Issue 2 - A Council of Stars
(Dec 2026)
ISSN
Background art: Batakagan ya din Dwa ay Mankabsat (Batakagan and the Two Brothers) by Bulan Embong
Our kingdom has gone dark, the enemies have won. We’ve lost our map, our compass and our keys. As we journeyed through this uncertainty, some of us have stayed on the same boat, others have chosen different vessels, but we’re all sailing to the same place.
A place to be. A sanctuary to look to the sky and see the heavens once more. We remember the voices of those present and long past. The old stars have reached the end of their life, but their light still reaches us across time and space. For we will always be together from the end to the start.
In the face of this timelessness, we realize in order to do this revolutionary work, we have to be prepared to lose everything, but trust the land will care for us as we care for her. What are the stories we hold as protection during conflict? How do these words become our guiding stars?
We did not truly lose our map, compass and keys, because they are what the sky remembers.
We, the council of stars, have brought you messages from the eternal, charted from the breath we’re drawing in now.
Love,
Nathalie De Los Santos | Editor
Thank you to K.S. Villoso, who edited this issue!
Issue 2: A Council of Stars
Batakagan ya din Dwa ay Mankabsat (Batakagan and the Two Brothers) by Bulan Embong. Cover art.
Star-stitched by Alyzza J. Casas. Fiction.
A Parade of Grief | my seventh moon by Nathalie De Los Santos. Poetry.
Grace by Isabella Medalle. Fiction.
Couples Therapy by Julia Palmiano Federer. Fiction.
Star-crossed by Frances Salayo. Fiction.
Free resource that inspired the works:
Balatik: Ancient Stars of the Filipino People by Dante L. Ambrosio, translated by K.S. Villoso.
(Read more about him. This article was published in the Philippine Social Sciences Review vol 57 Nos 1-4 2005 (CC BY-NC 4.0))