He shakes his head sadly. “I’ll explain later. We first need to learn more about the Psy weapon. When we reach Virgo, we’ll consult Empress Moira, and then I promise you I’ll do my part.”
“Fine. Let’s go now then.”
He bows. “As you wish, my lady.”
? ? ?
The flight to Virgo will take a day at hyperspeed, and the tension on the ship is thick. Mathias and Hysan are locked in a cold war, and Caasy, who’s grown bored with me since I won’t show him the black opal, only eggs them on.
Back on Libra, I tried convincing Caasy to go to Gemini and protect his House, but he still wouldn’t believe there was any cause for panic. When he discovered he couldn’t use his Ephemeris on the ship, he became livid. Now his only entertainment is interfering with the guys.
And cooking. Turns out he’s a decent chef. I only wish I had more of an appetite, but I can’t stop worrying. We checked the newsfeeds before we left Hysan’s court, but the commentators only talked about a new pirate attack in Space. Armed assailants hijacked a fleet of Taurian frigates and abducted all the crew members. No one knows the motive.
The only good news is that Hysan downloaded the hologram Nishi sent around to all the Houses. I’m sitting at the kitchen table, alone, projecting the message from a small device Hysan handed me.
When it starts, it looks like a recording of Drowning Diamonds performing our most popular song on campus, “Across the Zodiac.” But a few seconds in, I have to rewind it to be sure of what I’m hearing.
The visuals are definitely from a performance we put on a few months ago at the university. It was our first paid gig—two Zodai instructors were getting married, and they hired us to play. But the song lyrics are not the same.
When the Zodiac was new
There was a thirteenth star
The first among us knew
But in time we forgot
Now the serpent, he is back
And we must find a way
To push his presence out
Or he’ll be here to stay
When she gets to the chorus, Nishi belts out my name, and I cover my face with my hands, even though no one else is in here.
Trust in Guardian Rho
She’s our galaxy’s best chance
She’ll make Ochus go
He’ll forget his plans
I can’t believe what Nishi’s done.
Like always, she’s bold and brilliant—I only wish she hadn’t told the Zodiac I’m our best chance. All I’ve been doing is running around sounding an alarm. That’s not making Ochus go. . . . It’s just making a lot of noise.
I watch the film a few more times. The new lyrics are actually pretty catchy. After a while, I feel reinvigorated, and I access the ship’s Tome. There must be something in here about Ophiuchus, maybe in the older stuff.
An hour later, most of what I’ve found says the same thing. How our early forebears believed the sun’s core held a gateway to a mirror universe, one they called Empyrean. According to the scrolls, the gateway to Empyrean was cursed. If anyone tried to pass through, the two universes would collapse and annihilate each other.
To prevent a catastrophic collapse, the original Guardians sealed the gateway after the last people from Earth came through. There’s evidence our ancestors colonized Aries first, before spreading to the other eleven Houses. Over the millennia, the gateway drifted into the fog of legend, and that’s where our Cancrian burial tradition of ceremonially launching a body into the sun comes from.
There’s no mention of the Thirteenth House. I speed through a different text about conflicts in the Zodiac. Mostly it’s the same old story about the Trinary Axis. A millennium ago, three Houses formed a conspiracy and triggered a hundred-years war that engulfed the entire galaxy. Vicious atrocities raged back and forth, all too horrible to imagine.
Since then, the Zodiac has lived in peace, and each House has evolved its own systems and traditions. Instead of watching over a mythical gateway, our Guardians now focus on reading the stars to improve the management of their worlds and promote trade. I go back to the kitchen and play the song again.
When Caasy comes in to eat something, I punch the off button so hard I slam the device on the table, like I’m killing a water-fly.
I make up an excuse to go, and as I’m leaving, I distinctly hear Caasy hum, “Trust in Guardian Rho. . . . She’s our galaxy’s best chance. . . .”
I don’t play the song again.
? ? ?
The next morning, I wake up anxious to meet Moira. As I change into my Zodai suit and fix my hair, I try to think of a more convincing way of relaying my warning. So far, I haven’t been very successful.
Moira is a Guardian-empress. She rules all of Virgo. It sounds unnatural to me, since we Cancrians value consensus so much, but she’s beloved on Virgo—and even among the other Houses. She’s one of the most venerable Zodai in the Zodiac.