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May is rolling her way to the library. It's not icy - in point of fact it's summer - but she's got an unhappy ankle from tripping yesterday and it's an accessible library and it's downhill on the way there and Ren will pick her up after. So, rolling.
a may in the moon kingdom
"If there's a time when it's appropriate, 'first sight of Silver Falls' has got to be it," says Charm.
"You have a point there," says Ebb.
"Most of the palace is behind the waterfall," Reflect says quietly, coming a little closer so May can hear her clearly, "but do you see those towers at the very top...?"
She points. There are three slender white towers, one on either side of the top of the falls and one right in the middle of them. The tower on the left has an empty silver circle at the top; the one in the middle has its circle half-filled; and the one on the right is completely silver.
"Those are the visible part."
"Yes," Reflect agrees.
"Okay, let's go to the palace and introduce you to the Queen," says Starlight. As they proceed into the city, he drops back and Reflect takes the lead; she seems to know the place better than the rest of them.
"I haven't," says Ebb.
"I grew up in Silver Falls. I used to see her a lot, when she made appearances. But I haven't spoken to her," says Reflect.
"Ceremonial, I assume," says Ebb. "We'd notice it just fine by ourselves."
"It was nice to be reminded, though," says Reflect. "And I used to love the celebrations on the first day of autumn."
"The fey near my folks' place used to bake cakes and give everyone some," Charm reminisces. "It's no roast cricket, but it was good."
"Cake is good," Reflect agrees.
The streets are a little busy this time of night, once they've rounded the curve of the lake and entered the city proper. They pass all sorts of folk on their way toward the cliff. Mostly humanoids of varying shape, size, and colour, but also a few foxes and rats and small wiggly mammals who go by too fast to be easily labeled as ferret or weasel or stoat. Local custom seems to be a bit like a busy city on Earth, although this place isn't nearly as dense: where possible, strangers try to go past without acknowledging one another.
It's pretty gawkable. The buildings are indeed clearly built with accessibility in mind: doors tend to be saloon-style, there are upper-floor entrances for winged folk... No one thought about wheeled contraptions, but she's mostly covered just by the sheer range of existing needs: a bear and a weasel can't really use the same set of stairs, so when they start to go up the cliffside it's all gradual inclines.
Indeed!
And then, halfway up the cliff, they come to a huge silver set of double doors, a new moon engraved in the left and a full moon embossed on the right. They're open; if they weren't, it's not clear how they'd get that way.
The gate guard is a fey of ambiguous gender who looks about nine feet tall, thin and angular, and also seems to be made entirely of ice. "What's your business in the palace?" they ask. Tiny flecks of frost form in the air when they breathe.
"Bringing an outworlder to meet the Queen," says Starlight.
"You may pass," says the guard, nodding.
"Ah—none of us knows the palace very well, as such—" says Charm.
The guard kneels down and touches the ground in front of the open doors. A line of sparkling frost forms, maybe two inches wide, leading into the dimly lit interior of the palace. "Follow that."
"Yessir," says Charm.
The ice-fey nods graciously.
"I think I'll wait out here," says Button. "I forgot how much I don't like enclosed spaces where I can't see the exit."
Ebb and Reflect also hang back, but Charm and Starlight and Snowfall accompany May into the palace.
The light in here is dimmer than outside, but the frost-line catches it very clearly, and the floor is smooth stone tile, neatly joined and devoid of obstacles.
"Spooky in here," Charm comments.