In a time before time was recorded…
 
A starstorm raged on a moonless night over a small town on Alir. It was a vicious one. The wind howled as it whipped through rows of houses, and the latched shutters rattled as they fought to stay closed in an effort to keep the falling star debris outside. No matter how hard they tried, the old and battered shutters still let in glimpses of the light blazes that hailed the shaking thunders. As long as those shakes remained from the thunder and not from a meteor slamming into the ground, most of the town would be okay in a few hours when the storm passed.
All except Jax and his family. Jax sat at his desk in his house, head in his hands, pondering what to do. Instead, his mind reeled hopelessly on useless thoughts. How had such good intentions gone so wrong? Jumping in too quickly and not thinking about the problem from other angles had been his downfall, but he had to have done what he did. His clenched fist pounded the table. Wasting time on regrets now was frivolous. What he cared about most had been at stake, Lila. He needed to choose to try and heal not only her but the others in need, as well. Unfortunately, his medical training had not prepared him for this outcome in the slightest.
He looked down at the ring he had crafted, currently clenched tightly within his hand. The town’s blacksmith had made the setting, but Jax himself had cut the gem to reflect and absorb light exactly as he had learned from the books he had read. Books from the library in the green witch’s village ensconced in the densely wooded area beyond this magicless town.
The cut of the gem was supposed to let in starlight, but not let it out. The starlight would charge the piece of the petal from the fabled starflower that Jax had put into the gem. He had accomplished this by slicing a thin section out of the center of the gem and sliding the petal delicately inside before attaching the gem to the setting and trapping the flower piece within. That star-charged petal would have allowed him to make wishes come true, and then recharge it again under the starlight to make more wishes come true. If only he hadn’t messed it up somehow. His masterpiece hadn’t worked as he had theorized. He couldn’t even get one wish out of it! He would have had time to fix it. He would have had time to make it right. If only one of the green witches hadn’t found out about what he was doing and taken a disapproving view of his accomplishments so far.
Poor Lila. She was in the cellar with Poe, their son, sheltering from the starstorm. She wouldn’t live long now without a miracle. Her disease was incurable on Krael, where Jax had come from. They had traveled to Alir because of rumors of the mythical starflower that was supposed to grant wishes. He had taken his family through a portal to Alir to try and find this starflower because none of Jax’s medical training could fix her condition.
Something was slowly eating her soul. She had gotten tangled in some dark magic as a child, but it kept worsening with time. The others whom he had seen with her affliction ended simply as husks. Living, breathing bodies, but with no mind, thoughts, or soul to drive them. He hadn’t wanted that for her, even though she had come to terms with it long ago and tried to live her life to the fullest each day. The purpose of this expedition to Alir was to try and save her. He had even found a starflower which had exceeded his original hopes!
Jax had hesitated though. Greed had overwhelmed him at the apex of his journey. Once he knew where the flower was, he should have followed the legend’s protocol. He should have brought Lila there on a star-filled night and said his wish out loud, healing her forever. But no, Jax wanted to heal everyone. Once he saw that there was only one flower in the vast field, he didn’t want to be the one to desecrate it, for once a wish was made, the starlight within the flower was expended, and the flower usually withered and died. A brilliant idea occurred to him as he held a petal of the starflower between his fingers that night, admiring its unique beauty and basking in its air of hope. He knew that he had learned much from the green witch’s library. Knowledge filled his mind so much more about the starflower than he had ever dreamed of learning from their endless volumes of books on plants, wildlife, and gemstones. Using that knowledge, he would make a rechargeable wishing ring to save everyone and still allow the magical flower to live!
Taking only a small piece from one of the petals, the flower’s glow flickered briefly but then came back just as bright to Jax’s eyes. Jax had been pleased with himself. He had been astounded by his ingenuity and brilliance and was convinced that he was going to become the greatest healer that ever lived. A healer who was able to cure all ailments with a hint of wishing magic! The repercussions hadn’t crossed his gloating mind at the time, though. He hadn’t thought about the others that could want to use this kind of ring, or want to destroy it, if they learned of its existence.
Jax’s mind came back to the present situation. He only had a few more minutes now. The shortcut he had taken through the woods back home from the library attempting to beat his pursuer here would only buy him a little time. He had stopped briefly at his desk to catch his breath, so as not to scare his family, but he had to go to them now, or never see them again. The cellar they were sheltered in was well hidden, and the witch wouldn’t find it unless Jax accidentally revealed it.
He opened the door concealed beneath the floorboards in the corner of the house. Lila and his teenage son huddled in the part of the cellar closest to the center of the house and furthest from the starstorm outside. Sitting next to them, he held them close, absorbing them into his memory as deeply as he could. Remembering their sight, their smell, their feeling…all of it. Then he pressed the ring into Poe’s hand as he spoke to him.
“Keep this Poe. Keep this, do not lose it, and find out its secrets. It’s the only way to save everyone. My notes are upstairs. Find them after the storm. I have somewhere I need to be, right now. If I don’t come back in a day, take your mother through the portal to Krael, and bring as much of my research with you as possible.” Poe, a quiet boy, nodded diligently in response.
Jax looked to Lila who was already so very weak. He brushed her hair from her face and gazed into her eyes which looked like it took far too much effort for her to open from beneath her heavy eyelids. “I love you, Lila. I am sorry that I failed you.”
She smiled and looked up at him, “You have never failed me, so long as we are together, we win.”
He couldn’t help but smile at her. She was always optimistic, even in the worst situations.
“Please, be back soon. We need you here,” she urged him.
“I’ll do my best,” Jax replied. Then he kissed her forehead and hugged Poe tight.
“I love you too, Poe. Don’t forget that.”
Jax was out of time. He stood up and left the cellar, closing it as carefully and quickly as possible. When he was sure that it was invisible, he leaped out of the shuttered window and, unable to close it from the outside, left it flapping in the wind.
Jax ran. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew that he had to get out of the town before the angered witch arrived. He didn’t have long to wonder where to run before being found. Rain and stardust covered his body when he felt the tendrils of…something…grab his ankles. It tripped him, and he fell to the ground with a chest-thumping thud. The tendrils dragged him through the mud before placing him upright while they wrapped themselves around him securely. They were plant tendrils. Vines. The green witch had found him.
Thorns from the vines scraped his arms as they positioned Jax into a good viewing position for his pursuer to look him over. Both of Jax’s feet were slightly raised above the ground so he could not try to use them to get away, and all of his weight was slumped onto the vines.
“I’ll make this simple,” a man’s voice spoke from beneath a long, hooded cloak that covered everything except his muddied boots. His form suddenly lit up from a lightning strike which made him seem even more ominous standing there in the briefly lit darkness. He was holding onto a knotted wooden staff that rose taller than the man. The knots at the top of the staff had strings tied to them with tree nuts that would rap against the wooden staff as it moved. He looked like a simple wood mage from the outside, but Jax knew that the magic beneath would outshine the simple external appearance of the man.
“Give me the ring, and I’ll let you and your family go.”
“No!” Jax defiantly responded. He knew his son was smart. Poe would finish what Jax could not. His dream was not dead as long as that ring was safe. “Why do you want the ring so badly, anyway?”
“My reasons are not important to you. Right now, if you value your or your family’s lives, then you will give me what I want.”
Jax did not know which green witch this was. He had met many while studying in their library, but he knew that he couldn’t give him the ring, no matter which witch he was. Jax’s family was safe, so the witch’s threats were idle to anyone but himself. Jax kept his mouth shut as the rain and metallic flakes continued to pour down on him.
“Fine. We will start doing this the hard way,” the man threatened.
The witch used magic to grow the thorns on the vines that entangled Jax until they pierced his skin, causing his now dripping blood to mix with the falling rain and pool beneath his elevated body before seeping into the soil. The star shavings in the air burned as they touched his open cuts.
“I don’t have it!” Jax screamed. Partially in pain and partially in defiance.
“That’s a start,” the man said in a voice that was angry, but almost bored. “Now tell me where it is.”
When Jax didn’t respond, the thorns grew longer and new ones appeared along the vines crossing his chest and neckline.
The man let out an exaggerated sigh and said, “I grow weary of this interchange. This is very simple. Tell me now, or you die and your family will be cursed for eternity.”
“You have no idea where my family is or who they are!” Jax pulled all his bravery from his soul to defy this horrible man.
“Oh, really? Well, it doesn’t matter. I will find them through your blood. You share that with them. I sense that you are truly resolved not to tell me. That is a shame. We all could have walked away from this without a problem had you just gone along with what I wanted. Goodbye, Jax. My patience has run out. I will find the ring without you.”