Selenia enjoyed the warmth of the campfire with everyone else as the night wore on. They were all sitting on logs, the group of them, happily eating the food they had brought, some of it being grilled and roasted to make it that extra delicious over the crackling fire.

  She rarely ever had time for something like this. Her days had been filled with tutoring from private instructors—the best that could be afforded, attending public events, presiding over ceremonial functions, and moving from one place to the next as shepherded by the Supreme Council of the Settlement Front Alliance

  She was certainly enjoying herself as she roasted a marshmallow that went between two crackers and a thin slab of chocolate, especially since her life had revolved around one thing or another befitting someone of her stature as a princess. She happily blew and chewed on the melting, sweet cracker sandwich she had made.

  But Selenia couldn’t shake off the weird looks that Bridges and Trois were giving her. They tried to hide it, but there was something off about their stares that was different than the others—Aster, Garrod, Arnis, Fafapan, and even Saphie, the serenely smiling flesh mimic who had also mimicked her and made a marshmallow sandwich like her. It wasn’t one of curiosity like the Letta sisters, those fairy children who were busily snacking on various treats. Nor was it one of annoyance, dispassion, or antipathy as she had experienced with other soldiers and people from the Gaia Sphere Federation.

  She tried to ignore it, but there was a certain tenseness and wariness within them—even from the aloof Trois who seemed emotionless with dull, empty pink eyes.

  “Hey, big sis!” Galetta said. Selenia turned her head to the fairy child. “Here! Lemonade!” Galetta held out a transparent cup with the yellowish liquid in it.

  Selenia arched a brow, taking it from the child, and sniffed it.

  It was lemonade.

  She eyed the child fairy suspiciously as her other colorful quintuplet sisters looked on at them with barely concealed giggles. She would have said no—except she did yell at them earlier.

  Aw, thanks,” Selenia said, taking a polite sip of it.

  She coughed, nearly retching from the most sour taste she had ever tasted went through her tongue and mouth. The horribleness of it shot through her body like lightning. Her tongue, mouth, and lips shrivelled up like the force of a thousand suns had dried them out. She quickly went for water, flushing her lips and mouth as she swallowed water in deep gulps.

  Selenia glared at the Letta sisters. “You little brats!”

  The only response she received was chuckling laughter from the children. “We got her! The glowing melon princess!” The Quintuplet fairy sisters said.

  She was never going to live it down, was she? The teases about her faint silvery glow that was the sign of her family’s lineage and the whole melon thing.

  Selenia glanced down at a nearby melon fruit that reflected the light of the fire and her own faint silver shimmer… like a…

  Like a…

  “Melon glowstick…” Selenia muttered under breath in realization. It was best not to give anyone any bright ideas…. She turned her head to another of the fairy sisters, Haletta, who had, along with her sisters had snuck up on her side without her knowledge.

  Their eyes widened as did hers.

  Oh no.

  “Melon glowstick,” the fairy sisters all muttered in realization. “Melon glowstick.”

  Then they roared in delight. “MELON GLOWSTICK!” They moved in sync, their glossmar wings flapping as they danced around her, happily frolicking around her in a circle. “MELON GLOWSTICK! MELON GLOWSTICK!”

  Selenia leaned her head back. She wanted to bite herself. She sighed internally. Well, at least, the fairy children had regained their playful attitudes after she had yelled at them.

  She rose, motioning for another of the fairy children, Maletta, to take her half-eaten chocolate marshmallow cracker sandwich from her.

  “You can have it,” Selenia said. Maletta happily took it from her, taking a bite from the other uneaten end.

  She glanced over at Bridges and Trois, who both seemed put off by what they had just seen, though Bridges tried to hide it with some awkward laughter and Trois with her constant dispassionate attitude, though her thin white wings around her waist twitched. Which was odd compared to everyone else, who seemed amused by the fairy children’s teasing.

  Selenia stretched, walking off from the group to get some fresh air within the nearby surroundings, away from the fairy children’s teasing. As she did so, she sensed that Bridges and Trois’s gazes never left her back. Their watchful stars were uncomfortable.

  She eventually reached a small cliff edge, by the small waterful that fed into the pond of the meadow, which itself fed into a stream that went off somewhere into the forest. The fires were distant but not far, and she could still make out the others who looked happy and comfortable.

  From here, the Triplet Moons were clear high above in the artificial representation of Alsium’s Two’s dome. They were full and bright in whites and blues. It was enough to make her forget at times that she was far underground, within an arcology of the Lethea Labyrinth, one of many that worked its way downward into Gaia’s depths—the Lethea Labyrinth itself the seat of the Gaia Sphere Federation’s power.

  It made her feel listless.

  “Feeling down?” Aster said to her side as he sat by her.

  Selenia turned her head to Aster, who had followed her. He sat down next to her. “Just feeling tired is all.”

  Aster tilted his head in question at her.

  “Looking at the moons reminds me of my family. My father died when I was nothing but an infant. My mother died when I was nothing but a child. And my brother disappeared when I was young. He was…” Selenia said. She brought her knees up to herself, wrapping her arms around them. “He was my hero growing up.” She chuckled sadly. “They said he died while fighting in combat. Though, given what happened recently, I doubt that. And now my sister is all alone up there with those power-hungry people who would be happy to use her for whatever ends they want.”

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  Selenia’s eyes softened as the Triplet Moons comforted her. “Though as strange as it sounds, I’m not too surprised.” She turned her head towards Aster. “Do you know of the old legends of Gaia?”

  Aster shook his head.

  “In the old books that speak of the distance past, thousands of years ago, it was said that the Gods of the Moons and Stars warred with the Gods of Gaia who dwelt on the earth. Long was their conflict, though the reasons for it had all but been forgotten. And of the Gods of the Moons were two sisters and one brother. One of the sisters had fallen in love with a God of the Earth. Lunaria was her name. And because of that love, both had died for it. After much struggle and hardship, both had fallen, and nothing awaited except tragedy. But because of it, the Gods of the Moon and Stars, together with the Gods of Gaia, had ended their feud and war with each other.”

  Selenia giggled. “Isn’t it like the Gaia Sphere Federation and the Settlement Front Alliance now? I guess some things never change, eh?” She shook her head. “And the stories go that my family, the Selenar family, had descended from those very same Gods of the Moon all so very long ago.”

  Aster listened quietly, though Selenia could tell that he was probably wondering what she was getting at.

  She coughed. “What I mean to say is that, as the history of my family shows, tragedy and fate accompany us wherever, to the point that some say our family has been cursed ever since that time. So I guess a part of me isn’t too surprised that such misfortune has befallen my family. It seems such things have fallen on our family time and time again as the centuries and millennia have gone by.”

  “Well, you seem to be dealing with things well enough,” Aster said, giving her a faint smile. “I think it’s quite admirable that you’re still carrying on regardless of everything.”

  Selenia blushed slightly. “T-thanks.” She rarely received praise in her life. It was always hard to know how to deal with it whenever she got it.

  “So what did you do anyway as a princess? Even if the Selenar Union is supposed to be a constitutional monarchy, you still had to do some things right?”

  Selenia blinked at the sudden question. “Nothing really. It was all ceremonial.” A little embarrassment worked its way up through her. “It was always my brother who took most of the attention. Though I didn’t mind. I was happy to be out of the spotlight. Though that all changed when he died. Then I was the oldest remaining Selenar left, with no one but my younger sister after me. And I realized just how all the people I’ve met really are. Concerned with nothing but their own power and greed.”

  She shook her head. Then thought to herself for a moment. She smiled. “Though there was one thing I did like doing.” She held her hands together in prayer, and she closed her eyes. Under her breath, she began to mutter a small chant. The silver of her radiance glowed further and began to flicker like flame. A small silver star began to form in the air over her head like a miniature moon.

  Minutes passed, and as she ended her chant, reopening her eyes, Selenia saw Aster with starstruck eyes at the display and the silver star floating serenely in the air above her head.

  “That’s beautiful,” Aster said, mouth slightly open at the display. It seemed like he had been mesmerized.

  “I did this all the time with ceremonies and processions. It’s another thing that’s been passed down in my family for generations,” Selenia said as the silver star dissipated slowly.

  “Like it?”

  “I think it’s wonderful. You sound so much more down to earth than all the other bunch of people it sounds like you had to deal with,” Aster said. “They all sound like they have a stick up their asses,” Aster said.

  Selenia laughed uncontrollably, snorting in a way unbefitting of a princess of her stature. She froze, embarrassed, face red at the sounds she had just made.

  Aster laughed in reply at her.

  “Hey! Shut up!” Selenia said, her face flushing red. “And don’t ever tell anyone you heard that? Okay?”

  Aster nodded his head. “Yes, princess of the melon kingdom.”

  Selenia wanted to bash his head in. She sighed. She really was never going to live that down. She chuckled at it.

  A strange sensation caught her attention behind her.

  Selenia turned her head behind her, and Aster followed her gaze. There was a shadow that moved within the darkness.

  Selenia caught sight of a young boy off in the darkness, peeking around a tree. He seemed to be of a similar age to the Letta sisters. Was she seeing things?

  He disappeared, taking off into the forest.

  “Hey!” Selenia said. For some reason, she felt compelled to follow.

  “Selenia!” Aster called after her. “There’s no one there. Who are you—”

  Selenia rose, following quickly in the distance after the child. She made her way through the dark forest, though she wasn’t concerned. There weren’t any dangerous wild animals within Alsium Two. She found the child crouched down, within a small clearing between the trees and foliage on the side of a trail that led further down.

  Selenia approached the child, taking care not to startle him.

  “Hey,” Selenia said, gently. “Who are you?”

  The child looked up.

  “My name’s Ernie,” The young child said.

  Ernie didn’t look any older than 13. Maybe even 12. He didn’t seem to be much older than the Letta sisters, those fairy children. Though he wore the black and dark red uniform of the Gaia Sphere Federation. He seemed young. Too young to be a soldier.

  “Are you with the Rakaila too?” Selenia said as she bent down to see Ernie more clearly.

  Ernie seemed off. A little too pale. It was like he seemed a little too faint out of reality. As if he were slightly distorted and out of sync with everything around him. As if he were some kind of ghost.

  “The… Rakaila…” Ernie replied.

  Selenia reached out a hand.

  “You’re… a Selenar… of the Selenar family…” Ernie replied, monotone, as if he was just realizing who she was.

  Ernie knocked her hand away, gripping his head, surging up, yelling in pain.

  Selenia took a step back as her eyes widened. Selenia’s eyes widened. “Are you okay?”

  Ernie ran off down the trail further into the darkness.

  “Ernie!” Selenia said, following along until she reached where the forest ended and nothing remained further except a large, barren rocky field that led to one side of the underground arcology’s rocky cliff that made up its walls.

  “Selenia!” Aster called from behind her as he caught up. “Who were you running after?”

  “There was a child. A boy. By the name of Ernie. Did you see where he went?”

  “What boy?” Aster said, confused. “There was no one there.”

  “What?” Selenia muttered. She clearly had talked to someone. There was no doubt in her mind about that.

  Selenia turned her head around to scan the area, but there was no one there. Her eyes turned to the massive cavern wall that went miles up. In front of her, there was a portion of Alsium Two’s rocky cliff wall that seemed to have been blocked off. A massive section large enough to fit the warship Rakaila through, as if there had been an opening there that had been filled in with thick slabs of rock.

  “Come on,” Aster said. “Let’s head back.”

  Selenia nodded silently. A sense of foreboding and danger tingled within her at the sight of the filled-in cavern wall that didn’t leave her even as she rejoined the others and night wore on.