Her morning began as it always did these days. Maha woke to pounding feet in the apartment above her, laid in bed for half an hour more, and finally dragged herself out to pull on one of her nicer dresses. She went to the too-large kitchen to cook up breakfast, and after she'd eaten and scrubbed the dishes clean, she slipped on her shoes and went outside.
On the balcony next door, Joel was watering a pot of scraggly tomato plants. Maha gave a wave as she passed.
He smiled and waved back. "Morning, Ma Kesley!" His sloped nose crinkled. "You're wearing perfume! Got a hot date?"
"Oh, hush. You know very well there's a parliament meeting today," Maha said.
"Have fun chatting up politicians!" Joel hollered. "Punch a thaumaturge for me!"
Maha sighed. As a wolf hybrid, Joel looked much older than he was. It was easy to forget that he was still in his annoying teenager phase...until he opened his mouth. Still, people like him were the reason her job was so rewarding.
Maha meandered down the street, crossing the unofficial border from the new residential district into the old. Even these streets had not withstood the Crown's reforms. The manors still looked off-balance without their sprawling yards full of the paths and fountains. The windows of those that had been converted to apartment complexes were hung with a disarray of drapes, contrasting the tidily matching windows of the manors still inhabited by the old nobility.
The main street was already bustling with people- gifted Lunars, shells and hybrids. Maha was sure that if she looked, she would meet an android or an Earthen as well. She made her way down the street, pausing every so often to give a quick good morning to her friends and colleagues.
"Excuse me."
Someone tapped her arm, and Maha looked up. A dark-haired woman clutching a portscreen -Earthen, Maha realized- stood near her, looking as though she were trying not to grimace. "Yes?" Maha asked, straightening as much as she could.
The woman forced a smile. "Would you be so kind as to tell me how to get to the Palace's south gate?"
Maha gestured down the road. "Go straight until you get to Cyrus Boulevard, then turn left. Go that way for a few blocks, turn right on…" Maha frowned, trying to recall. "...Royal...no, Regal Avenue. Follow that street until you're at the new clinic, and you can't miss it from there. South is that way," she added, pointing again.
The woman's shoulders slumped. "Thank you. My sister and I are from Earth, and evidently someone couldn't be bothered to update the public maps."
Maha's smile fell a notch. She would have to let Iko or Princess Winter know.
The Battle of Artemisia, as it had come to be called by journalists, reporters and authors, had left the White City in ruins. Princess Winter had spearheaded its rebuilding, beginning with tearing down the old stocks and gallows. Since then, Artemisia had been almost completely overhauled, and building projects were still ongoing.
"Actually, I'm headed there myself. You're welcome to follow me," Maha suggested.
"That might be best," the woman admitted. "Would you wait a second while I comm my sister?" She shook her curly hair back and tapped at her portscreen. "Peony, come back here. I met someone on the way to the palace, so we'll follow her."
A voice floated up from the portscreen. "But I just got a map, this girl with awesome hair drew one up for me- oh, and I forgot to tell you, I found that ice cream shop Cinder told me about! I want to stop by on the way home, and we can bring Iko and Cinder- wait, can Iko even eat ice cream? Escort droids can eat, right? This person on the feeds was telling me about this cool new tech-"
The curly-haired woman rolled her eyes. "Just get back here. We don't have all day."
"You know Queen Cinder and Iko?" Maha asked.
The woman stiffened. "My sister knows them. She...was childhood friends with Cin- with Queen Cinder, back when she lived on Earth."
"Ah." Maha motioned her over to a nearby bench and lowered herself down, sagging against the minimalist backrest.
The woman sat down a little bit away from her. She fished out her portscreen again and swiped her fingers over the screen. "I haven't introduced myself. My name is Pearl."
"Maha Kesley."
Maha let her eyes rove over the street while they waited. A gaggle of Earthen tourists passed, led by a looming hybrid who shouted out Lunar history as he jabbed a finger at the various buildings. Pearl shrunk back, her fingers stilling over her portscreen as he passed. Maha smiled apologetically when he glanced their way.
Another ignorant. Things would change, Maha told herself again. A few years ago, Earthens like them wouldn't even go near one of Levana's former soldiers.
Pearl cleared her throat. "How did you come to meet them? Iko and...Her Majesty?"
"Oh, I was there during the revolution."
Pearl's finger hovered above the screen. "Oh," she said, her voice small. Whatever she had been expecting, it clearly wasn't that. She tried to recover. "You fought during the Battle of Artemisia?"
Maha leaned back, tipping her head back toward the stars barely visible through the dome's colorless, bright surface. "I did."
She knew how she must look- tiny, shriveled like a fig, and weak. Not at all like a fighter.
"You're...I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you. You were the miner who helped lead the revolution."
"Yes." She waited for the penny to fall. There was a type of person who asked her why when they heard that she was Maha Kesley, the revolutionary from RM-9 who was tortured by Aimery Park. That type who asked was the young, the naive and the sheltered. The ones who weren't there.
"You must admire her- Cinder," Pearl bit out.
She sounded as though she were trying to hide resentment, or anger, though Maha couldn't imagine why. Only the Families and the thaumaturges had lost anything from the end of Levana's reign. The hybrid soldiers were free, the shells were free, the people in the outer sectors were no longer starving to fill Artemisia's tables, and Luna's relationship with Earth had never been better.
Well, Maha supposed, Pearl was Earthen. She had not lived firsthand though Levana's reign. "The thaumaturges came for Ze'ev first." Maha's shoulders drooped. It had been the worst day of her life up to that point. "I told him that it was an honor. I could not say anything else. Then they took Ran, and I could not stop them. I could do nothing."
"Cinder changed that," Pearl muttered.
"She brought us hope that we could change things."
Silence stretched for a period before Pearl broke it.
"Cinder wasn't Peony's childhood friend. She was my mother's legal ward- my mother is Linh Adri. I'm Linh Pearl. We were never close...but that didn't matter to Levana. I remember…" Pearl trailed off. Seemingly unconsciously, she hugged herself. "I got home one day and the door was cracked. I walked right in and these...monsters...were standing there. I wanted to run. But I didn't even try, and not because it wouldn't have done any good. I just couldn't.
"She threw us in a dungeon. She put us on trial in front of all these Lunars for harboring weapons against Luna...as if we knew about it! Dad never said a word," she seethed. "Then Levana offered us clemency on the condition that we swear fealty to her. So we did, because it was that or chop our own heads off."
Pearl's arm fell to her lap. Her portscreen was beside her, screen dark. "What I'm saying is that I understand the feeling of being helpless."
Maha had thought it wasn't possible to hate Levana more than she did. After another moment, she offered the only condolence she had. "Levana and her court can't hurt us anymore."
Bitterness tinged Pearl's voice again. "No, and we've got Her Majesty Cinder Linh-Blackburn to thank for that."
Maha twisted to face Pearl. "Why do you dislike Cinder?"
Pearl looked down at her portscreen. Maha could see the flat screen from her angle, a colorful video flashing across the screen. Pearl swiped the video away. Swallowed. "She's a cyborg- part machine. It's unnatural."
"You can't fault her for that," Maha murmured. "She was another victim of Levana."
Pearl glowered, tapping harder at the screen. Her voice lowered. "She started a war."
"No, Cinder-" Maha cut herself off. Cinder prevented a war was what she wanted to say, but that wasn't true, was it? Propaganda of Luna's unstoppable army and footage of the vicious attacks on Earth had been broadcasted even in RM-9, proof of their queen's superior military might and strategy. No, Cinder had been unable to stop the war. But she was not the one who began it, either.
"Levana started the war when she decided to take Earth by any means necessary. Cinder stood up to her and did what she had to." Maha looked at Pearl. "Like me, and like you."
Pearl's eyes widened, not with fear but with something like shock...perhaps even awe. "Like me," she repeated.
Had nobody told her that surviving abuse- capture and imprisonment and a mockery of justice- was something to take pride in?
"When they brought Cinder and Mom, Peony and I up to the throne room...the hybrids were surrounding us. Only Cinder was restrained…" Pearl's voice wavered. "The thaumaturge walked ahead of us."
She hugged herself again. "My legs wouldn't stop shaking. I've heard of people being controlled. My friend's aunt worked at New Beijing Palace when Levana and Sybil Mira visited...my legs wouldn't stop shaking, and that's how I knew they weren't controlling me."
"There's no shame in that."
"You don't understand. They never controlled me. They didn't have to. I never fought back. Even-" Pearl broke off. "Even when Cinder started talking at the trial and broke free, I didn't even try to run. I just crouched down and hugged myself and whimpered. I never fought back."
The words sank into Maha and stole any reply she had been prepared to make.
Pearl moved her arms back to her sides, straightened her spine. "So I thank you, but- I wasn't brave like you were. Like Cinder was."
Maha sank at Pearl's stiff tone. The poor girl still didn't understand. She supposed this was what they meant when they said ignorance was bliss. She looked up at the dome as she recalled her childhood. "Before Levana, it was Channary. Before her, King Marrok and Queen Jannali. I've spent my entire life keeping my head down and not saying a word."
There had been murmurs of revolt as long as Maha could remember. But she had known from an early age that it was senseless. Against the thaumaturges and the court, they were helpless.
"The thing about fear is that if you live in it long enough, you get used to it."
Pearl made no answer, so Maha went on, trying to explain.
"The other thing...it wasn't just us who got used to it. Aimery Park wanted to make an example of me, but he was complacent. He was arrogant. He didn't stop me from talking."
Too long, Maha had kept silent. Then she had hope. Then things could change, they could band together with the other sectors and have a chance. She had been ready to make her voice heard, and Park gave her a stage. He gave her an audience ready to hear.
"I raised my arms above me head. I remember shaking from the shoulders down. Then, he made me take my finger and snap it. He did it again. And again. Don't be ashamed because you were lucky enough not to undergo that," Maha said.
Pearl was silent for a minute, then another, until Maha decided that perhaps she had nothing to say. That was fine; she didn't expect a reply. Just as long as the girl had heard.
Across the street, a lady spotted them. She wove through the sparse crowd, across the road, toward them. She waved, curls bouncing around her head.
"Thank you," Pearl murmured as she stood.
Maha smiled.
The newcomer was almost identical to Pearl- a tad taller, a smidge plumper. A bright grin stretched across her face. She offered her hand to Maha. "Hi, I'm Linh Peony. You must be the lady going to the palace!""
"Maha Kesley. Shall we be off then?"
Pearl linked her arm around her sister's and the three of them trailed down the broad street toward Artemisia Palace.