We were interrupted several hours later by a the opening of the heavy library door. It was Chigeha, the Royal Cartographer, with a bundle of maps beneath his arm and a pair of strangers following him. He seemed surprised and flustered to see us. We were a bit surprised and flustered ourselves, but kept our composure and stared coldly at his intrusion, although I quite felt like blushing madly and making a hasty exit.

"Ah! Makoto-sama. Neflyte-san. I didn't expect... I didn't think... I didn't know anyone was in here," he apologized.

"Not at all, Chigeha-san," I replied graciously. "Do what you must do."

"May I introduce to you two members of the Lady Saga's court?" inquired Chigeha genially, glad for a chance to change the subject. "Lord Sagittarius and Lady Taurus."

"Lady Saga," I mused. Why did that name sound so familiar? "Lord Sagittarius... Lady Taurus...?" Everyone seemed to be staring at me, so this time I allowed myself to blush and apologized, "I'm sorry; I just thought I knew you from elsewhere."

"We've never met, although we've heard so many things about you. Both of you. The beautiful Princess of Jupiter, and the strong, handsome General from Earth." Lord Sagittarius smiled charmingly. "Perhaps I could convince Endymion to give you up to me, Neflyte-san. My constellation is currently in a bit of strife with some of the others... Microscopium, Telescopium, and Indus all seem to have a bit of a bone to pick with us. Three against one is hardly fair, now, h'm?"

"All's fair in love and war," grinned Neflyte. "But if you convince Endymion to hand me over, I'd enjoy the chance to prove myself. Earth has been so peaceful for the longest time, there's really no chance for me to use my powers to their fullest potential."

"Let's not talk about war," I suggested. I glanced over the names of some of Chigeha's maps. "Maps of the Moon Kingdom," I commented.

"Merely showing off what beautiful maps they are. Gems, each one, not only cartographically speaking, but also artistically."

"Ah. I see," I smiled again, charmingly, but wondering why the back of my mind was so suspicious of the two strangers. "Neflyte-san, shall we?" I extended my hand to him, and he took it.

"We'll leave the three of you to the library, then," smiled Neflyte. "It was quite a pleasure to speak with you."

"Perhaps we shall see each other again tonight," agreed Lady Taurus, speaking for the first time. "There's to be a dinner tonight?"

"A feast, yes. Now I remember," I smiled. "I had forgotten."

"You've been a bit absentminded recently, Princess," Neflyte told me softly as we exited. "Is all well?"

"I think so. I don't know. It just seems like I've completely forgotten something... important." I frowned, trying to concentrate, but whatever it was merely danced elusively on the edge of recovery. I shook my head and smiled charmingly up at my General. "Never mind. If it's important, I'll figure out what it is eventually. Shall we go to the garden?"

***

"I'm sorry if you were a bit embarrassed when they came in," apologized Neflyte, as we walked down the hallway. "People really should learn to knock."

"Not at all," I waved it off as trite. "Everyone knows that I love you anyways. You know how difficult secrets are to keep in this palace! I doubt anyone would be overly shocked to see me- gasp!- smooching you." I threw up my hands in mock horror, and he couldn't help but laugh at the bewildered expression on my face.

"Yes, I understand-- but you are the Princess. The Princess of Jupiter. I'm merely a humble general from Earth."

"You're one of the four best generals on that planet, too, may I add?" I interrupted him. I slid my arm through his and added, "And I'm inclined to judge you a bit more favorably than your compadres."

"Oh?" He grinned at me; it was a silly grin, and all of a sudden, I just felt so happily in love. I gave him a goofy smile back, and we were outside by the garden. He continued his train of thought. "Like I said, I'm only a general. And I do not wish to mar any, ah, future prospects? you might have when you come of, ah, marrigeable age." He looked gloomy all of a sudden. "You'll probably end up marrying some rich and influential prince on some faraway constellation, and we'd never see each other again."

"If I end up marrying some prince on a faraway constellation, I'm sure my prince would hope we'd never see each other again, because if we did, he would have cause for alarm," I remarked dangerously. Neflyte squeezed my hand.

"You know what it is to be a princess," he said forlornly. "One of the things a princess does not have the privlege of is marrying for love. Occasionally, it happens so that she just so happens to fall in love with whoever she ends up with, but she very rarely gets to make her choice based solely on her emotions towards one or another. And you are no exception-- you, the Princess of Jupiter, no less!" He gave a short, wry laugh. "I'm quite a foolish general to expect anything to come of this, and yet, I can't help but try. And hope."

I bit my lip and frowned. He most certainly had a point. Did we have to be torn apart? Couldn't there be a way to make it work? After all, true love usually finds a way through the most obstinate obstacles... I looked up at him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Don't talk like that," I said softly. "It depresses me, you know that-"

I broke off because I heard voices. While I don't mind public displays of affection, I do mind broadcasting my private conversations to the world at large. (And secrets most definitely had no place in the Moon Palace!) I looked around to figure out their source. We had ended up standing directly beneath the library window. It was still open.

"Minion," said a man's voice, smoothly and coldly. "At tonight's feast, you shall attack. Leave no one alive. Use 'Antsl Total Depletion'."

"Yes, Lord Sagittarius," answered another male voice. It was Chigeha's.

"You must drain them of all their energy," agreed the woman-- Lady Taurus! "Down to the last drop. Sama needs the energy, badly. If you do not serve us well, you shall be trapped within the dream, too."

Trapped within the dream? Sama? Why did all that sound so familiar? My mind raced. My hand fell to my side, and I felt the crunch and rustle of paper. I took it out and smoothed it-- in my own handwriting, I read, "This is a dream. Sagittarius and Taurus are making us sleep. I must remember to wake up. And I must wake up Rei and Minako. Usagi and Ami have already awakened. Haruka and Michiru and Hotaru will be angry if I don't succeed."

The memories came rushing back. Sagittarius! And Taurus! In the Library, right now! Rei and Minako were still trapped. I had been here for hours, yet had done nothing to even find them. In another half-hour, it would be time to gather for the feast, and once the feast had started, it would be too late. Usagi, Ami, and the Outers had already awakened. They were out searching for the arrow-shooting Minion, searching to destroy him. They were searching for Taurus and Sagittarius also, but they were safely away in the dream. I knew I would be unable to take on all three of them myself. And I didn't know if Neflyte's powers would work against real people, since he was merely a dream. The only ones I could count on were Rei and Minako, yet I would have to convince them that I wasn't crazy in the first place. My mind was so busy rushing, I almost missed the next part.

"Lady Taurus, I shall return to the real world and oversee things from that end. If you do not mind remaining in this dreamworld to make sure Minion carries out our plans as decided?" She acquiesced; he took his leave of her, and then she and her Minion left to prepare for dinner.

"Neflyte-kun," I breathed. "Did you hear that?"

"It sounded quite treacherous to me," he said, his voice low in anger.

"We must go find Princess Minako and Princess Rei, and alert them."

"What about Princess Ami and Princess Serenity?" he inquired.

"Um..." How was I to explain their absence from the dream? I wondered frantically. "I believe that they already kidnapped Ami and Serenity. The only way to save them is to defeat that Minion!"

He agreed, and I was quite thankful that he did not ask bothersome questions, such as, "If you knew your Princess and Ami were kidnapped, why did you spend the last several hours cuddling in the library?!" But then again, dreams very rarely seem to think things strange, no matter how offbeat they might seem.

We raced off to find Minako and Rei.

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