"Fruit is almost always picked before it is actually ripe. It doesn't die just because it was disconnected from its plant. I think many seeds are even designed to finish developing as the remains of the fruit rot, long after it is removed," Apella objected.

Jade felt his character Hisui blink with him, as he replied, "You know a surprising amount about growing fruit? But it still has to finish growing, and storing up all of those nutrients first."

"I guess," Appella agreed grudgingly.

"Just so," the elder agreed from the mirror.

Apella huffed and tossed her head in a gesture that would have flipped Eric's bangs back, as she glared at Hisui. Jade found himself laughing hard enough to jiggle his dwarf's belly.

From the mirror, Harmony chuckled as though she could see them both, even as her character Sky nodded knowingly to the Augusmin elder.

The elder plucked a leaf from a branch that hung almost down to his nose as his step bounced him forward. He nibbled the leaf as delicately as though it were a favorite candy, with every moment to be savored.

"You eat some of the leaves you carry?" Sky asked with interest.

"We sustain the tree, and the tree sustains us," the elder replied serenely.

Jade felt his own thoughts bounce. He struggled silently for a moment until the connection completed again. It was a strange, almost alien thing, but the thought his orbital system had sent to this distant part of him banished his awareness of it. If the shining leaves were acting both like a currency, and like batteries then they were also the physical form of a bargain the Augusmin had made with the Moon's tree.

Jade used the elvish language as he shouted into the mirror, "Sky, don't eat anything that comes from the tree!"

Apella looked utterly confused. Sky tilted the mirror on her side away from the Augusmin and back to her own face.

Harmony's voice was warm and reassuring as Sky replied lightly in the usual common tongue, "Don't worry, you won't find many leaves in my diet."

"That actually sounds rather worrisome," Apella responded both mockingly, and questioningly.

At the same time, the elder's voice replied huffily to Sky's comment, "You haven't earned the right to the tree's gifts anyway."

"Gifts don't have to be earned," Sky countered the elder swiftly.

The Augusmin elder and Jade both regarded the elf incredulously.

"Even Santa Clause supposedly requires a whole year of good behavior from kids," Apella blurted.

Sky's cheeks turned pinker, and Jade found himself laughing. Somehow it wasn't strange that the eldest among them could seem the most innocent.

Apella's confusion increased, and her eyes searched Hisui's. "What am I missing?" she whispered far more quietly.

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"Eating the tree's 'gifts' might bind you into the same bargain that the Augusmin have made with the tree," Jade whispered with his hands cupping the mirror on both sides, as though covering its ears.

"What bargain?" Appella asked.

"I'm not sure," Jade admitted uncertainly.

Harmony's voice drifted through the mirror, sounding somewhat muffled, and Jade shifted Hisui's hands again. "...he carries gifts to every child in the world within a single night, according to the myths of my homeland."

"That's impossible!" objected one of the other Augusmin. "No one can survive the night."

"It might be possible, in the other world," the elder said more thoughtfully. "The nights there would be warmed by the fire within the world, or so the legends say."

"He is rumored to dwell in our coldest winter region, and flies through the sky, so perhaps he could even travel safely through the nights here?" Harmony suggested. "But he delivers the gifts to the children's dwellings during the night. Do you have dwellings?"

"Maybe we could not spread all of the prejudices that our myths are built with into the game," Apella muttered softly.

"What is a dwelling?" one of the sleeker Augusmin asked.

"A place to sleep and store food," Harmony replied as though she thought of her own home in such simple terms.

"We don't, but the tree shares its energy with us, and there are only a few children amongst us at any one time. We carry them in the warmest part of the day that we travel, and never let the night catch them," the elder explained.

Beyond the small mirror held in Hisui's hands, a shining sea of rabbit-like people continued to move along the length of the giant root in rhythmic waves. Rather rapid waves. The Augusmin were moving faster than any human foot traffic. Skyheart Snowsong was far out of sight.

Jade glanced at Apella, and then at the small ship beside them. "How long do we have to get moving before the night would reach us?" he asked.

The elder answered after a long moment, "Perhaps seven more turns of your Empire's sphere, but do not be fooled by the number of bells that gives you, it is better to stay far beyond the edge of the night. If you take a moment's rest, you'll find you must run for twice as long to catch up with the sun."

"Seven days?" Appella asked incredulously.

"Game days are a lot shorter," Jade reminded her. Him. Eric's character. Somehow thinking of the hours that existed outside the game made him think of the actual person.

"What do you think happens if you log back in during the night?" Apella wondered.

"I'm not sure I want to be the character that finds out first," Jade admitted.

"Do you just carry these leaves around the moon forever, in a single endless day?" Harmony asked suddenly.

"Not forever, one must only carry a branch back to the tree a hundred times to earn a taste of the tree's fruit, and renew the pledge."

The Augusmin beside him piped up, "It only takes a thousand to gain immortality!"

"Immortality? Seriously?" Apella scoffed.

"I don't see why not, Living Jade Empire already has fountains of youth," Jade pointed out.

Skyheart Snowsong merely replied to the elder rather dryly, "The tree's fruit probably tastes like swamp muck then."

A ripple of reaction spread across the gently rolling sea of figures.

"Why, how could you, why would you even..?" the younger Augusmin spluttered.

"Medicine always tastes bad," Harmony assured them.

"It is certainly the most delectable fruit in existence!" the elder objected.

"Ever had an apple?" Harmony asked laughingly.

"No, I haven't had the opportunity," the elder replied.

"I might have one." Sky shifted the mirror to point at the sky as she reached for her storage ring.

"Don't let the foreigner trick you!" one of the younger Augusmin shouted at the eldest.

"The energy the tree gifts us is worth more than the most delicious food imaginable," another added confidently.

Another ripple spread through the Augusmin as Sky held out an apple. The Augusmin stared at it ascance, as though it were the strangest object they had ever seen.

The Augusmin elder's ears swiveled for a moment, and then he shook his head. "Thank you, but I decline. You won't trick one of the tree's precious leaves out of me that easily."

"You can just have it. I will gift it to you freely," Sky promised.

The elder tilted his head, but then shook it in negation again a moment later. "I will still decline," he said firmly.