Mars left the room, heading straight to the throne room. In the room was her mother sitting on the throne.

“Mother–” Mars started, “the Hero is hopeless, she can't even hold a sword correctly-”

“It is your job to train her.” the queen replies. “If she’s bad at fighting it's because of your failures. Did you think training someone would be easy, or are you just so ready to give up?” Mars flushed with rage and left the throne room. She felt deep down that her mom wasn't wrong, but she didn't understand why this was her punishment. First, Mars's mom tells her to be a princess, then tells her to train the untrainable. Mars is getting more confused by the day. Re-entering the training room, Mars notices Anita. She is swinging her sword at a dummy and somehow losing. Anita’s forehead was beaded with sweat as she swung again and again. Mars appreciated the effort and secretly decided that she would try to do more.

“Okay” Mars shouted, “Let's go again!”

By the end of the night, they had made a little progress. As Mars was cleaning up, Anita was dead on her feet.

“You barely made progress today, but good job sweating all over my floor” Mars spoke sarcastically. 

“Ha-ha, very funny. How do you have so much stamina?” Anita asked.

“Training. You’ll get there Hero.” Mars responded. Anita flopped on the ground in response. 

As weeks went by, Anita slowly got better at wielding her sword. Mars kept up with her princess duties and her mom’s many chosen suitors, spending every spare minute training Anita in sword fighting and combat. Soon enough, it was Lanya, the 7th month of the cycle, and almost time for Anita’s swearing-in as the savior of Malovora. 

“Good block” Mars praised “Keep it up.” Mars and Anita were sparring in the training room. Anita, to practice, and Mars to blow off steam.

“Is your mom still sending you to other kingdoms?” Anita asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yes! She is so stuck on the idea of me marrying some prince, but I am not a prize to be won!” Mars angrily swings her sword at Anita, who luckily blocked time. “She loves to tell me who I need to be but takes no notice of who I am.”

“Are you gonna be here for the ceremony at least?” Anita questioned. She dogged and decided to swing at Mars. Mars quickly blocked and hit Anita on the wrist, successfully disarming her.

“Yeah, I'll be here. I have to make a good impression as a future ruler-” Mars mocked. They reached out their hand to Anita, now on the ground. Anita took it.

“Thanks, princess, are we done for the day?” 

“Yeah, I've got a meeting about you in seven minutes,” Mars responded.

“About me? What is it about-”

“Stuff you don't gotta worry about, so don't worry about it.” 

“Come on, you and your mom have had me cooped up here for months, training. I think I deserve to know why.” Anita stated. Despite her sweaty complexion, her words were forceful and sincere. Mars couldn't refuse her.

“Fine, but stay quiet and don't disturb anyone” she replied, “I'm going to talk to my mom about it.” Mars left the room, Anita trailing behind. They eventually reach the room where the meeting is taking place. Mars stops Anita from following any further.

“For now, stay here. I'll come to get you later.” Mars commands. Then they enter the room. In the room, is a long round table with a map of the country in the middle, surrounding the table were several black chairs, a few occupied by guards and commanders. The queen sat at the head of the table. As the princess entered the room, all except the queen stood and took a bow. “Thank you.” as they took their seats, the princess remained standing.” Uhm, Queen Marianna?” the queen looked up at Mars and gestured for her to continue. “The Hero requests to sit in on our meeting today.” At the mention of this hero, the others in the room go quiet. 

“The Hero is still in training.” the Queen responds, “Tell her to focus on that instead,” 

“Hold on.” A woman, Colonel Yoria, stands up. “It has been months since the Lunar events and no one has seen or even spoken to the Hero. I think we have the right to know who she is.” The queen sighs and Mars secretly thanks the prophets.

“ If you feel it is necessary, the Hero can come in.” the queen finally responded. At this, the door opened, revealing Anita standing in front of the door. 

“Uh, Hi?” Anita spoke, waving awkwardly. Mars flushed with embarrassment as she went over and dragged Anita into a seat.

“Stay here and shut up,” Mars whispered into her ear. From the look Anita gave, it was clear that she wasn't planning to listen.

The meeting progressed as planned. Diplomatic meetings were set and the Ceremony was set for the 36th of Laynar. The guest list was finalized and the security issues were solved. At the end of the meeting though, Anita seemed to be the center of every conversation.

“Anita, let's go now” Mars commanded, getting up.

“Wait” Anita responded “I don't know any of these people, and if I have to be forced to eventually work with them, I would like to at least start nicely” with this, Anita left it to a group of military leaders. “Excuse me, Hi. im-”

“The Hero. a female as rumors said.” a man says. He steps up and takes Anita's hand.

“It's just Anita.” 

“Well, I am Colonel Rhodes, and this is my subordinate Colonel Yoria. Nice to meet you, Anita.” he shook Anita's hand. Yoria seems to be slightly pleased with the interaction, as she nodded in approval. 

“You've met some people, now let's go. You still have a lot of training to do.”  Mars grasped Anita’s hand and pulled her away. 

“We don't have to train all the time,” Anita argued. “I'm getting better-”

“Not fast enough. You need to be good enough to beat me by the time the darkness arrives. Because if you can't, no one can.” Mars continued to pull her down the hall, only stopping at the training room. Anita felt that more training may not have been the only reason. They entered the training room and headed to the sword racks.

“I’d rather you just tell me you need to burn off some anger.” Anita sighed “It's okay if you do, I need practice right?” Mars looked at Anita. There was some understanding in those words. Mars dropped the hero’s hand in exchange for Reoia. The heat from her sword amplified the warmth of her palm.

“Yeah, thanks.” When Mars swung, Anita was ready to block.

Later that night, Mars was frustrated. Her mom vetoed all her plans and Anita’s progress was slowing. The hero truly didn't understand how much was riding on her, on their shoulders. The idea of making Anita train twice as hard was concerning, but maybe just some extra sessions to blow off steam could work. The princess’ face heated up. Anita signed up to be their punching bag, might as well use the opportunity. With this thought, Mars drifted off.

In the following weeks, Mars trained Anita harder than ever before. They woke early before sunrise and left hours after sunset. Anita grew stronger, and her fighting got better but the continuous strain had her hiding in places Mars couldn't find her. Mars became more and more desperate to train Anita the best she could, ignoring the strain it put on the hero. With everything coming to a close and their mother’s approval on the line, fighting out the anger wasn't doing any good. They flopped on the hard ground of the room, reaching for their water bottle.

“Hey, can we quit for the day?” Anita asked desperately. She was lying on the floor, panting harshly. Mars paid no mind, despite gasping for breath herself.

“No. the ceremony is tomorrow and you have to be ready for anything-”

“I can't be ready if I can't move from muscle fatigue. Maybe this time we can talk instead of hitting out your frustrations.” Anita suggested. She sat up and gestured for Mars to do the same. Mars squeezed their bottle, ignoring the tears that pricked their eyes.

“I'm fine, nothing I can't handle and nothing that won't pass,” Mars answered. The words came out blankly, and Anita didn't seem convinced.

“I know that training me has put you under a lot of stress and along with your princess duties, but sometimes a break is needed. So let's get out of here and do something fun!” Anita recommended. Grabbing Mars’ hand, she dragged them out of the room and down the hall.

“Hey, wait I didn't agree to this-” Mars argued.

“Calm down princess, this will be great!” They arrived at a door that Mars knew well. It was the entrance to the hall of heroes. As a child, Mars remembered living in these halls, wondering when her picture would join the ones framed on the navy walls. Until very recently, she stopped coming.

“Why are we here?” Mars question.

“Because I found something, look over here.” Anita was over near a bookcase. The sides had an ancient language inscribed on them. “Do you know what this says?” Anita asked

“No, we don't speak lost languages in the capital '' Mars sassed. Anita simply just ran her hands over the engravings. Then she whispered a word:

“Escape.” The bookcase faded away, revealing a small arched door frame. Anita was already crawling in. “Come on, I want to show you something. Mars followed, grumbling something about mysteries. When she entered the room, it felt like she was in the stars.

“Whoa.” was all Mars could say. The room was small, with pale walls. The ceiling was dome-shaped and made of glass. Above it were millions of stars, shining down into the room from the sky. They could see nearby planets and if you looked hard enough, galaxies far away.

“It's beautiful, isn't it.'' Anita started, “I accidentally discovered it a few weeks ago. It's actually where I go to escape your training” this earned her a soft punch in the arm. “Anyways, you've been pretty stressed lately so I thought you could come here to escape your duties.” Mars stepped closer to Anita, enveloping her in a hug.

“ Thank you. I mean it.” Anita smiled and returned the hug.

“You're welcome, princess.” Mars looked up at Anita. The hero's eyes shone with pride. “If it makes you worry less, it was worth it.” Anita swiped some hair from her face, and Mars’ heart fluttered.

“W-we should sit and rest-” Mars quickly recommended, releasing herself from the hug. “Big day tomorrow.”

“Sure, we could probably see the sky better that way, '' Anita answered. So they sat on the floor and looked at the stars. Unknown to Mars, Anita was looking at them, her heart fluttering the same way.