There's always something so damn romantic about the idea of looking up at the stars. Mortals love that crap.
Every time they lie on their backs and stare at the night sky, their minds start spinning towards other worlds, other lives and chances, as if staring long enough will answer all their questions.
"Are we alone in the universe?"
"Do the gods watch over us?"
"Will someone out there love me enough to break the laws of existence and find me?"
So adorable.
I used to think the same way once before I realized that the stars weren't some eternal audience. They're just flaming balls of plasma, compressed and burning for a few billion years until they collapse or go supernova. They're not watching you. They're not listening. They're dying silently, beautifully and they don't give a single damn whether you exist or not.
But gods... they do watch. That's the real horror.
And me? I stopped believing in stars the day my system said they were just hot gas. A fantasy was ripped open and left to bleed.
But now, as I sit here with the sea-salted wind tangling my hair and a skyline so wide it could drown a world, I think… maybe my love for stars never died. Maybe it just mutated and twisted into something sharper.
Desire.
I want to reach them. Not to wish or talk to them. I want to surpass them. I want to be the thing mortals look up to with trembling breaths, the way they once did with the sky.
The Coastal City of Asmaphaeri sprawled beneath me. The jewel of Anqerise as they call it. Massive seaborne markets float on artificial archipelagos. The harbor can hold entire countries' fleets if it wanted to. It is a city of luxury, blood money and Divines trying too hard to look humble.
Right now, I'm perched on one of the sharper rooftops overlooking the sea, somewhere halfway between a crumbling watchtower and a tech-renovated antenna mast. I like the view from up here, cose enough to hear the screams of people bartering over silks and crystallized sea creature teeth, but high enough that their drama couldn't touch me.
A shadow shimmered behind me.
"My Lady," she began, stiff as always, "why are we roaming in the Coastal City of Asmaphaeri? Aren't you a Goddess now?"
I don't answer at first mostly because the question was idiotic but also because I enjoy watching her squirm.
I tilt my head slightly, just enough to let my braid fall over my shoulder, and look at her from the corner of my eye. She is standing at attention like she thought I was going to command her to storm a castle.
"'Roaming'? That's what you think we're doing?"
Noveria shifted, looking unsure whether to apologize or double down.
"I... mean no disrespect."
"Of course you don't. You never do. You're a walking apology letter wrapped in cosmic lineage."
She blinks at that. Good. I needed her off-balance.
"The Coastal City of Asmaphaeri is the continent's largest trading hub. It is the proud jewel of Anqerise. It is where power whispers, barters and bleeds. It is a city where fortunes and futures are bought with memories, Tethers, and time. And we are here because I felt like it."
Noveria's lips parted, as if she wanted to say something intelligent.
"So... no mission?"
"There's always a mission. You just don't know what it is yet."
That shut her up for a while.
I let the silence drag, watching the stars overhead pulse against the abyss. Each one was light-years away, already dead or dying, and we were just now seeing their last messages no one ever reads.
"You asked why we're here," I say again, more softly this time. "Let me ask you something in return. What happens when one becomes a Divine?"
Noveria brightened, reciting like a textbook.
"Easy. One must try to understand their Divinity. Once they do, they are ready to go to the Islands of Inexpelcae where... wait…"
Her voice falters. The words stop in her throat like her brain finally catches up with what I was hinting at. I turn to her fully now.
"Yeah. You figured it out."
I keep my gaze on the stars, pretending I don't notice Noveria shifting behind me, trying to find her footing. She was so young, even if her eyes held.
It's strange that so much time passed that ai have a student. Seriously, immortality does stuff to one's mind...
Yet here she stood, awkward, uncertain and utterly unprepared for what I am about to say.
"We are going to stay here for a while before going to Orchestra. But I'm not feeling like leaving. This place is nostalgic."
Noveria blinks. "Why not, Master?"
I turn my head toward her, my eyes narrowing just enough to make her straighten up again.
"Because I'm waiting."
"For what?"
"My friends."
She tilts her head, visibly confused. "I… didn't know you had friends, Master."
I laugh. "Of course you didn't. It's been 200 years since I last saw them. Oh, I never told you about how Sentina Erideae came to be, right?"
She shakes her head.
"Where did I leave the last time I narrated my take to you?"
Noveria sits next to me with a smile. She's always loved my tales of Vastarael and my life with him. Who knew there saying it would make me reminisce of how far we came.
"You left off where His Esteemed Highness faked his death and slept for seven thousand seven hundred years on the moon with Dragon Queen Asenane and his daughters Shimmer and Runner Richinaria."
"Oh right. It was thanks to the Orchestral Vialex that they managed to do this, by the way. Even though it cost a lot of his energy as he slept, he made sure that his children never aged as they slept, even though they were immortal. He made himself age as he slept through so he was already seven millennia old when he woke up."
"Why?"
"Because he didn't want to rush his daughters' physical and mental development, that's why. Anyway, back to the story, we are actually at the right place. This very City is where Sentina Erideae reunited after five years since they left Erna Isles and the First Epoch Cycle."
"Really, master?"
"Yup. I guess we have a few hours to spare. Afterwards, we'll meet someone in the Inexpelcae Islands and greet them. Alright?"
"Okay, Master Phaenora!"
"You're awfully excited. Anyway, five years had passed since the First Epoch Cycle. They had agreed to meet in this very City to go to the Islands of Inexpelcae for their Sacred Trials..."