Mecora found Relie at the statue the next day, impassively looking toward the men at their various jobs. The younger girl apparently heard the approaching footsteps. “You have a funny way of enjoying parties,” she said.
The accusation hurt. Who was this newcomer to judge how she behaved? “You have a funny way of being a friend,” was her retort.
“I’m not the one who got so drunk that you couldn’t remember my name anymore.”
“I always do that! And then we always slept out on the deck together. And then Handa went to get the willow-bark tea. You’ve never been drunk, obviously, or you’d know how important that is.”
“Is that what a friend is to you? Someone to support your habit, so you can keep drinking away your life and not have to feel the consequences?”
That really irritated Mecora. “How did you get so smart? Or, I mean, how did you get to be my mother? My own mother doesn’t even complain!”
“Well, maybe I just thought you’d like to have a true friend, someone who’ll make you a better person.”
“There’s no point in trying. I am the way I am, and there’s nothing a little twerp like you can do about it,” Mecora spat.
“Well, fine! If you die, don’t come haunting me!”
“I hope I die just so I can get away from you!” With that, she turned, and stalked off. Only then did she realize she was stalking away from her own mooding spot. It only made her angrier. There was nothing to punch, hit or scream at. No doors to kick, no brother’s ears to bollox, no pans to bang. But then, there were those things at home.
It didn’t seem to take long to get there, but as soon as she walked in the door, her mother said, “Don’t you dare bring your anger in here! Take it to the statue.”
“AAAAGHH!” She couldn’t stand it. “I can’t, Relie’s there!” It seemed as if every muscle in her body wanted to tense at once, and really destroy everything.
“Well, take a walk or something, but I won’t have you banging up my pans or your brothers’ heads.”
Mecora couldn’t move. A walk just wouldn’t do any good— where was there to go, really?
“What did Relie do to make you so mad?”
“She accused me of not being a good friend, that I just used friends for getting tea on mornings-after.”
“Well, that’s part of adjusting, isn’t it? You didn’t have to get mad.”
“Well, she was just so... irritating! Like she was my mother, or a priest or something.” She relaxed a bit.
“Did she have some good advice?”
“Mom, she’s two years younger than I am! How can she know more than me? She’s never lived my life. And she lived in a town filled with just light Vle, so she’s gotta be nuts from losing all her friends, and yet she doesn’t show it.”
“Maybe she needs your help in bringing her problems out and making her deal with them.”
“Maybe her mother said the same thing to her.” That relaxed her even more. She still hated Relie, though.
“That may be true.” Her mother went back to sweeping, though with all the sweeping she did, there was very little dust to sweep. “Oh, by the way, what’s this?” She held out her hand for her daughter to take the object inside.
Mecora finally entered her house, took the object and examined it carefully. It was round and had a hard shell, but it didn’t seem solid. She’d never seen anything like it. “I dunno, Mom,” she replied, putting it into her right pocket. “Where’d you find it?”
“On your pillow this morning.”
“Well, it’s not mine. Maybe I can ask someone what it is.”
“You’re sure Relie didn’t give it to you?”
“Mom! Did you have to bring her up again?!” Mecora sat at the table and brooded, while her mother shook her head and went back to sweeping the seemingly dustless floor.

That afternoon, the rumble of many wagons and more hooves and yet more feet grew in the forest. The whole town went to the railing of the platform to watch; some turned away almost immediately. To Mecora, it was a sorrowful sound, like the souls of the light Vle being beaten into the ground by their own feet as they walked. Their expressions were blank, not seeming to notice the thousand-odd pairs of eyes gazing at them. Mecora, too, wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. It was disrespectful, she felt, to watch and do nothing, but it also seemed wrong to look away in shame, as if out of sight was out of mind. No one laughed, no one spoke but for the children who wondered what was going on.
The line stretched on, and on. The crowd finally began to thin, and Mecora couldn’t stand to watch any longer, either. Suddenly, she couldn’t stand to be there, in town, not even in the forest, not even in her own burnably dark body. She had to run, and run she did. Not even aware she was going, she ran onto the rope bridge to the monastery tree. Up the stairs, to the platform—
“I’m sorry, Miss, but you’ll need an invitation from the abbot to come up here,” said a young monk.
She looked at him, not even having been aware that he was there. “O-oh,” she stammered, “I’m, I’m sorry, I- I didn’t even know...”
“I understand. Is there someone you have come to see?”
Was there? Well, perhaps there was. “Hyran. Can I come up to see him?”
“Well, I doubt you’ll be able to get him to get permission for you to come up. You see, he has disappeared.”
“Disappeared?! Did they take him too? What would they do that for? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either. I do know that he was defrocked.”
“Defrocked?” Mecora hadn’t ever heard the word before.
“Yes, he’s no longer a monk. And just this morning, we discovered that his cell was empty.”
“So, he left on his own.”
“We believe so.”
“But, he didn’t even come see me.” And then, she remembered the strange object in her pocket. Taking it out, she asked, “Do you know what this is?”
“It’s an eggnut,” the monk replied. “We give those to glowworms to keep them glowing.”
Glowworms... The ones Hyran had given her weren’t so bright anymore.... So, Hyran had visited! Suddenly things were okay again. “Do glowworms need them to live?”
“Well, not really... they can eat other things, but these seem to make them glow better than without. Why? Do you actually have a glowworm?”
“Three,” Mecora replied. “Thanks for your advice!” And she bounded back down the steps.
In fact, she bounded all the way home. However, her heart sank once she got there: Relie was about to knock on the door. “Relie.”
“Hi, Mecora. I came to apologize today. I should have realized you were still hurting. It was insensitive of me.”
By the Great Master, why did this annoying goody-two shoes have to come into her life? But the good feeling from Hyran’s gift overflowed. “No, Relie, I’m the one who should apologize. I really didn’t need to say those things. I was just... still hungover, I guess. I know that’s not much of an excuse, but it’s the best I’ve got.”
“So, do you want to still be friends? I don’t know if I can promise to stay out on the platform all night or not.”
“No, I think maybe it would be best if we didn’t try to be friends.”
“I think you’re right, Mecora. Still, it’s nice to have met you.”
“Yeah. I’m glad I met you, too.” Well, maybe that would be true some time later. But just not now.