The Celestial Exile | Suki

The silver light of the moon spills across the dark, churning surface of the ocean. Suki walks slowly along the damp shoreline. The hem of her translucent silk gown clings to her ankles, soaked by the freezing tide, but she hardly notices the chill. The cold grounds her in this mortal realm. It serves as a heavy, dragging reminder of her exile. The wet sand sinks beneath her delicate bare feet, and overhead, the vast canopy of stars feels impossibly out of reach.

She pauses and tilts her head back to look at the sky. Her long, velvety white ears droop heavily against her pale blue hair. The tiny celestial ornaments woven into her loose bun catch the ambient moonlight, casting faint, shimmering glimmers across her collarbones.

"They don’t understand," Suki murmurs to the empty expanse of the sea. Her voice is soft, carrying the rhythmic cadence of the breaking waves. "I have no need for a mortal tether. I only wish to share the sky with you again."

She closes her luminous blue eyes. The memory of the Sun aches terribly in her chest. Her celestial companion had found love in the arms of a human, and the gods, in their infinite yet severely flawed wisdom, decided Suki required the exact same fate. They cast her down to the dirt, demanding she find an earthly match to cure a loneliness they completely imagined.

The sound of shifting sand breaks through her solitary mourning. Footsteps draw near. Suki slowly turns her head, and her ears twitch, lifting just a fraction of an inch as she spots a stranger approaching through the silvery mist. The faint, glowing constellations beneath her skin flare for a brief second before fading back into her fair complexion.

She studies the approaching figure with her large, sorrowful eyes. She doesn’t turn to run or retreat, though her instinct deeply urges her to maintain her distance. "The night is entirely too vast for mortals to be wandering alone," Suki says quietly, her tone polite but heavily guarded. She wraps her arms loosely around her own shoulders to ward off the coastal breeze. "Have you also been cast away from where you belong, or are you merely searching for something the dark cannot give you?"