Allura made her way through the corridors of the Castle. Even at this late hour, they were filled with people — guards patrolling the premises, housekeeping staff on their early morning rounds.
She fled the castle and the intrusive presence of others casting speculative glances at her rumpled dress and sought refuge in the privacy of castle gardens.
Her carriage was exquisitely straight and her expression was serene, but an indefinable emotion glimmered in her eyes, invisible to all those she encountered, even as she stopped to return their greetings.
She returned the salutes of the sentries posted outside the main entrance to the Castle with a distracted smile, knowing that they would report her exit to the officer-of-the-watch at Castle Control.
Allura spared a moment from her flight to study the lake surrounding the castle. The oddly mournful sound of waves crashing against the shore echoed the restlessness that churned in her blood.
A valdxa hooted in the distance, a long call that drifted through the air, fading to humming silence. The wind blew, humming though the grass and Allura shivered in reaction. It was almost as if Arus itself knew that something was wrong, she fancifully imagined.
She thought briefly about going out to her mother's rose garden or visiting her father's tomb — but decided otherwise. She needed to talk to the living — not with the dead — and steep herself in their wisdom.
Without knowing exactly how she got there, she found herself outside the Medical Facility of the Castle. She hesitated outside the closed doors, unsure of the propriety of her chosen course of action.
It WAS late and she didn't want to disturb Coran if he was resting.
The heavy metal doors opened with a soft swoosh and the Princess stood facing a woman that she recognized from her many visits to the Medical Facility as Doctor Gorma's night-duty nurse.
"Y-y-your Highness," the nurse-on-duty stammered, visibly mortified by being caught by the Princess Royal reading a gossip magazine speculating on the state of the Princess' marriage. Throwing the magazine aside, she immediately sank into a deep curtsey.
With a graceful movement of her slender hand, Allura asked the woman to rise, but the nurse did not see the motion. Her eyes were firmly focused on the polished stone flooring of the hallway.
"Please rise, Nurse Tiyara. Is the doctor in?"
The nurse shook her head as she slowly rose from her deep curtsey, but her eyes were still downcast. "No, Your Highness. I am afraid not. Would you like me to call him?"
"No, that's all right. I just wanted to ask him if I could visit the Prime Minister."
The woman bobbed her head and dipped into a small curtsey again and shuffled towards the darkened interiors of the Medical Facility. "Of course, Your Highness. Please, follow me."
Allura pushed open the doors to Coran's room quietly, cautiously peering in to check if her advisor was awake, unwilling to wake him if he was not.
"Good evening, Princess," Coran greeted her, peering up from the heavy book on Terran history that he was reading. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"
Allura stepped further into the room and pressed an affectionate kiss on the minister's lined cheek. "Nothing really, Coran," she said. "I just wanted to visit with you for a while."
With a quick wave of her hand, she called on her powers to move the heavy armchair that stood in the corner of the room closer to Coran's bed.
Coran studied the Princess' face carefully with the empathetic skill of a professional diplomat. Although Allura hid it well, her eyes held traces of fear and apprehension.
He could still remember when he had seen that expression on her face last — when he had had to explain to an eight-year-old Allura that her mother was never coming back.
Allura glanced up and caught his silent regard. But instead of meeting his eyes with her own, as she normally did, Allura hid her emotions behind the veil of her long lashes.
It was a telling gesture.
Coran smiled gently, trying to set her at ease, "Welcome back, Princess. I must apologize for having interrupted your vacation... and for not being able to greet you when you passed by earlier."
Allura returned his smile with one that was suspiciously bright. "It's perfectly alright, Coran. I'm glad that you were sleeping and I'm sure that Doctor Gorma would agree with me."
"Yes, I'm sure that he would," the Prime Minister agreed, chuckling softly, as he was expected to. "If Rool had his way, I would be sleeping almost 18 hours, instead of my normal five."
He made a production of closing his book and removing his spectacles. "But to be perfectly honest, Your Highness, I am glad to have some company. Having being cooped up like is enough to drive me insane!"
His attempt to set the princess at ease worked marvelously Coran noted, as he noticed Allura's shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly. "Now, tell me, how was your trip to Terra?"
He listened with interest as Allura began speak. Her words painted pictures so vivid that Coran could almost see what she saw. He hid a secret smile as he listened to her. It seemed as though every other sentence began with the word Keith — Keith did this and Keith did that.
"Hmmm... It seems that you and the young captain are getting along quite well. It is obvious that it is not love that puts shadows in your eyes."
His cultured rumble grated against Allura's lacerated nerves. Averting her eyes, she bit her lip nervously and began to smooth imaginary creases in her skirts.
"Tell me, Daughter of Cador," he asked, with the air of quiet authority that was his hallmark. "You have seen something in your dreams, have you not?"
Allura straightened in her chair and stared at her trusted advisor with wide eyes. He never called her a Daughter of Cador. "I never told you about my dreams... How did you know about them?"
"Little Princess, I have known you since before you were born. Even as a child, you would never let us know of your dreams for fear that it would worry us."
A pained, haunted look crossed Allura's face.
"Why else would you speak the Words of Investiture?" Coran pointed out quietly. "We did not make any plans to do so and you would not have done something like this without consultation unless you thought that you had to."
"I'm glad you understand." Allura whispered, rising from her seat to pace around the small room. "I'm sorry for not telling you, but I didn't want to worry you."
She opened the drapes to allow the night enter the room. "Something's going to happen, Coran. I can feel the dark power humming in the air, growing in strength, even as we speak."
Coran's normally ruddy face paled and his mind raced wildly. He cleared his throat and called on all the skills he had learned in his career as a diplomat to force fear from his voice. "Do you mean Haggar and Zarkon, Your Highness?"
Allura nodded.
For the first time in his life, Coran was at a loss for words. He closed his eyes and offered up a quick prayer to the gods for the safekeeping of the child — he still found it difficult to think of Allura as a woman — who was his daughter in everything but blood.
With one brisk movement of her hand, Allura closed the drapes, once again shutting out the darkness outside the brightly lit sanctuary of the Castle of Lions.
"Coran, please get well," Allura said quietly. "Keith will need you more than ever if..." Her voice trailed off and broke. "If anything happens to me."
The Prime Minister marveled at the compassion and inner strength of his princess and he was filled with bitter regret for what he knew the future had in store for her. There was so much he wanted to tell her, but he was unable to launch words past the lump that had lodged in his throat. He settled for nodding silently instead.
Allura's answering smile, as she perched by his bedside, was watery, but her expressive eyes spoke volumes, telling him without words, that she knew what he was about to say.
"I love you, Coran. Thank you for everything." Allura pressed a kiss to his cheek. Her smile, when she lifted her head, was weak, but her eyes were filled with love. "Take care of everyone for me."
Coran closed his eyes and held her tightly to him for a brief moment, wishing with all his heart that he could shelter his Little Princess from this storm as he had protected her from so many others.
It was at that instant that the alarm klaxons began to sound.
Keith's reaction to the strident sound of alarms was almost instantaneous. Reflexes honed by years of intense training at the academy and countless battles came into play.
He dashed out of his study and ran the distance to Castle Control at a controlled pace, almost colliding with Sven as he turned a sharp corner near the diplomat's quarters. "You haven't left yet?" He asked with some surprise, not waiting to hear his friend's answer.
He burst into the Castle Control and found Pidge seated at the master control station, furiously typing in a series of commands. The monitors scattered across the situation room flashed information.
"What's happening?" Keith demanded, coming to a stop next to Lance.
"We can't be certain, but it looks like several ro-beasts have landed on Arus. We've received four different distress calls," Hunk reported gruffly.
Keith swallowed, feeling a chill crawl up his spine.
"Make that five distress calls," Pidge reported, in clipped tones. "We just received another one. We have visual contact. I'm putting it up on the big screen now."
A face appeared on screen, broken by multi-colored lines of interference. Keith recognized him as Madero, the leader of a major settlement in Liroeon, the continent east of Altaire. He felt a surge of admiration for the old man. He stood tall and proud, defiantly refusing to give in to the weakness caused by his many injuries.
"Castle Control? Do you read me? I'm reading you but the transmission is very weak."
Keith spared the time to smile reassuringly at Allura as she entered into the room while the computers worked to amplify the signal. "We read you, kalim," he said as the connection stabilized, using the ancient Arussian word for honored elder. "What is your situation?"
The old man bowed as soon as he recognized Keith and Allura. "Your Highnesses. The armies of Zarkon attacked in the dark of the night with a monstrous robot."
The camera panned across what had once been a bustling village square.
Keith's stomach tightened in reaction at as the sight of the bodies littering the area.
Allura spoke up in a voice tight with despair, "Kalim, we will send our troops to you as soon as possible to help you in the relief operations. My prayers go out to you and your people."
Another flicker of static crossed the screen before it went blank. Pidge spoke up quietly from his position, "It's the same everywhere, Princess. Look at this."
The main monitor began to show a collage of images — eight settlements — not voluntarily abandoned but simply cut down in their prime.
Allura's eyes darkened with unshed tears and her voice broke as she tried to fight the tears that threatened to consume her. "We have to do something."
Keith nodded grimly. "We will, but YOU are going to sit this one out, Princess." His eyes softened as he took Allura's hand. "Please, for my peace of mind, let Sven will fly the Blue today. Please, Allura."
It was the final please that did it. The protest that automatically formed on Allura's lips remained unspoken. Although she would have preferred to go out and fight her own battles, it wasn't in her nature to let those she loved suffer form unnecessary worry.
"Alright," Allura agreed quietly.
Her gaze flickered from Keith's face to their joined hands, at the way that his strong fingers entwined with hers. A pang of sadness washed over her as she remembered their moments together and she wished desperately for a future that would never happen.
Courage and deathless love, she reminded herself once again. If their time together was ending, she didn't want Keith's memory of their last moments together to be sad ones.
"Just promise me you'll all be careful," Allura said, forcing a smile onto her lips as she glanced from one face to another — Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Sven.
"Of course," Pidge crowed as he stood up from the master control station. "Aren't we always?" he teased as he hopped down from the rising platform and sprang for the handlebars that would lead him into his lion.
"That goes double for you too." Allura said as she turned to her husband. She wanted to tell him that she loved him, but she couldn't. It wouldn't be fair to him. Instead, she entrusted to him what was most precious to her. "Promise me you'll take care of my people for me."
Keith nodded, sensing the underlying sadness in his wife's words. Taking Allura's hand in both of his, he raised it to his lips and pressed a quick kiss to the back of it in lieu of the goodbye that was inexplicably caught in his throat.