Once, a star fell from the sky to the world below--- a single, spectral, spiraling dagger of the unknown. As it plummeted, it was caught in the hands of a small child. As she held that burning beacon, she innocently asked it why the secret wishes she spoke to the stars never came true. "You see," The star said, "The closest star to your planet is 4.24 light-years away. That's 9.44 trillion kilometers. That's rather far. By the time we hear your wishes and return them, you're probably a corpse rotting in the ground. So your wish passes to someone else instead." "Oh," said the child. When this knowledge spread to the other earthbound beings, fewer and fewer wished upon the stars. But some still did. And every once in a while, these quiet desires come true, and strangers in distant times are met with little blessings, little whispers, little gifts from some lost kindness.
