Twenty-Eight

Note: This chapter is exclusively written by Micarzam14 (I do not possess knowledge on astronomy). Thank you for your brilliant contributions to our group effort.

What if we rewrite the stars?

Say you were made to be mine

Nothing could keep us apart

You'd be the one I was meant to find

It's up to you, and it's up to me

No one can say what we get to be

So why don't we rewrite the stars?

Maybe the world could be ours

Tonight

--- Rewrite The Stars; 'The Greatest Showman Soundtrack'

Night under the Stars

It was the 22th day of April and the moon was on its first quarter.  After rechecking the weather forecast with his phone, they decided to have a night picnic the next day on the seashore where they could see the clear skies overhead. As Lyrid set up his multi-layer telescope, he gazed at the captivating Altria where she was helping to lay the picnic mat and start up a bonfire with firewood. His plan on arranging the complimentary vacation for Altria had been to surprise her with the vast sky and meteor shower as his gift to her.

She wondered how unreal it had been, for a person of such a social status to like her, a nobody in the world. Their difference had been like that of heaven and earth, and all the more she found it unbelievable that he had fallen for her. She finished placing all the firewood into the bonfire and sat on the picnic mat munching on the cut fruits she had prepared, awaiting him. As Lyrid was still occupied in setting up his telescope, he asked Altria to feed him some of the cut fruit, to which she complied. After a few minutes, he asked her to take a drink to him, and after three such times of sending her on such errands, she made a face at him, asserting that he had such thick skin and was treating her like a chambermaid. She even called on the fact that he had demanded so much from her as compensation when she had requested for his help in pretending to be her boyfriend the other day on the beach. Hearing her rant, he quickly finished what he was doing and hastily embraced her while assuring her that she is not his chambermaid, but his empress instead. 

Not fathoming what he meant by his empress, Altria naturally  had assumed that he was merely exaggerating or adopting a metaphor to suggest that she was as crucial to him as an empress in his interest for historical knowledge, since he dealt with artifacts a lot in his exhibitions at the gallery.

As a shooting star was headed their way all of a sudden, Altria bade Lyrid close his eyes and make a wish, while she did the same and clapped her hands gleefully in worship before making her wish in a clear and focused manner. Once she opened her eyes again, the inquisitive Lyrid inquired what she had wished for, and Altria bashfully informed him that she had wished for a good career and that she hoped for them to stay together in all their lifetimes. In return, she asked what Lyrid had wished for. Lyrid promptly answered that he had not made any wish yet, and abruptly grabs both her hands, before closing his eyes and reciting his wish out as loud as he could so that it was audible enough for her to hear his wish. He had prayed that they will be together as a couple in all lifetimes and all eternities, much to her absolute delight and joy.

Leading her to the telescope, he invited her to gaze through the eyepiece at the galaxy of stars, and explained to her that the shooting star had originated from a meteor shower. She was fascinated at witnessing the raining meteor from the telescope as she observed it passing through the focus of the telescope. Lyrid pointed to her the location of the constellation Lyra, the harp where the radiant meteor shower passed. He further revealed that his late parents had named him after Lyrid's Meteor shower, which could be seen between the 16th to 26th day of April of each year. The peak day during that year had also been his birthday, and thus he was now 30 years of age. Then, he pointed out to her the brightest star near the meteor shower which was called Vega, was the brightest star in the Lyra constellation. On the other hand his other name, Dong Shaoyang, meant Young Sun Dong, and hence the nearest star in the solar system and lightened the world during day time. 

Altria told Lyrid from her expansive knowledge of astronomy, that the most prominent celestial star that she was aware of was the Big Dipper and the Northern Star also known as Polaris, and which may be easily pinpointed from the two Dippers' constellations. She then pointed out to Lyrid the exact location of the constellation and Polaris. According to her, the line from the two outermost stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper pointed to Polaris, while the tip of the Little Dipper marked the said star. In Greek mythology, the Big Dipper asterism represented the hindquarters and tail of the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper) the great Bear, while the three starts of the Big Dipper handle were hunters chasing the bear. The Big Dipper was more than just a bright and familiar pattern but also served as a compass, a clock, and a calendar for those who were familiar in asterism and ancient calendar system. Lyrid was amazed by the broad knowledge that she had possessed regarding astronomy, that surpassed any of his employees at the group. As Dijun himself knew Fengjiu was a playful person who was at the same time bad at studies, he had not expected her to have retained such a side of her when she had became a mortal unexpectedly.

"A pointing star which serves as a stellar compass needle points directly towards Polaris. Once the Polaris and the two starts of the Big Dipper are found, if you face towards that constellation that means you are due north and behind of you is south, to your left is the west and the right is the south. In ancient times, sailors used this to find their location and navigation," Altria continued to explain, while Lyrid beamed proudly from his girlfriend's brilliant knowledge.

"A clock, because the entire figure of the Great Bear circles about the pole once in twenty-four hours, a line connecting the pointer starts with Polaris may be regarded as the hour hand of the clock. With a little practice, the time of night can be ascertained to an approximate degree by the position of this stellar hour hand. Unlike the ordinary clock it rotates in counter clockwise direction. At this point, I can say its about 1900H," she added knowledgeably, to which the Dijun could only clap his hands in pleasure from her intelligence, and question how Fengjiu had turned into such a wise woman.

Lastly, she explained that since it was a cosmic chronometer, the Big Dipper may also serve as a calendar. From the relative position of the Big Dipper with respect to the Polaris, the seasons of the year could be determined by just looking at the sky. When darkness fell in the season of spring, this constellation would soar high in the sky, above the northern horizon and stretch to the point almost directly overhead (the zenith) like what they were observing now. By summer, it would have turned counter clockwise by 90 degrees, the bowl would point downward and it would lie to the west during early hours. By fall, the Big Dipper was far beneath Polaris and skimmed the northern horizon, and thus this position in the sky was appropriate in a way as the bears were going on their hibernation in that time of the year and as the nights goes by, the constellation was little by little not visible in the night sky as day passes. During winter, at 2100H in northeast it would have started ascending again in the night sky. For astronomers, the Dipper constellation could be use as a yardstick to measure distance but she was not familiar on how it was done. Her grandfather had often taught these theories to her and Reed when they were young since they live in the farm, and they was able to observe the vast sky almost every night.

While Altria had been explaining about the skies, Dijun could only feel jealous for Siming for being the Big Dipper of the Sky Kingdom, but on the contrary, he had felt perplexed that Fengjiu-Altria was not only amazing in terms of her culinary skills and history but also familiar with sky entities. This suggested a possible reason why she as a high immortal, had been able to get along with different gods and goddesses, particularly the god of the netherworld, Lord Xie Guchou, who was cold to everyone he met, and yet, had been her closest friend.

Following her long speech on astronomy, Lyrid focused his telescope and pointed to a group of triangular stars known as the Summer Triangle, located in the northern celestial hemisphere in the southern portion of the sky, and a meter away from Vega. He told her that she might have been named after Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila. With a miffed look on her face, Altria indignantly informed him that he was wrong and that she had been named after Altria Pendragon aka Arthuria Pendragon, from the visual novel Fate-Stay night, which her father used to read before. Altria/Arthuria character design was based on King Arthur Pendragon, a legendary British king known as "the one and future king" whom, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and 6th centuries. Despite the wrong guess of her name, she demanded Lyrid to continue his story about the Altair star and Aquila constellation.

Lyrid told her that Altair was the vertex, together with Vega and Deneb, these imaginary isosceles triangular stars formed the summer triangular star which is the biggest asterism in the night sky and that each stars belong to three different constellations, namely Vega from Lyra, Altair from Aquila and Deneb for Cygnus (the Swan) and hence they were the brightest stars in their respective constellations. Contradictory to the name 'Summer Triangle', they appeared directly opposite to the sun in the sky. Aquila meant 'eagle' in Latin, and represented the eagle of the Roman god Jupiter in mythology. Aquila was the home constellation of Altair, the twelfth brightest star in the sky. He added that the Aquila constellation was associated with June's Aquirids and Epsilon Aquilids meteor showers.

Since Altria was born in June, she told Lyrid that her parents might have also considered the Altair star in giving her a name. Being a god who also practiced divination, Lyrid told her that they might be a match made by heaven since their names had both came from celestial objects. As her sun, he would try his best to brighten her day and guide her. His statement made her blush, but this sudden 'shyness' was followed by an abrupt kiss on her lips by the impish god, teasing her with the heat of his mischievous kisses, and she responded with energetic kisses of her own. The kisses grew intenser with the darkness of the night, until they finally caved in to their exhaustion. The night ended slowly, with them lying on their picnic mat holding each other's hands, while persisting in watching the starry sky. He told her as he held her in his arms, how joyful he had been in spending his birthday with the most beautiful and gorgeous lady in the whole world. By the whole world, he had meant the four seas and eight deserts, but he could only mutter this to himself as that was what she knew for now. Until she recovered her memory, she was still Altria, and he Lyrid.