'Candi Baby!' Jared's voice called out. 'We're in the exercise room, lifting weights. We couldn't sleep any more so we thought we'd give you a bit of peace and quiet.'
'Yeah. We tried to talk softly. Did we make too much noise?'
'No. I slept just fine, but I could use some breakfast.'
'Haha. Baby's hungry.' Jason laughed. 'Get dressed and meet us in the dining room. There should be breakfast ready for us.'
Jared interjected. 'After breakfast, we have to meet up with a couple of delegates, one from pirate space and the other from dragon space.'
'Are we in Dragon space already?'
'We barely crossed over from pirate space, into dragon space, but yes. We're actually very close to meeting up with Mother Gwen."
Candace quickly washed up and threw on whatever random bits of clothing she could find that the twins had provided for her.
As she made her way to the breakfast room, she could hear Slate coming back into her mind and chatting with the twins yet again about his mother.
'You're able to reconnect to the twins even though you left the conversation?' She asked with surprise as she entered the dining room.
'Apparently, the link remains until you close up the mind space.' Slate laughed.
'That's right.' Dante poked in. 'As long as this unique mind space continues to be opened, any one of us can wander back in if we have time.'
'I'm here too, Love.' Byron spoke up.
'Oh wow.' She laughed. 'Everyone's here.'
'Everyone except Leo.' Lucas chuffed. 'He's the unfortunate one who has been left out of the conversation due to the fact that he hasn't turned in his Avgo shard to you yet.'
'That is unfortunate. I will meet up with him and quickly take care of that so all you brothers can talk through this mental space without having to go through other less secure channels of communication.'
"Candace!" Jared met her at the dining room entrance. He leaned over and kissed her before leaning back and looking at what she wore.
"Why are you just throwing odds and ends together and looking like a ragamuffin, even in my designer outfits, hmm?"
He grumbled under his breath as he hooked her arm with his and led her to the dining table where Jason was already pouring a fresh cup of hot coffee for her.
As his gaze turned to Candace, he winced with pain.
"Darling, how can such a beautiful woman have such poor style?" He looked her up and down. "Can't you see that you're wearing a sky blue tunic, over orange desert tights, with a pair of fuchsia mules?"
He glanced at her jewelry choice. "At least your gold bangles don't clash with your rose gold necklace—too badly." He trailed away with a heavy sigh.
Candace laughed. "I just dug into the clothes you brought for me and grabbed some comfortable stuff. It's not like we're going to meet anyone."
"Wrong. Wrong!" Jared groaned and covered his face. "I told you we would be meeting up with the pirate delegates after breakfast. I should have said thirty minutes."
"Thirty minutes?" She gasped.
"That's right. We only have about thirty minutes to feed you before the first of the delegates board the ship."
She looked down at her colorful clothes. "Well at least I'm fully clothed."
She started laughing again as the twins looked at each other with pained expressions. They gave unspoken signals to each other and nods of agreements.
As Jason took care of her feeding needs, Jared took off at a run. Within ten minutes, he had returned with a completely different outfit in his hands.
While Candace finished her toast and marmalade jam, he began undressing her with professional swiftness.
Gone was the lover, undressing his wife with eagerness. This man was on a professional fashion mission!
Within ten minutes, Candace emerged as a polished diamond, sparkling like a rare gem.
Her white sheath dress was beaded with white pearls of varying sizes, trimmed with touches of ice blue embroidery.
It looked demure and gentle, yet gave off definite vibes of 'hands off our woman' with a wide dark blue choker made of some deep matte stone.
On her fingers was a large dark blue sapphire alongside a seven piece set of stacker rings, one for each man in her life.
"That was a good find, Jason." Jared inclined his head at the choker necklace. "I have never seen lapis lazuli that beautiful before."
"Only the best for my wife."
"And last but not least," Jared knelt down and placed a pair of white shoes on her feet. Then he stood up, looking at her up and down.
"We don't have time to paint your face, but you are a natural beauty. All you need to do is smile and you take our breath away."
"She doesn't even need to smile. She takes my breath away no matter what she does." Jason murmured gently as he finished brushing her hair and setting into place a hair clip with a blue butterfly made of glittering sapphires of varying shades of blue.
"Now we are ready to meet with the first of the delegate team. These delegates are from pirate space."
=============
With her hands in a gentle clasp at each of the twins' elbows, Candace made her way to the parlor room.
The delegates, a man and two women, were already seated at the couches near the large deep space viewing window.
They stood up when she and the twins entered the room.
The man bowed deeply and the young women curtsied.
"Crown Princess Candace." He bowed to her. "Princes Jason and Jared." He bowed again. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"I'm sorry, we didn't quite catch your names." Jason inquired.
"I am Baron Hughbert and these are my two daughters, Ophelia and Ingrid."
The two young women gave shy smiles and looked down at their soft frail hands. They were quite pretty, with dark brown hair and striking pale blue eyes.
"Good to meet you. Please have a seat." Jared indicated at the seats they had just risen from.
As the attendants came and went with tea service, the Baron began talking about his two daughters in glowing terms.
"Ophelia is a very good singer and songstress. Perhaps later, she can entertain everyone with a few songs that she wrote." He beamed with pride at his first daughter.
"Ingrid is an athlete. She is a sharpshooter with a bow and arrow and is a first rate martial artist. She can also do some demonstrations of her abilities, if there is time." He looked at his second daughter.
Jason and Jared nodded, not quite sure what the point was.
Candace turned and looked at the girls.
"How old are they?"
The Baron beamed proudly. "Ophelia is twenty-four and Ingrid is twenty-three."
"Oh they are both not much older than me." Candace grinned.
"That is a good thing, if they should turn out to be your sisters-in-law." Baron Hughbert chuckled.