Moonflower- A Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction

Chapter 38

BEWARE INFO DUMP AHEAD XD
-T

Cynthia woke beneath the glare of a bright industrial light. With her eyes closed she flexed her fingers, wiggled her toes. Something felt off.
"Your Highness? Are you awake?" Came a voice from above her.
Cynthia sighed and opened her eyes. A doctor stood over her looking incredibly relieved.
"Thank goodness. We were worried you might be gone! I'll get your parents immediately," she said.
"Wait," Cynthia called, her raspy voice barely escaping her mouth. "Where am I?'
The doctor bowed. "Welcome to Artemisia Palace's infirmary Princess Cynthia."
Before Cynthia could ask anything else, like if the gift was gone, or if Leo was okay, the doctor was gone.
Feeling just fine, Cynthia propped up her pillow against the bed and sat up. Maybe the "off" feeling was the gift being gone. Maybe they had won.
The princess surveyed her surroundings. To her left was the door, but to her right...
Oh.
Leo was laying in the other hospital bed in the room. He wasn't awake. His skin was milky pale and he didn't stir.
Cynthia tried to remember the last thing that had happened. She remembered the haunting faces of the former Lunar royalty, the mist filled with illusions, and then their burst of bioelectricty.
How long had she been out?
It didn't take long for the doctor to return, the emperor and empress in tow.
"Thia!" Cried her father rushing to her side. He looked like he'd been crying. "We didn't know what to do! We've been so worried."
They rushed to her side and held her to them, wrapping her in an embrace so warm she was sure the last time they'd held her like this she had been too small to remember.
She let them comfort her for a couple minutes until she couldn't stand it anymore. "What happened? Did we win? How long have I been out? Is Leo okay?"
"I'm alright," came a muffled voice next to them. His eyes weren't open, but Leo was awake.
"Oh thank goodness," Cynthia cried. She wiggled out of the grip of her parents and rushed to his side. Again, she noticed no sleepiness in her muscles.
Leo opened his eyes, squinting against the harsh hospital lights. "Thia?" He whispered, his voice growing a little stronger.
"It's me Leo. We're safe," Cynthia told him, the only things she really knew since she woke up.
"And you won," said Cynthia's mom. "I can't feel anyone or anything anymore. No more crackling energy or criss-crossing waves. It's silent, peaceful."
"Aces, finally," Leo said pushing himself up to sit like Cynthia had done before. "And we lived so I get the chance to do this."
He kissed her right there in front of her parents wrapping his arms around her and drawing her into him. She kissed him back with the full measure of everything she felt. How long she'd loved him but hadn't been sure what it was. Everything they had ever done together. The four years they were apart. Their triumph at winning, the Lunar gift gone. It was everything she'd been waiting for.
Except... not.
She pulled away from Leo, cautious. Then she turned to her parents. They were both grinning.
"So that's just it? The gift is gone for good? Everything is saved? No one else will die?" She'd asked a lot of questions since waking up.
The empress nodded still smiling a bright, perky smile. "Winter was wrong. She said way back during the Lunar War the only way to get rid of the gift was to put someone without Blackburn blood on the throne, but you guys destroyed it with physical bioelectricity. Fighting fire with fire, right?"
Cynthia blinked a couple times, hard. She'd had trouble listening to everything her mom had said because her smile was so off putting.
The gift was fire, it was wind, completely invisible.
"No, that's not right." Cynthia stood on her very sturdy feet.
"Maybe you should lie down sweetheart, you've been out for so long it's going to be hard to get used to," her father instructed, but Cynthia had figured it out.
"I stepped into the heart of the Lunar gift. The gift that makes things appear different than they actually are,
This is an illusion."
As soon as the words left her mouth the hospital room, Leo, and her parents all faded away to a curtain of darkness. A single figure stood in front of her, and a single light lit the space between them.
The figure stepped into the light illuminating his face. It took a minute, but Cynthia recognized him as well. Her many time great grandfather.
"Cyprus Blackburn?"
The man nodded, his face regal but ancient. "It is me, Cyprus Blackburn, the first king of Luna, and you, Cynthia Peony are my salavation."
"Are you a manifestation of the Lunar gift too?"
"No princess, I am among the living. Levana and the rest of my descendants were merely my own illusions."
"How is that possible? You'd have to be hundreds of years old!" But Cynthia's exclamation did not seem to startle Cyprus at all. He didn't even stir. Her eyes widened, jaw dropped.
"We have no time for gaping child. I have much to tell you and so little time. People die even as we speak. This has to end now." He looked determined, but his eyes dropped. He was tired.
"I was the first Lunar to possess the Lunar gift, but the truth is I am the only Lunar who ever really possessed it in the first place. I was hit by cosmic rays that mutated my genes, and ever since I have possessed the power to manipulate people and appearances. I used my power to take a throne for myself here on the moon, but I wasn't satisfied. I needed more, so I used my throne. He power amplified my gift, and I gave it to my children, a couple of important nobles, my close friends. The benefits of manipulation were endless. Luna could have anything they wanted! I was making a paradise.
I expanded. I gave my gift to more inner families. It only took a thought, and soon people in the outer sectors had small gifts of their own. Every Lunar became ambitious, power hungry, and productivity soared. I got whatever I wanted from Earthens simply by bending their will to mine. All the while I shared the gift with the rest of Luna. We became a feared race. We were powerful.
It wasn't long after that I noticed something was off. I was practicing with a knife in case anyone ever attempted to steal my power. Everything was going fine until the knife slipped from my grip and headed straight for my forehead... before bouncing off. I was stunned. I never touched a knife again after that.
Years and years past. I started to notice a strain of sharing my gift with all of Luna. It was similar to lighting candles, each Lunar only needed to be lit. Sometimes I would miss one. Those were the shells. They're simply unlit candles.
In my seventieth year of reign, when I was ninety five years old I began to wonder. My bones were still spry even though my son had trouble standing up after stirring in a chair. I looked younger than him, though only I knew this because we all wore glamours. I began to realize I wasn't aging, and I couldn't die. I was so very tired of life though. My wife perished years before, and not long after my son followed suit having never seen the throne himself, and I was tired.
I faked my death the night I entered my hundredth year and retired down here. I simply cannot die, and believe me, I have tried every way. So I maintained the gift for my people.
When Queen Levana ascended to the throne though I saw what she was doing, and I didn't like it. I'd seen centuries go by. Lunars looking down upon Earthens. Levana wanted to much. She craved destruction and death, and slowly I saw my paradise unravel. I saw the error of the gift. Luna was failing, running out of resources, and all Levana wanted was war. I tried to stop her. I tried to take everyone's gift back, but it was impossible."
"You tied the gift to throne!" Cynthia exclaimed.
"Thanks to your illusion I've figured this out. Putting someone other than a Blackburn on the throne, even if it's just for a moment as king or queen, should sever my ties to the throne, and the gift will be gone. With any luck, I'll be able to pass on as well, and everything will be as it should."
Cynthia paced around in the dark place, which was beginning to feel more and more like a stone tower. "So if I put anyone on the throne with no Blackburn blood this will all be over?"
"That is what I said," sighed the ancient king.
"Alright, I'll do it."
The king smirked, as if as a Lunar he was incapable of smiling. "Thank you Princess Cynthia Peony. Despite being an Earthen, I think I have come to respect you."

A/N: This is it guys! The final stretch. Three or four more chapters and this story is over. I've finally found a way to connect the dots.
See you at the finish line!
Love,
Theresa