The wind of the Stardust Plain always carried a faint glow. Arui squatted among the fluorescent gravel, her fingertips brushing against a sharply faceted stone. Its surface was covered in spiderweb-like patterns that, under the moonlight, revealed intertwined bands of red, blue, and gold light, like a solidified rainbow. This was the seventh "Star Trace Stone" she had picked up today, each hiding different fragments of light and shadow: the previous one had reflected a burning lava giant, the one before that, a suspended photonic prism surface, and right now, inside this stone, a braided Earth girl was smiling at the starry sky.
"Arui, it's time to come home." Her mother's voice drifted from the distant stardust tent, carrying the rhythmic cadence of a lullaby woven from galaxy grass. But Arui didn't move. She stared into the eyes of the girl inside the stone—eyes that seemed to hold the light of the entire universe, reminding her of the ancient legends her grandmother used to tell: at the edge of the Stardust Plain, there was a breathing tree, its branches hung with the memories of all civilizations.
As night fell, Arui placed the seven stones by the head of her bed. In the halo of the stardust lamp, the stones suddenly lit up simultaneously, their light bands intertwining into a rotating star chart, in the center of which floated a line of flowing text: "Light and fissures, Symbiotic Eternity." This was the symbiotic language her grandmother had taught her, every word car…
Chapter 297