A Song of Stars

Two

And all of my equipment is just standing by,
But so am I.
Why did it come to this tonight?

Adam Randal Young was sitting on the edge of his bed, writing rhymes. He scribbled words across the page. The Magicians were expecting him to write the rhymes to help them with their mission to open the gateway to Nod, a foreign planet that they planned to colonize. They wanted to leave Earth to escape the Fiddler Civil War, a war between Alchemists and Magicians that had been going on for much too long. The Alchemists and Magicians had fought and fought, debating what is right and what is wrong, bickering about how Fiddlers should run their society. All the fighting, all the battles... Adam didn't like one bit of it.

Adam had always been a bit of an outsider among his fellow Magicians. He never seemed to agree with all of the Magician values. As he continued to write rhymes in his notebook, his mind began to drift away. Why couldn't the war just resolve peacefully? He could live with most of the Alchemist rules. If the other Magicians would just settle, they would have no need to run away to a whole new planet.

The stress of the situation kept building up in Adam's mind, to the point where he could no longer focus on the words on the page in front of him. He closed his notebook and tossed it aside. Reaching for a drawer in his nightstand, he pulled out a small keyboard that he had taken with him when he came to join the Fiddlers long ago. He had always had a love for music, though most Fiddlers didn't appreciate it, which was why Adam had to try and keep it hidden in his drawer. They said it was a waste of time, which was funny, seeing as they are named after a musical instrument. They said that stardust was the only form of magic, but Adam knew that music had magic in its own way.

Adam played a short melody on the keys. He could see the stardust dancing with the keys as he played. The music soothed him, calming his frantic mind. If he had been a normal human, he would have devoted his whole life to music. But since he was a Fiddler, he had many other things that had to come before music in his life.

At one point, Adam had tried to leave his Fiddler life behind to escape the war. But that ended quickly, and badly. There was really no way to escape the Magician's camp without being caught. It was night when he tried to run away, but the outskirts were still heavily guarded to make sure that nothing went wrong. Adam had tried to sneak around the guards, but he was still spotted by one of them. He had almost gotten away, too. The guards then swiftly came to take him to Boggen to face consequences. Boggen locked up Adam for a month or so, and made him do any tasks he wanted, along with writing extra rhymes. But Boggen had threatened to do much, much worse if he ever caught Adam rebelling against the Magician's plans ever again.

Which is exactly why Adam was completely powerless to stop the Magicians from going to Nod. He had written a rhyme to counter some of the steps that the Magicians would take to open the gateway, but if he were to use them, lives would be threatened. Not only his, but others too. As much as he didn't want to leave Earth, he could never put others in danger just to stay. Adam glanced over at his notebook.

Get me out of this cavern, or I'll cave in.
Don't let this new life begin.
For if our handlebars are tied to the stars,
We would soar much too far past mars.

That rhyme echoed in Adam's mind. But he knew that the consequences of using it were much too great.

The keys continued to twinkle with stardust as Adam played the music. Suddenly, there was a knock on his door. He scrambled to shove the small keyboard behind his pillow, so the other Fiddlers wouldn't see it. He grabbed his notebook so it looked like he was still doing his job.

"It's open." He said, timidly. The door swiftly flew open.

"Fiddler Adam!" One of Boggen's henchmen. "Boggen needs to speak to you."

Adam felt his pulse quicken. What could Boggen want? He hadn't discovered the counter rhyme, had he? Without a word, Adam took his notebook and hurried out the door. He followed behind the other Magician who had came to his room. They made their way to the outskirts of camp. What in the world could Boggen be doing out there?

They went outside the camp to see Boggen and many other Magicians waiting. It was hard to count how many Magicians were there. Adam felt his heart pounding in his chest. This many people in one place made him uneasy. What was going on?

"Adam!" Boggen wasted no time in greeting him. "Are you ready?"

"Ready for wh-" Adam was cut off before he even had the chance to be confused. He should have seen the response that was coming, but it still took him by surprise.

"It's time to prepare the opening of the gateway to Nod."