The world trembles as the Leviathans stir from their slumber, and the scholars of the sunken valley preach of the coming storm. Felix, a thief on the streets of Bruma, begins his journey to the Astralarium as, deep with the Great Devourer's belly, a...
The star charts are the maps we use to track the movements of a Leviathan. Yet, this is a poor comparison, for these are not pieces of parchment, but flesh. They squeal like pigs and bleed when cut. What kind of chart does that? I can see blood vessels pulsing beneath the pages and feel the void emanating from moist parchment. God help me, I hear the voices too and they tell me where to cut. Bloody scabs are my guide and the scars my bookmarks. Then, I made a mistake, a terrible sin. I folded the damn thing, and its screams haunt me to this day.
15
"Can you tell me where the Leviathan is going?" Ilene asked, unrolling a star chart before him.
Felix flattened the paper, which felt like a wet towel, and anchored the corners with stones. He pressed his fingers towards the center, beta, gamma, delta, eta, epsilon, and zeta. All the stars of Ursa Minor were accounted for and, there, making up the claw, was Leviathan Sitis. He'd been reading the star charts for several days now. The scrolls, at first, were confusing with bright flashing lights and canvas that felt like a frog's skin. These were not the pages of some dusty manuscript or the bent leaflet of a forgotten planner. No, these chapters were alive, and the painted stars twinkled and paper sweat, but it was a cold sweat. Felix could feel the void sitting so close, leaking from the page like a rusty pipe. His hands shook, and he could see his breath and feel the moisture freeze to the inside of his nose.
He learned early on the difference between a natural star and a Leviathan. The truth was in the color and the way the light shined. Real stars twinkled on the page, but a Leviathan swayed like a sheet in the wind. Indeed, Sitis's light wavered, a sun on the surface of the ocean. He could see it on the chart like magic dancing before his eyes. Still, the Leviathan's movements were a mystery to him.
"How can I tell where it is going to be?" Felix asked.
"You're a resonant, Felix. We listen more than we see. Try closing your eyes," Ilene said, touching his hand.
He did as she asked, closing his eyes, and opening his ears. The walls of the Astralarium made it easy to pick out the distant howls of his Leviathan. There was a time when the Devourer's music was like nails on a chalkboard, but now he longed for its call; that undulating pitch of a lonely whale traveling in the empty darkness.
The sound came to him now, and he drifted away on an unspeakable current. The howl was so close he could feel the heat of its breath on the back of his neck. He truly resonated with its voice, the melody bouncing around inside his head and hissing like a whistle from every pore, tooth, and nail. The vibrations caused his heart to skip and tickled the root of his spine as he sweat. Then his fingers started tapping as the sound caused micro-fractions in the bone, bending his thumb to touch his wrist.
"That's enough!" Ilene's voice broke through and Sitis retreated once more into the background.
As Felix opened his eyes, he found his finger had moved on the star chart from the claw to the spine of Ursa Minor like a planchette across a Ouija board.
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