Work Text:
Starlight Lessons
by Lucinda
Drusilla sighed, looking at the sprawling city. It twinkled on the planet below. Below.
She looked up, gazing out towards the stars, something that she could do now by simply looking out the windows. "So many things have changed. The world is gone, and Daddy with it."
Stars twinkled at her, and the city lights sparkled, as if they were trying to answer the stars above. The pattern of the stars was different now, twisted and pulled awry from the long ago time of her youth.
"Is something wrong, Miss?" The man's voice was calm, polite, and accented with a language that she couldn't quite place.
She turned, smiling politely at the young man. He almost looked like the sort of man that might have been her child if she and her sweet William had been able to create babies... "I am far from home, and my family are no longer with me."
"Did they go planet-side?" There was a tiny wrinkling to his face as he asked, as if he found the idea distasteful. "There are so many illnesses down below."
"Living on a planet is different than life on a station," Drusilla mused, turning to look behind him. "All the people, scurrying around and up and down, living in a jar. Down below, there aren't any bottles, but there is wind, and tears, and sickness and life, all out of hand."
The young man made a noise, not quite a word. He was looking at her oddly, as if he wasn't certain quite how to think of her.
"Sweet young man, you have no idea what to think of me, do you?" Drusilla smiled, catching his eyes with her own.
"My family taught me of investments and business transactions, not reading people," he murmured, almost apologetic sounding.
Drusilla smiled, moving closer. Her hand rested against his shoulder, and she could feel the warmth of his body seeping into her hand. "I can teach you how to read the depths and fabric of souls, if you want. I can teach you when and how to look into a man and know him, better than his father, better than his children, better than his lover."
"Truly?" the word was breathed out, eyes lit with excitement. "Permit a more proper introduction, I am Adelei Niska."
"Call me Drusilla," she smiled at him, anticipation warming her. "Drusilla Aurellius."
She was looking forward to teaching him so many things, just as her Daddy had taught them to her so long ago...
End Starlight Lessons.