Home is where the heart is.
Maybe that's why I never felt at home on earth.
My heart was always with her.
:::::::
I first saw her when we were quite young.
My father was an ambassador, and wanting me to follow in his footsteps, he took me with him.
To the Luna.
To the moon.
It was the most beautiful and horrible place I had ever seen.
The huge marble castle and glittering Earth above was gorgeous.
The people beautiful too.
They were horrifically beautiful. Tall with porcelain skin and glittering eyes.
Fake.
Except for one.
One stunning, amazing, pure girl.
Her name was Channary.
She stood next to the stoic and cold queen, looking thoroughly pleased with herself when I knelt to kiss her hand.
The faint blush that graced her cheeks had seemed to beautiful to ever be a glamour.
We spent weeks together, talking in the gardens while our parents consorted.
She hugged me goodbye, much to her mother's disapproval.
Her touch had felt like home.
:::::::
The second time we met was as teenagers.
We were giggly and flirty and happy.
I left her in a couple of days, with the promise to return some day.
I went home, but it didn't feel right anymore.
It wasn't my home.
My home was with Channary.
:::::::
I spent a lot of time wandering aimlessly after that.
I had left my father to become the inventor I had always wanted to be.
I had no excuse to return to Luna.
I met many lovely people, one of whom was a woman named Adri.
She was beautiful and kind.
But I turned her down.
Another woman held my heart.
:::::::
I worked diligently on my inventions, till I had one that was worthy to present to the queen of Luna.
Queen Channary Blackburn.
I will never forget her face as I walked into the throne room.
Her chin was lifted, her eyes were cold, and her arms were crossed.
When I walked in, her jaw dropped slightly, her cheeks tinted, and her eyes glittered.
You wouldn't notice unless you knew her like I did,
She stayed impassive through my presentation, the perfect example of an impartial judge.
But her bright eyes betrayed her.
:::::::
Later that night, it was as if we were teenagers all over again.
I knew that she loved me.
I made sure she knew that I loved her.
Being with her always felt like home.
:::::::
All too soon It was over, and I was to return to Earth.
With sweet words in parting and nothing but a brisk nod to her heavily glamoured sister, I returned home.
We had agreed that it was the end for us.
A love like ours could never last.
The purest things always wither and die.
:::::::
I let myself go.
I drank, I stopped working.
I was lost.
But Adri pulled me out.
She understood that I could grow to love her, but that it could never be what I felt for Channary.
After being long time friends and dating for a couple of months, I proposed.
I was letting go.
She accepted.
:::::::
The last time I saw Channary, she called for me.
"I'm pregnant."
My world fell out from under me as my eyes fell to her swollen stomach.
"What do the others think?"
She laughed bitterly, showing me the sadness she couldn't show anyone else.
"I told them I didn't know. It's safer for you this way."
I nodded, my eyes unfocused.
She grasped my arm.
"You could stay with me. I'll never take a husband. Our child will have two parents."
My heart clenched and tears pricked my eyes.
"I'm engaged."
Her eyes immediately hardened and she raised her chin ever so slightly, as if she was daring me to continue with what I was saying.
"You said we were over, I met someone."
Channary laughed, a hard cold sound.
"Good for you then. I was doing this out of kindness to you. I don't need you."
Her bright eyes betrayed her.
"Go home Garan."
I couldn't bring myself to tell her that my only home was with her.
Love is a conquest. Love is war. This is what I think of love.
I never saw her again, but she wrote to me once, to tell my my daughter had been born.
Selene Channary Jannali Blackburn.
The love of my life died the next day.
Adri did her best to console me, while our daughters looked on curiously.
Channary's sister, the one with all the glamours became queen regent.
And some day, my daughter would become queen.
I felt something in the pit of my stomach, but I thought it must've just been sadness.
I focused on my "family" and my "home" and tried to put all other thoughts out of my mind.
:::::::
My daughter…
She was gone...
:::
I began to hear rumors of a doctor that had saved Selene.
Rumors of a woman in France who had taken her in.
But how? They had found her ashes.
I couldn't give up hope, Selene was all I had left of Channary.
So I packed my bags, bid goodbye to my wife and daughters, and set off, away from my current home, to France.
I probably should've felt guilt at leaving them so abruptly, but I was set on my path to find my daughter.
:::::::
I found her a good while later.
Her hand was metal, her foot was synthetic, her heart was machinery.
She was beautiful.
I installed my greatest invention in her spinal cord.
No one would ever know that she was Lunar.
I adopted her.
Linh Cinder
Selene Blackburn.
My daughter.
:::::::
"Where are we going?"
Her warm brown eyes gazed up at me with curiosity.
I smiled down at her.
"Home."