"reah, that fool of a director is refusing to allow you to leave the asd, even if you might come to marry a king. he tells me karathia is not an alliance world and therefore that particular rule does not apply."

"what rule, em-pah wylend?" gavril leaned around me to look at his great-grandfather.

"the one that allows any alliance conscript to leave the alliance's employ if they marry into royalty. as you see, he has already found a way around that piece of legislation." wylend was frowning as he leaned against the curve of the dome at our backs. we all stared at the stars overhead for a while, until wylend's warm hand slowly moved to grasp mine. i already love you, he sent mindspeech. and i am more than content to wait.

"we don't have a single thing to charge him with," lendill tossed the comp-vid onto norian's desk. "even the crime rate is going down on that side of things if my sources are correct."

"then there's nothing we can do," norian grumbled. "i can't find his name anywhere-it's as if he appeared from nothing. he must be operating with an alias, but even his description doesn't fit any known criminal. teeg san gerxon has a clean record, as far as the asd is concerned."

"and that makes me angry," lendill snapped. "after what he did to reah."

"well, you still have making up to do, as do i on that front," norian pointed out.

"she slammed the door in my face," lendill whined.

"what did you expect? besides, you're not allowed to get involved with an underling. you know the rules."

"oh, throw that in my face," lendill snapped.

the end