The Golden Age
Chapter 21
Tomorrow came very early for Jupiter. She stretched the aches out of her back and arms, incurred by a lump called "Selenity." Trying not to wake the princess, she dressed by the dim light of dawn, grateful for once for the diaphanous gowns of the Moon Kingdom, more like elaborate shifts, which were easy to slip into. She made her barefoot way through the torturous hallways of the palace to the library, passing servants dressed in dusky robes ranging from lavender to dark grey. They didn't look surprised to see the stately Jovian princess awake at this hour of the morning, but their well-trained gazes rarely gave away anything.
Jupiter pulled the shift closer, her ample bosom stretching the thin yet sturdy fabric. She caught sight of her reflection in the hallway's floor to ceiling mirrors encased in crystal. It had been sometime since she'd looked at herself well - she'd been too busy recently to give any thoughts to appearance. She was rather startled by the sight before her.
Her hair hung in rippling curls around her not unpleasingly long face, her large eyes bright despite sleep. She noticed that her plumpness was slowly being replaced by muscle, her arms toned and defined. She looked powerful, almost intimidating.
Where was the princess who made chocolate cookies and whose rounded cheeks still betrayed her youth? Gazing at herself in the mirror, she saw a tall, imposing-looking young woman, high and well-defined cheekbones, generous mouth, and glittering green eyes. She'd grown too, she realized with a sinking feeling.
I look like a warrior. It's not me.
The opening of the door to the library startled her. Mars beckoned silently, and she entered, her thoughts already fleeing in anticipation of the task ahead of her.
At the table in the farthest corner, Venus and Mercury already sat, heads together, whispering. Perhaps her own brief glimpse of herself opened her eyes to the changes in her friends for the first time. Venus, she noticed, no longer wore the ribbons in her hair that she'd once felt were so necessary to her happiness. Her frills and flounces, her scandalously daring tunics and dresses, were exchanged for sober shifts of moon-colored cloth and simple ties for her golden hair. Her face, like the others, was lengthening, thinning, the strong bones showing through now. Her hands, Jupiter noticed, were strong, the sinews on the back easily defined. There were callouses from sword practice. No more manicures or diamond encrusted paints.
Mars too had changed. Her features still mysterious, her almond-shaped eyes a disquieting violet, she looked like a real priestess now, and her figure, though small and slight, was as hard as Venus' and Jupiters'.
Mercury was, perhaps, the only one of them who hadn't noticeably changed, though Jupiter could detect slight alterations. Her limbs, always delicate, were, perhaps, sturdier-looking now. Her features also more pronounced, and something that animated them caused them to appear more and more human. It was difficult for Jupiter to remember that she was speaking with a being that was mostly man-made. Mercury had always appeared human, down to the pores of her skin, but there was something about the expression in her eyes...something different lately.
Venus looked up at their approach.
"How did you sleep?"
Jupiter gave a wry smile that made Venus chuckle quietly.
"Me neither. Though I didn't have to share my bed."
"It will be good practice for marriage," Jupiter joked.
Her smiled faded as she caught the look that passed between Mars and Venus. Best to say no more on that subject.
"So...what's the plan?"
Mercury cleared her throat and began:
"Since it seems that the Queen is against the idea of stopping the - ah - visits between Selenity and Prince Endymion -"
"She wants Selenity and the Prince to keep meeting?" Jupiter asked, puzzled.
Venus nodded. She had shared a small part of her earlier conversation with the Queen.
"But, why?"
"Well, she's - sympathetic to Selenity's - ah," Mercury blushed more deeply, "attraction to the Earth."
"I see."
"And she thinks communication will be a good thing," Venus put in, with a glance at Mars.
"She's too optimistic and trusting," Mars muttered, but not unkindly.
"She has a lot of hope," Venus finished, almost absently. Her eyes gazed unseeing at the fading stars in the red sky outside the window's library.
"We've decided, " Mercury continued, with a nod toward Venus and Mars, "That we're going to support the...friendship between Selenity and the Prince...and we will begin by accompanying Selenity when she pays a visit to the Earth, and, if they are interested, we will escort the princes to the Moon, and perhaps even to our respective planets, if they wish to go."
Mars looked grim at this, but Jupiter felt strangely calm. There was a plan of action at last, and even if she didn't exactly like it, she did like having a plan.
"What are we going to do with them there?" Mars wanted to know. She could hardly imagine dragging any of the five men around Mars or her home castle, let alone getting them into the temples of Ares. The arid desert heat of the fiery planet would probably roast the flesh off of their tender bones in seconds. Mars suddenly thought the plan was much better than it had seemed.
"We'll be polite to them. Share as much as we can with them," Venus delineated, "As long as we don't share anything important or compromising."
"And while we're doing this, we'll be spying on them?" Jupiter asked, her brow knitted.
"Not 'spying,' exactly; just getting to know them - trying to find out what they're really interested in."
"But, no one else from their kingdom can find out about these visits," Mercury warned, "Lord Jadeite made it clear to Mars that their king still doesn't trust the Moon."
"But isn't that their fault for making us seem scary?" Jupiter pointed out, a bit exasperated.
"It doesn't seem like the most logical plan," Mercury admitted, "But we don't know the exact circumstances. If the Earth King is unreasonable, this may be the only alternative to open war."
"There must be some other way. And besides," Jupiter added, "I don't like leaving Selenity out of this. I feel like I'm going behind her back."
The other girls had varying degrees of guilt or discomfort on their faces, but Venus replied," I know, but if these princes really aren't as nice as they seem -"
"Which she'll never believe -" Mars put in.
"Then it will be too late to save her. And, besides, the Queen said we had to let her go. We're only supposed to chaperone her now." Venus pointed out.
Jupiter sucked in a long breath and let out a large sigh.
"Well," she asked, brightly, "Who's going first?"
They all looked dubiously at one another.
Venus opened her lips: "I guess I'll -"
"I'll go," Mercury said, softly.
They looked at her in surprise. She gave a little smile.
"I'm actually looking forward to it," she admitted, "I've been wanting to gather information about Earth for quite some time now, and I will be able to find out a great deal with my new computer and visor. They won't even know, probably."
Venus privately though the visor might be a bit of a giveaway, but decided not to rain on Mercury's parade.
"That's settled. What about the plan?" Mars prompted.
They unconsciously leaned in.
"If there is an attack," Venus began," Or some kind of emergency, we need to be able to bring the Queen and Selenity to a safe place inside the palace."
"The throne room," Jupiter suggested.
"Too obvious, and there are too many entrances and exits," Mars pointed out.
"What about the conservatory?"
"Good," Venus nodded at Mercury.
"We'll take them there and bar the doors to the inner and outer halls. Jupiter, you and Mars will be our first line of defense. That way I can keep watch over the Queen and Selenity can heal when she transforms to Sailor Moon."
"They don't know that she's Sailor Moon, do they?" Jupiter asked.
"I doubt that Selenity has mentioned it to the Prince," Mercury answered, "But we should warn her not to.
"She probably won't listen to that either," Mars predicted.
"She will if she wants to see him again," Venus muttered.
"Do they...do they know who we are?"
Jupiter asked the question with a queasiness in her stomach.
Mars sighed. "Yes. The Earth general spoke to me as the Princess of Mars, even though I was in uniform. I don't know how they knew, exactly - "
"It doesn't matter," Venus cut in, "What matters it that no one else needs to know who we are, or that we are Senshi. We'll just have to trust that the Earth princes won't tell anyone else. Besides, it's not like it will do them a lot of good."
"I don't know," Mars murmured. She looked troubled, but kept her thoughts to herself.
They looked at each other uneasily. Venus broke the silence with a quick nod at Mercury.
"Selenity should be awake soon. I'll explain everything to her. Get ready. She'll probably want to visit him tonight."
Mercury nodded and smiled.
"Don't worry," she said, softly, "I'm sure it will be an adventure."
In the darkness of the room, Beryl lit a single candle. She felt the flutter of nervousness creeping in her stomach like scattering spiders, but she forced her hands to remain steady. The book she'd just finished reading for the fifth time sat open beside her on the cold stone floor.
It was so simple. So clear. All she had to do was try to make contact with...with...with Someone.
She took out her philosopher's tools: a smooth grey stone, two amber jewels, and a short, sharp knife. She placed the stone carefully before her, holding a jewel in each hand. These jewels magnified the little power she naturally possessed, trained painstakingly by the former court philosopher.
"I call upon," she whispered, her lips dry and her throat scratchy from fear. But determination was stronger, and she began again.
"I call upon the goddess, the lady of shadows, helper of those in dire need."
For a moment she thought she felt a cool wind brush past her cheek, but though she strained her ears for any sound, she heard nothing. She sat and murmured until her voice was hoarse and her back ached. The jewels in her hands cut into her flesh and her arms felt like stone, but she continued to reach beyond the Earth and herself.
Finally, one jewel slipped from her hand and cracked against the stone floor. Beryl slumped, exhausted.
"Nothing," she whispered, all the dread drained away in despair. Her last hope for some kind of aide that would prevent her from sealing the deaths of the Shitennou.
She looked a the dusty book, cracked with age. It lay on the floor like a long-dead, ancient creature. There was no other option now. What could she do now that this last hope had failed her?
She stretched out her hand to collect the book.
"Beryl."
The voice shook her, and the book tumbled from her grasp, its spine cracking against the stones, splitting pages and spewing dust.
Beryl found her hands were shaking. She couldn't stop them. There was a long silence. So long that she thought perhaps, prayed, that she had only imagined...and then:
A cool, dry voice in the darkness.
"Beryl."
A pure terror such as she had never experienced seized her with awful swiftness and shattered her to the core. Without another thought, she fled from the room. The voice came whispering after her.
Pluto, roused from a state of semi-slumber sensed that something was wrong. Somewhere, something had awakened. Something powerful, ancient,...and evil. She glanced at her orb atop the iron key. It glowed with a painful, dull light. She plunged her mind into the stream of the galaxy's collective consciousness and searched for the thing that had disturbed her. Her mind flashed past the glow of the trillions of white lights that were the souls of the living, galloped past the brighter lights of greater beings, and soared to the gates of the invisible Olympus where the ancient beings waited. There she felt a tug. Her mind flew again in the direction of spirit wind, seeking an answer.
She felt that every second was precious.
End of Book One.