VIII
It had been Artemis that had ran from the palace to the rose garden to retrieve her.
And he had been the one who, between breaths, informed her of the incident that had occurred during the talks that day: of her mother having to be removed from the conference room, and of her quick entrance and exit from the Mare Serenitatis.
"Her Majesty requested to be in her office to abate worry. …I believe the physicians may still be with her as we speak."
He did not ask permission to take her hand and guide her to her mother, senshi in tow.
The palace passed by her in a blur of the paintings and carvings that adorned the walls. Belatedly, she noticed that their traveled path had none of the other royals and fewer of the palace guards.
With heavy pants and sweat traveling down her forehead and back, Serenity dropped the hand of her mother's scribe as they all ran up the final flight of stairs and came upon the hallway that led to the foyer of her mother's office.
There were no guards posted at the doors. Her eyes absorbed the sight of the elders huddled around one another like a flock of birds, talking amongst themselves as usual. Whatever matter they were discussing—because they had been speaking of a matter of importance—ended as one or all of them spied her.
Serenity tried to swallow the feeling of foreboding within her to no avail. "Thank you," she said to Artemis.
He bowed, his white hair falling across the shoulders of his dress shirt like a curtain. For a moment, she stared at him. The chest-width necklace he wore that told of his position as a scribe, the large gold-plated, upturned-crescent moon pendant that always caught the light of the sun dangled from its chain.
And then her gaze focused on the wizened figures before her. Her forehead wrinkled; she felt she knew there was something they did not want to tell her. There was something important, differentiating, about this moment between them.
"Princess—" An elder suddenly broke from the pack to near her.
A deep need to rebuff him and the others rose. She shook her head minutely; she didn't want to hear. "Be silent."
The elder stopped in his tracks. It was the first time she had ever spoken to any one of them so rudely before. One by one, they showed varying expressions of shock—except Aglecta, of course, whose face was pinched in anger at her indignation.
It was of no matter; she gave one final glance towards her senshi before walking to the golden handles of those sliding doors and parting them herself.
The afternoon sun filtered through the foyer's windows and made bright squares across the carpet, butterscotch leather chairs, and peonies that sat in their large porcelain pots. The childish part of herself thought back to the days when she was young and would tiptoe across this room in stocking feet to surprise her mother in the middle of her work. How many times had she imagined herself one day standing behind the large oak desk that was always covered in stacks of paper?
How close was she to that moment now?
She startled as the doors leading to her mother's actual office opened suddenly. In their gap stood Luna in a yellow dress with a pattern of flowers, and a tray of water and cups in her hands. "Princess!" She gasped.
"Luna."
Luna's bow was deep yet brief. "Please excuse me." Her mother's handmaiden pushed open the door on her behalf and made a circle to step around her, but the princess had already seen the red, swollen look of her eyes.
A lump was growing in her throat.
Serenity's own gaze found her mother not behind her large mahogany desk, but doubled over in one of the chairs at the other side, the one that was always positioned towards the window for her to survey the palace grounds. The zipper of the dress the queen wore, white with gold beaded embroidery, was left gaping open. "Mama!" She ran towards her mother and fell to her knees before her. "W, what is wrong? What has happened?!" Her worried eyes searched her mother's face and the lines around around her mouth and eyes. Already she looked so different. So old.
Her mother did not answer right away. Her hand caressed her daughter's face ever so gently and searched her face with her eyes. "…There is a great change that will soon occur in our kingdom."
Serenity felt a chill of fear at those words. "What?"
"There is something important I must share with you. I must finally allow you to see." Her mother began to pull at the shoulders of her dress, fully shedding the expensive fabric and baring her alabaster skin, using her right hand to cup her left breast in modesty. She raised her left arm.
From her lower rib to her armpit, it had the dark appearance of a terrible bruise and the texture of a snake's: dry and cracked. It looked foreign…dead…
Serenity's eyes widened and words of inquiry died on her lips. She lifted a trembling hand to it—
"No! Serenity, you mustn't!"
She obeyed the rise of volume and panic in her mother's voice, and felt glad that she had been stopped. "…W, what is it?"
"I, I do not know. And the physicians do not know; only that it is the cause of my sickness and pain… It, it eats away at me on the inside… And grows everyday." She shuffled her dress' material back unto her milky-white shoulders. "I can no longer hide this from you…" her mother looked down at her with a calm look in her eyes, but the princess saw the tears gathered at each corner. In the softest voice, the she said, "My life and my reign as Queen of the Moon are ending."
Her mother once again began coughing, hard wracking sounds that made her body shake and her eyes shut tightly…but Serenity could not bring herself to help her, not after being told that she was not to do so earlier. "But, what about going to the sanatorium? Artemis told me… Cannot the crystal heal you?"
The queen swallowed. "…The crystal no longer responds to me."
Her head shook in disbelief. "Why not?!"
She shook her head. "I do not know. But my connection to it has weakened too greatly. It only spoke to me this morning. And it had one final request of me: to enter the Holy Sanatorium and put it in its proper place. And it will stay there until you are ready to assume its power…
"…I was never told how it would be when my power waned. Even your grandmother lived for another half-century after I assumed my role…"
Hot, salty tears began to fall from Serenity's eyes. Her fingers gripped the fabric of the carpet underfoot. A sob left her lips.
"Shhh," her mother soothed. Her hand smoothed her hair, pulling back on the strands that had loosened from her buns. "You cannot cry for long, my love. You must now look forward. When you and I leave this room and face those gathered in the hallway, you will be the ascending queen. The embodiment of the Moon's future. You must appear to be strong for all to see; you must show yourself to be capable in the coming days."
She nodded.
She was coaxed to stand and wipe her tears. It was her hands that zipped up her mother's dress and made her decent once more.
The walk from the office and back to the hallway felt like the longest she had ever taken in her life. Whatever girlish thoughts within her seemed so small and insignificant now. She had been laughing mere moments before in the rose garden; that felt like a lifetime ago compared to now.
She opened the doors herself and faced the people who stood on the other side. The elders again stopped whispering amongst themselves, but not before she heard the last of Aglecta's words: "…return to the Earth in a fortnight, if not earlier…"
"I present to you," her mother said in a calm, careful voice to the gathering, "your future queen: Her Royal Majesty Queen Serenity II of the Moon Kingdom's Silver Millennium."
There was a pause. All looked at her, but she could not meet their collective gaze, deigning only to look straight ahead.
Artemis and a still-tearful Luna bowed first, falling to their knees. "Your Royal Majesty…"
Her senshi placed their hands on their hearts and bowed low enough that Venus' and Mars' long hair touched the floor. "Your Royal Majesty," they said in unison.
"…Your Royal Majesty," the elders said, hesitating, but bowing the lowest they had ever had towards her…
Hands wringing together, eyes wide, words caught in her throat, she murmured a word of thanks. Without any more to say, she left her mother and all her mother's people behind.
The walk down the stairs and through the hallways was not even the same. The other royals were all milling about suddenly, laughing as they always had, unaware of what was unfolding behind the palace's most private doors. Her head felt disconnected from her body; she fought against the prickle of tears that threatened to run down the apples of her cheeks.
The footfalls of her senshi came behind her, and she could sense their hesitancy to speak. "Princess," Venus finally began—
Serenity merely shook her head. She did not dare to stop and face them. "May I be left alone?" She whispered. "Please."
The footsteps stopped. "O—of course."
She wiped her eyes as she ducked through a hallway that led to an outdoor walkway. The heels of her shoes scrapped the bricks underneath. The world outside seemed to have changed with the news; dark clouds in the sky promised rain and a wind whipped about her. But still, she did not cease in her travel until she reached her destination.
Endymion and the other delegates had been housed in the northwestern wing of the palace during their stay. She could remember how he admitted he quite liked the lower-level room he had been given and its matching burnished cream-colored furniture and curtained walls, and large, width-spanning windows that showed him the small courtyard and near-perfect view of Earth. The princess found herself being grateful for the distance that now existed between him and the other bedrooms and suites of the Moon Palace where the royals deigned to live.
There he was, seated on the couch with his elbows resting on his knees. The back of his hands were interwoven into a bridge to rest his chin. His four protectors flanked his either side and spoke above his head, gesturing with hand sweeps and nods. Their expressions were all clouded, serious as they entreated him; his was bored and blank.
She willed him to look up and see her standing on the other side of the wall of glass between them.
He did so.
Immediately he rose from his seat, surprising his men and one by one, they all looked to what had caught his attention. Serenity could almost hear his footsteps along the hard wood floor and the tinkling of the low-hanging chandelier as it brushed the top of his dark hair.
She walked towards him and could see herself in the reflection of the glass. It was as if she were no longer looking at herself: the girl before her in the draped off-white dress was a child, and she was now being commanded by The Fates to suddenly become an adult.
The sky was beginning to open up to the sadness she felt. A fat raindrop landed on her shoulder. And then on her cheek.
The glass door slid open with a smooth, quiet sound. He led her inside with his arm outstretched, and palm open. His fingers wrapped her hand in his warmth.
The space smelled like his cologne, musk and cloves.
She stared over his shoulder at his soldiers, who bowed to her, and then at the wall behind him where an old, worn shield had been placed for decoration. For a moment, she stared at him and the way it looked like his face was framed in a golden circle of light.
His fingertips ran over her face, the curves of her cheeks and her chin. "…What has happened with your mother?" He murmured gently.
The saccharine feeling was gone. Tears gathered in her eyes as she thought about what she knew, what he was asking her to say.
"Tell me." He pressed in his deep and gentle, soothing voice. "You can tell me."
The realization that she could and wanted to, and the need to cry finally overwhelmed her. "She…she…she is dying." She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his shirt as she felt the tears fall. "She is dying!"
She could hear the sound of his soldiers retreating from the space.
They, she and Endymion, stood without speaking. The rain fell steadily against the windows; hiccups and sobs left her lips.
Endymion's arms wrapped around her and she could feel the heat of his embrace through her clothing and on her skin. "…Your mother began coughing in the midst of a discussion. The topic argued was being initiated from my side of the table. Usually she excuses herself and talk is paused until her return. But this time…she fell to her knees as she tried to exit, faint. Her hand was covering her mouth.
"Her scribe—"
"Artemis," she murmured.
"He ran from his place to help her to her feet. I believe he was there before anyone truly understood what was occurring. But as she stood, she touched his suit jacket with the hand that covered her mouth. All saw the mark of blood she had left."
Serenity remembered the fleeting thought she had had when Artemis first came upon her in the rose garden, and now realized the cause of why he had looked so different: his suit jacket had been missing.
She cried, not wanting to know anymore.
He held her tighter. "I am sorry. I know she is important to you." He rubbed her back in small, soothing circles. "…I have been waiting for word regarding the talks."
"The elders want to end the talks. I heard Aglecta say so…"
"We—myself, the other delegates, and even my guard—have all suspected as much…"
Serenity lifted her head. "I do not want you to leave." He touched her face once more, brushing his fingertips along her forehead and birthmark, and she grabbed his wrists to keep his warmth near. "I do not want you to leave," she repeated. "How can I be without you?" The moment the words left her, she knew that she could feel the meaning behind them: her overwhelming need and her helplessness; her want to have him near just for her sake; and her own guilt for that desire. But she could not help herself; her heart seemed to find a way to ache even more than before at the very idea of him being far away. "I am not strong without you."
"That is not true: you are very strong. You have your people, your senshi, others who care for you."
She thought about the wall of faces that had stared at her as she had stood before them as their ascending queen. She shook her head. Thunder sounded outside and it felt like she was listening to the sounds of a world where she simply existed as her mother's child crash down and turn to dust. "No, I am not. I am strong with you! My heart knows it is strong with you near!"
"…My men have tried to convince me that it would be best to leave the Moon for now. They have told me of my obligations to my people—and they are correct. As a ruler, I have an obligation to be on my planet, for it is my responsibilty. But, I have told them that it is impossible for me to leave… My heart beats as a man. And it tells me it would stay behind and continue to beat for you if I left the Moon behind me."
He stared into her eyes. "…I love you."
She felt her own heart skip a beat at his words. Suddenly, thoughts of her mother and of her fast-approaching future faded away. If his heart beat as only a man who loved her, then hers beat as the woman she was being told to become. It beat for him only, the prince of Earth haloed in gold. "I love you, too."
She stared at him through her tears and wished, as she had since the moment she had heard him say her name, that he would kiss her.
He bent forward and his lips pressed against hers. She savored the feeling that came again and again, and became sad when he pulled away for air.
The storm continued outside and her lips and her very soul were given the warmth of his touch and affection. His promises were almost as sweet: "I love you, I will never leave…I love you, I promise I will be with you…I love you, I promise to protect you…I love you…"
A/N: I am very sorry for the mishap that went down when I went to upload this. It's taken weeks, but it's back up.