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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 657719" data-attributes="member: 386">Troy waited for it to pass in a small back room, where the lights were not so bright and the music not so loud.  He sat there, alone, watching others move and dance and talk in loud voices saying shallow things.  He lit a guntha stick and smoked it slowly.  The steady motion of the smoke, breathe in-out, relaxed him.  He looked around the room at the other faces and smiled.Then she walked in.  She was wearing long dark pants, tight at the hips but loose at the bottom, and a glittering strapped top.  She walked gracefully but simple, just one foot in front of the other, but she carried herself with such an air of confidence and welcome that he was drawn to her.  Her face with pale makeup and glitter on it seemed to glow in the dark lights.  She was more than life, bigger than this place or him and even herself but she did not know that yet.She leaned up against the bar and ordered a drink.  Troy looked at her legs and followed them up, up to the curve of her hips where the tightness of her waist and the subtle and alluring toned roundness of her belly drew his eyes into her.  She turned and met his gaze.  A knowing smile came over her face.The bartender returned with a drink and she took it and paid without looking.  She glided over to Troy and looked down at him."Is this seat taken?" she asked.  Troy moved over and she sat down, crossing her legs his way."Didn't think I'd see you again so soon, Mr. Chance," she said.  She looked over at the guntha stick and Troy passed it to her.  She took a long drag.  The smoke blew out slowly and formed rings."I wasn't expecting you here," Troy said.  "I guess you're on Kalarba for more than the banquet."Brooke laughed.  "Business, there's always more business to take care of.  But that doesn't mean I can't have fun every now and then."  She patted Troy on his thigh.  "This is a good night," she said, handing the smoke back.  "I've heard that the crown prince is here.""I've heard the same," Troy said, accepting the smoke and puffing on it.  He blew out the smoke then caught her eyes.  Her pupils were open wide, large and black like an ocean at night.  He felt a deep connection there, something deep and true but blocked somehow."You're from Norval II," Troy asked when she turned away.  She nodded.  "I was born there myself," Troy said."Really?""Yeah, Tremont Fields.""I'm from Darshau.  I spent most of my life in the palace there."  She said this and a look of sadness came over her and the blocks between them grew.  Not for lack of trying to keep them down, but it happened nonetheless.  She was a mystery, like a gift wrapped and laid out in the open for you but not to touch until the proper day and you wondered what was in that box but couldn't push too hard or you might break it."I've been on Kalarba since I was a boy.""Because of the war?""Yeah."  Brooke let the answer hang there.  Any other questions she might have asked about it were already answered, if not in detail then by emotion.  There had been many like Troy, orphans of the Clone Wars, sent to the safer districts of Kalarba when Norval II was fighting for its life.  Another parentless child of crusading heroes in their star fighters.The conversation flowed easily but never went deep.  Each time they got close to something inside that gift-wrapped box they quickly backed off.  This made the talking easier but it did not satisfy either of them.  Too many questions left unasked and unanswered.  Nothing to break down the wall that had raised itself between them.  It only made that on the other side more alluring.Troy felt like he had known her forever.  When they talked it was like time itself had slipped away along with the rest of the crowd and the noise and he smelled nothing but her.  It was a familiar smell but had been lost for so long that it seemed new at the same time.  He could read her expressions, sense her moods.  He knew what to say to make her laugh and what not to say.  But for all this connection there was something she was holding back.  He had seen it in the sadness in her eyes when she mentioned the palace and when she had smiled at him to pacify his pride and ego when she had beaten him.A silence came over them.  It was not awkward but instead shared and accepted and both were looking into themselves.  Troy knew she was holding herself back and wondered why.  He realized that he was too and this surprised him.  He was not simply following her lead.  Something about her was dark and mysterious and cruel and inviting.  It was more than him.Arthur entered the silence with a pair of women hanging off him.  He stumbled slightly but kept his balance.  There was a dumb smile on his face and he looked like he had forgotten himself out in the crowd."Troy, man, what are you doing sitting back here?" he asked.  Then he looked at Brooke and smiled.  "Oh."Troy looked at Arthur.  "Arthur, let me introduce the Lady Brooke Ashby of Norval II."  Arthur seperated himself from the women and outstretched his hand.  Brooke took it lightly and shook it.  "Brooke, this is Arthur Denfrey, Crown Prince of Kalarba."Brooke smiled and looked at Troy.  "You didn't tell me you were friends with the prince," she said playfully.  "How many more secrets have you got hidden from me?"  Troy said nothing and Brooke looked away."Well, Troy, me and the ladies here are going to go back to the palace.  You want to come?"Troy looked at Brooke.  "Sure," he said, standing up.  He offered his hand to Brooke and she took it.Troy never felt comfortable in the palace during the day.  Too many things going on, too many people trying to look important and busy by running around talking about nothing and doing less.  Troy didn't like the pandering and the falsehoods that Arthur had to deal with every day.  He knew the benefits of being a prince but did not want to experience the down side.Night was different.  The palace was quiet and dark and cold.  It was like a church at night, knowing that it was an important place in the day but now in the night everything had changed and you knew you weren't supposed to be there and that gave it beauty.  Dark and open and free.  During the day it was not itself; it was the people within.  Now without them it was just itself, a giant temple to the rulers of Kalarba and free from the expectations of day-to-day affairs and with the history of a thousand generations of leaders and the lives they ruled.Brooke approached him on his side.  She had wrapped her bare shoulders and arms with a thin silk scarf.  She shivered slightly and took Troy's arm and moved into him.  "Cold tonight," she said while they looked out at the lights down below and the stars above.They stood there in silence, the only sounds coming from the night wind and laughter and giggles from and for Arthur somewhere inside.  Inside was warmth and comfort and food and drink, but they were happier in the cold with each other saying nothing.  The stars glittered in the clear night sky."There's home," Brooke said, pointing at one of the brighter stars."Not so far away," Troy said."But it looks so small.  To think that you can live your whole life in one tiny point of light.""That's what makes the stars beautiful," Troy said.  Brooke nodded and they stood in silence once again.Sleep took them early in the night while Arthur was still making noise.  They lay clothed on the cold dark stone of the palace, up against each other, using Troy's jacket as a blanket.  The sleep was restful but the morning light came too soon and the brightness of the dawn's rays on their closed eyes woke them both up."Morning," Troy said to Brooke.  "How was your sleep?""Fine," she said, waking herself up.  She sat up and wrapped her scarf around herself.  "Morning already?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />."  She stood up and put her shoes on.Troy lay still with his arms folded behind his head, looking up at her.  She looked over the edge of the palace to the streets below, still quiet but beginning to come to life.  "<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />," she said again."I've got to go," she said.  "I had a good time last night.""Yeah, me too," Troy said."I'll see you later then," Brooke said, and she left Troy there on the ground."Yeah, see you," Troy said, watching her take flight.</blockquote>

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