Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Did My Little Prince Sleep Well?
He woke up feeling like a different person.
Not metaphorically, literally, physically, the specific sensation of waking up in a body that had been quietly rearranged overnight into something that fit better than it had before.
Like the difference between wearing shoes that were slightly too small for so long you’d forgotten what properly fitted shoes felt like, and then finally, one morning, wearing the right ones.
Alex lay still for a moment and let himself feel it.
The mana was there.
Not reaching, not straining, not the effortful awareness of someone trying to perceive something at the edge of their senses.
Just there, the way your heartbeat was there, the way your breathing was there, present and steady and entirely his.
The Mana Heart moved with it, slow and settled, and the sensation of it was the sensation of something that had always been supposed to exist finally existing.
His body had never felt this good.
Not in this life and, if he was being honest with himself, not in the previous one either.
Antonio Moretti had lived hard and the body had recorded that honestly.
This body, five years old, newly awakened, the Evolvari bloodline doing whatever the Evolvari bloodline did quietly in the background, felt like something that had been built rather than accumulated.
He took one more moment to appreciate it.
Then he turned over.
And found Zara’s face approximately four inches from his.
She was crouched at the side of the bed, not looming, not threatening, just there, watching him with the focused attention of someone who had been watching him for some time and had no particular intention of pretending otherwise.
Her black eyes were completely alert.
She had the expression of someone who had been waiting for this exact moment and was prepared to enjoy it.
"—" said Alex.
Which was not, technically, a word.
Zara smiled.
It was a warm smile.
Genuine.
It was also, Alex noted when his higher reasoning came back online, the smile of someone who knew exactly what they’d just done and had no regrets about it.
She reached out and poked his cheek.
Once.
Deliberate.
"Did my Little Prince sleep well?" she said.
Alex’s higher reasoning, which had been in the process of coming back online, briefly went back offline.
He was, for approximately three seconds, flustered.
He corrected this immediately, sat up, and arranged his face into something composed.
"How long have you been there," he said.
"Long enough," she said cheerfully, straightening up.
"That’s not an answer, that’s a deflection dressed as one."
"You moved in your sleep before waking up, I heard it from the chair." She rolled her shoulders, unhurried, the loose movement of someone whose body was fully functional after a night in a chair. "I was already awake by the time your eyes opened."
Alex looked at the chair.
Looked at her.
Looked at the chair again.
"Did you sleep at all..." he said.
Zara’s expression shifted into something warm and deliberately touched.
"You’re already worrying about me," she said.
"Day one and you’re already concerned about my wellbeing. I’m genuinely moved, this is very sweet."
"I’m asking a practical question about whether you’re functional—"
"It’s sweet," she said. "My bond, taking care of me. Already."
"Zara —"
"Yes, I slept," she said, dropping the performance into something direct and honest.
"Shadow guards sleep light, half-aware, always. If there’s a sound, a disturbance, anything that shouldn’t be there, I’m awake before I’ve consciously decided to be. It’s not a choice, it’s trained into you over years until it’s just how sleeping works." She paused.
"I heard you shift before you woke up. I was already sitting up before your eyes opened."
Alex looked at her for a moment.
He thought about the implication of that, a person who could sleep and not sleep simultaneously, whose awareness didn’t fully switch off, who would be present at the first indication of anything wrong before he’d had the chance to be in danger.
’That is extremely useful.’ he thought.
"Impressive," he said.
She looked mildly pleased that he’d said so.
Trying not to show it.
Showing it slightly anyway.
"Go wash," she said. "You have bed hair."
Alex stood, ran one hand through said bed hair, confirmed the assessment was accurate, and moved toward the bathroom.
He stopped at the door.
Turned.
"You’re not going to follow me in and wash together as part of your duties?" he said.
With complete composure.
In the tone of a person making a reasonable inquiry about professional obligations.
The room was quiet for exactly two seconds.
Zara’s expression did several things in rapid succession, landed on something between ’startled’ and ’what’, and she opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Looked at him with the specific expression of someone recalibrating their threat assessment in real time.
Then she visibly decided: five years old. Five year olds say things. This is a five year old thing.
She recovered and straightened.
Produced a small, deliberate, extremely evil smile.
"I don’t have a problem with that," she said, and took one step forward.
Alex looked at the smile.
Filed it under: do not call this particular bluff again.
"Stay in the room," he said immediately.
"Are you sure? Because you did bring it up as a professional —"
"Stay in the room."
"I just want to be thorough about my duties, you were the one who raised the question of —"
"Stay in the room, Zara."
Her laughter followed him through the door.
He stood on the other side of it, listened to it, and thought with complete sincerity: that girl is dangerous.
He showered.
The hot water was one of the better things about palace life, he had opinions about many aspects of his circumstances but unlimited hot water was not one of the ones he complained about.
He stood under it longer than strictly necessary, letting it work on muscles that had apparently decided the previous night counted as physical exertion worthy of acknowledgement, and ran through the events of the last twelve hours in the organised way he used to process things that needed processing.
Mana Heart.
System.
Aspect.
Evolvari.
Astaria Elysian.
Shadow bond.
Zara.
A significant twelve hours.
He came out in fresh clothes, clean and simple, the kind that had been laid out by whoever managed the guest room, and found Zara in conversation with someone outside the door.
Low voice.
Brief exchange.
The door closed.
And when his eyes landed on the tray—
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