It was like the conversation they had before had not happened. She was happy with her pet rock, and he was left reliving and analyzing all of the time they had spent together in the previous months. She thought he pitied her, and everything he did for her was out of pity. No wonder she never showed him any side of herself that was not amiable or pleasant. She treated him like a kindly benefactor. Did she even consider him truly her friend?

  He wanted to tell her that he did not pity her, but he’d done that already and she had refused to believe him. Her misconceptions weren’t unreasonable. If it were someone else, he would pity their life. He did have sympathy for everything Vayu went through. But when he saw her, pity was not what went through his mind. If he pitied her, he would have sent her away months before, to some place where she would not face the pressure of royal life or have the burden of being crown princess. After Queen Raval’s death and Lord Dhravan’s illness, there was no need to pretend that Vayu was guaranteed the position of crown princess.

  Her life would have been much easier if he relegated her to a concubine and married one of the local highborn women. She could have picked one of the estates and spent her time studying and praying. Instead, he kept her close out of his own selfishness. Then, after he found out his father’s plans he’d brought her even closer to himself to protect her from the truth. The emperor had made no further mention of his plans to take over Noumin, but Cheran knew it would happen sooner or later.

  “There’s something I have to tell you,” Cheran said. He paused. “Two things, actually.”

  “Two things?” Vayu asked.

  He would go with the easier truth first. He didn’t know which truth would surprise her more.

  “I don’t pity you,” he said. “I wish you did not have to go through so many losses as a child. I’m sad that life was difficult for you—”

  “This does all seem to be pity,” Vayu interrupted.

  “No, no. I want to make up for every moment of your sadness. I want to replace all the bad memories with good ones until our life feels like paradise. I want to see you happy and by my side, and I will do anything I can to make that happen. That’s not pity. It’s not kindness.”

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  Vayu waited for him to continue, this time not interrupting.

  “I really like you,” he said. “I like you very much, Vayu. I do not have anyone else I would rather be married to. However, if you do not wish this, I’ll do all that I can to give you your freedom, although I can’t assure you that I will succeed.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He turned to face her.

  “That is the second thing I have to tell you,” he said. “I found out recently about some of my father’s plans for the future. They involve you.”

  Vayu furrowed her eyebrows.

  “My father plans to conquer Noumin,” Cheran said. “He plans to do it while using you as a figurehead. It won’t be Daivia conquering Noumin, but the rightful heir to the throne reclaiming what is hers. Noumin will become a province of Daivia, and he thinks that your presence will gain us some allies among both the nobility and commoners of Noumin.”

  Vayu nodded, and he saw that she understood his father’s plan. From her expression, it was a good plan.

  “The emperor’s plan might work,” she said. “Noumin was struggling before the war ended. If Daivia had kept fighting, we would have lost in a matter of weeks.”

  “My father wouldn’t be happy to hear that,” Cheran said. Again, she was ignoring everything about his feelings and focusing on something else. And he couldn’t bring her attention back to their relationship when she was instead talking about a very real impending war.

  “Lord Dhravan might have made it a very difficult fight,” Vayu said. “I’m only speaking as a commoner who lived at the very edge of our borders, far away from most of society.”

  She was lying. She was never truly a commoner, and Cheran saw that she wasn’t mortified about the emperor’s plan to take over Noumin. Instead, she seemed to agree with it.

  “Do you want to conquer Noumin?” Cheran asked. It wasn’t like the Vayu he knew to support a war. The war itself would not be something completely honorable either. It was a war born out of cunning and subterfuge, of hidden plans. She might be seen forever as a traitor who attacked her own country.

  A novice or priestess could melt away into obscurity, but as the crown princess of Daivia, her name would forever be tarnished. There would be glory, for sure, but there would be whispers too of her using her personal grievances to wage war against the entire country.

  “I want the people to be happy,” she said. “There will be some difficulties, but I think they will be better off under your father’s rule in the long term.”

  “You want the war?” he asked.

  “Gladly,” she said, placing the rock onto her lap. She seemed even happier to have the souvenir now. “I cannot wait for it.”