Weldon's Arc

Chapter 1 of 9

Weldon planted the painted silk banner outside the palace gates and waited. The wind tugged at the family crest, the only proof his small kingdom existed at all. He had come to win an alliance with Silver Millennium, and he knew the rumors had arrived before him — the unstable sphere at the crystal shrine, the witch prince at the door. He turned the cipher ring on his finger. Inside its band was the true cost of what he had been sent to ask for. He alone could read it. A page came for him at dusk. The Queen would not see him. Her advisors had ruled his kingdom too dangerous to host. Weldon thanked the page plainly and did not argue. He walked instead to the open court where a pink-haired senshi was drilling alone. He had heard her name in the corridors. Sailor Ceres. Not yet inner circle, but watched. "I need an audience," Weldon said. "They won't give me one. If I beat you in a match, they'll have to look at me." Ceres studied him a moment. "That's a strange door to knock on. But it's honest. One match." She called her power and a living storm took shape beside her — luminous cloud, crackling lightning, golden eyes. Weldon raised his hands and answered with his own craft. The fight was short and ugly and close. He took a strike to the ribs and kept his feet. When the storm broke apart, Ceres was on one knee. Queen Serenity was already watching from the arch above. She came down slowly, white robes trailing, and stopped before him. "You fought my candidate," she said. "And you did not gloat." She looked at the ring on his hand. "Show me what it says." Weldon slid it off and placed it in her palm. She read it without speaking. The silence stretched. "I will help your kingdom," she said at last. "The terms we will write tonight." She returned the ring. "But the rumors do not vanish because I have agreed. My court will need to be answered. That part is yours."