Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

18 Past

Maeyune found the Suolani commander in the operations room, hunched over a glass panel lit with geometric shapes and data of the Iron Prophet prisoners. He looked up as she went to his side.

"Hello, Maeyune-"

"Deiyu," she spoke quickly. "I need information."

He looked at her, patient. "What kind of information?"

She lowered her voice. "You need to tell me everything you know about Reo."

He raised an eyebrow at her, mildly bewildered by her frankness. His eyes darted around the room, momentarily landing on General Soras who conferred with several facility officials in one corner.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask," he finally said. "Come with me."

He led her out into the hall and to a small conference room not too far from the operations center. Inside, there was an oval, mahogany table with a gloss that shined under the room's light.

Deiyu gestured toward the table. "Wait here," he said, and he made his way toward the base's restricted hall.

There were no guards at the entrance, but Deiyu slid his identification keycard across the entrance's panel to allow himself entry. The doors closed after him.

Maeyune waited inside the room.

Deiyu reappeared minutes later, a rather thick, tan folder secured in his hand. He placed it on the table in front of her.

"I've read his file," he said. He watched her with scrupulous attention. "I suggest you learn all that you can, Maeyune."

She detected something strange in his tone, but she could not decipher what. Offering her thanks, she was left alone in the room as he returned to operations.

Without delay, she opened the folder's top flap.

Maeyune first found the word mother.

As she read the file's initial page, a wave of sympathy washed over her. Like her own mother, Reo's had died from childbirth, too.

He was only a day older than Maeyune was. The strange energies of the heavens had also forced his early birth. Just like the Moon God, the Sun Goddess had made her choice.

Maeyune then discovered that Reo had an older brother and sister.

The youngest of the three, Reo would have been last to inherit his family's fortune. Maeyune recalled Lady Luciana's words. The Castells had once been Beran kings.

As her eyes fed on the file's text, she read of a terrible accident that occurred at Castell Manor when Reo was only six. The notes labelled it a sun flare, a disastrous event that had destroyed his home, permanently blinded his sister, and taken his father's life.