Chapter 2: The Queen's Revelation
The solar was bathed in the soft amber glow of fading evening light, filtering through crystalline panes that looked out upon the Andorran skyline—spires of obsidian and pearl that caught the last rays of the twin suns. I stood before the arched window, my reflection a ghost in the glass, watching the city below pulse with life while my own heart raced with something I couldn't quite name.
Behind me, my mother sat in her favorite chair, a throne of sorts, carved from the heartwood of a tree that had grown before our people had learned to write. She watched me with those knowing eyes, patient as stone, waiting for me to speak first.
I didn't.
"You're angry," she finally said. Not a question. An observation.
I turned to face her, letting the light catch the bioluminescence that flickered beneath my skin. "I'm not angry. I'm... processing."
"Those are often the same thing, daughter."
"Mother—"
"Sit." She gestured to the chair across from her, an ornate thing upholstered in velvet the color of dried blood. "Please."
I lowered myself into the chair, the velvet soft beneath my fingers. The warmth of the evening sun painted my mother's face in shades of gold and shadow, and for a moment she looked almost vulnerable. Almost human.
"You know why I asked you here," she said, folding her hands in her lap.
"To explain the truth you should have told me years ago."
"To explain the truth I was forbidden to tell you." She leaned forward, her eyes searching mine. "What I'm about to share has been sealed by the Galactic Council for three centuries. I broke my oath by telling you even this much, but you're my daughter. And you deserve to know what your future holds."
I kept my expression neutral. "I'm listening."
Mother rose from her chair and walked to the far wall, where a tapestry hung depicting the first contact between Andorrans and humans. She touched the woven figures with reverence.
"Three hundred years ago, our world was dying. A plague had swept through our population, resistant to every remedy we possessed. The Andorran people were on the brink of extinction." She turned to face me. "Earth sent aid. Scientists, medicine, knowledge. They saved us."
"I've heard this story. It's in every history book."
"What the history books don't tell you is the price." Her voice dropped. "The Council demanded a guarantee of lasting peace between our worlds. A blood oath. A marriage between the royal houses."
My stomach tightened.