A Quest for the Stars

23rd of Hong, 3:32 pm, 1620

The roar of the mighty white dragon echoed across the snowy alps of Ulysses Crossing.

For weeks, the beast had rampaged the area, killing cattle, innocents, and adventurers bold enough to seek it out and face it. The people of the small town - about 6000 and change strong - always watched the skies during the day and stayed in their homes at night in fear of the creature. The snowy town was already cold, but the temperature would drop even lower just from the dragon's sheer presence. It was polite enough not to intrude into people's homes, but anyone found outside was unfortunately fair game.

A brave adventuring duo were on their way home from the Jaguar Lands when they heard the news of the dragon rampaging the alps. A young elf wizard named Jean Starflower and a dwarven warrior/alchemist named Olen Kjellsson were divided on the issue. The people of Ulysses Crossing didn't have a lot of gold to offer, which was a dealbreaker for Starflower. Olen, however, wanted to help the people even if they couldn't offer much. The people's pleas for help and sorrowful eyes were all it took to convince him.

A compromise was made with a bet. Whoever slew the dragon would choose the next destination. No drinking contests, drawing straws, or playing a game of Pin the Tail on the Rust Monster; this time, the next destination on their way home would be picked by the winner of a test of might. That was good enough for Starflower, and Olen would get to help the local people of the alps.

What was the plan? The two waited for nightfall before going out to the dragon's typical hunting ground at an isolated street in the village's business district. Dwarves like Olen were short but stout, either from fat or muscle, which for a dragon it would be like eating a potato. Surely enough, once Olen stood out alone in the street, the beast swooped down from the sky and nearly caught the dwarf with one bite.

But Olen was ready. By timing things right, the dwarf dove behind a conveniently-placed barrel which provided enough cover for the dragon to second-guess itself. "Now, Jean!"

Starflower had hidden inside a wooden crate, and Olen's signal, he fired a pellet from his fingertips in the direction of the dragon. The small pellet then expanded into a massive orb of fire - easily 10 feet in diameter. A great explosion set the immediate area in flames...including the barrel of explosives Olen had used for cover.

The explosion blew Olen away into a small, condemned building while the dragon roared in agony. The roar from earlier was not to signal the beast's terrifying presence, but rather its defeat, as it burned in a sea of flames.

"Sie werden dafür bezahlen," the dragon cursed in its ancient tongue. The beast's blurred vision soon met with Starflower's unmoving gaze on it. "Elf. Wie können Sie es wagen, mir das anzutun?"

A squelching sound came from the dragon's charred neck after Starflower lunged a dagger at it. Blood spurted out of the beast as it now collapsed from the finishing blow.

"You had the misfortune of getting in my way." Starflower used the snow on the ground to moisturize the dagger and delicately wiped the blood off with a handkerchief. He heard groaning in the distance which made him sigh with an annoyed expression. "Get up, Olen. No need to oversell your injury to a crowd that can't see you."

Olen rose to his feet from the wooden debris. "Thor's pecs, son," the dwarf said as he wiped the dust off, "that burned hotter than my asshole on chili night!"

A rather unpleasant memory came to Starflower's mind. "Don't remind me. I still think a bear died in the woods that night. It's the better alternative than what I actually witnessed."

"Don't be a sourpuss, Star. One more of those could have actually killed me."

Starflower shrugged and smiled at the dwarf. "You and I know damn well I couldn't kill you on my best day. You're as stubborn as a mule and three times as ugly."

"Whether it's some silly little elf or a mighty dragon, at least I'd go down like a warrior. As is tradition in my homeland, anyone dying a warrior's death is welcomed into the halls of Valhalla. To eat and drink to my heart's content, I would never come back to this hellhole of a planet!"

"You got me there." The two men laughed away before bumping fists. Now that the dragon had died, the people of Ulysses Crossing were free to come out once again. One by one, the townsfolk emerged from their hiding places and each one would cheer whenever they saw the dragon's charred corpse.

To this day, the people of Ulysses Crossing talk about how an elf and a dwarf - two races known to be rivals - worked together to take down one of the world's most terrifying creatures. The two had become best friends over the course of their adventure, their final stop being Helix City...

***

5th of Nuhas (the fourth month), 3pm, 1655

"Mr. Starflower?"

The knock on the door woke Starflower from his nap. He would dream of his last adventure with Olen occasionally and look back on those days fondly. "Yes," he answered to the voice on the other side of the door.

"Would you like me to bring you something from the restaurant? It's Fish and Chips Day."

"That won't be necessary, Ms. Tyler. I'm going out for lunch later with an old friend. Thank you, anyway."

It was 35 years since they last traveled together, but Starflower always kept in touch with his old friend and would always visit him at least once a month. Today just happened to be the date for that monthly visit.

"You're welcome, Mr. Starflower. By the way, your afternoon appointment is here."

Starflower had been counting his coins when he heard of the appointment. "Oh, right. Another enrollment interview. What's the name?"

"Tsukino, sir."

"Tsukino? That's a name I haven't heard of before."

"She's come all the way from across the world, sir. She's the only one who came out of this year's entrance exams with a perfect score."

A coin rolled on the ground, in due part of Starflower being astonished by this revelation. Students at the Guild enrolled by taking an entrance exam, and only those with an acceptable score - 55 or higher - would proceed to the next stage, which was an interview with the headmaster himself. Here, the student and headmaster would discuss important matters such as career paths, long-term goals, and payment plans.

Starflower himself had enrolled not long upon his arrival in Helix City, taking the entrance exam back in 1621 and graduating near the top of his class in 1625. Due to his adventure with Olen, he had arrived at the institution full of himself, acing every test and winning every magic duel against the resident bullies. But his spot at the top was eventually taken by other ambitious magicians, and by the time he graduated, he was a new man, modest and with more empathy.

But his hunger for knowledge never left him. He eventually made his way back to the Guild and applied to teach there. One thing led to another, and he eventually took the position of headmaster. His new responsibilities included interviewing the students, management of the Guild itself, and, of course, being the direct boss for the rest of the faculty. The job came with its share of perks, the big draw for him being unlimited access to the Guild Library.

Even as headmaster, Starflower had no way to know the test results of the entrance exams until the day of the relevant appointments. For the purpose of checks and balances, he couldn't simply handpick someone from the streets and give them a spot in the Guild's student body. So, when he heard that a girl from across the world aced the tests given to her, he was immediately impressed by this accomplishment.

"Ms. Tyler, are you absolutely sure? Only a handful of people in the history of the Guild, including myself, have passed the exams with a perfect score."

"We checked the results fifty different times, sir. It's no hoax."

Starflower set his coins aside and adjusted his black tie. "Then delay her no longer. Send her in." The headmaster sat down and felt relief when the woman quickened her pace back to the school elevator.

A girl from across the world...a genius? Whoever she was, she must be a prodigy back at her homeland if she passed the exam in a land she's never set foot on before. This was a chance for Starflower to take in an apprentice and teach her everything he knew. Perhaps she's pursuing alchemy or could even be an apprentice wizard. Or maybe she'll even pursue a degree in mechanical engineering, something he himself had helped advance during his tenure as headmaster of the Guild and even wrote a book about how anyone can prepare to become an artificer, the masters of mechanical engineering. It was thanks to Olen's knowledge in alchemy that he wrote a book about the subject, and it was praised as one of the best-sellers of its time.

He was given no more time to think when there was another knock on the door. "You may enter," said the headmaster. A wrinkly older woman opened the door for a younger girl. The young blonde girl wore a long-sleeved pure white silk blouse, khaki cotton slacks, and an orange vest with multiple pockets on top of the blouse. She seemed to have a bashful disposition, refusing to make eye contact even when the headmaster invited her to sit down.

With a nod, the headmaster dismissed the older woman, who closed the door and resumed with her day. Sensing distress and anxiety from the girl seated on the other side of his desk, the headmaster offered some comforting words. "Whatever guides you read about what to do or say in interviews, I would like for you to forget about them. I only ask that you answer honestly and relax your posture. We at the Guild don't care about your background, as long as you bring the results we desire. Am I clear enough so far?"

The girl nodded meekly but offered no response.

"It's like talking to a wall." Taking a deep breath, Starflower took the girl's silence as a yes. "Very well. First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your perfect score. Very few people make it past the 90-point mark on the entrance exam, let alone 100. You are something special, Ms. Tsukino, and we would love for you to join the Guild."

The girl's irises shifted upwards a tiny bit, looking in the headmaster's general direction without making direct eye contact. "R-really?"

"Indeed. However, there are still rules we must follow, and for that reason I must proceed with the interview and ask some questions. Are you ready to begin?"

"Y-yes, sir."

Starflower proceeded with the interview questions. Each question uncovered a little about the young girl. Her name was Lenoria Tsukino, second born child out of five who studied at a public school at the Great Plateau named The Institution of the Black Wheel. Her parents appeared to have some considerable level in their education, but both had given that up to pursue their dreams and start a family. What drew Lenoria to the Guild were the books about Helix City itself, and the idea of building machines enticed her so much that she braved a three-month trip across the ocean just for a chance to learn how to make them. Her long-term goal was to build a machine for the betterment of humanity but had no idea how to go about that.

Starflower was satisfied with the answers the girl provided for the more relevant questions. He was familiar with the history of the Great Plateau, which was once led by an ambitious khan centuries ago, and thus feared this girl would have been an illiterate savage. But her growing confidence, her speech mannerisms, and knowledge of every subject at the Guild took him by surprise. There was no way her presence would give the institution a bad image.

"Last question, Ms. Tsukino. What is one subject in modern-day teaching that you dislike, but know in your heart of hearts is necessary to teach to the masses?"

"Astronomy." Once the girl had gauged Starflower's personality, she grew confident with each response and answered most questions assertively. This one was no exception. "People have been using the stars to guide them since the old days. I'm not too fond of it because you need to be a math expert to study it properly, not to mention some pseudoscientists have birthed their own philosophy saying that the placement of the stars determines our personality and fate from birth. I mean, from personal experience, apparently my sign is supposed to mesh well with two particular signs, but all the boys I met under those signs just weren't compatible at all. I'm not one to take people's joy away and I say nothing around the suburban moms who believe in it; what irks me is the scammers that try to make a profit out of it by tailoring it to be irrefutable."

Starflower had his own opinions on the matter, but for the sake of neutrality, he couldn't agree or disagree until the interview was over. "Irrefutable? Explain yourself."

"It goes like this. Hello, Mr. So-And-So, your fortune for the day is that you avoid making impulsive decisions. That'll be 40 gold, please."

"But...that advice could really be applied to anyone."

"Exactly! Those fortune readings use vagueness to give a sense of personal feeling to anyone who reads them. Even science doesn't claim to have all the answers because science in a nutshell can be described as a never-ending journey of discovery. If you try to read the future using star movements just for the sake of curiosity, by all means, don't let me stop you. But when you pass it as a better and cheaper alternative than actual divination magic, let alone astronomy, you not only bastardize science, but you also bastardize astronomy itself! Heck, this was proven to be the case back in 1461 when Dr. Ellie Maxwell took part of a social experiment that ultimately dismissed this practice as a pseudoscience!"

In the ears of the public, this would have caused an uproar. Your average scientist would never accept the placement of stars as a form of fortunetelling or psychology, but even they would never say the things Lenoria just said out loud unless they wanted to be ostracized by certain groups in society. Starflower continued listening as Lenoria spoke about the subject passionately. This was definitely something that had been bugging her, and the unfortunate reality was that if your point in a debate was tempered by personal bias, it was less credible.

But this wasn't a debate for Starflower; it was a teachable moment. "You make some valid points, Tsukino. But you have to remember that science is not about personal bias. Sure, it's a wonderful thing when science proves us right, but it's even better when we're proven wrong."

"Y-yes, sir," Lenoria bowed her head. "I'm not in trouble for going on that rant, am I?"

"On the contrary. Pointing out the flaws of any study and standing your ground is an admirable trait I'd like to see in my students. It means you either have done extensive research on the subject that you feel 100% sure that your point is correct or you're currently speaking about something you're ignorant about and you're brave enough to be proven wrong. And seeing as you've spoken about the subject matter with such passion, I can see you are most certainly the former. It's okay to be wrong, as long as you keep an open mind to correct your mistakes."

Starflower's praise made Lenoria blush. "T-thank you, sir."

"But there's something I want you to understand," he added solemnly. "We can't condemn the crowds for believing in something such as star divination unless it directly endangers their lives. It's an ancient practice that has been used for centuries, and even though modern astronomers have labeled the practice as obsolete, we must still be grateful to it for pointing us in the right direction. Sure, the scammers use it to make fake divinations vague enough to make each person give them a different meaning, but using the stars for navigation and even as magical foci is something that has been done long before either of us was born. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Wow..." Lenoria expressed bewilderment from Starflower's wisdom. "I have a lot to learn."

"Do not worry, you have four years to get this lesson drilled into your head." Starflower rose from his seat and extended his hand across the desk. "Welcome to the Artificers Guild, Lenoria Tsukino."

An adorable squeal escaped Lenoria as she shook the headmaster's hand, but she quickly covered her mouth in embarrassment. "S-sorry, sir. It's just-"

"No harm done. All that's left is the method of payment for your tuition."

"Oh, no worries. I got it right here." Lenoria dug through her coin purse. "Crap, I didn't bring enough. Sage!"

Moments later, despite the protests of the older woman from earlier, an orcish man wearing a simple karate gi slammed the door open. "What is it?"

"Do you have the rest of the tuition fee?"

"Oh, sorry. I got it right here." Starflower observed as the strange man dug through his own coin purse to count every single gold coin inside. What was even stranger was that the man had two right hands - his left hand had a thumb on the left side instead of the right - and could only wait patiently until both of them finished counting the coins and presented them to Starflower.

"Then the matter is settled. This will help take care of the Guild's funds as well as your tuition." Starflower smiled warmly. "If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out."

***

24th of Cobre, 6:05am, 1659

Starflower roamed the rooftop of the charred remains of the Artificers Guild. He hoped to see its remains with his own eyes after reading the newspaper article and having the nightmares earlier that night. He believed Lewis to be a man of his word and didn't worry about anyone disturbing his new room in order to find him, but he had to wrap up his business quickly just in case.

The Guild building was mostly intact. Some of the floors had collapsed, but the outer frame and foundation proved sturdy enough to keep everything else in place. The lower floors received most of the damage while the outside of his office on the roof remained mostly intact.

He used a key he had to unlock his office door and entered. To his horror, everything on the walls to his left and right had been turned to ashes or burnt beyond recognition. Every book he opened had its pages collapse into ashen remains. His own award trophies had been melted and hardened into an unshapely mess, and even his own office supplies had not escaped the damage and were nowhere to be found.

His next stop was the inner courtyard. According to the newspaper article, epitaphs honoring the fallen had been placed in the outdoor garden at the center of the Guild, so he quietly made his way there to offer his respects. He knew every single name in the epitaphs he read - some were troublemakers while others were stars of their class - but at the end of the day, they were all the same when they had been burned alive and buried six feet under elsewhere.

The only epitaph for the student body he could not find was Omar Hassan's, who had been confirmed to be the bomber thanks to eyewitness accounts. Then, he reached the faculty epitaphs. All of them gave him pause, but the one that truly drove him over the edge was...

In memory of Evelyn Tyler

Loving wife

Caring mother

Doting grandmother

And a shoulder for everyone at the Guild for the past 30 years

1597 - 1659

The elven headmaster sank to his knees in tears. Despair settled in as all he could see in his mind were the images of his students burning in the fire and Lenoria and Sarnai in tears. Adding to those images was that of the secretary who loyally worked for him, even after he built his reputation for being cold and ruthless. The last time he had seen her was right before his fated meeting with Gabrielle Bisset, where just minutes before the elderly secretary had excused herself to take her lunch break at the Guild cafeteria.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Tyler. Tsukino may have deceived me, but I had no reason to drag you into this feud. Thank you for your years of service." He was not an expert in oneiromancy, but his own interpretation of the dreams had a single meaning.

The students who died, the instructors who worked for him, the girl he bullied, and the nurse he deceived...all suffered because of him.

His moment of internal agony was interrupted with a sudden blunt force to the back of his head. Down but not out, Starflower recognized the voice of his assailant and his uncaring tone.

"Get up."

"What is he doing here?" Grabbing the back of his head, Starflower was grateful his attacker was at least lenient enough to give him the chance to stand up and defend himself. "Gardens. I should have your job for this."

Instructor Gardens, with a staff in hand, had assumed a defensive stance in preparation for a counterattack. His blue robes and red cape flowed gently with the wind. "Funny choice of words, but jail must have gotten a few screws loose. Last I checked, you were no longer headmaster. Miss Bisset was considerate enough to name me the new headmaster before she left. Be grateful I didn't blast you to oblivion."

His internal turmoil quelled but not completely gone, Starflower's smug face returned if only to put up a false front. "Really? And why, pray tell, have you elected for mercy and not vengeance?"

"Because I have questions. Questions only you can answer." Instructor Gardens lowered his staff. "Tell me what possessed you to do everything you did. Lenoria was a model student, despite her handicap and the decline her grades suffered. Clara said she was incredibly sweet, too, until your policies and your thugs broke her spirit. If you want to return to jail alive, you will tell me the truth."

"And here we see your true colors, Gardens. Meek like a guinea pig when in reality you're as murderous as a cassowary caring for his chicks." Starflower kept his composure, but assigning Gardens as the new headmaster was not without its merit. He would have a tough fight in his hands if he didn't comply. But he wasn't planning to go back to jail. "Very well," he said, "I shall tell you everything. But if I see so much as your fingers twitch, you'll never see me again."