All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 193: Cause for Celebration

I followed Tony into the small room off to the side of the hallway, though I couldn't help but wonder what he wanted. This dark closet was a bit ominous. If I didn't know better, I might've been afraid.

Shutting the door, he stopped and turned around to face me with a slight bow. "So Lord Void… You know how Bee is always saying she's 'almost fourteen'?"

Yeah, I did recall that coming up a few times; in fact, it had been going on for long enough that I wasn't sure if she was even telling the truth. I told Tony as much. He grinned and continued his explanation. "Well, 'almost' is almost here. Next week is her birthday!"

Huh? I wasn't sure if I could believe it.

"Yeah, I know right? They grow up so fast." For some reason, Tony pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye. Why was he sad? Or pretending to be sad? From my observations, birthdays were normally a cause for celebration.

Did this have something to do with humor? I was pretty sure it did, but it didn't make sense. It seemed kinda mean spirited if he was pretending to be sad about her celebration. Or was it because he was sad that she was one year closer to death? Maybe that was the custom here.

Tony ceased his antics and looked back at me. "I was thinking that maybe we should throw her a party. Everyone is settling in right now, and in a week it would be good to have a celebration to lighten the mood and bring everyone together more. Besides, I think everyone here owes her a lot, so it's the least we could do. I want to make it a banger."

I wasn't sure what a banger was, but I agreed that Beatrice deserved a party. So how did he want me to help? At my acceptance, Tony grinned and rubbed his hands together. "I'm so glad you asked…."

***

Sitting on top of the stone lab table, I couldn't help but admire how clean Maranda had kept her workstation all this time. Watching her work, it made sense, though. With the precision required as she weighed and measured each ingredient, any small amount of grime could throw off the results by an unacceptable amount.

"So this should be a good test for the red one," Maranda said, indicating the vial that she had placed at the end of the row of clear liquids. I ran through each of them, ensuring I knew what each would do. On the right, there were five different sizes for testing the concoctions' strength, and then after, there were several smaller vials that would test the colors.

According to Maranda, they should explode colorfully when thrown to the ground. The only issue was that she had no real idea how large of an explosion they would make. Apparently, these hadn't come from any of the books that Beatrice liked so much, and she had just made them up herself based on a show her family had seen in the city at some point. Understandably, she didn't want to make a mess in the castle and asked me to test them somewhere safe, where they wouldn't bother anyone.

I hesitantly agreed. Though I was all for preventing messes, I wasn't sure if I was the best tester. I could record quite detailed data, of course, but I might not be a great judge of how well something would serve as a decoration based on an explosion's size.

Throughout the castle, preparations for the party were in full swing. I was honestly amazed at how quickly Tony had gotten everyone mobilized. The only issue that people were struggling with was keeping Beatrice from noticing. So far, most of the castle's participants were fully on board. Kids and soldiers were gathering berries on the outskirts of the forests for desserts. Trent was working with some of the craftsmen to get a bunch of tables and benches ready.

Even Susan was fully engaged. So far, she had been in charge of setting up the events. She wasn't working on it alone. It seemed that Captain Major and her had developed a bit of a rivalry and were trying to one-up each other. There were already multiple tournaments planned, mostly dealing with martial combat. Despite the Nighty Knights' objections, they were divided into classes by age: under 10 and over 10.

It mostly fell to Tony to keep Beatrice distracted. We brainstormed several ideas for how to go about this. Unfortunately, we weren't able to think of a good reason to get her out of the castle and visit Greg or otherwise travel. Not any reason that would also have her back in time for the party, anyway.

These events had given Tony some ideas, though. That's why, for the next week, he would be getting some intense one-on-one training with Beatrice in the art of the broom. After his first day, he started to regret his decision, but I promised him a broom like Beatrice's if he managed to finish it out. That lit a fire under him. Apparently, he wanted to put his Paladin of Spot class to real use, whatever that meant.

There were also plenty of other things going on that I didn't fully understand. Races involving wheelbarrows and sacks, extra steep ramps, and more. I hadn't figured them out yet, but everyone seemed excited.

My part was relatively simple. Well, to start with. First, I had just been supervising, then I was put in charge of providing prizes. Last I checked, there were 14 different events that all needed prizes for first, second, and third place.

The testing of the active decorations had put a little more strain on my scheduling algorithms, but I found it had been worth it. Especially considering the potential for messes to be made. Scooping up all the vials, I waved goodbye to Miranda and left the laboratory. I wanted to just zip away and test the things as soon as possible so she could iterate on them if there was any issue. I had a good idea of where I would be able to do my testing without bothering anyone.

The mountain range to the north didn't really have anything behind it. Just vast fields of ice and snow. If the snow got a little disordered, it would either melt or be smoothed over by the wind, so I didn't feel bad about tarnishing it temporarily. A few flashes of light and sound shouldn't be a big deal here, either.

Leaving the castle proved to be more difficult than expected, though. I couldn't move around freely during the daytime anymore. Too many people stopped and bowed to me, and I felt rude just brushing them off. So I'd always either have a quick chat with them, which was usually rather one-sided and slightly awkward, or give them a wave and move on. But with everyone hustling and bustling to get the party ready for Beatrice, I had many people stop and ask me questions.

It seemed everyone wanted to know my preferences. One of the young women, Cassy, asked if I preferred apple or cherry pie, and then I had to figure out what she meant by that. Given my lack of taste buds, I couldn't really give an accurate preference. But I did like the red cherries slightly more. So I went with that.

Heading outside, I was further waylaid by many of the Nighty Knights asking for help with last-minute training for the tournament. A few of the more brash ones were still trying to convince the adults to let them join in the over-10 bracket. I declined to help them fight against the adults, but I did grant them one pointer each.

So I had to wait for 42 of the now 54 kids to each show me their most impressive move. Then I gave them small tips on how to place their feet better or grip the sword so they wouldn't hurt their wrists when they were impacted.

This was relatively minor and could have taken a lot longer, but it still ate up time, even if I went quickly. Though I didn't mind at all. In my opinion, giving these children something to do was the best part about this whole castle. Besides keeping it clean, obviously.

I managed to dodge Bee and Tony's spar that, at this point, had been going on for over a day. That left me to zip up and over the wall without anyone else stopping me. I felt a little bad leaving them to their own devices, but I helped as I could. Besides, I had scheduled to keep, especially if I wanted to figure out how to make so many prizes.

Taking to the air. I started the long trek over to the mountain. The distance was a bit deceiving as I struggled to conceptualize this mountain's size. I knew I'd already flown around it once, but it was still impressive, especially the way the angles managed to be so steep. I had no idea how snow managed to cling to such an angled rock. Maybe I would find that out soon enough.

Aiming for one of the passes, I kept low, skimming over the smooth snow. In the past, I couldn't help but marvel at the vast horizon stretching out before me. Far into the distance, heaped white mounds of snow and nothing else. Looking back to where I had come, everything further south of me was only sporadically dusted in snow. There were patches here and there, but for the most part, it was a green forest mixed in with brownfields. Rocky outcroppings, like the mountains, appeared to act as a barrier to the weather.

As I made it over to the other side of the mountain, I figured I was far enough away that people wouldn't be disturbed by my experimenting. Not wanting to wait much longer. I zipped up the mountain a little bit so I could have a better vantage point of what would happen and pulled out the largest vial. I planned to go through the sequence that Miranda had shown me in order, ejecting each from my dustbin.

I immediately tossed the first vial into the side of the mountain, about three-quarters of the way up. As I watched it arc into the massive amount of snow, I wondered why I saw bluish-purple sparks flitting all over it. Those hadn't been there when Miranda had given it to me. Could something have changed?

The vial landed just below the large cave entrance that I had noted on my last trip. Oh, that reminded me. I had meant to explore that before this whole party business. Perhaps I could do that after-

I was cut off mid-thought by a deep wumph sound. The vial shattered, erupting into a gout of snow at least 50 feet tall, spraying high into the air.

With a rumble, I noticed that the ice was beginning to shift. It started at the top, bits slowly tumbling down the mountain, but each piece that was knocked loose rolled down the hill a little bit further and knocked more loose. This continued in a chain reaction.

I was filled with nothing but relief that I had decided to stay up so high. I watched the mountainside slowly lose all the snow sticking to it. The mass of the snow was difficult to estimate as it rushed down the mountain, an ever-growing tide of destruction as it slammed into the base.

It continued on relentlessly, rolling out over the vast plains of snow for what must have been miles. Well, that was one test down. That vial might be a little bit too powerful for decoration. Also, there wasn't much color to it. I supposed that Maranda may have just made these emit white light, though. It wasn't one of the colored vials, after all.

I considered whether to make my way down the size scale or try the smallest next. But before I could take out the next one and test it, a massive column of smoke billowed out of the cave entrance. I heard a deep rumbling completely separate from the mass of roiling snow down below.

/// first Void only chapter in a long time. Single POV too!

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