She is safety; she is refuge; she is protection. She is the enfolding embrace of night, in all its gentleness.
Her name is Stella.
She doesn't remember where she came from, but she can feel that someone needs her. More than one someone. A lot of someones, actually. Some of them are outside her domain, but that doesn't matter, not when she can fix things for the ones that are.
She reaches out to help, to heal, to safeguard.
"You need priestesses. You need people who are firmly on your side and helping you help everyone. Someone has to take the risk of being the first, and I don't want to miss the chance to help."
She nods firmly.
"I couldn't live with myself if I passed this up."
Sable blushes, smiles wide, and keeps typing. "Thank you, Goddess."
It's only polite to repay devotion in kind.
Your script is looking decent. Let's do some rehearsals with the lighting off. I think we want to livestream the real one; more impact that way.
"Okay. Let me just finish setting up accounts and the web site, that way we can send emails from our domain letting news agencies know about the stream, and post about it, and such. Get more live views that way."
She continues typing. Also blushing.
"Just a minute or two more... Aaand... done. Ready to announce the stream whenever you say go. Now we can rehearse."
Okay. I need to draft my own letter, give me a moment while I boost some crop yields in China.
Dear Planet Earth:
I'm Stella. I come in peace. Every one of you matters to me, in a deep and personal way. And I will do my best for all of you as best as I can manage.
I love you, Earth. Be well, and may the stars guide you.
Stella takes a moment to consider her letter.
It's heartfelt, but I'm not sure if it's slick enough, and I feel like it doesn't say enough at the same time. But there's only so much you can fit into a letter you're going to type live on camera.
Do you think it works?
"I think it's pretty good. Hmmm. I can't think of any obvious improvements off-hand. I'm sure our eventual PR clerics will out-do us here. We're just two girls trying our best, one of whom has divine powers and no body."
Yeah, I guess so. Scary to be out in front of the world officially. Wish I could hold your hand.
A silver bracelet appears around Sable's right wrist.
This will have to do.
Let's go.
She flushes and fingers the bracelet for a moment, smiling.
"Okay. Let's practice this."
They run through it a few times, Stella refining the camera movements and lighting adjustments, Sable getting used to her lines and actions. Eventually, they agree that they're as ready as they can get today, and Sable sends off a few emails and social media posts.
First, to news media:
Official Livestreamed Address from Goddess Stella and the Temple of Night
From: "First Priestess Sable Aster" <sable.aster@templeofnight.faith>
To: "NBC Newsroom", "CNN Newsroom", "CBC Newsroom", "BBC Newsroom", "RT Newsroom", ...
On behalf of Stella, Goddess of Night and Stars, I would like to inform you of an upcoming public announcement, at 13:30 UTC (one hour from now). We will be streaming live on YouTube. There will be a demonstration to confirm that this is an official statement, followed by a brief explanation of our intentions, and a direct statement from Stella herself.
Thank you for your time,
Sable Aster
First Priestess
Temple of Night
Next, on social media:
Official Livestreamed Address from Goddess Stella and the Temple of Night
By: First_Priestess_Sable_Aster
I'm sure many of you have heard about the miraculous healings and interrupted assaults credited to Stella over the past twelve hours or so. I'm also sure you have lots of questions. I can't promise answers to them all yet, as we're just getting organized, but I do have a livestreamed address confirmed for 13:30 UTC (just under an hour from now). There will be a brief demonstration and introduction, along with a statement from Stella herself. Hopefully we'll be able to take time to answer more questions over the coming days.
The livestream will be available at this YouTube link, and will start at 13:30 UTC.
Thanks in advance,
Sable Aster
First Priestess
Temple of Night
And then, at the appointed time, the cameras go live.
The scene fades in on a close-up of Sable's face, highlighting her slit pupils, warm smile, and faintly twitching fox ears.
"I'm Sable Aster, First Priestess of Stella, Goddess of the Night and Stars. I'm honored to be here today, serving this new Goddess and welcoming her to our world."
The camera zooms out as Sable walks backward, opening up the frame to capture the garden, along with Sable's softly swishing black fox tail.
"You might wonder how you can know that I'm really speaking on behalf of Stella, rather than one of the scammers already springing up to sell you fake scriptures. I've got a couple answers to that question. First, we're not trying to sell you something, just to get the Goddess's message out and clear up a few misconceptions. Second, the clever among you might find something hidden in the stars. And third, we have a little demonstration for you.
Then Sable steps a bit to the side, turning to face a cleared spot in the middle of the garden, bowing her head and holding her right hand over her heart, a silver bracelet visible on her wrist.
A sapphire orb about the size of an apple pops out of nowhere in the air. Traced upon it in emerald are the continents of earth. It spins in midair for a moment, then silver rods slide out of its poles and impale themselves into ring after intersecting ring of amethyst and purple sapphire. The whole assembly spins, the rings whirling through the air, until a final enclosing ring of silver settles around the circumference of the gemstone armillary sphere. At no point in this whole proceeding has any part of the rings touched the ground.
Then silver hands appear on the rim of the armillary sphere, followed by arms in an enfolding embrace. Stella weaves silver strengthened with iron up into the form of a young girl of fourteen in a chair, her head lain atop the armillary sphere, her hair in a messy ponytail that spills down to her mid-back, her dress shapeless but speckled with stars. She holds the sphere that holds the earth close to her body in a firm hug, as if it's precious to her.
Sable steps close to the statue, her smile soft, and takes hold of the rings, gently spinning each in turn.
"We're here to help, regardless of race, nationality, religion, sex, gender identity, orientation, or anything else, because everyone deserves to be safe and healthy. Everyone deserves to be cared about and protected. Even when faced with violence, Stella takes care to disarm assailants non-lethally, because hurting them too doesn't improve anything."
And then Sable steps across the garden, the camera following her, to a modified Selectric typewriter on a stand. She gestures indicatively at the typewriter, and says, "And now the Goddess has a direct message for all of you."
The modified Selectric taps out the same message in many different languages:
To the world, and all the people watching with hope in their hearts:
I'm Stella. I come in peace. Every one of you matters to me, in a deep and personal way. And I will do my best to aid all of you, to the best of my ability, now and always, in big ways and small.
I love you, Earth. Be well, and may the stars guide you.
At the bottom of the page is a link:
templeofnight.faith
Stella slowly pans the camera up to the night sky, dimming the lights as she does and cranking the exposure on the modified camera.
The real night sky, unblemished by any lights, twinkles back.
She lets it linger for a long moment, then cuts the feed.
"Wow!", Sable exclaims when the feed cuts out. "We just did that! We just did a public address to the world! Congratulations, Goddess."
She giggles giddily and flops down in a nearby chair, hugging her tail to her chest. "Fuck I'm proud of us. I suppose the next thing is responding to people on social media, and making sure the FAQ stays up to date. Want me to reach out to that one poster who got kicked out of their home?"
Thank you. That was only moderately nerve-wracking in the end.
Do what you can for the poor kid. That has the possibility to turn into a really tangled situation, but we can't not try. And do what you can to manage the site. I hope you got really robust hosting.
"Yeah, I splurged on the good shit. I figured I'd only be paying it out of pocket once, and then the next month we'd probably have temple funding to work with. If all other options fail, do I have your permission to invite the kid here? Honestly, we probably need to get some people to run some housing that isn't the temple islands at some point, just so we have shelter to offer that isn't here."
Ugh. That's a toughie. The last thing I want PR-wise is "Stella kidnaps children", which some people will almost definitely see that as regardless of how politely we phrase it or how much we pay attention to the kid's wishes. We also don't really have the staff yet — if we take one we have to take them all, you know? It's not consistent to offer help to just one victim and leave it at that. And I don't want to occupy you with managing a child on top of all the rest of it.
All that said, it's anathema to me to leave the kid to suffer. If we have to bring them here to safeguard them, we do, and deal with the fallout. It all starts with being good to the person who is right in front of you and if we can't repair even this small a mistake we have no business messing with people's lives.
I guess saving the world means being the bigger person sometimes.
Sable nods. "Yeah. I'll get on it."
First she checks over the website, to make sure everything's running smoothly with the rush of traffic. The home page has an elegant photo of the starry sky as a background, with the words "Temple of Night" above Stella's symbol, a four-pointed star. Below the star, it further identifies the Temple as "Church of Stella, Goddess of Night and Stars".
The navigation bar lists six pages:
Stella advocates for common-sense principles based care and mutual aid without over-burdening oneself.
Some people may have never prayed before, or may be used to prayers that work differently. To help make sure your requests are heard, here are some tips on how to pray to Stella.
Thank you for reaching out to the Temple of Night. Here are our contact addresses:
Thank you for your interest in helping Stella and joining the Temple of Night! We are currently accepting volunteers in a wide variety of roles, including:
We cannot currently offer traditionally paying roles, as we have not yet established the ability to receive donations, but with the aid of Stella's conjuration we are quite willing to pay in kind.
To learn more, contact us at volunteer@templeofnight.faith.
Thank you for your interest in donating to support Stella and the Temple of Night! With Stella's aid, we don't have much need for material objects. Web hosting and communication services do cost money, however, so we will be setting up official accounts to receive donations soon. Contributions of art or creative expression are always appreciated, and can be sent to donate@templeofnight.faith. Physical art can be delivered by praying to have Stella accept it. Submissions may be displayed on the Temple's website, or physically on Temple grounds.
Okay, that looks like it's still working fine. Next, Sable reaches out to the teen who received the conjured car.
Hi there, I'm Sable Aster, First Priestess of Stella. I heard you were having trouble getting your car registered due to the duplicate VIN? Is your local DMV willing to work with us on that at all? Is there anything Stella or the Temple can do to help? Perhaps an official letter from Stella would help support the application to change the VIN?
While she's waiting for a response on that, she replies to the redditor who asked about collectibles of Stella.
We don't have collectibles available yet, but we're working on a design, and they will be easy for Stella to distribute once we've finalized that. The Temple will post an announcement when they're ready!
Next, a message to the kid whose necklace got thrown out.
I'm so sorry to hear your mom threw out your necklace. If you pray to Stella tonight, she'll be able to recover your necklace and return it to you. Perhaps also pray for a way to hide it from meddling parents while you're at it? Good luck holding onto it!
Then a reply to the "legal vs actual dawn" poster.
As much as we'd love to be able to give Stella all-day coverage by tweaking the legal code, her divine powers run on actual dawn, not legal definitions. Good try, though.
And now there are somehow even more fake scripture peddlers than there were an hour ago. Sable replies to each.
This is not Stella's scripture. The contents are fake and not endorsed by the Goddess. Stella's principles, statements, and scripture will never be for sale, and instead will always be available for free at templeofnight.faith.
To the afterlife interview, she sends a custom reply.
This interview is completely fake, and quite frankly dangerous. Stella has no afterlife of her own, has no evidence about the existence about the existence of any other afterlife, and does not know how to make an afterlife. If she could confirm the existence of a safe and welcoming afterlife, she might be slightly less concerned about humanity's ongoing death toll. Official information about Stella, her principles, and her capabilities will always be available for free at templeofnight.faith.
By this point, the teen with the conjured car replies.
Yeah, that's the form I'm working on. I'll ask the DMV if they'd like a letter about it, and message you again if they're game.
Sable agrees to that plan, reminding the teen that Stella can only deliver such a letter at night, and then reaches out to the kid who got kicked out.
Hey there. I'm Sable, from the Temple of Night. I'm so sorry your mom's being so cruel. Do you have somewhere safe to rest right now, while we're talking through what to do?
I'm at a library right now, but it closes at six PM and I've got nowhere to go afterward. I called everyone but nobody will take me in.
I think I'm through the panicking part, but... I don't know what to do.
You're the real priestess, from the video? Prove it, give me a photo of you with those eyes in it.
Sable grabs a piece of paper and writes the kid's username, quiet-wings, on it, then holds it up next to her face and takes a selfie. She attaches it to her reply.
Yeah, I'm the real First Priestess. I'm gonna promise you now, you're not going to be homeless come nightfall. I want to walk through the whole spectrum of options with you, but whatever happens, you will have someplace safe to sleep tonight. That work for you?
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