Sins & Virtues

Chapter Five: Homecoming

Octavia

Black Waters, Casskade

The obsidian crown sat comfortable but heavy upon the young Queen's head, nestled into her long flowing hair, the black of the volcanic glass and silver of the inlaid moonstones blending with her inky crimson tresses. She was adorned in an onyx ball gown, bedecked with lace and jewels, with metres and metres of gossamer train and sparkling jewellery that glittered like starlight as the black diamonds, moon opals and dark sapphires caught the light of the moon above. Charms and beads were woven into her hair, braided and twisted, each carved with runes and symbols. Queen Octavia was a dark beauty, standing high above a sea of white gazing up at her with adoration and grief.

Black Waters was the capital city of the kingdom of Casskade. A beautiful city, built up the slope of a mountain like an unusual stack of stone steps, crossed with canals and aqueducts lined with black and silver tiles, making the crystal flowing waters appear like ink. A prosperous and elegant city sitting at the base of five mountain peaks, casting shadows all across the city, suiting the citizens of the kingdom, who preferred the shadow to the basking sun.

At the very summit of the city, flush against the side of the largest mountain, was the Belladonna Palace, where Octavia now stood, crowned, a sword in one hand and a blooming black dahlia in the other.

Three of her four sisters stood behind her, red eyed but with small dutiful and adoring smiles, as they too gazed up at their elder sister.

Sapphira, the third eldest at nineteen, was as much a vision as her sister, and as fierce as a cat when she wanted to be. Alexandria, sixteen and on the cusp of womanhood, intelligent and playful, happy to let anyone know how smart she was. The youngest was Honoria, just twelve and still establishing her own personality and qualities beyond the baby of their fractured family. They each wore a silver gown; a respectful shade between the white of mourning and the black of jubilation, their crimson hair and milky skin stark against the coalstone of the palace behind them.

Beau stood with them, handsome as ever in his silver suit, his inky black hair short and shaved even shorter at the sides in the current style popular among the young men his age. His vivid blue eyes sparkled as Octavia handed him the sword, bowing respectfully and smiling when she handed the dahlia to Honoria.

Octavia turned to the Grand Priestess; a remarkably tall lissom woman, with beautiful dark skin and even darker eyes, clad in black and silver robes with the middle of her tattooed chest, between her breast, and down to her belly exposed. The inky black and bloody red tattoos trailed up her body and the curve of her neck, over the smoothness of her hairless head like a veil. The woman she had known all of her life handed her the curved obsidian blade from her jewelled belt and Octavia stepped up to the Moon's Eye; a great orb a metre in circumference. It stood on its concave plinth below the end of a stone jetty, which jutted out from the palace's southern veranda, the black orb standing proud and bright over the city, swirling with ethereal light beneath the light of the moon.

As a child, Octavia had refused to approach the jetty, terrified of the dizzying drop below, and her heart still beat faster now as she stepped up to the crown of the Moon's Eye, knife in hand. Below the crowds gathered on each level of the city hummed with anticipation.

Swift and without pause or hesitation, Octavia nicked her thumb with the point of the blade, blood beading from the wound and dripping down onto the globe. The crowd's cheers below echoed like thunder. The line of blood slid down the surface of the orb like shooting star, pooling in the dish below to collect within the plinth with the blood of her ancestors.

She looked down at her hand, the azure blood snaking down her thumb and into her palm. With a careful flourish of skirts, the new Queen left the jetty and glided back inside, her sisters, suitor and the rest of the Casskadian Dukes following through the two lines of Cosmos soldiers.