You better not get married before I get there.
Love you loads,
—Lib
PS: You do have wine there, right?
PPS: Whatevs, I’ll bring it.
PPPS: There is indoor refrigeration, right?
PPPPS: I might have to check into a hotel.
His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Orion of Frosthelm
The Crystal Keep, Celestial Terrace 1
Capital Province, Frosthelm Prime
Frosthelm Galaxy – Quadrant 7, Sector V
Danika,
It has been seven zeniths since I wrote you, and yet you have not responded. The Astravants tell me that a zenith on my planet is similar to one rotation of your planet on its axis—a day, they called it. So by your measure, it has been a week. That seems more than enough time for you to respond. It leaves me to believe you are willfully ignoring me. Or worse, giving me a female’s silent treatment.
This would be the first time any female has deigned to do so. Or perhaps they have done so and I have not noticed.
I notice yours.
I will not be ignored by my mate. You have one more zenith to respond or I will hop on my fastest ship and come pick you up myself.
It will take me ninety zeniths, and I will not be pleased when I get to you. If I must spend that long stuck aboard a ship, you won’t like the male who emerges to collect you.
I suggest you respond.
* * *
Orion Thalos
Crown Prince of Frosthelm
Your Fated Mate
His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Orion of Frosthelm
The Crystal Keep, Celestial Terrace 1
Capital Province, Frosthelm Prime
Frosthelm Galaxy – Quadrant 7, Sector V
Danika,
I was all set to board a battle cruiser and begin the journey to your planet. But my mother stopped me.
She tells me I must be patient with you, that I must woo you. As if you are some fragile, trembling thing that needs coaxing. She says human women are delicate, that they have not yet reached their highest form of evolution and don’t fully understand the bond of mates. That you are used to choosing your mate based on currency or land or power rather than recognizing what was already decided before your birth.
I have read that on your world, mates choose each other and enter into bond contracts that can be dissolved on a whim. You call it divorce. The entire concept is absurd: the way you flit between partners, discarding them as easily as a garment that no longer pleases you. It is meaningless. The kind of foolishness my kind engages in when we are young and restless, before we are mated.
