This was a family crest that had already been struck from the Empire's College of Heraldry. Gazing at the long-familiar emblem, the young woman felt a moment of disorientation. She reached out and gently caressed the exquisite jade-green insect design.
The insect known as the jade winter moth was a species that had gone extinct. It had come from the Darville Islands on Trillo, the homeworld of the Salvin family. She remembered "Father" saying it was the most beautiful creature in the entire galaxy, its whole body like the finest jade—translucent, lustrous, and warm to the touch. On snowy winter nights, when all things lay silent, it refused to let the ice and snow rob it of life. This little insect, the only one that could sing softly in the bitter cold, would pour out a long, clear song, seeming to summon all the splendor and vitality of a flourishing summer, enough to overwhelm the biting wind.
But in the end, they were no magical beasts with mysterious powers. Like all insects, they were fragile.
Creatures too beautiful and too fragile rarely survived.
"Father" had once said that his greatest dream was to see this legendary, wondrous creature appear in the universe once again. It was proud and unyielding, and it should not have to disappear from the universe.
"Listen, Charlie. Pride and steadfastness are virtues, of course, but they shouldn't be rare virtues!" he had said.
The young woman shook her head hard, pulling herself back from distant memories. She parted her lips and let out a string of high, clear insect calls that sounded almost like singing.
They were the jade winter moth's cries, a sound that had been extinct in the galaxy for two or three hundred years.
The crisp sound pierced the thick passage and rock