kweenjaded

For as long as the stars have burned, she has existed. She has been called many names—Gaia, Lilith, the First, the Eternal Witness—but time has eroded meaning, leaving only silence. When the sun finally devoured itself and Earth drifted into the abyss, she closed her eyes, expecting oblivion.

But she did not die.

Eons passed, and Earth—no longer Earth—was reborn in a distant galaxy, reshaped by her unconscious will. Now a training ground for civilizations across the cosmos, the planet teems with life once more. And she, no longer Lilith yet not fully something else, awakens in a body that is hers but unfamiliar. She knows everything yet feels nothing. Memories exist as echoes, not experiences.

When a young explorer, Tilana, stumbles upon her, she is given a name—Lily—a word tied to a flower that no longer exists. As Lily navigates a world both familiar and alien, she must relearn what it means to feel, to connect, and to exist. But something lingers in the depths of this reborn world, something that calls to the remnants of who she was.

To see tomorrow, one must kill yesterday. But what if yesterday refuses to die?.

Lily: The last lily of a forgotten world.

"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."

—Warhammer 40K, Imperial Thought for the Day

That was how long the journey to Oxzicy Star would take.

Five hours trapped in a floating tin can with a smuggler he didn't trust, a destination he didn't believe in, and a girl he was starting to resent.

Zane sat on the edge of his bunk, staring at the dull steel floor.

Not just physically—though the bruises lining his ribs and the exhaustion creeping into his bones weren't helping—but mentally.

Every instinct told him that they were walking into a trap.

Lily sat across from him in the dimly lit cabin.

She had barely acknowledged his presence since they boarded the ship.

As if he wasn't the reason she had made it this far.

He exhaled sharply, rubbing a hand over his face before looking at her.

"Do you even know why we're going to Oxzicy Star?"

"No, see, that's not what I asked."

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

"I asked if you know why we're going. Why we're doing this. Why you're risking everything for someone who didn't even bother to tell you she was leaving."

Lily tilted her head, watching him the way one might watch a puzzle piece that didn't quite fit.

"No, Lily. You believe it. That's different."

And that silence—**that goddamn silence—**was the last straw.

That he was tired? That he was done being dragged along in someone else's storm?

That he hated how easily she left him behind but would still follow her anyway?

That he had already lost too much, and he wasn't sure he could handle losing again?

That he didn't know what the hell she was to him, but he knew it was something?

A slow, creeping heat curled in his chest—something sharp, something bitter.

His hands curled into fists before he forced them loose again.

As if this moment had never existed.

As if his words had never been worth speaking.

He had known—**from the moment he met her, from the moment she looked at him with those detached, inhuman eyes—**he had known that Lily did not love.

"Final approach in fifteen minutes."

Lily had already gone to the cockpit.

Arc 2 Chapter 13: Starbound and Bounded