Drops of Starlight

Chapter 38: Did You Sail Across the Sun?

💫 Drops of Starlight 💫
By Strawberry Moon Rose
🍓🌙 🌹

I'm finally getting some sleep! I hope I can focus a little better now (well, focus as well as someone with ADHD can, anyway) and get chapters out closer to the original weekly Moonie Monday schedule. However, my chapters get longer the further into the story because there's more going on in each scene. Towards the very end, a handful of chapters are two, three, or even four times the length of what you're reading now. So if I don't update, I'm probably still editing and I hope the length will make up for it.

As always, thanks again for the comments! You guys make my day, for real. I hope everyone had a fabulous summer and is enjoying an almond milk pumpkin spice latte while wrapping themselves in a Taylor Swift cardigan as the autumn leaves fall down like pieces into place. Oh wait, that's what I'm doing. 😅

Last chapter was depressing, I know. It was sad to write, even though I saw it play out before I even wrote chapter one and knew it was coming for a long time. This chapter is a little better. Kind of. Okay, not really.

On a happier note, there's a drawing of Queen Keika on my instagram story highlight. Last week (09/20/2021) I posted a sketch of Sailor Xenon too. I go by taylorlynn.art

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Chapter 38: Did You Sail Across the Sun?
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In the dimly lit hall, Usagi got it all out of her system, leaving her feeling entirely depleted as the tears dried. Healing Nephrite from Xenon's curse earlier had sapped her strength. Staying mad at Seiya was using up the little energy she had left.

Usagi pulled back, wiping her puffy eyes on the back of her hand. She knew she had to look like a complete wreck at this point. The last time she'd cried so much in one day was when Mamoru left.

The fresh image of Nephrite kissing Naru goodbye hung painfully in her mind. It haunted her, leaving a bittersweet ache in her soul.

"He was a good man after all," Usagi said.

Seiya nodded. Some time settled between them. It served as a moment of silence for Nephrite, but also as a loss of words for each other. Even Chibi-Usa, sitting proudly on her own beside them, remained quiet.

Usagi studied the Queen's starseed in Seiya's hand. It hovered in her palm, its glittering golden hue with a flaming red center mesmerizing her. Even Mamoru's golden starseed hadn't shone so vibrantly.

"Will you," Seiya began, then cleared her throat. "Help me release it?"

Usagi nodded. She hovered her hands around the royal starseed with care. It pulsed a steady hum of warm, foreign energy. The only word to describe it was blissful. Usagi recalled floating beside Galaxia, sending the array of starseeds off into the Universe. All the while, this one never made it back to its rightful owner.

Usagi focused on the task. With a gentle exertion of energy, the starseed responded to her lunar power. A peachy hue billowed from the sailor crystal as if the sun itself had squeezed into the house.

Usagi picked up Chibi-Usa from the floor and took a cautious step back.

Out of the corner of her eye, Usagi saw Seiya take a deep, nervous breath. How must she be feeling, when her Queen - whom she'd last seen perish under Galaxia's attack - was about to finally return right before her very eyes?

Usagi touched Seiya's hand instinctively. The Starlight glanced over, her expression contorted in a mixture of emotions that nearly broke Usagi's heart in half. Somehow Seiya was even more beautiful basking in the light of her home planet's imperial power.