The fire feast was conducted outside the community entirely, the first time Soha had left the complex; the ground was ... not flat, and Soha found the way it fell away from the complex, set on ground higher than the surrounding lands, disconcerting. It hadn't been so long ago that Soha had learned how to walk, and walking down the hill, as Harabi had called it, to the crowd of djinn already collecting in the evening was challenging. Several times Soha had to enforce orientation to keep from tumbling down.

The ground was green, like a sea of spear tips, but soft and pliable, swaying in the movement of the air all around. In the distance was a wall of irregular brown columns, which rose to a cloud of dark green spots, interspersed with twisty brown appendages. The place outside the complex was messy and chaotic, with no order, and no smooth lines anywhere to be seen.

The crowd Soha was moving to were clustered around one enormous pile, a confused jumble of narrow shapes, in a variety of shades of brown. There were smaller piles scattered around it, most of which had some kind of copper implements scattered around them. There were also small fires on the ground, and as Soha watched, one of the small piles lit up in fresh flames. The piles were fuel for the fire, of some kind.

The chatter of the crowd felt small and subdued, as Soha approached, but grew louder, faster, with approach, than Soha had encountered before. That, at least, was something recognizable, from a vague concept taken long ago from one of the djinn who had died; voices in the complex echoed, the substance of sound bouncing off floors, ceiling, and walls, reinforcing the noise, and here they dissipated into the air.

Soha listened to conversations, winding through the crowds towards the biggest fire, to investigate more closely. Soha wasn't the only djinn who hadn't left the complex before, and from the questions, the wall in the distance was a forest, a word recognized from Harabi's instructions on ambushes. A collection of trees, each of which could provide cover from eyes and arrows.

Trees looked ... strange. Soha's attention returned to the crowd; a pair of djinn were setting up a large copper bowl over one of the fires, and throwing ingredients into it. Another djinn, at another fire, carefully placed a slice of meat on a copper slab propped above it, steam erupting up, the sounds lost in the noise of countless conversations.

Soha found Fan and Sidou, standing around one of the small piles of fuel that hadn't yet been lit, already eating. Sidou gripped a large white pastry in one hand, crushing it a little bit; large bites taken into the side revealing the gold-colored filling inside. Fan had a handful of thin rods, upon which were skewered cuts of meats and chunks of pale yellow vegetable. As Soha approached, fan tossed one of the thin rods onto the pile of fuel.

"Hello Soha!" Fan spotted Soha first, and Sidou turned to follow Fan's gaze, lips quirking up into a smile. Sidou's other hand held a leather flask, which Sidou raised and drank from.

"Hellllllo Shoha, we tho haf a good thime." Sidou's voice was odd, the words slurring into each other; Soha nodded to both of them, trying to parse what Sidou had been trying to say. Fan's expression changed slightly, eyes moving between Sidou and Soha.

"Hello friends, the feast appears to be underway." Indeed, other djinn in the area were eating some of the skewered meats and vegetables that Fan was, although Soha didn't see any others with the large pastry that Sidou was somewhat messily consuming.

"Yes. We're leaving in the morning, this is a tradition before large groups of us leave. The last was a group of settlers heading to Southreach." Fan tossed another of the rods onto the pile, which a djinn was now crouching next to with an expression of concentration.

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"A feasth!" Sidou took another large bite of the pastry, bits of the filling falling to the ground, and followed it up with the flask, which was intercepted as it was lowered by Fan, who deftly snatched it away to take a drink. Sidou's hand continued lowering for a second, before belatedly snatching at the empty air. "Not faaaair." Fan just smiled, raising it again.

"Settlers?" Soha wasn't certain of the word. Fan started to explain, but was interrupted by a sudden requirement to wave off Sidou, who was trying to wrest control of the flask back. The pile of fuel they were standing next to lit with a sudden flame, the djinn who had been concentrating on it sitting back with a satisfied expression, which fell away quickly as a roar came from the side, the enormous pile erupting into flames.

Soha watched the fire, watched the crowds. This was an interesting experience, but one that Soha didn't exactly feel like a part of; other djinn met, conversed, parted, the conversations carrying tones of excitement, anger, regret. Djinn embraced, danced around the enormous pyre of flames. Every so often two or three would head back up to the complex together.

Other meals were prepared, the smell of rich spices and cooking meat joining the pervasive sweet scent of the smoke from a hundred small fires. Fan and Sidou made a circuit, returning with a small feast of a variety of foods, including three bowls of some kind of soup or stew, which they ate between swigs from the frequently-stolen-back-and-forth flask.

Others joined the circle, and Sidou struck up a conversation with another young djinn, skinny and smooth of scalp; Soha didn't recognize the newcomer. Fan didn't notice, at first, caught up in a long and slurred conversation with four other djinn.

"Dev iss prethier thhhan you! And hash betder timmming!" Sidou shouted back to an annoyed Fan, as the djinn walked back to the complex arm-in-arm with the young djinn that Soha didn't recognize. Fan watched the two go, then tried approaching other djinn around them.

Another thing Soha didn't exactly feel a part of. Sex just ... hadn't been that interesting. It was a sensation, but so was the wind blowing past them, the heat from the bonfire, the sounds of the crowd, the feel of the grass - the soft pointed green things on the ground was grass - on Soha's now bare feet.

The last few weeks had been ... kind of not much of anything. Magic had been new information, but it wasn't really a new experience. Soha was looking forward to leaving for battle - not with the anger or fear or anxiety that permeated the atmosphere of this feast, but with a sense of curiosity for a new experience.

It would all be in this ... out-of-doors. Grass, and hills - Soha didn't actually like the change of elevation very much, but they were different - and forests and trees. They'd see new things, have new experiences. Soha would be just a little bit more.

The conversations began fading, the pyre burning down. It still sent small jets of sparks up into the air, dancing in the breeze, a sight that Soha found enthralling, seeking a pattern in the subtle motions that just couldn't be found, but they grew increasingly infrequent. More and more pairs and trios headed back to the complex - Fan had found a quite enthusiastic-sounding duo, and the three had gone back a little while ago. Other djinn sat or laid in the grass, and Soha thought a few had fallen asleep.

Soha settled down, sitting in the grass, looking up at the stars in the sky above. The sight of the sky wasn't quite as unsettling as it had been that first time Soha had seen it, and now looked kind of ... pretty. If messy. There wasn't any pattern to the stars, either.

Soha slowly reclined backwards, laying face-up in the grass, watching the stars in the sky slowly move. One appeared in a small flash, and disappeared again as quickly, moving much faster than the others. The voices had become a low murmur, the sound of the largest fire, the only still burning, finally audible over the general noise, adding cracks and pops to the gentle noises.

Soha felt ... a curious combination of empty, and something else, like the feeling that had risen the first time Soha had managed to stop Havre's fireball before it struck. Soha had ... enjoyed the evening, even without really being a part of it, an observer to the turbulent emotions of the parting feast. This was an evening to remember.