Prologue – The City of The Waning Moon
The ashy, pale clouds hovered like gigantic ghosts over the town’s evening sky. The feverish sun have long set and gone, but the warmth which it had radiated through the day remained in the breeze which swept over the blankets of good children who were now fast asleep, keeping them in a warm embrace.
The Moon displayed the mysticism of its gentle, silvery rays. It rose high, high up to the peak of the heavens, casting a striking reflection of light on the sleepy ocean. Little by little, the first stars came to sight.
The ghostly clouds have melted away, but wisps of them – misty tendrils of curled whitish puffs – circled the twinkling masses. The Moon seemed to smile down at the townsfolk, with two stars hovering at the corners of its waning visage; like two bright eyes over a curled, sly, grin.
A small, mischievous presence was watching them from afar - how far exactly no one did know – from farther the edges of the tranquil meadow, farther than the richest farmer’s vast corn fields, and farther than the abundant pastures of golden wheat located at the outskirts of their small community. It is somewhere far, far away indeed. The creature is perched upon the very Moon itself.
Taking delight in the peacefulness of the sleepy town’s inhabitants, she brewed a special gift.
Blowing off a little bit of stardust and mixing it with the moisture of the softest, most delicate clouds, she weaved a wisp of happiness.
With a little bit of magic, she blessed the wisp with mystique; concentrating each in every drop of the forming liquid.
With the remaining essence of sunlight, she dashed in a pinch of warmth and radiance. With a stray clover, she made it fragrant with luck.
With oak leaves she provided strength, and with a feather of an agile Kingfisher, she gilded it with swiftness.
Only one drop of the elixir was exalted with the Moon’s own silvery beams, casting a sapphire-like glow onto its translucent blue demeanor.
The Goddess divided the liquid into seven, equally hefty amount of drops – each of them round and wobbly and shimmery – and set them into a little glass flask. She kept it in one of the nearest craters in sight.
“By the next star shower,” says she, “I will rain these star drops down as gifts for those who have given me bliss. I hope they take good care,” The drops shone in their flask. Their creator grinned. She threw back her head and laughed heartily. “I do hope so very much.”
Her nameless form disappeared into the dark without a trace.
It was a peaceful evening, like it always was.
This is the town of Retroscena.
Out of the lush green of the seven thousand isles in Galactaxia, this town was the pinnacle of beauty.
Retroscena’s skies are always bright and breezy, the weather rarely even harsh; providing the people with much sunlight and good weather to work, dawdle and play under.
Lush shores surround its deep, azure seas; all teeming with fish, coral and other exquisite underwater wildlife. Vast fields of verdant forests and fruitful farmlands are found abundantly everywhere. Commerce is always productive, and tourists from all over the country pay huge amounts of money in the sheer want of getting to witness Retroscena’s splendor.
“It is the town where angels land and take refuge,” the old townies would say. “It is a reflection of another world, a city beyond the stars and the clouds and the whole of the sky, Retroscena’s twin; the city of the waning moon.”
“The passageway, or the Gate, opens only during the tenth and a half of a year, and closes again after three days. Watch out for the alignment of the planets. The Opening signals the dawn of Chaos, the god of the Twin, to take over Retroscena’s most powerful Runes, Crevasse de Claire de Lune Magique. It will be the ruin of our whole world. The Gate will resurrect again the following year, at the very same time as it had before. It will then be resealed, only to open once more in another thousand years, and all we could ever do is wait in vain for salvation that would never come…”
And for so long did one wait for it to open again.
And open it did.
