My mother used to tell me this story when I was young. She’d come home half-dazed and maybe even half-possessed after another visit to the Church of Truth, which I’d always thought to be more of a cult than a religion. My mother would grab me on the shoulders, her eyes either sparkling or glazed with tears, and set me down on the chair. She’d then grab the ruby necklace that her mother had given to her before she died.

My mother would say, “Aisling, do you know the story of the Constellation Goddess?”

I would say, “No, Mother, I don’t,” when in truth, I did, for she told me that story every time she returned from the Church of Truth.

Mother would sit beside me and proceed to tell the tale of Asteria, the Constellation Goddess, for the fiftieth time.

It was a long story, only because my mother would ramble about other things I didn’t know of. But since I don’t have much time anymore, I’ll cut it short.

The story goes that there were four nations that balanced and protected the entirety of existence: Stalera, the nation of the Universe, Yelerna, the nation of Knowledge, Antalis, the nation of Life, Death, and Immortality, and Talonis, the nation of Vice and its Shadows. Each nation possessed its own leader that protected its people and its mana. Asteria, the Constellation Goddess and Supreme Deity, reigned over Stalera, the nation that possessed the powers of the Universe. Her nemesis, the Archfiend, ruled the lands in possession of– or rather, possessed by– the powers of Vice and its Shadows, Talonis. On one fateful night, predicted by the Pisces Warrior, the Archfiend marched his forces and besieged the Goddess’ empire.

The Goddess knew her time of death was nearing, and it wouldn’t be long until the Archfiend took control of her empire, and inevitably, the powers of the whole Universe. To protect her people and her nation, she sealed a portion of her blood in a ruby jewel and entrusted it to the Gemini Warrior to hide in the mortal realm, far from the Archfiend’s grasp. It was said that in that jewel, a piece of Asteria and her powers were sealed, and whoever inherited her blood became its protector, known as the Goddess’ Successor. It was only when a Successor drank the blood did Asteria's powers activate. And whoever awakened it would finish what the Constellation Goddess couldn’t: defeating the Archfiend and restoring to Stalera what was rightfully theirs.

With her remaining powers, the Goddess did her best to protect the empire until the evacuation of her people was complete. Once all had been able to escape, she succumbed to the Archfiend’s forces. Before her final slaughter, she ordered the remaining 11 Zodiac Warriors to scatter themselves across the mortal realm to protect the remaining piece of her and the only hope they have to avenge Stalera: the ruby. However, it was unclear whether all eleven Zodiac Warriors obeyed the Goddess’ command, for one of them, the Scorpio, was said to have remained fighting with the Goddess until the very end.

The whereabouts of the Scorpio remains unknown.

In one battle, the Goddess was defeated, a nation was destroyed, and the Archfiend assumed reign over the entire Universe.

But the throne wasn’t enough for the Archfiend for he wanted more. He wanted Asteria’s blood. And for the centuries following the Goddess’ defeat, he scoured the nations for her Successor, destroying everything and everyone in his path.

When my mother told me that story the night of my eighteenth birthday, both half-dazed and half-possessed, she handed me the ruby and said, “Protect this with your life.”

The following day, Mother died, a rope around her neck, with a note to me saying “Sorry” and the pin to her debit card.

It was then I realized that Mother wasn’t crazy, and the story that I assumed was what the people from the Church of Truth told her wasn’t fiction. It was true and it was real. It was our truth and our reality. Our line had been chosen to be protectors of Asteria’s blood.

And I was her next Successor.