This is the song of Belden's betrayal:
This is how we lost a thousand earths.

- Ezra Hunter (2891 - 2929)

EIGHTFOLD PRESENTS
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THE MIDNIGHT PEACE
BY AMABEL HOLLAND

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

KATE MORGAN, age 30, she/her.
The Queen of Cups.

CLAIRE BELDEN, age 30, she/her.
The Betrayer.

TRINITY TRAN, age 35, she/her.
The Mother.

MAILE AKAKA, age 20, she/her.
The Fighter.

BETHANY CLAYTON, age 32, she/her.
The Paradox Heart.

At some point, Kate's eyes turned green. They were hazel before, brown
in this light and green in that one, and maybe that's what made it
difficult to detect the color shifting. But now, they are wholly,
certainly, and undeniably green. A darker green, green like her
costume, green like Claire's costume, Claire's green.

As she studies her eyes in her bedroom's reflecting pool, Kate
wonders why her eyes turned green. Is it a Queen of Cups thing, some
ancient magic pulsing in her veins? Is it something Claire left behind
when the two of them were mixed together? (Are they still mixed
together? Will there always be traces of Claire lingering in Kate, and
traces of Kate in Claire?)

"I think so," says Claire. Kate finds her sitting on the corner of
the bed. "Green suits you, anyway."

"It suits your image of me," says Kate icily.

Claire winces, then changes the subject. "Is this the part where
you ask me how I got into your room, why I'm here, so on and so
forth?"

"We can skip all that," says Kate. "Anyway, I know why you're here.
You told me you'd be back on the solstice. And, here we are. The
solstice."

"No questions, then? We're going to skip the little game where you
pretend you don't trust me? That you don't know me. That I don't know
you."

"Do you?"

"We've been inside each other, Kate." Claire reaches with her
gloved hand, touching Kate's cheek. "Tangled up, so it's hard to see
where one starts and the other ends. And even once we got untangled,
pieces of one another linger. So of course we know each other better
than anyone else ever has, or ever will."

Kate gently grabs hold of Claire's wrist, and pulls the hand away.
But she doesn't let it go. "I understand you better now, sure. Which
is exactly why I don't trust you."

"But you trust me enough to know I'm not the villain. That I
haven't hatched some mad, evil scheme or that I'm going to doom us
all."

Kate nods.

"I'm going to tell you something I admire about you, Kate. You
always do the right thing, no matter what it costs you. And I always
do what needs to be done, even when it isn't right. That used to be
easier for me. Before you got inside. A conscience is a damn
inconvenient thing."

"So, which are we doing today?"

"What needs doing," says Claire. "It's a terrible thing, but it's necessary."

"Sacrificing lives for the greater good. I can't be part of that."

"Oh, I didn't say that, Kate. I said it was terrible. And it is.
But nobody dies this time. Well. Except for me, that is."

()

Trinity tests the pool with a single toe, and finds it warm and
inviting. She nods to Gail. The teenager helps her remove the gown and
carefully lowers her into the water.

Then, she begins to lay her wards around the birthing pool. Gail is
unhurried and studious, but there's a nervousness under the surface.

Trinity grits her teeth through the next contraction before
speaking. "Are you scared of me, Gail?"

The girl smiles in flushed embarrassment, at first unsure of what
to say. "Of course I am, Miss Tran."

It's a good answer. Even the expected one. When Trinity herself
began working at The Company, it's how she would have answered if an
executive asked. It's the sort of answer they would have relished. A
perverse pleasure.

It's one she catches herself enjoying now. That should mean
something, shouldn't it? That should disturb her. There should be a
shock of conscience, a discomfort.

But instead, there's only the wicked pleasure of the girl's fear,
undiluted by guilt or morality. Trinity luxuriates in it while staring
at her swollen belly.

"The wards are done," says Gail.

"Good." She watches the girl's face. Gail clearly expects to be
dismissed. She's waiting for it. When it doesn't come, confusion sets
in: should she just go? Or is Trinity waiting for her to ask?

Gail looks up at her boss, that last question in her frightened
eyes, and the only response is a sly smile. It takes a moment for Gail
to work up the courage. "May I go, Miss Tran?"

"Dismissed. Return just after noon. I should be done by then." She
watches the girl leave, relishing the way she wants to run but doesn't
dare. Trinity will have to send her some little thing after. The fear
has a certain thrill to it and she's certain she'll enjoy indulging
now and then, but as a corporate culture it breeds disloyalty and
insecurity.

That's not the future she wants. Not the future she's fought and schemed for.

"Not the future I will give to you," she says to her belly.

()

Kate remembers leaving her room but doesn't remember how. She
remembers talking to Claire while they travelled, but doesn't remember
what it was about. This sort of thing used to bother her quite a bit.
She can't say it's something she's ever gotten acclimated to. It'd be
like getting used to someone habitually slipping a knife between your
ribs. And it hasn't really gotten less disorienting, but she's come to
expect disorienting, and that makes some kind of difference she can't
quite explain.

Before them is a collection of delicate towers and spirals, a
structure of translucent blue glass rising from ice and snow.

"The teardrop palace," remembers Kate, though the memory isn't
hers. That's not the first time that's happened, and she knows it
won't be the last. Quite suddenly she finds herself resenting that.
Resenting the magic in her veins. Resenting Claire. "I'll never
forgive you."

"I know," says Claire. "I'll never ask you to, either."

"Will you tell me why?"

Claire points to the palace. "This is why. Here and now."

"You need me to do something."

"I need the Queen of Cups to do something," says Claire. "And for
that there needed to be a Queen of Cups."

"So you locked me in a mirror for years, so I could teach myself magic."

"So you'd be a good candidate if a new queen was needed. Then, I
made sure one was needed."

"By opening the mouths of hell."

Claire actually seems apologetic. "It was the easiest apocalyptic
threat I could think of. I'm confident you'll be able to handle it."

"Thank you," says Kate with a withering glare.

Claire looks wounded. "I mean that, Kate," she says quietly. "I
hold you in very high regard. I thought that much would be obvious by
now."

Kate nods, eager to avoid the conversation Claire wants to have. By
the time she finishes the nod, she realizes they're right in front of
the palace, close enough to reach out and touch it. She doesn't
remember walking closer. "So, why are we here?"

"To end the midnight war. The war with the Pulse, too, if we're lucky."

The midnight war. In time before time, the first Queen of Cups
sealed dread Venus with a mystical lullaby, and since then, three
factions have fought in secret.

The circle, to end the threat of Venus, and with it, the gift of magic.

The Company, to break the lullaby and bring about the destruction
of the earth.

The blue lady, who seeks to keep the other two equally opposed,
because as long as the midnight war rages, magic exists.

The Company has had the upper hand as of late. They've broken the
lullaby, though Venus itself has been slow to fully waken.

All this floods into Kate, a mix of memories: some are hers, things
she's learned; some are Claire's, lingering; some are something else,
an ancient magic that has made its home in her veins.

On 10/1/23 12:22 PM, Amabel Holland wrote:
<snip>
> They will meet again, once and only once. He'll be a grandfather by
> then. The meeting will be brief, and he will tell her a secret. She'll
> wish she had heard it before. It would have made so many things so
> much easier.
>
> But that's a story for another time.
>
> COPYRIGHT 2023 AMABEL HOLLAND

An intense, powerful cycle of stories, and I'm looking forward to more. :>

Drew "catch up now, fans!" Nilium