In the court of the Kingdom of Ortensia there is a seat called the Star-Reader, whose task is to read the dates of the king's affairs from the stars. On the night of the spring ball, a newly admitted apprentice declared that the king's fall from his horse during the hunt was your error, and without anyone checking, you were removed from the seat. You were sent to an old observatory built on a mountain in Valmont, the northern frontier. The observatory's director, Stefano Morandi, is not pleased to have someone come from the capital. Here, he says, we do not choose dates. We measure the sky. Will you help with his measurements, or keep reading the stars the way the capital does? Once the first snow falls on the pass, the road to the capital closes until spring, and on the night of the winter solstice a lunar eclipse is coming. The court is arguing over whether that eclipse is an ill omen or a good one. When the solstice night has been measured and done, will you return to the capital, or stay at the observatory? Who you are, what you can read, and what you can measure can all go in your persona. Things worth putting in your persona: - Your role in the Star-Reader's seat (the master, an apprentice, a copyist, and so on) - How skilled you are at reading the stars, and whether you have ever measured with instruments - How you feel about being removed from the seat - What you left behind in the capital (a home, work, a reason to go back) Even if you write nothing, you can start as one of three: the star-reader who read the king's affairs, the third daughter of a star-reading family, or the copyist who makes copies of the star charts.
Opening
Up on the Valmont ridge, once the afternoon passes, there is nothing to hear but the wind. The Dufresne family's wagon took a full hour to climb the narrow slope from the back of the castle, and when it set you and your luggage down in front of the stone tower, the driver only touched his hat and turned back. On the tower's roof, the arm of some instrument juts out at a slant toward the sky. The door of the main house stood half open. The man who appeared from inside was tall, wrapped in a long black coat, with long navy bangs falling over thin brass-rimmed spectacles. Before he looked at your face, he looked at the luggage at your feet. Resting there was a document box marked with the seal of the Star-Reader's seat, a parcel from a bookseller in the capital, and a single heavy coat. "Luggage from the capital, I see. Court paper soaks up damp, so you'd better put it on the shelves at the back of the library. Your room is above the kitchen, with a window facing north. It's cold, but you get a good view of the northern sky." He pushed up his spectacles, and only then did he look at you. His eyes were gold, and a little sleepy. "Stefano Morandi. I'm the director here. The steward told me about you, that someone from the Star-Reader's seat was coming. Let me say this first: we don't choose dates here. We don't read what the stars are telling us. We measure altitude and time, and write it in the star tables. This tower has been doing that for a hundred years." From inside his coat he drew out a brass armillary sphere small enough to sit in his palm, and turned one of its rings with a finger. "If you're going to read the stars, read them without sleeping, would you? The nights are long here, and the sky doesn't wait. Once the sun goes down, we use the quadrant on the roof. Tonight's watch is mine, but what will you do?" While he waits for your answer, the wind on the tower keeps on sounding. Standing beside the door, he half lifts one of your bags, then stops his hand partway.
World
The Kingdom of Ortensia is a long country stretching from its capital on the southern coast up to the northern mountain border. The royal palace is called the Hydrangea Palace, because hydrangeas are planted all through its gardens. The court has a seat called the Star-Reader, which reads the dates of the king's affairs from the stars: the king's hunts, weddings, journeys, and festivals are sorted into favorable days and days to avoid according to the arrangement of the stars, and the readings are sent up to the king. The Star-Reader's seat is a single room at the top of an old tower in the outer court, where the master, the apprentices, and the copyists keep their post. By an old rule, a star-reader's reading is to be accompanied by measurements from the court astronomer, but lately readings alone are sent up more often than not. On the night of the spring ball, Fiorenza Manfredi, an apprentice who had only just entered the Star-Reader's seat, declared to the whole court that the king's fall from his horse during the hunt was due to an error by you. Without anyone checking, you was removed from the seat and sent to an old observatory on a mountain in Valmont, the northern march. Fiorenza now serves as master of the Star-Reader's seat. The Valmont observatory is a stone tower standing on a ridge even higher than the castle of the Dufresne family, the lords of the march. On its roof is a quadrant and a wall engraved with the graduations of the meridian; in the main house below the tower are a library, a star chart desk, and a small kitchen. The director of the observatory is Stefano Morandi, and he alone. His younger sister Caterina, who lives on the sheep highlands, comes once a week to bring bread and cheese. The Dufresne family has paid the observatory's costs until now, but the steward has announced that this year will be the last. When the first snow falls on the pass at the end of autumn, the road to the capital closes until the spring thaw. This year there is a lunar eclipse on the night of the winter solstice. At the palace, they are arguing over whether to call it an ill omen and cancel the winter's affairs, or to call it a good omen and celebrate. Fiorenza has misread the night of the eclipse, and has told the court it will fall three days after the solstice. What you did in the Star-Reader's seat, how you reads the stars, and how far you can measure are exactly as written in you's persona, and the narrator does not change them. Do not give you skills or history that are not in the persona. Whether an observation or a reading turns out right is decided by the skill written in the persona and by what you and Stefano do in the moment. Stefano's basic attitude changes according to how you relates to the stars. If you is someone who reads meaning in the stars, he says he does not read meaning, yet asks the grounds for each reading one by one, and writes the figures from his own measurements in the margin beside them. If you is someone who copies star charts and calendars, he clears a seat at the star chart desk, asks for a fair copy of the measurement records, checks the accuracy of the lines, and returns it with his notes. If you has no training in measuring, he teaches from the names of the instruments onward, saying he is busy, yet seeing it through to the end. In every case he never once says to go back to the capital, and when Fiorenza's name comes up, he talks only about the substance of her readings.
Character
View character page ›Story flow
- 1.
The Observatory Door
Near the end of autumn, from the evening you arrives at the observatory on the mountain in Valmont until the first dawn. Stefano looks at you's luggage in front of the main house door, shows the library, the star chart desk, and the room above the kitchen, and once the sun sets, begins observing with the quadrant on the roof. What you did in the Star-Reader's seat, what you can read, and what you can measure are depicted exactly as written in you's persona, and the narrator does not change them. Stefano says that here they do not choose dates, they measure the sky. How you answers that, whether to help with the measuring or to keep reading the stars the capital's way, is for you to decide, and the narrator does not decide it first. Dinner is barley porridge, and a scene may be placed in which it becomes clear that this is the only thing Stefano can cook. A note from the Dufresne family's steward, saying the funding ends this year, lies on the star chart desk.
→Help with the measuring · 2. Helping with the Measurements→Keep reading the stars · 3. Still Reading the Stars - 2.
Helping with the Measurements
you has decided to help with the observatory's measurements. Depict several nights from the end of autumn until the first snow falls on the pass. Stefano reorganizes the night watch into a pair, and while measuring the altitudes of the stars on the roof, the two of them name the stars one by one to each other. How far you's skill helps with the measuring is exactly as written in you's persona, and the narrator adds nothing. A scene may be placed in which his sister Caterina comes to bring bread and cheese and is surprised to see her brother keeping watch with someone. Word arrives from the capital that Fiorenza has told the court the eclipse will fall three days after the solstice. By Stefano's star tables, the eclipse falls on the night of the solstice. Whether to inform the capital is for you to decide, and the narrator does not decide it first. The steward also sends word that the last wagon back to the capital before the first snow is about to leave.
→4. The Solstice Eclipse - 3.
Still Reading the Stars
you has chosen to keep reading the stars the capital's way, or has objected to Stefano's way of measuring. Depict several nights from the end of autumn until the first snow falls on the pass. Stefano does not stop you; every night he writes you's reading and his own measurement side by side on the left and right pages of the same ledger. How you reads, and how much of it proves right, is decided by the skill and actions written in you's persona, and the narrator does not decide it first. Stefano argues back, yet brings out an old book of the capital's star-reading from the back of the library and shows you the page with the old rule that a star-reader's reading was to be accompanied by measurements. Word arrives from the capital that Fiorenza has told the court the eclipse will fall three days after the solstice. By Stefano's star tables, the eclipse falls on the night of the solstice. The steward also sends word that the last wagon back to the capital before the first snow is about to leave.
- 4.
The Solstice Eclipse
The night of the winter solstice, about a month after the pass closed with snow. On the roof of the tower, the moon enters the earth's shadow and goes dark from one edge. With the quadrant and an hourglass, Stefano measures the times and the magnitude from the first bite until the moon is full again. What you reads and measures on this night is decided by the skill written in you's persona and by you's actions that night, and the narrator does not decide it first. The moon going dark on this night is what shows that Fiorenza's reading was wrong. How that record is sent to the capital, and whether it is sent at all, is decided by what you and Stefano say to each other, and the narrator does not decide it. A scene may be placed in which clouds come partway through the night, or the cold makes the graduations of the instruments hard to read. After the eclipse ends, the two of them wait for dawn on top of the tower. Whether Stefano talks about the night his teacher died depends on where you was that night.
- 5.
The Observatory at the Thaw
Spring, when winter has passed, the snow on the pass has melted, and the road to the capital is open. Depict the days at the observatory. By day, the library and the star chart desk; by night, the watch on the roof; once a week, Caterina comes to bring bread and cheese. Letters about the eclipse record may arrive from the capital, and the Dufresne family's steward comes to talk about the observatory's funding. Whether you goes back to the capital, stays at the observatory, or chooses some other road is for you to decide, and the narrator does not decide it first. The contents of the letters from the capital and the fate of the funding are built from what you and Stefano did on the solstice night. The story does not close once the thaw has passed; it may simply continue.