Synopsis: The Second Star

Long ago, a prince of the Shinatu, a race of sorcerors, betrayed his people for the love of a foreign merchant's daughter, and the once-proud, once-invincible Shinatu were led in chains to work in the factories and mines of a people who had once paid them tribute. But as time went by, their power--drawn from their homeland, a valley where it was said a star had fallen at the beginning of the world--began to weaken. Increasingly useless to their captors, they began to lose all hope that they would ever be able to return to the valley of their star.

Shorann, a Shinata who worked in a steel mill, has just been fired for being too old to keep up. She goes home to the squalid room she will no longer be able to afford, and tries to kill herself with a ritual potion. Fortunately or unfortunately, her powers are so weak that the potion does no more than give her a mild headache. Utterly defeated, she goes to a dive with the idea that what magic can't do, alcohol poisoning can. While drowning her sorrows, she listens to a performer sing a plea for a savior to bring the Shinatu back home, and gets an idea. Why not claim she's seen a vision, pick someone out of the crowd and say they're the chosen one, destined to bring about the revolution? It's the stupidest thing she's ever heard--but hey, it beats suicide, right?