Skyra's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Skyra crouched at the lip of a frozen pit and listened for hooves. The patrols swept the hills every night now, hunting anyone who still looked up. She needed a place to map the empty sky, somewhere the tyrant's riders could not see her. Her mother had taught her every constellation before dawn. Now the sky was bare, and Skyra meant to bring it back. She slid down the sloped ice walls into the sunken crater. Rocky outcroppings threw long shadows across the floor, hiding her from anything above. Here the wind died. Here she could work. She pulled the crystal spyglass from her coat and raised it to her eye. Purple runes warmed against her cheek. Through the lens, the dark sky sharpened, and she began sketching the empty places where stars used to burn. A soft hoof struck ice behind her. She turned. A white stag stood at the crater's edge, a slow galaxy turning inside its antlers. Skyra lowered the spyglass. The stag watched her, calm and waiting. The sky above was still empty, but something of it had walked down to meet her. She closed her notebook and stepped toward the animal. Her hiding place had become a meeting place, and she was no longer working alone.