Yellow Jacket

Designation: Ribbons of the Sky
Classification: Migratory Lepidoptera
Region: Wilds and open skies across Hemera

Overview

Starlace Butterflies are among the most enchanting sights on Hemera.
Their wings refract starlight into cascading ribbons when they fly, painting the night with shifting veils of silver, violet, and pale gold.

They travel in vast migrations, moving in tides across continents. Witnessing a swarm of Starlace Butterflies in flight is often described as "watching the heavens untie themselves."

No written description captures their beauty. People simply stop, mouths open, hearts unsteady, and watch.

Migration

Their movements follow patterns as mysterious as the stars themselves.

They travel in vast, undulating waves, their wings scattering light like flowing rivers.

Across Hemera, cultures mark their arrival as omens of abundance, peace, or renewal.

Children chase them in villages.
Pilgrims walk days just to stand in the path of their flight.
They are creatures of pure wonder.

Culinary Use

Starlace Butterflies wing dust (the fine, shimmering scales shed during flight) is highly prized as a food additive. Quickly recognized the value of the butterflies' wings. Breeding programs began, producing butterflies not for display but for harvest.

It adds a subtle, sweetly metallic brightness to sauces and baked goods.

When sprinkled into drinks, it creates iridescent shimmer that glows under moonlight.

It is considered a delicacy in high dining, where a single vial of wing dust can fetch thousands of credits.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Wing Flour: Dried, powdered wings mixed into pastries, producing a subtle sweetness and a faint metallic brightness.

Wing Glimmer: A fine additive sprinkled into liquids, giving drinks an iridescent sheen.

Wing Lace Sheets: Whole wings, flattened and candied, served as decorative confections.

Harvesting destroys the insect, but within luxury dining, that is considered acceptable. Credits flow where beauty can be eaten.

The Bug Bar Incident

Then, inevitably, came the attempt to add Starlace dust to Bug Bars.

The results were immediate, violent, and unforgettable.

Subjects experienced uncontrollable, explosive defecation within minutes of consumption.

The effect was not subtle. Entire trial units collapsed into chaos, unable to control themselves, weeping and screaming as they purged.

Field logs later referred to the episode as "The Silver Flood."

No deaths were reported, but the humiliation was total.

It confirmed yet again what scientists already knew:
Bug Bars and anything other than Sadness do not mix.
Every attempt to "improve" the formula ends in horror.

Belief and Beauty

Outside of the EYNIOBB folly, Starlace Butterflies remain beloved.

Lovers walk beneath their swarms and call the glittering dust "kisses from the sky."

Farmers take their passage as blessings for crops.

Poets write of them as ribbons binding heaven to earth.

They are as feared for their fragility as they are adored for their wonder.

For all their delicacy, they endure.
crossing continents, scattering light, weaving memory into the air itself.