CHAPTER TWENTY: Connection

Lita closed her eyes as she carefully unlatched the buttons and zippers holding her uniform to her body and let it slide down her long body. She climbed into the waiting bubble bath and let out an audible sigh as she sunk into the warm liquid and let it envelop her like a soothing cocoon. A slow smile spread across her face as she felt each of the day's worries drift out of her mind. One of the benefits to residing on the Moon was that they paid attention to little luxuries like free-standing ceramic bathtubs, a concept virtually unheard-of on her native Jupiter. Jupiterians valued utilitarianism above most else and a shower was merely a tool with which to wash off the day's grime. Lounging – indeed, relaxing – was something left for Illythian Festival, the annual Jupiterian holiday when most of the military flooded the other inner worlds to rest and spent time with their families – or in the case of the unattached personnel, to create families. It was a moderately large celebration on each of the inner worlds; even the government of Mars temporarily relaxed its anti-merrymaking ethos in order to accommodate the few Martian officers returning home. Lita figured they begrudgingly accepted the week of intrusion as a small price they felt they had to pay for their protection and she was happy to let them do it. Not that she ever had any intention of spending Illythian Festival on Mars. Venus was always the favorite destination, for obvious reasons. The Venusians went all out and began their preparations months in advance. Lita had once awkwardly stepped into a conversation between a group of male cadets describing – in lascivious detail – their exploits with a group of sisters from Euphoria, a notoriously amorous district just outside the Aphelion City.

CHIRP! CHIRP! CHIRP!

Lita snapped her head to attention and twisted in every direction looking for the source of the offending sound. She cursed under her breath and wished she were in grabbing distance of her sidearm so she could teach the intruder a swift lesson about interrupting her during bath time. She heaved herself out of the bath and, her body half coated in foam, tried to find the source of the sound.

CHIRP! CHIRP! CHIRP!

She thought she heard the sound coming from her armoire and so she tore the doors open and began tossing her belongings to the floor.

"What the—?"

"Lita?" came a husky, masculine voice.

Lita whirled around. "Who's that!" she demanded.

"Sorry, looks like I caught you at a bad time!"

She brought her hands self-consciously to her body in a vain effort to hide herself from the voice.

"WHO IS THAT?" she shouted. It was then she noticed the tiny silver ball on the floor. It must have fallen out of one of her pants pockets when she began tossing her things haphazardly to the floor. Lita picked the thing up and hurled it away from her as she scrambled to pull on whatever clothes happened to be in reach.

As soon as she was dressed (the jacket from a military dress uniform matched with a yellow silk skirt Mina had given her the day before), she crawled under her bed to retrieve the communicator device. She held it flat in her palm and stared at the blinking amber light.

"Um, sorry, about that," she muttered. Then she remembered she was supposed to feel violated. She donned her most stately tone and lashed: "Who are you and how dare you use a video conferencing communication program without my prior authorization?"

"Relax, Princess, I didn't see that much. It's not like you have much of anything anyway."

Lita's jaw fell open and her cheeks burned a hot crimson. "You—you," she stammered, tripping over her words.

"I'm just teasing," he said jovially. "How are you, Lita?"

"I'm—I'm—"

"Eloquent as ever, I see."

Lita regained her composure and replied: "What do you want, Titus?"

"So touchy!" he laughed. "I just wanted to see how things are on your side of the Line."

"Never been better!" Lita said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm very busy!"

"Wait, wait, Lita!" Titus called, his voice suddenly serious. "I'm sorry. Look, I really do need to speak with you."

Lita frowned. "What about?"

Titus sighed. "Well, it's just…"

"Spit it out, Titus!"

"All right, all right! Calm down!" Titus sighed again and continued: "There's been some…I guess you could call it…unrest…in the outerbanks of the Plutonian region."

"Unrest?" said Lita, feigning interest as she climbed into her bed and set the communicator on a pillow on her stomach.

"I mean, there's always the usual complaints out there. I don't know how much you know about how our civilization is structured, but Pluto is basically responsible for mining all our natural resources. Fuel, energy, that sort of thing."

"Mmhmm."

"Anyway, the common theme with them has always been that they should have more power in the central government because they work the hardest, blah blah. But this is different. There have been…incidents."

"Like what kind of incidents?" Lita asked.

"Retaliatory power outages, that kind of thing."

"Huh?"

"They cut off the power supply to the Palace of Pluto for three whole days once."

Lita scoffed. "Sounds like you should go over there and let them know who's in charge."

"It's not that simple," said Titus, indignantly. "They're a very proud people. If we went over there and started throwing our weight around, they might interpret as an act of aggression."

"What's wrong with that?" Lita asked, coolly.

"No one wants a civil war."

Suddenly Lita was interested. "You think that's a possibility?"

It was several moments before Titus spoke again. Finally, he broke the silence: "Things aren't well on this side of the Line, Lita."

"How do you mean?"

Titus sighed. "My sister passed away two days ago."

Lita swallowed. She was never very good at comforting the grieving. "I'm very sorry to hear that."

"We all knew it was coming. We had a plan in place for my ascension. But the people haven't responded as we would have liked. No prince has ruled a heavenly body in our history. I just thought that with so much time to get used to the idea, the people would have, if not celebrated it, at least accepted the decision."

Lita frowned. "I actually understand," she said, thinking of her own civilization's reaction to the wayward Earth prince.

"The people just don't feel secure without a Light-bearer on the throne."

"Give them time to see you at the helm, they'll come around."

"Lita," said Titus, his tone taking on a new gravity. "There's been talk of reconciliation."

Lita's jaw dropped to her chest. She was speechless.

"Lita?" he asked. "Are you there?"

"Yes, yes, I'm here," she stammered. "I just—well, obviously I don't know what to say."

"I was hoping that by calling you, I could get a feel for the Inner Alliance's position on reconciliation."

"Well I—I'm really not the one to talk to about that. I haven't ascended yet. I have no real power to effect Inner Alliance policy."

"I understand," said Titus. "But perhaps you could float the idea among your royal counterparts."

LIta thought a moment. "Give me some time to think it over. It's no small thing to ask. I shouldn't even be speaking to you."

"But you took my communicator."

He had her there. She shouldn't have even been in his airspace. As the primary aggressor, she probably should have kept her mouth shut. "Well, it's too late now anyway. We're set to leave the Moon tomorrow."

"Please think about it, Princess. We're stronger as nine."

Lita rolled the communicator between her fingers. "And would the Outer Alliance swear complete allegiance to Queen Serenity?"

"We haven't adopted a formal resolution to seek reconciliation, but if we did, we understand that that would be a condition."

"All right," said Lita, straightening her back. "I will give it some thought and get back to you."

….

Beryl was on the verge of tears as she held the crumpled letter in one hand and the black wrought iron bar of the high gate surrounding the Palace in the other. The quiet hush that had fallen over Hadean City the past few months had been suddenly replaced by an flutter of urgency for the prince's return. She would howl his name from the gates if that was what it took to finally see him. She would confront him with what she learned and demand he take some retributive action against the House of the Moon or else lose her friendship forever.

But she needed confirmation. So far she'd had only her gut instincts to go on and though she had the voice reassuring her that her fears were correct, she needed to know for sure. She needed to hear it out loud. She knew that Darien wouldn't be able to give her this; despite his newfound title and associations, no one would think to mention a midwife of sixteen years ago, least of all to mortal prince.

Beryl pressed her face between the bars and gazed sadly at the palace as workers rushed to and fro. To them, she was sure she looked like any other commoner hoping to get a glimpse of the prince returning. Beryl watched as four uniformed men – Darien's new guards, no doubt – marched across the yard toward the front steps. The sun was blazing and Beryl couldn't make out the detail of any of their faces, but the tall, dark-haired one seemed to pause at the sight of her. As he made his way closer to her, she looked around to see if he was looking at someone else. But he strode toward her, tentatively at first, but then with more confidence. And then he was just three feet from her.

"I know you," he said pointedly. "From somewhere long ago."

A jolt of recognition struck Beryl. "Yes," she replied. "You're the soldier who took Darien from the woods and brought him to Hadean City as a prince."

The man crinkled his brow as if confused. "Oh," he said, finally. "Oh yes. You were the one with him."

Beryl nodded.

"I guess I didn't notice you then. My mission was to retrieve the prince and return him to his rightful home." Beryl didn't reply. "Listen," the soldier said abruptly. "I have to go. Preparations for the prince's return." He turned to go.

Stop him.

"Wait!" Beryl called out. He paused and faced her. He looked expectant, but there was a trace of something else in his expression. It looked almost like guilt.

"Yes?"

"Um," Beryl began.

He knows.

"I—uh—I need to ask you something," she stammered.

"Yes?" he asked again.

"Um."

Ask him about the Moon.

"Were you stationed on the Moon sixteen years ago?"

His face drained of color. Beryl knew she had struck a chord.

"You were, weren't you?"

He nodded solemnly.

"Did you know of the midwife who delivered Her Royal Highness the Princess Serenity?"

Another nod.

Beryl's heart raced. She was finally going to get the answer she had sought her whole life.

"Was she killed to protect the secret of a twinned birth?" Beryl hissed under her breath.

His eyes grew wide. He looked over his shoulder and leaned in toward her. "To speak of such things is treason!" he warned.

"Answer me!" Beryl shot back, unafraid.

"You listen to me," he growled, his eyes narrowed. "I did my job. I'd do it again if I had to."

Beryl gasped. Her eyes stung. "It was your blade, wasn't it?"

Inexplicably, his expression went from stone to soft in seconds. "Look," he said, shaking his head. "I am sorry about what I did to your family. But I had to do what I had to do to protect the kingdom."

"My—my family?" Beryl repeated. "How do you know this?"

"I was the one," he replied. "I killed your mother. I delivered the news to your grandmother who died on the spot. And it was I who first delivered you to Hadean House for Orphans."

She felt her breath become labored and short. A cacophony of conflicting emotions swarmed inside her as she struggled for the right words. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess, but the voice rang out clear as day. She locked onto his gaze and he stared into her eyes, transfixed. She was only vaguely aware that she was speaking.

"You will meet me in the woods in the heart of the Permian District tomorrow at midnight. It is time for you to repay your debt!"

He nodded slowly and back away several paces before slowly turning and returning to the palace to await his prince.

Inside her head, the voice whispered: It is time to return home.