He leaned over and kissed me. “At least these idiots are easy. Come to bed. We have a big day tomorrow.”

I smiled at him, and we left for our bedroom.

13

What an eventful first day for the spouse competition! Long lost family, first impressions of the spouse candidates, and a flurry of guests keeping the innkeepers on their toes.

Let’s take a closer look at the man in the center of it all.

I stood on the balcony in Kosandion’s private quarters and watched Resven struggle to contain his irritation at my presence. Being included in a very private discussion of the Dominion’s state secrets wasn’t in my plans, but Kosandion requested my attendance during the breakfast, and here we were.

I had built the Dominion suite to remind Kosandion of the Palace. The trick wasn’t to replicate his home but to nod at it subtly with the right shades and familiar contours. New experiences were an essential part of travelling. I tinted the colors slightly warmer, relaxed the geometric harshness, and threw a few unexpected shapes, like the asymmetric arches. The asymmetry showed in their haircuts and clothes, but a lot of the Dominion architecture was old and incorporating the new trend would give the suite some freshness.

My original design didn’t incorporate a balcony, but after watching Kosandion contemplate the orange ocean during dinner, I moved his suite to Kolinda’s door.

Once an inn’s branch reached a new planet and the inn opened a door leading there, it would begin to root through that space, claiming a section of the world. Some rootings were tiny, barely enough for the human-sized door. Others were vast. Kolinda’s rooting covered over one square mile. Gertrude Hunt’s door opened onto a small island, a chunk of jagged rock that thrust from the depths of the ocean, and the entire island belonged to us.

I had oriented the Ocean Dining Room to the south-west, to take advantage of the sunsets. Kosandion’s suite now faced directly south, giving him a beautiful view. I provided him with long balcony rising high above the water and equipped it with an array of patio furniture. He was only a hundred yards from the Ocean Dining Room, but an outcropping of rock hid it from his view, assuring his privacy.

I had installed a carefully calibrated barrier that put an impenetrable invisible wall along the balcony’s perimeter. It shifted into a slightly less protective mode when anyone entered the balcony, so Kosandion got the sea breeze and sounds but not the monsters that hunted within the cool orange depths. Gertrude Hunt was swimming in alien beings’ energy, like a glutton at a cake contest, and maintaining the barrier resulted in minimal drain.