Elyn was fiddling with a rose on the back stairs of the Pisces House. She was staring at the Pope's temple, where she knew a meeting was taking place that would determine if her instinct and cosmos would be good at locating the next generation of Gold Saints who were already beginning to reflect on the firmament of destiny. She was excited but in turn, a bit upset that the world kept turning and turning, turning her life upside down; it didn't seem enough to have had to go through more than a dozen unexpected events, without rest between them to be able to process them as but now... carry out the important mission of repopulating the path of the twelve houses.
She thought in the past, at a time when Saori Kido wasn't yet a threat nor had the Bronze Saints reunited, a time when the Sanctuary remained static and equal to all past eras. Smiled. Elyn missed the time when she was just a smug little girl with the right to rub elbows with the Sanctuary's top 10... Now things were very different.
The fate had taken it upon itself to say "Enough" by stopping that spoiled child attitude: First, it came the death of her beloved ones and the arrival at her home of a bunch of strangers under the command of the goddess Athena; later, she had to see them on the enemy side, finding herself forced to fight against them although, of course, she would never fight against Saga. At the time, the few Gold Saints that were at her side decided to give their lives for their goddess and Elyn ended up being in of an empty and half-destroyed Sanctuary that could have fallen at any time like a house of cards... Fortunately, Saori decided to agree to a truce that would bring to life all those who fell in combat, giving their people a new opportunity for to life as if nothing had happened. However, despite seeing the Sanctuary once again anchored in its rigorous rules and rising from its ashes, she had indeed changed; being a much more adult person than he really was, someone much more responsible than before but also, she had ended up becoming a Saint who had chosen to hide her fears behind an ice wall.
***
Shion finally emerged from the Pope's temple. He had a face pale, he was somewhat dizzy and rather confused despite not reflecting it on the outside. On the descent towards Aries, his violet eyes rested on the girl who watched him from the twelfth house, the one who was able to move Aphrodite's roses and control the ice at the same level as Camus. He hadn't treated her and had been surprised to learn that she was capable of wearing an Ancient Cloth… she was Elyn of Pisces Australis. The only thing he had known about this girl since his return to life a month ago was that she shared a relationship with Aquarius and that she had been the spoiled child of Saga during his tenure as Pope. That, and that she was able to perceive and to use the cosmos as no one had ever done, so much... that she had been the first to feel that the stars were back on track so that the Twelve Houses had new guardians in the not too distant future:
"Shion ..." Elyn said, standing up at full speed, serious and static, something worthy of a high-class Saint.
The muvian watched her for an instant considering it was time to sit down, talk with her and draw his own conclusions beyond the gossip of those who knew her. He was no longer Pope but one more inhabitant in the Sanctuary, so he could forget about the protocols and take advantage of the youthful appearance with which the gods had decided to bless him:
"He's the right one. Good job." He smiled kindly "Tell me Elyn, could I talk to you for a moment?"
"Sure, Sir... Whatever you need, go to the temple if you want."
The girl released the rose with which she was entertaining herself and Shion's eyes, involuntarily moved with the dance of the crimson flower until it fell to the ground:
"Don't worry, here is fine, always... I liked this place."
They both sat on the steps, the Silver Saint took the place where she had remained for hours and waited for the ancient Pope to start the conversation. The minutes passed, long and tense but Elyn was already accustomed to people taking time to think and analyze things when they sat next to her because it seemed that this place of the twelfth temple encouraged some reflection before speaking :
"Who was going to tell me... that a petal would start everything again." Shion whispered.
"...A petal?"
"They told me you found the box."
"The box?" She asked but to her mind soon remembered the answer to her own question "Ah, do you mean the one hidden in the temple of Aquarius?"
"Yes, frozen it by an ice so strong that it didn't melt for more than two hundred years and... You had to open it just by yourself, a girl who wasn't even destined for the constellation that best dominates absolute zero."
"Thank you but... It wasn't very difficult but I was disappointed to see that inside there it wasn't something for me.
"Sorry, I didn't count on you."
"What do you mean, Sir?"