“So, how were your winter celebrations?” Dalosisaar asked as everyone sat themselves down for the Twelve Anew report meeting.
“I think I am still hung over…” Maresia muttered as she rubbed her head. “Too much to drink. Turns out, being deified doesn’t stop you from getting drunk, just makes you capable of drinking more.”
Valkisa nodded in agreement. “Yes, you can still get drunk. But I always counter my drinking with plenty of water. It settles down the hangovers, which are caused by one being dehydrated and the liver, or similar organ, working overtime to get rid of the alcohol.”
“Merryus is always a good excuse to get plastered though!” Aesop added. “Unlike most Torr, I don’t instinctively hate my in-laws, we always spend Merryus at my mother-in-law’s fancy mansion.”
“You have a wife?” Maresia suddenly blurted.
“Um, no. My sister is married to a large, rich family with a good taste in brandy and tobacco.”
“Ah… Sounds fun though. Since my village is all… kinda dead, I went to the nearest big city and joined in the street parties there!” Maresia smiled. “Did you all celebrate… whatever it is you all celebrate?”
Elkay shrugged. “It was mostly the same for me. Veeyel invited me round like he does every year. It was just weird me calling him All-Ksa and not the other way around.”
Kohra didn’t seem nearly as pleased. “Eh, this was the first Day of Thanks I’ve spent on my own. Definitely wasn’t going to spend it with my asshole father, and Levik is doing his own thing now and I didn’t want to intrude, so I just sat at home with several tubs of ice cream and played video games.”
“Honestly, sounds quite nice?” Syksis smiled. “I didn’t do much either. Us Ksithans prefer the end of year celebrations, we just do something small on the 24th.”
“We had our Ifort Olagem, our Massive Food again!” Murum’Va beamed. “Many ataerk. Many meats! All cooked in the fire pit. Was very nice.” Murum’Va turned to Litvir, who seemed a little sleepy. “Oh, you had your first sepokiad! How was it?”
“My… first… what?”
“Holiday. You are a Sorofsof, you celebrate Macromera, yes?”
“Oh!” Litvir suddenly became very animated. “I had a very nice time! Kyr Rethais and Kyr Relkir invited me to join them in the big mansion and we had lots of food and Kyr Relkir gave me a book! Very good book, I have read it twice already. Kyr Relkir is right to want me to be involved so I feel like an actual Rethan and not a colossal mistake unwittingly given life!”
“So you’ve made friends with the little High Advisor?” Aesop asked. “What do you think of her?”
“They!” Litvir snarled.
“She is-”
“THEY.”
Dalosisaar stepped in quickly. “Aesop, I know you and your entire government seem to have an undying hatred of the Rethan leadership, but that does NOT mean you can misgender someone. Unless they state otherwise, Rethans are ungendered.”
Aesop rolled his eyes. “Fine. Sorry for insulting your friend, Litvir.”
“Apology accepted!” Litvir settled back down. “Anyway! Friend Nanik, you had holidays too, yes?”
“No?” Nanik blinked. “Am Vohra. We have no fun times that are on certain days.”
“Nanik is joining me later today!” Akusasiiri smiled. “Vohra don’t really have holidays, so I’ve invited Nanik to accompany me to our Festival of Renewal tomorrow. We’ll do some singing and dancing and then have some sweet treats, it will be nice, and Nanik can see all the pretty lights and the fireworks.”
Aster grunted, nowhere near as happy as everyone else. “There’s no Year’s End Blessing this year. We lost two Imperators, we’re mourning for sixteen weeks.”
“Why… sixteen weeks?” Dalosisaar asked. “That sounds like a rather arbitrary number.”
“There are eight Imperators, two of whom died. Would have been seven weeks, but the Perpetual Abyss are being included now, so it’s eight weeks each. All holidays are cancelled and we’re all wearing ribbons until the mourning period ends.”
“So… no joy at all?” Nanik gasped. “All sadness? That is bad!”
“It’s tradition. We’ll do something after the mourning period. But Perpetual Abyssians like me don’t really do holidays anyway, apart from the Year’s End Blessing, so I’ll get over it eventually.”
“Mister Aster! Come with me and Missy Akusasiiri tomorrow!” Nanik bounced in her seat. “Otherwise you never have time off!”
“I will do some sort of celebration when mourning time is over. It’s fine.”
“It not fine! Mister Aster needs holiday too!” Nanik bounced around. “Mister Aster, come with me and Akusasiiri! It will be fun!”
Litvir raised their hand. “Can I come too, please?”
“Heck, let’s all go!” Kohra beamed. “Like Nanik said, it might be fun!”
Dalosisaar crossed his arms in annoyance. Well, he tried to, but it was a tad tricky since he had draconic wings. “We are gods, we have duties.”
“Oh fuck off, dragonboy, we all know you spent the 23rd having a massive booze up on a mountain!” Aesop tutted. “You literally started this meeting asking about our holidays.”
“Actually, Kohra has a good point,” Elkay interrupted. “We’re deities, yes, but we’re also gods of the common people. We ought to spend some time, in public, with the public. To be with them. To remind them that we are all equal. And I think this party thing the Athrens are doing is a good opportunity to just get out there.”
“Why are we having this meeting anyway?” Kohra asked. “Nothing’s going on, we’re all nearly done with rebuilding in major areas, and Valksia’s water purification project and Elkay’s library project are both full steam ahead.”
“I just want to make sure we don’t have any problems, and we need to keep each other close. Plus, this is an opportunity to air out problems and grievances if we have any. I’ll be blunt though, I don’t fancy going to a large street party. I’m a big, clumsy dragon.”
“That’s not a problem, deary!” Akusasiiri beamed. “All are welcome!”
“Still…” Dalosisaar sighed. “It’s not really my sort of thing. But I suppose, if some of you want to go, I don’t see why not. It would be a good promotional thing, I guess.”
“And it is fun!” Nanik giggled. “Fun is good!”
Aster shrugged, somewhat convinced. “I guess I’ll tag along then. I could do with more exposure to other cultures anyway.”
Akusasiiri clapped her hands together with glee. “Wonderful! Those of you who want to come, meet me here tomorrow and I shall take you all with me!” Suddenly, the beautiful Athren paused. “I’m sorry, Dalosisaar, you wanted to discuss important things.”
“It is fine. I just wanted to make sure everyone was alright and looking after themselves.”
“Fair enough!” Elkay shrugged. “I think we are all doing pretty well. Even Litvir, somehow.”
“You have little faith in me.”
“Only because you’re a month old and trying to both study and work full time.”
“True, I cannot argue against that… Still, I am excited for this… thing tomorrow!” Litvir smiled.
Akusasiiri nodded. “You will all have a wonderful time, I promise!”