*Please note this is an original story. It is in the middle of being edited and the next in there series is being written. I am posting here for feedback until I am able to self-publish. 

The further she ran, the harder the rain fell, and the louder the thunder became. She could no longer hear the music or the  laughter of celebration that filled the Valley only moments ago. When Finnula Astrophel reached the shimmering barrier of her territory, her eyes roamed the valley that stretched out behind her. The palace was illuminated in the darkness. She wished she had a choice about stepping past the barrier, but that choice had already been made for her. The danger had called her past the comfort of the walls she had always known. The fear of it had filled her every waking moment until she had sought comfort in it, until it was all she knew. The palace that was meant to keep her safe had harbored her fears, had fed on them since her birth and she was finally going to run from them. 

The ever present dance of starlight was hidden behind the dark clouds that filled the valley. The storm was one of the most magical things she had ever seen grace these lands, and it would soon call the attention of those gathered within the palace. The cracks of lightning across the dark night sky filled the Star Valley with bursts of light the lands had not seen since The Great Break and the rains that fell would leave fear from the trauma of the Great Flood. It would be called an omen for the new ruler's coronation. A warning from the Gods, the believers would claim. A threat from the Kings of Hel, the villages would whisper. It will cause a panic before anyone even realizes that not one heir to the Astrophel line was missing but two. They would find her father's rooms covered in the silvery blood that now stained her toes, that had dried into the hems of her skirts. It had smelt of smoke, of sulfur and panic when she had slipped through the passageway and follow the path from her youth. They would find her fathers remains in the room she had fled from. The room that she had spent nearly every evening of her childhood in. The realm that was her fathers legacy would be without a ruler by the time the storm allowed for quiet. Their people would be facing a new dawn. Tonight they would have welcomed in a new generation of the line of Astrophel Guardians, and now they would be met with an empty throne. 

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Finnula knew none of that mattered now. They would realize what had been done, and they would believe she had been lost to the dagger of an enemy. They would mourn for her sister’s joyful smile, and strong hand. And they would never know of the treason that the sisters had committed in the name of prophecy. In the name of the sleeping Gods and Hel itself.

 She would not miss this place. Despite all that she had done, she would long for the sting of her home. But she would not miss it for long. She would forget, and once she did that the stars would be nothing more than twinkles in the sky, and her life would be simple, and none of this would matter. Not to her, at least. 

The fourth strike of lightning illuminated the valley and when it went dark again, she turned and did not look back. The canopy of the forest did not save her from the harsh rain that threatened to overtake her. She ran then, ran until her feet bled into the soil beneath her. She ran until the prophecy was all she could hear. She ran until the skies darkened, and did not release the starlight. She ran until the crash of waves filled her ears, and the wet wood of the dock was rough against her soles. Finnula knew that her path was written already, she knew that the world’s future was carved with the words of the Gods when the universe was still empty, and she knew that each lifetime she had lived had brought her back to the same place, to the same set of eyes. So she beat her fists against the door of the Star Bender until it creaked open and her bones warmed as the rain fell against her skin once more.