Quick intro of a side character. I get him off screen as quickly as I can. Pai, of course, makes some lewd proposals – having Alix watch? really? – before being forced into playing Tour Guide. I should have put her in a small hat and had her carry one of those tiny flags that other tour guides do.

The bit about Reina surprised me. The possible retirement I suspected; not a departure.

Still on track for wrapping up Part 1 on Friday. Playing with some ideas for 2. It may be a 1-4 year jump between parts. We’ll, see; I do what I’m told. Graf is turning into quite the diplomat. I wonder what awaits him in Part 2?

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Stepping out of the hatch to the cobblestone pavement, there was a guard of six, three on each side.  White uniforms, high collars, polished riding boots.  But modern helmets and rifles.  He looked about.  Everything is so old and new at the same time.  Ahead of them were three, two more guards at the back with a man in what might be his very late twenties in front of them in a similar outfit.  A lot like when we met Aurelia.  Pai went first toward the man.

“Crown Prince Vasily,” she said, going to both knees.

“Please, Pai, get up,” he sighed, taking her hands as she did.  “I welcome you home on behalf of my father, Emperor Piotr.  What trouble have you brought the Rodina this time?”

“Two stray humans.  The male I intend to marry.”

He shot her a glance.  “Your mother…?”

“Does not object.”

“And the other?”

“Spacer First Class of the imperium’s fleet.  Empress Aurelia ordered her to look after my man and I.” Her eyes twinkled red.

“Did she, indeed?” Russians rarely smiled, yet Vasily almost did.  “They have no idea what we are saying.  Shall we be polite and switch to English, or just you and I walk away, and leave them to their devices?”

“Leaving them alone is not a good idea, Prince.”

“Oh, ho!  You have a rival!” He raised his hand and beckoned them while changing languages.  “Please, new friends, come!  Welcome to Russia!”

After another series of introductions, Prince Vasily made his excuses and invited everyone to dinner at eight that evening.  With a casual wave, he was gone.

I think Alix is a little sick from meeting two royals in one day.  This is such a dream world for me that nothing is a surprise, anymore.  That guy was really nice, even if he never smiled.  He seemed to think the whole me-and-Pai thing to be funny, but I don’t know why.

“So what now?” Graf asked.  “It’s about what, four in the afternoon?  We just had a nap on the way here…”

“Vasily said we have rooms on the second floor of the west wing,” Pai said, pointing.  “I think you and I should go have sex right now.  Minder can go to the museum.”

“I am ordered by my sovereign to keep track of you two, so no, thank you,” Alix said through her teeth.  “Perhaps we can all visit this museum tomorrow.  Part of my commission is to learn more about our Russian allies.”

“Oh, that’s fine.  Then come along, Minder.” Pai is getting way too used to that fake smile.  “You can stand next to our bed and watch.  While my Intended is young and fast, he is also good at two goes at a time.”

Okay.  Enough.

“After having been cooped on your ship, let’s take a walk along that nice river,” Graf declared.  “Is there a way through this building to get there?”

With a laugh, Pai took both of their hands and took them through a double doorway and out onto a street paralleling the river.  She said it was called the Neva.  Turning them right, upriver, she began to act like a tour guide, explaining the history of the city and various buildings.

“I know for most of nearly two hundred years ago, the capital was Moscow, the industrial center,” Alix interjected at one point, trying to do her job.  “Why move the political center back here?”

“Tradition,” Pai said in a serious tone Graf had never heard before.  “My mother knew that she would be rebuilding the empire, and tradition dictated that the capital be here.”

“Reina, again,” Alix said to the cool air off the river.  “Will she rule here forever?”

“She…” Pai stopped.  Waiting for car traffic, she hustled them across the street to a little concrete circle that projected just a little out over the water.  She doesn’t want anyone to hear us.  With her strength, Pai pulled them both closer.

“Mom has been in the process of retiring since I was made,” she began in a soft voice.  “Minder?  Rival?  I also do like you, and ask you not report what I say next.”

“What? Oh, sure.  Um,” Alix tilted her head a bit.  “Thank you.”

“Mom is tired in a way you humans cannot grasp.  Millions of lives, trillions of details.  Every day for over one hundred years.  She has her husband and us four children.  I think…” Her voice caught and Graf pulled her even more.  “I think she will follow Ninon.  Into the stars.  I don’t want to lose my mom.”

Alix started weeping.

“Hey, there!” Pai literally picked her up and shook her.  “That’s no way for you to behave if you want to steal my Intended!  And certainly not for an NCO of the imperium!  Look, north of us, across the river, that’s the Peter and Paul Fortress, done in the traditional Vauban style…”

She resumed her travelogue, but Graf and Alix shared a look.  For once, they were worried about their odd, mutual friend.