At 11:35 p.m. on December 2, Medith moved into a new room. The Queen had everything set, mirrored like the old one. Only the space had doubled, the bed grown wider like a calm lake. The Queen’s palace sat nearby, close as a shadow, as if by design.
Sais lived next door, yet her trail was mist. Medith watched the women already asleep, her gaze drifting like night wind. After a few looks, she found where Sais had gone.
...
The bright moon hung high, silver threads spilled across the earth. The silent night was pricked with stars, and now and then a meteor stitched the sky, falling toward the far shore.
On a mountain peak stood a tree spearing the heavens, its branches tangled like woven paths, its leaves glossy jade green. Moonlight squeezed through its seams, bleaching the leaves to a cold shine. Where branches crossed, shadows hinted at two figures locked in an embrace.
At the roots, a pensive woman crouched, hugging her knees. She wore the plain clothes the Sprites favored. Her flawless face, all allure, carried a thin veil of sorrow.
Her expression held yearning and helplessness; she stared at the broad bright moon, lost like a boat on still water. A moment later, a memory stung; she folded onto her knees and whimpered.
Medith sank down without a sound, her matching dress whispering like silk. Her smooth jade hands drew the woman to her shoulder. The woman breathed in that familiar scent; the warmth of a tender, soft shoulder burned like noon sun.
She didn’t stop sobbing; she broke into full-blooded cries, a storm on a quiet lake. Medith watched, eyes dim as dusk. Emerald eyes carried apology and helpless ache.
After a long while, the crying ebbed. She slipped from Medith’s shoulder, hugged her long jade legs, and turned away, silent as moss.
Medith hesitated for a long breath, then spoke. “It’s beautiful here, isn’t it, Sais?”
“You sure you shouldn’t be with your wife?” Sais’s voice returned to its usual lilting flow, yet a tremor ran under it like a thin stream.
“Lahiss isn’t my wife… at least not in name.” Medith’s tone was cool, flat as stone.
“Ha.” Sais let out a cold laugh, her grip on her knees loosening a notch like slackened rope. “Back then you kept saying, ‘I’ll save Xier,’ ‘She’s my wife.’ And now? Do your vows mean nothing?”
A light wind lifted their hems; Medith pressed hers down, instinctive as breath. “I’ve never forgotten my vow, especially after meeting that youth.”
“It’s only power, and I hold the key. Now the two are one. I hope you’ll finish this journey. It matters to you, and it matters more to me. Trust me, we’ll meet again.”
Within the sealed gears, the boy’s voice rang again, like a bell buried in iron.
“Sais…” Medith’s face tightened into solemn calm; her gaze was steady as a mountain. Sais met those familiar emeralds and, in a flash, read what lay behind them, like letters under water surfacing.
She lifted her right hand to her heart; under the heaviness, love throbbed like a hidden drum. “I like you… ever since we met, I think of you all the time. I know your heart belongs elsewhere, so I had to wear that mask that keeps everyone a thousand miles away. I tried to make you dislike me that way, but… I was wrong; it only deepened my love. Each time we open up, talk, or bicker, my heart ties tighter to yours, and I don’t know why. I want to shout that I love you. I want to hold you openly and sleep in your arms, but I held back. Why! Because I love you!!
“Out of respect, I sealed myself away, froze my true heart, covered my face, buried my body like a seed under snow. But you fool! You went and did that with the Queen behind my back! What about Xier! Does she not matter to you anymore?! All that talk about loving one person forever! It’s all crap! You’re a selfish, lust-blinded, lousy woman! I… I clearly—”
After that near-screaming tirade, Sais cried until the breath left her. She threw herself into Medith’s arms and pounded her chest with both hands like rain on a drum.
Medith listened through it all, patient as stone, then held her tight. “This… is my fault… I won’t try to explain it away. But I want you to know one thing.”
Medith’s jade hand slid under her chin, her palms cupping that small face. “I love Xier. That will never change. Even changed into this form, I still love her. Everything I do is to save her. But I love you too. You may not believe it, but it’s true. At first I thought you were an unreasonable ‘old woman.’ You leaned on your beauty to pull pranks, big-chested and thoughtless, words out before thought, temper odd, mind-reading on top of it, and absurdly strong…”
Sais stopped crying and stared at Medith, incredulous, like a deer hearing thunder.
Medith watched her eyes soften. “After that, I found you’re just a little woman at heart. Tough outside, sharp-tongued and soft-hearted. You put on that ‘stay away’ face, yet kept finding reasons to talk and spar with me. Your deliberate jabs only wanted one thing from my mouth—any word, even a nasty curse would satisfy you. Saying ‘I love you’ now means little. I think… you should feel it for yourself.”
Medith wrapped her slender waist and drew her close, slow as a tide. Sais stared wide-eyed, stunned like a bird in moonlight.
....
In the sky, that bright white moon hung in the dark. Under her light, a clear spring at the cliff lip gurgled down the rock, laying long silver threads across the mountain. The water’s silver threads soaked the valley’s pink flowers; they drank greedily, bodies swaying side to side like supplicants. Moments later, the flow ceased, yet the little pool at the bottom brimmed. The pink petals were wet all over; their skyward cores opened and closed, savoring that celestial nectar.
From the grass came furtive rustles; many animals, drawn by the stream’s voice, arrived like shadows. Two squirrels in particular hopped and leapt into the water. They seemed almost spiritual, juggling two pinecones between them in play. They drove the cones into each other’s heads, then into each other’s chests, a tiny war under starlight. After a moment, they leapt from the pool and shook their soaked fur hard, flinging every drop like scattered beads. Then one grabbed both cones and dove at the other, pressing down like a mountain on a tiny chest. The two heavy cones nearly crushed it. The attacker looked at the squirrel groaning on the ground and knew it had gone too far. It tossed the cones aside and began licking the sore fur on that bruised chest. Under the gentle licks, the injured one’s cries smoothed out, sharp little squeaks of pleasure breaking through. After a long while, the two squirrels seemed to have played enough; they flashed into the brush and vanished.
Mid-slope, in a cave, a small white mouse slipped in from who-knows-where. Like a child, it wandered carelessly through the dark. It didn’t notice a thin red snake stirring in the dark, desire coiling like a drawn bow. The mouse found some scraps of meat and gnawed greedily. The red snake coiled its long body and slid toward the unwary mouse. Suddenly it shot out like an arrow loosed, long body a whip, and bit the mouse’s neck. Fierce venom flooded the mouse. It froze in an instant; thought went dark. The red snake feared variance, so it coiled tighter and bound the stiffening body. As it tightened, the toxins surged. The mouse flared in a last spasm, little hands clawing at air like reaching for light. Suddenly its dangling feet jerked. Its body felt like ten thousand electric snakes ran through it. Its mind went blank. The wild hands went limp, and it fell into a dark abyss.
The red snake confirmed death and, satisfied, loosened its crushing coils. It withdrew its fangs; white venom still dripped from the wounds like milk. Carefully, it wrapped the little mouse and dragged it deeper into the dark, saving it for the next meal.
Night grew deeper; the moon grew more tender, a pearl on black silk. This bright river of stars will never fall. She will keep nourishing the earth, forever.
