AC III Chapter 7 Pilgrims Again

Thirty years have passed since the Star Bearers followed a mysterious light across the ancient world to Bethlehem. Now, beneath the sweeping beam of the Pharos in Alexandria, Theron Simonides, Gondophares and Balthazar sit together as old men, haunted by the friends they have lost and by two questions that have never left them: What became of Adam and Sophia?

Rumours arriving from Judea may finally offer an answer. Sailors and merchants speak of a healer and teacher in Galilee, a carpenter from Nazareth who commands demons, heals the sick and draws thousands into the wilderness to hear him speak. His name is Jesus. For Balthazar, there can be little doubt: the child beneath the Star has become a man, and the purpose that once called them across the world may not yet be finished. Theron proposes that they travel to Jerusalem and seek the help of two influential Judeans he knows through his vast trading connections: Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. If anyone can lead them to Jesus—and perhaps to Adam and Sophia,it will be them.

But before they can depart, the past comes thundering through Theron’s gates. Axia Panopliades arrives with her son Aldaran, followed by Targitus, Loukia, their son Arctos and the other children of a new generation. In a joyous and bittersweet reunion, old comrades embrace after decades apart, remembering those who are no longer among them: Melchior, Scarus, Arsalion, Kaliope and the others whose voices now live only in memory. The Star Bearers have grown old, but their story has lived on in their children. As Axia declares, these young men and women may be “the next Star Bearers.”

When the others learn of the stories from Galilee, the decision is made. Axia will go. Targitus and Loukia will go. Aldaran insists upon following the road his father once travelled, and young Arctos refuses to be left behind. Old hands and young hands join together upon Theron’s table as the League of Star Bearers is reborn, not summoned this time by a brilliant light in the heavens, but by a name: Jesus.

As they prepare to sail once more for Jerusalem, Loukia looks toward the distant horizon and realizes that perhaps the light which guided them all those years ago was never truly lost.

“The Star never disappeared.”

Balthazar smiles. “No. We simply stopped looking for it.”