Chapter Twelve-
From deep within her closet, Stella drew a large wine bottle to her lips. As the sweet liquor trickled down her throat Stella's cheeks peaked with crimson hues as she began to forget the events of that day. Or at least attempt to- after all there was only so much that that the cherry drink could rectify.
Stella's brows knit as she took another gulp, as she recounted dinner. Despite her previous conversation with her mother, the evening affair had been better than expected. Normal Solarian family dinners were an awkward family affair, at best the conversation lingered around politics or at worst- a screaming match between Luna and her father, Radius. The topic be that of something as significant as their opposing political positions or as minor as one not passing the salt timely. The press might have painted the ruling monarchs of Solaria as a strong, poised, united force to be reckoned with. But in reality, all Stella saw was two people who desperately needed to grow up.
Having already been on the receiving end of her mother's wrath, Stella had elected to forgo her traditional fashionably late entrance and arrive in the hall early. After taking her place at the dressed table, Stella quickly found herself growing bored as the minutes marched by and neither half of the delayed parties appeared.
Despite having years of etiquette training rammed into her head, Stella had given in to her impulse of going on her phone. Just as Stella began to become engrossed with her timeline, she was straddled back to reality by the appearance of Aero, one of her father's attendances.
The older butler offered a bow and his apologies as he began to convey the message left by his master. Apparently, as it was explained her father had been suddenly called to meet with Parliament regarding a deadlock in negotiations. One that was expected to not end anytime soon. As for her mother, after their conversation Luna had been summoned back to her family's estate due to a change in her grandfather's state.
Either way it meant that both parental units were otherwise occupied and Stella once more found herself dining alone. Unable to handle the still space, Stella had requested her meal to be resumed in her room. It was only after a few bites of her entrée and devouring the triple layer cake slated for desert, did Stella find herself alone and wandering into her closet and confining in her secret stash of wine.
Finally lowering the bottle from her lips, Stella reclined back in her plush couch as her heels fell off her feet. Pushing aside the layers of her dress, Stella's legs made their way towards her chest as she situated herself in the fetal position. Her ember eyes dashing from the brightly lit room adorned with haunt couture to the dark entryway back into her main living suite.
Stella's lips formed a pout as she reached for her phone. Her lock screen was covered in notifications that only ever seemed to be expanding. Normally she would be elated to see the number of new followers rise so quickly after posting a new photo. But the sensation felt hollow.
Her manicured fingers danced across the screen, until she brought the device to her ear.
"Tell me your night is sucker than mine, please."
On the other end there was a scoff, followed by a female voice. "Oh Stella, have you been drinking…again?"
"What? That's preposterous, why would the Crown Princess of the iron kingdom of Solaria ever be thought to do such a thing."
Even though Stella couldn't see her counterpart, she knew very well she was on the receiving end of a long, drawn out eye-roll. "Your speech is slurred. And your sarcasm is about twenty-percent more dry when you have been in your stash. Drinking away your emotions will only go so far, put that bottle down and talk."
Stella's cheeks puffed up before she released a long sigh, "I already have one mother. I really don't need another Dia." Stella made a face as she put the half-empty wine bottle on the table and went back to cradling her phone. "I put it down, and for the record I was almost…past the last quarter of the bottle."
"Yes, yes that's progress. I will send over a gold star to commemorate this achievement."
A dry laugh escaped Stella's lips, "Only acceptable if you personally deliver it. Seriously it feels like it's been forever since I last saw you, Diaspro. Let's say screw everything and spend a long weekend in Magix City. We will shop until our cards are maxed out and sample every single ice cream flavor at the café overlooking the city."
There was a long pause, one concerning enough that left a still bubbling Stella alarmed as she arched her brows. "Come on Diaspro! We need girl time!"
"We do, we really do. Can we do a raincheck?" Diaspro began, the warm and chipper tone in her voice fading as she began to speak lower. "But I am due to spend the rest of the summer in Eraklyon."
Stella's eyes widened in surprise, "What?! When are you going to tell me?!" At this point Stella was nearly shouting. Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes until a full stream of tears ran down her cheeks, effectively erasing her makeup she had spent hours on. Her mouth flung open only to clamp shut as her mind began processing.
"But our summer trip to the beach house…" Stella's voice trailed off before an unexplained laughter erupted from within her. "They are sentencing me back to Alfea-
"Oh Stella, come on now cheer up. It's just right now thing-things are a bit challenging. You are better informed than myself, so you probably have already heard about the rumors…"
This piqued Stella's interest, rumors? Stella lived for the gossip mill, her thrill of excitement simmered as she reminded herself whom she was speaking with. After years of friendship with Diaspro Stella had to continue to remind herself that her unseen companion wasn't typically privy to knowledge of rumors outside of the political sphere. Unlike Stella, who found herself leisurely enjoying social media, Diaspro wasn't allotted such an elongated luxury. Thus chances where any rumors she was mentioning were better suited for her station- not her teenage youth.
Stella shook her head. Despite her parents not having the slightest concern for displaying their infections before her, they did quite well to shield any formation of politics from her. Not that she minded, politics were boring and tedious that only provided gray hairs if the chatter from the royal salon was correct. It certainly made her dread wearing the crown one day.
"I haven't seen Daddy much lately, and the fight with Mother this morning marks the first time we have something like a proper mother-daughter chat in a while. I have been mostly left to my own devices, so unless it has something to do with the Countess of Callisto's very public breakup then that is a no."
"Something seems to be happening. I can't seem to get any credible details, so I will spare you the hearsay. But I assume it's something big that is being anticipated and it seems to go back to the magic shortage. Apparently Melody is having trouble, they have been desperately seeking allies over the past months."
Stella's brows knit, "I haven't heard anything about that…"
"Apparently their form of alliance ship is in the form of arranged marriages."
"How barbaric. Don't they realize those relationships are bound to fail. Example; my parents."
That comment did earn Stella a few chunks of laughter, "And that might be your saving grace."
"Yeah no kidding. If some prince shows up wanting my hand then he has to stay at the palace a week and be subjected to my parent's oh so loving relationship. That will have him running for the hills faster than his feet can carry him. Speaking of arranged, how is Sky. As much as I loathe the fact we can't spend our summer together, at least you get to spend time with him. Know it's been a while."
"Apparently their civil war has calmed down enough; they are now allowing more regular correspondence, and allowing travel- granted, heavily guarded. This time I only will have to have a dozen guards accompanying me during my stay."
Stella couldn't suppress the dry laugh lodged in her throat. "Down from two dozen, truly progress. I feel like in some universe I should be jealous of the fact my best friend gets to spend more time with my cousin in a week than I have my entire life. I mean seriously, I haven't seen Sky since I was, what like seven? If you weren't engaged to him I would forget that I even have a cousin."
"It really has been that long? It's hard to believe that the Eraklyon has been at war for that long…I can't ever remember visiting without war-time measures in effect."
Stella could feel the bittersweetness in her friend's words, the toll her long-distance and high stress relationship was.
As children, Stella had been close with her cousin Sky. Their single year age gap naturally led them to form a relationship that mirrored that of Radius and his younger sister, Samara's. They would spend endless hours running in the gardens, hiding from their retainers and finding creative ways to sneak sweets from the kitchen. It had been blissful.
That is until Sky's sixth birthday party, an attack by opposing forces on the capital city had forced the bright and merry celebration to transform into tragedy. One minute a young Stella was watching her beloved cousin open up her gift, the next the two were pulled apart and sent their separate ways far from one another. To only never see one another again.
Thinking of Sky, truly trapped in his castle, reminded Stella of the dim stories her governess had told her in her youth. One where a princess was in distress waited in a tower, waiting and longing for their true love to set them free. Though Stella had grown and become cynical of such fables, she couldn't help but to feel hollow when she thought of that one and her cousin that she could no longer picture. She was eternally grateful that he had someone as kind and bright as Diaspro beside him, but yet her own heart twisted knowing that even his own true love wasn't enough to save him from his tower. And said love was also becoming confined by the branches that separated them from the rest of the universe.
If only there was someone, a hero that was strong enough to shatter though that tower and save her loved ones. But the years told her that no one of the like existed.
As Stella listened to Diaspro continue the conversation, her mind began to wonder as she mentally countdown the days until she would be locked in her own tower- Alfea.