Welcome to Gaia! ::

When the message had first come through she almost ignored it, almost. But it was from another senshi, through the phones each senshi had so it was as secure as it was going to get. It wouldn’t be a scam or a trick and it sure wouldn’t be a trap. So she had answered and to her surprise, and with time, she had come to realize that while she was physically and magically strong she was still lacking in quite a bit of knowledge. Especially when it came to homeworlds and the things that were on them. She had never really given it any thought. To her, her homeworld visits consisted of cleaning the palace, documenting the artwork, and just general upkeep of the complex of buildings she knew was the heart of Antares. She hadn’t actually explored outside of the wall that protected the palace complex. She hadn’t even tried.

It wasn’t like she had avoided it on purpose either, she was just busy. Real life was her main focus. Her family, her child, her job. Being a senshi had truly become a secondary focus for her. Even her homeworld visits were less frequent now but she was curious. Curious to see what this other senshi would think of the buildings. Curious to know what else was out there on Antares. Was it all desert? Or just in the area of the capital? Were there other towns, cities, mountains, lakes, rivers? What was her little ‘star’ in the vast sky like? So after a lot of texting, and even more wrangling of schedules, a time to meet up had been agreed upon. And after traipsing across the bitterly cold city to meet up with the younger senshi, Antares quickly shepherded him to her homeworld if only to get out of the cold.

The blinding sun hit her first, followed rapidly by the oppressive heat. They had arrived at the same point she always did, in the center of a huge courtyard with a black obelisk spearing the sky even as tall worn statues line the space. Antares quickly adjusted, already shaking off the feeling of movement that always came with space travel, and nodded at the other senshi. “Welcome to Nbwniwt,” She greeted them even as she indicated the expanse of buildings around and in front of them, the towering stacks of stone that were once decorative statues lining the sandstone path up to the large building in front of them. There was very little greenery in the wide open space, just sand and stone, but Antares knew that in the complex of buildings in front of them there were pockets of plant life… or there had been at some point.

Behind them, the statues continued until they stopped just short of two imposing monoliths of stone and the wall that was attached to them. If your eyesight was good, and the weather was better, one could see the city, just barely, as the ground dipped down. A mass of brown and tan smudging the horizon. Physically separating the palace complex from the rest of the city was yet another wall, much thicker and taller than the one around the courtyard. Much more imposing with a closed and barred gate made of wood. Antares absently glanced behind her before focusing on the structure in front. “Come on. Let's get out of the sun.”

As they moved into the buildings Antares eyed the space, noting a few spots that had let sand drift in. She would have to pull out the broom. So much of her time there was spent cleaning, it was both rewarding and endless. The wind cut the unbearable heat but it also carried dust and sand on it. It was a never ending fight just against nature. But the Eternal senshi was also mostly doing upkeep at this point. She spent a lot of her time on her homeworld now either working in one small garden or ‘transcribing’ the murals. It wasn’t official or anything but she was slowly drawing each one she could find, the sketch books filling one page at a time. “The city?” she asked absently as they walked down one of the many halls, its windows overlooking the central courtyard. “I haven’t really been.” The blonde stepped over to the opening and eyed the distant brown smudge that was the city. For a split second it wasn’t wind blown sand that obscured her view but smoke and ash.

Blinking, Antares shook her head and turned away from the bright glare outside. “I’ve mostly been focusing on documenting the artwork at this point. There are some really intricate designs and after that I figured it would be best to work on recording the statues and pottery. A lot of them are damaged but I want to at least sketch them.” She shrugged and felt a strange twist of emotion tighten inside. “Sadly my time is rather limited here. My life back home really requires the majority of my attention.” Even now she had left her daughter home with her husband to show Aberdonia around. “There are only so many hours in the day and I can’t live on energy drinks like you younger senshi can,” Antares joked. “Come, I want to show you one of the gardens I’ve made some progress on.” The Eternal senshi invited the younger fighter to follow as she moved deeper into the palace complex, ignoring the prickle of unease that crawled down her spine as she walked further away from the city with each measured step.

Antares contemplated the other senshi’s descriptions of their homeworld’s gardens before shaking her head, “I’ve only been able to get one garden cleaned up, all the others have withered. I’ll show you.” She guided Aberdonia to the building she mentally referred to as a chapel or a temple, tucked into the heart of the palace complex. A ‘small’ space comparable to some of the other rooms in the complex, but still quite large. She pushed open the carved wooden doors and revealed a space filled with color. Stained glass softened the harsh sun and bathed the sandstone building in a myriad of hues. Only a few, mostly intact, benches, intricately carved, provided seating while the burbling of water indicated that the shadows where the light barely touched still held mysteries.

Elaborately carved pillars held up the roof, at least a story and a half if not more by Antares’ guesstimation, and protected the murals and mosaics that were tucked into alcoves, out of any possible direct sunlight. Some alcoves just had a single mural or mosaic, others had random patterns filling the space, but the ones she liked the most were the few areas that had a water feature, the source of the sound of flowing water, that helped cool the space. There was even a spot that had a huge mural of a stylized scorpion in swirling and twirling colors. Her symbol, tucked into the shadows. Watching and protecting, not only this space but it also had guarded the locket Antares currently wore.

“This is the only garden I’ve been able to bring back to any semblance of life,” Antares said as she moved over to another set of doors perpendicular to the ones they had just entered from, revealing an enclosed courtyard. A rectangular pond in the center, columns around it, with a path circling it all. And between the path and the wall was bare dirt. The pond was still mostly empty but at least the water wasn’t murky, full of muck, and dead plants. It was clear, if sadly devoid of any plant life. The lush greenery that she knew had been meant to fill the space had been dead or a sad brown color but there were one or two hardy plants she had been able to bring back to a less sad existence through perseverance and a hell of a lot of luck. To ease the burn of the sun Antares had been able to jerry-rig some cloth canopies between the wall and the columns around the pond but it was by no means professionally done. She had mostly done it to do what she could to protect the few surviving plants from direct sun.

The garden was, or at least had been, a true oasis in the dry heat of the city. It was meant to be a calming space of plant life, and yet now…. Now it was just one more worn down part of the complex. The temple was still a place that radiated calmness. A true place for thought and introspection, but the garden showed just how the passage of time had taken a toll. “Even in areas closer to the river the plant life just didn’t survive, let alone thrive.” The blonde senshi looked over the garden feeling a profound sense of sadness at the emptiness of it all. She knew it had once been verdant and flourishing, but now it was just empty. “There is a garden by the servant’s area that was used for the kitchen but even that is-” She trailed off and shook her head.

After a little while Antares closed up the building once more and the two senshi made their way towards the side of the complex that built the most on the river. Antares figured that once Aberdonia saw the state of the muddy and sluggish flow he would understand just what she was dealing with. Rather than take her guest back through the buildings they had just traversed she took him a slightly longer way, a path that ran between the palace wall and the smaller wall that circled the courtyard they had arrived in. They were in the sun more but if they hugged the inner wall they would be mostly in the shadows, Antares just happened to speed up some as they approached the towering gates into the city proper. She didn’t look at it closely, didn’t want to see the chips in the wood, or the stains that still permeated it in places. She didn’t even acknowledge the much smaller door, a wicket door, wasn’t fully closed. She practically speed walked right past, a chill running up her spine even as cold sweat prickled her forehead. She always hated taking this path, but it was still one of the more direct ways to the river side. It was either that or spend even more time winding through the buildings.

“It’s possible,” Antares hesitated in her answer but it wasn’t until she looked behind her that she realized the younger senshi was already going through the small wooden door that was inside the much bigger, thicker wooden gate. The small wicket door that allowed a person out into the city… or into the complex, rather than opening the much heavier gate every time. But Antares wasn’t thinking about the strange little door, or the odd title it had… or how she knew what it was called, no, she was thinking about how Aberdonia couldn’t go out into the city. How it wasn’t safe.

The blonde didn’t even hesitate, she rushed after the other senshi, her body working on adrenalin and instinct only to drop to the sandy covered stone as soon as she crossed the gate’s threshold. Out cold. Her last true memory was an illusion of screaming, fire, and blood… all of the blood. The city on fire and its people being cut down in the streets, overwhelming her to the point where her own mind shut down. Dragging her into the blessed void of unconsciousness.

Unlike the brief ‘vision’ that Antares ‘saw’ before passing out, the city that stretched out from the gate was empty. Sun bleached and sand scoured, but all with the air of violent destruction. The more opulent buildings close to the palace wall still showed marks, their stone marred and pitted. Faded from the passage of time but still there. Still marking a great tragedy. The further away from the palace the more burning and scorching marks became evident. Some buildings were gone completely, just a vague outline where once someone’s life existed. The debris of life was scattered, broken, burned…. Forgotten.

And in the deep shadows, where even the sand couldn’t cover. There were traces of blood, black with age. So much so that no more could be absorbed. Even the earth itself couldn’t remove the traces of what happened to those who once lived there. Horrors had happened in the city and it wasn’t just blood hiding in the shadows, where no one could see.