Of Holes in the Sky and What Comes From Them

The last day of your normal life had nothing to hint it might be so monumental. You didn't have All she has known from the day of her birth is this vast city. It is massive, sprawling across the landscape for endless miles. She knows that nearly anything can be found within. There are sprawling slums and towering penthouses, decaying workshops and gleaming manufactories, tight grids of streets and wandering mazes of avenues, suffocating alleys and vast squares, tamed gardens and wild parks. She has only seen a tiny fraction of what lies within the city boundaries, or even within her own district and neighborhood, but she knows there is more and dreams of it.

It is better than thinking of her miseries. Both the normal ones and the strangeness she has been enduring.

Her normal miseries are things all high school girls have to live with. Or nearly all of them. It's miserable walking to the bus when it rains. School lunches taste terrible and there's always far too much homework. The old man sitting at the corner watches her in ways that make her skin crawl. Sometimes people laugh at her, or tease her, even if they mostly ignore her.

And then there is all the suffering that isn't hers, but that she still sees. Her favorite teacher Ms. Zhang is lonely and heartsick. Her parents are always busy, grinding themselves into the dirt to stay ahead of the rent and the car payments, and all the other burdens they bear. Her brother rots in prison, alone and unwanted. Three of her neighbors have been conscripted into the War.

She can't look away from any of it. She can't look away from the tiny shrines to the dead people make where they were hit by cars or bled out after dark or simply dropped dead. She can't look away from the crumbling buildings, the sickly plants, the exhausted workers. She can't look away from the reports of arrests and the droning justifications of anchormen...she can't look away from it. She can't look away from it.

Until one day she does. She wrenches her eyes up. And she sees. She sees. She sees. She sees the Hole in the Sky.

And then she cannot do anything but look away.

She dreams of it, afterward. The massive tear in reality, the gash in the blue sky that spewed forth rotting blood. Around it and within it were things that might have been flesh and might have been metal, clawing at its sides, descending into the world. The noxious fumes that poured from its emptiness. The fragments of broken life that dropped from its sides. The little pustules that dripped from its surface.

She knows what it wants. She knows what it seeks. She knows what it does. And she thinks herself helpless against it.

So she looks away. But now she can't help but see more detail. She can see the many-limbed spider that crouches over the roof of a factory and sucks little dribbles of life from everyone who enters. She can see the man with far too many teeth and more fingers than she can count when he tries to corner his neighbors. She can see the ooze that lies on the road and lashes out with twisting tongues to try and pull people into its mass. She can see the droning song of the metal angel that stands so high and sees so much.

She can see the little charms people make to ward away the monsters. The gardens they grow where the plants form signs that whisper strange meanings that make monsters slumber, the friendship bracelets they weave with love in each strand that make monsters hesitate, the shrines to the lost and taken that make monsters suffer. And she sees how weak they are. How little they protect people.

And then she sees how the charms around her work just a little bit better. She corrects some of her friends' techniques when they make pillowcases for charity in Community Club and she sees little sparks of magic in the thread and knows they will weaken sickness and strengthen health. She brings an apple for Ms. Zhang, one she polished to a shine and bought with her meager alliance, and she sees warmth flow into the teacher's eyes with every bite.

But this seems so small against the mighty horrors she sees in her dream and the mundane suffering in her waking world. She is just one young girl, she is all alone, and what can she do against all that? The Community Club tries to help people, and William Smith is running for Councilor and promising to change things for the better, but what can they do against the Hole in the Sky?

And then one day she finds something that answers the question. In her dream, there is something new.

It is a...

[] [Familiar]...cat, a truly magnificent cat, larger than any housecat she's seen and with deep blue fur that's just the slightest bit off from the color of the night sky. On one side are white specks that almost look like stars, but it's never the same side twice. Its name is Astra, and it promises to teach you how to fight monsters and how to seek knowledge.

[] [Familiar]...teddy bear, large and dark brown, with teeth and claws drawn in thread and fur contoured to resemble armor. It's far heavier than it should be and somehow never stays where you place it. It's name is Miles, and it promises to teach you how to fight monsters and how to gain courage.

[] [Familiar]...raven, with feathers that are bright white and tinged with the faintest hints of green. One eye is missing and the other is human, and sometimes it speaks in a voice that makes plants you have never seen before grow. Its name is Silva, and it promises to teach you how to fight monsters and how to heal wounds.

[] [Familiar]... fox, with bright red fur and a cheerful yip. It's flesh is warm to the touch, its paws can leave behind prints that smell of soot, and it has so many tails you can't see them all at once. Its name is Impes, and it promises to teach you how to fight monsters and how to inspire passion.

When she agreed to learn from it, she felt something change. When she awoke, the animal (the Familiar, it told her), was resting curled up at her feet and in her hand was a...

[] [Trinket]...pen.

[] [Trinket]...bracelet.

[] [Trinket]...pebble.

[] [Trinket]...Write-in

She looked at it and saw her...

[] [Name] Write-in

...written in...

[] [Element]...fire.

[] [Element]...water.

[] [Element]...stone.

[] [Element]...plants.

[] [Element]...storms.

[] [Element]...write-in.

Faridah was late for school, so she cut her morning prayers short and rushed out the door, easily avoiding raising her gaze too high. Silva flew low overhead, silent and stealthy as he studied the scattered greenery and thick smog. If it was not for the bracelet wrapped around her wrist, she would not have believed he was real. But the warm touch of the gossamer silver strands anchored her and made it impossible to believe he was anything but real. She might wish otherwise, but she could not deny reality, even when she was the only one who saw it.

But she kept her eyes away from the skittering insect things swarming through the sky and the thousand-legged octopus drifting through them, absorbing them into it and integrating their iridescent wings into a burningly bright halo. Instead, she looked ahead, eyes running across the posters nailed up on telephone poles and bus stops, and then finally she saw her school.

She picked up speed, moving from a fast jog to a full-on sprint, the skirt of the uniform swishing around her legs and her backpack smacking against her spine. A thrill of excitement ran through her as the first bell rang. Her homeroom was on the far end of the school...she just might make it...

The second bell rang and she was officially late, just as she skidded into the classroom. But much to her shock, Ms. Zhang wasn't there. She slipped into her seat in the back, next to her friend Leah, and leaned over.
"Where-" Faridah started to ask, and then the door opened. In walked Ms. Zhang.

The teacher was on the younger side, no matter how she tried to hide it with a severe bun and a straight back, but she was also funny and kind and just the right amount of stern that anyone who disappointed her ended up feeling bad about it. Normally she greeted them with a cheerful smile and asked about their days, but today there was no smile to be seen.

Instead, she set down a pile of papers on her desk and stepped back. "The principal has asked me to give you an announcement. The police have informed him of several new and dangerous gangs. Please be on the lookout for groups using animal or occult symbols. The posters have more details. Please take one when you leave."

Faridah couldn't help but look out the window and glance at Silva, who was perched in a nearby tree, seemingly asleep.

Ms. Zhang launched into the rest of the announcements - reminding them about the upcoming play, encouraging them to sign up for some of the clubs, and listing opportunities for community service.

And then the schoolday began in earnest, and oh how it dragged on. It was far worse than normal, because Silva was right there, promising her answers to important questions, but he had said he wanted to protect his privacy and she didn't have a chance to speak to him in detail before school. So she had to wait and pretend pre-calc and home economics were worth her time.

Her notebooks were fuller than usual, but that was because she had spent half her classes poorly sketching birds. When it came time for lunch, she told Leah, Johnny, and Cara that she needed to go to the bathroom and ducked away from them.

Instead, she snuck back into Ms. Zhang's classroom, or at least that was the plan. Instead, the bracelet shook and writhed around her wrist, the gossamer strands becoming alive like vines, and Silva appeared beside her.

"There's a monster here. It's attacking Ms. Zhang!"

Faridah looked around.

The hall was empty except for her and the raven. "What? What do you mean, a monster?" she asked, voice shaking.

"There's no time, come quickly!"

He flapped his wings once and flew off, leaving Faridah with no choice but to follow.

She sprinted through the halls, moving faster than she ever had before, and still she could not keep up with the raven, until they made it to the classroom. Faridah pressed her face against the thick glass window in the door and gasped at what she saw.

There was a policeman standing over Ms. Zhang. She had fallen to the ground, and there was blood, and his mouth was open and his tongue was hanging down and he was slurping it up.

The image burned itself into her mind. She noticed other things too, but it was the blood and the tongue that she knew would haunt her nightmares, even as she registered his uniform having been turned into a membrane around her body and his eyes having been warped into cold black nothingness.

"Twist your bracelet, and say 'Stars above, grant me strength', and I will be able to help you save her," Silva whispered.

Faridah could not help but obey. As the words poured from her mouth, she felt energy rushing into her body. A current of light slammed into her, cool silver energy embracing her body. Her braid extended itself, a wicked silver spike appearing on the end, ribbons wrapped around her arms and legs, her eyes turned into solid orbs of quicksilver, and strength suffused her body, filling her with incredible warmth. And with incredible power.

The current surged forth and slammed into the door, atomizing the wood. In she strode. "Foul creature, you shall do no more harm! I am..."

The words poured from her throat, feeling so right, like she was finally in the place life wanted her to be.

[] [Name] Starlight Guardian
[] [Name] Starlight Healer
[] [Name] Starlight Savior
[] [Name] Write-in (subject to veto)

She pointed at it, and a fresh current of power surged through her. "Starlight Sundering Stream!" Faridah shouted, and from her hand there came a beam of energy.

It was bright and pure, so bright she had to close her eyes against it, and it struck the monstrous policeman with the force of a supernova. His uniform-membrane cracked and then fragmented, and the fragments turned into dust. The nothingness in his eyes shrank back. His long, sucking tongue broke off and shriveled into dust.

He stumbled back, having turned into nothing but a ordinary man with nothing but a badge and a gun and a mean streak. And Faridah stumbled back as well, weak and exhausted. She was the champion of the stars no longer, just a girl so tired she could barely stand.

Ms. Zhang was sitting up, looking dazed and confused, holding her hand to a patch of blood on her head that had come from no apparent wound. And then she began to speak, the cawing of a raven audible within her voice.

"How dare you come here, break down my door while I was speaking privately with a student, and then be so crude! I assure you, your superiors will hear of this!"

The policeman stumbled back, growling foul words even as he left, and then Ms. Zhang all but collapsed, leaning on her desk, while Silva perched on Faridah's shoulder.

"Faridah...what happened?" the teacher asked, scratching at the dried blood on her temple.


Faridah didn't want to lie to Ms. Zhang, but Silva had warned her to keep things quiet...

[] [Story] Stick with what she had already said.

[] [Story] Tell the truth.