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Night on the moon had not always shone with an effervescence and brilliance that startled as much as it enchanted.
Chang’e had Jade, the rabbit she had been gifted as a wedding present, to thank for the first steps into making the moon a beacon among all who looked upon it. Despite having been separated from her husband long ago, she still looked upon the earth as if for some sign that he still lingered out there in the expanse, waiting. But Jade and his potions had the power to create magic in even more ways than Chang’e’s powers as an immortal did.
“I want the moon to be what draws the eye no matter where a person is,” she said to Jade, running her hand along his scruffy fur. I won’t let them forget me. I won’t let Houyi forget me.
Jade rubbed his head against her hand before he scampered off, away to concoct something new to make the moon even more dazzling to the earthians and beyond. Each moment brought with it more promise that someday the moon would rule the skies.
But Chang’e was not a sorceress, at least not in the way other goddesses might have been. She was limited as well as bound to the moon. She would probably see the galaxy die long before she ever had the chance to see Houyi again.
Stop it, she told herself as she wrung her hands together. Someday, she would find the gift, the one piece that might reunite her with her beloved. But that meant someone from earth would have to deliver it. That could be eons away.
Chang’e hated most the things that she could not control.
Gobi, well-meaning as he tried to be, did not help matters. “I envy you,” he said one day as they walked through her Lunarian palace that was still being constructed from magic of all kinds. “You are definitely not a quitter! You persevere, no matter the odds.”
Chang’e frowned. “It’s destiny,” she said, but the green creature just stared at her. “Houyi was my true love, and someday we will be together again.”
Gobi nodded along, but she could sense either he didn’t understand—or he didn’t believe her. Either option infuriated her. All the time on the moon had only served to strengthen her temper.
But she allowed the flames within her to cool. Instead, she said, “Jade will make things right for us here. For better or worse, this is our home.”
Gobi didn’t look convinced, but Chang’e just held her head high as she swept past, no more words to share.
*
Jade had one request: he needed her tears to finish the newest potion.
Chang’e cocked her head. “Tears? Are you sure?”
The rabbit nodded furiously as he gestured to the cauldron that emitted a perfume like falling tree blossoms during spring. Chang’e walked forward and loomed over the potion.
Tears. Simple. She had cried herself to sleep the first few nights on the moon, the dust clinging to her clothes and the cold seeping through to her skin. Even immortal beings were not immune to the elements, no matter where they were.
Those memories alone did not make tears well in her eyes. She found herself growing angry at how weak she had been—and naive. So naive and foolish, a young woman thrust into a life she never would have chosen for herself.
All over an elixir that might have been shared if only Houyi had been there to warn her. On earth, they probably told tales about her, elaborations that held little of the seed of truth. But earth wasn’t her home. The moon was.
But Houyi—
Chang’e remembered the first day they had met, a storm causing them to seek shelter under a tree. She had been a lady of the court, and he a soldier rising in the ranks. She did not think much of him then, though she had noticed how his eyes kept darting to her and how he smiled in embarrassment every time she caught him before he could look away. Only weeks later were they wed, an auspicious match, and she had hoped to see that smile till she was old and gray.
That was so very long ago.
She blinked furiously as she felt the burn of tears ready to slide silently down her cheeks. Jade hopped up, a vial in his paw, catching the tears before they could dry into nothing. She had to touch her cheek to feel the wetness, as if it were a trick of some kind. Such a human thing, crying.
Maybe she still had some mortal qualities after all.
*
The potion Jade made was a success: it illuminated Lunaria as if it had come out of an elaborate modern dynasty. The colors flashed, bold and bright, and gave the moon new life. The magic protected the sight from earth’s eyes, but Chang’e imagined that the moon looked more magnificent in the earth’s skies than it ever had before.
From her heartbreak, there had been some good to balance out the bad. But she still longed for Houyi, especially on lonely nights when the lunettes, Gobi, and Jade were not enough as far as company.
She had been a goddess for longer than she had ever been a wife.
“Don’t look so sad,” Gobi had said in his intuitive way. “You’re the queen of Lunaria. Who should be as happy as you?”
I would give up everything just to see Houyi again, she thought. But she wouldn’t voice the words aloud, as if it were a wish that would be null and void as soon as she uttered its importance to her.
To Gobi and the other lunettes, Houyi was just a stranger with no consequence or relationship to them. Even her stories about him and his daring adventures did not engender love and affection for him, not the way she cherished him. But they all listened because she had somehow become precious to them.
Someday, if the stars aligned, Chang’e hoped they would welcome Houyi as a member of Lunarian society—but first she needed to find the gift, the one chance at having Houyi back in her arms.
It would be a long wait, she knew, but it would be worth it.