in"

Surprisingly it was Angelica that opened the door and entered my office

"Good evening,your Majesty. May I talk to you about something?"

"Since you came all this way it would be impolite of me to send you away. What is the matter?"

"I would like to go home",she said with a guilty expression looking down at her tangled hands on her lap. She seemed depressed for some reason and I knew I needed to deal with this sensitively.

"Are you feeling homesick?"

"It's not that,your Grace. I have a difficulty understanding these complex theories and I feel my education would be more productive if I were to return to my sources. I don't forsake the importance of Irini's teachings but I know from my little experience that practise is far more complicated than theory."

She was somewhat right. However she needed that knowledge for her own development. I couldn't just agree with her that experience is more important than knowledge because I would be denying the efficiency of the entire system that is used to train humanised bonds. It was also clear that reading books and studying didn't fit her style. Thankfully,I had the perfect idea.

"I will let you go back home and connect with your sources once more,under two conditions. First,Irini has to agree as well. Secondly,if she were to agree she would have to come with you and you will continue studying while you implement these theories into practise. Is that fair?"

She stayed silent for a few moments. I imagined she had expected getting permission to return home would automatically mean no more studying. In the end she nodded with a smile on her face and asked permission to leave to ask for my sister's permission as well.