Rosetta

22

Rosetta hobbled down the stairs, even with Carlos's support. When they reached the living room, her leg was screaming.

Mrs Benoit was sitting with her arms wrapped around a chair, her husband standing next to her. Miss Darnel and Mr Thorne were unpacking some bags in the small kitchen, Iko hauling the last one in. Princess Winter was eating a small biscuit, and when Sir Clay saw Rosetta, his had instantly went to his gun. The Emperor glared at him, but he still didn't remove his hand.

She understood; she was a criminal, murderer, kidnapper- but she also remembered being a hero in Madrid. But she was in the presence of the real heroes now.

She felt for her own gun, in her holster by her side, and threw the magazines onto the table.

Everyone jumped up, startled, and turned to face them. She saw the Emperor looking at her with pity, and she looked at herself to see the bandages on her still rolled-up trouser leg, and as the shirt was too short, she could also see her whole stomach concealed with cloth. She bent down in an attempt to bow, but instead doubled over as her side's pain became more prominent.

Carlos heaved her back up again and helped her to sit on a chair.

Everyone was facing her.

She took in a deep breath and said, "RM4."

"What?" The Emperor asked.

"RM4. The Empress, she's in RM4, and I can take you to the house she's in. Esmerelda-"

"Esmerelda?" Sir Clay questioned.

"Y-yes. Esmerelda Mira," she stuttered.

Miss Darnel suddenly went pale. "You don't mean-" she gulped.

"Sybil Mira had a sister. She wanted revenge, but not for her death. For someone else's."

"Whose?" Mr Thorne asked, slightly more angry now that Miss Darnel was upset.

"Would-would you like to know it all?" She asked.

Carlos pulled up a chair and sat on it sideways. He nodded for her to continue.

"The person I thought to be my mother was taken by Esmerelda, so I followed her. She revealed that she was not Maria Luciana, but Natasha Parks, sister to Aimery Parks.
They were both sent to different countries to spread letumosis, and in Russia, twenty years ago, she found me."

She turned to Carlos, who was looked a mixture of distraught and enraged and curious. Mr Thorne urged her to continue.

She gulped. "Levana was livid when Natasha took an Earthen child back to Luna. So she told Esmerelda to kill us both. She staged our deaths but Natasha instead came in and made fake documents that Esmerelda was going to murder Levana. She didn't look at the evidence. She ordered her son and husband to come in and used her hand to kill them both. She told me that Levana's niece was to pay, so I took her, but I knew that I needed to come back to you and help."

"Do you remember the trial?" Miss Darnel asked Princess Winter.

"My father had not yet married Levana yet. I would have only been a baby," she answered.

"Is there anything else?" Sir Clay asked. "Any weaponry? We know she's good with her gift but-"

"The rumours!" She blurted out.

"What?" Said Iko. "I don't compute."

"About the gift? Changing the future?" Carlos asked.

"Future?" Mrs Benoit asked. "Look, we don't want your silly fairytales-"

"It's true!" Rosetta shouted. "I-I haven't had time to think it through, but the people with a really skilled gift are able to change the future, by saying something and they loose 10 years of their life to do it. That's how she threatened me. I thought she was lying at first, but I don't want to put anything to risk."

"It's possible," Iko gasped. "Studies have shown that when thaumaturges get used to the bio-electricity of certain people or living organisms, they can control  it from afar, but not different planets. They can manipulate the person to make them want to do something, say to go somewhere at a certain time, even if they don't want to. However, the exercise is so draining that it will seem as if they have lost 10 whole years of their life. The cells will become weaker, as they normally would with age. A recent discovery of Russian scientist Melina Petrov."

Everyone gasped at her. "I just read it off of a Lunar newsfeed," she snapped. Then her expression softened. "Am I so lifelike that you guys forgot I'm an android? Aww."

"Iko," Mrs Benoit seethed. "Not the time."

"So it's true," the Emperor whispered. He looked at Rosetta, the first time he had done so properly, and his edginess began to fade. Slightly. "You said you bought us time. How much?"

"You have at least a week, I'm sure. Maybe two, but she might be badly injured."

The Emperor pales at the word injured. "You have my trust. Do not break it."

                                         *

The tree was far too tall for her to be seen from behind it, but Rosetta still squeezed her shoulders together.

Suddenly, hands were wrapped around her waist and pulling her to the floor.

"Found you!" Carlos shouted, rolling out from underneath her. They were sprawled out across the grass, giggling, and Rosetta closed her eyes.

Well, Carlos's laugh was more a chuckle, as his 13th birthday was coming around. He wasn't like the other boys, that refused to waste their time with a strange little 12 year old, with her interest in fighting and hunting instead of the upcoming Madrid Fundraiser Ball.

The thought of wearing a fancy dress and letting Mama braid her hair was enough to make her gag.

Carlos would be going, she knew that. She also knew that with dark coffee-coloured eyes and chocolate brown hair, everyone wanted to go with him. Everyone had a date. Well, everyone that was going. And she knew that she wouldn't be.

Carlos sat up and whispered her name, and she instantly snapped her eyes open. He had a small rose in his hand.

"Rosetta, you know the Madrid Fundraiser Ball?" He asked.

"Yeah?"

"Are you going to go?"

"No," she said, without a bit of sadness. She laughed, "Why would I?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I though that you could maybe go..." He gulped. "With me?"

She stared at him, refusing to let colour show on her cheeks. But it did anyway. She chastised herself for it, and schooled her features to as if he had never spoken.

"Sure," she answered.

"Good," he said, placing the rose in her hair. Then he did something he had never done before. Not after knowing her for almost her whole life. He quickly kissed her cheek and vanished.