|
Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 17:23:41 GMT -6
San pitched in where he could, and to his surprise even Rei was drafted by a particularly harried-looking member of the Association for some tasks requiring a more fine-tuned touch. He glanced at her to make sure she was alright, but she nodded, having anticipated his questions. Perhaps he was being a bit overprotective; in the time that he had known her, she had been tasked with more difficult and dangerous things to do while operating alone. And she seemed to be enjoying herself, at least a little; the look she wore when she came back to him, both of them having completed their work, was one of satisfaction.
"Here," said a smallish-looking humanish with thick glass spectacles, approaching them with a telescope. "You worked, so you might as well enjoy the show. This isn't any high-spec model, but you should at least be able to see the comet with it."
16
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 17:32:29 GMT -6
Before San could say anything to him in reply, the humanish bustled off, briskly making his way off to some other task that more pressingly required his attention. San shared a look with Rei, both of them at a loss for a moment, and then San smiled. It must have looked more convincing than it had earlier, since Rei didn't return it with a worried look of her own. "He's right. We might as well enjoy it," San said.
"Do you know how this works?" Rei asked.
Wordlessly, San adjusted the telescope. It had already been half set up by the short man who had left it with them, but after a moment, San found the mechanism to elevate the tripod that it was resting on. He pulled it up as far as it would go, but even then, he had to bend over to peer through the small end of it.
17
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 17:37:33 GMT -6
It took a little trial and error at first, but after some more adjustments, San could see the individual stars with surprising clarity. "Here," he said, stepping aside so Rei could try it. She fluttered over, and hovered in place as she peered through the telescope.
"This is... the comet?" she said.
"No, just a star," San said. A thought occurred to him, and he pulled a pamphlet out from the pocket of his jacket. He had picked it up earlier, between carrying crates, and promptly forgot about it, but now he unfurled it to reveal a simplified map of the night sky.
He looked up. Even without the telescope, the stars were clearer here than they were in the heart of the city. And now that he was looking at them, with a map for reference, he recognized a few of the constellations, though their positions were different from what he had known.
18
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 17:43:14 GMT -6
They couldn't find the comet despite their best attempts, and after a while the two of them gave up on the telescope in favor of looking for the constellations on the map. "Did you do this when you were younger?" said San. Rei had lived here before, after all. He wondered if the sky had looked as strange to her when she had been in Ningjing as it did to him now, living here.
"Sometimes," she said. "I liked the moon best." But there was no moon to be seen tonight - and that was why the Association had chosen this as their night to observe the comet, so San had been told.
"I remember," he said, thinking of the time they had gone up on a tower, the way she had watched the moon as if entranced.
"Did you ever do this?" she asked, turning his own question back on him.
19
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 17:55:14 GMT -6
Six years ago, or even three, the question might have stung, might have caught him off guard. But now he gazed up at the sky and said, "When I was very young. My... My mother would tell me tales about the constellations." He glanced down at the map, then pointed out a star almost directly overhead. "That one is Zhinü, and that one is Niulang. They met and fell in love and were married, but Zhinü was an immortal, and her mother grew angry..."
The tale came back to him as he told it, and Rei listened quietly as he told it. When the story ended, she asked him for another, and then another, until midnight was nearly upon them; and then he made his excuses to the Association and made his way home.
When he went to bed that night, sleep found him easily, and his rest was unbroken by dreams.
20
|
|
|
Post by NPC on Sept 9, 2020 8:11:09 GMT -6
Congratulations, you have successfully completed the quest! Your QP will be added to the bank and your reward sent out shortly.
|
|