Moonflower- A Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction

Chapter 20

When Cinder woke her body was numb. For a few moments she lay in a state between waking and sleeping, and she felt and saw nothing. It was a blissful few moments that she would learn to savor. Then memories came flooding back.
    The battle, Thaumaturge Nyx, Iko smashed to pieces, the mass of wolf soldiers, Wolf's pained howl, and the final noise of Kai's screams before she lost consciousness. With the memories came a pounding headache, so forceful it made the stress migraines she got from coordinating events as empress seem like mere fogginess. Every bone ached, and the nape of her neck pulsed with newly wounded pain.
    Slowly Cinder opened her eyes. It was dark in the room, but a thin line of light shone through a cracked doorway in front of her. She was lying flat on her back in what felt like hospital bed. No restraints held her down, and she began wonder if the soldiers and thaumaturges had forgotten about her.
    Despite the biting pain it brought her flesh arm, Cinder reached behind her head and felt the back of her neck. A tiny bump had formed where they inserted the chip into her body. It seemed to be like a Linh device just much smaller. She sighed as she realized this would no bioelectricity manipulating for her. She hated that they would have an advantage on her, but at least they wouldn't be able to manipulate her back.
    As a quick test, Cinder reached out and pictured wrapping her metal hand in a glamour, making it look like flesh. Then she lifted it toward her face. By the light of the crack in the door, she could see her hand.
    It didn't reflect the tiny light back to her. Her hand really was covered in a glamour. She sucked in a breath, not wanting it to escalate to a gasp and let her captors know she was awake. If this Linh device didn't hinder her access to bioelectricity, then what did it do?
    Footsteps echoed through the hall outside the door to Cinder's room, and she quickly moved her arms back to her sides, dropped the flesh glamour, and shut her eyes. As her eyes closed she noticed her retina for the first time since she had woken up. The orange light had not flickered on when she had looked at her glamoured hand.
    The footsteps stopped in front of the door and pushed it open. Cinder felt the light wash over her as well as the gaze of the owner of the footsteps. She tried not flinch as the footsteps and their apparent company began whispering to each other. Then they approached the bed.
    "Her vitals look like they've returned to normal Thaumaturge. She's ready to be woken up whenever you're ready."
    A voice as sweet and wretched as a candy coated snake responded calmly, "No need Doctor. She's already awake."
    Cinder couldn't help it, she had to look at her face, she had to do something. Her eyes snapped open and she sat up, as quick as she would have twenty years ago. As soon as she met Nyx's dark, brooding eyes she reached out with her gift to take hold of her and give her enough time to escape.
    The empress found it and was about to grab hold when all of a sudden it was like her arm was sliced off. A searing pain split through her head, and. She cried out clutching her head. When she looked up again Nyx was wearing a triumphant grin on her painfully beautiful face.
    "It seems, Empress Selene that you are in pain. Perhaps I can explain. That device we inserted into your neck is indeed the device created by your late adoptive father, just quite different."
    Cinder was startled to notice that her metal hand began to raise and turn toward herself. Her tranquilizer gun loaded and pointed at her neck. She tried to pull it back down, but she couldn't. The thaumaturge was controlling her. Even worse, her orange retina lie detector remained off. How was this even possible?
    "It seems Linh Garan," Nyx continued, "left room for improvement in his device. We've been working on this especially for you. You see, Selene Blackburn, for reasons I will never understand, became Luna's greatest hero and sovereign, and then gave it all up. I'm afraid you didn't understand our customs. Luna cannot function without a monarch of the powerful Blackburn line, so we needed to get you back. We've modified the Garan device. You bioelectric sense is dampened, and your bioelectricity is more susceptible to thaumaturges than it ever was before. With you under my tender care we will take you back to Luna to reclaim the throne you regretfully gave up, and of course, reinstate your thaumaturge and wolfen army so we can pick up where the late, great Queen Levana left off."
    Cinder tried to protest or move, but she couldn't. Her mouth remained clamped shut and her one hand pointed at her throat still while the other stayed clamped at her side. She was a prisoner in her own body. She had never felt this trapped since she was sixteen, locked in the palace prison.
    "But first, we need to pick up one thing here on earth before you can make your grand re-entry into Lunar society."
    Nyx released the dart from Cinder's hand.
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    When Cinder woke again she didn't even recognize her own body. Her hands were both flesh, and her fingers long. Her hair was glossy and black. Her skin was a smooth ivory pale. Nyx had made her glamour herself while she was unconscious to look like the thaumaturge.
    This time when she opened her eyes she was on the roof of something hard and gray. The stars above were barely visible through the lights of the small city, but it was night. Nyx stood above her, covered in a cloak that hid her face.
    With a flick of the thaumaturges hand, Cinder was up and striding toward an elevator. She spotted another hover on the roof. What was she going to steal for the thaumaturge?
    Nyx followed her into the industrial elevator, melting into the dark corner while Cinder faced the doors. She waited for them to open and prayed the thaumaturge wouldn't use her to harm anyone. There had to be a way out of this.
    When the doors finally groaned open Cinder saw a dark mix of library and crypt. Five figures were seated at a table. Her heart dropped in her chest. Her daughter sat at the chair, along with Leo, Solstice, Fitz, and an elderly man she didn't know. No. She didn't want to do this. She had to stop.
    Leo leapt out of his chair, gun drawn when he saw her face. It was clear he saw a thaumaturge.
    "Thaumaturge Nyx" seethed the old man.
    Leo fired.