Aqua's tutors had told her that there was a celestial body brighter than the moon. It lit the world all day, apparently, which Aqua supposed must make it very bright indeed. But she could not imagine it. The scuddy slate of the daylit sky just didn't compare to the rare nights when the sky opened up and the world was laced with brilliant electrum moonlight.

She heard a rustling behind her, and a clank of armor. "Hello, Triari," she said without turning around.

"Highness," Terra's deep voice answered. "You're missing your party."

"Yes," she agreed, turning around. Terra was standing some five yards away. Ven was a bit closer, as still as though he was frozen, beneath a bush that would hide him from Terra. As long as he did not breathe, anyway, and the guard did not take two steps forward.

Aqua trusted her face did not say any more to soldiers than it did to nobles and their wives. "It only seems very false, Triari Terra," she said, stepping forward. A guard could not come too near a princess; her maiden's aura would be like a wall between Terra and Ven. "The main order of business at my birthday party is for my father to manipulate votes in the Senate."

"Many things are false, Your Highness," Terra said. "It is a dark world. But the one person you know is glad for your birthday is your Imperial father. And you can't help him with his work by standing in the moonlight." To Aqua's surprise, he added, "However pretty it looks on you."

Guards were some of the most boring things in Aqua's life. Quite like furniture. They stood about all day, they were regularly polished, they were chosen by her father. They certainly did not say things like that. Weren't any of Terra's men listening? Or were they too loyal to report on him?

Ven, Aqua saw in the corner of her eye, was glaring at the guard. He had to be wishing Terra would just go away, or at least find him and end the torture.

"You're right, Triari," she said, ignoring the bit about how pretty she was. "I have my duties." She stepped forward, angling so that when Terra stepped aside it would put more bush, not less, between him and the hiding urchin. He followed her back into the palace.

It was past midnight when she returned, claiming a desire to walk outside before bed, but really to wipe out Ven's footprints. But the moon had gone out, and she couldn't find any in the lights of the palace and the city. Instead, at the base of the pear tree, she stubbed her toe on something that rattled.

Luckily, it wasn't very loud. Bending over, she found that it was a sack, filled with what had to be the emptied out contents of Ven's attic. Or dustbin, maybe. The first thing she had to run her hands over to identify. A teapot? It had a very strange shape, if that's what it was, and teapots were porcelain, not bronze. The next was a ring, made of brass and too large even for Aqua's thumb. Then a bird's bone with a shape like a Y. In the bottom were a bunch of little metal discs.

"Money?" she whispered indignantly. Princesses did not carry money. And she was fairly sure these little copper ones were barely worth anything.

"They're the ones the grown-ups threw in the Victory Square fountain," Ven's voice whispered from above her.

This time she gasped. Just a little - she wasn't scared, of course. Princesses did not become frightened. "You stayed all this time? You could have gotten caught."

"I was gonna leave, but I wanted to see you open it." She couldn't see him, though, which surely wasn't fair.

Was this bag of rubbish an attempt at a birthday present? Well, he wasn't a thief, but Ven was obviously poor. She should try to be polite. "Why only the adults' coins?"

"Because grown-ups don't believe in wishes. If a kid's penny got a wish it would be used up." Slowly Aqua looked down at the sack. Wishes. They were all wishes. "Well, the ring and the lamp didn't work. Wanna try the wishbone?" A grubby hand reached down out of the shadows.

Aqua knew how this was done; she had seen a pair of scullery maids try it once. She held the bone by one branch and held it up to Ven. He grabbed the other, and pulled. The larger piece came off in his hand.

"That's okay!" he whispered. "I wished for you to have a wish."

Aqua raised an eyebrow. "I thought that a wish told would not come true."

"Oh. Right." He sounded so crestfallen. Ashamed, Aqua reached into the bag. All that was left in there was two squares of paper.

"What is this?"

"Oh, that one's stupid. I couldn't finish."

"But I don't understand. What does paper do?"

"You gotta fold it. Here." He dropped down in front of her. "Gimme one, and do what I do." With his tongue between his teeth, and frequent pauses to remember, Ven led her through a series of folds.

"Oh!" Aqua said when they finished. "It's a crane. How delightful!" It was a rather sad and ragged crane, though. At least the one Ven made was only a bit better.

"Heh. Well, that's a thousandth of a wish." He handed her the other one. "And that's two thousandths. The other ones were better."

"No, for I can keep these. If a servant found any of those other things in my room there would be questions, or they would be thrown away."

"Oh," Ven said. "That's probably why they didn't work." He gathered up everything into the sack again. "Okay. In that case I'll come back with more paper. Maybe by your next birthday we can finish."

"How often do you propose to sneak into my garden, then?" Aqua said. "I will get no wish if you are caught."

"I've never been caught," Ven bragged. He took up his sack and jumped up into the tree with only the slightest rattle. But he left one footprint in the soil, which Aqua again brushed away.