Ventures

'They say each one is a god, but it is Marella who watches over the lost. This time of year, she writes her grief across the sky. She grieves for the Sailor battered from their course by the storms, and she grieves all the more for them who are dashed on the rocks. And she grieves most bitterly for them who have strayed far from the Sailors' Will. But they say, you know, that her mourning lights, descending like ghom ¹⁾, or even like the tears of the Rissi, can guide even those that have strayed furthest back to safety, back to home. On what would otherwise be the darkest of all the nights of the year, her falling words shine brightly in the void so that Sailors might find the way again. And that's why we've come all the way out here, at this hour, and in these temperatures.'

The speaker chuckles slightly, acknowledging the vapour, visible in the frigid air, rising from each of their suits

'It is to see the grief of our mistress. Watch carefully, and remember, in case you ever need to find your way back home.'

As the speaker and his audience turn their eyes to the sky, the first shooting stars in a meteor shower begin to streak through the darkness, falling, it seems, straight from the planet they call Marella.

¹⁾

Footnote: A biological phenomenon, given a name so it can be translated. Lights flash downwards in showers of light along a Sailor's tentacles as an involuntary response to the emotion of grief. It's hard to say which of meteor showers or ghom were first used to help explain the celestial phenomenon, but the association is a widespread cultural connection present in the majority of Sailor societies.