Chapter 2

The silence that followed was answer enough. Lady Arinna's gaze dropped to her hands, and I noticed the other attendants shifting uncomfortably.

"This time is different," she said finally, meeting my eyes again. "This time, we have support from unexpected quarters. The economic stagnation, the declining birth rates among both species, the growing unrest in the outer colonies—New Nova needs change, and some of the nobility are finally beginning to see it."

The attendant who had burst in cleared his throat nervously. "My lady, Lord Vexan's guards are conducting searches three levels down. Prince Costa is... agitated. He remembers more than we anticipated."

At the mention of his name, a thrill shot through me, followed immediately by fear. Costa. Even hearing it spoken aloud sent fragments of memory cascading through my mind—warm hands, whispered promises, the feel of alien skin against mine that somehow felt more familiar than my own.

"Take me to him," I said, surprising myself with the firmness in my voice.

"Absolutely not," Lady Arinna replied sharply. "You can barely sit up, let alone walk. And if Lord Vexan's forces find you together before we can properly present your case to the moderate factions—"

"Then we'll be separated again," I finished. "For how long this time? Another six hundred years?"

The crystal walls around us pulsed with a sudden amber warning light, and a low harmonic tone filled the air.

"Security alert," one of the attendants whispered. "They're coming."

Lady Arinna moved with surprising speed for someone who had seemed so measured moments before. "The service passages," she commanded, gesturing to what I had assumed was a solid crystal wall. Her hand pressed against a seemingly random point, and the wall dissolved into an opening just wide enough for a person to slip through.

"Can you walk?" she asked me urgently.

I swung my legs over the side of whatever I'd been lying on—not a bed, but something that looked like a cocoon made of that same liquid silk material. My feet touched the floor and immediately buckled. The attendants caught me before I could fall.

"I'll carry her," one of them said, but I shook my head fiercely.

"No. I need to do this myself." I gripped their arms and forced my legs to remember their purpose. Each step felt like learning to walk all over again, but something deep inside me—some part that had been dreaming for six centuries—refused to be helpless now.

The harmonic tone grew more insistent, and through the crystal walls I could see shadows moving in the corridor beyond. Tall figures in what looked like ceremonial armour, their own bioluminescent markings pulsing in synchronised patterns that hurt my human eyes to look at directly.

"This way," Lady Arinna whispered, ushering us into the hidden passage. The walls here were rougher, older crystal that felt almost organic under my fingertips as I used them for support. "These passages connect to the Prince's wing, but we must move quickly."

As we made our way through the narrow tunnel, I could hear voices echoing from somewhere behind us. One voice rose above the others—deep, commanding, with an accent that made my chest tighten with recognition I couldn't quite grasp.

"I will not be contained again! Where is she? You promised me she was safe!"

Costa. Even filtered through crystal and distance, his voice sent tremors through me that had nothing to do with my physical weakness.

"He's fighting them," I breathed.

"Of course he is," Lady Arinna replied grimly. "The Prince was always... spirited. Six hundred years haven't changed that, apparently."

We reached a junction where three passages met, and Lady Arinna paused, pressing her ear to the wall. The crystal here was so thin it was nearly transparent, and I could make out movement in the chamber beyond—a figure pacing back and forth like a caged animal, occasionally striking out at the air in frustration.

"There," she pointed to the leftmost passage. "But I must warn you—he may not remember you immediately. The awakening process affects everyone differently, and the trauma of your separation..."

I was already moving toward the passage she'd indicated, my legs growing steadier with each step as if proximity to him was healing whatever the centuries had broken in me.

"My lady, wait," one of the attendants called out, but it was too late.

I pressed my palm against the crystal wall where Lady Arinna had shown me, and it dissolved beneath my touch. The sensation was like pressing into water that refused to wet my skin, cool and yielding but somehow solid at the same time.

I stumbled through the opening, my legs still unreliable, and found myself in a chamber similar to the one I'd awakened in. The walls pulsed with agitated patterns of blue and violet, responding to the emotions of the man who stood with his back to me.

Prince Costa.

Even without seeing his face, I knew him. His tall frame, the set of his shoulders, the way his iridescent skin caught the light—all of it triggered cascades of memory fragments. We were walking through gardens where flowers sang instead of bloomed. His fingers traced patterns on my skin that left trails of phosphorescent light. His voice whispered promises in my ear as we hid from prying eyes.

"Costa," I said, the name feeling right on my tongue despite six centuries of silence.

He froze, then turned slowly, as if afraid of what he might see. His eyes-those strange, beautiful eyes with pupils like shattered starlight—widened when they found mine.

"Ariella?" His voice broke on my name.

Neither of us moved for a heartbeat that seemed to stretch into eternity. Then, as if some invisible tether between us had suddenly pulled taut, we were moving toward each other. My legs chose that moment to remember their weakness, and I stumbled.

He caught me before I could fall, his hands gripping my arms with a gentleness that belied their strength. The moment his skin touched mine, a shock ran through me—not painful, but like the sudden return of a sense I hadn't realised was missing.