When she was a little girl in Radiant Garden, she had a big sister -- or someone she called a big sister, a knightly woman who played with her and taught her and protected her. She had a magic key that locked up the bad creatures where they couldn't hurt people, and when she wasn't locking up the bad things, she was weaving wonderful fairytales fitting of the hopeful young princess.

While stringing together star-shaped promise charms, over and over because Kairi just couldn't seem to get it right, her big sister told her stories of different stars; the ones in the sky, not the ones that grew on the tree in that faraway land of beaches and wishes.

Every star in the sky was a person's soul mate, said her big sister as she held up the glittering yellow-green charm she had just completed, dangling it from its string with a tender smile on her face. And whenever a star fell, streaming a tail of blazing light behind it, that meant that someone's soul mate was finally coming down to find their true love.

But, said Kairi, wrapped up in this romantic story with awe in her eyes and worry in her voice. Wouldn't falling from the sky hurt someone?

No, said her big sister, shaking her head as she dropped the yellow-green charm to a startled gasp from Kairi, only to catch and cradle it safely in her free hand. Not if their soul mate is there to catch them.

Kairi eventually forgot all about this tale and her big sister, waking up in a faraway land of beaches and wishes with two boys and a promise charm that she didn't know she knew how to make. It wasn't until a decade passed that the memories started to ebb back into her like the shore slowly soaking up the waves, and she remembered her home and her big sister and all her wonderful fairytales. She gave her charm to one of her boys, and suddenly the legend of that star-shaped destiny fruit made so much more sense, if a star was a soul mate and soul mates were people to be together forever. When she gave him her charm, she hoped it counted for something, because it wasn't a sky star or a destiny fruit star, but it was a promise star and that deserved some credit, right?

When she remembered the story of soul mates and sky stars, Kairi wondered, if a star was a soul mate and a falling star was someone coming to find their true love, what did it mean when a star blinked out and away?

Standing on the reforming island of fragmented beaches and broken wishes, holding his hand over a hungry abyss of empty space, she felt like she was going to cry; her soul mate had already fallen to her, how come he was being taken away? Was that what it meant when a star went out?

I'll come back to you, he said. I promise.

I know you will, said Kairi, because he was her soul mate and he already had her charm, and with both of them promising he couldn't go away.

She let go and it was one of the most painful things she ever had to do, more even than wondering if maybe she was too old for fairytales now.

But then stars started to fall into her cupped hands, and she tried to count, one, two, three. They were falling all around her, each one a hope or a soul mate or a promise that was rebuilding her home of beaches and wishes. She looked up to the sky and saw stars falling up, and thought that maybe if a star going out meant someone's soul mate was going away, then a star falling up meant they were coming back and just waiting to fall back down and find their true love again.

Kairi went back to that island every day, stringing together seashells and watching the sky, because when her star fell and her soul mate found her again, she was going to make sure that she caught him.