Shining Star Keeper of Singers

All three women were staring at her in stunned silence and Lu knew she had made a tactical error, but somebody had to answer the gate keeper's challenge.   Ket was the first one to speak "How do you know godspeak?"   Lu tried to lighten the mood. "Not very well, actually. I can understand more than I speak."   Ket narrowed her eyes and repeated, "How do you know godspeak?"   "None of your business." Lu replied flatly as she turned and busied herself at the ship's console.   Sara gently prompted, "Is there something you'd like to share with us?"   "Not really."   It was TZ who started to put the pieces together. Lu closed her eyes and braced herself as TZ began to think out loud. "It's the old myth. Salelu Butwale Ti Orenga, shining star keeper of songs. This ship. It's an old-style Mabamba class, and.....Salelu.....Lu.....but.....it couldn't be."   Ket demanded, "What are you talking about? That myth is about someone who lived back before the Bane'ile home world was destroyed. It's not possible."   Lu knew it was time to come clean. "Sure it is. Time runs differently in the astrocyan realms, and for the record, I hate that myth. I'm no hero. And it's keeper of singers, not songs. I was never a keeper of songs! Why does everybody always get that wrong?"  

---

 

The Original Myth

  As the star beings move ever closer in the sky, it shall come to pass that one day there will be a final joining, two becoming one, and the whole world will be engulfed in the eternal flame of their love. This will be a time of great upheaval when the Singers of Songs will retreat to their mystical realms and the Bane'ile will be scattered among the stars. All the songs that the people have learned will fade from memory as the other worlds tremble in this time out of time when the music dies once more. But do not despair! For there will be one born of water in the last generations to walk the great plain of Bo Kaabo who will not forget: Shining Star Keeper of Singers. She will be a great flyer, a hero courageous enough to travel through all dimensions on the wings of an agile little mabamba. She will be touched by the eternal flame, and so forever hold the key that will restore the lost songs of the Bane'ile and set all the stars singing once more.  

---

 

The Current Telling

  A long, long time ago, there was a great pilot known as Salelu Butwale Ti Orenga, shining star keeper of songs, who lived during those tumultuous times leading up to the final joining. Her birth was prophesied by the ancient ancestors as the coming of the one who would save the songs of the Bane'ile and her disappearance was thought to have foretold the beginning of the end. It is said that, from the time she was a child, she was the best pilot in all of Kantostara, able to fly any ship with ease. She was even brave enough to venture into the astrocyan realms as the chosen pilot of the Singers of Songs. Salelu was a hero who left her home and family, and even the man she loved, to fulfill her destiny, but no one can say for sure what became of her. Some say she gave her life in a failed attempt to save her world. Others claim she's still out there, wandering through the astrocyan realms in search of the Singers of Songs so that they can sing her beloved world of Bane'ile back into life again.  

---

 

HistoricalSignificance

  This myth is based on the life of an actual person who served as the pilot to the Singers of Songs prior to their disappearance and the subsequent destruction of the Bane'ile home world some time later. Salelu mysteriously vanished without a trace giving rise to all sorts of speculation concerning her fate. She became a legendary cultural hero throughout the Bane'ile diaspora and beyond.