The Book of Gemma -Apocalyptic Fantasy Romance-

CHAPTER 1: DARUS

Hello, I am Gemma Knox... and I have bound my very being to save every one of you.

My kind were called Starzithains who have been hiding among the species known as humans, a planet so untouched and unmapped in the corner of absolute nothingness. A planet named Fierita.

We were Gods, threatened with death if we were ever found in the galaxy. Our design was similar to the humans except for the marble smooth skin, the godly swiftness in our actions, our emotions having a cap that wouldn't cloud our mind with quick reactions or false judgment, our eyes burned a pink hue which I've been told comes from the stars our ancestors consumed. It was passed down that our ancestors were consuming planets one by one. Sucking the very life out of every resource the planets had to offer until they drift into a pebble.

My kind was once known as solar destroyers.
Our strength was far superior to other inhabitants on these planets. Our intellect grows each day, always giving us the upper hand. Our fingers burn from the glow touching the temples of others, being able to share memories and knowledge; My father Kyo and my mother Zion have taught me this art, not stealing from minds but only giving. Our fingers illuminated a warm soft yellow glow when they gave precious memories or knowledge, they wouldn't dare teach me the dark art of taking. They had told me the ones who take from others minds would shove nightmares back into person's skull, their fingers blackened like they had been dipped in soot, ice spreading up their hands from the vile act. They say most people would die from scratching out their own eyes, not knowing dreams from reality. Some solar systems had heard of our doings and designed weapons to keep our kind at bay. Many of us were hunted down, and for good reason at that. To successfully kill us, you would need to have the power of a star to explode in our hearts. They wanted us mutilated across the galaxy, crashing mountains on top of us, pouring lava over our bodies for weeks, sinking us to the bottom of the oceans, to make our kind disappear like the abomination they claimed we were, anything they could do to weaken us enough from destroying their planet.
Then they succeeded.
Not by using the energy of a star but to drain the star from our very bones. Leaving us as fragile as them. Enslaving us, torturing us... mutilating us.
We were no longer safe to soar through space.
We needed to hide.

We have tinkered with this device to lay low with the humans,
pendants that swung around our necks, draining most of our star.
It pulled the bright glow of our eyes to a dull hallowed dark shade, our skin no longer giving a warm smooth glow but now fragile flesh that could be penetrated by a thorn, our fingers no longer glow with the power to manipulate matter, grow food from the soil, pull the moisture from the clouds, or give life to the ground. Our strength pulled down the scale to only allow us to lift a boulder instead of mountains.
There was one talent that only a few Starzithain could do, myself included.
My father told me it was a rare birth defect but I found it to be my most useful one.
I could feel every person's emotion, anger felt like pricks and needles within my skin, anxiety feeling like suffocating, heartache or loss feeling like your ribs are made of glass and your skin as fragile as a sheet of paper and joy feeling like a warm blanket wrapped around you as you watch a sunrise.
My favorite sadness, feeling like you are floating down a lukewarm stream with a light gray sky above. It was beautifully peaceful, so raw and real that something could physically show it on the outside.
That was one skill that the pendant couldn't take away, it wasn't my star's power, it was my physical mind and body that gave me the defect.

We had found the deepest corner of space where only a few solar systems lie. The human's technology barely gets them to their own moon. At first we studied them, learning their habits, their language and their appearance.
Not wanting to forget our own culture, we still wore our icy white hair in braids down our back, my father pinning my front braid back with a pin encrusted in gems that reminded me of the stars. My mother was always jealous of it, wishing my father would shower her more in gifts from the sky. I was his little Starzithian princess, telling me that no man will ever deserve my kind smile.