[center]* * *[/center]

The falling star returned to Lex, extinguished yet still breathing.

A fine mist of particles pattered on Whisper's skin. Unfiltered sunlight took on a pink tint as it blazed through the ring's thin and living atmosphere. The familiar smell of gaian plankton fell into place around Whisper's body.

There were new beings here, she saw. Things of living corrosion, forged of meteors and burning like stars. Clouds of life swam around them, tiny imagen trailing symbiotic nocti, feasting on their excess light as they sat still.

[b][i]Our stellar remnant returns,[/i][/b] said one, in a radiation tongue utterly foreign to that of the Sorority. [i][b]Yet where is the core that brightened its dust?[/b][/i]

As she drew closer, Whisper saw that the being had a human face, wrought from bands of pitted metal. But the resemblance was lost thereafter. Its body was too large, too warped, as if its artisan had gone mad in the crafting. This was Jvanic territory; Here, beauty multiplied.

The being let her pass. It seemed to be meditating. Whisper saw others as she went. All bore a similar whirled style of metalworking, all bore marks of the human semblance they once held. All were far too large, twisted into bizarre yet perfectly symmetrical clumps and discs and towers. And all had been deeply worn and rusted.

[colour=LightCyan]"Whisper!"[/colour]

[color=613c3c][i]Melody,[/i][/color] thought Whisper. [color=613c3c][i]Melody, my niece.[/i][/color]

The inklet drew near, near enough for the Big Sister to wonder at how much she'd grown. [colour=LightCyan]"Whisper, why are you so... Dim?"[/colour]

She made a 'no' motion and flew on. But others came.

[colour=Honeydew]"She's so dark..."[/colour]

[colour=MistyRose]"What happened to her?"[/colour]

[colour=Lavender]"Why is she carrying that... Shell?"[/colour]

[colour=LightYellow]"I wonder where she's been."[/colour]

[colour=LightCyan]"I wonder what she's tasted!"[/colour]

[colour=BlanchedAlmond]"...Does she know?"[/colour]

The shoal quietened. The last voice was Dust, Whisper's grandchild.

Slowly the voices resumed, and more joined them. The shoal swelled. A hundred brilliant dyes, and one drop of sepia.

Another shoal was approaching. At its head was a Sister as big as Whisper.

[colour=Lavender]"Whisper!"[/colour]

[color=613c3c]"Stellar,"[/color] said Whisper finally. They embraced. The prodigal sister was home. [color=613c3c]"Stellar,"[/color] said Whisper again. [color=613c3c]"Where's Wander?"[/color]

[colour=Lavender]"Whisper..."[/colour]

Whisper held her so close she could have crushed her.

[colour=Lavender]"Whisper, she..."[/colour]

Whisper dissolved through her and cradled herself, holding her own head, gripping as if to tear. Stellar tried to peel away her claws, but she was too strong. All Stellar could do was hold her.

[colour=Lavender]"...She's gone."[/colour]

Whisper crushed herself into a ball of knives and teeth, and for a long time knew no more.