<~> Chapter 111

Luna had been quietly thinking to herself for most of the morning, which felt a bit odd compared to how much we usually talked. It wasn't difficult to guess what was weighing so heavily on her mind. The two of us were washing up together in the large bath we shared. We wanted to clean ourselves up before we met with Luna's mother again. Her mother's name, Celeste, made me wonder about the strange coincidence of their names being related to the sky while not having the same meaning in this world. Apparently, the name Celeste comes from a flower here... The language sounding so similar but not having the same linguistic roots continued to strike me as odd.

("Will you brush my tail for me?") Luna asked as she stepped out of the basin and wrapped herself in a towel.

"I don't mind... but this doesn't have a deeper meaning to it that I'm not aware of, does it?" I asked.

Luna giggled. ("No, well... It could be seen as a sign of trust, but considering we're engaged, I'd say we were past that stage.")

I followed her back into the dressing room, and the two of us changed into slightly nicer-looking clothes, which we had picked up during our shopping trip before we entered the dungeon. I wasn't hugely into fashion, and after her restrictive upbringing followed by her rough life as a delver, she wasn't either. The two of us had spent some time picking out some ready-made clothes and having them tailored for us. Luna's clothes looked light and airy, with some ruffles and frilly trim that looked cute on her. She wore a thin fabric choker that covered the scars on her throat since her robes weren't there to cover most of them.

I was wearing an outfit that clung tightly to my body and showed off my musculature. It had been something Luna had specifically picked out for me. I just couldn't refuse to get it after she had shown me that look in her eye, even if it wasn't something I normally would have picked. It seems Luna really enjoyed how built my body had become. My human form looked even more muscular than when I had originally woken up in this world. Non-stop close-quarters fighting will do that to you, I suppose. I bet that I definitely qualified for the 'muscle mommy' look that had been popular on the internet when I was still in college. Both of our outfits had rings to display our braids, like most clothes, and I transferred mine over without needing to be asked. These would be a sign of our mutual support for each other in this crazy situation.

While we were out shopping, I found something similar to a sports bra that gave me more support than the silk bandages I had been using to tie up my chest until now. The sports bra was pretty basic and wasn't as elastic as the ones I was used to in my old world, but it still felt much better than what I had been using until now. They had apparently been designed specifically with female delvers in mind, and I convinced Luna to buy one as well. It seemed they weren't so popular to be the standard yet, despite their obvious advantage, in my opinion.

Luna sat next to me with her tail trailing over my lap. When we were in town she bought a new brush for herself that she liked better, but we had decided to wait on trying out oils and conditioners for a while. At the time, we had assumed we would be doing a lot more dungeon delving in the near future, so we didn't want to stock up on too many luxuries yet. It was a lucky choice since the castle was providing some of the expensive oils. Her new brush seemed to be a lot more comfortable than her last, based on the sighs and groans she was letting out while I cleaned up her tail fur. The fur conditioner I was using made the whole thing silky and shiny.

("Thanks, Helena. Having someone brush my tail for me is really relaxing. I kind of needed it...") she admitted.

"I'm happy to do it for you. I honestly think it's really cool getting to brush your tail. No one had things like this where I came from, so it's pretty novel to me. Plus, I don't mind paying you back a little after that amazing leg rub you gave me the other night."

Luna giggled, and her tail twitched as she struggled to stop it from wagging in my hands.

"Are you nervous about the meeting with Celeste?" I asked.

("Yes... I am,") she admitted. She didn't elaborate on it, and I didn't think she really needed to. Anyone would be nervous if they were meeting with a mother who they thought had been long dead, doubly so when they turned out to be a form of royalty. The situation sounded quite weird when you really thought about it.

After probably much longer than we should have spent on the activity, Luna stood up with a sheepish smile on her face. ("Well... I don't think it's a good idea to put it off any longer. Shall we go ask one of the guards to lead us to my... to Celeste?")

"Sure. I'll ask one for you," I told her as I stood up.

The two of us stepped outside the changing room we had been in, and I waved over Seilfreid. While they had guards posted on all of our friends, it appeared Seilfreid was the one who was looking after Luna most of the time.

"Luna wants to meet with Celeste now. Will that be possible today?" I asked.

He nodded. "She has kept a pretty light schedule so that she could make time for Luna in case she asked. It's about midday already, so perhaps lunch or afternoon tea would be a good time to meet with her. I shall ask. For now, why don't you wait in the atrium?"

I glanced at Luna, who shrugged. I turned back to Seilfreid and shrugged as well, which got a smile out of the soldier. "Sure. That sounds fine," I said.

The atrium was much more impressive than I had thought. Because it was midday, the light came down from above and lit the entire central plaza in the middle of the castle. The plaza looked like a park where there were plenty of people coming and going on the first floor. Since we were confined to the fourth floor, we could only look at the plaza from above, but the fourth floor was only halfway through the castle. There were four other floors above us, so we got to see the giant atrium from the middle. Even on this floor, the atrium area was kind of an open area, a resting spot where the castle staff and visitors took their breaks and lunch. It was currently a busy time as many people ate their meals near the railing.

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We only had to spend a short time there before a soldier returned with the news that Celeste would meet with us immediately. As we walked through the halls of the castle, I held Luna's hand. Right now it felt clammy, the anxiety was written on her face and by the droop in her ears and tail.

When we arrived, the soldier knocked twice before opening the door and letting us through. Celeste looked quite a bit happier than she had the previous night. I assumed it was because she was delighted to see Luna reach out to her so soon. Her eyes trailed over the two of us cheerfully, but she seemed to pause for a moment when looking over me. The moment quickly passed, and she gestured to the chairs in front of us.

"Please, sit down. Would you like to eat lunch or just have tea?" she asked.

I turned to Luna to make it clear I was listening to her. ("Tea only... I don't think I could handle eating right now.")

Turning back to Celeste, I smiled. "The two of us would prefer only tea this time."

She nodded before waving over the only servant who had stayed in the room with us, a silver-scaled drakken woman. "Emi, will you prepare tea for the three of us, please?"

The drakken smiled and gave a quick nod. "Of course, your Highness."

Emi, the short drakken woman, began to boil water using fire magic while the two of us sat down across from Celeste. I was a bit intrigued by what she was doing but quickly put it out of my mind once Celeste's attention returned to us.

"I'm truly happy you chose to come meet with me so soon. I was afraid that you would... take your captivity personally. I do apologize that we had to meet under these circumstances. It is... not how I wished for this to go," Celeste said.

I nodded and repeated what Luna said verbatim while trying to retain as much of her tone as I could. Hopefully it was clear that I was only speaking for her. "Did you ever intend to meet me? I had been told that you had died in childbirth."

When Celeste realized what I was doing, she focused on Luna instead. "Truthfully, I am not sure. In the best of circumstances, I would have claimed you as one of my children immediately, but my advisors had convinced me to distance myself from you when you were born. I... shouldn't have slept with your father, and having a child with him would have been a scandal. When you were born and didn't show any obvious signs of your heritage other than your eyes, I made the hard choice to send you away where you would be safe from the backstabbing of this place. I had intended to meet you much sooner, but... problems continued to crop up and stand in the way of our meeting."

"What changed when Father died?" I said for Luna.

Celeste shook her head lightly. "It wasn't just your father dying that put us in this situation. I may have even decided it was best to keep my distance from you and just have some of my people keep tabs on you instead... which would not have been my preference, I'll be clear. But my other children were murdered when I was in Clyclostro." She glanced at me and back at Luna, probably looking for any recognition. "Do you know where that is?" she asked.

I shook my head but Luna nodded. Celeste took a sip of the tea that had been placed in front of her before continuing. "Clyclostro is a city-state near the edge of Tatiana's territory in Corbex's territory. I was sent there to marry one of their dragon princes and produce an heir for them that would have a claim on both thrones, but things did not go as planned." Her composure broke for a moment and her lip curled in anger and frustration. "Despite the two of us being relatively similar in age, he had decided that I was too old for him and had started attempting to court my children instead. My daughter and my son. While Eliza didn't mind the attention, Pewter took it incredibly negatively and had even assaulted the man after making it clear he was not interested multiple times. He did not respect my son's boundaries and suffered a broken arm."

Celeste had a pained expression as she set her teacup down and laced her fingers. "If it had ended with that, I may have even married that man anyway. It was a political marriage in the first place. Both of my other children had been from fathers I did not love either... I am used to being sold as a breeding sow for Ironcastle's nobility, but I've always loved the children that have come from those pairings. I've long come to terms with my place in protecting the people under Tatiana's domain, and at least this time I would have been wed. But the issues did not end there."

She paused for a long moment, collecting her thoughts. "That... worm I had been sent there to marry was bad enough, but their king was worse. Like a moron, the worm had stated plainly that he was going to continue pushing himself on Pewter and Eliza. They were never a part of the plan. Pewter actually going along with it would deny Clyclostro the heir they were hoping for, and Eliza does not have a claim to the throne as part of the deal that was made... but I don't want to go into that. I was the only actual option and somehow the king thought that I would roll over after he had murdered my children. I should have never allowed them to come..."

For the first time since she had started speaking to us, her composure broke and she looked far angrier than she had up until that point. "After I found their bodies, I tracked down the prince and killed him myself. I ripped him in half and painted the outside of their castle in his entrails. I would have tried to kill the king as well, but I never would have made it to him, so my retainers convinced me to flee instead."

She sighed and picked up the teacup that had been refilled for her. "Not long after we had left Clyclostro, we got word that the mansion Luna lived in had burned to the ground shortly after I had fled the city-state. When I heard that Luna had survived, I was relieved, but it had taken me this long to settle things before I could return to Ironcastle. As you might expect, the current king and his advisors are not happy with me right now but ultimately were forced to side with me after my children were murdered. Their deaths also put Ironcastle in a precarious political position because my children were supposed to be part of the treaties that kept the nearby city-states at peace with us. In order to maintain peace with those city-states, they will have to declare outrage at my children's deaths, which will only further push Clyclostro into war with us... and potentially another Corbex-Tatianna war if we are not careful."

"How am I involved in all of this?" I repeated for Luna.

Celeste nodded. "I'm getting to that..."

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