Chapter Text
“Once Upon a Time there was a Queen.
She was known throughout the farthest reaches of the land, and in the deepest trenches of the sea. To all above the waves, there was none more adored and revered than Queen Andromeda. A warrior seemingly summoned out of thin air in the realm’s greatest time of need. A savior from the very stars themselves.
Against her, the evil ocean King, Lord Draco, and his army of monstrous, man-eating sirens never stood a chance. And even if Andromeda herself weren’t a threat for Draco enough – the stars had left their warrior a gift.
A whip. Long, slender chains that snapped into alignment. Andromeda’s chainmail whip could level oceans, cut down enemy after enemy. And even call upon the forces of Mother Nature herself. Raging winds and storms – she could even turn Draco and his army’s own domain against them. Some say – ”
“It’s ‘cause of the jewel! Right Ma?”
“Of course it’s ‘cause of the jewel!”
“Yes, yes, dears, you remember every time. Would you like me to finish the story now?”
“Oh…yes, please. Sorry.”
“It’s alright, my Little Monster.”
“Draco’s own domain was turned against him. Some say that though the whip was the weapon, it didn’t make the power itself. The jewel at the base of its hilt was rumored to call the storms, and so it was named after their eye. Queen Andromeda alongside the whip, and the Eye of Storms, drove the monsters back to the deep.
With Draco gone, the land rejoiced. Peace seemed to finally be in their grasp. And maybe it would have been… had Queen Andromeda not mysteriously vanished. Searches were held, but she was never found– and neither were the whip or the Eye. The people of the land began to fear the creatures of the depths’ return, so they pulled away from the ocean, and their searches. Over time they also pulled away from each other, losing what little sense of harmony they had to begin with. Though no one has seen Queen Andromeda since, she is not gone. On dark and stormy nights, when the moments are juuuust right, you can hear the crack of Queen Andromeda’s whip, letting the world know that it’s still out there, waiting to be found…”
When the story is done, Sarah Steel looks down. And sure enough, as there always is after she tells this particular story, there are two little starry-eyed expressions staring back up at her. It doesn’t matter how many times she’s told it, their reactions are still the same looks of hope and awe. It wasn’t at all hard to tell, even with those little faces, that this was their all time favorite tale. After all, Juno and Benziten asked her for that story once a week.
And, as happens almost every single time, Benzitan is the first to speak. “That one’s so good Ma…” He smiles his big and toothy grin. “I like when all the mean monsters run away!”
Juno, ever the arguer, rolls his eyes. “They don’t run away,” He says, turning to face his brother with a child-like level of superiority. “They’re fishes. They don’t have legs, they swim away.”
Benten hits his shoulder a little bit, and Juno sticks out his tongue. “Yeah, but they ran away from Queen Andromeda! Ma said they did, right?” Ben asked her, to which Sarah was surprised the two of them hadn’t already memorized every word.
She scoops both boys up so that they can each sit in her lap as opposed to beside it. They giggle and squirm a bit as they try to get comfortable in spite of one another’s size. She looks them over, taking in every detail…and thanking the stars for the lack of certain ones. The thought is always on her mind, especially after that story. But she tries to shake it off without physically doing so. She’s checked, and checked, and will check again. Everything was fine.
She brushes back Benten’s hair gently with one hand, careful not to tangle her nails up in it. “The sirens all ran away,” she then looks to his brother to quickly add. “Even if they don’t have legs.” Benten laughs in victory, throwing a hand up.
“I think you said ‘drove’ but that’s not running or swimming,” Juno mumbled.
Sarah laughs a bit at that, and shakes her head fondly. “Oh boys. It’s really not a competition – the bad fishes go away anyway, do they not?” As soon as she asks she sees them think it over. It appears to make sense to them…so that means it’s on to the other usual conversation.
She sees it coming when Juno’s attention has turned away from her and his brother, and instead faces the window at the end of the room. From their view you could technically see the ocean, sprawling out in a dark black ink below the moon. It looks calm, inviting…deceitful. So it’s only fair that the next thing you see, the closer thing, is the wall. Tall as the gates of hell themselves it stands, separating the palace and the village behind it from what lies beyond. A tan slab of adobe and concrete built with the prospects to reach the sky if it had to, anything to protect the people within, from the monsters out there. And no matter how many times Sarah has said it, the question always comes.
“So we still can’t go to the water?” Juno asks. He sounds a bit sad. Sarah wishes to everything above that he didn’t. He shouldn’t. She watches as Benten follows his gaze, an equal look of wistful-sadness passing onto his features as well. Something in Sarah’s stomach bubbles, somehow both boiling and icy all at once, and she forces it down.
“No, boys,” She says as careful as she can. “Didn’t you just hear Mommy say that place is full of monsters?”
They both turn to look at her, their confused expressions just as twin as everything else. Every. Time. She thinks. The definition of insanity was thinking that you’d get a different outcome by continuing to do the same things. Sarah thinks that she’s insane for continuing to tell this story.
“But you just said they’re gone!”
“Andromeda made them all go away!”
As they protest, she slides them out of her lap and scoops up the nearest twin (it happens to be Benten). He kicks his legs a tiny bit as he dangles for a moment, and she walks him over to his bed on the opposite side of the room. “Queen Andromeda hasn’t been seen in thousands of years. Anything she did has probably reversed itself, and more!” She shook her head as she set him in bed.
Juno’s sitting up on his knees, arching his neck to get a better look at the window. She watches him gesture to it, and even though the swell outside is empty she just knows what his argument is going to be. “Then how come people like Hopkins get to go out there? Mx. Falco was saying that they’re gonna get to go on a boat!” He whined.
Sarah rubs her temples, giving Benten time to shift around in his bed. “Because, Juno,” She says for what feels like the millionth time. More and more everyday she was considering keeping them squarely by her side – and maybe away from the Falco kid. They weren’t all that older than her boys but for some reason they ended up in conversations more often than not, and here they were.
“Falco can go on a boat when they’re a bit older,” She says patiently. “Because their father is a fisherman. And no, again– you cannot be one because those jobs are dangerous. Fishermen like Falco’s father, and soldiers like Hopkins go and protect us. They go out and come back just as fast, and that is not your job.”
Juno crosses his arms from his bed, and does what he always does, pushes some more. “But Ma–!”
“No!” It comes out much louder than she would have liked it too, but just about as much as she meant it. She was getting so tired, so frustrated with this conversation and its variations week after week. They begged her for their favorite story, so she gave it to them, and again and again they test her with things they should know by now she doesn’t want to hear. But they don’t know. And Juno’s complaint dies in his throat as he lowers himself back into bed with that small, hurt look on his face. Benten shuffles under his covers by himself beside her, and she knows he’s now trying to be quiet.
She’s a horrible mother.
“I’m…Juno, I’m sorry for yelling. I didn’t mean it,” She sighs, and gently pet Benten’s hair again. She fixes the covers around him herself, and kisses the top of his head. “I’m sorry Benten,” She apologizes, and heads back to the other side of the room.
She tucks Juno in as well, and for most of the procedure he doesn’t look at her. When she finished she keeps her hands gently rested atop the covers. The apology feels mulled over in her mouth, and she purses her lips as she tries to think of how to settle it. “I know you’re curious,” She decided after a while. “And I know you boys…mean well, but I need to keep you safe. I’m your Mother, it’s my job. So please Juno, please…just stop asking?”
He finally turns a bit to look at her, and though he certainly doesn’t look happy, Sarah is grateful that he at least hasn’t started crying. She isn’t sure what she would do if that were suddenly the case. He gives a silent nod, and follows it up with a quiet, “Sorry, Ma.”
Sarah sighs and leans over, kissing the top of his head. “It’s…okay,” She says, like she always does, and pulls away from the bed. She walks towards the door, smoothing over her dress, and takes a deep breath. “Good night, my Little Monsters, Mommy loves you.”
“Goodnight, Ma,” Come the muffled, and far less enthusiastic than before replies. Sarah doesn’t say anything after that, clearly whatever she does just makes it worse. So she slips out the room, and leaves her boys to rest.
And Juno knows she won’t be back. He may be young but he knows quite a lot, and when he sees the door to their bedroom slip shut, he knows it’ll be him and his brother all through the night. She always disappears for a while whenever he whines. Last week he’d tried to stay silent for three days in a row–but Benten had broken his streak with a surprise assault of tickles.
“Why do you keep doing that?” His aforementioned twin groans from his cocoon of blankets across the room.
Juno sits up, tossing his bedsheets aside. “Because! It’s not fair that Mx. Falco gets to go and we don’t,” In the brief moment of quiet that follows he can hear the waves lapping against the wall. Juno hates that stupid wall, and he knows Benten does too – but he just won’t say it. At least, not as often as he does.
In contrast to Juno, Benten rolls up tighter in bed, closing his eyes to accent the point. “Mx. Falco’s a big kid, Juno! That’s why they get to go out there.”
Arms crossed, Juno lowers himself back in his bed, pouting a bit. Mx. Falco wasn’t that much bigger, and besides…it just didn’t feel fair. If he was being honest, every time they had that conversation with mother he felt closer and closer to crying over it. He knew it was stupid to, but something inside his chest ached so much, so deeply with every passing year, every month if he wanted to count it. He knew Benten felt the same. Maybe it was for their protection, but it didn’t feel fair.
“...Maybe one day we can go out there with them,” Ben sighs, and Juno knows he’s trying to make him feel a bit better. “Maybe when we get bigger Ma will let us go out with, like, protection! Or somethin’. Or…we can go ourselves, you and me.”
Juno turns his head and sees his brother’s smiling. It makes something warm fill the ache in his chest, and he finds himself smiling back at him too. “Okay,” he says, curling up in his blankets as well to mirror Benten. “Okay, we can go when we’re bigger…” He sticks his arm out to point at himself. “But I’m picking where we go!”
Benten giggles from across the room, shaking his head. “Nuh uh! You just wish you were,” He says, and somehow manages to stick his tongue out at Juno through a yawn. He settles down after a moment, closing his eyes. “You can dream you are…night-night Super Steel.”
“Nah, I am,” Juno said, looking at Benten a moment before closing his eyes as well. “Night, night Benten.” He thought it would’ve taken him longer to fall asleep. But through the sound of the waves and the promise of one day getting to be with them, he drifts off quick.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Juno’s dreaming of the ocean when he first hears the crashes. He sits up, and turns his attention to the door. Lantern light flickers from underneath the door and shadows follow suit, bending along the ground. Juno finds himself leaning forward, straining to hear what the voices rushing past are saying. He pulls back his sheets, practically hopping out of bed as soon as those voices get too far away to hear. Something is happening, and maybe it was questionable to want to see, but Juno had always been told he was too curious for his own good.
He pauses when he makes it to the door, and looks over his shoulder. Sure enough, Benten is still in bed, sprawled out with his blanket and snoring lightly. A hurricane could tear through the kingdom that very moment, and Juno knew his brother wouldn’t wake for it. That’s helpful to him in this scenario, however, because while Benten was better at doing the trouble, Juno liked to find it. Observe. Totally different…even if he did partake as well.
He slips out of his bedroom as quietly as he can, bare feet against cold stone. Whoever he’d been trying to listen to had rushed away down the stairs, their candle light disappearing down below. Juno grabbed the corner of his nightgown, and tiptoed down the steps.
Normally there were other people milling about the halls of the palace, but Juno found most of them strangely bare. It wasn’t until he’d wandered down towards the armory, hugging close to the wall, that he heard the voices again. There were a lot more now, whispering or gasping in hushed tones. Trying to remain silent, all he could hear were scattered bits and pieces.
“...Can’t believe it…”
“...So soon? They’re getting more frequent…”
“...hung tomorrow morning…”
“...Thank goodness we’ve locked them away…”
That wasn’t a lot to go on, but Juno could put together enough. Their mother never let them actually see the hangings that went on in the courtyard, but it was hard for her to keep him and Benten from knowing about them as a whole. That plus ‘locked them away’ could really only mean one thing – whatever was going on, he’d find more information down in the dungeons rather than here.
The dungeons…shouldn’t have been as easy to sneak into as they were. Even at his young age, Juno could figure out that there was something wrong with that picture, it was supposed to be secure, right? And still…he and Benten had found enough of a way to wiggle their way in while playing through the halls. The guards took care of the front, the main way out of the dungeons – they didn’t look at the gap in the wall however. Too small for any adult to get through, certainly…not too small for a child who didn’t mind dirtying his nightdress.
Juno stayed close to the wall the whole way down, ducking behind any statues or decorations that he could use for cover. They all seemed to be in much too much of a hurry to notice him, whispers passing between pairs and worried muttering from those on their own. Due to their distracted nature, Juno was able to sneak his way all the way to the dungeons – past them, technically. To the gap in the stone.
Juno sucked in his stomach a bit, and braced his elbows for some irritating scrapes as he slid in. He wouldn’t say that he liked doing this part – he felt squished in and it made something in his chest clamp up uncomfortably. He moved a bit quicker towards the exit, the ground somehow growing colder as he entered the room.
The dungeons were dark, they were always dark. And they were cold – a chill seeping in through the barred windows that were up far too high for any prisoner to peer through. The only light that filtered in were the few bare rays of the moon through the bars, and candle sticks burning at the entrance yards and yards away. During the day the dungeons were interesting, a place that he and Benten could explore. At night…Juno wasn’t so sure he liked it down there at night.
Especially not when his arrival warranted the spinning of several heads from within the usually empty cells. Juno watched as several men, and a few women, turned to face him from behind the bars. All of their outfits looked vaguely stripped – complete, but like they were missing some parts. One of the tallest men that Juno had ever seen snarled when he saw him. “What’s this?” He asked in a gruff voice.
Juno wouldn’t admit to letting out a small squeak – you couldn’t pay him to. But that wouldn’t be how Andromeda reacted, no, when she was scared, she just acted braver. So Juno stood up a little bit straighter, and tried to sound brave. “A-A visitor,” He said, he would have said it louder, but then the guards at the end of the hall would have heard. “I’m visiting.”
A few of them laughed, whether or not it was genuine, Juno couldn’t tell. “A visitor?” A woman chuckled from the last cell. “Well, lucky us then…” She paused, and glanced at the man by her side. With a look that Juno didn’t quite understand, the woman leaned over and began whispering in his ear. The man listened intently, and his one eye widened.
“Yeah that’s not a bad idea…” He said, and once again Juno was sure that they were all staring at him with strange expressions, just not the same ones as before. The tall man stood up again, and for a moment Juno thought that maybe he’d made a horrible mistake, but the man did not walk to the front of the cell. Instead he walked to an opposing wall that separated him from the rest.
Another woman stood up, strong looking and tall –but she looked as confused as Juno felt, which was admittedly a relief. Then the mountain of a man with the gruff voice spoke again. “The kid,” He said, and then nodded his head at Juno. “If anyone gets to…” He trailed off, and the woman’s face flickered through a few emotions, before landing in a resigned expression. That…didn’t necessarily clear anything up at all, but Juno watched the second woman nod, and walk to the back of her cell. Juno stood up on his tiptoes, trying to see where she was going – it wasn’t exactly an enormous cell. He watched her crouch down, and talk low in a language he didn’t recognize to a barrel in the corner. Juno gave the rest of the prisoners a confused look, but most of them (those not grumbling to themselves or rolling their eyes) were looking over at the barrel as well. Since that seemed like the place to look, Juno turned his attention back to it…just in time to see it move.
The woman stepped back as the barrel moved, and something came out from behind it – someone. It took Juno’s eyes a moment to fully put it together, seeing as the boy’s face was shrouded by a mess of pitch black hair. Juno walked a bit closer to the cell, trying to get a good look. The boy was small. Not just in size, but he looked painfully thin. His tattered shirt hung off of him and his pants pooled around his bare feet. All in all, Juno was just incredibly confused – why was someone his age in a dungeon? The woman put her hand on the boy’s back and whispered something in that language again, nudging him forward even as he flinched.
“Really, Yasmine. We should be worried about our own necks, not some – “ Complained one of the grumbling men from before.
The strong looking woman scowled, and glared over at the man. “Can it, Engstrom, he’s just a kid.”
“A stupid one at that. And what makes us think that this brat can – “ ‘Engstrom’ shot back, before the guards at the front of the dungeons shouted for them all to remain silent.
‘Yasmine’ glared at Engstrom one more time before gesturing the boy ahead again, to the cell door where Juno had already walked to. The boy didn’t flinch that time, and even looked up – staring at him with wide, deep brown eyes. Juno, ever the wordsmith, stared only a few moments before speaking. “Hello…”
“Hello…” The boy repeated back to him, albeit in a much smaller and shier voice.
I can talk to him, Juno thought. He’d been worried maybe the boy only spoke that strange language, and he wouldn’t get any answers at all. He smiled a bit, and grabbed at one of the bars. “Hello, I’m Juno! What’s your name?” He asked, and couldn’t understand why the boy looked a bit shocked.
He looked down, and messed with the fraying sleeve of his shirt. “Peter…Nureyev…” He said carefully, like it was something he’d had to memorize and keep with him, over and over. Peter Nureyev, Juno wouldn’t have to memorize it. He knew it now, and in the logic of any young child, that made him and Peter Nureyev friends.
“Peter Nureyev,” He repeated, and smiled. It made Peter smile too, and it was at least good to see that he could. A small voice that sounded vaguely like his mother chided him for his manners in the back of his head. “It’s nice to meet you.” He said.
Peter nodded, still looking down. Yasmine knelt beside him, she was as tall as Peter even kneeling – but Juno had grown a bit over the harvesting seasons, so he knew he was a bit taller. Yasmine wasn’t looking at Peter this time, instead her gaze was turned in his direction. “Juno,” She said, quiet and even. “You got in here, you know how to get out without them noticing, yes?” Juno didn’t quite understand the tone in her voice. For all his perceptions, there were a few things he could not understand…but he could at least tell it was important. So he nodded, and he could identify her next expression: relief.
“Good, good…Juno, I need you to take Pete here out the way you came, can you do that?” She asked him, casting her eyes towards the door. “I don’t know how long they’ll just stand there, so I really need to know if you can help him out of here. Not just the dungeons, the whole palace all together…it's not safe for him here, do you understand?”
And though he didn’t have the whole picture yet (which was something that would bother him later), Juno could understand. He nodded his head. “Mmhmm, I do.”
Yasmine smiled at him, and for a moment Juno felt like a hero. “Thank you, Juno,” She said, and looked back at Peter again. “Alright, Peter…time to go. I’m sorry about all of this. You just picked the wrong ship to stowaway on.” She gestured to the bars. “You’re a skinny kid, so you should be able to wiggle your way through. It might be uncomfortable for a few seconds, but you have to do it, okay?” Peter nodded when she said that, taking a moment to look at her before turning his body sideways, and trying to squeeze through the bars.
It looked like it hurt. Peter’s face screwed up painfully, and Juno grabbed his outstretched arm as soon as he could. He didn’t know how long it took for Peter to finally slide his way through, but he practically caught him when he made it out. “Good job!” Juno said, keeping his voice down like he taught himself to.
Peter rolled his shoulder and winced, letting out a small whimper. “Thanks…” He said, and gave Juno a smile. It was a nice smile. A nice moment…those never lasted very long though. Before Juno could ask more questions, there was some grumbling from one of the other cells, the one with the man called ‘Engstrom’ particularly. The two boys turned to look as one of the prisoners stood up.
“We should be focused on ourselves!” One shouted.
“They can let us out!”
“We can’t just stay. Are we not pirates?!”
They devolved into arguing, and Juno could faintly hear the guards shouting for them to be quiet again, or vowing to go back there and make them. But mainly, he was focusing on that word. Pirates. He turned to Peter, who stood anxiously next to him, running his thumb over a dull bronze ring that Juno hadn’t noticed before. “You’re a pirate?” He asked him.
Peter’s eyes widened. “I–no, I mean–” He tried to defend himself, pulling away from Juno and their escape. Juno didn’t understand, and he looked fearfully over his shoulder when the heavy footsteps of the guards sounded down the hall.
“Go!” Yasmine shouted, from where she was currently fighting off a rioting cellmate.
Juno nodded, and grabbed Peter’s hand. “I don’t care!” He told him, still quiet as he pulled them both towards the stone gap. Peter gave him a confused look, and Juno paused for just a moment, grabbing his shoulders. “I don’t care that you’re a pirate. You’re too little to be scary, little-r than me probably. So I don’t care, but we have to go,” Juno Steel was nine years old. But even he knew the plain truth by now, “Hyperion isn’t fair.”
Peter didn’t pull away or resist as Juno tugged him to the gap, and quickly shuffled inside. Thank goodness for the darkness, covering their tracks as they slipped away. Juno coaxed Peter through the gap, and they both tumbled out on the other side.
The halls were lit much better than the dungeons had been. The moment Juno got back to his feet he was looking around for guards. None so far but it was hard to tell how long that would last. “C’mon, c’mon!” He grabbed Peter again, and the two of them ran.
Juno paused whenever he thought he heard a noise, pressing both of them against walls and hiding behind suits of armor. Peter followed the movements without hesitation, until the two of them escaped the halls. Juno had dragged them to the library. He knew two things about it that were beneficial; one was that it was late, so nobody would be there. The other thing was, it had a rickety window that overlooked the gardens.
He pushed the door shut the moment they passed through, leaning his back against it to catch his breath. Peter was doing the same, but he was looking around the room as well, eyes flicking to each corner like a shadow would lunge out and eat him if he looked away. “That was close,” Juno said, laughing a bit at the end. He brushes his hands off on his nightgown, it’s gone to hell already so what’s the point, and stops smiling when he notices that Peter still looks so damned scared. He walks over with a frown, and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Hey–”
Peter jumps a bit when he does, hands still fiddling with that bronze ring. “Sorry,” Juno apologizes and lowers his hand. “What’s that?” He asks instead, pointing at the ring. The strange boy looks down as though he hasn’t noticed he’s been playing with it, and takes it off of his finger. It sits in the palm of his hand for a few moments before he speaks.
“A present,” He says quietly. “I think…”
Juno tilts his head. “You think?” He asked. “Well, who gave it to you? Maybe then you can tell if it’s a present, or just someone not wanting it anymore, my brother does that to me sometimes, if he doesn’t want something he’ll give it to me, and say it’s a present. It’s not a present, he just doesn’t want it anymore. Would thinking about it like that help?”
Peter stared at him while he rambled, and genuinely seemed to entertain the thought afterwards. “I um…I still don’t know,” He says, sounding both sad and confused. “I think my father gave it to me. I don’t remember him. But it’s the only thing I have so…he must’ve loved me?”
He puts the ring back on, looking unsure of himself when he says those words. Juno’s chest squeezes again, but this time not from the fear of being pressed between those stones. “Didn’t your mother tell you about him?” He asked. He and Benten never knew their father either. And yes, their mother hated talking about him. They watched her lip curl into a snarl, the way her eyes filled with something dark whenever they asked. But she’d still say some things. Curt and sharp snippets of comments, ‘he was a louse’, ‘we’re better without him’, and one time, ‘You would have loved him’. Things like that didn’t make sense, he knew they were complicated. Maybe it had been the same for Peter?
It had not. Juno watched him shake his head, finally looking back over to him. “No mother,” He said simply.
Another thing Juno didn’t understand. “You don’t have a mother, or a father?”
“No.”
“Siblings?”
Peter shook his head.
“Do you have…anyone?”
The boy shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe. I had friends back in Brahma but…” Juno doesn’t like the way Peter’s eyes flash with fear. “I don’t wanna go back there..I can be my own grown up though. So it’ll be okay.”
“But you’re little!” Juno throws his arms out with a gesture. Peter shouldn’t have to be his own grown up, that didn’t make any sense. And Juno wanted to understand things, that’s what he liked to do, but he couldn’t wrap his head around it.
He expected him to agree, or maybe try to explain it in his case, but instead Peter just looked…confused. “Little kids act like grown ups back home all the time,” He said. “That’s just how it is.”
That should not just be how it is. Juno screwed up his face as he tried to think of how on earth that made sense – it just didn’t. Was that what places outside of Hyperion were like? He’d tried asking before, both he and Benten had, but their mother shot it down anytime they did. She always said Hyperion was their home, why should they have to worry about anywhere else? And while Juno wouldn’t say he liked that answer, he could never get her to say more. The only reference he had at the moment for anywhere outside of home were the stories about Queen Andromeda, and how everything else had been broken when she went away.
He just didn’t know that they were still broken.
Juno walked over and grabbed Peter’s shoulders, thankful that he didn’t flinch at all this time, just stared at him with wide eyes. “You shouldn’t be a grown up,” Juno said. “You should be safe at home with family! But..if that's not how it is then…I’ll just have to make sure it is that way! Does that make sense?”
Peter shook his head. “No…?”
“Okay, but it will. I promise Peter, I’m gonna fix everything again, one day! You might have to wait till I get big, but when I do, I promise. But you’ve gotta promise to take care of yourself too,” He looks around the library, eyes trailing over the shelves of dusty, hardly-used books until they settle on something. He walks over to one and stands on his tip toes, reaching up as high as he can. Sitting beside one of the books was always a necklace. Why, he had no idea. Something about dec-rations or whatever. Either way there were things like that everywhere in the palace, nobody would miss this little thing. He blows the dust off the white circle pendant, so it’s all nice and shiny again on its gold chain. After he walked over to Peter again.
“Hold out your hand,” He said, and watched as the younger boy did. Juno thought it was nice that his new friend wasn’t scared of him anymore. He let the pendant fall out of his hand and hang over Peter’s, the chain still between his fingers. “I promise you, Peter. When I’m all grown up, I’m gonna fix everything. I swear on this magic necklace.”
Peter was looking at the pendant with an expression of awe. “What makes it magic?” He asked softly.
Juno laughed and set it fully in his hand. “Our promise, silly! You promise to take care of yourself, and I promise to fix everything! And when we’re both big we can see each other again when our promises are done!”
Peter’s fully smiling now. He’s missing a tooth, just like Juno is, which he thinks is nice because then their smiles can match. “Okay!” He says, nodding so fast his dark hair falls like curtains in front of his face. “I promise!”
Juno’s bouncing with excitement, nodding along with him. What to do next doesn’t even come as a question, he reaches forward and pulls Peter into a big hug. His new friend pauses for a moment, and Juno’s worried he’s done something wrong until Peter hesitantly hugs back. “I promise Peter,” Juno whispers again – he’s going to drill it into his little head if he has to. “I promise it’s all gonna be okay.”
Peter nods, and Juno wishes the hug could last longer. But down the hall they suddenly hear voices again, something about footprints, and Juno knows it’s time to get Peter out of there. He pulls back and grabs his wrist, pulling him to the window. “Please be careful,” He says as he messes with the lock. It takes a moment, but the window swings open, letting the smell of seasalt ride in on the breeze. “I wanna hear everything you do when we’re grown up.”
Peter nods and climbs up onto Juno’s hands when they’re offered. He’s clutching the necklace between his slim fingers with a death grip as he climbs up onto the ledge. He looks over his shoulder and the very small hop down doesn’t even make him hesitate, not like Juno would have. He leans out the window to see Peter standing up from a crouch and brushing himself off. He opens his mouth like he’s about to say something, but the light from the hallway spills out behind Juno when the door opens. Instead, Juno watches as Peter Nureyev gives him one last toothy smile, and runs off into the brush of the gardens.
Juno’s just as sad as he is to see him go as he is happy. “Bye…” He mumbles, before a hand grabs his shoulder and pulls him back inside.
“What–oh!” The man underneath the guard’s helmet exclaims once Juno’s pulled back in and staring up at him. There’s another guard beside him, and she takes off her helmet.
“Your Highness, what are you doing awake? And over here?” She asks, looking out the window a bit. Juno knows that she can look, but she won’t see Peter Nureyev. She instead closes the door, shaking her head. “It’s late, you should be in bed.”
The man puts his hand on Juno’s shoulder and the two of them start to lead him out of the library. “C’mon Your Highness,” He says. And even though he knows he won’t see him either, Juno looks over his shoulder at the window. All he can see is the fading image of the gardens into darkness and moonlight, but even though the boy is gone he won’t forget his promise. Peter Nureyev said he’d come from somewhere called ‘Brahma’ where all the kids had to act like grown ups, and not because they wanted to. The nice lady in the dungeons didn’t seem like she’d want to do anything bad. Have to? Maybe…but probably not want to. Juno’s thinking about this on the walk down the hall. He wonders about how many more places there are out there that haven’t been whole in years. And by the time he’s brought back to him and his brother’s room, he’s come to a conclusion. The answer to how he’ll keep his promise to Peter Nureyev, and fix everything.
Ma always said that the world broke because Queen Andromeda, her whip, and the Eye of Storms were gone. So all Juno had to do was find them, all of them. He went to bed that night with a plan. He was going to find them, and put the world back together again. Ma had always told him that when he was older, when he was Queen, it was his job to protect their land. Why stop at one land, when you could save them all? Juno was going to save them all.
He had to.