We last left Red confounded by her mother …
and hidden watchers watching.
Red sprinted toward the gigantic windows and stopped in time to stand next to her king-sized friend.
“What was that tune you were humming yesterday?” she asked.
Issi chuckled, revealing, “Just a little something passed down from an ‘Ancient Star Wanderer’—or so they say.” Issi’s voice dropped slightly, as if letting her in on a secret. “They say the Wanderer still drifts, star to star, galaxy to galaxy. Through all of time. Through all of space. Traveling the universe and beyond.”
Her eyes widened as she gasped, “Beyond?”
“So they say.” Issi smiled. “Sometimes, lass … you just have to believe.
And sometimes, you don't.”
“Do you believe, Issi?”
He bent down close and whispered near Red’s ear. “In the Ancient Star Wanderer?” he asked. “Aye, lass. I do.”
Then he regaled her with a glimpse of his past. “My grandda was a star watcher like his father before him, and I remember the day he gave me this star whistle.”
He pulled the mystical flute from his pouch, inspiring Red to gawk.
“…Grandda placed a firm hand on my shoulder and said, ‘You’ve got the gift to hear the songs. Just remember it’s not about listening with your ears—it’s about listening with your heart,’ and then he gave me this whistle.”
Issi looked to Red and repeated, “It’s about listening with your heart, lass.”
Red was spellbound by Issi’s story—passed down through time and now across space.
Issi raised the flute to his lips, and his fingers effortlessly found the vertical holes, a skill ingrained in him since childhood in the ancient Highlands.
A lone, clear note echoed in the hauntingly quiet moment—it seemed as though even the stars themselves paused to listen. The single note grew into a slow, wistful melody, and after a few whistle-only verses, Issi brought forward the shanty words, steady and enchanting:
Oh, weave the stars and pull them near, threads that hum, I’ll lend an ear.
Speak to me across the dark, guide me homeward, leave your mark…
The melody swelled, wrapping the observation deck in something weightless and ancient. Red felt it lift her, pull her forward—like a tide rolling in.
She pressed her hand against the invisible glass.
A magnetic pulse surged within her—
as if the threads were reaching back.
Purple, blue, gold—colors twirled in time with the tune.
A warmth bloomed in her chest, like breath turned into light.
Still as new horizons gleam, hear my call and make me seen.
The threads shimmered, pulsed. She blinked. Expected them to vanish.
They didn’t.
Her heart thundered.
Not for just what she saw—
but at what saw her.
They weren’t just moving.
They were speaking.
She turned to Issi, her voice hushed as if breaching a sacred sermon. “Do you see them?”
Issi twinkled as he pulled the flute from his lips and reached inside his pouch once more. Out came another star whistle. His smile was mystical, angelic, just like the sound of the flute.
“Sometimes, lass, you just have to believe,” Issi murmured, eyes sparkling. He twirled the star whistle between his fingers before offering it to her.
“Been waiting for someone who listens right. Figured that might be you.”
Red’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes grew wide, glistening as she took the whistle. Its weight was enormous—not in size, but in meaning. As if born to the task, she pressed the flute between her lips, but stopped.
The star whistle was more than a toy.
Red hugged the star whistle. Her thoughts flickered to Echo. She swayed with the strands of threads boldly weaving before her and traced the now-familiar shapes onto the underside of her wrist as if compelled. She imagined it would become her first tattoo.
She found herself not only linked to the threads but now to the symbols themselves—whatever their meanings were.
Even though the symbols were unfamiliar in any previous context, they seemed strangely familiar. She made a mental note to keep an eye out for them elsewhere. Mum—she had seen these too. But would she ever ask her about them? She had been dismissed too many times.
Red pressed against the glass, as if drawn there by an invisible force.
“I knew it,” she whispered. “I knew you were out there.”
And that was all Red had to know at that moment.
The moment stretched, heavy and expectant. The stars pulsed in time with her heartbeat.
She felt something shift behind her. A whisper of breath. A shift in the air.
Peeking around the corner of the alcove, Mum had been watching.
Zophia lingered in the shadows, soft eyes fixed on her youngest daughter. She had come here to remember, and to inspect the stasis vaults on the lower deck, but she remembered…and now she couldn’t look away.
Red’s small hands pressed against the glass, her face illuminated with wonder, sparked deep emotion within Zophia. Instinctively, she raised her own hand, reaching for the glass—but hesitated, stopping herself.
What was she truly reaching for?
Memories flickered, faint and distant, of a little girl staring at the same stars, her heart once filled with dreams that had long since faded. She clenched her fists, pushing the thoughts away. She didn’t have to crush her dreams.
But she had. And at times—maybe even now—she regretted it. She had buried her dreams so long, they’d become fossils. But watching Red, she realized—some bones still sing when touched by light.
Unaware of her mother’s lurking, Red was immersed in the Ancient Star
Wanderer’s words—weave the stars and pull them near. Baptized.
She gently circled her imagined tattoo—a spiral embraced by gentle waves—as she peered back out toward space.
There—where the threads gave way to Mirach, pointing to Andromeda. The place she sensed mattered most.
“If you’re out there, I’ll find you,” she said, voice barely above a whisper.
The symbols pulsed, a slow rhythm, as if waiting.
Not if.
She pressed a hand to the glass, inhaled.
“When I find you,” she whispered, “I will not let you be lost again.”
The stars pulsed in time with her heartbeat.
And for the first time, they were listening back.
Next: The final episode. Episode 12—This is Where I begin
Bonus Content
Curious about the world of Starwoven? Keep yourself busy between episodes with bonus content. Browse the Starwoven Section INDEX for lore notes, character cards, and companion content. Would you like to hear Issi’s space shanty? 🎶 Threads 🎶
