Ceit had seen so much. And Alene loved listening to her, she said everything with so much raw happiness it warmed her just being next to her, she was a moth to Ceit’s light. This is what she had wanted when she thought of being around humans again, this feeling of companionship.
Ceit was an acolyte of Oongx the cow goddess, a golden calf god that required her chosen few to show their dedication by following her constellation in the sky, never letting it out of sight. ‘And when she’s acknowledged my dedication I’ll join her in the stars, in her mantle,’ She explained. ‘There have only been twelve that have pursued the following since her godhood initiation, and I’ll be the first to join her in seven generations! And the youngest to join her ever! Assuming she acknowledges me in the next decade.’ Ceit said looking sideways, her cheeky grin revealing a cute dimple. Alene was unfamiliar with the concept of godhood. She knew roughly what religion was, having been to a church before and seen their murals, assuming they worshiped some sort of bird or birds. But it had seemed so distant, an intangible distant thing that didn’t have much effect on the living. Ceit spoke as if she had personally met her god, as if she were a living breathing thing, a being close at hand.
‘The last one to join her was Fergus, and she was almost eighty when Oongx accepted her, and that was after 45 years answering the following. But I’m optimistic. I’ve only been traveling for three years, but Oongx personally asked me to come to her, and she’s never done that before!’ Ceit turned to her, beaming proudly at her, sunset glinting blindingly across her visor.
They were making steady progress back to Alene’s home, the bike took some maneuvering given how wide it was with all of Ceit’s travel gear tucked away in bulging saddle bags. Ceit gasped when the skull came into view, ‘A giant bird! Oh, I was wondering what sort of animal this was, or well, if not a bird it at least had the beak of one. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a bird or even a creature as big as this before. And I’ve seen some pretty big animals. I suppose it could be one the body of some deceased god, but they don’t really die easily.’
‘I hadn’t really thought about what it was. Well, except as a home. It has a perfect view of the beach at sunrise, you’re going to love it.’ Alene was discovering there were quite a lot of things she hadn’t given too much thought to. Or perhaps Ceit was just the sort of person who had too many thoughts, which seemed like the sort of thing someone who traveled alone might be predisposed towards. Ceit carefully tucked her bike away underneath the skull, pulling a tarp out to cover it and tucking in the corners after unbuckling her bags.
They had gotten a small fire going in Alene’s modest fire pit, the smoke drifting lazily out of the skull’s eye sockets. Alene prodded at the branches contentedly, listening to Ceit mumble to herself as she sorted through the saddle bags she had brought up, trying to find her star chart.
She had been telling Alene about the constellations she’d encountered on her journeys. ‘There is this one constellation, we know her as Sabea the star maiden at home, but I came to this city once where most of its stars were known as the strawberry tiger Izar, and they had a whole festival to honor him, for some sort of important historic event I think, it didn’t seem like he was a whole god. Anyway, I happened to be there when it was going on, so he projected down from the heavens at the climax, but I could see where his heart was joined with Sabea’s! I really love tracking the differences between constellations and myths between cultures, sometimes they’re the same, but sometimes they’re really really different!’
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With a shout of triumph, she held a thick book up. ‘It’s my family atlas, I’ll give it back when Oongx calls me, but for now it’s mine.’ She cradled the heavy tome in her arms. ‘Even if I didn’t need it, I still would really like having it. It's like my whole family is supporting me.’ She smiled, a slightly forlorn smile Alene had seen reflected in her own face. ‘What is your family like?’ Alene asked. Ceit perked up, her smile turning lively again. ‘There are soooo many of them. I have my grandparents and my great aunts and one great uncle Allegre but my great aunty Keris is my family head. And then I have my parents and my aunts and uncles and cousins. And I have my older sister Luth and her wife and my baby brother! They were all so proud of me when I told them I had been called.’ Alene wondered if she had ever had any family, someone that would miss her when she wasn’t around. Someone who was her person. She missed them, that nameless, faceless person.
The thick golden leather of the front of the atlas was stitched to hold glass fragments in starry patterns, glittering in the firelight, its gold dipped page edges a subtle lustor. Ceit cracked it open, the crease opening it directly to a page with a large sphere, filled with tiny dots and lines, annotations in beautiful flowing script. Around the sphere were dates, breaking the year up into sections by moon phases. The top disk of a planisphere fluttered free from between the pages, a large oval hole in its center. Ceit bent to pick it up and carefully pressed it back between the pages before handing it to Alene. She left Alene to carefully flip through its pages while she set up her bedding, a more organized arrangement than Alene’s own messy nest. She could tell which were Ceit’s additions, the ink a less aged black. ‘Do you have a favorite constellation?’ Alene asked, looking up from her perusal. Ceit sat back on her heels, thinking.
‘Well, if I had to pick one besides Oongx, I might pick Xi, the cloven horse. My cousin Xia is named after her, and though I don’t tell him because it will go to his stupid head, he is kind of my favorite cousin. Xi’s story is pretty cool too. She was the daughter born of the sunbeam's first contact with the oceans’ waves. She’s the first horse, and all other horses are her descendants, though none are as fast as she is. You never actually see her, just see the prints of her hooves after she’s passed. That’s why my aunt and uncle named my cousin Xia, because they could hear him move in another room but when they’d get there he would be gone, leaving only a mess behind him.’ She pointed out the skull’s eye socket as she spoke, tracing Xi’s constellation in the sky with her finger.
Alene found the corresponding page in Ceit’s atlas, tracing the lines connecting the stars, their formal names written in miniscule text that she could only just make out. The star Eocene forming the cleft in her front foot, reaching out in front of her, and Enif at her muzzle. On the facing page was an elegant drawing of Xi, a thick mane streaming behind her in the wind, looking at the reader with a mouth full of fangs. ‘Why does she have fangs?’ Alene asked, she didn’t recall that being a normal characteristic of horses. Ceit shrugged, ‘maybe she ate meat?’ Alene laughed. ‘Speaking of, I don’t have a lot of food around, just some berries, are you going to be alright for dinner?’ ‘What a coincidence, I happen to love berries!’
The fire had mostly burned out by the time Novem returned. He seemed very disgruntled by the disruption to their schedule, refusing to make eye contact with Alene when she called to him and heading directly to her bed and curling up there with his back facing the girls. ‘That’s your cat?’ ‘I wouldn’t exactly call him mine, but he’s been my companion for a while now, he sort of comes and goes. He usually comes to fetch me at the end of the day, I think he’s a little grumpy that I didn’t wait for him tonight.’ She giggled, ‘he’s such a baby.’ The cat lifted his head to look over at them with a surely expression. ‘He’s awfully astute for a cat’ Ceit observed. ‘I don’t think they usually understand you like that.’ ‘Yeah, he’s pretty smart,’ Alene said fondly. Ceit just hummed thoughtfully. ‘He’s really good at finding interesting things in the city, hopefully he’ll be willing to lead us around tomorrow, if you want to explore?’ ‘I’d love to see more of the city!’ Ceit exclaimed excitedly. ‘I have a couple days before I should continue on.’ Alene felt a little pang at the reminder that Ceit would only be around briefly. Even after just a few hours, she was already becoming accustomed to having another presence fill the space with her. She resolved with some resignation to enjoy every bit.