I ask you to find the rest of them,

    the various journals that explain my life.

-Note within the hidden journal.

It had been three days. The boy who had watched over Celeste every night as a child, who had found food for her when she was hungry, and who had scared off starving street hounds that had cornered them one night. Three days with that boy who had grown into a man, a man named Kriss, and they had barely shared more than a dozen words since that first meeting.

Celeste sighed in frustration as they strolled along the streets. The rain was gone now, it had stopped shortly after Vallerian ran off. She had tried to ask what he was up to, but as usual the man talked over her until he was too far to be talked back to. Between Vallerian and Gardinal sneaking off, and Kriss being awkward around her, Celeste wondered if there were any normal men in her life.

“Radiance.” Valleresa began. “Where, precisely, are we headed?”

Celeste looked to her sister and tried to think of an answer. At Arabella’s recommendation, they had decided to get some fresh air and stretch their legs. Arabella could tell that things had grown awkward in the home and had blessedly given Celeste a way out. With Kriss acting as their guard, that should be enough to keep Gardinal happy. It also kept him close, something Celeste wasn't quite ready to let go of. She wanted him around, she just wasn’t sure how to talk to him after all these years. He had changed so much, and so had she.

“Radiance? Do you have a destination in mind?” Valleresa said again with a sassy tone.

“Just… around.” Celeste responded with a shrug. She had no idea where she was going, but she couldn’t spend any more time cooped up in that house stumbling through conversation with Kriss. Every time she tried to say something, it felt like the words caught in her throat. When they were children, they had fallen asleep next to each other almost every night, now it felt strange to even sit next to him. She just all felt so… awkward.

She shot a glance back to the man walking behind them, and immediately returned her eyes forward when he caught her gaze. He was so tall now, she thought, and strong. He had always been bigger than her, but now he was just big for anyone. The image of him from her youth both matched this new man perfectly, and not at all. He was still strong, confident, and warm. But somehow, he was something more now. It left her feeling uneasy, what was she to this new Kriss?

She prayed to Ethinia for guidance, and then chose to move on for now. Instead of worrying on the problem anymore than she had over the last several days, Celeste chose instead to let her eyes wander. It was nice to go for a walk with a guard who was not trying to corral her towards where they wanted her to be. Vallerian, always pushing her towards market stalls and small shops so that he could buy her bobbles and clothes she didn’t need. Gardinal, always trying to take her in the shortest, safest route as quickly as possible. Now, she could simply wander. Perhaps she could even help some people today, that could be good. That could get her mind off of Kriss for a moment.

Celeste also hoped, in at least a small part of her, to keep an eye out for some of the Silver Skulls. If they were about, she could ensure that they had none of the weapons Tabitha had promised to dispose of. She had meant to ask Gardinal to check in on it, but she hadn’t felt like arguing with him the past few days. Not while Kriss was around.

Looking around, she found no Silver Skulls. Or at least none that wore their pins. Instead, Celeste found sights that warmed her heart. She watched as industry bustled about Southshore and the thousand small acts of kindness filled the street to the brim. From the Fereni man holding open a shop door for a Jöln woman, to those that gave food or coin to the helpless poor on the street. She even watched as a Khazimi man took off his own cloak and wrapped it around a lame man’s shoulders, making light of it saying that it was a ratty old cloak anyway. The warm, crooked smile that filled the desperate man’s face was a story unto its own, that of a weary heart shown succor.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Celeste beamed at the sight of it all. It took a life of struggles to see the meaning of a single small act. And in a place full of desperate people, they acted with small kindnesses every day. That was what she had always loved about Southshore, the true heart of the people.

Celeste felt a jostling as a pack of young children came dashing out in front of Celeste and her friends. Maybe a half dozen of them wove through their group, nearly knocking over Arabella in the process.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going brats!” Valleresa shouted after them, shaking a fist. “Come back and I’ll knock some sense into you!”

“Sister Valleresa!” Celeste gasped. The two looked at one another, then burst out into laughter. Valleresa would never hit a child and they both knew it. She just believed that sometimes kids needed to be scared a little bit. Celeste heartily disagreed.

“Is something wrong?” Kriss asked, concern clear in his tone.

“Yes unfortunately.” Arabella said with a dry tone. “Those two seem to have lost their minds. Pity.” She rolled her eyes and Kriss shook his head with that handsome grin of his.

Celeste’s attention shifted from her friends though and followed the children instead. They had rushed past with cupped hands full of dirty water, and now they all stood in a circle around something in the crumbled ruins of what was once a shed of some sort.

Walking across the road herself, Celeste approached the children.

“What are you looking at?” She asked them. They all spun to stare at her, then tightened up their ranks.

“Non’ya business.” The oldest of them sneered, then looking at Celeste seemed to think better of it. “ah... uh… Miss, I mean.” He was a small Fereni child with dirt all over his nose.

“Please, may I see?” She gave him a calming smile. Behind her she could hear Kriss and her sisters catching up to her. The children shuffled nervously, looked behind Celeste at something, then moved aside.

They all stood around a small mound of dirty, old wooden floor panels torn or rotted away revealing the soil beneath. In it was a handful of sprouts reaching out of freshly watered soil. Most of them were brown, and those that were actually green drooped lazily. They were not likely to grow anytime soon, Celeste knew that much.

“Please don’t take our beans miss.” Another child spoke up, a little Jöln girl barely larger than a baby but with a toddler’s proportions. “I’m hungry.” Celeste felt her heart sink. These children were just hungry, trying to do what they could to eat. A feeling she once knew well. With a glance back at Kriss, she saw his furrowed face wore the same sympathy she felt.

“Let me take a closer look, perhaps I can help.” She whispered, stepping closer. The children all looked to the Fereni boy, but when he stepped aside they all followed suit. Moving past them Celeste knelt down, and she heard Arabella gasp as a bit of her white dress fell into some muddy dirt. Arabella was always admonishing her for not being careful enough with her clothing.

Looking over the small sprouts, she smiled. These children had put so much care into their little garden. Child-finger sized furrows of dirt had been dug into troughs, and she could only imagine how many times they had run across that street with handfuls of water to get the soil as wet as it was. There was life in this dirt, rich and teeming, with the water to feed it. Celeste reached her hand down, and gently touched the dirtiest, brownest sprout.

“Grow.” She whispered and let the ever-churning torrent within her seep out. Like the roots that burrowed beneath those very sprouts, light poured out of her fingers. It flowed in ever-branching rivers, streaming out into the seedlings. Then they began to drink in that light, the beans growing suddenly tall, growing strong. Thick stalks shot out of the ground, growing nearly to Celeste’s knee. Then from those stalks thick pods of beans formed, and the plants began to flower a brilliant teal. Pulling back, Celeste smiled. She had never used her gifts to grow plants before, but it was life all the same. Now before her, where only moments ago a dozen small sprouts struggled to cling to life, a dozen twisting proud stalks of beans stood, with enough fruit to feed these children for at least a few days.

Celeste rose and brushed free the dirt from her gown. Turning, she found herself met with the amazed stares of her friends and the children alike.