Governor Overwatch put us up in a nearby hotel while the council gathered. From what he was telling us, they only gathered three times a week, and we'd hit them on an off day. I was glad to hear that he wasn't forcing them to convene just for the sake of the two of us. I'm sure they were mad enough about this already without them feeling like he was ordering them around.
Though, he probably was.
In any case, we were given the best suite in the best hotel in Klugetown. As the concierge opened the door for the two of us, that turned out to be... not exactly royalty-grade. Don't get me wrong: it wasn't like it was a cockroach infested mess, but it was closer to an average room in a mid-tier hotel on Earth or Equestria. It had two queen beds, a pair of wooden nightstands, a mirror, an AC unit, and a minifridge.
Perfect, really.
"Is this to your liking, Your Majesty?" the concierge asked, bowing more to Skystar than me.
"Oh, yeah, this is great!" Skystar said, happily bouncing over to the bed closest to the door and flopping down on it. "Really comfy!"
"I'm glad you approve," the concierge replied. "If the two of you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to say so. Governor Overwatch is footing the bill, so please inform us if there is anything that we can get you."
"Just some call mares, a large bottle of one ninety proof everclear, and a few grams of Klugetown's finest cocaine would be fine," I said, walking into the room. I turned back to the concierge and saw that he had gone white and his jaw was flopping up and down. I smirked at him and put my hoof on his shoulder. "Just kidding. We're good for right now, thanks."
"Er..." The concierge blinked a few times before clearing his throat and forcing a weak smile on his face. "Yes. Quite amusing. Enjoy your stay."
Once he'd shut the door behind him, I made my way over to my bed while Skystar scoffed behind me. "That wasn't very nice."
I chuckled and hopped onto the bed. "Chaos god, remember? Couldn't resist."
Skystar rolled her eyes as I waved my hoof and a tray of snacks appeared on her bed. She squeed in happiness and snatched some cheese and crackers off of the tray. Once she'd eaten a few, she pushed the tray aside to talk to me.
"So what exactly do you want for tomorrow?" she asked. "I mean, I'm sure that they're not going to be happy about talking to you."
"Probably not," I admit. "I guess I just... want to get a real indication of what's going on from the perspective of someone who can look at what my brother's doing outside of the usual reverent lens Equestrians tend to look at alicorns through. That's not even taking into account the fact that my brother basically won two defensive wars in five years for Equestria. They love him enough that they're not going to question whatever he's doing."
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Skystar said, picking up a piece of bacon from the tray. "It's not like Mom or any of the other leaders were going to stop him. Mom especially was more worried about making sure we got Mount Aris back to normal than whatever your brother was doing."
"And it's not like the griffins or minotaurs are going to go to war with Equestria over Klugetown," I finished. "Still wonder how he talked Celestia and Luna into that."
Skystar shrugged. "Maybe it was his whole thing with turning the Badlands into a breadbasket? Or improving the lives of the citizens?"
I rolled my eyes and floated a cookie over to myself. "Playing the dumb hero. I swear that he has no Canadian left in him." When Skystar shot me a quizzical look, I waved my hoof at her. "That's what we are. We're not Equestrians, we're Canadian-American. I always identified as more Canadian, and he always identified more as an American, but he's still Canadian. Neither of us have a true drop of pony blood in our bodies."
"Oh." Skystar glanced over at the minifridge, but I waved my hoof and a pitcher of lemonade and a pair of glasses appeared on her bedside table. She smiled in thanks and poured herself a glass. "So do you miss it? Your homeworld, I mean."
I grimaced and spun the half-eaten cookie in the air as I considered the answer. "Yeah. Every day. I miss my parents most of all. I wish that we'd either stayed or they'd come to Equestria with us. I can't imagine what it must have been like for them to lose both of their children over the span of about fifteen seconds. At least they hopefully know that we're alive, right?"
"Have you ever thought about trying a portal like Discord did for TD?"
I sighed and put the cookie on my bedside table, suddenly not all that hungry. "Yeah. Once or twice. Nothing even popped up. I guess there's a difference between getting good at making food out of thin air and creating an inter-dimensional portal. Not something I'd pick up after only seven years of being the chaos god. It'll probably be several centuries, if not millennia, before I can pull that off, and by that point..."
"Oh. Yeah." Skystar deflated for a few seconds before perking up again. "But you still have family here, right?"
I snorted. "Yeah, you." A small smile crossed my face for a moment as Skystar blushed. It faded quickly, though. "I technically have two nieces, a brother, a sister-in-law and... whatever Luna is. I don't know the title of the mare who my brother is the sperm donor for. In any case, I haven't talked to any of them in almost two years, and I probably won't talk to them for a long time still. Years, decades, who knows?"
"But you'll go back and talk to them eventually, right?" Skystar asked. "I mean, you don't want to cut them out of your life."
"Of course not," I replied with a wave of my hoof. "No, I still love my brother and my nieces and all that, but I guess I have to figure things out, you know? Even before the Storm War, I was kind of in a weird place, what with suddenly becoming the lord of all chaos on top of losing my homeworld. At least TD said that he had a few years before he ascended to get used to Equestria. I had about two days before I got the powers of one of Equestria's greatest monsters. Then I had to be a part of a surprise war, kill dozens of creatures if not hundreds, then hear my brother torture somebody."
"Yeah, that would be pretty hard," Skystar muttered. "But I think everything will turn out okay in the end. You and your brother have an eternity to figure things out, right?"
I shrugged with my wings. "Yeah, I guess so."
I did hope that it wouldn't be a hundred years before things went kind of back to normal with TD and I. At the moment, I wasn't holding my breath on that.
* * * *
We'd gone to sleep not too long after that, and woke up at about seven-thirty to get ready to meet with the local council. As the chaos god I didn't need to do stuff like shower and brush my teeth, but I still took a hot shower. Being under water helped relax me a bit. I swear if it was just me here, I would spend my life under the water. Just me, Bob, and whichever sea ponies wanted to stay that way. Either that or explore the world's oceans to see what there was to see.
In any case, by about eight we were all set to go. Governor Overwatch met us outside of the hotel personally. I guess because Skystar was royalty and pretending to be an emissary from Mount Aris. When we met him in the lobby, he smiled at us and tilted his head.
"Good morning, ladies. I trust you slept well and that the accommodations were to your liking?"
"They were very good, thank you," I replied with a smile.
"Yeah, the beds were very comfy!" Skystar chimed in.
"I'm happy to hear it." He beckoned us to follow him and led us out of the hotel. "Now, the council meeting starts at nine, and we've scheduled your meeting to be the first thing on their agenda." He paused for a moment as we continued to walk. "If I may... can I ask what you and the council will be discussing?"
Skystar opened her mouth, no doubt to say some excuse. Instead I just shook my head.
"Nope."
Overwatch flinched back slightly. "Oh... yes, my apologies. It wouldn't do for me to intrude upon the private meetings of world leaders, of course."
Yeah, but they're not really world leaders, are they? They'll probably be phased out in the next ten or twenty years as the new generation forgets what it was like to not be ruled by the alicorns. Once the current council members are too old to work, they probably won't get replacements. Give it fifty years and pre-Equestria will be a memory. Another fifty and it'll be a legend. Fifty more and it'll be totally gone. They'll probably start taking Equestrian names and trying to get cutie marks after a while.
Still don't have mine. Kind of glad about that, really. I mean, I could get any cutie mark that I wanted in all honesty, but I liked not having one. Made me unique, and it also made hiding my identity easier. When ponies tried to change theirs beyond completely removing it like Starlight did, they can only change it to something close to what they have. So if Celestia wanted to disguise her cutie mark, it would still have to be a sun of some kind. Me, thought? I could choose whatever I wanted, which helped a lot with my Silver Scribe disguise.
I tried to not look at the locals as we walked down the main street of Klugetown. I couldn't help but notice the pony guards walking around, but I tried to push that out of my mind as we walked back in the direction of Verko's old compound. Overwatch silently led us into the compound and to a side room flanked by two pony guards. He motioned to the door.
"Okay, so yeah, the council probably just got in session. They're waiting for you."
I nodded to Overwatch and Skystar and I went up to the door. This would be fun.
"If you need anything..."
"We'll let you know, thank you," I replied. The guards flanking the door lit their horns and the double doors opened up. When Skystar and I walked into the room, the sight didn't exactly give me hope that everything was going well. A set of seven Klugetowners were sitting at a long table facing the door. Each and every one of them glared at us when we walked into the room. Gulp.
"Alright, so we were told that you'd be the first item on today's agenda," said the one in the very middle. "So what do you want?"
"Uh, hi." Skystar walked closer to the table while I hung back. She was the princess of the other nation that they were supposed to be seeing, after all. "So yeah, my Mom wanted to get an update of everything that's happening here since Equestria--"
"Invaded," another Klugetowner snapped. "Make sure that Novo doesn't have any false ideas or believes any of the propaganda that Antares is no doubt shoving down her throat. He showed up with an army and informed us that we were going to be Equestrians now and that we'd all be so happy and he'd turn the Badlands into a breadbasket and blah, blah, blah. He just used all of it to expand his borders."
"R-right," Skystar replied. "So... there wasn't a battle, though, right?"
A third Klugetowner scoffed. "With what army? Only a few thousand people live in Klugetown, including the children. Antares brought more soldiers than we could possibly match. We were brought into Equestria by threat of the sword, even if Antares pretended otherwise."
"Okayyyyy." Skystar shot me an uneasy look. Yeah, this probably isn't what she was wanting to hear. It wasn't what I wanted to hear either, but I wanted to get to the truth of the matter more than anything. "But, uh, how have things been since Equestria came in and--"
"Took over," a fourth one snapped.
"Uh, yeah. Took over. Things seem to look better. The houses and stuff are all painted. Things look repaired."
"Yes, yes, we live in a lovely gilded cage," the first Klugetowner replied with a wave of his hand. "We're free to enjoy our town as long as we stay perfectly in line. We're all so happy in our perfect town. So, so happy."
With every word my stomach clenched up into a tighter knot. Was this seriously my brother? He'd never do something like this, especially after Equestria was taken over by the Storm King. He'd know how awful this was.
"Oh, and let's not forget our currency," the second one continued. "I wasn't a millionaire, but I did alright for myself. The second Antares marched in, every single storm buck I had became meaningless. All of the money I'd saved for my entire life became as valuable as a handful of dirt. They were just pretty pieces of paper at that point."
"But didn't Antares... I dunno, exchange your money for bits?" Skystar asked. "He wouldn't leave you broke, right?"
A fifth Klugetowner scoffed. "Oh, that happened eventually. After six months of him and his smarty-pants ponies trying to figure out the exchange rate and how that factored in to each individual brand-new Equestrian citizen. Until he figured that out, we survived by holding our hands out to our new pony masters and saying 'please Mister Pony Sir, can I have some money for food?'"
Skystar didn't reply to that. Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure of what she'd say. The silence let them turn their attention to me.
"What, pony, no response? No insistence that Prince Antares and his benevolence is the best thing to happen to Klugetown?" He scoffed. "I'm surprised you ponies can move at all. You would think that bowing that low and worshiping those stupid alicorns all of the time would leave you with back problems."
"I do not. Worship. The alicorns," I responded through gritted teeth. "You think I like hearing this?"
"Oh, so we have one of the objectors here," another one said with a roll of her eyes. "Did you team up with the princess here to go back and report to your six buddies about how horrible your wonderful, pretty, perfect rulers actually are? Or are you here to see if we're worse off than the Storm Kingdom?"
I frowned and tilted my head. "The Storm Kingdom? What do you mean?"
"Oh, so we not only have an 'aren't I so great' objector, but one who's had her head under a rock for a few years?" the first one said with a mocking tone. "Your oh-so-wonderful rulers went on a liberation campaign. Pushed what was left out of the Storm King's army out of everywhere he'd conquered, then completely took over the Storm Kingdom. Guess he couldn't help himself when he ran into another territory without a leader. I wonder how he's justifying it to the locals there."
Ugh. I knew that TD did a liberation campaign, but I didn't know that he'd flat-out taken over the Storm Kingdom in what sounded like something beyond just rebuilding. Maybe that was all that he was doing, but I wasn't going to count on it just yet. That just left the question of whether or not they were Equestrians now like Klugetown or if he was just rebuilding then leaving. I hoped that it was the latter.
"So there you go, Princess," the second Klugetowner snapped. "That's what you can tell your mother. The wise and benevolent Antares rolled in and ruined what he had. I'm not going to pretend like it was a paradise, but it was ours." He scoffed and shook his head. "Not anymore. Probably not ever again. He's done enough damage that even if he pulled his soldiers out tomorrow, we'd still be dependent on him."
"Yeah..." Skystar whispered. "Yeah, I'll be sure to report that to my mom. Queen Novo. You know. So, yeah."
"Yeah." The first Klugetowner crossed his arms. "Any other questions you have for us about how 'wonderful' life is for us now?"
"No, I think we're good, unless you want to tell us more."
"The Klugetowner shrugged. "Why bother? Nothing will change. Tell your mother so she can sadly shake her head and bemoan how bad this is then forget all about it."
"Right." Skystar took a deep breath. "Thank you for your time."
"Yeah, yeah," the third Klugetowner said. "Now go away so we can pretend to have some small scrap of autonomy left."
Skystar silently turned around and walked out of the room, leaving me to follow her. When we were out, the doors closed behind her, and I put my hoof on her shoulder as we walked.
"That was worse than I thought," Skystar said quietly. "I didn't know they felt that way."
"Well, let's just say that I'm not completely surprised that turned out that way," I admitted. "No one is ever happy about being taken over, and the Klugetowners don't even have the fact of invading Equestria first to make sense of everything. My brother just rolled in one day and said that they were Equestrians now. Who would feel great about that?"
"We didn't like it when the Storm King took over Mount Aris," Skystar said. "So I can see why they wouldn't be happy about it." Before I could respond, a determined look crossed Skystar's face, and she marched up to a nearby desk where a mare was doing paperwork. She looked up and smiled when she saw Skystar approaching.
"Good morning. What can I do for you?"
"I just need a quill and a piece of paper," Skystar replied. "I need to send a letter to my mom."
"Certainly, Your Highness." The mare lit her horn and floated a quill, ink pot, and piece of paper to Skystar. "Let me know if you need us to send that for you."
"No, I should be fine." Skystar took the writing supplies and walked over to a nearby table. She set everything down and began writing. Curious, I looked over her shoulder to see what she was writing, but she finished the note before I could see. She rolled it up and handed it to me.
"Can you send this to Mom? She'll probably want to know what's going on."
I tilted my head, but slowly nodded and sent the letter to Novo.
"Do you think anything will come of it?" I asked.
Skystar shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. It's probably not a bad idea to at least let her know how things are around here. I don't think that your brother is getting reports like that, and he might not care if he did."
"I'd like to think that he would, but I'm not sure anymore," I admitted. I took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of my muzzle. This was all getting too complicated.
* * * *
Skystar and I decided to stay in Klugetown for a little while longer to see if anything would happen. I didn't think that anything would, but we at least needed to plan for where we'd go next. The next afternoon found Skystar and I back in our hotel room with another platter of snacks.
"So where do you want to go next?" Skystar asked. "Probably not back to Equestria."
I shook my head and grabbed a turnover off of the tray. "No. Not quite ready for that yet, and I'm still not sure if I'll end up with you guys at the end of everything anyway."
Skystar perked up a bit. "Yeah! You could live with us after this trip! You could visit Equestria every now and again to check up on your family."
"Could do that."
Truth be told, that would largely depend on what happened with what happened on my little odyssey here. I got the feeling that I'd know when to end it, and where to go live afterward. If I wandered forever, that would be fine, in all honesty. If it was back to Equestria or Mount Aris then that would be okay, too. Or wander for a thousand years then come back to Equestria. My brother is immortal too, right? He'd probably still be there when I got back.
I was about to take a bite out of my turnover when a knock on the door stopped me. I put it back down on the tray to answer the door. It turned out to be the same concierge from the previous night, and he bowed to the two of us.
"Good evening, Princess Skystar, Miss Scribe. Governor Overwatch sent me to confirm that you two would be at the meeting tomorrow."
I frowned and exchanged a glance with Skystar. "Meeting? What meeting?" I asked.
"The meeting between Prince Antares, the Klugetown Council and Queen Novo," the concierge said. "Er... should I tell him that you won't be there?"
Skystar opened her mouth, but I cut her off before she could speak. "Well, if neither Queen Novo or Prince Antares informed us of the meeting, I suppose that we aren't invited," I said with a shrug. "We will, of course, try to follow up with the two of them, but it sounds like a private affair. "
The concierge tilted his head in a bow again. "Of course. Governor Overwatch was just contacting you to confirm one way or the other. I will have him informed and as always, if you need anything, don't hesitate to contact us."
Thank you, sir," I replied. "Have a good day."
When he shut the door, I went back to my bed and laid down, picking up my turnover again. Skystar put her own turnover back on the tray and frowned at me.
"You have that look."
I turned to her and raised my eyebrow. "What look?"
"That look where you're about to do something. You're going to sneak into that meeting, aren't you?"
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Now why would I do that?"
* * * *
Okay, so maybe my best friend knew me pretty well after we lived with each other for a year and a half. After conjuring up some books and, for funsies, a Gameboy for Skystar, I turned myself invisible then flew over to the compound. Even as I approached I could see the hustle and bustle of a royal visit. Two of them, I suppose. There were dozens of both ponies and hippogriffs moving around the compound doing something or other in preparation of the big meeting. I even saw a small handful of Klugetowners around, too. Most of them looked like members of council that I'd met with. Hopefully they'd be honest with TD about everything they were feeling. If he intimidated them enough that they weren't fully open with him, I doubt he'd ever get the idea.
While there were guards and stuff everywhere, I could go through walls as well, so nobody was going to stop me from getting wherever I wanted to go. I floated over the crowd so that I didn't run into everybody, but I followed most of them to where the meeting was presumably being held. It appeared to be in the same room where Skystar and I met the council of locals. With nothing else for it, I phased through the wall and into the room.
And that's when I saw my brother up close for the first time in over eighteen months.
He didn't look any different. Guess that came with being an alicorn. He was talking with a soldier right next to him who I presumed was the replacement of either Blaze or Rapids. He stopped talking for a brief moment and his ear twitched when I entered the room, but it was brief enough that I considered that I imagined it. Novo was sitting at the opposite end of the long table, while several council members were talking their places at the table, while Governor Overwatch sat on the chair to TD's left. It would have been odd for me to take a seat, so I took to the air again and conjured up an invisible platform for myself where I could lie down and watch the meeting.
This was going to be interesting.
It wasn't more than about fifteen minutes before Governor Overwatch stood up and slapped his hoof on the table, causing the low din of everyone talking among themselves to die down. Once everyone had turned their attention to him, he cleared his throat.
"Good evening, everycreature. May I welcome you to Klugetown." He bowed his head to my brother. "Prince Antares, it is lovely to have you here." TD nodded back, and Overwatch nodded to Novo. "And Queen Novo. We are delighted to extend to you our hospitality."
"Thank you," Novo replied, ignoring the Klugetowner who let out a disgusted scoff. "I hope that this meeting is productive. The report I was given was... interesting."
"Yes, and I'm curious as to what was in that report," TD said, causing my stomach to flip. I hadn't heard his voice in a long time. "I was not aware that you were keeping an eye on the situation here."
A slight frown crossed Novo's face. "Well, now that we have completed the reconstruction of our home, I can focus on what's going on outside of Mount Aris. The report I got told me that things aren't going so well around here, and I'm worried."
"Not going well?" The Klugetowner who had scoffed narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "Oh, I wonder why that might be. These ponies just showed up one day and said that they owned us!"
"I thought that annexation was the proper course of action given both the current state of the town I observed when I was here during the Storm War, and regarding my plans for the Badlands," TD replied neutrally. "I understand that any transition like this will be a bit tumultuous, but--"
"Tumultuous?" the Klugetowner spat. "I woke up one morning to find you and your army on our doorstep informing us that you would be enslaving us!"
"I did not enslave you," TD replied. "You are free to do as you please, and we have used and will continue to use our resources to improve life for your town."
"Oh, you're going to make our gilded cage nicer?" another member of the council growled. "We might not have lived in a paradise, but at lease it was ours! We'd take Verko and his ilk any day before another moment under you!"
"Hm." TD looked over to Novo. "And what are your thoughts in all of this?"
"I'm wondering why somebody who just had his country taken over by someone else feels like it's okay to turn around and do it to somebody else. Klugetown is on my borders, so it concerns me."
"I assure you that we have no interest in taking over any part of your kingdom," TD insisted. "It is my hope that our two nations can continue to have a strong alliance and working relationship and that we both benefit from our efforts in the Badlands, which are advancing at an even better rate than I had hoped. At current estimates, we'll be able to begin harvesting vast quantities of food in the next five to seven years.
"Do you honestly think that we care at all about what you're doing to that desert?" the first Klugetowner snapped. "Make a bunch of food. Have a few new cities." She stood up and slammed her hand on the table. "Just leave us out of it!"
TD exchanged a brief glance with Overwatch before turning his attention back to the others at the table. "It is my hope that--"
"Oh who cares what your hope is, Antares," she snapped. "We've been independent for hundreds of years! Now you come along, comfortable in your bloody armor, and take all of that away." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bit which she tossed in front of TD. "And these? What are we supposed to do with these? I had good good money saved up, and that all went away when you decided to make all of that useless. But that was our only choice, wasn't it? How many of us would you have slaughtered before you took control? All of us? Wipe out the local population and then you can do whatever you liked?"
"We also have our concerns," Novo chimed in. "You may not have an interest in Mount Aris, but what about the forest between Klugetown and us? Are you intending to take that as well and turn it into whatever you want?"
TD shook his head. "No. Any work that would happen in that area would have to be a joint effort between our two nations."
"And what of us?" the first Klugetowner snapped. "Couldn't we have been extended that courtesy? We're miserable, Antares! Everything that we were was taken when you arrived with your army. Now how can you just leave? We'd be left in shambles."
TD paused for a minute at that. I knew him long enough to know what it looked like when he was thinking. Even after becoming an alicorn, I could still pick up on some of his tells. Finally he spoke up again.
"There is a lot to think about here. Thank you both for this information. Celestia and I will do everything we can to make sure that everycreature comes out on top, as we have always wanted."
"At least you're probably being nicer to us than the Storm Kingdom," another Klugetowner muttered. TD briefly glanced over at him but didn't comment on it. Too bad. I was kind of hoping that he'd let something slip about how all of that was going.
"Well, I can see that you don't care," the first Klugetowner said. The rest of them stood up and began filing out the door without even a final parting shot. TD didn't make any effort to assuage any of their worries as they left, which is what I'd probably be doing. Maybe he was starting to reconsider things. Maybe he'd see that the Klugetown annexation had been a mistake and he'd try to fix what damage he'd caused before getting out of town. I couldn't see the Badlands reformation being a bad thing, but Klugetown was taking it too far.
Once the locals had left, only one of TD's guards, one of Novo's guards and Overwatch remained. Overwatch was looking nervously between Novo and TD, and I could tell that he desperately wanted to say something, but knew it wasn't his place to speak before two rulers.
"So..." A small smirk crossed TD's face for the first time. "How did you get the report of what was happening here? I obviously wasn't hiding anything, but I'm curious as to what you were told that led you to call this meeting."
"My source is irrelevant," Novo replied. "I called this meeting so that we could both get a better understanding of what exactly was happening here. I didn't object to the annexation as I had other things to worry about after the war, but now that we're steady again, I think it's time to examine what is happening just outside of our borders."
"Makes sense." TD tilted his head to Novo. "Though I obviously wasn't lying about just taking the forest between Klugetown and Mount Aris. If anything is going to happen to that area, I want us to both be in agreement. I swear on my daughters."
"I see." Novo sighed and stood up. "If you want my advice: fix what damage you've already done, then give Klugetown back to the locals. They're not ponies, Antares. They never will be."
"Yeah," TD muttered, standing up himself. "There's going to be a lot of work done regardless. I also wasn't lying when I said that we just want what's best for everycreature. That's one of the big reasons we're putting so much into reforming the Badlands."
"No one objects to that, Antares," Novo insisted. "It's Klugetown's annexation that is the issue, though on that matter..." Novo's eyes narrowed slightly. "What is happening to the Storm Kingdom?"
TD shrugged. "We're doing our best to stabilize the country. It was mostly mop-up when we pushed the Storm Creatures out of the lands the Storm King had taken over. We didn't have to do much to take over the Storm Kingdom, though there was a bit of a fight. Their biggest issue right now is that a huge chunk of their male population was destroyed during the Storm War. The Storm King used a lot of them for his invasions. He'd have to to take over as much as he did and occupy it."
Novo grimaced. "Very well. We shall speak more on this later. For the moment, I have another meeting. If you'll excuse me."
"Of course," TD replied with a nod while I silently floated back to the ground. Once she'd left, TD turned to Overwatch and his guard. "If you could leave me for a moment."
"Of course, Prince Antares," Overwatch said with a bow. He quickly left the room with the bodyguard behind him, leaving just myself and TD. I was glad that I was invisible.
I held my breath as TD began scanning the room. He lit his horn for a spell, but seemed to think better of it as he powered his horn down after a few seconds. I thought about just quietly going back through the walls, but my instincts said that if I moved, he'd be able to sense it somehow. My stomach clenched when he stared right were I was standing and seemed to linger there for a second longer than usual, staring right into my eyes. I might have imagined it, as he quickly continued looking around. Finally, he took a deep, quiet breath.
"Interesting," he muttered to himself.
With that, he turned around and walked out the door, leaving me standing perfectly still like a deer in headlights.