Sky Diary

Chapter 1, Volana’s Breath

Albena was the first sky. Small islands close together, and in the middle the Lighthouse of the Winds, dark for who knows how many seasons. The old temple was covered in moss. When your Veiled went inside, it lit up again. You laid your first bridges the way I showed you, then the Collectors on the two nearby springs. The enemy temple was slow: its towers came late, and your Gusts were already there. Its Keeper turned to light on your altar and rose to the gods. Its temple rests now. Your Veiled filled their bundles for the first time since our sky dried up. Tomorrow we leave for Marina.

Chapter 1, Volana’s Breath

Marina is a ring of islands around a rich center, and on the center stands the Eye of the Storm. The enemy wanted it as much as you did. The old temple of Marina remembered something Volana used to do when she was awake: a Cloud Wall, raised between those who shoot and those who need to stay standing. The Veiled here taught it to yours in a single day. Then the enemy Gusts stopped against your Walls, and you reached the center. Volana doesn’t know you’re using her Wall: she’s asleep. You’ll tell her at Crowstone. From here the road goes toward a sky I don’t know, Seriso.

Chapter 2, Saetto’s Trial

In Seriso the springs were under the dust. Dry dust, with leaves spinning in it, and no tree they could have fallen from. Someone passed this way before us: Sterpa, the spirit of the southern sky. What he’s looking for, I don’t know yet. Under the dust there was Lightning. Saetto spoke to you loudly, the way he always speaks: “You want my lightning? Take it.” The enemy had shut itself behind Walls, and Walls don’t stop a Pylon. You took the lightning. When your Veiled loaded their bundles, Saetto said one last thing: “Faster. Sterpa is already ahead.” I looked north. There was no trace left of Sterpa’s dust.

Chapter 2, Saetto’s Trial

Cimabruna is almost all sky: a few islands, far apart, and in the middle the Cloud Nest. Here the wind blows in your favor, and the rack filled up fast, for you and for the enemy. The enemy temple had only just woken. Sterpa had lit it on his way through, to keep you stuck here. Saetto wanted to see what you could do: “Two lights. Then strike.” You crossed the temple’s light with a Stele’s, and the first Thunderstorm fell where the enemy towers stood packed together. The temple Sterpa had woken rests now, and the wind of Cimabruna went to your Veiled. Saetto said nothing. The lightning over the Cloud Nest lasted longer than the rest.

Chapter 3, Nembra’s Patience

In Rocca Brinastella a long island, broken in three, cuts the sky in half, and on the middle piece stands the Sky Stone. To get across you had to take the pieces one after another. It had been raining softly since we arrived. It was Nembra. She speaks little, and slowly: “Those who wait arrive. Hail falls from above.” She gave you Rain, and with Rain the Mortar. The enemy Walls stopped your Gusts, but the hail went over them. The third piece of the rift is yours. The enemy Keeper turned to light, and its temple rests under the rain. Nembra counts time in seasons. For her, we got here in a hurry.

Chapter 3, Nembra’s Patience

Lunaria is another rift, a wider one: three pieces of rock and a lot of emptiness in between. The rich springs lay far away, across the emptiness, where a single bridge couldn’t reach. Nembra taught you to pray: “Let your Veiled rest. When they pray, I listen.” You left them at the door, and from their prayer faith was born. With faith you raised a Stone Cloud halfway across the emptiness, a new island where before there was only sky. The bridge to the springs became two short bridges. Your Veiled walked on a rock that hadn’t been there the day before. One of them stopped to touch it. Now Rain is yours, and faith too. The next sky is Lucerno’s.

Chapter 4, Lucerno’s Light

Brezavento Pass is the biggest sky we’ve seen so far: wide stepped islands, far from each other, and the Stone Arch. Here a bridge has to be long, and it stays exposed. Lucerno was waiting for you. He speaks warmly and asks questions: “What do you repair, before you strike?” He gave you the Sun, with the Light Shield and the Mirror. You put a Shield near the tip of every bridge, and the planks the sky had hit mended themselves while the Veiled walked across. Around the twentieth minute the enemy came looking for your Keeper. Your Keeper stayed home. Theirs turned to light on your altar. Now you have all four elements. Volana is still asleep.

Chapter 4, Lucerno’s Light

Pietra di Fiorina is made of high steps, and between one step and the next there is emptiness. Wood gets here slowly, and a bridge left halfway creaks and falls. Lucerno asked: “Why go around, when you can go straight?” Then he gave you the Dawn Bridge. Your Veiled prayed for a long time, and with their faith you laid a straight bridge of light from one step to the next, all the way to the free landing. The enemy Thunderstorm fell on it, and the bridge held. The first Veiled one to cross it walked slowly, looking down. On the way back, they ran. Fiorina is yours. Lucerno still has one more thing to teach you, in Seralia.

Chapter 4, Lucerno’s Light

Rocca Seralia is a ring around a rich center, like Marina. But here the bridges are glass: new planks stay fragile for a long time, and lightning breaks them. Lucerno asked you to look at who carries the wind: “Who walks for you? Choose well.” You gave each Collector a crew. The Wind Runners on the short bridge. The Stonebearers on the glass bridges, because they repair the planks as they walk. The Sunwings over the emptiness. When your Veiled ranked up, the Cart arrived, slow and full. The enemy here was careful and shot at whoever carried the wind. Your glass bridges held all the way to the center. The Veiled of Seralia talked about a dry breath that had passed toward Levina. That’s where we’re going.

Chapter 5, Sterpa’s Temple

The Thresholds of Levina are a wide archipelago, with the Lighthouse of the Winds in the middle, and the weather here changes twice as often. From the Veiled of Levina I learned what Sterpa wants. Saetto has promised him Volana’s first breath. If Sterpa wakes her first, the wind will go only to his sky, and the route will dry up behind him, one sky after another, all the way to our home. Saetto gave you something too: the Landslide, which makes the edge of an enemy island fall away. And I found something of Volana’s I didn’t know I had, the Current, which moves an islet. You held Levina. Now we know where Sterpa is going, and why we have to get there before him.

Chapter 5, Sterpa’s Temple

At Pietraserra the rift comes back, with the Sky Stone in the middle, and the springs dry up early. Whenever one dried up, two more were born somewhere else, one on each side, and we had to run. Here the enemy temple was Sterpa’s: a rust-colored banner, and veils of the same color on his Veiled. Sterpa used all four elements and never warned where he would strike. You learned the nests: two flyers to a nest, and for each family of flyers just one tower that can hit it. Your Veiled came home with full bundles, under the enemy kites. Sterpa’s Keeper turned to light on your altar. Sterpa was already gone: he had left for the next sky. On his resting temple, a little dust was left.

Chapter 5, Sterpa’s Temple

Porto Dorabruna is the first big sky on the route: wide stepped islands, long bridges, the Stone Arch. Here Rain sleeps. No Rain springs, not for you and not for Sterpa. At the fifteenth minute Sterpa offered a truce: the wind split in half, and the route stopping here for both of you. He really wanted to stop, and I didn’t understand why. You said no. Without Rain his Walls stopped the Gusts, and Lightning opened the way. Dorabruna is yours. Sterpa has gone on toward Crowstone, and we’re right behind him. As he went by, he didn’t look at me.

Chapter 5, Sterpa’s Temple

Rocca Renastella is big and almost empty, with the Cloud Nest in the middle of the sky. Here night falls early, around the fifteenth minute, and soon after the late hours begin. In the night I saw them. Sterpa’s people were walking on the bridges with empty bundles, slowly, like our Veiled when our sky dried up. The southern sky dried up before ours, and nobody went to help. Sterpa believed the only God who promised him anything. Sterpa isn’t evil. You prepared the Carrier’s path early, and when the temples started to fall it was already on its way. Renastella is yours. When you wake Volana, remember those bridges.

Chapter 6, Crowstone

The islands of Olmafonda make a big ring around the Eye of the Storm. Stingy springs, a restless sky, and the strongest temple on the route: the last one Sterpa lit ahead of us. It attacked early and cast its specials at just the right moment. It gathered a fifth more wind than you. You kept two towers near your home Collectors before setting out for the center, and your first springs stayed yours. Its Keeper turned to light on your altar. Afterward, for a while, none of your Veiled spoke. Only Crowstone is left. From here you can see the rift, dark on the horizon, and above the rift the column of the first spring.

Chapter 6, Crowstone

The skies of Crowstone are the last stop: the longest rift of all, glass bridges, a night that comes early. In the middle is the first spring, and inside the first spring Volana was sleeping. Sterpa had arrived before us, but Volana was still asleep. Your Carrier crossed the rift, took Sterpa’s Keeper and carried it to your altar. Five signs. The Keeper turned to light, rose to the gods, and Volana woke up. You asked her for her first breath for every sky on the route, Sterpa’s too. The wind doesn’t choose a temple. Back home the springs started blowing again, and your Veiled set down their bundles. You are a young God now, the God of the first spring. I’m going back to Volana. I’m one of her breaths.