Megrez had gotten free of Benitoite’s clutches eventually, thanks to the intervention of two very brave idiots. Yes, those idiots were her friends, and having two of them evened the odds, but Sailors Sadachbia and Makhaon still could very easily have gotten killed. Megrez gave them a half-hearted chewing out once she was taken to safety, but she intended to give them a whole-hearted chewing out later, especially Makhaon. A basic senshi should never do something that would draw the attention of a General that would happily kill or corrupt them in a heartbeat. She knew that firsthand.

Then again, Benitoite seemed oddly uncommitted to doing much with her and Carmen. Maybe she’d lucked out.

In any case, after taking a week or so off to rest and begging her boss for mercy (which he gave, thank goodness), Megrez knew what she had to do. She felt absent as she went to her favorite nook to power up in, her only thoughts being longing to sit in the grass of the homeworld that shared her name. She pressed the planet transfer app on her phone, listened for the familiar song of her planet, and then all blurred as she was whisked off through space.

When the setting came back into focus, Megrez stood not in grass, but on a busted stone path. She mentally groused about how unpredictable the planet transfer placement was, but she recognized this place as the capital city of her past self’s home country. Up the path, she saw a fountain with the country’s signature egg in cup emblem, and something about seeing it again set her heart aflutter. Unable to hide a smile, she sprinted up to the fountain. When she got there, she wasn’t sure what she expected, as the fountain was empty and cracked. No visions of the past greeted her either. Still, the sight of it produced a bubbly euphoria inside her, possibly due to it being vaguely familiar after all the pain and isolation.

She looked up, and what appeared to be a ruined cathedral towered before her. It wasn’t that she hadn’t noticed it; more like it had just come into focus. Her next destination made itself clear. She’d heard bits and pieces about her past country over time, including about the priestesses involved in its religious system, but not enough to piece together much about its role in the big wide world.

Upon entering the cathedral past the doors long pushed off their hinges, Megrez found what she sought. Melantha was speaking with a man Megrez had not seen before, some kind of official from the looks of him. Melantha was standing with the large scar on her face towards Megrez, and seeing it always gave Megrez a pang of sympathy. The rest of the scenery shifted as well, appearing to be under construction.

“I can’t say I expected to be part of a religious reform,” Melantha said. “I appreciate your efforts towards giving the Senshi more prominence, but I feel like there will be dangerous consequences, both expected and unexpected.”

“If you’re thinking about the randomness of senshi discovery and incarnation, that won’t be a problem,” the man said. “The Archbishop of the new church can be as much of or as little of a figurehead as is needed. If the next senshi is less than ideal for a role model, public speaker, or leader, we can just have someone put words in their mouth.”

“So it’ll be a position that’s constantly changing in terms of how much real power it has? That seems counterintuitive, useless, and dangerous.” Melantha’s lips were pursed tight with displeasure. “Tell me this. If I were still that plucky farm girl with the giant scar on her face, would you let me have any power at all? Or would I just have to say what you thought every day?”

Megrez did not get to hear the answer, as the vision faded right then. The intrigue of Melantha becoming some sort of archbishop was a great lure, but she knew better than to expect to be able to trigger any sort of coherent vision on demand. Past life visions were a crapshoot on the best of days. Sucking in a breath, she gazed at the crumbling walls and holes in the ceiling and noticed one small thing out of place: a door was still standing even though the wall around it was almost gone. Upon closer inspection, the door had an egg-shaped indent, and remembering her adventure games, Megrez took that to mean that something went in that indent to unlock the door. (Never mind how it was still standing after 1000 years and a possible Chaos apocalypse. Magical reinforcement was Something, all right.)

Suddenly, Megrez’s songstone popped out of subspace, and it seemed to fall sideways into the divot in the door, where it stuck. The door seemed to shudder and glow gently, and then malfunction and fall down (away from Megrez, fortunately) with a massive thud that made her jolt despite herself. Grumbling, she walked over the fallen door to try and retrieve her songstone, but no matter what, it would not come out. A mild pang of panic struck her at the thought of losing its pleasant ambient tones, but she figured she could try again to grab it some other time.

The room behind the sealed door was largely empty with the exception of heaps of faded papers, broken cases, and overturned tables. Something important had happened here, though it was unclear what such a thing would be to merit a magical seal. Megrez stood around for a moment, waiting for a clarifying vision, and got nothing. The sunlight gleamed off something and reflected into the corner of her eye; when she turned to investigate, she noticed the one thing still intact in the room.

A crystalline egg with a golden liquid inside was laying on the floor. Megrez went over and scooped it up, admiring its facets and how unmarred it was by time. The top unscrewed a little, and then it came off. She sniffed the golden liquid inside, and it had a sweet, flowery scent. Here she was confronted with a decision: should she drink the 1000 year old mystery potion? If only there was a way to check blessed/cursed/uncursed.

Shrugging, Megrez decided to drink the mystery potion. She poured a little into the cap, and then it was bottoms up. After a few seconds, a sensation not unlike the wooziness of cold medicine washed over her. The residual aches and pains in her body from her misadventure dulled, then faded, which was nice. Through the fuzziness, she concluded that she had discovered a healing potion of some sort, or more accurately, medicine. She leaned against a wall and slumped down, enjoying the fuzzy feeling and lack of pain.

However, at that moment, she became aware of a tingling sensation along her skin, and what felt like a mental itch. This was a feeling she recognized from when she first transcended all those years ago, though the mind itch was new. She looked to her arms, and where there were once blue feathers, golden crack-like markings now gleamed. The itch subsided, and she became aware that the nature of one of her abilities had changed, namely that of her Eternal attack. It seemed that, instead of the unwieldy egg bomb intended for crowd control, she now had the ability to encase someone in an egg. Very interesting.

When she looked up, she saw Melantha and the strange man once more. “We’re proposing a new symbol, one more fitting for unity than the egg in its cup. Now we will have an egg, hatching with potential.”

“Or maybe it’s just cracked,” Melantha quipped.

The vision flickered, seemingly flipping to another point in time. “I have devised your offering to the people,” the man said. “This is an elixir that can heal minor to moderate wounds, at the cost of some clarity for a time. We will mend the cracks in this world, will we not?”

“It would be nice,” Melantha muttered. “I suppose this is my equivalent of sacred wine then, even if it’s not alcoholic.”

The vision vanished once more, leaving Megrez alone on the floor once more. She noticed that Melantha seemed bitter, drier than usual, almost as if the romance of her position in life was wearing off. It worried her a little, and she wondered what caused the transformation in her happy-go-lucky and endlessly devoted past self. She remembered Elliot, and how his betrayal and Melantha nearly killing him didn’t seem to break her; something new was at play in this stage.

It was too much to think about with her head like this. Sighing, Megrez let her eyes drift shut, basking in relaxation and letting her planet’s energy help her heal.

[Word count: 1480ish]