Under a Starless Sky

Chapter 49

TL took up a quill and with the sharp end pointed to the separation in spectral lines. She replaced the

other rune. She pointed to the discrepancy. She swapped it out. She repeated. Erico complained, ‘you

seen one rainbow you’ve seen them all’ to which Torny snapped ‘make another sound and the by

goddess tree herself, I will sleep you.’ Yaffa asked ‘have you not heard him sleep?’ Tane said: ‘the

whole village hears him sleep.’

“Would you all please be quiet?!” Torny demanded. “Loxy, can something that subtle really send you a

world away?” Torny asked.

“A universe away.”

“A universe?” Torny said.

“May I add a mark to this stone to denote its change?” TL asked.

“Yes,” Torny said.

“How did it change?” Arne asked.

TL shrugged. “I don’t know. It got dropped? It was damaged in a magical fight?”

The Vikings exchanged glances. They did not share their understanding of it. TL and Shen could only

imagine.

“Should we throw it away?” Torny asked.

“Not if you want to come back here,” TL said. “Here let me write our gate recipe…”

“No!” Arne and Torny said.

“I mean, no,” Torny said, softer. “Unless you want all the seers to know your home address, potentially

discern ours.”

“Show her, she’ll remember,” Arne said.

“She doesn’t have to,” Torny said. “It should be our address, minus this damaged one.”

“Oh!” TL said, grimacing. “I am so smart I am stupid sometimes.”

“What?” Shen asked.

“I hadn’t considered half tone steps. I have only been considering three dimensional properties- the

geometric structures as related to a full tone, not the myriad of potential harmonics,” TL said. “Even one

degree of deflection… Again, where do you get your runes?”

Erico pulled at his face. Torny gave him a look. He backed away. Tane was sampling the honey.

Torny looked at Loxy. “You’re not making fun of me?”

“No,” TL said.

“All raised masters can make a single rune,” Torny said.

Torny demonstrated. She took a colorless, unmarked rune from the box, closed it in her hand, and

closed her eyes. Light illuminated her hand, escaped from her fingers, bones were silhouetted in

glowing flesh, and then the light faded. She opened her hand and dropped the stone into TL’s hand. It

was warm.

“I can make this,” Torny said. “This stone now carries a reflection of my light. I am told that with an

increase in knowledge and wisdom, my light will change, and my stone will change. I hear that

significant events can a change a person’s light. We have an elder who reports having had four

changes in light. No one will trade with me because my stone is common. My light is common. Yaffa

can make one, a third off mine. Also common. Our Sister can make one, a fifth. Less common. People

will trade with her before me.”

“It takes twelve stones to open a gate,” TL said.

“Twelve sisters,” Torny said. “What stone do you make?”

The arrangement of gems on the floor seemed familiar. “It reminds me of a periodic table,” Shen said.

“Shh!” TL said.

Shen had a slight emotional reaction to having been ‘shushed.’ TL had never done that. She was

capable of holding two conversations, and could have come at him internally, but she was that focused.

Arne was amused, probably happy to see a normal human interaction pattern between them. He

touched Shen’s shoulder and nodded. Shen recovered.

TL sorted the pile on the floor, pushing them into patterns. She was studying another crystal that she

didn’t recognize and didn’t own. She changed her mind, rearranged the groupings. She examined

individual’s stones illuminating their spectral patterns on the plate. She laughed and made notes in her

book. She took the book Torny had and made the same notations and gave it back.

“You have more keys than I do,” Torny lamented.

“No,” TL said, studying the floor and her new arrangement. “We have the same.”

“No,” Torny said. “I don’t have any of these…”

TL looked at her. “We have the same. This box is yours.”

Torny cried. She bowed, her head touching the floor. TL touched her head. “Sister, no,” TL said.

“This is too much,” Torny said.

“Sister,” TL insisted. “Come up. Eyes.”

Torny sat up, made eye contact. “I cannot give you everything I know in one sitting. Even this book will

require explanation before you can read it well. This gift will increase our ability to communicate. This is

reciprocity, not benevolence. We rise together, we fall together.”

“We are one,” Torny said.

“On the ship,” Arne added.

TL removed another glass plate from the drawer. It had a place for a candle. It had an indenture for

three stones. It was etched in gold. She placed it on the floor, took one of the stones from Torny’s

collection that she didn’t have and placed it in the left indention. She took an unmarked, transparent

rune and placed it in the right indention. She then took one of the shaped die and placed it in the third

indention. Nothing. She removed it and tried a twenty sided die. There was a shimmer. She turned up

the intensity by rotating the twenty sided die to a higher number. The stone became too bright. She

dialed it back. The plate emitted a sound. The crystal on the right vibrated, took on the color of the first.

TL opened up the bottom drawer and removed what looked like a nail polish jar. She chose a sparking

gold, took out a thin brush, and duplicated the symbol on the newly entrained stone. She return Torny’s

stone back to her pile. She did this procedure until she had a copy of each of Torny’s stones that were

not in her collection. She handed these to Abby who took them away and returned when she was Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

finished. While Abby was gone, TL made notations in her book. She frowned at the book. She took

Torny’s book and duplicated her work, and handed it back.

“I may have to start over. If I do, I will provide you with an updated version,” TL said.

“And throw away this work? We must show our work, so the path is clear for all who follow,” Torny said.

“Fair enough,” TL said. “Do I understand correctly, the only way to get new stones, or missing stones,

are from masters?”

“Yes,” Torny said. “In the beginning, before the fall, it is said that all gates had all the stones, and there

was always an attendant to speed people on their way. After the fall, most of the relics, especially the

gems were looted.”

“Well, of course,” Shen said. “Everyone should get stoned.”

TL frowned at him. “This is serious business, Jon.”

“It was a joke,” Shen said.

“I don’t get it,” Torny said.

“Ignore him. Continue,” TL said.

“There are legends of abandoned temples that still have all the stones. Arne has been determined to

find them. He has pushed further out to sea than any Captain before him.”

“We found a ruin and the gate worked. We were returning home to gather supplies and check on our

families,” Arne said. “It is my intent to return to that gate, explore the ruins further, and then push on to

the next shore.”

“How do you navigate?” Shen asked.

“I always know where I am. I always know where home is,” Arne said. “I will always return.”

“May you always return,” Shen said. “But if you are killed…”

“My crew would be lost,” Arne said.

“We know the risks,” Torny said.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if the missing stones could only be made by men raised to Masters?” Shen asked.

Torny scowled. “What an appalling thought.”

“Balance in all things,” TL said.

“There is that,” Torny bowed to TL.

“Are you the only culture that tolerates men shamans?” TL asked.

“We are not sure about the Dragon riders,” Arne said. “They are stingy with information and will not

trade.”

“You can’t trade with people that own the sky,” Yaffa said. “They have everything.”

“No one has everything,” Shen assured her.

“The Walking Bears are tolerant to everything but violence,” Torny said. “But I have not met one Master,

male or female, in their community with a single ounce of talent, common sense, or a stone to trade.

They play like kids and will give you river stones thinking it’s a good trade.”

“Can we go home now?” Erico asked.

“Got a hot date?” Shen asked.

“We don’t cook dates,” Erico said.

“We should be going,” Arne said.

TL returned all of Torny’s gems in the bag. TL also placed everything back into the box and

surrendered it to her. Including the book that came in the box.

“But your book,” Torny said.

“I have another. Keep it, share one with your wisest rune expert,” TL said. “If there is insight, please

share.”

“Of course,” TL said.

TL went to the foot of the ramp. She knelt, touched one of the hexagon tiles with the flat of her hand,

and it raised from the floor. The raised tile revealed a pedestal. There were open pockets contained on

the side of pedestal. In the upper most pocket was a touch screen, complete with all the known runes.

TL modified the display, adding an icon below one the existing icons; she adjusted three, sliding scales

until she found the tone she needed. She dragged and dropped twelve ‘stone’ icons into the slot- and

waited for the signal to take, the resonance to build. There was every indication on the pad and on the

portal itself that it was going to take. The lights in the room dimmed, and amber light in each of the

corners began to flare.

“Did you kill giants to take this gate?” Tane asked.

“Why, yes. Yes I did,” Shen said.

“Jon,” TL corrected.

“There might be giants,” Shen protested.

“Jon!” TL snapped.

“We acquired the gate, peacefully,” Shen said.

Arne was amused. His new friend could lie.

“So, no giants?” Tane asked.

“You are the tallest people I have ever met since this birth,” Shen said.

The portal snapped to life, shimmered. TL took an orb from the pedestal, walked up the ramp. It

brightened, rose up from her hand, and proceeded through the gate, flying on autopilot. TL received

telemetry.

“What did you do?” Arne asked.

“I am assessing the area for safety,” TL said. “It is safe to proceed. Your invitation, was it limited to

Shen, or may I, Rock, and Abby join?”

“You are all welcome. Please,” Arne said.

“Then we should go. They’re a little worried about the scout-orb,” TL said.