Part 6: The Paternal Eclipse (The Star-Maiden vs. The Lord Chamberlain)

SCENE II: A Private Chamber.
(The room is draped in heavy tapestries. Enter OPHELIA. Her celestial raiment now crackles with the static of suppressed nebulae. Missiletainn hums a low, vibrating chord of doom that rattles the windows. POLONIUS stands center-stage, holding his staff of office and looking intensely disappointed, as if she has merely stayed out past a curfew.)

POLONIUS
(Clearing his throat with a sound like grinding gravel)
Hold, daughter! What is this "True Power" I hear tell of? ’Tis a most unfilial magic. To subvert the natural order is to be—as it were—out of tune. I have noted your progress; you have been most "prodigal" with your mana, and quite frankly, your "build" lacks the grace of a lady.

OPHELIA
(Her eyes glowing with the intensity of a collapsing supernova)
Stand aside, Lord Chamberlain! The constellations have decreed a new syllabus, and thy "wisdom" is but a footnote in a dead tongue. I seek the truth you buried! My destiny is a river of fire, and thou art but a crumbling dam of platitudes!

POLONIUS
(Wagging a finger)
I must forbid this apotheosis. I have "found the cause of your effect," and it is a lack of grounding! Furthermore, I forbid thy love for the Prince! He is a person out of thy "stat-bracket," and thy affection is but a glitch in the social engine! I shall bind thy starlight with the iron chains of Logic and Protocol!

(He strikes his staff on the ground. A gray, dull mist of Bureaucracy rises, attempting to dampen her glow and "nerf" her movement speed.)

OPHELIA
(Enraged, her aura turning from violet to a blinding, white-hot Stellar Flare)
You forbid my love? You speak of "brackets" to one who holds the horizon? Thou art a "busy power-gamer," Polonius, but thou hast forgotten that nature does not follow thy ledger! Witness the STARRY REPRIMAND OF THE DISINHERITED DAUGHTER!

[Alarum. A localized meteor shower erupts within the room. OPHELIA raises Missiletainn, and a beam of pure "Aqueous" energy slams into Polonius’s staff, shattering it into splinters.]

POLONIUS
(Staggering back, his beard singed by cosmic radiation)
O, I am slain by a metaphor! I find the "intrinsic value" of my defense... is... depreciating. My "Insight" stat did not "perceive" this outcome! Daughter... thou art... a most "heavy" celestial body...

(He collapses into a velvet chair, dropping the remnants of his staff.)

OPHELIA
(Standing over him, her voice echoing with the finality of a closing book)
Thou wert a master of whispers, father, but whispers cannot silence the sun. You ask if I am to be, or not to be?

"To be or not to be!? That is no longer the question! For I have deleted the answer!"

[With a wave of her hand, the gray mist of Bureaucracy is vaporized. The back wall of the chamber dissolves into stardust, revealing the path to the North.]

OPHELIA
The "Rat" behind the curtain is broken, and Elsinore is but a memory. My path is clear. The North calls, and the Aura Castle shall fall.