“What if I screw this up?” Prince Latik asked Shasis with something of a normal tone, his antagonistic rhetoric attitude missing. Also, the excitement of his assignment was missing from his expression. Unless he was close to family or his immediate friends, most would not see the heavier weight he now carried. Not because Shasis asked for his help, and not because he regarded being an internal collaborator as something repugnant. No, this was simply the grieving of his father once again. She noted the appearance of a grim tightness around his eyes and mouth as he sat with his brothers, both elder and younger, listening to the latest revelation of traitors from some unknown source. Since that evening a mere week ago, he became a more somber adult Canid. While he presented a calm and friendly face to the public, within his quarters, he was anything but the prince she knew. When he remained alone in his quarters with only her presence, he not only repressed his emotions, but they were also absent. He remained uncommonly quiet and his ears laid flat against his head. 

Tonight, for this first public gala held by one of those on the list, the prince stood in front of a mirror in a green silk shirt, a cravat tie perfectly swathed, and a small but adequate number of adornments—silver and rose gold rings, a metallic military necklace announcing his leadership role for the kingdom, and a small ear piercing that gave him a piratical air.
He’d got that little number when he turned twenty-one and tried to forbid her to tell his brother. Of course, she could have told him his brother already knew and read the cuffing strict policy that was sent to her about no future possibilities during the morning briefing the day after it was done. She thought he looked dashing, and he needed to be badass once in a while, she knew half the battle was confidence in his place, so she let him have that one and reported her failure.

But now she was asking him to live up to his found confidence and use that youthful charisma on politicos that were hideous with experience in playing head games. He wasn’t quite doing her job, but it surely went beyond simply being a Prince of his realm. Collecting these tidbits was very important not only to her but also to the potentate. He was the man who might rule his kingdom someday. And she knew beyond any doubt, he and his brothers needed this. They wanted to seek the guilty. It would heal them. Just like it would heal her father. Not from the loss, no. But maybe from that burning anguish of guilt. The satisfaction of finding the murderer would not erase grief’s timeless pain, but it would soften it. She could not tease or mock his insecurities.

She got up and stood at his side, looking at him in the mirror with speculative eyes, while he studied his own reflection. She pretended to dust a speck off his shirt and instead gave him a hard punch in the arm. 

He jumped sideways and frowned, rubbing his arm. “What the heck?”

Shasis walked to a decanter and poured out some water before turning back to him. “It’s not something you can mess up, Latik. You, your brothers, your father, and your great-greats all have the same skill. A natural gift of depicting conviction.” She looked back at him, taking a small sip. “I expect if you ever needed to convince someone of something, you could do it in an ear flick.” She leaned down to sit on the edge of the couch arm.

He turned to look at her and, after a moment, shrugged. “It’s easy for me sometimes. True. But I remember when I was sixteen, and you were sharing protectorate secrets about seeing words as weapons. You advised me against lying but cautioned me to steer clear of revealing the deep truths that you did not want to be involved in. That stuck with me. I mean, I hate lying to begin with because I suck at it.” 

Shasis sniffed in agreement. “The kingdom knows this. They see you, and see your brother or your da. That conviction runs rampant in all you do. I’d never willingly put you in a place that required you to lie.”

Prince Latik gave a small smile. “I think my da saw through me. He always probed only to a point and never let me fall into the pit.” He came over and got his own decanter of some green liquid.

Shasis watched with a raised brow.

“Don’t worry. It’s Shire Apple juice. I find it tasty and it’s healthy and I really want to remain that way.” He gave her a look that spoke volumes of his nervousness.

“I got your back,” Shasis commented. It was the first thing she told him when he got into a little scrape at the academy and the next day the same boy that pushed him against a wall and threatened to clip his rough showed up with missing clumps of hair, his arm and leg wrapped up and one of his incisors missing. Latik may not have realized that nobody bothered him again at school, but he knew she was the one who beat the ever-living crap out of that boy.

He gave a small smile and then sobered. “One of these days that little promise might not happen, Shasis. I mean, think about my da.” 

Shasis looked at his serious face and rubbed her paw down her pant leg, not wanting to consider the consequences. She sipped her water to find words, but they failed her. “Maybe,” was all she could come up with.

“Well, if that moment ever occurs. I want you to know it was probably my dumbass, doing something completely ridiculous. You are not allowed to torture yourself.” 

She walked up to him and gave him a stern look. “That’s not something you can request of me. It is my job to chase down the hounds of death to save you, even from yourself. And I don’t really feel like chasing anyone tonight. Alright? Tonight is just a party where you don’t drink as much as you want, and you get to talk lively with some of the oldest peerages in the kingdom. Those old greys are going to fuss over you like candy. Just remember the talking points and forget that I’m standing around like you normally do.”

Prince Latik huffed. “It’s hard to forget you standing around when you’re constantly tapping that nail against your glass. What the hell is that about, anyway?

Shasis bit her lower lip and puffed out her cheeks, not having realized she was making such a racket as she preemptively played her game in her head. She would have to be more careful. “Busy habit, I guess. I’ll try to correct that.” 

Prince Latik turned to set his glass down, and Shasis put hers down as well.

“Time to go.”

“Let’s do this.”

They both spoke at the same time.

With an unfamiliar matching grin of teeth and twitching ears, they headed to the door.

****

 “How does one have peace?” Doha Aliq said to Spirito, as they walked together in the same empty hallways where they met. At least Spirito thought of them as the same. He knew better now to understand this master was someone to truly consider a master in every sense of the word. Most people in the academy regarded his skills as higher than others. “It is a thing to find,” he continued. “Like a favorite nook or a favorite smell. One that takes you to that peace inside. And now that you have found it, it will become elusive without practice.”

Spirito clenched his jaw. More meditation, he assumed. If he had meditation time, he would certainly do it, but there wasn’t enough time in the day to get really relaxed enough. 

“Yes, meditation.” He must have read Spirito’s frustration. “But many Canids can find peace during waking and cognizant of themselves without falling into a meditative state.” Doha Aliq continued strolling.

Spirito’s ears perked. “How is that done, master?”

Doha Aliq smiled. “Don’t you remember? You have found it.”

Spirito gaped at the taller Doha. 

“You once spoke of a small green bird when you traveled on the hill and left yourself to explore where it went. Did you not also speak of a bird here in my meditation sanctuary?” 

Spirito nodded. He still remembered the green dancing flight of the bird.

“You were in a peaceful state and allowed the vision of a bird into your mind. I couldn’t see any bird. There were no flowering trees. There was no fountain. For me, the area is clean, with white sand, a light breeze, and warm sunlight.

They came around the corner hallway and Spirito stopped to stare when Doha Aliq waved his palm to the sand spread area. The small corner where they’d first met, an area of meditation Doha Aliq reserved for himself, was clean and held nothing but white sand and warm sunlight streaming down. Spirito gaped. 

Doha Aliq lowered his arm and regarded his student. “You, see? The peace you found is inside you already. Now you need only revisit it and bring it forth in your journey to understand its depths.” 

It was not impossible to believe this space once held the sights and sounds he first visualized. But his heartbeat fast at the thought he could conceive of such details he’d once examined. The waterfall alone was so detailed. He remembered the girl pouring and now how he realized it resembled a very likeness to Me-ume. And the lovely flower wreath. What did that mean? He asked his teacher.

“The mind will make pathways as the heart wills.” Doha Aliq murmured.

Spirito put that fact in the back of his mind to dwell over later.

“For some to study Sune, the direction of peace is just tapping into a state that allows them to harness a calmness, like finding clarity in thought.”

“For others, such tapping can reveal an ability to submerge deeper and become one with peace, which can often have different and disquieting effects. One master can speak with people he does not know. Another draws light from his state to bring forth. Still, another can see historical battles. It is all quite intimate with those who have these abilities and often depends on their wants and needs and why they found this state to begin with.”

Spirito scratched his nose and thought he understood. Everyone had some sort of skill to finding peace, but some were special. And depending on who and why, they found a need to be special only in the ways they desired. So, he was some sort of traveler. Perhaps that was enough for him to know, for now. At this point, he really just needed to know he was not crazy, and he would not hurt himself or anyone else. “I think I understand, Doha. I will continue to search for my peace.”

Doha Aliq smiled. “Peace is a destination of those who seek to know themselves. Finding it is a lifelong journey.”

Spirito huffed a little. “I’ll let my mother know. She said Peace grows in trees. And any branch, with the right swing at the right tail, can stop any conflict.”

Doha Aliq and Spirito chuckled.