3 days before the Five Year Feast of Kings
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Three days before the last-ditch assassination operation was planned to go down, Abrial woke up extremely early to the sweet smell of sugar and the distant sound of jingling bells. It also sounded like someone was screeching.
Groggily, she sat up and rubbed her puffy eyes, pushing dark hair out of her face.
"What's…going on?"
Just then, Finley appeared over her, fully dressed as usual despite the fact that it was the crack of dawn. She held out a wooden bowl of shiny, round, colorful tangyuan rice cakes to Abrial, looking calm as ever.
"Happy Spiritual Convergence Solstice," she said simply as Abrial blearily took the bowl from her and started munching on rice cakes, only half-awake. Mmm, they were really delicious! The sweet, dark filling permeated her tongue like pure honey. And the chewy outside was chewy to just the right amount, sweet and moist.
