New Moon's Rising
He starts to suspect something a few years before the end.
"There's something you're not telling me," he says to her one day. "Something about the girl." He's never had any real interest in the child, has always thought Tui's choice had been rather foolish. But Tui is fascinated by the girl and spends hours watching over her.
"And why would you think that, my dear?" She gives nothing away, but she doesn't deny it either.
"Keep your secrets," he says. He knows that there's no use pushing for answers when she's not willing to give them. "It's not as though I care about her one way or another."
"That will change someday," she says, and it's the closest she ever gets to admitting the truth. "At least, I hope it will. I think you'd like her if you gave her a chance."
"I doubt it," he says. "What use could I have for a girl like that?"
Yue's been in the Spirit World for three weeks before she decides that it really is past time for her to meet her partner.
However, it's not so simple to find someone here, especially if they don't want to be found.
She wanders for days, eventually stopping to ask directions from a baboon spirit.
"Excuse me, have you seen m-" She tries to say my husband, but the words catch in her throat. There's been no wedding. They've neither joined hands nor shared a cup. There will be no children. (At least, she doesn't think so- she's not sure if spirits can even have children.) She hasn't even met him, not properly.
And yet, they're married. That knowledge has been carved onto her heart- she knows the truth of it as well as she knows her own name. The Moon and the Ocean have been bound together since time immemorial. And she is the Moon now.
"Have you seen the Ocean Lord?" Yue asks instead. She doesn't use his name, can't use his name. She may have spoken of Tui and La thousands of times in the mortal realm, but here in the Spirit World, names have power. It is considered the height of disrespect to use a spirit's true name- particularly one of the Greater Spirits, which her new husband is- without being granted permission. And since he hasn't made any attempt to approach her, she hasn't been able to ask for it.
"Of course not," the baboon spirit sniffs. "Why would he be here? This region is hardly befitting a Greater Spirit." Then he adds, not looking a bit contrite, "I beg your pardon, my lady- I meant no offense." He did, of course- like most of the spirits, he considers her a rude upstart, a useless human masquerading as a Greater Spirit.
"Thank you for your time," she says, curtsying. Yue was once a princess, after all. (Was that really only a few weeks ago? It feels like another lifetime.) She knows how to put on a show.
Then she turns and leaves, off to search for her husband.
He's been spending more and more time in the pool. He's always there, of course, but he's usually also in the Spirit World, his consciousness in one world and his physical body in another. But since he lost Tui, he's spent most of his time completely in the human realm.
Here, at least, he can swim 'round and 'round with a silver fish whose appearance has not changed.
Here, at least, he can pretend that she is still Tui. Here, at least, he doesn't have to look into the face of a glowing presence that seems so familiar and see a stranger looking back at him. Here, at least, nothing has changed.
As the days and weeks go by, Yue spends more and more time familiarizing herself with her new home. Her partner clearly doesn't want to be found, so she'll respect that. For now. In the meantime, there's a whole new world to explore. The Spirit World is a strange place, and nothing is ever as it seems.
And yet, she loves it. When she gave up her humanity, she'd thought she'd spend the rest of her existence cold and lonely. But she's not. She's found new friends, a new home, and a place that she really feels that she belongs.
And yet, there's an emptiness in her heart that never seems to be filled. It's as though she's missing half of herself.
What else is new?
She ignores it.
Word reaches him about her, no matter how much he tries to ignore it. The new Moon Lady is wonderful, they say, kind and beautiful and fair and just.
"A worthy successor to the previous Moon Lady," he hears a butterfly spirit whisper one day, and he wants to scream.
There's a raging storm that night. The clouds are so thick, no one in the mortal realm can catch even a glimpse of the moon.
Eventually, she figures out how to move her consciousness between realms, to travel from the Spirit World to the pool.
He's there. Really there, not just a mindless body swimming in circles the way she's been all of these months.
So this is where he's been hiding, she thinks, right before blinking back to the Spirit World.
He doesn't know why he responds that night. He doesn't care about that girl. She's not his moon. But she calls out on a stormy night, a wordless prayer only he can hear.
"Please," she murmurs. "Don't let him drown. The world depends on him."
He looks down and sees the young Avatar floating on the waves, struggling to stay afloat.
He's never been in the habit of saving people foolish enough to get caught out in weather like this.
But it is the Avatar, and he does owe the boy a favor after the North Pole.
He calms the sea just enough to let the child take control of the waves.
Are you satisfied? he thinks, and is startled to realize that, for once, he's actually thinking of her without being reminded of what he's lost.
It doesn't mean anything. Of course it doesn't.
He hears her. Yue doesn't know why she's so certain of that, but she is. That storm didn't calm on its own- it was him. Because of her.
That ache in her heart twinges again.
I want to see him. But how?
She's been spending more and more time in the pool lately. He knows why, of course. It's because this is the only way she can be near them. The people she left behind. The people who let her go.
The thought angers him, although he's not quite sure why.
It's only as the eclipse wanes that he starts to think that perhaps she's here because she knows it's the only place she's guaranteed to find him.
The sound of the cheering reaches even the Spirit World.
The war is over.
Thank goodness, Yue thinks. It's really over. The war that's been going on since before her grandmother was born has finally ended. The world can finally be at peace.
Peace, hmm?
A tear trickles down her cheek. She's not sure why she's crying, exactly. Relief, perhaps? A sense of loss at the thought of a new kind of world, one she's never known, and never really will know?
It's a bittersweet feeling.
She reaches up to brush away the tear, but before she can, there's another hand there, catching the tiny droplet.
Looking up, Yue sees the face of a man she's never met. A man she's never seen, at least not like this.
"My lord," she says, bowing her head.
"None of that," he says in a deep voice that sends pleasant shivers down her spine.
He uses the same hand that caught her tear to tilt her face upwards, until she's looking him in the eyes. "You are my equal, and as such, you- and only you- may call me by name. I am La."
She blushes.
"And I am Yue."
"A lovely name," he says, taking her hand and pressing it to his lips.
Yue.
It's not Tui. And she's not Tui.
But maybe that's okay. Maybe he's allowed to be happy with her anyway.
'I think you'd like her if you gave her a chance,' Tui once said.
She was right.