Chapter Twenty-Two

Lotor could not believe what he had done. Allura was almost throwing herself at him and he turned her down. As he watched her sleep in the earliest hours of the morning, he knew that he had made the right decision but a lessor man in his situation would have taken advantage of her. She was very naïve in the ways of a husband and wife and had not taken the time to get comfortable with Lotor’s touch.

At least she was comfortable enough with him to sleep beside him. It had not taken much before she had nodded off. She was probably worn out from their tumultuous wedding day. She also proved to be a cuddly sleeper, she was very content to snuggle up to him when he finally rolled over to sleep.

Getting out of bed was a little difficult as well because the sleeping Allura clung to him. It was quite endearing, even if Allura did not know that she did it. It was the little actions such as nocturnal snuggles that truly gave Lotor hope.

Lotor was confronted with the sad truth when he stepped into the bathroom and saw the mirror that he had broken. He wished that he had not lost his temper around Allura but the evidence was clear. As he looked at his own reflection which was splintered into several images he thought that it might be an accurate portrayal of himself. He never felt completely whole anyway.

He quietly showered and dressed and made his way into the study area of the suite. The desk in the center of the room had a computer console which sprung to life when he sat down in the desk chair. Lotor pulled out his on hand held console and dialed Grieg and set the console one the desk.

“I didn’t expect to hear from you so early,” Grieg mumbled through the console speaker. Then Lotor heard a giggle in the background and Grieg trying to quiet someone down.

“Am I interrupting something?” Lotor asked, slightly irritated.

“Of course not, your highness,” Grieg replied and then Lotor knew he was lying. Grieg rarely used proper titles unless he had to, a lot like Emilee.

Emilee.

“Hello Emilee,” Lotor sighed.

“Hello!” came the quick reply and more hushing on Grieg’s part. By the amount of giggling Emilee was doing, Lotor guessed that she had not stayed out of the champagne herself.

“I want a full status report at dawn, Grieg,” Lotor ordered then terminated the conversation before Lotor heard too much. At least someone consummated something that night, even if it was not he and his wife.

Lotor could not let Allura know how much that bothered him. He had to remember the look of relief on her face when he released her from that obligation, unofficially. He had to let her come to it naturally or she would hate him for forcing her into it.

The console before him was still active and waiting for instructions. As he looked over the icons on the screen he quickly realized that this was the console of a brilliant architect, engineer, and mechanic. All of Alfor’s projects were still on this console.

Lotor began to look through the schematics of all of Alfor’s projects. There were projects still in their concept phase all the way up to Voltron itself and the castle. Alfor had been positively brilliant. It was a shame that Zarkon had killed him. If Alfor had lived, Lotor might have been able to woo Allura properly and allow her time to fall in love.

Further digging yielded a personal journal and a range of documents that we anywhere from personal to professional. A particular document drew Lotor’s attention quickly as it was from Korrinoth. Upon opening the document, Lotor realized that he had stumbled upon a treaty of sorts between Arus and Korrinoth. It was unsigned, of course, because the two planets never agreed to any form of peace but it was interesting to see that Zarkon had even offered.

As Lotor read the treaty, it became apparent that it was not the standard form. Arus would not be left a shriveled up planet in the end like the other planets assimilated into the Drule Supremacy. Arus would have maintained some sort of sovereignty if Alfor would have agreed to the marriage of…

Lotor rubbed his eyes and reread the last line.

If Alfor agreed to the marriage of Zarkon’s heir and Alfor’s first born daughter.

Lotor sat at the desk for a long moment while he thought that over. If Alfor had agreed to the treaty, Allura’s life would have been so different. Lotor’s life would have been very different. Unlike Lotor’s betrothal to Corral and Merla, this agreement Lotor would not have objected to. It was exactly what he wanted.

“Oh, irony,” he sighed, closing the document and making a mental note not to tell Allura just yet. By the sounds of things, Allura did not know much about the political climate before she was born or even that of when she was a child. Coran seemed to have sheltered her from a lot of the goings on in the political worlds to her determent.

Reading through the final entries of Alfor’s journal did not reveal if he had decide to accept Zarkon’s treaty but the events of history would indicate that he had not accepted. Lotor wondered how many people knew that this treaty even existed. It was not something that he could casually ask the staff about.

Lotor returned to the schematics. Alfor’s diagrams were perfect. Anyone with enough know how would be able to recreate almost any of his designs, except for Voltron. Key data seemed to be omitted. It was probably on purpose to prevent the plans from falling into the wrong hands. Alfor’s terminal itself was stand alone, it did not connect to the wireless network. Only a person sitting at this desk would be able to access his notes and journals.

Since the console was not password protected and not purged when the castle was under siege and Alfor killed, no one knew of it’s existence either. Lotor planned to keep it that way for now. Although most of the blue prints would help Arus, there was no time to even start building half of the crafts that Alfor had created.

It was still quite early in the morning but the sky was just beginning to change color, indicating that the sun would be rising in an hour or so. Lotor was not sure how long Allura would slumber and he did not know if she would welcome his face when she first woke or if he would be better letting her wake alone.

After an hour of pointless holo-vision broadcasts, Lotor’s desire to be near his wife won out. He snuck back into the bed and had her tucked into his embrace only to have the suite door open. A quick look at the clock on the nightstand revealed that it was six o’clock in the morning. Lotor met the intruder at the doorway from the sitting room.

“Get out,” he spat through his teeth, staring down that the fat old woman who had dared disturb him and his sleeping princess.

“This is your wake up call,” the woman said, probably not as confident as wanted. Lotor had backed her out of the bedchamber. “Early to rise, that is our motto.”

“Let her sleep,” Lotor demanded and turned the nanny around and marched her to the door, his hand on her arm to prevent her from doing an about face. “She is an adult and a married woman. She no longer has need of a nanny.” He opened the door and set the woman back on her feet well outside the suite. “At least not for nine more months.” And with that he slammed the door behind her, locking the door.