Chapter Text
“Aruna?” Winter’s voice, soft and concerned, made Aruna’s head snap up with a sharp inhale. His sister stood in the doorway with one hand on the knob, the other on the pristine white frame. “Are you alright?” Her eyes flicked over him, glittering with worry, and he sat up, resting his hands in his lap.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” The words stuck unnaturally behind the lump in his throat, but he forced them out anyway. “Did you need something, little princess?” Winter shakes her head.
“No… I was just checking up on you.” She steps further into the room, closing the door behind her. “...Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not thinking of doing anything crazy, right…?”
Aruna sighs quietly, grasping her hands as she moves to sit beside him. “Yes, Winter, I’m okay. I promise. You don't have to worry about me.” One of his hands moves up to brush an inky ringlet out of her face, tucking it behind her ear as he gives her a weak attempt at a reassuring smile. Winter leans into the touch with a sound like a contented cat.
Of course, that was a lie.
Once Winter was gone, Aruna folded in on himself, tugging his hands harshly through his hair. He couldn’t stay in the palace anymore. It was driving him mad, slowly but surely, his guilt a parasite worming its way under his skin. He couldn’t let Winter know that, though. It was his duty to protect her. He had to be strong for her, so Levana wouldn’t force her down the same path she had him.
Yet another knock on the door broke him out of his thoughts, but instead of Winter, it was one of the palace guards who stepped inside. “Your Highness? Her Majesty has requested your presence in the throne room.” Aruna set his jaw.
Another trial. If it could even be called that.
He stood up from his bed, squaring his shoulders and running a hand through his hair to restore some semblance of normalcy to his appearance. “Very well then. Lead the way.” The guard dipped his head respectfully, then turned on his heel and strode away. Aruna sighed to himself, hesitating a moment longer before following the guard through the palace and towards the throne room.
His boots clicked coldly against the pure white marble beneath his feet as he walked. Out of the corner of his eye, Aruna could see windows silhouetted against the pale stone. He didn’t look at them, didn’t try to check his appearance. He knew there would be no reflection. There never was. The other guards stationed through the halls bowed when he passed, but he didn’t acknowledge them. He kept his gaze fixed straight ahead, his hands clasped behind his back and his head held high. Right now, he was Prince Aruna, the heir to Queen Levana’s throne, the ice cold son of the tyrant queen.
When Aruna arrived in the throne room, Winter was already there, and so was his mother.
Queen Levana sat tall and proud in her carved marble seat, one hand in her lap and the other resting on her throne’s arm. Her hair fell in long, auburn waves around her, and a carefully placed curl would direct the observer's eye to her lips; vivid red against perfect ivory skin. To the uninitiated, she would be beautiful.
But Aruna knew the truth.
His sister glanced up from the folds of her gown as he passed, but he didn’t return her glance. He sat in the carved marble throne that sat at Levana’s right, crossing one leg over the other and resting his hands in his lap. Sybil bows, tucking her hands into her gold-embroidered sleeves.
“Your Majesty, Your Highnesses. I present to you Mrs. Sorrel Moore. Security feeds caught her sneaking into the regolith tunnels where the special operatives were being kept on November 23rd, 23:17 U.T.C., where she was discovered and detained by a thaumaturge.” The head thaumaturge nods towards the woman knelt beside her, and Aruna glances at her.
Her head was bowed, and her hands were clasped in front of her, resting on her knees. Her silvery hair fell like wavy curtains around her shoulders, making her look even paler than she was. Levana hummed, stroking the arm of her throne with one hand. “Oh? And how did she find her way into the tunnels?” Sybil looks at the prisoner, who lifts her head just enough to look Levana and Aruna in the eye. She wasn’t trembling when she did so, Aruna noted with some interest. It was a rare occurrence when a prisoner could look directly at the queen and prince without shaking. He wondered if she had already accepted her fate.
“I had been taking a midnight walk when I heard howling. I knew that there were no livestock or pets allowed in my sector, so I followed the source of the sound out of curiosity.”
“And she never thought that following the howls of supposedly nonexistent animals could get her in trouble?” The queen muses, her nails tapping lightly on the stone. “Even if she hadn’t been discovered, she could’ve been killed either way. Animals are caged away for a reason.” The prisoner didn’t shrink away.
“I did not think much of it at the time. I thought I would find a stray animal who had snuck away from transport, not Her Majesty’s armies,” she replied. Her eyes carried the sharp clarity of glacier runoff, the startling crystalline blue cold enough to sting. She was beautiful. In another life, Aruna knew she could have been one of his mother’s thaumaturges.
Levana sighed, the sound dripping with false pity. “Ah, curiosity. It always kills the cat, doesn’t it?” She then looks over at Sybil. “Does the accused have a family?” asked the queen, to which Sybil nodded.
“Yes, Your Majesty. Records say she lives with her sisters, aged twenty and seventeen respectively, to take care of her father, aged sixty-four.”
“No husband?”
“Divorced.”
Levana hummed, propping her head against her fist. “Very well then. You are hereby found guilty of trespassing upon royal grounds and espionage. These crimes are punishable by immediate death.” The woman flinched, but she didn’t react further than that, only bowing her head low. “Your family will each receive half a dozen public lashings to remind your sector to keep to their duties, and your youngest sister will be given as a gift to one of the court’s families. Sybil, you may proceed.” Levana looks over at Aruna, who acknowledges the glance with a nod.
Sybil drew an obsidian knife from her bell-shaped sleeves, and Aruna stood from his seat, keeping his head held high as he activated his gift. He took hold of the prisoner’s bioelectricity as easily as pulling on a puppet’s strings, watching her take the knife with a cold gaze. The hand holding the knife was steady, just like it had been for the duration of the trial, but the rest of her was now faintly shaking, as if she had only now fully processed the ramifications of her mistake. Aruna felt bad for her. Still, she had come into the trial expecting the sentence, no doubt.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Winter looking away as the woman lifted the blade to her throat. Aruna didn’t.
It was over as quickly as it had begun. While the guards approached the body to dispose of it, Aruna sat back down, and the court clapped politely. Sybil took the knife back from the corpse, using a cloth to wipe down the blade while a servant set about washing the tiles back to their pristine white. Only when the splash of the body being thrown into the lake was heard did Winter look ahead again.
“Thaumaturge Aimery, see to it that the rest of the sentencing is carried out.” Levana’s voice rang out once more, and the man bowed low. Aruna fought the urge to glare holes into the back of Aimery’s head at the charming smile he flashed in Winter’s direction before excusing himself. Fury burned in his veins, a weak attempt at burying the icy guilt gnawing at his chest.
He couldn’t stay in the palace anymore.
✦•···☽◯☾···•✦
That night, Aruna packs, throwing clothes haphazardly into a duffel bag he’d purchased while disguised as an agricultural worker. He swallowed hard, his heart thudding painfully against his ribcage and roaring in his ears. Even as his body moves back and forth across the room, resolute in its efforts, his heart hesitates.
Winter would be devastated. She would be horrified when she saw his room empty and torn up like it had been caught in a storm. She would grieve. She would wonder what she could have done to stop him, even if there was nothing at all. And she would be left alone with Levana, left to face her wrath with no one to protect her.
She would suffer. But Aruna was suffering too.
Even if his whole heart was screaming at him to stay, his mind was telling him to go and never look back. Or he’d end up at the bottom of the Artemisia Palace lake, along with the dozens and dozens of prisoners he’d executed.
He zips up the duffel bag, then slings it over his shoulder. He tugs the hood of his cloak over his head as he cracks his door open. Silent as always, minus the guards that were constantly on patrol. This would be easy, then.
His gift thrummed to life under his skin, and he cast a wide net over the sizzling bioelectricity of the guards around him. You do not see me. I am not here. You do not see me. I do not exist. Aruna watches the guard closest to him as his shoulders sag and his eyes become dazed. Perfect. He slips out into the hall without another word, and each guard he passes slumps subtly, their heads drooping, stiff postures relaxing, and eyes dropping to the floor.
The walk is silent and uneventful. Aruna slips through the shadows of the royal palace, not a single soul acknowledging him or his escape. Even still, his heart feels like it’s in his throat. He dares not even breathe too loud, for fear that the sound will shatter the careful illusion of nothingness he’s constructed, even though he knows damn well that his glamour is impossible to see through.
As Aruna slipped out into the royal gardens, a snow white wolf lifted its head from its paws, tilting its head curiously. At the sight, Aruna smiled faintly, tugging off his hood and letting the humming in his veins fall silent. Ryu yipped, getting to his feet, and Aruna knelt beside the wolf’s cage, reaching through the bars and running his hands through the wolf’s thick white fur. “Hi, Ryu,” he murmurs. The wolf closes his eyes contentedly as Aruna scratches under his chin and behind his ears, a happy growl rumbling in his throat. After a moment of just petting the wolf, Aruna cradles Ryu’s snout in his hands. The wolf blinks as if questioning the sudden change, and Aruna feels his heart twist at the almost childlike curiosity he sees.
“You take care of Winter for me, alright?” murmurs the prince. Ryu barks quietly, nudging his muzzle further into Aruna. Aruna takes that as an affirmative response, and he pulls the hood back over his head before reactivating his gift. Just as he reaches the palace’s outer walls, Aruna stops, looking up at the window that he knew belonged to Winter’s room.
I’m sorry, my dearest Winter. I know you will hate me. I know you will believe I betrayed you. But please, learn to live happily without me, little sister. I’m not strong enough to save you. So be strong enough to save yourself.
And then he was gone.
✦•···☽◯☾···•✦
When Aruna made it down to the docks, it was loud, compared to the mirror-like stillness of the palace. The docks were alive with the hustle and bustle of the ramp and ground crews rushing back and forth from ship to ship, the crews working to load their cargo on and off of their vessels, and management shouting instructions in every direction.
Welp.
Aruna tightens his cloak around him, his gift burning a bit hotter down his nerves. You do not see me. I do not exist. You do not see me. I am not here. He weaves through the crowd as delicately as he can, taking care to avoid touching any of the workers flooding through the port. Okay, so how do I get out of here…? He glances between the ships. My best bet is probably taking one of these, but the question now is which one.
Aruna scanned the area for a moment, his gaze snagging on a little alcove tucked away in the corner of the docks. He knew it belonged to the head of security and management, and it was where it kept the manifest of what each ship was and what it was carrying. I guess that’s a good place to start. He looked around to check no one was paying attention, then slipped into the management station. Papers and thick volumes were scattered all over the desk that spanned the room, and in the center of all the mess was a netscreen, tossed haphazardly atop it all. He picked it up and tapped the screen awake. He glanced over his shoulder, once again making sure the port was too busy for him to be noticed, then input the code needed to access the manifesto. With a quiet chime, walls of embellished text scrolled up the screen, listing the ships’ names and models, their crew, where they had come from or where they were going, and what they were transporting.
The further he got down the list, the more his heart sank. None of these ships would be enough to get him out of the solar system, much less the galaxy, without the royal warships catching up. He cursed under his breath, glancing back around the docks. Am I going to have to go back to the palace until a better ship arrives…? Aruna bit his bottom lip, the plastic of the netscreen crunching faintly under his grip.
And then he heard it.
The roaring of an approaching engine, the clicking of landing gear locking onto the dock, the hissing of an airlock securing. At the same time, the netscreen chimed, and another manifest popped up on the display.
Serial Number : MIC-177-03-51
Make/Model : Niloupar VX-81, escort class
Name : N/A
Crew : Isaac Burnes, Talya Logan, Elijah Tanner, Lukas Montenegro, Jesse Nakamura, Valeria Fiennes
Returning From : The Eastern Commonwealth
Departing To : The American Republic
Cargo : N/A
Aruna’s eyes widened. An escort class, meaning it was armed. It was small, but it wasn’t cramped. And, most importantly, it would be able to get him far from Luna fast.
Out of his mother’s reach.
The netscreen sent papers sliding off the desk as it hit the pile, but Aruna didn’t stop to restore the room to its original state. He had to get to that ship.
Aruna slipped easily back into the bustling crowd of the port, gripping the strap of his bag. He followed a tall woman with the name Valeria Fiennes embroidered onto her breast pocket, skirting around the flow of people as she headed for the Niloupar.
“Talk to me, what’re we looking at?” She called out, her boots clanging against the ramp, and a young man with tousled blonde hair poked his head out.
“Twenty minutes minimum. We’re just doing some routine maintenance and refueling.” The name emblazoned on his uniform marked him as Elijah Tanner. Aruna frowned, pressing against a nearby wall inside the ship. Tanner. Why was that name familiar…?
“What about our passengers?”
“Aimery’ll be here in fifteen to drop off the newest pack. Her Majesty and her family have already retired for the night.” Another voice called out, this time from the cockpit. Aruna felt his heart seize up. Aimery. ‘The newest pack.’ And they were going to Earth.
His mother was sending out her war dogs.
The bark of Valeria’s voice in his ear snapped him back to his current priority. “Pick up the pace, people. The quicker Her Majesty’s soldiers are deployed, the quicker we can go back to our districts.”
Aruna took her first, clamping his focus around her thoughts as if he was seizing a fistful of reeds. She froze, her muscles locking up and her face going blank. Elijah Tanner was next, his eyes going clouded before he dipped back into the engine. Forget your original objective. Your job is to get this ship ready for departure. This is not your ship anymore. The control came to him as easy as breathing, and it sent a shudder of disgust rippling down his spine. Footsteps from the cockpit made Aruna look away from Valeria, already reaching out for the pilot’s bioelectricity before he stepped into view. Get out of the ship. Go wait on the docks. He glanced away from the pilot— Isaac Burnes— and back to Valeria. You go with him.
Valeria’s body language relaxed, and both she and Isaac walked down the ship’s ramp and back to the loading area, standing at the entrance with their backs turned. Elijah Tanner returned, a hand braced against the wall as he ascended from the cargo hold. “The ship is fueled and ready for departure, as you requested,” he said, his voice hollow and empty. Aruna nodded.
“Good. Go wait outside with the others.”
Elijah made to do exactly that, but another question popped up in Aruna’s head, and he stopped him.
“Where’s the rest of the crew?”
“Lukas is waiting for Aimery in the lobby, Jesse’s running the last minute checks in the engine room, and Talya is asleep,” Elijah replied. Aruna glanced around for a second, his mind racing.
“Okay. Go wake up Talya and tell her to wait outside with you. I’ll take care of Jesse.” With that, Aruna turned towards the hatch that led to the engine room, dropping down as Elijah turned towards the barracks.
Jesse, a large man with short, bleached hair, turned away from the engine when he heard Aruna’s feet hit the floor, his eyes widening in surprise. He opened his mouth to yell, but Aruna was quicker. “Shh.” As Jesse’s body relaxed, Aruna glanced at the engine and back. “This ship no longer belongs to you. Are you done?”
“Yes. The ship is all yours.” Jesse stared blankly at the wall behind him, and Aruna nodded, releasing a breath of relief out of his nose.
“Good. Get out of here. Wait outside with the rest of the crew.” Aruna pointed at the ladder up. The engineer headed for it without any further question. Once he was alone again, Aruna closed his eyes for a second, waiting until the hatch thudded closed before heading out himself. When he looked out at the ramp, he saw all six of the Niloupar’s crew standing there, facing away from him.
Just as he got to his feet, he heard a dock manager call out. “Hey! What’re you guys all doing out here?”
Shit. Aruna slammed a panel on the wall with his fist, the ramp whirring as it was pulled back up. The yelling of the dock crew was blocked out by the hissing of air when the entrance closed, and Aruna threw himself into the pilot’s seat, tossing his bag into the co-pilot’s seat. “Okay, Niloupar, let’s see what you’ve got,” he muttered as he reached up and switched on the batteries and auxiliary power, the ship beginning to rumble. Dissonant clangs echoed through the ship, presumably the crews banging on the door to try and get it open. Aruna muttered curses under his breath, turning a dial above him to turn on the bleed switch. “Come on, beauty, come on.”
“Hey! Get out of there right now! You’re stealing property that rightfully belongs to Her Majesty!” Aruna rolled his eyes, glancing up towards the fuel pumps. Looks like everything’s good. He hummed approvingly to himself, and he switched on the ignition, feeling the ship vibrating as it started up. He waited a few seconds before starting the engines, and the rumbling vibrations grew stronger.
“Detach,” he mutters, reaching out to pull up a lever in front of him labeled “LDG GR.” He heard yells of surprise from outside the ship, which he took as a good sign. “And open the throttle.” Aruna’s hand dropped to the handle beside his knee, pushing it up slightly, and the thrumming of the engines grew louder as Aruna grabbed the yoke with his other hand. “So long, suckers.” He pulled back on the yoke and pushed the throttle forward, and the ship lurched as it shot out of the docks. “Ah, shit,” Aruna swore under his breath, feeling his body press back into the seat with the momentum.
He may have underestimated the ship’s speed. Just a little bit.
✦•···☽◯☾···•✦
It was only when Luna had faded into the abyssal void of space behind him that Aruna pulled back on the throttle. He leaned forward as the ship slowed to a more comfortable cruising speed, scanning the console until he found the autopilot and switched it on. With that, Aruna slumped back in the pilot’s chair, the rush of adrenaline and anxiety fading into the new, tentative, and perfect sensation of freedom.