26. II:Interlude: Away From the Front Lines (1/2)

act ii

interlude: away from

the front lines

castle wyndia had

become significantly more boring since the recent departure of the

two people who had figured prominently in luna's life there. she

found that despite thinking that nina was a stuck-up snob, she missed

nina in a strange way that she couldn't quite fathom. it was

nothing like the way that the other kids around her age in the castle

missed the aggravating princess, sure, but it was there and it

bothered luna. why should she care at all that the princess was

gone?

however, she didn't

often get the opportunity to try to figure out herself, or even the

changes of the three years since she had arrived. either she was in

class (which she even – zenith forbid! – found interesting

occasionally), out training (which she still liked best) or was being

pestered by the other royal

at. though why she couldn't

get prince kenneth to leave her alone stumped her. she had tried

everything short of thumping him.

the worst part was that

where the prince went, so did followers. and because nina was not

present, some that would prefer to follow her were following him as a

replacement. it very nearly made luna sick to think about. maybe

that was why she missed nina after all. because anything was

preferable to being followed around by a ten-year-old and his posse.

especially when you're fifteen and want nothing to do with said

child.

luna's slack

expression as she stared out the window of the castle to the front

grounds seemed to be no hint to the prince, who nattered on,

ostensibly to her, about what he had learned about her particular

and of ascent in his lessons lately. of course, it was really to

his sycophants about how wonderful/smart/quick or whatever he was.

luna tried to engage herself with the sights of particular citizens

of the city going about their business, but they were boring enough

that it didn't really help her.

she found, as usual,

her rage rising as the toadies laughed at something that kenneth had

just related to them. probably about himself, but at this point luna

wasn't paying enough attention (thankfully) to be able to tell.

she finally turned around, her rage fighting its way through her

boredom to take her attention. why are you listening to this

at? she asked the ones who were about her age silently. it

was understandable enough to follow nina around, as you might be able

to pretend to be her 'friend'.

luna, of course, saw it

for what it really was. when she had talked to ryu about it, he

agreed with her readily: the other nobles in the castle desperately

wanted to be on the good side of the royal family. she had known it

was bad (pretending to be friends is pretty bad), but it ran deeper

than even she had expected. she hadn't figured that it would be

bad enough to pretend to be friends with the royal child that was

five years younger.

luna's glare at

kenneth seemed to be having about as much effect on him as her

disinterested stare. he continued to talk about nothing in

particular, though some of the others were noticing the powerful

stare that luna had leveled at the royal

at. this of course,

changed nothing about the conversation, since the one person who

hadn't noticed the stare was the one who was talking and kept

talking. and talking. some of the others were becoming visibly

nervous.

luna's patience was

already thin, but it managed to not become any thinner due mostly to

the faces that she was causing on the other kids. she was enjoying

something for the first time in a while in the his presence,

so she kept it up, trying to see what faces would be made if she did

so. each moment that passed, something else became slightly more

amusing, so she was never quite disappointed by the further and

further reactions.

finally, one of the

sycophants started tapping kenneth on the shoulder. a single tap

didn't even

eak the cadence of the monologue he had been keeping

up, but after about a minute of semi-continuous tapping, the cadence

finally began to falter, and another fifteen seconds of renewed vigor

in the tapping saw the monologue come to a close, if merely a

trail-off. "what?" ken asked the guy who was tapping him. the

response was a silent indication of luna's face, to which ken

finally really looked at; then he grinned. "oh, she always looks

like that eventually."

slap!

ken's left cheek was

rapidly turning red, and his hand came up seeking to rub away the

sudden pain. gasps sounded all around as the nobles realized that

the prince had just been slapped. tears were welling up in his eyes,

and he burst into tears as he tore down the hallway toward the throne

room. most of the others followed quickly, but one remained behind.

he was of the same age as nina, ryu and luna. he was in the lessons

that they were, as well as training. like most of the other nobles,

he was a wyndian ascent like nina and ken. his wings were smaller

than most of the other wyndians, but luna knew that he was a better

flyer than any but nina.

his name was "oren."

he bowed to luna, who looked completely unimpressed. i know your

name, idiot. "i don't believe we've properly met."

luna huffed and turned

to walk in the opposite direction of where the prince had fled. "i

don't believe i wanted it to happen." her steps were loud in the

now nearly deserted corridor. before she could take more than two,

however, she found her arm held back. she spun and called her

magical power to her hand, facing it palm outwards to her assailant,

who looked rather taken aback at her reaction. "did you think i

was kidding?" she asked in a dangerous voice.

oren swallowed,

obviously fearful of the power that was visible in luna's hand.

this was unsurprising, as luna had even more magical power than nina

did, which she had proved in a recent sparring match between them.

ryu had watched the duel closely to make sure that neither of them

had hurt each other, and that had been enough to stop either girl

from actually trying to cause bodily harm. but luna had won handily,

and it was known throughout the castle that the most powerful

sorceress in it was the celestial ascent.

"i- i'm sorry,"

oren stuttered, not really succeeding at sounding anything but

scared.