(The Continental Peace Festival Under the Golden Lanterns)
Midnight settled over the southern continent not with the icy dread of iron and siege, but draped in the warm, golden glow of a million lanterns.
Leagues below the soaring peaks of the Floating Mountain, across eighty-one royal prefectures and thousands of market towns, the people of the mortal realms were celebrating the first night of the Continental Peace Festival. From the high balconies of Solaris to the humble river hamlets along the Dragon-Spine River, paper lanterns crafted from oiled parchment and thin bamboo strips were released into the night sky.
Tens of thousands of warm amber lights drifted gently upward on the evening updrafts, floating like an earthly sea of stars rising to meet the heavens.
In the royal capital of Solaris, the Great Sun Plaza remained ablaze with celebration. Thousands of citizens stayed beneath the moon, singing folk ballads and sharing hot sesame cakes. In the center of the forum, the fifty-foot cloud-jade statue of the little blue slime holding the steaming noodle bowl was bathed in the warm radiance of six hundred golden lanterns hung from cedar poles. Little children in festive smocks played games around the red granite stone stand, laughing as they tossed flower petals into the carved marble noodle bowl above.
