When Peggy woke up and looked at the clock on her bedside table, her grogginess was immediately wiped clean and replaced with panic. She flew out of bed and scrambled to clean up and get ready for the day while mumbling frantically, “I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!”
But upon reaching the coffee shop after running like a maniac, she found the door locked and a “Closed” sign hung behind the window. Breathless and drenched in sweat while staring at the sign, she finally remembered that today was a holiday off.
Flashback a few days ago, Boss had announced that the shop would be closed for a day during the Memorial Season. The Memorial Season is a period of time, about a week or so long, when most people take time to remember and honor their ancestors or loved ones that passed on.
“Now that I think about it, your ancestors are from China, right Peggy?” he had asked her.
She replied back, “Yeah. Why?”
“I have some spare prayer sticks if you feel like holding a small memorial for your ancestors,” Boss explained. “China, if I remember correctly, likes to do things the same way Zhao does.”
Peggy blinked in surprise. “You burn prayer sticks for your memorials, Boss? I thought you were completely Westernized, so I didn’t think you’d do traditional stuff like that.”
“I still do on occasion,” said Boss. “My mom’s side of the family are the sort to do their own thing regardless of time and place, but my dad’s side of the family does like to stick to the old ways when they can. I’m not all that hung up on tradition myself, but I can dig pride in one’s roots as long as it’s not taken to extremes.”
“Basically, you don’t want to deal with nagging from the old folks who ARE hung up on tradition,” Peggy said.
Boss admitted, “It’s like you read my mind.”
Flashback over, Peggy stared at the locked door and the darkness beyond the windows.
“Now what do I do,” she muttered to herself while staring past her reflection on the door window’s glass.
Since this is the Memorial Season and all, it made sense for Peggy to go do memorial stuff like burn those prayer sticks that Boss had lent her. But she had left those behind at her room, and she wouldn’t even know where to burn the sticks without bothering anyone anyway. Smoke from prayer sticks had a sharp smell that was sure to irritate anyone not used to them.
As she puzzled over her next move, a vaguely familiar voice called out to her from behind.
“Peggy? What are you doing out here?”
Peggy turned around to see a young man in a trench coat staring back at her.
Who’s he again? She wondered.
Her confusion must have shown on her face because the young man’s lips quickly curled into a dismayed frown.
“It’s me, Roy!” the young man said. “Remember? We met at Lord Bellbrook’s place.”
“Oh yeah!” Peggy cried out. She finally remembered. “You’re the Inspector’s assistant that time at Uncle Theo’s house! It’s been a while. What are you doing here?”
“I came for some coffee, of course,” said Roy.
“Well, tough luck,” Peggy said. “The shop’s closed for the day.”
“I can see that,” Roy said, peering over Peggy’s shoulder to glance at the “Closed” sign. “But then why are you here?”
“Out for a walk,” Peggy lied. “I just happened to pass by here.”
“Dressed for work?” Roy pointed out.
“Well, it IS the Memorial Season, after all,” said Peggy.
“Would you like to show me around town, then?” Roy asked. “I’d like to get to know the area better since I just moved here.”
A wry smile crept onto Peggy’s face and she asked, “Is this your way of asking me out on a date?”
Blindsided and flustered by the question, Roy became red in the face and reeled back. “Wha-!? N-no! I just - !”
Peggy quickly cut him off and said, “I’m kidding! I’m kidding! I’d be happy to show you around town.”
At a glance, it looked like it was business as usual for the town of Featherkeep and its people. However, having lived here for a while now, Peggy noticed as she and Roy wandered the streets, avenues and boulevards subtle differences from the town’s usual everyday. She could feel a slightly more somber air come from the townsfolk gathered at eateries, headed to some unknown destination, or just wandering about like she was. Dark and stiff clothing seemed to be the fashion of the day.
Some places underwent more drastic changes for the day. While going across a park, Peggy noticed a huge crowd gathered at the statue of a young girl with a big pointed hat who stood tall and proud with a big broomstick in hand. The girl was practically buried in flowers and offerings, and there were even folks on their knees in prayers. It was there that Peggy and Roy ran into the coffee shop Owner, dressed in a black suit beneath a cape draped over his shoulders. A delicate, polished chain held his cape together. In one hand, the vampire held the handle of his umbrella, which he leaned on and treated like a walking stick. The fingertips of his other hand pinched the brim of an old top hat. He was also clean-shaven for once.
When Peggy spotted him retreating from the crowd gathered at the statue, she called out to him, "Hey Boss! Fancy seeing you here. George is not with you?”
Boss looked mildly surprised to see Peggy and Roy, but he quickly hid it and replied back, “He’s out with friends. We just got done with some family business, so I gave him the rest of the day to spend however he liked. As for me, well . . .” He threw a brief glance back at the statue of the girl with the broomstick as he spoke. “ . . . I’m just making some Memorial Season rounds and paying my respects.”
“Already done with that?” asked Peggy.
Boss shook his said and replied, “I still have a few more places I’d like to go.”
“In that case,” said Peggy, “do you mind if we tag along? Roy’s new to the area and I’m showing him around. But I figured you’d know the town better than I do.”
Boss gave Roy a look, and Roy looked back. They each had piercing gazes, as if trying to see right into the deepest reaches of the other’s mind. Roy’s eyes also held the excitement of anticipation.
“Sure,” the vampire answered after a short moment. “I don’t mind the company. But what about you, Roy?”
With a frown, Roy replied, “I know what you’re thinking, and we’re not on a date. It’s exactly as Peggy said: she’s just showing me around. Nothing less and nothing more. So, please let us join you.”
“As you wish, then,” said Boss. He put back on his top hat and then pointed the way forward. “Follow me.”
He led Peggy and Roy through the hustle and bustle of the town’s main streets, occasionally stopping to drop a flower that he pulled out of his hat on a pile building at the base of a statue or monument. Peggy noticed that many, if not all, those monuments had something to do with the Shadow Civil War.
That wasn’t the only thing Peggy noticed.
“Psst! Hey, Roy!” she hissed. “Do you have some kind of beef with Boss?”
They had stopped for a bit while Boss talked to a half-golden retriever dog lady wearing a baby blue apron in front of a flower shop.
“No,” Roy whispered back. “Why do you ask?”
Peggy replied back, “You’ve been shooting mean looks at his back for a while now.”
Roy blinked in surprise. “I was?”
“It definitely looked that way to me,” said Peggy. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Roy quickly replied. “Nothing at all. I was just curious, is all.”
“Curious?” Peggy said.
“You know by now he’s got some story behind him, right?” Roy said. “It’s just strange that the same person from those stories, legends really, is standing right in front of me, living life like a normal person. You know?”
“I wouldn’t exactly call his life normal,” Peggy said, remembering Boss’s mom and Uncle Theo.
"In the stories I heard, the Trickster was a happy-go-lucky brat without a care in the world," Roy said. "He's usually seen laughing like an idiot no matter where he was or what trouble he was in. But seeing how he's so pensive, quiet and tired-looking all the time, it's hard to believe that he and the brat from the legends are the same people. I wonder what happened to change him like that."
“Beats me,” said Peggy. There was a lot she didn’t know about the guy, after all. “Why don’t you just ask him?”
“Maybe when I get the chance,” said Roy.
Their next destination after Boss’s chat with the flower shop lady was Paladia School. Even from far up the road, Peggy could see a huge gathering of people at the gates of the prestigious school.
“That’s a lot of people for the middle of a school’s day off,” she said.
“Correction, Peggy,” said Boss, “Paladia School is still open. George’s school was only off today because that’s when its anniversary fell on.”
“Still a lot of people at the gate for the middle of the day," said Roy. “Is the school doing something special for the season?”
Boss threw Roy a funny look and said, “Well, of course. One of the reasons that we got a memorial season this time of the year is because of what happened at Paladia twenty years ago.”
“What happened twenty years ago?” asked Roy.
Boss’s funny look changed into a very deep frown, but before he could say anything, a lady’s voice echoed out of the school’s main building and spread beyond the protective outer walls.
Peggy recognized the voice as Daisy’s, a worker of the school.
“Ladies and gentlemen, teachers, students, and assorted staff members, thank you for coming. We will now start Paladia School’s memorial tradition, the March of the Teachers.”
Boss swore under his breath.
“It looks like it’s already starting,” he said. “Now where’s a good place to watch.”
He scoured the area, looking left and right, up and down until he found someplace perfect.
“There!” he exclaimed, eyes skyward. “Let’s go!”
“Let’s go? Where?” asked Peggy. “And how?”
Rather than answer with words, Boss chose to use action. He unclipped his cape and tossed it into the air. The cape stretched itself out ten times its original size and dropped down over the trio’s heads like a dome-shaped tent. Line shapes glowed bright blue across the black fabric as it covered the world around Peggy and company.
When the tent pulled away, it revealed a world different from the one Peggy and the others were in earlier. No longer did any buildings or walls tower over them. Instead, there was just open blue sky and cotton white clouds. They stood on a platform of gray concrete stone, which turned out to be the rooftop of a five-floor building facing the school.
“Come over here!” Boss called out. He beckoned to the others to join him at the edge of the roof.
Roy and Peggy exchanged looks before joining the vampire by the wall and railing. He nodded to the school below where they could get a clear overhead view of the whole front of the school. At the top of the stairs was Daisy holding a piece of paper to her face. Done speaking, her hand holding the microphone was down to her side.
Down below the stairs, on the courtyard, five figures in suits of metal armor stood in line facing another tall, armored figure that Peggy quickly recognized as Ethan Stonecrest, the chief director of the school’s board. They each had a sword strapped to their hip.
“ATTENTION!” his voice boomed.
The five armored figures stamped their feet and gave the chief director a salute.
“IN FORMATION!”
Four of them paired up and made two columns and rows while the fifth stood alone at the back.
Ethan Stonecrest turned at his heels and faced the gate.
“FORWARD MARCH!”
He led the armored figures marching to the gate before turning around and headed back to the main building.
As Boss watched their steel shoes made rhythmic noise against solid pavement, out of the blue, he recited a poem:
“Oh woe on this Day, when Darkness gripped Paradise. Lost are many a dazzling Light. Weep, all Good and Righteous, for We live in an Age, when Symbols of Peace must bear Arms.”
Peggy stared at Boss.
“What’s that all of a sudden?” she said.
“It’s a poem,” Boss replied.
“I get that,” said Peggy, “but why the poetry?”
“It’s how the ritual starts,” Boss answered. “We were late to the party and missed out on Stonecrest reciting it, but it wouldn’t be right to watch without hearing the poem.”
“What’s it about?” Roy asked.
“Mainly, the poem talks about what happened twenty years ago,” Boss said.
“What DID happen twenty years ago?” asked Peggy. “You never got around to telling us.”
“Bandits invaded the school,” said Boss.
“Bandits WHAT!?” Roy cried out. He looked understandably horrified.
Boss regarded the young man coolly and responded, “Keep your voice down, Roy. We may be far from the school, but voices can get carried far by the wind.”
Roy glanced back down. The armored figures had already disappeared inside the main building.
“The Paradise in the poem is the school,” Boss explained. “During the Shadow Civil War, many schools were attacked, especially the schools where rich and powerful families sent their kids. Paladia School was just one of them. Collectively, the villains who boldly stormed into those schools ransacked them, held people hostage, kidnapped students, you name it, are the Darkness the poem mentions.
“As for the part about lost light, that’s about the many teachers AND children who were hurt in those attacks. The attack on Paladia was arguably one of the worst during the Shadow Civil War. I think you can tell how bad it was just knowing that they’re holding the ritual during the memorial season.”
Roy was speechless. He could not believe such a thing could happen at a school, to children no less!
“Finally, Symbols of Peace in the poem means teachers,” Boss continued. “You heard the announcement, right? They called the ritual the March of the Teachers. All those guys and gals with armor and swords marching around the school are not soldiers. They’re actually honest-to-goodness teachers in honest-to-goodness metal armor. The swords are made of wood, but they’re sturdy enough to break bones.
“Both the March of the Teachers and the last part of the poem is basically a message to all the leaders and rulers here, telling them that there’s something really wrong with this country if teachers of all people have to carry around weapons in schools of all places and walk around the school like prison guards.”
"Was Stonecrest there when the school was attacked?" Peggy asked.
Boss threw her a look and asked, "What makes you ask?"
"Well . . . " Peggy hesitated before continuing. "I heard that he was always wearing that suit of armor every day at school. I kind of had a feeling something must have happened to make him do that."
"Who can really say for sure why Stonecrest wears that armor all the time?" said Boss, resting his arms on the railing as he watched the audience disperse at the gates. "Maybe even the man himself doesn't know why he does it. In any case, that's his business, and his alone."
The vampire straightened up and stretched his arms.
"Anyway," he said, "there's no point in staying now that the March has gone inside where we can't see. Let's get going."
Just like before, his cape became a dome of darkness around the trio. And when it shrank away, the world around them was changed back to the road where they had been earlier.
"Now where should we go next?" Boss said. "Paladia was pretty much the last place I wanted visit, but if there's any place you want to go, I'm okay showing you the way."
But sadly, this was where their trip around town would come to an end. For as soon as Boss popped the question, the Head Magus appeared, shouting, "Heeey!"
She came running towards them and stopped right in front of them to catch her breath. From all those huffs and puffs, Peggy could tell the sorceress must have come running a long way.
"Man, am I glad I found you," the Head Magus gasped hoarsely. She was still bent over and drenched in sweat while looking up at Boss. "We got an emergency on our hands!"
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