Breganthe

B R E G A N T H E THE ROAMING COSMOS For as long as eyes could see and minds could comprehend the smallness of the self, many have gazed upward in utter awe of the vastness of the stars and space. Observatories sprung up to leap past the limits of the naked eye. Smaller versions of these, named 'telescopes' by the skittering things on this planet, soon followed. Countless eyes stretching their limits through countless spyglasses through countless years. Not many of them noticed that certain stars seem to....have a mind of their own.

Breganthe is a constellation within a nebula that one can see in the western part of the sky on certain nights. That is what Klino knew. When she did not know was why. Seasons didn't seem to matter. She tracked the nebula religiously, checking the sky every night before bed, and there truly was no pattern. Once, Breganthe disappeared for four years. Sometimes, Breganthe seemed smaller. Other times, Breganthe seemed larger. Klino couldn't make sense of how this cluster of space dust and stars behaved. It was generally a side note in her studies at the academy, but she felt it deserved a whole chapter. Perhaps even a book.

Astronomers with ambition tended to want to be the first to discover an anomaly, a new planet, and the like. Klino felt she was on the trail of something that would upend dragonkind's understanding of space itself. Nebulae didn't move, or shrink, or grow. At least not at the rate Breganthe could. Studies going back countless generations did prove that nebulae do creep along at abysmal rates. Perhaps only the Arcanist was old enough to notice this, however. Millions of dragons could be born and die before a nebula made noticeable progress across the night sky. Indeed, the positions of all the stars above Klino's head were not their original spaces in the cosmos - but this process took more years than she could fathom.

It certainly didn't take months. It certainly didn't take short years. And yet, this past month, Klino noticed that Breganthe was growing larger by the day. It was the first time in ten years she'd seen it stay in one place in the sky, as well. Klino was a smart Fae, but it did take her a while to realize what she was observing all the same. Mostly because she would have never guessed. Breganthe was the anomaly of all anomalies; but she still found herself applying the current laws of space to it, to her detriment. It came to her in her sleep, jolting her awake abruptly. She took the notepad from her work desk, blinking sleep from her eyes and scrawled,

It's getting closer, not larger.

Blinking sleep away, Klino peered through the telescope she'd expertly trained on Breganthe and gasped. She could see the clouds swirling around it. The stars burned brighter than she'd ever known. Her excitement quickly faded into alarm. Shooting stars sometimes landed, with great devastation. What would happen if an entire celestial body hit Sornieth? She had to warn....who would she warn? Klino left her home with urgency, glancing up at those burning stars as she flew aimlessly towards her professor's home. What could he do? Should she bother the exalted? Surely those who worked closest with the Arcanist would know what to do. Surely the Arcanist had noticed this as well? He always had his eyes to the sky. Always.

A strange hum rolled through her, blurring her vision. Klino landed clumsily, wincing and shaking her head. She looked skyward and took a step back.

Wisps of purple and black seeped down from the blackness, illuminating the low hanging clouds with eerie light. The stars of Breganthe, so close now that they should have cast the area in daylight, vibrated in place. Klino couldn't understand what she was seeing. She stood in awe of the thing, as nebula dust touched down into the fields with ghostly tendrils. The vibrating stars of the constellation jolted violently, sending another hum across the grass and right through Klino. It felt so strange and uncomfortable; like all of her organs paused their duties to listen. More than just her breath knocked out of her when it hit her, and Klino collapsed into the earth, craning her neck to look at Breganthe.

The tendrils snaked towards her. She wasn't expecting them to feel like anything. The clouds of a nebula were just that - clouds. They shouldn't feel solid. They wrapped around her, cradling her, and a strange warmth followed. The stars hummed again, and Klino's world went dark.

---

"We all know what happened that night. Or rather, we can say we saw it."

"Mass hysteria, Gale. That's all it was."

"So where is my student, then? You're telling me the entire city didn't see her get d-"

"I'm telling you that we cannot press this matter. As per the Arcanist. There's things out there far worse than The Shade. Things we should not be inviting to visit."

"She couldn't have known. She shouldn't be punished."

"And how are we to retrieve her? Why are you assuming we don't want to rescue our colleague? There is no way to get her back, Gale. She is gone."

"If it is intelligent, we can communicate. It's a thing, not a cloud of gas and stars. It moved with a purpose. Breg-"

"Do not say its name."

Hart glanced at the sky nervously. "Do not."

Gale clenched his jaw. "So what, we are never to observe it again? Never talk about it? Just pretend she decided to leave?"

Hart softened his tone. "We can't survive up there, Gale. We can acknowledge she's dead. We can hold the appropriate services. But we can't risk drawing....its attention again. I'm sorry. Truly. I am. Her loss will be felt for decades to come. Klino was the smartest of all of us. But you have to let this go."

---

Klino was warm. She'd stopped breathing long ago. She'd stopped needing food. She'd stopped feeling her body. She could feel the currents of the cosmos, ride them. She could see other planets, other nebulae, and many things she had never known could exist and had no names for. Klino was in awe of the things Breganthe showed her, and she now understood what it was. There was also, unfortunately, no name for it. So she just called it Breganthe. She wondered often if there were others like it; if space was full of these vast organisms that were mistaken for celestial bodies. But the never saw any others. She wondered if Breganthe was lonely. She wondered how many others were in here, traveling with it. Klino did not feel alone, but she also never felt in the company of anyone. She was just warm. Cozy. Content.

She felt observed, though, sometimes. Breganthe would always change course when that feeling came around. Sometimes, the feeling of being watched wouldn't last, and Breganthe seemed to forget. It would go in a different direction. Like someone called its name, or it thought someone called its name, and then it lost track of where the voice was. It was peaceful here. Klino wasn't sure how else to describe it. She wished she could tell Gale and the others all she'd seen and learned. She'd tried to will Breganthe to return to Sornieth. But Klino figured she was a passenger. Or, Breganthe couldn't read her thoughts. Perhaps it just reacted to being observed. A long lost God, greater than even the Arcanist, collecting its adoring followers.

Klino missed home, sometimes.

Someone observed her again. Breganthe veered off towards the feeling, and Klino felt some kind of longing. This time, the feeling lingered. This time, someone was watching her - them, rather - with intent. Breganthe picked up speed, sailing through the beauty of all the unnameable things floating in the void, and Klino grew excited.

So excited that, when the surface of Sornieth came into view, she hummed.