Chapter 2：The Secret of Starchaser
1404words
Wooden crates and luggage cluttered the carriage's rear, but what truly captured attention was the mechanical marvel consuming the entire back wall—an intricate network of gears and pipes, all connected to a fist-sized blue crystal pulsing at its center.
"Spatial expansion magic!" The scholar's voice cracked with excitement as he adjusted his glasses. "Theoretically possible, of course, but requiring constant energy input and notoriously unstable! Simply extraordinary!"
"Pipe down, Norton," Leo drawled, sprawling comfortably on a window berth. "Unless you're eager to explain why your invitation came written in ancient elvish."
The scholar's face drained of color. Eileen caught the subtle movement as his hand crept toward a small pouch at his waist—not the shape of a weapon, but something that looked suspiciously like… archaeological tools?
"We're moving," the masked woman announced abruptly, her crystal ball catching strange reflections.
Indeed—without vibration or sound, the scenery outside had begun sliding past the windows.
This wasn't the familiar jostling of horse-drawn travel—it felt more as if space itself glided around them. Trees and hills flowed past in a manner that mocked conventional physics, as though the world parted willingly before their vessel.
Gordon emerged from the driver's cabin clutching seven yellowed parchments. "Rules," he announced flatly.
He distributed the papers with military precision. "First: no prying into anyone's destination or motives. Second: everyone takes night watch shifts. Third, and most critical—" his lone eye swept across them with chilling intensity, "never attempt to access the lower cargo hold."
Eileen accepted her card, then noticed something strange—additional text written in invisible ink on the reverse: "Pharmacist, your mother's formula awaits in the box at journey's end." Her heart stuttered. Five years her mother had been missing, her final research a mystery to all.
"How do we know this contraption won't kill us all?" Leo rapped his knuckles against the wall, producing an unnervingly hollow echo. "I've encountered similar ancient tech that eventually… processed its passengers into nutrients."
As if offended by his skepticism, the carriage lurched violently. Every light extinguished at once, plunging them into darkness pierced only by Lydia's terrified scream and the hair-raising screech of twisting metal.
Eileen experienced a sickening moment of weightlessness before something warm and secure wrapped around her waist—Leo's arm, bringing with it the unmistakable scent of gunpowder and well-worn leather.
When the lights flickered back to life, they revealed a tableau of frozen tension: the silver-haired youth had his dagger pressed against Gordon's throat, Norton had somehow scrambled atop the luggage rack, and the crystal ball woman commanded three hovering blades of pure light.
"Just a bit of crystal source turbulence," Gordon remarked with unsettling calm, gently pushing the youth's blade aside. "Welcome to the real journey, folks. From here on, you'll need to trust your companions more than your own senses."
Eileen realized she was clutching Leo's collar in a death grip and hastily released it. Glancing out the window, she barely suppressed a gasp—they were soaring through clouds, with an endless emerald forest sprawling below, while on the distant horizon, three moons hung in an impossible triangular formation.
"We've left our continent entirely!" Norton's voice quavered with scholarly excitement. "This is the Shadow Moon Overlap—a phenomenon that theoretically manifests only once every three centuries!"
"And what exactly did you think Everdusk Island was?" Gordon asked, striding to the mechanical apparatus and adjusting various knobs with practiced hands. "Some pleasant vacation spot?" The blue crystal pulsed rhythmically as he worked, filling the cabin with sounds that seemed halfway between music and speech.
Eileen felt the invitation in her pocket grow suddenly hot against her thigh. When she withdrew it, the text was rearranging itself before her eyes, transforming into an intricate map—their position marked as "Drifting Path," with their first destination labeled "Weeping Canyon."
"We'll reach our first supply point in three days," Gordon announced. "Until then, I suggest you all become acquainted." A cold light glinted off his eyepatch as he added, "After all… for the next two months, we're the only living souls each other has."
Dinner consisted of a mysterious stew Gordon had prepared, its ingredients impossible to identify. To Eileen's surprise, it was remarkably flavorful.
The silver-haired youth—who introduced himself as Kyle—refused to eat, instead taking occasional sips from a flask at his hip. The crystal ball woman, who called herself Mary, spoke with peculiar pauses, as though constantly listening to voices no one else could hear.
"So," Leo said, helping himself to a second bowl of stew, "why play strangers? Red Fox Leo, professional tomb rai—" he caught himself with a theatrical cough, "artifact recovery specialist, at your service." His grin flashed white in the dim light. "I'm after the 'Crown of Stars' on Everdusk Island. The bounty's enough to buy a small kingdom."
Lydia snorted delicately. "How childish. My purpose is family honor. House Krister requires the Eternal Flower to restore…" She stopped abruptly, shooting Norton a suspicious glance. "Let's just say my reasons are entirely legitimate."
Norton adjusted his spectacles with scholarly precision. "Academic research. Everdusk Island may well be the last intact First Era civilization site." His fingers drummed a nervous rhythm on the table. "Doesn't it fascinate you that every ancient text describes it differently?"
When attention turned to Eileen, she offered only a half-truth: "Searching for rare alchemical formulas." She deliberately omitted any mention of her mother. Kyle maintained his stoic silence, while Mary's crystal ball suddenly illuminated with a disturbing image: a village engulfed in flames, with small figures fleeing in terror.
"Enough," Gordon interrupted, cutting through the awkward revelations. "Save your strength. Tomorrow you'll begin shift rotations, two per watch." He pointed toward a transparent hatch in the ceiling. "Piloting requires no skill, but the crystal source readings need constant monitoring."
Eileen drew first watch with Leo. After the others had retired to their berths, she climbed the narrow ladder to the cockpit, finding it surprisingly spartan—just two seats facing a curved window, with an array of glowing instruments spread before them.
No wheel, no control column—just a strange palm-sized depression in the center console.
"It knows its own path," Leo said, materializing behind her with startling silence. He offered a steaming cup. "Try this—snow tea from the Eastern Ranges."
The tea carried a crisp fragrance with floral and fruit notes unlike anything Eileen had encountered. She sipped cautiously, surprised when her tightly-wound nerves began to uncoil. "Are you really just a treasure hunter?" she found herself asking. "You could have let me fall during that turbulence."
Leo's smile turned razor-sharp in the console's blue glow. "And that paralysis powder at the good pharmacist's waist could drop a full-grown drake." He gestured toward the window. "Look there."
The clouds parted below them, revealing an impossible landscape—an entire forest arranged in a perfect spiral pattern, with a luminous white tower rising from its center. In the distance, a massive creature drifted through the moonlight, its silhouette like that of a whale, but with six undulating wings.
"The Starchaser will pass through seven such realms," Leo said, his voice suddenly stripped of its usual flippancy. "Legend says every traveler to Everdusk Island describes a different route. Because…"
"Because the island chooses its visitors," Eileen finished, surprising herself with knowledge she shouldn't possess. "Only those who complete all trials may glimpse the true Everdusk Island."
Leo studied her with newfound interest. "Was that written in your mother's notes?"
Eileen felt a chill spread through her body. "How did you know about my mother's notes?"
Alarm klaxons suddenly shattered the moment, as every crystal on the dashboard flared dangerous red.
The carriage lurched violently sideways. Eileen tumbled into Leo's arms as they both crashed against the cabin wall. Through the window, she glimpsed their pursuer—a colossal bird formed entirely of crackling lightning, each wingbeat warping the very fabric of space around it.
"Crystal storm!" Gordon's voice bellowed from below. "Brace yourselves!"
The Starchaser began spinning wildly as it plummeted. In the final moment before darkness claimed her, Eileen saw Leo lunging for the central console, slamming his palm into the mysterious depression.
His eyes—previously an unremarkable brown—suddenly blazed the same electric blue as the crystal source.
