Visit

The princess looked at him with a dazed air while observing her wall remade as if it had never been scattered in thousand fragments.

- Very well," she shook her head and gave Zion a heavy, mocking look. I'm not even going to waste my time asking how you're capable of such mastery of the material.

- Very good choice," he replied. Then he thoughtfully studied the girl's room, a large space where the tone of green largely predominated, a thick carpet and wallpapers where moving creatures of all kinds came to life in a vast colored jungle. Books and manuals, arranged a little in disorder on a shelf, family photos protected in frames, scattered here and there, as well as various papers and notebooks whose contents were the evidence itself. Finally, he considered the bed that was big enough to accommodate at least five people, which made the sovereign raise his eyebrows and turn to the young woman, crimson.

- Interesting, was his only remark, which implied more than the entire contents of the room.

- Indeed, as your visit so late and moreover most unexpected, majesty.

- So late! he pretended not to understand. And the young woman threw him a burning and ferocious glance. Then she crossed her arms defying him.

- Yes, very late, for normal people and who have a balanced life like me. But of course it would be too much to ask of a being who only knows the night.

While Ivy kept arguing in a haughty and aggressive attitude, inside she kept blaming herself for being such a coward and hypocrite. Why didn't she just show him her joy at finding him. A joy so great that the only thing she wanted was to run to him, to wrap him in an irresistible embrace and to kiss him endlessly. And of course, the prince of Vaegos felt it perfectly, because erasing from his face his mocking smile, he looked at her, his eyes clearer and brighter than the spring waters, and opened his arms wide to her.

- Why did you hesitate, princess? Isn't this what you want? What is great! Because that's also the only reason I came.

His voice was so hoarse and veiled with desire, with deep feelings, that Ivy could only moan with pain, and rushed towards him. They embraced intensely, passionately, and then, as she wished, she raised her face to him, smiled wholeheartedly and let him kiss her. If only this would never end, she thought absent-mindedly as their lips, their tongues, their breaths mingled in a ballet, violent, wild and without artifice. A blazing fireworks display, burning and so real. A flight of all the fires. She knew from the beginning that it could only be like this, that it could not end. Only Zion had decided that it was not yet really the moment for them to love each other totally, because with a visible effort, in spite of all the incandescent burning of his body and his passion, he knew to stop and separate them.

He held her by the shoulders in a painful, almost unbearable vice, looked at her with a glance which almost made her completely melt of heat, and after a last kiss light as a bird's wing, released her and moved away from her. They both took a deep breath, with difficulty, as the narrow space did not really help. Then, after a last, deep breath, they looked at each other again and laughed together.

- So what's new princess, since we left each other?

She shrugged slightly, although still deeply shaken by their too short embrace, and replied jokingly.

- No, nothing really new, except maybe my feelings have become a bit disturbing for rare creatures.

- Don't tell me you've changed your mind about them? he interpreted, frowning, amused. Not after one adventure.

- It didn't depend on the adventure or its danger, but rather on the beings you meet, and one in particular stood out.

- I see. For my part, Vaegos has seemed safer since the departure of some undesirables.

- But others will come. Many others.

- Who are you telling? sighed the strangely melancholic and vulnerable prince, which somehow deeply annoyed the young woman. She showed it with eloquent gestures.

- Zion, why are you so xenophobic?

- I'm not. he refuted, showing perfect sincerity. It's only your kingdom I can't stand. Or more precisely," he continued in an incisive tone full of mocking contempt, "it's certain people who live there.

- Like the Vintry family.

- Bingo.

- But why!

- Because of something I can't tell you yet. Because the real secret isn't mine.

Ivy shook her head, overwhelmed. This fact, which she had understood from the beginning, hurt her strangely, and hearing it, taking on the dimension of reality, tore her up even more. Because the two beings who had become in such a short time the important ones of her life, carried a terrible enmity that she guessed anchored until the center of their beings to the point of prohibiting the passage of a whole Nation.

Zion watched her and felt every emotion that ran through her, of which pain was the most dominant. He knew what she wanted, and that she would have been willing to do anything to achieve it, that she would have liked him and Kreiz to get along, but it was simply impossible. And it was never in her nature to promise something that he could never accomplish. But that didn't stop her from being upset by her princess' obvious disappointment and sadness. He nodded and slowly approached her, hugging her tightly.

- My darling, I know you are suffering from the terrible hostility between me and your dear friend the doctor. But I cannot pretend to do or feel anything that goes against me. Even for you. But don't let that worry you," he continued confidently, "because nobody ever gets everything they want. Not even me!

At these last words, Ivy couldn't help but burst into a light, crystalline laugh.

- Why do I feel that this acknowledgement is more a mark of arrogance than humility ?

They kissed lightly.

- What time do you get off work tomorrow?

- At 4pm! But we could have lunch together.

Zion grinned.

- I think we can!

- Why? Oh, you're on a date!