CHAPTER THREE
ECLIPSE OF THE HEARTS
King Endymion had become angered and alarmed the next day when he learned that one of his youngest sons had been murdered on his own territory. The King immediately closed off the borders and asked that no one leaves or enters the kingdom's premises until the perpetrator was found.
Most of the citizens understood and obliged the king's actions. But to some, it had indicated that the King did not trust his own people. The killer may be lurking within the castle walls and not outside of them, some of the people would gossip. If that were true, it would indicate that his position and control over the royal court was weakening. The King, of course, would never show his own weakness or that of his people to his own citizens. The King probably had ordered his men just to go find some poor soul to calm the people nerves and bring this matter to a close as quickly as possible. After all, whom would you believe first as a killer, the poor beggar dressed in rags or the King's royal guard? Meanwhile, the princess was in distress and in fear for the prince's life, thinking someone was trying to assassinate the King's royal bloodline. Furthermore, she was saddened that she would not be able to make her visits to her prince for a while and she soon fell into a state of depression. But as far as the princess herself knew, no one even her closest friends the sailor soldiers knew of this prince yet, except for her and Winter.
But Venus soon became suspicions of Winter and believed that it was her error in judgment that caused the princess to fall into such despair. So, Venus soon confronted her of it in Winter's own private chambers.
"Carelessness will only bring you to your judgement if the princess is harmed!" Venus fumed bitterly at the girl she shared many happy moments with once along with the other girls in the recent past.
"Forgive me commander." Winter solemnly knelt before Venus, "I should have been more observant of the princess' welfare."
"Explain yourself!" Venus ordered.
"There was an intruder in the gardens. He had seen the princess. I was following your orders. I do not believe I made an error. But I did not know he was the King's youngest son. He was an obstacle. As a result, the King had closed all borders off to his kingdom until the killer is brought out."
"I see, so that is the source for all her majesty's sorrow." Venus fumed underneath her breath, "Look at me!" She growled, her hair framing her face as they hung down. Winter as hard as she could glared into Venus's eyes with bitterness. But even so, she couldn't hide it from the love goddess herself. At that moment Venus saw the hidden conflict inside Winter's eyes and she gasped. I'm sorry, I have no choice, the commander decided.
"This is your final warning. I may be your friend, but now I am the commander first sworn to protect the princess. You may be as careless about your own life as you wish so long as the princess is in no danger of her own life, the lives of the citizens of the moon, and especially that of the royal court! The people of the Earth must not know about her powers and that of the Imperial Silver Crystal!
"Furthermore, Sailormars recently informed me of dark shadows lingering around the earth. Perhaps even from the very Kingdom her prince reigns. The Queen is hard at work attempting to locate the source of this darkness. Not even her crystal and her prayers have been able to repel it as of yet."
"May I speak freely, commander?" Asterelle asked coldly.
"You may" Venus replied bitterly.
"Then perhaps you should have carried out the order yourself! Aren't you the one chosen to be her guardian?" But Venus would not reply to Winter's uncalled for accusations. Because at that moment the answer appeared in Venus's eyes before they shut firmly. Venus' head began to lower slowly to her chest. But then, she opened them back up and glared silently back at Winter. "As you wish, Sailorvenus. I will not endanger her life or the lives of her royal court sworn to protect her. I am not a warrior such as you and the sailors, but a mere maiden. However, I will find this darkness that threatens our world on my own, and I will destroy it. It won't come near the princess."
"I am giving you one last chance. You fail again; not even the Queen herself will be able to spare you from your punishment!" As she turned away, Venus had then softened her tone and her expression talking to her as she would to a dear friend, "Winter, I know you understand this, but for the record I must say it. Her heart is pure of love and innocence. It would be scarred forever if anyone were to take advantage of it. I will do whatever it takes to protect that! " The commander exclaimed.
With that, the dark haired girl raised herself and turned her back towards Venus. Then she lowered her head as she spoke in a low tone, " Goodbye…Minako. As of today, I can no longer be your friend."
"Yes, I know. Goodbye…Winter." As soon as Venus had left Winter's chamber, she was met with the other three soldiers.
"Is she?" Mercury asked worriedly.
"No, Mercury. Her life is spared, for now. I have given her one more chance." Venus replied her head hung down as if in shame. "What I am about to do, I cannot ask you to join me. I am the leader of the Sailor soldiers and this order was mine, therefore I will be the one to bare the burden of the punishment. I must meet with the Queen and speak with her myself."
"I am sorry you feel that way Venus, but I am Princess Amelia from the planet Mercury. My duty is to protect my kingdom and its people against anyone wishing to take advantage of it. This mortal man may have intended to kill the princess herself and perhaps the rest of us." As Venus raised her head, she noticed that Mercury was no longer Sailormercury, but had changed from her blue uniform to her royal blue gown.
"No uniforms, no orders." Jupiter replied as her uniform dematerialized from her sailor outfit to her pale green flowing gown.
"Do you think this prince can be trusted?" the princess of Mars asked suspiciously.
"You must remember. The princess' heart is pure, and she loves this man with all of her life force. I trust the princess and therefore we must trust this prince." Princess Minako replied as she changed into her royal yellow gown.
"The princess is naïve and would redeem the ones exiled to the Negaverse, if she could!" Raye sarcastically exclaimed, "She finds love in the most demonic of all creatures! What makes you think he's not one of the minions sent from the Negaverse to exile us for breaking the sacred laws? "
"You are correct, Princess Raye. We do not know this Prince of Triode. He may very well be intelligent and cunning in a way by trying to woo the moon princess in order to expand his own kingdom and control of the solartary system. However, I found this in Winter's chambers yesterday morning when I tried to locate her for the princess. I had Mercury run some tests on it." Minako revealed an arrow with bloodstains as it materialized in her hands; " The young son of the King was the bearer of this arrow. Mercury's test's revealed his matter and fingerprints and its various patterns scattered about the base and tip of it."
"The King's youngest son meant to kill his own brother? So even the highest kingdom is dirty and fowl!" Jupiter exasperated angrily.
"Perhaps not, Makato. The young squire may have meant to kill the princess herself. Obviously, someone feels threatened by the King's kingdom, the Moon kingdom, or both. He may be in league with a secret society neither unknown to the King himself, nor his eldest son. Remember, Makato" Minako turned and eyed Jupiter's princess, "the King and the crown Prince are engaged deeply in the diplomatic matters of the planet and demilitarizing the world and realigning states throughout the earth. That is their focus."
"Then perhaps the young squire merely felt envious of his brother and with him out of the way, he'd be the one to succeed his father instead of Prince Endymion?" Amelia turned to Minako questioningly.
"Perhaps you are correct and…" Minako turned her attention to Amelia sighing deeply, "… maybe he, or someone else, just does not believe in this new era his father and brother are trying to create. Some mortal men and women believe that complete pacifism is merely an illusion and that if a kingdom or system of rule becomes too powerful it will still only lead to corruption, as the system of our ancestors became once, remember? Perhaps that is what this young brother felt, and when he saw the prince with this princess of the moon, he felt that this union would allow the Kingdom of the moon to cease control of the planetary kingdoms on Earth. Thus allowing the heavens to once again reign control over the planet, as it did long ago."
"But, that is outrageous! We do not rule the people, nor have we ever done anything but to give to the people what they sought" Jupiter irritably exclaimed.
"Whatever the reason, this is my doing. I started this. I allowed Winter to go down with the princess to visit with the prince for the princess own well being. I asked her to break the sacred laws so the princess' heart would not be consumed in despair and darkness." Venus continued as she attempted to control the crack in her voice, but failed. " I asked her, a dear friend who's not even a sailor soldier, to do this." Her eyes filled with tears, " with her very own life, and she just looked into my eyes and said 'As you wish' as if she'd been the one sworn to protect Princess Serena and not us!"
Venus stopped and took a deep breath as she continued, gaining the strength back in her voice, "We all could learn a valuable lesson from our friend. She's willing to sacrifice her own happiness to protect her and our kingdom." Princess Minako looked upon her three friends with a smile. "Thank you all. I am very grateful to have friends that would bare this burden by my side. But, I executed this as Sailorvenus, therefore, I must confront Queen Serenity as Sailorvenus." With that Minako changed into Sailorvenus and walked away.
When she finally confronted the Queen, she had explained all that had happened with the princess since her very first visit with the prince, " I feel as though this is my fault, Sailorvenus. Do not blame yourself. My little girl has always loved the Earth since she was a young child. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Besides, I feel partially responsible for this since I allowed her on my travels over the earth."
"The sacred laws have been broken, I will serve the punishment on behalf of my soldiers." Venus replied as she knelt before the regal Queen her long ivory gown flowed passed her and the long staff and a half moon at the tip of it with the silver crystal resting inside.
"No, Venus. We are about to face some very dark times and your soldiers need a leader. I cannot afford to loose skilled warriors right now. Your punishment will be to serve along side the princess, as the leader of the soldiers through these dark times, as well as myself." The Queen replied to the commander solemnly. The Queen was still concerned though, for her daughter as well as the welfare of her kingdom. The Queen had decided that she would meet with the King of this kingdom herself. She felt the King needed to know himself of the situation and what her Kingdom had learned of his son's involvement. Since the sacred laws had already been broken, the Queen felt it was in the best interest of both Kingdoms to work together diplomatically to bring out anyone who may want to bring about the demise of both of their kingdoms.
In the meantime Venus had approached the princess regarding Winter's recent actions. "I'm afraid Winter can no longer be assigned to you, your highness."
"No, Venus please! Punish me, I will confine myself to my chambers, I have to sacrifice my desire to see Endymion for his own safety and now you want to take another person I love away from me!" The princess cried. She felt heaviness in her heart. She wanted to avoid conflict as much as possible but it always seemed to linger in the shadows like a storm waiting to break. Living her carefree life is all she ever wanted for not just her, but for everyone on the moon. But now she felt powerless to avoid the conflict inside her mind and her heart. "I need her, especially now. Like you she's our… friend." She wept softly.
"I did not come here to cause you more pain...Serena." As Venus sat down by Serena's side on her bed, she put an arm around her pulling her head down to her chest. She wanted to at least embrace the weeping girl as a friend now, not her commander, her pained face burring in her hands. At the sight, Venus blamed herself inside for all the sorrow the princess was experiencing. She shut her eyes firmly and embraced the princess, a lone tear escaping down her cheek. "Go ahead. It's ok to cry. "
"It isn't right to punish others for me just because I'm the princess!" Serena rubbed her eyes. "Why do we have to live this way? Will it always stay like this? Oh Mina…I miss him so much. It hurts, my chest hurts, make it stop."
"I know hurts. But the times will soon be changing princess. You must be strong for the earth, for the moon, and for Endymion. You must believe in him and you must believe in your love." Venus tried to reassure the princess. " I can't make it stop Serena. But for now, this is all I can do for you." Venus thought to herself as she laid down hugging the sniffling princess.
Even though Winter would no longer tend to the princess anymore, she wanted to set her heart at ease through this isolation from her prince. So, she asked Spring, the princess' new maiden, to have the princess write a letters to her prince and that Winter herself would deliver them to him. With that, the princess' heart grew more in hope and joy once again, and so she lay out on her bed and wrote her most heartfelt letter to her prince.