4. Misaki

The stars are no longer her guiding lights.

They aren't the myths and legends her mother told to put her to sleep. They are not the northern star to help the wayward traveler find his path forward. They are the constellations of the cursed.

When they fell, they marked. The mark was invisible to anyone who wasn't looking. Even for her, who had seen the stars fall, who had seen the gate rise, the mark was hard to find.

Criminals were so much more difficult now. She almost wished she had been touched by a fallen star, if only to see the world as they do. It would make her job easier.

Then she would remember otherwise, and think of the shadows in the fine print of the contract. Think of the remuneration that doesn't make any sense dragging her down, of the obsession with humanity overlapping her obsession with cutting out the root, and decided against it.

It's not as though she can decide what stars fall where, or her grand place in them.