Chapter Text
Fern hurried to follow Moon down the passage that led to the gathering chamber. “Moon,” she hissed, trying not to draw attention from the other Raksura. For a moment she thought that Moon wouldn’t wait for her, but he paused long enough for her to get around and in front of him. “What’s going to happen in there?” she asked, certain that he knew more than she did. Moon huffed out a breath and pushed a hand through his hair, avoiding her eyes.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I know I have to do it.”
“Do what?” Fern pressed.
“Whatever happens, Fern,” Moon started, then leaned down to her and touched his forehead to hers. Fern felt like his bright green eyes bored straight through her. “Don’t involve yourself.”
“No. Together,” Fern insisted, pulling away so she could grab his forearms in her tightest grip.
Moon pulled out of her grip and put his hands on his shoulders. “Please, just stay with Flower--”
“I will not!” Fern interrupted
“--and don’t draw any attention,” Moon finished.
Fern didn’t realize she was biting her lower lip hard enough to pull off one of the lingering scabs from their final encounter with the Cordans until Moon cupped her cheeks in his palms. She’d forgotten how big his hands were and felt engulfed suddenly by his presence.
“Fern,” he said, and closed his eyes briefly before arresting her with his eyes once more. “Please.”
Unable to look away, Fern nodded reluctantly. “I’ll try not to draw attention to myself.”
Moon nodded sharply, then spun Fern around by her shoulders, caught her hand, and walked determinedly down the passage with her in tow. Flower and Stone were waiting at the end of the passage, presumably for the two of them, standing to the side a little to allow others to pass by. “This is going to depend on a lot of things we have no control over,” Flower said quietly. Stone jerked his chin at Moon, and the two of them stepped past Flower into the central part of the chamber.
Flower angled her head to Fern, and they walked closer in to the center, but stopped at some line of separation that only Flower and the others in attendance were aware of. The chamber itself was large and cavernous, with no openings to the outside except for a shaft up the center. Vines curled down the shaft, but Fern noticed a strange white moss on the leaves that didn’t look healthy. Raised platforms were all around the outside wall of the space, and everyone was in their groundling or softskinned forms. The few Aeriat were easy to spot, with their tall, lean frames either towering over the shorter Arbora, or grouped together on the raised platforms.
Fern saw Balm on one of the platforms pacing back and forth and looking harried. A dark haired warrior looked to be glaring at Moon, and if Fern had her tail she would have been lashing it. A commotion occurred on the other side of Flower, and Fern realized Chime had pushed his way over to stand next to them. He leaned down and whispered something into Flower’s ear, but in the general chattering hubbub there was no chance Fern could overhear it.
Then, in a wave, starting at a platform in the back of the chamber and rippling out, the Arbora and Aeriat quieted. The platform was in shadow, but a shape spilled off and down the floor. Fern had only seen the queen, Jade, sitting rather compactly in one spot, so she hadn’t gotten a sense of size. Additionally, everyone was larger than Fern, so up to a certain point it wasn’t worth measuring. But this queen, and she was definitely a queen, was huge, easily a head taller than the tallest Aeriat, with vibrantly gold scales and a contrasting web of dark indigo. Her spines and frills framed her head in a gold sunburst, and more frills were at the tips of her wings and tail. Fern hadn’t even known frills could grow on wings and tails.
The queen - who could only be Pearl - stalked straight toward Moon. Like Jade, Pearl was wearing only jewelry; the reflections from the blue stones were dazzling. Fern could see Pearl’s influence pulse through the chamber, the way the Raksura reacted to her, almost leaning toward her. Fern swallowed hard, suddenly wishing Moon would grab her and bolt for the door. Moon’s shoulders and back were perfectly stiff and straight. Fern knew that pose. He wouldn’t back down from this, not for anything.
The only way to get Moon out of here would be to grab him herself. Fern moved her weight forward and hissed when someone grabbed her shoulder and held her back. She swatted the offending hand away and realized it was Chime. His teeth were bared - no, gritted - at her and he looked from her to Moon and back imploringly. Fern gathered herself, ready to shift and launch herself at Chime when Flower gently caught Fern’s hand and very quietly said, “please, not right now, Fern,” directly into Fern’s ear.
Fern realized that there was movement and conversation in the center of the chamber, that she’d missed something. She bared her teeth at Chime once more, then turned to listen. Flower’s delicate, elderly hand squeezed Fern’s fingers with surprising strength. Moon was standing closer to Pearl, having stepped forward away from Stone to within her reach.
Pearl’s clawed hand was touching the back of Moon’s head, resting in his hair. Moon leaned closer in, as though captivated by her. The air felt so heavy Fern felt like she was being pressed into the floor. In a deep, husky voice, Pearl said, “This was the best you could do.” Flower’s hand slackened in surprise. Fern took the opportunity and tried to shift and -- couldn’t. This must be the queen’s power, keeping her from shifting. It didn’t feel like the Fell poison had, which left her feeling like shifting was across a wide chasm and completely out of reach, like needing to jump an impossible distance. This felt like there was a barrier between her and the ability to shift, like a thick wall reaching up out of sight.
Pearl added, “A solitary, with no bloodline.”
Fern snarled aloud and launched herself forward, then the air was knocked from her lungs with a strong, sinewy arm around her waist. Peripherally, she was aware the arm belonged to Stone, who had moved to catch her faster than she thought possible. He lifted her off the ground and said, “Wait, just wait.”
In the scuffle, Fern had missed Moon pulling away from Pearl. A group of warriors hissed from an upper platform, and Moon spun to hiss at them. They settled, and all Fern could think was how empty he looked. She needed to get to him, wrap him in her arms, make sure he knew he wasn't alone. He looked so lost and hurt. Stone sensed the fight leave Fern, and turned to put her feet back on the ground, keeping himself between her and Pearl. He turned to keep Fern at his back and said, loud and dry in the quiet chamber, “I didn’t bring him for you.”
Fern could just barely see the edge of Pearl’s tail lashing from the gap between Stone’s arm and torso. “Solitaries live the way they do for a reason.”
Stone braced his palm on his hip, either to make a point, or give Fern a better view, she wasn’t sure. “They weren’t solitaries by choice. I told you how I found him.”
“And you have only his word for that.” Pearl stopped, half turning to show Stone her profile, as if she was reluctant to confront him.
Moon was partially crouched, well out of arm's reach of Pearl, his jaw tight with embarrassment and shame. Flower’s hand clasped Fern’s again, and Fern did her best to take a deep breath. She was tired of feeling confused.
“And the word of a mentor,” Stone said.
“What did you have to give him to bring him here?” Pearl said, as though Stone hadn’t spoken. Fern thought of the knife and blanket that Moon had rejected, and felt light headed with relief at his occasional self-preservation instincts.
“I’ve left gifts. He’s taken none of them.” That was Jade, her voice tinged with irony and controlled anger. Fern saw her drop from the ledge where she’d seen Balm. She paced toward Pearl, looking more like a predator with every controlled step. “The things he and the mentor accepted from the Arbora are only what they would give in hospitality to any visitor.” Her voice hardened into a snarl. “Try your claws on me, why don’t you.”
Wait, claws?
Stone’s arms snapped backwards to bracket Fern, and he tugged her tight against his back. She squirmed, and briefly thought about biting him on the hip. “This isn’t what we came here to discuss.” The deep reverberating grumble of Stone’s voice shook through Fern. She was reminded suddenly, viscerally, of every moment over the tens of turns that Moon had ever shoved her behind him to protect her. “The Arbora want to go to a new colony. Our lines haven’t flourished here, and you know it as well as the rest of us do. All the consorts of my line are dead, Rain is dead, and your last clutch didn’t survive to--”
“I don’t need you to remind me of that!” Pearl’s voice thundered.
Voice even, as though unaffected by her anger, Stone said, “Then what do you need?”
“We have too many Arbora and too few Aeriat. We can’t leave this place, not now. I’ve waited too long. I take the blame for that.” Fern held in a snort. As though taking the blame for something takes away its damage , she thought. Pearl continued, “I was told about the Arbora who came with the consort. You couldn’t even bring back what you promised me the last time you left--”
“It’s not too late,” Flower interrupted. Fern couldn’t help but tense in the circle of Stone’s arm as he pulled her around him and tucked her against his side. Flower looked delicate and fragile standing in front of Pearl, but Pearl’s spines and frills settled closer to her skull, and Stone’s grip on Fern relaxed. Flower had captured the attention of everyone in the chamber, and Fern realized this was the power of a mentor. The power to capture attention and speak measured truth. “There are ways around the lack of Aeriat. We don’t all have to go at once. We can make the journey in stages.”
“It’s too dangerous. We would die in stages.”
His voice tight - either with irritation or resignation - Stone said, “We’re dying here.”
Pearl’s eyes flicked to Fern. Her spines, which were starting to flare, paused. Her eyes narrowed in surprise. “What do you want from me?” Pearl asked. For a moment Fern thought Pearl was talking to her, caught in the depths of her sky blue eyes.
“You know what I want.” Stone said, shocking Fern from her daze. His words hovered in the air and Fern’s scalp prickled. “But, I’ll settle for your word that you’ll agree to move the court if I can get the means to transport the Arbora safely.”
Pearl laughed without humor, her voice disdainful as she said, “You left to bring warriors, and you brought back a solitary consort and a feral child. There are no other means. I think your mind has finally turned.”
Fern looked up from under Stone’s arm and saw as he bared his teeth in a predatory smile. Moon took a half step further away and a ripple of unease moved through the onlookers. Fern felt powerful, suddenly, energized and ready to do anything, shred anything, to protect her two consorts.
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” Stone said.
Pearl looked back at Moon, as though his movement reminded her of his existence. “I want your solitaries gone from my court.”
Moon’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Pearl, and Fern realized he was trying to shift, even with Pearl’s influence. She could feel him gathering himself, readying to throw himself against the wall Pearl’s power used to separate him from shifting. Fern focused, throwing her weight behind his, ripping and smashing against the wall. She breathed deeply, and pushed for her shifted form.
“Then make us leave,” Moon snarled in the deeper rasp of his shifted voice. Stone twitched and his arm over Fern wobbled. Fern shook her head to settle the spines she knew she didn’t have in her softskinned form, and a murmur of surprise burst out around her. The hard pressure of her spines, and light flutter of her frills, brushed against her still-softskinned shoulders. What? A wave of dizziness swept over her, and a roughly calloused hand caught her elbow. She wanted nothing more than to sit down, so she did, hard, her knees folding under her.
The people around her scattered as a familiar snarl echoed over her head and safesafesafe arms scooped her up. Fern was aware of rapid movement as Moon strode out of the gathering hall, holding her tight to his chest. She held tight around his neck, breathing hard, a headache pounding behind her eyes. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he knelt down, shifted back to his groundling form, and cradled her in his lap.
“I guess that answers the question of if we fit in,” he said, bitterly.
“I guess so,” Fern agreed.