"It is an Ancient Rite, one passed down through generations that our community chooses one Waymaker to chart a new Path of Stars. Their constellation will be written down for ages to be studied, and followed. They are more than whatever their initial Path may have given them."
–The Way of Stars, The Homonae of Helix-One
Sio could hardly believe the words that came out of Auburn's mouth. Waymaker. This was a rare honor. One not given for hundreds of years, let alone to a Dunestrider. Surely this was a mistake. But as Sio felt the weight of the mask conform to her, she knew it was not. The village has chosen a Dunestrider to be their new Waymaker. It meant that unlike Haru's claim that she was a pariah among the people, she was accepted as new blood into a covenant of prophets. She felt tears form in her eyes. Her fellow Dunestriders all gathered around her, some placed their hands on her shoulders, others shook her hands with glee. All were joyful.
Auburn parted the Dunestriders so that they might start filing away from the stage as the
Rite was complete and now they would enter into the festivities. Tomak led the way to the Hall, which was the community center next to the town centre. It was the largest shell-unit in Ísandur able to fit a small A-Class spacecraft. It was filled with banners and village tapestries. What Sio most looked forward to was the food. There would be a variety of dishes, meat, spiced, curried, and otherwise delicious. The smell wafted through her mask and her mouth watered.
First, however they sat in accordance to their rank. Sio was to sit at the head of the newly masked Dunestriders next to the table of village elders headed by Tomak. Fellow villagers served both tables, first the lower ranks, then the higher ranks as was custom. It was in remembrance that the lowest were often the backs on which the highest reside. She once heard from an outsider that this was a unique custom of Helix-One, and life did not work like this elsewhere. She preferred life that made sense, if it was all the same to the outsider, she thought. It was times like these she was most proud of her heritage. She sat gathered around friends and family with a warm hearth stoked just for them.
They feasted on the meal together for the hundredth time, but for each young Dunestrider, it was the first meal they would have as recognized adults, pillars of their community. It would be upon their backs that the next generation would be carried. This they knew, and knew it well, but for now their burden was light. They would chart the Path ahead of them, and with Sio as Waymaker, she swore she would chart a fair Path for the whole village.
For what seemed like hours did they swap stories of their parent's reaction to fighting of the Catlani Sphinx to stories that their parents told them while they were away. With pride, many said their parents almost didn't recognize them with how much they had grown in the past few months. Truly this was a transformative time. Sio sat a little taller hearing this from her pack, her family in the snow. She was proud to see them begin their journey as true Dunestriders to the tribe. Some of the Edlers were bringing around a concoction to drink which smelled of winterberries and alcohol. They served some to the youngest of their group and upon seeing poor Rinona's sputter out the drink, all laughed aloud. It was her first tasting of Winterwine. Then as due course, the dancing began. First it was the Elders who displayed their knowledge of the hunt in choreographed movement. Second were the active Dunestriders who proudly stomped and waved their hands outward and beat their chests. Third were the newly appointed Dunestriders, who at first displayed shyness, but then lead by their emboldened youngest, flooded the floor with yelling and jubilation. Their dance was one of stamping and swaying, like the sea.
As Sio was in the middle of their dance, she spotted a glint in the crowd, causing her to stop and stare. A large gem in the shape of a man approached the floor. Sio moved away from her dancing group, who caught up in the festivities hardly noticed her absence. Some Elders took notice, as some other Dunestriders, and hushed conversations began albeit drowned out from the beating of the drums. Kivtius had come to visit, which was certainly surprising. However, his showing up out of nowhere was something the people of Sio's village had grown accustomed. Just so, Sio met with Kivtius just as he was stopped by someone before the dance was completed by the younger Dunestriders. Sio approached the man who stopped Kivtius and waved him aside, indicating that she would take care of this. The man inclined his head and left, trusting the newly appointed Waymaker. Sio led Kivtius to a quieter corner.
"Dunestrider, it has been some time." His gem resonated with sound as Kivtius spoke.
"Kivtius, it is good to see you, what brings you here?" Asked Sio.
"You, young Dunestrider." He indicated the mask that Sio was wearing. "This place has heard the Symphony's call. Their choice has been made. Now it is time for you to make the First Choice."
"What do you mean, Kivtius? What choice?" Kivtius was silent and moved to leave. Sio followed him. He led them out of the Hall and into the center of town where some people were getting air, but otherwise was not occupied.
"Look to the stars, Dunestrider, what do you see?" Sio did as he said and looked to the sky which had become dark as deeply as the night could get on Helix-One. Some stars were blotted out by the light pollution of the village, making it hard to see the constellations Sio was so familiar with, but she noticed one large star moving across the sky. It was strange, like a distant memory was resurfacing. One memory she could not quite catch. Then the star brightened, blazing across the sky it's tail leaving a trail. Sio remembered.
The Comet of the North.
"It's here." Said Kivtius. "And it has been waiting for this moment for a very long time."
"What could you mean?"
"That fateful day you met was they day the Symphony revealed who you are. Now is the time for you to decide who you will be. Return to the place where your parents rest, and it will be made known to you the Paths you will choose." Kivtius words hit Sio all at once, and panic gripped her heart. He couldn't mean The Obelisk. It was gone, she was sure. She threw that damned pickaxe far away when they returned it to her as a child. It would be buried under a ton's worth of ice by now. No, that Obelisk couldn't be of the Symphony's will. So many were dead since her first encounter. You will do terrible things, Otheyo's voice taunted her. And yet she was compelled to finish whatever the thing started.
And it started with her.
"Take me to it." Sio said, her voice quiet, barely hiding her worry.
—
It took all night to reach the Sanctuary. She wondered how she ever had the courage to face it as a child, perhaps it was naivety. The motion of the Symphony seemed so evident back then, but now as an adult, the melody was less familiar. She heard it, but she buried it deep. Sometimes it would resurface, now and again, to remind her of her fate.
The Obelisk had summoned her once more. She could not deny it. Her feet carried her towards it. All her emotions felt on high. The familiarity of the Sanctuary did not put Sio at ease, rather the opposite. The anticipation of what was to come made her jitter.
They passed by the rich flora which seemed to be in full bloom. Kivtius had taken to this place, it seemed. There was an alcove that he had evidently made a home out of. There were carvings in the walls that indicated space routes and the passage of localized time. Kivtius was studying something, what, she did not know. She followed Kivtius's figure, tall and broad, it blocked the view of what was ahead, but Sio heard it.
It had been a long time since she heard The Melody.
Soft at first, it coaxed Sio forward, before she knew it she was standing before it. Larger than life, and prismatic, it looked just as she remembered it.
It called to her in just the same way. Kivtius had retreated somewhere, or maybe the Obelisk had taken them to separate realities. Sio did not know. She knew that she was being watched. The Obelisk did not have eyes, however, it was sentient. If it had a mind it existed everywhere, beyond the casings of a body. It must be able to perceive everything too. That was, at least, what Sio thought, and she had an inkling that she was correct.
The Obelisk let out a low hum that probed into Sio's mind. It wanted access. Sio took a deep breath, and let it happen. A feeling of calm overcame her senses. Doubt, anxiety, and whatever else she was feeling melted away.
She saw herself in a dark place, light pulsing beneath her feet. It was if the sky was inverted and she was walking amongst the stars and overhead was the ground falling away. On the ground were people, multitudes of Rai Kiri and Geminidi and Homonae warring with one another with weapons so large and so powerful the face of planets were being altered. From the sky, dozens of ships were battling for space, and looming over the horizon was a black hole whose event horizon was not a striking white but a fiery red.
She commanded with her voice for the fighting to cease, but none heard her, then with a voice that seemed not her own she commanded obedience, and each being fell to their knees. The stars themselves stilled, their harmonies at rest.
Another vision overcame her senses, this one was difficult to understand. It was of the dead, Ikima, Iridia Yuka, Xio, Atka, and Otheyo standing near an ancient lamp stand whose light had gone out. Sio felt herself standing there in their presence, but they were not looking at her but the Obelisk. Sio lit the lamp, a fire breathing from her mouth as she said 'light.' The lamp at once sparked into life and the dead turned away from the Obelisk and to the light where each one took a torch and lit for themselves a light, but Otheyo's did not light in the same way. Black flames errupted from his torch and he moved to another ancient lamp and lit it. There was a figure that Sio did not recognize for they were but a silhouette. But Sio felt herself call out to this figure in agony; 'No, do not follow this light!'
Before she could see what the figure would do, the vision ended and before her she was left alone with the two lit lampstands. The Obelisk was in between. There she felt her will become hers once more. The Obelisk was giving her a choice. The vision was what could be. Sio knew what she had to do. She walked to the center passed between both lampstands and stood just before the Obelisk. The Obelisk hummed and if Sio understood, it was almost as if it were…amused. Sio stood there for what seemed like an eternity, then the Obelisk hummed once more. Beneath her feet a pedestal of light began to form. She was then standing before an empty space where the Obelisk once was in the midst of the Sanctuary.