The Ruler's Rift

Boofbamia

"And if you still doubt the Asqura's destructive power, I can show you what we're dealing with." Casper needn't say more to coax the queen onto a ship. Rather than task a royal pilot, the Boofbamian controlled the spacecraft as if he'd done it one hundred times. With his head back together, healed by the expertise of the royal medics, Celeste could see his face again. However much was visible beneath his hat and scarf, that is.

The pair drifted through space in silence, nestled safely in their metal capsule. Although Celeste bore millions of questions, she hadn't the strength to ask a single one. She could only count the stars as they passed. She knew where he was taking her, despite him not saying a word to reveal it. It could be only one place, one planet, and she was equally excited and scared to see it.

The thrusters' hum began to fade. As the ship slowed, Celeste pulled her eyes from a daze and looked out the cockpit's windshield. Straight ahead rested a dead world, floating amidst the endless ocean of space.

"Have you seen Boofbamia before?" Casper asked as he halted the ship with one pull of a lever.

"Something tells me it isn't supposed to be in two pieces..." Celeste breathed.

"Well, we tried to adapt," Casper sighed as Celeste gazed into the planet's halves. Spun between them were man-made cords like strings, or like a spider's web which suspended not insects but buildings. That massive colony, tethered to the innards of the planet, served as the ruins of the dead species.

In her rampage, Celeste had nearly done the same thing to Mystearlia. One quasar blast from an Asqura would easily slice a planet. She knew what had split Boofbamia all those millenia ago. "Why?" She asked. "Why did it target Boofbamia?"

Casper sighed in thought, his dark eyes scanning the stars. "I don't know, exactly," he said quickly.

"Hmph. I suppose for the same reason Violet chose her victims," Celeste scoffed. "no good reason at all."

"Um, I'm sorry to ask but I keep hearing that name," Casper nervously laughed, "who is this Violet?"

Celeste blinked at him. Up until now he came across as intelligent enough. "You...don't know? How could you not?" She challenged.

"I haven't exactly been around for the past...while."

"Do Boofbamians come out of test tubes? Were you born yesterday? Like, actually yesterday?"

"No test tubes, sorry. Who is she?"

Answers hid like mice. It seemed Casper wouldn't budge about his origin or where he'd been, and Celeste couldn't begin to sum up Violet's misdeeds. The demon's frustration gave way to a sudden clarity. Her eyes widened and a weight lifted from her shoulders. "Wait, you really don't know who she is?" She asked again but with a softer voice.

"I really don't."

Then Celeste wasn't about to tell him. She wasn't about to break the bliss of a single person who couldn't compare or contrast her to her mother. "Just a bad ruler," Celeste mumbled.

After staring for a moment, Casper looked back at the stars. "Well, your majesty...please take the recent attack seriously. I'd hate for...this," he said, darting his eyes to Boofbamia's remains, "to happen to Mystearlia or any other world."

Promising proved impossible. Celeste bit her tongue and struggled with her choices. If only Amber were here. As her odd guest trained his expectant, dark eyes on her, she only wished for her aunt to guide her. Amber always had an answer, and she'd stick to it whether she liked it or not. The empress's clawed hands squeezed her own robes. The fistfuls of velvet did nothing to ease her, and no one else could. Amber could not comfort her, and Lucy provided no security. Celeste was alone, and in all of her doubt and mistrust, she somehow managed to steady her breathing.

She turned to Casper. "I'll do what I can," she said.

No matter how much she hated her position, no matter how much she despised her subjects, no matter how high she saw herself - Celeste had chosen this fate. She took the throne, so she wouldn't run away from it.

The Boofbamian fired up the ship once again, and started it on the path toward Mystearlia. During the ride home, Celeste asked again, "You really have no idea why the Asqura attacked your world?"

"I really don't."