I'm back! And now for the second chapter. Kai's POV. Yay! Aren't you excited?
Kai blinked blearily at his netscreen. He had been staring at the thing since five in the morning and he was tired. Tired of nonsensical political affairs, tired of various officials and documents all vying for his attention. Kai raked a hand through his hair, his fingers clenching on the black strands. He glanced at his watch. It was one in the afternoon now.
The icons on his netscreen weren't disappearing. One would have thought that the more time he spent in his office, the more work he would get done and the more icons would disappear. This was not the case. It seemed as if he finished one, five more would take over the screen. Kai pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, stifling a groan.
"Would you like tea, your majesty?" Nainsi asked wheeling in with a tray of biscuits. Kai managed a weak grin.
"Thank you Nainsi. Do you have any news for me?"
Nainsi's sensor brightened as she scanned through recent newsfeeds for anything of interest. She paused for a long while, then, "Not anything that will be of import, your Majesty."
Kai squinted at her. "Are you sure?" Nainsi dipped her round head and changed the subject skillfully.
"You have a union meeting in an hour, your Majesty," she said. Kai jerked his head up, eyes widening.
"Why was I not informed? Aren't the union meetings planned days in advance?" Nainsi was unruffled.
"Emergency meeting called by the Lunar delegates. They have something important to discuss with the Earthen leaders." Kai snorted.
"Really?"
"Yes, your Majesty. First tier Thaumaturge, Cress Erland and Ambassador Scarlet Benoit will be joining us for today." Nainsi avoided Kai's sudden expression of interest. "They will be discussing Queen Selene's recent exploits."
Kai ignored the crash and surge of mixed emotions that name provoked and cocked an eyebrow. "Let me guess. The Luna queen is declaring war?" he asked sarcastically. He hadn't thought of Cinder in a long time. Kai had a commonwealth to run and frankly, had no time to dwell on his mere teenage feelings. Feelings that didn't like to be suppressed even after six years. He picked up a biscuit and studied it unnecessarily.
Cinder had made it clear that Luna was her first priority. After the Lunar Revolution Selene took back her throne and turned her back on him. She wasn't coming back. Cinder was a good queen Kai supposed. She abolished the shell infanticide laws and built another city, Ember, just for Lunars without gifts to keep them safe from general populace, who saw shells as mutants. As many of the shells were only children or adolescents, Queen Selene gave them the choice to make their life in Ember or join the queen's guard. Since they cannot be affected by bioelectricity they make better guards than the regular hires.
The wolf hybrids became her loyal soldiers and she created the Lunar Emigration Act. All Lunars were implanted with I.D chips complete with bioelectricity disrupters so they could never use their abilities on Earth. Something about passing the Lunar atmosphere that makes the disrupters activate or something. Kai wasn't sure on the details, only that it worked.
Letumosis cures were shipped to every which country curing the billions of lives, Levana refused to save. Kai was grateful, but-
"Your Majesty!" Nainsi said. "Were you listening?" Kai shook off his reverie and focussed on his former tutor giving her a sheepish smile.
"No, sorry." Nainsi couldn't change her face to display her emotions but her sensor flashed slightly disapproving.
"I said," she repeated. "Her Majesty Queen Selene might be some sort of trouble. The press released some... rather unethical photos of her and second-tier Thaumaturge Reece Blackcrest." She pivoted toward Kai's netscreen. Digits tapping on the screen, Nainsi pulled up the most recent picture of them together.
Cinder had a gloved hand wrapped around her handsome thaurmaturge's bicep and it showed her laughing at something he had said. Their heads were dipped together and they would have almost looked like a couple if it had not been for the distant look in her eyes.
Cinder was dressed casually, only in a green cable knit sweater, jeans, and leather boots, unlike her usual luxurious dresses and expensive ensemble. Cinder was by far the youngest nation leader, at only twenty-two years of age, and was a natural trendsetter especially in the eyes of the Earthens who saw her as one of their own. She had lived on Earth for most of the years of her life. Cinder was the dream of every girl come true. A kind, beautiful girl who rose to be a princess, and now queen of a powerful and influential intergalactic empire. She was often featured in magazines, and though she never gave interviews, everyone liked to fantasize about her life. How she lived, what she wore, and who she interacted with.
There were very few pictures of Cinder on the net. Most of them showed her attending Earthen hosted social gatherings, and, of course, the famous signing of the Treaty of the Phoenix which led to numerous changes in Earthen and Lunar laws that endeared her to many of the people in both Luna and Earth. But even then, the photos of her were few and in between. And if the one photo of her that was taken in Luna had that Thaumaturge in it, how close were Blackcrest and Cinder really?
Kai couldn't prevent himself from convulsively clenching his fists. The bitter taste of jealousy burned his throat, robbing him from his voice. Nainsi chose to ignore his temporary lapse and wheeled herself to pour him a cup of tea. Her voice was soft as she said carefully, "I know you... are fond of the queen, your Majesty, but-"
"But nothing. I have nothing to do with her." Kai involuntarily glanced past Nainsi to the small cyborg foot that still lay on the corner of his desk. He had encased it in a velvet box, always making sure he had room on his desk to accommodate it. It looked like altar among the clutter of papers and extravagant knick-knacks. Kai should have thrown it away six years ago on the night of the annual ball. He should never have picked it up. Never should have kept it. He didn't know why he kept it all this years when clearly, Cinder..., no Selene had never spared him a moment's thought.
"The Lunar line has always been known for their promiscuity. I don't see why Queen Selene would be so different," said Nainsi. She enlarged the picture of the two of them. "This picture was the first of many. Artemisia News released the photos to the public. The ones taken after Her Majesty's birthday bash are the ones that are being taken into question." She tapped a pronged hand on the screen. "This picture is innocent enough but the others might harm Her Majesty's pristine reputation. Nothing like this has happened before and Queen Selene's fans might be hard pressed to believe in the truth in these photos."
Kai gritted his teeth and hissed out a breath. "It doesn't matter. Let's go Nainsi," he said with one last look at Thaumaturge Blackcrest's smirking face and stalked out of his office.
Kai seated himself in his chair before the paneled wall of netscreens displaying the faces of another dozen or so ambassadors from all the other Earthen countries. At the bottom right were two Lunars envoys, Thaumaturge Cress with her glossy blonde hair done up in a neat braided bun and Ambassador Scarlet with her flashing green eyes and steely demeanor. Kai's eyes flickered from the screens to Torin's face ,which held no surprise at being called to a meeting without advance knowledge, only his usual stoicism and calm.
"Let this meeting come to order then, as we are all here," said Prime Minster Bromstad. Queen Camilla folded her hands primly in her lap.
"Let us talk about why this meeting had to ensue in the first place. If you had been on the net for the past few days, I am sure you would have seen the-"she paused and her eyes slid to the Lunar delegates, " utterly unseemly photos posted and circulating, featuring Her Majesty Queen Selene and her... Thaumaturge." Prime Minister Kamin shifted in her seat and Kai realized that she was not the only official uncomfortable with this conversation. President Vargas cleared his throat and looked down. The representatives avoided eye contact with the Lunar diplomats on the screen. Thaumaturge Cress remained impassive though Ambassador Scarlet stiffened, her eyes blazing.
"Be very, very careful of what you are implying, Queen Camilla. My sovereign may be young, but Queen Selene is still a queen. Keep in mind who you are speaking of."
"I am merely giving voice to our concerns. It is absolutely inappropriate for a queen to do such things especially in such a public venue. And in the streets like some common whore!" Queen Camilla swept a hand over her desk as if to emphasize her point. Ambassador Scarlet slammed her hands on her desk on the other side of the direct comm and half rose, mouth opening as to give Queen Camilla a piece of her mind.
"Enough!" President Vargas snapped. "Isn't it enough that we have this problem to deal with? We don't need another." The red-hair Lunar ambassador narrowed her eyes, her mouth set into a grim line, but sat down slowly.
"It wasn't like that," she said forcing a calm composure, but Kai could see her inner turmoil. How she kept her anger on a loose leash. It wouldn't take much for her to explode in her queen's defense again.
"It wasn't like that," she said again when she calmed down. "Cinder...no, sorry, Her Majesty wouldn't do something like that. There is nothing between Reece and Queen Selene. Yes, I'll admit, Reece does have a... slight infatuation with Her Majesty, but Queen Selene has never acted on it and never will. She told me..." she trailed off and Kai swore her green eyes flickered to his for a sec but then it was gone and he wondered if he had imagined it.
"So Queen Selene wasn't drunk and 'intimately embracing' Thaumaturge Blackcrest at her birthday jubilee?" A province representative from South America asked, "because it sure looked like it." Ambassador Scarlet snapped her gaze to her partner, Thaumaturge Cress who had been silent for most of the discussion.
The quiet soft spoken thaumaturge sighed, "Nothing happened between Queen Selene and Thaumaturge Blackcrest, I assure you. Her Majesty is never without guards-"
"Then why were the guards not doing their job?" demanded Governor-General Williams, "If my memory serves to be correct, in none of photos did Queen Selene have guards with her."
"If you would be so gracious to let me continue," Thaumaturge Cress cut in smoothly. "Queen Selene likes her privacy and her guards are not always visible when she attends functions, but her guard detail is always watching from the background. As with this particular incident, it was Blackcrest that was extremely intoxicated, not Her Majesty. He should not have been drinking as he was on duty but Queen Selene was kind enough overlook the infraction and support him back to the palace gates, until he stumbled and pulled Her Majesty on top of him," Thaumaturge Cress's tone darkened. "Of course the press was following them taking pictures so they twisted the story around to make a better story and a story was what they got."
"But," said an American rep, "this is not the first time I heard of Queen Selene and her second-tier thaumaturge featured together." The Lunar delegates exchanged looks of exasperation.
"Thaumaturge Blackcrest has always had interest in the queen. Reece has the approval of the people. He comes from a good family, is extremely good-looking, and is one of Queen Selene's primary advisors. They would make a great couple and the citizens of Luna would definitely approve of Queen Selene's choice if the queen really did agree to a relationship with him, but Her Majesty has resigned herself to never marry, especially to him." Thaumaturge Cress curled her lip in disgust.
"Why?" Kai wanted to know. Thaumaturge Cress glanced at him.
"Oh, if I would hazard a guess, I would think it was because she hadn't gotten the offer she wanted yet. " The Lunar envoy's stare bored into him, an intense blue before she looked away a slight smile on her face. "Thaumaturge Blackcrest might be a good candidate but in the end it will always depend on Her Majesty's decision. After this fiasco though, I'd be surprised if Queen Selene doesn't dismiss him. She's not exactly fond of him at the moment." Ambassador Scarlet snorted.
"That would be the understatement of the century."
"What are you going to do about this?" asked a state rep from the European Federation.
"I think Her Majesty needs some time to rest and I think it would be in the best interest for the throne if Queen Selene disappeared for a while, just until this mess dies down." Ambassador Scarlet held out a hand to prevent the protests she knew would spring up. "Princess Winter will take care of affairs pertaining to both Luna and the Earthen Union. She is perfectly qualified and we will make sure Reece Blackcrest is punished accordingly."
She folded her arms across her chest. "If there aren't any other things to discuss I think Thaumaturge Cress and I will have to get to work." She waited until nods were directed at her. On the other side, she reached to turn off her direct comm, but then froze, "Oh, and by the way, if you are able to reduce the amount of attention this whole debacle is causing we would be most appreciative." Ambassador Scarlet winked and disappeared.
"I can't believe Luna is being run by such children," Prime Minister Bromstad muttered shaking his head.
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-Silverleaf