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When had Erytheia first noticed them?

For the starseeds, the answer was quite simple. He’d found one on his first visit back to his wonder after the Star Mount Beacon had activated. It had just been floating there, plain as day. As if finding a starseed on Erytheia was the most natural thing in the world.

Well, at least according to his ancestor Yuki, it was.

Yuki had told him what the purpose of his wonder was a long time ago now. It was a resting place for starseeds on their journey back to the Galaxy Cauldron. It was one of the last stops, too. Yet even the ghost couldn’t tell him where Erytheia was in comparison to it.

But the emphasis had always been just that — was.

And that’s what brought him to the Moon Wells. They had actually been one of the first things he had found on his wonder, he had just not known it at the time. There had been little torii gates spread about the vastness of the windswept wonder, most in a state of ruin. Perhaps that is why he had never noticed what they were actually for.

It wasn’t until life returned back to his wonder that the water did, too.

———

Erytheia spared no time in bringing his charge straight to the source. What was seen by Solaris was a similar scene that he’d shown the others. Except with one main difference.

Each Moon Well had a torii gate, a stone circle and a crystal clear pool of water. Each varied in their own way, but they were all instantly recognizable. It was almost as if by design.

But there was a glowing light at the center, hovering just over the pool.

The light was purple-red.

“Ever since the Beacon lit after placing the Code Piece inside, these have been appearing at Moon Wells all over Erytheia.”

And as you approached the edge of the rippling pool, you could see now what it was.

A starseed.

“I need your help guiding this starseed back home.”




✪

At the question from the senshi, the starseed shined and hummed. Did it understand her words or was it responding to the gentleness of her voice?

“This is the first time starseeds have been found on Erytheia since I have been its knight.” Erytheia explained. “However, the former knight, my ancestor, Yuki, said that many starseeds appeared here in his time.”

Erytheia had hoped as a Deep Space senshi, Sailor Solaris may have once been to or heard of this wonder. Perhaps it was too much to wish for. Yuki had said they this outpost was quite remote and that he had rarely, if ever, gotten visitors.

“It was the duty of Erytheia to provide a resting place for starseeds on their way to the Galaxy Cauldron.”

He looked forlornly at the starseed.

“And to guide them, if — like this starseed — they are not yet ready to return.”

As if by his words, the starseed glowed brighter for a brief second and it sent a ripple though the crystal-clear water of the Moon Well.

“It may respond to you better than it has to me. Try taking to it.”


✪

“They will all be reborn again.”

A ripple fell over the water and at it Erytheia seemed to be at ease again. He couldn’t help but feel a tinge of guilt when these things didn’t respond to him, but would for those he brought here.

At Solaris’s question, the starseed suddenly blinked in its constant light. A woman appeared on the surface of the pool. Her face was like the ripples in the water, wrinkled and wise. She looked forlornly into the distance.

Across the way, there were lights. Bonfires, blazing in the night. Voices of those celebrating could be heard in the distance with much carousing.

The woman shook her head. She looked sadly into the distance. Her eyes were not human but bright and animal-like.


✪

As if fast-forwarding to answer Solaris’s question, the scene changed. It seemed to be in the same spot as before, but now the older woman was not alone…

There was another figure standing over her. The person was younger by many years. She did not slump over like the first woman nor did she have the tell-tale lines of age on her face. Yet, even so, there was something familiar about her.

Her eyes were the same as the old woman’s — animal-like and bright. She wore the armor of a warrior, yet it was covered by a robe as if she had no intention of needing it anymore. The woman looked up at her without fear, but recognition, acceptance. Their eyes were the same, the resemblance unmistakable now. They were related.

There are words, but you cannot hear them. Neither seems like anything but casual conversation. But then the younger draws a sword. The older does not so much as flinch. She stares at the blade as if she had known it all along.

The younger stabs the older through the chest and the vision fades to a deep red.


✪

“The image is clearing.”

The red color of blood had stayed for more than a minute. It was as if the pool was blood. The red had faded to purple before clearing. But now there was a new image.

There was a gravestone, alone and solitary. The black rock was in a strange shape, unlike Earth headstones. Still, it seemed to have writing engraved on it similar to what a human may do in remembrance.

‘Here lies the last senshi of ——
Slain by her daughter ——
Who ascended the throne as the new Queen with power given from the black star, ——
a power chosen by the people and not decreed from Destiny’

Some words are hard to read as if some words are in a language you don’t understand.

‘Her people, ——, chose the their own path, ——
May Chaos reign eternal.’


✪

“‘Why’ is always a hard question for these wayward seeds, I’m afraid.”

The scene changed again.

‘Happy 21st Birthday, Princess ——!’

The sign was painted in pretty colors over her door and, yet, the woman did not seem happy. She returned to her room, barely looking at the balloons and ribbons behind her door. She sat in her bed and looked up at the ceiling, her eyes starting to well into tears.

An old book lay in her dresser. It was open to a single page. ‘Senshi.’ That word is clear, but the rest is hazy. You have to read to the bottom before you see words you recognize again. ‘Awaken’. Then another. ‘Before’. And then a number. ‘21’.

The mother is there again and are the eyes that are reading the book now. She closes it and sighs. He daughter is long gone, but the bedroom looks the same. She never changed it since. She didn’t have the heart to.

Her daughter’s heart had already been broken once.


✪

“‘How’ I can answer.”

Erytheia looked over the Moon Well as if searching it for something. ‘What’ it was hard to tell. There was a part of Erytheia that wanted that answer — longed to know ‘why’. But he had been doing this long enough now, in this life and another, that he knew answering that question was not why they were here. There were many things about these starseeds he did not know. And Yuki had warned him not to question.

So, this time, he knew to look for the butterfly and saw it first as it came to rest on the starseed.

“These starseeds come here to rest. That is true. But sometimes the greatest relief a starseed can have here is simply to tell their story one more time.”

The knight held his hand out to touch the butterfly — translucent and glowing a purple-red.

“Do you know what this butterfly means? I did not when I first saw one.”


✪