Welcome to the cereal 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.
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Ash's red jacket helped to ward off the cold and helped Gayle see him waiting on the curb before she pulled up to the front of the apartment building. The morning was colder than usual, so he had been entertaining himself by warming up his mouth and letting the steam pour out of it like a fog machine or a dragon. It was one of the few deniable tricks he had, so he always made a point to do it.
Right on schedule, an enormous old red station wagon pulled up to the curb in front of the stoop he was waiting on. Gayle leaned over the passenger seat to roll down the window, then beckoned to him. He got in the front seat and buckled in, rolling the window back up with the crank.
The inside of Gayle's car was clean, but smelled like cigarettes. Red plush upholstery and dark brown paneling, it looked like it had been the peak of luxury many decades ago. She had turned the radio off when he had entered, and he could see the cassette player below it, rows of hard plastic boxes arranged in the console between them. In the back seat was a laundry basket full of some kind of plastic balls.
"Good mornin'," she began, shifting into gear and pulling away from the curb.
Ash took a deep breath. He was in no mood for small talk, but neither was Gayle.
"Listen, let's just be level with each other, alright? You got plenty of reasons to be mad at me, and I won't be upset if'n you're even a little bit sore. But, from now on I wanna be as honest as possible. I think you deserve that much."
"Okay," Ash acknowledged. "I guess… I'm just upset you didn't say something sooner."
Gayle changed lanes, looking over her shoulder. "Believe me, I wanted to. But it's not just about keepin' to ourselves like with the other communities."
"Wait, there are other groups like ours out there?"
"'Course there are. They're all over the country, and the world too. Lumina talks to some of 'em every once in a while. But none of 'em hafta deal with Frost like we do. We didn't… no, I didn't wanna rope y'all into that too."
"Yeah, I get it." He drummed his fingers on the armrest.
"Believe me, though, if we'd known that Frost knew about you two already, you would'a been havin' supper with Lumina a lot sooner."
He tried to sort out the scope of things. "So Lumina already knew about us? How did she find out?"
"'Cause of me, that's how."
"You were watching us?"
They stopped at a red light, so she was able to turn her green eyes toward him for a few moments. "Wasn't hard. Cascadia plays with her drinks, moves 'em around in the cup. And once I noticed she needed water and was goin' to get a pitcher, but by the time I got back her glass was half full. Another time, your food sat out for real long, couldn't get to it. Sometimes we have to do that, when orders don't line up… Wait, you know all about that." Ash nodded. "Anyhow, I took it to you and you didn't complain. Later, I came for your coffee and the butter on your flapjacks was all melted."
Ash made a frustrated noise. "Were we that obvious?"
"Nope," Gayle said, with all seriousness. The light turned and she started off again. "You weren't. Someone who was unaware, they'd never've noticed. Thought they'd remembered wrong or their eyes were playin' tricks on 'em. But for someone like me who knows there's plenty of strange things out there, you two stood right out."
Ash noticed how she didn't call everybody else in the world 'normal.' That felt right; being non-normal meant something was wrong, something needed to be corrected. But he was just fine the way he was. "Okay. Well, if you're still worried, I'm not angry."
"Thank goodness for that." She slowed down for a car turning in front of her.
"But if we're being honest, how likely do you think it is we can get Cas back safely?"
"Well, that depends a lot on the next little while, 'specially the next few hours."
"How's that?"
"'Cause of what I wanted to call you out for this mornin', and maybe the next few mornin's too. I took a week or so off of work just in case. I need to know how ready you are." They had arrived at a nearby sports complex and pulled into a parking space in front of a large rounded building.
"Ready for what?"
She parked and turned off the car. "Ready for anythin', hopefully."
Gayle led Ash inside the building. Her civilian attire consisted of comfortable jeans and her green jacket, with a plain white t-shirt underneath. The boots that tapped against the slick floor were leather, but just brown suede with rounded toes, not the cowboy style he had expected. Her hair was still done up the same way, except she had a different assortment of barrettes today.
Ash set down the hamper full of balls. "What are these and what are we doing here?" The building was empty, a squash court or some indoor arena. Only a few lights were on, and all the doors in and out were closed.
"This's a space Lumina's arranged with the owners to use, provided we clean up afterward. And those," she pointed to the basket, "are Christmas ornaments, they're cheaper than dirt on Boxin' Day."
His confusion showed on his face. He knew Gayle was from out of town, but didn't peg her as being completely foreign.
"I don't know, that's what Lumina calls the day after Christmas." She waved her hand. "Anyhow, today they're gonna help us with a few things. I need to know what you're capable of." She crossed her arms and regarded him. "If we need to get in and out of a Frost facility, there's gonna be some runnin', jumpin', lots of physical activity."
Ash considered this and moved his arms and legs around, trying to get limbered up. "Okay."
"And I need to get a feel for your reflexes. It'll be like gettin' your knee hit with the little hammer at the doctors, right?" She stepped a few paces back toward the wall. "Come on over here," she beckoned, and he did, standing beside her. "Alright, now run to the other wall. No pressure, just practice."
"Okay," he said, then ran clumsily to the other side of the room.
Gayle was checking her watch, frowning. "Alright, now come on back."
Ash arrived breathing heavily, which concerned her. "Now, you go again, and this time I'll run with you. I need a little practice too," she said. Ash nodded but said nothing.
Gayle counted off and they both sprinted at once, his heavy footfalls sounded deafening next to her light steps. After a few seconds, though, she sped up, not moving her body faster but covering more distance in less time. The air itself seemed to move out of her way. She quickly outpaced him, and she reached the other wall many seconds before he did.
"Okay, now that's just not fair," Ash panted.
"Is it?" Gayle said, suddenly defiant. "If we run into one of Frost's boys, are you gonna tell 'em they cain't use their powers 'cause it ain't fair you cain't do it too?"
Ash shook his head. That was a lot of 'ain't' to think about. He was also reminded of curry night, and Cascadia's similar assessment of the disparity in their powers. "I get it."
"Good. Now run back, one more time. I'll meet you there." Gayle leaned over as if she were making to run, but instead of doing that, a sudden blast of wind came from nowhere and she jumped, sailing all the way across the arena to land lightly near the hamper of balls.
Ash stood still, marveling for a few moments before he realized he needed to move too. All this time, he had thought Gayle's best skills were her table side manner and her organization. He decided to jog this time instead of run like he had before, but halfway across the room Gayle raised her hand. "Hold up there." He stopped, grateful for the rest.
"Next I'm gonna throw these at you," she said, picking up an ornament from the pile.
Ash groaned. "Oh boy. Do they hurt?"
Gayle frowned. "Well, only if you let 'em hit you. So don't let that happen, alright?"
"Alright." Ash was having mixed feelings about this morning. He could already feel a stitch forming in his side from just the small amount of running he had done so far. But, it definitely beat frantically searching the city for Cascadia. He caught his breath and steadied himself. He just needed to keep his eye on the ball. "I'm ready."
Gayle held the ball in her upright palm, but instead of rearing back to throw, she pivoted her palm toward him and the ball shot forward with a whistling sound, nailing him directly in the stomach.
"Not ready," she said dryly, as he doubled over.
"I thought you said those were just plastic ornaments," he complained.
"They are, I just filled 'em with rocks first."
He stood upright, rubbing his sore stomach. "Geez…"
Gayle picked up several balls at once, and he watched as they left her hands and sailed around each other in a circle, a breeze rustling her clothing and loose hair. "Needs to have a little extra kick." She reached out with her other hand and Ash felt a stronger gust pull him, catching the ball that had fallen near his feet and pulling it toward her basket.
"Alright, I'm ready to try again."
"Good." She launched another.
After fifteen minutes, Ash had found his rhythm and could twist or duck out of the way with some reliability, with only a few light bruises to show for it. Gayle launched her missiles a little slower after a while, which both he and his stomach appreciated.
"Alright, my turn," Gayle said after a pretty stylish dodge, and Ash relaxed. She told him to switch places and do his best to lob the surprisingly heavy ornaments at her instead.
He hesitated. "No hard feelings if I hit you, right?"
"Sure thing," she said, smirking. "'Cause you won't." She was standing upright, with her hands pointed downward, fingers spread apart. It looked like she was about to sit down, but remained still.
Ash did his best to channel his brief stint in high school baseball, getting his best pitcher stance and lobbing it overhand, but no sooner had it left his hand than a burst of air sent it clattering to the floor. Gayle hadn't moved. He tried a few more times, but his pitches didn't even cross a quarter of the distance to her before being deflected.
"Is this even worthwhile?" he asked as he picked up another.
"Sure is, I gotta stay sharp too," she said, maintaining her stance. "I handle defense," she said as she knocked away another projectile. "Every rock," another, "and knife," another, "and bullet that's meant for us."
Ash stopped, a pain in his shoulder arresting him. He had a vision of throwing a flaming-hot pitch at her, literally, but felt the ornament would melt in about a second. "Wait, did you say bullets?"
Gayle relaxed, putting her hands in her pockets and ambling up to him. "Well, I cain't actually stop a bullet, but I can knock over the fella shootin', which is the next best thing." She reached his side and looked at him purposefully. "But, if things've gone so far south that we're gettin' shot at, we're in over our heads. Frost wants us all alive, and he won't risk damagin' the goods, so to speak."
Ash shook his head. "Okay, I've just gotta say that this whole thing is super weird." He gestured to the room around him. "Yesterday, you were just the waitress at my favorite restaurant, and now you're throwing things at me with your wind powers, and getting me ready to rescue Cascadia from an evil businessman. What's next?"
She raised one corner of her mouth and nodded. "I hear you." She let him have another moment to smolder with his feelings. "It was hard learnin' about a lot of this from Lumina too. That's why I wanna help, since I've been doin' this for a while now." She checked her watch again. "Couple more things to do before we wrap up here, so let's get to it?"
"Okay…"
Gayle took her hands out of her pockets and regarded him again. "Okay, so Lumina told me a bit about Fire Stars, how you can heat yourselves up and whatnot. How hot can you make your hands?"
He held them up, as if considering them for the first time. "Pretty hot. They start to glow after a little while. The hottest I've ever gotten, you'd be able to feel it from over there." He pointed to the nearest wall. "Probably farther, actually."
"Youch. So here's what I was thinkin'," she said, stepping toward the ornaments. "Instead of dodgin', try to burn up whatever comes your way. How's that sound?"
"Let's give it a try," Ash said, removing his jacket and rolling up his sleeves, then taking off his watch and stowing it in his pocket. "How am I doing so far?" he asked as he worked.
Gayle sighed. "Honest?"
"…Yeah."
"It'll be better if me and Azalea go in first and you follow."
The disappointment wasn't as much as he had expected it to be. "Alright. Back row is a good place to start." He dropped his jacket near her feet, then walked back to the spot on the floor he was dodging from earlier. His hands were far away from him as he heated up; even though he had rolled up his sleeves, he still risked singing his clothes if he wasn't careful. Gayle was impressed, up until now she had only seen him toast bread.
One ornament careened toward him, and he positioned his hands so it would pass through the middle of them. As desired, the plastic casing of the ornament crumbled into dust and the handful of gravel scattered harmlessly to the floor. He nodded. "Looks like a winner."
Gayle forced him to defend against several more of these salvos, including some double and triple shots for variety. He didn't really need to dodge or move at that point, he could just burn up whatever was coming near. That alone increased his confidence.
"Alright, we're done with these," Gayle said, inspecting the bottom of the mostly empty basket. "One last thing, I saw you heatin' up slowly there, was that 'cause of caution?"
"Yeah, I can do it faster."
"Good. Things can go wrong in a second, you'll need to be ready to fire up as soon as you can."
"Got it." He approached her, then remembered how much heat he held on to. "I'm gonna get rid of this, but you might want to cover your ears."
"Huh?"
"It's loud," he said, and she did as he suggested. A few seconds later, the light and heat emanating from Ash's outstretched hands winked out, replaced by a thunderclap-like boom.
"No kiddin'," Gayle said, sending out gusts of wind to pull the stray ornaments on the ground toward her.
"Yeah, it's weird," he said as he put his jacket and watch back on. "I asked a physics major friend about it once, purely theoretically, of course."
"Of course."
"He said the energy would have to go somewhere, so it would make sense it would turn into sound. Or, I can cool down naturally, but that can take a while. Or—" He stopped.
She stood from scooping up an ornament. "Or?"
"Or I can use water…"
Gayle said a silent prayer that she could help him address his current water shortage.
They leaned against the hood of Gayle's car as people began coming into the complex for regularly scheduled activities, no one any wiser of the spectacle that had been going on inside, now swept up and tidied into obscurity.
Gayle had lit up a cigarette. He had never seen her smoke, since she always went to the back of the diner. She did it like she did most things, elegantly, letting the cigarette dangle from her fingertips in a way he had only seen models do. The breeze was blowing the smoke away from him, but that probably wasn't a coincidence.
She spoke up. "You did pretty good, considerin'. Much better than Azalea did her first time, she was pretty rough."
"Azalea? How so?"
"She was chompin' at the bit to go out with me on a run, ever since I showed up. But, her folks wouldn't let her think about it 'til she was older. So, she talks 'em into it 'bout… six months ago now." Gayle let out a cloud of smoke that twisted around in curling patterns. "Her aim was good, but when it came to dodgin' me… poor thing was all bruised up for weeks."
"It must be nice not to have to hide anything from her parents, though."
Gayle nodded. "Yeah…" After a few moments, she continued quietly. "I never liked hidin'. Makes me feel cut off from everyone."
Ash felt that loneliness acutely. "Can I have one of those?" He gestured at her cigarette.
She looked at it, then at him. "I didn't know you smoked."
"I haven't for a while."
She handed him one. "That ain't gonna help you run faster," she said.
He shrugged, glanced around, then lit it with the tip of his finger. He didn't pretend to be holding a lighter like he had used to.
"Since we're being honest? I'm really tired of hiding too."1
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.
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Ash: “I mean, when Azalea asked me to hold my hand over her lighter in the library, I was pretty scared.” Gayle: “She asked you to do what? I’m gonna hafta talk to that girl…”