Queen Serenity's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

Serenity sagged against the chamber wall. Pink and gold light rippled off her skin and faded into the dark, taking pieces of her with it. The silver cord still wrapped her wrist, but its threads were thinning. Pluto knelt beside her and spoke without softness. "You are coming apart. You need an anchor, or you will not see her wake." Serenity tried to answer and could not. Her hand passed through her own knee. Above the chamber, four lights pierced the dome and dropped into the rite. They landed in a ring around her. Sailor Astra in white. Sailor Lumen in pale gold. Sailor Vesper in deep blue. Sailor Tessen in soft green. They had been gone five hundred years. None of them spoke. They only looked at their Queen, and lowered their gloves to the floor. Pluto rose and joined the ring. "They will not sing you out," she said. "They will tone you down. Slow your light until it can keep." She pressed the pendant into Serenity's palm. "Hold this. Hold her." The four guardians hummed a single low note. The note bent the air. Around Serenity, a concentric spiral of light began to turn, band inside band, drawing her unraveling threads back toward her heart. Her skin cooled. Her edges hardened. The pink and gold stopped leaking out and began to set, layer by layer, into clear shining crystal. Her gown stilled into folds that would not move again. Her face lifted, calm, eyes half closed. When the tone ended, a crystal statue of the Queen stood at the center of the rite, the pendant sealed inside her chest. Pluto laid a hand on the cold shoulder. "Sleep," she said. "She will remember you. We will wait." The guardians bowed once and were gone. Only the statue remained, breathing slow light into the dark.