Alphubel was unusually nervous about going back to his Wonder this time. The Code had said there were disturbances and with his inability to go back to his Wonder using his own ability, so even if the Code had now taken down the barrier that was barring their entry, Alphubel was still unsure that he would be able to make it back.

Still, he had to try.

He quietly said the words he needed to himself and only when he felt the cold wind hit his face did he let himself open his eyes, keeping them closed for the journey and hoping that he wouldn't face disappointment.

But he made it and once again he let out a sigh, glad that he was able to make it. It was only one part of what he had to do however. Now he had to go and find the code piece and somehow resonate with it. He opened the door to the observatory and quickly closed it behind him, but he could tell that something was wrong with it immediately. The fire that was usually on was nowhere to be seen and parts of the observatory had frozen due to being unable to keep any heat. He couldn’t relight the fireplace either due to the logs having frozen over so much.

He curse himself for not thinking of brining any matches. He would have to take them along with him the next time he came to his Wonder. His lingering ancestor didn’t make an appearance either. He hoped nothing had happened to him. Maybe with the Code piece being weak, Eward was unable to manifest himself, even in his translucent form.

It meant Alphubel was on his own for this with no help from the ancestor. It wasn’t the first time this sort of thing had happened, but being able to talk to someone while he was staying up here would have been nice.

He wandered up to the star room, as he had now started to call it and could see that the paint that had been used appeared to be dull. His Wonder was weak and he felt a sadness in his being that he hadn’t realized was there until now. It was like he had failed it. The logical part of his mind knew that he hadn’t done anything to give it any sort of decay, but perhaps if Alphubel had been there when all of this business went down… no. It would have been no use. He would have been whisked away by the code anyway and probably wouldn’t have figured out how to reverse it.

The next door he opened led to the observatory and while things seemed to be in a slightly older condition, nothing appeared to be horribly damaged, that was until he looked into the telescope.

The glass at the end of it was completely broken. It was unusable. Alphubel could feel a cry of frustration at the mess, and only then realized that it was cracked on the outside as well.

For a moment, all he could do was look at it and shed a few tears wondering if there would be any way to fix it. He loved this part of his Wonder and having it taken away felt as though there was no longer a point to it.

He had to be brave about this. Use his logical head. He put his staff that he was carrying in the holder for it that appeared after he had his weapon upgraded and looked around the room. The telescope appeared to be the worst part of it, but could the code piece be in it? He had never seen any light within it and really that would have made the whole thing pointless for looking at space.

He moved his gloved hands around the bottom of the base and saw something that he hadn’t seen before. It looked like the telescope was… on top of something? Or at least that it could be moved away. But how would he do that? It was huge and even if he could lift over 300 pounds he still wouldn’t have been able to move it with his hands.

Then he had a thought. He had found his ring in the star room… maybe the answer was there as well?

He moved back into the room and began looking at the faded astral map on the wall. He had found the ring by pressing on Polaris… since the code was connected to Earth’s Moon… he went looking to find the Milky Way constellation and looking further, managed to find Earth and what appeared to be a very small dot next to it. It must have been the moon. Clicking on it, he could hear rumbling as something very large moved.

Alphubel waited for the observatory to stop shaking before he went to the telescope room to see what had happened. As he had hoped, the telescope had moved counter-clockwise away from the base and looking inside he could see something that looked like the code. It was hard to tell with how faded and non-shaped it was, but he figured he might as well try to see if he could resonate with it.

Slowly he moved to touch the Code piece and suddenly he found himself to be surrounded by Stars, the walls and floor having given way to what seemed to be him floating in Space with the Moon glowing brighter than the rest of them. It pulsated as if it was reaching out to the piece, and the piece in his arms appeared to respond and as they each pulsed and responded to each other, the brighter and more shapely the piece appeared to become before finally looking like a smaller version of the Code that he had seen on the moon.

He blinked a few times and suddenly the vision was over. The piece was now bright, but he had been here a while. He could tell that the light had changed where it had been for a moment. He carefully placed the piece back and went back to the star room, pressing on the Moon again. More rumbling and after he waited for it, he checked the telescope room once again.

Everything was looking quite a bit brighter and checking the telescope it appeared to have been repaired. He let out a sigh of relief and felt happy that he could do something for his Wonder. It gave him some self-confidence that he was meant to be it’s Knight. Now he just needed to go back to Earth and wait for the Code to summon him once again. First, he was going to write a list of everything he may have needed the next time he came.