When Stars Fall (NaNoWriMo22)

Prologue

Humans are brutes. Morons, more like. The most selfish beings I have ever watched. Out of all my sisters and brothers, I am the only one to think so. They said, "We've watched them evolve for far longer than you. Keep watching. They might surprise you." I never could understand why they held such fondness for them.

And so, I did exactly as they said. For over two millennia, I watched these humans do atrocious things to one another. Wage wars, conquer, murder, rape. One after the other, I saw men of power fall into the same predictable madness. But, amidst it all, I also saw hope and love and courage. I tried to hold onto that. I tried to hold it closer to my heart as I observed their kind. That is, until the Wall of Beyond was built and the humans on both sides of it began to explore worlds beyond theirs. One filled with science and the other with magic.

A bright new kingdom grew from the dust in Beyond and not long after, a grand monarch was exalted and proclaimed King. While the mortals outside of Beyond search the skies for the natural sciences, the ones inside of Beyond waited the time for Stars. For the first time in our existence, we were being hunted. Witches from every corner of Beyond surfaced from the woodworks seeking our blood. My faith in humans wavered and darkened as I watched sisters of mine get butchered every hundred years.

Which leads me back to my thoughts on humans back when I was a young star all those years ago. Humans are morons. Brutes, even. I think about that as the old King of Realm Beyond set his remaining sons on a quest for Kinghood. What of it? It shouldn't be a problem of mine. Those were my last words before I saw the jewel this dying King threw out of his balcony hurtling towards me, hitting me square in the chest and ripping me away from the sky. The last thing I remember thinking was how it was exactly a hundred years since I last saw my older sister, Maraynia, before she too was dragged away from the sky.