PERIWINKLE POV

Chapter Nine: Moonglade

"Everyone goes to Siren Rock," I explain as I set up the stellarscope, "But it's so crowded there it's hard to find a place to work. Plus, the view's better here." I point up to the sky, where billions of stars sparkle in the inky black night sky. He releases a sigh as he hands me a thick wad of my star maps. "Finding stars takes forever, so let's tag team it. First star on my list in Amaranthis."

Sophie stares at the sky her eyes trailing through the night sky, and after a couple of seconds of silence, she points to a star. "It's right there - fourth star to the left of Lambentine."

My jaw drops as I look at Sophie. "How did you do that?"

She shrugs. "Photographic memory. Remember?"

"I know," I say, flashing her a smile. "But... the stars?" Sophie nods, more than a little smugly. "Wow - well, awesome," I decide to say. I stuff the maps into my bag and attatch one of the small glass bottles to a spout at the wider end of the stellarscope. I turn to look at her. "Want to go first?"

Sophie takes the scope from me and holds it up to her eyes. "How does this work?"

"It's easy. You find the star and use the knobs to isolate it." I go behind her and use one arm to level the slope. I wrap the other around her and slide her fingers down to a couple of dials. "Sorry, um, is this okay?" I ask as I feel her tense.

"Sure," she replies, and my cheeks heat up.

I clear my throat after a moment. "Did you find Amaranthis?"

"Yep," Sophie says triumphantly.

"Good. Then turn the knobs until you see the star change color, and flip the lever by your thumb. The stellarscope will do the rest." Sophie doesn't respond, but a bright purple flash fills the bottle and the scope seals the light in. It only takes us a couple of minutes to find Rubini, Orroro, Azulejo, Cobretola, and Indigeen. But now we need to find a pattern. I bite my lip hard and scratch my head. "I don't see a pattern."

"It's the colors of the spectrum." She starts to rearrange the bottles. "Red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, and violet. What's missing?"

"Green!" I exclaim triumphantly. "Can you find Zelenie?"

Sophie points to a start to the left, rather isolated compared to the other starrs. "There."

I turn the knob to bottle the deep green glow and set it aside. "This'll be the first time I get it right. I usually just pick a random star and try to bluff." Sophie shakes her head and laughs, kneeling down to dig her list from her pocket. She takes the scope without another word, and I watch as she hesitates to find each one, pausing and tilting her head here and there. I'm already completely lost, but after fifteen minutes, she has bottled silver, gold, black, white, copper, and green light. "Any idea what the pattern is?" I ask.

"I'm not sure," Sophie says hesitantly. There's a long pause, and then she says, "Elementine."

"What's the pattern?" I ask, bushing up my eyebrows,

"I don't know, but I know Elementine is right," Sophie says surely. She grabs the stellarscope and starts to find it.

"Are you sure? I've never heard of it before," I say hesitantly.

"I think I would know better than you," Sophie says, and while she doesn't mean it in a hurtful way, it still hits me - hard. "Besides, why would I make that up?"

"Good point," I say reluctantly. Sophie takes several minutes, though, to find the spot, and her scope is pointed into the inky darkness.

"I know it's there," she says, biting her lip in concentration and fiddling with the dials.

"I don't see anything," I say hesitantly.

"I think it's just really far away." Minutes pass by and I keep fidgeting, waiting for her to declare that there's nothing. But finally, she declares, "There!" and flips the latch. 

Only then she drops the scope and yelps. "What happened?" I ask. I'm on my feet in no time and standing next to her.

"Ow, ow, ow!" She says instead of responding, waving at her hands, her eyes watering. 

"Let me see," I say and take a jar of light from her bag and hold it to her wrists. I suck in a breath as I see the dark purple welts on them. "Whoa. Are you okay?" No response. "What should I do?"

Sophie's face falls. "Can you get my Imparter from my satchel?"

I dig through Sophie's bag, knocking stuff aside until I find the thin silver square. "Who are we calling?"

Sophie sighs. "Elwin."