Falling Stars

“Oh my goodness gracious, Julian, what’s this?”

After breakfast, Calli had decided to snoop around Julian’s room while he tried to find space on his cluttered desk to put the pile of books she had insisted on taking from the royal library. Despite him telling her that she could go in there whenever she wanted, she claimed that she’d rather read in her room, where she could shut the whole world out when she wanted to. When Julian stopped by his own quarters to drop off his sketchbook, it seemed that Calli all but forgot they were headed to hers, looking around at all of his stuff.

He set the books down and turned to look at her, grimacing when he saw what she was holding. It was an elegant fencing foil, and she was holding it up with a sort of amazed look on her face, green eyes wide. Julian shook his head and sat down in the desk chair, dropping his hands in his lap. When he didn’t say anything, Calli pressed on.

“You don’t fence, do you?” she asked.

“I used to,” he admitted. “As a teenager. Both my brothers were champions.”

“And you?”

“There’s a reason no one knows about it,” he said. “I got my ass handed to me by a Cawjec half my age. But in my defense, his disarming technique was ridiculous. I have no idea where he learned it.”

“Or you just- Nevermind,” she said, quickly stopping whatever she was going to say.

“Just what?” Julian frowned.

“Nothing,” she said. “It would be way out of line.”

“You’re still trying to be ‘proper’ around me?” Julian said in disbelief. “I figured that by now you’d know that I don’t care.”

“Fine,” she said. “What I was going to say is that you just sucked at fencing.”

“No, he was really good,” Julian insisted.

“Oh yeah?” she taunted. “I bet anyone could beat you in a match.”

“Well I could take you in a fight, sure as the stars above,” Julian told her.

He turned towards the desk again, but before he could even process what he was about to do next, his chair had flipped backwards and he was on the floor, on his stomach with his arms twisted behind him and a knee on his back. He squirmed, but Calli had a firm grip on him, and no matter what he tried, she had a quick response.

“I’m sorry, what were you saying, Jules?” she teased.

“That’s not fair, I wasn’t ready,” he snapped.

“No one is going to wait until you’re ready in a fight,” she reminded him.

“How did you even learn to do that?!”

“A lady has to know how to defend herself if she’s traveling alone,” Calli said. “But no one would ever have to know until they attack me. You, on the other hand, decided that you don’t like it when I act proper around you. So you brought this upon yourself, really.”

“Alright, fine, get off,” he grumbled.

She got off him and stood up, smoothing her skirts out and offering him a hand to help him up. He reluctantly took it, straightening himself out for a moment, then suddenly lunging at her. She grabbed his arm and flipped him over her shoulder, making him hit the ground once more with a hard thud. He groaned and rolled over onto his side.

“You deserved that one,” she told him. “Oh, don’t be such a baby. It didn’t hurt that much. I swear, a man is almost as physically fragile as he is mentally.”

“Lesson learned,” Julian muttered, standing up again.

“I’m almost sorry,” she said, laughing lightly. “Almost.”

“I’ll get you one day,” he grinned.

“I’m sure you will,” she said, rolling her eyes. “We’ll see how that goes.”

She brushed past him towards the books, picking one off the top. Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. He’d originally been from the Lythoran galaxy, but managed to get intergalactic fame with his plays. Rumor had it that he purchased a private dwarf planet somewhere in the outskirts of the galaxy, and was spending the last two hundred years writing something that would change the game forever. An even more ridiculous rumor was that he was waiting until his five-hundreth birthday to release it. Absolutely nuts. Who would want to do something like that on their birthday?

Calli sat on the edge of Julian’s bed, cracking the book open and looking up at him. He rolled his shoulder as he sat down, shrinking back a little bit at the annoyed look she gave him for being whiny again. He watched as she cracked the book open, running her fingers over the first page.

“Well, for what you lack in physical strength, I know you make up for in literature and the arts,” she said. “You’ve read this, haven’t you?”

“Once or twice,” he said. “Or twenty.”

“You’ve probably read everything in that library,” she said.

“Most of it,” he shrugged. “Not all of it. I don’t like big events and parties, so I spend a lot of time hiding in there, if my painting room isn’t an option.”

“How is it that your entire family is loud and bold, but you’re such a hermit?” she asked.

“I think that’s exactly why,” he shrugged. “My entire family isn’t like that, though. My mother was quiet. I mean, she attended all those events because she was much politer and much more mature than I am, but she was quiet. And she didn’t dance. She told me that the only time she ever danced was on her wedding day.”

He turned and caught Calli looking at him, but he couldn’t read the expression on her face.

“Don’t get me wrong, she was a wonderful person,” he said quickly. “She wasn’t a stick in the mud or anything. She was just calm and quiet. And shy.”

“Like you.”

“Yeah, I guess. Like me.”

“I’ve never heard a bad thing about the queen before,” Calli reassured him. “I’ve only heard that she was a wonderful woman, and that she was one of the greatest things this kingdom ever lost.”

“Forget the kingdom,” Julian muttered under his breath. “I lost my whole world that night.”

For a second, Calli looked genuinely sympathetic. Understanding, even. She’d been playing before, but whatever the game was, she’d given it up and all but forgotten it.

“The pain never goes away,” she told him, “But it doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to have your life back.”

“How would you know?” he asked.

She sort of got a distant look on her face, then smiled and handed the book to him.

“Show me how literate you are,” she said, smoothly changing the subject. “Why don’t you read to me, so I can lecture you on articulation.”

“Excuse me?” he said, raising a brow at her.

“What, are you scared you’ll stumble over your words in front of me?”

“Not at all,” he said, snatching the book out of her hands. “Sit back, m’lady. You’ll never think of Macbeth the same again, without longing for the sound of my lucious voice.”

“Alright, calm down and get reading before I get bored.”