Starheart Nova's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

⸻ The sand gave way to hard ground, and the shack rose out of the dark. Nova followed Elias the last stretch in silence. Her legs shook, her throat was raw, and he was the only way forward. She still didn’t trust him. Inside, instruments crowded the walls. Cloud photographs, wind charts, and a battered desk buried beneath notebooks filled the small room. Elias filled a tin cup and handed it to her. “Drink. Slow.” Nova took it but kept her back to the wall. “Why’d you help me?” “You fell near my weather station.” He nodded toward a cluster of glass tubes and brass dials by the window. One needle twitched wildly. “That hasn’t settled since you came down.” “I’m not a storm.” “No,” Elias replied. “Storms I understand.” He pulled a worn notebook from his desk. Its pages were filled with dates, wind patterns, and sketches of unusual cloud formations. “I spent years drifting between jobs and places. Never found anything that stuck.” He glanced toward the window. “Then I realized I was happiest chasing the sky. Winds, clouds, storms. Everything most people ignore.” Nova rubbed the little star charm clipped to her jacket. “So you watch clouds for a living?” “Technically, I watch the weather. The clouds are just better company than most people.” Despite herself, Nova almost smiled. Elias turned the notebook toward her. “Three years ago, I started recording strange changes in the atmosphere. Unnatural winds. Pressure drops that didn’t make sense. At first, they were small. Then they got worse.” He flipped to the latest entry. “Last night, every instrument went crazy. The wind changed direction without warning, and the sky lit up. Then you came falling out of it.” Nova stared at the notes. “Whatever happened three years ago, it wasn’t me. I didn’t have these powers back then.” “I know.” Elias leaned back. “That’s the part I can’t explain. Whatever happened last night looked connected to something I’ve been tracking for years.” Nova’s grip tightened around the cup. She’d thought the fire, the crash, and everything she’d lost were her problem alone. Now there was evidence that something stranger had been happening long before her powers awakened. “You could’ve called the police.” “Could’ve,” Elias admitted. “But you looked like you needed water more than handcuffs.” Nova studied him, searching for the catch. She didn’t find one, though that didn’t mean there wasn’t one. “What else have you found?” Elias spread the weather charts across his desk. “That’s a long story.” “I’ve got time.” He pointed to a series of dates and marked locations. The disturbances weren’t random. They appeared in different places, sometimes months apart, each stranger than the last. Nova leaned closer. For the first time since the heist, her thoughts shifted away from what she’d lost and toward what she might discover. “Show me everything,” she said. Elias pulled out a chair. “I was hoping you’d say that.” Nova sat beside the desk as the wind rattled the shack’s windows. For the first time since the quarry, she wasn’t running.