Everyone is so shocked that nobody knows what to say and the room grows silent for a few suffocating moments. I expect Liana to burst out first, but it's Erik who doesn't manage to hold his anger.
"You can't be serious!" he hits the table in front of him and stands up. "What gives you the right to even propose something ridiculous like that? Assert a claim? How dare you!"
"Erik!" I hiss and pull my beloved back in the chair because I'm too afraid of offending the Divementis if we don't behave diplomatically. "I'm sure they didn't mean that..."
"I meant every word, but it seems there's a misunderstanding," my father says calmly. "As the Royal Consort pointed out, we wouldn't dare to take the embodiment of magic away from his people. We do respect that Aefener is the Celestial Emperor, but it's undisputable that he's also the Divementis Crown Prince. He's just as Celestial as he is Divementis."
"W-what do you propose then?" Liana finally catches her breath.
"We want to show His Majesty his Divementis heritage and give him proper telepathic training," Nyx explains.
I chew my lip and my wings shiver. As much as I feel Celestial to the core, I would be lying if I said that I'm not curious about the Divementis culture.
"Does that mean His Majesty would have to come to your premises?" Liana purses her lips.
"Yes," my father answers openly. "Naturally, we're more than willing to accommodate whoever comes as his entourage."
"Even if it's the entire Imperial Guard?" Liana gives an impossible demand on purpose to see their reaction.
"Well, let's be reasonable here," my father sighs. "We can comfortably accommodate around forty people. Any more would come at the expense of your comfort and practicality."
"Are you saying that His Majesty can take thirty-nine subjects with him and you will be okay with it?" Liana doesn't believe her ears.
"Yes," he confirms.
Love, are you getting anything? Do they really mean it? Can we trust these aliens? Gotrid nudges me under the table.
They can hear you, I remind him, nudging him back.
"There seems to be another misunderstanding," my father raises his eyebrows. "We indeed come from a different dimension which makes us aliens compared to humans, but we're Draconians, just as you are."
"You're Draconians?!" Liana opens her mouth wide and she's not the only one.
"It seems an explanation is in order, at least in a nutshell for now," he admits. "We created Draconia Online to simulate our home dimension and that included the four extinct races we hoped to bring back to life: Celestials, the Earthborn, Clawfangs and the Dragonkin."
"Therefore, we're all Draconians here," Nyx says and adds quickly: "I mean, except for the Royal Consort."
Erik frowns and I feel a slight change in his emotional state. It's subtle so he probably isn't even aware of it, but he feels a bit embarrassed. Does he feel threatened perhaps? Does he regret that he's not one of us?! But he was always so proud of being who he is! I don't want him to start feeling bad about it now.
I try sending him a ton of love, assuring him that he's perfect, but it doesn't have the effect I hope it would. Nyx made him painstakingly aware that he is the only human among us.
"Son," my father coughs to get my attention. "Whatever you're doing with your Consort, I'm sure you can do later."
"Right, you can't feel it," I realise and look back at him. "You're not empaths."
I see the Divementis getting anxious and eager at the same time. They are born telepaths, but empathy is something they can't do. I bet they must be super curious to find out how it works for me. I've just discovered that they do have emotions just as strong as anyone else, but they can't project them, nor can they feel them from each other. Their telepathy is only sensory and auditory.
"What do you mean extinct?" Liana demands more answers.
The Divementis look at each other with saddened expressions. It seems to be a sore topic for them.
"Other sentient Draconian races were completely wiped out by the Enemy," my father says and I notice uneasiness in his voice. "I'm afraid it was because we couldn't unite in time. If only we found a way to cooperate and were able to put our differences aside earlier... Anyway, we couldn't afford to make the same mistake twice so we made sure resurrected races were more than eager to cooperate this time."
"Why? How? Who's the Enemy? How could some VR game change us in the first place?" Gotrid gets impatient.
"I promise to answer all your questions," my father swears. "Only we would prefer to tell you everything safely at our premises where we can't be overheard and we can show you."
"How convenient for you!" Erik speaks up again, still angry. "If Ryuuto wasn't such a strong telepath, you wouldn't hesitate to kill him, labelling him as an abomination. However, since Ryuuto can wield telepathy, empathy and magic on top, you're suddenly very interested in making him your Crown Prince. You just want to use him!"
"Aefener," my father insists on using my Celestial name, "can indeed potentially make a huge difference. We have no intention of hiding that. He could help us win the war."
"The war which you brought here!" Erik accuses him.
"WE DID NO SUCH THING!" my father raises his voice and I don't need my empathy to see that he's deeply offended. "If it wasn't for our intervention in suppressing the rifts for almost two hundred years, this planet would be overrun with monsters already. The Enemy conquered the Draconian dimension and now they want to conquer this one."
"Erik, I can't read him because his mental defences are too strong, but I don't think he's lying," I try to calm my partner down.
Erik is always really collected during diplomatic meetings, a perfect representative, but he's extremely anxious now and not only because we're dealing with the Divementis for the very first time. He's upset that he's the only human in the room. He's afraid that his opinion won't be taken seriously because of that. He's feeling insecure so he's lashing out.
"You want to make him your Crown Prince, but what does that even mean?" he refuses to calm down. "Can't you see that he has a throne of his own already?"
"Royal Consort," Nyx tries to sound amicable, "His Majesty is still in his prime so the Crown Prince won't be expected to overtake the reign anytime soon anyway. For now, all we ask is that he learns about his heritage, receives proper telepathic training and helps us form an alliance with other Draconian races."
"If I come with you, will you tell us absolutely everything?" I make sure. "No more secrets?"
"No more secrets," my father nods. "You can even share what you learn with other race rulers."
His offer makes sense and he's more than generous about the terms. I certainly didn't expect that.
"Where is it? Your main base, I mean," I ask.
"In Tokyo. Our base is Nebula itself, the place your mother worked at," he reveals. "We wouldn't be forcing you to use our ship if that's your wish. We're willing to accept your conditions in almost every respect."
"That's five hundred kilometres away from Osaka," Gavreel quickly informs me. "We can make it, but... well... it is quite far, we would have to take a lot of stuff with us and Lord Erik can't..."
"We need time to discuss it," I decide so that we don't say anything we might regret later.
"Of course, but I'm afraid that I can't give you all the time in the world to think it through, son," my father says grimly. "The rifts are getting more and more frequent; we can't suppress them anymore."
"Eight hours then," I concede.
"Reasonable," he nods and stands up. "When you're ready, just say so."
We accompany the Divementis delegation back to their shuttle and everyone catches a breath only when they take off and I put up the shield up again.
"Your Majesty, are you really considering it?" Liana asks anxiously.
"Can I talk about it with my partners first?" I request.
I see disapproval on my Viceroy's face, but there's nothing she can do about it. I take Erik's and Gotrid's hands and lead them to our suite, demanding privacy. We hide in our bedroom because it's the only place where I can be without the guards who have to stay outside.
"It's too dangerous," Erik starts lamenting the moment the door closes behind us. "I know that you're curious about your heritage, but you can't trust that alien."
"That alien is my father which makes me half-alien," I point out, hurt a tiny bit.
"I didn't mean it like that," he caresses a few of my feathers to comfort me. "What if he's not telling the truth? What if he snatches you the first opportunity he gets?"
"And antagonises the entire Celestial race? I don't think so," Gotrid shakes his head. "I know it's a huge disadvantage that our beloved can't check their intentions, but they are a few thousand at best while we're millions."
"I agree with Gotrid, they wouldn't risk it," I nod. "Still, I won't put you in danger."
"What do you mean?" Erik frowns.
"Both you and Gotrid are staying here," I say resolutely.