Rei wasn't allowed to sleep by the fire anymore. After she told her father that the fire spirits spoke to her, she was relegated to the cold with a kick and a wad of spit-slimed gristle, separated from the hunk of roast Mars-boar her father was in the process of masticating. Rei slunk into the shade of the trees, curling up on the hard ground away from the inviting whispers of the fire and the pleasant dreams it offered. Rei's father was king of Mars, a wild untamed territory where there was no margin for softness. Here men ruled by their passions, or died for their intellect. Mars was a province of the moon empire. A city on a small satellite of a backwards planet spread its jurisdiction to the whole solar system, but what it ruled were savage lands and uninhabitable gas-formed seas. Rei watched Venus rise the night she was turned from the fire, and didn't feel so cold in its reflected yellow light.

Venus was the jewel of the empire. Under its gaseous clouds a wild bazaar spread for miles. Everything in the universe was sold there, and the king was fat and wary, like a good merchant. Rei's only experience had been with the wilds of Mars. She had never been to the palace of the moon-queen. She had never wandered through the myriad of sounds, smells, and colors that made up the Venusian bazaar. She had never discussed philosophy or physics in the dry heat of Mercury. She had never fought in bloodthirsty battles on the Mars-like wilds of Earth. She had never wandered through the hot jungles of Jupiter, filled with nomadic peoples that traveled variable paths to avoid the roving storms that never died. She had never floated on the endless sea of Neptune, nor been whirled by the winds of Uranus, and she had never been to Pluto, where the gates of time stood, protected by their guardian, who watched the futures bend and change as personal decisions formed them. But Rei had seen these places in the fire. And as she watched Venus pass overhead, she knew she would go there again.

When Rei was fourteen, Queen Serenity sent a message to all the rulers of her provinces to send a daughter to the moon kingdom, for the purpose of becoming her daughter's bodyguards. Rei's father turned and glanced at his children and spat a second ball of gristle at Rei. Rei took her bow and long hunting knife, plus only the armor she wore on her back and started the weeklong walk to the spaceport.

The Moon Palace was just like she had seen in her visions. A few guards in round white hats with crescent moons made from mother of pearl in the front accosted her at the entrance.

"What's a dirty little barbarian like you doing here? Go away!" They poked the tips of their poleaxes towards her. Knocking the shining ceremonially polished weapon aside, Rei kicked one guard in a delicate place, and slashed another across the chest with her hunting knife, red blood soaking his white pearlescent uniform. She grabbed a poleax one had dropped and held them off as she made her way into the palace.

The reinforcements they had summoned surrounded her in the entrance hall. She took five down whirling her poleax and hunting knife, but they kept coming at her. She jumped up on the banister to gain some leverage so she could drive her poleax into the oncoming guard's chest. Then she glanced up. With the musical sounds of crystal crashing together and a high-pitched yell, a chandelier swung towards her, a banshee with swirling blonde hair and black leather boots dangling from it. It swung straight on a collision course for Rei who stood frozen, forgetting about the guards, about the danger she was in, just watching the thing, red bow in her hair, that just in time, reached out an arm and scooped her up bringing her to swing over the rail of a balcony, high above the guards' heads.

Rei stared at her savior, who had turned her face from her to look out over the sea of frustrated guards, beginning to swarm up the stairs. The girl in black leather boots grabbed Rei's wrist and dragged her to the door. She whipped her around to the front, and before Rei could focus her eyes, kissed her quickly on the mouth, then shoved her out the door in the same motion. "Run!" she hissed, and Rei ran, not looking back.

Rei watched the walls as she sped down the hallway, hearing pursuit far behind in the distance. She hit a staircase going up and stopped short, pulling thin wire out of her pocket and stretching it between the wall and the banister a little below knee height. She jumped over it and ran up. Three hallways converged at the top. She stepped down the right one and took out her hunting knife. She cut her arm and smeared the blood on the wall; then she turned back running down the center path, turning left at the next intersection and running straight into a sandy haired boy.

"What hounds of hell are chasing you?" he said as he helped her to her feet. "You're bleeding, come here. My room's just this way; I'll bandage your arm."

Glancing both ways, Rei warily followed the genial boy whose sandy hair tossed like he had his own personal wind about him. His room had the same windswept air, with light dancing blue curtains and pictures of spaceships tacked to the wall that started being blown by an intangible wind when he walked in the room. There was a sink in the corner. She let him wash her arm and bandage it with a strip from the windswept blue curtains. Then he washed her face, cleaning off the layers of grime she had lived with all her life. He eyed her and grinned. "I didn't know they made barbarians as cute as you. Dirt is no substitute for natural androgyny. There's no way you'll pass for a boy with a clean face."

Rei tried to run but the boy grabbed her around the waist and took out the knot she wore her hair in. Then keeping her restrained with one arm he turned on the water and stuck her head under it. Rei sputtered and squirmed but the boy kept her trapped between his knees as he washed her hair, over and over again. Rei heard voices and tromping feet. She quickly swung an elbow out and hit the boy in the stomach sending him sailing backwards. He grinned from a heap on the floor as she ran out into the hall, wet hair swinging.

Rei found herself in a giant open ballroom. She could hear the guards behind her and there was no place to run, no place to hide, except a curtain that hung from the ceiling, brushing past another balcony. Rei gave up the hiding idea. She ran to the curtain and scurried up it as quick as a squirrel, then leapt onto the balcony. She pulled out her bow and strung it swiftly. The first guard entered, she took him down, then the second, then the third. They started swarming though, and she ran. Turning swiftly she hit her reflection, stopped and found the handles to the mirrored glass doors. The room that the balcony belonged to held a girl tapping away at some strange object, entirely unaware of the fugitive in her room. Rei ran through and out into the hallway, turning left. Ahead a guard stepped into her path. Rei whipped out her bow and shot him. A door stood cracked open beside her. She pulled it open, dodged in and shut it behind her. Turning around she was blinded by white fog. She stepped forward carefully and fell with a splash into a pool of hot water. In an automatic drowning reaction, she kicked off her boots and squirmed out of her armor. There was a shriek. Her feet touched the bottom and her head came out of the water. The mist had cleared a little and a girl with two sideways Saturn whorls of hair hanging from knobs above her ears was screaming her head off. Rei rolled her eyes and swam to the far side of the pool where she could just make out a door.

Stepping out into the hallway Rei groaned. She soaked the rug beneath her bare feet, water running out of her canvas trousers, and hair, and the binding she wore under her armor to keep her breasts in check. The only weapon she had was her hunting knife. Her bow and quiver floated along with her armor and boots as victims of the strange indoor warm lake. She set off more warily this time down the hallway. She heard an elegant laugh behind her, and turned, brandishing her knife.

A turquoise haired girl had stepped out of a doorway behind her. She was laughing politely, her hand raised to cover her mouth.

"Did you walk in on the Princess? Poor thing, you look like a drowned rat. Come in here, I'll dry you off and get you something to wear. What's your name?"

Rei followed the girl into the room, still holding her knife, wary of any surprise techniques like the boy had used on her. But the aqua haired girl just threw her a towel, all the while smiling to herself, too polite to laugh again at Rei.

"What's your name?" She asked again, "I'm Neptune Michiru."

"Mars Rei," the same muttered.

"Ah, you're the princess from the backlands then. I'll call a servant to bring you some clothes." She did her personal joke smile again. "Not that you're unattractive the way you are." She chuckled mildly to herself, and Rei looked down confused. She hadn't really dealt with this sort of thing before. She was just wet, she had been wet before; it rained a lot on Mars.

Michiru smiled, and picked up a shell off the table and spoke into it, requesting an outfit for the Princess of Mars to be brought to her room, "that includes all the extras, from the inside out. Nothing she has is fit to wear."

Rei decided that it was time to go and she sidled over to the door, but it wouldn't open. She glared at the princess of Neptune, who merely smiled to herself again, and they waited for the knock of the servant. Rei debated forcing Michiru to let her go at knifepoint if she had to, but while she was pondering Michiru had gone to the door, opened it, retrieved the clothing and waved the servant away with an easy hand gesture, then closing the door, all before Rei could make her move.

"Get changed, I won't watch if it makes you uncomfortable."

Rei wasn't sure if it was supposed to make her uncomfortable or not. She also wasn't exactly sure how to put the proffered clothes on, and moreover she was unsure if she would allow herself to be seen dead in an outfit like that. But then she looked at Michiru and pondered how the power had shifted from the person with the knife, herself, to the person who had no weapon at all. But it had, and Rei came to the conclusion, that "no" was not one of her options.

And so Rei was dried, and put into the excessively frilly dress. Michiru decided she had to brush her hair, and there was no escape. The hair was brushed, and Rei suffered. Then Michiru eyed her up and down, and nodded. "You are ready now, you may go."

Rei was waved away with another easy flick of the hand. She tried the ocean green frosted glass door and this time it opened. Rei edged unobtrusively away, praying Michiru would not come upon another way to strip her of her dignity.

"Wait."

Rei bolted, making it five feet down the hall before she fell on her face, unused to the shoes she was wearing. Michiru helped her up and slipped her arms around Rei's waist, sliding inside the first layer of her skirts through slits in the sides. She passed Rei's belt from hand to hand and buckled it. Then she pushed the sheath of Rei's hunting knife into the slit, took Rei's hand and rested it on the hilt of her now hidden knife.

"There you go. Don't want to forget that."

With a slight push, Michiru sent Rei down the hall.

Around the first corner, Rei found a girl huddled on the stairs, folded up like intricately bent paper. Unready for another confrontation with an inexplicable girl in a princess dress, Rei attempted to sneak past. But, still unused to the shoes, she fell on her face with the Martian equivalent of a "dammit."

The girl on the stairs glanced up with a tear streaked face. "Are you all right?" She asked.

"Yeah," Rei grunted and clambered to her feet.

"Do you want to sit down?" The girl edged towards the wall. Rei sighed and sat a step below her, prying at the buckles on her shoes.

The girl set down a plate of oddly shaped brown things next to her, obviously trying to bring attention to them without being obvious about it. Rei looked at them. The girl's highly placed brown ponytail swished with a subtle eagerness.

"Would you like a cookie?" Rei was not one to take food from anyone who offered it, but her stomach growled. She shrugged, out of my hands she thought. The girl offered her the plate.

Rei took one and ate it. Crunching for a while she nodded. "Can I have another?"

The girl brightened up immeasurably, "sure! No one would eat them."

"Why not?" Rei had another.

"I don't know, but when I told them what they were made of they just blanched and ran."

"What are they made of?"

"Acorns, moss, and rats."

Rei took another, "What's wrong with that?"

"I don't know, but they just fled."

"Strange. These are great. Moss is usually more chewy."

"I steamed it first."

"Do they last long?"

"Only a few years, but they're good energy food."

Rei nodded. She had finally found someone at least slightly on her wavelength, and the guards were nowhere to be found. They discussed the properties of different travel foods until Rei had finished the cookies. The girl stretched out a leg, which reached all the way down to the floor. The girl stood up, and Rei had to tilt her head all the way back to see her face. The skirt of her dress ended above her anklebone. It didn't drag on the floor like Rei's. Rei surmised she must be from Jupiter. People were taller there. The gravity was different.

"I can get some more." She said, but at that moment the guards came around the bend. Rei jumped up, and with a quick, "no thanks," ditched the girl, tearing off down the hallway, leaving the obnoxious shoes on the stairs.

But the guards didn't chase her. She stopped and looked back confused. Then she looked down at herself again and smiled. She walked back.

She picked out the head guard with his maroon hat and long black mustache. "Hello," she greeted him politely. "I am the princess of Mars, can you show me to my room?" The guard bowed to her and escorted her down the hall. She grinned, having defeated the guards without their even knowing it.

He stopped in front of a deep red door, a few hallways away. She paused and turned to the guard.

"I accidentally left a few things of mine in the bath with the princess, the one with loopy hair," she gestured the style that the screaming girl had worn, "could you have someone bring them to me."

"Certainly." He smiled and bowed obsequiously, inching away. She tried out the hand motion to wave him away that she Michiru had used repeatedly; it worked perfectly. He disappeared down the hall and Rei stepped into her room.

"Well, that was interesting." A dark older girl in a thin silky black dress sat on her windowsill. "Quite an adventure. However, Queen Serenity would appreciate it if you refrained from maiming any more guards in your stay here. There will be someone to escort you to the dining hall in one half hour. The ball will be one hour after dinner is completed. You do know how to dance?"

Rei stood frozen, this not being a situation easily solved by violence. The girl laughed.

"Oh well, you'll figure it out. You appear to be a fast learner."

The girl stood up and walked toward the door. Before she reached for the handle, she paused and turned back to Rei, "Pluto Setsuna, it is my pleasure to meet you, Mars Rei."

She bowed and exited. Rei bowed back at the closing door and sank onto the bed. That was the gatekeeper? There were so many people here.