Stars in the Blackest Sky

The Tales of The Seekers is a collection of short stories set in The Seekers universe. Feel free to comment so I can improve them. If you want to learn more, please do read my published books in the same universe: The Seekers: Soul-Ties, Kirin, and Perrin Peters. And if you don’t want to buy my books but still want to support me, I’m on Patreon. And if you prefer one-time payments, you can Buy Me A Pizza or a Coffee.

Marc was sitting beside his green, triangular tent. It was tattered throughout its long life and then hastily repaired, not unlike Marc himself. The warm air was fresh with the aroma of herbs and flowers. The night birds tweeted peacefully. Some animals called out to one another or simply expressed their jubilation caused by the beauty of this night. A small, crackling fire burned beside Marc, radiating warm light and air. And directly above him was an endless sea of twinkling stars, forming the galaxy. Yes, life was wonderful!

Marc was half-sitting on an insulating mat, using his backpack as a backrest. A big metal bottle was standing next to him. As Marc lifted his hand to grab it, the weight of his own hand and the small tremor reminded him why he was there. Every new moment could be his last, so he had to count as many stars as he still could. He had to see as many colors in the night sky as a human eye could see. He had to make each second the best second of his life.

The chill orange juice was making its way down his throat when a twig broke.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said a young and bright female voice. “What were the chances of meeting someone in the middle of the woods?”

Marc tilted his head and beheld a very young, tall woman wearing a big backpack, short denim shorts, hiking boots, a white T-shirt with a colorful abstract print, and long, dark, wavy hair. Her eyes burned with curiosity, reflecting the bright stars, Marc’s yellow fire, and white LED strips on her backpack and in the thick soles of her boots.

“Please, you can stay here for the night.” Marc smiled, motioning with his hand. “The clearing is big enough for the second tent. Unless you prefer a sleeping bag, that is.”

The woman smiled, already taking off her backpack. “Thank you! I already got tired of looking for a good place to stop. My name is Silk Rose, by the way.”

“Marc Hull.” He nodded. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

~*~

Having installed the tent in her usual manner with some magical help, Silk Rose rolled out her mat near Marc’s fire. Despite the weariness, there was no hunger, so her eyes stared at the starry sky.

“Wow!” Left her lips as the colors and shapes hit the retinas. “Now I remember why I got here.”

Marc chuckled. “Don’t like hiking much?”

Silk Rose shook her head. “Why would anyone like hiking? People don’t like walking in the woods; they love the experiences it brings: the views, smells, and sounds. It’s hard to imagine the town is only an hour or so away.”

“True.” Marc nodded. “I sometimes forget that most of the planet is forests, deserts, and oceans, not cities. By the way.” He swiveled his head to look at her. “The sky looks very different on the other side of the planet. If you haven’t seen it yet, I cannot recommend it enough.”

Silk Rose looked back at him. “You’re so right. I travel there occasionally. The portals made it so easy, but sometimes I still wish I could carry a portable one.”

Grim images and cries of pain flashed in Marc’s skull. He could almost feel the stench of burnt human flesh. The horror of those days had no right to be so fresh! A quick jerk of his head returned him to reality.

“No, thank you.” He exhaled, rubbing his face. The few-day-old white stubble made a scraping sound. “I still can’t forget the bombings. When I’m trying to imagine what horror people must’ve felt when their portals came to life and spew grenades or other explosives into their faces… Evil… Pure evil.”

Torn-off limbs… Pools of blood… Desperate wailings… Glassy, wide eyes… Silk Rose’s nostrils let out a sigh, yet she didn’t try to push away the memories. There was a lesson there. Or at least a reminder of human fragility.

The fire crackled. Marc’s hand moved, and a new portion of deadfall got shoved into the flames by the power of his will. A wolf’s sad howl echoed through the woods. Only the stars, distant and beautiful, didn’t care.

“I can’t imagine, yeah, but I remember the aftermath.” She spoke, looking at Marc, hoping that the eye contact would offer him some comfort. “Those were the days I decided to become a doctor. I just started at my first engineering job. Studying at a medical school and working at the same time was excruciating, let me tell you. Yet the times when I get to see healthy former patients and their happy families make all of it so worth it.”

Marc’s white eyebrows scrunched up as he looked into her brown eyes. “You can’t remember those days. That was—” He stopped himself. Oh, of course! Her young look means nothing in this day and age.

“I’m sorry,” he grabbed his bottle again. “I shouldn’t have assumed your age.”

Silk Rose smiled. “That’s okay. Am I doing the wrong thing by assuming you’re as old as you look?”

“No.” Marc shook his head. “I’m as ancient and falling apart as I appear. Soon to be ninety.”

“Just ninety?” Silk Rose’s eyebrows jumped up. “Oh, then you’re still quite young. Even before modern advances in magic and medicine, many people managed to live to more than a hundred. Yet, I am curious as to why you wouldn’t rejuvenate your body. You probably get this question a lot, and you don’t have to answer, obviously.”

“Why, indeed…” Marc trailed off, looking at the bright stars. Lots of them were long-dead. And yet, the gas they ejected in the process of dying could one day form into a planet. And on that planet, new life may appear. Could his body do the same? Could it feed the earth instead of poisoning it with its foulness? Could it be useful as a cadaver for medical students? Silk Rose might know. He just had to care to ask.

“Not everything in nature needs to be modified by us,” he says finally. “If we go, then we no longer slow down new generations with our outdated ideas. If we go, we let new people thrive unburdened to share resources with us. To me, those are very good reasons.”

Silk Rose looked away, seeping some water from her bottle, trying to think if she had ever heard such thoughts from anyone.

“But, Marc. I’m not trying to change your mind, but if you want to spare the new generations from your way of thinking, you can just keep silent. You may live, doing what you do, next to the new generations instead of being in their path. As to the resources, you said it yourself — Alphaer is mostly untapped wilderness, and now we’re colonizing Betanox. Our civilization never had so much to spare. Resources are absolutely not an issue.”

Marc nodded. “True, but if everyone were to think like that…”

He didn’t finish, looking at Silk Rose to continue his thought.

She shook her head. “Almost everyone already thinks like that, yet the resources are still abundant.”

They both sighed and moved their attention to the starry skies. A fiery meteor zoomed across their field of view. The fire was still crackling, casting long shadows. A distant bird let out a long, beautiful cry.

“Well…” Marc started. “I guess I’m just wired this way. When it’s time to go, I’ll do just that. For the longest time, I considered myself younger than any of my peers. I guess you just get used to it in childhood, and then it’s hard to change this way of thinking. The day I realized I had become old was the day I decided I wouldn’t go to the clinic to prolong my life. What about you, Silk Rose? Most people I know keep their bodies looking like they’re still in their thirties, not barely twenty.”

Silk Rose snorted. “I still feel like everyone I know is older than me. I simply liked the way I looked, had many photos, and so when I got a chance to recreate myself in my own image, I took it. Today, I want to live at least one more day and see what it will bring. Tomorrow, I’ll feel the same way. In ten, fifty, a hundred years from now, probably nothing will change. So, by wanting to live one more day, I essentially want to live forever. And if I’m going to do that, why not live in a body I like?”

Marc nodded. The body I like… There was a time he liked his body. Then, it became frail and ugly. After that, he made his peace.

“I understand you.” He downed another sip of orange juice. “I also want to know what tomorrow will bring. But if one day I fail at doing that, it would be okay.”

Silk Rose stared at the dancing flames. The yellow coals were breathing in tandem with the small wind and air convection: brighter and darker, hotter and colder, more and less lively. Maybe it was Marc’s darker phase? Maybe with some sustenance, he could get bright again?

“What about your family?” she asked. “What do they think about your worldview?”

The familiar faces flashed in Marc’s head, causing his lips to curve into a wide smile. Their voices rang in his ears. The sensation of holding them in his embrace caused his hands to grip the air, trying to mimic the feeling.

“I used to have a wife, and then a new one,” he started. “I used to have three kids. Somehow, they all liked to live life dangerously. Extreme sports, space exploration — their lives were brighter than my dreams.”

He paused, staring at the stars, wondering if his dreams could’ve been brighter if he’d bothered to watch the night sky back in the day.

He sighed. “None is left alive to advise me. There’s no one I can disappoint or make angry. But even if I had someone, it’s my life, my choices, and my decisions. I hope that my friends, if I have any, can give me the same freedom I give them.”

Marc turned towards Silk Rose, and their eyes met. Her hand rested on the grass between them, like she wanted to reach Marc, to squeeze his shoulder, but changed her mind.

A question left his lips. “What about you? Why are you wandering the woods alone?”

“My husband and daughter prefer board games and hate the woods. I’m the pure opposite.” She laughed, and it came out only a tiny bit hollow. “Don’t take me wrong, we do spend time together. We all like movies, for example.”

“Yes…” Marc trailed off for a second, remembering the good old years. “There’s always something. You just need to search, and you will find activities everyone enjoys. And even if you fail, spending time together is a good enough reward already.”

He raised his hand, holding the bottle. “For the time we spent together with people we love.”

Silk Rose’s surprise was momentary. She smiled, raising her own bottle. “For the people we met along the way.”

They both drank, and then drank some more of the twinkling stars on the dark canvas.

“It’s time to sleep, Silk Rose,” Marc said, carefully rising to his feet.

“I’ll kill the fire, Marc, don’t worry.”

He hid inside his tent, and in a few minutes was fast asleep.

Her hand moved, urging the arcane field to bend and twist, and the fire was gone. Lit by nothing but the stars and dying embers, Silk Rose sat in silence until the weariness conquered her as well.

Good night.

The End

Anton Anderson, 2025

If you want to learn a tiny bit more about Silk Rose and Marc Hull, you can meet them on the pages of The Seekers: Perrin Peters, my sci-fantasy detective novel.

I was listening 🎧 to An Endless Downpour by Adam Fielding 🎵 while writing the story, and to his other works.