Even In The Grave, All Is Not Lost

Blood of the Moon

Warning: graphic violence, mention of child abuse, implied forced pregnancy - NOT any of our characters.

The degree of force is about the same as you would see in the context of arranged marriages (those in which the participants don't have a say)/women being married off with the expectation that they will produce children; as is seen throughout history, particularly in political marriages, and still to this day. It's a duty and not everyone who experiences it will view themselves as having been forced but when you have that kind of pressure and expectations on you, it's hardly consensual. It's something that I only briefly touch on in this chapter but will be expanded on during some of the worldbuilding I do in p2 of this fic, because it has a significant purpose in the nightblood system.

A/N: So I'll be using two versions of flashbacks in this fic. The first you've already seen, that's when I use Past and Present to signal when a flashback ends and starts. The other kind appears twice in this chapter, and flows better with the story. There'll be no break as such to signify the flashback and that's because it's in Luna's POV and she's remembering it in realtime, so it's happening within the context of the chapter/present moment. I'm hoping it won't be too confusing.

. . .

"Compelled to become instruments of war, to kill and be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatreds of adults."

- Olara Otunnu

. . .

The familiar texture of the bone needle in Luna's hand was comforting and with each passing of it through a loop she felt the tension bleed out of her. This needle was another gift from Adria's bag, though Luna recognized it as belonging to herself and knew the child had included it in her hasty packing for her sake.

She'd always been thoughtful like that.

Luna had found some snouspia about forty minutes from the mansion after her chess match with Raven. She'd needed some time to herself - out of the prison-like confines of either building - to clear her head and sort through the many feelings their conversation had managed to evoke. The ones related to her brother were well worn and easily dealt with - Luna let them pass through her unmolested, content to leave them be. Her grief over Nyko, however, was still raw and she'd needed the added help of fresh air to breathe through them. And, of course, she was newly awash with a wide range of conflicting emotions in response to the fact that Raven now knew the truth about her. In many ways, it was a relief but there was also a swirling of apprehension in her gut, accompanied by the heavy weight of loss.

She couldn't deny that it had been refreshing to be granted a certain level of anonymity with someone. Most of what Raven knew about her, she knew because Luna had told her. That was rare. Whilst most people had no real understanding of who she was as a person, they still possessed the knowledge of her history - that was hard to avoid when you'd ascended into infamy at only thirteen. Everyone knew about her brother, knew what she had done to him, even if they never spoke of it. That made things easier in a way. It dispensed with the necessary step of having to tell them herself. But she'd felt lighter during her conversations with Raven, without the added weight of her past bearing down on them. She'd only ever experienced that with Derrick and Adria. Derrick, who'd been so far removed from their people's politics and affairs that he hadn't even known there was a new Commander to begin with, let alone the events that had brought about her ascension. And Adria, still so young when she came into her care, had possessed only the vaguest of details about the Conclave - and none specific to Luna's own. But refreshing or not, it was no more than an illusion and she'd wanted Raven to know the truth.