The Chronicle of the Worthy Son

Brilliance

"...what?" She turned her head quizzically.

"You know how a telescope works?"

"Yes—the captain has one! Hold that thought." She turned and trotted off towards the aft.

"Ask him the magnitude!" Able called after her but the wind might have stolen the question from her ears.

He looked back to the stars, now knowing three names for many of them. Of all the peoples looking up for guidance, three interpretations were laughably few. And yet, his professors had chastised him for using the Dagobari names he'd found in their astronomy texts. How many viewpoints had Larbantry already swallowed up over the centuries?

Chessie returned with a spyglass in place of her bowharp. "He doesn't know," she answered. And with the enthusiasm and inproficiency of a child, she tried to look at the planet.

"All right, here—" Able moved to help. "Let it out all the way, then bring it in slowly until it's in focus."

"This is hard." She giggled as she used her eyes, then the glass, then again. "It's right there, and then I see nothing."

"You're making the sky appear many times larger and minding the motion of the ship."

"Oh my—no, let me...oh."

Able stepped back to let her fuss with it, as he couldn't point it any better without looking himself. Her determination was heartening, her enthusiasm infectious. Finally, she slowly lowered the telescope and looked to him.

"It's a crescent, like a young moon," she confirmed, eyes wide. "But...only when it flickers like this, you said?"

Able nodded. "It goes through phases, like the moon does, though it takes much longer." He folded his arms against the railing and leaned on them. "There's some debate as to what this means in the astronomy schools, but some decades ago Professor Victory Smelter over at Godmount had proposed a mathematical model of the cosmos that claims the sun is the center of the universe and all the planets are worlds that revolve around it—including ours. The discovery that this planet has phases goes a long way towards suggesting he's correct."

"Worlds?" She frowned deeply. "You mean to say...that star is a world like ours?"

"Well, who's to say it's like ours?" Able grinned. "We needed to invent a telescope just to be able to see that's what it is! Maybe that planet is the cursed land the Prophets speak of, and the Capricious planet is the land of trials, and the sun, the center of the universe itself, the blessed land. There are already scholars saying so."

"You don't sound convinced." She really could kill the mood with that piercing gaze of hers.

But Able just shrugged. "As I said, who can know?"

"Mm." She tried again with the spyglass. "I'll need to show this to the others when I get back. I hope before the solstice."

"Is that an important holy day?"

"Days." She looked back at him with a wistful smile. "All of winter, really, is a spiritual time. The rest of the year there's so much work and everyone's busy, but in winter, there's not much to do but sit by the fire or stare at the stars and reflect."

"...oddly enough...I also hope we get back soon." Able turned to look at the black stretch of the northern horizon and touched his mouth where the ghost of Lark's once again lingered. He both yearned for the chance of another kiss and recoiled from the myriad ways that chance would never come. He took a breath to clear his mind, as thoughts of either option would work him into an anxious state.