MM ch.24: Coming Clean

Masks in Moonlight

Chapter Twenty-Four: Coming Clean

        She didn’t pull away, but she still looked so infinitely surprised that he couldn’t resist it anymore. He started to laugh. He had a contagious laugh. She started laughing with him, though she wasn’t sure why.

        Finally she managed to say, “What’s so funny?”

        Trace made himself sober. “All this time. All this time it was you behind that veil.”

        Primavera blushed. “And it was you behind that mask.”

        “Ah, the universe must have a sense of humor. Though, at least this time, I’m not complaining.”

        “Is that why you left me?” Primavera asked, in the same sweet, soft voice she had used the night Dante and Tavi last parted ways. “Because you were engaged to Primavera Lafeye?”

        “That was part of it,” Trace admitted. “But mostly, I didn’t want you hurt.”

        “Your sentiment was admirable, but wasted,” Primavera replied, with just a tinge of coldness. “Four nights ago, a Schatten Stahl came after me.” She lifted her hand to pause Trace when he started in alarm and opened his mouth. “Konrad found me. To be honest, he bailed me out.”

        “Wait, Konrad knew?” Trace looked puzzled. “He knew you were attacked, and he didn’t say anything?”

        “I told him not to.”

        “Why?”

        “I didn’t want you to worry.”

        Trace groaned. “So you left yourself vulnerable to assassination just because you didn’t want to worry me?!”

        “Well,” Primavera held onto her arms and turned her face away, “you didn’t want me around, either.”

        Trace took a quick breath to refute her, but then his face fell and he paused. “I wanted you around, I just…”

        “Duty, right?” Primavera still wouldn’t look at him. “I was going to shirk that duty for you. But you clung to it. It’s overrated.”

        “Think, Tavi,” Trace said, addressing her by the name most comfortable to him. “If you weren’t Primavera, if it was another girl, what would you have me do? Disgrace both her and my entire family—including my little sister—and leave behind everyone else I love to start a new life with a woman I haven’t even known for half a year?”

        Primavera didn’t have an answer.

        “Duty is not overrated. Duty and honor are the most important things in this world.”

        “What about love?”

        Trace let his head hang backwards and didn’t answer for a minute. Finally he just said, “I wish they never conflicted.”

        “And when they do?”

        “Do I really need to answer that?”

        “You never did follow your heart enough.”

        “And I always thought you didn’t follow your head enough. It’s all subjective after all, maybe.”

        “Will you let me fight?”

        Trace turned toward Primavera in surprise. “Excuse me?”

        “Will you let me fight in this battle? I know you and the others orchestrated it.”

        “It’ll be dangerous.”

        Primavera grabbed hold of Trace’s arm and looked up into his face. “I’m not letting you fight alone.”

        “I won’t be alone.”

        “No, you won’t. Because I’m fighting beside you.”

        “Tavi—”

        “You trusted me to watch your back before. Trust me again.”

        Trace’s face softened. “I do.”

        She wrapped her arms around his waist and stayed there with her head resting on his chest. “Then stay with me this time.”

        He didn’t say anything. He just returned the embrace.

        Minutes passed like that, then Trace commented, “I suppose we’ll have to tell our parents now.”

        They broke contact, awkwardly. “I was kind of hoping not to,” Primavera admitted.

        “If we die, we’re leaving them behind, too. Don’t worry. We’ll face them together.” He smiled at her. “It’s time they knew the real us.”

        “We only just found each other’s real selves. We only just removed our masks.”

        “No,” Trace said. “When we covered our faces, we took off our masks.”

        Primavera half-smiled. “That makes about as much sense as most of what you say.”

        “Hey, you’re the poet. You’re supposed to like this stuff.”

        Primavera laughed. “I guess. In we go.”

        Trace’s countenance sobered and he nodded.

        They opened the door together. Primavera went in first, and then the two stood before their parents waiting for a chance to speak.

        “I’m sure I don’t know who will be the victor, but I know the Order is powerful; this rebellion has little chance,” Arthur was saying. Then he, Clarence, and Rosanne noticed their children standing before them and stopped to look at them.

        “This rebellion has more than a little chance,” Trace proclaimed, in his true voice—a voice that surprised even his own father. “This rebellion has every edge that it needs to finally crush Blutkreuz.”

        “What are you saying, Trace?” Arthur asked, bewildered. He added, “And what happened to your voice?”

        “He’s saying that we’re going to win,” Primavera announced, all the haughtiness gone from her voice. “Because, knowing  him, he’s worked out every last detail to make this plan a success.”

        Trace blushed modestly. “Well, Mihael worked out a good deal of the particulars, too. And Konrad’s friend Falk helped a lot.”

        “Who?”

        “Hold on!” Clarence’s ringing voice chimed in. “I don’t understand this. How are you involved in this rebellion?”

        Trace’s smile broadened. “I’m involved because the whole plan was mine and Mihael’s. I’m involved because I’m one of the five who went to Diephelhagen to kill the Blood Ranks of the Order. I’m involved because I started this battle, and I intend to finish it.”

        The parents were speechless for a few minutes. Then Arthur started, “Trace,” at the same time Clarence began saying, “Primavera—”

        “My name is Tavi,” his daughter corrected. “And his name is Dante. I am not a helpless little girl; I am a fighter, and I always have been. I’m the one who stole food from the warehouses to feed the slum people. Dante and Mihael are the ones who led the underground rebellion. And we three, with the president’s daughter Caia and the former Order assassin Konrad, traveled to Diephelhagen to destroy the Order before it destroyed us.”

        Arthur was the one to speak when she finished. “You antagonized them?”

        “I don’t really expect you to believe me,” Trace said quietly. “But they were planning on having me killed before I even knew they existed.”

        “That’s impossible. I talked to—”

        “Lord Fausto and General Valerian, correct?” His father’s widened eyes were answer enough. “I heard the tail end of that conversation. They lied to you. By that time, they had already sent an assassin to Aarboridge to follow me. Fortunately for me, they betrayed their operative and he joined our side.”

        “This is… I cannot believe…” Arthur seemed at a loss for words. “You lied to me. You were working against me!”

        “You were working against Mom!”

        The room fell silent at Trace’s accusation. Arthur was frozen in place.

        “What is it with you?” Trace’s voice was quiet, trembling; it sounded hurt. “When she died, you just fell apart. Catherina and I needed you more than ever before and you weren’t there. All you cared about was gaining favor and getting more money. We didn’t need that! We were poor all our lives and we didn’t care. What we needed was a parent standing beside us. But when we lost our mother, we lost you too.” His voice lowered. “You lost yourself.”

        Arthur made no reply. His head was lowered and he couldn’t find words.

        Rosanne made a move to collect Primavera, but the younger’s will was resolute and she did not move. “Please,” Rosanne pleaded, “this is not our place. We will go to another room and you will stay with us tonight, here where it is safe—”

        Primavera pulled abruptly away from Rosanne’s grasp. “I will do no such thing.”

        “Primavera!” Clarence called in a stern voice.

        “What about you?” demanded their daughter. “You’re worse than he is,” she said, pointing at Arthur. “He at least chose a side in that last rebellion. You could never set your minds to anything!”

        “That’s quite enough, young lady—”

        “No! No, it’s not enough! I’ve been waiting to say this for a long time. You curried favor with the last government and you’re doing the same with this one. Even though you know what it’s doing to the people! Even though you know that we’re living richly at the expense of the poor, needy and dying down there! You know and you do it anyway!”

        “We’ve told you, Primavera. If we lose our influence, if we become one of them, we can’t possibly help them!”

        “Great! So you stay in a position to help by twiddling your thumbs and not helping! How does that do any more good than at least trying to do something? You’re too selfish to take the chance. You say you want to help, but you don’t really! If you did, you wouldn’t keep dragging your feet and saying it’s too dangerous! Stop thinking so highly of yourselves! ‘Become one of them.’ We already are! We’re not any better than they are, and we don’t have a right to look down on them or say that our comfort is too important to risk!”

        The parents could only stare at their children. It was like they were facing complete strangers. Finally Rosanne managed to stammer out, “How… when did you change like this?”

        “I didn’t,” Primavera answered.

        “This is who we always were,” Trace said. “You couldn’t see us because you didn’t want to see us. If we tried to be who we are, you would tell us to behave properly, to straighten out our acts. We put up those masks so you would accept us.” His gaze drifted off. “Turns out, it didn’t work anyway.”

        “But Trace, my boy,” Arthur pleaded, “I always accepted you!”

        “No.” His voice was soft, reflective. “You molded my mask and accepted that. Without it, you wouldn’t look at me.” He turned to face the window and strengthened his voice. “Watch,” he said. “Watch the battle rage tonight. You will see the true face of Aarboridge—the strength of the people my mother loved. You will see the true face of the one you call Trace Duran.” He turned and swiftly exited, only pausing at the door to finish, “Pay more attention. You don’t know Catherina, either.”

        Primavera turned to follow Trace, but her father called, “No! I order you to stay where you are, Primavera. Not another step!”

        “I already told you,” she answered. “My name is Tavi, and I intend to fight.” She ran out the door shortly behind Trace.

******************************************************************

        Trace and Primavera were both breathless with excitement by the time they collapsed into Catherina’s room. They couldn’t believe what they had just done; Mihael couldn’t believe whom Trace had just brought back with him.

        “Trace, who is this?” Mihael asked, aware that he had just gone to visit Primavera.

        Primavera lifted her head and looked Mihael in the eye. She extended her hand to him, though she smiled wryly at her own gesture. “Tavi,” she said, unable to withhold her smirk. “Or Primavera, or Vera, or whatever suits you.”

        Mihael just looked confused.

        Trace, sitting on the ground with his back propped up against Catherina’s dresser, just laughed. “Ironic, isn’t it?” he commented.

        Catherina joined in her brother’s laugh as soon as he was done speaking, but Mihael couldn’t wipe that bewildered expression off his face. Rina made a flying jump off the foot of her bed and landed on top of Primavera in a bear hug, all the while uttering some high-pitched squealing that no one present could interpret.

        “What do you think, Tavi?” Trace began, still addressing her by the name that felt most natural to him. She seemed entirely used to it; actually she seemed to prefer it. “I’m sure our parents are having a cow right about now. Pick your poison: disownment, banishment, or capital punishment?”

        “Probably a combination of the three,” Vera laughed in response. “My dad was just about ready to burst a blood vessel.” She sobered down. “Though I guess we didn’t exactly break the news to them gently.”

        “What news?” Mihael demanded, feeling out of the loop and somewhat slighted.

        “We told our parents about our double lives,” Trace explained. “Actually, we told them who we are and that we’re fighting tonight.”

        “Some other long-held, pent-up emotions might have escaped also,” Vera admitted guiltily. “But we couldn’t keep acting forever. At least, I know I couldn’t. I want them to know the real me, and accept it.”

        “I don’t know that we picked the best way to help them accept this,” Trace commented. “But we’re going on a suicide mission tonight—I had to finally say my peace.”

        Primavera nodded. “It’s just like before,” she murmured, standing with her hands on the window and peering out at the gathering storm clouds. “Just like before we left for Diephelhagen, only worse. This is it. We really might not make it this time, will we.”

        Trace stood beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. “You know the odds we’re facing. But we’re facing them together.” Determination flared up in his eye and a confident smile formed on his face. “Blutkreuz is going down.”