Bishoujou Senshi Sailor Moon : Shadow Plays
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Vignette 1 : The Lighted Window

	The ballroom was an almost breathtakingly magnificent sight; 
blazing lights sparkled amid a galaxy of crystal fragments, chandeliers 
and glasses reflecting facets of a thousand fractured rainbows.
	In the centre of the floor, the bride and groom danced, bodies 
moving as one through the intricate geometries of their steps.  About 
them the other dancers spun and whirled, tracing strange, rhythmic 
orbits through the night.
	Silver threads of moonlight played silently through the great 
windows, seeming to gather in a shimmering, radiant corona around the 
body of the princess.  In the corners, two children, one of darkness 
and one of light, played and laughed in the throes of some innocent 
game.
	To Rei, it felt like the most exquisite torture.
	Lost in the shadows of the hall, she watched, and forced herself 
not to cry.
	Nearby, the great, glass-panelled doors opened onto a wide 
balcony, marble glistening beneath the stars.  With a sigh, she stepped 
out into the blissful chill of the night, relaxing against the cold 
stone of the railing.  For long moments she stared out, unseeing, into 
the shadows of the garden beyond.  She forced her breathing to slow, 
reaching slowly for the shivering remnants of her composure as the 
stars began to blur in her eyes.
	"Good evening."
	Rei turned with a start to see the tall figure of a woman, 
standing alone in the shadows of the balcony, long, dark hair drifting 
softly in the breeze.  She raised a wineglass to her lips, the dark 
liquid glistening like blood beneath the starlight.  Eyes of deepest 
crimson met her gaze.
	"Good evening, Setsuna-san." Rei bowed slightly, a strange half-
smile forming on her lips.
	After a moment of silence, she turned away, looking upwards into 
the sky, moonlight shining silver on alabaster skin.
	"What do you see when you look at the stars, Setsuna-san?"
	A pause.  "I see... I see a million million lives, flickering 
like tiny candle flames in the darkness.  I see the passing loves of a 
thousand hearts, lost forever in the blink of an eye.  I see the past 
and the future.  And I see myself."
	Rei stood motionless for a moment, before turning her gaze back 
to the warm lights of the celebrations, watching the shadows dance at 
her feet.
	"And you, Rei-san?  Why did you come out here?  What is it that 
you see when you look inside?"
	"I see my friends.  I see the people I love most in the world.  
I see their happiness... and I see the masks they wear.  I see the 
secrets that they keep from each other, and those that they keep from 
themselves."
	She pushed herself slowly away from the balustrade and walked 
towards the streams of coloured light, pausing for a second at the 
threshold.
	"I wonder how they can see so much, and yet still see so 
little."

                                   FIN