When Jenna’s eyes fluttered open, it was the middle of the night. Her bedroom in the Crescent Bell Palace fluctuated like flames of artificial white light racing up the walls. She rubbed her eyes and tried to clear her vision, but it would not clear.

“Jenna, are you awake?” Conrad asked in her ear.

It had been a while since Jenna had spoken to Conrad, but the sound of his voice was the second most welcome after Sardius.

“I’m awake, and I feel terrible,” she confessed, pulling the blankets closer. She couldn’t get warm.

“Does your head hurt?” he asked through the earpiece.

“Yes.”

“That makes sense. Firth, that giant Hipposyphis, put that jewel on your crown, and you blacked out. Do you remember that much?”

Jenna tried to nod, but her head felt so heavy. Whether that feeling was from the jewel or not, she didn’t really know because the feeling of illness spread through her body like a disease. “I remember. What is the jewel supposed to do? Surely, it’s not supposed to make me sick. I can’t lift my head, and even talking is awful. Tell me what happened.”

Conrad sighed. “I was asleep when it happened, but the story Firth is telling is that the addition of the jewel is an upgrade to your current crown.”

“How is this an upgrade?”

“Well,” he began, “the crown by itself used to measure whether or not the person wearing it is a threat to Octavians. The crown is still testing you by staying on your head, but the jewel is testing everyone around you and protecting you. Anyone who approaches you with malice will be hurt.”

“How?” Jenna balked, trying to reach for a glass of water by her bed and being pitifully ineffective. She swatted her hand at the glass of water stupidly, unable to grasp it.

Conrad continued. “It creates a force field around you, and from what Firth said, it is no joke. It will cut off the hands of people who try to touch you.”

Jenna groaned. “How is that going to do me any good? I have to meet people who hate me all the time.”

“You can meet them,” Conrad clarified, “but they can’t touch you. Firth said something about how ridiculous it is that you aren’t safe, even from your own people. I guess some news got out earlier today about how Fallcet was crowned deceitfully after you expelled him from Octavia Prime the first time. Apparently, he kidnapped you and crowned himself? Is that why his crowning was not on the social media channels?”

“Yeah,” she recalled. “That’s what happened, but is Fallcet already gone? I was going to expel him again.” She wondered if she felt glad she wouldn’t have to talk to him again. Maybe she was relieved, or maybe she wanted to say one more thing to him to cap off their misadventure together. Either way, she was curious if the opportunity was gone.

“Yes,” Conrad confirmed. “Celestina and Excelyn got him on a pod and shipped him off-world. I kept surveillance footage of their happy dance on the dock, if you want to see it later. As for Rennett, he has been moved out of the Waterfall Palace. He’s staying with Dr. Arc Lawson until they can find a place he can afford with his AAMC pension. Rennett sends his thanks for offering to help him broker a deal with the AAMC, but he plans to make the arrangements himself.”

Jenna used every ounce of her energy to pull her body into a sitting position. It was hard, but once she rested her head against the pillows propped up by the headboard, she felt much better. Then, she tried reaching for the water again. “Well, Rennett is handy if I ever want to talk to him again, so I guess it’s fine that we just sent him off. It was nice of him not to demand more of me since my head feels like a jackhammer. Is everything else ‘good’?”

Conrad chuckled. “What’s your definition of good?”

Jenna felt a little hot around the collar. She would not have had to explain what she meant to Ixy, who knew that all her spare thoughts were about Sardius. “Have you heard anything about Sardius?” she clarified.

“No news. However, if you’re interested, Phane has finished the first round of his medical treatments and was awake a few hours ago.”

The wildly unpopular pilot that Jenna wanted as a diplomat endured a collection of surgeries in orbit, only to need more medical treatment when he arrived on the planet due to injuries sustained on the way down. The situation made Jenna want to scream.

“He’s okay?” Jenna asked cautiously.

“No. He’s far from okay. Granted, he’s freaking out, and that’s making it worse, but no, he’s not okay.”

“Is he awake now? Should I go visit him?” she asked, wanting to smooth things over.

Conrad replied in the negative. “He is not awake. Misha got tired of his nonsense and shot him up with a tranquilizer when she thought the official nurse, Antonetta, wasn’t looking. It was a relief to both of them. What a whiner! He really expects the royal treatment here.”

Jenna perked up. “Misha was very interested in him from his pictures before she met him. Do you think her crush endured his whining?”

Conrad laughed before cutting the laugh short and stating plainly, “No. It’s safe to say that any affection she had for him has died a cruel, painful death.” Then Conrad said something Jenna never expected to hear him say. “Would you mind,” he began softly, “if I connected to Misha’s communication system once in a while?”

“What does that mean?” Jenna questioned through the painful haze in her brain. He could connect to anywhere in her palace if she needed him to relay a command. Why was he asking permission to chat with her for fun? “Do you have feelings for Misha?”

“Do you have any objection to my calling her?” he pressed without answering her question.

“None, except the worry that you’ll both fall butt over tea kettle in love with each other and that it can’t go anywhere because you’re in prison in a different dimension,” Jenna warned.

“Yes, but I know someone who was in that situation, and it worked out for him,” Conrad reminded her dully.

“Fine. Fine,” Jenna gave her permission. “But I intend to ask her how it’s going in a week, and if she thinks you’re a nuisance, you have to back off. This is still a work environment.”

“Fine,” he agreed. “I don’t want to annoy her. I just thought it would be nice to talk to her once in a while.”

“Very reasonable.” Jenna changed the subject. “Can you send Vash in here to give me a pain reliever? I want to go back to sleep, but I don’t know if I can with this headache.”

“He can come in. He can bring you a pill, but for the time being, no one is allowed to touch you or even come near you. He will place the pill on the table, but you will have to get it for yourself. Favel and Firth aren’t sure if anyone can enter your force field, even if they’re your friend.”

“Ever?” Jenna wondered. If no one could touch her, then… What did that mean for the rest of her life? What did that mean for Sardius? “Surely friends can come in if I like them, right?”

“We don’t know that,” Conrad said doubtfully. “Firth says the Octavians used the jewels in the past, and a lot of octopuses lost tentacles that way, but losing a limb is completely different for an Octavian than it is for a human. Favel is pretty serious about the whole thing. He had Vash move everyone’s chairs away from yours in every building. You now have a pretty nameplate set at Excelyn’s palace and Celestina’s palace. The chair, the one that is away from everyone, that chair is for you.”

Jenna groaned. “I guess they can’t remove the jewel then.”

“I don’t know if anyone has tried. My bet? They’re too scared that they’ll lose a tentacle. Do you want to give it a try right now? Since no one else can touch you, you’ve got to be the one to do it.”

Jenna put her hand up to her crown. The first problem when she touched it was that it was basically hanging from the tip of a curved blade. She couldn’t see what she was doing because the whole operation was over her head, and she did not have the energy to get up to see what she was doing with the aid of a mirror.

She gave up very quickly and asked Conrad again if Vash was coming to bring her a pain med.

Conrad said Vash was on his way down the hall.

When Vash came in, he had her pill and a bottle of water on a cutting board with a handle. He put it on the table furthest from her by her bed and left the whole thing on the table, obviously desperate to stay away from her.

Jenna rubbed the back of her neck painfully. “This is going to take some getting used to.”

“Do you need anything else, Madam Diplomat?” Vash squeaked.

“No. Go to bed,” she said generously, but she immediately regretted it when she was too weak to open the water bottle.