It arrived on a quiet morning.
No name. No note.
Wrapped in midnight-blue velvet and sealed with a pressed silver feather.
Arielle found it on the bakery counter, beside the cinnamon rolls she'd just taken from the oven.
> "Ayden?" she called.
He came from the back, dusted with flour. "What's that?"
She held it up, heart pounding for reasons she didn't understand.
"I… I think it's for me."
---
The Locket
The locket was smooth, crescent-shaped. It shimmered faintly, as if reflecting light from a place beyond the sky.
Arielle clicked it open.
Inside was stardust.
Swirling, glowing, whispering—soft voices only she could hear.
> "You are more than memory…"
"You are the light that chose love…"
"When the stars forget, the heart remembers."
Her hands trembled.
She didn't know what it meant.
But it felt like something that had once belonged to her. Or… perhaps, was her.
---
Ayden's Realization
That night, Ayden stared at the locket long after Arielle fell asleep beside him.
He could no longer deny it.
The universe was not done.
Not with Arielle.
Not with him.
And not with whatever they had become.
> "She gave up everything to be here," he whispered. "But something still remains. Something that even the heavens couldn't erase."
He didn't know whether to feel relieved… or terrified.
Because if the stars were calling again—it meant fate was stirring.
---
The Sky Speaks
The next day, a new star appeared in the sky.
Bright. Small. Perfectly still.
The astronomers said it didn't exist on any chart. That it had simply… appeared.
But Arielle couldn't stop staring at it.
Her fingers brushed the locket again and again.
And that night, she dreamed not of clouds or battles—
—but of a
boy falling from the sky.
Falling into her arms.
With her voice whispering, "Catch him."