Valen suspected that part of his distaste was due to the history Darai and Nor shared. The old adviser had practically raised Nor, and she saw him as an uncle, albeit one who frequently irritated her. And during all their years together since Nor’s birth, they’d never had to pretend that Mirabel was all that mattered. They’d always known the truth, while Valen was still playing catch-up.
With a scowl, he tossed a rock into the pond across from him, startling a purple-eyed creature lazing at the water’s edge. It scampered away, fading into the overgrown foliage, and Valen followed its path until his eyes landed on the massive silver ring floating beyond the garden, just visible through the trees.
Nexus.
The monstrous satellite had become Nor’s new obsession in the wake of their takeover during the Ucatoria Ball. Engineers, scientists and workers had been laboring around the clock these past few weeks, perfecting every angle and plane of the device that would amplify Valen’s compulsion ability, sending his message to every corner of the galaxy.
The True Queen of Mirabel is Nor Solis. Protect her, honor her, worship her cause.
It was a massive undertaking, but Valen had every faith that his sister would see it done. Nor was a woman on a mission, and when she set her mind to something, she was unstoppable.
Her voice in his mind drew Valen’s focus back to the present. Avoiding is the same thing as hiding, brother. Shouldn’t you want to be here for this? It’ll be fun!
Define fun, Valen thought, sending the message through their mental doorway. A muscle at his temple twitched, the twinge of a headache coming on. Valen sighed and rubbed his forehead with paint-stained fingers.
Another headache? Nor asked. Even through their mental link, he could sense her concern. For ever since Nor took control, and the galaxy was swept up in Valen’s compulsion...he’d changed in so many ways.
He was more powerful than he’d ever been, but he was also tired. The kind of bone-weary exhaustion he couldn’t quite shake.
It’s just stress, Valen thought back to his sister. Probably brought on by the medical droid you’ve had following me for two days now. Which, if you haven’t noticed, has mysteriously disappeared.
Her silence told him that she knew she’d been caught. He sighed as Nor backed away from the door between their minds, sending him a final image of the scene before her. A makeup artist with deep blue eyebrows was dabbing something colorful onto her cheeks, helping her prepare for the speech she’d be making in a short while.
You look beautiful, sister, he thought. The people will fall in love with you all over again when they see you on the feeds today.
Valen felt Nor smile just before the link faded. He knew she was worried about him, but there were so many other things Nor needed to focus on right now.
Like the Unaffected attacks.
It was something Valen had feared from the beginning, after he’d learned that some wouldn’t be affected by his compulsion. Their numbers were slim, if Aclisia’s extensive testing of the Zenith virus was anything to judge by. For every hundred that fell to Valen’s compulsion, bowing to Nor despite their original feelings toward her, only one resisted. So despite his unease, he’d never truly thought they’d be able to fight back.
But barely a week into Nor’s reign, a group of Unaffecteds had banded together and destroyed the military barracks on Tenebris that housed many of the newest recruits to the cause. Valen had felt the moment those minds beneath his compulsion had died. As if they were matches snuffed out. There one moment, gone the next.
It happened again, mere days later, on Adhira. A small but organized group of Unaffecteds had emerged from the jungle sector of the terraformed planet and struck down the communication towers. Nor’s video feed, which was on a constant loop across the galaxy, had been cut off for half a day’s time.
Though news of more attacks continued to trickle back to Arcardius from every corner of Mirabel, it wasn’t enough to strike terror in Valen’s heart. No, it would take a lot more than that to break him. But he saw the way Nor’s hands were often curled into fists. How her lips, normally smooth and polished, had crusted over with small scabs, from biting at them in her sleep. The last thing she needed was to spend even a single moment worrying about him.
Valen needed to stay strong for her. The Unaffecteds would fall eventually, when they ran out of steam. When they realized that the galaxy was beyond saving. And sending Nexus into the sky was the best way to achieve that, to ensure that Valen’s compulsion would be sent out across the galaxy forevermore, even long after he was gone.
Sometimes, Valen could scarcely believe what they had already accomplished; how quickly the galaxy had fallen beneath their joined hands. Having a scientist of Aclisia’s caliber on their side had been vital to their success in that regard. It had been her idea to send out the orbs full of tainted rain as soon as they’d seized control of Arcardius.
A war does not always require soldiers, she’d said, showing Nor and Valen how the weapon would work. Thousands of silver droplets falling from the skies across the galaxy, unleashing the Zenith virus upon all nearby.
So quickly, the Solis reign began.
So easily, the weak-minded Mirabellians had fallen beneath Valen’s compulsion.
Valen shivered a little as the wind blew through the treetops now, drawing the leaves down from the canopy overhead. They were a beautiful shade of purple and blue at their edges, the colors swirling together as they tumbled in the wind.
This garden, once a place he’d used to escape the darkness of his past, had grown brighter under the light of Nexus being built nearby. Even with the chill of winter soon to come, Valen felt almost cozy, safe in his own skin as he lay down by the water’s edge, his head on a thick pillow of moss imported from one of the garden satellites outside the Prime system.
Nor would do well with her speech today. The Unaffecteds would see her, and they would tremble in their hiding places. Nexus would be finished on schedule, and all would be resolved soon enough.
Of that, Valen was certain.
He yawned, his headache pulsing a little harder as he closed his eyes and let his consciousness slip deep into the confines of his mind, seeking the one place that was safe and sound and entirely his own.
Dark clouds.
A fortress made of night.
Iron bars that ensured no one else could enter. Only he belonged.
The velvety moss a cushion against his head, Valen allowed himself to relax, to remember the first time they met—a moment of hope and light after the twisted darkness of Lunamere. And as he fell deeper and deeper into his mind, losing himself in the memories, he hardly noticed the twin droplets of blood that slipped from his nostrils, a deep crimson against his pale skin.
CHAPTER 4
NOR
Power. She had always had it, but now she was it.