Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ahost of high-ranking stars descended upon the streets of Avarice to inspect disrepair from the jump.
Tarek, Aela, his inner circle, and the Taureon Asterism paraded about the main thoroughfare.
Not one celestial paused as they passed by the scorched stones that lay at the foot of the Core Tower.
Shame painted Aela’s cheeks as she averted her gaze from the ground where rebel common class stars had once stood.
They should now be well on their way to freedom, having escaped Avarice.
Instead, not even silenced lights in the astral sky were left for their Line to mourn.
Tarek had burned them out—burned them without name.
Aela felt her impending bond with Tarek loom closer, like a storm on the horizon. She felt each inch as the constellations drained toward the flaming river and the reunion with her family slip farther out of her reach.
The host of stars continued on the main avenue as Aela swallowed the bile that crept up her throat and turned her head to look back at the base of the Core Tower.
She offered a silent prayer for their souls, that if the flaming river at the center of the realm was all there was for them, their passing had been quick and painless after their infernal deaths.
What if there is no home to go back to? What if the river has claimed them too?
Aela tried to bolster her mind from further thoughts, yet with each common class star the large party passed, their bleak faces weighed on her mental walls.
In a morbid feat of ingenuity, Avarice harnessed the energy of the dying sun and successfully traveled from the Leo system to the Sagittarius system.
Instead of meeting in the starcity Celestor, where the Senate typically met, the Primary meeting was being held in Theora, the capital city of Proxima’s House.
Small talk chittered around Aela as they continued their inspection.
Tarek draped his arm around her as they went about his city.
He had been alarmingly calm when he came to her quarters after the jump to retrieve her.
His russet eyes had raked over her form in a white dress, her wrists once again bound in crystal, then extended his arm to her, saying they were to inspect the city before the Primary meeting.
Zosma hadn’t been outside her apartment when Tarek came to collect her, and something in her cautioned her not to inquire.
Whoever caught Arche and Tabitha had alerted Tarek of the heist, and Aela wasn’t about to take any chances endangering more stars by risking simple questions.
Instead, she molded herself to his expectations.
The Gemini twins Mun and Teja had intercepted Aela on her way to the Core Tower as she had came back from the planet’s surface.
She had been too late to aid the separatists before they fractured under the strain of channeling the city’s jump.
After the twins helped clean her up, Aela slipped on her crystal bands and she sat at the dining table in her apartment, waiting for Tarek or Tala to come demand an explanation.
She had none. If they had deigned to come to her rooms, she would have told them the truth.
She was devoid of caring about keeping her secrets when so many lives had been lost. What good had keeping her identity a secret done?
If she had claimed her birthright, announced who she was at the onset of her captivity…
Aela sighed, and Tarek shifted his attention to her as an Aster rattled on.
She ignored his stare and kept moving forward at the steady pace of the procession, looking out over the rolling verdant farmlands.
The food produced within the warded air of Avarice sustained the realm through their earth magic and replication abilities.
The vast agricultural sector hugged the opposite end of the city from the palace.
The expense to maintain the land paid for itself with how Tarek and Elnath bled the other Houses dry.
She couldn’t change the past and, as her adoptive mother Renee had told her long ago, there was no use in what-ifs.
Anxiety was born in what-ifs.
But so was hope.
Aela’s thumb stroked Jaelin’s empty saltbox in the side pocket of her flowy white dress.
It had been a fated meeting to have seen him at his end.
And after sitting with his words for a day, she felt renewed by them.
Despite the devastation, despite the loss, she couldn’t give up.
Taurus was not lost. There were still more common class stars she could help.
Their plan might have been ruined, but what if the next one wasn’t?
What if she could free the Taureons? The rebellion was not dead.
Aela glanced at Tala, who stood on her opposite side from Tarek.
The Adjacent was more withdrawn than Aela had ever seen her.
This type of public leadership was normally where she thrived.
Even with her natural luminosity considerably dimmer, all classes of stars still flocked to her—still drawn to her.
Aela and Tala had barely spoken since the day in the crystal shop over tea.
Official court functions brought them together, but Tala kept Aela at arm’s length.
She didn’t know why it bothered her so much.
Despite their rocky introduction, she had come to respect her.
Arche, who also accompanied the large contingent of prominent stars, kept trying to catch Tala’s eye, which she seemed determined to avoid. They concluded their assessment of the land teeming with earthen magic and went back to the traveling rings that would bring them closer into the city.
A delegation from Sagittarius was expected at any moment, yet Tarek had insisted on gathering his court to see the state of his city before they attended the meeting.
“Barely a scratch on her,” an Aster remarked as they passed an eatery she and Tarek had dined at months ago. Aela’s head swiveled to look at the untouched building, beside which stood a spice shop.
“Aela?” Tarek called as she drifted toward the shop.
Her hand strayed back to where Jaelin’s wooden saltbox nested. She couldn’t bear to leave it behind in her rooms. Without a word to Tarek or anyone else, Aela stepped inside the shop.
Dried herbs crunched under her feet as she entered. The spice merchant was covered in a fine layer of dust with minor cuts across their face.
“Can I help you?” they asked wearily.
“Salt,” Aela said, her voice catching in her throat.
Warmth threatened behind her eyes as she set the box on the counter.
Without further prompting, the merchant retrieved various containers of salt, and Aela pointed to the coarsest variety.
It wasn’t the pale pink salt of Prente, but they filled her box.
Aela nodded her thanks as the tears she tried holding back spilled from her eyes.
The merchant came around the counter and laid a hand on her shoulder.
She would remember the moments between her and Jaelin with fondness. He had been there when she needed someone. His saltbox would serve as a reminder that she was needed now.
“Aela, what do you think you are doing?” Tarek demanded.
Aela hastily shrugged away from the merchant’s kindness and brushed the tears off her face.
“Sorry, I wanted to see how the interior of the buildings faired after the jump, not just the outside.”
Tarek carefully curated his features into a patient and caring mask. He reached for the saltbox, but Aela shoved it back into her pocket of her dress skirt.
“It’s nothing.”
“Come, the Sagittarians made contact. We need to prepare.” Tarek glanced at the merchant who had retreated behind the counter. “Do send word if you need any assistance with repairs.” With that, Tarek draped his arm around Aela once more and escorted her from the shop.
The merchant crept from behind the counter and peered out the window at the front of their shop and watched the prominent stars retreat farther up the street, returning whence they came.
Safe and out of sight, the merchant lifted their unbound wrists and wept.
The Prime Apparent’s intended had removed their crystal bands.
Rich soil blanketed the ground of their shop, reviving dried herbs and sprouting fresh seedlings.
Wiping their eyes, the merchant pulled out their selenite shard and sent a message: hope is not lost.