Karis sat alone in the tiny office he used for work purposes. It held a comm, a desk, and his pad. Imre was the only other person who was regularly in the room with him, having made it clear rather vociferously and at top volume that Karis was not going halfway across the galaxy without him. He’d done the same thing when Karis went to retrieve Marin five years earlier, so Karis hadn’t argued.

He picked up his pad and attempted to focus on the paperwork that had been sent to him, but his mind was not on his duties. It was on the beautiful woman he’d just found hiding on a backwater colony world and the young man who looked so much like him they could be copies of each other, if not for the different hair and eye color. He set his pad down again and pressed his fingertips into his temples.

He wrote a message and flashed it to Imre. His valet arrived a short while later. “How can I help you, Your Imperial Majesty?” Imre asked.

“I need to focus, Imre. My thoughts are scattering like so many molecules at an event horizon,” Karis told him wryly.

“Understandable, Your Imperial Majesty.” Imre set down a pitcher of juice and handed him a small glass of amber liquid. “Which is why I came prepared.”

“The same thing as before?” Karis asked.

“It is. So swallow it fast.” Imre smiled. “I brought a small bottle of it in case it was needed. Your head cook did not want to let me have it, but I told him it was under your orders, so he grudgingly gave me some.”

Karis drank the liquor quickly, feeling the burn as it made its way into his stomach. It didn’t take long for his emotions to settle enough for him to be able to resume his work. Imre took the small glass out of the room and then returned to take his usual place by the door.

“Imre, do we have a servant who can be assigned to Ethian? I am not certain I trust the seneschal to find one compatible with my youngest son,” Karis commented.

Imre pulled up his pad and searched through it. “I have selected the young man I think would best be suited to serve him, Your Imperial Majesty. I will need the seneschal to reassign him from the Imperial household general pool to Prince Ethian. And he’s given me trouble over every one of my choices, second guessing my ability to pick the best servants for the princes.”

“I will deal with that now.” Karis got up and walked over to the comm. He called his seneschal.

The man was prompt in answering. “Your Imperial Majesty, how may I be of service?”

“Seneschal, Imre just put in a request to assign a servant to my youngest son, Prince Ethian,” Karis told him. “You will expedite the request and have him ready to serve him as soon as we return to the Throne World. We will be there in four weeks.”

“Imre, Your Imperial Majesty? Should that request not have come to me?” The seneschal sounded offended.

“Seneschal, you may be in charge of the general servant pool, but Imre is in charge of the Imperial household and as such he is the one who assigns servants to its members. Not you,” Karis told him coldly. “Now, you will assign the young man that Imre has chosen to my son and there will be no further argument. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.” The seneschal checked something on his pad. “He wishes me to assign Timur? He is one of our least experienced servants, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“Actually, Timur has been serving as backup for Lucan for the past three years,” Imre pointed out as he joined Karis at the comm. “He’s served His Imperial Majesty on several occasions when Lucan has been ill or otherwise unavailable. Timur has a great deal of experience. He’s just never been given a permanent assignment until now. His personality will mesh well with Prince Ethian’s.”

“If you are certain you want Timur, Imre.” The seneschal seemed doubtful of Imre’s judgment.

“I have yet to be proven wrong with choosing a servant for the princes, my lord seneschal,” Imre pointed out.

“True,” the seneschal conceded. “Very well.” He tapped something into his pad. “I have assigned Timur to Prince Ethian. Do you wish me to have rooms set up in the enclave for him, Your Imperial Majesty?”

“Yes, Seneschal. We will be back in four weeks. Please make certain everything is in order by the time we arrive,” Karis told him.

“I will see to it personally, Your Imperial Majesty,” the seneschal assured him. The call ended.

“Is he still giving you trouble?” Karis asked.

Imre sighed. “All the time. He doesn’t like the fact that I’m in charge of the Imperial household. He thinks he should be in charge of all servants in the palace and pushes back every time I issue an order. He has tried a few times to reassign Adem and Lucan, but I’ve used your name and stated that you have ordered those two are to stay right where they are. I’m not having him disrupt the orderly running of the Imperial household.”

“Do all the servants come to you?” Karis asked curiously.

“The female servants are more reticent to come to me, which is why when you marry Sayana it will make my job a lot easier. Ardatha and her sisters will become the head of the female servants – for I’m assuming you’re going to allow me to reassign them permanently to her as her servants even when she becomes the empress – and the female servants will have someone they can feel more comfortable talking to,” Imre told him.

“I will gladly assign her servants to her. I want her to be as comfortable as possible after we marry,” Karis informed him. “Keeping the same servants she has had all her life will make things easier on her as well.”

Imre nodded. “I would make sure Lord Arken reassigns back to her before we head back to the Throne World so they’re waiting for her when she gets home.”

“A good plan. When I call him this evening, I will bring it up with him.” Karis sat back down and resumed working.

He came across something and frowned. He sighed, stood, and returned to the comm. He called the offices of his Bureau of Education. Devanie, the current aide in the bureau, answered. “Your Imperial Majesty.”

“Hello Devanie. Is Runa available? Or is she in a meeting?” Karis asked.

“I believe she’s available, Your Imperial Majesty. Let me go check really quick.” Devanie disappeared and a moment later, a harried looking woman took her place.

“Your Imperial Majesty,” Runa greeted him. “How can I be of service?”

“Runa, why did you send me a petition asking me to lower the age to leave school? I thought we agreed we were not going to do that.” Karis gave her a stern look.

“I did not send you such a petition, Your Imperial Majesty.” Runa looked confused.

Karis picked up his pad and flashed it back to her. “I just sent it back to you.”

Runa checked her pad and skimmed through the petition. “Oh, I am going to murder my clerks. This came from one of them, Your Imperial Majesty. Not directly from me. I will find out who sent it and have a word with them about our policies.”

“I was concerned something had happened that I was not aware of,” Karis told her.

“No, I am in firm agreement with you, Your Imperial Majesty. No one leaves school until they are sixteen, and the trade academies are allowed to keep them until they are eighteen,” Runa confirmed. She leaned out of range of the camera for a moment and spoke to Devanie. Then she returned. “While I have you on here, Your Imperial Majesty, can I perhaps have your opinion on something?”

“Of course, Runa.” Karis smiled at her. They addressed several issues that would have been attended to if they’d been holding council meetings and Runa left the call satisfied.

“Perhaps you should check in with your other ministers,” Imre suggested. “If Lady Runa had things to discuss with you, they might all have something to bring up.”

“I still have a few hours before their workday ends.” Karis checked the chronometer. “I shall see who else I can catch outside of a meeting.” He spent the next few hours talking with his ministers, working through situations that would have been addressed in council sessions if they’d been holding them, and answering questions about when he’d be back.

At the end of the official workday, he asked Imre to bring him dinner. Imre brought him a light meal. Karis couldn’t help comparing the food to the interesting meal he’d been served by Sayana earlier in the day. Then he worked until an hour before he usually retired. He got up and went to the comm. He called Arken. The courtesan master answered. “Your Imperial Majesty, please tell me you have some good news for me.” Arken looked anxiously at the camera.

“It is Sayana and Ethian. We are leaving in the morning, Arken,” Karis told him reassuringly. “Please see to it that her servants are reassigned to her. I assume they are still able to serve her?”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty, and quite anxious to do so. I sent one of the sisters with you on the chance it was them so she would have a familiar face to serve her on the way back,” Arken informed him. “Vai will be a welcome sight to her. I will reassign the other two immediately.”

“I have already made the arrangements for Ethian earlier today.” Karis grinned. “You should see him, Arken. He is unmistakably my son. He looks identical to me, barring the black hair,green eyes, and darker skin tone he inherited from his mother. He even inherited my height.”

Arken blinked. “And Tamas paid no attention to that report?”

“No, he did not. Which is why Demetrios is now in charge of the investigation bureau instead of him. I was worried he was slipping when it was taking so long to find Sayana and Marin, and I was proven right.” Karis shook his head. “At least we have the last of our missing ladies.”

“And it is the pair you have been most concerned about,” Arken commented.

“It is. I will be able to rest much easier now that I have found them,” Karis confirmed. “Though I trust you will continue to keep that secret for me.”

“Of course, Your Imperial Majesty. None of the ladies will ever know what I do about Sayana and Ethian,” Arken promised. “We are still trying to figure out how Angharad is speaking to Rhys. She brags about it all the time, but we have yet to find the method she is using to communicate with him.”

“Keep on it. I want it stopped as soon as possible,” Karis told him. “She should have ceased all contact with him when I took Rhys from her. The other ladies understood that was the expectation.”

“Yes, but as you are aware, Angharad has some skewed notion of Rhys’ importance so feels they are above the rules.” Arken grimaced. “Nothing I have said since she was found has made any impression on her.”

“Nothing I have said has mattered either.” Karis rubbed his forehead. “She will not like it if I turn harsh, and I am at that point with her and Rhys.”

Arken nodded. “The other ladies are concerned about their sons. I have not yet told them about what I know, mostly because I am concerned it will cause them undue stress. Jair and Hanzo especially, with their vices, are problematic and that may upset Ji-Hye and Renate.”

“I would recommend telling them at some point, Arken. Perhaps they may know something of where these vices came from,” Karis pointed out.

Arken frowned and nodded. “You have a point, Your Imperial Majesty. Perhaps I will bring it up when Sayana returns, as she will most likely be talking to them about Ethian.”

“One thing, Arken. I will be bringing in retired warmasters and scholars from the scholar academies to teach my sons. Ethian has been being taught by a retired warmaster since he was very young, and it has provided him with the discipline I wish the others had. The others will only have the benefit of the same teaching Ethian has had his entire life for two years. However, it may be what we need to break them of their vices,” Karis informed the courtesan master.

“I do not think I will tell the ladies that until after Sayana returns,” Arken told him. “It could cause some issues, and I do not wish to listen to weeks of endless debate about it.”

Karis smiled. “I do not blame you.”

“Thank you for putting my fears to rest, Your Imperial Majesty. I can let the ladies know in the morning that Sayana and Ethian have at last been found and will soon be joining us again.” Arken smiled. “That will please most of them, though I doubt Angharad will care much.”

“I am not concerned with Angharad’s pleasure. I worry more about the other women these days.” Karis shrugged. “We will see you when we get back to the Throne World. It will take us about four weeks to get there.”

Arken nodded. “We will be ready for her. Good night, Your Imperial Majesty.” Karis ended the call.

“If Lady Sayana, Prince Ethian, and the warmaster you mentioned are going to be here in the morning, you may want to consider going to bed now so you’re awake when they get here,” Imre commented.

“I am probably not going to be because of how stars’ cursed early Sayana and Reynard get up. They have probably trained Ethian to get up that early as well. As I understand it, Sayana has kept to the early wake up time Arken warned me about when she was still in the wing, and Reynard is ex-military,” Karis pointed out ruefully.

Imre raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want to be up to greet them when they get here?”

“I already told them as early as they get up, I probably would not be ready for guests,” Karis admitted. “I do not think they will mind, though I will admit to being concerned for Ethian.”

“Why is that, Your Imperial Majesty?” Imre asked.

“He is fifteen, almost sixteen, and has lived an isolated life as a working class individual all his life. He is going to have a very hard time acclimatizing to court.” Karis was very worried about his son. “I was certain Sayana would have told him something, but from what little I saw today, she kept him completely ignorant as a means of protecting him.”

Imre frowned. “It did keep him safe, but that might not have been the best idea. He’s not going to do well with his brothers. They’ve all been at court since they were children. Even Fallon was still young when he was found.”

Karis nodded. “I am concerned how easy a victim he will be for Rhys.”

Imre winced. “That’s a fair point, Your Imperial Majesty. Rhys may find him an easy target. Then again, he has been training with a warmaster all his life. And I’m sure Lady Sayana didn’t keep him completely ignorant of everything. She couldn’t have if she planned on bringing him back, and I know she would have expected you to eventually find them.”

Karis nodded thoughtfully. “She seemed surprised it took so long for me to find them. I will have to wait and see how Ethian handles his brothers.” He paused. “I will ask Reynard when he gets on the ship tomorrow how he feels Ethian will respond to them. Who better than the man who raised him to know how my son will fare with them?”

He felt a pang. He should have been the one to raise Ethian, not a man who was unrelated to him. Yet the time spent with Reynard would prove to be beneficial because he would be a better fighter even than Karis was. He could better defend himself, something he would need as soon as it was revealed he was the crown prince.

“You’re planning on finding warmasters for your other sons? Did I hear you tell Lord Arken that?” Imre asked. “Is there something specific you want me to ask the WRO for?”

“I will have a list of names from Reynard, the warmaster who has been protecting Sayana and Ethian, that we can send to them to get contact information. I will speak to them after that and see who is available. Once I speak to them, I will better know who I will ask to serve as the warmaster trainers for my sons,” Karis told him.

“And for scholars for your sons? Didn’t you tell Lord Arken you were bringing some new ones in?” Imre asked.

“As I cannot seem to convince my sons to listen to the Imperial scholars, I feel a change in curriculum is needed. A scholar from one of the scholar academies should be able to manage that,” Karis explained. “I am going to reach out to Atania, Olmara, Keter, Lezides, Unope, and Yigides. They are all within four weeks of the Throne World, and they are all top rated scholar academies. I did a little checking while I was working this afternoon. I will ask them to each select one of their best teachers and send them to tutor the princes.”

“That makes sense.” Imre nodded. “I’m sure they’ll provide the very best for the princes. I would suggest, however, not giving a woman to Jair for a teacher.”

Karis snorted. “That is a disaster waiting to happen. I will give him a male scholar for a teacher. I think Ethian will do fine with a female teacher. Sayana has been tutoring him all this time. He will see nothing wrong with learning from a woman. Fallon will be the same. Rhys, I have no idea what I am going to do with him, but I think a male teacher for him as he will just disrespect a female teacher. Hanzo will likely be fine with either gender, as will Meinard.”

Imre glanced at the chronometer. “Your Imperial Majesty, it is late. Even if you don’t plan on getting up as early as Lady Sayana you should get some sleep.”

“All right, Imre. Get me a glass of water and one of my pills, please?” Karis asked. Imre nodded. Karis left his office and made his way to his room. Imre joined him a few minutes later. He helped him change and handed him the sleeping pill. Karis laid down and closed his eyes. His last thoughts were of two pairs of emerald green eyes staring at him from either side of a worn wooden table.