“Might you permit me to investigate before we change your clothes, Your Highness?”
“This takes priority. Go and see what the commotion is about. I’d like to know myself.”
“Yes, Your Highness. You conducted yourself masterfully at the ball, and now I must see your efforts returned in kind.” Kalena departed with a bow.
Alone, Ciestine let out a long breath and sank into the couch, leaning her head back. She stared up at the ceiling. I didn’t have that effect on the ball, she thought. It was Cecilia. She remembered their waltz, the way she bent to the girl’s will. Only one dance partner had ever usurped her like that before. Only Schroden’s gotten one over on me in the ballroom. Never imagined there’d be another. The world’s full of surprises.
She never did manage to steal the initiative back from Cecilia. Ciestine had been challenged, and she lost. And yet, unlike in her bouts with Schroden, she did not seem to mind.
Then there was their exchange immediately after the song ended.
“Thank you for indulging me, but enjoy your victory while it lasts. Next time, things will be different.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Ciestine could not dislodge Cecilia’s beaming smile from her mind. Much like her animosity for her brother, it clung to her thoughts. Though very much unlike her thoughts on her brother, she did not detest this reverie. She did not detest the way her heart fluttered every time she remembered the girl’s innocent expression.
Ciestine took a deep breath, waiting for her racing heartbeat to calm. Had she chanced a peek in the mirror, she would have found her cheeks rosy. Why? That, she could not say. And it would have driven her mad.
Several breaths later, she regained composure. “What is this?”
Love? she thought. Impossible.
Though she’d lived as a man, Ciestine was still a woman, and she loved as a woman. She knew very well what her preferred sex was. Not that she had any evidence to support that claim, but that was neither here nor there.
Still, Cecilia set the princess’s heart racing. Why? In a broad sense, Ciestine already knew the answer. She always knew.
She’s the first person to ever smile at me in that way.
A gentle way. A guileless way. Being royalty, Ciestine had encountered all manner of faces and expressions. She was a smart girl. From a young age, she picked out the falseness in the smiles people directed toward her. Of course, people carefully constructed their interactions with her, an imperial princess. One slipup could have resulted in cruel and unusual ear-lashings. Even her nursemaid subjected Ciestine to stiff lips and twitchy cheeks, but could she blame her after her mother had demanded she be treated as a boy?
The imperial family did not enjoy many smiles, to say the least. Ciestine’s one and only hope had been her close family, but needless to say, her mother wore a permanent scowl, forever spiteful at not birthing a son. Then there was her apathetic father. No, Ciestine did not enjoy many smiles.
A smile. It was only a smile. One measly smile. Ciestine had seen dozens upon arriving in Theolas, and yet hers was the one that stuck in her mind. It outshone even Anna-Marie’s, despite her natural charm.
Ciestine would not let it cloud her judgment. She knew better than that. Yet it would never leave her. She knew that just as surely.
She remembered their parting words.
“Would you do me the honor of another dance when next we meet?”
“If we do meet, certainly.”
Cecilia had given her a noncommittal answer. Likely she did not plan on attending the next ball. She was a commoner, not even a student at Royal Academy. Indeed, there was no guarantee they’d ever meet again.
Ciestine smiled sadly, just as Cecilia had. “Will I see it again, I wonder?”
That smile hung in her mind. Then she realized something she ought to have seen sooner. Right. I came to this country to do something…
A knock interrupted her musing. “It’s Kalena, Your Highness.”
“Right, yes. Come in.” Ciestine banished Cecilia from her thoughts and resumed her role as the princely princess.
When Kalena entered, she wore a stern expression.
“What happened?” Ciestine said.
“Events are still developing, Your Highness, but they’re saying monsters have infiltrated the capital.”
“Monsters?!” Ciestine sprang to her feet.
Theolas’s capital bordered the world’s largest blightland, the Great Vanargand Wood, but there were very few records of indigenous beasts wandering outside of the forest. According to their preliminary investigations, constant patrols and ceaseless surveillance secured the blightland. Supposing there was a breach, the kingdom would know instantly and mobilize before it could threaten civilians. Somehow, none of that had happened this time.
“I haven’t been able to ascertain many details,” Kalena said, “but they appeared suddenly and seemingly from nowhere, directly in the Upper District. A number of them attacked a carriage leaving the ball.”
“A carriage leaving the ball?” Ciestine thought of the smile and gulped. “Wh-what was the damage?”
“Unclear as of now, but the monsters have been slain and there were no casualties.”
“I-I see.” Sweat beaded on the princess’s brow. She didn’t realize how she’d tensed her shoulders until they relaxed. She breathed, calming herself. “Continue your investigation. Make this your top priority. Before our plan can proceed, we must understand what happened.”
“As you wish, Your Highness.” Kalena bowed.
Quite the incident to occur right on the coattails of the Summer Ball, Ciestine thought. What will this mean for the academy?
She would find out the next day. Until they could confirm the capital’s security, Royal Academy would delay the start of the semester.