The Celestial Princess

To Ashley's grim misfortune, she grew up as an orphan in a town that hated orphans. For sixteen years, she lived under the hatred of the people around her without ever finding willing parents to love and care for her--and she is not surprised.

Now casted away from the orphanage with nary a coin to spend, she walks the icy streets like the lost child she is, struggling to survive from one hungry day to the next. For her, the savory smell of food are no less the wildest fantasies, and the stars that hang above her head every night seem nothing more but twinkling audience to her miserable life.

Now that Winter's Eve has arrived--the pinnacle of the year, where people dine and drink and give gifts--Ashley expects nothing but the frost. But when the watching heavens begin to decide, and a golden, shimmering ladder drops from the darkest clouds, she can only do so much as wonder: where in the world does it lead up to?