Chapter 4

The Golden Goddess stood gazing at the Southern Sun from her third-story balcony. The hedge wall surrounding the rear courtyard of the goddess' manor, four meters high and a meter thick, was visible as a wide dark slash hiding the first floor of the first two sections of the new university.

The crystal sun was dim enough now to look directly at it. She still needed to squint her eyes, but the radiant light had dimmed enough for her to be able to see the tiny black specks that made up the huge warehouses at Southern Depot.

The urge to fly in the light one last time was overwhelming. This was her first Festival without her older sister commanding the spotlight. Elaine was the district goddess now, and the spotlight was on her, along with all the duties that went with her exalted position. And right now, she was feeling stifled and controlled.

'I've got to get out of here!' Elaine thought frantically.

She shrugged the gown off her shoulders, unmindful that her ladies' attendant had spent the last thirty minutes fitting her for the festival that would begin shortly. She wriggled out of the garment and stepped naked out onto the banister. Even though the southern sun was going out, the air was still warm and comfortable on her bare skin. Raising her arms high over her head, she fell forward into the emptiness beyond. Forming her wings, she glided out over the rear courtyard barely clearing the hedge wall, her breasts and belly brushing the topmost leaves.

Closing her eyes, she beat her wings powerfully, reaching for altitude. She wanted to be completely surrounded by the fast-approaching darkness and watch the thousands of lights appear from all directions as New Eden passed into Jupiter's shadow.

Elaine flew upward for several minutes with her eyes closed. When she couldn't detect any redness through her eyelids indicating that the southern sun still shined, she opened her eyes and gazed at the surreal world surrounding her.

'Wow! This is incredible! Even real stars aren't this beautiful!' Elaine realized as she gazed around her, awed by her surroundings.

From every direction – above, below and to all sides of her, lights were appearing by the thousands. The community below her was the closest and the brightest, but she could make out at least five other towns making themselves visible in the night. Elaine's gaze followed the horizon up out of sight before her. Towns and communities further away showed up as dim clusters, their lights too distant to distinguish individually.

Balancing on her wings and back, she arched back until she was upside down, her gaze taking in the sky above her. She could feel the wind against her back telling her she was losing altitude. She spread her legs wide and forced her wingspan wider giving her more buoyancy, carefully balancing herself on her wings so that she could gaze upward into the center of the little hollow moon.

Elaine felt she was resting on a cushion of air surrounded by a magical world of lights as the inner surface of New Eden became almost magically illuminated. The area of sky directly above her was still dark; the atmosphere too thick for the tiny man-made lights that lit the towns and farms on the far side of this fragile world to penetrate.

After a moment, Elaine's mental altimeter alerted her of the approaching surface. She folded one wing in front of her, flipping over so that her wingspan supported her once again. This time she'd pulled out of her dive considerably higher than treetop level so she could see more of the delicate, sparkling lights below.

'Where am I? I don't recognize this part of town ... It's beautiful, though. I wonder who lives down there.'