Seed 20
June 26th, 2032.
“Good morning Celia!” Ultima shouted a greeting as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.
“Mhmm… morning.” Arali gave his own hello, waving his tail with a sharp grin. I was wearing my apprentice outfit, this time with the vest included. I threw my cloak aside to watch the dazzling starscape. Hopping down the stairs while humming Everything at Once.
“As sly as a fox, as strong as an ox…” I murmured to myself as I skipped half a dozen steps, landing firmly on my feet.
“Eat up these breakfast burritos Celia, you need the energy for tonight.” Ultima rubbed the back of her neck, ears flicking up.
“For the Masked Moon festival?” I questioned as I took a chair for myself, rubbing my hands together at the sight of my meal.
I glanced at one of the medicine cabinets. I read out the chain with a smirk, lock-sign-key-abyss. A simple cyfrin chain that could only be opened by Ultima.
“Indeed. The moon places her face under a great mask of shadow and light. So we witches lawless or not join in festivities of lunacy. It won’t be a quiet meal around a fire, it’ll be a full blown party across the land. It’s also the date many older apprentices decide to don their mask.”
“Mask?” I asked, not aware of what she meant.
Arali hissed a reply. “It’s how we express our Identity, our Self.” I nodded as he explained, gently rubbing his claws together. “Each and every person is unique, their identity shapes the form and essence of their magic. In Calafia we took up masks as a representation of our identity, our face, defining and focusing our craft, allowing it to exist.” He was definitely quoting someone.
“I… don’t have to pick that today do I?”
Ultima shook her head. “No. It’s more just a silly tradition, there aren’t any benefits like one would expect. Osu doesn’t care for putting pressure on her kin’s children. Though many apprentices do use this day to prototype their future mask, though more and more are being… encouraged to wear the masks of the Chantry.”
“I feel like that has consequences I won’t like.”
Her gaze was distant. “More than you know… but today isn’t about that. It’s about games, food, dances and storytelling. I don’t want that prick on anyone’s mind today.”
“Fair enough.” I bit into my burrito, and enjoyed the taste of griffin egg and bonnacon beef. “Soooo… good. Burritos don’t seem to be a thing here, though you’ve got flatbreads similar to tortillas. Which makes sense with your main crop.”
“We’ve got domestic triga, but that’s mostly for bakery breads. We didn’t even start making things like sandwiches until we got the idea from human stuff that fell into this world.”
“Triga… that’s a perennial wheatgrass isn’t it? Must make it useful for the milpa system you’ve got.”
Ultima shrugged. “We’ve got our system, Cipactli has theirs, and your people have theirs.”
“The shared origin is a tad obvious, milpan clearly became milpa in Calafia and Mexico, and milpe in Cipactli.”
She pointed at me with her claw. “Eat girl, we’ve got a big day today.”
I rolled my eyes but did as she asked.
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“You two got everything?” Ultima rolled her shoulders with her question in the air.
I nodded, fiddling with the royal purple doublet I had replaced my vest. I patted the black pants and white-gold skirt hugging my hips. Arali was wearing a cute little cerise vest interlaced with fine patterns of black and a black capelet. He
had multiple golden and white bands wrapped around his feathered tail.
Like a Sinosauropteryx, cute banded tail and all.
We were on her staff. So I paid decidedly more attention to Ultima’s main spell focus. The chosen tool to further define her craft…
“We haven’t really talked about getting my own implement or spell focus have we?” I blurted the question without thinking, and Ultima stiffened.
“No we haven’t.” Ultima seemed… fine, there was a catch in her voice. “I’ve been kinda putting it off, because an implement is a very carefully chosen tool and focus of magic. They’re tools meant to channel our power, made of different materials, with different shapes and abilities. It also requires ritual magic, to infuse an implement with their power and essence. “
“And you weren’t too sure I could perform those rituals at all?”
Ultima nodded with a croaky sigh. “Yes. You proved me wrong of course, you’ve got some magic inside you and that’s more than enough. I just wanted to get more training for you… and introduce you to the greater community of wildfolk.”
I tilted my head. “Like a coven?”
“More like Ultima’s drinking buddies.” Arali teased his guardian with a whistling laugh.
She snorted. “Same difference.”
“I want to work on my spell focus idea first. With the kaba glyph at hand I can start sketching out the spell array needed. I also need books on ancient runes, if you have any?”
“I’ll look into it.” Ultima agreed easily and I smiled at her. She had changed her outfit too, opting for a black burgundy dress and a black shawl wrapped around her head. Her cloak was freshly washed, and seemed almost alive with how it waved in the wind. “I’ll also start teaching you how to craft your own implement. When you're further along in your training. But for now… we’ve got a festival to enjoy.”
She produced three masks from under her cloak, carved from some material. Hers was in the shape of a white moth with enormous and frightening eye spots laid out in black and sharp reds. Mine looked like… Reyna? No it was a ram-horned raven, stained a warm white, like bone.
I gingerly took the mask for myself with a warm sensation in my chest, and with a deep breath moved on to Arali’s own mask. He enthusiastically put it on with an avian chirp.
His own face was already a mask, covered in an odd… smooth shell of sorts of dark purple, which oddly reminded of nighttime airglow, with faint lighter striations around his eyes and jaw. But his new mask looked like it was carved out of obsidian, like the skull of a stellar dragon glittering like stars. Along with his horns and mane, it made him resemble a tiny eastern dragon.
Adorable.
Ultima leaned forward, guiding her staff towards Cruorpool as it was covered in witch lights. “Now for you Celia, this is your first Masked Moon festival, a good old fashioned game of ‘Where’s Waldo!’ among friends. Everyone will be wearing a mask, obscured by illusions and glamour and sheer skill. If we split up, we will meet up in the forum easily, got it?”
“Got it.” As we got closer I could hear music, horns and strings and drums and more. Banners and flags and curtains are colored with all the colors of the night sky, purples and blues and blacks and whites. It looked like a drop of outer space had fallen onto the town like rain. A glorious void that made my own energies sing.
I grabbed my mask, and flipped it around. Oddly enough there was no strap like I expected, it was completely bare of any way to adhere it to my face.
Then again… it could be either magic or technology, spirit gum was a thing back on Earth. So I shrugged and placed the mask on my face, carefully adjusting it and marveling as the mask clung to me. I blinked and caught a faint whiff of magic, chains of green tickling my skin.
Oh, magic then. Neat.
The eye holes were sizable and it didn’t seem to obscure my vision at all so I got to see it all as we landed. The small town had likely doubled in population overnight. Five thousand people spread across sixty square kilometers now concentrated in a town about a mile on every side. And don’t get me started on on people visiting from one of the dozens of islands that made up the maritime kingdom of Caudalann.
I would say about three dozen in total?
Even so they controlled a boiling sea which covers thousands of square kilometers, with only two neighboring taifa being able to contest their control.
It was loud and grating, and almost certainly going to be exhausting but my curiosity had won out against my common sense today.
I dropped onto solid land with a grin, watching the crowds of hundreds spread out like water.
This will be interesting.
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I chewed on my lip as I inspected a wand, a simple device of wood and metal etched with fine runes. With my touch I felt the underlying magic seeping like blood into the material.
It was a simple toy, loaded with a single spell and I flicked my wrist to activate the device. It fired a weak blast of light to pop a few balloons on a stall, and I snorted at the expression of the stall owner. I had noted the magic forcing the blast off course, and… corrected my aim accordingly.
The man manning the stand was a cuegle, so he had black skin, a long beard, gray hair and three arms, and rows of teeth in his downturned frown. Three eyes in blue, red, and green stared back with contempt. He didn’t lack fingers like in the myths, it was more that his hands were smooth interlocking shells, fingers forming a hard club.
He sighed. “Select a prize.” He looked utterly broken and I shrugged away my concerns. I picked out a wolf plush, specifically a Warg, the ‘greatest’ of the wolves. I stepped away from the stand, holding the golden furred plush close to my chest.
There were many kinds of wolves in this world, just like on Earth. But wargs weren’t a species, not really. Every single animal in existence had a spirit, a spark of animating life within their flesh.
But spirits could grow and become greater, smarter, stronger, tougher than the average. Most had small voices, some were louder but didn’t know how to speak with the light of their soul. Some could speak with their light.
The warg, the vargr was the platonic ideal of a wolf, it’s what happens when an animal overcomes mortality and becomes a force of nature. In myths on Earth, they’d be creatures like Fenrir, Sköll and Hati.
According to Althea, the garou are among the last shifters, the precursors of the beastfolk. In ancient times witches learned how to Host animal spirits inside themselves, or were forcibly Imbued, becoming creatures who were of spirit and of flesh, letting them freely shift between many forms. No one knows for certain.
Most shifters lost their ability to shift but the garou didn’t, as their patron god, a living warg shielded them with the strength of the moon. A similar story is told for the kitsune, with a fox goddess instead.
So a warg was an expected toy in the same way people would sell superhero action figures. Just softer and fluffier. Wargs, the great wolves were bigger than life. Five to nine feet at the shoulder, and seven hundred to three thousand pounds.
I clenched my prize tightly… and bounced right off someone in the crowd. I lost my balance with a wheeze, hitting solid mass.
“Oh fuck—”
I was saved from embarrassment when two large hands grasped my shoulders, claws painted wine purple. I looked up into a smiling wolf mask, which looked like it was made out of pale moon rock. Fine cracks of black linked craters across the mask, while two crescent yellow moons wrapped around around eyes blazing warm white.
The curvy, tall stranger wore a chartreuse slit dress that looked almost alive, mossy and flowering with bright orange buds. They wore a sunny yellow shawl that covered their head, and I stuttered.
“U-Umm thank you,” I spoke like an idiot, shoulders warm from the touch. “For catching me, that fall would have been uhh… embarrassing. Haha. Ha. Ha.”
Oh god shut up me.
They… she chuckled, a deep resounding sound that vibrated down into my bones.
“Cute, if a bit clumsy.” I flushed at the stranger’s words. “And I’m guessing you can’t recognize me.”
I shook my head, my gaze sliding across her exposed freckled brown skin, along her hips and— oh.
“Althea?” I hissed with an embarrassed fluster, the masked stranger nodded and I felt so dumb. Of course it was her.
I could see her cyan aura push outwards in a wave. It gently gripped my skin in the metaphysical equivalent of a hug.
The wolf-child is mesmerizing isn’t she?
I blinked rapidly at a slight pressure between my eyes, and pinched my brow to soothe the headache.
“I think this noise is giving me a headache.” I complained and Althea jumped to my side.
“Then it’s my duty to escort the lovely lady to a quieter and more comfortable area,” Althea’s tone became formal and polite and yet it was sincere, just given weight. “If the lady in question does not mind assistance from myself?”
I didn’t laugh. “I don’t mind at all.”
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After my embarrassing meeting with the hot stranger who was in fact Althea. We ended up finding Hakim who had been speaking enthusiastically with some fellow crafters of tools. I had gotten sucked into the conversation due to my colloquial knowledge on human things, and my more in-depth hobbyist activities. I was no master builder or engineer but I had been working with tools and tech all my life.
I knew enough.
Their ability to generate and control flames as well as heat could let them forge metal with their bare hands, shaping and guiding molten metal as needed. Their forges were powered by crystals infused with fire magic and fed with a mixture of iron ore and reductant.
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Carbon mostly, so they have to mine coal to process into coke. But they only need about a hundred and fifty kilograms per ton of pig iron instead of half a ton. Turns out not needing to burn extra fuel to heat things up is very clean.
Doesn’t mean they weren’t interested in human methods, like how we could make sponge iron using synthesis gas, or pure hydrogen. Hakim and his buddies understood syngas as a mix of whitedamp and raindamp. Carbon monoxide and hydrogen, so they knew enough not to get themselves killed.
They were also interested in electrolysis, since lightning was heavily desired due to being so difficult to handle. Being able to create pure iron using lightning was definitely something they were interested in. As well as aluminum, as most of it was harvested from rigids with bodies made of it.
I should focus, what was I doing again?
Oh.
I was leaning against Althea, letting her tug me around so I wouldn’t get lost in the crowd. She had her arm around my shoulder, keeping me close but loosening her grip when I got interested in something. A game, a stall selling curios and doodads. Or a display of magic and might by a performer.
It felt intimate in a way that made me feel… wanted, a strange sensation when my whole life was about how people wanted me. They wanted the gifted child, they wanted someone to elevate their status, they wanted their kid to do perfect because their life was in shambles, they wanted an autistic little sidekick to be by their side. But they never wanted me, just what I could give to them.
Ultima, Arali, Althea and Hakim weren’t like that even with the latter being interested in my knowledge. He had asked because he wanted a friend, because he wanted a partner in crafting, he didn’t want to use me. I know the difference now.
I leaned into Althea with a happy hum, enjoying her body heat. As a werewolf she ran a degree or two warmer, and it was nice.
She tensed and I felt eyes on me that were not at all friendly. We had gotten cornered by two people I hadn’t seen since I had met Althea several weeks ago.
A pale-skinned girl with skin glowing with fire, and scarlet hair. She wore a black dress and a snarling blue demon mask. Her companion was a head taller than her and again built like a brick. Instead earing a white shirt and pants and a smiling red demon mask. I couldn’t see their faces but I read the contempt radiating off of the pair in waves.
“It’s been a while hasn’t it freak?” I immediately puffed up in indignation as the witch called out Althea, an ugly gaze staring back from behind a mask. “Guess you finally found someone willing to tolerate your temper tantrums and wild magic.” She gestured to me with a venomous tone that made me want to kick her ass.
Althea kept her grip on my shoulder, and rose taller with a shifted posture and sheer presence.
“What do you want, Amelia?” The hate in my friend’s voice was expressed as a deep subsonic growl. “Is today of all days really the one where you want to make a fuss?”
Amelia scoffed. “I don’t care what some damn bitch mutt thinks about me,” she said scathingly. “We all know you don’t belong here, not in our school, not on this island, or taifa. Your magic is wrong. No matter what’s changed recently. You’ll always be a freak.”
“Shut the fuck up!” My mouth moved faster than my brain as I bristled, taking a step in front of Althea. “Althea is twice the witch you are. I’m not gonna hear any insults from a total fucking cunt!” Unbridled rage fueled me, fists clenched tightly, fire wrapping around them in whirls of heat.
Amelia hissed, ears flattened and body held stiff. “You’re going to pay for that.” Her voice was empty of emotion, a quiet sadism that was oddly chilling. “Michael.”
Before I could blink, a fist slammed into my lungs and I was launched like a cannonball. The world blurred around me and I let out a squeak of pain as I smashed through a stand.
Oww! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
I rolled off of the ruins of a perfectly good stand with a groan, and a muttered apology to a horrified stand owner. A nice old lady with three eyes.
I could hear Amelia’s cruel laughter get cut short, and I caught how my friend’s claws radiate outwards.
And then dark gold eyes peaked from the shadows, towering over both witches.
The old lady pulled me up, gently casting a white light that soothed the pain.
“That was a mistake.” I heard Dinah’s sultry tones clear as day, sharp like smoke. “The Masked Moon festival is a time for joy and community, not violence and insults.”
I could see that the dragoness had opted for style and power. Draped in crimson ruffled silks etched with gold and pinks and olive. She had see-through sleeves like gold chainmail, and her four horns were wrapped with vines covered in crimson flowers. Her mask was solid black surrounded by rays of red and yellow like… a solar eclipse.
That was a statement.
I don’t know when I limped over to Althea, but I did. Dinah noticed, nodding before gripping the two shaking witches in her claws.
“I believe you will be paying for the damages done to that stand.” Her voice was terrifying in its inevitability.
“I… will.” Amelia said in utter defeat.
Dinah chuffed, tail whipping behind her. “I believe we are done here, for now.”
…
I know that was directed at me, it couldn’t be anything else.
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The festival was going well into the night. I stuck close to Althea or Hakim or Ultima when she was around. I hadn’t seen Dinah since she had tossed those two assholes a dozen yards with a single breath.
I was still a bit caught off-guard by how resilient the people here were, and how it applied to me too. I had gotten thrown through a stall, shattered wood and torn through canvas. And I hadn’t even gotten scrapes or bruises, just a bit sore and pissed off.
So I wasn’t surprised when Althea pulled me away towards the center of the city. Where a large stage had been set up, along with lights and music, and space clearly set up for dancing.
“Human!” We were promptly ambushed by a certain ogre-wapuk, and I had to crane my poor neck to look at the snout of the nine foot dragon-child. “I see you’ve elected to join us on this fine night! With a lovely dance partner to boot, good for you.”
I blushed. “I… that. Thank you?” He was the most enthusiastic person I had ever met, his voice booming and the air flaring with a jittering heat. “You’re weird.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment!” He boomed.
I laughed. “It was intended as one. Was there something you wanted or did you just want to chat?”
“Both and neither!” He said it as loud as possible, startling the people around us. I could… feel his inner fire push people back, a Red pressure on reality.
I leaned forward. “Yes?” Althea did her part, pulling on the spirits around us.
“My dear cousin Dinah has deigned to offer you a dance, I suggest you accept.” It wasn’t a demand… it was a plea. “She has few people to count on, and you seem kind. It will also reduce the pressure on both of you from… certain people. Most of the clans are here.”
I did notice that. I could see a certain priest hanging around the Mau clan, the Frazoiyo clan was obvious since most of them are dragons. The four clans were spread out all over the place which made sense. They were a clan, a noble incorporation who acted as trusted administrators.
“I’ll think about it, but not right this second.”
Farrow snorted. “Of course not, I’ve got a turn first as I’m not annoying and then a few clan members her age.”
There was a loud metallic clang as someone beat on a brass drum device. “Thirty minutes!”
The music shifted from spontaneous joyous sound and cacophonous voices to beats and patterns to a strange but continuous beat. It was clearly made for being danced to, and all the witch lights began to beat and pulse in time to the music. It was loud but not… overwhelming, spread out not through raw noise but magic, air flickering to echo the song.
“You have a very weird life, Celia.” Althea teased me, bumping her hip against me with a giggle. “Wouldn’t have it any other way though.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You want me to dance with you don’t you?”
“Is that a problem?” Althea challenged me and I felt like giggling.
“No, not today at least. You’re someone I don’t mind dancing with…”
“And you like the juxtaposition of dancing first with a common witch and then a princess?”
I snorted. “Maybe, but I wouldn’t call you common. Not at all.”
Althea let out an amused breath, and before I had a chance to angst out I was pulled into the respectively spaced out crowd.
“Let us dance to show Osu our strength of community and family, to show the moon how we push and pull!”
Althea placed one hand on my shoulder, and another down around my hip. I let her guide me into the growing circle of people, with enough space for my bubble.
We circled around each other in a wild and loose waltz, and I felt my heart rate pick up. The music was boisterous and I let out a meep when Althea moved her hands to my arms. She practically swung me around with a laugh, and I did my best to keep up with her wild movements.
We orbited in wild figure eights, bounced and stepped and kicked, waltz turning into leaps into jumps into endless turns along deep foundations. I was definitely humming along to the music, shifting from one position to another. Feeling the thrum of magic in my veins.
Bard magic was powerful, borne of Air and Void, violet-gray strands humming and pulsing to the beat of the song of the world.
Althea swung me again, before pulling me close, dipping her head down to gently press her masked face into my neck. Was I blushing?
“Another partner swap will be starting soon.” She whispered with a bemused tone, twisting just right to let me see Dinah dancing with a member of the El-Baz clan. She was not very enthusiastic, and neither was her dance partner.
Poor guy.
“That’s definitely going to catch people’s attention,” I muttered as I swung Althea, barely managing to keep from fumbling. “But at this point I don’t care anymore.”
“I think I’ll enjoy seeing it, I think the world could use a bit of a shake-up.”
Huh, maybe giving her an outlet was making Althea more confident in being against the status quo?
The partner swap was called out once more, and this time we weren’t avoiding the call like we had done for the last three calls. Dinah and her partner whirled closer, and separated cleanly, and… Althea giggled.
“Don’t you dare—!” I was gently tossed into my second dance partner for the night, and to my horror I made a whistling sound like a tea kettle.
God why?
I was being held up in the air by the hips, Dinah cocking her head at my reaction. She placed me down before I could make more of a fool of myself…
“It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen each other hasn’t it Celia?” Dinah’s voice was still as smoky and sultry as ever. My skin was scorched where her curling claws gripped onto clothing. “You’re looking rather fetching as well my dear.”
Be still my heart.
“I… you’re looking rather beautiful yourself.” I complimented, trying to piece together the social niceties and failing. “You look amazing.”
Dinah blinked, her wings and winglets flaring to reveal they had been painted with comets in saffron, gamboge, and corals. It was a tad distracting.
“You really mean that.” Dinah commented.
We immediately fell into a careful back and forth dance, awkward with the size difference. I was practically head on with her chest, and she did not have any shame. Ooo… boy.
The energy of our dance was different, where Althea and I went with the flow, pushing and pulling gently. Dinah and I… sort of tussled with each other on who would get to lead. She would drag me one way, and I’d drag her the other way to spite her. It was a fight, a back and forth fiery dance, step by step, swaying back and forth with aggressive glee.
I let out a cough when I was pulled in by her tail, which gave Dinah the opportunity to twirl me with an amused smoking hiss. I smiled despite myself, this was much less uncomfortable than getting hunted down.
“Thank you for this.” Dinah admitted with a tilt of her head. “You are at least more interesting than any of the nobles they try to set me up with.”
“Right… I forget arranged marriages are sort of a thing here.” It was definitely distasteful to be honest.
Dinah winced. “It is nothing so… overt in Danub, it’s more trying to gauge interest.”
“Like a play date set up by friends to see if any sparks fly?” I said with no hesitation.
Dinah shrugged as she nudged me with her tail, feathers tickling my sides. “Perhaps you are right. But I do suggest keeping such comments to yourself… clan nobles can be touchy.”
“What did you want to talk about?” I decided to change the subject, because I had to.
“I wished to reiterate the truce between us… I figured perhaps you didn’t understand what I meant.”
“My mentor told me…” I whispered as we swayed violently, her wings spreading out to obscure us. “I do understand now… it doesn’t change my answer, but I don’t know how much help I’ll be.”
Dinah chuckled. “You’re someone who seeks answers, I think that’s what we need.”
“Umm— Aaliyah taught me many things,” It still hurts to talk about her. “Who are you, who do not know your history? That question is one she has asked me since I was a kid, she wanted me to understand the why of things.” And I never stopped seeking out those answers.
“The why of things.” Dinah’s voice was distant, and I could see the dance beginning to disperse. “I’ll think about that.”
I nodded and gently kicked her leg with a grin to force her into a twirl, wind catching in her wings.
“I sure hope you do.” I replied with a smirk as we parted from the dance and the stage rippled with sound and light.
I went with Althea and Dinah went with her boisterous cousin.
Creeping over the moon was a twisting mass of shadow and light, forming a mask in black and white. It cast an eerie silver glow across the entire sky, and I heard hoots and laughter in celebration. Bolts of magic were thrown into the sky to explode like fireworks.
“Come one, come all. Children of the Isles, of Calafia Herself! Let us sing the tale of Osu and Hiku, of Moon and Ocean, of push and pull!” The loud voice sounding through the night turned out to come from a robust centaur wearing chainmail formal dress and a mask of silver metal.
He stomped his hooves, forming a beat as he began to chant.
“I sing to you a tale as old as time and as deep as stone!” Bards cast their magic, light twisting into images of light and dark. Into memories of an ancient past.
“The Titan had a godmother, Osu her Given name!”
“When a hundred years was a day, Osu was born from flame and earth, as Others came and went as was their due!”
“But born from god and void the Ocean came to play, as knight and child of Ersete, as push and pull across land and sea and sky!”
Images of the two worlds were shown, Moon rising as a four limbed maiden, skin dancing with blue and whites and blacks, and Ocean as a knight of ice and water and steam, his earth mother watching with a thousand eyed stare, with skin made of stars and light.
“Moon and Ocean fought, for each had power the other craved. A war of gods and monsters, again and again and again!”
“Moon and Ocean fought, evenly matched, a push and pull from mantle to crust, hidden oceans waxing and waning again and again and again!”
The battle was shown, Ocean face’s whirling with jaws and teeth and cracking bone while Moon fought with spear and halberd in every hand.
“Calafia watched her kin battle with awe and fear and romance in her many many hearts, and shouted as dark dust across a thousand thousand miles! ‘Push and Pull, Osu and Hiku, heart and love and war are one and all among the stars! Masks we wear a thousand times, in a thousand thousand ways!”
The next illusion played the image of bashful gods, stars and oceans flushed as a giggling godchild swam across the void.
“A war in the heavens ended by the ramblings of a precocious child, what a tale to behold. Passed down from kin to kin over and over and over! Let this tale sing true, that even amongst the gods, pain and suffering can be healed, can be soothed and softened by even the smallest of all things!!”
The story ended with a bang, the music crescendo echoing across the town. More fireworks blew up in the sky, and I could hear Ultima shouting her own cry.
“Hmm.”
I glanced at Dinah as she was swung around by her cousin, leaning against Althea.
I guess things do change huh?