by R. K. Gold
When Yael didn’t respond, the man continued. Other than his words, the only sounds from the sanctuary came from the running water. None of the other worshipers paid him any mind. “He ruled the world once. Some would say he had more power than the Three. Certainly controlled more while the Mother was trapped in the sky.”
“So, what happened?”
“When the continents were one, a king emerged and fought his way west until every nation was united under his black banner. It had three circles on it. Blue for the Mother, green for the Sister, and brown for the Brother. It was the first time the gospel of Three spread, and he became the king of Izkobak.”
"But it didn't last." Yael knew the continents were once linked. She didn't know how long ago it was and never heard of a king who ruled over the land. Still, it was general knowledge the landmasses slowly drifted apart.
The mid-afternoon light hugged her frame. A gentle breeze tickled her upper lip, and in the silence of their conversation, all she could hear was the sound of running water and the buzzing of bees.
“No—no, it didn’t. Because a true king isn’t satisfied with land. He wanted power. If he had no new nations to conquer, he turned to the sky. The Mother returned to earth to reset the world, and he met her in her forest.”
“Back before it was toxic,” Yael said.
The robed man nodded. "It was a sanctuary when the continents were one. Though the world was changing for the worse. Much like how things changed when Benedict the Wise built the armies of Emerlia to push back against Dracar. The Great Continent's king cleared entire forests to house those who traveled in the army's wake. He built factories beside rivers and turned the water brown. His men ate beyond their needs, leaving entire countries famished and species of animals nearly extinct. They say the clouds were blacker than his banners, and still, he marched across the continent like an eclipse. But it still wasn’t enough. He had conquered the land and sea but needed the sky, so he went to the Mother’s forest and waited for her descent. However, he didn’t know she was the Mother. Back then, the world believed in the old god—the great northern spirit still worshiped in Dracar.”
Yael remained still. She moved her hands to her mouth and nibbled her nails. She had heard fo the northern spirit but never met anyone who actually worshipped it. Ms. White used to say people pray to the Three for life, and those who prayed to the great northern spirit only chased death. No one outside of Dracar and Krate actually believed in it. "He was given the gift of a god—the gift of immortality, and with that gift, he watched the Mother snap his kingdom like a cracker. Everything he built gone.”
The man snapped, and Yael pulled her fingers from her mouth. “The great kingdom he united was severed. Fissures split the land, and the Sister pushed the continents apart. Forests overran his clearings, oceans flooded his farms and factories. He spent his entire mortal life shaping a world in his image and was given immortality just to watch it get stripped away. By the time her light faded, he was a continent apart with no airship to travel back. He hasn’t left the forest since. His grief turned the pollen toxic.”
“No—that can’t be right. I was told Benedict the Wise polluted the forest when he first raised the Emerlia army. People used to leave offerings there.” Yael pushed her sunglasses back up her nose.
“Or it made his grief worse. Every breath the immortal takes impacts that land, and surely you’ve heard stories of the factories malfunctioning. Roots breaking through solid stone floor. Rain flooding the entrances. The Father in the forest’s grief only worsened when men repeated his mistake.”
Yael remained silent.
“You doubt the story?” He grinned. “If you doubt her return, why come to her sanctuary?”
“I’m searching for a person.” Yael hesitated. If there were rumors of this girl around, maybe this man could help her. However, his robes and love for the Three made Yael’s lips feel sewn shut. She had been called an abomination and an enemy to the Mother for her eyes. “I was told a girl was here.”
He eyed her more closely as she searched for the right words to continue with. The longer she took, the more she could feel his gaze drilling into her skull, searching for answers. “She has one red eye and one white.”
The man rubbed his chin. His smile widened. “You tell me you doubt the stories of Izkobak but have come searching for a starborn?”
Yael’s jaw went slack. “You know where she is?”
The man nodded to a young girl, maybe three years older than Yael in green robes. "She prays here once a month. Not too fond of visitors, though. Be careful." He turned back to the statue of the Brother and dropped to his knees, dipping his hands in the water.
Yael started down a spiraling path. The pressure in her temples seeped out. Her body felt deflated, and her mind drained of everything except the sound of her feet on stone. Each time her sole touched the ground, a weight dissolved from her shoulders. When she crossed the three-step bridge and was only inches from the girl, she turned around. Her eyes locked on Yael, and even though her sunglasses offered a thin barrier, Yael could feel the white eye pierce the lens. The two girls eyed each other in silence. Neither moved. Yael was about to remove her sunglasses when someone yelled.
The strange girl crouched into a fighting stance then bolted. The small boy who yelled managed to get two hands on her shin. She tripped forward and barely caught herself as she fell. Three more boys came out of nowhere. One of them scaled the stone wall and jumped on the young girl’s back. They pinned her down, each taking a limb. Yael reached for the first boy’s arm. She tried to yank him away, but something happened.
The girl turned her head, and her eyes glowed. Yael’s nostrils filled with an intense smell of jasmine and mint. She pulled one of the boy’s collars so hard, they both fell back. He bounced his head off the ground, then rolled back and forth, holding the point of impact as Yael managed to slip to her feet. The two holding the starborn’s legs lost their grips, and she kicked them each across the face with one sweeping motion. All that remained was the first boy who made the initial tackle. He wasn’t much taller than Yael, and his blonde hair was tied back. He dropped his stance and raised both hands. The starborn matched his style, and the air between them turned electric. However, before either of them threw a punch, she spun on the spot and leaped the high stone wall as smoothly as crossing a puddle. Just like that, she was gone, and Yael was no closer to finding her family.
8
Yael grit her teeth so hard she could feel her pulse throbbing in her temples as the four boys lay sprawled out in front of her. For the first time in her life, it felt like she would finally get answers to questions she didn’t even know she wanted to ask. The nearest of the four boys was a hair shorter than she and struggled back to his feet. His disheveled blonde hair fell over his face, and he winced when he touched his cheek.
“We almost had her.” He hunched over with his hands on his knees and panted.
Behind him were two identical boys who didn't look much older than Yael. Each had similar terra-cotta skin and dark-brown eyes. Their black hair was buzzed on top and almost completely clean shaven on the sides and backs.
“So close,” the nearest twin replied. He rolled over to help his brother up. The only clear distinction Yael could make was one of the young boys had an x scar on his chin. “It’s Dean’s fault, he lost his grip,” the scarred twin said and pointed his thumb back at by far the largest of the four boys.
Dean rubbed the back of his head as he sat up straight. “My bad guys—my bad Pace,” he said in a deep voice and turned to the blonde boy. When he tried to stand, he grimaced and fell back on his butt. His broad shoulders rose and fell with deep breaths, and his hand rested on his round stomach.
“How’d she make the jump?” Pace walked over and grabbed one of Dean’s hands in both of his. He strained himself, planting both feet firmly in the ground and leaning back with all his weight just to lift his large friend an inch off the ground. He wore beige fatig
ues similar to the dragonfly soldiers, but he didn’t look old enough to be military. The large boy opened and closed his gloved hand when he finally stood and turned to the twins. “Something feels loose. Could you take a look at it when we get back home?” He pulled the black glove off to reveal a brass hand.
“What’d you knock loose now?” the scarred twin asked. He looked back to his brother and added, “I feel like we have to do ten touchups a day for him.”
“Seriously, man, could you try to be a little less clumsy.” The unscarred twin pinched the air. They even dressed the same in matching black jackets with coattails that came down to their knees. Their metal buckles were undone, revealing white shirts underneath, and their massive black boots shined like the moon's reflection over still water.
“What was that!” Yael stomped her foot, and the four boys turned to her. Her cheeks flushed, and her pulse pounded in her temple. “Did you not see me there?”
“Did you not see who you were talking to?” The scarred twin put his hands on his hips.
“Easy now, Brody.” Pace patted his shoulder and stepped between the boy and Yael. Brody and his brother only reached Yael’s shoulders. Pace put his hands on his hips and puffed his chest out. He tilted his chin up, so he looked down at Yael despite being no more than an inch taller than she. “So, were you just praying or something?”
“I don’t think that’s any of your concern,” Yael replied.
“Come on, we have to move, or she’s gonna leave the city,” Dean said, and three of the boys started towards the exit. Pace gave a two-finger salute to Yael and took off. One of the twins bumped into her and knocked off her sunglasses. She scrambled to get them but not before Pace picked them up off the ground. When Pace locked eyes with her, he froze.
“You—your eyes.”
Yael snagged the glasses out of his hand and slipped them back on. Her cheeks flushed with heat. Suddenly, it was like she was seven again, alone in the market with foreigners staring at her. How many times back then had she held her glasses broken in her hands, men, women, even children staring and gesturing at her like she was a freak?
Pace didn't make any gestures. None of his crew cracked a smile. They all watched her. The blonde boy snapped his fingers and waved over the twin, who bumped into Yael. "Give her back what you took."
“I didn’t take anything,” the boy shot back with a warbled voice and turned his pockets out, but Pace kept his hand extended, keeping his eyes on Yael. She felt like she was being studied like some kind of rate plant and shrunk under the gaze. It made her feel smaller than his previous attempt of looking down his nose at her.
Brody pulled two nickdems from his mouth and flicked them towards Yael. She let the coins bounce off the ground, wanting to wipe them off before touching them.
“Is she a starborn?” Brody asked.
His brother elbowed him in the gut and moved a finger to his lips. “Don’t egg her on if she is.”
It was the second time she had heard the term since entering the sanctuary. “What’s a starborn? What did you want with that girl?” Yael asked Pace. His eyes bulged like she splashed cold water on him, and his jaw slacked, making him vulnerable to a knockout blow. As the question sank in, he adjusted his posture, making sure to stack up every inch before responding.
"No, I don't think she is," he replied to the twins, but his voice didn't have the same confidence it carried before. Yael narrowed her eyes on Pace, who added, "She's not human—the girl I mean. She looks it, but she was born by the Mother."
“The Mother? Like—” Yael pointed to the sky.
"The Mother can grow an entire forest and split continents just by touching the ground, but for some reason, people doubt the idea that her light can make a creature that's almost human."
“Those are some pretty big assumptions." Yael scanned the four boys. They didn't look like devout followers of the Three. They looked more likely to follow the Red Flags than the Mother.
“I recognize that look—you’re skeptical. I can say the same about you. What’s a nonbeliever doing in the Three’s sanctuary?” He held his arms out, creating a sense of separation between the two of them. He sank into the sanctuary like black letters in a book of prayer as she flickered like a flame dangerously close to the corner of its pages.
“I was looking for the girl you scared off.”
“Why?”
“None of your business.”
The two stared in silence at one another until the boy gave a quick exhale and smirked. “Fair enough.”
Something about his smile loosened Yael’s lips. “So, what do you mean created by the Mother? Like she was born by a star?”
“I guess you could technically say we all are,” the largest of the four added. She recalled his name was Dean. He rubbed the top of his head and smiled, showing off two buck teeth.
“She came from the light of the last star descent,” Pace added. He continued to eye Yael like a coin purse in a crowded room.
“And how would you know that? None of you look a thousand years old.” Yael clenched her jaw. They scared off her one chance to speak to the girl. How would she ever find her again? It felt like her family was always taken from her. Maybe some people were meant to be alone.
“Looks can be deceiving. I’ve actually seen the Mother touch down twice before.” The unscarred twin put his hands on his skeletal stomach and leaned back with a mock laugh.
“Lewis—” Pace shot him a side eye, and the boy immediately straightened out. “Where are you from?” He turned back to Yael. The muscles in his neck were tight.
“You first,” Yael replied.
The silence between them crackled like corn kernels over a stove. Pace hesitated as they stood in a stalemate. “Lansing.”
The name clocked Yael in the chin. There wasn’t a Colodian alive who hadn’t heard of Lansing. “I thought—”
“I did,” he finished Yael’s sentence for her. It was said no one survived that day. The armies of Emerlia marched on the defenseless northern town and burned every last building to the ground. She hadn’t realized her face softened until Pace shot up straight and snapped his index finger at her.
“You’re doing it!” He struggled to keep his voice down. “I don’t need your pity, all right? All anyone sees when they hear that name is death, like I can’t take care of myself—”
"I didn't say that." Yael held her hands up in surrender. Dean stepped forward and put a hand on Pace's shoulder. Pace shrugged him off and walked back and forth. He hunched and looked around to Yael after every couple of steps. Each time he turned, his eyes softened a little more until they returned to their curious default.
"I'm sorry, too," he finally said. "I'm being rude. My name is Pace. This is Dean, Brody, and Lewis. Brody and Lewis grew up here, and Dean actually came from Krate.”
The largest of the four boys waved with a broad smile on his face. "The more distance I can put between Izor and me, the better."
“Izor! Izor!” Lewis and Brody laughed. Each rubbed their chins, miming the massive beard the king of Dracar was known to have.
“Stop it.” Pace elbowed the one with the scar on his chin in the gut. “And you are?”
Yael remained quiet. These were still the boys who scared away her only hope of finding any remaining family she had left. Pace didn’t budge until she finally said, “Yael. From Eselport.”
“Eselport, eh? Hear great things about the food down there.” He licked his lips and looked to his friends, none of whom paid him any attention.
“So, you wanted to talk to the starborn about the—” He touched just under his eyes.
Yael blushed. “I don’t think that’s any of your concern.”
“Everything about the starborn is our concern. We’ve been chasing her for years now,” Pace said.
“Years?” Yael replied. “Why?”
“She can bring us to the immortal.”
Yael rolled her eyes. She had heard enough about the immortal in
the forest for one day. “Not this fairytale again.”
“You don’t think the Mother is going to descend on the solstice?” Pace asked.
“The Mother descends every year, but if you’re asking if I think a star is going to touch the earth in two weeks and completely reshape the land and sea, then no—I don’t see that happening.”
"Yet, you were looking for the one person who could possibly bring you there."
“I just—I had never heard of anyone who looked like me.” Her voice trailed off. She didn’t want to say anything else. It was none of their business why she was looking for the woman they called a starborn.
The larger boy whispered something in Pace’s ear. “We have to go.”
Yael waved and started walking away.
“Hey!” he called out. When she turned around, she saw the blonde boy opening and closing his mouth like a fish. He contracted his face, trying to squeeze the words out until Dean said, “Wanna come?”
“With you? The boys who knocked me down and scared off the one person I needed to see?” she asked.
"You said you don't believe the Mother is actually going to return on the solstice. Maybe we could change your mind," Pace said, his voice returning to its usual timbre.
“And why would you care about changing my mind?” Yael asked. Still, she couldn’t help but be curious. They were looking for the same person, and if the group of boys had been tracking the starborn for years, she had a better chance of finding her again with their help than on her own.
“Cause—maybe we were meant to run into each other,” Pace said.
9
Yael stayed put. She was curious about the boys and their pursuit of the starborn. Even though they chased her off, they were her best chance of finding the girl again. On the other hand, the way Pace looked at her made the hair on her neck stand. She felt like she was under a magnifying glass.