Dusk Stars

For a few weeks in the fall, you can see these stars from Mr. Chazokov's roof in Possum Springs. I've also been seeing them in some of my recent dreams…Dohr passed Behrn the King's procession on the street. Dohr was quiet and said nothing, and the King took offense to this. Behrn insulted Dohr, Dohr's family, Dohr's village, and so on, until he was down to insulting Dohr's chickens. Dohr first murdered Behrn's chickens, then his ancestral village, then his family, and when he came to Behrn, the king was silent.The star tells the story of woman who built a tower to heaven, and for this the gods sunk her deep into the sea. But even in the depths, she refused to die.Sterling is a tale of the world changing, and leaving one behind. One day, his king met a new sage – an astronomer. She showed the king how the planets and stars orbit in regular patterns, and why. And so the king kicked Sterling out of his quarters, for the Seer had long told the king a different story about the stars.Simone lived in a good land, but under every good land are the roots of oppression. In this land, those roots took hold and choked out all else. When the borders closed and the curfew began, Simone and her comrades began to plot. They infiltrated, the sabotaged, they freed prisoners. Simone was one of the first to be identified, but she evaded capture even as the wanted posters went up. As whispers of her grew throughout the land, more and more of her neighbors prayed in the night that Simone would be their salvation. We do not know where Simone is buried. We do know that when things boiled over, she lead a charge against the palace gates, and behind those gates were cannons. Many years later when the mass graves were exhumed, her bones were mixed with so many others, it was said she now lives on in the bones of all in her country.Big Snake emerged from the earth and made war upon the villages, and as he wrapped himself around them, the villagers saw that they were encircled by the same big snake, and they came together, and together slew the big snake …the highway by Possum Springs sort of looks like a big snake, huh.In life he spoke with the dead, purportedly. But when he died, his own spirit returned and spoke through him. His own spirit possessed his body – dead, but possessed.It's a common story how Adina journeyed to the Frozen Lake and how she traversed unknown, faraway lands. In her quest, however, she turned her back on the sky and journeyed down into the earth where her stars were no longer over her head. She disappeared and was never seen again.Ferdinand was from a flat land – "the Midwest" of wherever he was from. He dreamed of mountains and devoted his life to climbing them; he sought that which was unlike where he grew up. Eventually, he returned home and complained that the sky felt heavy – he had been up into the clouds, and now they rested hard upon him.A wanderer in the cold and dark, making a fire and huddling up to it for light and warmth. A constellation of survival.