Dancing on Strings

Death Dressed in Starlight

"The door... you just need to open the door."

Mai was dreaming...

But she hadn't woken up.

She was lying in darkness.

No, not total darkness. She could see the stars all around them, but they were so faint it was almost better to look at them from the corner of her eyes rather than straight on.

She turned, looking behind her, looking down – her body wasn't there – before looking around.

"Just open the door."

A male voice.

A soft, echoing voice drifted out of the darkness, from all around her.

"You need to open the door."

No, now it was a female voice, note of desperation in her tone.

"But I don't know where it is!" Mai shouted, her voice louder than her disembodied company, jarring against her ears.

"You need to wake up."

The male voice again.

"But I can't!"

"A waking dream. It's a waking dream," said the female.

"I don't understand."

"Find your ally. Open the door," said the male before the two voice merged, blurred and shifted.

"Open the door."

"But—" Mai started before she blinked awake and sat up.

Her boat bumped against the shore of the island, the glittering path and hanging stars waiting for her.

She looked over her shoulder, back across the lake to where she usually woke.

There were no swan boats on that side of the lake anymore.

They had all carried their charges across the lake for the final time.

She pushed to her feet and only then noticed her clothing.

She wasn't wearing her usual outfit, the lovely but simple dress she'd been clothed in each time she came to this world.

No, this time she was wearing starlight.

The dress was iridescent with a thousand shades of night sky. The tight bodice looked like it was made from plated white diamond. The sheer lace of the sleeves, that started off the shoulder and trailed down to her knuckles, was shot with a billion tiny crystals. Her hair was threaded with glass and pearls. The skirts were made of light, stirring around her legs, the bustle that spilled from the small of her back leading into a train that was so weightless, it rippled out behind her and stardust floated away in her wake, like the tails of a hundred shooting stars.

She stared at the glimmering pinpricks of light that floated around her as she moved, then slowly looked towards the entrance to the palace.

The dress was the most beautiful thing she had ever worn; besting any of the costumes from the stage.

And yet she knew what it meant.

The moment she walked through those doors, she wasn't waking up again.

She wasn't being greeted as a guest this time.

She was being greeted as the Princess of Dreams.

Closing her eyes for just a moment, she stepped from the boat and walked to the palace and the hanging stars parted for her.

A hundred servants met her, made of cut starlight, the glowing silhouettes of men and women bowed to her in unison as they lined the hall, leading to the grand staircase.