Stories

“Sister Therese, can we count on you to perform at the joyous celebration? The wisps seem to be fascinated with music, especially vocal music. I often wonder if this isn’t the only reason they agreed to communicate with us. That and the immortals’ nagging, those Purple chatter boxes can talk you to death when they want something,” Lily asked, skipping the introductory chit-chat. “I was planning on...

“Where are we going to host the science symposium? It has come to my attention that the wisps expect to spend some of their time here discussing multiverse physics with Purple." Sarah lifted her head from her research to find herself face to face with Roberta. She didn't hear her come in, but that wasn't an unusual occurrence: her private office, the spacious one with its own VR room, covered lana...

“Sister, did you finish the table placement cards?" sister Jesse asked sister Benedict. "I thought you said you needed them Wednesday," sister Benedict replied. "Today is Wednesday." "Today is Monday." "I'm pretty sure it's Wednesday." Sister Benedict looked at her calendar. It said Monday. Sister Jesse looked at hers. It said Wednesday. "One of us must be losing her mind," sister Benedict mumbled...

“Sister Novis," Lelia whispered, so softly that Novis, who had just returned from a rock climbing expedition and was struggling to put away her gear on a high shelf, almost didn't hear her. "Oh, sweetie, I didn't expect to see you here, I thought your mother kept you busy with the preparations for the ceremony, your input is very important, you know!" the sister said, cheerfully. "Not as much as y...

“Places, please!" Lily spoke, a little sharper than she wished. She had shouted directions to staff, friends and caterers all day, and her voice was giving out a little. "Sister Joseph, you will lead the procession, followed by sister Novis and Sarah, then Seth will bring the rest of the group from the left side of the podium. Sys, queue music," she instructed. A soothing melody poured on the beac...

"We are going to wear our ceremonial robes, I assume?" Seth entered Sarah's apothecary. Sarah was mixing perfumes, she and Sys had come up with the idea of creating a scent to match the lavender gauze and flower arrangements, even though the plant decorations were still in question on account of the dragons' appetite. The small shed was saturated with a clamor of floral scents, which shouted at ea...

“Who is waiting for Jimmy and Jenna?" sister Novis poked her head through the door that sister Roberta had left ajar. The sister was revising a last minute idea for the festivities, secretly offended that Lily was so adamant about not having anything happen that wasn't already approved. What a bore! "I thought you were," she stopped from her work to look intently at sister Novis. "Nobody told me a...

“Did you see my notes?" Humon asked, shuffling the pads on Lily's desk. Lily lifted her eyes from the mound of packages, reminders, and party decorations that had been slowly accumulating around her ever since they got the blessed news the Bonding Ceremony was going to be celebrated on Terra Two. Her maternal desire to be of assistance to her eldest daughter was fighting an older, more personality...

“Who is in charge of the hors d'oeuvres?" Seth asked. "Sister Abigail," Roberta replied, focused on a delicate piece of machinery that needed soldering under the microscope. "You're not serious!" Seth yelled, making Roberta's hand shake for a second. The pen slid over the board, covering it with a slobber of molten metal. "Thanks!" Roberta snapped, snatched the slide from the microscope and threw...

"What exactly are you doing?" sister Roberta asked Sarah, who was fumbling with a knotted bunch of ribbons, growing more frustrated by the minute. "I can't believe I'm wasting my time with this! Where is Sys? Why can't we just remake this?" the redhead abandoned the struggle, her cheeks flushed and her eyes gleaming furiously. "Can you take this to your lab and bring me back a fresh spool of non-k...

Vlor Consular Mission in Airydew, Terra Two, July 2nd, 3245 Beloved Lelia, My eyes well up with joy seeing you all grown up and ready to set out on your own path. Many centuries passed me by, they brought me challenges and successes, knowledge, wisdom and occasional silliness, and they opened my eyes to the universe, this strange and wonderfully complex, multi-layered reality I could never have dr...

"My Principal Progenitors have always had a flair for the dramatic," Humon reflected out loud after reading Tagas Cloud's letter, in the same even tone of voice Lily had become accustomed to. "What do they mean, Humon? What does all of this mean?" Lily started tentatively, her voice overcome by an instinctive indescribable panic. Humon didn't answer, he just waved, annoyed, trying to chase away th...

The day after the Night of the Mothers, for the second time, grandmother asked Aifa. “Did you enjoy the ceremony, granddaughter?” And again, Aifa responded. “It was beautiful, Doyenne, I just thought I’d feel different after that, is all.”

Atthe end of November, nature had finally settled into its cold season slumber. There was a chill in the air, a chill whose fingers got colder every morning, and which was embroidering lacy frost on the ground and on the windows, the icy breath of the earth made manifest. The Twins seemed unsettled. Aifa could see them look out to the horizon, towards the sea, as if waiting for somebody, or seeing...

“Are you coming, granddaughter?” grandmother asked, somewhat impatient. Aifa was still fiddling with her garment and time was growing short. “We have to go right now, otherwise we’ll be late.” “Late for what, doyenne?” Aifa asked, heading towards the door. “Our trip, dear. No, don’t take that, we are not going to need it,” she said, when Aifa tried to pick up a lamp for the return trip. Sunset was...

Aifa looked out the window, a little worried about a couple of leaden clouds that had started gathering over the horizon. The feast of the Victory of Good over Evil was mostly celebrated outdoors, and she didn’t want the rain to ruin her delicate silk garments or wash off the intricate body painting that several of her relatives had worked so hard to finish the day before. The dances had already s...

Everybody loved the Blessing of Animals and Nature, especially the children, of course, who had waited all year to bring their pets to the Hearth so that the Twins could utter a benediction over them. At the beginning of October, all families climbed the stairs up to the Market Square, bringing a basket, a birdcage or a fish bowl, happy to show off their beloved pets, which had been specially groo...

The sun set slowly in the sound of the trumpets, falling like a large orange ball into the sea. The trumpets kept calling as the light subsided, and the people looked out into the open waters from the elevated platform of the market square. “Today we release our burdens. Cast all your regrets to the winds, don’t let them follow you into the future.”

There weren’t many times when the Hearth was bare, but the Celebration of Harvest was one of them. People were scattered around the city, busy with the preparations, only returning to the Great Hall to bring things for the feast. The Twins, who had far outgrown the need to be watched like children, were often left alone at this time, with only one or two Caretakers to attend to their immediate nee...

Aifa, her grandmother and the rest of the Caretakers had been working hard all morning, braiding bunches of colorful ribbons into rainbows. The entire Grand Hall of the Hearth was filled with ribbons, whose silky threads seemed to be animated by their own inner spirit and slithered into crevices and recesses, never to be found again. In the middle of the room, the Twins were getting ready for the...

“Hurry up, granddaughter, we wouldn’t want our guests to find us unprepared,” Aifa’s grandmother commented, more to assuage her own tension than anything else. Everything had been prepared, cleaned, shined to a blinding polish, planned to the last detail. “Today is a big day, you know, the time when the door between life and death is left ajar, so we can rejoice in our departed loved ones’ presenc...

“Knead joyfully, granddaughter, you don’t want that bread to be heavier than a rock,” grandmother teased. All the Caretakers were gathered at their house to bake together for the Day of Abundance. They had started early in the morning and the aroma of fresh bread, right out of the oven, filled the whole house. Under their diligent hands, the first grains of harvest yielded their goodness, transfor...

The middle of July brought with it an abundance of early harvest, but the Caretakers were so busy, they didn’t even notice the buoyant unfolding of life around them. They spent day after day, gathered around the Twins, listening to the wisdom the two poured forth, wisdom whose source nobody really understood, and which, they believed, could only come from on high. “What about you, doyenne?” Aifa a...

For the second time that year, the community took their trip down the side of the mountain, down to the sea. It was the middle of June, and it seemed like the whole world was covered in flowers, especially the tall, bright yellow flowers of the meadow, which some still believed were faeries in disguise. There was talk that at night, on the eve of this feast, they could be seen dancing across the f...

“Are you nervous, granddaughter?” grandmother asked. It was Aifa’s first public speaking assignment, one for which she had prepared the entire week, and she was, of course, all nerves. “Don’t fret over it, you will do just fine.” “What if I don’t?” Aifa asked, wretched. “Then you won’t,” grandmother joked. “I’m sure they’ll let you live.” “Don’t joke about it, doyenne!” Aifa chided. “I wouldn’t dr...