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Against all odds, Cassander Timaeus Berenice woke up.
The last thing they remembered was the heat, the incessant thrumming of Rigour's call, work work work WORK WORK WORK, and then… Nothing. Certainly nothing to explain how they'd come to be…
Where?
They opened their eyes, but they were met with dimness. The beeping next to them indicated a medical setting, and the scenery that resolved as their eyes adjusted seemed to bear that out. Everything had a strangely flat quality to it that they couldn't quite put their finger on, though. Until it hit them: they could only see out of their left eye.
Their left hand came up to investigate, fingertips finding the smooth surface of medical synthskin used to cover burns. The heat had been real, then, and not just muddled memories or their imagination.
If they were still alive, though, did that mean…?
"You're awake!" a familiar voice to their right gasped. Cass's head whipped around so they could confirm: Euanthe sat in a chair to the right of Cass's hospital bed, looking almost as drawn and haggard as they'd looked during their own interminable hospital stay. Their hands clutched at a bundle of sea silk that might have been some sort of craft project (how long had it been since Cass had seen them do anything with sea silk?), but the silk and the associated crafting implements fell to the floor when Euanthe stood and took the few steps needed to cross to Cass's side.
"What happened?" Cass croaked. Their throat and gills felt papery thin, like they might crack and crumble if Cass spoke too long. The humidity in the room seemed regulated enough to keep that from happening, but that didn't stop the sensation.
"You've been in a medically-induced coma for three months," Euanthe said. They kept their voice low, perhaps out of respect for the fact that it seemed to be night. "After—after. Everything. You got pulled out of a near-molten hunk of metal and the doctors have been trying to repair the damage ever since."
Cass snorted. "Turned tables," they muttered, which startled a laugh out of Euanthe.
"Yes, I suppose the tables have turned. I never appreciated how difficult it must have been for you to see me injured and on death's door before now." There was a watery quality to their words. Were they going to cry?
Euanthe reached for one of Cass's hands, and Cass let them take it. Their fingers were shaking, but warm against Cass's skin. Now that they were in Cass's sight line, they could see a handful of scars criss-crossing Euanthe's face and a brace on one wrist. So, Euanthe had not escaped the battle with Rigour unscathed.
Fuck. Rigour.
They must have said something out loud, because Euanthe shook their head. "Gone. You succeeded, for all that Rigour struggled. There was still a heavy cost."
"How bad was it?" The words were out before Cass could even consider whether or not they actually wanted to know the answer.
"For us, or in general?"
Cass shrugged, a gesture that tugged at more synthskin patches on their back and chest.
Euanthe, thankfully, took their meaning without them having to vocalize a clarification. "Overall, we lost about 30% of the forces we'd mustered across the board, though Diasporan forces took the brunt of it. On a personal level… Sokrates made it out with barely a scratch, and as far as I know, your friends are all fine. Executive Joie was even on a news report the other day. But you… You sustained so many burns that you may have permanent nerve damage. You responded well to nerve therapy in some places, but were resistant in others, and it will be another few months, if not a year, before you'll be ready for a replacement eye. You kept all your limbs, though, so that's something."
Their voice grew more watery as they listed off Cass's injuries until finally, it broke and Cass heard them sniffle. "I'm glad you're alive, Cassander," they said. "I'm sorry I made you feel like you were an only child. If I could go back and do it again, I would try to be a better sibling, but the best I can do is try being better going forward."
The apology hit Cass like a blow to the solar plexus, leaving them momentarily breathless. Things truly must have been bad if Euanthe were showing emotion like this, let alone apologizing. "Hey, we're here now," Cass said by way of stalling. The apology may have taken them off-guard, but they weren't ready to accept it. Not yet. Instead, they said, "At least you've got a chance to do that."
Euanthe nodded as though they had expected nothing less. They dabbed at their eyes gingerly with the cuff of their sleeve—a thoroughly undignified way to deal with their tears, but one that would preserve any eye makeup they had on. "Yes. We're very lucky you're still here. Though you're not out of the woods yet."
Cass squeezed their hand, the best they could manage as far as reassurance went. "If Rigour can't kill me, I doubt the hospital food can."
Another startled laugh. "You'd be surprised. For a hospital servicing royalty, its food service leaves something to be desired."
"I'll pass a law about hospital food when I get out of here," Cass said.
Euanthe's expression went pinched. "That… might be a while."
"You're regent, right?"
"Well, yes—" Euanthe began, but Cass cut them off.
"Then you do it," they said.
Euanthe rolled their eyes. "Fine. I will abuse my power as regent to make sure you have more palatable food than I did."
"Good," said Cass, letting their head drop back onto their pillow.
*
The sounds of a vid screen woke Cass up. They pushed themself upright and swiveled their head so their good eye could survey the room. Light poured through the windows on the far side of the room, enough that the overhead lights weren't even needed. The vid screen above the bed was on and tuned to a trashy soap opera, and in the seat Euanthe had occupied sat Sokrates. True to Euanthe's word, they didn't look physically worse for wear, but it was clear that Cass's time in a medically induced coma had taken a toll on them.
Their face brightened when they saw Cass was awake, however. They tapped a button on the data pad next to them to mute the show. "Hey, sib! Glad you're awake! How're you feeling?" Their voice sounded chipper, but there was an underpinning exhaustion that was impossible to ignore.
"Probably drugged to the gills," Cass said. Their throat felt less cracked and constricted today, which they took as a good sign. "No pain."
"Mmm, yeah, the doc said you had to be on some nerve blockers while the rest of your skin grows back," Sokrates said. "But at least you're conscious, and you're gonna have some great rakish scars. That's something, right?"
"Yeah, I guess." On the TV, someone was making what was probably a tearful confession of affection to another character. Probably. Cass shook their head. "How long have you been watching this garbage?"
"Few hours," Sokrates said. "Since I took over for Euanthe. The show's produced by EarthHome Entertainment, but it's been dubbed into Apostolosian. I heard the original galactic common acting is way better for what it is, though."
"Ugh," Cass groaned, "don't tell me you're getting into OriCon TV. That's almost as bad as that anime phase you went through."
"I'm not getting into OriCon TV!" Sokrates said, affronted. "It's just EarthHome does some good stuff, even though they're evil as hell."
Cass scoffed. "Yeah, sure."
"You wound me!" Sokrates cried, dramatically holding one hand to their chest. "C'mon, give me more credit than that!"
Rolling their good eye, Cass said, "Everyone knows your taste in entertainment is bad."
"Says Mx. 'I've read every single Detective Arcturia novel in existence,'" Sokrates said.
"I was ten!" Cass protested.
"You were obsessed, " Sokrates retorted.
"Ugh," Cass groaned again. "If you keep watching this shit, I'm going to have them put me back in a coma."
It was Sokrates's turn to scoff. "That's a lot of effort to get out of being Apokine."
"You think I threw myself into a sun to get out of being Apokine?"
"No, I think you did it because you have a big damn hero complex from being the youngest child," Sokrates said, only half-joking. "Not being Apokine anymore would've just been an extra perk."
"Just because I don't like being a head of state doesn't mean I'm going to jump into a sun just to get out of it," Cass grumbled. "Besides, even if I would, it's not like it actually worked."
Sokrates cackled at that. "Well, you're off the hook for now, at least. The docs say you've got a lot of physical therapy ahead of you, and you won't be able to fulfill your duties for a while. So enjoy it while you can."
"I'd rather do Apokine things than PT," Cass said with a grimace. "Fuck."
Before Sokrates could tease them further, the data pad at their side began to chime. "Oh, shit," Sokrates said, reaching over to turn the alarm off. "It's time for me to go. You might be able to get out of Apokine duties for now, but I'm still having to pull Demarch duty, and it's Euanthe's turn to keep an eye on you."
That gave Cass pause. "Euanthe's here?"
"Yeah, sib. They've been spending pretty much every minute they don't have to be at the palace in person by your bedside. I heard the Senate's all pissy that they haven't been attending most of the sessions except over the mesh."
Cass turned this newfound information over in their head. It made sense given that Euanthe had agreed with them about the turning tables, but it still surprised them all the same. Maybe Euanthe had meant their apology about making Cass feel like an only child?
They'd think about it later. They'd spent way too much time upright, and their body was intent on letting them know. They flopped back down onto the bed. "Well, I guess I'll see you around," they said to Sokrates.
"Yeah, see you around," Sokrates replied. "Love you, Cass."
"Love you too."
*
It was dark, but senses honed by the military and several years as a sometimes-criminal told them that someone was in their room. Whoever it was—a shitty assassin, maybe?—hadn't bothered to soften their footfalls as they entered the room, and they let the door shut with a click.
Cass pretended to be asleep, though ultimately they weren't sure what good the element of surprise would do them. Sure, they'd had close quarters combat training, but it had been years since they'd really practiced hand-to-hand combat. That didn't even take into account the fact that their muscles had atrophied during the medically induced coma, or the fact that they still required PT to get back on their feet (literally).
They heard the scrape of a chair being pulled closer and the sound of someone flopping into it. The maybe-assassin sighed. "Hey," they said.
The voice was Mako's.
Cass turned to face him; he looked like shit, even by Mako standards. His goatee had obviously not been groomed in a while, he had dark circles under his eyes, and he just looked so tired. Cass winced. "Hey."
"Heard you were up, so I thought I'd come say hi," Mako said. His tone wasn't quite as tired as he looked, at least.
"Wouldn't say I'm up exactly," Cass said. "Just kind of conscious about the half the time."
Mako made a vague wiggly hand gesture. "Eh, close enough. You're in a place I can say 'hi' to you and have you say something back. I don't have a lot of time, though. I kinda snuck past the nurse's station because it was after hours and I couldn't get time off work to swing by."
Of course Mako, the secret agent, couldn't be bothered to come in like a normal person. Cass sighed. "Well, you've said 'hi,' so what now?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. How're you doing? Is there a lot of pain? Did the doctors say you were gonna have cool scars?"
"I don't think the scars are going to be cool," Cass said. "They say they did a lot of work to keep most of my original skin, but that means some of it'll look gnarly. I won't be able to get an eye replacement for another few months, and I'll be doing intense PT for the first three months, then taper off over the next year."
"Sounds shitty," Mako said, pulling a disgusted face. "A whole year of physical therapy and no cool scars to show for it? Gross."
"What is it with you and having scars?" Cass asked.
"I mean, cool scars make you at least 20% sexier," Mako replied. "My bullet scars are rakish and get all the guys, gals, and non-binary pals to wonder at how mysterious and junk I am."
Cass rolled their eye. "Bullshit."
"It's true!" Mako protested. "They definitely think the scars are sexy."
"I'm not saying people don't think scars are sexy, I'm calling bullshit on them getting you dates," Cass said.
Mako clutched at his chest in an exaggerated gesture of disbelief. "Are you saying I can't get a date?"
"Yeah," said Cass, but their tone was teasing.
"Rude as fuck," Mako said. "I can get a date if I want one."
Cass would've laid money on the bet that Mako hadn't had a date since the incident on September, with Tower, but they held their tongue. Instead, they said, "It doesn't matter. My scars are probably not going to be cool, and the chances of me being able to walk without at least a cane are pretty low."
"Sorry," Mako said. "Sounds like you got the shit end of the stick."
"At least I'm alive."
Mako was silent for a moment, then he nodded. "Yeah. I'm really happy about that."
"Thanks," said Cass. "I'm glad you're alive, too."
A comfortable silence fell between them for a minute, interrupted only by Mako shifting in the clearly uncomfortable chair. After a while, though, the high-pitched chirp of some kind of alarm sliced through the quiet.
At that, Mako hopped to his feet. "Oh, shit, they figured out I cut through security. Gotta go!"
"You… were serious about sneaking in here?"
"Uh, duh? Why would I lie about that?" Mako asked. He didn't wait for an answer before making his way to the window and throwing it open. "Anyway, I'll catch you later!"
"Catch you later?" Cass said, feeling a little flat-footed.
He sketched a jaunty wave before pulling a hoverboard off his back and diving out the window.
Only a few seconds later, two guards skidded into the room. "Where's the intruder?" one of them demanded.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Cass lied through their teeth. "I was asleep until that alarm started going off."
The guard who hadn't spoken turned on the lights, momentarily blinding Cass. The pair of them stalked through the room, hunting for clues and poking their heads out through the window, but they turned up nothing. For all that Mako hadn't bothered to be quiet when he entered Cass's hospital room, he'd at least made a clean escape.
Once the security sweep had finished and the window once again locked, the guards finally turned the light back off. "I'm going to stay here," one of them said. "We'll be tightening security to prevent any potential breach."
"Fine," said Cass, waving a hand dismissively. "Can I go back to sleep now?"
"Yes, your Exaltation," the guards said as they saluted in unison.
"Great."
Cass rolled over so their back faced the guards. Of course Mako's visit was going to make their life more difficult. They closed their eye, and were asleep again before they could stew on the inconvenience Mako had caused for much longer.
*
When Aria showed up, Cass was in the middle of trying to stand with a nurse's assistance. Their legs wobbled dangerously, and they had to shift most of their weight into the nurse's waiting arms when Aria entered.
Unlike all their previous visitors, Aria looked perfectly put together. Or, rather, she looked exactly like she had a tendency to look in the tabloids and on the covers of magazines. Executive Joie, in all her glory. When she saw Cass, slumped against a nurse in an ill-fitting hospital gown and covered in patches of synthskin, her schooled expression broke out into a full-on grin. "Cass!"
"That's me," Cass wheezed. The nurse gingerly helped them sit on the edge of their bed.
"Shall I leave you with your visitor?" the nurse asked.
"Please," said Cass. "I'll call when I'm ready to try again."
The nurse nodded and scurried out of the room, leaving just Aria with them. "You look… you look great!"
"That's a lie," Cass said, but their tone was good-natured.
"I mean, you look great for someone who got pulled out of a sun, basically," Aria amended, her grin never faltering. "C'mon, at least let me try to be diplomatic here."
"Ha!" Cass huffed. "If there's one thing I've learned, there's a difference between diplomacy and outright lying."
"Oh, hush," Aria chided. "We're not heads of state here. We're just two old friends checking on each other."
"You seem to be doing good for yourself these past couple of months," Cass said, nodding in her direction. She was smartly dressed, her hair was done up in a highly professional bun, and her makeup was impeccable. Though, the closer they looked, the more Cass could see the signs of her own exhaustion: a fine worry line between her brows, faint traces of frown lines, the faint impression of bags under her eyes.
"You're looking pretty good yourself, for someone who was almost dead," Aria reiterated. She grabbed a chair and brought it over so she could sit near Cass. "I was kind of upset because I thought the last thing you were gonna say to me was you being an asshole."
Cass tried to think back to the last time they'd spoken with Aria and winced. "Sorry," they said. "I thought I was about to die and I was kind of bitter about it."
"You better be sorry!" Aria reached over and lightly cuffed them on the arm with just enough force to be felt but not enough force to set off any painful nerve endings. "That's for being a jerk," she said with a hoarse edge to her voice. Cass mock-flinched to humor her.
Her residual indignation dispensed with, her tone grew serious. "So, I know it's going to be a while before they'll let you out of hospital jail—" Cass snorted at her choice of words but didn't disagree, "—but I thought I'd ask way ahead of time so you can make plans."
"Ask?" One of Cass's eyebrows rose.
Aria took a deep breath before continuing, "Will you be in my wedding party? I know you've got all kinds of responsibilities and junk as Apokine, but maybe it'd look good with you attending the wedding of a head of state from a faction you've been trying to build bridges with, and—"
Cass gawped for a moment before nearly squawking, "You're getting married? "
A blush rose to Aria's cheeks and she glanced away from Cass, chagrined. "Well… I haven't asked yet, but I'm going to. I just want to make sure I've got all my ducks in a row before I… you know."
"Have you and Jacqui even talked about marriage before?" Cass asked incredulously.
"Yeah! Well, kinda." Somehow, the blush grew worse. "We've talked about what our wishes for our hypothetical future weddings might be, and… A war with a Divine kind of puts into perspective what you want to do with your life, you know?"
"I didn't expect to have anything to want to do something with," Cass said. They kept their tone even and did their level best to keep bitterness from rising in their throat. "But I've got some time to think about it while I'm in 'hospital jail.'"
Aria nodded. "Well, if you ever want to talk about it, you can call me any time."
"Isn't your calendar a little busy for that, you being Executive and all?"
Her grin was back. "I had a realization about what's important, remember? Whatever else happens, whatever sides we end up on, you, AuDy, Mako, Jacqui, and Orth are all family. I'll make time if I have to."
It was one thing to think something like this in their private, quiet moments, but another thing entirely to hear it vocalized like this. Warmth grew in Cass's chest, choking out the previous bitterness in their throat. They nodded. "Yeah. I've been bad about it before, but you're right. All those years we spent together have to count for something."
They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a moment before Aria clapped her hands. "Okay, enough mushy stuff. How's the food here? Worth going to the cafeteria?" Cass made a face, which was all the answer Aria needed. She scowled.
"Sorry," Cass said. "I told Euanthe to make an imperial decree to improve hospital food quality, but they haven't done it yet."
"It's okay. There's a coffee shop on the corner that looked like they had some nice pastries. I guess I'll get something on my way out from there."
"Already leaving?" Cass asked, trying to hide their disappointment. After Mako's quick escape, it felt vaguely like they were being cheated out of time with their friends.
"Nah. You aren't getting rid of me that easily. I'm here 'til the nurses kick me out," Aria said with a wink.
*
The first thing Cass saw upon waking was a large, looming form at the foot of their bed, backlit by the light streaming through the window. They had to blink a few times before the form resolved itself into the shape of an Automated Dynamics model 358-Alpha parking robot. One antenna was missing, and one arm had clearly been replaced with an arm from a different model.
AuDy.
Cass scrubbed at their face with one hand. "How long have you been standing there?"
AuDy did not respond. Instead, they moved to stand by Cass's bedside. "You are awake."
"Yeah…?" Cass tilted the end of the word up in hopes of prompting AuDy to say… something.
"Trying to destroy Rigour in such a manner was unwise," they said.
Cass snorted. "No shit. I'm not going to be kind of on my feet for at least a few more months, if not longer. But I didn't see any other options."
Again, AuDy remained quiet, but Cass did not try to prompt them to respond again. Finally, AuDy made a kind of crackling noise that Cass had learned to associate with frustration. "There could have been another way."
"It was the heat of battle and I figured it was better me than the entire Golden Branch and everyone I love in it," Cass said.
AuDy's response was immediate. "You were wrong."
Their words took Cass aback, and it took a few moments for Cass to gather themself. "I wasn't about to let Rigour destroy everyone—Mako, Aria, my siblings, you —if I could help it," they protested.
A pause, then another irritated crackle and, "You are worth more alive than a charred husk."
Cass said nothing for another moment. What could they say? Eventually, they murmured, "Well, I'm not a charred husk. Just… only kind of charred."
AuDy made a different noise, a low-pitched burst of static that represented a bark of laughter. Then, in their inflectionless tone they said, "You will not do anything like that again."
"Trust me, I don't want to," Cass said. "I'm on nerve blockers now, but when my PT kicks into high gear, they'll have to take me off of them. I won't be happy then."
AuDy tapped their chest with their new arm in a gesture Cass understood to be a nod. "When will they release you?"
"Depends on how well I respond to the burn therapy and when I can start standing on my own," Cass responded. "Maybe another month or two? But I still have a lot of medical shit to look forward to even after I'm out."
AuDy "nodded" again. "I will visit again before you are discharged."
"Can you not loom next time?" Cass asked, looking AuDy up and down. "It's a little disconcerting."
With a noise that might have been a hum of agreement, AuDy retrieved a chair and sat in it. It creaked in protest, but did not give up the ghost under their robotic chassis's weight. AuDy folded their hands in their lap and sat straight-backed. If Cass didn't know better, they'd accuse AuDy of being proper.
For the sake of keeping the conversation going, Cass said, "When'd you get the new arm?"
"Orth procured it for me after I was recovered from the Kingdom Come ," AuDy said. "This chassis is too old to reliably source parts, so he found a compatible model instead."
"Why not build a new one?" Cass asked. "You could've matched Aria or Jacqui."
AuDy lifted their arms in a shrug. "While I considered it, I did not want to stress Cene with fabrication. The process of using a different part was simpler."
Cass nodded. "What about the Kingdom Come? "
"Irreparable," AuDy said, the word as expressionless as ever, but clipped.
"I'm sorry," Cass said softly.
"It was just a ship," AuDy said. The words were still clipped, and the sentence was punctuated with a tiny buzz.
If Cass hadn't spent so long working with AuDy, gaining their trust, learning to read them, they might not have picked up on the fact that AuDy was lying.
Rather than call them on it, Cass just nodded. "Yeah. I'd rather you were around than a ship."
AuDy paused, and for a few moments, Cass thought that was the end of their exchange. They settled back in their bed to get more comfortable before AuDy spoke again.
"Then we agree."
"Hmm? On what?" Cass asked.
"That it is better that we are both alive," AuDy stated simply.
Cass huffed out a tired laugh. "Yeah. I'm glad you're alive," they said, and they hoped that AuDy understood that they meant it.
This seemed to satisfy AuDy, as they leaned back in the chair a little. Their posture loosened, and they looked almost casually seated there. They said nothing further, which was fine. The conversation had taken its toll, and Cass was asleep again in a matter of minutes. The last thing they recalled seeing before darkness took them was the reassuring blinking of the indicator lights on AuDy's chassis.
*
They'd been weaned off the nerve blockers and switched to more traditional analgesics so they could start physical therapy in earnest. Most of the synthskin had been removed, revealing shiny scars in its place, and they'd been given an eyepatch to use until their socket was ready to be fitted with a cyberware replacement. The skin revealed when the synthskin was removed was tight, but the doctors assured Cass it would gradually stretch as they worked on their mobility.
Cass was in the middle of practicing one of their physical therapy exercises when Euanthe entered their room. It was the third time their eldest sibling had visited during the week, but this time was the first after Cass had transitioned off the nerve blockers. Through gritted teeth, Cass said, "I don't want to deal with political bullshit right now."
Euanthe arranged themself in the chair closest to the one that Cass was using for their exercise. "I'm the regent. I'm here to perform those duties for you."
"The hospital isn't your home office, Euanthe," Cass said.
"Of course it isn't," Euanthe said, completely unhelpfully. "I didn't mean I was here to perform regent duties now. I'm here to see how you are doing."
Cass grunted. "I'm great." They counted to five in their head, then switched positions and counted to five again. Euanthe, thankfully, remained silent as they finished out the exercise. "Now that you've received an update, you're free to go."
"Are you saying that as my sibling or as my emperor?" they asked.
"Does it matter?" Cass groaned.
"Yes. It determines whether you charge me for treason when you get out of the hospital."
"Hah! What if I just ordered you to charge yourself with treason as my regent?" Cass said.
Euanthe snorted. "Yes, obviously I'm going to charge myself with treason for trying to be here for you, thereby leaving Senator Basilla as regent and potentially kicking off a civil war while there's a vacuum of power."
"And that is why you're handling all the politics while I'm in here," Cass said. "You're so much better at remembering who's trying to stab me in the back and who isn't."
"You should assume everyone is planning to stab you in the back, Cassander," Euanthe said, rolling their eyes. "I know you aren't the one who was groomed to take the throne, but surely you absorbed some things during your education."
"The only thing I learned was that I hate this and I probably suck at it. The only reason I've gotten this far is because you were willing to be my advisor."
"That's not true," Euanthe said, but Cass was pretty sure they were lying. They made a face that spoke to their incredulity, and Euanthe amended, "You at least had enough wherewithal to get us through the conflict with Rigour."
"It was a military conflict," Cass said, growing more agitated. "Not a political one. Let's face it, I'm probably going to go down in the books as being a shitty Apokine who did one good thing in their reign and then ran the whole empire into the ground."
"It will be fine," Euanthe said in a soothing voice. "You aren't alone. I'll—"
An idea struck Cass, so suddenly and so strongly that they couldn't help but blurt it out and cut Euanthe off. "I want to abdicate."
A shocked silence followed before Euanthe could recover and squeak, "What?"
"I'm abdicating," Cass said with more certainty. "I don't want to do this anymore. I can't do this anymore with all the recovery I'm going to have to do. And I don't have Apokine anymore, so it's not like the mech matters as a claim to rule."
"I—" Euanthe's mouth gaped for a moment, as they clearly struggled to find words. "I… Cassander, you can't mean that."
"I can. I do."
"Who is going to take your place?"
"Who the hell do you think?" Cass demanded. "It has to be you. You're the only person I can trust not to start another shitty war and who'd be willing to keep Apostolos on friendly terms with the Demarchy."
There were another few moments of shocked silence. "Are you doing this for me or for you?"
Cass scoffed. "This is for me. Like I said, you think I want to be Apokine like this?" They gestured down at their hospital gown, their burns, their wasted limbs. "No. This is for myself. It's just convenient that you're the person I could abdicate to who will keep the peace."
After a few tense moments, Euanthe said, "This won't be easy. There are protocols. It's only ever happened twice in recorded history."
"Third time's a charm, I guess," Cass said, trying to sound flippant but mostly feeling exhausted.
Euanthe groaned and threw their hands up in frustration. "I cannot believe you! This isn't a joking matter!"
"That's why you should get it done quick, so I won't be able to joke about it anymore," Cass said.
"Fine. Fine, I'll get the paperwork drawn up as soon as I get back to the palace."
"Good."
*
Through the discomfort of their current therapy session, Cass remembered to turn on the vid screen when the time for the coronation came. Thankfully, the doctors had put their foot down when the idea had been proposed for Cass to attend the ceremony, but that didn't mean Cass wanted to miss it entirely.
It felt wrong to simply let Euanthe's day pass without acknowledgement.
And it was Euanthe's day. It was what they'd been born to, raised for. What had been taken from them and had, to avert unrest, been given to Cass. And now, Cass could finally give their birthright back to them.
On the screen, Cass watched the flyover footage of Euanthe's coronation procession. It was heavily guarded to Cass's discerning eye, but everything was staged to look free and open to individuals not familiar with royal protocols. The low-tech palanquin that Euanthe was perched on was a thing carved from the bones of the giant whales that populated the deeper parts of Apostolos's oceans and gilded to within an inch of its life with platinum and gold. The bots that carted it around were custom made to match.
Euanthe themself was adorned in the finest sea silk regalia, embroidered with tableaus of battles long past; relics of a time when Apostolos had been freshly colonized by the descendents of Atlantis. An elaborate crown rested upon their brow, one that Cass had also worn and knew exactly how heavy it was. It wasn't the crown of the Apokine—that was yet to come—but it represented the heaviness of the duties that the wearer was about to assume.
All of it was so familiar to Cass; even at the remove of going on five years, the memories of their coronation were still fresh.
The procession continued to the vestibule of the temple to Apokine, the place where every member of the Pelagios family—save two, during the siege of the Imperial Capitol hundreds of years ago—had been crowned and bestowed the Eidolon's title. The feed cut to an interior camera positioned over the rows of packed pews between which Euanthe's procession proceeded. Music in the grand hall echoed off the high ceilings, lending it a strange, almost ethereal quality. Euanth's face (or what Cass could see of it at this distance) remained impassive, but Cass wondered what thoughts were going through their head upon hearing it.
Maybe they'd pick Euanthe's brain about their experience later. Compare notes while they perched in a chair and Cass did their exercises.
Once the palanquin reached the dais at the far end of the hall, upon which a statue of the first Apokine stood, the camera switched to a closer view, where Cass could make out the dignitaries sworn to witness the coronation and the officiant who would preside over it. They were all people that Cass had worked with during their tenure on the throne, and none of them looked happy to be there.
Then Euanthe stepped up, and the entire crowd went silent. There was something to their demeanor that Cass had never seen before, a gravitas that they wore like a favorite cloak. They commanded attention, even through the vid screen, and Cass couldn't help but be impressed.
The rest of the ceremony was dull: the recitation of the Apokinian litanies, the taking up of the ceremonial harpoon, and the transfer of the crown. The actual crown worn by the Apokine looked very similar to Cass's old rigalia, just far more elaborate. It was light, meant to be worn effortlessly now that the heir had ascended to being not only emperor but also Eidolon.
The ceremony concluded with a great cheer from the crowd and breathless praise from the news station's commentators. When they got to speculations about Cass's health and what drove the abdication, they turned the vid screen off in disgust.
The nurse who had been with them as they worked through their exercises beamed. "You must be so proud!"
Of what? Of making the decision to step down? That wasn't anything to be particularly proud of. It was practical more than anything.
Then Cass realized: the nurse had been talking about Euanthe.
They nodded. "Yes, I am. I think they will make a good Apokine." And they meant it.
*
The hospital discharged them after approximately eighteen gruelling eternities, but Cass managed to leave under their own power (albeit with an anti-grav walker and a cane in tow). There were seemingly endless hordes of press outside the hospital, waiting to catch a glimpse of the fallen Apokine who'd saved the galaxy, but security was tight and they were able to make it to the waiting vehicle with little incident.
Once settled in the car, it dawned on them that the driver looked familiar. A parking robot. A very particular parking robot. "AuDy?"
The robot tapped what Cass assumed was their chest. "I believed that you would be more pleased to see me than your regular attendant and was able to convince your sibling of such."
Cass let out a startled laugh. "Yeah, no kidding. It's good to see you again. I thought you left a month ago. When did you get back to Apostolos?"
"I never left," AuDy stated. "I have nowhere to be. It seemed like a waste of time to leave and then come back. I convinced your sibling to allow me to meet you here with some difficulty."
"Yeah, I bet. They've got a stick so far up their ass when it comes to protocol," Cass said. "How'd you manage it?"
"With some difficulty," AuDy repeated.
"Riiight," Cass said, drawing the vowel sound out. "Okay, so what do you plan to do now that you're my driver? Other than, you know, drive. " Which they were noticeably not doing. AuDy had not touched the controls while speaking with Cass.
"I am here to take you where you want to go," AuDy said. Their tone crackled a little bit, as if frustrated at Cass for missing an obvious point.
"We should go ahead and start heading towards the palace, then, before the car gets too mobbed by the press," Cass said.
"Is that what you want?" The words still crackled with what Cass was certain now was annoyance.
Cass couldn't help but bristle at it. "For someone who's supposed to be driving, you're doing a shitty job at it. I just need to go back to the palace. It isn't even that far from here, and I can tell you how to get there if your GPS won't connect with the Apostolosian satellites."
AuDy made the noise that passed for a sigh. "Cassander."
"AuDy."
"I will take you to the palace, but I ask again: is that where you want to go?" AuDy spoke slowly and deliberately. They definitely were annoyed at Cass for missing some point.
"I mean, no, I don't want to go back there, but that's where I'm supposed to go," Cass said.
"Why? You're a private citizen now," AuDy pointed out.
Oh.
That was the point they'd been trying to make. Cass almost laughed at the absurdity of it, the simplicity. Instead, they said, "Drive like you're going to the palace. I should probably show up there at some point."
AuDy put the car in gear and pulled away from the front of the hospital and the mass of press surrounding it. A sense of expectation filled the vehicle as they drove, until Cass could see no way forward but to answer AuDy's initial question.
"I want to go home," they said. "The last place that felt like that was the Kingdom Come, with you and Mako and Aria. And since it's not like I can go back there, the palace is the next best thing."
"The next best thing is shitty," AuDy said, giving voice to Cass's own opinion. "Aria and I live on Counterweight. Mako visits even though he's not supposed to."
It was pretty clear to Cass what AuDy was doing, but they had a difficult time believing that AuDy would do it. Rather than rise to the obvious bait, they simply arched an eyebrow. "Is that so?"
AuDy took a hand off the steering mechanism to tap their chest.
Still suspicious, Cass asked, "Did Aria put you up to this?"
Two taps this time—a shake of the head. "I have not spoken to her since your abdication."
Though AuDy had been known to lie (to varying degrees of success), Cass didn't think they were lying now. So. The idea of inviting Cass to move to Counterweight in a roundabout way had been their own idea.
Interesting.
"I thought you said you had nowhere to be?" Cass prodded. "How is that the case when you're supposed to be living on Counterweight?"
"Orth has a generous vacation policy," AuDy said.
"Uh- huh, " Cass said, skeptical. "So… what? I just skip out on going back to the palace and I go to Counterweight instead?"
"You are a private citizen. You can go where you please."
It wasn't a 'yes,' but it wasn't a denial, either.
"Fine," Cass said. "If I had a place to go on Counterweight, I'd go there. But I don't have somewhere to go, so take me to the palace."
AuDy did not respond, but Cass could tell by the passing building that they weren't exactly palace-bound. Eventually, they said, "I have contacted Aria about locating a suitable living space for you. Once she responds, I can book passage for you."
A novel emotion made Cass's heart leap up in their throat; something they hadn't felt in ages. Hope? Could that really work? Rather than give voice to all of that, Cass said, "Shit. Really?"
AuDy tapped the steering mechanism to nod.
Cass ran a quick calculation in their head. The time difference between Apostolos and Counterweight was— "There's no way she's awake right now. Just take me to the palace for now and we'll wait for her response."
Again, AuDy did not respond, but they changed course towards the royal palace. The plan, it seemed, was satisfactory.
*
Euanthe was furious when Cass told them they were leaving, but they still showed up at the spaceport to wish Cass a safe journey. It… meant a lot. When Euanthe pulled them into a ginger but heartfelt hug, Cass whispered so only they could hear: "I was an only child for ten years, but I'm not anymore."
As they pulled away, they could see tears at the corners of Euanthe's eyes. They felt a stab of satisfaction knowing that they could evoke such emotion from their sibling.
AuDy had gone ahead of Cass, citing the end of Orth's generous vacation policy, which left Cass to their own devices on the weeks-long journey. That was fine; AuDy had been acting strangely since bringing Cass back to the palace several weeks ago, and the concept of having to ride in a ship with them for that long didn't have much appeal.
The trip passed uneventfully, which was also fine. They kept up with their PT exercises despite their complete lack of desire to do so, and their primary physician on Apostolos was willing to do remote check-ins with them during the journey.
When they landed on Counterweight, Aria was there to greet them. Rather than looking the picture of the Executive, she'd dressed down for the occasion. Her blouse was simple and untucked from her slacks, and she'd let her hair down. She beamed when she saw them and pulled them into a hug that was far more aggressive than their sibling's had been. They tried not to wince.
"It's so good to see you again!" she said when she finally released them. "I've got the perfect place set up for you. I can't wait for you to see it."
Her good cheer was infectious, and—despite being sore and stiff—Cass couldn't help but return her smile. "It's good to see you, too. And I can't wait to see the new place. It'll be nice to not be traveling for a while once we get there. I'm kind of sick of sharing a bathroom and eating transport food."
"Yeah," Aria agreed. She hooked her arm through the elbow of the arm not currently occupied with their cane. "C'mon, our car's waiting!"
The car was driven by a young OriCon woman with spiky brown hair and four piercings in each ear. She must have been one of Aria's regular drivers because they greeted each other warmly before Aria practically stuffed Cass in the back seat. The young woman didn't even wait for their seatbelts to be buckled before pulling away from the curb.
"So, things are a lot different around here," Aria said.
Cass arched an eyebrow. "Different how?"
"We've started the process of setting people up on Weight, for one."
"Yeah, I saw that on the news," Cass said. "Good job. What else is different? Other than the whole—" they gestured vaguely at Aria. They settled on, "The whole not-working-for-Orth-anymore thing."
Aria laughed. "I mean, I'm sure Orth would give you a job if you wanted, but I figured you'd want to rest some." She gestured at their cane.
Cass nodded. "Yeah. Some time off will be nice. I didn't do much when I was in the hospital but that was different."
"Yeah, I get it," Aria said. "Anyway, what're you doing in six months? Do you think you have enough time that you could, you know… come to a wedding?"
Cass's eyebrows shot up. "Did you finally ask?"
"I did!" Aria squealed, clapping her hands together excitedly. "She said yes! We don't want to be engaged too long, so we're thinking six months, maybe a year. We're going to get some help with the wedding planning because things are still kind of crazy even though Rigour's been gone for months, but…" She trailed off, though the grin remained firmly on her face. "Anyway, yeah, I'm getting married!"
"I'm so happy for you," Cass said, partly because they knew that was what they were supposed to say and mostly because they meant it.
Aria took that as an invitation to keep talking about wedding plans, which was just fine. It gave Cass a way to pass the time as the nearly-familiar streets of the Centralia dome whizzed by. They recognized some of the neighborhoods that the young woman steered them through, including the one in which they stopped.
"Isn't this kind of pricey for someone who doesn't have a job?" Cass asked as they exited the vehicle.
Aria made a dismissive noise. "No way. You're former royalty. I can write it off as a diplomatic expense if your royal stipend doesn't cover it." She didn't give them a chance to respond, instead grabbing their hand and tugging them out of the vehicle. "C'mon, we picked a great apartment for you."
She dragged them inside one of the taller apartment buildings and into the elevator. Their apartment, it turned out, was in the middle of the building, on the 34th floor. It was the third unit on the left, and the door was an antique-looking thing made out of faux wood. Still grinning, Aria pressed the key fob for it into Cass's hand.
"Go on, open it!" she said, as if it were a wrapped gift box.
Cass paused a moment to glance at Aria; her enthusiasm felt perhaps a little too thick. But she made an urging motion with her hands, so Cass turned their attention back to the door. With a click of the fob, the door slid open to reveal a pitch-dark entryway.
"You should probably turn on a light," Aria said from behind them.
"No kidding," Cass said. They hobbled forward, leaning heavily on their cane, and waved their hand in front of the light switch.
"Surprise!" shouted several voices in near-unison. Before them stood Jacqui, Orth, AuDy, and Mako, all holding up handmade signs. Orth's and Jacqui's both said 'welcome home,' while AuDy's said 'recover quickly,' and Mako's said 'happy retirement.'
Cass stood there for a moment, taken aback. At least this explained Aria's eagerness to get Cass into the apartment. It took a few seconds for them to recover, then they said, "'Happy retirement?'"
"Yeah," Mako said, scratching absently at his shitty goatee. "You've gotten old, and you stepped down from being Apokine, so it's kind of like you're retiring."
"I'm not old," Cass grumbled.
At the same time, Jacqui elbowed Mako so hard that he nearly fell over. "What I'm sure he means to say is that we're all glad you're here."
"Right," Mako wheezed.
Orth set his sign aside. "I'm sure you're hungry after your trip," he said. "I didn't know how to make your favorite dish, but we've got some snacks and food in the kitchen…"
*
The welcome party (" not a retirement party") ran well into the night, leaving Cass feeling exhausted but warm inside. They sat sprawled out on the couch while Aria, Orth, Mako, and Jacqui worked on cleaning up. AuDy sat next to them, doggedly avoiding cleaning duties. Instead, they provided something solid for Cass to lean on.
"Do you need help getting to bed?" AuDy asked.
"I'm an adult," Cass responded, though not harshly. "I can take care of myself."
"You are still recovering from massive physical damage and have some limitations," AuDy pointed out.
Cass scoffed. "I'm fine, AuDy."
Their vocal circuits crackled in a display of skepticism. Cass sat up straight and turned to glare at their friend. "I'm serious."
AuDy did not move. "I am also serious," they said.
"Children, children," Aria's voice cut through the exchange. "Cass can try to hobble to their bedroom if they want, and AuDy can stand here and laugh if they fail."
From the kitchen, Mako snorted.
That was it. Cass stood, grabbed their cane, and took a few steps towards their bedroom.
Unfortunately, gravity conspired to keep Cass from standing upright, and they wobbled on their feet. Before they could fall, one of AuDy's hands grabbed them by the upper arm and steadied them. "I will take you to your bedroom."
Aria tried (and failed) to stifle a snort of laughter, and Mako wolf whistled before Jacqui elbowed him again. Orth just rolled his eyes.
Cass felt themself flush. "You don't have to put it that way."
"It doesn't matter how I put it. The result will be the same." AuDy shifted their grip so that Cass's arm was looped around their elbow. "You will set the pace."
Sighing, Cass nodded. No point in pretending they didn't need the assistance now. "Right," they said.
With AuDy's help, they made it into their bedroom and managed to flop onto the bed without too much issue. Once they were laying flat, it was impossible to resist the pull of their exhaustion. They were out like a light.
*
The next morning, the apartment was clean, with only the signs as the remaining indication of the party that had happened the night before. Cass made a mental note to both thank Aria for arranging it and to find some frames for the signs to hang up later.
They made their way to the kitchen and set up a pot of coffee to brew.
As they waited, they gazed out the floor-to-ceiling windows that granted a view of the city. It wasn't a great view, but the dingy buildings and the sight of Weight hanging in the distance… It was comforting.
It was home.