Astronomy Club
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The Astronomy Club has ended, but Kaika, Tallow, and Stardawn's adventure isn't over. Head on over to the Constellation Connection to see what they're up to now!
The Starfall Isles seemed oddly calm this year, even to the dragons who lived there.
Usually, in preparation for Arcane’s big festival, the Arcanist or his followers would try to do something spectacular and end up with an apocalypse on their hands. But it seemed that they had learned from their mistakes this year, and instead of trying to make something, they had decided to let the natural world take care of it. And with no impending doom to worry about, all of the students at the Observatory were free to partake in all the festivities surrounding the star festival.
Two Imperials made their way down the steps of the Observatory, letting themselves be swept along by the mass of students heading down to the festival after their final classes. One of them, a pink dragon trailing glittering dust, was motormouthing her way through her excitement, while the other one, whose wings and horns glimmered like opals, nodded along, glancing in front of them every few seconds and occasionally nudging the pink one out of a collision course with a wall.
“I’ve heard there’s gonna be a costume ball and a coloring contest and-”
“Guys, wait up!”
A blue Fae darted up from behind, landing on the glimmering dragon’s head.
“Oh, hey, Kaika!”
“How am I supposed to keep up with you guys and your long legs!?”
“By sitting on my head, apparently,” Tallow said.
“Oh, shush, you wouldn’t leave me behind. Now, what were you saying, Stardawn?”
“Oh, I was just talkin’ about the things I’d heard were goin’ on at the festival this year! I’m so EXCITED!”
Stardawn’s shout caused more than a few dragons to yelp in surprise.
“Stardawn…”
“...whoops. Sorry! Ahem, aaanyway, I told Tallow that I’d heard there’d be a costume ball, which sounds super exciting, and there are gonna be all kinds of competitions, and I even heard dad’s gonna go down to the festival himself, since the world isn’t about to end! He’s gonna-”
“Wait," Kaikamahineth said. "The Arcanist is going to leave the Observatory?”
“That’s what I’ve heard, yeah.”
“Oh man. You know what that means?”
“Kaika, no. Whatever you’re thinking-”
“We can use the Lens!”
Stardawn and Tallow stopped in their tracks.
“Guys, what are we doing?”
The Observatory was never an unfriendly place. Its rooms were covered in heaps of scrolls and books, magic flames and crystals gave the halls a soft glow even on the darkest of nights, and if the walls weren’t hung with student theses, they were covered in plush banner tapestries or scrawled ideas.
But it was so empty.
“We’re going to use the Eye, duh! Don’t act like you didn’t agree it would be shame not to!”
“I said it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, not that we should take it!”
“Oh, c’mon, we’re the only ones here. It’ll be fine!”
Tallow sighed and shook his head, but fell silent, trying to focus on the chattering of Stardawn and Kaika ahead of him instead of the echo of his claws on the floor. They’d never been to the top of the Observatory before - that was something for graduates, professors, the exalted helpers of the Arcanist.
Not them.
The stairs wound higher and higher through the bowels of the Observatory, sometimes spiraling straight up several hundreds of meters. The trio’s only guide to getting to the Eye’s atrium was to keep going up.
After some wandering on the second-highest floor, they found a huge set of double doors marked with the Arcane rune. Exchanging glances, they pushed through, and immediately found themselves floored by the atrium.
It took up the entire top of the Observatory. All around its edges, shelves taller than any of them could fathom held texts and artifacts. Tables sat in a loose ring around the center podium, covered in loose papers and starcharts. Pots planted with arcane flora sat scattered. But the true focal point of the room was the Eye of Many Lenses, sitting atop its central podium. The trio walked up stairs, entranced by it. It gleamed in the light cast by the magic torches ringing it. Its strangely-shaped housing stretched up into the star-strewn sky, wreathed by so many attachments and mechanisms that it was almost reminiscent of the Arcanist and his many limbs.
“...Wow.”
Stardawn stepped up to the eyepiece and peered in. She examined the knobs and gears surrounding the Eye’s base, taking notes, then began to adjust them. Kaika and Tallow stepped up beside her and aided her, talking to each other in hushed tones. After what seemed like hours, Stardawn looked back into the eyepiece and squeaked in excitement, scrambling to remove her tools from her belt. The others watched on silence as her excitement turned to focus - and then confusion.
“...huh. That’s. Odd.”
“What is it?”
“I’m not… recognizing any of these stars.”
“None of them?”
“Not one. According to my calculations, the Eye should be pointing at the AFO-917 cluster, which is a fairly new designation, but… Oh.” Stardawn whipped around to face her friends. “These stars haven’t been mapped yet!”
