Stardust

A little late and poorly formatted as I'm on mobile, but thank you for inviting me!

They were stars, once.

The night sky is littered with streaks of aether cascading from the heavens. It dissipates as it falls to the surface, their echoing voices ringing in her ears.

Kallian used to take her to Eryth's shores, back when they were younger. When she was small. She was still small, but the weight upon her wings only grew heavier and heavier.

"The falling stars are the wishes of our people - of all the peoples of the Bionis." He had told her as she stared wide-eyed at the stars, reaching in vain attempts to catch one. Catch it, that it might become true.

Only now does one fall at her feet, aether not yet fully dissipated. She reaches for it, but it fizzles out before her fingertips can even brush it. It crumbles away with a shattered sigh.

She doesn't want to think what it would mean if these little manifestations of ether were truly stars. If they were wishes, as her brother had told her all those years before.

Falling, fading, with few to hear their final moments.

No, such a thing would be much too heartbreaking. They were simply ether.