Starlight

Chapter 1 - Falling Star (Elysia POV)

Do the stars normally fall from the sky like this?... My vision hazed over with smoke, sparkling starlight pierces through the veil of destruction, lighting the sky up brighter than the sun itself. I think I felt my body and soul go through every emotion imaginable, yet when bathed in the light of the stars warmth, I can only feel one singular enveloping emotion... Love.

The sound of metal against porcelain gently whisks me awake, as my consciousness becomes clearer the sound of faint classical piano music starts to fill out the sound of silence. It was a nightmare, I'm home again with Mei...

"You're finally awake."

My mind jolts to alertness at the sound of such a foreign yet familiar voice. "Ergh..." I sit up carefully, my entire mid section feels like someone took a sledgehammer to it. As my vision begins to defog, it's apparent that I am in fact not home at all... And what happened was no nightmare.

"Who... Where am I?" I ask, unsure whether my brain is well equipped to handle the answer to that question or not.

"We can talk more about this later, try not to move too much. You're still recovering." The motherly voice nears closer, a blurry purple figure approaches holding a cup of steaming tea out towards me. I firmly grasp the cup between my hands and take in the sweet aroma for a moment before realizing the glass is piping hot. "Careful!" She snatches the cup away from me, placing it down on an ornate coffee table beside us. She holds my hands in hers; carefully inspecting my palms. I firmly blink the sleep from my eyes and see her clearly for the first time. She has silky purple hair pulled back behind her ears, and her eyes are like deep amethysts, the way they examine my hands with such care admittedly makes me a bit flustered, she looks so pretty and elegant. "Do I... Know you?" She finally looks up to meet my gaze, the soft smile that overtook her previously concerned expression reminds me of how crazy I probably look right now... Just how long was I asleep anyways?

"No... Not really. I found you during the Twili Invasion last month. I brought you here and have been monitoring you since... You're a stubborn one, I wasn't sure I'd get you to wake up honestly." She pushes herself to her feet and walks over to a cabinet in the corner of the room which I'm finally just noticing is massive. In the back of the room is a huge platform and the ceiling is made of a stained glass dome overhead, I've never been somewhere so beautiful... The very air about this place feels more ancient than anything I've come across.

I ponder the information dumped on me like a ton of weights before a small picture frame resting on the table across from me attracts my attention. I look closer, seems to be this girl and some of her friends... they all look so happy.

"You saved me... Wait a month!?" I ask, trying to recenter on the conversation.

She shuts the cabinet door and turns to face me once more, this time holding a roll of bandages and a bottle of ointment. "I suppose you could say that-" She pauses and sits down beside me and begins applying the liquid to my palms before wrapping them in gauze. "But you could also say you saved all of us."

What does she mean? I try my hardest to recall what happened that day, all I draw are flashes and glimpses of Mei, the explosion, the purple haired girl carrying me away, and... my mind begins piecing together the form of someone before a sharp pain strikes me in the temple, washing away anything I'd remembered about them.

"Don't over exert yourself to piece everything together so soon. All that matters now is that you're safe..." She says warmly, tying the ends of the gauze into a bow.

"I was asleep for that long?... And what happened to everyone?" I feel tears welling up in my eyes subconsciously, I don't even need to think about her for it to creep into my thoughts. Deep down I knew what happened to everyone, I saw it with my own eyes.

"Whatever happened in that crater I found you in... It did you in. I'm surprised you woke up as soon as you did, luckily the medicines and spells I've used had an effect after all..." Her purple hair blows behind her gently as she makes her way over to put back the things she retrieved from the cabinet. "And as you can likely surmise... There were mass losses. This Twili Invasion is on a scale larger than anything in history. It's almost like... Ah, well I suppose I'm not at liberty to draw conclusions so soon."

"So you're serious? There really was an alien invasion? I thought maybe I made that up in my head... Surely it was just a bomb or something.." My voice trails off a bit as I try to make sense of things, granny told me about Twili but there's no way those bedtime stories were true?

Suddenly the memory of Hana and the monster who attacked me in the alley come back to me as well. This isn't a bad joke, these things are real.

"They're not aliens... not particularly. Twili are something more akin to spirits, they're manifested by the dark nature of humanity after all, and they've existed here longer than you or I... And I'm quite old you know." She says that last part with a mischievous smirk before taking her seat in a big plush chair adjacent from where I was lying. Surely she's joking, she's got to be in her 20's...

"I know this must be a lot for you to take in right now. Rest up dear because we have a lot of work to do, okay?"

I nod my head dizzily, even after sleeping for a month I still feel so fatigued. I have a billion questions to ask but can hardly muster the energy to keep my eyes open. How did I survive the blast, and what's more... Just how many 'losses' were there exactly? The hectic stirring of bad thoughts slowly dissipate as I drift to sleep, tomorrow I can finally get some answers.