- 🌌 T a l i a 🌌 -

Flicking my cash-card towards the bartender, who removed ten units from it, I chased after the spy, my hands immediately curling into fists and draped with my shadows. I followed him out into the alleys, and squinting my eyes, found his skinny figure climbing over the fence as he ran. Not a chance.

Summoning the shadows by my side, I launched myself into the air, throwing myself straight in the path of the spy. He stumbled backward before he pulled out a gun with shaky hands. "You're from Robus. There are no firearms in Robus. That means you stole that from one of the Imperial guards, which means that I am at liberty to execute you. Theft is a crime on these streets."

He didn't bother to answer before he fired two shots at me. I ducked the first one and used my shadows to block the second one before I rushed at him. He was surprisingly agile, as he ducked my first two kicks to his head, and punched me in the midriff. I jumped over his arm, landing on his shoulders, and I wrapped my legs around his neck, strangling him tight as he attempted to smash me into the wall. Instead, I grabbed onto the window frame of the wall, and curling my body up, I flipped us onto the balcony of some poor unsuspecting civilian, and he slammed into the cold, hard concrete.

I grabbed him from the balcony and threw him onto the ground below, and he groaned, his body curling into a fetal position. "What kind of woman are you?" He whimpered. "I know about the gems. I've never seen a dark-gem that used the shadows to move, especially a girl."

"The kind of girl who was brought up to a perfect warrior. You have no business in Peritia, Roban filth. Why were you here?" I snarled against his ear, my shadows forming a lasso that tugged on his neck.

He chuckled. "Kill me, little girl. I know you don't have the guts to. Because you're a woman. And all of you are weak. You'll never get anything from me. And I thought Queen Fantina banned manslaughter on these streets."

"I don't need you alive." I hissed. "And those laws don't include infiltrating spies, or the princess of this country." He flinched when I said princess. "Yes, princess. You just had the worst luck, taunting me."

"Yo-you're the princess? The people out there, they call you- they call you Nightdew. Be-because you work in the night, and the next morning you're everywhere, and then you soon fade. The Manish... they call you Nightwitch. The Dark Sorceress, the Dark Enchantress that corrupts the minds of the young princes that enter Peritia with your beauty."

"They sing my songs of praise, do they? Then you would know exactly what I'm capable of." I said. "You'll know that I don't need you to speak for me to tear upon your mind, feast on your tears when you beg me to stop, to stop the pain. Or do you want me to do it with a surgeon's precise hands? Maybe I could even keep you controlled, let me watch as you return to your superiors empty-handed. Now, little man, what did you come here for? I wanted one night of freedom, away from the paparazzi and my parents, and guess what? I find a spy."

"All we wanted was your weapons. We needed a gun. The outside countries, have you seen us? We're like savages again. Medieval knights fighting with swords and shields. All because of your country; Peritia plagues our earth with your psychic-gems. You wipe out our armories, wipe our minds of any technological memory, leaving only a sliver of hope in us: that we know it's out there. But that's not very hopeful is it, when you realize that the big old country of Peritia is blooming because of it? We just wanted a gun."

"And you failed your mission, spy." I tightened my pull on the lasso, and as I pulled back for the killing blow, he whispered one last thing.

"You'll never get anything out of me."

"I already have." I touched my free hand to his temple, draining his mind of any knowledge that might help me in my future mission. Memories and information flooded my mind, images of battle strategies, of names, of maps. "You are one terrible spy." I wrenched my hand backward, and his neck snapped. "I just did your superiors a favor."

Applaud rung to my left, and I pointed a sword to the source. "Whoosh, girlfriend, don't be so hasty. You are one badass chick"

"You don't seem all that bothered that I just killed this man both physically and mentally," I stated, cocking my head to a side. "Why is that?"

"You're the Princess. Ain't nobody gonna screw with you." She answered. "How 'bout you, Adrienne? Why aren't you all that bothered that you just sent the man off to the maker?"

"Since I was five years old, I have destroyed the willpower of countless young princes and kings that have entered Peritia's walls. I have rid dozens of countries of their futures. And I've killed hundreds more that Father ordered me to kill. I have no problem with death; my sister is a ghost-gem. So you tell me, Katherine. Should I be bothered that I just murdered the man?"

"We're still on at 2030, right?" She asked. 

I nodded. "There should be no delay." I look down at my pristine gloves. Not a single smudge of blood on them. "You just saw what my parents made me. If you had a choice, would you escape too?"

"Without a doubt. Adieu, Princess Talia, or may I be so bold to suggest your other name, Adrienne Prieto?"

"Stay safe, Kate."

"Good luck, Talia."

I fixed my dark hat on my head, and buttoned up the coat that sheltered me from the brisk autumn wind. Summoning the darkness to my side, I jumped onto the tall apartment building, leaping from rooftop to rooftop with the dead body of the Roban spy. When I returned to the Palace, it was already 0245, and Father stood there, impatient.

"My Lord." I curtsied to him, or tried to with the corpse of a spy in my arms. "I have found the spy. It seems that he attempted to exit our fair country with a gun in order to recreate their weapons. I disposed of him before he got out. May I request to return to my quarters?"

"Granted. You are dismissed, Princess." Father bowed, and I left the dead body with him, swiftly returning to my room, where Daeva sat, meditating on her bed. This is what our 'noble' lives had led us: one daughter is an assassin, the other one meditates when she's only twelve years old.

She spoke without turning around. "I guess you went out to the nightclub again. What's the news?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow. Manus and Robus are going to attack Tegimen. Tegimen will not stand a chance against both armies. Stay strong, my little Daeva." She wrapped her arms around me, and in that instance, I felt something inside me break. "I don't want to leave you. I want to bring you with me. But you're too young, Div. You can't really sneak out. I'm sorry."

"I know. You have your duties, sister. You are going to the war. I understand. It is for the better of our country. I will do fine against Father, we both know that. Mother as well. They can't touch me. I'll be okay, Talia."

"Are you sure Div?" I said, cradling the younger girl, her dark skin blending with my black clothes. 

"I'm sure. Go be a hero for a while. You've spent too much time being the Nightwitch." She smiled a bit at the end of that.

"Seriously? You know they call me that too?"

"Nightwitch, Nightdew, the Dark Enchantress. Everyone knows it. You just refuse to accept that that's how people see you. How can I contact you?"

"Adrienne Prieto. But it'll probably be Liam Prieto when I'm on the frontlines. I can't believe that I'm actually doing this. A world with no technology, no science, no proper weapons..."

"Sounds like paradise," Daeva said with a wry smile. "You know that it was technology that we purged from the other countries."

"Goodbye, sister." I said with another sad smile.

"Goodbye, sister." She mimicked before she returned to her meditation. As I returned to my quarters, hanging my coat and hat on the large rack, I began to undress, slipping into a simple turquoise nightgown. Lying on my silk blankets, I thought about the fact that this will be the last day I would receive such comforts. I packed my bag, a medium sized satchel that included my daily needs, a set of knives, a bow and quiver full of arrows, a lasso and a sword. These were hidden in the deeper sections of my duffel bag, and I put in the civilian male clothes that Tegimen people wore. I stuffed in hastily a brown hat that would conceal my hair, before I lay down on my bed once more. 

Rest.

Or that was what I hoped. "Talia?" I heard another yell, and my mother stormed in like a butterfly, her pink gown flowing around her. "Why did your father ask what mission I had sent you on? I specifically told you that you were to be at the dinner with Prince Gordon."

"In his head, I was there," I grumbled, hiding my bag behind a pile of shoes. "There's no problem when he thinks I'm there. That's what you said. We only need to please the guest, not our own court."

"Don't be so snippy with me, Daughter." She fumed before she calmed down. "I asked for your attendance, so I expected it. I do not appreciate you disrespecting my orders."

"I chased down a lead on our case between the Robans, Manish, and the Tegimen." I said. "Has Father told you of this yet?"

"We have discussed this, this development." She picked out her words finely. "We will send a diplomat to Robus with the body of this spy, but we will not be part of any war. Firearms, cannons, electricity... they know of it's existence, yet they can only simply grasp at it's edges, never truly remembering the power it might bring. It is our greatest bargaining chip with the outer countries. That, and our magic."

"You will share the secrets of the pits with them?" I gasped. "My Liege, you cannot. The secret of the pits is what draws us apart from them, and you were the one that said that we must always be above them. Never next to them. Above them."

"I will teach them the secrets, but they need the pit to harness the magic. And they must use children spies to complete their missions of espionage. Once a child is older than four, if they were to enter the pit they would be driven insane. They would need a four year old child to sneak into on of the heavily guarded pits which required identification chips to enter, and then manage to perform the ritual on the child since their blood-relative must be there to seal the bond. Even if they did steal some of the pit's water, they lack the catalyst required for the child to be chosen by one of the 18 powers."

"And what if they accomplished this. What would that bring? What if the child is accepted by the psychic-gem? If he exploits the minds of everyone in his vicinity. Learns the wonders of technology and teaches it to the rest of the world?" 

"That, my daughter, is why I raised you to be the perfect assassin." Her smile was cold and cruel. "I once sighed and sobbed when you received a dark-gem, but then I realized: you were the only one who could counter the psychics. That is why since your birth dark-gem status in society has been raised. I need dark-gems to accomplish what psychic-gems cannot. A mix of physical and mental strength. Your father, bless his soul, is a strong man inside. But outside? We both know he is frail, withered, sick, dying. Thank Avaritia that I was strong enough for the both of us."

I sighed a little inside. Our gods. Our gods were not gods. They were the devil incarnate. Avaritia, Luxuria, Superbia, Gula, Tristitia, Ira, Vanagloria and Acedia. More commonly known to the outside world as the 7 deadly sins. Or to my mother and our country, the necessary evil.

"I also request one thing, my Queen. Permission to speak?" I asked.

She smiled down on me again. "Permission granted, Princess Talia."

"I request a leave of absence. A lone trip to the outskirts of Peritia, to the countryside, to the forests and rivers in solitude. So that I may be at peace by myself before my age reaches eighteen, and I may reach enlightenment among the gods. I will see off before Prince Gordon leaves, but I will speak with him before his departure. Just to make sure my enchantments are still in place."

"I brought up a wise daughter. Request granted. You may leave tonight at 2000. I bid you farewell, my daughter. Please return before your betrothal ceremony; I must ask that of you."

"Thank you, my Queen." I bowed respectfully.

"Queen is too much of a formal word. I will always be Mother to you. Have sweet dreams, my little dewdrop. That I can wish you."