Page 5 of The Night Prince 6

“Darcassan, Uncle is right that we have been prejudging others too harshly. Not giving them a chance. But other cultures and species have nice things. Things that we can appreciate. And rock and roll is one of those things!”

“Rock and roll?” His eyebrows drew together. “That’s what their music is called and you’re telling me it is not coarse and loud?”

“It’s a style of music and it has nothing to do with rocks or rolling them!” But then she lowered her head as she acceded, “But it is loud. Yet isn’t that just how music is generally? You can really dance to it, too! It has a brilliant beat.”

“Well, even if it is something worth hearing, it doesn’t matter. Father will never allow you to go to this Separatist party,” Darcassan muttered as he settled himself heavily on his desk chair.

He had the magic bag slung over the back of the chair and the urge to reach inside and stroke the Luminerian’s case almost overwhelmed him again despite his sister’s company. But he held himself still. His sister was smarter than people gave her credit for. Any stray movement towards the supposedly empty bag might ignite her suspicions about him again.

“I’m not going to ask him for permission!” She scoffed.

“You and our uncle are being insanely foolish by thinking you can keep all these secrets,” he shook his head. “You know that Father finds out everything in the end.”

“Maybe. But it’s not like he’ll ask where I’m going today.” That last statement was said with a slight amount of bitterness and sadness, but she shrugged it off and was smiling again. “So what’s the worst he can do? Forbid me from going to a party I’ve already been to? Confine me to my room?”

“Send you back to the Lieran Plane?” He suggested.

Her mouth fell open as if she hadn’t considered that. Funny, when they’d first come here, she’d wanted to return badly, seeing nothing good about this place. But now she seemed to actually want to stay. He did, because this was the only place he was certain to get access to the Under Dark, but also because it was where the center of power had moved. But Elasha had never cared about such things. Had she really become fond of Earth?

Finally, she seemed to snap herself out of it and said, “He–he won’t go that far! Not for going to a party!”

“I suppose it depends on how irritated he is by the Separatists at the time and, therefore, how much of a betrayal he views your actions,” Darcassan shrugged.

“B-betrayal?! Darcassan, you go too far! Not even Father views them as our enemies–”

“No, he views them as annoyances and sometimes annoyances can cause outsized insults, but don’t worry, dear sister, I won’t tell him about your Separatist sympathies,” he answered.

She opened her mouth, likely to snap back that she wasn’t a sympathizer, but then she surprised him by saying with soberness, “I am sympathetic to them. This is their world and they’ve lost everything. Change is hard. And asking someone to be grateful when you’re also taking what they feel is all they have left–”

“Their lives are all that they have left,” he corrected her. “They’re homes are gone. Their jobs are gone. Their money is worthless. Their whole way of defending themselves is insufficient. They live simply because we let them live. So, in a way, their lives are ours, too, but I’m willing to say that they own them. But anything else?”

Her forehead furrowed. “Do you really believe that’s all they are entitled to? Their own world and you don’t think anything is sacrosanct?”

“That and citizenship in the Empire. Isn’t that enough?” Another shrug.

“Would you consider that enough?” her voice was soft.

“Compared to certain death at the coils of the Leviathan? Yes, yes, I would. Their pride is getting in their way. They were on top here. I understand that. They believed themselves masters of all they surveyed. They found out that they are not,” he said philosophically. “Some of them will never be able to accept that, but people like Rohannan are just making it more difficult for those that can. He’s delaying the inevitable. They need to assimilate and forget this idea of independence. They should be familiar with the concept since they came here and destroyed the original inhabitants’ homes. Why is this any different? Other than this time, it’s them being pushed aside.”

“You say this so easily when it's not you. When you think it will never be you,” she murmured sadly.

But she was wrong about that. Why did she think he went to Illithor in the first place? It wasn’t just about the Leviathan–though they posed the most immediate threat–but there were many others to the Aravae. But she didn’t see that. No one seemed to see their potential fall from grace. He didn’t think himself above humanity. He thought of them as a cautionary tale for the Aravae. Especially after what he had seen Declan, the Night Prince, do.

“Well, we’ll have to agree to disagree. But really back to your party, don’t the Separatists themselves have a problem with you being there?” He shifted and felt the magical bag’s strap against his spine. Oh, if she would only leave then he could escape to the woods to hold the blade!

“Oh, no! Cara invited me. And you, too.” His sister waved away his concerns. “We’re completely welcome.”

“Cara Rohannan?” he clarified. Hadn’t his sister acted like going to this party was not at all a betrayal of their father?

His sister pinked. “Y-yes.”

“Duke Rohannan’s daughter?” His eyebrows rose. Maybe her secrets were bigger than their uncle’s.

“Yes.” She straightened up. “So what? If she’s inviting us then no one there can have a problem with us being there.”

“Except everyone on our side,” he pointed out and pinched the top of his nose.

“Again, it’s just a party.”