Cynth Leeyung.

It took Will a moment to place the name; her nerves were still somewhat shot from when the girl — Cynth — had caught her snooping. But, Leeyung. That was the name of the family hosting the gala, wasn't it? The one that lived in this moons-damned mansion?

Moons above, Will had fooled a rich, probably somewhat important human girl! She'd been invited onto Cynth's quest, for tides' sake! She wasn't really sure whether she actually qualified as a member of the Voc, but she'd clearly undercovered some sort of anti-hibri scheme (hence the defenestration threat), and this opportunity was too good to pass up. Will ignored the nagging voice in the back of her brain that reminded her she didn't actually have a way to get in touch with the Voc or a plan for stopping Cynth from doing damage. This human somehow, improbably, trusted her! She'd figure the rest out later.

There was a burst of laughter from somewhere across the light-speckled room, and Will felt a sudden, abrupt rush of pride sizzle inside of her. She had gotten herself invited on some delusional human's moon-damned journey! She'd uncovered a plot! So much for being a bad spy, she thought with some satisfaction. Lusan had been wrong about her. She was a great spy.

Behind her, Will could feel a crowd forming. Not wanting to get stuck amidst a bunch of insipid humans, she took a step forward.

Or, attempted to take a step forward. Really, she tripped, pretentiously long shoe heel sticking to the bottom of her unbearably frilly pink dress. Six tides, why did this keep happening?

It happened as if in slow motion: Will could see her dress ballooning as she toppled forwards, stretching as though to greet her. When she finally landed, it was with an unceremonious mouthful of absurdly stretchy pink fabric, a clatter, and a thump.

Just when she was actually feeling good about herself, Will thought sourly, bemoaning this severely unfortunate occurrence.

She braced herself to stand up. In stupid stories her bland, mindless former hibri peers would tell, someone would be standing here to help her up, and they'd proceed to get married, move to a hut at the edge of the swamp, and bear one another's babies, because it was fate. But Will had already fallen, and the only person she'd met then was moons-damned Lusan. If she glanced upwards now what sight was going to greet her? Another try-hard human wannabe? Or — worse — an actual, genuine human?

When Will finally brought herself looked up, the first things she saw were what appeared to be endless rows of golden-liquid filled bottles. Human liquor.

Maybe this was fate, after all.

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As it turned out, the entire ballroom had multiple secret, floor-level conveyor belts snaking through it, carrying various snacks and, to Will's immense excitement, drinks. She was pretty sure they were there so the trays she had noticed before would be automatically restocked, but sabotaging the humans' fancy system was the least of her concerns. In fact, it just happened to be another perk.

Will had drunk before, but only putrid, cheap rana beer that had had no kick to it and tasted like mud. (It probably was made of mud; there was far too much mud in Will's old village.) She wasn't completely certain what these drinks were, but they definitely weren't mud-beer. Will knew this from having tried several.

She was only coming to the conclusion now that this maybe wasn't the best place to have this sort of an experience. Unfortunately, it was a little bit too late — as she'd realized earlier, the human liquor was notably stronger than the mud-beer from her past.

In other words, she was rather regrettably intoxicated.

Also, she was wearing moons-damned high heels.

This could not end well.

"Excuse me!" Will shouted indignantly, turning to face a sudden flock of people headed once again in her direction. (What was it with people and walking these days?)

A decidedly human, decidedly unamused woman with glossy black hair shot her a look so venomous she nearly keeled over. "Excuse you indeed," she snapped, voice cold.

SIX TIDES SHE'S SCARY.

"S-sorry! Nevermind! Forget I said anything!" Will began desperately to back away, both from the human woman and the sudden terror that had seized her. For moons' sake, what was she doing here? This place was chock-full of people who despised her and everything she stood for! She needed to get away before she made an irreversibly bad decision.

Cynth's empty silver eyes flashed through her mind. Too late.

Panic squeezed her heart, and the other gala guests turned in a flash from vague annoyances to prison guards. Executioners.

Oh moons oh moons oh moons SHE NEEDED TO GET OUT OF HERE.

Whirling around, Will attempted to run from the room. She only made it a few steps before she was lying once again on the floor. Moons-damned high heels.

Trapped in a room of humans what had she done what had she DONE?

Dimly, Will became aware of her own voice screaming. "Get out of my way, you moons-damned tide bringers!" Desperately, she began clawing at people's ankles, roughly pushing them out of her way. She could hear the faint buzzing of voices, but ignored it. SHE NEEDED TO GET OUT OF HERE.

Something Lusan had said earlier flickered into her mind. I speak like a human, and you'd do good to take my lead. All this hibri cursing — was Will just damning herself even more?

She forced herself to keep on crawling. For every unwelcome thought she banished from her mind, there came tenfold. What had she become? What would she become if she stayed here, if she joined Cynth? How could she live with herself if she didn't?

What in the moons was she DOING?

With a final, pitiful crawl, Will was back outdoors. She breathed in the cool night air with relief, but it did nothing to alleviate the stress building in her chest. Cynth or Lusan or her mother, dying in the village? Who did she choose? Who should she choose? Who had she chosen?

Blindly, Will stumbled forward, desperate to make her way out of the gala, out of the trap she herself had set. She'd go back to the hotel. She'd go back and wake up with a hangover and none of this was real, it was fine —

With effort, Will broke from her daze. After a moment of staring numbly at the scene before her, she gathered that she was standing at the top of the flashing glass stairwell. Below it were the hills, and the Leeyungs' little garden. If she could just get down the stairs, she'd be fine. She could get to the hotel. The hotel could be home. At least it had a nice mattress.

Everything would be okay.

Before she could convince herself otherwise, she was on the stairs, and there were no railings, and probably she would be falling even if she was sober, and she wasn't sober, and six tides six tides six TIDES.

Powerless to stop herself, Will tumbled down the moons-damned stairs, wincing every time her shoulder banged into the steps and they lit up different colors. (The steps, not her shoulders.) Her life was a joke.

When she finally landed, on a patch of rather scratchy grass, her head was swimming and she could barely muster the energy for an incomprehensible, "Mmph."

"Oh my god! Are you okay?"

Will blinked open her eyes blearily. The combination of the post-falling-down-the-stairs dizziness and the post-drinking-a-bunch-of-alcohol dizziness meant it took a few seconds for the world to swing into focus — once it had, she was greeted with the sight of a human girl.

And what a human girl.

The first thing Will noticed was her long, wavy hair. It was a dark, brownish-golden color and cascaded down like a waterfall, leaning into her face as she bent down over Will. Will wanted to run her fingers through it, but — for moons' sake, she wasn't that weird.

Behind the hair, the girl was frowning. Oh moons, her frown. Like... a bell. Or something poetic. Will didn't know — she wasn't at her best right now. Whatever. Point was, this girl was hot. Bronze skin, honey-brown eyes. She was also human. Still. Hot.

It took Will a moment to realize the girl was speaking. With some effort, she focused on her words. "Do you need me to, um... call someone?" The girl cleared her throat. "I mean, I can call someone if you want."

Lightheaded from the falling, the alcohol, and the whole attractive female situation, Will could only blink for a few seconds. Finally, she managed, "You're really pretty."

Six tides. That was not... not what she had meant to say.

When had she gotten so moons-damned drunk?

The human girl flushed, avoiding Will's gaze. "I, um. Thanks."

Suddenly desperate to salvage what she could of the situation, Will blurted out the first thing she could think of. "I'm going on a quest. Journey. Thing. With Cynth Leeyung. We're gonna — gonna get the sources. The patrias sources. Those. We're meeting tomorrow, noon, at the fountain. You should come."

Somewhere inside of her, Will felt a tinge of dread. She'd done something wrong, hadn't she? But what was wrong about inviting a pretty girl to join her? That was like — a date. Basically, she'd invited the girl on a date. Only, with Cynth. It was fine.

The girl gave a small, confused smile. "You know Cynth Leeyung? You don't strike me as someone who would spend much time with her."

Feeling strangely defensive, Will frowned. "Who the — who the moons are you anyway?"

"Cybele." A pause. The girl bit her bottom lip. "Valloma."

Something about the way the girl — Cybele — said her last name, apprehension mixed with shame, made Will sure she was missing something. Probably something human. She tried to think of who the Vallomas were, but came up with nothing. Six tides.

Determined to deflect the attention from her semi social slip-up, Will attempted to stand. The key word being 'attempted.' Aside from the glass stairs — and honestly, she didn't want to mess with those any more than she already had — there was nothing around to lean on. As a result, she half-stood and then fell at least twenty times.

Before Will could try yet again to stand, Cybele had grabbed her arm and moons the girl was touching her and for tides' sake, Will, get it together and she had better not throw up right now. Because, moons. Cybele was holding her. And yes, it was so that she wouldn't fall over, and yes, the girl mostly just looked concerned and kind of alarmed, but she was so moons-damned pretty. And, oh moons. Will could not have a crush on a human. That could not be what was happening.

"Do you need me to get you home?" A pause. Will got the faint sense that Cybele wasn't used to taking charge — but when she did, she was surprisingly excellent at it. "Where do you live? Did you come here with anybody?"

Abruptly, Will began to laugh. "Lusan. I came here with moons-damned Lusan."

Cybele glanced around, hair whipping in the wind. "Lusan... I don't know him. Is he nearby?"

"He left me here." And now she couldn't stop laughing, because honestly, there was something so funny about it. "It's okay, though. I met Cynth and now you, and I am a good spy after all..."

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

OH, SWEET TIDES.

OHHHH, SHE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO SAY THAT.

SIX TIDES. SIX MOONS-DAMNED TIDES. ABORT MISSION, DAMMIT.

"I shouldn't have said that," Will whispered slowly, voice grave. "I think I shouldn't have I think said that."

"Hmm?" Cybele glanced back at Will. "Sorry, what did you say?"

It was official. Will was a genius.

She was just that good a spy!

"Nothing! I said nothing." And now she was laughing again, giddy with relief, and the night was young and it was just cool enough outside to be invigorating and there was a supremely beautiful girl by her side. And, moons, the world was good. It was.

In the morning, Will could hardly remember how Cybele helped her back to the hotel. She had only the faintest recollection of repeating her invitation to the sources-centered quest until the words were scrambled in her mouth, of banging on the door to her hotel room because she didn't know the moons-damned password Lusan had used.

She woke up on a bench, in the hotel's hallway. An admittedly comfortable, admittedly large bench. But, a bench.

She woke up on a bench in the hallway and the first thing she thought was, What did I do?

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WE HOPE YOU LOVE THIS CHAPTER AS MUCH AS WE DO BECAUSE DRUNK, CHAOTIC GAY WILL HAS BECOME A GFC ICON

Aaaanyway, thanks for reading chapter seven, probably the most entertaining chapter up to date! Shoutout to Ref (food_is_my_jam) for writing this questionable chapter, and all of Will's other ones.

With virtual hugs, purple Google features, and not-particularly-subtle new shippity ships,

Google Form Crew

(G.F.C.)