Once, long ago, Yumeiko served a Goddess. An actual Goddess, not the facade she maintained for the sake of offering guidance. Ever since that day, she could no longer feel Inari's presence, or that of any other deity. Without any higher power she could trust, she took it upon herself to bear that mantle.

Which is how she found herself in charge of a populace for hundreds of years. Over the course of those centuries, they found the thing the divine had left behind, to guide them on their path into the future.

At least, that's what she told her people. She believed it, or at least she wanted to. It smelled like them. Like Her.

The sky-blue crystal - it responded to life, to strong desires. Clumsily, they could create with it. Yumeiko found that it responded to [i]her[/i], as well. She could commune with it. With time, she learned to draw sacred power from it, to wield it and speak with the gems that grew from trees. She could use it to create prosperity for her people, and so she did.

Her colony of people met with others who had discovered the same novel resource - but their discoveries had been different. They wore the gems from the trees, and some had with them a mote of light or a thing that looked very much like a fairy that accompanied them.

They called it Aevon, their companions Aeva. Together, they learned and grew and became something greater. Scattered settlements became cities with trade to offer each other. That trade created natural prosperity, and as their needs elevated, the Aeva responded. Mere centuries had passed since the Terran Empire had been ground to dust and forgotten, but already were they raising ships worth of the stars above. Great beasts of crystal and living wood. Metal had been molded around them to form armor, but crystal or wood had to be exposed to properly emit energies.

Yumeiko's shrine-ship was constructed like the shrines of old, interlocking wood forming distinct silhouettes and sliding paper partitions. Around the shrine, a ship had been formed. The Aevon already worked into the bones of the shrine melded easily with the new vessel to carry it, and together with the First Fleet of Gaia, they rose to space to face the threat the Aeva felt waiting.

They were greeted in orbit by a mass of Scourge. They fought, and won, though it had not been lossless. Already, Yumeiko could feel the tree at the center of her shrine-ship gathering the souls of the dead.

The battle was over. Their ship had taken hits to the shielding - they held, but the impact had been rough. The blond fox woman felt it her responsibility to check on her... "guest".

Yumeiko's eyes slowly drifted across the quarters aboard her shrine-ship she had dedicated to the woman in question. She was the sort to keep to herself, which was fine. It was not a problem to care for a body or two - their resources were enough to sustain everyone. She had at least learned the woman's name - Miyuki. If the duration of her stay with Yumeiko's people gave any indication, the woman was an entity not unlike herself, so there was plentiful reason to give her space if she wanted it.

Indeed, Yumeiko had come to see if her guest was alright. Yet what was the state of this place? While she could see some things had been jostled, knocked over across the impacts, she found that a difficult explanation to swallow for the level of mess she beheld. Not just a mess - rubbish! Left about in [i]her[/i] shrine! It would have been one thing if it were some eccentric collection of pointless statuettes or posable figurines, but these containers were meant to be recycled, not hoarded!

The spirit fox had forgone a retinue, which she counted as a good decision. She wouldn't subject anyone to this. At least there didn't seem to be anything rotten. The blond stepped carefully through the rubbish and other miscellaneous items, following her senses to find the woman she now needed to confront, and not just check on.

Once she stood at the other side of the door, Yumeiko called through the partition into Miyuki's chamber, "Miyuki? Are you alright?"