Chapter 11
1066 Words
Her markings flared with joy, and she turned to embrace a human man standing beside her. Around them, others began to reveal their own connections, partnerships, and families that had existed in the shadows, and they were now stepping into the light.
Costa squeezed my hand, his thoughts flowing into mine. This is only the beginning. The real work comes next.
I nodded, understanding perfectly. Undoing six centuries of division wouldn't happen overnight, no matter how transformative our binding had been.
"We should return to the palace," Lady Arinna suggested quietly. "Make our case to the remaining Council members before opposition can organise."
"Not yet," Costa replied, surprising her. "First, there's something we need to see; we should get to see where it all started, where I found the love of my life and my fated mate. If it is still around after the last time they captured us.”
I followed Costa's gaze to the twisted streets leading deeper into Voidhaven's heart. Through our bond, I could sense his need—not just to revisit where we'd met, but to reclaim that moment from the shadows of fear and secrecy that had defined it.
"The Le Glow Club," I said, understanding flooding through me. "You want to see if it survived."
Costa nodded, his markings pulsing with a mixture of nostalgia and determination. "That night changed everything. If we're to rule New Nova, we should honour where our story truly began."
Lady Arinna's expression grew concerned. "Your Highnesses, the political situation is delicate. Every moment we delay gives the conservative factions time to regroup…"
"Let them regroup," I interrupted, surprising myself with the steel in my voice. "We've waited six hundred years. They can wait a few more hours."
The crowd began to part as we stepped down from the fountain, creating a path through the courtyard. Many reached out as we passed not grasping, but offering gentle touches that sent small sparks of connection through our transformed senses. Humans and Novans alike, their own awakening markings pulsing in rhythm with ours.
Lord Vexan made no move to follow or stop us. He stood motionless beside the fountain, staring at the crystalline residue that continued to glow with soft light. His world had ended today, and we all knew it.
"This way," Costa said, leading me down an alley that curved impossibly upward. The architecture here was older, more organic—buildings that had grown rather than been constructed, their walls pulsing with the same bioluminescent veins that ran through the palace.
As we walked, I became aware of changes happening throughout Voidhaven. The rigid barriers between human and Novan districts were dissolving not physically, but conceptually. I could sense minds opening, connections forming that had been suppressed for generations.
"Do you feel that?" I asked Costa, pausing at an intersection where four streets met in a spiral pattern.
"The awakening," he confirmed. "It's spreading faster than I expected."
Through our bond, I shared what I was sensing thousands of individual moments of recognition as people discovered hybrid heritage they'd never known existed, or remembered connections they'd been forced to hide. The binding hadn't just united us; it had given permission for an entire world to stop pretending.
We turned down a narrow passage lined with establishments that catered to both species food stalls where human spices mingled with Novan bio-luminescent fruits, shops selling clothing that adapted to either physiology, and finally, at the end of a cul-de-sac that opened into a small plaza, a familiar façade.
The Le Glow Club had changed, but its essence remained. The building's bio-luminescent exterior pulsed with welcoming patterns, and through the transparent sections of wall, I could see figures moving inside probably setting up for the new work day. Than it hit me we had been here after each awakening and this is were they pulled us apart on the dance floor lost in the moment of reconnection.
The memory slammed into me with devastating clarity not just once, but three separate times. Each awakening, we had been drawn back to this place by instincts we couldn't understand. Each time, we had found each other on that dance floor, our incomplete bond pulling us together like magnets. And each time, just as recognition dawned, just as our connection began to strengthen, the guards had torn us apart.
"They knew," Costa whispered, his markings flaring with anger. "They knew we would come here. They used it as a trap."
Through our bond, I felt his memories surface the confusion of waking in an unfamiliar world, the inexplicable pull to Voidhaven, the moment of perfect clarity when our eyes met across the crowded club. Then the brutal interruption, the stasis weapons, the return to dreamless sleep.
"Three times," I said, my voice shaking. "Three times we almost completed the bond, and three times they stopped us at the last moment."
The club's entrance dilated as we approached, recognising our transformed signatures. Inside, the familiar chaos of preparation filled the air servers arranging tables that shifted shape to accommodate different physiologies, bartenders mixing drinks that glowed with bioluminescent additives, musicians tuning instruments that responded to emotional frequencies.
But as we entered, the activity stopped. Every person in the club human, Novan, and hybrid alike turned to stare at us. Their markings, both natural and newly awakened, pulsed in synchronisation with ours.
An elderly human woman approached from behind the bar, her movements careful but determined. As she drew closer, I gasped her eyes held the same violet hue as mine, and faint luminescent patterns were beginning to emerge along her temples.
"Lady Ariella," she said, her voice carrying harmonics I remembered from dreams. "Princess of the Solmere line. I've been waiting for you to come home."
Costa's hand tightened around mine as understanding crashed over us both. "The fortune teller," he breathed.
She smiled, and in that expression, I saw echoes of my mother's face, features that had been hidden beneath careful disguise for centuries. "My name is Vera Solmere. I am your aunt, child, and your mother's sister."
The club around us seemed to hold its breath. Through our bond, Costa's amazement mixed with my own overwhelming relief. Family. After six centuries of fragmented memories and artificial isolation, I had found family.
"You've been here all along," I said, approaching her. "Watching over this place, waiting for us to return."
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