Solar Reign

X X I

NOHX COULDN'T get the sight of Andorra's stricken face out of his head all day. It didn't matter that he stood in front of Sivelle's cottage, or that Sivelle was certainly waiting for him inside. He could only see Andorra's wide, terrified eyes. The way she ran from him. Her excuse about her period.

    He scowled. There was something he must have done, something he must have said.

    "Are you going to stand out there all century? Or are you coming inside?" Sivelle's voice was a touch nagging, impatient, and a little bit urgent. The door to her cottage swung open, but Sivelle didn't stand in the entryway. The open door was an invite.

    Nohx pushed all thoughts of Andorra out of his mind as he entered Sivelle's cottage. It looked as it always did, with a disarray of collected items placed about. Sivelle herself was sitting on her couch, a deck of cards in her hands. She thumbed through them without looking; her gaze rested on Nohx. "The stars told me you would come, but I was beginning to doubt their wisdom. Come, sit my dreamer boy."

    Nohx felt stiff. He dropped into the chair across from Sivelle, the stones heavy in his pocket. He pulled one of them out, placing it on the table in between them. "I found these in the Royal Court. I was hoping you'd know what they were."

    Sivelle tossed the desk of cards in the air, and they hung suspended above her as she reached for the rock. Nohx was used to the theatrics and the show, but it did make him curious about the powers Sivelle possessed. How a creature as old as she was could still be thriving after all this time.

    "Ah. Sigils. I haven't seen these in a very long time." Sivelle turned the stone over in her hand, rubbing her thumb along the carvings. "Very ancient power, not from Anlithamy. You have more?"

    Nohx unloaded the stones from his pocket. "I didn't bring all of them, but they're all different. And the power within them feels different."

    Sivelle took a long time looking over all of them. She rearranged them on the table in different ways, almost as if they told a story of some sort and she was placing them in a correct timeline. While she worked, Nohx took a look around the cottage, eyes resting on the different trinkets.

    "Someone is creating a barrier. You said they were scattered in the Royal Court?"

    "Along the border, yes."

    "Someone is either keeping you in, or keeping something out."

    Nohx didn't usually feel fear. Unease plagued him rarely, but right then, a bolt of something uncomfortable stung his chest. He wouldn't have given a damn if Andorra wasn't involved, and that too made him a little too hyperaware.

    "What do the sigils say?"

    "Sigil magic is old, ancient magic. These come from my own kind, actually." A soft smile reached Sivelle's lips as she reminisced. "These are handcrafted from Star Fae. They're filled to the brim with stardust. Now, the magic itself is a protective magic, but the wielder can do many wicked things with them despite that."

    Nohx noticed she didn't answer his question, but that was fine, because her words spoke to him. "Star Fae?"

    "Faeries that can read the stars. They can send messages that way, too. When you or I read the stars my Dreamer boy, we are reading the stories from them."

    A pit opened wide in Nohx's chest as he sat still. His mind whirled with possibilities stretched out in front of him. His mouth felt as though he swallowed cotton balls. "Am I a Star Fae?"

    Sivelle's smile softened a touch more. It was the kindest he had ever seen Sivelle. She stood then, the cards suspended in the air moving into a well organized stack on the table on their own. Nohx watched as the cards dropped one by one into the pile.