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"I was having a memory!" the poor man looked so panicked, and Scylla was wide-eyed and pulse pumping from having been pulled out of her recollection. "I- my past life. Andromache."

She stared out in the direction she'd been looking when the memory hit, but there was nothing.

"Senshi, most of us... we lived here A lifetime ago. Sometimes we remember things."

"We're not getting killed," she told him with a sigh. "As far as I know, we're the only living things on the planet right now. No; my memory was of the town below. Hustle, bustle. Preparing for war."

Preparing for the next invasion. "One of the Zaratan was being resupplied on the beach. There were colors- banners. Dozens of people."

She had been talking to one of her wives, but which one? She supposed it didn't matter.

"I don't remember who they thought was invading this time. It happened a lot, but this time, Andromache seemed almost excited about it." Jada's lips quirked.

"Either way. We can keep going. We'll be to the temple quick enough if we keep moving. I want you to be able to see the world come alight when darkness falls from one of my favorite places on planet."

The way that Wolf- Gev- moved over to her, raising his hand, also raised her hackles. Scylla tilted her chin firmly, meeting his eyes. "While I appreciate your earnestness, I can't promise that. I don't decide when something is going to trigger something that I might remember. No more than I can on Earth."

Her brow furrowed at his concerns about monster trees and strangling magic. It was hard for Jada to let the 'dumb planet' comment slide, but she would attribute it to his nerves- as clearly he was effected by a fear of something out there. What caused the planetary aversion, she really couldn't say.

"I do know my planet," she promised, "And there isn't anything alive right now that can hurt us. There is no magic that will take out air- and if something does happen, the moment I power down we're expelled from the planet. I wouldn't stick around for monster trees, especially not if they are whomping willows." Scylla guided him over the beach, passing the dunes, avoiding as much of the town as she could, guiding him to the winding path up the sand mountain towards the Temple.

It wasn't a long walk, magical speed and stride taking them to the temple far too fast. How much of the awe and appreciation was gone? Ah, well.

She had always wondered what had caused this large island. Just one- she could remember few of this size and style. Jungles in the sky, undersea cities, temporary villages on the backs of more peaceful beasts. But the Temple had always been different. The sand, the beach, the permanent structure and landform, so close to the pillar. It had, as she had told him, been a logical place. It had been the seat and safety for those not of this world, and seemed to inherently itself have been something not of Scylla. Perhaps because here was safety, protected from the clan wars by the neutral surety of their senshi? Perhaps because here was the only place off-worlders could come and not be taken as prizes, or killed? So it had allowed the touch of the foreign.

Scylla led the guest around the town, up the main path, faint memories of the hustle and bustle niggling her. Memories she'd already had- she knew that this building had housed emissaries from the clan kings, that one held interplanetary ambassadors who craved Messian gems and Scyllan mercenaries for their battles. That one was a skilled leathercrafter who had grown too old to survive among the clans, but was too valued to kill. That way were the kau that fed those who lived in the Temple, or were being hosted.

"Andromache?" she was a bit surprised by his question, and gave it a moment of thought as she led him past the third set of the braziers that lit the path up to the temple.

The temple itself was spotless white. It had always mostly been. It was not worn with time in any way but the paint gone from what could have been sculptures above, that now blended in against the outside. She had remembered it seemed so rough when she first came here, but love and care had led her to see it was not a ruin, it was still strong and sturdy, the roof was still whole. There were no leaks or massive wounds in the temple but for in the catacombs, in the hole through which the Kraken waited. Unlike so many ancient temples, the inner walls still held, the doors still closed. The beds in the living quarters were long-ruined, but the frames and furniture held true.

But he had asked a question. "Part of me already is her. Reincarnation and all. I envy her, but what I remember of her, she would have envied me. Would have loved this modern world. The television would have fascinated her, and you wouldn't have been able to get her out of silk. But she never got the luxuries of modern society. She was a slave, and then a warrior. There was no time for softness. I wouldn't want to... be... that. I wouldn't mind being more like her, but I think that would take things from me that I'm not willing to give."

He went for a wander as they entered the temple, and Scylla did not stop him, instead making her own way along the perimeter, trying to see if there weas anything new she could remember. Nothing sprang to mind, the small ritual growing increasingly futile as weeks went on.

"Memories are troublesome even when they're from your current life," Jada agreed easily, "Much less bringing old ones into it."

She let her hand linger over spotless white walls, knowing that were it dark they would dance with her touch, flashes of light arcing through the coral.

"I suppose it would depend on who you're asking, if a planet is valuable. I don't know if it has any ability to give to my powers, but if something happened to Scylla... what would happen to me? Sacrificing it? Out of the question. It doesn't belong to me to even consider it- I belong to it, instead. I was born on earth, but my magic wasn't."

"I don't find it sad at all. I own many things, and some of them I may actually get to keep and enjoy now and then, but this is something I can be selfish with. I belong to it, but I am the source of its life. As I grow, so will it. There is nothing on Earth that relies on me so much- not my children, not my job. And as Scylla grows, what might happen that I can share with Earth?"

It's a shell.

"You should have seen it when I first came here," she murmured, "I would have agreed with you. A terrible place, a chunk of scattered ruins. Barely... What, 1000 miles surface area? We have cities that are bigger across that it will be. I was so terribly disappointed."

She pushed at a door, grabbing a flashlight. "But Scylla showed me something. It showed me a glimpse of what I was, once. Let me show you?" she held out her hand to him, waggling manicured fingers.

He did not move to join her, and she offered him the flashlight.

"These are the catacombs. Inside are rows of... almost like the terracotta army? I suppose that is the best way to describe it. Past that is the chamber where the previous Scylla were buried, and in there is a hole in the wall, which leads to the view I wish to show you."

Fear was easy to read. She'd seen it on his face before, when he was a different man, and remorse flickered across her own expression. "I will let you lead, or I will move slow enough you can keep hold of my ribbon, if you don't want to hold my hand. I don't have a better angle to show you what I'd like to, unless you want to swim."