Stardust

Stardust: The purest of all elements; the life force. The only thing keeping me alive.

*** {Narrator}

The world is made up of stardust. It is the blood in the veins of the universe.

It is also nearly completely depleted. Exhausted.

***

I am the only remaining source of stardust. The only souvenir of the Ancients’ War.

*** {Narrator}

The Ancients’ War was eons ago, centuries of light years past. The war started when the oligarchs began to confiscate the bottles of stardust, the most important medicine on Baex. The world descended into chaos. It was the flora and fauna first: the kingdom’s prized fairy-dust trees, the golden stallions, the houses—their essence gone like the bottles of stardust that had made them into existence.

Everything was connected. The water and food supplies were next. The people resorted to violence and theft, ransacking every last crumb, every last drop. It was mayhem. Houses burned to ashes, as if they had been obliterated by pools of lava. Crystal shards rained down, impaling thousands into instant statues of ice. The very atmosphere of Baex was caving in, doubling down on itself. There was nothing anyone could do.

***

I don’t know what happened. It was all a blur, a tiny fragment of time. But the effects loomed for longer than just a flash of time. Even today, a hundred and thirteen light-years later, no one has found answers. There is still nothing anyone can do. After all, I am the only survivor remaining. It has been that way for a light-year-century. Today is the anniversary of my sister’s death. She was the last person to die in this war. My favorite sister, Elid. I called her E.

*** {Narrator}

For years, the raids continued. Houses burned. People died at the hands of the planet. Screams filled the air, coating towns and cities like blankets of death. For twelve years, E and her sister Fae had been surviving—since the raids started till present day, seven long years after every other form of life had been snuffed out.

They had thrived on dying weeds and animal scraps. They were lucky if they could find even a pinch of stardust. Laex and E would share it, savoring it for months, feeding of the energy to survive.

In the end, however, it was of no use. E knew she was dying. So, she made her exit. She did the right thing.

She died thirteen light-years after the war’s start. Laex is still alive. Somewhere. Maybe.

*** {Narrator}

E is dead. She’s been dead for a century of light-years. She knew she was going to die. She was only human. The remaining stardust wasn’t enough to keep her alive.

But Laex was special. She IS special. E knows she’s still alive, she has to be. Even the tiniest scrap of stardust could heal her. It could become a part of her. It CAN become a part of her. It HAS. Because E can still feel her pull, begging her to come back home.

But E will not.

***

I wish E was still alive. I know what she did. I know how selfish I am to try and bring her back to life. I know why she left. But I don’t want to believe it. Any of it.

*** {Narrator}

E valued life, cherished it. But she was not afraid of death either.

E knew what she had to do. So, she did it. In the name of love, glory, and power. In the name of moving on and rebuilding. In the name of living. In the name of Baex. She did it for herself, too.

Yes. I did it for myself.

***

At times I hate E. And then I hate myself for hating her. I know it’s time to face the truth. I have been hiding for far too long.

It was a stormy day. The clouds were a dark blue ringed with grey. Lighting flashes adorned the sky. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

Me and E were had been wandering in search of a village. We hadn’t eaten since a week and were out of stardust. E had been shivering. The stardust wasn’t healing her like it was me.

She knew it too. We had crossed nearly every village on Baex, searched everywhere for something, anything, that could help us survive. I remember the feeling clearly: feeling so scared, so uncertain. We were the only people left. E kept on reassuring me that everything would be alright. I didn’t believe her. The nearest planets, Deba and Huj, was too far away. We would need stardust we didn’t have to even hope of reaching Deba.

For the past few days, E had been tired than usual. She slept for hours at a time and dragged her feet.

Her clear green eyes had turned cloudy. Her dyed gray hair had turned a natural shade of grey. She was dying.

I think back to that moment almost every. Single. Day. Her body disintegrated into stardust as she quietly faded away. She’d floated away, gone.

In her place was a single blue heart. Her locket. My trembling hands had dropped it twice before I managed to open the latch.

Golden dust had flown through me. Stardust. I heard E’s voice: Deba. Avenge me.

The stardust had swept me off my feet. I gasped as it spun me around, forming a barrier around me. The lighting faded to pink and yellow and the deafening thunder lapsed into silence.

I was on Deba. All alone with only my sister’s locket.

***

It took me a light-year to understand why my sister had left me her locket, two light-years to decode her message, and five to finally gather the courage I needed.

I was going to lead a revolution. And I was going to need all the help I could get.

*** {Xove}

Meteors were raining down all over Deba. It reminded me of Baex, how I’d fled it, almost a light-decade ago. Houses were on fire, villages raided by desperate people. Those people now lay dead in the street, meteors lodged in their bloodied bodies.

I took in all the lifeless forms and panic clawed its way up my throat. I was the only survivor.

***

I had been working on relocating more stardust as fuel for the revolution when the sky lit up. It had started as a clear blue day, but now streaks of red were flying through the air, igniting buildings. Screams filled the air, forming a blanket almost as thick as the smoke, which cut through my throat.

Through my open window I could see people fleeing for their lives. They rushed towards Al, the nearest village near the river.

I slammed my oak door, using a miniscule supply of stardust to double my speed. I couldn’t risk anyone knowing I had stardust—they would kill me—but I couldn’t risk not using it either; I would be trampled to death.

*** {Xove}

I’d left Al behind. I was a deserter, a nobody, once again, but I couldn’t stay there—there was nothing left. I had to move on again.

I left once the meteors stopped. On my way, I saw dozens of bodies littering the lakes. They were all people who had rushed here for protection from the cities, for water and for food. The illusion of safety.

I had been walking for hours. My world had begun fading, black seeping in my vision. I stumbled forward, tripping on a rock. I needed to keep moving, to escape. But I didn’t have the strength anymore. I couldn’t keep moving on, not after everything.

I’d let go of my wife’s death. I’d kept on moving even after my world had collapsed, after my daughters had been left behind in the chaos of Baex.

My sweet Elid. My sweet Laex.

They were dead. It was my fault.

My world went black.

***

I’d finally made it to the river. It was littered with bodies. It reeked of blood. It’s water was a dirty red. I was—

“My sweet Elid.”

I whipped around. A man stumbled on the ground.

“My sweet Laex.”

The man’s eyes fluttered. He drew a ragged breath.

For a split second, he looked at me. His eyes widened. I shiver rippled down my back.

“Fa-at-t-her?”

***

I couldn’t believe it. He’d died. In an explosion of stardust. I could still see it. The stardust had enveloped him, glowing hotter and ho…

The stardust hadn’t killed him. It had saved him!

*** {Xove}

Pale green eyes loomed an inch from my face. They reminded me of Laex. I thought it’d heard her, before I’d collapsed.

“Father?”

There it was again. I was going crazy. Or maybe I was dead. Was I dead? I took in my surroundings. I was in a bed in a plain wooden room. There was a desk and…a girl. She looked Laex’s age, no older than Elid.

“You’re awake!”

She stepped closer, and her face snapped into focus.

I fell back in bed, raised a trembling hand towards her. She was real. My daughter!

“Laex?”

A tear slid down her cheek. She was so beautiful. She nodded, her chestnut hair tumbling down her shoulder.

“It’s me.”

*** Epilogue ***

Laex laced her fingers through Xove’s. She whispered to him, and he smiled. It was so nice to see him happy. I couldn’t remember the last time he smiled.

Beside me, Elid laid her head on my shoulder. I drew her in for a hug. My sweet daughter.

I thought of everything our family had been through. We didn’t deserve these past years, these struggles, these sorrows. The simple question of: how long till I die?

But we had emerged. Laex and Xove had avenged us by surviving, making a new life, rebuilding from ashes. They had a new life on Deba. A fresh start.

The storms had stopped once Laex and Xove had found a way to unleash the stardust once again. It had fixed everything but the broken families, the only thing that couldn’t be rebuilt. But perhaps those families weren’t so broken.

I looked at Elid, Laex, and then Xove. Perhaps we weren’t broken either. We were separate, but still together at heart.

Laex opened Elid’s blue locket. Stardust spewed into the air, forming into lifetimes of memories. Into the form of out perfect family. It was time. I clutched Elid tighter. My darling girl. I tugged at the blue locket around my own neck. Stardust spewed out again, coating both of us, merging into a pink and yellow sky. Into Laex and Xove.

Into a family. They ran towards us, crushing us in a hug. I met Xove’s eyes and smiled. I knew what he was thinking: together at last. Finally reunited.