Moonflower- A Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction

Chapter 34

Iko was surprised at how many thaumaturges had actually shown up. Sure, Wolf had done a lot of howling, and sure she had wirelessly plugged herself in to the palace intercom and blasted his howling throughout all of Artemisia palace, but it was still surprising to see twenty thaumaturges and their collection of wolf soldiers.
This time all the earthens were equipped with Linh devices, so no one was switching sides this time. Still, they were hopelessly outnumbered.
Iko, Kinney, Scarlet, and Wolf sat under the cover of a large crumbling building near the outer rim of Artemisia. Just close enough to Artemisia to call the thaumaturges away quickly, but not so far that anyone outside the palace might be sent to deal with them instead. After taking out a couple lunar soldiers and several loud howls blasted through the city, The group had taken cover and waited for the thaumaturges to come begin the chase. Now, it seemed, they were getting what they asked for. Unfortunately it meant there would be a lot of people to outrun.
"Well, now that they're out here we have keep them from going back," Scarlet said as she picked up her gun and started toward the crumbling door.
"Wait, we need a plan," Kinney insisted, making Scarlet pause.
"We split up, we keep them on out tails, we make them depend on their gift as much as possible. Then, when its gone, they'll be useless and we'll go home. Easy." Scarlet explained all this simply, but the words were in. No way reassuring. They were going to be in a lot of danger, but they had to keep the thaumaturges busy for Cinder.
"You better do it fast Cinder," Iko mumbled as she loaded her tranquilizer gun. "Let's go team. Keep them chasing as long as possible."
Kinney nodded and gave Iko's arm a squeeze before heading out into the open were the thaumaturges and soldiers searched. Wolf gave Scarlet a quick kiss on the cheek before heading out one direction, and Scarlet left in the other.
Iko was left with only the friendly whir of her processor in the empty building.
"One.. Two..." she counted, but she barely got through two before a growl roared through their corner of Artemisia.
"Come and get me Nyx," she breathed as she left the crumbling building. There's was no telling if it would still be standing the next time she saw it.
——-
Solstice had seen this story twenty-four times, and her most recent magazine cover had come across the feed at least seventeen times. Of all the jobs she could have been assigned,, this one felt the most useless.
Next to Solstice, her mother was looking at the same stories she had just seen on her port. The former princess was the only one who still had a bright look on her face, as if the twenty-fifth time seeing that story was just as riveting as the first. Maha, on the other hand, had more of a hard time getting her brother to stay in his seat and keep scanning his feeds. Luc was rather difficult to keep in one place, even if he was a couple years older than Solstice.
She sighed and looked back at her port. "Empress Selene Home Safe!" Was still pasted on the screen. Solstice wondered if anyone knew just how dangerous even home was as long as Nyx had anything to say about it.
Though she continued to swipe through the feeds, Solstice paid little attention to the headlines she'd read to many times already and let her mind wander to her friends. Cynthia and Leo were in some secret place on Luna now guarding the Empress and hopefully destroying the source of all Lunar bioelectric manipulation. She wondered what it what feel like to live without her gift. She used very little, and right now she had a Linh device on anyway, but she could still feel the vibration of every living thing. It was muted, but present. What would it be like to live completely silent?
Even though she tried hard not to, Soltice's thoughts always came back to FItz. He was all alone now, floating above Lunar after delivering Scarlet and Wolf. He was probably relaying information on Iko and her team's progress back Cress. He was probably completely out of danger, but she still worried. Maybe if he returned unscathed she'd let him propose this time. Then again, it was impossible to know. As much as she loved him, shoving him in the spotlight was what she least wanted to do. She seemed to possess a personal one, and it wasn't fair that he would have to share that burden with her.
Solstice's eye caught on a red blur on her feed, and she quickly flipped back to that story.
The red blur turned out to be a Red Cross. As fast as she could, Solstice sent a comm to Cress.
"There's a case of the new letumosis in Buenos Aires."
But soon Winter piped up with, "I found a case in Atalanta."
"Honolulu," called Maha
"Bangkok," said Luc.
Solstices could barely type fast enough to send them all to Cress, and they kept coming.

——-
"Okay, slow down, where am I flying to?" demanded Thorne.
Cress was typing furiously and mumbling words under her breath. Meanwhile Kai looked over her shoulder. He was trying to help the restless captain, but it became clear fast why Cress hadn't responded yet.
"It's everywhere..." Kai breathed, bewildered. "There's letumosis cases on every continent and many islands."
"So call your generals and have them stock up on antidotes. It looks like we're going to need a lot more than just us out there," Jacin noted as he arranged his antidote bottles.
""Meanwhile, I still need directions," Thorne sing-songed from his pilot's seat.
"Dad, I'll tell Torin we're taking the first city on the list, and then you can direct the rest of them while we fly," Rikan offered.
"Alright, let's just get going. This new letumosis acts fast," Kai agreed.
"Good, we're finally starting to make some sense. Now where am I going?" Thorne called.
"New Beijing," Cress said as the list of cities continued to grow.