Our New Empress

Chapter 6

The stars were lovely.

Cinder's lips still tingled from the goodbye kiss that Kai had given her that morning. Her Kai, her fiancé.

Their ship had departed from Earth well over ten minutes ago, and all Cinder could think about was him.

It was a funny little thing to do, to think about her one and only rather than the tasks at hand. What was she to do when she returned to Artemesia? What would she say to the others in her court? To the citizens? What was her excuse?

She realized, then and there, that there were no excuses. The trip that she had passed off as a simple matter of the relationship of the two nations had indeed become more of a personal affair. She was engaged to the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth, and with that came responsibilities.

It was hard to think in that stuffy ship. She felt a swell of vertigo every time the ship turned suddenly and the stars in space swirled. Her guards would check on her every so and so to see that she was in a state of wellbeing. It was not until Iko came over to her that she felt a sense of confinement.

"Hey, Empress."

"Please, Iko."

"Oh. What's wrong?"

"It's just—I've got a lot on my mind is all. And I–I appreciate your help and all, Iko, but..."

"You don't know what to do, huh?"

Cinder nodded earnestly.

"Let me tell you something, Cinder. Ever since you became Queen—no, since you became a revolutionary—you've always had something on your mind. You aren't the same, lovable, kind Cinder that I knew. You always stood up for yourself. Heck, you even fixed me, the broken, rejected android that no one wanted. I want you to be happy. I know that you've got a lot on your mind and people's lives are in your hands, but know that I support you all the way."

Cinder looked up at her dearest friend, seeing her in a new light. Maybe it was just the sudden drop in pressure, but it felt like Iko was becoming different...almost like she was—

"Phew, that was hard! I don't know how you do this every day. I can barely keep a straight face!" Iko exclaimed, her eyes going from a slate gray to a vivid royal blue.

The same old Iko.

Even with these little quirks about her android friend, Cinder was glad to have someone who cared. They understood each other in the sense that they both had problems and "glitches". Cinder's would probably be fixed by the Lunar doctors, but Iko's would continue on. She was grateful for that. At least she had a body where she could change the color of her eyes whenever she pleased.

Iko left her to do whatever it was that she needed to do, which was sleep. As the ship continued to cruise through space, Cinder found herself being lulled into numbness...

♛

Cinder walked through the halls briskly. She was to hold an emergency meeting with all of the court and leaders of Luna to talk about something that had just come to her.

She made a list of everything she needed to talk about, from the engagement to her new ideas and how their relationship with Earth was going.

As she walked through the pristine white halls of the palace, her gray dress gathered around her feet. She could hear her heels click against the tile floor. She put her hair behind her shoulders as she walked into the room.

Most everyone was here, some very frazzled and tired. She felt a twinge of regret at calling this meeting, for she didn't want to let anyone down with her "emergency", but she quickly pushed the thought aside and tried to appear confident.

"Greetings, everyone. You all are probably wondering why I called this, er, emergency meeting. Um, I will be getting to that subject later. First things first: you may or may not have read the Earthern tabloids this morning, but...Emperor Kaito and I are engaged."

She paused and could feel the tension fill the room. No one said anything for a moment.

Then, a palace worker who had not gone to Earth asked, "If it pleases Her Majesty, what does this mean for us and our government?"

"Ah, I was getting to that. You see, with our engagement, the alliance will become stronger, but...well, I'll be Empress and he'll be King. I'm sure that my aunt knew what to do about that, but I don't. What I mean is: where would we live, how would we travel, who would belong to where? We have to take care of our homes, but also, we need to keep the alliance."

Cinder took a deep breath. "That's were my proposal comes in. I think we can all agree that what Levana did was horrible and we would never want that for our country again. As much as I've true to restore Luna, it isn't perfect. I...I think it would be best if I...if I abdicated."

She could see the shocked and disapproving glances all around the room. No one said anything. She heard some gasps and saw that others were thoroughly confused as to what she meant by this.

"But, Your Majesty—" someone started.

"Let me explain. Someday, another power hungry monarch is going to come along and try to do what my aunt did. I don't want that to happen. I feel that the only way to stop this is to convert to a democracy. The truth is, I never wanted to or could ever truly be Queen. I am here to fix the problems, but I'm not...I'm not one of them. By letting the people choose who leads their country, we can fix this broken system and stop letting the powerful control the weak."

"I sincerely disagree," said one of the men. "You may not have picked up on this yet, My Queen, but the people are very superstitious about the bloodline. If anyone not of royal descent where to rule Luna, stars—"

"I know. There are a lot of reasons for the people not to want democracy. They are afraid. They like having a King or Queen. But, truly, I think that the oppressed will agree with having a voice and not being controlled any longer. We all know what an absurdity this court is. I came here to fix what my family has done, and this is the last step in doing that. Besides, I am not the best Queen, nor am I needed, and I'm sure the Eastern Commonwealth will appreciate having someone to continue their royal bloodline."

No one spoke; they couldn't. How could anyone argue with the Queen's perfect proposal? Get rid of some of the power of the Lunar gift and solve the problems that they had in the capital. She was Queen and her word was final. It wouldn't always be that way, though.

"Meeting adjourned."

And with those two, simple words, Selene could be freed of her duties once more and could focus on the next task at hand: becoming Empress.