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The topic first came up while Ayda and Fig were on an ice cream date in Basrar’s. The Solstice carols were on full blast through the jukebox, idle music to give the parlour a festive feeling. As Ayda was enjoying her rapidly melting sundae, it started up.
~On the first day of Solstice my true love gave to me, a phoenix in a pear tree ~
“Fig?”
Fig looked up from her ice cream to face her lover. “Yeah?”
“I have a question that I hope your musical expertise may help me with. It has to do with this song.”
“The twelve days of Solstice? What about it?”
“It doesn’t make any sense!” She exploded. “When do the twelve days start? December 8th? 9th? 21st? Does the aforementioned “true love” give them a gift every day, or is the speaker reinstating the gifts they have already received? And if they are receiving a gift each day, do they thus have as many as 12 copies of said gift? Why would they make a song this confusing and play it every year? Has no one else questioned its contradictory nature?”
Fig took a moment to take in all of Ayda’s questions. Wow, she’s clearly thought a lot about this one. She opened her mouth to start down the list, but stopped. When does the song start? How many gifts do they get? She simply didn’t know.
“I don’t know, actually. I always thought it was like a lead up to Solstice, but then is Solstice the first day or the twelfth?”
“That’s what I am saying! And why are they so fond of giving out birds?”
“I think birds are pretty fuckin’ cool.” She beamed at her paramour, pointing at her feathered wings. She smiled back.
“I know you do, dear. I just fear the constant use of various birds as gifts may bode poorly for the treatment of them all. Could they not have given them something more… traditional?”
“I don’t know how good it would sound if they had to shoehorn in that they gave the love of their life a gift card for Bloodbath and Beyond.”
“Would you be happy if I gifted you 184 various birds as a Solstice gift?” The question sounded rhetorical, but Ayda’s eyes burned a hole into Fig, as if she was begging to know if there was some tradition she was missing.
“Honestly… probably not, but I could find them a good home. And if you wanted me to keep them, I’d keep them. It’s the thought that counts.”
“That is a very kind way to avoid answering my question, love.”
“Okay, I’d be confused as hell. I’d prefer to not have 100-something birds for Solstice.”
“Exactly. It is an odd gift. Unless their true love was an ornithologist, the song causes far more questions about the speakers’ gift giving skills.”
“Huh. I’ve never really thought about it that hard. You see, this is why I like you. You make me think.”
“This is why you like me?”
“Well, this and everything else.”
—
“Fig, I swear to God. If you don’t shut up about it, I’m putting a watery sphere in your room while you sleep.”
“But she made me realise I’ve no fucking idea what they’re saying! Adaine, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one!”
She scoffed. “I am the smart one. You’re just trying to get me to use divination to solve a squabble.”
“It’s not a squabble, smart-ass. We’re not disagreeing, we both agree that the song is a load of horseshit that doesn’t make sense.”
“Fine. But I’m still not trying to use clairvoyance to figure out what the hell they’re implying by the song.”
“Ha! You don’t know either, and you said you were the smart one.”
“No one gets it! That’s the point, it’s not something you’re supposed to give this much thought. It’s not some epic poem that’s contradicting itself as a literary form, it’s a festive Solstice song. The significant part is the music. It’s just a silly song to tell people ‘Hey, it’s almost Solstice, better get gifts ready.’ You’re reading way too much into it, and that’s coming from me.”
Fig sat perplexed. Sure, it’s a dumb song. But that’s not the point. Ayda was so invested in finding out what the song really means, why it seemed to be intentionally vague and confusing. It wasn’t the song itself but the mystery afoot with its wordplay. And doesn’t it suck that the mystery is solved by choosing to stop investigating it?
“It doesn’t have to be just a stupid song.”
“What?”
“We can make it better! We can turn the song into something that actually makes sense!”
“Fig, if you want to try to rewrite a whole solstice song for your girlfriend, I’m not going to stop you. But you’re not getting any help from me.”
Fig pouted. It would only be a matter of time before the childish pleading wore down Adaine’s defenses.
“It’s her first Solstice with us! Can’t we make it special?”
“I already made her a spellbook! Don’t make me do more work!”
“Well you give both! Put it in the song even! Eleven spells-a-casting or something?”
“...You’re lucky she’s like my best friend.”
“Ha! Didn’t expect it to work that quick.”
“Shut up.”
—
Ayda woke up the morning of December 9th (not 8th, nor 21st) to a gift wrapped pristinely in orange paper waiting for her on her bedside table. It had decidedly not been there the night before, so she suspected that the archdevil taking up a majority of the double-bed was responsible. She gently shook her paramour awake, who greeted her with a smile.
“Ooh, good morning love.”
“Fig, I would hate to be presumptuous, but is this a gift for me?”
“It is!”
“But today is not a remarkable day to my knowledge. The closest event is Solstice, which is not for another 12 days… ah. I see.”
“I figured it out! I made a full set of rules for it! I solved the song!”
Ayda smiled, genuinely touched by the gesture.
“What are the rules by which the song abides?”
“The song starts on the 9th of December, like a countdown to Solstice. I’m sure you gathered that though. The gifts don’t repeat like the song. I mean, I guess I can sing them every day, but once you get a gift, you’ll get a different one the next day.”
“I will get a gift for the next twelve days?”
“Yeah! And I know the song used to say it was only the ‘true love’ giving out the gifts, but the rest of the gang wanted in on it. So I’ll tell you who it’s from too. Boom! No more confusion!”
“And does all of this fit musically?”
Fig looked away.
“Well… it makes the song a little clunky… but it’s worth it for you.”
“I would love to hear the song, Fig.”
“Then open your gift!”
Ayda took the gift from the table, shooting Fig a concerned look as something rattled in the box. Fig nodded back, eyes glued to the box as she began unwrapping it.
“On the twelfth day of Solstice-”
“Hold on, so this version of the song starts from the twelfth?”
“Yes. It’s a countdown.”
“Interesting choice, love. I like it.” She returned to unwrapping as Fig restarted the line. She lifted the lid off the box to see-
“Twelve sugar cookies-”
The song fizzled out as the smell of warm vanilla cookies filled the air, a small trail of steam rising from the box. How the condensation hadn’t ruined them Ayda didn’t know. She took a deep inhale - Fig knew that she preferred her food to be simple and familiar, just in case it didn’t agree with her flaming body. She had thought of everything. She looked at her, beaming. Fig wore a nervous smile as if she was begging for her to share her response.
“Is that the song?”
“I mean, yeah. For today it is anyway. You’ll get more of it tomorrow.”
“Did you make these for me?”
“Jawbone helped.”
“They are perfect. You are perfect, my love.”
Fig looked like her cheeks could burst.
—
“On the eleventh day of Solstice my best friend gave to me…”
To her credit, Fig had thought of everything. Ayda could tell how many more days she had of waking up to thoughtful gifts, who gave them to her, Fig even waited as long as she needed between the two lines to accommodate how intricately wrapped Adaine’s gift was. The book itself was beautiful; deep turquoise and flaming orange swirled together like a fireball raging against an angry sea. She ran her hand along the cover, the smooth texture soothing her fingertips. But Fig still didn’t finish the line. She looked expectantly, gesturing for Ayda to open it.
Ayda’s Wrathful Whirlpool
Ayda’s Conjure Aquan Creatures
Ayda’s Luxurious Library
“Eleven spells for casting.”
She studied the book with a flaming tear forming in her eye. Gods, she had the best friends ever.
“And (but not repeatedly given) twelve sugar cookies!”
“You’re going to get so sick of singing this once you have to specify every gift in ten days time.”
“No I won’t. It’s no worse than Dawn of Justice.”
—
Over the next few days, Ayda was greeted with gifts that were just as delightful as the first two.
Ten handmade perfumes from Sandra-Lynn (She didn’t know what scents she would like, nor what wouldn’t catch in the fire of her hair. She said she’d rather be safe than sorry).
Nine astral mall gift cards from Fabian. Fig had given her a list of stores she knew Ayda liked, expecting him to pick just one. Leave it to the heir of a large Seacaster fortune to go overkill with the gold. They made plans to go on a shopping trip in January to make the most of all the sales.
Eight beaded bracelets from Fig. She gathered some of her favourite sayings and phrases to spell out with her metal letter beads. Ayda ran her hands along her wrist, listening to the clicks as the ‘I love my angel gf’ and ‘I’m with the band’ bracelets bashed against each other. She wanted to argue that Fig had gone over the top with the constant stream of gifts, but the feeling of being cared for and thought of brought her too much joy.
Seven crystal shards from Kristen. She didn’t tell Fig what they did before she left for a day out with Tracker, so the two started to guess what they could possibly be used for. Sure, anyone could have popped a quick divination spell on them, but they found it far more entertaining to speculate. They became paperweights, a suncatcher, a bookmark for an exceptionally flat one. Eventually she was informed they could be used for a plethora of cleric spells (nowhere near as fun).
Six bookbag pins from Riz. There was a beautiful blue pin of a strange fish, which she quickly noted resembled GAF. She beamed as she put it front and centre on the flap of her satchel, a myriad of heart and book shaped badges surrounding it in a ring.
On the fifth day, Fig placed a large box by the bed. Ayda was floored as Fig cheerfully sang “Five card-i-gans” in lieu of golden rings. The box indeed had five cardigans, each lovingly hand-knit in a beautiful red, orange, yellow, white, or brown.
“Fig… did Jawbone make all of these himself?”
“Yeah, once he heard about the whole song plan he wanted to be a big day. You should see him knit. He's like a machine. Do you like them?”
“Like them? If I were given the chance, I would never stop wearing them.”
“He’ll be fucking pumped to hear that.”
Four ancient stars from Aguefort. The wizard had taken the blazing light and pulled it into two pairs of earrings himself. A feather, a cuff, a star, and an ‘A’. Ayda cried and called him immediately. Fig barely saw her at all that morning, but when she came to join the rest of the family for a late breakfast, she had each piercing proudly on display, dangling against her jaw.
Three ear defenders from Gorgug. She'd been honing her tinkering skills for a while, the innate magic of being an artificer aiding her practice. Fig gleefully explained the different levels of noise cancelling, how the magic can be amplified or reduced with little effort, and how they even had an option to connect to her crystal for music. Ayda thought about how she could finally feel more comfortable at a Sig Figs concert, the boom of the crowd being toned to a whisper. She immediately texted her to explain her gratitude.
Two teddy bears, once again from Fig. A soft orange phoenix and a near perfectly spherical crab.
“I didn't wanna be all presumptuous, because they're your gifts, but I was thinking you could keep the crab and I can keep the phoenix. Like a bff necklace or something. A reminder of the other person when we're apart.”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea. I will cherish the crab forevermore.”
“Fuck yeah.”
—
On the first day of Solstice (which was really the only day of Solstice, or the last day of the song by Fig’s rules), Ayda was met with no box on the table. Fig was awake on the other side of the bed, sporting a loving smile and a twinkle in her eye.
“Good morning, my love. Happy Solstice.”
“Ready for the first day?”
“I am ready. Is there a gift which I must open?”
“Not today.”
Fig sat up and cleared her throat, starting from the last line of her rendition.
“On the first day of Solstice my true love gave to me - A song to bring my paramour glee!”