Lucci, The Moon Spirit:Part Three

     It was then, that night at dinner that Lucci would learn so much about herself. She would learn she was still tied to the moon; she was still the Moon Spirit. When the moon was at it’s brightest, the Full Moon, she was strong. She was confident. She was gleaming, glowing and radiating happiness and energy. Over the span of two weeks, the moon would get darker. During the First Quarter phase, she would grow more tired and less patient, but still pleasant nonetheless. Then when the moon was covered in darkness and there was no moonlight for her to consume energy from, she grew weak and sad. The moon would begin to brighten up again going into the Third Quarter phase, and her energy would come back.

     She decided to trademark her appearances during these times. Full Moon she dawned her white, fitted dress. First Quarter, her regal Royal Girl Kyrii dress. New Moon, her dark, black, simple dress. And finally during the Third Quarter, a fitted red silk dress adorned with flowers sewn into the fabric, a white fur-trimmed collar with white gloves and dark maroon shoes.

     She would truly be known, as the Moon Spirit. People still didn’t believe Cassandra, but the servants began to take notice to her changes in emotions as well. These obviously correlated with the amount of moonlight she was able to draw in every night, but they would remain clueless as to why. She began to skip all lessons during the New Moon phase and preferred to be left alone, out of frustration of not being able to concentrate or stay awake for her teachings.

     _____

     Months passed, many many months. The war had lasted much longer than they believed, due to a preemptive counter attack from Darigan Citadel. During that time, Lucci had grown quite comfortable in the palace, but began exploring ways she would be able to return back to the moon. Despite all of her readings through books in the royal library, she found no answers to her burning questions.

     One day, she woke up on the first day of a Full Moon phase. She was beaming with happiness and energy; she looked outside and waved to the moon, imagining in her mind that it was waving back. She turned to get ready and heard a lot of commotion from outside and heard people running towards the front of the castle. She ran over to the other side of her room to a different window, this one north-facing overlooking the entrance of the castle, and saw what they were all looking at…the troops had come home.

     There must have been over a thousand men, marching on the cobblestone path leading up to the castle. She could feel the ground shake beneath her, as the footmen marched and the Unis galloped happily. The Meridell flag was boasted everywhere, waved high and proudly as the men cheered. They won! Their forces finally defeated Darigan Citadel from their invasion.

     Just as the Queen promised, the next night there would be a ball.

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     All day long, as she tried to sleep, she heard people frantically going up and down the hallways outside her room, running towards the Grand Ballroom. She could hear the seamstresses stressed out about their last minute alterations for the members of royalty’s dresses, the bakers had run out of eggs, the housekeepers ran out of floor cleaner and weren’t even halfway finished, UGH! She already had enough of a hard time sleeping during the day, and now it was much worse.

     She managed to get some sleep, but had to wake up earlier anyway to get ready. She promised the Queen she would attend as their honored guest, it was only fitting she looked the part of a royal guest.

     She walked to her window and sat on the sill, looking up at the sun. She smiled at it, using her hands to shield her eyes. "Oh Helios. I will always love you. Don’t forget me, okay?" She closed to curtains and begun to get ready.

     She slipped into her white, lace dress, with crystal embellishments and with the help of her Usul servant, zipped it up in the back to reveal her beautiful silhouette. The Usul did her hair, carefully braiding one side and gathering more hair on one side like a French braid. She pulled the braids to make them thicker, than clipped it in the back. She pulled the loose hair into a messy bun and wrapped the braids around, giving her an elegant and sophisticated up do. She secured a beautiful white, flower hairpin on top of the bun, and fastened Lucci’s diamond necklace around her neck. The Usul held her hand as she slipped on her white heels, covered with diamonds on the fronts.

     The Usul gasped as she looked at her, she looked like a princess.

     "One more thing." She said. "The Queen asked for you to wear this."

     She opened the box to reveal a beautiful golden tiara, shimmering with the reflection of the moons spirit aura in the gold. The Usul slid it on her head and sent her on her way to her first ball.

     Lucci stood at the top of the double staircase, leading into the Grand Ballroom, and was delighted to see everyone dancing. Famous dances she had studied, like the Waltz, led by beautiful composers with their instruments.

     From the other side of the room, a man stood in front of his throne, and everyone stopped. They looked at him, and then followed his gaze to Lucci. Soon, the entire room was staring at her as she gracefully walked down the steps, a handful of her dress in her left hand to keep her from tripping down the stairs. She stood at the bottom of the steps and everyone continued to dance, she looked around confused. Then, the man who was standing earlier appeared in front of her.

     "Your grace." He said, bowing.

     "You must be the Crowned Prince, Prince Ares." Lucci said, performing a perfect curtsy in front of him. She gazed at him, the handsome Royal Boy Kougra, proudly standing on his two feet, with the proud colors of Meridell represented in his royal attire and his red cape falling gracefully down to his feet. "He is quite handsome." She thought.

     "Yes, my reputation serves me well. As does yours, I had heard much about you, but words could never begin to describe how beautiful you are. I hear you come a long way from here, but then again, mother always makes up wild stories."

     "Hmm, wild you say?"

     "Yes, now your grace, would you do me the honor of dancing this dance with me?" he said, reaching out for her hand.

     "Sure, the honor would be all mine." She said, allowing him to grab her hand and lead her into the dance. He lifted her hand, and put his hand around her waist as they went through the movements. They danced perfectly well together, and in fact, danced for most of the night.

     But her something was eating at her, she longed for this to be Helios. She wished this was his hand wrapped up around hers, she wished he was the one leading her through the movements. She held back tears as she thought of him, and thought of how heartbroken he would be to see his beloved dancing with another.

     After the dance, she excused herself. "I’m sorry your highness, I must go."

     "No wait! Wait!" he said. "Lucci, I known we have only just met. But, I can’t help this feeling. Your magical, your beautiful, you were brought here to me for a reason I just know it! Lucci, I cannot become a great King of this country today without a Queen by my side." He said with his heart on his chest.

     With a broken smile, she apologized to him. "I’m so sorry your majesty, I cannot be your Queen. For my heart is with another. You are terrific, and you will be a great King one day. I’m afraid I cannot be at your side though." She said, as she pushed through the crowd of people in large ball gowns and dresses. The Queen, overlooking from a balcony up ahead, was confused.

     "Surely there must be a mistake here…that was the prophecy! A beautiful star from the skies shall fall and become Queen to the Crowned Prince." She said, tearful as she saw Lucci leave the castle and saw her son heartbroken and alone in the middle of the room.

     Moments later, someone walked in. A stranger, someone who must have been lost. She was a beautiful Royal Girl Aisha, with orange hair wrapping down to her legs, and an elegant blue dress that gracefully flowed down to her ankles.

     "Your majesty, that is Princess Aphrodite." A nearby servant said, cheering to see the beautiful Princess as last.

     "The Spirit of Venus." The Queen said with a smile.

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     Lucci ran outside with tears in her eyes, she never meant to disappoint the Queen. She never meant to hurt the Prince. Had she known that this was her plan all along she would have told her she was not meant to be Queen.

     She sat and used the edge of her white dress to dry her tears. "Helios. Where are you? How can I find you, my beloved?" She cried out.

     All of the sudden, a bright flash appeared from beyond the horizon. She covered her eyes as it was so bright and stood to see what it was, the sun had long past so what was this light?

     She closed her eyes once…and before she could open them, she felt a warm embrace on her hands. She looked to see two hands, glowing bright yellow, wrapped around them. Her heart skipped a beat, and she looked up. It was Helios.

     Her body filled with happiness, and he picked her up and spun her around. He hugged her, and told himself he would never let her go again.

     "Helios, how…how?" she said, with tears streaming down her face.

     "I jumped." He said, wiping the tears away.

     "But, don’t you know what that means?" she questioned.

     "Yes, it means we are staying together." He said with a smile. He took off her diamond necklace, and replaced it with a new necklace on a silver chain. A tiny vial hung from the front of it, with pure moon light inside of it to keep Lucci’s energy high, no matter what phase the moon was in. He pulled out his necklace from underneath his shirt to reveal a necklace of the same sort, except with a tiny vial of sun light inside.

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     In the end, Prince Ares could not help but admire the beauty of Princess Aphrodite, and the two danced the rest of the night together. The Queen was never wrong, she just wasn’t aware that two stars had fallen from the sky that night, and wouldn’t have known that Aphrodite landed in the sea, and was brought to shore standing in the middle of a scallop shell.

     Lucci and Helios were inseparable since. Lucci thanked Queen Cassandra with all of her heart, and the two left to go build their own kingdom somewhere far, far away. They built the castle specifically for them, with a Moon wing and a Sun wing, so even when they had to be apart, they were comfortable in their own quarters.

     They built their own kingdom and ruled it for thousands of years, where the people prospered and the economy thrived, and there was always plenty of sunlight to help grow crops and moonlight to help travelers see in the night. They threw a ball every year in celebration of the special day when they were reunited, and had a great alliance with their neighbors in Meridell.

     They sat on the top of the highest hill in their kingdom, and watched the sunset together. They waved to it like it was an old friend. And when the moon came up, Helios giggled as Lucci began to glow like the moon.

     "My Moon Queen." He said, holding her hand tightly in his.

     "My Sun King." She said, laying her head on his shoulder.

     The End.