The day was a total bust. Ruby could hear the priests arguing over the com as she watched the rain pounding against the tinted glass of the car window, a siren sounding in the distance as if to remind her even more that this place was nothing like the serenity of the Celestial Nile compound. It has been raining all day, but in the morning it hadn’t bothered her nearly as much as it did now. In the morning she’d stood up bright and early, eager and hopeful that this was the day they would find the moonchild. They’d driven for hours the day before, up and west from the fertile soils of the Nile Lake until they’d reached the small Celestial Church compound where they’d spent the night. They would need to be well-rested, so they had reasoned, in order to properly take on the sacred task of welcoming the moonchild into their proper life. 

After a lifetime of being told there would be no one like her in this generation, Ruby had been overjoyed to hear of the divinations that had revealed the birth of [i]another[/i] celestial child. The seers had of course been sceptical at first, but the directions had been so specific that they had to be true – or so Ruby kept telling herself. Truth be told, she was if possible even more invested in finding this child than the priests were. She’d never thought she would be able to meet anyone quite like her, but now that the possibility was there it was all she could think about. 

The divinations hadn’t said anything about the gender of the child, but Ruby was privately hoping for a little sister. She would take care of her, and play with her and teach her everything she would need to know. She wouldn’t have to grow up being afraid all the time, because there would be someone there who was like her. Eventually she would grow up and together they would usher in a new age of balance, representing both goddesses on earth for the first time in generations.

Of course she knew it would never be that simple, but it was a fantasy she allowed herself to indulge in. In the end the was absolutely positive she would grow to love whoever this moonchild turned out to be. After all, they would be the one to free her from the weight of being the only Celestial in existence – the one who by all accounts should help people in the name of her mother wherever she goes. True, she wouldn’t be ready for her full set of responsibilities for a few years yet, but it was a daunting prospect to have to face it alone. 

A daunting prospect she’d might have to confront after all, she thought with a heavy sigh. They’d made their way over to the apartment complex the seers had pinpointed that morning, Ruby dressed up in a layered silk robe in oranges and yellows that was far more comfortable- and less intimidating-  than the ceremonial clothing she usually wore out in public. She’d pulled her dreads up into an intricate bun on top of her head, with a small golden sun pinned in as the only decoration apart from her customary septum piercing, sun earrings and necklaces adorned with rubies, garnets and sunstones. She’d even gone for a minimum of golden eyeliner rather than the traditional face paints she wore for public appearances. She had been all set to meet the moonchild as ‘Ruby the big sister’ rather than ‘Ruby Eleana, daughter of the sun’, who people knew from their televisions or as a golden speck in the distance when she addressed the people on behalf of the Celestial Church on the longest day of the year. 

It had been all for nought, though, as they went through address after address, first in the apartment complex and then in the surrounding houses. While they were all honoured- and a little intimidated- by the attention of the priests, all Ruby could do was watch from a distance as no one was able to set the holy paper aflame. She was almost tempted to touch the stupid thing herself- to feel it react to the divine spark within her and burn away with a bright, yet cool flame- but they were very expensive to make and they hadn’t brought a lot of them. Besides, the light singe marks that were left by a few people that could boast divine ancestry in their lineage were proof enough that the papers worked. The problem was that they hadn’t found the child of the moon, whose touch should send the little scrap of inscribed paper up in flames. 

In the end Ruby hadn’t gotten to even talk to anyone, only become increasingly impatient with every door the priests came scuttling back out of. She’d been doing breathing exercises to keep herself from doing something as embarrassing as singing the leather of the chairs all day, at first out of jittery excitement and later on to keep her mind of the hint of despair beginning at the back of her mind. Could it be that the seers really [i]had[/i] been wrong? They had tried to warn her that divinations were not always what they appeared to be, but then they had gotten so excited with the details themselves… Could it be that the hope she’d felt was doomed to be extinguished even before it could blossom into something like happiness? 

Whatever turned out to be the case, Ruby hadn’t been content to go back to the compound just yet. She might not be the boss of her own life, but her word still carried a lot of weight and when she told her entourage that she was going to check out the other address on file for the apartment that had been cleared out recently, they could do little but indulge her. She had to admit that she didn’t [i]actually[/i] think they would still find the moonchild, but she wouldn’t rest until she’d at least talked to [i]one[/i] person today. If nothing else, she might be able to give someone a good story to tell their grandchildren one day.

As they drove into the office area that was their final destination for the day, she took her hair down from its bun and carefully stowed away most of the jewellery (the septum piercing – sun shaped of course – stayed). She traced the delicate fabric of her robes for a moment, before taking them off in favour of a plain grey shirt and loose jeans. She loved those robes, she didn’t want to wear them when she undoubtedly found out the hope she felt for the last few days was all for nought. They were looking for a child, after all, and who in their right minds took a child to live with them in an office building? 

It was still raining when she stepped out of the car, but Ruby turned the umbrella one of the priests handed her away. She would be soaked by the time she got to the entrance, but it wasn’t like she got cold. 

“I’ll be right back,” she said, her tone of voice leaving no room for anyone to think she was going to let someone else come up with her. They could wait downstairs, with the janitor that had been called out of bed in order to open the door of the complex for them. It was not like she expected someone to even answer the door, and she just needed a moment for herself. Even if that moment was going to be in a darkened business complex. As an afterthought she took some holy paper, the gold and silver case tucked away haphazardly in her back pocket. 

Her steps echoed as she walked up the empty stairs, dripping water as she passed. It felt kind of good, in a melodramatic way, that her miserable day was going to end in a miserable place – with her soaked and alone. She would normally be asleep for hours already, but it wasn’t like she was going to be able to get some sleep until she put this whole mess behind her. Checking the address on a slip of paper in her hand, she walked past offices until she got to the door marked with ‘detective medium’. Ruby gave a humourless snort at reading it. Since the seers apparently were a bust, perhaps the next step would be to ask this ‘Aizawa Tsuki’ for help tracking the moonchild. Without much hope for a reply, she rang the office bell.