【 CHAPTER TWO】
nisha kumar
( MEN!TAL! TRAU!MA!
*DISTANT KAZOO PLAYING
DESPACITO IN B MINOR* )

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Research wing. Bottom level.

Lovely woman, Sybil. Nonetheless, she made her way to the palace research wing, her posture knife straight. Thaumaturge Mira didn't like tardiness or people appearing before her looking rumpled any more than Queen Levana did.

A few minutes passed. Then, almost silent footsteps. One in heels and one military standard. Thaumaturge Sybil Mira and Sir Jacin Clay stepped into sight. The woman eyed her with a cool gaze.

'Do you have another one of your chips?' she asked, her tone making it clear that it was not a question but a demand.

Nisha wordlessly held up her right arm, a gleaming chip nestled in between her fingers. She made sure that she didn't accidentally touch the electric suction cup function. It could be sensitive when it wanted to be.

Thaumaturge Mira didn't even bother to reach out. Nisha wondered why her father had married into this family. Pandora Mira was not much better than her older sister.

She walked an extra few steps to pass it to Jacin, who'd been watching the scene impassively. She rolled her eyes when she was out behind Thaumaturge Mira's and out of her sight. The dead neutrality of his eyes sparked before he caught himself and squashed down his emotions. Nisha sighed inwardly. She supposed this was to be expected.

He plucked the device from her fingers.

'I will wait for the prince in the hallways and get him into the elevators,' said Thaumaturge Mira. 'Be there to tail him when he gets out.'

'Yes, Thaumaturge Mira.' She clicked at her earpiece. At least there were no cymbals rattling her skull this time.

The two stepped into the elevator. She waited until she couldn't sense their bioelectricity anymore before she slid down to the floor, hugging her legs. She rested her head against the knees. Her port chimed.

Sleeping on the job? That's not very professional.

-Damsel

I won't tell if you won't.

-Nyx

It's be our little secret. Stars know you need it.

-Damsel

Nisha chuckled and clipped her port back on her belt. She would have found a blind spot to rest in if she hadn't already gotten rid of all of them. She just had to hope Damsel wouldn't rat her out.

Hours passed before she heard voices on the other end. She tuned out most of the political blabber and focused on their location.

'Third floor,' said Prince Kai.

Nisha stretched her limbs and looked at the stairs. 'My dearest nemesis,' she said in a wry tone. 'We meet again.'

She pulled a glamour over her just as the doors of the elevator slid open, Jacin's back facing her. She darted behind him silently and tapped his back. He opened his left palm. The chip was inside, the suction mode turned off. Nisha was pleased to see that he'd taken to heart her last lecture about how her chips weren't as effective after coming into contact with human skin.

The part where she'd given him that lecture when he had one of those chips stuck to his face and he was in pain probably helped him take her words to heart.

Prince Kai and Konn Torin, the emperor's advisor, exited the elevator.

'Long live the emperor,' Thaumaturge Mira threw at them mockingly. The doors closed. The prince's calm facade dropped. He growled.

'We should have her incarcerated.'

'A Lunar ambassador? That's hardly a show of peace.'

'It's better treatment than they would give us.' The prince takes a hair through his hair. 'Gah - Lunars.'

Nisha would be offended if she didn't know the twisted perception the Earthens had of Lunars. For star's sake, they thought Queen Levana could hear if they were talking about her, thousands of miles away from Artemisia.

She supposed there was a tiny grain of truth in it. Nisha was here spying on the Crown Prince of the Eastern Commonwealth, now wasn't she?

Advisor Torin stopped walking. Nisha stopped creeping. Prince Kai turned to look at the advisor.

'What?'

'I know this is a difficult time for you.'

Prince Kai looked even more agitated. 'This is a difficult time for everyone.'

Advisor Torin ignored his attempt to deflect with grace. Nisha watched with amusement. 'Eventually, Your Highness, we will have to discuss Queen Levana and what you intend to do about her. It would be wise to have a plan.'

Nisha held her breath. This was what Queen Levana had reassigned her for, to find out how open the prince was to a marriage alliance with Luna. And if he wasn't, to find any weakness they could exploit. They needed Earthen resources.

Their people were struggling. Children of the poor working class didn't have enough money to be educated and were instead forced into manual labour almost as soon as they were born. The elderly were dying of work accidents instead of old age. It was at the point where 'elderly' meant 55 years old.

Luna didn't have any natural resources. Everything they had was the result of Luna being colonised long ago. They didn't have any other natural resources except for rocks. Rocks.

The Lunars were dying. Her people were dying. Those that weren't lucky enough or rich enough or even talented enough with their Lunar gifts to secure a spot in the Artemisia central city dome. She may not agree with Queen Levana on most things but even she could see how much the Lunars would benefit from the natural resources Luna would get from a marriage alliance with Earth.

And it had to be a marriage alliance. It wouldn't work with any other alliance. The Earthens would never align themselves with the Lunars; the Lunar families, the first class clowns that controlled their country's politics, would never beg for help from Earthens.

There was too much bad blood spilt. On both sides.

The prince stepped closer to Advisor Torin. He ignored a group of lab technicians that were forced to swarm around them. Nisha contorted herself to avoid them.

'I have a plan,' he said. 'My plan is to not marry her. Diplomacy be damned. There. End of discussion.'

Nisha rolled her eyes. Well, getting killed by being a fool certainly was one way to escape a marriage proposal. Dramatic asshole.

As if he could feel her judgmental gaze, he said: 'Don't look at me like that. She would destroy us.' Prince Kai lowered his voice. 'She would turn us into slaves.'

Slaves.

Nisha reeled back instinctively at the word, her breath catching. Her blood turned to ice.

Slaves. Forced to do the biddings of Queen Levana's whims. Never having any real freedom of their own. Constantly terrified that this was the day they outlived their usefulness.

Nisha brushed the back of her neck. There was a slight bulge just above her spine. She knew that if someone looked closely they would see surgical scars. Maybe even a faint glow.

Phantom straps held her down. A distant voice told her they were out of sedatives and to bite down on a cloth. Bile and tears rushed up to greet her.

A sharp pain grew at her back until she was screaming at them to STOPSTOPSTOP!

The prince braced his shoulder against the wall and folded his arms over his chest. Nisha shoved down her memories.

Now was not the time. She was Nyx, and she had a job to do.

Nisha turned back into the conversation, realising that she'd missed a good chunk of it.

'Actually, maybe there's one option that you and my father haven't considered yet. Something that's been on my mind lately.'

'Do tell, Your Highness.'

He lowered his voice. Nisha strained to listen to his words. 'Lately, I've been doing a little research.' He paused, before proceeding. "On...on the Lunar heir."

Nisha frowned. Was Prince Kai really one of the nutcases that bought into the whole 'Princess Selene is alive!!!1!' conspiracy theory?

Advisor Torin, at least, seemed sane. 'Your Highness-'

'Just hear me out,' said the prince. Yup. Nutjob. Nisha worried for the future of his people.

Prince Kai continued. 'There are rumours every day. Sightings, people claiming they helped her, theories...'

'Yes, we've all heard the theories. You know as well as I there's no substance to them.'

'But what if they're true? What if there's a girl out there who could usurp Levana? Someone even stronger?'

'Are you listening to yourself? Someone stronger than Levana? You mean someone like her sister, who had her favourite seamstress's feet chopped off so she would have nothing better to do than sit and make her fine dresses?'

Nisha glared at the Advisor. She hated this story. Hated the way Earterns used it. Of all the horrendous things Queen Channary had done, this was the one that was somehow the most gossiped about. How the event managed to travel all the way to Earth when it wasn't even that publicised on Luna, she had no idea. It was commonplace. Servants were mistreated every day in Artemisia unless they were the seneschal of the estate. Sometimes even then.

'We're not talking about Queen Channary.'

'No, we're talking about her daughter. Kai, the entire bloodline, every last one of them has been greedy, violent, corrupted by their own power. It's in their blood. Believe me when I say that Princess Selene, even if she were alive, would be no better.'

'She can't very well be worse,' the prince said.

A young toddler with a temper who liked to toss her soft toys at her playmates to hurry up. A woman with vixen eyes threw her wine glass into a crowd at one of the numerous balls she hosted. Then her sister, holding court in a large throne room, hurled a glass goblet at whoever was unfortunate enough to be in her sight.

Perhaps Selene wouldn't have been as bad as Queen Channary or Queen Levana, but she would've brought her own brand of Blackburn Horror to the world if she had grown up amongst the twisted Artemisians. Better that she died as an innocent little girl than lived as a monster.

The prince shifted his weight forward. 'And who knows? If the rumours are right, and she has been on Earth all this time, maybe she would be different. Maybe she would be sympathetic to us.'

'You're basing this wishful thinking on rumours.'

'They never found a body....'

'They found what was left of one.'

Nisha remembered that day. Nadia had been with Winter and Selene in the playroom. Nisha hadn't.

She had been with her mother, trying to help her around the house and fetch her materials and supplies. Back then, she couldn't forgive the Lunar princess for what had happened despite her mother telling her that Selene had nothing to do with it. Now she would never get the chance to.

Because the playroom burned down with Selene and her nanny inside it. Because of Queen Levana, Winter and Nadia weren't charred corpses. She had taken Winter for a doctor's appointment and told Nadia to fetch the seneschal to the doctor's satellite office.

It was partially because of her sister that the rumours of Queen Levana killing her own niece emerged. It wasn't her fault, since the guards had interrogated everyone in the palace and she had been the princess's playmates on the day of the fire. But it had put a target on their family. Two years later, Pandora Mira shot a bullseye.

'It couldn't hurt to do some research, could it?' said Prince Kai, a desperate note entering his tone.

'Yes, it could hurt. If Levana were to find out you were considering this, it would destroy our chance at procuring a treaty. We shouldn't even be talking about this here - it's dangerous.'

'Now who's listening to rumours?'

Nisha smirked and wiggled her fingers in mock imitation of a wave. Not that they could see her. Rumours of Levana having invisible ears weren't rumours if they were true.

'Your Highness, this is the end of this discussion. Your objective right now must be to prevent a war, not worrying about phantom Lunar princesses.'

'What if I can't prevent it?'

Advisor Torin sounded resigned. 'Then the Union will fight.'

'Right. Excellent plan. I'm so comforted now that we've had this talk.' The prince turned away and marched toward the labs. He pushed open the door just in time for someone to scream.

Prince Kai rushed forward at the sound and Nisha had to dash after him before the automated doors closed and separated them. They arrived at the lab of Dr. Erland just in time to see the man go 'Hmm.' and kneel on the floor. He took out a flashlight and held it in front of a young woman's closed eyes. Judging by her twitching fingers and position on the floor, she must've been the one that screamed bloody murder.

'Calm down, Miss Linh. You're perfectly all right.'

'Perfectly all right? Are you crazy? What happened to her?' Kai sounded almost as panicked as when the Emperor's Letumosis spots were discovered. Nisha squinted at him.

While Nisha agreed with his objection to the doctor's statement, she found that the Prince was acting a little out of character. It wasn't like he had a personal connection with the woman. Damsel had done her research and sent the files over to her portscreen. There was nothing about this "Miss Linh" in them. And Damsel was, er, thorough. Very thorough. 

Nisha grimaced.

The woman groaned.

'Only a little experiment,' said Doctor Erland. 'She's going to be fine, Your Highness. See? She's waking up now.'

The prince let out a strangled protest just as the woman's eyes fluttered and opened. Nisha held in a gasp as the woman's eyes focused on the two men on the ground. She was suddenly grateful that she had not chosen to kneel on the floor. Or stand near the two men. A small sound, sounding vaguely like a death whine, escaped her lips. She silently slapped a hand to her mouth. Wide eyes searched the young woman's face, finding familiar features. Familiar features of Queen Channary Blackburn.

Nisha wanted to vomit.

As she looked, she found that Miss Linh's face was softer, younger and kinder. A spark of humanity existed in her. And, if Princess Selene was raised by Earthens, she would hopefully side with Earth and stop the Lunar-Earthen war.

And it was Selene. The resemblance was uncanny. Nisha would know. She had had the ghosts of Blackburns waltzing in her nightmares every night for years.

But it couldn't be. What were the chances that Princess Selene appeared just as Prince Kai spoke of her as an out from marrying Queen Levana? What were the chances that the niece of the woman who had ruined her family's life would come out of the woodwork to be a saviour for Earthens? What were the chances the remains of the body found in the nursery didn't belong to a corpse, but a still-breathing princess?

Low. In decimals, if that. She looked at the young woman on the floor. Hardly a fitting position for royalty. The chances were low, almost non-existence.

But it wasn't zero.

The odds have never been in Nisha's favour. But she was still breathing and that had to account for something.

Well, Nisha had always liked proving Levana wrong.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Nisha: I hate you.
Kai: Why?
Nisha: You're literally so dumb natural selection would take you out first.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

*after Kai finally collapse from sheer exhaustion / Nisha gets tired of his shit and knocks him out / Torin feeds Kai sedatives*

Nisha: I slept for almost 12 hours but I might still be tired so let's go for 12 more just in case.
Cress/Damsel: Nyx, that's a coma.
Nisha: Sounds festive.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Nisha and Torin @ Kai when he starts talking about Selene :

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

In case it isn't clear, Nisha isn't a big fan of Kai because he's a responsible ruler that actually cares for his country. Also, all her other assignments were like old and immobile but Kai is a stupid emphatic little shit that likes running around New Beijing to help everyone he can. What the hell dude? Delegate dammit.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

This chapter is dedicated to petitpapillon666: Happy 22nd birthday Rebekah! How's it feel to be ancient? Any back pain? White hair? Wrinkles? 

Haha just kidding. Kinda envious that TS's 22 is finally relatable for you. And even when you're 92 and at death's door, I hope you remember that I love you so, so much! I would make a grand speech to tell you how much I love you but I've never been good at speeches. Also hopefully you already know how much I love you from every single message I send you and each interaction we have. Here's to us watching Nancy Drew together (and me simping over George) for years to come.

Love, Alex