~~Fate

The feast starts as anyone would expect, with the liberal pouring of drinks as the smells coming from the kitchen get stomachs working. A few extra hands have come in to help out with the work today, and it’s rather amusing to have some of the familiar customers running drinks and plates to pay off their debts.

Hope is lost in the mash of people even while clinging to my hand, barely keeping her sword from slapping into legs left and right. Even the outdoor setting is cramped for all the people that have come to celebrate the end of spring.

It seems that pressed flowers are a big deal today, and all sorts of vibrant examples are hung up on walls or pinned to clothes. Maybe there’s some hidden meaning behind it, or maybe it’s just that they’re beautiful, and it’s a nice way to remember the spring that’ll soon be gone.

“It’s busy,” Hope says, awkwardly shifting about beside me. Lucette has ensured that we’re given this chance to be together and prepare us for the challenge that she might as well have pressed us into.

“Everyone wants to let loose,” I say, pressing up against her side and watching the people move around us. It’s always interested me to see how people move, the way we weave between one another. There’s common respect here, an order to the chaos that comes to mind at the sight.

“I want to have fun today too,” I say, squeezing her hand.

“Me too,” she says, shivering slightly as she reaches for the bag at her side. The collection of bones weighing her down, I want to know, but I’m not sure that I want to ask.

“For today, let’s try to forget everything,” I say. “Let’s just have fun.”

She nods, and a small smile lifts the edges of her lips. Her burdens aren’t gone but for my sake, she’s trying to have a good time. I’ll have to find some more places away from people, as much as she tries to put up with it, she isn’t the same person in a city as she is when it’s just us.

“Found you,” Lucette says, rushing up to the two of us. Sable awkwardly hangs by her side, looking at the pair of us with slightly downcast eyes, and a measure of confusion and disbelief colouring his expression.

“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” I ask. The tables are all being served by young men and women who haven’t been able to pay their bills in days past, guided by a few familiar waitresses.

“I am working,” she says in a fake huff, “I’m making sure that our two most important customers don’t fluff about. There was something that you have to say to Hope, isn’t there?”

Lucette presses her finger right into my face. She’s having too much fun, I just hope that it’ll be a fraction as interesting for us as well.

I turn to Hope, ignoring Lucette and Sable.

“Hope, I challenge you to a trial of the moons,” I declare, turning to her. She raises a brow but doesn’t say anything.

“Louder!” Lucette demands, “How will the gods hear you over all this racket? Louder!”

“I challenge you to a trial of the moons!” I shout, bursting out laughing as the crowd turns to look at us. Just shouting out this loud makes me feel alive, joy bursting to life in my chest. Even Hope is smiling, though a little guarded still.

“You heard her!” Lucette says, calling to the crowd. “We’ve got the drinks, let’s get this started!”

A few more groups shout out their own challenges, some in a drunken stupor and others with genuine passions. Even some strangers seem to be joining in on the fun.

“Drinks?” Hope asks, leaning in close to me as the crowd surges around us.

She doesn’t get an answer, not until we’re forced to a table right near the ovens, a coveted spot that might as well be a stage where all of us challengers are set to face one another. Massive flagons are sitting here waiting for us, filled to the brim with a thick golden syrup.

“What’s this?” I ask. “What’s the trial of the two moons?”

“Well, a little history lesson for participants,” Lucette says, standing on the table and riling up the crowd. “Our lovely little trial started in the ancient days of this city of dry Dust. Back then, life was hard, and fights filled the streets in the evening. There was violence in the streets every night until enough was enough, and we decided to find a new solution to our problems.

“Drinking!” The crowd cheers at her declaration, I can’t say that I’m surprised.

“Every fight is to be decided by drinking matches! The most powerful brews, matched drink for drink, sip for sip. Most people ended up forgetting exactly what they were fighting over.”

“A drinking game?” I ask, sitting opposite Hope who looks at the drink queasily.

“That’s how it started, then we stumbled upon a magic brew. We still don’t know how the family makes it, but they’ve kept the secret for generations. This drink ends every fight and every feud.”

“We’re not fighting…” I say, wondering how this has anything to do with the two moons.

“Then what sort of couple are you?” Lucette asks, earning some chuckles from the crowd. “Do you know why this became a lover’s trial? Because after a few years we realized that the only feuds we had left were married couples.

“Drink, and the moons will show you the world through the other’s eyes,” Lucette says, stepping down from the table. “After that, we start the feast and the games.”

“The moons aren’t even in the sky,” I say, pointing up at the slight cloud cover.

Lucette laughs, staring up into the sky.

“They’re not?” She asks, tilting her head with a knowing smile.

~~Hope

I’ll see the world as she sees it?

I glance at Fate over the cup, trying to understand what she’s thinking as she looks at me the same. Would she want to see the world as the dark place that I see it to be?

Would she want to doubt every intention? To see the shadows that trail after people and the burdens that they cling to? Would she want to know of the lonely desert sands?

Her expression is determined as she grips her cup, while I don’t know what she’s thinking, I know that I want to see the world through her delusions. I want to see that world that she’s trying so hard to save.

Locking eyes, we lift our drinks and take the first sip.

It’s not as sweet as I was expecting, but the thick drink does tingle pleasantly as it goes down and tempts me for another. Instead, I let the feelings linger, trying to find what’s different.

Fate kicks my leg under the table, her eyes meeting mine as she makes a silly face, poking out her tongue at me. She seems a little more relaxed now that we’ve started, and it’s difficult not to smile back.

The people around us seem a little less tense, a little less like threats. It’s natural that they should be here. What’s a city without people? A festival without a crowd?

Faint laughter rings in my ears, but I can’t locate the source. Fate and I lift our drinks for the next round, and I find myself drifting out of reality, slipping somewhere new.

~~Fate

One moment we’re sitting at the table, and the next I’m somewhere else. The warm city streets of Dust have been replaced with the cold of a frigid castle.

Painted plaster covers every wall, and thick luxurious rugs ensure that no footstep will ever stray to stone. Yet, it’s outside, in the lighter snow of autumn that I tread a new path, the fine white powder crunching under boot.

I’m Fate, but today I’m not. I’m shorter, smaller, and just not myself at all.

“There you are,” an older girl reaches out to me at the edges of the yard, where the trees cover a small stream. Sunlight shines down to illuminate her.

She’s taller than me, but still just a kid, her long blonde hair and shining green eyes are stunning, but it’s her refined manner that takes me by surprise. Her posture, and how she carries herself, sets her apart from everyone I’ve ever met.

“Uh, hi,” I say, but it’s not my voice talking.

She smiles kindly, her eyes seeming to peer through me. If this is a dream then it’s like no dream I’ve ever had before.

“What am I doing here?” I ask her.

“You ask me?” she giggles, covering her mouth as she does, “You’re the one who came here.”

“I… I wanted to get to know someone important to me,” I say, and she smiles warmly, reaching down and taking my hand before pulling me away into the forest.

“Well, maybe I can tell you about her,” the older girl says.

~~Hope

When the world finally stops spinning, I’m left lying in warm blankets by a burning hearth. I don’t know where I am, I don’t know what’s happened, and I don’t know where Fate has gone.

There’s still a festival raging outside, thousands of people dedicating themselves to all sorts of pleasures just to forget that the end is coming for us all. Notes cover the floor in front of me, scratchings from an ancient empire, but they make no sense to me.

“Darling, are you still down here?” A woman walks down a set of stairs to find me. Her warm smile is darkened with worry and even a hint of guilt. It’s the same thing I’ve seen before, how a parent looks when they’re thinking that their kid will never live to be as old as themselves.

“Fate, your friends are here for you.” She says, “I know you told them that you weren’t going to the festival, but are you sure? Come on, they’re waiting for you.”

“Fate?” I ask.

“You haven’t forgotten your name, have you?” She asks, pulling the blanket from me and lifting me up.

I hesitate to struggle from her, though I feel uncomfortable being pulled along to the room where ‘my friends’ are waiting. That drink must have done something to us, this is much more than I was expecting, but if it can show me the world that she sees.

If I can see the delusions as real if I can accept the same lies…

“Fate, so you aren’t sick,” a young boy says, running up to me with a group of other young boys and girls behind him. They’re strangers, and there are too many of them.

I take a step back without meaning to.

“Come on, the festival is just starting,” he says, grabbing my hand and pulling me out. This time, I try to fight, but it doesn’t make a difference. His grip is like iron as he relentlessly drags me from the house.

The busy streets outside are flooded with all sorts of strange people, dressed up in dizzying colours. The kids pull me through the mess, and I can’t do anything to resist.

So far, I’m just amazed that Fate isn’t nursing some deep hatred of children.