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The halls were so quiet at this late hour that Olruggio’s soft footsteps felt incriminatingly loud as he padded toward Qifrey’s room. It was well past curfew at the Great Hall for apprentices their age, but tonight was a special night, and Olruggio wanted to share it with his best friend. They had just endured a scolding from both their masters for sneaking out in the dead of night a week ago, yet he knew Qifrey would agree to do it again even before hearing what Olruggio had to say.
He slowly pushed open Qifrey’s door and poked his head in. The room was dark, but the moonlight streaming in from the window was bright enough for Olruggio to make out Qifrey’s form. He was sitting up in bed, facing away from the door and nibbling at the end of his wand thoughtfully as he studied his open palm quire in his hand. At the sound of the door opening, Qifrey’s shoulders stiffened, and he quickly shoved the palm quire under his legs before turning around.
“Sorry, I was just about to—!” Qifrey blinked in surprise. “Olly?”
“Hey Qifrey.” Olruggio closed the door quietly behind him and jumped onto Qifrey’s bed, settling next to him to examine his palm quire. “What’re you working on?”
“I think I just figured out how to make my new spell work. You know, the one to showcase at the Silver Eve festival this year. I was going to show you when it was perfect, but… want to try it out with me?”
Qifrey ripped the spell from his palm quire and set it on a small saucer. Then he reached over to his desk to retrieve a small teacup with a teabag inside and what looked like a pair of metal tongs. He set the teacup on the saucer before handing it to Olruggio. “Hold this.”
He pressed the coned tips of the metal contraption together with a click, and when he let the two halves come apart again, steaming water gathered in a vapor bubble between the two open cones. Turning back to Olruggio, he slowly poured the water into the teacup, and together, they watched the hot water sculpt into the shape of a curled up dragon.
“Oh woow! This is so cool, Qifrey!” Olruggio beamed. He carefully tilted the saucer back and forth, watching the sloshing water reshape itself back into a dragon no matter how he moved the cup. “How did you come up with something like this?”
“After I forgot Master Beldaruit’s birthday this year and he didn’t let it go for a week, I started thinking about what I could get him for next year. He loves tea and spells that make things beautiful, so I thought this might make him happy. The only problem is, I can’t figure out how to wash the tea set after you’re done drinking… If I draw the seal into the face of the saucer or on the bottom of the cup, it’ll reshape any liquid that comes into contact with it.”
Olruggio rubbed his chin thoughtfully and lifted the teacup from the saucer. “Well, the bottom of the teacup is a circle. You could make the glyphs smaller when you draw them on the saucer, and the circle could be drawn on the bottom of the teacup. That way, the spell will activate when the cup is placed on the saucer, and when the cup is lifted, it’ll deactivate and make the tea easier to drink, right?”
Qifrey stared at him with his mouth open, then dragged a hand down his face in annoyance. “You’re right… I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”
Olruggio smiled and raised the cup to his lips. The smooth, rich taste of the beast-tail tea warmed his insides as it went down. “What can I say, I’ve got an eye for this kind of stuff. This tea’s great, by the way.”
“So what are you bringing to the Silver Eve festival?”
“I uh… don’t know yet,” Olruggio admitted. “Nothing I’ve come up with lately has been good enough. I’m still working on it, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to come up with something worthwhile in time.”
“You’ll think of something, Olly. I know you will,” Qifrey assured him, taking the cup from Olruggio and sipping from it. “You’ll meet someone who needs your help, and before you know it, you’ll have thought of three different ways to help make their lives better. That’s just who you are.”
Olruggio’s cheeks warmed, and he looked away, rubbing his neck sheepishly. “Ah, well… Thanks, Qifrey. Anyway, it’s funny that you showed me this tonight, ‘cause—”
Suddenly, Beldaruit’s voice could be heard in the hallway, and they froze. His words grew louder as he made his way down the hall, and the sound of approaching footsteps accompanied him as he drew closer.
“I wanted to thank you again for offering to look after my apprentice in the days leading up to Silver Eve,” Beldaruit was saying. “I’m afraid the meeting at Ezrest Castle may take longer than usual this year. The Sages have many issues of importance to discuss with the Monarchs, and it saddens me to leave Qifrey to his own devices during one of the most joyous events of the year.”
A booming laugh sounded in the hallway outside Qifrey’s door, and they heard Olruggio’s master reply jovially, “Say nothing of it, Beldaruit. You need not worry. I expect our apprentices will be attached at the hip throughout the festival anyway. So long as I know where my own apprentice is, I shall have an eye on yours as well.”
Beldaruit chuckled. “One could argue that the two of them are more of a handful when they’re together, wouldn’t you say?”
The footsteps stopped directly outside Qifrey’s door, and the doorknob began to turn. Qifrey looked back at Olruggio, his eye as round as the saucer he held, and made some unintelligible gesture with his other hand to... shoo him off and under the bed? Get under the covers? Olruggio had no clue. With no time to ask questions, he grabbed the edge of Qifrey’s blanket and yanked it over them, pulling them both down onto the bed on their sides. The teacup was knocked from Qifrey’s hands as they went down, spilling tea all over Olruggio, but he did his best to ignore it as he pressed himself tightly against Qifrey beneath the covers.
Qifrey remained perfectly still as the door creaked open, but this close, Olruggio could feel his heart pounding hard and fast. He couldn’t see anything with his face pressed into Qifrey’s chest and smothered under the blanket, but he heard a small sigh of relief from the hallway, and a moment later, the door clicked closed again.
As soon as their masters’ footsteps faded into the distance, Olruggio flung the covers off them and sat up with a sharp intake of breath. “GAH, HOT! HOT HOT!” he wheezed, sending a panicked Qifrey scrambling for his palm quire. With a squeaked “Sorry, Olly!” Qifrey scribbled out a drying spell and aimed it at him, sending his cloak flying out behind him from the force of his hastily drawn spell.
When Olruggio’s stained shirt was finally dry, Qifrey lowered his palm quire, and the two of them stared at each other before bursting into muffled laughter.
“Ah, that was too close,” Olruggio finally said, throwing out his arms and falling back onto the bed with a relieved sigh. “I came here ‘cause I wanted to show you something out in the Naakiwan Downs tonight. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but I think you’re really gonna like it. Wanna go?”
Qifrey’s eye gleamed in the moonlight, and he leapt off the bed to throw off his nightgown. Olruggio grinned at the ceiling as he waited for his friend to finish changing into his robes, and it wasn’t long before Qifrey was dragging him out of bed by the wrist.
“I’m ready Olly, let’s go!”
When the two boys stepped out of the windowway onto the windy hills of the Naakiwan Downs, they were met with a sprawling night sky full of stars and a grassy plain dotted with wildflowers.
“That’s right, the passage stars are going to begin falling soon,” Qifrey said as he turned his face to the sky. “Ever since you told me about this place, I’ve wanted to see them from here. Is that why you brought me here tonight?”
Olruggio smiled and adjusted the rolled-up blanket tucked under his arm before reaching over to extinguish the light of their lamps. “Not just that. We’ll need to keep our lamps off for this. Flames and bright lights will attract too much attention. C’mon, let’s find somewhere comfortable to settle down.”
Now more curious than ever, Qifrey followed Olruggio to the slope of a grassy hill. Olruggio flopped down onto the soft grass first and smiled up at Qifrey, patting the ground next to him. Once Qifrey settled in beside him, he scooted a little closer until they were shoulder to shoulder and spread the blanket over them both.
“It’s chilly out here, get in closer so we can stay warm,” Olruggio insisted. “It might take a while before we see anything, so if you’re tired, you can close your eyes. I’ll wake you up when—oh! Qifrey, look!”
The sound of beating wings came from behind them, and a moment later, a pair of dragons soared through the sky overhead side by side. Stunned, they both sat straight up and watched as the dragons flew a bit farther before coming to a stop midair to face each other, their silhouettes cast in sharp relief against the light of the crescent moon.
“Dragons…” Qifrey whispered. He was staring up in breathless wonder, eye bright and face flushed with excitement, but his hand found Olruggio’s wrist, clinging to him without seeming to realize he was doing it. He’d never seen wild dragons this close, and right now, there was nothing standing between them and those magnificently powerful creatures. “But Olly, what are they doing?”
Olruggio smiled to himself and looked back up at the sky. “Don’t worry. As long as we stay quiet and don’t bring attention to ourselves, they won’t pay us any mind. It’s mating season for these dragons, so they’re particularly active at night this time of year. This is their mating dance.”
Together, they watched the dragons beat their wings hard in tandem, lifting themselves up higher into the air before lowering their heads, almost as if they were bowing to each other. Then they began to slowly circle each other, their wings and tails brushing intermittently as they dipped and twisted in a silent dance beneath the stars.
“Ash-Mottled Dragons are an interesting species,” Olruggio explained quietly. “They’re social by nature, but only in so much that they need others of their kind to survive. But they aren’t often seen interacting much beyond traveling and defending their territory in groups, and like all dragons, they don’t allow others to get too close to them aside from their chosen mate and their offspring.”
When he didn’t hear a response from Qifrey, he looked to his side and saw him with his knees drawn up under their blanket. His arms were wrapped around them, hugging his knees to his chest, and although he was still looking toward the dragons, there was something in his gaze that made it seem like he was looking past them.
Olruggio wasn’t sure what possessed him to say the words that came out of his mouth next.
“Have you ever heard of the witches’ dance?”
Qifrey blinked and turned to him, thrown off by the sudden change in topic. “I haven’t. What’s that?”
“It’s a dance only witches can do.” Olruggio got to his feet and offered his hand to Qifrey. “Let me show you.”
Qifrey’s brows furrowed anxiously, and he looked down at his knees. “I… um, I don’t know how to dance.”
Olruggio gave him an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you. The witches’ dance was inspired by the dance of the dragons, actually.”
Qifrey still looked uncertain, but he reached up and took Olruggio’s outstretched hand, allowing his friend to pull him to his feet. Once they were standing facing each other, Olruggio took a small step back.
“Now put your feet together and let the sylph shoes lift you up a bit. Once in the air, turn to another witch on the dance floor, and let yourself come back to the ground while bowing to them. Like this.”
Olruggio aligned his shoes and rose up in front of Qifrey. He grasped the edges of his cloak and extended one arm out straight to his side, while the other drew his cloak in front of him across his waist. The fabric of his cloak fluttered around him in the strong winds of the hilly plain, and Olruggio suddenly found himself noticing the way the moonlight cast an almost ethereal glow over Qifrey’s upturned face as he landed lightly on the ground and sank into a bow.
He looked back up at Qifrey with a bright smile on his face. “Not too hard, right? Now you try.”
His eyes lit up at Qifrey’s shy nod, and this time, both of them lifted up into the air at the same time. Their cloaks billowed behind them as they drew the fabric across their lower torsos in unison and bowed to each other before drifting lightly back to the ground. When Qifrey straightened up and their gazes met, the stars reflected so clearly in the sparkling blue of his eye that Olruggio found himself unable to look away.
“That wasn’t bad,” Qifrey admitted, finally returning Olruggio’s smile with a small, relieved one of his own. “Is that all there is to it?”
Qifrey’s question pulled Olrugguio from his reverie, and he blinked, not realizing he’d been staring. “Not quite. You repeat this move, turning each time you lift off into the air and bowing to a new partner, until you find yourself facing the person you actually want to dance with.”
“This wasn’t the dance?”
“No,” Olruggio said with a laugh, the sound light and warm against the cool night air. “This is just the beginning. The next part is the real dance.”
Catching sight of the hesitation in Qifrey’s expression, Olruggio’s eyes softened, and he held out his hand again, palm side up. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t wanna do, Qifrey,” he offered gently. “But I’d really like to dance with you.”
When Qifrey didn’t respond, Olruggio’s throat tightened uncomfortably at the thought of his next words. For a moment, he considered not saying them at all. But Qifrey’s silence felt deafening, so he pushed through them anyway.
“Besides, dancing is a pretty big part of Golden Eve. You never know… if you end up meeting someone special at the festival one day, you’d want to know the next steps of the dance when you find yourself face to face with someone who doesn’t take back off into the air after the bow.”
Qifrey finally looked back up at that, and there was something different glinting in his eye this time that Olruggio couldn’t place. He took Olruggio’s hand, and his fingers curled ever so slightly around Olruggio’s.
“Okay.”
Olruggio’s smile widened, and he took a step closer. “Then I’ll lead. Just mirror my movements, and let me guide you on the turns, okay?”
With Qifrey’s hand still in his, he turned slightly to the side and raised their joined hands between them. With his elbow bent at a right angle, he guided their forearms up vertically until they were nearly parallel. Their wrists brushed, and their open palms met in a loose touch.
“Now all you have to do is watch me, and follow when I move.”
He shifted his weight forward, and they moved together into the first turn. Their linked arms guided Qifrey as he stepped in after him, a moment behind Olruggio’s lead, but Olruggio slowed and matched his pace without breaking contact. He noticed Qifrey glancing down nervously each time Olruggio changed up the direction, trying to match his steps to Olruggio’s. Olruggio fought back an affectionate smile, and the tips of his fingers curled down gently over Qifrey’s where they rested against his upper palm in a reassuring squeeze.
“It’s okay. I’ll guide your hands, your feet will follow.”
They tried the steps again, slower this time. Gradually, Qifrey stopped looking down at his feet and began to watch Olruggio instead, and the stiffness slowly left his shoulders as they settled into a steady rhythm. The wind was picking up around them, catching at their cloaks and swirling the fabric around their legs, but Olruggio hardly noticed the growing chill. Qifrey’s hand was warm in his, and it was steady.
He had learned over the years that Qifrey would sometimes pull away from the people he cared about, and even Qifrey himself never seemed to fully understand why. He’d made it clear more than once that it had nothing to do with Olruggio himself, but it still stung every time it happened. Tonight, though, he wasn’t pulling back.
“That’s it,” Olruggio said with a pleased smile. “You’re getting it. Ready to try something else?”
Olruggio lifted their joined hands again and guided Qifrey into their first underarm turn. He demonstrated the steps once before letting Qifrey try them himself: step, pivot, rotate beneath the raised arm. But when they turned together, Qifrey lagged a bit behind the rhythm, and as the turn brought Olruggio up behind him, he stumbled. Olruggio’s free hand came up instinctively to hold him steady by the waist, and he felt Qifrey jump slightly beneath his touch. Olruggio withdrew immediately, but he kept their other hand lightly intertwined.
“You okay, Qifrey?”
Qifrey nodded, though he looked tense. Despite his late start in learning magic compared to his peers, he’d shown again and again how quickly he usually picked things up. Maybe he was being too hard on himself now.
“Yeah,” he said after a moment. “It’s just… a bit hard to see what you’re doing when it’s this dark.”
Olruggio’s brows creased in concern. True, it was darker than what they were used to without their lanterns or a full moon out, but the stars shone brighter here than anywhere else. They’d spent years sneaking out together in the middle of the night. Had Qifrey always had trouble seeing in the dark?
Even that had seemed difficult for Qifrey to admit, though, so Olruggio chose not to press it further. Instead, he guided Qifrey through the rest of the turn and brought them back face to face. A part of him was relieved when Qifrey kept his hand resting in Olruggio’s palm. After feeling him flinch like a spooked horse earlier, he’d half expected Qifrey to pull away.
“Hey,” Olruggio said softly, dipping his head to meet Qifrey’s downcast gaze. “When did you get taller than me?”
Qifrey’s eye widened, and a faint flush colored his cheeks. “Wh—what are you talking about? I’ve always been taller than you!”
Olruggio snorted, relieved that Qifrey was now looking back at him instead of the ground. “Hah! You wish, we were the same height for practically forever!”
“That’s not—” Qifrey started indignantly, then faltered mid-protest. His attention turned upward, and he grew quiet.
Olruggio followed his gaze to see a faint streak of light cut across the darkness above them. For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then another followed, brighter this time.
Together, they watched hand-in-hand as the sky lit up with a sudden shower of passage stars. And through it all, the two dragons were still dancing in the sky, circling each other like binary stars locked in orbit against the backdrop of falling stars.
“Looks like Golden Eve’s going to be starting soon,” Olruggio said quietly. “Guess I should probably get serious and figure out what to bring to the festival, huh?”
Qifrey looked at him with a small smile. “If that means we won’t be able to do this again for a while, we might as well stay out a little longer. Master Beldaruit already checked on me once tonight, he won’t notice that we’re gone until morning.”
Olruggio pulled Qifrey back down onto the grass in response, then reluctantly let go of his hand to wrap the blanket around both their shoulders. They sat huddled together, sharing in the comfort of each other’s company as they continued to watch the first passage stars of the season fall to earth.
Finally, Olruggio broke the silence again.
“I don’t get it. We eat all the same things, and I even finish all my vegetables. Think it’s the heavier cloak…?”
Qifrey let out a helpless laugh. “Let it go, Olly.”
“Hey, Qifrey! Over here!”
A small figure dressed in light blue and white sat waiting at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the main gates of Ezrest Castle. Qifrey had been forced to accompany Beldaruit to the meeting between the Three Sages and the Six Monarchs of Zozah Peninsula until Olruggio and his master arrived to watch over him. The meeting had yet to conclude for the day, but now that Olruggio was here, he wasn’t about to let Qifrey spend Golden Eve alone while the festivities were already in full swing.
Olruggio raced down the cobblestoned path toward his best friend with a pointed cap pastry in each hand. When he reached Qifrey, he held one out to him with a beaming smile. It was filled with minced meat and cheese layered in spiced tomato sauce; the other one was piled high with sweets.
“Have you eaten yet? I figured the castle probably had plenty of good food, but I brought you something filling in case you’re still hungry. And if you already ate—” he brandished the other pastry, “—this one’s dessert. I got all your favorites: willowgrapes, mountain apples, berries, and sandvanilla pudding.”
Qifrey’s eye shone as he tried a spoonful of spiced meat and cheese. “Wow, this is so good! I actually haven’t eaten yet, I was waiting so we could eat together.”
“Then we can share. C’mon, let’s go check out the stalls!”
The last of the burnt oranges and reds of sunset faded from the evening sky, giving way to a deep indigo as the two boys wandered through the festival, trading bites of their pastries and marveling at the many magical contraptions on sale.
“Is Beldaruit going to help you set up a stall to sell your Palm Dragon Teacup after he’s done with his meetings?” Olruggio asked, watching Qifrey polish off the last of the fruit pastry. “I’m saving up the last of my money so I can be your very first customer.”
Qifrey shook his head. “I decided not to bring it to the festival. I made it for Master Beldaruit, after all—it didn’t feel right to sell it for money. Besides, he’s probably one of the very few people who would spend money on a contraption that doesn’t do anything useful other than making tea look pretty.”
“Magic doesn’t have to be practical to have worth,” Olruggio responded firmly. “Don’t sell yourself short, Qifrey. You and Beldaruit are more similar than you’d like to admit, you know. You both appreciate how beautiful magic can be and the joy it can bring people. Your invention does exactly that.”
“Thanks, Olly. What about you—did you end up making anything to sell at Silver Eve?”
Olruggio shot Qifrey a sidelong look with a sly grin. “I did. I didn’t tell you because I wanted it to be a surprise. That’s why I came to get you so late, my master was helping me get it set up earlier today. He should be finishing up by now, but he let me go early so we’d have some time to enjoy the festival together.”
“Only you could start something so late and still pull it off just in time,” Qifrey laughed. “So when are we gonna go see it then?”
“Later,” Olruggio said, giving him a cheeky wink. “You’ll know when you see it.”
Bemused, Qifrey followed Olruggio to the next stall, where large intricately designed paper lanterns lined the front of the booth. They looked to be ordinary paper lanterns, but the merchant standing behind the counter wore a pointed cap. Her graying hair was tied in a loose braid over her shoulder, and her lined face brightened at the sight of the two young witches peeking over the counter of her booth.
“Good evening, boys,” the witch said with a friendly smile. “Have either of you wished on a sky lantern before?”
Olruggio looked to Qifrey, whose eye was round and shining as he gently reached out and touched the delicate paper of the nearest lantern with his fingertips. There was a silhouette of a dragon drawn into one of its sides.
“You’ve never seen one of these before, huh?” Olruggio asked him.
When Qifrey shook his head, the stall vendor spoke up. “Silver Eve is one of the most special times of the year. It’s when people of the Zozah Peninsula come together to celebrate the successes of the last year and wish for posterity in the next. Every year on the eve of the festival, floating lanterns like these are sent into the sky, carrying the hopes and wishes of those who release them to the heavens with the help of the dragons.”
She reached for the lantern closest to her and turned it over on the counter to reveal a small, round disk attached to the open-ended bottom of the lantern. Then her hands disappeared from view beneath her cloak, re-emerging a moment later with a small slip of paper held between her fingers. With a wink, she slipped the paper into the disk before righting the lantern again.
Within seconds, the lantern began to glow a gentle gold, and when the witch lowered the lantern so the boys could see the inside, they saw a long, brightly burning flame in the shape of a dragon dancing at the lantern’s center.
“If there is something you wish for, for yourself or for someone else, write it on the side of the paper lantern. When you are ready, the dragon will carry your wish into the sky, where the flame will consume the lantern and become a fixed point of light among the stars for the remainder of the night.”
“What do you say, Qifrey?” Olruggio asked. “Now that the Palm Dragon Teacup I came here to buy isn’t for sale anymore, I happen to have a little extra spending money. We’ll be trying for the Tower of Tomes soon—we could use a little extra luck, don’t you think?"
Qifrey shook his head, smiling in disbelief. “You really did plan on buying that silly teacup from me, didn’t you?”
“Of course.”
Qifrey’s gaze returned to the glowing lantern, and his smile softened. “A little extra luck sounds nice.”
“I think I know which lantern your friend wants,” the stall owner said to Olruggio. “What about you, little witch? Which one strikes your fancy?”
Olruggio stood in front of the row of lanterns lining the front of the booth for a long while. His eyes drifted to the many folded lanterns hanging on the wall behind the stall owner before asking, “Which one has been the hardest to sell?”
The older witch looked at him strangely, caught off guard by the question. “Well…” She took down a folded lantern from the back wall. “I’ve had this one since last year’s festival.”
Qifrey drifted closer to Olruggio to peer at the design on the paper lantern, and when he caught the look on Olruggio’s face, the two of them burst out giggling.
“Liongoats are a symbol of warmth, loyalty, and protectiveness,” the stall owner protested, wilting slightly at their laughter. “But I suppose they don’t make for elegant or majestic designs, do they?”
“No, it’s perfect,” Olruggio grinned. “I’ll take it.”
After paying, the two moved to the end of the stall to let other festival attendees make their purchases as they began to work on their lanterns. They stood side by side, each trying not to look at the other’s lantern as they pondered over what to wish for. Around them, the soft hum of people talking and laughing grew louder as dozens of lanterns began to take to the night sky from multiple stalls scattered around the festival.
Olruggio’s pen stilled over the paper. Wishes were supposed to be simple, weren’t they? There was no shortage of things he wanted. But when he snuck a glance at his best friend, biting his lower lip in thought and carefully writing something in small, neat letters, one thought rose above all the others.
I hope nothing ever has to change between us.
The memory of Qifrey flinching away from him during their dance several weeks ago suddenly surfaced in his mind, and Olruggio’s gaze lowered back to the paper. Maybe that wish was too selfish. For as long as they’d known each other, there had always been a part of Qifrey that remained just out of reach. Qifrey would laugh with him, tease him, spend every spare moment at his side—and then, without warning, something would make him retreat again. There was always something sad lingering behind his smile, something Olruggio had never been able to chase away completely, no matter how much he wanted to.
Maybe change wouldn’t be so bad, if it meant Qifrey finding someone he could let in without fear. Someone he could trust fully without feeling the need to pull away.
He quickly wrote down his wish before he could talk himself out of it.
I hope Qifrey finds his dragon one day.
Olruggio opened his lantern, activated the dragon flame spell, and looked up. Qifrey was already looking back at him, the golden glow of his lantern shining bright in the cerulean blue of his eye. He looked happy. Truly, genuinely happy.
“Ready?”
For now, that was good enough for Olruggio.
“Yeah.”
They turned to face each other, and together, they looked up and opened their hands. Their lanterns drifted upward, gently catching in the breeze and weaving together in a slow, spiraling dance as they joined the countless lights scattered across the night sky.
As Olruggio watched their lanterns disappear into the sea of stars above, his heart felt just a bit lighter. He didn’t know what Qifrey had wished for. But he hoped, whatever it was, that someday it would come true.
Above the growing constellation of lantern lights, the first passage stars of the night began to shoot across the sky. Neither of them moved from where they stood, watching the streaks of silver illuminate the darkness as more lanterns rose to meet them.
The start of the meteor shower seemed to wake the crowd from its collective hush, and the festival quickly came alive again. Music began to drift through the stalls, and the sounds of laughter and excitement swelled around them as the lanterns on the ground began to blow out, one by one. It was only when the festivalgoers began to gather around the center of the darkened square did Olruggio realize that the moment he’d been waiting for all day was finally drawing close.
The evening dances were about to begin.
“It’s tradition to dance under the light of the passage stars,” Olruggio explained when Qifrey glanced toward the now-darkened square with a confused expression. “We haven’t been allowed to stay this late in past years, so you’ve never gotten to see this part.”
Qifrey shuffled slightly closer to Olruggio, looking around nervously as the crowd jostled past them. He was so busy trying to stay out of the way that it took him a moment to realize the cobblestones ahead of them were beginning to glow as the dancers stepped into the open space at the center of the square.
“Olly, look! The ground, it’s—”
Qifrey turned toward Olruggio, and when their eyes met, the rest of the sentence died on his lips at the sight of his friend smiling at him.
“This is what I was doing earlier today, before I came to get you,” Olruggio said. “I call it the Glowstone Path. Each stone tile has a glyph drawn beneath it. When someone steps on it, the magic circle closes, and it lights up. We replaced all the tiles at the center of the square with ones I made, so that when the dancing began tonight, no one would have to dance in the dark.”
Qifrey was speechless. He could only stare at Olruggio, his eye wide and shining, and his lower lip began to tremble as the realization finally set in. “Olly… did you—”
“Olruggio! Qifrey!” A familiar female voice called out over the music, cutting him off before he could finish. A moment later, Alaira emerged from the moving crowd to greet them with a surprised smile. “It’s good to see you two! I wasn’t expecting to run into you here, I didn’t know either of you liked dancing.”
Olruggio puffed out his chest and stood as tall as he could manage. “I’ll have you know, Alaira, that you’re looking at two fine young men who certainly can dance. But we’re here because I wanted to show Qifrey my newest contraption.”
Alaira followed Olruggio’s gestured motion toward the glowing cobblestones, and her eyes widened in surprise. “That was your doing? That’s incredible, Olruggio! The lights make everyone look so beautiful as they dance.”
She turned to Qifrey with a warm smile and held out her hand. “Come on, let’s give Olruggio a chance to see his magic in action. Would you like to dance?”
Qifrey’s hands clasped together tightly in front of him, and he took a small step back. “Um… that’s okay, Alaira. I’m not any good at dancing.”
Understanding flickered in Alaira’s golden eyes, and without pressing the matter further, she gave him a small nod and turned back to Olruggio.
“Well then, how about you, Olruggio? Surely the star of Ghodrey was taught a thing or two about class before coming to the Great Hall?”
Olruggio reflexively glanced at Qifrey, wondering if he would mind, before he caught himself and gave himself a mental shake. Why would Qifrey mind…? Pushing the strange thought to the back of his mind, he accepted Alaira’s outstretched hand and swept his cloak out in a bow.
“As you wish, m’lady.”
Olruggio guided Alaira to the center of the square, to the border of where he knew the Glowstones were laid. He could feel Alaira’s eyes on him—she’d noticed that his attention kept darting back to Qifrey. Once they were out of earshot, Alaira stepped into position and raised her arm to align herself with Olruggio before looking back at Qifrey.
“I haven’t upset him, have I?”
Olruggio tilted his head at her, the confusion on his face genuine. “Why would he be?”
Alaira stepped into a turn with a graceful sweep of her cloak before leveling a knowing look at him. “Come on, Olruggio. You can’t be this dense. People talk about the two of you, you know. He’s opened up a lot since you started hanging out with him, but it’s always been different with you. Is something going on between you and Qifrey?”
Olruggio felt heat rise to his cheeks, which, thanks to his newest invention, Alaira would be able to see on his face with mortifying ease. “It’s not like that! He’s my best friend, but… that’s it, that’s all we are.”
“Are you okay with that?”
Olruggio let out an incredulous huff, but he deflated a little when he realized Alaira wasn’t laughing. She wasn’t just teasing.
“Of course I…”
Alaira waited. She didn’t say anything, but somehow that made it worse. Olruggio suddenly found himself wishing the ground beneath his feet would open up and swallow him whole.
“It’s not…” He swallowed nervously. “It’s not like I haven’t thought about it, alright? But…”
He frowned, mostly at himself, and looked away. He didn’t know why he was still talking. Maybe Alaira had prodded at something he’d spent a long time trying not to examine, and now that she’d put words to it, he wasn’t sure he could ignore it anymore.
“Look,” he admitted quietly. “When it comes to Qifrey… I’d do just about anything for him. Always have. And lately, I’ve been wondering if maybe that’s not how everybody talks about their best friend. But whenever I get too close, he pushes me away. So I figure it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
Alaira nodded sympathetically. “He’s not really comfortable with affection, is he? I tried to hug him once, he side-stepped me so fast and patted my arm instead.”
Olruggio choked back a laugh and led her into a spin. “Yeah, that’s Qifrey for ya. I figure if… if that’s something he ever wanted from me, he’d ask. I’ve seen what he’s like when he wants something. If it matters to him, he’ll stop at nothing to get it.”
By the time Alaira came back around to face him again, the fondness in Olruggio’s voice had given way to something more rueful. “As for me, if I can help him find what he’s looking for, then that’s enough.”
As the first song drew to a close, Alaira glanced over Olruggio’s shoulder, and her lips parted slightly before curving into a small smile. When she looked back at him, she took a step back and dipped into a bow. After he returned the gesture, she aligned her boots and lifted into the air, inviting him to do the same with a tilt of her head.
When Olruggio rose up to meet her, Alaira’s gaze drifted past him again and said, "Qifrey turned me down for a dance. I don’t recall him turning you down for one. You should ask.”
And with that, she winked at him and turned, landing to face another witch in the crowd. Puzzled, Olruggio turned around and caught sight of Qifrey, who was now standing just a few paces away looking up at him. Without breaking eye contact, Qifrey floated up to face Olruggio in the air, and together, they landed lightly on the ground with a bow. When they straightened up again, neither moved to return to the air as the opening notes of the second song began to play.
Qifrey held out his hand first. Olruggio stared at his upturned palm in surprise, and suddenly, the uncertainty he’d been carrying didn’t feel quite as heavy anymore. He placed his hand in Qifrey’s, and it was only then that Qifrey realized his mistake.
“I…” Qifrey faltered. “I don’t know how to lead.”
A laugh, brimming with joy and affection, escaped Olruggio before he could stop it. For all the things Qifrey kept hidden, his heart had always been kind and earnest. He gently turned their joined hands over and stepped closer.
“Then let me.”
Together, they took the first step, and the Glowstones beneath them came to life.