Holding the push broom she’d brought with her, Tempesti crossed the now almost entirely clear threshold into the Tower of the Winds. Assessing the mess that remained in the entry chamber she was relieved that it wasn’t quite as overwhelming as she had imagined. It wasn’t as bad as it had been during her first visit and thankfully there was far less unsettling debris, but it would be a lie to say that it wasn’t still something of a disaster zone. It would certainly look less so once she’d cleaned up some of the millions (billions?) of petals that streamed down from the mass of flowers growing from the ceiling. Or at least she hoped it would make an improvement. With a sigh she bore down on her broom and began shoving the soft masses of pale purple toward the massive bronze doors, watching with a degree of satisfaction each time a breeze caught them and carried them into the bay. The senshi decided that it would be better not to time her work. Better to put her head down and press forward until the work was done. She could move on to the shrine once she’d cleared as much of the floor as she could manage. Even with the slight decrease in physical strength that came with her transcendence, the magic she carried ensured that she at least had enough stamina to perform these tedious tasks without tiring herself too much. This was only a small part of what she hoped to accomplish for the day.

Hours passed until she stood before the shrine, the chamber now almost entirely clear of countless years of floral detritus. At least the altar didn’t seem to have accumulated much dirt in the time since she’d cleaned it last. Teruda apparently weren’t messy houseguests, leaving nothing visible behind as they fluttered about the shrine, scattering only briefly as she approached to attend to each of the four crystals on the altar’s mensa before gently channeling the planet’s energy into the shrine and watching the crystals flare to life. She hadn’t known how to restore them when she’d first stabilized her starseed, or that they’d even needed restoration. But now, now, she knew. She remembered the ancient duties they’d so long denied her predecessors at the expense of their own world and she would never let someone take that duty from her again. Then, there was no one left who could. The responsibility was hers, and hers alone to shoulder.

No, not hers alone. Not always.

The Wellspring Shrine was alive because she’d been able to ask for help, because so many allies had been ready to come to her aid. Tempesti might be the steward of this world, but that response alone was proof enough that if she needed it, there were people willing to stand alongside her. She wasn’t about to use that knowledge to ask for a cleanup crew, tempting as the thought might be, but it was still good to know.