CHAPTER 373: UNITED IN CELEBRATION, PART ONE

Melisa’s brain was still rebooting from the surprise tongue assault when Rakia dragged her down another corridor. The kitsune’s grip on her wrist was surprisingly strong for someone who looked like she weighed ninety pounds soaking wet.

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" Melisa finally yanked her hand free. "Can you just... explain? Like, with actual words? What festival? What performance? What are we talking about!?"

Rakia spun around, her tail swaying behind her like she was perpetually dancing to music only she could hear.

"Oh! You want the boring version?" She pouted, then brightened immediately. "Fine! The Lunar Festival happens every year to celebrate the founding of Yalmir’s capital! This year’s theme is unity between races because the Matriarch heard about those nasty Shadow Mage rumors!"

"Rumors?"

"You know!" Rakia waved her hands dramatically. "The whole ’nim are secretly planning to enslave us all with their sex pheromones’ thing! Complete nonsense, obviously, but some of the more conservative councilors are getting twitchy."

"And she wants us to... what? Put on a show?"

"Not just ANY show!" Rakia grabbed Melisa’s hands, her blue eyes sparkling with manic enthusiasm. "A performance that’ll make everyone forget their stupid prejudices! Nim and kitsune, working together, creating something BEAUTIFUL! Plus you’re hot and I’m hot so the audience will be too distracted to be racist!"

Melisa blinked.

Rakia bounced on her toes.

"Come on! Let me show you the city! You need to understand the VIBE before we can create!"

Before Melisa could protest, Rakia was pulling her toward a balcony. They stepped outside and Melisa’s breath caught.

The capital stretched out below them, built into and around massive trees that made Earth’s redwoods look like saplings. Bridges of woven branches connected platforms at various heights. Water cascaded down from somewhere high above, creating a network of streams and pools that glowed faintly blue in the afternoon light.

Kitsune and nim walked the bridges together, chatting, laughing, some openly making out against tree trunks. A group of nim children played with kitsune kids in one of the pools below, their parents watching from nearby.

"See?" Rakia leaned against the railing beside her. "This is what we’re protecting. Most people here don’t give a shit about the old stories. My best friend’s a nim! We’ve been fucking since we were sixteen!"

"That’s... nice?"

"It IS nice!" Rakia grinned. "But there are always people who want to stir up trouble. The Matriarch got word that Shadow Mages are trying to infiltrate the festival. Start incidents. Make nim and kitsune turn on each other."

"And a performance is supposed to stop that?"

"Not stop. Prevent!" Rakia’s expression turned serious for the first time since they’d met. "If we can remind everyone how good things are here, how natural our unity is, the Shadow Mages won’t find any anger to exploit. Hard to start a race war when everyone’s too busy being horny and happy!"

[She’s... actually making sense. In a completely unhinged way, but still.]

"Plus," Rakia’s serious expression vanished, replaced by her usual grin, "I get to dress you up in something scandalous and watch you dance! Win-win!"

"I told you, I can’t dance!"

"You can fight, right? Same muscles, different rhythm!" Rakia started pulling her toward the stairs. "Come on! We need to get you fitted! My friend makes the BEST costumes!"

They descended through the tree’s interior, passing shops and homes carved directly into the wood. Nim and kitsune merchants hawked their wares side by side. A nim woman was teaching a group of young kitsune some kind of card game. Two kitsune guards were flirting shamelessly with a nim server at what looked like a bar.

"This is nothing like Syux," Melisa murmured.

"Because we never had your weird human kings trying to divide us!" Rakia said cheerfully. "The Matriarch’s grandmother made sure of that. She fucked the prejudice right out of the nobility! Literally! Oh, that’s a hell of a story. There’s a statue of her in the pleasure district!"

They emerged onto a platform market. The crowd was thick here, bodies pressing together as people moved between stalls. Rakia navigated through it like water, pulling Melisa along.

"Ooh! Speaking of my friend, there she is! Rhamie!"

A nim woman with green hair looked up from a stall full of fabric. Her eyes widened when she saw Melisa.

"Rakia, is that...?"

"The nim mage! Isn’t she GORGEOUS?" Rakia bounced over to the stall. "We need something that shows off her figure but still lets her move! Something that screams ’I could kill you but I’d rather fuck you’ energy!"

Rhami laughed.

"I have just the thing. But it’ll cost extra for the rush job."

"Bill the palace! This is official festival business!" Rakia was already rifling through fabric samples. "Ooh, what about this? No wait, this! Actually..."

While Rakia debated between what looked like identical pieces of silk, Melisa found herself scanning the crowd. Old habit from all those Shadow Mage encounters. Most people were focused on their shopping, but...

There. A figure in a hooded cloak, standing too still in the flow of traffic. Watching them.

[Shadow Mage? Or just someone curious about the foreign nim?]

"Rakia," Melisa said quietly. "We might have company."

"Hmm?" Rakia looked up from the fabric. "Oh, you mean the creeper in the hood? Yeah, they’ve been following us since we left the palace."

"You KNEW?"

"Obviously! I’m not just a pretty face!" Rakia turned back to Rhamie. "We’ll take the crimson set! Can you have it ready by tomorrow?"

"For you? Always."

"Perfect! Be right back!" Rakia grabbed a coin purse from her belt. "Melisa, wait here! I need to pay Rhamie properly and grab something from another stall!"

Before Melisa could protest, Rakia had vanished into the crowd, leaving her alone with Rhamie, who was already measuring fabric with practiced efficiency.

The hooded figure started moving.

[Of course.]

Melisa slipped away from the stall, following the figure as they ducked into an alley between two massive roots. The passage was narrow, dark despite the afternoon sun.

The figure was waiting for her.

"The nim mage," a feminine voice said from beneath the hood. "You’re causing quite a stir."

"Shadow Mage, I presume?"

The figure laughed, pushing back her hood to reveal a kitsune face, young and pretty with silver hair and one tail.

"You guessed as much? How dramatic." She studied Melisa with golden eyes. "You should leave Yalmir. Things are about to get complicated."

"Is that a threat?"

"A warning. The Matriarch thinks a silly festival will stop what’s coming. She’s wrong." The kitsune started backing away. "The nim ruled once. Some of us remember. Some of us won’t let it happen again."

Melisa stepped forward, hand already drawing a spellsign.

"You’re not going anywhere."

"Aren’t I?"

The kitsune snapped her fingers. Smoke exploded from nowhere, thick and choking. Melisa cursed, summoning wind to clear it, but by the time she could see again, the alley was empty.

[Shit. Illusion magic.]

She stood there for a moment. Shadow Mage operative, here in Yalmir’s capital. A kitsune one at that.

[Haven’t seen a kitsune Shadow Mage since I showed up in this world. Fuck.]

"Melisa! There you are!" Rakia appeared at the alley entrance, carrying a bag that smelled like pastries. "Rhamie said you wandered off! Did you get lost?"

Melisa looked at the cheerful kitsune, then back at the empty alley.

"Yeah. Something like that."

[This is going to be a problem.]