After that initial exploration, I got completely buried in books—never to resurface until much, much later into the night. I had eagerly dove into the towering bookshelves on the second floor, grabbing any book whose title even slightly interested me, building a substantial stack.
The particular book I ultimately chose to read first was a much newer publication that the legendary Tarhan Gunasera had written with significant help from his most accomplished student, a scholar named Thamari Vidyenga. She was currently his academy's head professor, appointed to that prestigious position after Tarhan Gunasera himself had decided to step down from that exact seat due to his advancing age.
This was his final book—the two hundred and first book he had written over his extraordinarily long and productive life. And what this particular book contained and shared was considerably more controversial than I had initially expected from the innocuous-looking cover.
'A Country That Isn't Ruled By Monarchy' read the title, which should have been controversial enough on its own to raise eyebrows.
But the radical concept that the book introduced and explored in detail was described explicitly as Tarhan Gunasera's lifelong vision and dream. He proposed a system where governmental power wouldn't be concentrated in one single person's hands—a monarch ruling by birthright. Rather, authority would be divided and distributed among multiple people chosen directly by the general public through democratic means. There was even a detailed voting system introduced and explained in the book, with careful procedures outlined.
It was genuinely novel and revolutionary thinking, and exactly the kind of thing that would plant dangerous seeds of rebellion in people's hearts if they were dissatisfied with their current rulers. The book would have had much more immediate political impact if the common people were actually oppressed and suffering under Selon's rule.
But that simply wasn't the case at all. The Selon Empire was demonstrably prosperous and took excellent care of its people—providing education, healthcare, infrastructure, and protection. So this philosophical book might be received more like someone singing a mournful funeral song when there was actually no funeral taking place—interesting in theory but lacking practical urgency.
The fact that Arvid had consciously allowed this potentially seditious book to proceed to publication without interference spoke volumes about his character and his confidence in his rule. He wasn't threatened by ideas.
I was thoroughly engrossed in reading the fascinating text, completely absorbed, until I was gently reminded about dinner by Ruka Ma's patient voice. I reluctantly looked up from the pages, blinking in surprise at how late it had gotten. I left the library—which now had an actual receptionist stationed at the front desk for the evening hours—and sent word asking if I could have dinner with Arvid.
But he returned to his palace so extremely late that I eventually gave up waiting. I went to his bed in the Diamond Palace to get some much-needed sleep without bothering with dinner.
After he finally returned well past midnight, he thoughtfully woke me up gently, suggesting we have a late dinner together since neither of us had eaten properly. Since I was still sleepy beyond measure, barely conscious, he took it upon himself to personally feed me. I blindly and obediently chewed on whatever food he periodically and carefully placed in my mouth, trusting him completely.
I heard him giggle affectionately at the way I was half asleep and half eating, my eyes barely open.
"Don't laugh at me," I managed to mumble in weak protest.
"I can't help it—you're just so incredibly cute like this," he answered warmly, leaning in to give me a tender kiss on my cheek.
I was far too disoriented and exhausted to formulate any coherent response, so I just swayed along with his gentle guidance and eventually fell completely into his supporting arms.
I don't remember much of anything after that point. I must have fallen deeply asleep again almost immediately. I woke up much later when bright sunlight was already streaming through the windows and Arvid was in the process of getting dressed and ready for the day's imperial court session.
I sat up slowly in the bed, rubbing my eyes, and simply watched him preparing himself. He moved with practiced efficiency, clearly having done this routine thousands of times.
"So, how did the interrogation go yesterday?" I asked him, genuinely curious about the previous day's events that I'd missed.
"The interrogation?" He glanced over at me. "Well, thanks to your truth serum—it went really well, actually. The potion worked on him like an absolute charm, even though he's elven."
"What did you manage to find out from him?" I asked, sliding out of bed and walking barefoot toward the window to look out at the morning.
"There's apparently a specific faction of elves—a political group—that doesn't appreciate or welcome the potential resurrection of dragons in the modern world," Arvid explained as he attempted to attach a decorative brooch to his collar while looking in the mirror. "They genuinely believe that if dragons were to exist again in significant numbers, the world as it currently exists simply can't handle their presence the way the ancient world supposedly did. So for what they claim is the betterment of the entire world, even though dragons' existence would directly benefit elves magically, they have chosen to actively work to eradicate dragon bloodlines and kill any remaining dragon seeds before they can reproduce."
He struggled visibly with getting his brooch properly attached.
"What a noble cause they claim!" I said sarcastically as I walked over toward him to help with his stubborn brooch.
"You might think so from how they phrase it, but that's not the whole truth of their motivations," he said, allowing me to take over the brooch fastening. "The actual truth is that elves as a species are already on the brink of extinction themselves—their population has crashed, their magic is fading. They just don't want any other magical creatures to exist and potentially thrive after they're gone. They're fundamentally resentful and bitter because dragons went extinct first, and that extinction of dragons caused a cascade that's leading to their own extinction now through the loss of ambient magic in the world. So now that dragon lineage is on the brink of potentially being restored, they absolutely don't want that revival to happen. That's really all there is to their motivation—spite and resentment."
"So they tried to kill you specifically because..." I began, and then stopped as the full realization suddenly dawned on me with horrifying clarity.
Oh. Oh gods.
My fingers that had been carefully fiddling with the brooch suddenly stopped moving entirely. They tried to assassinate Arvid because he was my fated mate. If he didn't exist, if they succeeded in killing him, there wouldn't be any offspring produced that carried dragon blood forward into the next generation. They were trying to end the dragon lineage permanently by eliminating the one person who could help me continue it.
Sudden overwhelming rage flooded through me at that calculated, cold-blooded thought. The emotion made me physically shudder. The delicate brooch slipped from my trembling fingers and clattered loudly to the floor.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Arvid had immediately realized something was seriously wrong with me. His hands gently but firmly held my face, tilting it up to make me look directly at him with concern clear in his eyes.
"Do you want to make a child with me?" I asked him directly as I met his worried gaze. A hint of surprise flashed across his features at the unexpected question, but he seemed to ultimately decide against pursuing that topic right now.
"I really have to go to the court session—the officials are waiting and—" His words were abruptly cut off and swallowed as I suddenly took his mouth with mine, kissing him hard and hungry and desperate.
He was clearly taken completely off guard by the aggressive kiss, but he didn't resist at all, instead allowing me to take full lead of whatever I was intent on doing.
His formal clothing went flying in different directions as we tore at each other. Long before either of us fully processed what was happening, we were two naked bodies desperately mixing flesh together, sweat dampening our skin as we moved. We breathed hard as we fell into one synchronized rhythmic motion, completely engulfing ourselves in pure physical pleasure and need.
The imperial court would have to wait.