Sarraya laughed, and Allia gave Tarrin a bright smile.

That turned out to be the only adventure that was in store for them that day. They camped before sunset and built a large fire, as they were moving into regions of the desert where Sandmen prowled, and Sarraya Conjured for them quite a feast. All four moons would rise early that night, and the White Moon and Red Moon both were all but full, which cast bright light down over the desert. The white and red light mingled with the sand and rock and scrub, casting strange shadows over the plain and giving the scrub an eerie blackish color.

"Strange night," Sarraya mused, looking out past the firelight. "Not often that Domammon and Vala are full and in the sky at the same time."

"Things are probably going to be a bit strange up there until Gods' Day," he told her, then explained what was going to happen.

"A conjunction, eh?" Sarraya said, looking up. "Now that you mention it, the moons have been tightening up in their tracks, and the Twin Moons have been hiding behind each other more than usual.

"Well, there are the missing ones," Allia noted, pointing to the northeast, where the Twin Moons were just starting to rise. They were in their waning phase, and Duva was partially hidden behind Kava.

"Domammon and Vala are going to wane and wax one more time before the conjunction," Tarrin noted. "The Twin moons are going to wax, wane, then wax again."

They both nodded in agreement. They both were familiar with the lunar cycles. Domammon and Vala had lunar cycles that were fairly close to one another; Vala's lunar cycle renewed itself every twenty days, two days shorter than Domammon's twenty-two. They matched phases about every fifteen months, as their cycles converged to give them the exact same phase on that one night. The Twin Moons' lunar cycle was only fourteen days long, for not only were they always very close to one another, their phases were also always exactly the same. Right now they were about half full and in the waxing phase of their cycle. They would come full, go new, then come full again in about two months. And their full phase would correspond with the full phases of Domammon and Vala. That did happen about every two years, called the Lantern Night for the amount of light the four full moons and the Skybands cast onto the land, but only once in about every thousand did the four moons line up in a conjunction.

There were other unsual nights. When Vala was full and alone in the sky, the red light over the land it cast gave that kind of night the name Blood Night, and it was basicly seen as an unlucky night by most. The Twin Moons often partially concealed one another, but sometimes one moon would be hidden completely behind the other. That was called Child's Night, named so because the hidden moon was said to be playing a child's game of hide and seek. And on some very rare occasions, one moon would pass behind another, and that gave them the order that most people associated with them. Domammon, the largest, was always behind the other three. Vala was in front of Domammon, but behind the Twin Moons. And the Twin Moons were always in front of the two larger ones, but traded often in which moon was in front of the other between themselves. The moons would eclipse one another, and certain eclipses were said to have certain meanings. When Vala eclipsed Domammon, it was supposedly a night for finding a husband or wife, and that was why it was called the Lovers' Clip, so named because a vast majority of the time, Vala only partially eclipsed Domammon, clipping its edge for a few hours. When Vala was eclipsed by the Twin Moons when they were both fully visible, it was said to be a night for embarking on new ideas. This was why it was called Denthar's Brood, named after the Younger god of knowledge. When only one of the Twin Moons eclipsed the edge of Domammon, it was called the Dagger Night, was it was rumored that such an eclipse incited men to acts of violence. In Aldreth, it was a custom for everyone to meet on the Green and tie all the men's hands behind their backs on Dagger Night, a social ceremony that the women always enjoyed, for it had evolved into a kind of festival of food, drink, music, and dancing. On that night the women supplanted all the normal tasks of the men, and after their hands were rebound in front of them, the men served all the food and did all the cleaning afterwards, and had to do it all with their hands bound together. Needless to say, the men of Aldreth were never too happy to see a Dagger Night come around.

In two months, those four moons were going to line up behind one another, and on that night, Tarrin would know that his task was over, and it was safe for him to finally go home. He couldn't wait.

"Do the Selani have any special names or customs when the moons eclipse one another?" Tarrin asked Allia curiously.

She smiled. "Not really," she replied. "But when all four moons are full, the Selani stay up all night and feast, and sing songs to the Holy Mother. We call it the Night of Passage. Our legends say that it was Fara'Nae's voice that led us to the desert, but she guided us home by causing the four moons to be full and form a line in the sky, lighting the way home, as the wind blew at our backs to push us in the right direction."

"Maybe it was a conjunction," Sarraya mused.

"The moons line up all the time," Tarrin shrugged. "At least in a straight line. I think if it was a conjunction, the legends would be pretty specific about how it looked. I think seeing all four moons lined up behind each other would be rather memorable."

"That must be why a Selani always walks with his back to the wind," Sarraya said.

"That, and it keeps the face from getting scoured by flying sand," Allia smiled. "We always turn our backs to the wind when we first feel it to honor the Holy Mother, a custom done in memory of how the Holy Mother guided us to her. After that, we can turn and face it as we please, but that's usually not very pleasant. Even with a veil and visor, the sand finds ways to scour off the skin, and it gathers under the veil and hood."

"Did I ever mention how glad I am that I don't live here?" Sarraya asked.

"Frequently," Tarrin drawled.

"Remind me to do it a few thousand more times," she grinned. "Fervently."

"You're about to annoy me, Sarraya," Allia told her. "I don't complain about your home."

"That's because my home is perfect," she said airily. "You can't complain about it, because everything is perfect."

"Everything here is perfect to me," she retorted.

"Well, I can't help it if you're all mixed up," Sarraya said flippantly.

"I can't help it if a small body houses a small brain," Allia said in an off-handed manner, only glancing at the Faerie. "It must be hard to go through life with such a limited ability to appreciate things."

"I am not dumb!" she snapped hotly. "And stop making fun of my height!"

"It's a pity, brother," Allia said to him casually. "She doesn't even have the awareness to know she sits in paradise. I guess it's true what they say about the size of a person's head. The larger the head, the smarter the mind."

" Well!" Sarraya huffed, flitting up into the air. "I'm going to bed. Good night!" she added in a vociferious manner, then buzzed angrily into one of the three tents arrayed around the large fire.

They watched her fly off, and Sarraya got an earful of their laughter to follow her into her tent.

"That was well played, sister," Tarrin said with an appreicative smile. "Var and Denai used to drive her crazy like that too."

"I really want to meet your Var and Denai," she told him, looking out into the plain after a very faint noise ghosted to them, too faint to be made out.

"They were quite a pair," Tarrin chuckled warmly. "Var was serious and sober, but Denai was very young and very impulsive, and not a little reckless. They turned everything into a competition, and when they weren't competing, they were usually fighting. I miss them sometimes. They never made a campsite dull, that's for sure."