Milo had never thought of the fabled lights in the sky, not once in his twenty-four years, but on the day that the travelling astronomers came to the village he’d become entranced. Their talk of other worlds and illuminations that shone in the darkness awakened his curiosity and fascinated him in a way that he never thought possible, so much so that upon hearing that the sirens of Lotus Lagoon were in possession of other-worldly knowledge, he’d set out from the safe sanctuary of his village to find them.

He knew that he should be wary, that he probably should have prepared more than a change of clothes and some rations to take with him, but he’d been so eager to learn more and investigate everything he could that his curiosity had drowned out his better judgement.

The land he crossed was perilous, even for the most foolhardy of warriors, but Milo hoped that his innocence of the world would spare him some of its harshness.

Luckily for him it did, and on his third day of travelling, his legs aching and regret beginning to kick in, he finally came across Lotus Lagoon, the water so pure and clear that he could lean over and look straight down into its depths.

“Hello?” he called, his voice echoing around the enclosed space and bouncing off the overhanging trees and rocks that surrounded the lagoon. “Is there anybody here?”

He suddenly felt rather foolish, wondering whether he’d been letting his fascination get away with him and that sirens and stars didn’t exist at all. For all he knew, the wizened old man who’d told him of the lagoon could have been playing an awful trick on him.

Milo took a step back from the bank and heaved a sigh, removing his backpack and throwing it down onto the ground beside him. He sat himself on the grass, bringing his knees up to his chest as he contemplated what he was going to do; he could stay and see if there really were deadly sirens willing to give him the information he sought, or he could go back to the village and feel like a fool for the rest of his life. He didn’t know which was worse.

“What to do? What to do?” he muttered to himself, picking up a lotus flower from the bank and twirling it between his fingers, admiring the white and pink of its petals.

“They are rather pretty, aren’t they?”

Milo was startled out of his thoughts at the sound of the soft voice, looking up to see a woman peering at him over the bank. His eyes went wide, shifting across her pretty face and her gentle smile. She didn’t look like a vicious creature who led men to their deaths, but he couldn’t be too careful. Even the most beautiful of things could be deadly. “Yes,” he breathed, unable to make much of a sound. “They are.”

“The ones here at the lagoon are the prettiest,” the siren told him, reaching out and taking the flower from his slackened grasp. She twirled it between her fingers and put it in her light brown hair, looking up at the strange man on the shore. “What brings you here, mortal man?” she asked, tilting her head.

“The… the stars,” Milo stuttered, her entrancing beauty stealing his attention and his thoughts.

The siren giggled, the melodic sound making the man smile, and as his eyes finally left her he noticed that more of the alluring creatures were beginning to arrive, their heads poking out of the surface of the water to look at him. Each one of them had a captivating beauty, sweet and delicate, and far too enticing as far as Milo was concerned.

“Sisters,” the siren said, turning to her kin, “this man wants to know about the stars.”

“Then learn about the stars he shall.”

Every set of eyes turned to the rock by the cliffs, a siren perched on the flat stone, combing her fingers through her long red hair.

Milo’s breath hitched in his throat and he scrambled to his feet in an instant, his eyes unblinking and his thoughts screeching to a halt. “I… uh… I…”

The red-haired siren waved her hand for the others to leave, ignoring the grumbles she got as they obediently swam away, and gestured for Milo to near her. “Do not fear, man of the land, I will not harm you.” When he didn’t move she heaved a sigh, and titled her head in fascination. Usually the men who visited their shores simply wished for a glimpse of their beauty, and upon being called they obeyed, but this man was different; he wasn’t there to admire them, he was there to learn from them. “What is your name?” she inquired, hoping that some gentle conversation would relax him.

“Milo,” he replied, trying to steady his breathing and form a coherent response. “My name is Milo.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Milo,” the siren said. “My name is Astrida. I am the queen of Lotus Lagoon. Now, what is this you say about the stars?”

Milo suddenly felt the need to bow, the knowledge that he was in the presence of a queen bending his back. “A few weeks ago, a group of travelling astronomers visited my village. They told me that our sky is not real, and that there are lights and other worlds up there, but we can’t see them. Is that true? Are there really things up there?”

Astrida nodded and smiled brightly, her delicate features lighting up as she jumped down onto the bank and approached the nervous man. “I can tell you many great things,” she told him, “of things that you couldn’t even begin to imagine, but you must do something in return.”

“Yes?” Milo was beginning to grow cautious, wondering what the woman was going to suggest.

“You must sacrifice yourself to me.”

“I’ll have to die?” Milo squeaked, taking a few precautionary steps back, not that he’d be able to outrun her or fight her off if she became malicious. Sirens always had been quick, even in the frightening tales.

Astrida laughed and shook her head. “No, sweet Milo, you will not die, but you will be bound to me. You will become my servant, destined to serve and obey me from now until the moment you die, and never to leave these shores.”

Milo thought on it for a moment; was it worth sacrificing the rest of his life just to learn about the sky? Or should he leave now and never look upon this beautiful place again? Do it, he told himself. It wasn’t as if the people of his hometown would believe him if he told them he’d spoken to sirens and talked of the stars anyway. If anything he’d just be deemed mad, so he thought it best to at least know the truth about the world he lived in and remain bound to the shores of Lotus Lagoon for the rest of his life than face the mockery and shame back at home. “I’ll do it. Tell me all you know.”

“Do you know what obsidian glass is?” Astrida asked.

“Yes,” Milo replied. “It’s a dark glass made by volcanoes.”

“Well, what would you say if I told you that our world exists inside a great orb made from obsidian glass?”

“I would tell you that that’s impossible.”

Astrida grinned, her smile stretching from one pointed ear to the other. “Not impossible, dear Milo, but very possible indeed. For we do live inside a sphere of obsidian glass. There are stars out there, and planets, and solar systems, and nebulas, but we will never reach them. At least not from inside the Orb.”