Juliet's Surrender [Juliet's Tryst #2]

Chapter 15: Catching On, The Final Part

 A knock at the door cut through a hazy morning doze. Despite her pitiful state, her body was soft and pliable. A beginning of a process, shaping and embracing new life. Her lower belly protruded beyond the reaches of the seam of her clothing. No matter, it all repaired and remolded, forming to her skin like a tentative lover. She craved jeans constantly. A tight belt would hold everything in. The promise of one pain bringing relief from so many other smaller irritations. Her hips swayed differently under her, her lower back sprang a sort of fiery and insatiable pain. A tight belt would help her think clearly.

Dee became paranoid. Servants provided for every need, no longer allowed ever alone. That argument was a short one, Juliet held the future of the succession to the Kyrion throne of Earth. Her responsibility to protect the children. A burgeoning flower peeking through Earth's soil, and each soldier with a boot would seek to stomp viciously.

"Your Highness, a message for you."

Juliet rolled her neck over to the appraise the small Kyrion girl. She had long green braids, and piercing pale skin. Her disguise flawless. She was a child, approaching eighty.

Juliet sat up, ignoring a hot poker of pain down her leg. Was texting beneath her station? All of that was still wholly available. But now she was treated as a medieval queen, something that filled her with a clear and blinding distaste. No choice her own anymore.

"Let's have it then?" She waved her hand tiredly, her chest constricting with fear as she realized this was the state she would have to suffer. Weak and pregnant. 

"There will be a wedding, tomorrow evening. It's between Eros Astrikinnen and Sasha Sorrander." The wedding planner? It made total sense. He was completely taken with her, all consuming, all lovely and all destruction. "You are invited to attend. However, under your current condition, it will be understood if you are absent."

"I'll be there," she said, sharply. "Thank you, Kirria. Please go now."

She just needed to get out of reach of the castle walls. Just a little stroll out, and she would be nabbed and placed behind enemy lines. A smaller, less capable and dying enemy. Oh god, what was she going to do? Use her waning powers? Away from that which could save her pregnancy if, when it went all wrong. It would be her responsibility alone to make it through, to give birth.

What am I doing," she said aloud and was frightened. She never spoke to herself like that. "What am I doing? What am I doing?" Going absolutely mad. Absolutely bonkers. 

A wedding would be a nice distraction. She walked over to the wall and started to think about what she would wear. It was, after all, her first appearance out as Queen at an official event. Rightfully, Dee kept her out of the public eye. But this- small, intimate and reserved only for the inhabitants of the castle, would be nice. Fun before the politics interfered.

—

Sleep eluded both. They embraced in the middle of night, listening to the synthetic rustling of the prairie that they fell asleep to each night. The pale glow of the simulation, indistinguishable from moonlight, made the darkness of the ceiling look a beautiful shade of dark blue.

"This would have changed our world." A perfect simulation, capable of transferring sound and even pain.

"What?" Dee's palm rested over her wrist. 

"Just this, if the Kyrion just left this for us. It would have changed our world."

"In the beginning, we were only re-paying the debt of letting us have refuge from our war. Your submission was prompt and steadfast surprisingly. "

We were helpless against you. You used our weaknesses against us. Though she hated thinking about it, she remembered the horror of a month of strange objects whizzing past your face, pretend they're bugs and they won't harm you. Then, the hulking processions of cicada like spaceships in the sky. Such terrible design language. No one needed a degree to know that those meant death. Social media buzzed, memes and tragedies dancing across the sphere like northern lights. People tried to shoot them. Some ships resembled limp hotdogs. Others, like mystical swords from beloved video games. For one, Juliet pretended none of it was happening. Dee shifted, her expression the one which signified she was trying to decipher her partner's human emotion. Carefully calculating what happens next. 

"I have a deep feeling that something big is about to happen. On Kyria, in those moments, you would hear a big silence. We have many little creatures that sing all the time, buzzing and crackling. When a big storm would come to pass, it would be silent. This is happening inside me right now. Is it you? My alara? Are you planning to run again?"

Juliet imagined the two of them as little girls, both having similar experiences listening silence of an incoming storm. There were clouds on Kyria. It must have gotten dark too. The lie sat in her lower back, the fiery pain shooting down her legs as she kissed the tip of Dee's nose and whispered "No, I would never run from you."

The Kyrion fell back. "I cannot get rid of this feeling. I know you would never betray me in that way. But I feel the instinct inside myself to hunt. I need to make sure I can capture you again."

Maybe she knows. The tension has been strung out, and now she will pounce. She will denounce her silly idea of bringing peace between the two species, bring prosperity to the planet for all. So naive. So dumb. So desperate. Juliet wouldn't be able to step outside for months (and no small part of her craved this very fact).

"You're so still, my love. Have I troubled you?" Dee watched her, with a rare tenderness. She was a woman in love with her wife, expecting a child. Her love shined so bright that Juliet felt it was enough to hope. Enough to make it worth the sacrifice. It changed everything

"I'm just a random human," she laughed.

"But this is isn't a feeling of love. It's a feeling of war. Juliet," a palm on her stomach, "you know what would happen if you ran, right? That I will not be kind. I will not spare any thought to any movement other than that which will bring you home to me, safe."

"For now, my wife, you are not at war with me. Please try to remember that."

"No," a quiet rebuke. "Do you remember that? I only want to protect you, but you look me as if I'm scorning you. Whatever I can do, please tell it to me plainly."

"Stop the fighting." It was worth a shot.

"What?"

"Stop fighting the humans."

"Why?"

She looked like it had not even occurred to her. Mercy. Not in the Kyrion vocabulary. How infuriating!

"If for nothing else, for me. It doesn't have to be this way. Why are you killing my kind?"

Dee was already shaking her head. "You don't understand the threat. I'm not just fighting the humans, I'm fighting a coalition of humans and Kyrions who wish to overthrow me, they want to rule. If I stop, then they'll kill me and you. And our miracle."

"Still, any human death in this is inexcusable, especially with your science and technology."

"You think me such a monster?" A deep hurt, blood on the tongue, a lie blossoming into a wart on a beating heart. It beats even harder.

"Have you considered that they don't want to be saved? They refuse and die having abided by their morals. They continue petty squabbles but report that it was Kyrion in nature."

"Don't deflect."

"Kyria has been dormant. I do not speak with her anymore. She may choose a different lineage. I must be worthy to her. Without her favor, we are doomed."

Juliet fucked them over on that side.

"Call your soldiers down," she tried again. "End the war. We'll figure out what to do past that." There are other ways to keep control. Call them down so I don't have to leave you. Dee's face contorted with conflict, as if she understood what was at stake.

"Why would I conceded when I'm winning?"

You're losing me, she screamed to herself. The love of her life was also a murder. A war general, a ruthless tyrant. What could one heart reconcile? It was possible that this was too much. 

She stayed awake long after Dee's soft snoring began. The fake sun started to rise, and she locked herself in the shower. The water was loud enough to mask her sobs, as she felt the enormity of everything break her heart open. For her children, she had to create a peaceful world to herald over. For her fellow humans, she had to use any powers she had access to for good. Dee would never forgive her, and it was a price she was finally ready to pay.

oh lawd we movin' soon buckle your seatbelts