Celestial Chapter 1

I used to believe that the stars were always easier to see with my eyes closed…In the recesses of my dreams, the lights were always so much brighter. Nanna used to take us to the edge of the scared aqueous caverns to watch the falling stars. According to the legend, shooting stars were regarded as the rejects of the Constellations; beings that have lost their earned divinity because they couldn’t play by the rules. Lots of the civilians of the Pi would take this legend for verbatim; using it as a justification to hide themselves and squash the dreams of rambunctious little ones that hoped to spend just one more hour outside their sublimity ponds, just before bedtime peaked over twilight. I never believed in that though. The people of Pi were always so suffocating. Nanna always worked to calm the condemnations of the masses down in our household. Regardless, of what the Diviners had told us during lectures, their tales were always washed away by the smell of Nanna's baked honey poppy seed loaf. As we laughed and joked over her homemade sea-salt caramels, she would always help take the edge off the divining process; a process created to help prime pre-residents of Pi for the upcoming ascendency trials that would approach with our coming of age. Even though it was our duty as pre-residents of Pi to take up the challenge of bringing glory and fame to our land. A drawn-out journey that was crested by earning eternal divinity among the constellations through the ascendency trials, I never really saw it that way. The passing periods of divination school were always spent with tales of the riches and notoriety that would come if we were lucky enough to be chosen. No resident of Pi had earned the title in 350 years. Such a prize (once upon a time) brought wealth and riches to our land (for resource allocation was often unfairly distributed to lands that produced beings of higher merit and ascendancy). As the 12th and final nation of Zodai, we were always placed at a disadvantage but with this year being my year of entrance into the contestant pool there was an extra special hopefulness budding in the air. Blame, it on the begrudging title of being the abandoned offspring of Pi’s last constellation earners…

“Celestia! Celestia! Can you please move it?! We have only one chance to get front row seats to the Diviner’s Exhibition and that lax attitude of yours is just about to make us miss that…”, Calla preached.

Calla; had been my best friend ever since I can remember. She was the type who would talk first then think later. As much as it had got her in trouble 9 times out of 10 in the presence of authority, I had always loved that about her. We were different, I get it…And her ruddy freckled cheeks, abysmal brown eyes with hints of green flakes, and fiery red curls she was anything but meek in appearance. She had always been a bit squeamish about her appearance because her features didn’t match that of the typical characteristics of a Pisean; large green eyes, dark hair, and a lengthy body. And as the daughter of a Pisean quartz harvester and a migrant from the nation of Ariea, her features made her stand out. She hated it…but for that, she was just all the more beautiful to me.

“Calm down turbo...the competition starts in 30 minutes. We have more than enough time to get there, get seated, have you faint, and revive you before your favorite comes out to flex for the crowd,” I jeered.

As long as I had known her, Calla had been a fanatic for the diviner’s league; a group of individuals who had shown extra promise in the divination trials since birth. They were in a breed of their own. While the honor was usually limited to the sons and daughters of the nobles and clergymen men who over-ran the backbone of each of our home societies, there were always…exceptions. As the daughter of Naiad and Artimus, my place there should have been a shoo-in for placement. That is if I didn’t manage to muddle 5 out of 7 of the testing brackets for the pre-placement exam. It was fine with me though. I was always more curious about learning more about what lay outside of our lands. The elders were so suffocating when it came to the education of pre-residents that we rarely were trained on the skills and traditions of other lands. This was my chance to get a first-hand glimpse at what lived on the outside. Doing that would be kind of hard while working as a personal sideshow for Pi.

“Cele…how can you say that! The man’s skill set goes faaaar beyond just flexing! Not only did he come first in the juvenile combat league for Leon, but he also managed to score highest across the board for the Elemental Magica standardized testing across all 12 nations. No matter how much you judge the guy’s hair gel addiction you can’t help but admit that he’s talented, muscles aside…, she nudged.

In truth, the man that Calla was losing her sanity for’s name was Jove and he was a rarity…I had been hearing stories about him since I was a child. He was the son of the highest-paid merchant in Leon and his family single-handily ran the backbone of the specialized goods trade routes for each of the 11 out of the 12 nations. Ironically Pi was left out of their little web of market. Someone up top did the honors of deciding that Dreamweaver's weren’t an economic asset to the whole of the Zodai. A decision that I took personally...They were big on embracing what was in front of them. They had no vision and Nanna was one of the most well-known Dreamweaver's in the country. I always just got the sense that Jove and I wouldn’t get along much…

“Fine, fine I’ll bite. I’m curious to see what he can do but who knows. If he’s not careful his throne might end up being taken by some other young upstart," I teased.

“Please, no one’s going to mess this up for me. My man’s got this in the bag," Calla smugly concluded.

By the time the midnight sun had reached the center of the sky, we had made it to the arena. The time of the showcase had extra significance. The time was 3:33am and it was this specific time each night when the stars were aligned over each of our twelve nations. Perfect synchronicity. The crowd was alive with activity. Citizens from all over the globe were huddled close into the densely packed seats of the coliseum. Banners of blues, golds, and burgundies rained down from the ceiling as the people of each country were eager to showcase their national pride. Vender’s poured from the allies of spectator rows, peddling delicacies smelling of spices, butter, and all kinds of savory sauces. As barrages of hands and rose petals were thrown at the edges of the viewing platform, horns and instruments of all kinds accompanied the uproar with a cacophony of encouragement. Attention for this event was massive, and the elders of Pi had put a handsome amount of shellings into making sure that the venue was presentable. The honor of hosting for the ascendency trials was a privilege brought to each country in order of influence. I know they fought for the chance to host the event out of honor but a part of me knew that they were probably hoping to earn something a bit more valuable than applause and cheers for their investment. If they made a big enough impression, maybe they could convince the crowd of the value of their contribution to Zodai’s trade network. Even if it meant selling out our livelihood.

With the sounding of a triad of three brass horns, the audience had grown silent and leered down. At the center of the pit approached a group of individuals cloaked to hide their identities; in each of their hands rested a crystal encased disk each of different colors. Red, turquoise, rose pink, nude; although I could see they were crystalline, they almost seemed to be pulsating with an eerie sort of radiance. While each of the 13 people had their own sense of presence, the 13th at the end had a special sort of significance. His disk glowed an incandescent hue of lavender purple and was embellished with accents of gold. As they congregated in two rows, each facing the other; he hoovered his way to the center of the forefront of the group, all the while placing the disk in front of his stead. As if given some sort of subliminal signal, the rest of the brew followed suit. Each placing the disk in front of them and stepping aside. With each of the disks aligned with each other, a harmonic sounding of three chimes rang through I chambers of the spectator hall. I couldn’t explain it. It wasn’t so much as if I was hearing the sound but more as if I was feeling it. As I looked the center disk was acting as the epicenter of a cloud of vibration that seemed to move towards the audience. Time seemed to stand still, and as the sensation began to intensify I could feel my knees start to buckle and my weight begin to fall. Was everyone feeling this way? I had traveled through several dreams while accompanying Nanna on her dream weaving projections but none of our travels ever felt like this. The sensations of warm and cold made their way through my veins. And as I reached out to touch Calla my fingers seemed to tug at the air around her essence, giving off a spectral lavender haze.

“What is this..” I panicked

“Calla, what's going, I’m scared!”

No response.

“I can’t…Some hel…

In a haste, turned to find the entirety of the stadium frozen and eerily shrouded in the same purple mist that had appeared as I reached for Calla. Everything around me had been stuck as if the whole arena had been placed under a spell. I had seen time manipulation spells in Magi training but none like this before. Besides...all published incantations that had been meant for time alteration were only limited to that of a single individual; nothing on this scale. The status of the whole situation sent a chill through my bones. But the thing that scared me the most was that I couldn’t tell if what I was feeling was fear or excitement...