Chapter 6

Azha woke the next morning to the bright Nirum sun shining on her face. When she opened her eyes, she saw her new room in all its luxurious glory.

The carpets were a deep purple, and the walls were a shade of white that had sparkles embedded in the paint, although she was pretty sure the sparkles were actually diamonds.

Everything about the room screamed opulence. She knew she should feel thankful, even happy, but for some reason, all she could do was wonder if she had made a terrible mistake hiding on Gravon's ship.

When she woke yesterday, she was dirty, hungry, and didn't have a single thing to her name. She did not even belong to herself. When she woke up today, she was well-fed, well-rested… and she still did not belong to herself. It was an obvious trade up, but still, she couldn't shake the feeling that she had made a mistake that could never be rectified.

She was in a strange world where everything was unfamiliar to her—the food, the residents, her surroundings. And she had no way out of the castle or off the planet. She was stuck, and she wondered just what Gravon planned to do with her. He was king. He could do anything he wanted, and no one would, or could, stop him.

Maybe he had only been nice to her yesterday to get her right here, in this very vulnerable position. Maybe the real hell would begin today, and yesterday had been a trap.

A knock sounded at the door only seconds before it opened. Vespira and Xenia slithered in, one of them heading toward the huge walk-in closet that she had yet to explore and one of them moving toward her.

"Good morning," Vespira said as she peeled back the blanket that Azha was nestled under. "I will take you to your bath now."

Azha said nothing but slid out of bed and followed the female Naga to the adjoining bathroom. She had seen and used the bathroom yesterday, but she was pretty sure she'd never get used to its size and opulence.

It was huge. Definitely the largest bathroom she'd ever seen. She didn't even know why someone would need one this big. Everything about it was stunning—from the clear tiles that gave view to the water rushing underneath, which she didn't know if it was real or just a visual, to the mirror that showed her all sides of herself without her even needing to turn.

But best of all, at least in her eyes, was the bathtub. It was enormous and hovered in the air with absolutely nothing visible holding it off the ground. She didn't even see a tap for the water to come out of, but just as she had yesterday, Vespira tapped a button on the side of the tub, and it simply filled with steaming hot water that appeared out of thin air.

She stripped out of her pajamas, not feeling the least bit self-conscious about being naked in front of a stranger. She was very used to that from her life back on Noxxa.

"You have thirty minutes to bathe. Once you are done, Xenia and I will get you ready and escort you to the dining room for breakfast with the king."

Once alone, Azha carefully lowered herself into the steaming water, closing her eyes at the feeling of it embracing her skin. She could definitely get used to waking up like this though she could do without the babysitters. Would she ever spend a day alone again?

An hour later, Azha was sitting next to Gravon at the table, some sort of bread in front of her that was slathered with jam. It tasted nothing like the bread and jam that she had eaten on rare occasions back home. Nothing here seemed to be even remotely similar to Noxxa.

Dare she admit, she was feeling a little homesick?

"How did you sleep?" Gravon spoke up, breaking her out of her melancholy.

"Very well, actually. The blankets in there are softer than anything I've ever felt."

"Mine are even softer."

She avoided his gaze. He obviously wanted her to join him in his room, and he had said as much yesterday when they'd arrived. But she didn't know when she'd be ready for that despite what they'd done on the Imperial Nirum.

Sure, they'd shared a moment on the ship, and Azha had enjoyed it more than she would ever say out loud. She'd even replayed that moment in her head last night while she was falling asleep. But now, here on Nirum, she was feeling overwhelmed. So for the time being, she was grateful for her separate room.

"Today I will show you around the wing. You probably will not leave the royal quarters, at least not today. But there is plenty for you to do here while I attend my meetings."

She perked up at that but tried not to show it on the outside. "You're going to leave me here?"

"Yes," he said, "but do not worry, Vespira and Xenia will be there for you should you need them. And I will send a messenger back and forth between us in case I need to update you on anything or in case you need me."

"Oh, okay." She tried to pretend like this saddened her, to be away from him, but truth be told, she was looking forward to the time alone. She needed to gather her thoughts and familiarize herself with this place she was now to call home.

"I will be back by dinner, and we will share the meal together."

"What are your meetings about?" she questioned him, and she really was curious.

"Well, I was gone for a while, and there are many things I need to be updated on now that I am home. Most, if not all, are very small things, but I need to know about them regardless. Some are meetings where I will be deciding things for the planet. Again, mostly small decisions, at least compared to others."

"How do you know what the right decisions are?"

"Experience, for the most part. I sat in on my father's meetings from the age of seven until the day he went to the goddess. That alone taught me all I needed to know. Besides, it is in my blood to know these things."

She couldn't help but be impressed by him. To carry such responsibility and be able to conquer that was not a small thing. She could tell he actually cared a lot about Nirum, based on everything he'd said to her so far, and she felt like the Niri were lucky to have a king like him.

Once they finished eating, he began showing her around the floor, pointing out different rooms that she was to use as she wished. There was a fitness room, a painting room, and a room that could transform to look like anything she wanted it to be—from a perfectly decorated bedroom to a jungle. She got an idea that maybe she would use that room to transform into Noxxa when she was feeling particularly homesick.

But the one room that stuck out to her the most was the library. Not because she had an interest in reading, per se, but because she was determined to learn as much as she could about the Niri. She wanted to know everything. Their culture, their politics, and anything she could find on Gravon and his family.

So when the tour was done and Gravon headed off to his meetings, the library was the first place she went. And she spent the rest of the day there.

It had been a week since Azha had arrived on Nirum, and a week since she'd gone and holed herself up in the library, spending those seven days learning everything she could. She couldn't find much on Gravon himself, but she had come to accept something when it came to him.

Gravon was a good person—er, being. He was respected by his subjects. He was generous to them and all the people on his planet. He was fair, at least much more so than the past kings, which she had read about in the books she had found on Niri royalty.

And most of all, he was good to her. He always made sure she was well-fed, well-dressed, and that she had something to occupy her day. He knew she had been spending every day in the library, and when she had told him what exactly she was reading about, his face had lit up. It was the most expressive she had seen him since they'd arrived on Nirum.

Which was another thing she had noticed. When they had been on the Imperial Nirum, Gravon had seemed much more expressive, much freer. But the minute they had come back to his home planet, he had become very stoic.

He hadn't even attempted to kiss her, which had confused her the most. On the ship, he seemed very interested in her in that way. But since arriving, he hadn't tried anything.

She was still very confused about what her purpose was here in this castle and what his intentions with her were. However, she was almost positive now that those intentions were in no way nefarious.

"Azha, have you looked at these already?" Xenia asked, bringing over a stack of books.

Azha skimmed the titles, shaking her head. "No, not yet. You can leave them here. I'll look at them next."

Xenia nodded and sat on the couch across from her.

Azha had started forming somewhat of a friendship with Xenia and Vespira over the past couple of days. When they had learned what Azha was doing in the library, they had become determined to help her learn all the most important things.

"Are you hungry for lunch yet?" Xenia spoke up.

"No, not yet. I might skip it today. I'd like to finish this book and start another one by dinner time."

"You seem much more comfortable here the past few days," Xenia noted after a couple of minutes.

Azha looked up, meeting her eyes. "I think all the reading has really helped. Knowing the history of this place makes me feel more connected to it."

"Are you still feeling homesick?" Vespira wandered over with another stack of books. She put them down on the table in front of Azha before sitting on the couch next to Xenia.

Azha thought about the question. "No, actually. I haven't thought about Noxxa in days. My life there… wasn't half as good as this. A huge part of me feels like I should be grateful for this new life I've been given."

"I'm sure the king would love to hear something like that."

Xenia was probably right. But she wasn't sure if she was ready to let him know just how much she was accepting her new home just yet.

Her eyes wandered over to one of the books Vespira had just brought over, titled The Fertility Crisis of the Niri.

This piqued her interest, and she immediately set down The Forgotten Tribes of Nirum and picked it up. From page one, she was fascinated, and by the time Xenia and Vespira were leading her to the dining room for dinner, she had finished the book.

Azha was deeply saddened and alarmed by what she had read. Not to mention shocked. She wondered how news like this had not traveled to Noxxa, how she had never heard anything about the Niri's struggles before.

At dinner, she barely spoke and barely ate, poking at her food as she let her mind go down the rabbit hole the book had placed in her mind.

"Are you not feeling well?" Gravon frowned at her. "My servants informed me that you did not have any lunch today, and now you're barely eating your dinner."

She looked up at him in shock, having forgotten for a moment that she was sitting with him.

"I'm sorry, I just… I read something today that I can't seem to stop thinking about."

"And what is that?"

"The fertility crisis."

"Ah. Yes, it is a growing issue among my species."

"And there is no solution?"

"Not yet. We have healers trying every day to find a reason for this, or a solution, but so far, we have found nothing."

"I'm sorry," she said, realizing what this meant for him. If he could not reproduce, he would not be able to provide an heir to the throne.

The rest of the meal went on in silence. For some reason, this realization stuck in her mind. All she could think was whether this had something to do with why she was here. She had been trying to come up with a reason for him to bring her to Nirum and keep her in the royal quarters, but so far, nothing made sense.

Except for this.