Chapter 23: Weird Moon

Chapter 23
Weird Moon

“How long has it been like that, now?” Anastasia asked. The two of us looked out from the ramparts of Whitehallow. We’d stood here once, years ago. We’d just signed a peace treaty for a war I hadn’t even been an active participant in starting, and things back then had been tentatively hopeful. Even a little playful, a little flirty. But now? Well, for one thing, Anastasia was wearing something a lot less… floofy, and a lot more official and modern-looking.

“Two days,” I said, “give or take.” The moon hung high in the sky, bleeding red onto the sky. “You know what the worst part is?” Anastasia said nothing. She looked every bit the regent she’d been when we’d first met, but none of that youthfulness was there. She wasn’t even close to thirty, but she looked positively worn out already. “It’s how it makes everything look,” I continued. “It’s winter. The white moon is supposed to, like, shine on the snow-covered fields and make everything look pristine and mysterious.”

Well, things still looked mysterious. Just in the horror kind of way, like there were blood-starved beasts roaming the hills. “As long as people don’t lose hope,” Anastasia said.

“We’re working on something, actually,” I said with a little smile. “Ideally tonight, we’re going to try to find a way to kindle some hope.” We’d already been spreading the word throughout Wydonia, sending a message from mage to mage, for people to not lose faith, that there might be a way out up north. Transporting messages was easy, at least. Transporting people, sadly, was out of the question. A mage could magically travel short distances, and, if given a few weeks to prepare, take maybe a few people with them. Quickly taking even one person was a big ask for anything but the shortest jumps, and when traveling in large groups, you were lucky if everyone arrived and had all their bits. And that wasn’t even the worst of it.

Elena had explained in perhaps slightly-too-vivid detail the trials that had been done, to attempt mass transportation with anything but a pre-prepared bug-out spell, and how much of a mess the mages had made when their insides had rapidly become their outsides.

Anastasia sighed. “I hope it works, Liz.” Then, the corners of her mouth went up just a tad, although that smile didn’t quite make it to her eyes, and she turned to me. “Though I should probably learn to trust in you and yours. You have your ways.”

I chuckled. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about, Your Highness.”

“Oh, knock that off,” she scoffed. “I haven’t been queen in half a decade, and good riddance to that.” She gave me a sideways look as she turned back to the macabre landscape. “Though it did feel nice to be called that again.”

“I’ll make sure to let Kazumi know. I think she’s still uncomfortable calling you by your first name.”

“I’d rather it be just you,” Anastasia said in a tone of voice that made my voice catch in my throat. Surely I was hearing that wrong, right? Or at least misunderstanding it?

“Um,” I said, and then realized my brain hadn’t actually come up with any better words than that. “Um.” Good. Great. Great job, Liz. Panic.

“You seem tongue-tied, Liz, is anything the matter?” she asked playfully like a monster.

“No,” I squeaked and bit my lip to avoid making any further noises. Then I felt something on my hand. “Rain?” I mumbled. “Should be too cold for rain.” More drops started to come down, and the drops felt strangely… thick. Too warm for hail.

“That’s odd,” Anastasia said, holding up her hand. I looked at her as it started to rain more thoroughly, and saw silver tears running down her face, reflecting the red moon. It took me a second to realize what I was looking at, to recognize what I was seeing. There was no way, right? Anastasia looked at me with incomprehension, a frown on her face.

“Inside! Now!” I half-yelled as I spread my wings as wide as I could.

“Wh—” was all Anastasia managed before I’d thrust both my wings forward and up, shielding the both of us and wrapping my arms around her. In a single leap, I was through the tower doors that led to the staircase, not really bothering to open them. I’d have that door replaced later. Only when we were at the bottom of the stairs did I put her down and immediately rushed to wipe her face and hands of the substance. “Liz,” Anastasia, her jaw clenched as I fussed over her. “What are you doing? What is that?”

“I think it’s mercury,” I said; “did you get any in your mouth? Your eyes?” She shook her head, but was clearly a bit more worried now. I’d never really considered whether or not mercury was really a thing in Wydonia. For obvious reasons, I hadn’t really spent a lot of time pondering the periodic table in my time here. It’s not like it came up very often.

“You got some on you too, Liz,” Anastasia said, reaching out with a sleeve and wiping my face. Gosh, she was very close. And very pretty. I tried to mumble a thank you, but no real sound came out. “And immediately rushing to get me inside, too. You’ve not changed one bit, have you?” she smirked, and then looked outside. “I worry if it’s like this all over.”

I could feel the blood drain from my face. “We have to warn people!” I shot up right, startling Anastasia. “Sorry. Just… there’s no time to lose.”

“You’re right,” she said. “Go on ahead, I’ll follow. You take bigger steps than I do.” I nodded at her, and then ran down the hallway, my wings already folded and gone by the time I turned the corner. They tended to get stuck in doorways, usually to the detriment of the doorway. I could hear commotion in the courtyard below. Gods, if it was everywhere, if it’d gotten into the water… I didn’t want to think of what that would do to the population.

More stairs, which I sidestepped by just jumping down one flight at a time, shattering tiles whenever I landed. Those would have to be repaired later, too. One more corner and one more door barely hanging off its hinges later, and I made my way into the main hall, which already had people being ushered in from the silver rain. I tried to make people out in the din, but I could only quickly see Lillian, holding her lantern high. People had followed her inside. That was good, at least. Everyone was mumbling to themselves. There were children crying. At least one person was holding what appeared to be a pig.

“Liz!” Sally waved at me. She was rushing inside. Her whole head was covered in the silver stuff, like she’d stayed outside to the last. Behind her were John and Elena, both wearing hoods. That was something at least. I was about to say something about the material on her head, when she interrupted me with a raised hand. “I know what you’re thinking, but you’ll want to listen to John first.

“It’s not hydrargyrum,” John said. I stared at him.

“What.”

“Mercury,” Sally said. “Trust me, I double checked. Alchemists use it in small quantities for potions and such, but the whole poisoning thing checks out. And this, it isn’t that.” I breathed a small sigh of relief.

“Then what is it?”

“Beats me,” Sally said. “I flunked chem. I only know about mercury poisoning because of this documentary I watched once.” Huh. Maybe we’d seen the same one.

“This substance,” John said, “does not appear to be as toxic. It leaves a residue, and I doubt it’s healthy to ingest, but given the temperature, it should be solidifying outside soon.”

Elena stepped forward. She had some in a vial already. Jeez, these two worked quick. I was glad they were on my side, at least. “We’re looking into ways to cleanse it, but for now, the easiest way will be to just… heat it. If you get some on you, hot water will wash it off easily. As for the drinking water… it’ll sink to the bottom, and John and I should be able to extract it from our supplies and soil in time.

“Thank god for that,” I breathed out.

“Which one?” Elena asked.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” I mumbled. “Spread the word that getting a little on them isn’t going to kill people, so we prevent panic, but try to make sure we don’t encourage people to dance in the stuff until we know for sure what it is and why.”

“Gotcha,” Sally said, and saluted smartly. “I’m on it.” She hurried off to go tell people. I saw her talk to Melamira, Tilly and Bea, who all nodded and went off to talk to people. Good. Word would spread quickly and hopefully it’d calm people down. Whitehallow was big, with many halls, but two thousand people was a lot to have indoors. “Elena,” I said, “could you find some capable people and, I don’t know, find some large sheets of fabric and start hanging those over the courtyards? There should be festival supplies in one of the cellars.”

“I think I know what you’re thinking,” she said, looking around at everyone around her. “I’ll see what I can do.” She turned to leave but I reached out, and she paused.

“Ask Serana for help. I know the two of you did not always see eye to eye, but half the people here are her people. She’ll be able to muster able hands, and she’ll be eager to do something to contribute.” I looked over at the Elf princess, who seemed to already be making her way over to us.

“Very well,” Elena said. “I’ll ask her.” With that, she turned around.

“I’ll continue my tests, then,” John said, but I shook my head.

“Later. For now, knowing it’s not immediately harmful is enough. That thing we talked about, I want to do it now.”

“Now? But—”

“People will need something to go back to, now more than ever. This will have spooked people from all over, and they need to know there’s a place of safety here, at Whitehallow,” I said. “I don’t want to wait any longer than I have to.”

“But we don’t even know what we want to do yet…” he said, frowning. He didn’t like it when things didn’t go to plan, but, well, we were strapped for time. I looked over at Lillian.

“I have one idea,” I said. “Come with me.” I turned on my heel, but walked slowly so as to avoid leaving John in my wake. He wasn’t exactly athletic. “Careful.” I pointed out some loose tiles in the stairwell where someone had landed roughly after skipping every step. John walked around it but didn’t say anything. We were almost at the top when we ran into Anastasia.

“Liz, what’s going on? Is everything okay?” she asked. I nodded.

“Whatever it is, it isn’t directly toxic, although we probably shouldn’t eat it, obviously.”

She frowned. “Why are you heading up again?” she asked.

“You can come with if you want to,” I said. “You said you wanted hope? Let’s give people a bit of hope.” I continued walking, John right behind me, and I heard the click-clack of Anastasia’s heels on the tile behind me. I couldn’t help but smile a bit. We made our way back on top of the battlements. I was ready to unfurl my wings again, but noticed that the rain had already stopped. Good. But there was no telling if it would resume any time soon, so I was determined to carry out the plan that had formed in my head.

“What do you want to do, Liz?” John asked. “Because I don’t know what —”

“A lantern,” I said. “Like the one Lillian’s been carrying around. A big one, bright and white. Not like fire, definitely not red. But white, and bright, like what the moon is supposed to look like, and visible for miles. Can you do that?”

“I mean, certainly,” he said, “on a technical level. But I don’t think I have the energy required…” He trailed off when I put my hands on my hips and gave him a look. “I see. Then yes. And I could maintain it daily, if necessary. It would require a bit of an initial investment of power, but—”

“But that won’t be a problem,” I finished for him. “Just set it up, and I’ll help where needed.” He nodded and walked a little away from the both of us, then raised one hand, an open book in the other. He started to mumble some words. That kind of magic, the kind with all the graphs and diagrams and math matrices, seemed so far out of my reach, I didn’t even want to consider it. I preferred doing things instinctually. Went better, too.

But I couldn’t deny its efficacy. Above him, a few dozen feet higher, a small white light started to glow. It was barely visible. He looked up at me and nodded. This was the part he’d need help with. He was an incredibly powerful mage, sure, but changing or creating anything with any sense of permanence took vast amounts of energy, and most people’s bodies and souls just didn’t have that kind of reserve or strength.

But this one did. I raised a hand and closed my eyes, tried to find the little ball of excitable energy in my chest, the one that wanted to help and knew it could, and unleashed it. It poured out of my arms towards the pinprick of light that was visible even with my eyes closed, and I felt myself grow a little colder with each passing second. But the brightness also increased as the light raised itself higher above castle Whitehallow. Slowly, it started to overtake my entire consciousness, bathing me, my being, in a white light, until I felt a hand on my arm.

“Liz,” Anastasia said, “I think that’s enough.” I turned to her and opened my eyes. She was smiling widely, her face cast in a radiant white light. I looked up.

“Oh,” I said. “I might have overdone it a bit.”

“No,” Anastasia said as she looked up at the white moon that hung half a mile above Whitehallow castle. “I think it’s perfect.”