Inyanga's Star and Other Constellations

Part II: Mist's Star

Word Meanings

Mi tesoro: my treasure, Spanish, Italian)

Baobao: baby in Chinese 宝宝 

Mist's Star Part II

Office life remained a drudge. Mist disliked her coworkers. She tortured them because their misery made her feel better.

Mist had one friend she told about her little pranks. Song's first question was, "Does tanking one person's chance of getting a promotion and having a starborn help you in any way?"

"I don't care about that," said Mist. She had just been so miserable. Watching Nyuki run around in a panic made her feel a fraction of a percent better.

The days were plain flat and gloomy, and Song had been getting concerned. The only coworker who Mist cared that she cared, Song dragged her to the launch of a hip new recreational mood spell shop.

Like that would help anything.

"Can't believe the lineups at these places," said Mist. They were lined up around the block from Soul Moods on Aquarius Street. "Can't believe I let you talk me into going to a mood spell reseller store. I invented the 'Lil Lift, not to mention the Purple Placidity and the Gentle Waking Snooze." Each ad she could see posted on the red brick wall inflamed her rage. "Constellation couldn't have gotten the Blue Moon Mood through to production without me. It wasn't passing safety protocols. And the Big Buzz was technically my idea in the first place. Not one of these, I'll add, has ever worked on me, and we have a direct supply at the office. So why am I here?"

She could still recall the first time one reversed on her. A spell she had developed herself, and she knew there shouldn't have been anything wrong with the spell.

She triggered what Doctor Azikaze labeled a six week minor depressive episode. It wasn't the spell that was wrong, it was her. Basically quitting her job and her life, she didn't get out of her room for weeks. A lair of blankets and blackout blinds she left only to force feed herself a meal and go to the bathroom, and she thought it was all over, no future for her.

Song leaned against red brick where they had been stopped for minutes because the line wasn't moving. "You have to try everything. Maybe we can isolate the problem. Maybe the direct source is what's interfering with your reuptake."

When their turn came at the front of the line, Song and Mist put their hands out for a pill — but, afraid of a potential episode trigger, Mist just hid hers under her tongue until she had a moment to spit it out. Waste of a thousand solidae. As Song had a nice trip, Mist only pretended. "I can't believe this, I feel so much better. It's amazing. I'll never need to feel blue again." Inside a voice mocked hers, what a chipper fake. Such a phony. You sound so stupid. What a shrill, annoying, way too upbeat . . . "Aaaaargh," Mist grumbled, trying to out shout the mean voice.

"Are you okay?" said Storm.

Maybe the residue of the partially dissolved pill had been enough to trigger an episode. Mist gulped and heaved. "I always feel awful when I take these."

"You've never done it in pill form, have you?" asked Song, who was cursed with optimism, spelled to be idealistic.

Mist shook her head. "Same damn thing. Nothing matters. Nothing's going to fix it." As the hours went by Song danced on top of the world, walked on sunshine, forgot all her troubles and brought joy to the barrio around her while Mist suffered and kind of wanted to murder her one friend.

So Asakaze's spell didn't work, and this hadn't either.

#

Song's lover Bay came to the office for lunch twice a week. Relationship goals. What couple wanted to be around each other that much?