S1 Chapter 9, All could see that the answer had been found

HolyWood, Ao'o Castle, Day.

“Dearest Cousin Star,” Richi's letter said. “SUCESS ! I have found the missing Prince and he has agreed to help the Dragoon council repair the damaged Throne and Courts. You MUST travel right away and meet him! This Currier is leaving now so I cannot explain more. Be swift! -Richi.”

She grinned and was used to his frantic words. Still now she was able to leave the kingdom and not only had Dawn returned, but Rosie as well. Mother had retrieved daughter, and grandmother had been relieved of her trial. The courts had sent a letter right before Richi's telling her that the jury had found innocence in her favor and she was free to come and go from Holy Wood as she wished.

“TILDA!” She shouted excitedly as she shuffled through letters.

A middle aged, attractive woman came into the room, her head of household. This woman handled the castle only after Richi himself, and she arranged for the Queen's planned comings and goings. Her long brown hair was tied in a braid that reached down her back. She came swiftly.

“Yes my Queen?” She had also once worked for the pirate Queen, Anne.

“I am to make the journey to the Dragoon Mountains. Rosie and Dawn will stay here, and you will serve over my daughter in matters of estate.” She lit a joint and breathed in, then offered it to Tilda who shook her head politely.

“When is your departure?”

“Day after tomorrow. Enough to spend with Rosie again before I leave, enough to tell Dawn how things will run whilst both Richi and myself are gone.”

“When do I expect your return?”

Star thought for a moment, “Two, maybe three weeks to get there with my small procession and band of guards, a week there, two weeks back. Mark me to return on the seventh week after I leave. If I am gone longer than six weeks, then you should send someone to come looking.”

Tilda nodded. “As you wish my queen.” She departed, needing all she had to know to prepare.

Star rather liked the stern woman. Stern she may appear, the Queen knew she harbored a soft spot for Rosie, Tilda had been the midwife for Dawn with both children, she had missed Rosie and was more than relieved to have her back home. . . .

Shaking the creeping sadness form her brain, the Queen went to the balcony and looked down to see her offspring entering the castle with their small envoy of traveling guards. The Jones man, sent from the old King, sat on his white horse with the flag of his King. Star waved politely and he smiled in response, dipping his head in a curt bow. He kicked his horse and went to the stable to rest his horse before leaving quickly after.

She turned inside and began rummaging through her things. There was a list in her head to check off before she left and she wanted to hurry like her cousin urged her to. With Dawn in better spirits, and the princess in waiting home, the Queen was free from worry or thought of distraction. Eventually, she knew that either she would wander off to find her family, or they would come to her. No matter how, she had to tell them that she was leaving just as they were returning.

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Dragoon Mountains. AC/DC 2020

Her travels were met with great response from the common folk, and hardly any response from the alleged highwaymen. Then again, upon Tilda's insistence, Star took more than her planned two guards. She took six instead and was sure it would suffice. Still, despite her lack of opposition on the road, she could feel their eyes from the woods. Whether it was Spyders or thieves, she had recently heard of a new gang in the area, the Motley Ones....annoying young men who robbed women of their lust and men of their money.

As she was led to the tavern where the local celebrations were to be held she watched the many emerging and reconnecting nobles come out of the dark, rocky surroundings. In a manner of speaking of course. She sat at the bar and ordered a drink, her eyes scanning the dignitaries. After so long in civil disputes over succession, the newest Court system was proving strong and durable. Whoever the new king was he must have mind for politics.

Richi was not in the crowd, nor would he be for some time. Light in the Black was on stage and he was their leader, they would lead the festive atmosphere that night. She would be content to watch and wait to meet the new King. She looked about curiously, whoever he was she was sure she would have met with him by now. Of course she only just arrived some hours before, shown to her rooms while Richi and the King, simply called His Highness.....As if to further the angst of not knowing his name or being formerly introduced......while he and her cousin hid from her.

She raised an eyebrow and took a sip of alcohol, called Deamon Whiskey in this part of the land. This was all her rotten cousin's doing, she was still mad at him, while he sounded to be having a grand time. She was nearing contempt when the lights were darkened in the back of the room and attention was drawn to the stage. When the curtains came up, they were heralded by a familiar voice and a familiar sound of guitar.

It was Sir Padvia! And Richi. . She put the vague pieces together and realized that when the man said he was leaving, he was actually going with her cousin that night. But where was the King of the Dragoons?! He should be here, this was in HIS honor! It made little sense.. . . .or did it?

The whole night she listened and waited. Waiting was an attribute forced upon her during the BOC rebellion, she would wait and sip her whiskey. When they finally came from the stage she began making her way to the Knight who had saved her, but he seemed to have eyes elsewhere and dove to another crowd opposite her. He embraced a young woman who seemed enamored with him to a near fault. Young love, Star knew it when she saw it.

It was Richi who shook her out of the moment. He came to her side and she turned to him. He was smiling, his smiles always made her belly warm, Blackmoore happiness was infectious.

“Cousin!” She said excitedly. “Oh that was spectacular! The Olde Gods of Sound bless you!”

He grinned haughtily, “They bless the Dragoons! Their presence is heavy here.”

She grinned. “Light in the Black sounds successful.” She added with a squeeze,” Dear Cousin.”

Their bands were not just musical acts, they were politicians. Their power to influence and relate to the many common people at once was through the music they sang. This was how movements were inspired, how warriors were gathered. This was how they strengthened weakened lands and peoples, how they acted as ambassadors and brought influence and prosperity. Music.

“We have been! The King has been found and order has been restored. This has been more successful than I first expected.” His eyes lit with a fire she rarely saw and he threw back a shot.

“You are quiet good at restoring the rightful rulers to their thrones. Where is this King you speak so fondly of? Was he here?”

“He is!” He pointed to the man she knew across the room. “I made him singer of Light in the Black and when he came with me from Holy Wood, the courts recognized him as the SON of that heir that ran away.”

“You mean you didn't find THE heir?”

“No, better. He had a son while young and that son, the NEW heir, has returned to us as Padvia.”

She turned to stare at him. “He was on stage the entire time.” Saying it it more to herself.

When Star won the rebellion, she shared immortality with the lands, some wanted it, some did not. In most of her time as Queen of Holy Wood, she had had little contact with the North most kingdom. They were a race of shorter men and women, but with voices of power that moved mountains. She was familiar with the story of the lost heir, of the aged King having three sons. He was old when they were born, and continued to rule and live long after, watching one son die and one have another son.

Putting the fractured stories together she saw the image of the lone Dragoon Prince who had come to her aid during the Rebellion. After that she lost contact with them, they shut her out in grief at the death of the King's first son. She could picture a young boy running away from a grief stricken family who then placed all future responsibility on him without his consent while his remaining uncle and his father fought over the right of succession. She sighed inwardly, succession was such a nasty business but one that held countries together with the choice of rulers and leaders, a battle she fought endlessly.

She recalled the Prince talking about his nephew once or twice, how he himself had no sons and his youngest brother did. No doubt that was the boy who ran away, some sixteen years old. Star wondered if he ran away with a young girl who carried his bastard, or eventually found one. Maybe so, maybe so....She realized she was deep in inner thought and her vision came back into focus, centering on Richi. He was talking to her, and didn't seem to notice that she had gone silent.

She nodded, seemingly appropriately and mumbled a response. He was satisfied and drank heavily. Her cousin had found the heir apparent and made him King. She had met him, by some fate, the night before he left. She felt a strange brew twist in her gut, as if she would rely on this budding friendship in some future conflict. As if hearing her thoughts, the Knight himself turned and began coming towards her cousin. His eyes lit when he saw her standing next to Richi and when he came to stand before her they both mirrored the others smile in reunion.

“Your highness,” he bowed in respect.

“Oh no need for that King Padvia.” She smiled.

“King, is still a new title,” he said. “One I still am not used to.”

Star noticed that he and the woman by his side held hands tightly.

“Do not be so modest Padvia!” Richi said encouragingly. “He is doing splendidly, as if born to.”

Padvia laughed and kissed his woman who he then introduced. Star barely heard her name, a rude act, but she was honed on the sound of Dio's voice. It would all she ever had of him. Somehow, it reminded her of the man she had tasted, wanted, and craved, but could never have. His, not Padvia's, voice all she possessed of him. While it drew on her sadness, she hid it away and smiled and laughed. She welcomed her new ally, and established a new pact with a new king of a rebuilt Kingdom.

This pact was established as the festivities grew during the night. Star and Richi drank with Padvia and his newly engaged, queen to be. Richi was going to leave two members of Light in the Black with the Dragoons for a year, to help the new King establish himself on the throne. They were to help him learn his place as King, to assist the new court members in all matters of adjustment. Rebuilding a kingdom was a tedious project, one that both Star and her cousin were familiar with. Star drank away any doubt, any hint of sorrow, she rejoiced with the Dragoon peoples at a new era of leadership. With both the other sons of legend dead, it all lay with Padvia to right the wrong his father committed and take up his blood rite.

With a woman to love by his side, Star had little doubt he would fail.

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Hotel in Holy Wood. Sunrise.

Star came out onto the balcony in Holy Wood, the girl she left behind laid out happily on the bed behind her. In the hotel over looking the city. After a week long stay in the Dragoons, they returned to the Wood together, leaving Padvia to become a king. After which, Star threw another wild celebration in honor of the success of Richi. She had swooped up with a group of revelers and awoke in the hotel room with a girl in bed next to her.

She overlooked her kingdom and drew on a joint between her lips. She breathed in deeply, feeling the burn of the joint in her lungs and welcomed it. Her mind whirled with thoughts and a hang over as she took in the glorious view of her kingdom laid out before her. The smoke drifted before her face and the ind took it away, the selfish wind. For some divine reason, she recalled the feelings evoked from seeing Padvia with another woman. Not a feeling of betrayal, but a reminder that as Queen, as Star Dust, mother of the Lizard Children, Wife to the dead Lizard King, Ruler of the central kingdom, warrior queen, the lead instigator in the counter movement to the BOC rebellion, giver of immortality.

And she alone could not have the one man she truly wanted.

BANG!

The door was broken down and swung off its hinges as it crashed against the wall and to the floor. A horde of policemen entered, she knew who sent them. She smiled, shook her head, and raised her hands to the air as the girl screamed from the bed and was taken into protective custody. When Star turned around she saw the one who led the pigs.

“Well, well well Mr  Tam.” She contained her laughter while mocking him. “Good to see you again!”

He didn't return her smile as he rudely turned her to face away as he put cuffs on her. “You are under arrest your highness,” he added her title sarcastically.

She let her laugh go and it only irritated him.

“Care to read me your charges Officer Tam?”

“That's Officer Sativ- I mean Bay,  to you!”

She didn't fight him as he led her away, reading the charges of sexual conduct with an underage girl...again. Star couldn't help but wonder if all these charges were perpetrated by the BOC just to spite her and she expected to be alerted of a second trial. But there was no trial, no hint at one, she was meant with another bail, high according to her social status.

 No doubt, that while the girl was found in her hotel room, there was very very little evidence that they had actually conducted sexual acts together. With that uncertainty, certainly they had no standing charges.  Tam took her to the court house to be detained......of course to his anger and fury, there was a bail posted per her own laws.....to which her daughter came to pay and release her.

Tam watched as the woman left and he vowed justice.......

“Fuck Mother,” she said angrily as they descended the steps to the court house. “Again? You only just got off the last case. If it weren't for the bail you'd be rotting away by now.”

“You know its funny, I actually do not remember last night.”

“Again?”

“Yes. I remember the girl's sweet mouth but I don't remember our supposed tryst in the night.”

“You really need to stop with  all the drugs.”

“You wouldn't.”

“Because I'm not Queen.”

“And nor shall you be.”

“Based on the advice of a gods forsaken witch.”

They entered into the horse drawn carriage and her daughter sat there in a pout.

“Once again we find ourselves in an all too familiar predicament Mother.” She sat there with a frown on her face and a joint between her fingers. “Can you at least stop having sex with teenagers in hotels and the manor.”

“Take them to the castle?”

“I don't care, just stop getting caught. Or better yet....STOP FUCKING TEEN AGED GIRLS!”

Star chuckled. “It's a hard habit to break when they won't stop knocking on my hotel doors.”

“Can't you get laid by adults? Can't you resist breaking your own laws?”

“I do, to both. That girl in the hotel was actually legally an adult.”

“And how do you know that if you don't remember shit from last night?”

“As I was detained I overheard an officer tell our friend Tam that this time, the girl was actually eighteen, just turned last week. Again though, in the midst of celebration-”

“You what? Couldn't tell she was so young? I don't think that will hold up in court again.”

“It's what got me free this time and prevents another trial. Obviously they're watching.”

“They always watch.”

“It is peculiar how frequently these accusations have appeared lately.”

“How do you mean?” Dawn looked out the window and blew smoke through her nose.

“It has been nearly fifty years since the Rebellion. Fifty years and in the last few alone, I have been accused of making love to teenagers more than ever before. Someone is watching closely and pulling strings in the most ironic sense.”

Dawn nodded. “True. Now that you bring it up, it is odd and it makes sense. What will you do about it? About them?”

Star shrugged and lit another joint. “I haven't a clue. Oh! That's right!” She rapped her knuckles on the wall of the carriage. “Driver!” She shouted. “Take me to 25^th Arcadia Avenue!”

“The art studio?”

“I promised an artist friend- you remember Baron?- that I would pose for his class today. I nearly forgot.”

“Pose?”

“Nude of course. Art is an important factor in culture, I will not deny my subjects an appearance of a life time from their immortal Queen in an attempt to capture her agelessness. That's what he told his class.”

“Oh Gods mother,” Dawn rubbed her temples in the act of a head ache.

For a moment they were quiet. The only sound was the bustle of the city, the people on the streets, the horse hooves clacking, the cars calmly passing through the village. The issue of making Dawn Queen was one they had fought over for years. Star had her reasons, which she vaguely told her child.

“You know why I refuse you.” The Queen said.

“A stupid fortune told by a witch.”

“She said-”

“That the throne would be disrupted by forces already in motion. You would put a bastard king on the throne and your children would rule red sands of the father unknown-whatever that fucking means. Should a Queen follow after you, so shall death. It's all bullshit Mother.”

The blonde sighed and tried to move on the conversation.. “You would like your bastard brother, I just know you would.” 

“He is not my brother, he is a demon you summoned.”

“If that's the case, then I think now is the best time to bring up Rosie.”

Dawn eyed her insane parent. “What do you mean?”

“She is of marrying age you know.”

“Oh no, don't you dare.”

“If you refuse to have Angus be your brother, then I will marry him to Rosie, make him an official member of the our royal family.” she smiled at the thought.

“First he's my brother, then he's my daughter's fiance. Rosie will NOT marry a demon who you try to portray as my brother, you crazy bat.”

Star laughed. “You will like him.”

“If he comes with that fool who torments you no I will not.”

That shut her mother right up. In fact Star abruptly tapped on the roof of the carriage and promptly exited. Dawn did not care, like her uncle she nearly despised the man who her mother loved in all passion. This man alone made Star cry in broken heartedness when he would enter and leave her life for carnal trysts, as if he didn't care about her feelings. Coming and going of his own will, and her mother allowed it, which brought on waves of tormented abuse and sadness. It made Dawn and Richi furious that Star let him do it, exposing to the world the one weakness she had no control over. The man Dawn so hated was the one factor uncontrolled in their rule.

The Princess hoped that making Star hurt over him would also prompt her to hate him and drive her away from the man. For the last forty years this sonofabitch had come and gone under cover of darkness, visiting and loving her in the night only to leave with the sunrise. Dawn hadn't even seen him in person. Richi had, and had alerted the guards, against the Queen's wishes, that should the man been seen he was to be killed or captured on sight. The Princess would deal with the bout of depression his death would bring on her mother when the time came, she was prepared for it.

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Holy Wood seaside, twilight.

Star had a secluded cottage that was hers alone. Her husband had it constructed for her on their wedding day. Her own hide away. A gift to ease the tension of their arranged marriage. It was placed in a wooded bluff, above the sea below. It was a peninsula of Holy Wood land that touched the sea, for two miles in either direction, this was Holy Wood land many did not see.

The Queen went there now, under veil of night. She rode a black horse, and went alone, she knew he was there. She had seen his face in the crowds of people in the village. She hadn't seen him since her curse in the Black Castle, and she knew that if she went to the seaside he would follow. As he did now, she being the only one keen enough to hear him. She smiled when she thought that he Let her know he was there.

She got off her horse and released the saddle, letting it crash to the ground. She didn't care. Up the cobblestone pathway, in the moonlight, the sound of the waves beyond the cottage were loud. She could hear her heartbeat over the waves as she went up the path, and heard the rustle of bushes behind her. She stopped and smiled in the dark.

He couldn't stay away any longer. He couldn't deny what he wanted any longer. HE couldn't deny her what she wanted. At least for that night....

He knew her family hated him for what he had done to her over and over again. They thought him a heartless man after nothing but carnal pleasures from her. A man who took advantage of the mightiest queen in the lands and made her cry. He was not heartless, if they only knew the price he had once been paid to end her life. If they only knew that he had given up a wife, a life, and a comfortable payment by letting her live that night.

He wanted to visit her before he left to retrieve the Power Band form the Southern island. Where her bastard demon boy was gaining talent. Soon, Bon was to join the Boy and be the singer of their “Power Band”, replacing his associate who lead them now.

He forgot about everything the moment she got down from her horse. He watched her under the moonlight as she shoved her velvet trousers down her legs and stepped away from them. The belt around her waist held her billowy white shirt in order and she let that fall. It was only the white shirt glowing in the night. She was bare under that lone chemise and he moved forward to wrap her in his strong arms and take her down into the grass.

The soft seaside grass was their bed and while her horse grazed the nearby field, she screamed in pleasure at the lightest of touch. He was no better off in control, she made him wither and moan with the barest of kisses against his skin. He was the one begging her for more, and she gave all she could. It still wasn't enough. Years of pent up, unsatisfying, emotional longing was released between the two of them in those moments on the grass. They were caught up in the most innocent of emotions; love.

They moved in doors and proceeded to make love again as the waves crashed and sea mist sprayed on the rocks outside the large window that faced the open sea. The ocean was black, and the night deep by the time Bon fell asleep on the floor next to her. Hardly a word had been spoken between them other than demands for passion. Star however, could not sleep, no matter how spent or how tired she was.

She sat next to him, stroking his shoulder length hair, watching him sleep with complete peace on his face. They both knew no peace. She doubted they ever would, her only hope that both would live through the next year, and the year after that. Immortal to time they were, not so to swords and poison. If he were to die, she didn't know if she could live on. If she couldn't have him by her side, she would have him alive and well in the world they lived in.

“I want to keep you Bon, but recently I was forced to know that I can never have you. I wish Angus was our son, at least then I would have a piece of you and a piece of me in the physical form. If I cant have all you, why not just a piece?”

Bon sighed in sleep.

She went on. “On my wedding day the witch came to me. She said that The throne would be disrupted by forces already in motion, under my rule fate will be undecided for all. I would put a bastard king on the throne for the first time, and my other children would rule red sands of the father unknown. My daughters will not take what was meant for them, if a queen should follow my stead, so shall death. I've kept my girl away from that tale, to protect her. I created Angus to force the prophecy.”

She kissed his head, “I had hoped to instill him on the throne. I made him with you in mind, and I wish he was ours more than anything. Instead, Angus is to by the corner stone that brings you and I together in the eyes of the public at last. He will be the foundation of the Tour to Peace, a tour that I have seen visions of. It will change our world, and I don't fear change. But I do not see the end of the Tour and what lies beyond, I can only see the formation and you and I standing side by side as we embark.” Her voice dropped lower, “Something, or someone, does not want me to see the future, no matter that it comes soon. . . “

He breathed deep and it made her tilt her mouth in a sad grin. She leaned down and kissed him. For moments more the queen tried to sleep, staring at her lover, willing him to stay. Though when they awoke, she knew that one of them would leave and one would stay. He was due to leave, and she was due to be at the castle. What she didn't know, besides the future, is that Bon was listening. He was adept at spying, and pretending to be asleep. His kind were called Dirty Deeds Men, it was their nature to be deceptive.

During the night he grabbed her and when he heard her begin to snore, he took his turn to watch her. He had heard all she said, it had woken him up. He wanted nothing more than to stay with her, for longer than a night at a time. He had to leave though, he must, it was for the betterment of her life, of his, of the world's. If he didn't lead the Power Band from the Great Southern Island, he doubted they would make it to Holy Wood. His fellow Dirty Deeds Man who watched the Boy while Bon was not South was a good fighter, but a poor leader.

No, Bon could not allow anyone other than himself or Prince Malcome to befriend and harbor Angus, the boy meant too much to her and himself. He was Star's only son, in some sense of the word. Her lover felt protective, near fatherly, when the red devil was involved, his one connection to her. The one person she had created that he could openly be known to associate with. Without someone knowing the connection and trying to kill one or both of them. Not to mention, the Power Band members were mere children, all of them having been born in the last twenty years alone, while He was much older than that.

When the Rebellion ended and situations became clear, both Bon and Star knew the complications of their relationship. How it could not be in the public sense, in legal senses it was too complicated. He hated how it was more complicated than it had to be. But then again, so was immortality and ruling a kingdom of mortals and immortals alike. He may appear evil by seducing her time and time again, but her giving in hurt him as it did her.

If she only knew what he thought about. . . .He wanted to tell her, but it would only further ruin the beauty they had just shared. No, they would not break the spell, they would let the sunrise do that.