Starlight Commons

“In all of my years, nothing has amounted to the tragedy that was Odum's Hunt. As a species we have grown tremendously from its destruction, but many of us have not healed from the pain that it caused our hearts and souls. It is not an easy memory to recollect, but for the sake of our academics I will tell you what I can.” - Hypselle Aster

This book was written off of the recollection of Hypselle Aster from her survival of the events, in a journal-like format.

June 6th 4 AL started off as a day just like any other that we had gotten used to, the sun warmed our backs as we tended to the daily chores and young Nova chased each other through the tall grass that surrounded the area. It was a rather brutal summer that year, and no amount of water could keep the grass from turning into the yellowed stalks of dry wheat.

My siblings and I were all talking about how First Landing should have been developed to be able to fit and work for every size and kind of Astrali that fell no matter their dominant form. I remember Wiley talking about adding paths that were made of canals specifically for the water-based Cetun that preferred their fins over feet when there was a *boom* of something akin to thunder sounding from the skies above us.

Curiosity grabbed us all as we left my hut wit our heads turned to the sky, to only be joined by the generations of Astrali after us with our muzzles pointed toward a large object hurtling toward us. We instantly realized that this was no gift of our mothers as a foreboding feeling crawled up our spines as the meteor fell in the untilled fields just beyond the borders of First Landing.

As my brother Hallias commanded the following generations to stay behind while we investigated, both Wiley and I approached the large meteor that had collided with our home. It seemed innocent enough despite the blue flames that curled around its rocky exterior, which had begun cracking to reveal an inner chamber that held another Astrali, no matter how strange he looked.

His metal limbs and strange demeanor left us curious as he emerged at the age of a full grown Astrali, his eyes calculating as they adjusted to the bright sunlight from the darkness of his arrival pod. Even though he arrived destructively, something about my natural intuition told me that he meant no harm as he introduced himself as Brutus Odumborn, the first Artificial Astrali crafted from the hands of the lost god, Odum. Though both Wiley and I were surprised by the advanced conversation of what we would normally consider a newborn, our other siblings were wary and unimpressed.

Hallias was furious at the destruction Brutus's arrival had caused. Asa was upset with the effect his asteroid and its imprint would have on the next round of crops when the fall rains would come again. Kairdar was mostly silent about his arrival, though her sharp eyes portrayed the distrust that swam through her thoughts as he continued to explain his origin.

He continued to go on about how Odum wanted to partake in his estranged sister's creative games from his prison in the Faded Asteroid Belt, inspired by their success and wanting to feel as if he was part of the family again by creating one that mirrored us. Although his resources were limited, meaning he could not give Brutus as much physical resemblance to us with flesh and bone, forcing him to turn to the metals that filled the asteroids around him. Along came his mechanical limbs and advanced intelligence, which finished his creation before he sent it to our home.

Though it felt like nothing more than a few minutes as Brutus explained, no one noticed as the blue flames that innocently flickered across the meteor's surface slunk to the dry grasses around it, exploding into a furious blaze that none of us were prepared to combat.

Hallias's anger exploded with the flames as he screamed curses and blame toward Brutus, saying that his kindness was a farse to allow his father to destroy what our mother had created. Both Wiley and I had exchanged unsure glances as our siblings followed Hallias into the battle against the flames, though it was Brutus who yelled, with a pain in his voice that no enemy could muster falsely, that the damage had spread to our home.

It was horror that bolstered our speed as we galloped (or in Wiley's case, rowed on his landboat) back to the small city we had built to be faced with the reality that the flames were devouring everything, and every*one*, in its path. I can not relive the horrors via explanation of what those flames did to Astrali unable to outrun its unnatural speed, as no one needs to read those descriptions. All I will say is that it is a sight that no one, not even my worst enemy, should ever have to see.

All three of us saved whoever we could as we battled collapsing buildings and intense flames that swallowed our home whole, but as we approached the building we had put together for fresh Nova to acclimate to life on solid ground, I knew there was no hope to save the little ones, for its walls had already fallen in a surge of flames that rivaled the height of the heavens. I could not hold back the tears at the failure we all witnessed, my knees buckling as our paces slowed.

Almost, all of our paces. Where Brutus and I failed to move further, my precious little brother Wiley continued pulling himself across the rubble filled path. He told me to relay to our siblings that he loved each of us more than anything our mothers should have predicted, and made Brutus promise him that he would be there for me after. That he would protect me.

Brutus swore on his life as Wiley pulled himself forward with a blast of wind, and straight into the flames of the Nova Hut.

There's a note written into this section of the book, seemingly from the transcriber, that was not removed from its original transcription. It reads: 'Hypselle has ceased to speak for the last several minutes. I do not think she will divulge more on the actions of The First Cetun, nor will I force her. Perhaps we can ask again when she is ready.'

After Wiley, everything else turned black. Sometimes I can recall saving other Astrali from dreadful fates, or working alongside Brutus to save others who could not escape themselves. Where my memory returns is when my remaining three siblings came back later that evening, around midnight. They were all covered in soot and wounds, but the fire that had burned so deeply with hatred and anger within Hallias had not dimmed. He informed us with firm words that the entireity of the prairie had been burnt to nothing but dirt and sand, while Asa added that there would be nothing that grew in the soil of our home here anymore.

It was Kairdar who asked first about Wiley, causing all of their attention to slowly pan to the side that our Cetun brother had never strayed from to discover it empty. Words could not form as I stared at them, but Brutus was there to explain that he had sacrificed himself for the unclaimed Nova to escape from their cage of death.

Then there was only rage as screams of agony and grief surrounded around us from both my siblings and the survivors that had gathered around us to hear the grim news of our prairie home. So much anger and blame was pointed at the Artificial Astrali beside me, and not a single one of my siblings wished to stay where he lingered. It was a blade that severed any ties we had spent years binding together, and it was the final blow that the event we called Odum's Hunt delivered. Our community was no longer one as they all divided with their own followers, and I have not seen a single one of them since.

Only Brutus stayed with me to help gather what leftover supplies we could to help the injured and the scared before we left in search of a new home. Our flourishing prairie was now nothing more than a charred landscape of pain, and earned its new title as The Burnt Prairie.

In total, Odum's Hunt took the lives of 511 Astrali that had settled throughout the prairie and First Landing, and it took nearly a year of my own pilgrimage to spend time visiting and honoring the Pulsarian Blooms of the lost while Starhaven was being built. Brutus had accompanied me to pay his own respects for the Astrali he had never known, but he left me not long after to build a safehaven for the Artificial Astrali. It is now been three hundred years since the last time I saw Odum's first creation.

I miss him as much as I miss my siblings, and all of the Astrali we lost.