Isabelle and Nate stepped out from the bakery right behind Val, pushing her to the cobalt-colored general store door next door.

  A sign on the door said, “Store closed today. I’m at the ley lines. Staying near town.”

  “Ley lines? Oh, Isabelle! Nate, too, I guess. I have two questions, one about ley lines and one about Olive.”

  “Ley lines are the same here as everywhere,” Isabelle said with a shrug. “The industrial ones are cut off for now, but most of us have adjusted to having just natural ones.”

  Isabelle’s answer brought up more questions, but Val focused on what her question actually was. “Airaba said that the ley lines were tangled up. Do you know what that means?”

  “Not a clue,” Nate said. “We’ve got to go.”

  “Wait, my second question is, where is Olive? I need to find Olive to buy seeds.”

  “I don’t know where Olive is,” Isabelle said with a soft, exasperated sigh. “It’s Aries week, you know. The fire ley lines are a bit active right now. She likes to gather.”

  Val, in fact, did not know. “Aries week? Like astrology? Fire magic? Like I said, I just arrived at Cattail Farm, so I’m still learning.”

  “Aries like the zodiac sign!” Isabelle answered. “The magic is still settling in. If you really don’t know, go visit the Healer. It sounds like you’ve lost your memory. I think he has clinic hours soon. Go over there.” Isabelle pointed to the periwinkle door of the clinic Val had visited yesterday.

  Nate said nothing. He crossed his arms and smirked. Val wasn’t a punching kind of person, but he had that kind of face.

  “Magic is settling in?” Val asked. “I think I saw something while I walked to town this morning. The air was hot over some translucent flames. Is it dangerous?”

  “Magic won’t start physical fires without intent.”

  “So…” Val said with a hopeful smile, “where do you think Olive would be?” She looked around the town square, which was empty.

  Isabelle sighed. “You can follow us.”

  Val followed them. The east side of the town square was full of the temple, except for a small house on its south side. The two friends led Val to this house, up to its pink picket fence with a gate and early spring flowers just blooming. Beyond the flowers was an orchard of fruit trees, seeming to go acres to the north and east. The northern part of the orchard would be behind the town temple.

  On the other side of the fence was a short, freckled young woman with her hair in two brown braids, singing softly, who was startled when they approached.

  “Poppy, this is Val,” Isabelle said, not even looking at Val. “Has Olive been this way?”

  “Hi, Val,” Poppy said, waving timidly. “I think I saw Olive go to the southwest corner of town.”

  “There we go. Bye, Val.”

  “Your orchard is beautiful,” Val said, backing away. “The southwest corner?”

  “Oh, thank you. The Violan plums will be ready to pick during Taurus,” Poppy said. “Olive might be near the river. I’m sure she’s harvesting magic from the fire ley line. Staying near water is one way to stay safe.”

  “There’s a river. I follow the river.”

  “Actually, there are two rivers. Did you just arrive? The Lower Guppies River flows north and west of the town square, on the other side of the buildings, and the Usallis River flows along the south border of the town square, also on the other side of the buildings. Go over the bridge and follow the river northward.” Poppy pointed to the southwest corner of the town square again.

  “Thanks! I’ve got a lot to learn! Bye everybody!” Val ran off. Halfway across the square, she wondered if she ought to have stayed for two more minutes to talk, maybe ask again about ley lines. Another time. Her focus was on buying seeds.

  The path out of the town square led over a bridge. As she crossed over the bridge, steam bursted like a geyser. Once the steam blew out, Val carefully looked over the side. The ley line glowed like embers, the jagged line cutting through the river before disappearing into town in a zigzag pattern. Maybe the ley line didn’t set things on fire, but all the steam indicated some kind of energy transference. She would be careful.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Val wasn’t sure what way was north, but going left seemed to take her into the wilderness, and Olive’s note said she was sticking to town. Val went right.

  Soon, Val caught sight of someone with red hair standing very close to the river bank. How did they get so close when the shrubbery and trees were so thick?

  Val tried yet another path that at first seemed like a dead end near the bridge, but on closer inspection led very close to the river, even turning muddy at points, the mud squishing under her boots’ thick soles. The path finally opened to a small clearing where a woman sat on a stump next to a ley line that had foot-high flames. On the other side of the river, the red roof of the teahouse was visible through the shrubbery.

  The woman, wearing a dark gray calico dress covered in mud, had round features, a peachy undertone to her skin, and auburn hair in a bun. And was noticeably pregnant.

  “Excuse me, are you Olive?” Val asked, waving. She was privately jolted by someone being pregnant. It was a quaint trait to add to a game.

  The woman looked up, turning away from the flaming ley line.

  “I’m being careful,” the woman said automatically.

  “Hi, Olive. Congratulations on the baby,” Val said. In Val’s experience as a cashier, pregnancy was a minefield. Odds said Val should stay quiet, but she didn’t have many options for connection.

  Olive’s face softened. “Thank you. This one’s been extra tiring.”

  Val felt guilty for thinking the pregnancy was for cozy vibes. She hoped the game wouldn’t keep Olive eternally pregnant [2/12/25, 11:05?AM cutting: “The store will be closed for at least a week in summer once I give birth, so think ahead to what you might need,” Olive continued.

  Val frowned in confusion. How could the game allow that? Wait, Yanwei scolded her about that attitude. This was just another roadblock. Val had time to plan.] .

  “I’m Val from Cattail Farm—”

  The Aries flames shot three feet high. Despite Isabelle’s reassurance, Val stepped back.

  Olive stayed on her stump within arm’s reach of the flames. “I don’t get access to fire magic like this very often. It will fade soon enough.” Olive swooped her hands around. A stream of white magic flowed from her palms to the flames, pushing the flames to the side like wind. The flames bent all the way into the riverbank mud a few paces away. Olive kept up this stream of magic, feeding the Aries magic into the mud.

  The Aries-infused mud was churning. Within a minute, something popped out of the mud the size of her fist. Olive used a stream of white magic to grab the mud and bring it to her hand. Now it was close enough for Val to see the details: a little mud ram was on Olive’s palm, picking up its little hooves and doing a little somersault.

  “What a cute little guy,” Val said.

  Olive smashed the little ram between her two hands, mud dripping on her stomach and lap.

  Val squawked. “That’s unexpected. Poor baby ram.”

  Olive glared at her.

  “What’s going on? I have no idea what you’re doing,” Val protested. “I’m not from around here.”

  “Aries magic makes the mud animated. The mud rams aren’t intelligent or sentient. It’s like smashing a clay pot. But for each ram, the magic creates something.” As Olive spoke, she rubbed her hands together, more mud dripping. “Ha, here we go.” Olive held up a glittering red crystal. “See? This is what I need. Aries magic is powerful. I need it. It’s got so much that I don’t have. If you’re new, you might not know we’re cut off from the industrial ley lines. We’ve got to make do with the natural ones, so now is the time to gather whatever Aries can give us.” She tucked the crystal away in a muddy pouch hanging at her waist.

  Val looked back at the mud bank. Several little mud rams were prancing around. Val couldn’t get over how violent smashing them seemed. It also looks like a bit of fun, no worse than smashing mosquitoes.

  Olive scooped up a few more and smashed them, showing Val how the rams were pure mud, no greater complexity. “Ah-ha! I just leveled up my Gathering skill. I’ll lose less energy now. Always appreciated.” Olive patted her stomach and then looked at Val. “Did you need something?”

  “I need to buy seeds,” Val said, surprised that an in-game character had gaming mechanisms like leveling. She tore her eyes from the little mud rams to the auburn-haired woman. As startling as the scene was, Val needed to focus on her mission.

  “Right. You said you were from the farm. If you’re growing things, I’ll buy your crops. Good for us, good for the town. You wouldn’t want to sell to just anyone.”

  “I’ve got to get seeds first.”

  “Sure, sure. What’s your farming level?”

  “Zero.”

  “Hmm. Well, I’ll still sell to you. Go ahead. The door is unlocked. The seeds are in the Aries storage drawer. You can pay at the till.” Olive turned back to the baby mud rams.

  “I have a question about ley lines. Have you heard about how they’re tangled? That’s what Airaba said. I think it’s something I’m supposed to fix, but I don’t know where to start, except to keep farming, but I don’t know how that’s supposed to help,” Val rushed the last sentence, as Olive was looking impatient.

  “I don’t know anything about tangled ley lines. What you see here is everything there is to know about them. The magic pours in and we take it out while it’s available; it’s as simple as that. Now, if you don’t mind, didn’t you say you had seeds to buy?” Olive turned away from Val decisively.

  Val was pretty sure magic wasn’t as simple as that, but she didn’t need to know more about ley lines in order to move forward. Val skipped down the path away from Olive with more questions than answers. Yesterday, Val hadn’t seen any of the “mess” in town that Elissa and Airaba had referred to, but learning about these ley lines felt like an itch to scratch.

  According to Airaba, farming was key.

  It was time to buy the seeds.