One True Queen: A Wings of Fire fanfiction

8.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of death, trauma and past child abuse/neglect, extreme weather events that might hit a bit close to home right now, and Darkstalker and Clearsight being nauseatingly married.

Nebula

I wake up before sunset.

It's an old habit, I guess.

Grandmother's sleep schedule was weird and sporadic, sometimes she'd sleep through the whole night and other times she'd stay up three whole days in a row to work.

But right around now, Grandmother was rarely up, which meant I could get a relatively nice few hours alone to start off my evening. So I make myself some coffee, and sneak off to the library—where, should her ghost decide to bother me, it would have trouble finding me at all.

Whenever she was mad at me—or just in a bad mood, and looking yell at just about anybody—she would never think to look here for some reason, and the guards at the door were always sympathetic enough not to betray my location.

But there no more guards, these days. They're still running background checks before hiring anybody and entrusting them with our and the kingdom's safety, apparently it's quite an extensive process.

And there's no more Grandmother, either.

***

The dining hall has a way of making me feel insignificant.

I don't know what it is—the ridiculously high ceiling, with a mural of some ancient NightWing queen leading her tribe across the stars, the immaculate white tablecloth, the blue rug covering a glossy wooden floor, with little floral details at the edges, the banners with the NightWing insignia hanging from every available surface, the way everything you say echoes? Maybe I just have a lot of bad memories associated with this room, I don't know.

Clearsight sets down her mug of coffee, trying to give us an encouraging smile. "You two have lessons in an hour, are you all ready?"

"Of course, Mom." Eclipse gives her mother a little smile back. (My mother, I guess, but it doesn't feel that way somehow.)

"Good." She gives us a little smile. "How are you feeling about that, by the way? It's okay if you're nervous, I know you don't like strangers. If--If it helps, I promise, Curiosity is great, we've been friends for ages. And if it doesn't work out, we're hoping to reopen schools next month anyway." Because of how long it's taking to restructure the curriculum, minus all the Allknowing-propaganda, last week the palace nursery reopened--so dragons can go to work without leaving their dragonets alone. But everyone is still understandably wary.

"I'm sure it'll be wonderful, Mom," Eclipse says calmly.

"Are there any chores we have to do?" I ask quietly.

Clearsight glances at Darkstalker. "Uh..."

"Just get your homework done, and help the cooks out with the dishes at dinner, you know the drill," he says, giving me a friendly smile from across the table. "Oh, and the rug is there for a reason--you can go out and get as soaking wet and covered in dirt as you want, but just remember to wipe off your talons at the door."