Aether closed his eyes and peered through one of his seven ice shards, which were still connected to his senses. He spied on Dessy, and he told himself he only did so to protect her because Umbra was erratic. Who knew if he would hurt her? And what if all Umbra cared for was screwing with him? Dessy would become nothing more than a pawn.
Gen would never forgive him if he let that happen.
Umbra, summoning a halo of orbs, faced the crowd. "Hey, you elitist pricks. How dare you pick on Dessy? Who dares to say Dessy isn't worthy of Prince Aether? I say he isn't worthy of the little lamb."
Aether clenched his fists and whipped around, inwardly seething. Umbra's goal was too obvious. The man wanted to flatter Dessy and do what Aether convinced himself not to do: defend her.
Umbra's beam, shaped like that of a cone, hovered in the air and grew stronger as his red energy condensed and solidified.
"Wha-what are you doing! You psycho!" a woman yelled.
"Oh? What's that?" Umbra threatened, taking a large step towards her. Her face paled.
"That's enough," Aether said. He couldn't stand Umbra and the way Dessy gazed at the man. A romantic relationship between the two... Aether grimaced at the thought. He refueled his seven shards and called them to his side.
"Oh, c'mon. You know I'm not gonna hurt her," Umbra said, tilting his head.
"You should be guarding your star prince."
"Yeah, no. I'm actually with the empress dowager. Don't know where she went."
Aether's concentration slipped at his words, resulting in his seven shards faltering. If she came, his other fears would come true.
Umbra clapped and morphed his cone-shaped beam. It thickened and solidified; a star appeared at its peak, flaring with light that painted the room red. His smile taunted Aether: care to compete?
Aether gritted his teeth then stomped his foot, sending one of his shards into the ground. It sank into the flooring like a falling drop of water disturbing a still pond. The ground undulated, and the small aura waves coated it with ice. Focusing, Aether sculpted multiple lines in the pattern of a rug that rested somewhere in his grandmother's palace. Sweat dripped down his brow, and his breath turned haggard. He gulped the air.
Aware of Aether's weakness, Umbra donned a sly grin. He clapped and split the ends of the star, but didn't repeat the action. By not doing so, he silently and knowingly jeered at Aether. Aether knew full well Umbra could recursively split each point into a massive labyrinth of spikes, and even shrink and extend them. People shouldn't fear his beams—they should fear the solidified, mystical energy created from their blasts.
Aether waved his hand, straining his control to carve lion heads as the ice expanded. The aura buckled within him, and a sharp pain radiated from his chest. The centermost point felt unbearably cold, yet the rims of the pain derived itself from a suffering akin to the feeling of burning flesh. The taste of iron filled his mouth.
"C'mon. We all know your control is crap." Umbra taunted him. "Aren't you worried your date will freeze if you bring it too close to me?"
Aether shut his eyes for a moment; then upon opening them, he forfeited his control and let his aura swell within itself. As it went berserk, he pointed at Umbra and funneled its energies, which was the extent of what he could currently do. Like a raging storm, the ice rushed forward.
Umbra lifted Dessy into his arms and placed her between himself and Aether. The beam structure disintegrated into small glitters of aura, and they rained onto the ice. As they touched it, the glitters—unseen by the human eye—exploded and deteriorated Aether's ice. But by doing so, they helped Aether regain some control.
Aether forcefully tugged with his will; the ice retreated and blood seeped from his mouth. He licked his lips, meaning to stop the blood before it reached the lower crevice of his helmet. The sunken shard rose from the flooring then rejoined the other six shards orbiting him. Shaking, Aether clenched his fists and scowled at his feet.
He would've loved to punch Umbra in the jaw, but he was the one who had lost.
"Look," Umbra said, softly caressing Dessy as he let her to her feet. His gentle actions pricked Aether. "If you didn't care about your little date, why did you stop the ice? You're just too embarrassed to admit it. But I'm not you; I'll proudly admit it. I'm stealing your date."
"Let her go." He regarded Umbra and the way Dessy smiled. The temperatures within his suit of armor dropped, and the hair on his arms collected frost.
"No, we're dancing," Umbra said then went about threatening a lady to have a droid play a song. After some confusion, one of the hosts helped him gather the support of all the other droids—a few of which Umbra destroyed in a fit of pettiness.
Aether watched this from afar as he restrained the urge to steal Dessy. He eventually managed to pull his eyes away from her, but every few seconds he caught himself gazing at her graceful form. She was smiling and dancing with Umbra, enjoying each moment while her dress fluttered in equal happiness to their movements. Aether's weight shifted from foot to foot—not enough to be noticed, but enough to appease his anxious self. For Gen and his own selfish reasons, he had to get Dessy away from him.
Umbra dipped Dessy, and she stared into the man's eyes, a happy glimmer in her own. They chatted as if they were the only two at the gala, oblivious to how their affections stabbed Aether like a rusted blade meant to fell beasts. Biting his tongue, Aether approached and used aura to boost his hearing; he was very shoddy at improving his senses, so by the time he managed to catch a few words, he was relatively close to them.
"That depends. Do you want to have children?" Umbra asked her.
Aura slipped from Aether's body; there was enough to get through his armor too. The cold nipped at his surroundings.
Children? Aether's face darkened. Were they debating about having children?
He glared at Umbra. Envy and anxiety filled every cell of his body. How did the man do it? On multiple occasions Aether had tried to convince Gen to have a date with him, but she brushed it off as a joke and shoved Dessy his way. On the other hand, Umbra had danced with Gen's sister for a few minutes and managed to get Dessy speaking of having his babies.
Umbra was good looking, but Aether doubted he himself was any worse. For the aspect of romance, Aether even bought Gen twenty-five spider lilies to show his love, but what did Umbra do? He toyed with Dessy and tossed her in front of a raging wave of ice. Something must be wrong with Dessy's head to even think about being with Umbra.
Where was the fairness in the world?
Umbra laughed; loud and annoying, it pierced Aether's thoughts. He said to Dessy, "Let's dance. Relax, follow the flow, and listen to the music." Then he turned to the watching spectators and yelled, "You poor hosts, play a better song!"
They scrambled to get the droids to play something else. A sad melancholy filled the air, and Aether recognized it instantly: "Love and Death Eternal." It was a famous song from East Star and was commonly danced to during their theatrical performances. It was inauspicious, however, for an actual couple to dance to it. Aether was about to say something—not because he wanted the two together, but because Umbra's face was turning a dangerous shade of loathing and he was prone to killing sprees.
The droids beeped and stopped. A voice filled the hall, "Here's a song for our two lovebirds. 'Planet Name's The True Love Song.' "
The droids, clambering over each other, lined up on the stage then began playing the song. Its melody filled the hall, and Aether unwillingly stepped aside, pondering which of Janus's super-hackers, if any, could have hacked the gala's network and altered the droids' AIs. He licked his bottom lip, tasting the blood that had once seeped from his mouth. His eyes narrowed at Umbra and at Dessy's naivety.
She was walking into a trap, Aether thought. Then, fear swamped him. An image of her body—neck snapped, limbs twisted, torso torn open—surfaced in his mind. His stomach churned with a seething rage that had appeared only once before: the day he had discovered Janus might have had something to do with the death of his own sister, Aether's cousin. And Law Bender knew something about it too, but this was actually the last thought in Aether's mind.
He worried for Gen and for her sister. His fingers numbed at the thought of their deaths, and his aura coalesced into a swirling hailstorm. Battered by it, he stood on a lonesome hill of ice, facing a hidden scar that resurfaced within him. Pristine white walls, a small hand clutching his arm, a giant with a blade—
Aether jolted awake; Dessy lurched and fell but Umbra caught her. A Planet Name swoop—actually invented on East Star, but that was to be precise. Aether released a sigh of relief upon seeing her safe. Dessy arched her back and gazed at him, and his heart fluttered. His previous worries melted into forgotten thoughts and assumptions. He wished it was him dancing with her.
He scolded himself: he wanted Gen, not Dessy.
Umbra lifted Dessy into the air, and she spread her arms. The skirt of her dress flowed behind her like the tail feathers of a phoenix rising above the ashes of scrapped droids. Her smile lit the room with its radiance, and it broke the spectators' snickers, silencing them in awe. Striking them further, an ineffable will emanated from her body and rode on the undulations of her aura.
Aether found her far more mythical than some fiery bird.
The surrounding guests shivered, and he closed his eyes. He released a bit of his own aura and mixed it into hers. Her aura was too undefined for her to be an awakened aura-breaker, but it was powerful enough to be at the critical point of awakening. A few days and she'd have an aura break.
Retracting his aura and opening his eyes, Aether gazed at her soaring figure. He should look away, he told himself; but Dessy's elegance held him prisoner. She landed gently—as if perching on water—then continued dancing with Umbra. Her mystical presence faded, and she returned to being an earthly woman constricting Aether's heart. He frowned then gnawed at his bottom lip, growing increasingly jealous of Umbra.
When he discovered his thoughts had wandered, he whispered with conviction: he wanted Gen, not her sister. Dessy was proving herself to be his greatest obstacle. One, he risked falling for her. Two, she naively liked Umbra. Three, she could die and break any trust Gen had for him. And four, she could tattle to Gen about anything he did.
Her smile vanished, and tears poured down her cheeks, ruining her makeup and smearing her mascara. Umbra brushed away her tears. Something snapped within Aether.
"Umbra, get away from her," he said.
The pest grinned and activated his aura break with a clap. Five orbs hovered before him. Umbra didn't seem to care for Dessy's pain, and he asked, "Want to play?"
Aether lunged, but Dessy used her body to block his advance. "Please, don't," she pleaded with a voice so soft it soothed his nerves yet ignited his desire to protect her.
"As you wish, little lamb," Umbra replied. In challenge, he smirked at Aether. "So now you're jealous."
"So petty," Aether said, inwardly rebuking himself. Why had he ignored Dessy enough for Umbra to use it to flatter her into liking him? Aether should have risked falling prey to her beauty. But then... What about Gen? He felt helpless.
Why had the universe thrown two heart-stirring women at him? Couldn't it have said, "Here's Gen," then be done with it? Why toss Dessy at him and complicate his whole life?
He shut his eyes, resolving to protect—and only to protect—Dessy. He'd wrench her from Umbra's hands then find her a respectable man to marry. That plan seemed to solve most of his problems, and he thought it the most reasonable thing to do in his predicament.
Sensing a sudden, familiar presence, Aether looked towards the elite section's entrance and so did Umbra. His grandmother, the empress dowager, had arrived. She stood behind the double doors, possibly expecting to see the elite granddaughter-in-law she had always expected to find.
The doors opened, and Aether's temples throbbed. He wished to destroy the universe for all the obstacles it threw at him.