It was Kradenmas time in Vale!
The time of year where the skilled Psynergists of the town installed long-lasting motes of multi-hued light on the edges of roofs. The time of year where fragrant pine trees were lovingly grown by Venus Adepts to place in their living rooms, where they would place upon it baubles and candles. The time of year where presents were bought, and the time of year where everything seemed to slow down for once. Life in Vale became magical. Because, above all, it was a celebration of Kraden.
Ever since the Ascension of Kraden 60 years prior, the divinity of Kraden had been acknowledged across all of Angara and much of Northern Gondowan, Indra, and Osenia, as well as all the major inhabited islands of the Eastern Sea. Missionaries were out all the time spreading the News across Weyard to corners that had not heard it yet. Kradenmas was the Winter Solstice celebration of His birth. Kraden's exact birth date could never be ascertained, but the earliest disciples quickly moved to place the celebration on Winter Solstice, which was already a famed feast day in Angara. Each Kradenmas, there was a prolonged time of prayer, reflection, and celebration of the blessings Kraden had bestowed in the previous year. To popularize the holiday further, the customs of trees, lights, and presents were quickly added.
There were a few people that remembered life before Kradenmas. Old Isaac was one of them. He was there for the very first Kradenmas- indeed, he was there to witness the Ascension, and much of Kraden's Acts late in his time on Weyard.
But this was his first Kradenmas without Mia.
Deeply saddened by the sudden and unexpected loss of his cherished wife, he was spending much of the holiday season holed up in his home when he would normally be out tossing snowballs with the children still.
Thus it was that Karst was not disappointed when she knocked on Isaac's door looking for him on a slate-skied winter afternoon.
"Isaac?" she asked after smartly rapping the door thrice. "Isaac, open up. It's cold!"
Isaac could be heard grumbling, but he opened the door, barely suppressing a smile.
"Cold nothing!" he said, "this is swimming weather for you, Proxian!" Karst laughed gaily.
"Of course! I'm here to ask if you want to join me!"
There was more to joke about than what was being said with words alone. For Vale, ever since the sinking of Mt. Aleph, had been the site of a very reliable set of comfortable hot springs. In fact, the whole year was swimming season for all of Vale, not just the hardy Proxians (who nevertheless might swim anyway).
"Sure, I'll go," said Isaac, gathering his things and blowing out lamps in the house. "My bones need it anyhow. I guess I did one Titan Blade too many in my younger years." Karst nodded gravely at this.
"Oh, I know exactly how you feel. Why, I tried picking up my scythe the other day and..."
And so the two old friends trundled uphill to the hot springs, talking all the while about adventures past and troubles present that had come of them. Isaac paid special attention to the decorations.
"They seem to get better at it every year," he remarked, seeing how, this year, one clever family had figured out how to make their lights circle the entire spectrum of color. "I guess with it being a new Golden Age, one should expect any wonder to come from Alchemy."
Karst nodded at this. The Golden Age indeed had brought many wonders to Weyard, even though it had brought many dangers. But thus far, there was no war, as the Golden Sun had been hidden, and its location was only known to one trustworthy representative from each continent.
Ascending through Vale was wonderful. It was a veritable Kradenmas wonderland. The children had lost none of their ironic humor. Lining the path on either side to the Sanctum were snowmen clearly meant to be in the act of meditation - the bored expressions on their face betrayed this more so than their bent postures, so much as snowmen can have a posture. Lights festooned the edges of houses, and golden lozenges of light spilled out of frosted windows. It began to snow lightly. Isaac was all eyes. Why hadn't he gone outside earlier this winter? The thought of Mia descended on him like a freezing fog. His eyes sank slowly towards the ground as unwelcome memories, good and bad, began to be replayed in his head. Karst noticed this immediately.
"Isaac," she said sadly, "I know I don't understand your loss, but you must try and cheer up. You mustn't let this affect you too much. Such is the nature of life and death."
Isaac sighed heavily from behind his tattered yellow scarf (which he refused to throw away, much to the chagrin of Vale). "I know, Karst," he began, "but... well, I suppose I don't know how to live without her anymore." There was a silence at this. Isaac realized he had made Karst uncomfortable. "What was it like when you lost Felix?" he asked, as a sort of way to get the conversation going again.
"Oh," said Karst, not expecting that question. It had been decades and decades since she lost Felix to Garet. Afraid of the stigma of their coupling even more than Karst's wrath at her loss, Felix and Garet had moved to Alhafra, where such arrangements were more acceptable. "I supposed it was easier for me because I hadn't gotten used to life with him... I suppose I just found things to busy myself, and one day I woke up and found that I was better. Here we are!"
They had come to the gates of the hot springs. They made their way into separate changing rooms and shed their wintry garments. There was a graded entrance into the water in each changing room, so when one entered the common area the steamy water would hide one from the neck down. Vale had retained its extraordinary prudishness.
Karst was out in the common area first. She worried for her friend. After Felix, she had become quite bitter, and had never tried again in the realm of romance. Her whole life, she had been a celibate. Well, except for that one time with Ouranos at Tolbi, but that was QUITE different. At times, the loneliness was intense, but she found ways to be happy. How must Isaac feel? she asked herself. I know how to be lonely, but he does not.
Though it was still snowing, the snow melted when it came within a few feet of the hot springs. The result was a dense fog. Karst peered through it, fighting the beginnings of cataracts and the fog. Isaac could be seen wading through the water towards her. "I had forgotten how nice these springs are!" he said. Karst grinned. "I don't know why you don't get out more," she replied, immediately realizing it was a bad idea to say that. Isaac looked at a point in the sky for a while detachedly.
"I mean," hurried Karst, trying to repair her mistake. But Isaac held up a hand, sloshing a bit of water.
"Nah," he said. "You're right." He turned his face back towards Karst. His face was rather impassive. Then without warning, he leaned back against the wall. Karst started, thinking he had become dizzy. But Isaac spoke.
"Man," he said. "When did the years go by? Last time I checked, we were sorting through rubble in the collapse of Old Vale. I blinked, and life happened."
"I think the years have gone by terribly slowly," said Karst in a low voice. Isaac perked up.
"What?"
"You've had Mia," Karst said, not without bitterness, "but it's been a long, hard slog for me. I think you should count yourself lucky." Isaac opened his mouth, closed it again, and frowned. Perhaps he was being insensitive.
"I didn't mean to cause you any pain by saying that," admitted Isaac. Karst sank a little in the water.
"I know."
And at that, they fell silent. Over the years, even though they had flown by, they had learned that words can seldom do the job properly, and that silence has its place. They finished the rest of the soak listening to the sounds of winter.
Karst had a point. The thought of Mia pained him still (though at the current moment, he was remembering past activities that he and Mia had undertaken in these hot springs), but it was a different kind of pain. It was not as much of a sharp stab of loss as it was before. This time, it was like looking backwards on the road and seeing landmarks disappear into the past. No, not disappear, he reprimanded himself. That will never happen. But he couldn't deny that she wasn't going to come back.
He snapped back into reality. Karst was casting a small, bright, green flame in front of her to amuse herself. She gave a wry glance to Isaac.
"You are the most transparent person I know. I can literally see you think." Isaac frowned.
"Is that such a bad thing?"
"No," said Karst. "It just means that you're a male Venus Adept." Isaac laughed a little, half-wondering if she was thinking of Felix when she said that. Karst lowered her hand, and the green flame sank into the water to be extinguished. She sat lamely for a moment, looking at the spot where the flame had gone under. Isaac observed the surface of the water closely, as if looking for something.
"Well," she said, after a long time, "I'm ready to go back."
"Yeah," said Isaac. "Me too."
On the way back down, Isaac looked more closely at his feet than the decorations. Karst was walking wordlessly next to him. A sudden thought struck Isaac.
"Hey," he said, breaking the silence. "We should have Kradenmas dinner together."
"I could see you thinking about that the whole way down," smirked Karst.
"Nope," denied Isaac cheerily, and truthfully. "I was only transparent when I wasn't bundled up in this coat."
"Shut up," said Karst good naturedly, as the two walked down the lane towards Isaac's house.
High above, in another plane, sat Kraden and Mia.
"I do believe she's going to thaw."
"I do believe he's going to thaw," said Kraden and Mia simultaneously. Mia looked at Kraden.
"You knew I was going to say that, didn't you?" she asked.
"Yeah," said Kraden. "I'm just messing with you. I totally know everything."
*jazz hands*
FIN