Who Heard of the Star Eater
Session: 2023-12-13
The journal does not say how the fight in the pilgrims' halls ended, or what the crew took from them, or how they left. Between that page and the next, one line survives, about a wound that kept on burning. It is struck out.
What falls out of sight still falls.
— the Cycle, III.9
When the record resumes, the crew has come down on a landing pad. A structure stands two kilometers off. The journal does not name the world. A jubsnuth came at them there, and it was killed.
Who came down two kilometers from the structure, and the jubsnuth did not rise.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 40
Choose the ground before you step onto it.
Where there is one place to stand, the enemy knows it too.
— the Forms, Form 14
Then a new enemy. One of Som's strikes fell just short against its ward of energy. He saw the scars of the Cult of the Devourer, but slightly different, and wrote a name: Atrosight, a devotee of the Devourer. The journal does not say whether the scars, the enemy and the name were one.
Who met the Devourer's devotee, and knew the scars, and saw they had changed.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 41
Know the shell from the ward.
A blow the shell turns, the ward may let through.
Strike where it is thinner.
(Zigu, from his journal.)
— the Forms, Form 37, later additions
On the same page he wrote that he had grown: stronger, harder to break, sharper of mind, heavier of presence. He took up a new working of weight, a surge of gravity. Above it, marked twice: Must balance Revelation.
Who grew heavier in every part, and wrote that the balance must be kept.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 42
Light without weight scatters.
Weight without light falls in.
Hold both.
— the Cycle, III.7
Keep the light and the weight in balance.
Do not lean on one too long.
(Zigu, from his journal.)
— the Forms, Form 38, later additions
In 21 a shield had the journal's only double mark. Now balance has the second. Why would he need to tell himself this, so loudly, now?
A building like a bunker, overgrown with plants. Its doors had been blown inward. He wrote that it was a kish building. Strange couches and chairs lay mangled against a wall. Two flights of steps went up, and a double door led north. Three figures, shaped like people, stood with their backs to the crew. The journal does not say who they were, or whether they turned.
Who entered the kish house whose doors were driven in, and found three standing with their backs to him.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 43
Where the shell is broken inward, the force came from without.
— the Cycle, III.10
Then a list. Three grenades that bend time. A small disruption pistol. Three hover bikes, two still running. Golemforge, spikes worked into weapons, grim trophies, disintegrator pistols. The journal does not say whose they had been, or who took them.
Who counted what lay in the kish house.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 44
What is counted is kept.
— the Cycle, I.12
A name: Velsasha. Small, the size of a dog. A round head on a thin neck. The journal does not say whether Velsasha was friend or foe.
Who met Velsasha, small as a dog, round of head.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 45
The dark beyond the fire is not empty. It is only unlit.
— the Cycle, I.2
Then Osteth. Once a kishalee. Custodians for the star eater. One word, Eldrith. Then the Cult of the Devourer, and a dash, and the page ends.
Who heard Osteth speak of the star eater.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 46
There are hungers older than any fire.
— the Cycle, III.5
He wrote the name of the cult and drew a line after it. What was he about to write, and why did he stop?