Octave of Stars Theme Song:
Welcome to the serial version of Octave of Stars! Episodes will release every Monday and Thursday. If you’re finding this story for the first time, be sure to start at Episode 01 for maximum comprehension, or check out The Index for all available Episodes.
I highly recommend you read this on the Substack website or app, as this serial is a multimedia experience. You’ll find many audio embeds below that score the story, and they won’t function as intended in your email client. Only one track can be playing at a time, so when you reach the next one just start it and they won’t overlap. If you like the music you hear, please consider supporting the artists as well.
____********____
Cascadia had been praying for a light to guide her through this darkness, trapped in the murky, cold sea. She could still feel Ash's warm hand, and while the firebrand he held high felt like standing close to a fireplace, she could barely see the flickering light.
She could hear Azalea, only steps away, keeping her spirits up by singing. Something about scattering and growing seeds.
Ash was humming the notes to his favorite hymn about the feast of Heaven and Earth.
"I can still move," Gayle was saying. "This way, off the bridge!" It sounded like they were far away. "We'll try for that shuttered hall…" It was like the many times Cascadia had spent underwater, though gratefully she could still breathe.
And then, her prayers were answered. She had been expecting a spiritual light of hope, but her eyes reacted to the nearby brightness by instinctively closing. She forced herself to open them, to behold the small woman who had stepped onto the bridge near them, dressed in a gray travelling cloak, her white hair pinned up under a kerchief. Her black skirt looked like she had walked through some of the dirt and mud they had been playing with earlier, and she tapped her cane against the floor with each step. She was radiating a bright, white light in all directions, most strongly from her glasses, small torches attached to her face.
The darkness retreated from around Lumina as she moved, for despite Cascadia having not met her yet, that was the only person she could possibly be. Lumina dimmed her glasses to meet Cascadia's eyes, and smiled as the black ichor continued to dissipate, swirling away from her like a thick fog. The air was still, no noise accompanied this process.
Azalea stopped singing and gasped. "Lumina! I'm so glad you're here! Wait, oh no, I'm so not glad you're here! They'll capture you too!"
Lumina shook her head. "No dear, that will not be happening today."
Gayle exhaled deeply as the darkness melted away from her. "Alright, this's better than I thought. Lumina, you can clear the way and we'll follow."
Ash turned off his firebrand and disconnected the fuel line. "Yeah, I'll cover us," he popped out a launcher nozzle, "there's still plenty of wood on the bridge. Gayle, if you fan it up we'll really have a blaze."
Lumina stepped closer, her cane still tapping. "I admire your bravery, all of you. But, your effort is better spent elsewhere." She was close enough to hold her hands out to Cascadia. A pool of light kept them all visible; the rest of the room was still coated in blackness. "Cascadia, dear, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. I am Lumina, although you likely already guessed that."
Cascadia took her hand, blue eyes mingling with gray, cleansing away any of her lingering doubts. "Yes. Thank you for everything you've done to get us this far."
"You are welcome," Lumina said, releasing her. "Now, it will take a bright light to dispel the rest of this darkness, so I advise you all to cover your eyes."
Azalea pulled her beanie down over her face again. "Check!"
The other three nodded and complied, then Lumina increased her brightness, removing the bushel basket from her inner lamp and setting it as high on the stand as she could. Within seconds, the entire atrium was blanketed in a dazzling white light, clearing the bridge and the seating area, wiping the shadows from the misshapen tree, and revealing that three gentlemen actually stood on the other side. Yin held up a large sheet of metal in front of himself and Rand while they hastily took off their own glasses.
"There, that should do it," Lumina said, blinking while her team uncovered their faces. Her glasses dimmed down to nothing, then she locked eyes with the real Frost, her mouth becoming tight. "Now comes the final obstacle. We will not overcome this by force," she said to Gayle. "I will talk to Drake before anyone does anything."
"And what?" Gayle asked. "Convince him to let us go?"
"I believe so, yes."
Gayle shrugged. "Worth a try, I suppose." Azalea looked confused, but accepting. Ash nodded to Cascadia, and they followed.
Each group walked across the intact parts of the bridge to meet at the jagged gash Yin had created. The younger Stars could have just hopped over, then helped Lumina across, but no one was crossing anything yet.
Azalea touched Lumina's shoulder. "Why did you stay? I thought you were supposed to go back to the library after projecting that reflection of us."
"If I had told you my true plan, dear, would you have let me even leave the safehouse this morning?"
Azalea scratched her head under her beanie. "No, I would've covered up your door with vines…"
"Precisely."
Gayle spoke from the other side. "No matter what, I'm glad you're here. I wouldn't've wanted to do this without you."
"Yes Gayle," Lumina said, holding her hand as they ascended the slight grade at the beginning of the bridge. "We will finish this together."
Ash and Cascadia were holding hands, his warmer than usual, to make sure the cold they had just been enveloped in stayed away. Cascadia glanced at him. "Is this part of the plan?"
Ash looked back at her. "If it is, I wasn't told about it. But… I think we can trust her. She's guided us this far, after all."
"Okay," she said. "I trust you, which means I trust them too. And, that God will help us take care of everything."
"Yeah," Ash said. "I think He's going to."
Both parties drew up at the divide. Yin had dropped his spear and just had his hands in the pockets of his pants. Rand stood with his arms crossed. Ash was hand in hand with Cascadia, both of them bold and determined. Gayle redid her hair bun quickly, and Azalea was fiddling with a segment of an ivy vine, twisting it around in her fingers. Lumina rested her hands on her cane between the girls, eyes closed in thought and prayer.
When she opened them, she glowed brighter for a moment. "Well, Drake… it's been a long time—"
A sudden movement drew her attention, and Yin reared back with a sharp thing from his pocket, aimed at her cane. He figured he could hobble her, but several powers awakened at once, burning fire and buffeting winds, streams of water and a hastily thrown vegetable. But the blade in Yin's hand was sliced neatly in two by a brilliant line of violent light. Lumina adjusted her glasses and everyone stood down.
"Don't attack her, you fool," Frost barked. "She's far more dangerous than that."
"But how did she even get through security?" Yin whined. "She's a slow old lady, and we had every floor checked."
Ash turned toward her. "Yeah, how did you get up here?"
Frost answered: "She can turn herself invisible."
"That explains a lot," Yin said.
Lumina tapped her cane as she readjusted her stance. "Are you quite done with the grandstanding?"
Yin moved back a step. "Yeah, I think so."
"Very well. As I was saying," she turned her gaze back to Frost, who was not glaring at her as coldly as Ash would have expected him to. "It's been a long time, and you haven't changed at all."
Frost drew himself up a little more, only as much as his back allowed. "Oh, I assure you, I've changed plenty."
"No," Lumina said, shaking her head. "You're still as greedy as ever, grasping at things beyond your reach. Things you were never meant to have."
"I'm trying to change the world!" he retorted, waving his arm at said world. "What is more noble than that?"
"Yes, I agree," she answered calmly, "you are trying to change it, but destruction is not the most noble form of change."
Azalea nudged Ash and handed him a fresh green ear of corn. He gave her a confused look. "What's this for?"
She grinned. "For popcorn, this is gonna be good, I can tell."
Frost narrowed his eyes. "For a world like this, I beg to differ. A world with so much pain and suffering? One that requires us to hide like rats, keeping our true selves a secret? A world where we have to live without our Light in the Darkness?"
"And whose fault is that?" Lumina snapped. "God allows suffering, and pain, to draw us closer to Him, but you've taken it entirely too far."
"No," Frost said, shaking his head. "There can't possibly be a plan, not with everything that's happened thus far. Not after working so hard, braving every danger," he pointed his finger at her with every item in his list, "surviving the second Great War, evading suspicion all the while, only to finally be able to fulfil our dreams," he opened his fist, "and then have it all taken away!" He closed it again. "Where is the justice in that, Lucy?"
Lumina bristled, an aura of colours issuing from her momentarily. "Do not call me that. You lost the right to call me by that name long ago."
"Oh? And when was that? When you ran away to America, without so much as a letter?"
Lumina banged her cane against the floor. Her mouth was curled, her brow furrowed. "It was when you were so careless with our Light. You convinced him to test your blasted, infernal machine, even though I told you he was too young to handle it. And then Tuli's chamber overheated, and…" Gayle steadied her with a hand on her shoulder. "And our son never came home that night."
Cascadia, Ash, Azalea, and Yin gasped. Gayle closed her eyes, praying once again for their poor boy in heaven. Rand's breath caught in his throat; he stifled a cough as he observed his employer from the side. Cascadia's plea in the hotel came back to him with force.
Ash looked down at the corn in his hand, blackened beyond popping. He tossed it aside, meeting Cascadia's eyes, their unspoken fears confirmed. The children of Stars could inherit more than their parent's eye color.
Lumina continued, wiping the tears from her eyes with a lacy handkerchief from her pocket. "His body may have been lost to the fire, but his soul was taken by the dark. Our Light in the Darkness was consumed by his father's own darkness," she said, nearly snarling now. "And now you're destroying more lives," she gestured to Cascadia and Ash beside her. "So that is why you may never use that name with me. You married Lucy Brighteye, and while I bear the burden of being Mrs Frost until the day I pass, you and I will never be in union as we once were."
Frost sighed, rubbing his forehead. The fight seemed to have gone out of him, he slumped his shoulders. "I may have made some… misjudgments in the past. But that is where they remain, in the past. Now I can atone for my mistakes as well as help others."
Lumina bristled. "You can only atone for something if you are truly sorry for it, and while I admit I cannot judge your heart, I know you better than likely anyone here, and I suspect you still have some praying to do."
"There will be plenty of time for that when you are all detained," Frost said, his gaze growing colder, and darker. "Lads, put on those glasses, it's time to end this."
The Light Team readied their defenses again, but Lumina spoke over top of them all. "No, everyone stop, and listen to me." Winds died down, fires went out, blades were sheathed. "This is meaningless, and you all know it. Even if we are to escape, where shall we go?"
Ash spoke up. "We'll all leave the country and start a farm." Gayle smiled at his remembering.
"No," Lumina said. "Cascadia is far too valuable, even still. We'll always be running, and they will always be pursuing us. Azalea, you aren't even safe in your own home any longer."
She pressed herself against Gayle. "I know…"
Lumina drew herself up. "What I am going to say will likely elicit protestations from all of you," she nodded at Ash, "but I pray you bear with me until the end," she turned to Azalea. "I have been praying about this myself," to Cascadia, "for quite a long time, and it seems to be the only feasible option," to the men across the bridge. "The only way for us to all be free," she met Gayle's eyes, "of everything that is keeping us back."
She faced Frost again, the man who she had once given so much to, and who had taken so much away. "Drake, I am offering you a deal. Let us go, and stop pursuing any of us. Leave us to live our lives in peace, as God intended. And, you must drop the charges against Ash and Gayle for the incident at the hotel."
Ash flinched. In all the commotion, he had forgotten about that particular detail.
Frost scoffed aloud. "And what could you possibly offer me in return that would be worth all of that? You'll cook me dinner and darn my socks again?"
"Our cooperation," Lumina said simply. "We will help you create the Starlight Prism, in its completeness, no shortcuts or machines."
Now everyone gasped at once. Frost's face showed surprise, soon turning to smug satisfaction.
Ash provided his protestations at once. "No, we can't, you said it would be a literal disaster."
"Yes, I did say that, but can you see any other alternative?"
He grabbed the hilt of his firebrand. "We fight!"
Cascadia put her hand over his, but gingerly, in case it was hot. "Fighting only leads to pain," she said. "We've had to do it so far, but we should always try to avoid it."
Azalea stepped forward. "Jesus never fought, either. He gave in."
Gayle spoke up. "No he sure didn't, and you know it. He gave it up," she pointed skyward, heavenward. "He did what He knew was right, what the Lord asked Him to, and nothin' else."
Lumina's brow was furrowed. "I feel confident that this is His will. It has been on my heart for many years now. I have tried to deny and avoid it, but every time it comes back stronger than ever. Drake and I's union seems meant to bring forth one final thing." She glanced across the bridge at her estranged husband's pompous grin, knowing he was convinced he had won, imagining the same look on the faces of the Son of Man's enemies as well.
Gayle closed her eyes, praying aloud quietly. "Lord, thy will be done." She opened them and put her hand on Lumina's shoulder again. "I'm in. I've known you long enough I know you won't lead us wrong."
Azalea's bottom lip trembled. "Oh gosh, this stinks. We worked so hard to stop it, but…" She kicked a nearby clump of dried mud in frustration, thinking back to her favorite saints she'd called on earlier. Each had faced opposition, but only Joan had really fought back. And look how that ended up for her. She took Gayle's hand. "I'm in. I trust you both, so count me in too."
Gayle pulled Azalea into a firm hug. "I thought for sure you'd be complainin' some more about this."
"Yeah, well… I've got some good examples to follow."
Gayle nodded along like she understood.
Ash and Cascadia looked at one another, fear and trepidation mixing together like boiling water. Cascadia spoke first. "I admit, I don't know anything more about the Prism than what you've told me, but I do agree that anything that stops the fighting is worth pursuing. Blessed are the peacemakers, right? And if you can get your charges cleared, then all the better."
He chuckled. "Yeah, it might be hard to find a job if I have a record again." His brow furrowed. "But that's not as important. We can't just give up, not after everything we've done!"
"And what would you suggest we do?"
"We can still take them, and get out of here. Rand's got no dirt left—"
"And I've got no water—" She raised a finger.
"But we have Lumina, to keep Frost away—"
"Yin could just block her light—"
"But Azalea could keep him down, she has enough seeds—"
"Azalea's exhausted, and Gayle's hurt!"
Azalea watched the contest worriedly, head darting back and forth with each exchange. She moved to say something, but felt a slender hand on her shoulder. Gayle shook her head.
"Oh, come on, Cascadia!" Ash's fists were clenched.
Cascadia's expression didn't waver. Though her eyes shone like the sea, her voice was gentle. "Ash, everything you've done so far isn't for nothing." She dampened her hands before taking hold of his hot fists, faint steam rising from where they met. "This," she gestured to the other end of the bridge, the way out, "doesn't invalidate that," she pointed back toward the containment cells. "You've still done so much."
Ash responded by releasing his heat, taking her hand once again. "Okay, but say we do go through with this. The Prism is supposed to be really bad, it's destroyed whole continents." He looked to Lumina.
She shrugged. "There is some debate as to the accuracy of the records."
"Well," Cascadia said, "look at it this way. If it causes a storm, Gayle can settle it down. If there's a flood, I'll stop it. Rand can handle a landslide, and you'll put out any fires. Azalea can help with food if the power goes out. We're better at handling this than anybody."
Ash just breathed for a moment. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"This is still just so weird." She laughed. "What are we even doing here? This is not how I envisioned spending my week."
He met her eyes, blue and gray mingling again. "What we're doing is… our part. God put us here for a reason, right? He put us in this room for a reason too."
"He put us together," Cascadia said quietly. She raised her little finger to him, and he took it with his own. "We're passing through the waters."
"And walking through the fire…" They released their hands, and Ash turned to Lumina, who had been awaiting their response. "We'll just have to trust Him. Count us in."
Lumina met his eyes, both fear and relief playing across the mirror of her heart and mind. "Very well. We are of one accord. Drake, do you accept our proposal?"
Frost laughed, a chilling cackle. "Absolutely! You have my word you will all be freed."
Lumina scowled. "I don't want your word. You're too skilled of a liar for that."
"Then how about this?" Frost countered. He pulled a thick golden ring out of his pocket, holding it up for her to see. "I swear, on the same promises I made on that day."
Lumina reached into her collar and pulled out a chain from around her neck, upon which was a slender, feminine ring cast of the same metal, but with an impressive diamond set in the top. She held it up, a beam of light shining through the stone and passing directly into the middle of Frost's ring. Yin flinched, but the light did not come out the other end, being swallowed up by the dark hole in the middle of the metal. "If you so swear," she said, keeping the light sustained, "then I accept." The tiny beam of energy winked out.
Frost pocketed his pledge and nodded to Rand, who touched his radio in his ear and spoke. "This is Chief Stonearm. The threat has been neutralized. All crew, stand down and return to normal procedure."
Frost held up a finger. "One more thing, Rand."
"Yes Sir?"
"Have them evacuate. Every man, woman, and child. Get them out of the shelters and out of the building. I don't want anyone but the eight of us remaining."
"Roger that," Rand said, and relayed the order.
"This is great!" Yin clapped his hands. "We won, right?"
Frost shook his head. "Not yet. Too much could go wrong, even now. I won't celebrate until I hold the Prism in my hands."
Yin bit his bottom lip. "Could I… maybe hold it too? Just for a minute?"
Frost's own lip curled. "We'll see."
Yin turned to Rand, who had just finished on the radio. "He didn't say no!"
"Peace through cooperation," Rand muttered, eyes closed. "Unity really is possible."
Octave of Stars is currently airing on Substack for free, with two of the 45 total posts per week. It’ll be fully released at the end of April 2024. If you don’t want to wait that long, you can get the entire story right now, in either Ebook or paperback. Every purchase supports the ZMT Books mission of family-friendly entertainment.
Like the story so far? Let me know either with a comment here or in the official chat thread. Subscribe, share, do what you like!