Kejesi looked different from the last time I saw him, and it wasn’t just his shaved head. It had been three months since Noram’s funeral, and he seemed… bigger. I knew kids grew like weeds, and Lenris made sure to mention it in our letters, but it wasn’t just that he’d gotten a bit taller. He seemed like his magic had gotten stable and, in that stability, bigger.
Kejesi was still a kid, though, and it was just as obvious as when he saw me in the crowd. He broke away from Lenris and ran to me, nearly taking me off my feet with the force of his hug. Lenris looked exasperated.
“Jes, I told you to mind your manners,” she said. She came up to us, Nicia on her hip, fists clinging to her shirt with her head on a swivel. Nicia was bigger, too. A plump four-month-old with a cheery disposition. She was thrilled by the movement in town. “Sorry, Kaiya.”
“It’s fine,” I said. I picked up Kejesi and swung him in a circle. He laughed, holding on tight even as I put him down again. “I’m happy to see y’all again. I’m just sorry it took so long.”
Lenris shook her head. “I was surprised that you said you could spend some of the festival with us. You’re so busy these days, I wasn’t sure you’d have time to spend with people like us. I was prepared to tell Jes otherwise.”
“I’m just some guy,” I shrugged. “I just happen to hang out in the palace most days.”
With so few holidays being celebrated, Bright Dusk, Night of the Red Moons, and Ever Night were the only ones honored as they were the hardest to ignore. It would suck to see the world change and not even take a moment to marvel at it.
The festival started at sunset, and now it was in full swing, three hours later. Everyone covered the streets in lanterns, red and orange streamers. Moon imagery was everywhere: paintings, carvings, clothing. More vendors lined the main road, hawking their wears and the smell of deep fried food wafted from all around. Even the camp, which had become more like a neighborhood of shored up huts, had lights and streamers hung up.
The temple doors were closed again, but priests were milling around talking to people. I wanted to go over there and talk to them, but I had a few things I needed to do first before I made my way there.
She smiled, pulling Kejesi away from me. There was still a deep sadness to her as she took in the decorations. From what Noram had told me, this would be her first Red Moons Festival without him. She absentmindedly went to pull on her hair, but it was gone, her head shaved as well. Only Nicia avoided the blade.
Kejesi looked grumpy from being pulled away, so I said, “Your mom tells me you’re doing great in school. Got any cool moves?”
He pouted, crossing his arms. “No,” he grumbled. “They won’t teach us anything cool yet. Our teacher just keeps going on about how important the basics are. I wanna learn something cool.”
“You’ll get there, bud. I’ve been at this a month longer than you and I still haven’t learned anything cool.” Lenris raised a brow, and I winked. She’d seen my show of terra magic but didn’t say anything as I continued. “Maybe we can learn something together.”
His face lit up. “Really?” He turned to Lenris, bouncing on his feet. “Can I, Mom? Can I?”
“Well, only if Kaiya has the free time.” She shifted Nicia to her other hip. “Speaking of time, don’t you have somewhere to be?”
I glanced at the sky. It was getting darker by the second, but I had at least an hour until Enri showed up. “I do, but we can walk for a bit.”
“I thought we were gonna hang out today,” Kejesi said. “Where are you going?”
“I have a girlfriend to wine and dine, but we’ll meet back up with you after.”
“You really don’t have to,” Lenris said. “You should spend time together while you can.”
“Mom!” He looked like he was going to start stomping his feet. The ground was starting to shift, but I tapped my foot and it stilled. “You said we could.”
I put my hand on his shoulders, gently shaking him until giggles came out. “And you still can. I’ll come back to y’all when I’m done. We see each other every day, we just don’t get a lot of time to relax together. We’ll be gone for an hour or two and then we’ll come back.” He still looked annoyed. “I’ll buy you a gift if you stop pouting.”
His demeanor shifted again, and he grabbed my hand. “I wanted to look over here.” No matter what planet I was on, kids would still be kids. And kids can always be bribed.
We bounced from stall to stall, meandering down the main road. Kejesi continuously ran ahead, looking over every stall he could find.
“I’m sorry he’s so insistent,” Lenris said. She adjusted Nicia on her hip, switching from her right to her left. “He’s been holding on to what he can since everything happened.”
“He is insistent,” I admitted, watching him run up to a vendor and all but demand a large drink. “But I think this is also part of my job.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m here to give the people hope. To show them that the war does have a chance of ending soon and this—” I gestured vaguely to the refugee camps and beyond the wall, “—won’t be forever.”
To most people I was just a concept. Seeing me demonstrate made it more real, but I still wasn’t tangible in a way that could be held onto for most of them. For soldiers I was a way for them to have a chance of coming home safe. For civilians, I was a chance for them to not lose everything they had.
For Kejesi, I was someone to hold on to when everything went to hell.
“I supposed that’s true.” We paused a few feet away from Kejesi as she twisted around, trying to pull something. I held out my hands for Nicia and Lenris gave me a thankful smile. Nicia stared at me as I took her, confused I wasn’t her mom, but decided she didn’t care and tried to reach for one of the lanterns as Lenris prepared her wrap sling. “I just worry that he’ll become too attached. You won’t always be around.”
“I won’t,” I said, letting Nicia tug at the lantern strings. “In the near future, I’ll be out of the country more often than not. I may not be able to even write to you, but right now, I can be here. And I think being here while I can is the best thing I can do right now.”
I handed Nicia over and she was put into the sling with a few grunts of annoyance. Lenris looked at Kejesi, fear and sadness and pride mingling in her features. “Yes,” she said. “I would rather he have what he can when he can. We won’t have everything or everyone forever.”
Kejesi ran back to us, three drinks in his hands, and passed them around. Lenris wrapped her hands around the warm cup as I said, “Let’s get you that trinket.”
I bought him a necklace like mine, but instead of a dove and flowers, it was the moons and stars. He stared at it, holding the trinket in his hands as if I’d given him the world. Considering how much he’d lost, maybe I had.
I helped him put it on and he puffed his chest out as I stood back to admire it. “Looking good, Kejesi.”
“Jes,” he said. “Only my teachers call me Kejesi.” He gave me a pointed look, as if trying to tell me something.
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“Jes it is. For now.” He grinned and turned like he was ready to run off somewhere, but he ran into Enri instead. She was solid, barely moving as he bumped into her. “Hey.”
“Hi.” She looked at Jes, scanning him as he held his nose. “Does it hurt?”
“No.” Even with his voice muffled, I could tell it hurt. Enri was in a sundress, but she was still rock solid. He glanced at his mom, who was giving him a very pointed look. “I-I mean no, Madam Enri.”
Enri smiled, patting his head. There was a faint light glowing from her palm, and he perked up. “You’re pretty strong. Most kids your age would have fallen over.”
“I’m top of my class in physical education.” He stood tall. “I’m really fast.”
“I’ll have to race you one day.” She glanced up at me and smiled, and I could feel my heart start to take off. “Have you visited the temple yet?”
“Yes,” Lenris said. “It was our first stop of the night.”
“I see. Well, I was going to take Kaiya to the temple and steal her for a bit after. I’ll bring her back when we’re done.”
Lenris smiled. “That sounds just fine. Right, Jes?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”
“Jes!” Lenris looked embarrassed, but I knew it didn’t matter. Enri didn’t care about deference any more than I did.
“Y-Yes, Madam Enri.”
She laughed and nodded to Lenris and Nicia who, upon seeing Enri’s swinging braid, decided to make a grab for it. She missed and loudly grumbled about it.
“Ready?”
No. Since Shippa had mentioned the Red Moons Festival, I had carved out thirty minutes of my day to go into the forest and make a place for me and Enri to go during it. Like clockwork, there was a lunar eclipse every six months that lasted about an hour each time. There was a festival to celebrate the middle of the year and get people in gear to prepare for the cold months. In the next week or so, the world would change again, and the cold would come sweeping in again.
I wanted to shake myself to get my jittery nerves to calm. Instead, I smiled and said, “Yeah, let’s go.”
We made our way through the crowd slowly, walking next to each other but not holding hands, no matter how much I wanted to. Enri had her head tilted back, mostly watching the moons as they grew darker and darker. Soon, for a brief moment, the only light would be the stars, and then the world would be bathed in red.
“Kaiya.” Eumen’s voice startled me so much a bed of flowers sprouted at my feet. Enri raised her eyebrow and I quickly looked away. “Where are you? We’re not working today, I want to hang out.”
“I totally would, but I have a date with Enri soon. We can hang out right after.”
“Oh, I see.” She sounded like she had a dumb grin on her face, and I tried not to groan. “Get your girl, Kaiya. Maybe I’ll use my wish to make sure you get lucky.”
“I am begging you not to do that.”
She laughed. “I’m just kidding. Or am I? Have fun though!”
I shook my head. Eumen truly was something else.
We stopped at the temple, Enri peeling off to one of the bells. The bells shook continuously as people made their way from all over to say a prayer. Arabri made his way to me, nodding as I bowed.
He laughed. “As I said, there is no reason to bow to me.”
“You helped me when I was struggling. You deserve my utmost respect.”
A smile spread across his face. “You, my dear, helped yourself when you were struggling. I just rambled on for a few minutes.”
“If that’s what you want to call it, then sure. I had a question, though. It might seem weird, but I was wondering why the doors were closed during festivals?”
He looked surprised, then chuckled. “The people have a habit of getting a bit too spirited and making a temporary home in the temple. We’ll give shelter to any who need it, but it can be a bit of a hassle for us priests, as this is our home.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” I fidgeted with my dress, trying to figure out how to ask about the perpetual feeling of déjà vu every time I was near the temple. It didn’t help that every time I visited the temple, I had a dream about Enrique. It was weird, but Enrique had always been religious, so I chalked it up to that. Though the more I stayed, the weirder it seemed. I had dreams about Sayla the most and Enrique was right next to her, but I had conversations with him in my dreams. Conversations we’d never had, and it felt too real to simply be a dream.
“Is there something you want to talk to be about?” He touched my arm, concerned on his face.
“It’s gonna make me sound crazy.”
He nodded. “I understand. Perhaps now isn’t the best time then. When you have another moment of free time, come find me. We can talk about it then.”
“I’ll see what I can do. I’m kinda slammed at the moment.”
“All done,” Enri said, bounding up to us. She placed a hand to her heart and bowed her head. “Head Priest.”
“Madam Enri. I believe your date has waited patiently enough.”
She smiled. “Of course. Ready?”
We started walking again, and I kept my conversation with Arabi tucked away for now.
“About now is the time,” Sayla said. “Good luck, Kai!”
“Thanks, ’cause I’m gonna need it.”
Enri didn’t seem concerned with where we went as we wandered, and I worked up the courage to finally show her what I’d been working on.
“Wanna get a better view?” She looked at me and I swear my heart skipped a beat. In the dancing light of the lanterns, she looked ethereal. “I did something for the festival.”
“Really?” She had a smile on her face as if she knew I had been up to something but kept any speculations to herself. Acting as a hub for our thoughts to pass through meant she was always privy to the conversation we’d had if she didn’t make an effort to block them out, but that didn’t mean she knew what I kept to myself. Probably.
I led her to the forest, trying not to make it obvious I was rubbing the sweat on my palms on my dress. It didn’t take long to get to where we needed to go, using terra magic to speed up our steps.
In the few hours I’d had to myself after training, I went there to work. I’d shifted and moved the trees in an area that was almost as open as I wanted it to be and grew flowers to cover the clearing. Roses, baby’s breath, forget-me-nots, camellias, daisies, honeysuckle—any flower I knew of that meant love. Enri may not have known what it meant, but I did, and she would know that making them bloom was a labor of love.
It wasn’t just the clearing I’d made. I’d raised it five feet off the ground and carved steps into the side. The climb would be short, but I had plans to make us climb higher.
All around the perimeter of the platform, I’d gotten lamps from a few vendors and, if my training was going to be useful, I was going to light them.
I held out my hand as Enri stared. Without taking her eyes off the stage I’d made for us, we ascended the steps. She kept staring as we moved up into the bed of flowers; the petals tickling our ankles and we reached the middle, and I let go of her hand. She finally turned to face me, a look of astonishment on her face.
The moons were nearly dark. In a few seconds, we would be in complete darkness. I took a deep breath, trying to center myself as I gathered my magic in my stomach. Instead of letting it release immediately, I concentrate it in my hands. One by one, the lanterns were lit as I shot a flame at them from my fingers. As the darkness overtook the moons, all ten lanterns were lit, and I held out my hand.
“Would you like to dance?”
Her voice was soft, nearly carried away on the breeze, but she smiled as she said, “Yes.”
I was not a trained dancer. In fact, the only time I’d danced was drunkenly at Viktor’s birthday party when he wanted to teach everyone how to waltz (both regular and Viennese). I had made a mess of myself, tripping over my feet and his, laughing each time I stepped on his toes.
This time, I was going slow, trying to lead her in a sweeping waltz she had taught me before going to the festival. I never got to use it, but I still remembered the basics. As we continued to spin and I continued to not step on her toes, my confidence grew, and we started to dance faster. With each spin, each step, I pushed the platform higher and higher until—
Enri gasped as I tilted her into a low dip, her eyes taking in the fullness of the red moons as we stood at the tree line. I’d moved us slow enough that the momentum we built up from dancing disguised the upward movement. I swung her up and lifted her to a spin, her dress billowing and she let out a laugh so full of joy I could have gotten drunk from the sound.
“Kai.” She sounded breathless as I set her down and she looked around. The forest was bathed in red-orange light, a breeze making its way through, and the leaves looked like an ocean in the low light. In the town, the lanterns looked like stars moving in a wave of yellow light. “You… how? Why?”
“How?” I shrugged. I hadn’t let her go. My hands were still on her hips and hers were still on my shoulders. “A little time after training goes a long way. And I wanted to do something for us. We don’t get a lot of time off and the last time it was just us was months ago. We deserve a break.”
“Kaiya, I—I don’t even know what to say. I love everything. The flowers, the lanterns, the platform.” She stopped, turning to face me, and cupped my face in her hand. “I love you.”
I grinned. “I love you, Enri of Fera.” I kissed her forehead and her cheeks and her neck and her jaw and then her mouth. “I love you.”