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.
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.
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After resupplying inside his apartment, Ash went down to the garage to get his even-nicer suit, the one he hadn't worn since his last brother's wedding. It went neatly folded in the overnight bag with extra clothes and toiletries, since he wasn't sure where he would sleep that night. He also wanted to get together a toolkit for the next mission. Out came a flashlight from the camping gear box, but then he couldn't heat up his hands without turning it to slag. Instead, he found an LED headlamp, a multi-tool bristling with sharp things, a compact first aid kit, and a hank of paracord. He left the matches and fire starting tools in the box.
Next was the matter of where to put all of it. He had wiped down his turnout coat with a wet rag, making it presentable again. All the gear fit in its pockets, and it was fairly comfortable too. If a bit heavy. He had folded it up in the trunk of Gayle's car last night, and had made to wear his lighter red jacket instead, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt comfortable in it, not only physically but emotionally. It represented who he was in many ways, not only his tendency to set things on fire, but also as one of the few, tenuous links he had with his family. He touched the name badge on the front and knew for certain it belonged on his shoulders. He put on his large gray and yellow scapular, then gathered up the rest of his things.
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From his house, Gayle drove them toward the big grocery super store down the street, the one he hardly ever shopped at for food unless he was getting things that were easy to carry on the bus. Eggs were hard to keep safe, and milk was way heavier than it seemed.1
On the way there, Ash told a story about how he and Cascadia had tried to carry home a carton of eggs, and ended up breaking most of them. They had gotten off the bus and had a picnic in a nearby park. Cascadia had washed out her backpack with a drinking fountain while Ash had prepared the remaining eggs.
"So if you don't poke a hole in the shell first, it just explodes," he was saying. "Gets raw egg everywhere." Azalea chuckled in the backseat. "But if you do that, then heat them gently, they turn out really nice. Like individual omelets."
"How'd they taste?" Gayle asked.
Azalea was listening partly to their conversation and partly reading the book in her lap. She had always thought of reading a book as having a conversation with the author, but in this case it was like talking in a little group. Nearly every page was marked up with a red pen, Ash's messy handwriting praising some selections and suggesting corrections for others. The story itself was definitely good, engaging without relying too much on fantasy clichés, but it was the personal nature that really struck her. Cascadia had found a novel way to deal with the inherent separation of being a Star, and Azalea giggled at the pun she had just made.
She read about Cascadia's fears, her joys, and her sense of humor. She imagined she had just discovered a new species of flower: Cascadius Dewlenserii. Actually, hers already sounded a lot like a scientific name. She examined each of the different parts of this new specimen, laid out in the field manual in front of her.
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The retail shopping experience that was the combination grocery store and department store had always gotten on Gayle's nerves. It was so hard to find anything, aisles upon aisles of junk, bright lights glaring down from overhead, popular music blaring way too loud, and stuffy, stale air. But she had to admit, buying bread, new jeans and extra cable ties for handcuffing guards in the same place was convenient.
Azalea hopped into the large shopping cart and sat down, holding a scribbled list and a pen. She captained the ship, with Gayle at the big steering wheel and Ash for the deckhand. "So, Lumina doesn't really eat much," the girl was saying as they picked out potatoes and onions from the produce department. "I think she subsists mostly on TV. But, we're planning on spending a lot of time there over the next few days, so we need to bring enough for all of us to eat. Gayle can't always be bringing takeout, which is sad, and I'm gonna sleep over at her place tonight!"
Gayle handed her a head of lettuce to put at her feet. Ash thought this odd. "Why are we buying veggies? Can't you just, you know," he dropped his voice, looking around to make sure no errant employees or shoppers might overhear. "Make some?"
Azalea looked at him askance. "Come on. We both know vegetables need soil and water and sunlight, right? No substitute for doing things the right way, right?" She gave him an exaggerated wink.
"Oh," he nodded. "So all of those pumpkins and things, from yesterday, can you even eat them?"
"Well, you can." Azalea smirked. "They taste awful, though. They've got no nutrients or anything. All that comes from the soil. No dirt, no good."
"Got it," Ash said. The ingredients that had already been added to the basket sparked a flicker of inspiration in him. "Hey, can you put a few more things on the list? I thought maybe I could make her a meal."
"Oh, she'd love that," Azalea said, clicking out her pen.
"Great." Ash listed off sausages, potatoes, mushrooms, flour, spices.
"I think she has some of those things," Azalea said. "But we'll figure it out. It sounds good already." She made notations on the list, then glanced back up at him. "Hey, she needs matches to light her old stove, that sounds perfect for you. Retrieve the matches, mission start!" She pointed down the aisles toward the back of the store and saluted him. Ash set off on his new quest, considering the irony of someone dressed as a firefighter shopping for matches.
He found them a few minutes later, next to charcoal briquettes and long-necked lighters for candles. No deliberation was required to pick the strike-anywhere variety, but the more he studied the lighters, the more his interest was piqued. During the battle the previous evening, Azalea had definitely been the star of the show, and he had come up with a lucky maneuver to get the rock away from Rand, but it had been just that: luck. He happened to find a piece of easily flammable material nearby, and hadn't needed to cross dangerous, unstable ground to get it. As he rubbed the buttons on his turnout coat, he wondered how he might be able to turn up the heat in a different way.
Yesterday, Ash had played one of the most useful wizard spells in Card Knights: Ball of Fire. The artwork showed a typical gray wizard launching a sphere of flaming… stuff? Magic maybe? He didn't know how well magic burned, but he did know he couldn't do anything like that. He had to have something to burn to make a fire, and while he always kept some dryer lint in his pocket on purpose, it didn't seem like it would be very effective in a fight. Once he got a flame going, he could make it bigger, smaller, move it around, all kinds of things. He may not have been a wizard, but he had a few tricks up his own sleeve. That was where his idea clicked together.
Quickly glancing up and down the aisle, Ash picked up one of the smaller, shorter-stemmed lighters and placed the cardboard packaging up against his wrist, judging proportions and positions. The rest of the challenges came forth: something to strap it down, a way to trigger it with his fingers, extra fuel from somewhere. He grinned as he realized the source of the inspiration: Azalea had been reading Cascadia's stories, and Blaise's ability to issue fire from his hands had been useful in many of their adventures.
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Ash handed Azalea the box of matches. "Hey, do you still have some of that strap material you used to attach your flashlight to your slingshot arm?"
She looked up at him from inside the cart, after adding the box to her stash of treasures. This was not the strangest thing she had heard in the past few days. "Um, I think so, it should be at Lumina's."
"Great. I have a plan for something, I'll meet you two at the front. Call me if you need me sooner."
While crossing the enormous store to the hardware section, he snatched up a basket from a rack. He went up and down the aisles, selecting wires, screws, and other useful-looking things. The igniter could be removed, he just needed a tank to hold the gas and a valve to let it out… It was starting to come together now. That was when he remembered the compact, high-powered cigar lighters at the cigarette register up front. Perfect.
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Gayle crouched down between the cart and the shelves that lined each aisle. "D'you want the chocolate, the peanut butter, or the chocolate and peanut butter?"
Azalea whirled her pen around her head. "Totally both, go all the way. YOLO, right?"
She stood up with the box of hybrid breakfast cereal. "Is that a new verb, like heartin' someone?"
"No Gayle, 'You Only Live Once'. Enjoy it while you can!"
Gayle looked less than plussed. "Hmm. Sounds shifty to me."
"This'll be great. Let's head over to the front, I wanna check out that rack of seeds. I used up almost all my pumpkins last night."
"Didn't you just buy more a little while ago?"
"Yeah, but there's only like ten seeds in each one. I go through them so fast! Like with tomatoes, they're so tiny I usually drop some every time…"
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Ash approached the checkout lane which was the singular source of nicotine and nicotine accessories in the store, and waited only a minute before the S.S. Evergreen approached, pushed along by First Mate Gayle. Ash held the cart while Azalea stepped out, then she peered into his basket. "Ooh, what's all that for?"
"Tell you later," he said, and let the ladies get in line first. Gayle bought herself an extra pack of cigarettes, and Azalea put the bags back in the cart and tied the tops shut. After quickly figuring the prices for the things he had requested, Ash contributed a few of the bills from his wallet.
His turn was next, and he got himself a pack of his old favorite brand of cigarettes, as well as another to repay Gayle for those he'd borrowed so far. He saw just the cigar lighter he wanted, and added it too. There wasn't nearly enough cash in his pockets to pay for everything, so he decided to use his singular credit card. Earning points while rescuing friends, what could be better?2
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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This may or may not have been written from experience
I can actually think of quite a few things, but hey