BOOK 5 - EPILOGUE

Princess Lunalah wept.

The bitterness in her heart gave way to anguish and longing and then harsh bitterness again. She cursed the planet Luxor as it grew tiny in the viewport of the starship, all the hatred and venom for the council mixing with her loathing for Silver Light and Ling Wei.

There were so many people to hate.

So many who had betrayed her.

So many who now openly and brazenly despised her.

She sobbed again as the incomprehension hit her.

How?

How could the Iron Bull turn against her so?

What lies did Ling Wei feed him to poison his love?

And how did she manage to keep Silver Light alive?

So many questions.

So many to blame.

Even now she could hear their mocking laughs. The jeers of her elders and peers. Even that haughty bitch at the High Council had the nerve to chastise her. And now to have lost her planet as well?

“We must do something mother,” she said. “This cannot stand. We must appeal to father.”

Empress Revenah soothed her with a patting of her head. “Don’t you worry dear. We will do something. In time.”

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She sobbed again, the ache in her heart returning.

Those harsh words that shattered her soul.

‘I never loved you…’

She balled and wailed.

It couldn’t be true.

He couldn’t mean that.

But then slowly the venom crept in again.

The loathing and hatred.

She perhaps should listen to that vile old councilwoman.

She needed to learn.

To learn how to be as crafty as Ling Wei. As cold as Lady Silver Tear.

Perhaps she had been a fool in trusting the Iron Bull. To believe that anything good could have come from that Qi-less, useless world.

“He can have it,” she spat, as the darkness consumed her heart. “It and all the misery it will bring. I hope he chokes on it.”

“What?” her mother asked confused.

She then laughed.

She could barely explain it herself.

But the sentiment was clear.

The Iron Bull would pay.

Pay for hurting her.

For not loving her.

“I want to return to Terra,” she said. “I must see to leaving the planet.”

“Lunalah, you have an entire year to see to that. You need not think of such things now.”

“No!” she shouted, slamming her fist against the hull. “I will leave now and leave all those traitors behind. When the Iron Bull returns, he shall have what is left of his planet.” 𝑅àＮȮ𝔟Εș

“Lunalah,” her mother said sharply. “Don’t do anything rash. An Imperial Arbitrator will be observing.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” she said, as a smile parted her lips. “I won’t. The Iron Bull may have taken my planet, but the Golden Cities…belong to me.”

* * *

It seethed still.

The sting of defeat.

It should not care.

The Husk was but moral and such was far below It now.

Yet such was the way of mortal flesh.

To yearn, to want, to despise.

But it would not stoop to the station of a thrall again. Such was not becoming of a god.

It opened its Eyes and saw, the cosmos expanding before it.

It had communed with the Greater Will and responded to its call.

It was an ancient and patience thing. Far more ancient than It.

It had waited.

And now it had given the command to act.

It sought out every rock and planet, every moon and star.

It was constrained by the limitations of the chainmaiden before, but no longer.

It exuded its Influence directly now.

Every moon it did now see.

And in time.

Every moon would turn red.