Chapter 1
I don’t remember very much about the life that I once lived before I met the man that I fell in love with. I have fragments of memory like it was told to me by a wandering future teller that I was to meet the love of my life that night, only if I went to the Le Glow Club, but I’d only meet him if I went there, as I went home that day. I found it hard to believe as I had always been overlooked my men in the past so I really didn’t think much of it but straighten up my bag and started to head towards the tube sky station somehow I still found my way to the Le Glow Club so I thought to myself I guess I’ve got nothing to lose except for a good telling off once I finally got home.
However, my father always told me that a girl's only job was to marry a man, nothing more. Although not that he was really home for me from the little that I could remember of his was that my father was hardly every home. So I doubt I ever knew what he did for a job.
I only had the faintest memories of my mother, but that’s all they were now. I didn’t even remember what she looked like or sounded like.
What I do remember is opening my eyes like I had been asleep to find people standing over me; some of their faces were covered, and some were smiling. I awoke as the last group began to cry. I tried to sit up, and a middle-aged woman spoke softly, “Lay still, my lady, you’ve been asleep for a long time, and so has your beloved Prince Costa will be awake again soon.”
“Who?” I asked.
“I’m not surprised that you can’t remember much from your life before you were put into your cryostasis on and off over 600 years, my lady, but I’m sure that it will all start to come back with time,” the elderly woman spoke again.
I began to try and sit up more slowly this time, although that didn’t work out for me so well either.
"Easy now," the elderly woman cautioned, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Your muscles haven't been properly used in centuries."
I blinked rapidly, trying to process what she'd said. Six hundred years? Cryostasis? Prince Costa? None of it made sense, yet something about the name stirred a distant feeling within me.
My eyes start to dart around the room. I’m not in some kind of medical ward; I’m in what looks like a museum. But how did I get here? I don’t understand.
“What year is it?” I asked not really wanting to know the answer.
“3127, my lady, over the years, others like us have let you free, but ah, well, there have been those who would prefer that neither of you ever wake up,” the elderly woman said.
3127, that can’t be right, I thought. Over the past 600+ years, other people have tried to wake me or us up. What did I or we do to be placed in a glass coffin?
Wait, I remember being grabbed, screaming a name, and being charged with bewitching someone. But that carries the death penalty, or at least it did.
"Bewitching?" I whispered the word, escaping my lips before I could stop it.
The elderly woman's luminescent markings pulsed along her temples, her eyes widening slightly. "You remember something of the charges?"
I tried to nod, but my neck felt stiff, like it belonged to someone else. "Fragments. I remember... shouting. Someone pulling me away from..." The name danced just beyond my reach.
"From Prince Costa," she supplied gently. "The royal family claimed you had enchanted him with forbidden human magic. That his... infatuation with you threatened the purity of the Nova bloodline."
My fingers twitched against the strange fabric beneath me. It felt like liquid silk but stronger, adapting to my movements. The room around me shimmered with iridescent light, crystal walls pulsing with veins of bioluminescence. I was definitely not in any museum I'd ever seen.
"I don't understand," I said, my voice growing stronger. "Why would they preserve us instead of executing us? And who are you?"
The elderly woman straightened, her formal posture revealing years of court training. "I am Lady Arinna, Minister of Cultural Affairs. As for why you were preserved..." Her voice lowered. "It was a compromise. The royal family couldn't bear to destroy their only heir, but they couldn't allow the match. Cryostasis was presented as a merciful alternative to execution—a way to separate you without bloodshed."
"But you've awakened us," I observed, struggling again to sit up. This time, Lady Arinna helped me, her cool hands surprisingly strong. "Why now?"
Lady Arinna's markings pulsed more rapidly. "Because the world has changed, my lady. Six centuries of separation between our peoples have led to stagnation. Some of us believe that what began between you and Prince Costa might be exactly what New Nova needs now."
A commotion from beyond the crystal doors drew our attention. The doors slid open with a melodious hum, and several attendants rushed in, their faces masks of concern.
"Lady Arinna," one called out, his voice urgent. "The Prince is awake and demanding to see her."
“Wait, you said others have tried to wake us up before, so you mean other people have set us free to only get put back into these cages?” I asked, trying not to panic.
Lady Arinna's expression darkened, her luminescent markings shifting from soft pastels to deeper, more troubled hues. "Yes," she admitted reluctantly. "Three times over the centuries, different factions have attempted to wake you both. Each time, the Inner Circle discovered the plot and returned you to stasis before you could fully recover your memories or... reconnect."
My heart began to race—or at least, I thought it did. Everything felt strange and disconnected in this body that hadn't moved for six hundred years. "What happened to the people who tried to help us?"
