(5:19)

The spaceship stopped mid-air and used its levitation ray to lift a perfectly square plot of land filled with trees and bushes. The vessel landed inside the crater and placed the plot of land on top of itself, then it started to vibrate, breaking the field apart to soften its edges and disguise the new irregularity in the terrain.

“Landing successful,” Guerin announced.

“Ok, Guerin, call prince Ivan,” Borialis ordered.

“Calling prince Ivan” the eye on the screen closed for a few seconds, before opening again and expanding until it was out of frame, leaving Borialis with the image of a blond man in doctor attire.

“Good morning, Prince Ivan.” He said, getting up from the chair and bowing to the man.

“For the last time, I gave up that title when I became a doctor,” he reminded, angrily pointing to the numerous diplomas hanging on the wall behind him. “I stopped living off the royal funds more than a decade ago; why are you still calling me ‘prince’?! Call me ‘doctor’!” he insisted.

“You will always be part of the royal family to me,” Borialis stated, sitting back in the chair.

“Fine…” he scoffed. “What do you want? Did the kid get worse?”

“I fear so…” he said, making the doctor shift to a concerned expression. “He summoned me this morning and complained that the pills’ effect doesn’t last. I gave him a new batch to make sure he got through the day, but… I had a vision,” Ivan’s ears perked up as his heart skipped a beat “But I am not sure if he died because of his condition or because of… the angel that appeared before him in my vision…”

Ivan’s eyes traveled from one side to another as he leaned back in his chair, arms crossed and a hand over his mouth.

“But that is impossible, Vlad and Spice made good on their end of the deal. Why would the angels want to kill the kid? What did they look like? What did they do?”

“They looked like a serpent dragon with deer antlers, a muzzle, and rings with eyes on them. They didn’t do anything. They just descended from the sky and stood there as the kid died,” Borialis described.

Ivan thought for a while. He got up and walked off the picture for a few seconds, before coming back and sitting down with a holographic tablet.

“Did they look like this?” he asked, showing the tablet’s screen to the security guard.

“Yes… Yes, it was that one.” Borialis confirmed after thinking for a few seconds.

“It’s one of ours then…” he said to himself, examining the angel’s file closer. “Weird, here it says that this one can only control the gravity of small metallic objects nearby… Well, I will see if I can talk with Vlad about this later; he should be able to set things straight. But anyway, send me what is left of the previous batch of pills, and I will send you a new one. Perhaps they are just defective.” He would have to give an earful to the guys back in the lab later if his theory was confirmed.

“What if the pills are not the problem?”

“Well, then you will have to bring me some blood, skin, and saliva samples for analysis. Maybe he just needs to take stronger doses from here on out, but we should still do some tests just in case.” Ivan explained.

“Very well, I’ll send them as soon as possible. By the way, how is the king doing? Has he been reading my reports?” His master didn’t pick up his calls and would always answer his messages with a “Do what you think is best”...

“Well, he is still avoiding his son as much as possible and barely appears in public, so… No, I do not think he is over what happened yet. But he goes to Spice’s grave to tell her about your reports every month…”

“I see- Wait, son? Did he remarry and have kids while I was out?!”

“Princess Edlin came out as Prince Hollowth a few months ago.” Ivan clarified.

“Oh, and how are you dealing with the situation? He still needs an heir, right?”

“Yes, and we already divised a plan to later to create an heir artificially, if necessary… For now, we are focused on finding a suitable another half. His husband to be called off the marriage, because he does not like men, so Vlad sent out word to the rest of the kingdoms to see if any of them had a ‘cute’ husband for the prince. So far, we have two candidates. However, they are both from equally powerful kingdoms, and both are around the prince’s age, so it has been a tough choice. Hollowth will be meeting them soon to see if he can break the tie.”

“But what if the prince likes girls?” Borialis reminded.

Ivan took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair, and looked at the ceiling for a while, rotating his chair softly from side to side.

“Guess we will have to find a trans princess who likes men then...” he finally said, rolling his eyes “I sometimes wonder why the angels did not give us the ability to reproduce asexually, I would make everything so much easier…”