Their Broken Knees

Aleena Rose

For centuries, artists have entertained the romantic idea of “star-crossed” lovers. Portraits, poems, tragedies whispered across generations–the concept of them is everywhere. But when two stars are born beside each other in the sky, cursed to watch all of humanity’s wanderings with only their thoughts to close the distance between them, dreamers and scholars alike shift their attention to the pair instead.

1789. The French Revolution sends its first shockwaves throughout Europe, rattling both soil and stars. Both stars are knocked free from the sky, falling to opposite sides of France in bodies that don’t belong to them. Both broken and starving to find the other, they begin to crawl through battlefields and the complexity of humanity. They confine themselves to mortal names and jobs–a starving artist and street thief–in the hopes of surviving long enough to earn information about their lost half.

But their centuries of watching history have not prepared them to become a part of the ongoing narrative. As time bleeds away, their ability to abide by humanity’s code of morals thins. Their patience begins to crack. And fate watches the stars begin their path to inevitable collision.