45. A Raksura Holiday Story

Moon's first clue was the flowers and braided vines appearing in the doorways and balconies looking out onto the central well, but he didn't realize that until later. The Arbora were always experimenting with, and talking about experimenting with, new planting techniques and changes to the decoration of the colony tree's interior. He thought the new greenery was a new semi-permanent addition to the well and that it was pretty, and that was it.

Until the next day, when he came into the teachers' hall and found a group of Arbora cleaning the already clean space, and talking excitedly about food and preparations.

He went past them to the corridor and down to the bower where Chime was visiting Blossom. They were sitting on the balcony that overlooked the central well, a dozen books spread out around them on the furs and woven seating mats.

Moon asked, "Is there another court visit coming up?" After all the angst over the preparations for Emerald Twilight's formal visit, he didn't know how anybody could stand another one so soon. 

Chime marked his spot in the text and glanced up. "Hmm? No, not until after Caesura."

Moon didn't know that word. "After what?"

"Caesura. The mentors just determined it's in four days." Blossom glanced up from her book and took in his puzzled expression. "The break between a cloud veil turn and a sun turn."

"Right." Moon had been at the court gathering when it had been announced. As far as he could tell it was a complex calculation involving weather and wind patterns and how many clutches had been born and conceived and when. The mentors had explained their reasoning but Moon had stopped paying attention during Heart's description of measuring the depth of the leaf mold on the largest platform. Everyone had seemed happy about it, but all the talk had been about planting on the platforms.

Chime frowned. "You don't know what that is."

The fact that Chime was right didn't make the statement any less irritating. "I thought it had to do with harvests."

Blossom explained, "It does, but it's a celebration of successful planting. It goes all day and night, and we decorate the colony, and make special food, and--"

Chime indicated the books. "We're trying to find out if the old colony here had any traditions that we lost during the move to the east--"

Cutting to the important point, Moon asked, "Do I have to do anything?"

Blossom looked thoughtful, but Chime said, "Just be the consort."

Moon sighed and sat down beside the hearth, resigned to a long boring afternoon hearing about ancient Raksuran Caesura traditions.

"What?" Chime demanded.

Moon told him, "Anytime anyone says 'just be the consort,' it does not mean what they think it means."

"We'll have special food," Chime said persuasively. "You like food."

Blossom ruffled Moon's hair sympathetically. "It'll be fun. You'll see."

"Sure." Moon had heard that before. "So, what are these traditions?"

***

Moon managed to corner Stone that evening, after he had persuaded his clutch to go to sleep.

Stone was sitting out on a trellis on one of the platforms, watching some of the older fledglings play. Insects with their own luminescence flickered in and out of the grasses while the Arbora collected night-blooming flowers. Moon settled next to him and asked, "Did you know about this Caesura thing?"

"Yes." Stone flicked a look at him. "It wasn't a secret."

"What's it like? What do I have to do?"

Stone squinted into the distance. "The last one I remember was ten-- No, twelve turns ago, at the new colony." He shrugged. "There was never much point in celebrating it there."

"Why not?" Moon asked, though he expected there wasn't going to be much point in hearing the answer. Stone had apparently hated Indigo Cloud's eastern colony for turns before they had left it for the Reaches and he hated it even more now. 

Stone said, "Because there was never much point in celebrating anything at that shithole."

"Right." Moon nodded. Stone wasn't going to be any help at all. "Is there anything special consorts need to do for it?" Or not do, was what he mostly wanted to know. Blossom and Chime's research hadn't been any help on that topic, but then it usually wasn't. Nobody ever seemed to write down what consorts were supposed to do because apparently every other Raksuran consort in the Three Worlds was born knowing it.

"Just..." Stone waved a hand. "Be there."

Moon sighed, and Stone demanded, "What?"

Trying not to sound like a grumpy fledgling, Moon said, "That's what you always say."

Stone snorted. "Because that's always the answer." 

***

But then the day before Caesura was to begin, Moon managed to get stung by some new kind of large beetle, which had leapt out at him from a section of rotted wood while he was perched on a branch watching the hunters. It had stung him three times through his scales before he could smash it. He had just had time to assure Bone and Bramble and the others that he was fine, before the rush of heat and lightheadedness started.

Later, lying on a pile of blankets and furs in his bower, surrounded by mentors, his groundling skin on that side marked by lumpy red sores, Moon wished he had never heard of beetles. Or the Reaches. Or Raksura.

Heart had already assured him that the sores might be painful but they would gradually fade away over the next few days. Which didn't explain why Merit and Thistle were still in here, staring at them like they were the most fascinating things. "It's like a strange skin eruption," Merit said.

An arm over his eyes, Moon said, "Merit, you touch it again and it will be the last thing you do."

Jade said, "Everyone out."

Moon decided to keep his arm over his eyes until they left. Then he fell asleep.

He woke up hours later, knowing it was around the middle of the night. Chime was curled up on a fur near the hearth bowl and Jade sat nearby, paging through a book. Moon lifted his head enough to see Balm and Bramble were here too, sleeping on the furs on the far side of the room, and that gray heap near the doorway was Stone. He whispered to Jade, "Why is everybody in my bower?"

Jade glanced around, her spines flicking in amusement. "I'm not sure. It just ended up that way." She set the book aside. "It's fairly noisy down in the well. Everyone's making preparations. How do you feel?"

"A lot better." He started to sit up, winced, and eased back down again. "Mostly better."

Jade moved around to look at his side. "It does look better."

Moon craned his neck to see. He could tell the swelling was down, and it didn't hurt unless he moved. It was still a fairly horrifying sight, though. "It wouldn't look better if we hadn't seen it earlier."

Jade admitted, "I wasn't going to say that."

Chime sat up abruptly, his hair mushed on one side from sleep. He said, "I'm just upset that you're going to miss Caesura."

Moon tried to put a convincing disappointed expression on his face. "Right. But I'll go out on the balcony and watch. It'll be fine. I mean, I'll be upset, but..."

Jade's brows lifted. "You want to miss it."

He tried to look reasonably offended by this patently untrue statement. "No, of course not."

"You do! You want to miss it!" Chime was aghast. Jade hissed at him to be quiet and he lowered his voice. "Did you get stung on purpose?"

"Really, is that what you think?" Moon pointed at his side. 

"All right, no, you didn't get stung on purpose," Chime admitted grudgingly.

Jade said, "Chime, if you're going to make enough noise to wake Stone, make some tea."

Chime threw a worried look at the gray heap, then moved quietly to get the kettle.

Jade settled down beside Moon and said quietly, "But you're not upset that you're missing it."

Moon grimaced. Holidays were extra complications, new and exciting ways to be exposed as someone who was lying about who he was and where he came from. Even though that didn't apply here, it had left him with an instinctive dislike.  And now he had the bonus of feeling guilty about not wanting to participate. "Not really. But I don't want to ruin it for the court."

Jade snorted. "Believe me, I've seen what's going on down there. You can't ruin it."

That was a relief and Moon relaxed, carefully shifting his position a little. "Good."

Jade asked, "What do you want to do? For a holiday. If you could do anything you wanted."

Moon considered it. "Just sit around the hearth, after a big meal. Listen to everyone talk, or listen to the Arbora read stories."

Jade pointed out, "We do that every night."

"I know, I like that."

Jade smiled. "Well, we can do that for Caesura too. All day until you get tired of it."

Moon knew that was one thing he would never get tired of.

end