Above, us, in the dark shadows of the outer solar system, there is the shape of something unknown, something unspeakable. It waits, it bides its time, and as the days of summer grow longer, so does its voice grow louder.<br><br>On the quiet island of Sarah Ann in the Pacific Ocean, home of the renowned Firmament Foundation, awkward teenager Eirian Calohan has come in search of the mystery of their father's recent demise. Instead, they are confronted with the stark contrast between languid life on the tiny island and an unspeakable cosmic horror.<br><br>Together with their new friends, they set out to unravel the truth surrounding the death of their father and to also uncover just what it is that the Foundation has reached out to in the dark eternal night of the distant void.

All Cats Are Beautiful

“He was kind,” she answered, “but he made a lot of people angry.”


“What did he do?” Eirian asked, feeling a strange sense of dread.


“He…He wanted to make a different kind of homunculus,” she said, and there was something in her tone that suggested that this was not the entire truth. “He wanted to make a giant homunculus, one that could replace spaceships.”


“Oh,” Eirian said and was silent for a moment.


In the distance, the familiar of la-la-la-la-la, la-la, la-la-laof the radio changed to something else.


“That’s not what you want to hear is it?” Poppy asked.


Gingerly, they complied, shifting off her and sitting down beside her as she turned and sat up, her eyes unseen behind her sunglasses.


“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not ready to talk about that yet.”


Chapter 26