Chapter Text
Prologue
“Lady Lunafreya.”
Luna offers Loqi only the briefest of nods and no words as she steps passed him into her room, unhappy but not wholly surprised to see him stood to one side of the door to her chambers, a featureless MT on the other.
Prison more like, but Luna knows it’s not worth saying that out loud.
Not for her, not for Ravus, not for the people of Tenebrae.
Not while they’re under Niflheim’s rule.
The door swings closed behind her with a resolute snap and Pryna jumps up from where she was sat with Gentiana by the window. Luna bends down to pet across her flank, some of her displeasure at being barred from important proceedings - again - melting away as she pushes her fingers through Pryna’s thick fur.
“How did it go, my lady,” Gentiana asks smiling softly.
“About as well as it usually does,” Luna tells her.
Gentiana pats the seat beside her and Luna shuffles over with a heavy weight across her shoulders, Pryna walking close to her heels as a comforting presence. Luna settles beside her, crossing her heels and looking out over the fields beyond her window, sylleblossoms just starting to bloom.
Gentiana places a hand on Luna’s knee, “Everything will be alright in time.”
- - -
Luna paces back and forth, so many passes over the lush rug that on any other day she’d worry about wearing a hole in it.
She’s alone for once, with nothing but the dogs for company - though they’re more than that - and that fact alone is enough to have her slightly on edge. So are the extra guards outside her door, Loqi plus six MTs, the most she’s ever had since she and Ravus agreed to be compliant.
They’re for her safety , Niflheim keeps saying but she knows they’re really there to stop her from leaving. To make it so she can’t go further than the gardens without being dragged back to her room.
Luna should be out there , she should be doing a job, her job. She’s the only one that can do it, heal people from illnesses not visible to the eyes, it’s her task in life - her destiny.
The door crashes open and the MTs rush in, surrounding her on all sides. Loqi is nowhere to be seen but Ravus follows them in, out of breath and frantic.
He stops a half dozen paces away from her, anguish twisting his face almost beyond familiarity.
“I’m sorry, sister,” Ravus says.
“Please,” Luna starts, begging right from the off, “Please Ravus, there has to be another way.”
“There is not,” Ravus intones, “I am sorry.”
“Please, together we can think of something.”
Ravus shakes his head and slowly draws his sword from its sheath hanging along beside his thigh.
The MTs shift, raising their own weapons and starting to close ranks.
“Ravus,” she breathes, closing her eyes tight and clenching her fists to brace for what is to come.
“I’m sorry,” Ravus repeats.