Wishing Stars Ch. 09

With that, Xieol crossed the room and left.

Thalia stayed crouched on the floor long after the echo of the door slamming had faded. Still on her hands and knees, she stared down at the white tiles of the floor. She could just make out her reflection in them if she stared hard enough. Not the features of her face, or any identifying mark. Simply the blurry human shape of her head and the shadow of her messy hair. This was how the Arktzirax saw her, she knew. Something human-shaped, and empty, no different than any other vaguely human-shaped thing. A tool to use and discard. Xieol might not be the best representative of his species, but even Cruft— who had seemed almost kind— had been surprised to find her body was inhabited by a real person. They looked at her the way she looked at the trees in the distance. Knowing that they were alive, but also knowing that their type of life was not the same as hers. It was a hollow, uninhabited life. It was not worth as much as hers was.

Small spots of water appeared on her blurry reflection and Thalia realized she was crying. She sat back on her knees and wiped at her eyes angrily. The wounds on her face screamed when she accidently touched the bandages on her face. She had forgotten that they were there.

The door opened and two Assistants entered. They greeted her warmly, but she did not have the heart to respond. How could she, when everything she said was being reported to someone? How could she try and pretend that they were more than pieces of wire, metal and glass when there was still a pile of broken gears and bent pipes on the floor beside her?

One Assistant immediately began the task of cleaning up the destroyed robot. The other stayed near the door, ready to assist if she asked. For a moment, Thalia considered asking for their calming mist. Ultimately, she decided against it. Her chest was not a ball of tension, for once. She simply felt hollow and miserable. If she were honest with herself, she would admit that she just wanted the comfort of feeling nothing. So much had happened so quickly. Too quickly. Pain, shock, revulsion and despair slowly filtered through her body like thick slime. It left her feeling cold and dirty. As much as she hated those emotions, and wanted them gone, she was afraid of what it would be like when they finally settled. Thalia did not want to be left empty.

When Elaine arrived to prepare her for the coronation ceremony, she found the Empress-to-be curled up on the window seat with her face in her hands. The older woman immediately launched into a long, jumbled speech that made little to no sense. Thalia ignored her entirely. The only move she made was to raise her head and stare out the window into the distance. The far-off forest stood tall and silent, unchanged despite the havoc going on in the world around it. They must be ancient, those trees. They must have weathered so much, and still they stood reaching for the sky in silent strength. Xieol himself could approach them with an axe and they would not quake or cower in fear. Even as they fell, they would not beg or cry. Maybe their form of life was superior to Thalia's after all.

Slowly, she became aware of the silence in the room. Elaine's inane chattering had, mercifully, lapsed. The older woman stood in the doorway to the bathroom, staring at Thalia. A basket full of cosmetics and perfumes hung off of one saggy arm. Thalia looked away from her quickly. She could not bear the pity shining in Elaine's eyes.

"So," Thalia started without looking back. She swallowed against the hoarseness in her voice, "No happy tonic today?"

"No," Elaine responded quietly. The illusion of boisterous energy faded away completely. The older woman's shoulders slumped and she set the basket down on the floor. "His Highness the Prince has outlawed the potion. Many of the woman, I fear, won't handle the transition well. It's addictive, after all, and they— we— aren't used to facing the...reality of our situation. The next few weeks are going to be very hard, very difficult for us."

"Are they— the other women, I mean, do they blame me?"

"No! No, of course, not at all, dear." Elaine came and sat next to Thalia on the seat. She reached out a hand to stroke Thalia's hair but retracted it when Thalia flinched away. Thalia bundled her hair into one hand and twisted it over her shoulder, shielding it from further abuse. In doing so, she also exposed the new bruises on her neck. The black impressions of Xieol's fingers lined her throat like stripes.

"Sweetheart," Elaine tried again, looking down at Thalia's crumpled form, "It is going to be okay. I mean, what I mean to say is that you can't give up. Not now. We need you."

"No one needs me," Thalia responded emptily, "The Arktzirax need my body and there's nothing I can do to stop them. Nothing I can do to fight them. Nowhere for me to run. He's going to kill all of us, Elaine. I can't just watch you all die."

"You listen to me now, okay?" Elaine slowly lifted Thalia's chin and held her gaze. "I resigned myself to dying a long time ago. We are human, after all. We live, we breed and we die. That is not anything new to us. If Xieol plans to kill us, and I do not doubt you sweetheart, then what good will sitting here crying do about it?"

"I'm not crying," Thalia muttered, but if Elaine ignored her.

"I can promise you one thing: he will not kill you today, sweetheart. And he will most likely not kill you tomorrow. No matter what he says, you are extremely valuable. Worth more than anything he has right now. With you gone, what does he have? His big bad species is back to scrambling to survive. Back to hunting and searching, back to trying to create another you."

"You are precious," Elaine gripped Thalia's chin when the younger woman would have looked away, "But not for any of those reasons. You were born, and you are alive, right now. No matter what happens tomorrow or the next day. There is a reason for it. I believe that with everything I am. And if you let that, that creature convince you that your life is worthless, then you are letting him win. If you listen to him, his words will eat you like poison. You need to fight this, Thalia. You need to be strong for all of us."

Thalia looked up into Elaine's face. She took in the deep lines, the sagging skin. This was a woman who knew pain, despite her primping and smiling. Most of all, Thalia took in the earnest expression on Elaine's face. She had once wondered how Elaine had managed to survive in the Citadel, where she had never seen any other older women. She had assumed it was due to the tonic Elaine took to keep her happy. Now, though, she could see the strength in Elaine's eyes. There was a fire burning in the other woman.

"Why?" Thalia finally asked.

"All of those girls you knew, and all the ones you never met," Elaine said gently, but her voice was strong, "They are about to see a live broadcast of the coronation. They are about to find out what you have just learned— their role in all of this. All of the humans are. His Highness is going to stand up and tell every non- Arktzirax subject he has exactly what he thinks of them. He is going to try to destroy them, to crush their spirits and kill any hope they have. And that is all they are going to have, Thalia: hope."

Thalia closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"What do I need to do?"

Elaine immediately began ordering the Assistants around the room. They brought a chair into the bathroom and set it up before the mirror. A table was also produced and set up nearby. One Assistant placed Elaine's basket on the table and began unpacking it, but the older woman quickly shooed him away. She personally spread the contents of the basket out across the table in a very precise, almost medical manner. Instead of scalpels and sutures, however, Elaine's basket held cosmetics of every sort. Most of them shimmered in glass tubes and bottles. There was also a wide array of brushes, sponges and other objects that Thalia did not recognize. She was grateful to note that the white paste was absent.

When everything was set up exactly how she wanted it, Elaine waved Thalia towards the chair. For a moment, she hesitated in the doorway. She could not help but remember what had happened the first time Elaine had made her up for the Prince. It was impossible to forget the feeling of his hands holding her under the water, of her lungs burning for air.

"It's going to be okay, Sweetheart," Elaine said soothingly, as if she were addressing a spooked animal. She held one arm out imploringly. "I will tell you more as I work, but we do not have much more time to waste. Please, Your Highness, trust me with this."

Thalia sucked in a breath at the title. She hated the sound of it more than any horrible name she had ever been called. It was the same honorific so many people used for Xieol. She did not want to have a single thing in common with him.

"Just Thalia," She said, her voice a little more firm than it had been before. Elaine nodded, and Thalia sat herself in the chair before the mirror.

The older woman was instantly in motion. She removed the bandages from Thalia's face and washed out the wounds. Thalia flinched, but said nothing, as the older woman began packing the wounds with paste and cream to obscure them. The bruises on her neck, hands and arms all received the same treatment. Once the signs of abuse were eliminated, Elaine dusted powder across Thalia's skin, to even out her complexion.

To her relief, all of the colors Elaine brushed and painted onto her blended seamlessly with her skin. It left her looking very natural. When she looked in the mirror again, Thalia still recognized her reflection. It was odd, seeing all the outward signs of abuse erased when the inner wounds were still so fresh. Still, she decided, it was a relief to see her face as she remembered seeing it. Back before it was constantly bruised and bleeding. Seeing herself whole reignited something deep inside her. She wanted to get back to this girl she saw in the mirror. Without make-up and paste. She wanted to be herself again. She would not let Xieol take her identity from her.

"There you are," Elaine said. She was standing behind Thalia's shoulder and looking into the mirror at their reflections. Thalia took another second to marvel at the differences between them. With their faces so close together, it was almost startling. If she had the ability to do this, why didn't Elaine use her skills on her own face? Surely, if she could make wounds, scratches and bruises vanish, wrinkles would be no challenge. Thalia almost asked, but decided against it. It was Elaine's right to look however she wanted.

"Now, Sweetheart, we make you an Empress," Elaine reached over to her table and began opening small pots. Each contained bright, sparkling colors, like star dust in each color of the rainbow. Thalia's heart sank.

"I don't..." She started, and swallowed a lump in her throat. Again, the image of Xieol leering at her through the water replayed in her mind. She shook her head to clear it. "He's made it very clear that he wants a slave, not an Empress. I don't want to make him any angrier."

"Who do you think my orders come from?" Elaine asked without a pause in her work. She picked up a small pot filled with glimmering silver dust and dipped a dampened brush into it. "Close your eyes now, dear,"

Thalia complied. She felt the damp brush sweep along her eyelid, leaving a thin wet trail.

"Keep them closed, okay?" Elaine asked, and Thalia complied. The thin brush was replaced by a thicker one running just below her eyebrow. As the powder dried, it left a slight itching sensation behind.

"His Highness gave me very specific instructions for all of this," Elaine continued as she worked. "He wants you to sparkle like all the stars in his Kingdom...well, his Empire, now. He may have told you he wants a slave, but by what he told me, he wants a captive Goddess. When you kneel before him, he wants you to represent all the people of the conquered galaxies. So, we will do exactly as he has requested. Lean your chin up, now, Sweetheart. And yes, you can open your eyes."

Elaine used a single finger to tip Thalia's chin up and then began dusting a fine layer of glimmering powder across Thalia's cheeks. Thalia opened her eyes and looked directly into the bright white light above her. It helped burn away any thought of tears. He literally wanted her to kneel in front of him on a public broadcast that the entire Kingdom was required to watch? She swallowed a lump in her throat.

"How will doing exactly what he wants help anyone?" She asked finally, when she was sure her voice would be steady.

"Eh-eh, hold still now," Elaine reprimanded softly. A think brush ran along the contour of her lips. There was a pause, and then something sticky was applied across her mouth. "There, now, I think..."

Elaine stood back and gestured towards the mirror. Hesitant, Thalia glanced towards the mirror out of the corner of one eye at first. Blinking, silver star light greeted her and she turned her full face towards the mirror in awe.

Her blue eyes were rimmed with blue and silver, making them shine brightly. Tiny crystals glinted from the tips of her eyelashes as she blinked. Her lips had been painted red, but that was overlaid with millions of shining silver pieces that each caught the light and glimmered as she parted her lips in awe. Her face literally glowed like soft moonlight emanating from her smooth skin. She looked pale, but in an ethereal way. There was nothing Arktzirax about her.

"Well," Elaine continued with a small smirk as Thalia stared at her own reflection, "Maybe we aren't doing exactly what His Highness asked for. You see, instead of representing the galaxies he has conquered, I thought, maybe, you should shine like all the ones that are beyond his grasp."

Thalia sat silently, staring at her own reflection as Elaine brushed out her long black hair. She left it hanging loose, but brushed shimmering powder into it so that when it moved it caught the light. With that, Elaine took Thalia gently by the arm and led her back into the main room. Thalia caught her breath.

The Assistants had pushed the round bed back against the wall and set up a dress form before a full-length mirror. The mannequin was cloaked in such dazzling beauty that it took Thalia a second to realize that it was, in fact, a dress and not some fallen heavenly body.

The gown was made up over overlapping silver and gold plates. Each plate curved in a slightly different way, so that each speck of light that hit the dress was reflected back over and over again. The plating seemed to drip down the dress-form. A trail of larger plates trailed from one shoulder down, across the abdomen, and all the way to the floor. A high slit was placed just below this trail, possibly so that she would be able to walk in the stiff dress— and possibly so that flashes of her pale leg would be visible as she did so.

The main stream of plates was rimmed on either side with smaller plates, growing smaller and smaller the further that they got from the middle. By the time they reached the side of the dress, the plates resembled shining, interlocking coins. They would almost have given the impression of armor, or scales, except for the fact that each was a unique shape. Many had tips that reached out slightly in various directions, like a twinkling star. The small protrusions were vaguely threatening, but more beautiful than anything. The dress was also encrusted with jewels of every color. They sparkled, winked and shone in the light reflected from the panels. A small interlocking plates flowed down into what Thalia assumed were sleeves. A long glittering train stretched out to the nearest wall, where the remainder of the fabric was folded neatly. She could only imagine that the train extended well over twenty feet.

Nearby a tiara sat delicately on a large white pillow. It was different than anything Thalia would have expected. It was simply a circlet of silver metal with a single golden scale placed at the front. It was devoid of any other decoration.

Thalia stood staring at the incredible, daunting beauty before her until Elaine placed a hand on her shoulder. She started, and glanced at the older woman.

"How strong do you think I am?" She asked the older woman.

"Strong enough to do this, Sweetheart. Anything that you set your mind—"

"No," Thalia cut her off and gestured toward the gown, "Literally. That thing must weigh a ton!"

In the end, they had to call in additional Assistants to get Thalia encased inside the gown. It was surprisingly light, given the sheer scale of it. It was only slightly cumbersome when Thalia tried to move, and Elaine encouraged her to practice walking back and forth across the room. Elaine trailed behind her as she walked, the ridiculously long train bundled lovingly in her arms. Luckily, the matching shoes were simple, silver slippers and did not provide any additional challenge.

Once Elaine was satisfied that Thalia could be trusted to walk without ruining anything, she instructed the younger girl to sit on the window seat. Thalia carefully did as requested while Elaine retrieved the tiara from its pillow.

"Now," Elaine said when she returned. She gently lowered the tiara onto Thalia's sparkling hair so that the single gold scale was perfectly centered. "We won't pin this, Dear, because during the ceremony they will remove it. So you must keep you head up."

Elaine tapped the bottom on Thalia's chin with one finger.

"You keep your eyes straight ahead. Do not look down for anyone. Remember: you are a Princess. After this, you will be an Empress. And, more important than that, tonight you represent every being in the universe that is Non- Arktzirax — the vermin species, he calls us! You hold you head up, like a true Empress, look him dead in the eye and show him— show us— that he is wrong."

Thalia took a deep breath and almost nodded. She caught herself just in time and reached up with one hand to assure herself that the tiara had not slipped. It was still firmly seated on her head. Her eyes caught on the material of her sleeve for a moment. There was something eerily familiar about those small, shining scales. The ghost of a memory twitched behind her eyes.

"These— plates," She asked Elaine, "I feel like I have seen them before."

"That would be highly unlikely, quite impossible, my dear," Elaine was back in the bathroom, packing her basket. "They were created specifically for you. Just the most novel idea, yes? Such beauty, such strength!"

Thalia looked closer at the material, trying to decipher where each small scale ended and the next began. On her sleeves, the plates were quite small. They looked like tiny, irregular coins... Her head snapped up quickly. She felt the tiara slide to the left, but she ignored it completely as she jumped to her feet.

"Elaine!" She cried, and the other woman rushed out of the bathroom, "Do you have more of these?" She gestured to the small scales on her sleeve.

"Y-yes, yes of course, Sweetheart," Elaine responded, still looking alarmed. She reached into her basket a produced a box of tiny replacement scales, "Why? Did one fall off? I knew we should have gone over them a sixth time—"

"No, no, everything is fine. Just, could I see one... please?"

Elaine still looked concerned, but she dropped a small silver scale into Thalia's outstretched hand. Thalia held it up to her face briefly, grinned, and then tossed it out the window. Elaine screamed and dove for the ground, but Thalia only watched the resulting flash of light with a smile. So, Cruft had been trying to tell her something.