“I'm a little nervous,” Bethany admitted.

“Really? What for, precisely? asked Kath, scooting her chair closer to Beth's table.

“This happens every year. Something always puts me on edge right before it begins, and I don't know why.”

“Oh, right, you've been to the festival before. Then do tell, is it going to be good?”

Bethany had to think for a second. “Oh, yes, it's going to be a blast. It's just... Somehow...” Despite her best efforts, Beth failed to come forward with the words to explain it.

The two had never even met each other before. Bethany simply had some time to kill, and had taken to chatting with the equally lonely girl at the next table over. Kath was a rather fetching lady, with crimson hair done into a braid, running down the back of her tight-fitting maroon dress, that revealed the shoulders. It was a style Beth had never much cared for, but she had to admit, it did look more than alright on the girl.

“I think you shouldn't worry about it so much. This is my first time here, if anything, I should be scared.” There was something dancing across Kath's face. A complete ease with the world, the ability to take anything in stride. It was a trait Beth really wished she had in herself. “This place is very pretty,” she went on, lightening the mood a little bit.

“Oh, for sure,” Bethany agreed, looking away to appreciate the place indeed. The glory park, sitting in a clearing at the center of town, was filled with big, round tables, easily enough of them to sit hundreds and hundreds of people; covered in fine white silk linen, and scattered before the splendorous plateau of a stage, at the far end of the park. Cleanly trimmed grass beneath it all, and up above, the deep, dark blue sky, with a thousand stars shining. There were no curtains obscuring the stage, although with the setting sun, off on the horizon, behind the Rose palace, it was tough to see anything on it quite well now, even as the candles were being lit.

“Who did you say you were waiting for, again?” Beth asked.

Kath replied, “Oh, I'm not with anyone. I'm here for the show. I've seen this orchestra before, they're truly a spectacle to behold. How about you?”

“Ah, as for me, I'm just waiting for some friends of mine to arrive.”

“Aha. Look, it seems to be those fellows off over there, aren't they?” Kath said, gesturing towards the tables behind Beth, and drawing her chair back closer to her own table, retreating from the conversation. Beth turned and looked off into the same direction, around the entrance of the garden, as she heard someone call out, “Bethany, there you are!”

It was an elegant young lady with a lanky gent beside, the two of them briskly coming at her, weaving between the many other guests, although thankfully causing little commotion with anyone else. Beth called back to them as she got up, “Oh, Emm, come here!”

Emmiliette Velvetoire. Beth's childhood bestie, a moniker that had still persisted between them to this day, both of them now just a year shy of womanhood. They took each other into a tight old hug, the way they always did when they met up, and then backed off to take each other in. While Beth had put on a little bit of make-up, Emm took it to another level tonight, pale save for her rosy cheeks. And it fit on her gleeful face, almost always looking like she was on the verge of laughter. She'd come wearing a white, draped dress, spreading out wide starting around the hips, with puffy, frilly shoulder pads that left the rest of her arms exposed. Her whole outfit was a bit too extravagant, Beth thought, but by a tailor's eyes, it was probably the best you could do with Emm's lightly plump body. It was still certainly more eye-catching than Beth's own red, straight dress that went all the way down her heels, with a bit of sleeve and subdued golden accents.

And then there was Vince. Oh, Emm's dear brother Vince. He was a dashing boy, a little taller of stature than Beth, and slender, in his long, deep blue coat. His face, keen and lightly chiseled, was adorned by faded dark-blond curls falling around the sides of his head; always upturned into a soft smile of some sort, and with eyes that looked all warm and melted on the inside, it wasn't much surprise that he was quite the head-turner around town, even if he was a tad quiet.

“Oh, Beth!” Emm finally said in her jangly tone, putting an end to their reveries of staring into each other’s eyes. “I'm so sorry, have we kept you waiting much?”

Beth hadn't been keeping track, but surely it couldn't have been that long since she'd taken the spot. What, a half hour, maybe a whole? “No,” she said, “I arrived just a bit ago.”

“Oh, that's nice. Tell me, how have you been?” Emm asked, as her brother sat down, withdrawing from the conversation.

“Well, you know, pretty good! As you recall, I'm still just studying the canvas and paintbrush.”

“Has it been pleasant, lately?”

“Oh, it's been wonderful! The other day, I had the idea to practice with a visit to Morfay. It's a quiet little town, a little over an hour north by carriage. I brought my supplies onto a cozy hillside and spent the evening working on a tableau of the keep at the center of the town— I believe it was called the Avarichelli palace. It's a spectacular building, with tall spires the colour of velvet, that brush the clouds. You should have seen it, Emm!”

“Wow, it really sounds like you had fun there. Listen, after the festival, can I come see your painting, of it?”

“I... didn't quite finish it, actually. I spent so much time simply admiring it, that the sun set much too quickly to paint it all in time. Perhaps, one of these days, we could go up there together.”

“Aww, Beth, I think that would be just lovely!” Emm's eyes briefly looked away, off into space, as if she had to think, to make sure that it would be lovely, but they flicked back to Beth in a split-second.

“Yes, it would! But that's for another day. So, how's your life been, Emm?”

At that, Emmiliette grew a bit sheepish, uncharacteristically. “Oh, you know, not that exciting. This morning, I spent an hour of two in the family gardens, identifying flower breeds. Mother still wants me to diversify my hobbies, be more in tune with the world...”

“Right, I remember you told me about that. Was is nice, outside?”

“It was alright... although, I guess I do prefer artificial plants.”

“Oh, really? You've never told me that before. How come?”

“I hate to see flowers wilt. I think that, there's nothing special real ones could give you that you can't get from ones of fabric.”

Beth wanted to say that real flowers can continue to grow, and bear seeds, but she suppressed these words, as she didn't want to upset Emm by saying something to disagree. “True, I suppose you have a point.”

Vince, who'd been taking in the surroundings, was looking straight at the stage when his eyes widened a little, and he said, “Oh, here comes her majesty!” Similar remarks rippled throughout the tables, as everyone's gaze went to the rostrum, the spotlights flaring up on a beautiful lady, in a vast, billowing rose dress, whom everyone knew all too well, as she walked up to the microphone situated at the front. Her face petite, delicately coated in pale makeup, her hair done up in an elegantly large light-gray pouf, adorned with a pink bow and ribbons. While nothing short of gorgeous, it was sadly a little bland for a choice of clothing. Perhaps she could've been more awe-inspiring, had this style not been so common all over town, although in fairness, she didn't follow the trends. She set them.

“Welcome, welcome, one and all, to this year's edition of the Tea Festival! Some of you may recognize my face. Yes indeed, it is I, ruler of this kingdom, Queen Rozaphilia—“

Another round of applause and cheer to her melodic voice, which got her lips pulled tight into a smile.

“Yes, yes, thank you! Now, now, we are gathered here today, to look back, and remember, a simple, yet important moment in our history. The peasant's revolt. The revolt that failed. Many of you all were but children, few years ago, when a group of the common folk took up their pitchforks. They were dissatisfied with the world, with the royal bloodlines, with the gods, for little good reason at all. They wanted more. And when we gave it to them, they wanted yet more. And more, and more, and so I hear the crowd asking; What was there to do? What came next?”

...

“What did come next. For when their screams all rang out in one cacophony, I took a breath, and offered them all to come, each and every one, to the palace, and drink a nice cup of tea with me, for one lazy evening. And quickly, their cries died down. It cleared their minds, and allowed them to see the world through new perspective, a warmer one, a less frozen heart. And for that, we celebrate it, and cherish it, but not without reverence. The tea, it was not such a soft thing. It was a silencer. And that brings us to today.

“Everyone's cups will be served cold, each serving coming with one, single little ice cube inside. And at the center of each and every little cube, is a tiny droplet of a sweet, sweet little potion, extracted from the tallest of trees. It's something few people seek and fewer find. Take a little too much time, with your drink, and surely, it will have thawed out. Now, I do expect most of you fine, fair people will drink responsibly. But perhaps, some of you courageous princes will dally... and tempt the fates, perhaps?”

The crowd burst back into uproar, celebrational. The queen's serious, curious expression cracked instantly into a radiant grin, as she paraded across the front of the stage, left and right, showering in the kingdom's love, and thanking the heavens for this life, and blowing the men and women around many kisses, ending by wishing the audience a most blessed evening. The cheers only began to quiet down many moments after the queen had gone offstage, at which point people returned to conversing with their pals in camaraderie, and a line of ladies and men dressed in black began slowly pouring onto the stage. The assembling orchestra, no doubt.

The group of three were all speechless for a moment. “Just... Wow,” Vince said, breaking the silence. “Wasn't that speech incredible?”

Beth replied, “Oh, it so was! I got goo— Oh, look, here come the treats already!”

There were several neatly dressed butlers, pulling carts through the aisles between tables, and briefly stopping at each seat to bring the respective orders to all guests. It was rather incredible, how they moved in such perfect synchrony. “They're about to reach us.”

“Ooh,” Emm let out, as their teacups were wordlessly set down before them, letting out tiny clinks of cup against saucer, and more faintly, ice cube against cup, while the butlers moved on further. “They're all so beautiful, I wish I could try them all!”

Beth quietly noted the designs on each; her own was floral with a sunflower and red rose motif, while Emm's had cute drawings of kittens in light pastel colours. Vince's lacked any clear design, and rather was just a stark black. The cups themselves were randomly picked, but she felt they were all fitting, in one way or another.

“They really are,” Beth agreed. “Say, what teas do you two have there?”

“I, have a Vanilla Milk-Tea, topped with a sprinkling of Cinnamon,” Vince said, slowly, as if he was confessing something intimate.

“Mine is Honey-Glazed Choco-Strawberry!” Emm added gleefully. It was in her nature to get randomly giggly like that. “Why, what did you get for tonight, Beth?”

Beth had to pause for a second to even recall. Festival attendees had to pick out their selection at the entrance, and have it delivered later, when the festivities began. Aside from buying a ticket, there wasn't any kind of reservation you had to make; none of the seats were numbered, and you didn't have to fill out or choose anything other than your order. She guessed the men at the reception just take a quick, good look at your face and keep track of everyone's orders. Yes, there were a thousand or so people who did afford to come each year, but... god, only now that she was thinking about it, did she actually wonder just how everyone's teas were kept straight.

Regardless, she'd been in a hurry when she'd arrived at the park, not long after doors opened up. She'd worried, that perhaps, Emm and Vince had arrived early, and she hadn't wanted to keep them waiting at all, so she took the first thing she saw on the menu, to get in as quickly as possible and find that her friends were nowhere to be seen quite yet. “Oh, I've, I've just got plain mint.”

Emm did a double take at that. “Plain? All these colourful choices around, and you choose to take plain?”

“Guess I do,” Beth said after a moment, lightly rolling her head to the side. Their tones were all joking, and they were all laughing, but Beth couldn't help feeling a tiny bit stung on the inside.

“Well, I suppose we shall cheer!” Vince said. They all three clinked each other's cups carefully, as not to spill, and took a long hard sip each.

When they put the cups down, Emm's clinked the hardest, and the others looked to find that it was empty, save for the ice cube in the middle, still at its full size. “I'm sorry, it was just too good! I couldn't resist!” That got a chuckle out of all of them.

“My tea's really great too,” Vince said. “How about yours, Beth?”

“Mine's nice,” she said, staring down into it. Pondering. If she were the tea, would the rest of the world look as green to her as the tea looks to her eyes?

“Why, you look somber. What's the matter?”

“I guess I want to savour mine, but I wouldn't want to let this little ice cube melt. I never understood, what's quite in it, but it puts me off.”

“I always though it was syrup, is it not?” Emm chimed in.

Vince clasped his hands for a second, his elbows on the table, and then reached out towards Beth's cup. “Here, I'll take this,” he said, as he simply took the ice cube out of her cup and dropped it into his own. “It's on me.”

She smiled, “Oh, Vince, are you really— Oh, thank you.”

His face broke into an equal smile. “I won't tell if you don't.” And then a grin. “Actually, here, I'll speed it up,” he said, leaning in close to his cup and blowing warm air into it.

“Oh, now you're just overdoing it!” Emm said, playfully trying shoo him away from the cup. “Stop it, you silly sod!” Beth didn't quite get what was so funny, but she laughed, too. Everyone else was.

Took in her surroundings again, clearing her mind of the everything. Her eyes landed on the grand stage, and saw there were many people coming onto it— almost hidden, without the spotlights. “Looks like the orchestra's assembling. Shall we go on over to the ball floor a while?”

“Ah,” Emm said, just now remembering, “Vince can't dance right now, he has a sprained ankle. He was barely able to make it here to the park.”

“Oh. Well, that's a shame. I was really... ah, forget i—“

“Hey,” Vince butted in, “I'm not stopping you two from going out there by yourselves. Why don't you dance with each other?”

The two young maidens' eyes opened a bit wider than they were before, and looked to each other, turning the idea over in their heads. Quite something novel, it was.

“It would be quite a sight to behold,” he added.

And Beth rose to it, standing up and walking around the table to Emm's side. “Well, you know what? Alright. We, are going to dance.”

“We are?”

“We are.”

Silence briefly hung in the air until it was decided, “Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt at all to try.” Emm got up and took Beth's hand, and the two of them departed, not stopping for a second to look back at the amused boy.

They made their way over to the quickly gathering ball floor, as swiftly as their low heels could allow. The floor itself was dazzling, being arranged in a pattern of white, red, pink, and black tiles, each tile shiny and crystalline, reflecting the many chandeliers, their crystals almost looking like stars. Looking around, all the other people she could see, getting into positon for the waltz, were in pairs of man and woman, although luckily none of them paid heed to the two maidens, who were getting into position themselves. Beth took what was supposed to be the pose of the man, while Emm fell comfortably in the usuality of the woman.

The large spotlight pointed at the stage turned on, and the rest of the park's lights dimmed down, causing the audience to clap up another round of approval before the people sat there began their show. There was no speech, and no introduction. The band launched into a suite, opening with a crescendo of dramatic bass drums, before turning into a sprawling world of sound, notes upon notes, with so many different moving parts. And the dancers all began to drift, slowly. Dreamily.

And somehow, it worked. Despite Beth taking the man's pose, neither of them took the lead, and rather they followed each other, yet avoided stagnating to a standstill, or getting tripped up. They both anticipated the other perfectly; it was quite a testament to how well they understood each other.

“So?” Beth asked, “What's it like, dancing with me?”

“Why, I'm feeling great! It has been far too long since the last time I've danced. And my, this symphony is simply amazing!”

“It is, indeed,” she agreed. Quite a spectacle unlike anything she had ever seen, or heard, for that matter. The music was still flowing beautifully, ever-changing, the sound sweet on the ears. She thought that she could recognize the piece, although vaguely, as if it were changed in certain places, and she certainly didn't know who was the composer.

What she found even more awe-inspiring, was seeing that every single instrument was painted a deep, rosy colour. It looked striking next to the members' black suits. And they were glossy, too, the wavy texture of the wood still visible beneath. Even the orchestra's conductor had a small, flowing ribbon on the end of his baton.

“That cello's very beautiful,” Emm said, as if reading Beth's thoughts. “I wish I had one like that.”

“Aw, really? Since when do you like the cello, Emm?”

“I've always wanted to play one, to hold one in my hands. Listen to it now, the way it's rising and falling...”

Beth smiled. “I think it would sound amazing, played by you.”

“Oh, I'm not too sure about that...”

“... Hmm... It's just a random thought, but Emm, what if maybe, we could pick it up together? And the both of us study it. Or I could pick up a different instrument. We could make music together.”

“Why, that sounds so wonderful! But... It is so, so much effort... I wish I had the time, but I should be focusing on the more important things now.”

“Which are?”

Emm's face turned sheepish, again. “Oh, just, my studies... and... flowers...”

A sinister, mean thought came, through Beth's mind, like a chariot through a crowd. She tried to push it back down, but for once, for the first time in a long while, it surfaced, delicately spat out.

“Flowers, which you hate.”

Emm's eyes became yet sadder. “I wouldn't say I hate them, reall—“

“You don't like them enough, that much is obvious.”

“I—“

“Why do you listen to them? Why don't you follow what your own heart wants to do?”

“Aa— Ahh, it can't be worth the str—“

“Emm, wake up.”

At that, Emm pulled away, away from Beth, and stared at each other dead in the eyes. The rest of the ballroom paid them little mind, and danced on, merely taking care not to bump into either of them.

Beth was shaken out of her flurry, her heart shuddering, the pit of her stomach feeling like it was falling. She blinked the sour thoughts away.

“I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, I didn't mean to say any of that,” she said as she drew closer to grab Emm in a soft hug. “Oh, please, forgive me.”

“Ha— W— B— Is— ...” Emm failed to get any words out yet, so she just took the hug and held Beth tightly.

“Let's forget I said anything. Let's just enjoy the moment. Let's just enjoy the dance.”

“Yeah... Dance... Let's.” The two of them took each other again and wove their way straight back into the ball, both of them feeling a bit better now. “Anyways, I, I was just saying that I really like cellos.”

“I can see why,” Beth phrased simply.

After that, the dance returned to a state of wordlessness, as they let the music envelop them, and their minds drift, merely occasionally waking to whisper about cute guys in the crowd, although, naturally, all of them were taken. Until the music swelled, and the dancers one by one stopped, and turn to watch amazed, as they reached the finale of the piece— a crescendo on the several violins. The final notes still reverberating as the audience burst into uproarous applause, the orchestra soaking it in, preparing to launch straight into the next one. It was only then that Beth came to herself fully.

“... How long have we been dancing? I've utterly lost track of time.”

“Oh, I'm unsure too... Let's go check in with Vince, see what he's up to.”

The two of them broke away from the ball-floor, making their way back, as quickly as they could, which was to say it did take them a second. Every direction was so alike, all the tables the same, it could be hard to orient yourself. Beth got a passing glance at a grandfather clock that had been situated nearby; it was a little past eight in the evening.

“Ah, there he is!” He had scooted his chair away and to a different part of the table, as to face the redhead from the next table over— Kath, that was her name. It seemed they'd struck up a conversation, heated, both of them leaning forward to be closer to the other. They were laughing at something when he saw the girls approaching out of the corner of his eye and turned to them. “Oh, there you are! So, how is the ball?”

“It's simply delightful!” said Emm. “I do hope you haven't been bored just watching us, though, have you?”

“Oh, don't worry, my thoughts occupy me just swell. And so does this pretty lady over here...” He turned back to Kath, the two of them smirking between each other.

“Well, I see you two have been acquainted.”

“Beth, you know this girl?” Emm asked.

“I suppose you could say that.”

“Emm, meet Kath,” Vince said, and took sip of his vanilla tea as they greeted each other with a simple “Hey” and “Hi.”

“She's really sweet,” he continued, and put down his half-emptied cup noiselessly. It took Beth a second to quite register it, but there was a certain slowness to his movement. His posture a little slumped and drowsy, as if he hadn't slept in a day.

“Vince, are you quite okay?” she asked. “You look really tired.”

“Ah, really? Nonsense, I'm doing good.” Although there was a lilt to his voice, that sounded rather unusual of him. Perhaps Beth was just stressing out too much. She took a sip from her mint tea that was slightly warming up, and tried to not think about it.

“Say,” Kath began, “would any of you happen to know the time?”

Beth, in fact, did. “Oh, it's about ten minutes past eight.”

“Ah, thank you,” Kath replied, “I may have to get going in a second. My father wouldn't like me to dally around in the town much.”

“Oh, please,” Vince asked of her, “if you wouldn't mind, may I come with?”

“Hah... I'll have to think about it,” she said.

“... Again, sorry for, abandoning you so long” said Emm. “We'll settle down with the dancing for now, alright?”

“Oh, don't feel obliged at all to stay,” he said to them. “Go back out there, I wouldn't want to hold you back.”

“Oh, Vince, are you sure?”

“Very sure indeed.”

Beth would have actually preferred to sit down for a second, but she figured it didn't hurt to get back into the flow of the place. “... Well, alright. Shall we continue, Emm?”

“Oh, why, I see little reason not to!” Emm replied.

“Go have fun,” Kath said. “You know, I was also watching you during the last one, and I must say, you might be as majestic as the symphony itself.”

Another round of the words. Oh, stop, oh, thank you, oh, you're being too flattering, oh, oh, oh.

“Well, we'll see you later, Vince!” his sister said, as he watched them scurry off again.

“So,” Vince said, trying his luck yet again, leaning forward to rest his head on his hands, “about that... Is there a chance, you'd like to take me along in your pocket?”

She laughed, briefly. “Oh, I'm really not certain,” Kath turning it over in her head. “I think you should stay here.”

“Are you sure?”

“I pass through this park most days. I think we'd easily meet again. But for now, you really do look like you need to close your eyes for a second. Alright?”

“I... Well... Okay.”

She smiled. “Farewell, beautiful stranger,” as she got up, and walked off without him.

He wanted to wish a goodbye to her, too, but he found his voice didn't have the strength to push out any more words, so he merely smiled, watching her go. Face held in his hands, his elbows propped against the table. Faintly. His arms were trembling, so very faintly.

Part of what had kept it faint up until now was his ease, and as he realized he could barely move, it turned into a shudder. He tried to pull himself together, but his arms gave out under him, collapsing down like broken chair legs, his face plummeting on top of them, landing on his right cheek. Thankfully, he hadn't fallen onto his cup.

But he couldn't move.

He tried to push himself up, he tried to pull himself up, but he couldn't move an inch. Like a sandbag. And he kept throwing his power into his body, to try and wake it up, but all that did was waste the energy he didn't have to begin with.

So his eyes stared out. Far away, there were figures of vibrant, rich colours, dancing in the distance. Blurred together, one turning into another and on and on. He scoured through a pair dressed in red and white, and wondered fleetingly for a second if it was them, but just as quickly as he'd spotted it, it vanished, swallowed by the rest of the haze.

He realized, that there were no such colours nearby. The tables around him were all vacant, everyone else around having gotten up for something or another. Oddly, it was a little relieving to see that nobody else could see him in this state.

So what now, what to do, what to do? What could he do? He couldn't even open his mouth to call for help. He turned the problem over thoroughly, but no matter what avenue he explored in his mind, he'd wound right back up to waiting for it to pass. Until something changed him.

He got lost in these thoughts for quite a while, and it wasn't until he came back out of them that he realized his eyes had drooped closed and he hadn't the ability to open them again. He didn't even push his muscles to try as hard this time, because he could already tell it would be futile.

At least the music was nice. His ears could hardly close up, and his hearing remained sharp enough. The orchestra had reached a slow movement, but not a somber one. The music was evocative of the sentiment of thinking about the future. Accompanied only by the sound of his own slow, laboured breath.

But slowly, he came to notice a different noise. A noise that was approaching. Something with wheels, squeaky, although whoever was moving it said not a thing.

And suddenly, that somebody— or perhaps it was multiple people?— grabbed him, picking him up by his armpits, and dragged him out of his chair and onto something. A table of some sort. Not cold, but hard. He was cold enough for the both of them, anyway. They laid him out, face-up, his arms at his sides, and draped something all the way over him. A blanket, soft, and warm, and fuzzy, but it did muffle the sounds around him slightly.

He began to get a really bad feeling from this.

And then they began pushing it, this cart, this thing he was on. He could feel every bump of the grass ground, and every time the cart took a sharp turn, and the way they occasionally lifted it into the air to take the cart up or down a small set of stone stairs— undoubtedly multiple people. The music waned, growing further and further away, slowly but very surely.

At one point, the ride became smoother, the ground no longer bumpy, the music now but barely audible. The footsteps of his carriers much louder now, against the hard floor of a building. Echoey.

A bit after that, it finally stopped, as they parked him. In the middle of a room? He didn't know. And a second later, they left him there, footsteps going off in many different directions. From one of those directions, slightly to his left, came the gruff voice of man, which Vince couldn't recognize. “It is done, your majesty.”

The melodic voice of a lady came in response. “Excellent.”

“And, your majesty, may I ask one question?”

“Well, I don't see why not.”

“How long are we going to keep winding down this same road? We have been doing this for years. Surely, we can't keep it up forever.”

A long silence. “No, I suppose you're right. We can't do this forever. But I'm afraid.”

“Yes, but my queen, how afraid do you have to be for such a thing?”

“I'm simply afraid. I'm terrified. If someone, anyone, is willing to push against advice, to follow curiosity, and find what this is, at the center of a mere cube of ice, what else will they push for? What else will they discover? What else will they fight? It's simply safer.”

Vince's mind shot wide open.

“It's just safer to cull them, oh so quietly.”

And then it dawned on him.

“... Forever it shall be, then.”

He was not alone here.

“Is the mass grave ready yet?”

 

***

 

“Ah, welcome, welcome! I take it you are Miss Bethany Fauvela, and you are Miss Emmiliette Velvetoire, yes?” said the carriage driver, gesturing to them in the wrong order.

Beth didn't want to say anything about that, as she saw little reason to make the driver apologize and feel bad about himself, but Emm still chimed in on it. “Actually, I'm Emmiliette Velevetoire.”

“Ah, I am so dearly sorry, ladies, for my mistake!”

“Oh, it's nothing. Here's your fee,” Beth said, taking out and proffering a small handful of silver coins.

“Righty-ho. And we are off to the city of Avarichelli, correct?”

“Yes, correct.”

“It is settled then. Come on in!”

“Thank you,” she said as the two of them hopped on and sat down together, on the side at the back of the carriage so that they'd be gently pulled back into it when the horses took off.

“Thank you so much, again, Beth. I haven't sightseen in far too long.”

“No, thank you for giving me a reason— I myself wanted to go back up there, too.”

“Oh, by the way, have you seen Vince around?”

“Vince? No, come to think of it, I have not. Why do you ask?”

“He hasn't turned up home since the festival, a few days ago.”

“The festival? Ah... we ended up leaving without him, right? Yes, I remember now, he'd gone off with that girl.” Try as she might, Beth could hardly remember that girl's name.

Emm entertained the thought, with a light giggle. “Could be. I mean... it's not completely unlike him. He has done this once or twice before, disappearing for a little while.” Yet it was clear in Emm's voice, that she was skeptic, even if only slightly.

“I think you shouldn't worry about it so much,” Beth said.

“Maybe you're right.” The carriage pleasantly took off at precisely that moment. “Oooh, I'm so excited!”

“Me too!” Bethany exclaimed.

“I wish the trip wasn't going to be so long, though...”

“Ah yes, that is a shame.... So... Until we get there... What else is new with you, Emm?”

“Oh, you know, not much. Let's see, what could I talk about... Oh, my history teacher at school has gone ill in the head.”

That almost left Beth at a loss for words. “I'm sorry, what? How exactly could that be?”

“He spent the first half of yesterday's lesson rambling about this random chemical, and how it was going to destroy the world. I think it was called Pyr— Py... Pyroxylic spirit, I think it was.” She had to talk slow to get the name right. “It's this liquid, that can apparently be distilled from tree bark. He talked about how it's poisonous, but apparently tastes sweet. I can't recall much else, though.”

“That sounds strange. I wonder what was wrong with him... And the second half of the lesson?”

“Well, after that, he talked to us about the peasant's revolt. Or rather, he told us a whole lot of nothing about it...”

“Oh, really?”

“He just said all the same things everyone already knows about it. I still don't even quite understand what the queen actually did in it. I never have. Beth, I ask this genuinely, but do you really think offering people a cup of tea could quiet so many people down like that?”

Beth thought about it, and surprised herself with the answer she came to. “Perhaps it did. Perhaps, the world may not be quite as sad as it appears.”