is all about teaching me humility. All those princesses I’ve subjected to the royal test over the years. Now I’m suddenly in their little satin slippers.
“Yes.” She looks over her shoulder. “I need to get you back for that. Like now. Or we’ll be late. All the girls are ready and…” She shakes her head and chews on her lip. “It’s not easy being this close to you while still maintaining my composure. So… let’s go, OK? Before I lose control.”
I’m turning this little glow-show on.
I can’t help it, I grin at her. And I feel the light in my eyes come pouring out.
She covers her eyes with her forearm and gasps. “Don’t do that. Just hold it in a little longer.” Then she wraps a swath of fabric around her hand and uses it to protect herself from feeling my bare skin as she takes me by the arm and starts tugging me back the way she came.
I trip over various twigs and leaves and this is when I realize I’m not on a station. We have some big forests on Harem. So being in the woods isn’t a dead giveaway that we’re not on a station.
But the feeling of spin is missing. And there is no hum of environmental units beneath my feet. This is a planet.
Not just any planet. A planet filled with Cygnian princesses.
And one queen.
I’m on Cygnia.
That realization might be the most jarring thing to happen since I walked into the spin node.
I. Am on. Cygnia.
No one who is not a Cygnian ever steps foot on their home planet. Ever.
Not even the Akeelians they were allied with back on Wayward Station ever went to Cygnia.
I look around. Take it all in with a little more focus. Because it’s simply… breathtaking. The trees, the sunlight, the greenness of it all. And the air. Suns, the air. Now that I know where I’m at, I can tell how pure it is. How invigorating. Cool, and clean, and maybe even a little bit intoxicating.
The girl leads me into a clearing and I almost stop to take it all in.
The view astonishes me in several ways at once.
There is an actual view—a light gray castle nestled in the mountains off in the distance. Probably made of some kind of stone. A mist floats lazily among the different layers of hilly elevation. It’s something you see in books, or vids, or virtuals. Something that up until now I thought was pure fantasy. There is a soundtrack of birds and wind through leaves. Small animals rustle in the thick branches of the understory.
But that’s not the only view.
Girls. Everywhere.
And all of them are pink princesses.
I’ve never seen so many pink princesses in all my life. And this is coming from the master of the only princess harem outside Cygnian System.
But we never had pinks until Lyra. And right here in front of me there are too many to count. Pink hair and glowing skin everywhere I look.
I stop in my tracks even though my chaperone is still tugging on me to make me follow her.
She turns towards me. “Is everything all right?”
I draw in a deep breath of fresh air. And now that I’m thinking about it, it’s so, so different than the air on the station. Nothing like it at all. Not even close.
Is this really how Cygnia is? None of my princesses ever had anything good to say about it. So I’m having trouble merging this fantasy reality with the one that’s been handed down to me for more than three decades.
“Crux?”
“Sorry. I’m just a little overwhelmed.”
She squeezes my arm, still gripping me through the sheer fabric of her flowing gown. “I understand. Where you came from… well, I’ve heard it’s pretty horrible in the Akeelian System. Sometimes I feel bad about how we keep you guys prisoner here. But then I know we’re giving you a better life than they did.” She hesitates. “We are, aren’t we? I mean, I know you’re a sex slave. And everything about that is wrong. But we saved you, right?”
I don’t know what to say. But it feels very much like my own words being thrown back at me. Because don’t I feed my princesses that same line when they find themselves on my station and in my harem?
I mean it when I say it. Harem Station isn’t a bad place if you’re a runaway Cygnian princess. It’s not like we ever abducted them from their home. Every single one of them