Night of The Northern Star

It was sunset, not many hours till nightfall. In Lulin forest there was a large temple, inside the said large temple was the carrying out of what seemed to be a secret meeting.

Hooded figures and figures that were wearing red robes were seated around a large circular table with an open center; they each had the image of a shattered box or bottle carrying specks of stars, the symbol of Solettin. Even with the sounds of unknown creatures sounding out around them they didn't budge but instead stayed focused on the matter at hand.

Bang! – "What is taking so long! How many times will you fail in getting rid of a single little girl! First, you let her successfully visit the Mirror of Yuletti and Transcend, and then you don't even successfully get rid of her after!"

A man in a red robe shouted out in anger at the others, if not for the table being strong he would have broken it when he slammed his fist down.

The others were silent for a moment, there was no anxiousness in the air, they merely wanted the man to calm down. The man huffed out an annoyed sigh as he sat back down in his chair.

– "Are you calm now?"

One of the hooded figures, who was seated in one of the largest chairs, same as the man who was shouting earlier – asked him.

– "Meh"

Giving out a short grunt the man crossed his arms and waited for what they wanted to say, an explanation or a reason for their failures.

Now that he was slightly calmer now, the man who asked the question turned his body over to one of the other hooded figures. Said person rose to their feet and made their way over to a wall, their heels clicking against the stone floor underneath – they had a great and overwhelming presence.

When she made it to the wall she began to chant: "We, the keepers of stars. Followers of the Lord of Stars, servants of the great Mistress of Daylight – Soletti."

After she began she picked the empty lantern off the ground, lit it aflame, and shook the lantern side to side as she continued. Followed by the other's voices resounding out in the room after her.

She took to walking to the center of the room, the center of the table, and continued to shake the lantern while she stood there, continuing the chant.

"We seek to bring about the future through your stars, bring about a change through your stars, form the new journey with your stars."

"We seek the extermination of darkness with your light and the awakening of a new day, for without you darkness shall strive."

"Now we come to thee, minds of modesty, bodies of honesty, and souls of fidelity. For we, your humble servants, are meant to light the way."

Raising the lantern to the air, and pointing it at the center of the temple ceiling her voice rose in intensity, bringing with it violent winds within the temple.

"And in your name, we shall bring about the Northern Star!!"

With those words, all those seated at the table rose to their feet, clasped their hands together, and repeated the same words over and over.

"We bring about the Northern Star."

"We bring about the Northern Star."

"We bring about the Northern Star."

"We bring about the Northern Star."

With the repeated words the violent winds grew before they cut through the air and blew out the lit lantern and exited the temple as if they were never even there. Now that the lantern was blown out, the woman placed the lantern on the floor.

– "And in our lord's great name we shall eliminate all those of wretched blood."

She said those final words, she shook her religious piece; a necklace that was the same as the image of the fractured box of stars on her back. After shaking the religious piece she raised it to her lips and kissed it.

...

Now that they were finished and everyone was back in their seats, they returned to the important matter at hand.

– "What do we have planned to deal with that wretched child? It's already a mockery to our lord that she was left to live for so many cycles already."

The man who was shouting earlier was now speaking in a more calm voice as he raised his inquiry.

– "Well... this is quite the difficult situation. I'm sure you're aware that she is the granddaughter of the renowned General Bavel. That fact in itself already makes this a difficult situation."

One of the men not wearing a hood replied to him, he had donned a thinking expression as this was truly a complicated situation.

– "Yes, like you said. The only reason we were able to send an assassin after her the first time and almost get the job done was that we were able to catch them off guard."

Another hooded figure spoke up this time, this one being feminine, with a somewhat deeper voice than the woman that had carried out the chant.

– "Yes, and because of that I lost a great assassin."

This time a nonhooded man spoke up, resentment and bitterness plagued his voice as he grumbled.

– "Pah! Great assassin!? Where, are you talking about that pretender that couldn't even deal with a child correctly? We had everything set up for him, she was alone, and she was far from her family.

Hearing the man grumble the man who was agitated early mocked said man's assassin. With the man's mocking tone all those in the room knew that the two would start an argument.

Knowing that an argument was inevitable a few of them turned to the woman that carried out the chant as if they were asking her to deal with the men; only letting out sighs as they saw her staring out into space.

"And you know what your assassin did? He failed to kill the little girl and only got himself captured and tortured by those Bavel bastards! You're lucky we already cut that liabilities tongue off, all the information they could extract from his brain would merely be fractured."

– "The only reason he failed was that General Bavel suddenly returned home without notice!"

– "Excuses, using her as an excuse is pitiful. The only reason that she was able to return and see her granddaughter, alive! Was because your man was slow and incompetent. From what you're implying, the same would have happened if that annoyance, Sol, was there."

– "You know–"

– "That's enough out of the both of you, listen."

After breaking up the annoying argument, the woman who had done the chant finally spoke up. After speaking up, they all paid more attention to the sounds around them – the loud growls and gnarls of the unknown creatures became increasingly loud and were growing ever closer.

"It is now Nightfall. I recommend you two hold your arguments for later. I don't want to deal with any Spectral Beast right now, I'm sure you don't want to either. So, I'll be taking my leave first. Remember the things you have to do, failure won't be tolerated."

– "Yes!"

With her saying this, she pulled an object out of her robe, and seconds later she disappeared from the room, with her, her great presence left as well.

Nodding to the air and following after her they each pulled out devices from the cloak, disappearing in the same fashion. Leaving the temple empty, only the slight smell of smoke in the air.

***

– "Blegh."

Sticking her tongue out Lulu made her disgust apparent. She rubbed her tongue with a towel, trying to wipe the taste off it. She was resisting the urge to vomit as she glared at Karma.

"What the hell did you just feed me?"

She was rolling across her bed back and forth, exaggerating the disgust she was feeling, much to Karma's amusement.

– "Pffft, nothing, nothing at all. Just some fried Klauras toes."

Karma was struggling to hold back her laughs, watching the look of disgust that formed on Lulu's face was hysterical.

– "T-toes!? You fed me toes! Ugh, oh my Yuletti. Karma! I can't believe you did this."

Hahaha – "I'm sorry, sorry. They're not toes, they're fingers, Klauras fingers."

Karma immediately corrected her words, not forgetting to get her laughs out first. Ignoring the glare that Lulu was giving her.

– "What makes the difference between their fingers and their toes!? Aren't Klauras's those slime frogs? Why would you feed me slime frogs? Stop laughing, ugh, I'm going to throw up."

Seeing her gag over and over again Karma quickly came over and started to rub Lulu's back. Trying to stop her from vomiting.

– "No no, don't throw up, it's fine ok. Your mother made these for you, she told me to give these to you – that they were healthy for you and would help your hand heal better.

– "You could've told me that before you fed that to me."

– "Alright, alright. I'm sorry ok."

– "Ergh, fine. I'll forgive you this time."

Grunting at her apology Lulu sat up in the bed and she ran her hand across the hexagonal plates on her leg; It had been quite a while since she had left the Mirror and... she couldn't really remember what happened after the lightning struck.

What she did know though was that she had certainly become stronger, so she must have been able to Transcend right?

– "How is your hand, Lulu?"

Karma plopped down as she laid down on her side she observed Lulu's hand. It was covered in bandages, she had this hand bandaged for a while now after she left the mirror actually.

After she somehow left the Mirror, Lulu found Karma waiting for her in front of the Mirror's exit, ready to go and group back up with their parents; though she was quite weak from what she had experienced while she was in there so she had to lean on Karma as they walked.

As they were making their way over there, they were met by a shocking surprise. One of the children, one of the children that had just become a Transcenditial had suddenly attacked Lulu. If not for the fact that Karma was by her side, she would have lost that hand for sure.

– "Well, it's doing fine for now. I'm at least not feeling any more pain in it."

Lulu also laid back in the bed, she stretched her arm up at the ceiling, stretching and bending her fingers as she gazed absentmindedly at the injured hand, she could still hear the whispers – the mutters that were urging her to move forward.

– "That's good..."

Nodding at the fact that she was feeling better, Karma's thoughts traveled back to the word that was mouthed to her by her older self from the Mirror. She was at a loss for words when she had originally understood what big Karma said, could she see her?

Since the Mirror showed the future, did she just look where she remembered she was? But if that was the future then will she truly burn the city down? What was the reason that she did such a thing in the future, where she was feeling sorrow, anger, and guilt all at the same time?

Not to mention that she said to protect her. Though it was obvious who she was referring to since there was only one person besides her family that she wanted to protect; Lulu was protected, she had a powerful grandmother, grandfather, and mother. Why would Lulu also need her protection?

Things were complicated enough as is, but now she was informed that Lulu's life, her safety wasn't guaranteed forever. Even their fellow kids were after her life, the future was overly complicated so she needed to train hard – at least if she wanted to protect both herself and Lulu.

– "Hey Karma."

Hearing her name being called out Karma returned her focus to the girl that was now staring back at her, also laying on her side.

– "Yeah?"

– "Do you know what the Rings are? Or rather do you know anything referred to as rings?"

It was such a random question and so out of nowhere, the question would have caused her to blank out if she didn't remember hearing of such a thing before, but from where?

– "Rings... Rings... Oh, I think I've heard of them before."

– "Really... do you know what they are?"

– "I believe they're weapons, I heard my mom mention them a few times. One of them is in the hands of the Kritol, and the other, well your grandmother is looking for it; they say it is somewhere on our planet. Why? Did you read about it in a book somewhere and become curious about them?"

Lulu debated whether to tell her or not, from what she could tell the Rings were dangerous and the fact that this future of hers would revolve around them made her hesitant, she didn't want to involve Karma and risk getting her hurt as well.

After all, the presence of the Rings was becoming ever more present in her mind, it was as if they wanted to remind her of what would happen if she didn't take care of them. Soon enough they would always be present in her mind.

– "...I saw them, when we went to the Mirror, I saw them."

After her brief pause, she gave in to tell her. After all, Karma was her friend. Even if she didn't want to get her involved she would just butt her head in and try to make a difference anyway, that was one of the lovable things about Karma in Lulu's head.

– "In the Mirror!?"

Hearing what Lulu said caused Karma to swiftly sit up, she didn't expect to hear something like this so suddenly. If Lulu saw them in the Mirror it meant they were closely related to the future, her future.

This was not good.

"This isn't good. Who have you told about this since we left the Mirror?"

Lulu seeing how Karma sat up in surprise also sat up, she didn't know whether to be serious or not, but she was certainly nervous and anxious.

– "I haven't told anyone. You are the first person I've told about it. I can't get the images of those rings out of my head, it's as if they've been imprinted on my brain. They continuously pop up now and then, it's become a hindrance."

– "I get it... let's just tell the old lady, she would probably know how to help you."

Nodding her head, Karma told her the best course of action.

– "Oh, ok. I'll tell grandma... can you come with me I kind of–"

Scratching at her cheek, Lulu nervously asked for Karma to accompany her, she was, after all, not the best when it came to talking to people

– "Of course, I will, how am I going to help you without hearing what the old lady says"

– "Yeah, thanks."

As they sat in the silence she was pinching Lulu's cheek then Karma suddenly remembered something as it popped back into her head, it was quite the important event.

– "Also, your grandmother will be coming home earlier today. Today happens to be the Night of The Northern Star."

Lulu tilted her head when she heard what Karma said, something about an event, a holiday maybe.

– "Night of The Northern Star? What is that?"