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He waved me off. “Humans tend to do that sometimes when they have more wine than they can stomach.”

“Why do it to them then?”

“They do it to themselves. Humans love wine.” He shrugged.

Ciana got up, wrinkling her nose at the sight of the man’s half-digested dinner floating in the peaceful waters of the fountain.

“Let’s find another place.” I cupped her elbow, leading her away.

“Actually, I should probably go to bed,” she said as we walked away from the soiled fountain and the commotion around it.

“It’s late, I mean… early already. The sun will be up soon.

” She turned to me. “I don’t know, Kurai, I really don’t know how to answer your question.

I’ve been spending all my time making sense of my past. I’ve had no energy to worry about the future yet.

But even if it were possible to go back, there are so many things to consider…

The uncertainty of the time jump is a serious matter.

Our world evolves so fast, a hundred years would mean a huge difference in people’s way of life.

But,” she smiled, “if it’s not something that will happen anyway, why even think about it, right? ”

“Right,” I echoed.

I couldn’t possibly tell her about the Watchers or their plan. It would jeopardize the lives of many people, including hers.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.

“Of course. I’ll come over again.” I didn’t even try to fight it.

I knew it’d be impossible for me to skip our regular meetings even if I tried. Because I had tried, often, and I had always failed, coming to her again and again.

“Have a good day, Ciana. Sleep well.” I bowed to her in parting.

“Thank you,” she said, then rose on her tiptoes and unexpectedly placed a kiss on my cheek.

The touch of her warm lips imprinted on my skin along with a soft puff of her breath. Light as a brush of a butterfly wing, the kiss jolted through my system with the power of a lightning strike.

Ciana kissed me.

She should not have done that. The kiss was a sign of close intimacy that was inappropriate between a Joy Guardian and a Joy Vessel, and it was illegal. Yet it took everything I had for me not to fall to my knees at her feet and beg her to do it again.

I didn’t know what exactly she thanked me for, but her gratitude warmed my heart, making me wish I was worthy of it.

Her cheeks glowed subtly, and I would bet anything that they’d be warm if I touched them. If I took her face in my hands, if I brought her lips to mine, if…

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” With the tiniest of smiles, she turned around and left, stirring a storm of feelings into a hurricane in my chest.

As I stood there, watching Ciana run through the door into the building with her bedroom, someone bumped into me from the side.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Joy Guardian.” Sefri tossed her thick, long braid over her shoulder, then wiped her brow with her forearm. A basket with soiled rags hung over her elbow. “Our Joy Vessels need a lot of care.”

That was the closest I’d ever heard her to voicing any kind of a complaint.

“The intoxicated ones need even more so, I assume,” I commented. “And your work will double with the new humans arriving soon.”

She raised her eyebrows, staring at me in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“The new portal is opening in two days,” I reminded, thinking she must’ve forgotten with all the hustle and bustle in the sarai .

“Oh, right.” She nodded. “Only this would be the work of the Joy Vessel Keepers at Prince Rha’s sarai , not ours.”

“Why Prince Rha? ”

The prince didn’t have a sarai .

“The queen made her decision,” Sefri explained. “The new humans are meant for the prince. They won’t be coming to Kalmena but to Teneris. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to fetch some more rags and soap.”

She rushed off. Mechanically, I went after her through the gate and into the small plaza in front of the sarai . Here, I stopped, unsure where to go and what to do next.

The queen’s decision made sense. She didn’t need more Joy Vessels. In the four weeks since she’d acquired her current ones, Queen Abeille hadn’t visited her sarai even once, showing no interest in the humans and their joy.

For several decades now, the queen had been mourning the death of her husband, who was brutally assassinated by a traitor. She didn’t change her habits of solitude and seclusion with the arrival of the humans to her palace.

Her relationship with Prince Rha, her only child and the heir to her throne, was strained.

I believed they hadn’t even seen each other for years.

Yet as the Crown Prince, he would be the next in line to form a sarai of his own.

His mother might dislike him, but she couldn’t deny him the status he was born into.

It all made sense, and maybe the Master Guardian had accounted for such a possibility.

Maybe there was a new plan in place already, one that did not involve me, or I would’ve been notified by now.

Since there was no caravan going from Kalmena to the portal for the new humans, no Watchers would be coming here for the old ones.

It meant that Queen Abeille’s Joy Vessels weren’t going anywhere, at least not for the next four weeks.

I should be devastated by this realization.

At the very least, I should get in touch with the Watchers and start preparations for the backup plan.

But all I could think about was that I’d get to spend more time with Ciana, and the tight band of apprehension around my chest loosened, letting me breathe easier again.