The Starlight Prince

The bell over the door jingled as I entered the shop, and a moment later, a familiar face framed with greying auburn hair appeared.

Janine smiled knowingly. “Ah, Maddie. I knew you’d be visiting me today,” she said as though she didn’t have the power to see glimpses of the future. “Your book has arrived.”

It had taken me almost a year of searching the dark web to finally track down the ancient grimoire and then have it delivered to Janine’s shop. Most people thought Janine was just some old kook who sold crystals and dried herbs. I knew the truth.

She was a real, bona fide witch. Just like I was.

With pale and wrinkled hands, Janine pulled the spell book out from under the counter and laid it on the table that separated us.

I’d only seen grainy pictures of the grimoire online, so I was a little startled by its appearance when Janine unwrapped it from the brown paper it had been packaged in.

“Is that skin?”

Janine chuckled dryly. “Yes. Most of the ancient grimoires were bound this way, and John Dee’s was no different.”

I reached out hesitantly, and my body hummed with magic as I turned the cover. I flicked through the vellum pages, looking for the spell I wanted.

“There’s an ingredients list here,” I said, and Janine moved from the counter to grab a basket. “It says I’ll need an array of candles in shades of pink and red, three cinnamon sticks bound together with cord, dried rose petals, honey, two drops of musk essential oil, a handful of slivered almonds, five mint leaves, the peel of a red dessert apple, and a conker.”

As I called out the different items, Janine loaded them into the basket and then brought them back to the counter with a shake of her head. “Casting a love spell is dangerous business, Maddie.”

“I know, but this isn’t just for love. I’m trying to find where I belong.”

Janine nodded. We’d had this conversation many times over the years. “There was another raid last weekend. They closed the magic shop in the city. I know it won’t be long until they come knocking at my door. I’m planning on moving back to the coast with my daughter and her family.”

I was happy for Janine. She’d been estranged from her daughter for many years, but now it seemed they’d finally reconciled. I didn’t hold my breath that the same would be true for my family.

“You’re going to hang up your broom?” I asked. Janine had always been the one who’d encouraged me not to turn my back on my magic, so I was surprised to hear she was planning to do the same.

Janine sighed. “I’m old. Too old for this rubbish.” She waved her hand vaguely around the magic shop. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, you’re my only customer.”

That was another sad truth. Janine and I were the only witches in our small village. There had been more in the city, but the witch hunters had driven them away. The magical population was spread thinly across the world as it was, but now the witch hunters were cracking down on those who openly practised magic, witches had either gone underground or stopped using their abilities altogether. The alternative was being thrown into prison without a trial, or worse, burned at the stake.

I sighed too. “Which is why I’m sure you understand why I have to do this spell. Tonight’s the new moon, which we both know represents new beginnings as we plant seeds for the future. It’s a good time to set clear intentions for the month ahead, clarify goals, and start new projects. What better time is there to perform a spell to take me to the place where I truly belong and bring me to my true love?”

“I will pray to the Moon Mother that you find what you’re looking for, Maddie,” Janine said, placing the items I wanted into a canvas tote bag. I’d already paid for the grimoire when I’d ordered it online, so it was just the spell ingredients I owed Janine for. “That will be ten pounds, please.”

I frowned. That was far too low for five candles, the dried ingredients, essential oil, and honey. But I also knew Janine wouldn’t hear a word of protest.

I pulled a twenty-pound note from my purse and handed it over. “I’m sorry. I don’t have anything smaller.”

A lie. But it was also a lie when Janine replied, “Well, I don’t have any change in the till.”

We both knew she always kept the till fully stocked.

I waved her off. “Ah, well. I’ll get the change from you the next time I visit.”

We also both knew I wouldn’t. I kind of hoped this was the last time I saw Janine. She’d be going back to the coast to be with her daughter soon, and if I was lucky, my spell would work and I’d finally find where I belonged.

***

Back at home, I flopped down on the sofa for a well-deserved rest.

Unable to help myself, I pulled the battered spell book from the canvas tote bag. Part of me wanted to rush to the forest-crowned barrow that cast its shadow over my house that instant, but I knew the spell would be stronger if I waited until three a.m.—the witching hour.

Instead, I waited patiently. I made dinner and watched TV. I set my alarm for two a.m. and finally snuggled under the covers for the night.

When my alarm sounded hours later, it didn’t take long for me to fully wake up. Excitement coursed through my body like a wildfire through dried-out grasslands. Nothing would keep me from what I intended to do.

I threw on the same comfortable clothes I’d been wearing during the day and grabbed the tote bag with the spell book and ingredients. To make sure I was both warm and well-hidden, I put on my black, hooded cloak and raced out of the house.

The streets were especially dark with no moon to illuminate the skies. I kept to the shadows, my hood drawn up to conceal my face as I tried to blend in with the usual gangs of teenagers on street corners or drunk partygoers returning from some bar or club. Witch hunters were everywhere and would pull over anyone they deemed even slightly suspicious. Thankfully, they focused much of their attention on the bigger towns and cities, leaving alone tiny villages like the one where I lived. That was exactly why I’d moved here when my parents had thrown me out of their home, threatening to call the witch hunters if I ever darkened their door again.

I shook the bitter memory from my mind. All that was in the past now. I hadn’t seen my family for over five years. Their cruel words could no longer hurt me.

My heart pounded as I drew closer to the barrow. The hill wasn’t too steep, about a half an hour’s walk to the summit.

Sometime in the past, a forest of blackthorn trees had been planted at the top of the barrow, a clearing in the middle. Legend stated that if you walked around the forest anticlockwise seven times, you’d summon the devil. I didn’t believe in the devil, but I wondered if the myth had some grounding in reality. Perhaps the clearing was a hotspot for magical energy, which was why I chose it as the location to perform my spell.

I weaved my way through the trees, their branches barren and bare at this time of year, reaching down to me like spindly fingers.

I suppressed a shudder and gazed up at the sky, wishing I had the moon’s light to guide me.

Finally, I came to the clearing and sat down in the centre. Using the light from my phone, I took the ancient grimoire from the bag and opened it to the correct page. Then I started pulling out the ingredients I’d brought from Janine’s shop, along with several things I’d brought from home.

First was the portable camp stove I’d bought especially, followed by an iron cooking pot I usually used for making stews and soup. I set the pot on the portable stove but didn’t light it yet. Instead, I drew a circle with salt and then added lines to form a pentagram within the circle. With the cooking pot in the centre, I set the red and pink candles at the five points of the star.

Still holding the grimoire in one hand, I poured a bottle of pinot noir that I’d been keeping for an occasion like this into my makeshift cauldron.

Taking a lighter from the tote bag, I ignited the stove and lit the five candles. As the red wine started to simmer, I threw in the three cinnamon sticks and read from the grimoire:

“I call on the powers of North, East, South, and West.”

I added the dried rose petals.

“In the name of the Moon Mother, take me to the place where I truly belong.”

I poured about a tablespoon of honey and two drops of musk essential oil into the simmering potion.

“By the power of the moon and stars above, bring my one true love to me.”

I threw the handful of slivered almonds and five mint leaves into the steadily bubbling concoction.

“By the power of three, I summon thee. As I desire, so shall it be,” I cried to the night sky as I dropped the peel of a red dessert apple and a conker into the cauldron.

Despite not touching the camp stove or candles, the fire in all flared and the potion I’d created started bubbling rapidly.

Red smoke rose from the iron pot, shimmering with an otherworldly iridescence, and I felt my eyes grow heavier. I sank to my knees in front of the pentagram, and my vision darkened.

At the same time,

across the galaxy…

“Your Highness, the king and queen await you in the ritual chamber,” the messenger told the young man sitting at a dressing table before him.

Kalas, Crown Prince of Kralis, turned from the mirror he’d been staring intently into, not looking at his reflection, but instead searching for something deeper, as though the glass might hold the answers he so desperately craved.

Today, he came of age and would not only take on the responsibilities of being the crown prince and heir of an entire planet, but he would also perform the ritual that would reveal his fated mate.

It was an aeons-old rite the Kralian people had partaken in since the beginning of their recorded history. Historians, scholars, and priests all agreed that the Kralian Elder Deity, Korvarith Thalun— also known as The Twilight Crow and regarded as the deity of the skies, moon, and stars, and of dreaming—spoke to Their people through the crystalline seeing pool that was housed within the sacred chamber of the palace.

His father, his grandfather, and his great-grandmother, all the way back to the first monarch of Kralis, had undertaken the ritual. It was how his father had found his mother, who had been a high lady on the eastern shores of the planet.

Kalas stood from the dressing table and picked up the onyx circlet that lay cushioned on a velvet pillow. He laid the circlet on his head, pushing back his long, dark hair and being careful that it didn’t tangle with the three obsidian horns protruding from his hairline.

He was in full royal regalia, wearing a variety of jewels through his ears, nose, and lips, all made from the same precious gem that changed colour from turquoise to purple depending on how the light reflected off it. His chest was bare, but his shoulders were cloaked in a cape made from shimmering raven-like feathers—the feathers of his ancestors. Around his wrists were onyx bracers, again decorated with colour-shifting gemstones, and his modesty was preserved by a dark loincloth threaded with silver, turquoise, and purple.

If a human saw Kalas, they might have mistaken him for an ancient Aztec emperor. In fact, when the Kralians had visited Earth in large groups in the past, the natives had worshipped them as deities and styled themselves after these magnificent beings.

With the messenger leading the way, Kalas followed through the shimmering hallways of the royal palace to the ritual chamber, where his parents, the King and Queen of Kralis, along with many members of the royal court awaited him.

“My son,” the king said, bowing and pressing his palms together in a gesture of respect as Kalas entered the room. The king was dressed in a similar way to his son, only with more finery. The circlet on the king’s head was a crested diadem adorned with precious gems, and his raven-feathered cloak was even more impressive.

The queen too was dressed in courtly regalia, her breasts concealed by rows and rows of threaded beads and gemstones that resembled an Egyptian Usekh and reached down to her mid-stomach just above the belly button.

She smiled fondly at Kalas, pressing her hands together and bowing in the same way her husband did.

Just a few paces behind the royal couple stood the high priest. His cloak was the most magnificent of all, taking feathers not only from his ancestors but from the kings and queens of millennia past. It was a mark of his station as the sovereign pontiff of Korvarith Thalun.

Around the royal gathering were rows upon rows of stone benches, so the members of the royal court could witness this momentous occasion. Like the king, queen, prince, and high priest, the nobility also wore feathered capes and clothing adorned with precious metals and gemstones. A few factors unified all Kralians gathered. First was their intense height, with even the younger members of the race standing at almost six feet tall and mature adults a towering seven-foot. Additionally, all Kralians were well-muscled. Many had dark hair like Kalas and his father, which shimmered and reflected the light in shades of turquoise and purple, while others had pure white hair that appeared threaded with starlight, like the queen.

Dotted throughout the gathered Kralians were other species, humans included, and beings from all over the galaxy. The Twilight Crow, in Their infinite wisdom, did not only choose fated mates from among the Kralians but from throughout the whole universe, knowing that the mixing of bloodlines and species was beneficial to all.

“Luminali solini, thalunoriani velithor,” the high priest said, which translated to English meant, ‘Welcome, children of starlight.’

His voice echoed through the chamber, carrying with it the mysteries of the cosmos and the secrets of the wind. Each syllable danced like a feather caught in a gentle breeze, and each word weaved a tapestry of starlight.

“Today, we are gathered, as Prince Kalas comes of age, to witness the time-honoured ritual that will reveal Korvarith Thalun’s chosen mate for the crown prince,” the high priest said in the Kralian language. “The chosen being will be bound in starlight, destined to be the lover and consort of his Highness. Regardless of race, species, or gender, we will welcome Korvarith Thalun’s chosen mate for the crown prince. As the moonlit wings will it, so be it.”

“Thalunori spirithar, luminali velithor. Aeloriani avethor,” those in the ritual chamber repeated in the Kralian language.

As the chamber fell silent again, the high priest stepped aside, revealing a vast pool with water that acted like a mirror. Only, instead of reflecting the surrounding chamber, the liquid showed the expansive, shining cosmos. The surface of the pool shimmered like liquid mercury, undulating as if in possession of a life and consciousness of its own.

The king and queen nodded encouragingly, and Kalas stepped forward, closer to the high priest and the mirror-like pool.

From leather pouches on his robe, the high priest withdrew two items. An obsidian knife, its blade impossibly sharp, and a handful of the colour-shifting gems that adorned many of the Kralians’ clothing.

“Do you know the words?” the priest asked, handing the blade and gemstones to Kalas.

“I do,” the prince replied.

In the torchlight of the ritual chamber, his amber eyes glittered with reflected firelight, and for the first time in a long time, Kalas felt young and unsure. He knew and had accepted his destiny from a young age and had lived with it for a long time. A Kralian’s lifespan was much longer than those of Earth humans; childhood and adolescence lasted around 500 years. But suddenly, now the moment was upon him, Kalas felt unsure.

What if he didn’t find his fated mate attractive? What would happen if, on meeting them, they hated each other? Kalas had only had one lover during the course of his life as he’d always known his heart was destiny-bound to another. Another who had not yet been revealed to him. What if whoever Korvarith Thalun had chosen for him just wasn’t right?

Kalas shook the thought from his head. He should not be questioning the elder deity. The Twilight Crow had given his people peace and prosperity for a very long time. While other planets warred, mined their resources to depletion, or polluted their atmosphere, Kralis was still as beautiful, rich, and resource filled as it had always been, its people living in harmony.

Steeling his resolve, Kalas took the obsidian blade and slashed it across his left palm. Oil-slick, iridescent blood trickled from the wound. Kalas directed the blood flow so a few drops landed on the shimmering surface of the pool before his wound sealed itself closed thanks to the Kralians’ accelerated healing factor. With his right hand, Kalas crushed the colour-shifting gemstones to dust and then sprinkled the dust on top of his blood, onto the mirror-like liquid.

The pool shined a bright, blinding white, and for a moment, no one in the chamber could see anything. Even though they were inside, the wind whipped around the gathered Kralians, causing their clothes to flutter.

A piercing shriek filled the air, like the cry of a raptor, and the light filling the chamber changed from a blinding white to a shimmering cacophony of hues similar to the aurora borealis.

As Kalas regained his sight, he stared into the pool before him. Gone was the reflective surface and instead was a vision of a young human woman. She had red hair that made him think of the flame of a candle and green eyes that reminded him of emeralds. He identified her instantly as human by her clothing—a dark cloak wrapped around her upper body and a pair of trousers covering her legs. She was kneeling in a forest in front of a fire and cooking pot, reciting words from a book that looked to be bound in skin.

“A witch,” he said to himself, a small smile forming on his lips.

Witches were rare on Earth, though more common throughout the galaxy, and held in high regard the same way Kralians revered their high priests. This made Kalas happy, knowing his fated mate was a woman of intelligence. Not only that, but she was beautiful too. Her skin was milky white and flawless, and she had dark painted lips and dramatic makeup Kalas found appealing.

The gathered courtiers saw the image in the pool too, and someone in the crowd gasped. “A sapien. Is one such as that really suitable for the crown prince?”

Other voices rose to join the first, and a small group of courtiers proclaimed that Kralis was drifting too far from the standards it had once held.

“The bloodlines become more tainted with every passing generation,” a Kralian male with swept-back white hair proclaimed.

Kalas frowned. He thought his people were accepting of all races. Was that not the case?

Before he could open his mouth to speak, the high priest said, “We do not doubt the intention of Korvarith Thalun. The union is now bound in the stars.”

Those who had objected to Kalas’s fated mate being a human began to argue again, and the same Kralian with swept-back white hair said, “Perhaps you do not speak for Korvarith Thalun after all. How do we know this vision is even from Them? You say the Twilight Crow speaks to you directly, but I see no proof of that!”

Other gathered courtiers gasped, but the chamber fell silent when the king bellowed, “That is enough. I will not stand for this behaviour. Those who doubt the word of Korvarith Thalun or Their high priest Varion Drelkar should leave here now.”

The group of objecting courtiers, led by the one with the swept-back hair, angrily left the chamber, and it took a few moments for everyone to calm down again.

Kalas looked around the courtiers with uncertainty. Many Kralians had taken partners from Earth and other planets, but this was the first time in millennia that a royal mate had been chosen from anywhere that wasn’t Kralis.

“I am sure she will make an excellent consort,” his father said, coming to stand behind Kalas and resting his hand on his shoulder.

“She is beautiful, my son,” the queen added, taking Kalas’s left hand and entwining her fingers with his. “So exotic and different from the Kralians.”

“Go, claim your bride,” his father encouraged.

The word claim caused a weird sensation in Kalas’s lower regions, and he gazed again at his intended mate. She really was beautiful. He imagined crushing his lips to hers and felt his heart race. Wondering what it might feel like to stroke her milky, smooth skin or take her smaller frame in his strong arms, Kalas felt himself growing aroused.

Yes, he would claim this fire-haired witch, to the glory of Korvarith Thalun.

Kalas gazed at his parents and smiled at them, his amber eyes shimmering in the torchlight of the chamber. “It would be my pleasure to claim her. I’ll transform and leave immediately.”

“No need,” the high priest interjected. “While typically air and space travel are a matter of a simple transformation for our people, in situations like this, Korvarith Thalun grants a special boon. To travel by lightspeed. All you must do is place your left hand in the pool, and you will be taken to your fated mate.”

Kalas swallowed a lump in his throat. So soon? He thought he’d have at least the duration of the journey to Earth to get used to the idea that he’d soon be married.

He glanced at the image in the pool once more. The flame-haired woman was dropping various items into her cauldron as she recited words in the Earth language. He found her positively entrancing.

His doubts faded away as he assured himself this was the path Korvarith Thalun had chosen from him. “Thalunori luminali ethrionth, stellavarien seresth. Aeriathor valiaroni. “By the light of the moon and stars, glory be to The Twilight Crow.”

The assembled crowd cheered.

Kalas looked deeply into his parents’ eyes for one final time, then turned towards the pool and plunged his left hand into it, just as the high priest had instructed.

Once more, the chamber filled with a bright white light that was pierced by the shriek of a bird of prey, and then the light seemed to be filtered through a prism, reflecting all the colours of the known universe onto the walls of the ritual chamber.

And Kalas, the Crown Prince of Kralis, was gone.