Elegy for a Star

To say the next day was awkward was an understatement. Gwendolyn didn’t want to discuss anything that had happened the night before, so Tess was left with worries, questions and assumptions at best. She tried to focus instead on their journey.

According to Gwen, they should be arriving at Hastenburgh today. Tess only saw an enormous mountain jutting up from the ground ahead of them, and when she asked if Hastenburgh was at the base of it, Gwen insisted it was at the peak. Tess had no idea how this was going to work, then. The mountain looked as though it would require a week for even the most skilled climbers, and as far as she knew, there was no climbing equipment in Gwen’s pack. There must be some other trick.

It revealed itself sooner, rather than later. At the base of the mountain, just behind a path that begins to scale its cliffs with numerous switchbacks, was a small town. It wasn’t densely populated, as far as Tess could see. Just a few hovels were present, smoke pouring out of their chimneys to stave off the remaining cold. The people she saw roaming the streets were all garbed in yellow, wearing masks.

“Should I be worried?” Tess asked.

“No,” Gwendolyn responded, “This is a Waypoint. The devout of the Wanderer maintain these as traveling hubs.”

“The Wanderer?” Tess echoed. Gwen had been teaching her about the constellations in the sky, pointing them out here or there as they appeared. The Wanderer was one of them, responsible for all things regarding travel, uncertainty and adventure. It was one of Tess’ favorites. “People worship the constellations?”

“Not usually, but these folk do,” Gwendolyn explains, “They don’t share much and they stick to themselves, but they lend their services to those willing to pay.”

Up ahead, Tess could get a better view of these so-called devouts. Their masks were wooden, taller than their own faces, with odd, circular holes drilled into them that give room for the eyes and mouth. Lines of painting give these masks a tribal look to them. Each one seemed to have their own unique design. Other than that, they wear heavy, yellow robes that stand out against the white snow and conceal the devout from toe to tip, aside from their hands, which range from all of the typical colors one would expect of a human.

They passed through the town’s only street. There was little there that wasn’t a necessity. Tess could only describe it as ascetic; a living of deprivation. “What do they use the money for?” Tess asked.

Gwen just shrugged, “They don’t tell, and we won’t be asking.” She gave Tess a stern look that implied it wasn’t something to be tested. Tess never planned on asking anyway, but she registered the seriousness of their interactions with these devout of the Wanderer.

At the end of the street, closest to the base of the mountain path, was a platform guarded by two devouts with pole-arms. Glaives, if Tess had to put a name to them. The platform was intricately decorated, made of silver metals, with an inlay of three different colors—red, blue and yellow—in the pattern of three different constellations. 

Tess immediately recognized the Wanderer as one of them, but the other two required some thinking. One of them must be the Archer. Or was it the Devil? The constellations for truth and lies, respectively, were difficult to tell apart aside from one difference. The anchoring star, that being the brightest star in the pattern, was different for the Archer and Devil, but the constellations were otherwise nearly identical.

The third constellation evaded her, however. It looked familiar, but Tess hadn’t mastered everything Gwen had taught her yet, and due to the night sky’s rotation, she hadn’t seen all there was to see of the stars yet, either. Especially when there had been so many other distractions at night.

The jingling of a coin purse brought Tess’ thoughts to the present. Gwen was sprinkling a few silver coins into one of the armed devout’s outstretched hands. After Gwen ceased further payment, the devout pointed toward Tess.

Gwen shook her head and explained, “That is for her. I have a voucher from the Corps.” She flashes a small piece of parchment to the devout, who examines it quickly, and then nods.

The pair of them are guided onto the circular platform, and Tess speaks softly to Gwendolyn, “I’ll pay you back.”

“I don’t expect you to,” Gwen responds, “Consider it a favor.”

“One of many,” Tess added.

Gwen cracked a smile and nodded. That was nice to see. She can usually be so stern. The warrior reached over and gave Tess a pat on the back. “Quiet now, and try not to vomit,” Gwen requested.

Tess’ eyes widened and her mouth opened to ask the obvious question, but she was immediately distracted by a shining light all around them, bursting upward from the glyph below. Tess felt her insides lift within her body, and her heels rose off of the floor, gently lifted by some unseen force. The light grew and grew until she felt that lift grow stronger, and she was suddenly flung into the air. The wind and noise vanished as the world was swept away from underneath her in the blink of an eye, until she was catapulted into the stars.

Flipping over and over herself, Tess slipped beyond the stars, beyond unknown planets and moons. She felt pulled in every direction at once and lost all sense of up and down. The lights around her stretched and bended as if seen through a lens. When she caught glimpses of her own body, she appeared stretched and smeared across the backdrop of stars. She tried screaming, but everything was silent save for the sound it made rattling around her own head.

She couldn’t say when, but eventually there was a loud funnel of wind and Tess’ clothes were blown around her body violently. It wasn’t the first thing she noticed, but she did eventually realize that the cold was suddenly gone. When Tess opened her eyes, she was somewhere completely different. The inside of a castle. Gwen was beside her, looking pale and unsteady, but there were many other onlookers too. Tess was overstimulated and struggled to keep her footing, still unable to separate up from down.

Tess dropped to her knees and vomited.