Prologue
They met on the high hill, far above the world, beneath a sky struck with the dazzle of stars and a white, waiting moon.
Together the goddesses looked out beyond the castle shining on its own fair hill, to the dark glass of the sea.
"Two stars found, and held safe." Rose lifted her face to the sky in joy, in thanks. "The fates that be chose well with the six. The guardians' own hearts are strong and true."
"Their test is not finished," Maria reminded her. "And what they come to face will need more than true hearts."
"They will fight. Have they not proven themselves warriors, sister?" Sina demanded. "They have risked. They had bled."
"And will risk more. I see battles to come, blood to spill. Marley and the evil she created want more than the stars, more than the blood of the guardians. They want annihilation."
"It has always been so," Rose murmured. "In her heart, it has always been so."
"They have weakened her." Sina put a hand on the jeweled hilt of the sword at her side. "All but destroyed her. Without the human she turned, they would have destroyed her."
"Did we not think the same," Maria reminded her sisters, "on the night of the queen's rise, on the night we created the stars?"
Maria stretched out her arms, and below, on the edge of the great sea, the images of what had been shimmered.
"A night of joy," she continued, "of hope and celebration. And we three conjured three stars. For wisdom, forged in fire."
"For compassion," Rose added, "fluid as water."
"For strength," Sina finished, "cold as ice."
"Our powers, and our hopes, in a gift to the new queen. A gift Marley coveted."
On the beach, white under a white moon, the three goddesses faced the dark one. As they sent their stars flying toward the moon, Marley lashed out, black lightning, to strike them, to curse them.
"And so we cursed her," Maria continued, "cast her into a pit. But we did not, could not destroy her. It was not for us, this duty, this task, this war."
"We protected the stars," Rose reminded her. "They would fall, as Marley had cursed them, but we protected them. When they fell, they would fall in secret, and remain hidden."
"Until those who came from us bound together, joined in the quest to find them, to protect them." Now Sina's hand tightened on the hilt of her knife. "To fight, each and all, against the dark. To risk all to save the worlds."
"Their time has come," Maria agreed. "They pulled the Fire Star from its stone, gathered the Water Star from the sea. But the final tests of the quest wait. As will Marley and her army profane."
"Whatever their powers, whatever their gifts, the six face a god." Rose pressed a hand to her heart. "And we can only watch."
"It is their fate," Maria said, "and in their fates live the fate of all the worlds."
"Their time has come." Sina reached out, took her sisters' hands. "And with it, if they are strong and wise, if their hearts remain true, may ours."
"The moon runs full, and so the she-wolf howls." Maria gestured up to the comet streaks arching through the sky. "So they fly."
"And courage flies with them," Sina said.
"And there!" Rose pointed across the wide, dark sea where light bloomed, then fired, then quieted. "They are safe."
"For now." With a wave of her hand, Maria dismissed the wavery images on the beach. "Now begins the future."
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