The Song of the Stars, Part 3
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Gleaming silver spheres lined the shore. For a season they sat. Unmoving. Mysterious. Terrifying and beautiful.
Alessi determined to be the first to discover their purpose, but none dared approach the fallen stars. After a fortnight, she managed to put together an exploratory team. But when the team got within a mile, they could go no further. Nauseous waves overtook each of them, and they wretched themselves empty before crawling away.
Under the light of the stars, Alessi set out on her own. When she reached the threshold that had wreaked havoc on the bowles of her hired team, she felt the air humming. But it wasn’t sickening. To her it felt like the heightened urge to breathe just before your face breaks out of the sea. Pure anticipation.
She reached one of the gigantic spheres, reached out, and gently touched it. It should have shocked her that something so metallic remained warm in the cool night air. It did not. She stayed there for hours, then returned as the new moon rose.
When word of the failed expedition reached Her Majesty, the Queen set watchmen to monitor the orbs. No one was allowed to approach them. Alessi protested in vain.
The Queen gathered the court to decide how to respond to the phenomenon.
In the throne room, Alessi listened intently as lords and ladies speculated in fear. After years of sidelong glances and under-the-breath insults about her lowborn status, the nobility had eventually come to tolerate her and Harrough, if only for their wealth.
“It’s the gods come down to judge us,” explained a slender priest with thinning hair and brimstone in his eyes. “We’ve grown complacent in our prosperity, and we do not properly honor them as we once did.”
Many around the room bobbed their heads in pious agreement.
“Last I checked, it’s devils that fall from the heavens, not gods,” retorted a young duke.
Murmurs of agreement slunk through the court.
Alessi finally spoke. “It seems to me that if the fallen stars intended us harm, they’d have harmed us by now. Devious or divine, it’s hard for me to see this as anything but an opportunity.”
Silence like a shroud covered them. Then the duke began to laugh. The priest joined him, and soon everyone in attendance guffawed and mocked her.
A messenger plowed into the room, barely managing to open the door in front of him.
“There’s movement from the orbs!” He pulled out a small scroll and unfurled it to read the report.
This morning, as the sun crested the horizon, the orbs began to glow. Their intensity rivaled the dawn and we were forced to look away. We heard violent hissing. The light faded and the orbs opened. Great yawning orifices stretched across their surfaces and towering behemoths emerged. Fifteen spans or more from the soles of their feet to the tops of their head. Even now they march on the city, lumbering, but not slow.
In that moment, the Queen cared little whether they were gods or demons, and the room erupted into a chaos of voices.
“Send word that we are mustering all our available forces. If these skyfallen brutes wish to threaten us, I will teach them the meaning of fear!” The Queen’s shouted orders silenced the room. The messenger rushed off to ensure swift communication, and the occupants of the room began busying themselves with obedience.
Alessi rolled her eyes and stood to address the chamber. “Your Majesty,” she began. No one stopped to hear her. Alessi raised her voice. “Your Majesty!” Still no one paid heed.
She nodded to Harrough, who bellowed at full volume, “Your Majesty!”
Everyone stopped to look at her.
Alessi smoothed her dress before she continued. “It is most unwise, Your Majesty, to send out troops against this supposed foe.” Her words echoed.
Shock and anger interbred on the Queen’s face as she searched for an adequate response to such impertinence. Finally, she settled for, “How dare you.”
“I realize my words will offend, but the lives I may save will be worth your sensibilities, I am certain.” Alessi stared at the Queen and sat back down. Her calm further upset the Queen.
“You insolent bitch! I will not have my authority questioned by an ignorant upstart.” The corners of the Queen’s mouth twitched, her lips pursed.
“I would rather be an insolent, ignorant, upstart of a bitch than a bombastic fool drunk on my own self-importance!”
Shocked gasps reverberated off the walls.
Alessi filled the silence with her wisdom. “Whether friend or foe, these giants have fallen from the heavens without their vessels bearing so much as a scratch or dent. To think you can march on them with any hope of victory requires an intoxicating arrogance. Or is it simpleminded naivete that sends your armies to their doom?”
Her entire face quivering with wrath, the Queen shrieked, “Arrest this treasonous whore!” Guards jumped to obey.
From the pillory in the main plaza, Alessi and Harrough—who stuck loyally by her side even now—heard the scuffling of boots as merchants and commoners gathered to play soldier. When Allesi craned her neck against the rough wood, she could almost see the troops assembling to march.
The Star Folk, for their part, seemed entirely uninterested in war. In the face of a massive hoard marshaled against them, they made a sound very much like laughter. A first volley of arrows that rained down on them fizzled and burnt to ash without striking a single invader. No second volley was fired.
With a wave of their hands, the Star Folk wrenched the swords from the hands of each soldier. Those clad in metal armor were yanked from their feet, stumbling forward, drawn by an irresistible mandate.
The queen ordered the cavalry to charge, but the horses bucked and kicked, throwing their riders and galloping away, chased by an invisible banshee that screamed in pitches too high for human ears to detect.
The army crumpled in the face of such witchcraft. The Star Folk flew through the air, brought forth fire from their hands, and had brute strength comparable to a yoke of oxen. And yet they did not kill; they only restrained their attackers.
Within minutes, the battle—if it could even be called such—had ended. The humans sufficiently cowed.
The giants entered the city and began setting up equipment. One of the Star Folk approached Alessi and Harrough. He trembled in fear; she in excitement.
A precise beam of energy cut through the lock and the pillory fell open. Harrough stumbled to the ground. Alessi stretched, standing up and rubbing her wrists and neck. She stepped forward, sizing up the alien before her. It (for Alessi did not know if they were a gendered species) split open at the torso, revealing a mechanical inside of gears and wires. A thin, frail looking thing stepped down from the advanced armor that had seemed like its flesh. It stood a head shorter than Alessi. Next to Harrough it could have been a child.
As it began to speak, Alessi laughed. It was the whispered voice she’d been hearing all her life. The creature spoke with the song of the stars.
