The Starless Sea

Dorian continues falling, unsure of how long it has been; he has long since lost sight of Allegra. Something he thinks may be a planetary ring strikes his shoulder, breaking it. He sees a light below him and expects that he will soon crash into whatever the bottom is. He thinks about Zachary and all the regrets he has for the things he did not do. He remembers Mirabel and the night that changed everything for him, but doesn’t regret it, despite how things have gone.

Rather than striking bottom, Dorian falls through a cavern toward the light. As Dorian gets closer and closer to the ground below, his final thought is “Maybe the Starless Sea isn’t just a children’s bedtime story” (331). Perhaps, there might be water below. He plunges into the Starless Sea and realizes that it is not water, but honey.

Mirabel and the Keeper have a heartfelt reunion, complete with a raw, heartfelt embrace that makes Zachary uncomfortable. Mirabel states that there is a plan, which people have worked toward for centuries; the only problem is its execution. She announces that they are going to rescue “Ezra’s boyfriend,” retrieves the broadsword in the Keeper’s office from its case, and knocks over a container of keys. The Keeper protests, but Mirabel points the sword at him and answers firmly, “I love you but I will not sit here and wait for this story to change. I am going to make it change” (333). She gives the sword to Zachary and leaves to change her clothes, leaving the Keeper to stare after her.

Zachary announces his realization that the Keeper is the pirate and Mirabel is the girl; “all of the stories are the same story” (334). The Keeper explains that it was long ago in an older Harbor and that word “pirate” would have been more accurately translated as “rogue.” Back then, he was the Harbormaster until it was decided that the Harbor no longer needed a master. The Keeper was forced to watch as they executed Mirabel in his place by drowning her in the Starless Sea.

Zachary takes his bag and the sword and goes to the elevator. Mirabel says that Allegra attempted to close the door from the other side. She asks if Zachary loves this place. When he answers that he does, she tells him that Allegra loves it more. Mirabel explains that her mother disappeared when she was five and Allegra raised her before leaving when Mirabel was 14. Despite raising Mirabel for nine years, Allegra repeatedly tried to have her killed because she saw her as a danger to this place.

Mirabel says that they are in what Zachary’s mother would call a “moment with meaning” (335), mentioning that she had met her. Zachary is startled but more concerned with the elevator, which sits below the floor and drops a bit when Mirabel steps inside. Noticing him hesitate, she reminds Zachary that he said he trusted her. He steps into the elevator. It plummets into darkness.

Dorian struggles to stay afloat in the current of honey. Just as he thinks, “What a stupid, poetic way to die” (337), someone grabs his hand and pulls him up and over the edge of a boat. He is instructed to stay down as claws strike his shoulder. He is handed some cloth and wipes the honey off his face so he can open his eyes. A girl announces that the owls are gone but will return as they like knowing when things have changed. Dorian notices that while his shoulder is no longer broken, he now has a tattoo of a short sword with a curved blade, a scimitar, on his chest.

He sees Allegra’s body laid out on the deck. The woman explains that she knew Allegra as “the painter” and mentions that she used to play with her paints when she was a rabbit. When her answer startles Dorian, she explains, “I used to be a rabbit. I’m not anymore. I don’t need to be. It’s never too late to change what you are, it took me a long time to figure that out” (340).

Dorian asks her name. She says that they called her Eleanor up there, though it is not her name. Confused, Dorian thinks she does not look old enough to be Mirabel’s mother. He tells her that his name is Dorian, which feels truer than his other names. Inspecting Allegra’s body, he sees not a tattoo of a sword on her chest, but a bee, which surprises him.

Eleanor informs Dorian that she can take him to the place tattooed on his back if that is his destination. The tattoo shows a cherry tree forest in bloom, with lanterns and lights all through the branches. At the center, an owl with a crown sits on a beehive that drips honey onto a stack of books atop a tree stump.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins dreams of dancing in a ballroom only to be awoken by Mirabel. Having somehow survived the elevator crash, they are in a courtyard surrounded by stone arches. He notices one has a key and another has a crown. Mirabel explains that it is a lost Harbor, one abandoned as the Starless Sea rose, with another one appearing higher up. She lived three lifetimes in that Harbor, which she remembers, along with all her other lifetimes.

Mirabel explains her mortal lives and their relation to the plan she had referenced earlier: “I was always going to be mortal until I was conceived outside of time. People who believed in the old myths tried to construct a place for that to happen. They attempted it in Harbor after Harbor” (345). People at the Keating Foundation worked to enable her birth, though most died before she could offer her gratitude. Mirabel muses that for all the time spent planning, they did not consider the consequences of their actions.

Zachary realizes that they are rescuing Dorian because Mirabel has seen the painting. He observes that they are not there to find Dorian, but to find Simon, the last thing lost in time. Mirabel corrects him: Zachary is there in order to do something that she cannot. When he asks whether he had to, Mirabel explains that fate does not take away from Zachary’s agency and responsibility. A massive parliament of owls interrupts their argument, and Mirabel tells him to run.

In the darkness, Mirabel and Zachary are separated. Zachary swings the sword, wounding some of the owls, but he cannot escape them fully. He runs until he finds a staircase ending above his head. He tosses the sword on the lowest stair and tries to jump toward it. He grasps the sword but loses his grip and falls into the darkness below.

Dorian asks Eleanor about his new sword tattoo. She explains that he thought that it should be there, so the sea listened. When he insists that it was only an idea, she explains: “It’s a story you told yourself. The sea heard you telling it so now it’s there. That’s how it works” (351).

She explains that she found parts of the ship and told herself the story of it to build the rest of it. Dorian confirms that he had his back tattoo before falling into the sea. When he had lost Fortunes and Fables, all that remained was the photocopy of the illustration. He had wanted something no one could take away from him, something he could always keep close.

Eleanor takes Dorian into her cabin, where a stuffed bunny with an eyepatch and a sword sits on a shelf, alongside an antlered skull and feathers. She shows Dorian her map of the changing layout. When he asks how much of this realm is comprised by the sea, she explains that the sea is really more of a series of rivers and lakes. She gives him directions back to the Heart, but warns him that it will be different. Dorian explains that he is trying to get back to a person, instead of a place. Eleanor points out that people change, too. Dorian agrees but does not want to think about it.

Eleanor explains that time is different “down here,” passing more slowly and sometimes “skipping around” rather than passing at all. Dorian asks if they are lost in time and Eleanor answers that he might be, but she is not. She came down searching for someone, then searched for and found herself. After that, she started exploring again, feeling as though it is what she should have been doing all along.

Allegra’s body is tied to a wooden door. They set it out to sea and set it on fire using one of the lanterns. Eleanor mentions Allegra’s belief the dead should be returned to the sea, since it is the source of stories and all endings are beginnings. She wonders if that means that “all beginnings are also endings” (355). Dorian can only answer, “maybe.” After the funeral, Eleanor thanks Dorian for “seeing” her when other people “looked through [her] like a ghost” (356).

After his fall, Zachary Ezra Rawlins has landed in a “sea of broken statues” (357). He takes a torch from one of them, lights it, and starts walking. The rubble beneath him makes for uneven ground, but he continues on. When the stones shift, he bumps into a corpse and takes its scabbard to make carrying the sword, which he still has, easier.

Zachary finds his way to a tunnel. As his torch dims, he suddenly hears sounds he is not making and comes face to face with a giant white rabbit. He hears a voice berating him for believing in any of it, saying he died friendless because he was too caught up with his books to make a real life for himself. All he sees is his mind’s way of creating the life he wanted: full of adventure, intrigue, and even romance.

As he considers the rabbit’s words, someone with a British accent grasps his arm and tells him not to listen. Zachary resists, and the voice in the darkness becomes angry, trying to grab him. Zachary focuses on his sword and the new person. He insists he still believes. As his determination grows, walking becomes easier, but the thing in the darkness follows.

The British voice tells Zachary to wait. Zachary sees a sliver of light from a door and then is pulled through it. The darkness fights back, hissing when he stabs at it with the sword, claiming that he does not know why he is there and that he is being used. The door closes. The man asks for Zachary’s help in barring the door. Zachary looks around and finds himself in a temple, staring at Simon Jonathan Keating.

Dorian dreams of his failed attempt to kill Mirabel. He wakes on Eleanor’s ship and puts on the clothes and boots she has found for him. The coat has stars for buttons. They reach the shore, and Dorian sees the forest of blooming cherry trees within the cavern. Eleanor tells Dorian to tell the innkeeper that she says hello. He agrees and mentions that he knows Eleanor’s daughter; Eleanor knows he means Mirabel but says Mirabel is not her daughter “because she’s not a person. She’s something else dressed up like a person, the way the Keeper is” (367).

Dorian wants to give Eleanor something out of gratitude for saving his life. Realizing that he has Fortunes and Fables—and that what truly bothered him about not having it was that it was not being read—he offers it to her. Eleanor says that she once gave someone a book that was important to her and never got it back. As the boat leaves, he sees “to Seek & to Find” carved on its hull (368).

Dorian enters the forest, which is exactly as described and illustrated in his book. As he gets deeper into the forest, he sees stumps covered in books or melted wax from still-burning candles. He follows a clear path away from the sea; the falling cherry blossom petals turn to snowflakes. The path grows darker and colder until Dorian cannot see. He hears something moving around him and lights a match, revealing a man who has the head of an owl standing in front of him. The match goes out, leaving Dorian in darkness in front of the Owl King.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins sits face to face with Simon Keating, whose left hand appears to have been cut off at the wrist. Simon asks if Zachary can still hear the voice from the darkness. Zachary says that he does not. Simon tells him that the voice told him lies and that Zachary should let it move through him and then let it go.

As Zachary calms, he notices the statues, some of which have animal heads. The statues have outstretched arms, crowns, and antlers, tied to balconies and doors with ropes, ribbons, and threads, which have book pages, keys, feathers, and bones attached to them. In the atrium, he sees a sequence of moons sculpted in brass. The two largest statues, with balconies built around them, face one another from opposite sides of the room; one figure is obviously the Keeper. Red ribbons wrap around his fingers and wrists, tying him to both balconies and doors, and to the statue that both does and does not resemble Mirabel. Mirabel’s statue has red ribbons around her neck and wrists, which fall to the floor and pool like blood.

Simon asks “which one” Zachary is: the heart or the feather. He says it is confusing that Zachary carries the sword but does not wear the stars and that Zachary should be somewhere else. Zachary mentions the bunny. Simon calls it the celestial hare and says that seeing it means that the moon has arrived and it is later than Simon had thought. He notes that the Owl King is coming. When Zachary asks who the Owl King is. Simon answers, “Its wings beat in the spaces between choices and before decisions, heralding change […] of the long-awaited sort” (373).

Zachary asks who the stars are, and Simon answers that they are the stars—they are all stardust and stories. Flummoxed, Simon states that things are not right: The doors are closing, ending possibilities. Once within the story, Simon exited it and now monitors the story as the sea and the bees whisper it. He tries to understand the story’s shape, its past, and its future. He tries to record it, but fails.

Zachary understands that the array of statues, ropes, gears, and keys is Simon’s representation and record of the story. He notices paper bees surrounding a sword and crown, a ship run aground, a library, a city, a fire, a pit of dreams and bones, someone in a fur coat on a beach, a cloud (or possibly a blue car), and a cherry tree with blossoms made of book pages. As the ribbons and keys shift, images within the pages grow clearer: vines around the orange cat in the Keeper’s office, two women drinking and talking at a picnic table at night, a boy standing in front of a painted door he does not open. When Zachary looks from another angle, the whole thing seems to be in the shape of an owl, but the shape dissipates into individual pages again. After the change, he notes that some people once together are now separated. It is snowing somewhere. Someone is walking toward an inn at a crossroads, and the moon has a door in it.

Simon observes that the story is changing again, with events moving so fast that they’ve begun to overlap. Time may move at different rates, but all progresses toward the future. His comments grow more cryptic: “She was holding it in like a breath and now she is gone. I did not think that would happen […] soon the dragon will come to eat the world […] The story followed you here. This is where they want you to be” (374). When Zachary asks who wants him to be there, Simon whispers that gods with lost myths are writing new ones.

A breeze ruffles the book pages and ribbons, putting out candles. Zachary backs into a statue. On the statue, an owl sits, staring at him. Zachary tries to draw his sword, but Simon asks, “Why would you fear that which guides you?” (375). He explains that the owls propel a story forward. This owl, small and fuzzy, drops a folded paper star at Zachary’s feet and waits for him to open it. Zachary unfolds it and reads as the owl looks on.

“The son of the fortune teller stands before six doorways” (376).

Zachary Ezra Rawlins only reads the first few words, not ready to know the rest of the story—his story. He folds the paper back and puts it in his pocket. He considers that all three of the things lost in time are with him—the book, the sword, the man. The instructions said “find man,” but now that he has found him, Zachary is unsure of what to do next.

Simon mutters cryptic advice again: “You are words on paper. Be careful what stories you tell yourself” (378). When Zachary asks for clarification, Simon asks if he is new and states that he believed he was there “to read and not to be read, but the story has changed” (378). Simon tells Zachary that Zachary is inside the story, with Dorian and his sword, and a cat searches for him. Simon notes that he sees many symbols now, when once there was only the bee.

Zachary declares he must find Mirabel, but Simon insists that she is not his friend and that if she has left him, it was intentional. Simon again says that Zachary should not have brought the story there; he stays away from it because attempting to return only brought pain. His first attempt ended in fire. During his second attempt, Allegra cut off his hand. Simon says that Allegra is now gone, surprising Zachary, but then suggests that they leave before the sea rises.

Zachary asks if the representation of the story says that Zachary goes with Simon. Simon checks, but says he is unsure who Zachary is. Zachary answers that he is the son of the fortune teller, but Simon no longer recognizes his own name. Zachary understands that Simon is truly a man lost to time—he sees but does not remember. Hoping to remind Simon of his identity, Zachary gives him The Ballad of Simon and Eleanor.

Simon repeats his earlier statement—“we are words on paper”—but adds a foreboding new sentence: “We are coming to the end” (380). Zachary suggests that reading the book will help Simon remember. He opens and shuts it quickly, saying they do not have time. As Simon asks if Zachary will join him in his ascent, the owl grips Zachary’s shoulder, but Zachary is uncertain what that means. Zachary looks at the story, then considers the people who have passed through the temple and felt what he feels: uncertainty, fear, and the inability to be sure of making the right choice. He asks Simon how to get to the Starless Sea.

Dorian, cold and dark, stands in front of the Owl King and offers his hand. The Owl King takes it and silently guides him to the inn at the crossroads, which has a crescent moon doorknocker on a blue door. When the innkeeper settles Dorian in by the fire, he sees Dorian’s star-shaped buttons and sword tattoo. Startled, the innkeeper announces that his wife left something for him, though she mentioned that he might not know he was looking for it. He gives Dorian an elaborate box, carved out of bone with gilded designs. On the top of the box, crossed keys are surrounded by stars. The sides have bees, swords, feathers, and one solitary crown. Dorian asks if the innkeeper’s wife is the moon, but he laughs and says the moon is just a rock and his wife is his wife.

Dorian notices no seams and no obvious lid, but there is a six-sided impression on the bottom of the box in one of the full moons. He looks over the symbols and wonders what is missing. He sees bees, keys, a crown, feather, swords, owls, and cats; finally, he realizes there is no mouse. He asks the innkeeper if he has a mouse. The innkeeper laughs. He says that he had told his wife that he missed mice after his inn was relocated, so she brought him silver mice. One of his mice is fashioned as a knight with a tiny sword, and its base has six sides. Dorian presses it into the indentation of the moon and turns the mouse. The lid opens. Inside the box, he sees a human-like heart, beating.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins follows Simon’s directions to the sea. Eventually, he comes across a tent with food and other provisions. He finds Simon’s old coat, which he puts on, leaving his sweater behind. He quickly realizes that he will not be able to fit all of the items in his bag and sees a note in the center of the table: “When you’re ready/choose a door” (388).

Zachary returns to the path and finds six doors with the expected symbols on them, though they are out of order; the crown is at the end and the bee is in the center, next to the heart. He recognizes the situation as the one in the paper star that he refused to read further. He returns to the tent and enjoys the food and the brief reprieve from whatever is about to happen. The tent and its provisions remind him of the health potions in front of a door in a video game, which often hint at danger ahead.

Zachary drinks his wine and thinks about everything he has learned so far. He tosses the paper star into the fire, unread. He finds the doors again with their golden symbols; sick of doors, he continues past them, venturing into the shadows through crystal and ancient architecture. Eventually, he finds the outline of a door scratched into a crystalline cavern. This is another meaningful moment, possibly the most significant of them all. As he stands in front of a new door, Zachary Ezra Rawlins knows the right path: “The path that leads to the end” (391).

Two years after the present (according to Zachary’s timeline), Kat Hawkins drives her sky-blue car to Madame Love Rawlins’s farmhouse in the Hudson River Valley. Madame Rawlins gives her a warm welcome. When Kat asks if she is worried, Madame Rawlins answers that worrying will not change the future. Kat still worries about Zachary and the things they still cannot safely discuss.

She tells Madame Rollins a secret that she has not told anyone: She created a video game for her thesis, designed for Zachary. It began as a choose-your-own adventure story with smaller stories and myths within stories with multiple endings. She then turned it into a text game. The company that hired her wants her to create a full-blown version for them. Madame Rawlins observes that Kat thinks Zachary will never play it, and she assures Kat that he will want to play it when he comes back.

Madame Rollins says that she once had her cards read by a good reader. All that she told Madame Rawlins came true except one thing: She said Madame Rawlins would have two sons. At first, she assumed the reader was wrong but now, she knows that she was right, and that Zachary will come back because she has not yet met her son-in-law. The pure acceptance in the statement makes Kat smile, even though Kat is unsure that Zachary will return.

Kat unloads Zachary’s belongings from her car, including the Ravenclaw scarf she knitted for him. She leaves him a keychain flash drive with “<3 k” written on it. She puts her teal notebook down next to it but changes her mind as she is not yet ready to part with it. Madame Love Rawlins gives Kat advice, ranging from the overarching to the mundane, and a message of love and acceptance.

Madame Rawlins invites Kat to Thanksgiving and tells her that though she thinks she has no home to go to, she does now. On her way back to her car, Kat decides that if Madame Rawlins is sure that Zachary is alive, then he must be.