"Alia," Tieran called to her softly in her mind. As she surfaced from the depths of her dreams she felt him stroking her cheek. She opened her eyes, but saw only a dim shadow standing next to her bed, blotting out the numerals on her digital clock.
"What is it?"
"Come with me." He held out a cloak to her.
"What? Why?"
"Come with me. It is a surprise."
Alia wrapped herself in the cloak then noticed that Tieran also carried a large fur robe or blanket.
"Wait a minute," she said as she grabbed her boots and shoved them on her feet. "All right, I'm ready."
Tieran stood behind her, wrapped the fur around them, and covered her eyes as he transferred them to their destination.
Alia first noticed the sharp bite of the cold on her cheeks as Tieran removed his hands from her eyes. Once she opened her eyes, she saw that they stood on a pile of snow covered boulders at the edge of a wooded clearing deep with pristine snow.
"It's very pretty. Where are we? And why are we here now?"
"Where is not important. Sit down here with me. We may have to wait for some time. Then you will see." He packed down a small hollow in the snow against one of the rocks and settled into it with the robe, leaving her standing with just her cloak.
Stubbornness and curiosity gave way to the cold and common sense and Alia curled up next to him.
"I don't get any more answers than that?" she asked as she rested her head against his chest.
"No, just wait and see."
Alia sat and waited alertly, watching the snow sparkle in the rising moonlight. The moon rose, the shadows darkened and changed shape, but still she saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"How long?" she asked.
"It may be some time yet. If you want to sleep, I will wake you when it is time."
"Why'd we come so early?"
"I wanted to be sure we did not disturb anything by arriving."
"Oh," she answered sleepily. Put that way it made perfect sense.
Alia's eyelids started to droop in spite of her efforts to remain awake. She heard singing and a low humming. After a moment she realized Tieran was humming audibly and singing to her in her mind at the same time. It took an adjustment to listen properly, but even after concentrating on it she found she still could not understand the words. She let go and drifted with the tune of the lullaby.
"Alia, wake up now. It is time. Look. No, stay still," he told her as she shifted to sit up. "Just look at the clearing."
The moon had risen high in the sky while she slept and now shone down into the clearing from almost directly overhead. The shadows and trees around the edges lay deep black against the clean, bright white of the snow in the center which sparkled and shimmered like crushed diamonds. Despite or because of – as little sense as that made – the brilliance of the full moon overhead millions of stars twinkled in the sky, more diamonds scattered on midnight velvet.
Then as she watched, one fell across the sky, leaving a shining arc burning behind it. As it fell, instead of arcing across the sky to disappear over the horizon, it aimed directly for them.
"Is that it? Did you know that would fall here?"
"Watch," he told her with a smile in his mental voice.
It landed in the clearing, not burning a hole deep into the snow, but resting lightly on top of it, a tiny, brilliant dust mote of light.
Then another one fell. And another. And they, too, landed in the clearing in front of them. Soon these celestial bodies fell from the sky so fast they became a rain of light, but they were not the stars for, when Alia looked up at the sky for a moment, the stars still formed their constellations.
"What are they?" Alia asked, awed.
"I will explain later, just watch now," Tieran admonished.
The rain of light slowed and as the last few points landed in the clearing to join the rest of their kin, the dust of their trails drifted down to coat every tree and every surface in a gold and silver glow. Then began the dance.
At first the star-motes, as Alia thought of them, rose only a few inches off the surface of the snow and rotated slowly. Soon, some gathered speed and the uniform disk developed into a galaxy of spiraling arms of clustered star-motes. Then they vaulted for the sky and Alia stirred in protest. Tieran held her still as the star-bits reached the tops of the trees and fell back toward the surface of the snow to chase each other in rapid-changing patterns.
Around and around, over and under they followed each other, like a complicated living version of the Celtic knots she had seen illuminating the margins of ancient manuscripts. The dance expanded and contracted at the creatures' whims, sometimes filling the clearing nearly to the trees, sometimes drawing in so tight that they amazed Alia that they still had room to move around each other.
The weaving and winding of the dance mesmerized Alia and she finally sat stone still without comment or protest as the star-motes spun on and on. Their dance expanded again, further than it had reached yet.
"They'll find us! We'll ruin it!" Alia panicked.
"As long as we remain still, we will be part of the rock to them and they will continue the dance," Tieran reassured her.
The dance continued expanding, passing among the first trees bordering the clearing with no interruption, incorporating the trunks into the complicated pattern seamlessly. They integrated everything into the plan of their dance. As they reached the foot of the boulder pile, they incorporated the stones and Alia thought she heard faint music. The music grew louder as the star-motes approached and she realized the creatures sang in tiny voices as they danced.
As the first motes danced with the edge of the fur robe, Alia froze, not even daring to breathe for fear of disturbing the rite. They whirled closer and closer. Even at this range Alia still saw only tiny pinpoints of light. They brushed her cheeks and played through loose strands of her hair, barely noticeable by their touch. They passed by, then moments later, before Alia could succumb to the temptation to turn and look, they sped back by the rocks toward the center of the clearing where they spiraled into a densely packed vortex and then fountained upward toward the sky again.
They fell back to the snow and formed their patterns of silver and golden knots and lace again, but their mood had changed. As the star-motes took their leave of one another, solemnity replaced the reveling and rejoicing of movement a moment before. Slowly, point by point, the knots unraveled and tiny creatures of light returned to the sky, melting into the constellations. Finally, only a few remained behind, revelers refusing to leave the party.
A pair of these lingerers wandered toward the rocks and Tieran and Alia, swinging and orbiting around each other. They hovered in their mutual orbit overhead, then made a last close pass before following the rest of their kin and returning to the heavens as well. Alia could swear she heard laughter in that last swoop. Then they were gone.
They sat in silence for some time, absorbing what they had just witnessed, before Alia noticed by the moon that the motes had not danced long. Even though it felt as though they had danced for hours, Alia wished they had stayed longer.
"That was some surprise," she finally commented, still reluctant to break the silence. "Thank you."
"It was my pleasure. I thought you would enjoy it."
"What were they?"
"I asked the same question of my mother when she brought me here. All she told me was that they were spirits. Ancient spirits. Older than your world, older than this world. She did not give me a name for them. Perhaps they have never had one."
Alia turned and looked up at Tieran to ask him another question, but his appearance distracted her. "You have stardust – spiritdust? – in your hair." His blond hair glowed golden and silver in the moonlight.
"As do you," he answered, pulling a lock of her long hair forward for her to see it. "And on your face," he added as he brushed her cheek with his fingertips and held them up shimmering silvery gold. "I suppose I do, too?"
Alia smiled, "Yes, there, too." Then she frowned slightly, concerned. "Were you crying?"
"Why?"
"You have tracks in the dust running down your cheeks. What's wrong?" she asked burrowing close again.
He sat silently a moment.
"Nothing, really. I was remembering my mother."
"You miss her? What happened?"
"I am not sure. One day she was no longer there. My father would never explain. Not even to tell us whether she left or whether she was dead. Now he is dead, so I will never know."
"When did it happen? When she disappeared I mean."
"Oh, I was grown by that time, a young man. I was not left a tragically motherless young child, but I was always closer to my mother than I was to my father. My brother and my sister, on the other hand, always related much better to my father. Their interests were the same and he understood them better than he did me. So he was more than willing to leave me to my mother and I was happier that way."
"What did you do with your mother?"
"I learned. She taught me things, made sure that I learned to think for myself, that I learned how to learn, that I had access to whatever interested me. And she took me to see things."
"Field trips."
"Hmm?" he asked looking down at her resting against his shoulder.
"We call them field trips. Trips from the classroom to museums and other places to learn what we can't in the classroom."
"Ah. Yes, field trips."
"So you came here to watch this on a field trip? How old were you?"
"Very young. It is one of my earliest memories." He chuckled. "I believe I was harder to keep quiet than you were."
"Is it always the same?"
"Much the same. They fall from the sky, they dance, they return."
"I wonder why?"
"Why what?"
"Why they fall, why they come here, why they dance. All of it. And where do they come from?"
"All I can tell you is what my mother told me. She said they come here only when there is a full moon on a winter solstice. No one knows where they come from, where they are for the rest of the time, or why they choose this particular place."
"If it is such a rare thing, why aren't there more people here to watch it? On Earth there would be throngs of people."
"Because it would not happen if there were throngs of people. It has been kept a secret in my mother's family for generations."
"Oh," Alia said awed. She sat up to look at Tieran again. "And you brought me here to watch it?"
"Who else would I share it with? It does not happen very often. It needs to be shared with someone special."
"If for no other reasons than to stay close for warmth."
"Are you cold? We can go back."
"A little."
They arrived in a cozy, low-ceilinged room somewhere in his house with a fire burning warmly in the hearth. Alia held her hands out to it in relief. "Ahh, that feels so good."
Alia caught sight of herself in the mirror hanging over the mantel, and rubbed at her cheek. "I really have that stuff all over me, don't I?"
"Leave it," Tieran said as he touched a finger to the tip of her nose. "It will disappear soon enough."
"Disappear? What, does it absorb into your skin? Evaporate?"
He shrugged. "One or the other. Now we will sit here until you are warm and then send you to bed."
They sat on the couch in front of the fire until Alia was warm and drowsy. Tieran caught her just as she started nodding off.
"Warm now?"
"Mmm, yeah," she managed to respond.
"Sleeping, too, I see. Bedtime for you. I will be right back. Stay here." He disappeared.
When he reappeared, Alia had slipped down into a half sleep again. He picked her up off the couch to carry her up to her room.
Alia's mind floated to the surface when Tieran picked her up and she stirred a little, starting to protest that she could walk for herself. Then she remembered that if Tieran had not wanted to carry her he could have transported her, so she decided to enjoy it.
Tieran put her down in her bed and pulled off the boots she was still wearing. Unfortunately, this disturbed her just enough to finally break her drowsy mood.
"Thank you," she said as Tieran tucked the comforter around her.
"Only pretending? Thank you for what?"
"No, not really. I just woke up a little. Thank you for everything. Taking me to see them. Trusting me to see them. Bringing me up to bed."
"I wanted to, but you are very welcome. Go to sleep now," he said as he bent to kiss her on the forehead. Then he paused and tentatively placed a kiss on her lips. He stopped, judging her reaction and when she did not say anything, kissed her again with more assurance.
Alia was just beginning to enjoy herself when he pulled away and smiled. "Good night. Sweet dreams," he wished her and left.
"Like I'm going to be able to sleep now," she grumbled and pulled the comforter over her head as she turned on her side.
On the other side of the door Tieran ran his hand through his hair, then walked away.