IC Date: 09/01/2025

In the days since she’d first felt the all-encompassing embrace of Tempesti, the planet’s guardian had passed many of her hours wandering the blooming streets of the ancient capital. The plants she’d begun to nurture months prior, when the sun could barely coax the smallest sliver of green from the exhausted ground, had spread and sprawled across the sandy soil that held their roots. Hildegard, as the senshi had dubbed the strange chicken-like entity that had once been that little lavender wisp, seemed almost equally enthusiastic about the new growth, though her interests veered more toward the culinary than anything else. Mingled with the gossipy cackles of the not-quite-hen, the sibilant chorus of new life drifted across the pale cobbles as she walked toward the gently lapping waves of the harbor. The gleaming roof of an unfamiliar building had called to her from below the palace complex’s steep perch.

It was a long ride down, navigating the winding avenues and less precarious looking of the canals’ well-aged bridges until she arrived at the cluster of crumbling docks, boathouses, and what appeared to be long empty vendors’ stalls that lined the edge of the water. Though many of the piers and wharves had collapsed into the bay during some unknown point during the city’s long centuries of abandonment, it seemed as though several had followed the example of their counterparts in the canals and risen from the shallow water. Motion carrying a metallic glint caught Tempesti’s eye from the end of a row of low, stone structures. What might have been part of some ancient stable was now the overgrown home of a small troop of merrily cavorting animals. The senshi managed to stifle a delighted gasp at the sight of the odd little beasts. She had no name for them but they bore a passing resemblance to leopard geckos, though their glistening orange scales and feathery wings were notable ways in which they diverged from their earthly counterparts. Dropping carefully onto a slab of stone, Tempesti decided taking a break to watch these precious newcomers was more pressing than hurrying toward the larger object of her curiosity. There was plenty of daylight, and she could afford to spend a few minutes with her new friends.

Hildegard interrupted her insistent pecking at the stony ground to perch on Tempesti’s shoulder as though to remind her of the work she had to do, though she suspected that she and the chicken had different definitions of what entailed “work.” That boathouse(?) wasn’t far, so she really couldn’t justify lazing about any longer.
Unlike the other covered docks along the waterfront this one clearly served as some sort of defensive structure, though the passage of centuries left its fortifications less than entirely intact, as evidenced by the state of the heavy bronze doors. One of the patinaed slabs lies prone against the stone of the entryway. Salt-pocked age obscures details of the reliefs on its standing companion, but whatever force had sent it to the ground spared it the worst of what the Tempestine elements had to offer. Half of a woman she recognized as Basileia Arete Spyros held a sword aloft against a starry sky, a horde of faceless soldiers eagerly awaiting her command. Wrinkling her nose slightly, Tempesti stepped around the door into the silence of the fortified dock.

As her eyes adjusted to the dim light cast by the vaulted ceiling’s pale crystal lanterns, her gaze settled on the boat anchored in the hidden dock. By Tempesti’s estimation the pale golden vessel was maybe twenty feet long and six feet wide. Closer inspection revealed intricate engravings across the entirety of its body, windflowers and animals resembling winged fish ride the wind among stylized waves. Bright, warm light drew her eye to the water beneath its hull where she could see several large, glowing crystals, the source of the power that drove this vessel, no doubt. Long, crystalline, wing-like attachments projected from the ship’s sides, dipping into the water and at its prow stands a large glass lantern housing a golden crystal.

A large stained glass canopy covers the area over several low benches attached to the floor and at the helm stood a gracefully shaped podium bearing what she recognized as a control panel.

The girl stood between the soldiers who had led her from her home, small frame trembling violently despite the summer’s warmth. Desperate screams, entreaties, and attempted bribery still echoed in her ears. A family desperate to keep their youngest child despite the taint that lived within her, soldiers calcified in ancient superstition and terrified of what might hide behind the façade of a frightened teenager.

Their presence was as necessary for her protection as it was to protect the people from her.

Sailor Tempesti.

Heir to Sotiria’s ruinous soul.

Stories of Tempestine senshi dying in all manner of horrifying ways to protect the planet rose unbidden in her mind as the city’s population massed along the roads. Even as they ushered her into the boathouse and sealed the doors, her imagination ran rampant with every horrific scenario that could play out should that bronze barrier fail. Trying to shove aside the phantoms that threatened to overwhelm her, she instead stared at the woman manipulating whatever powered this oddly elaborate vehicle. Seated in the ferry she was barely aware of the motion beneath her through the tremors that threatened to shatter her jaw. To the Tower of the Winds and whatever lay within.

Tempesti shook her head as though to dismiss the memory and rid herself once more of Elysia’s fears and stepped into the gently bobbing vessel. This time. This time her hands were on the controls.