The streets were full of life—people talking, walking, rushing and resting. Yelling, chatter and ughter filled the air as Luca walked up the main street; it was nothing compared to the street he used to enter Zenith, although, to be fair, that time it was the weekend and not the main street.

  The bags to his sides swung with every step, one filled with the mail materials and the other full of things like cleaning paper and a new toothbrush, as well as a couple minor things he might need that he wasn’t sure the university would provide. Would the guild provide things? Hard to say, he’d ask Alyska when he saw her ter.

  The thought made him giddy; he had had crushes before in his life of course, but it had been a long time; Luca turned into an adult and the work became more than ever, so he had no time for distractions; and sure, this was Zenith, and he couldn’t get distracted either, but that didn’t mean he could help how he felt; he liked her! And he couldn’t wait to hold her hand again; he’d have to find an excuse to do so, of course, but he was eager to look for a good one and find it. Luca couldn’t expin to himself why he felt so calm when he held her hand, it made all problems seem lesser. Truly, he was clingy.

  Luca chuckled to himself as he walked towards his dorm again; however, as he did, he saw a building to his right, a stone brick building, made of four walls in the shape of arches and a ceiling of dirt and grass. On top of it, a tree with curves that made the trunk resemble a woman and good-taken-care-of leaves stood proud and fairly short for a tree. Luca had seen a few temples to the mother on the few visits to the capital of Cuartel and the neighboring cities, but seeing one this close to where he now lived meant he could come more often; he decided to walk to it and inside through the open doors.

  The floor was also made of stone bricks, but the crevices where the floor and wall connected were full of moss, just as the corners, which had moss growing all the way up, where it also stuck to the tree’s roots as they seeped and wrapped around the stone ceiling that supported all the dirt and grass. Additionally, the small building was empty, save for the altar, which of course had to be there. On it were multiple offerings to celebrate the mother; the main thing that stood out was a beautifully wooden carved statue with the image of the mother herself, her hands over her chest and her eyes closed in a rexed expression; to the sides of the statue were a couple paintings, one depicting a woman’s chest, her heart repced with the shape of the continent, a bit patriotic for a temple, but well made anyway; the other one, an open flower floating on a small pond, with a mountain range in the distance and a tree to the side giving it shade, incredibly done, looked almost like real life. Some other offerings were on the altar, a couple dolls of straw or other materials, a lot of ceramic shapes, some vases or cups and some statues. Luca, however, didn’t have anything on him, so he redirected his attention to the money bucket, which always looked like a less efficient bucket to him, but whenever he mentioned that, his mom would reprimand him or his sister would rat him out, so he kept his mouth shut and dug into his pocket, taking out two copper coins and tossing them in it. Then he lowered his head and closed his eyes, mumbled a short prayer, and ended it with some thank yous and a request.

  “Please aid my family in being well and aid me in thriving.” He nodded and raised his head, his eyes still closed, and finished. “From the ocean to the trees, thank you, mother. We dream of your love.” On the st part, another voice joined in. Turning around, Luca saw an acolyte of the mother, an elderly woman, short and with a bit of a hump, he turned around fully and nodded to her.

  “Hoho, at ease, young one. How has this day blessed by the mother been for you?” Thinking about it, it was a very good day, especially compared to yesterday, although that one also wasn’t all bad, to be fair.

  “V-Very good, ma’am, thank you.” She was dressed in the traditional attire: a flower crown around her short hair, which dropped to a braid behind her, robes of white fx, and two braided wooden bracelets around her sleeved wrists, which stood together as she held her own hands.

  “I don’t believe I’ve seen you around before; are you new in the city?” Her voice was shivery and kind, which made Luca feel warm and safe.

  “Yeah, I’m new, I just j-” Did he have to expin it every time? It was getting old fast. “I just moved yesterday, getting some groceries.”

  “I see, and I also noticed you donated some coin.” She looked behind him at the bucket. “I thank you, would you like to join me in prayer?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, but I have something to do, in like,” Luca saw the sun; around 10:10. “A few minutes; sorry for the discourtesy, ma’am.”

  “Oh, no need to ask for forgiveness, young man; I know how busy people in this city are.” He smiled. The temples were always nice, humble for a thing so extended and popur around the world.

  “I’ll come by next week, and every Monday I can.” He didn’t have a temple in Dryleave, therefore having one here meant he could go every day. Always nice to be in touch with your soul.

  “I’ll be looking forward to seeing you deary. Have a good rest of your day.” She said as he walked past her.

  “And you, ma’am.” Before walking to the inner walls, he stopped. “Wait, before I go, can I ask you something?” It was the custom for acolytes of the mother to live off the nd, making everything with their own hands, which also earned them a reputation.

  “Oh, you youngsters.” She chuckled, already knowing the request. Pulling back her sleeve, she showed an incredibly muscur arm. Impressive, for her age and in general; Luca ughed in delight.

  “Awesome, thank you ma’am. I’ll donate what I can; maybe I’ll throw in my hat and do something handmade.” It was also customary to make some piece of art and pce it on the altar.

  "Oh, that’d be wonderful dear; perhaps pay a visit to other temples as well, hm?” She then walked in the other direction. “Especially the north side if you can; that zone of the city is a bit rowdy.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind, may y-”

  “Wait!” She interrupted his goodbyes and pushed open the door to the house next to the temple, a wooden house. “Let me give you something; I have it here in my home.” For the few seconds she was gone, Luca contempted how that old woman was once who built that whole home, as well as the temple, very impressive. She came out, holding a small bottle in her hand. “Please, take this with you; never bad to be extra safe.”

  “What is it?” Luca said, examining the small crystal fsk in his hand.

  “Water from a blessed spring!”

  “Hm.” Luca was never one for trinkets, but it was a gift, and the intention was very nice, so he smiled.

  “It will aid you! The mother’s gift will drive the evils back from whence they came!”

  “I appreciate it; thank you Miss Acolyte.” She nodded and put her hands and sleeves together once more.

  “May you walk the soil of her dreams.” She beat him to it; what was it he was supposed to respond again?

  “Uhm… Oh! And may her sorrow bring tears to wet your crops.” He nodded back, and she smiled, walking again into the temple. He wasn’t used to meeting very religious people, so he usually forgot the phrase.

  With that done, Luca proceeded to walk to the inner walls again, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw, leaning against a nearby building’s wall, the winged dy he had seen earlier in the day.

  She was still contempting the orb in her hands, which reflected the sunlight, yet she wasn’t blinded. Luca froze mid-step; who was she? He had assumed she was in the guild, but what was she doing outside, just looking at a crystal ball? She wore the same clothes, of course, which meant her chest was still only covered by the bra. Luca shook his head and determined himself to walk away, but he also wanted to talk to her.

  He took a deep breath and approached her, just to say hello; this way he could ask her who she was and what she was doing in the fortress; that didn’t seem like a bad pn. As he approached, he was careful to try and not interrupt her viewing of the orb, but it didn’t seem like it was going to stop, so after a few seconds of silence, he spoke up.

  “Ehem, hello!”

  “...” The woman simply continued looking at the orb in silence.

  “Uh, h-hello.”

  “Hm.” She hummed in recognition.

  “Ah! Eh, s-sorry to interrupt your um… Whatever you are doing, but I wanted to ask you something, if you don’t mind answering.”

  “...” She didn’t respond again; was he supposed to take that as an affirmative?

  “Okay then… If you don’t mind, um...” He cleared his throat again, why was he so nervous? Worst-case scenario, he was just bothering her a bit; that wasn’t so bad, right?. “Well, first of all, nice to meet you, I’m Luca, novice guild member.” He tried saying it in a more professional way, hoping it didn’t sound too self-absorbed.

  “... Kenzie.” The woman spoke, shocking Luca in a positive way.

  “Kenzie! Nice to meet you!”

  “You already said that.” Her voice was deep for a dy, and as uninterested as her physical nguage led one to believe.

  “R-Right…” He still felt awkward, but no city was made with just one brick, so, determined to learn how to talk to strangers, he persisted. “Anyway, my question. With all due respect, Ms. Kenzie, who are you?”

  “...” Silence once again, though this time at least her body responded; she stopped leaning against the wall and faced him, though her actual face was still very much focused on the ball. “... I’m Kenzie?”

  “No, no. Well, I mean, yeah, you are Kenzie; it’s not like I don’t believe you haha… I-It’s just…” He was stammering, so he cleared his throat once more and decided to be more straightforward. “Are you in the guild?”

  “Zenith’s?” What other guild could he possibly be referring to? “Nah.”

  “Okay, then why were you at the fortress?” He was now worried he was interrogating her. “I mean, I’m not worried or a-anything; I’m just genuinely curious, honest.”

  “My mom works there.”

  “Oh! Fair enough.” He still had more questions, but the awkwardness he felt overpowered his curiosity. “Well, that was all, sorry to bother you. Have a good da-”

  “Can I ask now?” He once again stopped in his tracks to face her.

  “Oh, sure!” Did he do something wrong? Was she going to scold him or something?

  “What did you say to that dy?” She motioned with her hand to the temple, where Luca could still see the acolyte praying.

  “W-What do you mean?”

  “At the end there, you said something ‘bout tears.” Was she talking about the farewell? “Why did you say that?”

  Luca knew he himself was a pretty naive guy; he didn’t know much and had few perspectives on the world. However, still aware of this, he was fascinated by the fact he realized he was talking to someone who had no knowledge about the mother and her religion!

  “O-Oh, well, it’s just something you say, you know?” He turned to face her fully again. “When someone tells you, ‘May you walk the soil of her dreams’, you are supposed to say something back.”

  “Why?”

  “... I don’t know, it’s like a way to say goodbye; you say something different depending on where you are from.” She still was emotionless; if Luca found it difficult to talk to people in general, not knowing how she was feeling made it even harder. “If you want to tell somebody that... you want them to be blessed... or something, you say that instead of goodbye.”

  “Do you have to?”

  “Well no…” He shrugged. “But it’s the custom in the temples and to the acolytes and such.”

  “Hm, got it.” Then she stood in silence again. Was she done talking? What was happening?!

  “Well uh, nice to talk to you Kenzie. I have some stuff to do, so I’ll go now. Have a nice day!”

  Luca walked away, unsatisfied by the interaction but proud for having been able to do it; perhaps he had been rude to her, interrupting her orb viewing and such; he’d do better next time, and with that thought he walked proudly to store his new-bought things and to brush his teeth.

  Except he couldn’t just do that, because suddenly she was besides him, walking at his pace in the same direction. This was out of his level of expertise. As they walked in complete silence, Luca occasionally gnced over at her; her face, still completely focused on the ball, was prettier than he remembered; she was tan but had freckles, and her pink iris had strange symbols inside it, like diamonds, the same he saw on her wings, which, looking at her back, were still pressed to her, they might work like a bird's or like a bug's, sure seemed more bug-like. Maybe this strange opportunity could serve for Luca to ask her about what she was, he cleared his throat once more and determined himself to stutter as little as he could.

  “He-”

  “And what do you say?” Luca felt like his head was going to explode. “Like, depending on where you are from, what do you say?” Her tone was monotone, but if she asked the question, she must’ve been interested, right?

  “Ah, well, when you are from a region where a season is more dominant, you say a certain thing.”

  “Season?”

  “Yeah. For example, I’m from a region where the burning season is the strongest.”

  “South?”

  “Yeah! Cuartel, so when you are from there you say, ‘And may her sorrow bring tears to wet your crops’, we have some issues with droughts, you know?”

  “Hm.”

  “W-Where are you from? Maybe I can remember the phrase you would say.” If he could manage to regain memories of the boring, repetitive csses the capital decided had to be taught.

  “Here, from Zenith.”

  “Right, um, and the usual season is?”

  “Flower.”

  “Okay, so you would say, um... ‘And may from her love bloom beautiful flowers in your garden’.” Turns out, he could remember after all.

  “Hmm, mine’s nicer than yours; yours is sad.” Harsh, but he understood her point.

  “Yeah, so every region gets one of the four.”

  “What are the other two?” She asked as they arrived at the south entrance of the inner walls.

  “Uuuuh, for dawn it’s ‘And may her wrath drive the evil away from your homes’.”

  “I don’t like that one either; it ain’t sad, but I don’t like it.”

  “Haha, yeah, fair. Then I think it’s ‘May her ughs bring warmth to your families’ for night.”

  “I think I like that one the best; that one’s nice.” She concluded, still in the same monotone voice, as they reached the arch.

  “Well, I’m gd I could teach you about it, but now I’ve gotta go, I have to leave these things in my dorm.”

  “Yah, okay.” She still peered at the crystal ball. Luca sighed and smiled.

  “Nice talking to you, Kenzie; a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Same. Hey.” As he turned to leave, she called out to him. When he turned, he suddenly felt her hand on his shoulder and her soft lips pressing a kiss on his cheek. She smelled of pastries, and her hair swished as she stood back and looked at him, her eyes focused now on his, her face still emotionless. Luca felt the warmth rush to his face, and his composure broke into a million pieces. “Thanks for talking to me, I was bored. See ya around.” She then, like nothing happened, turned around and left, walking in the direction of the fortress. Luca was left in shock as he stood there, she had left, but the image of her eyes looking at him and the feeling of her lips on his face still remained, it felt unreal, like he was dreaming.

  “Was that the mayor’s kid?” A nearby student whispered to his friend; the rest of the world had become silent to Luca, yet he could hear them.

  “The fuck did that guy say to her?” The aforementioned friend whispered, when Luca turned to look at them, the world started reforming around him. He then looked at her leaving, still focused on the orb, then he gnced at the ground, and then at the bags to his sides, his brain started regaining its abilities. “Dude, what did you say?” The friend spoke up; what did he say indeed? Luca felt confused, warm, and, most of all, to a surprising degree, happy and proud. He faced the door to his dorm section and shrugged at the guys, smiling.

  “Just two people speaking, normal stuff.”

  Time: 10:15