Star Knight Office Warriors

Left unfinished

Candice lifted herself off of the not-ground, in a space where nothing seemed visible but herself. All was darkness around her, with the odd twinkle here and there. She had not seen this in months. Not since the last time she had been Spoken with.

Before her, an immense flare of light appeared, the signature of the Great Observer. "Brave, beautiful and bold Star Knight, know that you stand before the Great Observer Polaris," a voice boomed forth.

"...yeah, hi," said Candice weakly, looking down at herself. Polaris never had the greatest timing in the world, but at least this time she'd been in pajamas when he sent the call.

"Star Knight Candy Stripe," Polaris addressed, then paused as if taking a bit longer to Observe than usual. "...You and your compatriots seem a bit less brilliant than usual. Where's your spark?"

"Running out of that, lately," Candice yawned as she scratched at a more uneven part of her long, blond hair. "The day-to-day is not really doing us any favors."

"Your secret identities, yes? The office job?"

"Pretty much."

"Know that the Great Observer stands behind you, supports you, grants you the strength to--"

"The strength to Fight Evil in All Its Forms, yeah. Well, not this kind of evil. This kind of evil isn't something we can dive-kick or throw our tiaras at. It's the job. I know you said it was the only way to monitor the True Source of Evil, but none of us have really had the time to poke around while there's quotas to do and... rent to pay. Truth be told...sir...Rose and Milly and I are out of ideas."

For all the strengths that the Great Observer Polaris conferred, he could not summon currency from thin air. But he understood. "That is most troubling. If I might be honest and show you my own humanity for a moment..." The great flare dimmed a little in front of her. "I've been running out as well." A tiny asteroid gently floated past the two, like a cosmic tumbleweed.

Candice was unsure if she'd heard that right. "You? The all-powerful watcher of the cosmos?"

"As the conferrer of the powers and magicks of the Star Knights, I simply cannot envision a power that could help you out of this predicament. I have no idea where your stars shall guide you next."

"What?"

"The True Source of Evil, I've said, is somewhere in the vicinity of that building. But beyond that phrase, nothing occurs to me to explain it. I do not know of any particularly interesting ways in which you should find it, where your story goes from there, or even what the True Source ought to be."

"Ought to--are you trying to create it, or find it?"

"It is your tasks as the Star Knights to find it. It is my job as the Great Observer to chronicle your journeys and hardships, and to provide you the narrative you need for it to be all-fulfilling. But without the wisdom that I need to lift my end, your end would go unwritten, invisible. The Star Knights... well, they'd be but a couple of pages, somewhere in the great stream of words, ideas, communal knowledge. A blip upon culture as a greater whole."

Candice felt as if she were shrinking.

"I'm not even sure how to end this conversation," Polaris continued. "Perhaps it was not meant to end. Perhaps it was meant to linger in the air, paused for all eternity."

Candice flared with sudden anger. "What the hell is that supposed to