When stars begin to vanish over Polanka, Antek, Zosia, and Philip follow a strange invitation to an old theatre and step into a mystery that feels far bigger than a magic show.
Polanka was the kind of town where the night sky seemed to lean close to the rooftops. On clear evenings, the stars glittered so sharply above Antek’s backyard that he could almost imagine reaching up and plucking one from the dark.
That was why, when he, Zosia, and Philip dragged the telescope outside to watch the new comet, they noticed the missing stars at once.
Philip frowned and pressed his eye to the lens. "There should be stars there. Right between the Big Carriage and the Little Carriage."
Zosia tilted her head back. The sky was cloudless, smooth as ink, but several bright points had simply vanished.
"Maybe we’re looking at it wrong," she said, though her voice had gone thin.
Antek stared at the empty patch overhead. His stomach tightened. The gap looked wrong, like someone had cut holes in a blanket of light.
"Stars don’t just disappear," he whispered.
Philip lowered the telescope. "Then what does?"
No one answered.
The next morning, the three of them found a new poster pinned to the board outside school. It was printed in curling gold letters on deep purple paper:
Magic Trick Show! Today only! Magus Aurelius invites you to the old theatre!
Zosia stepped closer. "The old theatre? The one that’s been closed for years?"
Philip ran a finger along the edge of the poster. "That place is supposed to be locked."
Antek was already reading the last line again. Something about the neat, careful handwriting made the paper feel less like an advertisement and more like a dare.
They went anyway.
The theatre loomed at the end of a narrow street, its windows dark and dusty, its carved doors swollen with age. Inside, the air smelled of velvet, dust, and something sharp, like lightning after rain. Their footsteps echoed all the way up to the stage.
Then the lights dimmed.
A small man in a purple cloak stepped into the spotlight as if he had been waiting for them all along. His hat shadowed his face, but his eyes shone bright and cold, like two trapped stars.
"Welcome," said Magus Aurelius. His gaze settled on Antek and did not move. "Tonight, you will see real magic."
Before Antek could speak, the stage went black.
In the darkness, pale spheres of light began to drift upward, one after another, spinning like tiny moons. Philip grabbed Zosia’s sleeve. Something rustled overhead. A streak of light shot past his ear and vanished into the magician’s sleeve.
A voice, soft as a breath, brushed across the children’s faces.
"Do you want to know where the stars went?"
The floor trembled beneath them. The theatre seemed to tilt, and somewhere behind the curtains, something enormous began to stir.