Retreating shadows

CH4

The evening of their departure, Nox showed up dressed completely in black. Surrounded by seven others dressed as brightly as a sun-lit mosaic, he looked incredibly out of place. His brother Agon didn't hesitate to share his opinion.

"Nox, please, don't be thick!" he begged. "We're supposed to represent a unified group, we can't do that if you're dressed like... like," Agon looked around the others, wide-eyed. "We're the shadow clan, dude, please. Wearing black just makes you look naked."
"Maybe that's the point." Nox winked.

Sunchild pretended not to have heard.

"Can we leave?" Erok said glumly.

They didn't fly nearly as quickly as they could have. This was mostly due to Erok's insistence on wearing his full suit of armour. Travelling while covered in heavy metal is tricky on the ground, let alone in mid-air. What made matters worse was that they were all forced to listen to the screeching whistle of the wind through the gaps between the plates.

Sunchild was holding onto her hat. Considering that she was currently rather dragon-shaped, this was a complicated affair. It is therefore a sure sign of the delight she finds in flying that she enjoyed the journey immensely anyway.

The night was short, but long enough for even this slow slog of a journey. It brought them from the top of the shadow clan mountain in the far west to the centrally located infinite dome.

Most of the first day had been allocated to arrivals. As the sun had not peaked a single of her rays over the horizon yet, all was silent.

Sunchild welcomed the temporary peace. At least, she thought, she could honour both the rise and fall of the sun. One of the rare redeeming qualities of the gathering was that it was held on an island, which meant there was a coast both to the east and west.

The self-appointed high council, consisting of three dual-clanned hybrids representing all six, appeared shortly afterwards to welcome them. (Officially, the trio were credited for ending the war. They only managed to convince the fire clan to stop fighting because at that time they had started losing.) Sunchild thanked them and offered to let them join her in her rituals. They declined, as they did every year, and left them to their own devices and the map, schedule, and list of rules.

Sunchild and Eib left for the beach. The other six walked towards the entrance of the infinite dome, a high-walled structure supported by pillars and arches, decorated by its namesake, a large central dome. Pirocessa had managed to ask eight questions before she was out of earshot. There was a likely correlation with the small amount of time she let fall in between for answers.

Here on the sandy shores of the infinite island, the wind blew stronger than Sunchild was used to. The waves and blow-away sand made it difficult to pinpoint the moment the sun revealed her face.

The ceremony went as smoothly as the shadow of a bird passes over a still lake. It was with shared exhaustion that they welcomed her light. They did it gracefully, but, more importantly, they also did it quickly.

"Do you think my promised Arlen will be here this year?" Eib asked on the way back west.

"He hasn't been here any of the last fourteen years, don't count on it." Sunchild answered. Arlens mothers, the water clan queens, had offered their son to the shadow clan for a royal betrothal shortly after the official start of the peace. Unfortunately, a combination of cultural mismatch (the shadow clan didn't really do marriage) and a long series of poor word choices had left Eib convinced that the water clan simply liked to plan first dates way ahead.

"I suppose not." Eib sighed. "Let's hope we're wrong."

The shadow-clan-appointed sixth slice of the infinite dome welcomed Sunchild with its familiar architecture. The coloured glass on the roof and the depictions of the sun and her light on the walls had been copied precisely and accurately to mimic shadow clan custom.

It was working: Sunchild managed not to think about the fire clan members that would soon be sharing the building. The lack of curtains, however, was not helpful at all. The only sensation in her mind aside from the desire to sleep was how dearly she missed Omik and Timony. She wondered if they were awake, if they missed her. For a moment she felt unbearably alone. At least the bed was soft.