Elegy for a Star

The first place Tess was introduced to after her first experience with teleportation was the infirmary. According to what she’d been told, this holds true for many first timers here at Kravana Hall. Located high in the peaks of the branch of clouds, Kravana was home to the Expeditionary Corps and the Arosian College. Respectively, one was focused on acquiring information, and the other on deciphering it. During their time traveling together, Gwen had told Tess that she was joining the Corps.

While in the infirmary, Tess had met the doctor, Calliope. A dark, intelligent woman, Calliope appeared to be somewhere in her late twenties, though one wouldn’t think it by how she acted. She was constantly humming or singing some tune or another under her breath. Tess didn’t recognize any of the melodies or words, not that she expected to. Tess had mostly been given time to rest and overcome her sudden nausea. During that time, Calliope has been a most gracious hostess, delivering hot tea and small bites of bread when Tess felt like she could tolerate it.

Once she was feeling better, Tess sat up and let her legs rest off the edge of the bed. The bed wasn’t anything to cry home about. It was simple, but it was far better than sleeping on the ground. Though, maybe not better than sleeping in the same sack as Gwen. Tess’ heart fluttered at the thought.

“Tess,” Calliope said, approaching her from behind. When Tess turned to look at her doctor, she had a lot more to look at than she initially expected. Calliope was wearing some strange type of gauntlet. It was clear that it wasn’t meant for protection, as it was unwieldy, unable to grasp anything, and there were enough gaps between bands of metal and gears that it wouldn’t protect much, either. Upon the bottom of it were needles attached to a metal arm and along the side was a small, odd, blue sphere. Stranger yet, it moved on its own. Whenever Calliope’s arm swung with the natural movement of her walk, the device whirred and clicked to keep certain parts balanced and in place.

“What is that?” Tess asked with a suddenness that betrayed her fright.

Using her free hand, Calliope gestured to the device, “This is Edwyn.”

More questions sprung to Tess’ mind, but she had to decide upon one, “What does it do?”

“Edwyn does all sorts of things, but right now we are going to give you some medicine to calm your stomach,” Calliope said, approaching once more. Those needles along the bottom of the contraption adjusted their placement, arms and gears rotating and switching positions with a series of clicks until one of the needles, filled with some sort of purplish fluid, stuck out ahead.

“Whoa, wait, wait..” Tess said, rising from the seat and taking a few steps away, “Keep that away.”

“Edwyn is perfectly harmless,” Calliope assured Tess, but she followed Tess’ instructions and didn’t approach anymore, “He’s my medical assistant. I built him myself.”

“You built him? With what?”

“Copper, brass, some glass lensing and threaded joints, and some magic,” Calliope says without hesitation. She’s answered this line of questioning before.

A familiar voice echoed from around the corner of the infirmary. “Tess?” It was Gwendolyn’s voice, and Tess felt safer for it.

“Gwen!” Tess likely sounded more panicked than she meant to. Calliope stood by, looking back as Gwen rounded a corner and stepped into the room. The needle on the mechanical arm clicked back into place where it was before.

Gwendolyn inclined her head to Calliope and explained, “I need to take her. Do you need her for anything else?”

Before Calliope could respond, Tess blurted, “No, I’m done, I’m coming.” Tess began to scoot around the doctor and move toward Gwen instead. Calliope didn’t seem disheartened by any of this, but she looked confused as to Tess’ behavior. She pulled the gadget off of her dark-skinned arm. For a moment, Tess thought the gold material looked pretty on Calliope. She would appreciate it more if it didn’t come across as a death trap.

“Thank you,” Tess said with a breath of relief.

Gwen looked at her and raised an eyebrow, “For?”

Tess gave a chuckle, “For saving me from… whatever she was going to do.”

“Oh,” Gwendolyn said, thumbing over her shoulder, “Believe me, you don’t need saving if you’re in the care of one of the Keszriona. Calliope’s family is famous for their ingenuity and excellence in whatever field they decide to learn. Where I come from, you have to pay a lot of coin to get access to their expertise.”

Tess felt a little stupid now, and hoped that she hadn’t insulted Calliope. She made a mental note to visit her again and apologize. Something dawned on her, though. “Where are you from, anyway?” She asked.

The hallways here were made of arched stone, high enough that someone twice Tess’ height could move through it comfortably. She wondered what may have lived or visited here to warrant such excessive space.

“The Empire,” Gwen replied. That was one of the few things that was immediately familiar to Tess. She’d heard of the Empire, but there was a nagging feeling that, in her life before the ritual that brought her here, she wasn’t much of a fan. “I’d been most of the way from Lannercost by the time I ran into you,” Gwen explained with a laugh.

Tess’ expression must have conveyed the lack of understanding. She had no idea where Lannercost was in relation to Kravana Hall. “Uh,” Gwen started with a grimace, “It’s a long way, okay?”

The hallway opened into a massive atrium, brightly lit from the glass ceiling high above. A spiderweb of hallways extended out from all sides, with murals of heroes painted above each one. Tess hadn’t gotten a good look at it when she was last here, on her way to the infirmary, far too dizzy to pay attention to anything but the floor. It wasn’t a busy intersection on the scale of a city, Tess would estimate, but it was certainly the area of Kravana Hall that saw the most foot traffic. There were a couple dozen others meandering about. Some of them looked quite average, but others far from it. Among the most extraordinary was a short, pale woman garbed in red, whose hair blazed and whipped about like tendrils of flame.

Gwen must have caught her staring and leaned in to whisper to Tess, “That’s Aziza, the Fire Witch.”

“What about her?” Tess whispered back, pointing to another woman. 

This one displayed large expanses of tan, unblemished skin, far too perfect to be natural. Her long, black hair traveled down well past her hips, but Tess’ gaze stopped there. Tess normally wouldn’t be staring at a person’s hips, but this one was an exception, and not just for being pleasing to look at. From this woman’s lower back, just above either side of her buttocks, stretched two, bird-like, black-feathered wings. Proportional to her body, they were small, and Tess couldn’t imagine that the woman could fly with them. Tess only wondered what they could be for. All in all, she was dressed in jewelry and gems, golden headdress and golden bracelets, and wrapped in black tattoos that guide the eyes across her body.

Tess was enthralled, and it wasn’t until she looked back up that she saw the woman’s yellow-eyed, narrowed gaze looking back at her. For a heartbeat, Tess could only observe how exotic this winged woman appeared to be. During the next heartbeat, panic struck her, and Tess immediately redirected to stare straight ahead.

“Smooth one,” Gwen said under her breath, “And I don’t know about her. Never seen anything like her.”