Nocturne

☼ Chapter Thirty-Five ~ Aurora ☼

Nocturne's hand was warm in Aurora's. She squeezed it slightly, a gesture of either nervousness or comfort- or perhaps both. Many things were.

Aurora shrugged. She had to admit Nocturne was rubbing off, but all that philosophy was still beyond her. It bored her. She preferred the more physical bash-and-wack kind of problem-solving. Common sense. Nocturne could take care of all the complicated paradoxes and puzzles.

Moonlight drifted in through the windows, warm and silver. She hadn't realized there was so much yellow in silver. There were hints of blue too, and shimmering metallic grey. It was lovely, she thought, if not as gorgeous as the splendour of the Sun.

Aurora yawned.

It was nearing midnight, and still no sign of Asa. She glanced to Nocturne. "Shouldn't she be here by now?"

The silver circlet adorning Nocturne's brow glinted with echoes of moonshadow as she turned to face the taller girl. She tilted her head a moment, thinking. "She should be arriving soon. The ceremony doesn't start until midnight, you know."

Aurora grumbled and leaned against a wall, Chrysos swinging in its 'sheath' of white silk straps. She was amazed it stayed in place, but the man who had arranged her outfit had insisted it would hold. Nocturne wore a similar ornament to carry Asimi, though hers was made from blue-black silk with a purple sapphire over the point where the straps connected, instead of the yellow diamond that Aurora bore on her sheath/belt and on the band of gold that encircled her forehead.

They each wore a very similar outfit- so similar Aurora was suspicious the people in charge of them had been colluding behind their backs. A flowing gown of embroidered midnight satin for Nocturne, over a flexible combat-ready set of black leggings and a shirt with new leather boots covered in a thin layer of black silk, and an identical dress of yellow fabric that seemed almost to glow as it moved along with boots dressed in white for Aurora. Both of them carried the same scabbard at their hips and identical circlets on their heads.

Aurora did miss out on the undersuit though. It didn't matter, really. Her years of dance and fencing had made her strong and nimble, and the extra cloth would only get in the way. It was a missed aesthetic though.

Nocturne glanced at the moon through the stained glass windows and frowned. "You should get to your place. She should be here soon."

Aurora grunted and nodded. "Fine. See you afterwards?" Nocturne leaned in and brushed her lips across Aurora's with a smile. "Of course."

There was a rustle in the dark violet curtains hanging behind them, and many of the assembled people of Artemis- and the few from Apollo- began to murmur and shift, sensing it would soon be time to begin.

Aurora had just made it to her place next to King Aelius when the curtain of midnight shifted and out stepped a lone woman. It took a moment for Aurora to tie this proud figure to the more timid woman she had met.

It was Lady Surya, Asa's official advisor. She wore a dress of shifting shades of blue, wrapping around her like a flower waiting to bloom, and she carried a black velvet cushion, upon which rested an intricate interweaving of silver and sapphire, jet and opal and smooth polished quartz. Despite its richness, the crown seemed to fill the air with an aura of majestic simplicity. Aelius stiffened beside Aurora, and his eyes followed his mother's movements.

Surya's head was no longer bowed, and her back was straight and proud. Her eyes flitted up to her son, and they were steady and unflinching in a way they had not been when she was the Queen of Apollo. Still, her eyes filled with tears she blinked away as she looked back, and Aurora could see the way Aelius forcing his emotions not to show.