Beth Wonders's Arc

Chapter 23 of 29

Half her cathedral lived again, but Beth needed fresh star magic to fill it. The star charts told her where new sources hid. She spread them across the floor and stared. Stars, dead spots, arrows, all drawn in Stellan's hand. And beside each one, tiny marks she could not read. A dot with three tails. A cross inside a ring. Without them, she could waste weeks chasing burned-out stars. She traced one symbol with her finger and felt nothing. She found Stellan at the drifting bazaar, a wandering tent hung with lanterns and layered canopies. The astronomer stood at a stall, cataloguing the sky with a stubby pencil, flame-head bright above their star-buttoned coat. They did not look up when she arrived. "Your notes," Beth said. She dropped a chart on the counter. "I can't read them. These marks by each star." Stellan tapped the dot with three tails. "Dying," they said. "This one is fresh." They tapped the cross in a ring. "That is a lie. A star that looks full and holds nothing. You would have chased it a week." Beth's stomach dropped. "How many of these are lies?" "Most of them." Stellan spoke it flat, the way they said everything. "I mark the truth for myself. Not for buyers." Beth needed the key, and she had nothing left to trade. Her magic went into the cathedral. Her shard she could not spare. She pressed her palms on the counter. "Teach me the marks. Please. I have no coins." Stellan's flame flickered. "I don't want coins." A cool voice slid in beside her. "They want a flavor." The void chef uncoiled from under the stall canopy, star-eyes glinting. It had followed her, hungry as ever. "Astronomers taste of patience. Very rare." Stellan turned toward the worm. "I want the flavor of a finished sky. You have tasted every one but mine." The void chef leaned close to Beth. "I hold the map to your whole world now," it said. "They want to know how it will taste when done. I can promise them a bite. Later." It looked at Stellan. "When she finishes. One taste of her completed sky. That is my price to broker this." Stellan nodded once. "Then teach her the marks yourself, worm. You swallowed my charts. You know them." Beth watched the two cosmic things bargain over her unbuilt world. She had no say. She only nodded. The void chef pressed its cool body against her hand. In a rush she felt the marks bloom in her mind. Fresh stars. False stars. Dead ones. She read the charts now, every symbol clear. Three true sources glowed on the paper, close and real. But the debt sat heavy. Two cosmic creatures now waited to taste her finished world. And she had just promised a third bite to seal the deal. Her world was not even done, and pieces of it were already sold.