Chapter 2
Notes: The boo-boo song, with some variation, comes from Cocomelon. If fit Kaya too much not to use it.
Trying to cling to just a bit of her pride while still leaning on the smaller woman's shoulder to walk, Setsuna refused to admit how much it hurt even though the grimace caused by the jostle of the elevator clearly gave it away.
"Can you take aspirin?" asked Kaya as the elevator stopped on the fifth floor of her building.
"I don't need…" began Setsuna only to be cut off by a doubtful look from Kaya. "Yes, I can."
"Okay, that's one question answered."
They moved slowly down the hall to the corner apartment, Kaya fumbling in her backpack for her keys when they stopped at the door. She directed them inside, telling Setsuna not to worry about her boots before toeing off her own shoes and turning the two of them into the washroom right beside the entry nook. "Do you think you can scoot up onto the washer? The height will make it a little easier."
Hesitantly, Setsuna eased herself on top of the washing machine that was tucked between the sink and the wall. She took the pills and tumbler of water that were offered and silently watched as Kaya pulled supplies from a box beneath the sink.
"This is going to sting quite a bit when we start," warned Kaya with a great deal of apology in her voice as she set a bottle of alcohol beside the gauze pads and tape she had laid out on the edge of the sink. She produced a pair of blunt nosed scissors and traced a finger lightly along the tear in Setsuna's uniform to begin gingerly separating fabric from dried blood.
Leaning back on her hands to give better access for Kaya to work, Setsuna gritted her teeth. Her face scrunched up as much from anticipation as actual discomfort. Then a soft hum touched her ears and one eye cracked open.
Kaya's expression was focused and intent, her lips just barely moving as she repeated a children's rhyme in a gentle singsong tone. "There, there bunny, it's okay. I know it hurts, wipe your tears away. A bandage placed with care and light, will make your boo boo feel alright." She grinned up at Setsuna with a steady and reassuring confidence. "Okay little bunny. It looks pretty good, all things considered. We'll finish up with the bandage, then I'll find you something to wear around the apartment. I've got a couple of event t-shirts that should fit you," she went on in a chatty manner as she tore a piece of tape and put it in place over the gauze. "They're always way too big for me, but good as sleep shirts."
"I believe I can take care of the clothes issue." Setsuna returned Kaya's grin with one of her own, a bit of crypticness in it that earned her a raised eyebrow.
"Okay," chuckled Kaya. She stood back to survey her work, then crossed her arms, a contemplative frown touching her lips. "I have to ask simply because I don't know. If you did have an emergency, could someone tell you're… different?"
Sitting up a bit straighter, Setsuna shook her head. "Nothing in my physiology is noticeably different from yours. There are some genetic tracers that would identify me as Plutonian, but human technology isn't sufficiently advanced to find or interpret them."
Turning over that bit of information while quickly assigning it a red mental tab, Kaya reached to remove Setsuna's boots, but was stopped by her holding up a finger. Hold on a second.
With a bit of help, Setsuna eased herself off the washer. She had Kaya stay in the washroom to watch through the doorway and moved herself back into the short hall. Enjoying herself far more than she should and adding just a bit of flare to the action, she allowed most of her power to fall away. A hazy, pale light wrapped around her, her uniform and its accouterments phasing into shimmery dark ribbons that unraveled in a dusting of glitter, leaving her civilian form in their wake.
Kaya blinked and rubbed at her eyes. The damaged uniform had been replaced by a sleeveless, cream-colored shirt dress accented with a wide leather belt hanging loosely around Setsuna's waist. The boots had disappeared, leaving behind wedges that emphasized their height difference even more. In the haze of the fading light, a pair of golden discs dangling from her ears gleamed and reflected back in the garnet of her eyes. Dear lord, those eyes. They were absolutely gorgeous, dancing with amusement undoubtedly at her expense.
"Have I actually rendered you speechless?" asked Setsuna around a soft laugh.
Yes. Yes, you have.
With a small cough and a shake of her head, Kaya chuckled. "That's a pretty handy ability there." She turned away and made a show of gathering up her supplies. "Why don't you go get comfortable in the living room? I'll finish up in here."
Keeping that hint of a playful smile, Setsuna placed her shoes beside Kaya's before moving down the short hall and turning left into the living space. There was a small galley kitchen with avocado green cabinets hanging over a breakfast counter giving a view into the living room. A triple paneled pocket door that took up most of the wall between the bedroom and living room had been left fully open to create a crossbreeze between the balcony doors and windows, late night city sounds drifting in to join with the whir of an oscillating fan. The main room was anchored by a small, velvety brown couch and barrel back chair, both sitting on stubby chrome legs that looked too skinny for their weight. A naked kotatsu sat in the middle of the square they created, its feet lost in a shag throw rug that was the same white as the paneled walls. Chevroned pillows tossed on the floor and couch added pops of yellow and green that carried over to a single modernist painting hung almost absently on the wall. The two bookshelves that flanked the tall windows, however, were anything but absently thought of, the shelves crowded and double stacked with books in varying degrees of wear. The overflow of books trailed to an old radio cabinet in the corner and the milkcrate of LPs beside it. The small tv on top of the cabinet was sandwiched in by paperbacks, with more piled on top of it propping up the tinfoiled antenna.
Setsuna's mind registered the lack of family photos and knicknacks as she found a spot on the couch and eased herself into it. She was shifting one of the pillows, trying to find a comfortable middle ground between her wound and the bandage tape, when her hand brushed a magazine shoved in behind it. She pulled it out. Not a magazine, but rather an amateur tome, Secret Chocolates - Spring printed in purplish text over a line drawing of two girls blushing madly at each other while little hearts danced over their heads.
She was flipping through it, enjoying the short story she was reading, when Kaya came bustling in with two bowls of ice cream and a plan. Only to stop in her tracks and start blushing just as badly as the two fictional girls had been.
"Oh, um…" she stammered. She traded the fanzine for ice cream and hastily stashed it back behind a pillow on the chair before sitting down. Without looking Setsuna in the eye, she muttered bashfully, "I'm… a member of that club, too."
Setsuna allowed a few moments of silence to tick by as Kaya tried to hide behind her ice cream. Then she nudged gently, "What was that you were saying when you came in?"
Kaya licked some mint chip off her spoon, then resumed her thoughts with a bit of hesitancy. "I was wondering if you had someone with you wherever it is you're staying."
Now it was Setsuna's turn to stare at her ice cream. Stirring it lightly, she answered, "No. My teammates aren't currently available."
Kaya nodded, biting on her bottom lip a second before she let her next thought escape. "So I was thinking you could stay here tonight, take the bed and I'll stay on the couch. Don't just automatically say no," she added quickly, cutting off Setsuna from doing just that. "Obviously you know how your body is going to react to injury better than I do, but you're not in a familiar place in case you did wind up needing help. And obviously I'm hoping you'll tell me more about people being on Pluto and a giant killer squirrel in University Park."
Setsuna once again wrapped her reasoning up in the idea of damage control, because even if she stood up and left, this was not a woman who would easily let things go. If Kaya didn't get answers now, she'd go looking for them later, and Setsuna didn't want that complication. So she agreed, taking a moment to find the proper starting point as Kaya excitedly got up to find a notebook and pen. Because she wanted to take notes. Of course.
Empty bowls set aside on the kotatsu, Setsuna hugged a pillow lightly in her lap as she spoke. Using broad strokes, she explained the Lunar queen and the power bestowed on her by the Goddess. How the solar system had once been filled with thriving cultures on every planet and how the first Serenity had brought them all together, creating each planet's avatar and bringing them to the Moon as her favored Guardians. She glossed over her role, touching only briefly on how she was different from the others in her immortality and place at The Gate. Leaving out any mention of Earth as the aggressor, she told of the evil queen who had brought about the Moon Kingdom's destruction, her companions being flung forward in time to safety, and how the loss of the Silver Crystal into the time stream had sapped the shared energy from the other worlds in the solar system, leaving them to die out. She didn't explain precisely how Earth had survived, only saying that it was the place all the other planetary refugees had fled to. Which led her to the current evening's events and the medallion she was hunting.
"It's Venusian?" echoed Kaya, pausing in her scribbles. She rubbed at her eyes, feeling the late hour beginning to cloud her mind. "I feel like I need some caffeine. I'm gonna grab some cola. Can I get you something? Cola, water, beer?"
Setsuna nodded and requested water. She turned on the couch so she could watch Kaya as she moved through the apartment. "The Venusians had a deity named Alandra. She wasn't considered overly powerful, more a figure revolving around luck." She accepted the glass of water with a thank you, then continued. "Most often she was portrayed as an adolescent because it was believed she would grant you good fortune, but if she didn't receive the proper praise in return, she would turn to mischief until you gave her the attention she desired. Temper tantrums, basically, equating to bad luck. And she had a familiar - the kirkri."
"The squirrel?" Kaya confirmed as she underlined part of a note.
"Yes." Setsuna sipped her water, ruminating briefly on the task she'd had unexpectedly thrust upon her. She was unable to help the tired sigh this produced. "A few days ago, the Time Gate began… let's say warning me for simplicity's sake… of a disturbance. Usually I'm able to get a good bit of detail from these warnings simply by observing the time stream. Not this time. The Gate is being frustratingly vague about exactly what's going on."
"You think it's intentional?" asked Kaya, and with the way she held her pen and paper, Setsuna could see the mystery club crime solver coming through. All she needed was a deerstalker cap to complete the picture.
"Most definitely," answered Setsuna. "It did show me enough that I could pinpoint the medallion's location in the university's collection. However, when I went to retrieve it, it wasn't there." She leaned forward, holding the pillow in her lap a little tighter. "That thing has been on this world for thousands of years and no one has ever managed to cause any real trouble with it. Now, someone has figured out how to use it but without any real knowledge of how to control it."
"That tracks for most university students," smirked Kaya. She set her notes down on the kotatsu beside the bowls. "So how much trouble can this mischief maker cause?"
"Under normal circumstances it would just border on annoyance. But mischief unchecked can easily turn malicious." Setsuna yawned, sparing a glance to the bed in the other room.
With a sleepy grin, Kaya stood, unilaterally ending their discussion for the night. "I am going to come up with at least a hundred more questions. But I think we both need some sleep, and questions are always better over breakfast with a cup of tea."
Setsuna grinned. "Could I borrow one of those t-shirts you mentioned?"
"What, you don't have a whole wardrobe hiding in those magic sparkles?"
"I do not," chuckled Setsuna.
"Check, no magic wardrobe." She laughed mostly to herself as she moved to get a change of clothes for both of them. "I have a book on that subject you might like, though."
Setsuna only nodded, afraid of how long asking any questions about books might keep her up. She accepted the t-shirt with thanks, and once the doors were closed, settled beneath the soft sheets for a few hours of sleep.
While "alone" had never really been her true default, Setsuna had more often than not found that to be the only option available when random tasks were set before her. Not always, but often enough that over time she had come to accept this as generally being the overall best option for her purposes. It was perhaps a bit lonely, but it prevented complications and allowed her to fulfill all of her duties within the boundaries laid out before her. Knowing this, she should have said no before the thought had even been fully voiced. How could she, though, sitting there on the balcony with the earthy sweet scent of the tea tickling her senses? The comforting warmth of the cup in her hands had lulled her even more than the soft morning light and the slow whish of the neighbor's broom. The steam rose to greet her wrapped in the lilting melody of bluebirds welcoming the new day, and as it touched her lips, that first delicate sip had felt like coming home to a long missed lover.
She was thoroughly and fully seduced.
As a result, Setsuna now found herself with a partner on this erstwhile adventure. But that partner came with the promise of a daily mug of what really was quite excellent tea, so she reasoned she had come out ahead regardless.
They had spent Sunday combing over two weeks' worth of newspapers Kaya had pulled from her neighbor's incinerator pile while also getting the physical rest Kaya insisted Setsuna needed. Her wound healing to a fine pink line was marveled over but ultimately ignored when Setsuna tried to insist she was fine. Instead, Kaya changed the subject to the missing medallion. She hadn't heard anything about a theft, and when they found nothing recent in the newspapers, tentatively concluded that the university was either hiding it or didn't know.
A corner of Setsuna's mouth turned up. Kaya's eyes had lit up at the idea of a real mystery to solve. That it involved an ancient alien artifact was just a bonus, though she'd been too polite to overtly voice that particular aspect.
Now back at The Gate and standing in a circle of smoky mist, the ever-present hum of time hanging in the background, Setsuna watched the creation of said artifact. As history projected itself onto the mists, a Venusian artist dropped a magnifier over her eyes before etching the pointed dancing flames of a sun into a disc the size of her palm. She then encircled the sun with the kirkri chasing its tail, the words to a prayer immortalized along the edge. Orange and yellow powders were worked into the details of the sun and a touch of gold was placed as highlights. The kirkri she chose to leave colorless, save for the yellow gem chips used for its eyes. It was an intricately beautiful piece, and the artist's pride showed as she presented it to the high priestess.
From there, Setsuna watched the medallion go from blessing, to treasured and worshiped, to nearly destroyed as the temple crumbled. The desperate moments of a young acolyte played out as he rescued what objects he could before fleeing to Earth with his people. The medallion and the people flitted through the centuries, repeatedly lost and found, the knowledge of who they truly were given up to time, war, and the assimilation necessary for survival. The yellow gems of the kirkri's eyes were stolen, and the brilliant colors on the medallion faded away until, as a final insult, it was written off on an inventory list, sealed in a metal box, and left forgotten on a shelf in the university's museum storage.
Two decades had passed since, and if the projected snippets of history had followed through, the next thing she should be seeing was the person taking it from its box. Instead, the projector refused to focus, giving her movement without form and color without detail. The only image she could even vaguely make out was a flash of bouncy pink pigtail, and since she was quite certain her thief wasn't a toddler…
With a frown of frustration, she waved her staff through the mists, quickly dissipating them. Kaya had asked to do a bit more research before they went snooping in the art history department, and the library would be opening in about two hours. Just enough time to enjoy a cup of green tea with her new partner.
Kaya opened the small jewelry box on her dresser, smiling widely at the square photo taped to the lid. "Morning, mama," she began, a touch of excitement in her voice as she contemplated what pieces would get the look she wanted. "You will not believe the craziness I've walked into. And this woman I've met. I'm not even sure how to describe her yet other than fascinating." She chuckled to herself as she fastened a silver four-leaf clover around her neck, enjoying her own humor in the choice. A triple-banded silver ring was placed on her left index finger while her right pinkie got a tiny green stone that matched the colors in the paisley print of her sleeveless shirt.
Turning from side to side to inspect her image, she continued her conversation with the photo. "She's letting me help with this mission she's on. I'll tell you about that later. We're running over to the library to do some preliminary research this morning. Well, preliminary for me, anyway. So I'm going for 'intelligent and isn't afraid to say so, but not an egotistical know-it-all.' What do you think?" She fussed with the headband holding her hair in place, then nodded in approval. She smiled one last time at the picture before reaching to close the box. "Me, too."
Important to remember - Setsuna likes tea. More specifically, she likes green tea on the balcony. Her entire bearing changes and relaxes. And she tolerated the frozen waffles. Strawberry jam helped.
Kaya filed that away, mentally tabbing it in dark green for "personal." As they walked across campus, she pulled out the garnet tab that her mind had labeled "mission."
"How are you tracking it?" she asked as their conversation became more focused and circled back to the kirkri.
A slight frown worked its way into Setsuna's response. "I'm heavily reliant on the Time Gate to put me when and where I need to be, though I can sense when certain disturbances occur and find my way to them. True tracking, however, is more a forte of the others. Any one of the three would be extremely helpful right now."
The white "team" tab popped up, and Kaya scribbled a note in the mental margin to come back to "three" later.
Nervous excitement speeding up her words and putting just a bit of bounce in her step, Kaya returned, "Hopefully the library will give us some more good points to check out." She tugged at the backpack slung over her shoulder. "I've got two packs of highlighters and enough coin rolls to qualify as a small bank, so we should be all set." Before Setsuna could ask why they needed coin rolls to do research, Kaya looked up at her with a crooked grin. "Thanks, by the way, for trusting me to help with this."
Setsuna returned the grin. "I'm glad to have the help."
Then they were there, and Kaya was flashing her student ID to a bored looking brunette seated at a cramped desk by the door.
"Let's pick a private spot and then I'll go find Suoh to pull some film for us," said Kaya quietly, finding them a large, empty library table to spread out at. She let out a good-humored huff. "I know he's around here somewhere hiding from his responsibilities."
She spotted him hunkered down behind a return book cart, his shaggy dark locks falling forward into his face as his full concentration was put into his sketchbook. When she stepped into his light, his blue eyes looked up and mock-glared when he realized it was her.
"Ishida," he intoned, sounding like he was addressing his mortal frenemy in a midmorning duel.
Kaya smirked and waved a stack of microfiche request cards at him. "Mizuno."
Suoh closed his sketchbook with a defeated sigh. "You do know it's summer break, right?"
"I do," returned Kaya. "This is a personal project."
He stood reluctantly, taking the cards from her. "Only you." Then he paused in his dramatic reluctance when he saw Setsuna across the room. Both eyebrows shot up and he chuckled. "Well, hello. Personal project, huh? Hey, the manga club is having a party Friday for anyone still on campus. Bring your new girlfriend. The guys will be jealous as hell, and I've got a new 'zine you might like."
Cheeks warming, Kaya shook her head, "No to the party, yes to the 'zine, and not my girlfriend."
Suoh answered with a chuckle. "Like I was 'not your boyfriend' for 2 months, or…"
"She's just a research partner. Hence all that film I need you to pull."
He looked down at the stack of cards. Local newspaper, school paper, and club newsletters - all of them - going back a year. "This is going to take a while."
Kaya flashed him a thousand watt smile. "Then you'd best get on it."
She left Suoh to grumble about the bad draw he'd gotten in the work study program and rejoined Setsuna at the library table. "Okay, I've got that part started."
"Is this what you wanted?" asked Setsuna as she slid a list of root terms and keywords toward Kaya.
"Perfect!"
List and pen in hand, Kaya walked over to the large card catalog. All polished wood and brass, the thing dwarfed her as she stood before it like a warrior about to draw a sword on her Goliath. A rickety stepstool as her companion, she licked her lips in anticipation, cracked her knuckles, then went to work. Her notes and numbers were scribbled down, laying out a tree of information that separated the roots of importance from the leaves of things that seemed a passing curiosity. She tried to avoid the rabbit hole threatening on the periphery, but did jot down a few titles off on the side for later examination. Along with one or two things just for fun.
When the last drawer closed, it was with an air of accomplishment. She had a clear map in front of her and was ready to unbury her treasure. She stepped down from the stool and saw that Setsuna had pulled over a chair. The quiet patience she wore was appreciated. People tended to get annoyed with her when such things took full hold of her attention. The soft smile aimed at her, though, was a curious question mark.
Setsuna, for her part, was content to sit and observe. She knew well enough what a card catalog was and how it worked, though the concept had been antiquated even in her distant childhood. While she would have preferred the efficiency of Mercury's computer, to see someone go about the search was quite interesting. Especially as snippets of conversation Kaya held with herself touched her ears. And when she'd hit something of particular interest, the conversation would stop and she'd bite on her lip, her eyes lighting up. Nimble fingers, the nails painted with pale pink polish, pulled drawers and played over cards as if they were a fine instrument, the charm around her neck catching the light as she moved. Setsuna wasn't going to admit she'd noticed that little good luck clover. Then a drawer closed with a sense of finality. When Kaya hopped down from the stepstool, her eagerness was palpable.
Together they gathered the first set of books and a few newspapers that hadn't been scanned to film yet, organizing them out on the table. Kaya laid out her space with notebooks, pens, and highlighters, each in their own specific spot. Just as she was cracking the first tome, Suoh appeared with a box of film cards.
"You hit your limit, Kay," he said, managing to sound exhausted. "Bring these back, and I'll get you the rest."
"Thanks, Suoh," she responded absently as the box was slid onto the table between them. When he didn't immediately move away, she looked up at him in mild annoyance.
Getting what he wanted, he flashed a roguish grin and a wink before stepping away.
Kaya rolled her eyes. Feeling the question in Setsuna's stare, she sighed. "We went out for a bit last year when I was trying out the manga club," she admitted reluctantly. "Then about the time he called me an uptight control freak and I told him a legitimate life plan didn't involve living out of the back of his Isuzu, we realized we're better just being manga buddies. He keeps me in fanzines, and I tutor him when his grades drop low enough that he cares."
Setsuna let the subject go, as it wasn't relevant to their current task. Instead, she turned her attention to the microfiche cards. Like the card catalog, she was familiar with the various forms of it from seeing projections in the time stream, but had never had the opportunity to put her hands on it. She voiced this along with her curiosity to try out this method of viewing captured time.
"I like that phrasing," returned Kaya, one corner of her mouth turning into a thoughtful grin. "It feels warmer than the way I think of it, usually as some project I'm only trying to complete. I forget these are real people on the pages and not just random bits of information I'm trying to break down."
"It isn't always a bad thing to approach it that way," offered Setsuna as they chose a machine and Kaya placed three rolls of coins beside it. "One must often put aside the personal in order to appropriately complete a task. Become too distracted by the cute and fuzzy visage and one chances getting shredded by a hungry kirkri."
With an amused huff, Kaya agreed, their conversation becoming momentarily distracted by instructions on how to use the microfiche viewer and why she needed coins. "Yeah, my tuition apparently doesn't cover copies. But anyway, I've been warned since deciding on my major about the need for detachment. Still, I feel like there's a fine line between that and the need for some type of connection because, well… sometimes you just need to cuddle the cute squirrel because it's cute."
That earned her a chuckle. "I can't argue with that. And I admit I've found myself in those moments from time to time."
Kaya smiled wider, fully charmed by the way Setsuna's laugh shone in her eyes. "Getting back to our friend, the killer squirrel, go ahead and print out as much as you want. I can get more coins if you go through all of these." She gave the notebook and pens she'd set on the desk a little pat. "Just wave at me if you need help or are ready for more film."
Setsuna nodded, then set about her task.
The first hour had been a bit fun, like having a new toy. She learned the idiosyncrasies of the machine as her senses played with things she had only previously viewed second hand - the delicate feel of the film cards, the tiny print when it was held up to the light or the blur of it as she tuned and turned the dials, the plink of a coin as she dropped one to print a page, and the onerous groan of the printer as that copy was produced. Even the distinct smell of the printed page held a certain fascination.
By hour three, the newness of the experience had worn off. She'd found her rhythm with the machine, and in discovering the unique voices of the campus population had begun to better separate out moments of interest. Occasionally she'd glance over in Kaya's direction. The young woman would disappear from time to time and return with another pile of books or a few copied pages. At one point Kaya had looked up from her reading, met Setsuna's eyes, and with a huge grin mouthed I have a million new questions.
As hour five wound down, and she'd finally gotten through all the microfiche, she let out a long, relieved sigh. She'd jotted down a few notes on some things she wanted to go back and reevaluate, but her shoulders ached and her eyes burned. A part of her was ready to leave the humans to their fate. She would just wait for Mercury and her computer to reenter the world and hope the kirkri's mischief hadn't leveled the planet by then. How humans managed to accomplish anything meaningful with their antiquated forms of information sharing was a wonder to her.
A hand on her shoulder refocused her. "Did I leave you too long?" asked Kaya, an apologetic half grin on her lips.
Setsuna shook her head. "I think you may have come just in time. I was about to give up on you all as a species."
Kaya laughed. "Please don't judge us by our university clubs. I beg you. But it looks like you got us a lot to look through." She tapped the large pile of print outs and notebook. "Let me get my mess cleaned up, and then we can go back to the apartment. Get organized there then maybe go out for pizza? What do you like on yours? I have to say I think plain cheese really gets overlooked. It's way better than it gets credit for."
The little goddess kicked an imaginary pebble as she ran about in the starry, infinite vastness of her space. The timing wasn't quite right, though, and the toe of her golden slipper caught a wisp of cosmic dust. She let out an "eep!" as she tumbled forward, her arms cartwheeling and tangling in the gauzy orange of her tunic before she caught herself, somersaulting once before deciding to just float the rest of the way.
Flitting about in playful patterns, the shimmery yellow of her hair leaving a faint trail behind her, she called for her familiar to keep up. The kirkri trilled, its pace quickening as its feet ran over an imaginary plane at its mistress' side.
When they stopped, Alandra dropped and rolled, finally coming to a sitting position and laughing at her game. Her kirkri imitated her, chittering merrily as it climbed into her lap and settled against the silky material of her leggings, its tail swishing golden glitter around them. The goddess reached down and gave the kirkri's head a pat before releasing a deep breath.
Back to business.
As it was, Alandra didn't much like what the universe had become. She didn't really know what had happened to begin this downward spiral, though she remembered the cold that had swept over the solar system when her Aunt Aylin's chosen Guardians had fallen. Then her kin had gone unexpectedly quiet. Even her Aunt Aylin was silent, though she could still feel her presence on the periphery, trying to hold her creation together.
The Lunar Guardian, the one who fancied herself a queen, had done something, the little goddess was certain of that. As Aunt Aylin's favorite she always got away with far too much. Whatever she'd done, the power contained in the Silver Crystal was suddenly gone. It had caused the solar system to unravel, and her people were calling for help from any deity that would give it as they fled to the awful world they now inhabited.
Alandra had provided for them what she could, helping the displaced Venusians who continued to worship her find the right paths for food, water, and shelter. Their praise and prayers flowed freely then, though their offerings had become paltry and, frankly, unacceptable. The circumstances were extraordinary, though, so the misfortune she'd rained down on them was minimal. Just enough to get their attention and remind them that when she led them to clean water in the middle of a wasteland, she expected more than a few figs and a pretty flower as thanks.
Along with their prayers, they had maintained the ceremonies. There were a few accidental changes every now and then, but nothing terribly egregious. Until that last Sunset Ceremony. It was the first time outsiders had been invited, and Alandra hadn't particularly liked that. Though the Jovians had brought a lovely wreath of flowers she had never seen before as thanks, so she hadn't made a fuss. With the sun disappearing behind the mountains that flanked their new home, the goddess had curled up with her familiar under a blanket of darkness and closed her eyes to take a much deserved nap.
Except this time, they didn't come back to wake her up.
Alandra let out a shudder. In her lap, her kirkri did the same, a wave of static sparking over its fur. Her wakefulness this time had come at the sound of her current high priestess' voice. The young woman was not in the least bit acceptable in this role, and her total disregard for the intricacies of the ceremonies was abhorrent. She had simply fabricated a cacophony of mishmashed words in an effort to recite the prayers, and her offerings were nothing more than pitiful leftover scraps.
Then there was her bloodline. Alandra got a headache just thinking of the muddied swamp puddle that was the high priestess' aura. The traces of Lunarian, and even the bit of Jovian, she could perhaps forgive. There was, however, no practical reason for the amount of Martian and Uranian that had been introduced. At least the young woman was still mostly Venusian, as the same couldn't be said for the other priestesses.
She really should have just ignored them that night, she thought. When they'd placed those lackluster offerings beside that paltry pyre beneath an only partially illuminated moon, she should have rolled over and gone back to sleep. She very nearly had, until the coldness of the empty solar system and the continued absence of her kin had emphasized that this wretched clutch of priestesses was all she had left, and even their feeble attempts at prayers were better than nothing.
Alandra fell back, heaving out a dramatic sigh. She rolled onto her stomach and propped her chin on her hands. As her kirkri crawled up to sit on her shoulder, she blew out a puff of breath, creating a circular viewing window into her priestess' realm. In the bit of space she opened, she watched the Time Guardian as she and the muddle-blooded Mercurian consumed something round that passed for food.
Here was another matter in which her high priestess was underperforming. She still hadn't realized the Time Guardian was here looking for them. Alandra frowned, a bit of concern creasing her brow. Her Aunt Aylin remained silent, but her presence was growing. Where were the rest of the Guardians, though? They never traveled alone on missions, yet not even one of the Lunar familiars was with Pluto. The little goddess couldn't puzzle out what game her aunt was playing, and she didn't want to accidently interfere with her plans. To do so would lead to… unfortunate consequences.
"Though I can hardly be accused of interfering if Aunt Aylin doesn't tell me what her plans are, now can I?" she said out loud. She let out an annoyed huff. If her aunt was going to leave her on her own to figure it out, just as all the others had, then so be it.
Sitting up and lifting the kirkri from her shoulder, Alandra hugged her familiar to her as she listened to the Time Guardian. She was telling her wide-eyed companion an old Lunarian tale of creation. The one with the magical pool that had allowed Venus and Moon to have their secret rendezvous behind the Goddess' back, long before she had allowed all the planetary souls to openly meet. When she got to the part about the yellow, heart-shaped bellflowers that had begun to vine along the bank of the Lunar pool, and how that had given their affair away, Alandra set the kirkri down and gave her a little scoot.
"Go and keep an eye on them. But be discreet," she warned, shaking a finger at the creature. "If you get tired or hungry, return. I don't want a repeat of that last incident. I only want the two of them in each other's path, not actively looking for a fight."
The kirkri trilled at her in understanding before moving forward and jumping through the portal its mistress had created.
Alandra stood, stretching her arms over her head. "Now how to deal with my priestess? She apparently needs some help noticing the Guardian's presence, as well as a reminder of her duties.