Enceladus 4: The Invasion

The twenty-fifth, I finally came out of my room. It had only been two days since I freaked out but I hadn’t seen anyone or eaten anything. I didn’t feel hungry. Talia had stayed away and I felt physically ill for pushing her away. I had to find her. I hoped I didn’t ruin our relationship.

I looked in her room and found it empty. It was lunchtime. She was probably in Cass’ dining room with all my siblings. I wasn’t ready to see them all so I hid behind the stairs near the infirmary.

Twenty minutes later, Talia came out of the throne room. “Talia.”

“Amy?” She ran up to me and hugged me. The second my arms wrapped around her thin waist, all my problems melted away.

“I’m sorry I pushed you away like that. It was unfair. Will you forgive me?”

From the way she kissed me that made my knees weak, I’d say she already had. “Is that a yes?”

“Yes.” She laughed. When she pulled away, I saw tear marks on her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just missed you is all.” She wiped her face. “Let’s go upstairs.” She started for the stairs but stopped. “Wait, you must be starving.”

I shook my head. “I’m okay.”

She gave me stern look that told me she’d make me eat later. We got to my room. “Can we talk about it?”

I nodded. I knew she’d want to.

“Did you see your father again and not tell me?”

Of course she knew. “Yeah. He told me I was going to go dark during the invasion.”

“That’s nonsense. How would he know?”

I shrugged. I didn’t want to tell her he could practically see the future.

“How long have you heard the voices?”

I sighed. “I’ve been hearing them since October.” I grimaced when Talia’s eyes widened. That was a secret I’d been keeping from her for nearly four months. “But the thing is, it was my father’s voice for a while.”

“What about the rest of the time?”

“Um, it’s kind of been my Destroyer voice.”

“So, you but not you?”

I laughed humorlessly. “Yeah. Me but not me.”

“Are you okay, Amy?” She sat next to me on my bed.

“I will be.” I hoped.

“Come here.” She brought me into her arms and the world disappeared. I had been so stupid for distancing myself from her. I fell asleep minutes later.

When I woke up, Talia insisted I eat. We went down to the cafeteria. Thankfully no citizens had seen my breakdown so they weren’t treating me differently. Most of them still didn’t make eye contact with me. A lot of the palace staff seemed to hug the walls when I passed. But that was nothing new. I was sure they’d forever be afraid of me.

Talia whipped up something for me to eat. “I didn’t know you could cook.” I rested my elbows on the counter and my head in my hands, gazing at her.

“Only some things.” She grinned.

“How did I get so lucky?”

She blushed. “What do you mean?”

“With you. I’ve done terrible things and yet I have been blessed with you.”

“Stop. You deserve to be happy Amelia. And if I happen to make you happy then so be it.”

I rolled my eyes. She didn’t realize what a treasure she was.

After she was done making my lunch/dinner, she watched me eat, joy in her eyes. It wasn’t like I was a sexy eater but if watching me eat made her happy then I’d take it. I was fortunate to have her.

As we left the kitchen, Cassiopeia and John were talking to some guards near the throne room. I tried to move past them without being detected. No luck.

“Amy! Excuse us,” she spoke to the guards. “Ĉëv, nïx. How are you?”

“I’m alright. Better. I’m sorry that I scared you guys. That wasn’t my intention. I’m better now. Stable. Promise.” Who was I trying to convince? Them? Or myself?

“Good.” Cassiopeia gently touched my arm. “We are having another ball in a week. You don’t have to attend if you don’t feel like it. We would completely understand.”

Great, they were treating me like I was indeed a helpless baby. That was exactly what I didn’t want. I nodded anyway.

“Glad you’re feeling better, Amelia,” John said as they walked away. At least he didn’t call me princess.

“You okay?” Talia asked me.

“Let’s go for a walk.” And by walk, I meant fly.

She took my hand as we soared above the planet square. “I want to show you something.” She led me to the Greek division. She used to live in this division before her mother got a job at the palace. We flew to the woods behind the division. I started to ask where we were going until she landed on the ground. “Here it is.”

I looked around. I only saw trees. She let go of my hand and disappeared up into one of the trees. I followed her up, willing away my wings and climbing through the branches. Once I reached her and sat on the thick branch next to her, the view took my breath away. The tree was high enough that we could see all the divisions and the palace. The planet was easy to see from the air too but this had a different perspective. “It’s beautiful.”

“I used to come up here when I was younger. Even after we moved into the palace. I loved the way it looked. With all the lights and people.”

We weren’t high enough for the people to look like ants but they looked smaller than normal. The lights of the planet twinkled and swayed in the wind.

“I know that you can see this view while you’re flying but since I was young, I wasn’t allowed to fly so high. And with Orion’s laws, I never saw the planet like this.”

Orion even had a law against non-royals flying to a certain altitude. Punishable by death.

“I remember I threw a tantrum once because we had to leave our division and move into the palace. I climbed this tree and my mother looked for me for hours.” Talia paused and her voice took on a sad tone. Her mother died in the coup two years ago. She was a lovely woman and my caretaker when I was a baby.

“You miss her, don’t you?” I put my arm around her shoulders.

She nodded.

“She would have been very proud of the woman you’ve become.”

Talia’s shoulders shook. “Thanks, love.”

We flew back towards the palace. I spotted Jaeel walking to the palace. Impulsively, I made a decision. “Hey, Talia, I’ll meet you back at the palace.”

She followed my gaze and noticed Jae. “Okay.”

I landed in front of Jae and startled him. “I need your help.”