i bought some postcards

[truthwright]

Kas is sadder, after Inkeri's prophecy. And it gets worse as time goes on. The closer they get to Isabella's return, the more it hurts.

He tries to do the best he can for Helen regardless. Helen, in turn, hugs him a lot and doesn't fuss when he cries on her. They make a good team that way.

Comments

[telesonorous]

[Anyway. Kas told me a bunch of things. I think I'm going to visit the moon now,] she says merrily.

[alicornucopia]

[...Have fun, dear.]

[telesonorous]

[For sure!]

And she does.

She is back with the clan in time for her thirteenth birthday, and so is Kas, although he arrives later in the day. Helen waits for him before she bakes and distributes the cake. It is delicious.

After cake, she seeks out Inkeri.

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri is over here, planting vegetables.

[telesonorous]

"Sooo," says Helen, "do you remember when we were talking about casting spells on the moon?"

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri thinks, then nods.

[telesonorous]

"It turns out that on the moon, 'north' is where you think it is, if you're definite enough about it. If you're not sure, then spells that draw on the cardinal directions just don't work."

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri tilts her head.

[telesonorous]

"Also," says Helen, "I've been to the moon."

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri tilts her head the other way.

[telesonorous]

"There's a big, complicated explanation full of interesting secrets," she says. "Want to go to the moon and hear it?"

[alicornucopia]

"You can take me to the moon?" asks Inkeri.

[telesonorous]

"I can take you to the moon!"

[alicornucopia]

"Will I be alive there?"

[telesonorous]

"Yeah," laughs Helen, "I'm not going to take you to the moon and kill you, why would I do that?"

[alicornucopia]

"I do not know how you survive on the moon," says Inkeri reasonably, "so I did not know if I could do the same thing."

[telesonorous]

"Special secret magic," Helen asserts.

[alicornucopia]

"All right," says Inkeri cautiously.

[telesonorous]

Helen grins.

She closes her eyes and listens hard, making sure there's no one else around to see them disappear.

And then—

—they are on the moon, standing next to a perfectly straight arrow scratched in the dust.

"That's one of my north marks," she says, gesturing to it. "I made five in different places, and no three of them point to a single north pole; I checked."

[alicornucopia]

Inkeri looks around, somewhat more interested in the moon than the diagram.

[telesonorous]

It is the moon. It is very moonlike.

Helen is beaming.

[alicornucopia]

"You were going to explain interesting secrets?"

[telesonorous]

"Yeah," she says. "I'm just - kind of not sure where to start? Um, I'm the Shade-Dreamer's daughter. That's where Kas started when he told me, it kind of explains some things all by itself a little."

[alicornucopia]

"It could. Sort of. She was missing long before we were born, though."

[telesonorous]

"Yes," she says. "That was big secret number one. Big secret number two: she had a lot of magic that isn't anything like witch magic, and she gave Kas some before he left. That's what he used to make me, and what I used to bring us here - it grants wishes, and it's nice about it, as long as you more or less know what you're doing. I would've been in trouble if I'd tried to go to the moon without thinking about air first, but Kas took me the first time and I could just copy what he did after that."