“Isn’t it wonderful?” the barista said, feathers pointed toward the bakery across the street.
Through the window, two elder Ori tended the planters while chatting with customers in a line that wrapped around the block. Younger staff moved diligently inside as couples flowed in and out with cheery faces, each carrying an ornate gift bag printed with moons and flowers.
“They used to be so… uhm!”
“Crotchety,” the Virid coworker supplied, a sweep of vines falling over one eye.
“Mn! Exactly!” The barista perked up with a flap of his wings. “But since last year’s festival they’ve been so sweet. Everyone thought it was an act, but it never faded.”
“Isn’t that just called making a habit?” the Virid said.
“But people can change overnight. That’s why the shop is so popular now!”
“They were popular before. Their mooncakes were the best mooncakes back then too.”
“Yeah, but now they seem happy making them!”
The Virid scoffed and blew their vine-bangs aside.
“Maybe you should put on the scarf early,” the Ori said, planting his hands on his hips.
With a resigned huff, the Virid crossed their arms while the others tied a scarf over the lower half of their face. The print showed a wide stylized smile, teeth colorful and decorative in Tellur’s traditional aesthetic. Many people in town sported the same pattern today. The Ori, wearing his own scarf at his neck, apologized as he entered Nico’s order. Nico assured him he didn’t mind.
“Oh, you’re from out of town, aren’t you!”
Nico nodded, confirming he was enjoying his time here.
“Do you know about our moon festival? Everyone behaves their best this time of year to receive the moon princess’s enchantments!”
“I’ll make sure to be on my best as well,” Nico replied.
He already knew the basics. As a government employee on assignment, he had been granted three days of holiday leave for the Lunar Fall festival. Effie had explained everything with charged antennae and great enthusiasm and handed him a mooncake set from that very bakery. She had talked at length about the lotus paste and its locally grown flowers. The seed preparation sounded involved, though he couldn’t recall the details. The taste alone had convinced him she was right, and seeing the line across the street made him appreciate the gift even more.
The barista seemed delighted to talk about the festival, so Nico let him continue.
***
They say that long ago, a princess fled up the mountain on the night her engagement was to be announced. She reached the summit lake and cried until the summer’s fullest moon fell low enough that its reflection touched the water. When the moon saw her face, it recognized a beauty that matched its own, and reached for her. The moon’s light rose as her reflection, taking her hand and drawing her into the lake.
A year passed before the villagers saw her again. On the anniversary of her disappearance, they lit lanterns along the shore, holding onto the hope that would guide her home. When the full moon fell onto the lake once more, she stepped out, her beauty turned ethereal, as though she wore the moon across her face. She remained for five nights, and when the moon rose higher, she faded with its reflection.
So each summer, when the moon falls low enough to touch the lake again, lanterns are lit to guide her between worlds and welcome her home. They say she lives joyfully in the moon’s realm now, but if she notices sorrow on someone’s face, she reaches for them through their reflection, and it crosses into the world in their place. Wanting to stay in this world, people wear smiling masks at the masquerade so their sadness stays hidden from her gentle hand.
***
“The point is, the moon princess watches the festival through the reflection of the full moon and judges you based on how you behave!” His wings gestured passionately under a decorative banner depicting phases of the moon.
“Some people change for the worse though,” the freshly scarfed Virid muttered.
“Well yeah, I didn’t say she only rewards good behavior! She curses out anyone who looks like they’re being bad!” The Ori clicked a pair of tongs for emphasis.
“Like she verbally swears at you?” Nico teased.
The barista laughed. “Could you imagine?”
“She must grant forgetfulness, since people think acting nice for five days erases what they did the rest of the year.” The Virid’s eye roll was especially pointed with the lower half of their face covered.
The Ori whipped around. “Keeping the scarf on is extra important for you!”
Nico stood politely through this exchange, waiting for the barista to retrieve the pastry he ordered. He never felt like the most personable guy, but his work trips had taught him one universal truth: people everywhere loved talking at him.
***
That morning Nico forced himself out of bed despite aching everywhere. The observatory had left him with the worst rift lag he’d had in years. He entered around noon, spent hours being battered around by sentient rocks, unraveled the core, then stepped out to find the sky still dark— midnight exactly.
Sleep didn’t come until five in the morning. Part of it was that he’d only been awake for six hours; the rest was the unease that settled in unless every light stayed on. The ceiling felt like it was hiding something in the dark. And, admittedly, taking on yet another rift with the Sage had kept his mind running long after he wanted it to stop.
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The next day passed in the temporary workspace he shared with Kai and Effie’s team. He drifted between the couch, his reports, short walks around the block, and easy meals with whoever was around. The aches stopped him from doing more, but it still beat lying alone in the hotel. At least he had the next five days off.
When his break began, he woke up with the sunrise despite barely sleeping. He wasn’t eager to explore town, but staying in the room until evening would probably feel worse, so he got up and committed to being awake. A full day of nothing in particular stretched ahead of him.
Morning started in the Arcanite quarter with a pastry and iced tea in hand. Vines climbed neatly up brass ladders on every windowsill and citrus trees in planters reflected pale gold across the street. A bookstore that doubled as a gem shop caught his eye, with shelves washed in prismatic light from tall gem obelisks. Hearing the door chime, the clerk looked up from stamping envelopes with the quarter’s moon seal. Her horns were lacquered jade.
“Oh! You’re from out of town?” she said brightly, looking up towards the fox-tipped ears. She slid a handout across the counter. “We’re part of the festival stamp card. This map shows all the routes— if you get every stamp, you get a prize!” She flipped the card open, her expression suddenly more serious now that she was studying it alongside him, as if it was also her first time seeing it.
“Oh… that’s shorter than I thought. I heard the trail used to extend up the aqueduct.” Her pencil tapped the grid where it met the older canals. “I guess they’ve been closing off more and more of it these past few years.”
“That’s a shame,” Nico said.
“Yeah. The aqueduct hasn’t run in ages, but apparently you could still tour it until a few years ago, right before I moved here. People said it felt magical.”
“What closed it?”
“Mmm… the official reason was landslides, but…”
Nico gave her the look that meant keep talking. She obliged.
“People kept getting lost up there every festival season. At first they blamed newcomers, so they put up signs. Then locals started getting confused too.”
“Is it hard to navigate?”
“Not at all. You just walk along the top of the aqueduct. Everyone came back after the festival, so nothing dangerous happened, but the rumors went wild— cults, alien abductions, secret raves.”
“Wide range of guesses.”
She laughed. “Right? I heard the lake up there had the best view of the full moon. I hope they reopen it one day.”
“I hope so too.”
“At least it’s easier to get your stamp card prize now!”
Nico nodded. The stamp card, with its bright and bubbly illustrations, was clearly meant for children and families— and now him, a 34 year old rich in free time.
***
Nico walked around with the commemorative mascot plush clipped to his belt. It was a pastel green blob with nubby limbs and a jasmine bud sprouting from its head, dressed in a tiny linen jacket also patterned with jasmine for the festival. Every station had a wooden stand with a flag of the mascot winking beside a unique stamp. When completed, the card made a neat little postcard.
In line, he towered over nearly everyone. Lycans and Arcanites averaged his height, but Virids and Ori reached four to five feet, and today the line was mostly children. A pair of young office workers struck up conversation, proudly showing him their Minny plushies from past years. They explained each sprout variation with scholarly intensity. He understood the appeal. He left with a bag of Minny merchandise meant as souvenirs— though they would stay with him if left unclaimed.
At the end of the shortened festival trail, he wandered toward the old route and found the area fully closed. A faint ozone smell drifted from that direction. He looked up toward the hill, where the aqueduct’s arches stood silhouetted against the sky. A smaller trail was still open, so he climbed the stone steps lined with small spirit statues. They grew more… creative… as he ascended.
The path opened into a small village along the river, ponds scattered between the homes and trees. Tourism seemed to be its main industry. The place had an eclectic charm: experimental structures and strange sculptures decorated many yards. One yard overflowed with frog statues made from any material available. Another hosted a life-sized human puppet sat in a tree. A third displayed an army of Minnys around a giant Minny to rule them all. Not choices he’d make, but he respected the dedication.
Following the sound of soft bells, he wandered to a small wooden shop selling windchimes. A bored college-aged Ori watched a drama on her phone. She paused it with clear reluctance, unhooked the chime he wanted with a long stick, and as she lowered it, her eyes sharpened. Ori eyesight was famously precise. She had locked onto the Minny hanging from Nico’s waist, and lifted her phone case covered in Minnys. Nico’s eyes also sharpened in recognition as they exchanged nods— game sees game.
“She’s so cute this year, isn’t she?” the Ori said, pulling up a Minny-themed bag packed with older editions. They compared designs. One plush with a lotus sprout caught Nico’s eye.
“Oh, that one’s my favorite,” she said. “It’s from this village, actually!”
“Is there a spot here known for lotuses?”
“Well… there used to be.” Her expression dimmed. “The village changed a lot while I was away. When I came back from college, it didn’t feel like the same place.
“What changed?”
She gestured toward a house whose yard was littered with curious metal sculptures.
“Oh… that’s recent?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t here before I left.”
“And the Minny one?”
“That’s been here for decades.”
“I see.”
“But the strange thing is… they didn’t used to be like this.”
“Did the family move here recently?”
“No. They’ve been here since before I was born. But when I came back, they didn’t know who I was. And they aren’t the only ones.”
“How long were you gone?”
She hesitated. “Just a year. I took a break to help my parents.”
“That’s reasonable,” Nico said gently.
She steadied herself and lowered her voice. “But I think people started acting strange after the festival last year.”
Nico nodded for her to continue.
“And I think they don’t remember me because I was on campus taking summer courses.”
They traded theories, discarding each mundane explanation with growing suspicion.
“I’ll be honest,” she whispered. “This makes me want to put on a tin foil hat.” Her gaze flicked left. Nico’s followed right. An elderly Virid stacked metal pots in slow, deliberate motions. Nico leaned in as the wind rang the chimes, carrying a metallic scent.
“You’re not the first to tell me that.”
Her eyes brightened.
“A clerk in the Arcanite quarter told me…” Nico paused, letting it stretch for dramatic effect. “Alien abductions.”
The Ori dove into the idea immediately. “Right? Because at first I thought they were doing a bit, pretending I was a stranger. But when I really watched them…”
Nico nodded along like a man with no appointments and completely unstructured free time.
“Sometimes it looks like they’re doing things for the first time. Testing objects. And all the weird sculptures started appearing after that.”
“How do you know they didn’t just get into abstract art?” he said.
“I don’t. That’s why the tin foil hat stays on.” She slid back and waved politely to her neighbors, who were still doing mostly incomprehensible things.
As Nico leaned out, a conflict of interest settled in. He was hyper aware he was here to survey (mana) anomalies. A memory altering rift had yet to be reliably documented, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, and the timing lined up too neatly with the festival.
But he was also very cognizant of technically being a government employee, highly interested in reaping his holiday benefits. And his body still felt like an observatory kicked his ass literally two days ago. Still, it’d be responsible to investigate while the trigger event was happening. Right, he should investigate.
Or he could go back to the hotel and take a nap.
Metal pots clattered behind him as this internal battle raged inside of him.
