Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Tala was irritated, though no one would know it. She kept her composure when the second cosmic storm appeared and cast its violet-white light over her city’s sky.
When the lightning made its second appearance, she was more prepared.
Before it had a chance to strike at her brother, she appeared a moment prior and conjured a wall of swirling sand.
The sand shield dissipated the direct strike.
Through the mist, Tala barely caught sight of the female—who had run toward the most powerful stars in Avarice as if she had a death wish—before she plummeted from the quartz walkway into the pit of the arena.
Tala felt the breach of the wards around the city as true darkness blotted out the sky, masking the magenta and aqua tones of the aurora lights that were a constant vibrancy over Avarice.
Tarek stiffened beside her, and she knew he felt the same crack in their defenses.
If the high-ranking stars of the Asterism had been petrified before, the host of celestials still standing in the box seating area behind Tala went wholly still.
The Darkness speared straight for them, and spittle flew from Tarek’s mouth as he raged at the ultimate demise of their kind coming against his House.
But The Darkness did something that Tala had not expected.
Instead of opening its maw upon them—which was inescapable, and all one could pray for was a painless fracturing—it stuck down and surrounded the female who was in free fall.
Chaos ensued.
Crimson blood seeped from dozens of thin cuts across Tala’s ebony face and hands where the fine mist of her sand shield had sliced her skin.
She turned to face Tarek, watching patiently as he thrashed against his elite sentinel guards surrounding him.
When Tarek’s russet eyes calmed enough to see her through their violent veil, she nodded to him and signaled for his guards to escort him into the palace.
Tarek tried to garner her attention, but she was already moving among the shaken members of their court, brushing the white sandy film off her ensemble, smearing blood across the once-spotless fabric.
The most powerful stars of the Taureon Line were trembling until Tala’s touch calmed them. One by one, the Aster’s focus returned under her softly spoken words and direction.
“If Zosma is still alive, tell him to finish the fight!” Tarek’s bellow was slurred.
The rest of his tirade was cut off as his sentinels bustled him through the hall that led into the private lounge.
Zosma is the least of our concerns right now, brother. Whoever that female is who can call lightning—and The Darkness—is.
Tala would never admit it, but the female scared her more than The Darkness.
With the dark matter of the realm, she knew what to expect, even though any direct defense was futile against it.
However, the female… Tala did not like things she didn’t understand.
She suppressed a shiver that crawled up her spine.
“Prime Apparent!” a sentinel came running through the Asters crowding the hall that Tarek went through with his guards.
“What is it?” Tala asked.
With her selenite crystal shard clutched in her fist, she fired off orders through the mental link with the stone to her agents and forces stationed around Avarice.
Tala pivoted to the sentinel and intercepted the message intended for her inebriated brother.
She laid a hand on the sentinel’s arm as they spoke into her ear.
She nodded her dismissal and sent them on their way.
The box seating area quickly emptied while Tala kept an eye on the arena. Tones of magenta and aqua bled through the sky once more with The Darkness’ retreat. Tala exhaled and brushed a stray curl away from her face, the lavender highlights in her black hair shimmering beneath the Aurora haze.
She turned to head after Tarek when her eyes caught on a few lingering Asters who still hadn’t grasped control of all their faculties in the wake of the lightning wielder and The Darkness sighting.
Tala allowed herself one slow breath before squaring her shoulders. She didn’t recall seeing the Sagittarian Heir among her trembling court. Tala clapped her hands, rattling the golden cuffs around her wrists.
“Come now, it’s past time for you to check on your families and those in your care. Well? Move!”
That sent the rest of the celestials scrambling as she followed the Asters from the box seating area into the lounge.
The darkened interior was a circular room outfitted with divans, couches with large colorful tasseled cushions, and layered carpets over the stone flooring.
Celestials sprawled across every surface in varying states of undress, engaging in private encounters or entertaining themselves in small groups.
Private rooms for those who wanted undisturbed trysts spiraled off the main space.
Tala spotted the Gemini twins moving about the low tables that were scattered throughout, bearing vessels of strong sparkling beverages.
Attendants dressed as scantily as Mun and Teja moved through the increasingly crowded revelry, which had carried on, oblivious to the happenings outside the lounge.
“Tarek, what are you still doing here?” Elnath, the Regent of House Taurus and unofficial authority in Avarice, inquired, with only a hint of condescension.
Something held Tala back as she watched the struggle for supremacy between Tarek and their aunt.
Elnath squinted her deep amethyst eyes in appraisal of Tarek’s drunken state and took a small vial from within her flowing dress.
She popped the stopper off the top and waved the vial under his nose.
Tarek cursed and stumbled back into a member of his elite guard after taking a whiff of the mind-clearing concoction that was within the vial.
Tarek blinked the blur out of his eyes, and as it retreated, his inebriation followed. Tala suppressed a smile at how Tarek was careful not to show too much or too little gratitude to the Regent, settling with a dip of his chin. Elnath inclined her own and turned away.
“If I were Primary of Taurus, I’d have never let myself slip into such a state when threats lurk in the shadows.” Elnath said the jab over her shoulder before melting into the crowding bodies in the lounge.
The parting remark got Tala moving.
She always has to have the last word.
Sliding between the elite guards who parted for her, she rested her hand on Tarek’s forearm, offering him the support of her presence.
He caught Proxima’s eye and motioned for her to join them.
His elite guards pushed divans and Asters out of the way, allowing the Heir of Sagittarius within their ring formation.
“Come, brother. Defenses are in place around the city. You need to take care of your guest,” Tala said with slight emphasis.
Tarek’s eyes widened as they roamed over her face. She must be a sight even though the cuts along her skin that had already crusted over thanks to her selenite shard still gripped in her fist. The healing properties of the unrefined crystal worked efficiently for small injuries.
Tala kept her senses sharp while she received field reports and gave instructions in rapid succession to her agents within their city.
A handful of the Asterism that lounged about finally came out of their lustful state.
They took in Tarek’s elite guards and his thunderous expression before quickening their steps to leave.
Of the siblings, Tarek was feared more. Tala knew he often felt like he fought against his nature, with his notorious temper and quick action.
It made the fire element more fitting for his disposition than the steadfast earthen element.
Tala was his balance. Her reputation for remaining perfectly steady and sure no matter the circumstances was a balm to his volatility.
Tarek’s emotions flickered across his face, and she brushed her free hand down his arm.
“Everything will be fine,” she soothed.
Tarek clenched his jaw as he settled his russet gaze on his former intended. Proxima was tall for a female. At eye level with Tarek, her shock of pink hair against her pale skin was notably her most striking feature apart from the sunset tone of her eyes.
“Are you alright?” Tala asked the Sagittarian Heir when Tarek didn’t inquire.
“Of course. Though I will say your Asterism’s lack of concern for their lives and those beneath them was unsettling,” the Heir replied.
Tala placed a practiced smile on her face. “We were caught unaware. Put your mind at ease; you are safe here.”
“Safe?” Proxima hummed a throaty laugh. “Nowhere is safe against The Darkness.”
Tala resisted the urge to bristle. “It may have come through our wards—that are being analyzed as we speak—but it has never come for the palace.”
“What about for the common class stars? Who protects them when you flee to your palace?” Proxima demanded.
“Prox, this is hardly the time—” Tala began, but Tarek cut her off.
“They can be spared. Until we know what The Darkness is or how to thwart it, it’s better them than us.”
The black vapor that consumed celestials and constellations alike was a recent phenomenon in the last millennium.
Tala bowed her head, unable to meet Tarek or Proxima’s gaze.
Tarek rolled his wide-set shoulders back, the care of his common class stars melting away with the tension clinging there.
With a final look at the other stars of his House tangled in blissful unawareness, he barked an order to his elite guards, who led the trio through the lounge toward the palace proper.