“Stop using baby talk!” He didn’t stop confusing the miao in Peasprout with the niao in Peabird until he was five, and he reverts to my childhood nickname when I’m scolding him. “Never let anyone hear you calling me that.”
“I won’t, Peab—sprout.”
As grateful as I am that Cricket didn’t finish last, I can feel that his Chi is agitated and remind him to be calm at the Osmanthus Banquet. These appearances in front of other students are also performances.
* * *
When we skate into Eastern Heaven Dining Hall, Suki catches my eye. She motions me over to her table with a silly little flap of the hand that Pearlians must consider cute. Cricket and I skate to her.
She’s wearing a white bandage around her head. We’re not wearing our smoked spectacles because it’s nighttime. She has a perforated metal patch cupping one of her eyes. I don’t remember her being injured during the Motivation. All the other girls sitting around her are similarly adorned, with bandages, slings, and eye patches. One girl has even patted black and blue kohl powder around one eye.
Fashion. They’re doing this as some ludicrous sort of fashion.
Suki says, “A glorious victory today.” She smiles as if she’s about to take something away from me. “You were lucky.”
Here it is. I’ve made an enemy. Without even trying. Well, that’s nothing new to me. You don’t get to be the Peony-Level Brightstar without making some enemies.
She looks hard at me. I stare right back into her big brown eye. She laughs. “Calm down. I value lucky friends.”
Lucky! It wasn’t luck. She’s lucky the Motivation didn’t require her to fight me.
“Come sit.” She flaps her hand at an empty chair beside her. I sit, and Cricket takes the seat next to mine.
“You can’t sit there,” says Suki to Cricket. She points to a stone tied with a cord that has been set on the chair. “They’re ceremonial seats. Families buy them for their unborn children or children who have died.” All the sacrifices Cricket and I endured to get here, and Pearlians can afford to buy places at the academy for children who don’t even exist.
Cricket takes a different seat a few spaces down. I hope he won’t embarrass us, so far away from where I can guide the conversation.
“We haven’t formally met. I am called familial name Gang, personal name Suki,” she says. “Although you may call me Your Grace, Radiant Goddess Princess Suki. I am Princess of the House of Flowering Blossoms.”
“I am called familial name Chen, personal name Peasprout.”
“Ah, kawai!” she cries, and all the other girls also squeak “Kawai!” Why does everyone here love using Edaian words so much?
“And that’s my little brother, called familial name Chen, personal name Cricket.”
“Disciple Peasprout, Disciple Cricket, welcome to Pearl Famous.” Who is she to be welcoming me to the academy? She’s a first-year, too. “Allow me to introduce you to my court. This is my first lady-in-waiting, Disciple Chiriko; my second lady-in-waiting, Disciple Etsuko; my first lieutenant, Disciple Noriko; my second lieutenant, Disciple Mitsuko; my first fan-bearer, Disciple Mariko; and the newest member of my court, my second fan-bearer, Disciple Yukiko. I had another second fan-bearer, but we no longer speak her name. I learned that last Glimmer Season, at the Immortal Ruby Tea Society Thousand Octopus Lantern-Viewing Party, she wore vermillion out of season. She could have destroyed me.”
Why do they all have these ridiculous Edaian names? Pearl is part of Shin, and Shin and Eda were enemies. How is this not open treason?
“How do you all already know each other?” I ask. The girls look to Suki. Her face hardens. “Did you go to another school together?” No one answers. “Was that what you and Niu Doi were talking about? Pearl Colony for Rehabilitation of Unwanted Girls, or something like that?”
Suki scowls, then smiles sweetly. “I really liked your wu liu style. Especially the ending flourishes you added on to every single little move. Like what people used to do in our grandparents’ generation. So quaint. The only thing missing was a pink peony tucked behind your ear.” The girls all cover their teeth with their hands and giggle. What are they laughing at? The Imperial Anthology of Wu Liu Style, Fancy, and Faddish Whimsy says that ending flourishes and wearing pink peonies behind the ear are the latest fashion in wu liu. What do these girls know about style? They’re wearing bandages and eye patches.
The great doors to Eastern Heaven Dining Hall are closed, and the windows facing out to the sea are opened. Mists from the waterspouts stream in. They’re lovely in the lantern light.
Supreme Sensei Master Jio takes the dais, smiles, and laughs. “Ahihahaha! And now…” And then he starts intoning something with so much vocal modulation that I can’t understand any word except for tsunami, which I think is the Edaian word for tidal wave, and delicacies. There are gasps of delight from all around. I hope Cricket doesn’t ask what was announced.
The lines of serving girls come skating out in brown uniforms. I stiffen as I see that they’re all Shinian. No one else here in Pearl wears twin pigtail braids. Except for me. Suki is going to say that I look like the servants. I wish I could unbraid my braids right now. They bring out the first course of the Osmanthus Banquet. I hope the Shinian girls don’t recognize me and try to talk to me in front of Suki.
I have two things to say about this banquet. Number one is that people reveal more about their culture through their food than through anything else. Number two is that I’m grateful that academy tradition holds that we each attend this banquet only once a year, because I don’t know if I could survive more than one Osmanthus Banquet a year.
Course Number One: “The Obscuring Mask of Lady Hu.” These aren’t too bad. The problem is that you’re served a dish that looks like a crisp apple varnished with
