Chapter 1

The observatory was not on any map.

That was the first thing Lira noticed.

The second thing was that it was still standing.

Everything else in the Glass Flats had fallen.

Houses.

Bridges.

The old transit tower.

All of it turned to dust fifty years ago when the stars fell and the sky tore open.

But the observatory sat on the hill like a broken tooth.

White.

Cracked.

Dome half gone.

Windows blind.

People said it was cursed.

People said it was empty.

People said the Fracture started there.

Lira didn’t believe people.

She believed things.

And things said the place had not been touched in decades.

That meant books.

That meant metal.

That meant trade.

She climbed at dawn.

No pack.

Just a knife, a rope, and a cloth bag.

The wind in the Flats was always cold, even in summer.

It carried sand and the smell of old lightning.

Halfway up, she stopped.

Looked back.

Below her, the city of New Kess spread out.

Low buildings.

Smoke.

The river cut through it like a scar.

And in the center, the Hollow Guild tower.

Black glass.

No windows.

They would not be here.

Not yet.

They only came when someone bled starlight.

Lira kept climbing.

The observatory door was metal.

Rusted shut.

She put her shoulder into it.

It gave.

Not with a sound.

With a breath.

Like the building had been holding it.

Inside was dark.

And quiet.

The kind of quiet that made her ears ring.

Dust on the floor.

Footprints that were not hers.

Old.

Faded.

She pulled her lamp out.

The light was weak.

Batteries were trade too.

The main hall was round.

Telescope gone.

Mount still there.

Pointed at nothing.

Charts on the walls.

Constellations she didn’t know.

Lines drawn between stars that were not in the sky anymore.

She moved slow.

Scavengers who moved fast died fast.

Traps.

Collapses.

Other scavengers.

A hallway led down.

Stairs.

Into dark.

Lira went.

The air got colder.

Got heavier.

Like the building was deeper than it should be.

At the bottom was a door.

Wood.

No handle.

Just a circle carved into it.

Seven points.

She knew that shape.

Everyone did.

It was on the Guild posters.

`REPORT STAR-Touched ACTIVITY`

With the seven-pointed star under it.

Lira touched it anyway.

The door opened.

The room inside was small.

A desk.

A chair.

Shelves.

And in the middle of the desk, on a cloth, a book.

No dust on it.

No dust on the cloth.

The book was black.

Leather.

Worn at the edges.

No title.

The cover had a pattern.

Stars.

But some of them were broken.

Cracks running through them.

Lira should have left.

Good scavengers left.

Weird things were never worth the price.

She picked it up anyway.

It was heavier than it looked.

Cold.

And the second her fingers touched it, the cover opened.

No lock.

No clasp.

The pages were not paper.

They were dark.

Like looking into the sky at night.

And on them, stars.

Moving.

Slow.

Across the page.

Lira’s breath caught.

A line of light wrote itself across the top.

Thin.

Silver.

`CODEX`

Then under it, another line.

`OF BROKEN STARS`

Then the page turned by itself.

Blank.

Except for one thing.

In the center.

A name.

Written in the same silver light.

`LIRA VANE`

Her name.

Her real name.

Not the one she used in the market.

Not the one on her scavenger license.

Her real one.

The one her mother gave her before the Fracture.

The lamp in her hand flickered.

Went out.

The room did not get darker.

The book was giving off light.

Faint.

From the stars on the page.

Lira closed it.

Fast.

The light went out.

Silence again.

She put the book in her bag.

Tied the bag shut.

Walked out.

Her hands were shaking.

Up the stairs.

Through the hall.

Out the door.

Into the morning.

The sun was up now.

The Flats were gold.

She did not look back at the observatory.

She ran.

By the time she hit the edge of New Kess, her lungs hurt.

She ducked into an alley.

Sat.

Pulled the bag open.

The book was still there.

Closed.

Quiet.

She opened it.

The first page was still there.

`CODEX OF BROKEN STARS`

She turned the page.

Her name was still there.

She turned again.

Blank.

Another.

Blank.

Another.

Blank.

She was about to close it when the page moved.

Not her.

The book.

A new line wrote itself.

Slow.

Like someone was writing with a finger far away.

`ONE FOUND`

Then under it.

`FORTY-FIVE REMAIN`

Lira stared.

What did that mean.

Footsteps.

In the alley.

Heavy.

Boots.

Guild.

She shut the book.

Shoved it in the bag.

Stood.

Two men at the end of the alley.

Black coats.

Seven-pointed stars on the chest.

One had a scanner.

It was humming.

“Hands,” one said.

Lira put her hands up.

“Scavenger license,” she said.

“Just junk. Old metal.”

The second man looked at her bag.

“Open it.”

She did.

Slow.

Knife on top.

Rope.

A few bits of copper.

No book.

She had moved it.

Under her coat.

Against her ribs.

It was cold there.

The man with the scanner waved it over her.

It beeped once.

Then stopped.

“Clean,” he said.

“Barely.”

The first man stepped closer.

Looked at her face.

“Seen anything weird up there”

“No,” Lira said.

“The place is empty.”

He nodded.

“Guild’s sealing it. Don’t go back.”

He turned.

They left.

Lira waited until their footsteps were gone.

Then she ran again.

Her place was in the lower district.

One room.

Above a laundry.

Window that looked at a brick wall.

She locked the door.

Three locks.

Sat on the floor.

Pulled the book out.

It was warm now.

Not cold.

She opened it.

The page had changed.

`ONE FOUND`

`FORTY-FIVE REMAIN`

And under that, a new line.

`THE HOLLOW COMES`

Lira’s stomach dropped.

The Hollow Guild.

She turned the page.

Blank.

She turned again.

Blank.

She was about to close it when light spilled from the edge of the page.

Not from the book.

From the air above it.

A shape.

Faint.

Like smoke.

Like a star.

It hovered for a second.

Then sank into the page.

And words appeared.

`REN`

`NINETEEN`

`LIGHT KEEPER`

`STATUS: GONE`

Lira frowned.

Ren.

She didn’t know anyone named Ren.

The name faded.

The page went blank again.

Outside, something hit the roof.

Soft.

Then again.

Lira stood.

Went to the window.

Nothing.

Just the brick wall.

And sky.

She went back to the book.

Another line was writing itself.

`DO NOT LET THEM TAKE IT`

The ink, if it was ink, glowed.

Lira closed the book.

Held it to her chest.

She didn’t have powers.

She wasn’t star-touched.

The scanner said so.

The Guild said so.

But the book knew her name.

And it was writing things.

A knock at the door.

Soft.

Three times.

Lira didn’t move.

“Delivery,” a voice said.

Wrong voice.

Too smooth.

Guild.

Another knock.

Lira looked at the window.

Too small.

Looked at the door.

Three locks.

The book pulsed in her hands.

Once.

The lights went out.

In the whole building.

The laundry below.

The street.

Dark.

The knock stopped.

Lira moved.

To the back wall.

There was a panel.

Loose.

She pushed it.

Crawlspace.

Into the next building.

She went.

Book in one hand.

Behind her, the door splintered.

She didn’t look back.

She ran through the dark, through dust and old pipes, until she came out in an alley three streets over.

The city was dark.

Power outage.

Happened sometimes.

She kept moving.

When she was far enough, she stopped.

Under a bridge.

Alone.

She opened the book again.

New writing.

`YOU RAN`

`GOOD`

`NOW LISTEN`

Then more.

`THE STARS DID NOT FALL`

`THEY WERE TAKEN`

`AND I AM THE LAST PIECE`

`IF THEY GET ME, THEY FINISH IT`

Lira’s hands were shaking again.

`YOU HAVE NO POWER`

`THAT IS WHY I CHOSE YOU`

`THEY CANNOT SEE YOU`

Another line.

`FIND THE OTHERS`

`FORTY-FIVE`

`BEFORE THE HOLLOW DOES`

The page stopped.

Lira sat in the dark.

The book warm against her.

Above her, the sky was empty.

No stars.

Not for fifty years.

But in the book, they were moving.

She whispered.

“Who are you”

The book didn’t answer.

Instead, the cover shifted.

A crack in the leather opened.

Just a little.

And from inside, light.

Blue.

Faint.

Like a star.

Broken.

Lira closed the book.

Tied the bag.

Stood.

She didn’t know where to go.

She didn’t know who to trust.

But she knew one thing.

The Hollow Guild wanted the book.

And the book wanted her.

So she walked.

Out from under the bridge.

Into New Kess.

Into the dark city with no stars.

With a book that was writing her name.

And somewhere, in the Guild tower,

a light turned on.

Black.

And a voice said,

“She has it.”

Lira didn’t hear it.

She was already gone.

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