The Ember Queen

Chapter Thirteen

In the plaza:
"How could you be my sister if I hardly even remember you?" Fiona demanded.

"Well, I'm actually your half-sister," Celeste started to explain.

"Wait. You're the baby who I had to distract when my dad left his meeting early and my mom didn't want him to know you were there!" Fiona remembered. "I didn't even know who you were, I just did as I was told and kept you quiet... my mom was trying to hide you?"

Celeste swallowed hard. "Yes, I was born by accident you see, my father was a lonely shopkeeper on Black Grove Street, and our mother loved to buy pastries there, because my father made them in a special way that no palace servant could; or any baker for that matter." Celeste paused for a moment. "She started visiting him more often, and one day she came back to the palace pregnant." Fiona's brain hurt from trying to process this all.

"She left on a ten-month voyage to keep me a secret from your father, and when I was born she had to take me back to the palace to get me checked for disease," Celeste looked Fiona in the eye. "That's where we met. Then, she had me sent out here, and I stayed with this lonely couple for almost twelve years until I left; and now I'm still living on my own, three years later."

Fiona wrapped her arms around Celeste, giving her what she guessed was a sisterly hug. Celeste let it linger for a second, then pushed away. "Why are you here?" Celeste asked Fiona. "Shouldn't you be at the palace doing princess things?"

Fiona winced. "Well I'm not exactly a princess. Mom and dad disappeared a few years ago when I was nine, and so now I'm queen."

Beside a dusty road in a middle-ring sector:
It was only an hour past sunset, and Celeste was leaning against the tin wall of the last house. Her hood was flipped up over her hair, concealing her face in shadow down to her nose. She scanned the alleyway again and hit her fingers on the tin.

TIP-TIP-TAP-TIP drummed out the clear code twice. Celeste listened to the light shuffling inside the small shack, and then watched a puff of dust bathed in yellow light emerge slowly from the opening window. Celeste glanced down the alleyway again and then turned to help the young man out of the window.

He grabbed onto her wrists and she hauled his upper half through the window, and he pulled his legs through after. Landing with a small thump, he dusted off his knees and thighs, then turned and locked the window. He looked up and gave Celeste a little smirk after shaking his hands through his strawberry blonde curls.

"You ready yet Rico?" Celeste asked playfully.
Rico nodded. They started down the alley, and as they were nearing the Main Street a middle aged man entered the alleyway, making Rico jump, but Celeste grabbed his arm casually, fake laughing into his shoulder, avoiding the man's suspicious gaze. Rico played along, smiling with sincere eyes. He tried to seem natural, although the fact that Celeste was taller than him was bothersome.

Celeste let out a breath when they passed the man, and slackened her grip on Rico's arm, but didn't let go. He straightened his posture, and as they each looked twice before crossing the cobblestone street he turned to her, looking at the space in front of her eyes.

"How far are we going?" He asked, trying to sound too strategic.

"Not far," replied Celeste factually, pulling them to a stop on the edge of the street, and opening up a rusting grate on the ground. Rico flinched, but didn't complain as Celeste led them down into the musty tunnel. The rungs of the latter that led them down were rusting and as Rico set the grate back they were covered in grey blue shadow.

They descended into the tunnel, each step taking them to a lower, darker, level. Celeste's boots squished into a fowl smelling puddle, and she flinched as she caught a small rodent run from where it was eating a larger carcass not five feet from where she was standing. Rico landed with a splash beside her, scanning the tunnel.