The day had started out like any other. The sun was shining brightly, the sky a pure blue, unmarred by clouds. The weather all week had been good, raising the spirits of most in the capital.
Most, but not all. One spirit in particular was feeling rather put out.
For the little yin spirit, hiding in an empty warehouse on the eastern side of the city, it was torture. She hadn't been able to go out properly during the day all week, as the harsh sunlight drained away her energy.
On the days when she tried to brave the light, she never lasted long, quickly being forced to give up and fall asleep. Sometimes she mightn't wake up until after nightfall, and she'd have to spend some time sluggishly recovering her mana, often not ready to explore the next day.
So, she hid. She still couldn't stay awake through the midday hours, even a spirit had to sleep sometimes, but she could at least remain active for longer by avoiding the sun.
She idly examined a crate of clothing, trying to stave off her boredom. She wished the day was cloudy. While the mortals didn't seem as lively as they did on sunny days, she would actually be able to see them go about their business, rather than be cooped up inside the darkness of their buildings.
People, she was pretty sure they called each other, but she had to admit, she didn't really understand the strange way they communicated. Rather than exchange feelings and images, they would use 'words'.
She found words very interesting. With them, they could give each other incredibly accurate knowledge, far more detailed than spirits usually conveyed. She had once seen one of their 'carts' break, closing off the road it was on. The mortals began avoiding that road, and only that road, until the cart was removed, no doubt informed about the obstacle through the power of words.
Also, she was pretty sure they could put them onto things. She drifted closer to a crate, with a number of symbols carved into the wood. Somehow, if a person saw those, they would know what was in the crate. It frustrated her that she couldn't seem to make sense of them. Some of the symbols were repeated on other crates, but not others.
The little spirit was fascinated by everything the mortals did. They didn't behave the same way as spirits, instead they moved things around, built structures, took things with them and gave them away, receiving smaller, shiny things in turn.
They were a mystery, and she loved watching them.
Sometimes she'd find one that was clearer than the others, ones that were almost comprehensible to her. Those ones had a higher than average spirit affinity, making them good for her learning. She would follow them around, trying to work out what the words they were speaking meant, until she eventually had to go and recover mana, which usually caused her to lose track of them.
She could have simply ignored the mortals, and instead, spend her time sleeping the days away and playing during the night, like the other yin spirits, but…
It felt so boring to her. She'd never get to learn anything new.
The other minor spirits didn't understand her interests. They didn't see the point in wondering about things they couldn't change, preferring to play together in the skies above the city.
She paused, and whirled across the warehouse, ducking into the back, where mortals would occasionally gather to play games.
There were a few spirits who felt similarly though usually about other hobbies.
In particular, there was a fire spirit who would sometimes help her stay up by providing mana for her day trips. Though admittedly, he mostly did that after she pestered him into doing so. He respected her passion for people-watching, and sometimes followed along half-heartedly, though he'd leave if something else caught his interest.
Then there was that yang spirit…
She preferred to avoid him. He liked to hang around the huge building in the middle of the city, focusing on bettering himself, and ignoring everything else. It wasn't that she was jealous of him, not at all. She was sure that with a bit of work, she'd be able to cast a spell just as well. But she was so busy, and could never really find an older spirit to teach her—
Her musings were suddenly interrupted when she heard something with her spiritual sense.
A call, no… a scream of anguish. It was like a fellow spirit was crying out in their death-throws. But strangely, it was directed uniquely at her.
She froze for a few moments. On the one hand, it could be dangerous, and she didn't recognise the voice that had made the call. On the other, she couldn't just ignore someone crying out in pain.
She hurried outside, hiding in the shadow of a building. It wasn't much, but it was better than being in direct sunlight. She didn't materialise herself, it would take too much mana, and barely improved her senses.
She flew in the direction she had heard the call. It had been close, but when she got to the area, there was nothing there. No dying spirits, no danger, nothing.
A few moments later, she heard it again, from a few blocks deeper within the city alleys. She hesitated, briefly entertaining the possibility that it could be a trap. But it felt too authentic, far too pained to have been faked.
She rushed forward, soaring above the buildings and into the sun in order to get there faster.
To her shock, the source of the call wasn't a spirit at all. It was a mortal, one with phenomenal spirit affinity, amongst the highest she had ever seen. Though, she hadn't seen many this close up.
He was facing three other people, and had his arm outstretched. The three seemed rather afraid of him.
The little spirit was confused. She had seen situations like this before, but usually it was the group with fewer members that was scared. The boy did seem rather distraught. Perhaps it was a form of intimidation?
The group of three backed away, raising their hands and saying something fearfully.
There was a crackle of magic, and the lone boy's gate contracted in on itself, expelling mana. A black, glassy spear shot out and hit the middle person, drawing no blood, instead melding into his body.
She watched him fall, and she drew back. But looking closer, she could see his mana was still flowing, and apparently the big one saw some sign of life, since he picked up his fallen friend, and ran away.
The boy collapsed onto the ground, his gate convulsing wildly. It didn't look good. She wasn't an expert, but she was pretty sure gates weren't supposed to do that. The boy seemed to have some expertise, but the gate itself was simply too weak to handle the force that had just been placed on it.
The boy was making sounds of happiness, but the emotions the yin spirit felt from him were all negative. Abandonment, sadness, and despair. His sounds became saddened, and he curled up on the ground.
She examined him closely, catching brief glimpses of what was troubling him. A huge structure like the one in the middle of the city, the faces of other people, and the feeling of cold.
The boy called out to her again, and this time, she answered, materialising in the shadow of the buildings.
The boy snapped his head up to look at her, his eyes widening in amazement, and she could feel the finest trace of hope from him.
"Luna"
The word he said was strange. It conveyed a sense of the moon, and also seemed unique to her.
Why would he call her that? Was it a name? She had heard about names, the words people used to refer to others. This one held the feeling of the celestial body that belonged to the night, and yet spent half of its time in the day, stubbornly braving the sun to look upon the world.
She felt it fit her. If this was a name, then it was one she could accept.
The boy said more words she couldn't understand, sending feelings of familiarity, of friendship, and of regret. But she couldn't remember the boy at all, despite him clearly recognising her. Had they been friends?
She tried to apologise, drifting a bit closer. But the boy waved it off.
Guilt, regret, self-loathing, abandonment, betrayal, anger. Those emotions and more swept over her, a torrent of images blazing through her mind, as he opened his feelings up fully. He blamed himself for the fact that she couldn't remember him, though he seemed to recognise that it wasn't his fault.
But she could feel something else underneath all of that. Kindness, joy, and hope, muted, but still present. And at the bottom of his heart, a small spark of determination, flickering and unsure, but not yet put out.
He started to rein his emotions in. He tried to distract her by showing her a physical object, some kind of strange shining rock.
She ignored him, and examined what he was doing with his mind. He tried to pull all the trauma he had suffered back into himself, to stuff it away and keep it contained.
She felt certain that he'd fail, and those emotions would burst forth to drown him, to extinguish the flame in his heart once and for all.
It had nothing to do with her, of course. Even if this boy recognised her, she didn't know him. But…
Those feelings he had unintentionally shared with her had felt of play and learning. Whatever they were, he seemed to treasure them greatly.
She felt herself drawing closer. Was this not what she wanted? A chance to see how the mortals lived their lives?
Or perhaps that was just an excuse, something she could use to justify her actions. After all, what point was there in watching, if she didn't extend a hand to help when she could?
She reached out, fumbling her way through the steps to bind a contract to the two of them.
He initially tightened his guard, pulling back, and trying to convince her that it was a terrible idea. But his heart simply wasn't in it.
He held out for a few moments, and then surrendered, allowing the contract to settle.
As she tried to sooth his aching mind, Luna couldn't help but wonder what the future would hold.
As it turned out, the future held running. Lots and lots of running.
Luna awkwardly kept pace with her new contractor, checking his gate from time to time to be sure it could handle the strain.
She had let him cry his eyes out in the alleyway, but as the sun started to sink the sky, she had pressed the need to find shelter, so that he could use one of those 'beds' people slept in.
But when she brought it up, he panicked, glancing up at the sun, trying to judge the amount of time until nightfall.
She would have complained, but something was clearly driving him onwards, something urgent. She had felt a surge of guilt and fear when she sent the image of sunset, and then relief when he saw it was still some way off.
From what Luna could gather, something nightmarish was going to happen, and her contractor needed to put a stop to it. She projected concern to him, trying to reason that in his state, he wouldn't be able to do much, but he reassured her that it would be fine.
Luna wasn't so sure. His gate buckled under the strain of the spell he cast, and it was now fluttering weakly. She wasn't sure he had enough mana to support his headlong rush through the streets, and there was no way his gate would be able to take in enough to sate his body.
She would have gathered more for him, but she wasn't sure his gate would be able to absorb it in its current condition. And besides, she was starting to run low on mana herself. She had some reserves, but she had been tapping those so frequently to stay up late that now there wasn't much left.
She cursed her short-sightedness. In future, she'd have to make sure to keep more mana for emergencies.
Luckily, her contractor slowed down, seeming to recognise the roads and buildings. He stopped for a moment, then started moving again. To Luna's relief, this time he kept to a fast walk.
She took the time to try and gather mana from the air. She didn't think she would need it, since his thoughts were now more anxious than fearful, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
They turned the corner, and her contractor stopped, staring at something with a strange mix of emotions. Apprehension, guilt, determination, joy, a trace of sadness, and an undercurrent of weary sickness. Luna resolved herself. He needed to sleep. No matter what it was that was so urgent, it would have to wait. Her contractor couldn't be…
She caught sight of what he had been staring at, and froze.
Despite her best efforts, she couldn't usually distinguish mortals from each other, apart from their spirit affinity, and sometimes the ones that shared her affinity for yin magic. But the person who stood before them in the street, casually lifting crates off of a cart one-handed?
This one was an exception.
He had red hair, blue eyes, dressed up in the white uniform of the city's knights, and the sword by his side sang of slain dragons.
The world's champion.
Luna wasn't sure what his real name was, but that would only be the title the mortals used. She could clearly feel how the world favoured him, how it lavished attention on him. Other spirits in the area were streaming forward to pay their respects to him, checking him constantly, to be sure the champion was still in good health. If he called for it, no doubt they would suck the area dry of mana, to provide it to him.
Not that Luna would join them. Her contractor might need mana, she'd keep hers until she was sure he was—
He was walking toward the world's champion.
Luna started, and rushed to his side, projecting her apprehension. Was it really necessary to bother him? Her contractor didn't seem well, and his mind was mixed about whether he even wanted to speak to the red-haired hero.
But she squashed those feelings. Her contractor might be confusing, but she didn't think he was a complete idiot. If he thought the threat was dire enough to warrant the champion's attention, then it was.
Her contractor seemed to draw strength from her resolve, and let out the feeling of gratefulness.
They reached the champion, who greeted them with words intended to put them at ease.
Luna shrank back behind her contractor. The champion was speaking to her directly! She was willing to help her contractor, but this was too much. She hurriedly paid her respects, and faded out of sight, attaching herself to their contract.
She'd lose some of her senses, but it conserved mana, and she wouldn't have to interact with the near-divine being in front of her.
Her contractor seemed a bit amused at her predicament. He said something to the champion, and images of sunset, a building, and bloodied stomachs passed through Luna's mind.
The champion nodded, and said something else.
Her contractor hesitated. She caught glimpses of some of the images he was thinking of, frost, fire, and smoke. Faces, some friendly, some not.
But last of all, a deep rooted sense of fear, and caution.
He shook his head, and the champion said one last thing, with the feeling of welcoming.
Then he left, striding down the street towards the outer city.
Luna took a minute to calm herself, then rematerialised.
Rest? Sleep?
Her contractor had the gall to laugh at her reminder. Affronted, she began circling his head, bombarding him with demands to stop. That only made him laugh harder.
Well… at least he seemed to be feeling better.
They trekked across the city, until finally, when the sun had reached the horizon, they found a small shop. It was at the edge of the outer city, near where the houses started getting bigger, and further apart.
Luna didn't really understand why anyone would chose to live in the smaller buildings. Perhaps they didn't have enough bigger buildings for people to use? But then how did they chose who lived in them? She pushed the questions to one side of her mind. She had carried them for quite some time, and she didn't need them to be answered now.
Her contractor was running out of steam. He had pushed his body to the limit, and the strain of the wild emotions he was carrying was starting to show. But he needed to do one last thing before he could rest. A 'quick errand', was what he called it.
Her contractor had explained the task on the way up, using his words, but he also projected images and feelings, which was more than enough for Luna to piece together a rudimentary understanding.
He need to get something he called 'money'. It was like mana, but instead of being used to cast spells, it could be used to take things from other people. He was planning to get someone to take his strange shining rock, which would get him money… somehow. She wasn't too clear on that part.
But after he got it, he could use it to take a room with a bed it in. Luna was quite pleased to hear this. Her contract was already paying off! She wondered what money looked like.
They entered the building, a small bell dinging as the door opened and closed. Luna flew around curiously. The shop was filled with… things. Some of them were small and made of metal, others were larger and wooden. She couldn't make rhyme or reason of it. The organisation, or rather, the lack thereof, didn't help. She wasn't even sure that this was a shop. Perhaps this was the home of a mage of some kind, who would summon the money with a ritual.
An old man came out from the back of the building, and began talking with her contractor. The exchange seemed to put her contractor at ease, and he stepped forward.
The old man went behind the counter, and after a few minutes of talking, her contractor pulled out his shining rock.
She flew over, not wanting to miss the moment the money appeared. The old man was startled as he saw her for the first time, and then he and her contractor went back to talking.
Luna hovered in the air, not hiding her exasperation. At this rate, her contractor would spend the entire night on his 'quick errand'.
Shockingly, he did the sensible thing, and agreed with her. He started showing his shining rock to the old man, who oohed and aahed over it as he showed off its features.
It was actually quite an interesting item. Not only could it make light, but it could also make a small painting of someone, and keep it inside itself. Luna had seen paintings on the occasions that she had explored the big houses towards the middle of the city. The rock's paintings were far more detailed, but they were much smaller. Luna didn't really see a use for it, but the old man seemed very interested.
They talked a bit more, and then the old man went into the back of the store, and brought out a small bag.
He emptied it onto the counter, revealing a large number of shiny discs. He started counting it carefully
Was this money? Luna recalled all the times she had seen similar discs exchange hands at the stalls that lined the streets. Suddenly, the behaviour made sense. Unlike spirits, people needed more than just mana, and they couldn't get it all by themselves! So they used money to take the other things they needed!
But that led to more questions. How did they get money in the first place? Where did the discs come from? And why were people so happy to get them?
She was pretty sure they couldn't be eaten, and they didn't look comfortable to sleep on. Perhaps people liked to receive them because they could use them to take the things they wanted? But what if someone else used money to take things they liked from them? So many questions.
She glanced down at the two. The old man had finished counting the discs, and they exchanged the bag for the rock. She followed her contractor out the door.
Night had fallen, the moon rising over the city. It was calm for a moment, but Luna could feel a tension, coming from near the city walls.
The sky lit up, as mana flooded into the air, brilliant streams of light that framed the starry sky. Luna instinctively knew what had happened, without even having to sense her contractor's thoughts. The champion had completed the task they had requested of him.
Her contractor's feelings turned a little sour looking at that sight, so she started bombarding him with demands to rest.
He waved her off, but his lips quirked upward.
They didn't go far. She followed behind as her contractor navigated through the maze of streets, and ducked into one of the buildings. He had a quick talk with a person behind a counter, then exchanged some money discs for a small metal stick. Luna examined it carefully.
It must be valuable, if her contractor was willing to use some of the money to take it, but she couldn't guess its purpose.
They went upstairs, and her one of her questions was answered. He put the stick inside one of the doors, and then opened it. Inside was a bed, a desk, and a chair, all items that Luna had seen people use for relaxation.
Then was this building perhaps filled with resting rooms?
She faded from view, and passed through the walls on either side of the room. Sure enough, the rooms on the other side were identical to the one her contractor had taken. Both were still empty. She debated going out to check more rooms, to see if any other mortals were using the rooms, but decided to check on her contractor first.
He sat on the bed, his weariness finally catching up to him. His eyes were fluttering, foiling his attempts to think straight.
Rest. Luna insisted.
He tried to deny her, but she projected again, more forcibly. Rest.
He would think much clearer when he was in top form. Luna would know. She had plenty of experience with making bad decisions on days she had stayed up too late. Once she had gotten the bright idea to follow a carriage into the countryside, and it took her a week to find her way back the to city.
Her contractor smiled, and she flushed as she realised that she had maybe shared a bit too much of her thoughts with him.
He lay back on the bed, and began talking to her. He spoke of things she couldn't comprehend, but she could feel the weight in them. He was planning for the future, and though Luna couldn't offer much in the way of advise, she could at least listen, and try to understand. That appeared to be enough for him.
Slowly, he drifted off to sleep, still mumbling, his feelings more at ease than at any point that day.
Luna watched over him, thinking on what she had learned. If what she had gathered was accurate, then he'd be facing serious threats in the near future, perhaps the same ones that had left him such a mess in that alleyway.
He had hesitated to ask the world's champion for help. Was it because he didn't want to involve others in his problems? Or was there another reason?
Her contractor's breathing slowed, and Luna slowly drifted to the window. The night was still young, and there was plenty she could still do.
Perhaps she could convince her fiery friend to come and see her contractor. He might be jealous of her, getting a contract before him, but Luna was sure he'd get over it. It might be helpful for her contractor to have more friends.
And, she would admit privately to herself, she wanted to brag about her new name.
She flew out into the night, under the gentle light of the full moon, which hung over the city like an inquisitive, all-seeing eye.
AN: I kind of thought this chapter would be shorter.
I've decided to list this chapter as an interlude, since it feels a bit different than an ordinary chapter. I won't have many of these other POV chapters, but there will be a few.
In other news, I've crossposted to Archive of Our Own, under the same name. If you prefer that site, it's there for you.