<~> Chapter 112

Celeste frowned as she swirled the tea in her cup. "I believe they're targeting you. Someone must have found out about you and paid your father to kill you to get to me. After I killed the prince I was to marry, the king wants me and my entire line dead."

Luna shook her head and waited for me to speak for her. "My father was drinking that night. I don't think he had been planning to murder me."

Celeste shrugged. "Whether he was pushed to murder you or not, doesn't really matter anymore. I can't risk you dying and ending our bloodline. My title and holdings don't matter, but I won't let that worm end my line here. You are my only remaining heir. The two of us are descendants of dragons. I will die fighting Corbex myself before I let anyone get to you."

"What does that mean for me and my friends?" I asked for Luna.

"The first step is making sure all of you are safe away from the eyes of the court, both the one here and external ones. If your father had told anyone else that you are my daughter, your life is in danger. After that, I have a few ideas for how to hide you that will be mutually beneficial..." She gazed at me for a moment with a critical look on her face. "I also want to see if I can find any more information on your fiancé. Whether you trust her or not, she has to have come from somewhere."

I shook my head. "You won't find any information about me anywhere."

"Is that so?" She narrowed her eyes at me.

("Should we tell her about you?") Luna asked.

("I don't know, what are the chances she's lying to us and trying to use us in some way?") I asked back.

("I have no idea. I hadn't ever considered something like this happening. I thought that we would be taken here to pay for killing my father, not to be welcomed by my mother as family.")

"How can we trust that you truly are who you say you are?" I asked.

Celeste sighed. "That's a good question, I suppose. We could test compatibility with our magic. Our bloodline should allow us to overlay our mana without any conflict since we will share the same affinities."

I looked over at Luna and she met my eyes ("It's a reasonable test. It's not entirely foolproof, but magic is inherited maternally, so if she is my mother, she should have very similar, if not identical, affinities. Families are more likely to have a similar cluster of magic and tend to be more compatible for concurrent casting.")

("Concurrent casting?") I asked.

("Casting magic in tandem? Does that make sense?") she asked.

I frowned. ("What are the odds that she's using this to trick us?")

("Well, pretty low. It's possible she was able to find a record of my affinities through the Hunter's Association, but the chances of her happening to have the same affinities on top of that are slim at best. It's not as if it would be absolute proof, but it's close to it... Tell her I'll do it.")

I nodded and turned back to Celeste. "She says she'll try it."

"Very well." Celeste held up a hand and a small ball of fire materialized above the coffee table between us. It was small but smoldered with noticeable heat.

Luna held out her hand and I saw her magic mix with the small fireball. Suddenly, the fire swelled out between us and looked denser with mana than it should have from the sum of its parts.

"Your magic is powerful. It makes me proud that you've already developed it this much. You have used your time as a delver well," Celeste said warmly.

Luna blushed and released her magic from the small ball of fire. "Luna says, Thank you," I relayed.

"You've become rather impressive in the little over two years that you've started delving, and I can feel your strong magical power from here. I suspect that if you continue to grow at this rate, you'll become even stronger than I am at my age. I'm very proud of you already."

Luna sniffed and wiped a few tears from her eyes.

Celeste looked startled. "Did I say something wrong? I apologize. I should not have presumed to treat you as my daughter yet..."

A hoarse chuckle left Luna's lips and I was quick to respond for her, "No, it's not that. I got unexpectedly emotional from what you just said. Father rarely praised me... and never for something that I've worked so hard at, like my magic."

Celeste frowned. "How was your upbringing? I had... assumed you and your father got along better from the letters. I had hoped he would raise you as lovingly as he had treated me. If you don't think that he had been... encouraged to kill you, how did it reach that point?"

Luna's ears drooped and the mirth she had faded in moments. "Sometime early into my teenage years, he... stopped enjoying being around me. Or maybe he never had. I'm not sure really... Around that time, we stopped having dinner together and he became even more distant as time went on. Eventually, he started blaming me for your 'death,' though it seems that it may have actually been your separation from him. Since he spent so much time ignoring me, I began to sneak out of the mansion and play with the local kids even more than I already had. I kept being told by him and the maids that it was 'unbecoming of a lady' to spend so much time in the dirt playing hunters with the friends I had made, but I just ignored him back. Our relationship only got worse from there, and he eventually started making cutting remarks about me. At first, I thought he was only doing it when I wasn't around, but after a while, I think he did it when he knew I could hear him. All of that reached its breaking point the night he tried to kill me. He had been drinking and he blamed me for you leaving him again. He brought me to his office one night and held me down to cut my throat open. I only barely managed to escape. Piper saved my life that night. I... I almost died." I frowned after having repeated all of that. It wasn't nearly the same or as extreme, but... it reminded me of my own strained relationship with my mom. I didn't know if I would ever see her again, and we parted on such bad terms...

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"I'm sorry to hear that... it must have been so hard for you all of this time," Celeste said sadly. "I had thought that I left you in capable hands. Your father... he had been very kind to me. He was one of the only people who seemed to enjoy spending time with me for who I was rather than the position I held... I spent countless nights out in the castle garden with him, just talking about whatever was on my mind. He was one of the few true friends I had ever had. Our fooling around did get the two of us caught eventually when we found out I was pregnant, but I would never blame that on you. It was our own foolishness that led to it all... I'm sorry, Luna."

Luna shrugged. "I... don't want to talk about him anymore," I repeated for her.

The drakken assistant, Emi, nudged Celeste's shoulder.

Celeste's eyebrows rose, and she cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to follow these dark paths or get into the... politics of our relationship so soon. I had intended for this meeting to allow us to build a more personal relationship. You're my daughter... despite being unable to raise you... Even if I can't become your mother, I'd like to at least become a friend, if that's possible between us."

Luna's smile returned. "I would like that. I... would like to get to know you better. I didn't grow up with a mother, but I always fantasized about meeting her... you," I relayed for her.

Celeste gave us another genuine smile. "Then it is nice to finally meet you, Luna. All the other circumstances aside, I am happy to finally be able to meet you in person and get to know you better. Even though we've never met before, I am quite happy with the kind of person you've grown to become." She smiled and looked at me. "I suppose I'll have to get to know your fiancé as well. It shows some dedication to be willing to sit here and speak for you this entire time."

Luna turned and smiled at me. ("Tell her that I appreciate you very much!")

I coughed. "It's embarrassing, but she said she 'appreciates me very much.'"

The dragon-fox woman laughed. "It must be quite awkward to be in the middle like this... especially considering the suspicion you know that I have for you. I think you've been rather accommodating so far, even if you could learn to school your expression around royalty better. I'm sure it's a skill that you'll need to learn if the two are forced to navigate the world of dragon politics with me."

"I look so forward to it," I grumbled. The two of them shared a giggle at my expense.

"Do you have a favorite food?" Celeste asked.

Luna raised an eyebrow, and I couldn't help but crack a smile when I answered for her. "Really, we're going from that to what food I like?"

Celeste blushed and her ears went back. "I'm sorry. I'm... trying. Much of what I've asked so far has led down dark paths. I've also fantasized about this moment, but now that I'm here... I don't know what to say or how to act. I haven't felt this awkward or nervous since the first time I went to a ball... To be honest... I'm surprised this is going as well as it has been. I had expected you to hate me for abandoning you."

"...Meat pies. There was this place in Fallow that I loved," I said for Luna.

Celeste paused for a moment before following what I had said. "Ah, meat pies? That might be the dragon in you. Have you ever had fine steak?" she asked.

Luna paused before nodding. "It depends? Since we're hunters, I've tried all sorts of meat, including bison steak, but I don't know if that's what you're asking."

"Maybe another time we can have dinner, and I can have the chefs cook the three of us a fine steak. You'll have to see if it's something that compares with the meat you've hunted yourself," Celeste said with a smile.

"I would like to invite the others as well," I responded for Luna.

I took a moment to drink some of the tea that had been set aside for me. My mouth was getting a little parched from the conversation. This had required a lot of talking on my part.

Celeste eyed the ring on my finger. "Would it be possible for me to use one of those rings myself?" Celeste asked.

I shook my head. "We don't have any others. Only enough for everyone on our team," I answered.

"What if I purchased my own linked telepathy rings?" she asked while turning to Luna.

"I wouldn't mind wearing something to speak with you directly... though I would still like my fiancé to stay with me regardless," I said for Luna.

Celeste's eyes narrowed at me. "Luna, is your fiancé accurately relaying what you said?"

Luna looked irritated and nodded confidently.

There was a long pause. "Forgive me for being paranoid then. This situation with your throat has me... quite vexed. After hearing about the damage to your throat last night, I asked around to see what it would take to have you healed... but there doesn't seem to be anyone on staff here powerful enough. It will take me some time to track someone down to fix your throat, and I would prefer it be done in a way that wouldn't be too risky or painful... some of the suggestions I heard did not sound pleasant."

Luna hesitated but eventually nodded. "We've looked into what it would take to have my throat fixed and it seemed very unattainable," I relayed.

Celeste sighed. "I will continue looking, but in the meantime, I will find or commission something for you to speak with me with. As much as I appreciate how accommodating your fiancé has been, I would really love to hear your voice for myself."

Luna nodded. ("Helena, why don't you tell her about the ring you got for me in Fallow? If she has a telepathy ring, even one that doesn't have a pair, it should work with the ring you got me.")

I nodded and explained the features of the ring we had gotten from Angela, the jeweler in Fallow.

"Interesting. I will see what I can find then. Telepathy rings, while rare and expensive, shouldn't be too much of a burden for me to find..." After a pause, Celeste glanced out of the window and frowned. "I'm afraid I have something to attend to soon. We'll have to cut it here for the day. Thank you for meeting with me. We can meet again later today, maybe at dinner if you like, or perhaps tomorrow to have tea again if that would be your preference. Hopefully, we can have more pleasant conversations with each other as we get to know each other better."

Luna nodded, and I spoke for her. "I would like that."

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