Leonardo's face lost all color. He turned to Dante.
"Weren't you the one who accompanied her to this event? How did this slip by your people?"
Dante sighed. "I flew to her as quickly as I could, but by the time I got to her, she had nailed every single one of those bastards to the platform."
Slate's dazzling blue eyes were filled with admiration.
"I was watching it all on my Raptor 653 and I couldn't tell you if I was more scared or more proud of my Candace." He rubbed his chest in dismay as he recalled the moment when he realized she had been surrounded by assassins.
"That woman has moves that are so precise and so deadly, I cannot believe that we have viewed her all this time as just a Tiny Dancer, or a reader of antique books."
Slate shook his head. "I don't even think that most of my warriors could outfight that woman. She's that good."
"That's my girl." Leonardo breathed a sigh of relief as the rest of the men nodded in agreement.
Dante's bright green eyes were scary fierce.
"She did a spectacular job in defending herself against unexpected violence, but this is not going to quietly go away."
He snarled as his fangs began to lengthen as that old familiar rage began to slow boil within him.
"I've got my inquisitors digging into it all right now and they will turn over every single rock looking for the perpetrators. By the time they're done, those responsible will have been turned into ground beef."
Leonardo patted Dante on the shoulder and handed him a mojito. He grabbed the drink from Leonardo and downed it in one go.
"Ugh." He grimaced. "How can you drink this vile concoction? It's so damn sweet!"
Slate laughed. "It's just some fancy limeade with some rum in it."
Byron watched his brothers clown around with the alcoholic beverages and clenched his fists.
He was so tired of being the one who had to hold himself above the foray. So tired of acting impartial and non biased, while being stuck on the sidelines watching all his brothers enjoying themselves as they escorted Candace around.
Punishing the perpetrators was one thing. Canceling his chance to marry Candace was another thing altogether.
He wanted this Avgo event to be over and done with so that he could finally show Candace just how much he cared about her. She was his bride, but he could not claim her until she had officially won.
"If we cancel the Avgo Events, how is Candace going to win first place?" He growled at Dante.
"First place is not important." Dante retorted with a cool eye. "Keeping Candace alive and healthy is my only concern."
"I'm afraid I have to agree with Dante." Slate crossed his arms across his chest. "This Avgo event stinks to high heaven of interference from a very high place, and most of it, targeted at Candace."
Byron shot Slate an intense look. "Do we actually have some idea of who's behind all this?"
Slate's blue eyes burned a deep silent anger.
"If you eliminate all those who are incapable of carrying out these attacks, the ones who remain are the most likely suspects."
Slate and Dante gave each other knowing looks.
"But you can't just stop the Avgo events!" Byron shouted his frustration. "That's unheard of!"
He would be damned if he let them take his bride away from him.
"She's in first place, and after this Abilities and Expertise Avgo Event, her lead has grown considerably!"
Byron leaned in closer to Dante's face, his eyes narrowing.
"I'm not going to let you take her win away from her."
Dante shook his head. He knew Byron would be the most vocally outspoken against his decision to cancel the Avgo Events. Byron did have the most to lose, after all.
"We can't actually stop the Avgo's events." His voice was conciliatory. "It will continue regardless of what we do and whether or not we build round glass platforms in fancy stadiums across the galaxy."
"I was wondering about that." Lucas scratched his head. He did not pretend to understand all that was going on.
"How did the Avgo Events take place in the distant past, before all this huge brouhaha and money-making multi-world effort to organize it for viewership occur?"
Dante sighed. This had been his burning question ever since he became aware that Byron would be marrying the winner of the Avgo Events.
Before he met Candace, he didn't care. Now, it was his burning goal to find out more about the reason behind the arbitrary designation of an Avgo-dictated marriage to the Crown Prince.
Dante turned to Lucas.
"The organized Avgo Events are an artificial construct that was built around the Avgo's innate actions to find prime candidates to continue future generations of sentient life."
"That's right." Slate nodded. "Somewhere along the way, it became subverted into something that resembled a high-stakes beauty pageant that was used to find a bride for the ruling class."
He shook his head. "That was never its intent."
Lucas gave Slate a confused look. "What do you mean?"
Dante laughed and slapped Lucas on the shoulder.
"Little Brother, the Avgo does not care who the Avgo Female marries."
"Really? Then what's the point?" Lucas rubbed his eyes. He was truly confused about the whole thing.
"Hahaha." Slate laughed. "The point is that there is no such thing as an Avgo Male. There is only the Avgo Female."
"And?" Lucas stared at him with a blank look. Was Slate trying to become Captain Obvious?
Leonardo rubbed his eyes. Lucas was older than he was and they had the same mother and father, but it sometimes struck Leonardo that aside from taking the lion's share of the looks, Lucas seemed to have left some of his extra brain cells behind to make room for all that good looks.
"It's got to do with basic biology, Lucas." Leonardo tried to explain to him. "In the animal kingdom, females have to carry the bulk of the responsibility for continuing life."
"It's very costly, in terms of energy and time, for females to have babies. They only have a limited number of infants they can carry. That's why in the natural world, it's their choice and they try to choose only the highest-quality males."
"Wait, wait." Byron held up a hand. "Isn't the Avgo Events something that is held for the Empire to choose the highest quality FEMALE for the Crown Prince, whoever he may be?"
Slate laughed. "It seems that way, doesn't it? But the truth is, the Avgo Events have been subverted."
"What do you mean?" Byron looked at him with suspicion.
"He's right." A voice called out from beyond the bird of paradise bushes.
All the Princes turned their heads with joy at the sound of Candace's voice.