The Night Market

Demi takes a step back, raising her shades.

"I’m bound enough," she says to Jess, and that is all she says to indicate there will be no sale. Whatever Monday has in mind is not her problem, and she’s not about to incur a debt that makes it her problem.

Gertrude looks at Monday. "Nobody has said this exact words, I don’t think. But I do try to keep my feelings to myself, if that’s what you mean. I’ve been hurt before. A lot. I... don’t really want to give anybody the chance to do that to me again."

"I’m scared of being hurt," Gertrude says, "of being looked down on. Of not being able to be myself without judgment. Of losing my friends and family. Again." The masked teenager looks down at her shoes.

Whiskered Tim lets out a little squeak of fear and cowers as the Ptisilith looms over him. "Ah! What are you? Did the Starving King send you?!?"

Gertrude notices the scene and quickly makes her way over there. "It didn't mean to startle you. The Ptisilith is just a litte... socially challenged," she says apologetically. She turns to the hovering stone. "Are you looking for something to buy? Do you want me to help you find it?"

She heads to another stall, hoping the Ptistilith will follow and allow her to help it pick out an appropriate keepsake.

Thrilled to be talking to such a glamourous starlet, the Moon Prince stammers out a reply to Demi, "Yes I am from the moon. Originally. It is very... uhm.... barren in most places. But beautiful in a sparse way. There are wonderous things there, but they tend to be underground, like the cheese mines, or on the dark side, like the pink shadow pools. But mother said that was all too dangerous for the next ruler of the moon to be playing about in." The Moon Queen's scolding voice and overprotective tone flash into the Moon Prince's mind and they feel their vision begin to swim as their chest tightens. But they continue on, trying to will it away.

"There is a Moon King and Queen of course. Father would address his subjects every Moonsday and on special occasions from the main balcony, but Mother kept me away from high places since they were dangerous. And...Moon...Princesses...urk" the Moon Prince feels their mind float away as they stumble and reach out to steady themselves against Whiskered Tim's stall. "I'm...sorry. I don't know...what came over me. I just need to rest for a moment." They clutch their temples and squeeze their eyes shut, leaning hard against the support arm of the stall.

The Ptisilith lets itself be directed toward another stall by Gertrude. It pulses with beige light, swirled with milky grey. The last stall didn't have much for me, but maybe the next will. But I just can't decide. Maybe some help would be nice. It emits a low hum.

As she stands beside the Ptisilith, Monday’s earlier question bounces around in Gertrude’s head. It’s fhe question she’s been asking herself for a while now, and she finally gives voice to it.

"Who would I be, if I really could be anyone?" she ponders.

"The Star in your life story, my dear."

Demi delivers that one-liner with such graceful sincerity, her ‘inner director’ calls cut.

After resting a moment, the Moon Prince considers the question. "Someone strong and decisive. Someone not weighed down by the past."

"I would be somebody who was strong, and confident, and comfortable in my own skin," Gertrude says quietly. "Somebody whose outer appearance matched how they saw themself on the inside."

All around the Night Market, the various fey merchants seem to lean closer to the gathered group. A question seems to whisper on the wind, prompting the mortals to answer:

"What is my heart's desire?"

Demi says aloud to the whisper. "My heart’s desire? Ha! I have it, and if I desire more, I will have it when it pleases me to."

Inevitably, the fey hear the unspoken truth:
Forgiveness.

The Moon Prince hears the whisper of the wind through the Night Market and thinks To belong somewhere that I can be myself without hesitation.

To be loved for who I am, without having to compromise, Getrude answers to herself.