The Throne Under the Starry Sky Chapter 3

Translator: Wu w.a.n.g

Editor: Sai & Vick

Chapter 3: The Night is Coming

Jonah’s fingers ran across the remain papers of the nameless book. It seemed his finger can still feel the temperature of the flame. The thing happened yesterday has been faded away in his memory, but the scrawled signature on the last page still made him feel awe and fear. “Segnise The Betrayer”- this mysterious prophet that controlled the future.

At lunch time, he tried to ask if his tutor had heard of a person called “Segnise”. The seventy-year-old Astrologer, Keshawa, shook his big hairy head and said, “You should know, for people at my age – name is a stupid thing – forget all of them! What’s the name of that beautiful landlady in the tavern of the Red Castle? I don’t care. There are too many things I need to pay attention to.” Keshawa c.o.c.ked his eyes on Jonah, then he pointed to his own head and said, “I like her b.o.o.bs, but that doesn’t mean that I need to know her name.”

“The Red Castle has been seized. I’m afraid for that landlady. Perhaps she has been…” Jonah murmured.

Keshawa paused and then said, “I still don’t care.”

Then they had a silent lunch.

The work of an Astrologer has three parts: observe, count and create.

They believed that the starry sky was composed of endless stars, which were circled around the continent, and there was a great power that controlled the movements of the stars and maintained the distance among different stars – there was a line made by light and heat between any two stars, and there were endless stars – so there were also endless lines among the stars. The lines penetrated the continent, when the observers saw the starry sky.

Astrologers observed the orbit of the stars, then they learned how to control part of the power of the stars by complex calculations. They saved the power in the patterns which engraved in the magic crystals or gems – this was how they created the Star Circles.

Of course, the coming of the day was when a star too close to the continent, and its light covered the light of other stars.

The working time of Tutor Keshawa was from early morning to lunch. So, Jonah has enough free time to spend his afternoon with whatever he wanted to do.

Astrology was a complex subject, and twelve year’s learning only let Jonah understand a little part of it. His tutor, Keshawa, took thirty years to observe a line between a pair of stars. The energy feature of this star line was in balance. At first he controlled a little free energy of the star line, all the objects in his laboratory (including himself) floated in the air, and circled around the garnet which absorbed the free energy of the star line. The objects in the room created a perfect balanced system – no matter whether you judged it from the angle of weight, form or aesthetics.

Because of this, Keshawa became a level 7 Astrologer – only two levels away from the greatest honor, level 9 Astrologer (People called them “The Master of Astrology”). Of course, this was an unreachable goal – there were only five level 9 Astrologers in the continent. The only thing Keshawa can expect was to become a level 8 Astrologer before he got alzheimer. Maybe this was the reason that he lost interest in the b.o.o.bs of the landlady.

The Temperature Control Star Circle was one of his tutor’s masterpiece. It could control the temperature next to his body.

His tutor would stamp with rage if he saw the broken black crystal. At first, Jonah wanted to tell his tutor this bad news, but finally, he chose to keep silence.

His room was in the middle part of the Astrology Tower. Its length and width both were 15 feet, and it consisted of a telescope, celestial globe, flasks, scrolls and books. A fat steam puppet, awkwardly, walked around in the room and released smelly smoke.

This was a gift from a friend of tutor Keshawa eight months ago. He was an old gentleman with white beard. He travelled on a Nimbus, which he named as “Lame Henry”, and was also the greatest technology of steam puppet. He had a brief stay in Saint Boen. He tactfully refused the invitation of the Queen, and landed in the wild of the Red Plain, then walked to see his friend since 50 years ago.

Tutor Keshawa was a little peculiar – he didn’t show too much enthusiasm – or we can say that fortunately, he didn’t show too much enthusiasm. Several boring words, gifts exchanged, shaking hands. Then Keshawa turned around and went back to his laboratory. Click. He locked his door.

The next was Jonah’s work. He did everything he could – including settling his own room over for the guest, as he slept on the ground and tolerated the guest’s noisy snore.

Three days later, with the earth-shaking, roaring, sound of the “Lame Henry”, the old gentleman left. He gave a steam puppet to Jonah as a gift. Jonah smiled and happily accepted it. After the Nimbus became a little black point far away in the sky, Jonah finally couldn’t control his mood and jumped around in excitement.

A steam puppet was a toy every child dreamed of. It was quite rare to see one in Saint Boen, even the n.o.bles couldn’t have them.

Steam Puppeteer was an honorable career in the Eastern continent. They had strong military deterrence and influence among the common people. A gift from the master of the “Lame Henry”! How could any child not like it!

There were five controllers with three-parts on the back of the steam puppet. They could control the steam puppet’s feet, hands, head, and three other random actions. The set Jonah made can let the steam puppet move around for about five feet, wave hands, look around, and make several antics. Except he needed to add water to it regularly, the magic stone present in the steam puppet’s belly was enough for it to work a whole year, till someday he’ll get tired of it .

Just like now, when he read the residual papers of the nameless book, the sound of heavy footsteps and sniffing sounds of the steam puppet sounded annoying. So, Jonah went and turned off its five controllers. The steam puppet erupted a wisp of white smoke, then it stopped unmoved.

Jonah knelt in front of his bed and looked at the papers.

The first paper was burned from its top half.

The style of writing of this book was a bit like a dairy. It recorded the date first, and then the text next. Jonah tried his best to discern the burning part. He saw the familiar handwriting of Segnise, “…together and couldn’t see each other – only saw the sky and heels”

The first prediction was the part he saw accidently and it got fulfilled in reality. If the content of the nameless book were recorded in chronological order, the next should be the prediction about the future.

Jonah felt his heart was beating fast. He turned back and looked at the door. He swallowed and read the next prediction.

“October sixth, Gamaliel descended from the sky with all the gentiles he chose. Ayala couldn’t see or hear him, but as he lived in a bones palace so he didn’t feel any panic. ‘Stay away from the mirror’. Gamaliel gave his advice.”

Jonah scratched his head. He remembered the data of the previous prediction: “October fifth, a sword cut through the sky. They gathered together and couldn’t see each other – only saw the sky and heels.”

Jonah believed the thing happened yesterday was a faithful reproduction of this prediction. Just one day after the previous prediction. So, no doubt, the second prediction will happen today.

The young Astrologer’s apprentice rolled the paper and looked around nervously. The messy room was in silence. The bra.s.s celestial globe rotated by itself on the top of bookshelf. A ray of sunlight bore inside through the window, and it lit up the books and the quill on the desk.

It was all right. Everything was as normal. Maybe the first prediction was just a coincidence; maybe the second prediction will happen in a far away place – for example, the Northern continent – which was covered with ice and snow. Jonah patted his chest and consoled himself.

He packed up the papers and decided not to be obsessed with the intangible predictions. He need to finish his homework. Tutor Keshawa will check his homework at dinner time. More than once, Jonah had to suffer from hunger and watch his tutor enjoy his dinner, due to some mistakes he made in his homework – they weren’t good memories.

He sat down by the table and opened his book. The warm sunlight made him sleepy. Out of the window, the vast Red Plain shined like a glabrous ruby crystal under the sun. He couldn’t see the cavalcades of the invaders and the blood river of the people of Saint Boen.

Forget the things you can’t change – this was what Tutor Keshawa always told him. Jonah tried to forget but it seemed a bit hard. After he worked out two calculations, he felt very sleepy. It was all because of the bad sleep he had last night. Jonah decided to doze on his desk for a while. Just a while. Maybe, five minutes?