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The red leaves and golden bark of the Court of Autumn's labyrinthian forest warped in front of Cirrus like silk. She didn’t bat an eye, and the rest of her party was just as calm. So with a casual gait, she stepped through it, letting the strangely familiar feeling of being transported across planes wrap around her like solid, gelatinous water.
Within a blink the sounds of the forest disappeared and the temperature changed. Cirrus opened her eyes to a room bathed in golden, artificial light. The building itself was completely circular and topped with a partially open dome from which a long tube-like object protruded. The mysterious tube extended down to multiple larger contraptions and attached to multiple circular bases in the center of the room, gilded filigree decorating its every surface.
Cirrus’s gaze; however, was instantly drawn to the walls that she could see were covered in dozens of star maps. Whatever significant moment this old memory was supposed to show, it was absolutely hers.
“Are we the only one’s here?” Loren asked from behind Cirrus.
She turned around to find her friend standing with her arms on her hips looking for their party members that Cirrus now noticed seemed to be missing.
“Maybe this memory just had us in it?” Cirrus guessed, “Although I imagine the rest are hidden somewhere like the other times it was a solo/ focused memory.”
Loren hummed in agreement and glanced around for where their companions might be ‘stashed.’ If they found anything, they didn’t tell her.
Cirrus put a hand on Loren’s shoulder who, seemingly lost in thought, jumped at the touch, “Well no matter where they are I’m going to participate in this memory.” and rushed towards the maps. Loren briefly acknowledged her and headed towards the center of the room, leaving Cirrus to her own devices.
Star maps lined the walls from floor to ceiling, breaking only for the single door in the room. Dots of varying sizes and orientations adorned each page. Cirrus traced out possible constellations and patterns on different pages, aching to find some narrative to follow. She had so many questions that she hoped the stars could answer. Did the faewilds experience seasons? How many did they have? Did the constellations rise and fall the way they did on the material plane?
Each map was labeled with a name followed by three distinct numbers that Cirrus assumed was a date, though it didn't mean much to her. She started looking for any dates with matching words, hoping they constituted a recurring month or season -- or at least the fae wilds equivalent.
Cirrus found the name ‘Juryfell’ on several maps near her, and took mental notes of their location as she searched for more around the room. She was beginning to doubt that 'Juryfell’ was a month-like signifier as it seemed like every new map she found showed a completely different sky. However, when she found the twelfth ‘Juryfell’ map she was finally able to pickout two possible constellations that she was sure had appeared on all the others.
Cirrus quickly shuffled through her bag to find a pencil and small journal and drew a big circle on one page, then started marking out a grid similar to the ones on the maps. There was a mild cacophony of paper sounds behind her, but she paid them no mind. Instead she started marking down where the two constellations appeared on the twelfth and eleventh maps.
“Hey,” Loren reappeared next to Cirrus, ears a bit redder than usual, “What are you doing?”
Cirrus beamed and pulled Loren quickly to stand in front of her, “So I'm trying to figure out the movement patterns or season patterns of the sky! Cause if you notice, each map has a name and some numbers-”
She leaned against Loren to point to one of the Juryfell maps, “So I found several maps with this name on it and they all have at least two recurring constellations here and here,” she said, circling the relevant clumps of stars.
“They're not too far apart between these two maps but if we go back over here-” Cirrus grabbed Loren’s wrist and excitedly pulled her several wall panels down to the first maps she'd observed, “The same two constellations are on the opposite side of the sky and it looks like they've been mirrored!”
She opened her journal again and began marking down the new locations, “See Loren! There are just so many possibilities for this! The constellations might travel in a circle around the edge of the sky, they might travel in a twisted eight-shape from one side to the other, they-”
“Cirrus!” Loren cut her off, “This is cool and all, and in different circumstances I'd love to hear more but,” her face flushed, “you should really check out the big contraption.”
Cirrus looked at her with concern, “Are you feeling alright? Your face is all red?”
“I'm fine…”
Cirrus put a hand to their forehead, “Are you sure? ‘cause you're really warm…”
Loren pulled Cirrus’s hand away from her, “Please… just go look at the contraption.”
Cirrus hummed in reluctant agreement and headed towards the center of the room.
She stared up at the instrument, easily four times her height and sprawling in many directions. The tube that protruded through the roof connected to a large centerpiece that Cirrus found herself describing as tulip shaped, from which several ever smaller tubes extended in an L-shape, culminating in an upwards pointing, small, round piece of glass. Still unsure what it all meant, Cirrus began walking around the giant structure. She found a set of three stacked circle platforms, each one smaller than the one beneath it, attached to the side of the instrument with a lever connected at the center of the smallest circle. Every platform had uniformly spaced lines with adjacent symbols, though she was unfamiliar with their meaning. She took a step back and saw similarly uniform and symbol-marked lines on the two large circles that made the base on which the contraption sat.
Cirrus ran her fingers through her hair, clearing the flyaways that hung in her face as if that might also clear up the purpose of the structure in front of her. She noticed a table with some papers on it to the side, so she headed over, hoping there was a guidebook or manual littered among them. To her dismay, there weren’t very many papers at all but the one on top seemed potentially enlightening.
The Archfae’s Favorite Objects
The Archfae’s favorite star: ⥷⥺⦽⦽⎑
The Archfae’s favorite planet: ⬲⇱⧪⧬⍾
The Archfae’s favorite nebula: ↸⤃⤗⤝⏅
The Archfae’s favorite galaxy: ⥉⥈⦽⧬⍕
The Archfae’s favorite interstellar creature: ⧪⥷⤔⧪⌱
Cirrus may not have recognized any of these characters out of context, but she remembered seeing several of them on the various platforms.
“I’m not sure what will happen, but I think we can point this thing at different ‘objects’ that the Archfae likes?” Cirrus called out to Loren, “I know what a star is obviously, and I think I’ve heard people on the material plane use the term planet where I would use the term traveling moon so I know what that is, but I have no clue what the rest of these are.”
Loren, who had been standing a little ways away, stepped closer to Cirrus, “Did you… read all the papers?”
“Hm? No, just the top one.”
“You might find the other pages… enlightening.”
Cirrus looked over at Loren, dread beginning to pool in the pit of her stomach. Something was making them nervous, and very few things had made them so outwardly restless in their journey together. She moved the top page to the side and found a page of her own handwriting:
Date with Loren plan/ideas:
- Show them star maps and orbit maps if they want! Might not be cool enough for tonight…
- Turn off lights and show them how telescope works, how to use it, and show AF fave planet first
- Let them choose what to look at next and show how to use again
- Let them drive the telescope for the next objects
Notes to self:
Don’t try to move too fast with them, let them lead how far we go.
No sticky drinks in the observatory, close the dome when we’re done.
Cirrus’s eyes were wide in shock and she could feel heat rising to her cheeks and ears. She set the page down and stared at it for another few seconds. She turned to look at Loren, who’s red face now made sense and matched her own.
“This was a date…” Cirrus quietly voiced, still shocked.
“Yep,” Loren replied, now averting their gaze.
“So we actually ended up dating in the other timeline?”
“Looks like it.”
Cirrus laughed softly, “That’s honestly pretty cute.”
Loren sighed, “I kinda want to turn into mist out of embarrassment, but that would be unnecessarily mean to you.”
“Thanks,” Cirrus snorted. She leaned against the table and started absentmindedly running her fingers through her hair, unsure what to do. She couldn’t deny that she felt giddy knowing Loren would’ve liked her back in better circumstances. It might be a bittersweet giddiness, but she would enjoy it while she could.
“What court are we in?” She finally asked.
Loren looked up at the hole in the dome of the ‘observatory’ to the night sky, “I think it’s the Court of Twilight.”
“I guess that’s how long it takes us to come to a tipping point huh.”
“I guess so…” Loren paused for a moment, then slowly walked over to the table with other-Cirrus’s date plans, “Well if we want to get out of here we either have to totally break the memory or complete it, and you made a very convenient plan on how to go through with it.”
Cirrus smiled, “I will admit, it is a pretty good plan.”
“I can’t believe you included a timeline to teach me how to use the … telescope? in your date night plan.”
“Well if I included teaching you to use it, then I imagine it's pretty cool.” Loren glanced up at her with an expression that doubted the ‘cool’ factor of the experience. “Okay well I definitely thought it was cool.”
Loren smiled, “You included telling me about tons of paper with dots on them as a ‘potentially cool thing to do’ so I’m not sure your ‘cool’ scale is set to the normal persons’ here.”
“The star maps are cool!” Cirrus remarked with laughing defense.
“Well I think we can confidently say the difference between your two timeline selves is pretty minimal,” Loren said, patting Cirrus’s arm in faux sympathy. They leaned back against the table and crossed their arms, “Come on, the first thing you said you need to do is turn off the lights. Impress me. I’m apparently here to be wooed.”
Cirrus felt her heart skip a beat and a blush darken her cheeks again. She quickly nodded and headed towards the lever near the door labeled ‘light’ and flicked it off. The gold light softly faded, leaving the observatory basked in dark blue and starlight. She noticed a small beam of light shining through the door that was open a crack, so she pushed it closed, and moved back towards the table.
A small stone glowed red on the table near the papers. It didn’t appear malignant, it simply glowed a color that didn’t hurt her eyes in the darkness. That trick, at least, she was familiar with. She moved the stone over her date plan, and pulled out the list of the Archfae’s favorite objects so she could move the telescope to their favorite planet.
Cirrus smiled nervously at Loren, “I have no clue how this works, but I have the start of a guess so here goes nothing!” Loren simply smiled back and waited at her post.
Cirrus stood on top of the largest base circle with the coordinates and glowing stone in hand, and walked around until she found a symbol that matched the first coordinate. When she found it she shuffled back to the front of the telescope where two levers were bolted to the floor next to a metallic rectangle that was perfectly sized to sit above the symbols of the two bases. She pulled the one closest to the rectangle and quickly released it as the whole building shuddered. She watched in awe as the dome and telescope rotated to the right in perfect unison so the telescope was always positioned in the open sky. Cirrus turned to the lever with confidence and held it back as the telescope and dome slowly turned. While she moved the base, Cirrus swore time slowed down for a brief moment as she watched Loren turn with the dome, their eyes illuminated by the trickling star light and lips slightly parted in wonder.
Distracted, Cirrus missed the coordinate she was aiming for. When she came out of her daze she quickly let go of the lever so the dome came to a stop, and pushed it forward hoping to reverse the direction. Thankfully, it worked.
“Sorry I um, got distracted,” Cirrus mumbled as she moved on to the second lever. The second lever moved the dome much smaller amounts and she made a point to exclusively look at the symbols passing through the metal rectangle and not let her gaze wander to her slender, beautiful friend whose long pink hair was framing their-
Dammit. She missed the symbol again. Cirrus sighed and made the correction.
“Got distracted again?” Loren asked with condemning raised eyebrows.
Cirrus wasn’t sure if they were intentionally leaning in a way that accentuated their lithe figure or if she just hadn’t given herself permission to look before. “I have… a lot of things to think about,” was the best reply she could think of.
Loren simply looked at her. Cirrus held her lavender gaze for a moment, but turned back to her coordinate page before she said something stupid. She walked up to the set of three smaller circles attached to the side of the telescope. She quickly compared the symbols on her sheet to those in front of her and was relieved to find all three she needed.
An initial move of the metallic arm only moved the top most platform. She reached out to grab the bottom panel to see if it would move by hand, but retracted her grip out of fear of breaking something. Her fingers moved around the edge of the circle, hoping for some kind of hint, and found a folded down two pronged fork wide enough to hold the arm. Cirrus rotated the lever to sit above the prongs and lifted them where they did indeed connect. Tentatively, she pushed the lever counter clockwise hoping to move the desired symbol down towards a small triangle that sat below the concentric platforms. The telescope responded by angling down in a slow, broad motion until she stopped. She pushed the fork back down and felt around the second circle til she found another fork and proceeded the same but now clockwise, and the telescope moved up a smaller amount. The final platform needed no fork, and when she oriented the necessary symbol to its final position, the telescope made a nearly imperceptible movement down.
Cirrus stepped away from the instrument, now both giddy and nervous about what it would do when set properly. She looked over at Loren who looked back at her, and they both glanced at the telescope… and nothing happened.
“Um… I’m honestly not sure what’s supposed to happen,” Cirrus rubbed the back of her neck embarrassed, “I’ve never exactly seen one of these before.” She paused a second before adding, “well, and remembered it I guess.”
Loren squinted at the telescope, “hmm.” They pushed themself from their perch and walked over to the protruding L-shape that Cirrus hadn’t messed with yet. “It looks like this has a light in it now when it didn’t before,” they noted, pointing at the round piece of glass at the end of the arm.
Cirrus met her at the lit up glass and peered down at it from above and noticed there was something a little more distinct that a star in it. She bent down to press her eye to the glass and, after adjusting for her eyelashes that kept hitting the glass, saw something round and blurry in white, blue, and pink.
“There’s a colorful dot in here but it's like it's out of focus and I need glasses or something,” she finally announced to Loren.
Loren peered at the dot herself, then around the arm, and pointed to a round piece of metal behind the looking glass, “this has the word ‘focus’ engraved on it.” They found how it rotated, and looked back at the looking glass. Cirrus watched them fiddle carefully with the focus piece until they whispered a quiet, “woah.”
They looked up at Cirrus with a small smile, “You should check this out.”
Cirrus eagerly approached the looking glass, tucked her fly away hairs behind her ears and leaned down. She could see an object seemingly floating in complete darkness. It was a perfect circle, mostly a light blue, but with pink and purple streaks running across it in different thicknesses. It hadn’t been white at all, just bright. Some of the purple streaks were curled like a grand storm, and the pink streaks curled around them like a river around a rock. It was beautiful. Five tinier white dots sat on either side of the ‘planet’ in a straight line. Did the traveling moon have moons of its own! The faewilds are a beautiful but strange place huh. She felt like crying. It was one of the most wonderful things she had ever seen.
Cirrus didn’t know how long she stood there, stock still in awe and wonder. She was gently nudged out of her daze when soft fingers intertwined with her own.
She looked over at Loren in shock. “What?” was all she could softly muster.
Loren shrugged nonchalantly, “I’m just participating in the memory,” and didn’t let go. Neither did Cirrus.
“Here uh,” Cirrus stepped to the side, “you should look again.” Loren nodded and moved to look through the glass.
“Do you see the tiny white dots next to the planet?” Cirrus asked.
“Oh yeah, what are those?”
“I’m not sure!” Cirrus’s voice was still quiet as she tried to contain the way her heart threatened to beat out of her chest, “They might be moons, which would be crazy because I’ve always thought of planets as distant moons themselves that travel across the sky,” her voice picked up in excitement, “or they could be really tiny stars! They are just tiny white dots so maybe that moon comes with its own set of stars! That would have wild implications for all the rest of the stars, especially ‘cause the material plane at least has its own star so maybe everything is like that! Do you think we’re on a moon or planet just like that?”
Loren looked over a bit surprised at Cirrus, who was beaming, “Wow you’re like, really into this stuff huh.”
“I mean I don’t know if you’ve noticed, all of my magical abilities are based around this stuff, so I would say so yeah.”
“It’s cute.”
“Aha thanks,” Cirrus smiled, then paused, “wait you’re not saying that in the polite mean way right, I’ve been tricked with that before.”
“No no,” Loren assured her, “the exchange for me not running away is my piss poor compliment skills, so take what you can get.”
Cirrus squeezed her hand, “Sounds good to me.” She pulled the coordinate sheet back from her pocket, “I think I’m supposed to let you choose what we look at next.”
Loren took the sheet from her and looked it over. “Well if you’re so big on stars, why don’t we look at that one?”
Cirrus hummed in agreement and took the sheet back. Hand in hand, she brought Loren to the rotating bases and showed her how to push and pull the levers to get to the desired symbols. She still stole a few glances at the way Loren’s eyes sparkled when they watched the dome spin, but they were more focused on using the telescope.
“Now with these two,” Cirrus gestured to the two larger of the three concentric circles when they moved there, “You have to feel around for a metal fork that will connect with the lever arm to move it up and down.” She demonstrated her point by exaggerating the movement of her two middle fingers around the larger circle's edge, flicking the fork up when she found it. She attached the lever and moved the circle around to the correct coordinate.
“Now I could do the same thing on the second one here, but I already know where the fork is so-”
“Actually I think I need you to demonstrate how to find the fork again,” Loren interrupted.
Cirrus looked at her quizzically, “You’re pretty smart Loren, I think you can figure it out.”
“You took me on this date and I want to see that again.”
Cirrus squinted, but relented, “Okay…” and ran her two middle fingers gingerly around the circle’s edge until they connected to the metal fork and flicked it upright. “Ta-da?”
“Nice muscle memory.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Loren said, looking terribly amused with herself.
Cirrus, unfortunately, drew a complete blank on what Loren meant. “Here, why don’t you try finding the last two coordinates,” she said, opting to just move on instead of making a fool of herself. Loren obliged and quickly finished adjusting the telescope’s position.
Cirrus knocked her arm against Loren’s, “Look at you, you’re a natural.”
Loren rolled their eyes, “This is literally the second time you’ve done it.”
Cirrus laughed and looked through the glass, “Holy shit, there’s two of them right next to each other.”
She moved aside for Loren who quickly pressed their eye to the glass. “Huh, I didn’t know they could do that.”
“Y’know, in all the firbolg clans that have circle of stars druids like me, we all imagine the stars as manifestations of our ancestors after they’ve passed on. So maybe these two were lovers finally reunited in the afterlife.”
Loren turned her head from the telescope to look up at Cirrus, “Damn, other timeline you really went all in on this date if you managed to find ‘lover stars’ for it.”
“You know what, yeah, good job me,” Cirrus laughed.
The door to the observatory cracked open across the room , a sliver of light peaking through again.
“I swear I pushed that closed,” Cirrus remarked.
“Let me go close it,” Loren insisted, letting go of Cirrus’s hand. They shoved the door closed with their foot, a little aggressively as far as Cirrus was concerned, and smiled, “Just an air draft.” Cirrus swore she saw them glare at the door.
Cirrus handed Loren the coordinate sheet again when they returned, “What do you wanna look at now?”
Loren threaded their fingers back into Cirrus’s, “I’m dying to know what an interstellar creature is.”
Cirrus sighed with relief, “I was really hoping you would say that.” She gestured to the many levers of the telescope, “I believe it’s your turn to drive.”
Loren took the sheet and pulled the two of them over to the base platforms. Cirrus held the glowing red stone above the coordinates as they pulled and pushed the levers with ease. When they moved to the three concentric circles, Loren simply found the lever forks with her eyes and didn’t once use her fingers to find them. Cirrus felt remarkably indignant that they didn’t use the method they requested she show them twice, but kept that to herself.
Loren brought them to the looking glass and peered inside. They leaned back with a confused expression and began fiddling with the focus dial. They looked inside again and furrowed their brows, continuing to mess with the focus until they finally stood back and said, “What the fuck is that?”
They stepped aside so Cirrus could see. She peered into the glass and realized why Loren was so confused. Illuminated by a nearby star lay the open, gaping maw of a creature that appeared more teeth than body. It looked as if it were sucking in star light, though the vision she could see was a mere snapshot of this act. Finer details were difficult to make out even as she too adjusted the focus dial. Thinking about it too hard made her blood run cold.
She finally stood up, “I’m not sure I want to know what that is.”
Loren nodded in agreement, “Makes me a little terrified to learn what a galaxy or nebula is since you haven’t heard of those either.”
A silence bloomed between them, their hands still clasped, unsure of what to do if their sudden date suddenly ended. Unlike the last time they had been alone under romantic pretenses though, it wasn’t horribly awkward or even lonely, and for that, Cirrus was grateful. She ran her thumb back and forth over Loren’s hand. Cirrus didn’t mind just standing here with them, it was a nice, peaceful reprieve from the rest of their adventure, even if their surroundings were just an illusion.
“Cirrus…” Loren started, “I’m… sorry that I can’t reciprocate your feelings the way you want this time around.” They averted their gaze and stared at the ground, “With all of this new ninth court bullshit and the fall of the Seelie Courts, it’s like I don’t have space to feel anything else.”
“Hey,” Cirrus let go of Loren’s hand and pulled them close to wrap her arms around them, “that’s perfectly okay and completely understandable, please don’t feel bad about it.” Loren relaxed into the hug, and tentatively wrapped their arms around Cirrus as she continued, “I’m really happy you’re still my friend, I’m happy that you’re safe- or at least, as safe as any of us are, - I’m happy you’re still alive, and I really hope you stay that way.”
Cirrus smiled smugly and leaned her head down to lay on top of Loren’s, “I will continue to be happy being your friend, even if I do think you’re really pretty and very soft.”
Loren ‘screamed’ into Cirrus’s chest and said “Stop being so nice to me!”
Cirrus chuckled, “I will not.”
Loren pulled back from Cirrus, their arms briefly resting against hers as they separated. “Thank you,” they concluded.
Cirrus smiled softly and looked around, “I’m surprised the others haven’t shown up yet.”
Loren coughed and quickly glanced over at the door that had cracked open again, “Hm yeah it’s so crazy they haven’t shown up yet.”
Cirrus followed her gaze to the door and squinted, “Wait… were they-”
The memory began to warp around them, sending them back through the weird gelatinous feeling of time, until they stood in a now still clearing of the Court of Autumn.
The whole party stood still for a moment, Quinn, Mawu, and Moira giving Cirrus a knowing look. Cirrus knew an embarrassingly noticeable blush was rising to her cheeks. She caught Loren’s eye, who then quickly looked away, shoving their hands in their pockets at the same time. They couldn’t escape the darker pink tinge at the tips of their ears though, and that made Cirrus smile.
“Cirrusssssss,” Mawu called out, “what was the scary interstellar creature!! I need to know!!!”
Cirrus sighed quietly to herself, now fully aware that absolutely everyone was just a part of her date.