Aida had taken a lot more care in researching what the Fire Festival was in order to avoid the same sort of terrible misunderstanding that had occurred during Old Moon Festival.

  The Fire Festival was a celebration of progress. Crops would have started flowering already, an omen of bounty. The Festival itself would celebrate progress made, as well as double as a moment to thank the spirits and pray for continued growth.

  Legend had it that all the spirits responsible for ensuring healthy crops would manifest themselves on the last Sun Day of the Fifth Moon, and hang around the doorsteps of the people expecting treats for their hard work. The only treats available back then were wild berries and nuts gathered from the forests, so the spirits would disappear, giggling, after taking one treat each. The acceptance of the treat indicated an agreement the spirits would continue assisting with the crops, so the humans would generally save the juiciest, sweetest berries and best nuts for the spirits.

  Eventually, the tradition evolved so that the humble fare from nature became fruit skewers and candied nuts given to children, along with a small scrap of paper folded into a paper crane. Each paper crane bore a wish, a blessing for the family to continue maintaining their health and growing their wealth. In accepting the candy, the children would accept the duty of delivering the cranes to the town’s bonfire that evening, where they would toss the paper cranes into the flames so they could send the blessings to the heavens. The more blessings (treats) families distributed, the luckier they would be for the rest of the year.

  As time went on and humanity stabilized, the Festival became more and more elaborate. Shop proprietors would set up booths for games, food, and face paints; stages were set up for people to put on theater or dance shows, giving the whole affair a very ‘Festival’ feel.

  The Festival would last the whole day, culminating in a fireworks show at night. The children would first throw in their crane collections, and then the fireworks would go off - presumably to signify the spirits’ receiving and acknowledging the blessings.

  There was - of course - an intimacy associated with watching the fireworks show with someone else. The stakes were lower than with Old Moon Festival, but there was still an implied fondness between the two people. Presumably, when the spirits looked down on the viewers watching the fireworks show, they would note who people were spending their time with, and grant them a fringe blessing; strengthening their relationship and bond with each other.

  “I’ll be busy fulfilling Bokar’s poison work orders,” Aida said without missing a beat. For once, she was grateful for Vega’s interference. “I was already on a tight schedule before Vega threw me off, but having lost yesterday afternoon, There’s no way I can take time off for the Festival.”

  “You can’t be alone for the Fire Festival!” Sue objected. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  Aida pointed her giant shears at Sue threateningly. “You can enjoy your time at Buddington! And maybe tell my parents I’m okay?” Aida added as an afterthought. “I wrote them back saying I have a job lined up after graduation, but I don’t think they believe me.”

  The one and only letter Aida had received from “her” parents had been short - written in the same emotionless language as Aida’s own diary, where all they conveyed was that they hadn’t yet lined up a prospect for her to marry upon graduation, but they promised to have someone by the time she came home. She had sent a letter back urging them to prioritize taking care of their own safety instead of worrying about her future, but she hadn’t received a response.

  “You don’t even have time to attend for a little bit? Play some Festival games?” Levi asked.

  “Too much of a bother,” Aida said nonchalantly, setting up a new ant lining over the funnel. “The travel to and from a town would be a poor use of time if I’m only there for a couple hours. And I can’t afford to take more than that for a break.”

  “Is there anything we can do to help you finish the work earlier?” Lily asked earnestly. “It will be so fun to at least get candy together - it’ll be our last time before we become full-fledged adults with jobs and stuff.”

  Aida paused, looking up at Lily’s - and everyone else’s - hopeful expressions. They all looked appropriately crestfallen at the prospect of her toiling over the poisons during the Festival, and the hopefulness in their expressions tugged at her heart.

  They really want to spend time with me.

  “Um, well…I guess I can work some overtime the next two cycles so that I can take the afternoon off for the Fire Festival,” Aida said hesitantly. Everyone brightened at her words.

  “No, don’t push yourself - let us know what we can do to help,” Sue insisted as Lily nodded vigorously.

  Aida stalled out as she looked down at her brewing station. She had organized everything just-so, chopping and preparing manageable quantities of ingredients so she didn’t have to worry about storage. Vega’s interruption yesterday would have resulted in Aida having to dispose of the poison she brewed if the Earth students hadn’t pulled together to repair her funnel as quickly as they did, because the contents would have lost its potency if she had stored it until next week. Aida idly wondered if anybody had developed a mass storage solution for toxic chemicals; maybe a giant waterskin made of ant intestines, or something.

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  She had become adept at making the small, highly specialized list of supplies Healer Bokar tasked her with, but only in small batches. She wasn’t sure how she could scale up her operation - especially since there would be a direct bottleneck when it came to the final assembly of ingredients, which would still require her actively mixing in her mana. Too much mana would destroy the ingredients, burning away their inherent properties, and too little mana wouldn’t activate them - in both cases leaving a dud of a final product, which would be a complete waste of resources.

  “Maybe you can train one of us for the final cooking part of the poison,” Levi suggested, anticipating Aida’s plight. “We should all have decent enough control that we can’t mess up the brew, right?”

  “It’s not exactly that—“ she started before Lily cut her off with a reprimand.

  “It’s not that easy! It’s less about having perfect mana control for five seconds and more like you have to have perfect, unwavering mana control for fifteen minutes. Bokar was trying to train me on it, and it’s really hard.” Lily shook her head. “No, it would take us longer than two star cycles to get the hang of it to the point where we could be useful to Aida. He was right when he said Aida’s a natural at it.” She sighed, wilting. “I guess there’s not too much we can help you with, huh?”

  Aida chewed her lip as she thought, trying to persuade herself everything would be fine if she joined her friends at the Fire Festival. Everything would be fine if she didn’t complete Healer Bokar’s order in time. “Surely Bokar wouldn’t be mad if I took the day off, right?” she asked uncertainly, her voice soft. Everyone else quieted down as they heard her speak.

  “I mean…Adventurers, guards, and civilians need these supplies…but it’s not like anything would change if the shipment was delayed, right? Like, baseline is that they don’t have it anyway, so it’s not as if I’m taking anything away from them if I don’t deliver.” Aida couldn’t believe the rationale that was running through her mind or coming out of her mouth. She knew logically, circulation of her products could only help people protect themselves against the monster aggression. But at the same time, it wasn’t as if people were used to using these types of items in the first place, so they weren’t dependent on her output. That should theoretically allow her some slack so she could take the day off. It’s only one afternoon, anyway.

  “That’s right! Healer Bokar is a reasonable person - he’ll understand if you can’t meet quota,” Lily said encouragingly. “And besides, you’re already a day behind thanks to Vega’s interference - what’s another day?”

  “I don’t know,” Vanita started to say dubiously, but Sue pumped her fists.

  “That makes a lot of sense! And besides, as a one-woman operation, you need a break. By the time the Festival rolls around, you’ll have spent nearly two full moon cycles working for Bokar during your free time.”

  “There’s also something to be said about how you might start making mistakes if you don’t refresh yourself,” Levi said casually, making Aida look at him suspiciously. “You really should take the day off.”

  Aida couldn’t help but grin reluctantly as everybody piled on to convince her to play hooky. She had to admit, she missed this energy - the kind of youthful energy that prioritized personal well-being over societal responsibilities. Even Caleb was saying something about how it was important to respect the holiday by taking the day off, instead of treating it like any other day and continuing to work.

  “Okay, you’ve all convinced me,” Aida said, smiling as Lily and Sue cheered.

  “You can come with me to Shale Port!” Lily declared, rubbing her hands together. “We’ll make sure Vanita actually talks to Abedi.”

  “You can’t,” Vanita protested. “You’ll just make everything worse!”

  Aida giggled as Lily and Sue began teasing Vanita, before catching Levi’s eye. “What?”

  “Nothing,” Levi said, smirking. “It’s just nice to see that you’re enjoying life.”

  “What do you mean? I never took life for granted,” Aida said indignantly. Levi shook his head.

  “That’s not what I mean. You’re finally having fun. Or making plans to, at least.”

  Aida grimaced at him before turning back to her work, covering her discomfort. “In my defense, I’m being bullied into going to the Fire Festival. What are you planning on doing, by the way?”

  Levi hesitated, only responding when Aida looked back at him. “I’ll probably go back to Buddington Town. Help my parents pass out the treats and blessings.”

  “You’re not going to complete your final pilgrimage as a child crane shepherd?” Aida frowned facetiously. Levi covered his eyes, sighing.

  “Believe me, I can’t eat all that candy. And I can help my family’s business prospects more by distributing the blessings.”

  “Now you’re the one avoiding fun in order to work,” Aida remarked. She bent down to examine the color of the poison in her cauldron, swirling the remaining liquid around. She glanced surreptitiously at everyone else to make sure they were deeply involved in their own conversation before beckoning Levi to come closer.

  “Why are you encouraging me to go to the Fire Festival? I would have thought it would be safer for me to stay behind at school and avoid any other potential cultural misunderstandings.”

  Levi frowned slightly as he reached absentmindedly into her crate, picking up a few poison pellets and examining them as he thought.

  “Honestly, it’s because you deserve it.”