Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
“Aela, is it?” a soft yet confident voice sounded from Tarek’s throne.
“What?” Aela mumbled as her eyes darted between Tarek and the flustered prominent stars of the Asterism who were beginning to crowd the foot of the dais.
“Follow me, please.” Taureal must have blessed her celestials with beauty to rival Leonta because the star who stood before Aela was stunning.
“Who are you?” Aela asked.
“I am Tala, Adjacent to Tarek and House Taurus.”
The features of the female clearly marked her as Tarek’s twin sister.
For all his masculine beauty, Tala was his feminine counterpart.
Her ebony skin glowed with an inner light, and her tightly coiled, long black hair was streaked with lavender.
Though her white garments were stained from the aftermath of Aela’s storm, it did little to take away her beauty.
“I… I don’t belong here,” Aela found herself saying to no one in particular.
Part of the Taureon Line.
“You’re right. You don’t belong here, but you will. Come.”
Tala’s clipped command was one that beckoned obedience without thought, though it lacked the overbearing nature of her brother, who was still arguing with the Asterism.
Tala led Aela away from the throne room through a hidden entrance to the side of the dais, leaving behind the heated dispute between Tarek and his court.
A ghost of a smile appeared on Aela’s face despite everything.
Watching Tarek get increasingly flustered at having to defend himself against his own House was quite satisfying.
He looked like a fool for promising the victor placement in the Line, but he would be labeled as such if he went against his own word.
Aela trailed after Tala as her mind raced, her muffled thoughts clear now that she was out of the throne room—away from Tarek and away from Elnath.
“No guards?” Aela asked.
“No guards.”
“Why? Am I not to be your prisoner?”
“You are part of the Taureon Line now.”
Tarek’s decree and Tala’s words settled anew in Aela’s gut, and she rushed to a potted fern along a wall of the corridor and retched. Tala didn’t make a remark, only waited for Aela to finish expelling the contents of her stomach before continuing down the hall.
The unique beauty of the Avarice palace was a blur to Aela.
She and Tala stopped beside a smooth slab of quartz inset in the wall.
From what Aela could tell, it looked no different from others they had passed.
Tala placed an open palm on the crystal surface.
The quartz beneath her palm glowed softly, then parted in the middle, granting them entrance.
Aela entered after the Adjacent, a zing passing over her skin as she stepped through an invisible ward.
The room before her was outfitted in the same rosy terracotta tones as the rest of the palace interior.
“These will be your rooms for now. If you have any personal effects, an attendant can bring them to you. I’ll leave you to get settled. I will be back for your debrief and to see that you adjust.”
“Debrief?”
“You may be part of my Line now, but we don’t know you. I don’t know you. And even with the Prime Apparent’s decree, I will not be so welcoming. You’ll find fresh clothing and a generous bathing suite through the hall there. I suggest you use it.”
Tala said the threat so civilly, Aela had half a mind to think they were discussing plans to visit the crystal shop Aela had spied in the city before the scuffle with the Sagittarians. Aela blinked at the celestial.
“I mean you no harm,” Aela said with what she hoped sounded like sincerity.
“We’ll see.”
With that, Tala made sure Aela was settled into her rooms, then left to see to her Adjacent duties.
As soon as the door closed behind Tala, Aela breathed in for a count of five and then out before she rushed to the door and pressed her palm to the cool crystalline surface.
It wasn’t a surprise to find that it didn’t open for her.
She wanted to test how far Tala’s trust went—which wasn’t far at all.
Aela spun around and explored every nook and cranny of her new accommodations.
The rooms were decorated tastefully with potted plants, thick area rugs, and jewel-toned furniture heavily accented with gold.
A small seating area with bookshelves was set to the left of the space.
She found a comfortable bedroom through the hall next to the sitting area, complete with an attached bathing suite.
Back in the main room, a small kitchenette, dining area, and larger sitting room completed her quarters.
It was a far cry from her cave in The Spine or any rentable rooms she’d shared with flings over the years on Prente, but she paid the lavishness no mind.
Aela knew it was nothing beyond a gilded cage, a new cell draped in pretty fabrics that came with reading material—none of which turned out something she could use as a weapon or alternate exit.
The windows on the opposite wall from the entrance yawned into the black expanse of the realm.
Defeated, Aela mechanically tidied herself after the fight with Zosma.
As her body took care of its needs and went through the motions of cleansing, Aela delved within herself and examined every new piece of information she had learned since arriving in Avarice.
After her thoughts settled, she decided she would be selectively truthful whenever the Adjacent came back to debrief her.
Her time on Prente shouldn’t reveal her lineage, and it seemed a significant enough truth to assuage the abnormalities of her past. Surely, drifting stars couldn’t be that rare.
She tried to recall the specific account but remembered something from her lessons about a House that was dismembered, the surviving celestials sentenced to drift for eternity.
Aela shuddered. By revealing her time on Prente, she hoped to keep her larger truths—the ones she vowed she’d protect—to herself for a little longer.
Dressed in a simple dusty-blue bandeau top with matching loose pants that cinched at her waist, Aela padded barefoot into the living area.
She had pushed aside the heavy drapes that covered the open windows when she was scouring her rooms, desperately needing to ease the sense of confinement upon discovering she was trapped inside.
The growing unease of being held against her will crowded out her fear of heights as Aela stood before the open windows.
An earlier instinct told her if she had jumped, she’d fall to her death, so she had searched the rest of the apartment. Aela placed her hands on the stone frame and leaned her torso into the night air.
Surely there are wards. Aela reached out a hand into the void. Maybe the wards allow one to drift to another building or—
Before Aela could investigate if there were any handholds on the exterior she could climb, Tala breezed back into her apartment. Tala looked refreshed from The Games as she took a seat at the dining table and motioned for Aela to sit across from her.
“Your dress is beautiful,” Aela remarked as she took her seat. Tala dipped her head.
In a lesson that felt arduous as a youngling, an instructor of Aela had told her, “Genuine compliments help put others at ease.” The memory played as Tala measured Aela. She tried her best to sit still under the Adjacent’s penetrating gaze.
“Please try to focus, Prima.” Hearing her rank almost made Aela fall out of her desk chair.
It wasn’t a secret—within her constellation anyway—that she was the next in Line for Primary.
However, seeing as her lessons from her parents, tutors and guards were all emphasized with the need to keep herself secret, the blatant use of her position still felt vulgar whenever she heard it.
“Why am I learning about compliments?”
Her tutor, Kullat, answered her with a practiced patience she had no doubt honed from when she taught Aela’s mother.
“Because, little Heir, one day you may find yourself in a place where a little kindness will get you farther than running that mouth of yours.”
Aela had squawked at that, prompting Kullat and herself to erupt in a fit of giggles.
“One day, you’ll be glad for your lessons, Prima. Don’t squawk at things that seem useless today, only for it to save your life tomorrow.”
A smile inched its way onto Aela’s face as the memory faded.
Tala caught a flicker of the expression and narrowed her eyes.
Likely, she assumed Aela was scheming to infiltrate the Taureon Asterism, as the position was coveted.
The prominent star’s outcry was evidence enough.
She needed to tread carefully. An escape was unlikely, which only left gaining the Taureon’s trust, just enough not to deem her as a threat so she could search for her family discreetly.
Her initial plan of going unnoticed and picking up information so she could get home was long gone.
She needed to pivot her strategy. Aela tilted her head to the side and appraised Tala.
Both females sat at the table in silent assessment of one another.
Tala’s dress was beautiful. A shimmering silver, the dress blended seamlessly into Tala’s deep brown skin, so much so that it was impossible to see where the dress ended and her ebony skin began. Tala broke the silence first.
“Normally I favor two-piece sets, but I have many meetings today and audiences with the Prime Apparent and Asterism,” Tala said as she noted Aela’s eyes on her dress.
“We’ll find you a suitable style.” The last of what she said sounded more like a mental note for herself, and Aela frowned down at her own clothing.
“What’s wrong with these clothes? They were in the wardrobe.”