Levana seethed silently in front of her mirrorless vanity, quietly cursing Selene and her annoying resilience. For more than ten long years had Levana been planning and plotting, calculating and computing. It was miraculous that Selene wasn't dead by now.

Levana wished that Selene had just given up and been killed quietly a long, long time ago. A little sprout of guilt had bloomed in Levana's chest, and she didn't know how to cope with it. Selene was just a teenager trying to live her life, for herself and her kingdom. What right did Levana have to interfere?

She's always had everything I've ever wanted and more, Levana would tell herself when she caught herself thinking these thoughts. She's never deserved it. Not one bit. I do.

Why, though? Without thinking, Levana switched on her hologram node, turning the channel to an Earthen newsfeed that she'd installed a while ago. A black-haired woman sat at a desk, her hands knitted together on the tabletop and her face expressionless.

"We've just received word that a few hours ago, a Lunar podship malfunctioned and crashed in the middle of the New Beijing market square. The two survivors were rescued and taken to the palace hospital by none other than our very own Crown Prince Kaito, who happened to be in the area. This footage of the event was captured by a passerby at the time of the crash."

The woman's face was replaced in the hologram with a shaky video of the sky, where a small dot could be seen entering the atmosphere. Sounds of confusion could be heard around the market square, which turned into screams as the dot in the sky gradually grew larger and was revealed to be a flaming Lunar spaceship, hurtling towards the market square. The person filming the video stumbled back and the camera shook violently before it settled back on the smoking remains of the podship. A young man in a sweatshirt rushed toward the wreckage, trying to find an opening inside, but that soon proved unnecessary when a foot kicked out of a large hole in the side of the podship and a girl carrying another young woman under her arms fell out against the boy in the sweatshirt.

Levana paused the newsfeed and peered closer. The bad quality of the video made it hard to see, but there was no doubting it. Selene had survived, just like she'd been told by the palace staff.

Levana unpaused the newsfeed and watched the woman's face appear once again.

"The rescued party was recently confirmed to be Queen Selene Blackburn of Luna and her right hand thaumaturge, Winter Hayle-Blackburn of Luna, coming to Earth on a diplomatic mission to the Eastern Commonwealth. Both suffered serious injuries and burns, but are expected to make full recoveries. The cause of the malfunction in the Lunar podship is still unknown, but Commonwealth officials are working to find the cause as we speak. This is-"

Levana shut off the hologram node in frustration. The amount of effort she'd put into that attempt was equal to no other. The podship mechanic that had made the tweaks had assured her that it would destroy the podship and everything inside it, including Selene and the antidotes. It didn't seem like the antidotes made it, but Levana had been certain that it would kill Selene.

But, obviously, it didn't.

It somehow didn't kill Levana's pampered niece and Selene was probably even more suspicious of Levana than ever. How was she going to get out of this one? Selene was beloved by the people. If she accused Levana of anything, they'd gang on her in a second. Maybe even without proof that she did anything wrong.

Sometimes Levana wondered why she was doing this. Why she was trying to kill Selene so hatefully, even though she'd never done anything.

Stop, Levana told herself. She's taken everything from you. She's taken it all and she's always had it all.

But sometimes Levana wondered if it was really just Channary she was seeing in Selene, her spitting image.