Coming of the Darkstar

Ch1-1 Song of the Blue Planet

The Universe felt very small. It always did in the center of the Ways. If he reached out, he could trail his fingers through eternity. Wrap his arms around the foundation of existence. Cup the cosmos in the palm of his hand.

Pale light rose and fell with the command of his breath. Motion.

It came from the very core of his being. Rushing... reeling... rising... until —

The light peeled back from his vision. The Universe grew larger again. Or maybe he shrunk. Either way, the world expanded to surround him with astounding immensity.

The Blue Planet.

Grass spread its carpet at his feet. Trees shot up around him, looming tall over his head. A distant symphony played on the newly-budded spring leaves. A vast dome of blue sky sparkled further above. Soft drifts of powdered white meandered idly upon its face, leaving trails of mystery across his sight.

This was once my home.

Dressed in deep green, he might have passed for one of the people of the Blue Planet. If only his blood was pure. The fact stood that it wasn't. He was a half breed, born of the unity between two vastly different peoples — the humans and the Lunarians.

Striking marks of his alien heritage were in his features. Though he was obviously quite young, his hair draped long behind him, wild and white. This peculiarity was accented by the slant of green eyes, which brilliantly reflected the light of the earth-sun.

All of his senses screamed that he shouldn't return to the world of the humans. It was nearly five years ago that he chose to leave the Blue Planet to live with his father's people, the Lunarians. At the time, he really knew nothing about this alien race, other than the fact that they lived on the Red Moon, which was once a small satellite that orbited the Blue Planet.

But here I am again, coming full circle... back to the world of my childhood.

As his feet touched the solid earth, a song rose within his ears. A sense of familiarity drove his memory back to its origins. He found himself unable to do anything more than stare into the yawning heavens.

"Golbez!" a rough, rasping voice shook him from the depths of daydreams.

"I asked you not to use that name here," the Half-Lunar turned, his voice slow and level. "Call me Ben, remember?"

The old Lunar simply pressed on as if he had not heard. "Were we not supposed to arrive in Mysidia?"

Ben fell silent, recognizing the symptoms of impossibility at hand.

"Have you nothing to say for yourself?" FuSoYa grated. His knuckles grew white as he gripped the haft of the staff.

"No, actually."

When FuSoYa gave one of those looks, it was usually followed with a first rate skull-bashing. Ben learned early on that his uncle was never the advocate of sparing the staff. Or the stony word. Sometimes it was better just to keep his mouth shut.

The length of FuSoYa's white beard told his age. As was Lunar custom, he wore his hair very long. This was strangely offset by the acute baldness of the top of his head. He was probably the closest thing to walking antiquity that Ben had ever seen. However, despite his appearance, FuSoYa was far from being just a feeble old man.

His violet robes were sashed with the mark of a High Sage, the leader of the Lunarian people. Added to a will of stone, there was still much power behind the sharp light of the Lunar's eyes. It was a strength that had only grown, tempered through the long ages past. It was a power that many of the younger Lunarians would never be able to touch in their lifetime.