Clean. Domi's Ma smelled too clean, but he still knew it was her even without the faint scent of dust and sweat.

He inhaled her favorite perfume, the handmade stuff old Elate always included for free with the month's candle box, all bitter dark chocolate, rich black cherry, and stinging peppercorn...

"Domi."

He curled into his Ma's familiar warmth and then grumbled, mouth feeling sticky and dry, as she nudged him with a soft huff. If he didn't get up soon, she was going to yank his blanket away, just like she always did...

"Dominulus."

Eyes devour, he was so tired. His bones felt lined with stone. Couldn't she let him sleep just a few more minutes before sending him to put out the rain pails? He was sure they still had some water left from last eve's post-Dimming downpour...

"Come now, Dominulus. Time to get your scrawny arse up."

He'd never understood why she got to curse and he didn't. He wasn't some little kid any more...

"Dominulus Lodicis, wake up right now."

He sighed and forced his eyes open, wincing as brilliant white light flared somewhere before fading.

Groggy, he rubbed his eyes and squinted up into Merula's face. No smudges. Had she gone to the waterwheel to bathe alone? And with that cough?

"Good idea, Lumen," someone said, tone cool and smooth as polished glass. "That wasn't nearly as bad as I expected."

Domi blinked at the intruding voice, then froze, breath stalling in his throat.

Lumen. His Trellis expert. The Trellis. Sweet Eternal Radiance--

The lattice was flaring, of course. Domi tried to calm down, to make the artifact stop reacting, but he couldn't get his sudden fear to flee. His heart fluttered in his chest like a caged sparrow.

"Hush, now." Familiar arms enfolded him, firm and strong. "Come here, kid. You're alright."

He realized then that he was clinging to her. Merula. He was clutching his Ma like some scared little kid.

Even worse, everyone was watching him. Bellus, looking like a man eying an injured animal, wondering if it might bite. Lumen, exhaling a slow, relieved sigh. Arbita, staring at him with wide, fearful eyes. And Valens, looking caught between pity and pique.

Domi's cheeks heated and then burned even hotter as he blinked at the latter two. The newlyweds were in bed, still. Under the sheets. Together.

Outside the skychariot's sleeping chamber window, the Trellis flickered and Domi cringed, glaring at the thing. Eyes devour, he was sure if he so much as sneezed, the stupid artifact would pitch a fit.

He pulled away from his Ma's embrace and scrubbed a hand over his cheeks, trying hard not to look the married couple's way.

Valens shook his head, gaze narrowed in scorn. "Really, alumna?" The older worldholder shifted the sheet aside with a pointed glare and Domi saw, to his immense relief, that both man and wife were fully clothed in wrinkled tunicas and paenulas.

"What time is it?" Domi asked, his voice feeling hoarse, his tongue thick. He felt like he'd had no sleep at all.

"Still the middle of the night, Basilicus."

Domi wilted at the title Bellus gave him. He had hoped it had all just been some awful, bizarre dream, but it wasn't. He was still Princeps.

"We will arrive in Vola Apertus in just over two hours," the protocol handler went on, smoothing a tiny crease from his pale violet paenula.

"How long until Brightening?" He'd have to oversee it, he supposed. He swallowed hard at the thought. But Dimming hadn't been as bad as he'd feared. Maybe Brightening would be alright, too.

Lumen cleared his throat. "Ah, well..."

Domi followed the Trellis expert's gaze out the observation window and cursed under his breath. For once, his Ma did not give him a disapproving look for the profanity. He scratched the back of his neck. "Should I dim it again?"

Lumen shook his head, his expression pinched with some unspoken pain. "After the way temperatures dropped this past hour, it may actually be a good thing that Brightening has arrived early, Basilicus."

Bellus, peering at the brilliant golden lattice, which gleamed merrily in the middle of the night, looked thoughtful. "And I believe that we can make this work in our favor, Basilicus. I'll talk to Ardea and Fons." He inclined his head in pristine politeness, not a single movement wasted or out of place. "By your leave?"

"What?"

The protocol handler's lip quirked, then stilled. "May I be dismissed, Basilicus?" he asked, still not lifting his head from his bow. His face was still and composed as carved mahogany again.

"Oh." This was just too weird. Why was the man who always bossed him around pretending to need his permission for anything? Domi shook his head. "Sure, fine. You can go."

He had things he needed to work on anyway without the mindholder around. Even if the man couldn't use promenia to invade his consciousness without permission, Domi was not confident the protocol handler wouldn't pick up on his thoughts in other, non-magical ways. Bellus's black eyes did not miss much.

Domi glanced around the sleep chamber after the mindholder left. Valens and Arbita looked ready to fall asleep. Lumen was staring out the window like he was already asleep with his eyes open.

Merula rubbed her face but gave him a weary smile as he leaned into her a little. "Want to go see if we can scrounge up some food, kid?"

Lumen cleared his throat. "Erus, it is best that the Princeps not eat until the time Brightening should have occurred. Breaking his fast at that time will help his circadian rhythm adjust so that eventually Brightening will arrive naturally as he wakes at First Hour."

Merula frowned. "What if he wakes at Second Hour instead?"

Lumen looked confused. "A Princeps's day begins at First Hour, Erus."

"It's no different than before, Ma," Domi pointed out. "Get up at Brightening, deal with the rainwater?"

Only this time, he would be responsible for bringing Brightening and the morning rain to the whole world, not just getting up early enough to collect rainwater to share with his Ma in their tiny insula. He felt sweat break out on his forehead.

Arbita cleared her throat, rubbing her eyes. Next to her, Valens had succumbed to snoring. "Erus, could you feel his forehead for me? He looks a little pale again."

Domi glared as his Ma pressed a palm to his brow. He ducked his head away from the touch. He was not some kid. "I'm fine. The fever's gone." He could always tell when he had a fever and he didn't have one now.

"She's just looking out for you," Merula chided, but nodded at the other woman. "He's still a bit warm, Promerenti. Does the Trellis need him like this in order to glow?"

Domi scowled, slapping a hand to his forehead. But as always, all he felt was warm skin. "I'm fine." He glared at them all and dragged himself to the edge of the bed, kicking the sheet aside. "I'm going to go visit Sidus."

Lumen frowned. "Basilicus, it would be best if you stay--"

"Wasn't asking." Domi trudged to the door and slipped out, feeling relieved despite his bravado when no one stopped him.

"He's feeling more himself, I see," he heard his Ma say, her voice dry, before the door slid shut behind him.

The skychariot consisted of a series of clustered chambers, typically three to five sitting or sleeping areas arranged around a central dining chamber.

They had wasted Eternal Radiance only knew how much of the people's tax money purchasing an entire cluster of private chambers.

Domi could see Bellus's and Ardea's bent heads and the golden rainbow glow of promenia communiques in the chamber he shared with his handlers and darted past, hoping neither would notice or stop him.

A peek in the other sleeping chamber revealed an Aix-sized lump in one of the four small beds. The old man had dragged a pillow over his head to block the cheery Trellis light streaming in through the observation window. Domi cringed, wondering how many other people were doing that around the world.

He found Sidus alone in the remaining sitting chamber. His eyes were closed, but Domi knew that the starholder wasn't asleep. A low thrum surrounded him and the younger boy could pick out the waver of promenia if he sort of crossed his eyes.

The Caeles? Earlier, he'd heard a sound like this right before he'd entered the illusory environment. He scowled, remembering his argument with his brother. Grimacing, he shoved the memory away. Soon, Daedalus would be Princeps again and then Domi would let his older twin boss him around as much as his brother wanted.

He flopped down opposite of Sidus, sagging against the plush seatback as he waited. It was tempting to close his eyes too and rest just a little, but his fatigue was so bone-deep that he didn't dare. If he closed his eyes, he'd probably fall asleep, and the melting frost on the skychamber window made his empty belly flutter with nerves. Who knew what the Trellis had been doing while he'd napped for an hour? He needed to stay awake.

He nibbled his lip as he gazed at Sidus's serene, handsome face. Now that he'd come here, he wasn't sure what he wanted to say to the older boy. Though just looking at him was nice too. Sidus really was very handsome, though more so when his eyes were open, giving Domi that intense gaze like he was peering straight down into his soul and undressing him with his ey--

"Enjoying what you see?"

Domi jumped, then flushed from head to toe as he realized his friend's eyes were very much open and settled on him in sparkling amusement.

"I... Um..." The light outside the observation window wavered.

Domi glared at it. Eyes devour, what would it do if he and Sidus ever kissed or even tried something more intense, like--

They both yelped as the Trellis flared bright white with that thought.

Sidus smirked with a nervous glance at the window. "Oh, what were you thinking about, hmm?" he teased.

The younger boy squirmed. "Best not ask." He winced as the Trellis wavered again at the rush of embarrassed heat flooding through him. "Please."

Sidus chuckled. "You're really too much fun. But yes, let's hold off on getting you thinking about anything too fun until you've adjusted a bit more to the Trellis, hmm?"

"Couldn't you just command me to not get so embarrassed?"

The starholder's smile grew lopsided. "Sorry, my powers don't influence emotions. Besides, I can't command you to do anything without your permission, remember?"

"But you could command me to do things with my permission?"

At that, Sidus's lips curled back into a confident smile. "Oh, would you like that?"

Eyes devour, Domi didn't even need to look at the observation window to know what the Trellis was doing. "New topic!" he squeaked.

For a moment, he was sure Sidus would keep teasing--Eternal Radiance, was the starholder even just teasing?--and then Domi would end up burning down the world. But once again, that fear smothered the awkward desire and drew his thoughts to more important things.

"When we land, I'm going away," he blurted. "Will you try to stop me or will you help?"

The mischievous sparkle in Sidus's eyes died and the starholder straightened, frowning. "Going away? What do you mean?"

Crap, why had he just said it like that? He needed someone to help if he was going to pull this off, but Eternal Radiance, it had just burst out. He could never think straight around the starholder and now it might have put everything at risk.

"I'm not going to the palace," he said, clenching his jaw and lifting his eyes stubbornly. "I'm not Princeps. It'll be a disaster if I try to pretend to be my brother."

Sidus shook his head. "Domi, you can't just, what, run away? What will you do? You don't know how to control the Trellis by yourself yet."

"I know." His toe tapped a rapid tempo against the ground and he forced himself to still as thunder rumbled. "I need to figure out how to give it back to Daedalus." He held up a hand as the other boy opened his mouth. "He's the real Princeps, Sidus. He's older and was trained since birth to do this. But everyone wants to just make me take his place."

"No, they don't," Sidus argued. "They just want to help you control the Trellis while they look into a solution with care."

Domi shook his head hard. "That's not true. Everyone is talking about how this must be the Eternal Radiance's will." His hands clenched in his lap. "Even Daedalus believes that. They're not going to try to find a way to give it back, Sidus. They're going to try to make me be Princeps."

"So what is your plan? Just run away and hope no one will come looking for you?" the older boy asked in incredulous exasperation.

Domi shrugged. "Lead them on a wild goose chase, maybe, as I look into this. Try to figure it out. I switched us, somehow. I need to see if there's a way to switch us back."

"Domi..." Sidus trailed off, shaking his head. He hesitated, then proceeded gently. "You are just learning how to read. How are you going to research something like this?"

"I'll find a way," Domi snapped, ears burning at the reminder of his near-illiteracy. "Alone, if I have to. But it would be a lot easier if you helped me. You can read."

Sidus grimaced. "I have to be honest. This is just about the stupidest plan I've ever heard."

Domi glared. "You don't have to be a jerk about--"

His friend held up a hand, giving him a stern look, and Domi fell silent with a glower. "It's stupid, and I should stop you, but I won't. I'll help you."

The younger boy stilled, gaping in shock. "You will?"

Sidus nodded, looking uneasy. "I will." He scowled. "If you're going to do this, someone needs to make sure you don't do something even more idiotic and get yourself killed."

Domi sagged as relief flooded him. The Trellis was still a burning weight, but even so, he felt like the whole world had just been lifted off his shoulders.

Sidus was going to help him try to solve this. He didn't have to try to do it all alone.

"Thank you," he breathed.

<>

Deep in the heart of Provincia Nautae's calm Erythros Bay, the atmospheric pressure dropped.

Like giants answering a call to arms, great clouds gathered above the rousing crimson and gold sea.

Swelling, towering, the behemoths began to circle one another, brutal warriors testing their foes' mettle before the clash of battle.

In the distance, the cliffside capital city of Saxum Exalbidum slumbered, oblivious.