I tried reaching out with that mental bond between me and my mate. There was no answer.
I cast my mind out looking for any trace of him. I found something, it glimmered, and then it was gone. I looked again. Nothing. I couldn't reach him, especially with the distance between us.
I could feel the tug though. Feel it in my heart, beckoning me forward. But what direction forward was remained a mystery.
So I closed my eyes. I walked forward blindly, trusting in the sense that called me, pulled me.
I prayed to moon, stars, and beyond that I didn't walk right off of the balcony.
And when I stopped it was worse than walking off of the balcony. Much worse.
I stood in front of a collage of pictures. Pictures of me and him. It tore my heart apart from the inside to see this. One picture in particular caught my eye. A picture of him proposing to me.
It had been a remake of the actual proposal and we had a duplicate ring made just for the photo. The pictures were taken to show my right side though to cover up the original ring that I hadn't wanted to take off. We were both smiling bright enough to light up the world.
Right after the pictures were taken he took out a thin, gold chain from his back pocket and slid the duplicate around it. Then he fastened it around my neck. It had felt almost as romantic as the real proposal did.
I had never taken either of the rings off of my hand or neck since the day I was first privileged with them. I came back to a reality where tears streamed down my face like two twin waterfalls. I found my left hand wrapped tightly around the necklace and my right hand wrapped around the ring on my left.
Behind me someone cleared their throat. "Is this a good time, your highness, or am I intruding on something?"
I turned to find my Secretary of The Treasury standing by the door, ready to make a movement to leave at my request. "No, it's not a bad time. Please, come in and sit."
She wordlessly took my offer and came to sit in the sitting room, which wasn't really a room, it was more of just an area with a wall dividing it from the rest of the room. I joined her on the couch across from her as she held up a tissue to me. "What did you need your highness?"
"Zosime, please. You know that I don't like all the titles."
"Yes yes. I pity you. It must be just so terrible to be so rich and have someone else count your money for you and be entitled to power." A smile toyed at her face as she tried to keep her face neutral but failed.
"It's not all that and venison to the side Zosime."
"Okay. Anana what did you call me down here for?"
"Zosime, we won the war, barely. But two important males were taken hostage as well as a number of soldiers, despite the fact that we won. We are fighting against bitter opponents who will do anything to gain the upper hand."
"Which ones?" That smile was now gone like it had never been there and smiling was a foreign thing to her. Her eyes were clouded and thinking, for her mate had been off fighting in the war and as far as she was concerned he was almost, if not more, important than the general.
"It was not Andronicus he is well and may be on his way home now."
"Then who was it?"
"Prince Cordell and Duke Sawyer."
"What are those bears trying to do? We just won the war and beat them and now they want to start another one?"
"No, I believe they're trying to bait me and draw me out."
"Yes but why?" I gave her a pointed look. "Okay they do have reasons why, but still. They would be ignoring an unspoken rule that has held since the beginning of time. And why would they decide to go after your brother and your mate?" I gave her another pointed look that got her to stop talking.
"Why wouldn't they?"
"Do they know that Duke Sawyer is your mate?"
"I don't know, but Zosime, please ask me questions I can answer."
I picked up a small biscuit from the tray in the middle of the table. It tasted of blueberries, lilacs, and honey.
"Umm... Oh! Here's a question you can answer! How was your day today?"
It was a good thing that my mouth was filled with a biscuit otherwise I might have said some very low things. So instead I just glared at her.
"Not the best question? Ugh. Why did you pick me to talk to? You know I'm not good at socialization!"
"Because you're my friend and you're also in charge of the Royal Treasury. And I also need you to collect ten thousand coins."
"Ten thousand?"
"Ten thousand."
"Did they specifically say ten thousand or were they vague in their description?"
"There you go again trying to find a loophole."
"Well what do they think we are? Rich? I mean we kind of are but not that much."
"We are a very rich country Zosime. It's almost like common knowledge that if you have many citizens with paws that are good for digging your country will probably be rich in no time."
"Well yes that's true, but still, ten thousand?"
"Yes. It's that number with a one and then after that is a zero and then another zero and then another zero and then another zero and then a decimal after that with nothing behind it. Do I need to elaborate on this any further?"
"Hmm. Okay. I might be able to gather that amount pretty quickly. But do you need someone to talk to before I go?"
"No, thank you though."
"My door is always open to talk anytime you need it." And with that she bowed her head and then excused herself from the room. And it hurt to see her leave because I realized that I really did need someone to talk to.