Starry glass

Prologue

Sora hurried to get Trellis ready. She quickly brushed his hair and struggled to force him into nice clothes. Then she pushed him to the glass room. She tried to reassure herself that it wouldn't go like the last Star ceremony but traces of doubt kept creeping into her mind.

The Star ceremony was a festival where all the eleven or twelve year olds were picked to walk the path. In the last ceremony there was only one girl that had been chosen to be tried. She had been only ten, not the unusual eleven but she had been the only survivor. No one quite knew what had happened until they found out that the girl had been a shard. Every time there was a shard that went through the ceremony, none came back alive but the shard, and rumor had it that the shards killed all the other people there. Sora didn't know if that was true or not. If it was, she was convinced that the shards probably did it by accident.

As they were walking Sora calmly looked at her son, but the look on his face made her freeze mid step. He had the same expression his older brother had right before disappearing. Taking a deep breath Sora tried not to think of that day her oldest son Collin and how he had disappeared. She had been in misery and every time she thought of him it felt like she was losing him all over again.

"Why do I have to do this?" Trellis asked, his voice quivering slightly, Sora felt a deep well of pity. The shard that had killed everyone used to be in his school class Sora didn't know if he had met her though. Her name had been Stella. Sora frowned at him. Trellis dropped the act as soon as he realized Sora wouldn't be letting go. "Why do I have to do this?" he asked again, scowling, and portraying his real emotions. "I mean I probably won't even get chosen. So why do I still have to do it?"

She sighed at her son's obliviousness. He had to do it because the Stars told him to and the Stars ruled over everything, you can't just say no to them. Sora thought of her home on the fifth island. They had a nice cozy home because of the Stars. if they didn't have the cleared out islands then all the children would be cut on all the glass littering the ground and hanging on the trees. She shook her head smiling "it's because you are special!''

Trellis frowned at her. "No... it's because the Stars told you to, isn't it?" She gave him a forced smile but he saw straight through it. "What? am I correct?" he smirked, realizing Sora's mistake before she did. She'd given it away in her expression."Honey, you need to do this. I'm sorry that you don't want to." Trellis snorted."You don't sound too pendante," he observed, looking annoyed. Sora signed sufficiently. All of the sudden Trellis seemed to grow hostile. Sora glanced at the side where a woman in a wispy dress glided by. Sora gave her radiant smile and tried to hide Trellis's hostile gaze from the star but the Star didn't even appear to notice them. Trellis was still glowering after the Star and Sora frowned disapprovingly at him causing his attitude to grow more sour.

"They don't even pay attention to us!" Trellis examined when the star was out of earshot. Sora scowled at him disapproving of his contemptment. Trellis seemed to notice but didn't care. "I mean they don't even look at us, they barely even see us!" he looked at Sora and fell silent looking down. Sora sighed realizing she was glaring at Trellis. Looking back at where the Star had gone and she felt different this time. That star seemed to be less interested in them than the other lesser Stars that were in charge of the island that they were living on. Sora looked over at Trellis, he was still looking where the Star had gone. He smirked and looked over at his mom. "See, they didn't even give us a glance! they didn't even notice us." Trellis sighed as they reached the glass box. This was the place where they would undo everything that Sora did and 'reprepare' Trellis for the ceremony.

Trellis looked back at his mom with a scared look on his face but Sora just smiled at him trying not to portray her real emotions. She really felt terrified. Trellis didn't seem to see through her fake smile and was soon out of sight.