The Astrologer

A ClockPunk Story by SimoneFar

The structure was based on a series of pillars, larger and taller than the trees of the forest.

Around each pillar there were many giant cogs. Every now and then something, deep in the structure, made a metallic sound, similar to the ring of a bell, as a signal. Responding to that, one or more cogs from the most external round of pillars moved, hooked up cogs from the internal ring and made them rotate. The movement, then, was transmitted to the mechanism above and telescopes and mirrors changed their position.

Lukas knew that there were also smaller cogs, inside the structure, cogs able to acquire data from the mirrors and the telescopes and spin to calculate.

That was how horoscopes were made.

So much science used to serve a so dumb superstition!

Artamiz was impressed, frozen watching the great mechanism moving. Lukas shook him grabbing his shoulder. «We still have a lot of stairs to climb».

The only way to reach the entrance of the structure was climbing stairs built beside the pillars. On them, the clash of cogs against cogs and the screech of pillars moving was enough to drive someone mad. Lukas wrapped up his scarf around his head and ordered Artamiz to do the same.

Fortunately, up on the platform outside the main building the noise was less intense.

«What now?» asked Artamiz. The upper part of the structure was a hemisphere, made of metal, telescopes and mirrors coming out from it like tentacles. The entrance was just a hole in the hemisphere, no doors or gates, but Lukas wasn't sure that going in was a good idea. «Let us wait here, he should come»

The bell rang three times and all the cogs and pillars stopped. Heavy steps came from the hole. «Who are you?» asked a spooky voice.

«Lukas, the heir of the enlightened reign»

The astrologer came out. Was he human? Wasn't he? Impossible to say. His body was closed in an enormous armor that made his movements very slow. Neither was his face visible, covered by a mask depicting a moon and a sun chained together, as sides of the same medal. To walk, the astrologer had to put his hands on the ground, like a gorilla, probably because the weight of his own body was too much for just his legs. He was like bound to many wires that were planted in the armor and run back in the hole, disappearing in the darkness.

«You are the heir born in the second day of the second month of a good year. You will be king, but then the war will reach you»

The way the astrologer talked about his future made Lukas shiver. «I don't need a prediction so far in the future. I'm here because the king needs your help»

«It's not my help, child. It's just the future. I can bring you the future, if you need it»

«I'm just here... to ask you a question»

The astrologer closed his hands, the bell inside the structure rang again. Few pillars moved and also the wires on the back of the armor started to slide, as they were connected to the very mechanism. «Ask, child»

«We... need to know where gold can be found. It's... very important... the reign is near bankrupt»

There was a big clash of cogs finding alignment and spinning together. The platform where they all were trembled a little.

«The king, your father, born three days before the perfect day. Fifty-six years passed since that day. His destiny is coming under the stars of greed and deception. I can see it. So I know what he's truly asking. It' very sad he sent his son instead of himself»

Anger ramped up inside Lukas. «How you dare to talk this way about your king? People can be punished for such harsh words!»

«Not me. Never» The astrologer turned is back to Lukas, slowly and not easily. «Come inside, heir born on the second day of the second month of a good year»

The astrologer didn't wait any kind of answer. He just walked back inside the hole. Lukas and Artamiz looked each other.

«Should we follow him? After what he said?» asked Artamiz. Obviously the words of the strange creature were hard to hear for him too.

«It's the only way we can fulfill our mission» stated Lukas. And walked in, trying to reach the astrologer.

There was a labyrinth inside the structure but the astrologer was easy to follow, his steps resonated loud in the corridors and he walked very slowly. He lead them deep in his palace, to a great chamber full of cogs an mechanisms, all of them rotating fast, tinkling like an angelic legion.

And they were shining.

«Here is the main calculator.» explained the astrologer «All the data from the stars caught with telescopes and mirrors is gathered here and passed to these gears. They were forged to translate positions in numbers, light in formulas, days in geometric figures. They own most of the knowledge I use for my horoscopes»

Lukas and Artamiz stared at the mechanism, stunned. There was a lot of movement and a lot of light down there, like an army of fairies flipping their enchanted wings.

«Iron is not suitable for such a difficult task. Steel neither. Nothing can be used to create a mechanism so sophisticated» The big metal head of the astrologer turned to the two boys, looking at them. He had no expression but still his eyes were burning. «Nothing except gold»

Lukas came closer. «You are saying that all of this is made of gold?»

«In the centuries the crown gave me enough resources to make the mechanism big and accurate. They knew how important horoscopes are. The reign went through an age of glory thanks to me, but I know the present king don't think this is true. He was born in the wrong day. Three days before the perfect day. So now you're facing bankrupt and you came here to steal the gold. You want it back»

Lukas opened his arms as he could embrace all the treasure that was in front of him. Enough to save his country. Enough to get back everything the hard times took away from them. Was he greedy? He didn't think so, because all that palace was a waste, in his opinion, a great idol built in the name of superstition.

«Yes, astrologer» he said «I think you should give all this gold back to the crown. We helped you in the past, now it's your turn»

«My horoscopes were always right. I don't owe anything to you»

«Still you sit here in this golden toy while my people is starving»

The astrologer stepped back, his enormous body half hidden in the shadow the machine itself was casting. «I have a solution for that. I made the horoscope about it»

«And what is it?»

«Depose your father. Take the throne. Face the enemies of your blood and the people that is truly attempting to destroy your nation. After that a new era of prosperity will come»

The blade of Lukas was suddenly out from his sheath «Treason!»

The astrologer raise, pulling his hands up from the ground, facing the blade, but not moving. He stood up in front of the weapon of the heir of the enlightened reign, waiting for him to move.

«Wait, majesty» Artamiz tried to stop Lukas «You can't fight this... creature... how could you stab him?»

Somehow that desperate move drove Astrologer's attention on the servant. «You're brave to stand between me and your master»

«I'm not here just to serve him. I'm also here to defend him!»

«But you're not a warrior»

«I don't need to be a warrior to take the side of my lord»

The astrologer moved just his fingers, the wires linked to his body moved, some of them slipping more inside his body, others slipping out of it. «What's your name again, boy?»

Artamiz answered just because, in his opinion, the creature wouldn't attack Lukas while they were talking. «Artamiz»

«What day were you born?»

«The fourth of the seeding month. Three years after the great council of Bast»

All the palace started trembling while the pillars moved, letting cogs push other cogs and telescopes and mirrors change position. For many minutes the astrologer said nothing but Lukas waited, part because he was curious about what was happening, part because he didn't know how to attack the armored creature.

When the structure stopped trembling, the gold gears started spinning faster and faster, literally singing out the harmony of their math.

At the end of that, the astrologer appeared satisfied. «I see»

«What?» shouted Lukas, waving his sword «You see WHAT?»

The astrologer didn't answer but he went to a big lever near the cogs and put his hand on hit. Pulling it down the bell of the structure rang, a different sound from the one Lukas and Artamiz heard before, and after that the golden gears started slowing down, until they stopped. Once frozen, they appeared less big and less shiny than before, but still made of gold.

«You can take the gold» told the astrologer.

«Why did you change your mind?» asked Lukas, still holding the sword in front of him.

«I didn't change my mind. As you didn't. You chose to take the gold and I'm giving it to you. Your day was good, you'll be king»

Lukas was still suspicious «But there's something you're not saying to me»

«Because it's something you don't want to hear»

The astrologer left the room. This time was impossible to follow his steps through the corridors of the structures. Lukas hesitated a moment before running after him, but, when he did, he didn't find the path the creature took and the steps stopped resonating through the walls, as he was disappeared.

When he came back, Artamiz was examining the mechanism. «It would be easy to dismantle this... there're few screws... and nothing more. And this is a big amount of gold, enough to save the reign, as your father need»

Lukas wasn't ready to celebrate, there was something, like a stain, in his soul, something related to the last words of the astrologer. Obviously, he didn't believe in horoscopes and he intended to ignore everything coming out from that creature, but still there was something like a shadow, something bigger than him, waiting for him somewhere. «We can't bring all of this away just by ourselves» he said «I'll call the garrison, we will need carts too»

The destruction of the mathematical mechanism started the day after that. Nobody saw the astrologer during the procedure and nobody saw him when all the gold was gone.

The gears rapidly became coins. Nobody was interested in what they were before, nobody asked about the mechanism they formed or if it was useful. They were simply melted, new money was minted with the face of the king on it. Debts were paid. All the problems of the enlightened reign were solved.

For a while.

Then the king started making the same mistakes that lead him to ruin the reign and this time there was nobody able to do something to avoid the disaster. All the enemies of the reign came, asking for his head.

The king was overthrown. By Lukas.

Because Lukas had understood that there was no other way to stop the collapse. But it was too late, Lukas kept the crown few months and then the war burst out, overwhelming him and all the people. Lukas died a year after the start of the war. Many men took his place as king of the enlightened reign despite no actual reign was there, but just a burning nation. The fire and the rage lasted ten years, when the peace was proclaimed was just because all the fighters were too tired to fight more. The enlightened reign chose a new leader but he wasn't a king, they just called him the protector. The protector healed the land, rebuilt the cities, made the fields grow again. And one day he went back to the astrologer.

The structure was there exactly as the day Lukas came to it. Probably, the pillars and the giant cogs of the base never moved after the heir took the gold, letting the nature reclaiming the soil. Many plants had grown between the gears, creepers had covered most of the huge columns.

The protector was alone, he had to cut his way through the vegetation with his sword because trees and vines were also all over the stairs. When he reached the entrance of the palace he was tired and his arm was burning. «Are you there?» he shouted.

Nothing moved.

«Please, I'm here for you! Are you there?»

Silence, then the bell. The bell rang once, then twice, then once again. After that, the steps of the astrologer resonated through the ground.

«I'm... glad to see you» said the protector, when the shadow of the creature appeared.

The astrologer wasn't changed. Somehow, whatever he did, time didn't reach him. His massive armor was intact, as the metal couldn't rust, and his face was still expressionless and mysterious as nothing happened in all those years. «Who are you?» he asked.

«I'm the protector, the throne of the enlightened reign is under my responsibility»

«Why?»

The voice of the protector became sad. «Because the war exterminated anyone suitable to sit on it»

«Yes» said the astrologer, as it was the right answer «But you still have a name»

The protector trembled as he never did before. «Artamiz»

«Born the fourth of the seeding month. Three years after the great council of Bast. A perfect day»

«You knew, right? You knew I was going to...»

«My horoscopes are always right»

Tears came to the eyes of Artamiz, the servant that became commander. «Then you knew also... you knew also that Lukas was going to die. You knew that taking that gold would lead him to... to...»

«To be king. And face a war»

«And face death!»

The astrologer slowly nodded. «I tried to put him on a better path, but he chose to follow the one he believed in most»

Artamiz had seen a lot of things in his voyage from servant to protector, he had understood a lot about the human nature and the true soul of his old friend Lukas, so there was no need to explain to him what happened. Lukas chose his path because his trust was misled, because he was blind, somehow, and nothing could be done to correct that. Artamiz couldn't do anything to correct that.

«I brought back the gold» he announced.

«I know. Perfect day»

«We don't need it anymore. We are simpler now. Poorer, but simpler. We don't need treasures at the moment, we have to take little steps to find out who we are. So you can have it back, all of it. I spent a lot of time to collect it but... I think... it was the right thing to do»

The astrologer nodded again. «Perfect day»

«It's all in a cart at the end of the stairs»

«Then you can go now»

Artamiz the protector left the structure. He was sure he would come back again, in his future, to listen to the horoscopes, but for the moment he just had to leave. He climbed down the stairs and freed the horse from the cart where the gold was.

He was already far from the structure when its pillars started moving again.

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