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LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE
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"Oh crud," I thought when I woke up on this warm spring morning in Serenwilde,
bombarded by colors and smells so vivid and strong that it's a wonder anyone's
ever been able to fall asleep here. Leaping off my hammock to shake the leaves
and pollen off, I swiftly climbed a nearby tree to stare at the sunrise. It was
a ritual of mine, especially dear to me when I'd emerge from slumber in an
inexplicably bad mood or plagued by some unpleasant thought, as was the case
today.

As a wave of tangible light and warmth bounced off the glowing leaves, river and
puddles into every nook of the forest, the commune came to life. Not everyone
slept through the night, whether because it was Moon's light they enjoyed more
than Sun's or because they simply didn't need to, but a significant number of us
considered waking on the dawn of a new day a magical thing, bursting with
possibilities and promise.

The promise I was given was that, by the end of the day, I would lose my mother.

The leaves beside me ruffled as a short, muscular elfen arrived to perch on the
branch next to mine, looking unkempt and tired.

"Good morning, Mimi," he said with a sudden sunlit smile.

"Mornin'. Were you up hunting all night?"

He nodded and gestured toward the blinding flare that was Hallifax in the sun.

"You bullied some crystal nerds?"

"Haha, no. The Arthar'rt Observatory. You've heard about that cousin or somesuch
of theirs that moved in not too long ago, right?"

"The one with the teleporter which somehow keeps dropping people near me when
I'm changing?"

"Yup. As it turns out, it actually works if you're really, really lucky and all
goes well. Vivian, Rame and I ended up on Mount Dio. Sick place, I tell ya, I
burned through a year's worth of sparkleberry and healing potion, I'm kind of
sick in the stomach from drinking so much, actually, and there were these crazy
beasties that couldn't seem to make up their minds on whether they wanted to
kill us or not, crazier than Astral I think, and I teased them by dodging all
their attacks until they got seriously annoyed and called in some friends and
handed my ass to me, pardon my mouth, lucky I had vitae-"

"Simbo!" I yelled with a sigh and a trace of a smile. "I haven't got all day,
you know."

"Oh. Right, sorry! Well, long story short, I think it should..." He stopped and
looked like he just got told something telepathically. Maybe one of his team? He
winked at me, nodded his head at the sky, and said, "Yep. Any moment now."

Just as I was about to tell him that there was nothing in the sky, a feeling of
good will washed over me. I gave him a quizzical look, but he just smirked and
gestured towards the sky again. I looked up and gasped as brilliant, magical
purple hues streaked across the blue, dancing with Sun as his light flickered
with laughter.

"We totally fixed the Spire of Dionamus." I heard a clap and looked down to see
him high-fiving Rame, a dark-furred loboshigaru who I assumed teleported in
while I was transfixed by the sky.

I shifted my eyes back up and couldn't help but think of this overwhelming
feeling of benevolence as a gift. It was just what I needed to ease my mind and
prepare me for tonight. I felt like the dawn promised much more now.

"So when's the big event?" Rame asked with a rasp.

I shrugged wearily and turned to him. "You're thinking of coming?"

"Of course I'm coming!" he growled and scowled at me. "It is a matter of loyalty
and respect."

"But how can you be loyal to a traitor, Rame?"

"Please, Mimeia," he rolled his eyes. "You're being a child. Matters of the
heart-"

"I know," I muttered and let out a tired breath, reminded of the hours I'd spent
mulling over this. "But there are more important things! Family and friends, her
commune, discarded over... love?"

Simbo stood up and, with the flick of a hand, his mandolin was at his side.
Gazing into the sky with an overdramatic longing, he strummed a simple ditty:
"'Tis the heart's prerogative, a crap for others not to give."

"What Sim and his girly mandolin mean, I'm sure," Rame jibed, "is that you can't
blame her for things that are out of her hands."

"You might even go on a tantrum and claim that she's been possessed and is being
dominated by evil forces!" Simbo tossed me his mandolin and made some silly
grimaces and hand gestures. I started plucking at the instrument, cringing at
the protesting sounds it made. "And you wouldn't be far off the mark. Her
heart's in charge of her now, and she thinks her best interest is what her heart
says it is."

"She's smarter than that."

"Ah!" Rame's eyes narrowed meekly. "Having been our proud leader for thirty
years, no one can deny her great intelligence and wisdom! But..."

"However tall the tree, it falls to the axe all the same." Simbo nodded sagely
and turned to play his latest earworm, his mandolin disappearing from my hands.

"An axe must have cracked her skull then," I said to the aloof Simbo, "because
you know that she asked me to sing at the wedding?"

"I don't imagine she consulted the groom on that!" Rame laughed. "I wonder what
color he'd turn if he knew."

"Supposedly, Elostian is marrying them. Should I write a philosophical debate
into my lyrics to make Him happy? Only to have Him denounce it as moot and laugh
in my stupid, talentless face?"

"Please do," Simbo snickered, still facing away, "it'll make it so worthwhile."

"Hey! Why is the sun up so high already?" It looked like it was more than
halfway to zenith. We couldn't have been talking that long.

"Hurrying along to spare itself the pleasure of hearing you sing?"

Leaping to his branch and summoning my viola, I played to Simbo a seminote so
dissonant that I heard him scream and weep as I jumped down, yelling, "Being
talentless has its perks too!"

I was still peeved by my mother marrying a lucidian and leaving the home she'd
known all her life for a whim of the heart, but as I walked from shop to shop in
the commune proper, trying to find a wedding gift, I realized that Simbo and
Rame made a good point. Blaming her for wanting to be happy was extremely
selfish. I could do one of two things now: sulk and make one of the happiest
days of her life miserable, or roll with it like a mature person. I also
realized that giving her something of personal value would be much better than
buying some trinket in a store, so I gave up on searching.

"Hey, wanna go hunt?" I got a tell from Rame. "You aren't as squishy as you used
to be, and that minor second was pretty powerful, says Simbo!"

"I should really be working on a gift and a song, you know."

"You can whip up a song as we go about, and as for the gift... I promise I'm
going to have one ready, but only if you come!"

I quickly scanned the forest for people to hang with and came up with nothing.
Why not? Knowing Rame and Simbo, I was going to die, but that would only serve
to relieve me of more stress.

"What are we hunting?"

*** ***

"You didn't have to come, you know?" Rame said as he swung at another batch of
kephera.

"I do not approve of this. But I approve of mooching experience off you guys," I
said as I tried to focus on composing a song for mother's wedding. Should it be
emotional? Jocular? A paean to her service in Serenwilde? I didn't think the
lucidian guests would be too impressed either way. "Why can't you hunt something
else?"

"'Cause this is fast, easy and rewarding," said Simbo as one of his ancestral
spirits dispersed under a warrior's kick. He proceeded to play another minor
second and the warrior's head exploded, its body crumpling to the floor. "Plus,
we kind of hate the kephera."

"For what reason?" Rame kept squad unity so I could focus on composing rather
than following him, but I still couldn't think of anything.

"A kephera killed my parents when I was little and I've held a grudge ever
since." Rame swung left and right, cleaving through them. "And Simbo got his
heart broken by a kephera. Tragic stuff."

I rolled my eyes and said, "You're just plain old racist."

"What of it?" Simbo grinned. "Everyone is, to some extent."

"Hrm. The viscanti are Taint-bred. The illithoid are soulless. Those, at least,
are fair arguments."

"To you. Many others would disagree. To us, the fact that kephera are ugly is an
argument to their inferiority."

"So, racial matters are trivial and subjective is what you're saying?"

"There is no empirical consensus on racial superiority. What we're left with are
impressions and assumptions, all of which are wrong on principle," said Rame.

My laughter reverberated through the tunnels. "When did you join the Institute?
'Empirical consensus?' Those blades are unbecoming of a scientist, my furry
friend."

"You don't have to be a scientist to hold common sense and the spirit of science
close to your heart." Rame smiled and gave me a wink.

I sighed, looking around the hive at the dozen of kephera left running about
their business. "Why don't they respond? They're supposed to be super organized
and hyper aware."

"I think they're hyper aware of their current tasks and organized to perform
them, so much so that defense isn't a priority until we attack them."

"Hrm. Hey, Simbo," a thought occurred to me. "I never asked you if you were
going to the wedding."

He shuffled his feet as he followed Rame to a squadron of warriors. "I wasn't
planning on it."

"But I want you there! I don't care what mother thinks!" I was outraged that he
wouldn't go to such an occasion just because my mother was still mad about him
killing me once by accident.

"Again with the childishness, Mimeia," grunted Rame. Did he enjoy using my name
reproachably? "No one cares that you don't care what your mother thinks. It's
her wedding. That said, bringing Sim along wouldn't be such a bad idea."

"Hm? Why so?" Simbo asked, puzzled by Rame's approval.

"Ohh," Rame's face lit up with a snide grin. "I'm sure you'd be the life of the
party."

"Hmph!" Simbo snorted, still visibly confused. "Whatever that's supposed to
mean, I'll have you know that I'm the life of every party."

"You mean like the one where you blew Mimi's head up because you thought she was
a Glom spy?"

"Uncalled for!" said Simbo and added under his breath, "she had the illusion of
a really ugly faeling on her, anyone could have..."

"Hey guys," I sighed through their bickering. "This is fun and all - and you
WILL come, Simbo! - but I really need to write a song. Any ideas?"

"What rhymes with thorax?" asked Simbo.

"What? Why?"

"I'll write a song about kephera while you're doing yours. They have quite
lovely thoraces, don't you think?"

*** ***

"Eternity? Do they have a fetish for overblown names?"

"I just heard it's good hunting. And that there could be a Vernal thingamajig
around, but who cares about that, right?"

"Soo... the good hunting are supposed to be those things over there? What are
they?"

"Not sure. They can be tough to take down, but there's three of us, so we should
be able to overpower them! Everyone ready? Someone give me a reflection. ...
Okay! LET'S DO IT!"

...

I tilted my head curiously at Simbo and Rame, all of us floating among four of
those undead fisher things who were still playing with our sticky, numb, broken
corpses.

Rame chuckled nervously, glancing at us. "Err... Buy you dinner?" He promptly
started praying for salvation before he could hear our disapproving cries.

The world swerved about me for a second and I was lost in a sea of green, which
I soon realized was the verdant Serenwilde in full bloom. A small coven
encircled the severely weakened Simbo and me at the foot of the Mother Tree, its
leaves as if glistening with morning dew even in the early afternoon. A bard of
the coven played several soothing notes to us to reinvigorate our life force,
then played a different note and was promptly swept away to one of his
milestones.

An unusually tall, tan human female with her maroon hair in a ponytail and deep
blue robes flowing down her form stepped forth and pulled us up, forcing us to
join the coven circle. Soon after, rays of moonlight struck all the coven
members and I felt fully healed.

"Rame?" she asked in a silky voice, her eyes moving from one of us to the other.

"He prayed," said Simbo, stretching and jumping around, renewing his acrobatic
reflexes.

"Why would he do that? And what are these... undead fishers I saw?"

"Long story. Thanks!" With that, Simbo pulled himself up to the trees and hopped
away.

"Thank you, High Wisdom," I said with a polite nod of the head. Vivian was
highly ranked, but approachable enough that I didn't have to grovel at her feet.
Her eyes moved to me, having followed Simbo's crass departure earlier.

"You're welcome. Will you be attending the sundown rites?"

"Before the..."

"Wedding, yes," she smiled at me. "You can't be too excited about that, so why
not enjoy something beforehand."

"Isn't that a bit presumptuous? I'm looking forward to my mother's wedding."

"Oh," she said, clearly baffled. "I was led to believe otherwise. I apologize."

"Will -you- be attending the wedding, High Wisdom?"

"I... will be otherwise occupied, unfortunately." She gave me an icy smile, and
said, "Excuse me, I have to go prepare for the rites. I do hope you'll come."

With that, she rode a moonbeam to some other corner of the forest, and I was
left with a distinct bitterness in my heart. She didn't want to come just like
me earlier that day, yet I felt offended by what I supposed Rame would call her
disrespect for my mother. In a way, this reinforced my desire to go and show my
support for her, if not for the wedding itself.

"Wanna go hunting again? Promise I won't kill you this time." Rame sent a tell.

I frowned and responded, "No. I've got a song to compose."

*** ***

"They're having the reception before the wedding? What kind of sense does that
make?"

"All I know is it's in half an hour and the damned trills haven't made the cake
yet. What am I supposed to do without cake? A reception without cake is like a
year without a cosmic catastrophe. It just doesn't happen. Where are the
amuse-bouche? Have you prepared the entrées? I'M NOT GOING TO FINISH THE MAIN
COURSE IN TIME, BY ESTARRA!"

I watched in the doorway of the well-lit kitchen at the elfen sous-chef
panicking and ordering the others around frantically, instructions painted on
every surface possible in bright red illusory script. This giant hall was built
specifically for the wedding, a marble contruct decorated with crystal spires
floating just southeast of Hallifax. I didn't know whether they'd tear it down
afterwards, but it seemed like a huge waste of materials. Then again, the
Hallifaxian mindset is foreign to me.

I hadn't talked to mother, but I assumed that she was responsible for the
"reception" being held prior to the wedding. It made sense as a farewell to her
old life and all the people from the forest. I also hadn't heard from Simbo or
Rame since that afternoon, though I did sense them die a few more times. The
imponderable Elostian seemed to be mingling with the guests, many of whom were
equally honoured by and uncomfortable with His presence as He posed the most
baffling questions.

Guests poured in from all over the Basin except the Glomdoring. The groom
supposedly vetoed any of my mother's Glomdorian family she may have wanted to
invite, and I didn't think the wedding would suffer for it. Several explorers
came to the hall, practically ran through it and left immediately. One bumped
into a waiter, causing him to drop several platters. The explorer was promptly
escorted out by a flurry of multicolored gems and so severely timewarped that he
probably heard the sous-chef's screaming curses a minute after everything had
settled.

"Are you ready?" I turned and saw my mother smiling at me, three gems floating
about her.

I threw myself in her arms and whispered, half-crying, suddenly overcome by
emotions, "I couldn't write a song."

"I know," she whispered back as she stroked my hair. "I don't need a song. You
are here."

I pulled back and, wiping my eyes, chuckled. "You're just saying that because
you don't want to hear my singing."

"I never claimed to," she said with a wink.

She was so radiant and bursting with happiness that my heart hurt at the thought
that she wouldn't be so happy had I decided not to come. I suddenly remembered
Rame saying he had an idea for a gift, but he hadn't mentioned it after that.
What could he have meant?

"We'll be starting shortly. That band you like will be playing."

"The Half-Formed Beauties?" I gasped.

"I still don't understand what you see in them."

"They're fun! They experiment with beats by pounding their instruments on the
ground."

"Savages! But I hope you like it."

She caressed my hair and turned to rejoin a group of lucidians who seemed like
they were talking about us.

"Hey mom."

She turned back and tilted her head curiously.

"I love you thiiiiiiis much. Have fun."

*** ***

I sat in the front row, surrounded by family, and watched as my mother spun the
three gems around her and, focusing on her husband-to-be, fused them into a
gorgeous heartstone which promptly floated to him and entered his chest in an
effusion of light. He had my mother's heart in his hand in no time, and it
merged with her in much the same way.

With that, Elostian concluded the ceremony and married them. A thundering
applause resounded through the hall as everyone went to congratulate the couple.
It was all over so fast. I felt no resentment. I was happy for her and genuinely
hoped she'd be happy with him forever. I wasn't happy, however, with Simbo and
Rame, who didn't show. I was boiling inside and decided I would give them both
express tickets to the Halls of the Ancestors when I saw them.

"Why are you frowning?" My mom had squeezed through the crowd of lucidians
exchanging impressions with her husband.

"I was just thinking about some friends who didn't show up even though they
promised to."

"You mean Rame?"

My eyebrows shot up. "How did you know?"

"Rame sent me a tell earlier apologizing and saying he was busy procuring a
gift. I told him it wasn't necessary, but he insisted. He said he'd stop by
after the wedding to deliver it."

And sure enough, I saw Rame enter from the back of the hall, carrying a brown
canvas bag. I glared at him, but he just smiled back as he approached.

"My lady," he kissed my mother's hand like a gentleman. "Many congratulations."

"Thank you very much. Mimi's mad at you, though."

"I would imagine so," he said with a smile and turned to me. "But I promised you
I'd have a gift ready."

"Where's Simbo?" I asked, still not ready to forgive him.

"The gift is courtesy of him," he winked and turned back to my mother, handing
her the bag. "From Mimi, Simbo and me."

I noticed my mother's smile falter at the mention of Simbo, but she accepted the
bag. Gently opening it, she glanced inside and her face immediately lit up.

"Given that the reception was a farewell to the old life you liked," Rame said
with a mischievous grin, "I thought, perhaps, something to symbolize a farewell
to everything you didn't like would be appropriate. Serenguard to
ex-Serenguard."

"It's brilliant. Thank you!" My mom was positively beaming, and I was confused.

"Mom? What's in the bag?"

She chuckled and turned the bag upside down, and something small, round and
hairy rolled out. It took me a second to realize what it was.

As the realization hit me, I heard Simbo's voice in my head.

"Tell your mother we're even now. The beheading was really uncomfortable."