Chapter Three: Thread
"I don't understand."
"What is there not to understand?" Mitsuru yelled. "Dawn's Venus wants to kill Mahiru! What else is there to understand?"
Akira's ears flattened. Mahiru moved over to comfort him, looking reproachfully at Mitsuru. Mitsuru shrank against the wall, sullen.
"I just want to know how you can tell all that from two dreams," Akira said.
"It's simple," said Misoka. "For the Lunar Race, that is. On the night of a full moon, we are almost at the full peak of our powers. It is very close, but we are lacking a thread of power. And that is the strongest thread of all."
"Well, it's not as if we really need that thread…not usually," said Nozomu. "You wouldn't know about this, Akira. It's in the ancient legends of the Lunar Race, in our songs that we don't sing anymore."
"During a lunar eclipse, when only the moon is visible in the sky and the sun is not visible at all, we gain that thread. But it lasts only as long as the eclipse, so it's like when you eat a lot of candy," said Misoka. "You get hyper with sugar, but when it's over, you feel tired and let down. Well, with a lunar eclipse, you are infused with the power of the moon. It's more power than all the Teardrops combined. But when it goes away, you are tired, very tired."
"Yeah, it has its pros and cons," said Nozomu. "During a solar eclipse, we are at our weakest point possible. But those rarely happen. Full lunar eclipses are rare too. This is the first full eclipse I've experienced in my lifetime."
"When did you become a scholar, Nozomu?" Akira asked.
The blonde vampire grinned at the werewolf. "I was forced to study our lore right before we found Mahiru."
"You didn't find me," grumbled the girl. "You bumped into me on purpose at the library."
"On purpose?" Nozomu asked innocently. "I think that the eclipse is getting to you head, Mahiru. The way I remember it, you dropped your books looking up the Minister of the Left ten minutes before the library closed."
"You did something to me," Mahiru grumbled. "You used magic on me. That wasn't playing fair!"
Akira laughed. It felt good to hear laughter again, like it had been an age since they had not been worried. Even Mitsuru relaxed.
But they sobered up quickly. Something had to be done to save Mitsuru. But what?
Misoka broke the thinking silence. "I'm going to go to the Moon Palace," he said. "Perhaps they can help us."
"They have to," said Mitsuru grimly. "They owe us one." The tengu clenched his fists, the hatred coming back to his eyes.