106 PF

Continental Empire

Kingdom of Larnach

City of Aigea

Fort Victoria

0100 hours

Located on the outskirts of the coastal city of Aigea, Fort Victoria was the base from which the military exerted control over the metropolis and the surrounding area. The flag of Larnach was prominently mounted on a sturdy flagpole in the middle of the base, billowing proudly in the wind of approaching helicopter blades. Its regal purple colour was akin to a beacon in the dead of night, a symbol of the monarchy and of the kingdom as a whole.

Touching down on a designated pad, the helicopter slowed down its propellers to a gentle halt. Out came a young General with a slight limp and four faceless soldiers clad in dark garbs. The Stargazers looked upon the flag and the purple crescent moon that it bore, beholding its presence through a sense unlike sight, cognizant of it in the form of an object rather than an image. Something about it inspired them.

The Stargazers sat in a covert vehicle as their commander drove them to the docks of Aigea, the dull industrial atmosphere of the sector being a far cry from the city’s glittering heart. They were given clear, concise orders – investigate the designated area and eliminate any hostiles in the vicinity. They were the only units suited for a stealth operation – trained to move without sound and kill without detection.

The General briefed them one last time and gave them a reluctant ‘good luck’, surprised to receive a quick yet heartfelt group hug in return. They turned their armbands inside out to make themselves completely indistinguishable from each other and set off into the darkness, about to determine whether Aigea would sleep soundly that night or become a battleground.

Rose led the way as the others followed suit, masterfully navigating through alleyways and across rooftops, their black silhouettes melting into the night. They approached the outer docks – an area beyond the city’s protected perimeter that had fallen into disrepair following the sinking of Arelia, the homeland of all Sparkwielders, due to a cataclysmic seismic event many decades ago. Its decrepit warehouses had festered with crime long before the escalation of the crisis, and intel suggested that, on this night, one particular gang was about to conduct dealings with Sparkwielders.

If it were any other operation, a specialized Sparkwielder combat unit would storm the docks and engage any enemies it encounters, but this was a test to see if the Stargazers could accomplish the same task with less risk and none of the collateral damage. There would be no support – backup would only be able to deploy from the base itself – and so if they were to fail, the fallback plan was a full-on assault.

Once the Stargazers stepped into the docks, slinking from shadow to shadow cast by deserted buildings, they were confronted with the issue of finding the exact location of the deal. Rose relinquished her forward position for the first time and allowed Gold to step to the front. With his mind clear and focused, he kneeled down on one leg, touching the ground with the tips of his fingers. The others could sense a sort of wave-like influence emitting from the child, gradually permeating the entire area.

Gold then raised his hands high into the air, and one of them suddenly snapped towards a particular direction akin to the arrow of a compass, gravitating towards erratic movement in a sea of tranquillity.

This was the gift of farsight.

The Stargazers followed the lead and soon zeroed in on a particular building, the mouldy brickwork and shattered windows signifying its nature of having been abandoned and left to rot. A rusty excuse for a truck could be seen parked outside, with a rough-looking man standing watch near the main entrance. Brandishing a cheap assault rifle, he restlessly observed the surrounding area. The four soldiers approached the warehouse from the other side, and Navy went forward to sneak up on the enemy with swords drawn.

Footsteps quieter than a breeze, breath silent enough to be corpse-like, Navy closed the distance and attacked from behind, slashing at the man’s legs and then gracefully spinning around to face the target and cut his throat with impeccable precision. The movement was practised, but the recipient was novel.

The foe fell on his knees, and all that came out of his mouth was a panicked gurgle. Navy then plunged his swords into the ground, freeing his hands to reach towards the man’s head. All it took was a touch to bridge the gap, and a connection was made. A determined mind overpowering a mind writhing in pain. Swirling visions, thoughts and memories – information.

This was the gift of dominion.

Navy ploughed through the thug’s dying, flickering mind for shreds of anything useful. There were three others, he learned, in that warehouse, waiting for something to arrive. They carried a crate with them. A trade. There was nothing else to be inferred. The child let go of the connection, shifted his grip, and finished off the enemy with a simple snapping motion. He was no Sparkwielder, but collaborators were just as dangerous.

Navy retrieved his weapons and returned to the others. The collars and the wordless concentration deepened the psychic bond between the Stargazers, allowing his knowledge to transfer into the minds of the rest. Knowing exactly what to expect, the four soldiers scaled the nearest wall to climb in through the windows and perch on the roof beams overlooking the inside of the warehouse.

Moonlight gave just enough illumination for the naked eye to behold the cobweb-filled overturned shelves, the vulgar graffiti upon the grimy walls, the rust and trash and debris, but the Stargazers could see it all clear as day. There were, indeed, three people in the warehouse – regular people, all holding guns – two of them guarding a nondescript metal crate with the other one standing next to a peculiar sign on the floor.

Etched deep into the concrete was a ritual circle of sorts, filled with geometric shapes and mysterious runes. The Stargazers watched as it suddenly came to life, glowing in a deep blue tone. The gangsters near the crate took a step back in fear and clutched their firearms, but the one in front, a tough-looking woman, didn’t even flinch. She seemed to be the leader of the group. The glow soon culminated in a moderately loud clap, and with it two Sparkwielders appeared in the circle where there were once none.

They were unremarkable at first glance, wearing regular clothes, but to the Stargazers they appeared as a pair of shining stars, illuminating the area around them with their intense magical glow. It was unlike anything they’d seen before. One was blue – exactly the same as the circle – and held a briefcase, while the other was yellow and shone substantially brighter than his companion. The Sparkwielders conversed with the gangster woman in hushed whispers, too quiet for the Stargazers to hear, but it had something to do with that metal crate.

Rose held a deep connection with her allies, acutely sensing the presence of their minds around her. Without using any words or gestures, she coordinated a plan of attack. Picking off the hostiles one by one was impossible, so she knew the only course of action was a simultaneous strike. Rose and Lime stayed where they were, directly over the Sparkwielders, while Navy and Gold moved to be above the gangsters. Their blades drawn, they waited for the signal. There was no sense of anticipation or anxiety, only an intense trance of cold concentration.

This was the gift of communion.

And in a split second, with perfect synchronization, they struck. Rose dropped down, sinking her swords into the yellow Sparkwielder’s vital organs as Lime did the same with the blue enemy. Navy eliminated the two gangsters near the crate by descending on them with a lethal double strike while Gold landed with a deadly flourish of steel, piercing the leader’s heart and slashing at the back of her neck, severing the spinal cord.

Lime’s swords struck true, and the blue Sparkwielder crumpled to the floor dead, but as Rose twisted her blades to finish off the yellow insurgent, his face contorted in burning rage and he threw her off with a blast of raw power. She flew across the entire warehouse, bracing for impact before her body crashed into the wall. Lime was hit with the discharge as well, sliding back several metres, but managed to stay on her feet.

Lethally wounded yet still extremely dangerous, the Sparkwielder lunged at the other soldiers, a glowing longsword of pure energy forming in his hands. They dodged away from his wild swing, and Gold immediately went for the kill, crossing his swords with the enemy’s weapon. Such a direct confrontation brought the child to his very limits, but it gave Navy and Lime a window of attack.

As the two Stargazers charged at the Sparkwielder, he suddenly pushed Gold away with another blast of energy and then extended a hand to grasp Navy in a telekinetic grip. Moments before he could crush the blue child or slam him into the ground, Lime aimed a precise stab at the foe’s head, her sword just barely piercing an instinctually raised shield of energy before connecting with its target and going cleanly through the skull. He went limp, the blinding fiery glow of his soul giving a final crescendo before petering away into nothing.

Lime could sense the harm that came to her squadmates and rushed over to aid them. They only sustained mild bruises at worst, but she held each of them in her arms, radiating a mental aura of warmth and comfort that soothed their pain by suppressing the nerve signals coming from the injuries.

This was the gift of empathy.

At last, the Stargazers regrouped in the centre, surrounded by silence and dead bodies. The two Sparkwielders that once emanated a brilliant light were now nothing more than lukewarm corpses. As Lime beheld the blood that stained her swords, she was struck with a peculiar feeling of melancholy that slowly seeped into the minds of the others. She had just extinguished two stars.

But there was no use in wasting time. Rose detached her collar and extracted a portable radio from the inside of her coat, adjusting the frequency and speaking into it with a slightly shaky cadence.

“Fort Victoria, Fort Victoria, this is Stargazer, come in, over.”

The response came almost immediately in the form of a voice equal parts composed and incredulous.

“Stargazer, this is Fort Victoria, what’s your status? Over.”

“Area is secure, six hostiles down, two Sparks and four normals, do you copy? Over.”

“Copy that. Clean-up units are en route. Out.”

Rose reaffixed her collar and put away the radio. The Stargazers’ location was being broadcasted by tiny transmitters embedded in their coats, the signal of which the base could easily pinpoint. While waiting for the main force to arrive, the Stargazers approached the metal crate. Navy and Gold pried it open with some effort, revealing it to be full of white, opaque, faintly glowing crystals of varying sizes and shapes. This was Arelium – a rare mineral originating from the sunken isle of Arelia. The military and the Sparkwielders often fought each other over the finite stocks of the crystal, both sides using it as an amplifier of energy in their weapons and gear.

These crystals resonated with the children’s psychic vision in a peculiar way, making them feel drawn to them. One by one, they tentatively reached out and grabbed a piece of crystal, holding it in their hands. The warmth and soft pulsing of the Arelium gave them a tingling sense of comfort. They each sighed with relief, their minds calmed by the presence of the mysterious material, and placed the crystals back where they belonged.

Next, they investigated the Sparkwielder corpses. Looking closely, they could see that the bodies were adorned by makeshift necklaces and bracelets made of rough Arelium. Far from being an element of fashion, these trinkets seemed to serve a purely practical purpose. As they contemplated whether to take these items or leave them be, Gold suddenly perked up and stared into an indeterminate direction.

“Helicopters,” he murmured to the rest.

The Stargazers all sprinted outside, and indeed, several heavy transport helicopters could be seen approaching the docks, bathing the area in the glow of searchlights. They landed with a discordant chorus of spinning propellers, expelling several coordinated squads of soldiers from their metal bowels. The force consisted of heavy railgun- and disruptor-wielding units – the Lancers and Pulsers – and light troops with anti-materiel rifles – the Stingers – but a few were wearing conventional armour and held unremarkable firearms.

One among them, a Lancer, approached the Stargazers and knelt down to face them. He was tall and robust, with tan skin and strikingly empathetic eyes. Under the bulky exoskeleton, his uniform was that of an officer, with the rank insignia of a Sergeant sewn onto his shoulder in the form of a patch – two purple lines going through a black background with a single purple star between them.

“By the gods, you really are children…” he murmured with a mix of exasperation and reluctant acceptance. “So you’re that new ‘stealth unit’ the General told us about, huh?”

They all perked up at the mention of the General, curiously observing this person in much the same manner as he looked at them. He had seen ‘agents’ deployed on the battlefield before, but this was far harder for him to stomach.

“I’m Sergeant Hoyt. Director-General McCarter is waiting for you, but we need to wrap up this operation first. Don’t worry, my boys and girls’ll take care of it in no time.”

The Sergeant then began dishing out various orders to different squads – to investigate the warehouse, to recover critical assets, to retrieve the bodies for identification, and to sweep the surrounding area. The commands were obeyed swiftly and professionally as the soldiers secured the Arelium along with the money in the briefcase, packed the bodies into bags, and investigated the docks for any threats.

With no other hostiles found and all tasks accomplished, the force prepared to return to base. The Stargazers in particular followed Hoyt, although with a certain degree of reluctance. Loaded with people and cargo, the helicopters lifted off simultaneously and headed for Fort Victoria in a uniform fleet. The mission was a success.

----------------------------------------

Among the virtues that a person of his standing should possess, patience was one that Austin McCarter had in abundance. And yet it was then, standing in the middle of Fort Victoria and waiting for his wards to return, that the General felt anxious. He fidgeted ever so slightly while trying to maintain a dignified posture, his heart slowly filling with a sense of objectively irrational worry. “Is this what it feels like to be a–”

But he didn’t get to finish that thought, as he saw a fleet of helicopters approaching the base. Taking care not to have his cap be flung off his head by the wind of rotors, he walked closer and observed them landing in unison. McCarter couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride watching the exoskeleton soldiers disembark in an organized fashion and head for the armoury as the base’s staff unloaded and sorted the cargo – the Larnachian military’s exceptional coordination and discipline were moulded by years of gruelling conflict and shaped by the guiding hand of not only the Meister-General, but dutiful officers like Austin too.

As soon as McCarter finally spotted what he was looking for, his attention was wholly and entirely focused on it. The children – his children, his treasured wards – were safe and sound under the watchful gaze of Sergeant Hoyt, whose smooth, practised movements made it seem like his enormous exoskeletal rig was practically weightless.

The Sergeant looked at Austin with a special sense of unwavering respect that only existed between soldiers of the frontline. Unlike students of the prestigious Fostaian military academies, any officers of Larnach were known to have earned their rank through service and dedication, risking their lives to push back the enemy and protect civilians. The Kingdom of Fostai had been renowned for its nigh-unbeatable army for many centuries, but it were the Larnachians who bravely and single-handedly fought against the most insidious foe in the Continent’s history.

“Director-General McCarter, sir,” crisply said Hoyt, giving a slightly clunky but respectful salute.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The kids immediately rushed for Austin, practically coalescing around him. He wanted nothing more than to hold them close and hug them tight, an intense desire that was completely new to him yet felt perfectly natural, but such affectionate gestures would have to wait.

“Has everything gone smoothly, Sergeant?”

“An exceptional operation if I’ve ever seen one,” said Hoyt, glancing at the Stargazers with hesitant gratitude. “No casualties, no injuries, no collateral. Your… erm, your agents did all the work.”

The Sergeant clearly struggled to process the idea of potentially owing the lives of his troops to a squad of prepubescent assassins. He then looked at McCarter again, paused for a few seconds, and smiled.

“I’m just glad to know they’re in good hands,” he told the General with a humble grin that he rarely had the occasion to show.

McCarter nodded and smiled too – an earnest exchange of gestures between two men who were distant in rank but close in fellowship.

“Sergeant, I entrust you to oversee the processing of the cargo. Ensure that it’s properly logged and the data is relayed to the Meister-General without delay. You’re dismissed.”

Hoyt gave his superior another salute and headed off, the whirring steps of his hydraulic exoskeleton leaving noticeable imprints in the ground.

Austin then turned to the children but quickly realized, with a feeling of embarrassment, that he couldn’t possibly distinguish which was which with their faces still obscured. They noticed his confoundment almost immediately and simply turned their armbands back to the coloured sides. He couldn’t help but chuckle.

“How are you all feeling? Are any of you wounded?”

“No,” came a muffled reply from Rose. “We’re fine.”

“Let’s head home, then.”

McCarter went to the same helicopter in which he arrived at Fort Victoria, the pilot waiting diligently for the passengers to arrive. The flight back to Fort Anastasia was entirely uneventful, containing only several hours of rotor noise. Flying at an especially high altitude and along main roads to minimize the risk of being ambushed, the helicopter safely reached the City of Larnach and touched down in the base. As soon as Austin stepped out, he was met by none other than…

“Ah, there you are!” exclaimed Allister Ford, looking as falsely endearing as always. “I’ve been waiting for you to arrive – I came here all the way from Lockenkee. I trust you’ve brought the Stargazers with you?”

The General gave Allister his best glare of utter disdain, but that only seemed to cheer the scientist up even further. The children bunched up behind McCarter’s back, looking at their former supervisor with a bittersweet mixture of benign recognition and insular wariness. They whispered something to each other.

“What do you want?” asked Austin, not even bothering to hide the sheer antipathy he felt for Allister.

“Why, I want data! I need them to give me a report on how they accomplished their mission. As you might remember, this is part of the project. The more information I have on their combat capabilities, the better I can do with a second batch.”

McCarter really didn’t want there to be a second batch. The possibility of it was an insurmountable fact that he struggled to cope with, and that only served to agitate him further.

“Fine, but make it quick. I do not wish for this to drag on.”

“Excellent! Shall we head to your office?”

This meant not Austin’s private office, but the room that he was using to formally receive visitors and shared with several other high-ranking officers for the same purpose. Such a proposition was acceptable to the General, who used himself to put distance between Allister and the kids as he headed for the office. He was only willing to tolerate this to a very limited extent.

The office was a profoundly bland room, devoid of any items or decorations except for a table and several chairs. Ford and the Stargazers were seated on opposite sides of the table with McCarter standing between them. Allister took a notepad and pen out of his lab coat, looking over some existing notes before facing the Stargazers.

“You can remove your collars.”

Even though this was phrased as more of a request than an order, the children’s hesitation to do so surprised Allister significantly. They glanced at the General, and only showed their faces once he gave them a nod of approval.

“Ah. Well then, let’s start with Rose. I know that you often speak for your siblings, but I want you to give me a solely personal point of view. I will ask the others after that.”

“Siblings?” inquired Austin. “Why do you use that word?”

“It’s an apt descriptor in all but the most literal sense. Is there a problem with that?”

“No, there isn’t.”

As customary of her, Rose did not waste any time before beginning to describe the mission from her perspective in a clear and succinct manner. McCarter was fascinated with her ability to speak professionally – her overview of the operation was not unlike something he’d hear from a ‘real’ soldier. Allister listened closely, continuously jotting something down on his notepad until she finished her report.

“Fascinating. Your first combat encounter and you already face off against Sparkwielders! An Ember and a Flame, was it not? Have you realized the mistake you made in engaging them?”

“Yes. I should have been more aware of the enemy’s class and dealt an immediate killing blow, not allowing it to persist.”

Lime flinched.

“Live for a century, learn for a century – it’s how the Thuaidians say. No amount of tutoring can match first-hand experience, after all. But do take care that these lessons don’t cost you dearly.”

Ford then requested that Navy give his report as well. The boy spoke dryly, detailing his actions in a harrowingly detached manner. Austin inwardly shuddered at the way in which Navy described his elimination of the collaborators. The torch was then passed on to Gold, whose telling of the events was particularly vibrant. He directed special attention to his usage of psychic abilities to locate the target, clearly taking pride in that feat.

“Wonderful, wonderful!” said Allister with dubious joy. “It’s unbecoming of me to get so giddy, but I’m simply delighted with how you’ve been using your unique abilities! You share the same baseline characteristics, yet you’ve also developed individual powers. What an exceptional development…

“Now, I’m getting ahead of myself. Lime, tell me your perspective too.”

Lime sat silently with her head down, eyes staring into the floor. She started speaking with a significant delay, words tumbling out of her mouth like boulders in a slow-motion avalanche. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with what she was telling at first, but her stuttering and hesitancy were an early sign of warning.

The girl barely managed to finish her report, particularly struggling with the parts in which she dealt the finishing blows to both of the Sparkwielders. Allister took note of these strange behaviours from the very beginning, focusing his attention entirely on Lime.

“I see something is troubling you, Lime. Tell me what it is.”

McCarter immediately opened his mouth to intervene, but was stopped when Lime actually replied to the scientist’s inquiry.

“I… w-when I saw them, they were shining so brightly, like stars… unlike anything I’ve ever seen!.. a-and I… I… extinguished them. All of t-that glow, all o-of that… that life, i-it just… vanished, vanished because of… of me.”

Indescribably heavy feelings of sorrow and regret were engraved on this cute, pudgy, innocent face that belonged to a child but was fitted onto a soldier. Austin was significantly disturbed by this, while Ford simply stopped taking notes, laid down his notepad, and leaned forward with his hands clasped together. His expression was that of an ominous resolve masked by mild surprise.

“How curious. I expected the souls of Sparkwielders to have an effect on your vision, but such an intense one? So is it that you feel bad for killing them, for making this ‘light’ disappear? But the deaths of normal people didn’t register, did they? As it should be. You are soldiers, after all, and soldiers must kill without remorse.

“But this seems to be a special case, so… hm. Allow me to ask you a question, Lime.”

The scientist addressed her as softly as always, yet there was an edge in his tone. His mask of a cheerful and friendly demeanour began to slip. She stared back at him with a sudden sense of fear.

“If– no, when you encounter a Sparkwielder again, a merciless and extremely dangerous foe, when you are faced with an imminent demise, when your siblings, or your fellow soldiers, or the innocent people of the kingdom you have pledged to protect are in danger and you’re the only thing standing between them and an inhuman terrorist, will you strike at it again?”

Lime was shaking, wracked by barely audible sobs and the early glint of potential tears. In that moment, the General knew he had to put a stop to this.

“Allister, that’s enoug–”

“Will you?!” he asked in a half-shout, abruptly rising from his chair and slamming his palms on the table. His anger seemed hollow, almost as if this outburst was just as fabricated as his smiles and pleasant greetings. But Allister’s face went blank when, all of a sudden, it was met with the tip of a sword hovering a hair’s length away from it, perfectly straight and still.

It was Rose who stood up without a shred of hesitation and drew her blade against the man who taught her how to wield it. Not even a second later, Navy and Gold joined her to make it three. Lime sat there in shock and amazement, a frightened gasp stuck in her throat. There was a standstill, in which nothing moved except McCarter’s hand as it twitched instinctively in the direction of his holstered handgun.

And then Allister Ford backed down. And for a fraction of a second, there was something almost like a smile on his face.

“Hm. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” he recited in a voice entirely lacking in any emotion whatsoever. “Fed,” he added without haste.

Austin took a deep breath – in, then out. And when he spoke, his voice was like thunder from the heavens.

“Doctor Ford. I have had enough of this. You are dismissed. If you dare come near my– my wards ever again, I swear on the authority vested in me by the Meister-General that you will come to regret it. Do I make myself clear?”

Allister looked at Austin like he just said the sky was purple.

“That was a simple test,” he said, his intonation flat and aloof. “You would want to know the answer too, wouldn’t you?”

He retrieved his notepad, gave the Stargazers and Director-General McCarter one last indecipherable glance, and headed for the exit with a slow, measured gait. He unlocked the door, stepped out, and did not look back.

And it was then that McCarter knew exactly what he had to do – or, more precisely, it was then that this knowledge finally aligned with the feelings in his heart. He walked up to Lime, gently wiped away the glittering droplets that gathered on her eyes, and swept her up in the tightest hug he could afford. Her tiny body felt lighter than a pillow in his arms, although she was definitely a bit heavier than that.

The girl hugged him back, and his image of a stately officer crumbled immediately. His hands were shaking, and he was sobbing too. He knelt down so that he wouldn’t buckle under the weight of carrying a ten year-old child, and the others joined in. This silent, tragic, idyllic image lasted for an exceptionally long time.

“...I will,” suddenly murmured Lime into Austin’s ear. He pulled back a bit to look her in the eyes, and they were filled with determination. “I will do it, when the time comes. Not because I want to, but because I need to. For you. For all of you.”

The other children stared at her incredulously, as did Austin. And then they all smiled, and then they hugged her again.

----------------------------------------

Back at his personal quarters, McCarter was ready to send the kids off to sleep. A good night’s rest would do them well after the recent events – and that’s not even just talking about the mission. He left them in the bedroom and settled down on the living room couch with a book so boring he hoped it would lull him to sleep almost immediately.

Though he expected the text of “History of the Continental Empire: A Complete Modern Chronicle, 4th Edition” to shut his eyes with its sheer dryness, at some point it simply stopped meaning anything to him. His mind drifted off and began wandering, ruminating on the past and contemplating the future. It was a habit of his, to detach from the ‘now’ and think, remember, reminisce, reaffirm.

After an indeterminable amount of time spent in this state, Austin felt a series of firm taps on his shoulder that brought him back to reality. He looked in the direction of the disturbance and, to his immense surprise, was met with Rose, wearing pyjamas and looking exceedingly unlike an assassin in them. She had made her way through the closed door and across the room without so much as a rustle, and she probably wasn’t even trying.

“Um. Do you need something?”

“Can you… can you…”

She tried to say something, but was overcome with what appeared to be embarrassment. She instead leaned over to read the title of the book he was holding.

“C-can you read us a book? Any book. This one will do.”

The General was, understandably, a bit dumbfounded.

“Read you?.. This? I don’t think it’s much of a… bedtime story, you know? I don’t have anything like that.”

Evidently not pleased with this response, Rose gave Austin the meanest look she could muster. All it did was melt his heart, but it achieved the same result nonetheless.

“...very well, then?”

One of the most important people in all of Larnach suddenly found himself getting dragged along by a little girl as a copy of “History…” flailed helplessly in his hand. He was brought to the bedroom, where an additional three pyjama-clad children gazed expectantly at him. The lamp on the bedside table was the only source of illumination for this absurd scene. Austin was immediately ushered onto the bed alongside them, resigning himself to his fate.

And so he began reading from the first line of the first paragraph of the first chapter of the first section. He could barely believe how invested the kids were in his rendition of the blandest history book he has seen in his entire life. As he laid there, giving his best vocal impression of a dispassionate historian, they snuggled up to him and listened attentively to prose so academic it would make the average Larnachian close it forever after the first page, let alone a child.

But the Stargazers were not average children.

While McCarter’s mouth continued reciting the text of the book, his mind was entirely occupied with the feeling of several gently breathing bodies around him and their steady heartbeats, with the thought of how this was a gesture of absolute trust and and of how much comfort and safety they felt near him, of how this was perhaps the first time anyone’s ever read a bedtime story to them and how it was never even about the godsforsaken chronicle anyway.

Once Austin came to that final realization, he started slipping through lines, paragraphs, pages, reciting chunks almost at random, barely even hearing what he himself was saying.

“...sinking of a landmass the size of Arelia would cause ocean waves of catastrophic size to strike the western Continental coast… …appear to have been negated by the same unknown force that…”

…

“...exhibited by the evacuated Arelian settlers are theorized to mirror the abilities of the ancient civilization that once inhabited the… …named ‘Sparkwielders’ to reflect their… …citizenship status disputed due to…”

The kids were long asleep by then, in what was quite possibly the most comfortable rest they’ve had in their whole life. Austin couldn’t help but keep reading.

…

“...emergence of two distinct subgroups within the… …those who assert their existence as a separate people and desire… …who consider themselves to still be citizens of their respective kingdoms and…”

…

“...as of the time of writing this edition of the… …steps have been taken to mediate the rising tensions between the Sparkwielders and the Larnachian government… …rate of protests shows an alarming…”

…

…

And though, at first, he wanted to leave them alone and sleep somewhere else, he gradually realized that this was exactly what they wanted… and what he wished for as well.

And so he fell asleep too, and he dreamt of crescents.

In the dark blue sky you keep

And often thro' my curtains peep

For you never shut your eye

Till the sun is in the sky