On the first day of the Zodiac Year.

The girl awoke with the light of a star of whose name she did not know. In fact, it was a name she had no reason to know, for she had been asleep inside that crystal for nearly a thousand years. Still, it came, bidden or not, to end the senshi’s long stasis — Archideus. Even the ancient star maps did not list it, but it would be the most significant for its effects on the long dormant asteroid in the center of the Sol System in which she resided. It would call her to Earth soon, but first it shined on the tiny asteroid— Urania.

When she emerged from the crystal, it shattered, as if it had only been able to hold itself together this long by force of will. Her bare feet were cold upon the large star-patterned mosaic that was inlaid in the floor. She looked about the ruins and found a small shard of glass that reflected her form. Her hair was a mousy brown. She immediately touched her hair with pale fingers in shock and looked up.

The senshi’s blue starry eyes almost did not recognize her home. For the first time in all her memory, she did not stare up at a dark sky made for stargazing. Instead, she found a sea of light. It was the Sun, but she was unaccustomed to it. The Veil must have broken.

She scrambled up an old staircase that now lead to nowhere. Still, it would give her a good view of the landscape. Her world.

The Wilds were the closest to how she remembered them. A vast forest of crystalline trees. She could see them from a distance. Perhaps this meant that not all had been lost? She looked upon the land from her perch. There were pieces of the land floating in the air. Everything seemed to be held together from some kind of magical gravity. Either way, she’d have to jump if she wanted to get across.

Star’s Step! She whispered her spell and three solid stars appeared at her feet. They connected her to the next landmass, hanging in the air as it was. She jumped on each star like a bridge across space before they disappeared.

Being in the asteroid belt meant being amongst many, being connected even if one appeared alone. Still, this asteroid was smaller than most and more distant still. The landscape was shattered in a way a place would be if it endured centuries of assault from space. Even the place where she had awoken — the Castle — was in ruins, a shell of its former self.

But there was something she must check on. She did not know how long she ran or how far, but now that she stood at its base, she knew something was deeply wrong. The meteorites that used to shine — the fallen stars — they no longer glowed. They were a great many of them stored in the subterranean cavern under the tower, but not a one shined. When she returned to the surface, the door was barred to her.

The Observatory — why was it not open to her? Her star maps, the telescope, the dome — even Aether! They were all closed off as if they were turned off. The fallen stars… they must have been all used up while she was gone. Perhaps if she could collect the stars as she had done in the past, she could access the tower again.

Everything was either dead or closed to her now. She remembered her past. She knew her present. She did not know what the future held.

That strange light that awoke her. It had been leading to Earth. Would she find a future there?

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