"No, the answer's quite simple."

"You mean we could keep it all a secret? We'd have to hide ourselves for a bit anyway, given that I'm dressed in trousers. And you're a bit better at lying these days..."

"That's not what I meant."

"What, then?"

"We'll keep some secrets, for a while. And you may need to keep your disguise until the world catches up to you. But I have no need for this."

He paused, just for a second.

But to him, that second in time seemed like forever.

In that second, he wondered if he was making the right choice. Giving up a kingdom, for a girl? And one that he had only known for a few months? One that he had only known was a girl for a few weeks?

In his hand was the key to everything he had ever dreamed about. Becoming his fathers heir, the Emperor of Austria-Hungary. The citizens of Austria-Hungary, along with his family, would no longer think of him as an outcast, but as their ruler. What he was thinking of doing, was as Deryn would say, barking mad.

And then he looked over at the midshipwoman standing in front of her. The one that had been his first friend, the first to know both his secrets, the one who had kept his secrets for so long, and the one who who had respected and liked him before she knew his secret.

The one who he was miserable (yeah, yeah, sappy).

And so he dropped the letter.

"Meteoric."