Novalis, the Genius Magineer

Dusk Etherea and I arrived in Starville five minutes early. We spent a few minutes getting used to being on the ground once more, marveling at the small town. Dusk had Fangsly in her arms, allowing him to wake up without pushing him to walk too much. Their relationship seemed to be a sibling bond, with her being the older sister. Cute. The buildings were small, quaint structures with gingerbread trim.

A large building near the town center seemed to be made of cakes and pastries, with a sign proclaiming Sugar and Spice Corner. We passed by a building that resembled a small castle, elegant and whimsical in its construction. This building seemed to also be a business, as it had a sign calling itself Carousel Boutique. The last major building that caught our eye was a building built right into an immense tree. No, that wasn't quite right. It would be more accurate to say the tree was the building. This building caught Dusk's eyes immediately, for the sign hanging over its door simply said Library. I had to clap my hands together in front of her face to get her attention back to our task.

Blinking her eyes back into focus, she pulled a large checklist from her largest bookbag. Impressive, I think this girl is even more prepared than myself. After looking over her list carefully, she proclaimed it to be too much work if we stuck together. Pulling a quill and inkbottle from her bag along with a large piece of parchment, she began to copy part of her list, perusing it twice before giving me the new list. Looking down at it, I was surprised to see she had copied a comprehensive map of Starville, along with enchanting it with markers that moved, showing where I could find some folks. Underneath this magical map, she had given me each person's duties, so that I could quickly and efficiently check their work. I thanked her for her efforts before packing the map into my suitcase.

Before parting our ways, however, a bubblegum pink haired human woman bumped into us. After picking herself off the ground, she looked at each of us, stopping when she saw my eyes. She let out a loud gasp, and faster than my brain could register she had dashed away. Great, not even thirty minutes in town and my strange eyes had sent someone running for the hills. How rude. Dusk looked at her list and in the direction the woman had run off, shrugged, and told me to get started. I nodded, drily commenting that I hoped my eyes didn't have that effect on the people I was to meet. She assured me that I would be fine, perhaps that human was the town loony.

So, here I was, making my way to my first charge. Dusk was handling the ceremony's music, and tasked me with talking to the party DJ who would be in charge of the after hours music. I walked up to the entrance of her home, a large light blue building with magenta trim. I knocked on the door, my trepidation building as I imagined her opening the door, seeing me, and slamming it in my face. What happened was quite surprising. The door was opened by a white Celestial girl with a shock of electric blue mane, wearing sunglasses. She took one look at me, appraising me, before she reached my eyes. A large grin broke out on her face before she enthusiastically grabbed my hand and started pumping it up and down.

"You have got to be the most radical customer I've ever seen! Those eyes are seriously sweet man, are they natural?"

"Umm, yes, Miss DJ, they are indeed natural. Well, I mean, they're the result of a spell I cast, but they are permanently a part of me now."

"Oh geez, lighten up man, you're not at Octavia's place now. I'm Avec Cappricio, stage name DJ Pon-3, that 'ee' is a three. I'm quite fond of horses you see, when I'm not making my music. Welcome to my home, I do all sorts of parties, although I am booked for tomorrow night."

"Actually, that's the reason I'm here, Miss Cappricio. I-"

"Hey buster! I just told you you're not at a fancy pants Soluna home here, now drop the Miss!"

"Err... Fine. I'm here about tomorrow night. I have come on the Dark Princess' orders to oversee preparations for the Summer Sun Festival. I am merely here to check your progress."

"Oh, why didn't ya say so earlier. Come in, come in, I have been working on this sample all day, you can be the first to tell me how it sounds."

I followed her into her home, noticing immediately the abundance of electronic gear she had hooked up. Everywhere I looked there was something new. DJ booths with different discs set up, lights of all shapes, sizes, and colors on her ceiling, various handheld lights and even sparkling outfits with miniature lights set right into the fabric. I also saw large collections of vinyl discs for scratch recording. Impressive, but slightly strange. The only music I'd ever heard before was the sing-alongs at my dad's workplace and the various classical pieces that could be heard during parties in Soluna.

She led me into one of the rooms that would normally be used as a bedroom, where the centerpiece was a large booth with at least seven discs being set up. Heh, having magic was useful, I doubt a human with little to no magic could achieve this impressive machine. She motioned for me to take a seat on a cushion she placed on the floor as she walked up and behind the booth. Once she had taken her place behind the podium, she looked me in the eyes before she gave a loud whoop and began to play her song.

It was loud, it was fast, it was... unexpected. The piece wasn't as overly uncouth or unsophisticated as I had expected. Sure, it wasn't slow and melodious like gala music in Selene Castle, but it did seem to suit the Bright Celestial. When she finished, I clapped my hands together, telling her that I liked it. But... some changes would need to be made. Some of the song seemed unnecessary, and some was just strange. I pointed out my opinions to her, and she actually agreed with me. After reworking the song a couple times, changing it up and rearranging, we both were quite pleased with the result.

After perfecting the song, she offered me something to drink. I politely declined, although my unintentional slip up and calling her Miss again made her threaten to bludgeon me if I didn't take the drink. I decided for my health and future prospects at children to take the drink. As we were sipping on her wonderfully sweetened homemade lemonade, the conversation ended up including my eyes. She asked me if I had been bullied over them in the past. I told her I had, and she seemed to get angry. She started raving about the fact that it wasn't our choice to be born with different eyes, that we weren't monsters just because we were different. I laughed to get her to calm down a bit, reminding her that my eyes weren't exactly natural. When I questioned her on her use of 'we', she slowly took off her sunglasses. She stood in front of me with her eyes closed, trembling slightly as she slowly opened them, revealing a pair of beautiful crimson eyes. After a few moments of staring, she laughed nervously and told me I had broken the record for not running away screaming about vampires.

I told her that anyone screaming about vampires could go push a boulder up a hill, and that got her back to her normal self. She pounded me on the back and proclaimed us to be great friends. Oh... crap...

Dusk Etherea's POV:

After sending Novalis to take care of the events that would be happening during the nighttime parts of the party, I set about finding the coordinators of the daytime events. I figured this made the most sense considering each of our patrons, and it would make quick work of the activities we each had to deal with as well.

The first person on my list was a young Celestial woman in charge of weather. Her name was Tempest Aerosia. A prodigy in Starville, she had rumors whispered of her talents all the way in Soluna. She was known to be sort of lazy though, and so it was no surprise when I found her sleeping in the sky at the location where her name was on my map. Sending a magical signal up to the sky, I blared a wakeup call to her, causing her to fall off her cloud and plummet to the ground, but I caught her with a net spell before she went too far. Upon bringing her to stand before me, I noticed she was fuming slightly.

"Hey, what's the big idea, lady? You could have given me a heart attack!"

"Well, seeing as you weren't doing your assigned duties, I figured a bit of a push was needed. This sky needs to be ready for our Queen's arrival tomorrow, and I don't want anyone slacking off."

"So you decide to give me a lesson in sky diving?!"

"I caught you, did I not. Now would you kindly get to clearing the sky? I don't want a single stormy cloud in the sky to detract from my Lady's rising of the Sun tomorrow. There should only be fluffy white accents."

"Sheesh. I can do that easily, and it doesn't take long enough for you to be panicking right now."

With those words, I watched as this woman before me channeled sorcery from her fingers into the sky above, causing all of the rainy clouds in the sky to converge overhead. I did not, however, notice her mischievous smirk as she glanced over at me, and so I was surprised greatly once she dumped all the rain directly onto me. Soaked to the bone in a matter of seconds, I glared at her, whilst she just laughed at me. After the rain had been drained from the clouds, she began to shift them around in the sky, leaving a portrait circle surrounded by fluffy white clouds for the sun to sit within.

"See? Easy. I could have done that ten minutes before normal sunrise to the same effect. I'm very good at moving clouds and storms wherever they are needed around here. I'm a bit of a weather mage prodigy, after all."

"Yes," I said, wringing my clothes out and wiping down Fangsly who had unfortunately been a casualty in her prank. "I can see that I had nothing to worry about. I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing, while I go find some dry clothes."

I was glad I wasn't wearing white. Nothing would be worse than coming across some guy while my clothes were see through from that unexpected shower. Looking down at my map, I noticed I was close to a clothing store, the Carousel Boutique. Perhaps I could check in with the human in charge of decorations there, Fantasia Fashio. Perhaps she had some clothes I could buy.

Upon arriving at the clothing store and entering inside, I found a creamy skinned woman moving different fabrics around on a table, comparing colors and materials against a large blueprint she had stapled to a board. She was comparing two different shades of red in her hands, consulting a large picture of last year's sunrise to find the perfect shade. She also had various gemstones laid out, presumedly as sequins to use in the Queen's dress order she sent ahead. Oh no... I had a baby dragon on my back...

Fangsly was looking around the store, but when his eyes caught the many gems laid out, his reptilian eyes slitted narrowly, focused on the vice of all dragons... Greed. I quickly sent a powerful sleeping spell into him, barely managing to knock him unconscious before he leapt from his bag to steal every gem in the store.