Starlight Necromancer

Chapter 49 - Complex Arithmetics

Foster stood there, utterly stunned by the view of this beautiful night sky. Even though he should have been able to see this sort of thing before while they were traveling here to Arcadum, as if it was a habit, Foster simply never looked up. Back then, there was nothing for him to see there after all. But now, that was different. He had a reason to look up at the sky now.

While he was just standing there, Octer and Lynol finally caught up to him as well. They were about to question him about what he had just told them, but then, they saw him there, staring upward.

"Are you okay?" Octer asked, and Foster slowly turned around with a smile on his face, "I've never been better."

"...We'll talk about this later I guess, for now, let's just go and ask those guys about... whatever it is you wanna ask." With a deep sigh, Octer stepped up to his friend, slightly pushing him into the direction of where all of the Astronomers were standing. For some reason, Foster felt extremely nervous to talk to these guys. It was as if he was trying to talk to his crush in school.

"Sorry, erm..." He said, really unsure how he was supposed to start right now. The astronomer that he approached turned over toward him, although he was clearly still trying to sketch some things down on some sort of parchment.

"Yes? We're slightly busy right now, it's a perfectly clear night, and we're-"

"-trying to chart the planets and their relative positions to each other, right?" Foster asked, interrupting the man in front of him, and the astronomer raised his brows, "...Exactly so. How can I help you?"

"Ah, well... Erm, I'm new in town, and I was hoping to be able to talk to you guys for a bit? I've got a lot of questions about... you know, the stars..."

"Right, of course. Well, as I was saying, we are quite busy right now. But once we're done, I'm sure one of my colleagues will have time to answer some of your questions." The astronomer said, slowly noting down more information that was given to him by his colleague. Still incredibly curious, Foster looked at the map that the astronomer was drawing with the specific positions of the stars and planets, most notably marking down their apparent distance to this world as well as their relative distance to each other.

From all of these notes, and considering that there were some similar drawings on drawing boards, just from a few weeks ago, made Foster come to a quick conclusion, "Are you guys trying to build a model or something?" He asked, and the astronomer snapped his head to the side, "How did you-"

"I mean, it was kind of obvious, but..." Foster muttered with a wry smile as he saw the most fatal mistake of these drawings. He had hoped that someone had corrected these guys before, someone that came from earth, but... that clearly wasn't the case, "..that map is completely wrong... I mean, not completely wrong I guess, the numbers are right and all, but..."

"But what? What are you trying to say?" Nearly insulted by what Foster was insinuating, the astronomer stopped his work and walked up to this uninvited guest, deeply staring into his eyes. With a wry smile, he slowly turned his head away, "You're making that map with the assumption that this planet is at the center of everything... that everything else just revolves around us. But it doesn't... first of all, the sun is at the center. The moon does revolve around us, but the other planets, as well as us, revolve around the sun..." Foster tried to explain, and the astronomer looked back at him shocked.

"How do you-" He said, "I mean, you are completely correct, or at least most of us were thinking the same... But how do you know? Most buffoons around here still think that this archaic system is correct... Also, do not tell anyone I said that, or the lord of this city will have me beheaded for calling him a dunce... You don't look to be an astronomer yourself, so how are you so knowledgeable?" The astronomer, extremely intruiged by Foster all of a sudden, looked at him as if he was more interesting than the stars and planets he was supposed to study.

"Well, it's a hobby, I guess. I learned about it from... a friend. I did a little bit of research on my own after that, so I probably don't know as much about the stars as you do... I know the concepts better than actual information."

"Interesting... Young man, are you perhaps skilled in complex arithmetics? If you have the time, you could help out a little, and in return I answer some of your questions while we work." The astronomer said, now really wanting Foster to stay although it seemed like he just wanted him gone a few moments earlier.

Lynol let out a deep sigh as he walked up behind his friend, "Tough luck, Foster. Maybe you can help out otherwise, however."

"Huh, what do you mean?" Foster asked with a frown, and Lynol raised his brows, "Well, I doubt you will be able to help them with... complex ari..."

"Complex 'arithmetics', dude. And why do you think I can't help them with that? I'm amazing at math." After quickly replying like that, Foster walked up to the table that the astronomer was working at. While the astronomer slowly pushed aside the weights he kept the parchment pressed down onto the table in this windy weather up here, Octer and Lynol stared at each other.

"Did you know Foster could do math?" Lynol asked, and Octer quickly shook his head, "Of course not, even I barely know how to..."

"Guys, I'm not deaf." Foster sighed deeply, before turning back to the astronomer, "What exactly is it you want me to calculate?"

With a broad smile, the astronomer replied, "You see, our observatory gets its funding from the city's lord, and he personally requested that we work with this old planetary model in mind, saying that the model we suggested to him is 'blasphemy' of some sort. It is bothersome, but without him, we would be unable to do our work. But even so, we would still like to privately work with what we know to be true. So, could you prepare the calculations so that we can translate the values from what I am drawing currently over to the actual model?"

"Oh yeah, of course... But erm, I don't think I'll be able to calculate everything by head, so I'll really just prepare the basics, alright?"

"Of course, we have others working with us that can do the gruesome part of the calculations. But now, tell me.... what do you want to know?"