by the stars

“Do you see it, my dear? Up there, a few degrees to the left.”

“See… what?”

“The light of the stars within Lupus tonight. They shine greater, more beautifully than they have in my lifetime. All five of them, white stars. The eyes of Leo across the expanse sky, like he wishes to roar with pride once more. What do you believe it means, Cecelia? Speak to me with the eyes of a true and proper Theurge.”

“I… I don’t know, Mom. I honestly don’t know what it means...”

“Then may I tell you what I, personally, map in the stars tonight?”

“You uh… you have the floor.”

“A hundred generations or more ago, in the snowy and frozen land of Caledonia, there lived a little-contacted, proud tribe called the White Howlers. You’ve heard the Galliards spin the tale of their fall, their transformation into the Black Spiral Dancers, and you and your sister have followed the story of the Cave Lion quite closely.”

“Yeah…?”

“The eyes of Leo, the Lion, light up with pride as five white stars in Lupus shine bright. The return is mapped in the sky. The coming of the great legends of the Howlers, heralds of the revival of a great and sorely missed tribe. They come to reclaim Caledonia, the white northern highlands in the country we call Scotland in the modern day. Their ancestral home.”

“Oh… I’m sorry, I’m not… good at the whole Theurge thing...”

“To learn to read the stars comes with practice, Cecelia. You are young, you’ve not yet had the stories spun to you. Now go. Rejoin your sister. The two of you have some research to be doing, don’t you?”