The moon hung high above the shrine forest, veiled in drifting clouds like a secret waiting to be spoken.
Aki stood beneath it, his breath slow, the pendant at his chest glowing with a cool, blue hue—no longer just a guide, but a mirror. It pulsed in time with something unseen… something drawing closer.
Sora-no-Ame knelt beside a stone basin at the forest's edge, dipping her fingers into the still water. Ripples spread outward, reflecting not their surroundings, but fragments of memory—her memories.
Aki watched silently as a vision rose from the water: a younger Sora-no-Ame, bound in chains of light, kneeling before the Celestial Court. Tsukihikari-no-Kami stood above her, his expression unreadable.
"You refused the stars," the god's voice echoed.
"I refused their silence," the younger Star Maiden whispered.
The vision dissolved.
Sora-no-Ame's gaze flicked to Aki. "I was once like you. But I lost my thread. My purpose unraveled."
"You still walk beside me," Aki replied.
"Because I hope you can reach where I could not."
From behind them, Hoshikiri stirred. "The moon is waning. That means the Sealed Shrine is opening."
Aki felt it too—a pressure in the air, like a heartbeat growing faster.
They followed the trail down a winding path where time seemed to fold in on itself. Ruins emerged from the underbrush—massive stone doors covered in celestial glyphs, cracked and half-buried in roots and moss.
"The Sealed Shrine," Hoshikiri said. "It holds what the gods fear: the origin of the Star Maidens."
The doors opened without touch.
Inside, the air was still. In the center of the ancient chamber floated a crystal orb, suspended in moonlight. Within it: a memory, or perhaps a prophecy.
Aki approached it.
Visions flooded his mind—ancient Star Maidens crying out against divine silence… a single Maiden who defied the gods… and in the final flicker, a glimpse of his mother, standing before Tsukihikari-no-Kami, her expression full of sorrow and fire.
"Why did she come here?" he whispered.
"Because she too was bound to the thread," said a voice—not Hoshikiri's, not Sora-no-Ame's.
It came from the crystal itself.
The light burst outward.
The chamber trembled.
And Aki heard the echo of a truth that would change everything:
Your mother was the last Star Maiden.
—To be continued—