The Honey Ginseng Shoppe/Two Moons and the Summer Sun

Jie- means “older sister” in Mandarin, though you do not necessarily need to be related to use it. I love this stuff and you can bet I'll write it in.

“Oi, Shua! Go wash up, the faeries are ready!”

Today, Merana is supposed to teach her how to prepare faeries for medicine making. It’s supposedly a favor for fixing that one unlucky rabbit foot they were puzzling over. Shua can already sense the morbid excitement welling up in her chest, desperately hoping it’s as simple as slicing off their wings and chucking the rest into a jar. Somehow she feels like she won’t be that lucky.

They sit across from each other on the balcony, a slight breeze wafting the smell of honeysuckle towards them. Dappled light falls on them through the leaves of the old gingko tree. It’s hot, but thankfully dry, and they’re both wearing clean white summer robes that were dried in the sun yesterday. Merana is slouched, legs crossed haphazardly, while Shua retains her formal posture, calves tucked under them. Her rabbit ears are oddly stiff too.

This is of great amusement to Merana, who bends to the side to hide their smile, schooling themself into a neutral expression by the time they set the flat woven basket on the low table. Shua forgoes asking what’s so funny to peer at the basket, not coming too close to what appear to be dozens of little faeries.

“Are they… are they still alive?” She asks hesitantly, eyes flitting up to Merana, who’s busy setting up the rest of the equipment. Merana nods. “These baskets are the ones that we salt-baked to dry, so they’re properly sedated. Since this is your first time though, I added a few drops of a sedative potion. Just in case you mess up, y’know.” They cheekily smile, not noticing the deep breath Shua takes as she leans back.

Merana rolls up their sleeves, and plucks a faerie from the pile with grace, almost. “As you know, at the Honey Ginseng Shoppe,” they begin in a hushed tone, “we seek to use every part of the body. First, the wings.”

The faerie is turned over onto a small woven mat, fingers lightly pressed to their back where the wings meet flesh. Merana deftly picks up one of the dark wood tools, tweezers, Shua belatedly realizes. She leans in to get a better look, and Merana tears out the wings in one quick move.

“Jie!” she sputters, rabbit ears swinging from her sudden movement.

They make a face. “Just use Merana, gods, jie makes me feel old. And like a sister. Which I’m not. Look, the quicker you do it, the less likely you’ll rip the wings.” They drop the flimsy glittering wings into a jar on the side. “We need them to be alive because of the wings mostly, since it’s a lot harder to remove them without damaging anything if they aren’t alive. Here’s the trickiest part though.”

Merana holds the sides of the faerie’s head, slightly tilting it towards them, before their wrist snaps upward, bringing the head with them. The body though, is still gripped tight in their other hand, remaining where it was.

There was a sickening crunch that clearly did not come from Merana’s wrist. Shua observes how the faerie doesn’t even wake, how easily its head separates. Her eyes follow the movements like two full moons, enraptured by the gruesome, and meticulous beauty. (Is this beautiful?)

“Wrap your little finger around that part, and slowly drag it out. It’s fundamental that this part stay connected to the head.”

Gods, faerie blood is glittery.

“The rest is done by Utility, who’s much more skilled at knife work, but that’s it for now!” Merana sets the decapitated (de-spinal-corded?!?!) body in a jar, then rinses the head… thing in a bowl of water, before setting it on another bamboo mat. “Do you want to try now?” They blink up casually at Shua, who’s pretty sure she looks like anything but. She nods though. Curse her a thousand times.

“Aha! Here we go.” Merana points out a faerie with crumpled wings. “I think Utility must have known I was teaching you today, they wouldn’t make this mistake unless it was on purpose.”

“Wait, jie harv- gathers them?”

“Yeah. Elwood goes with them. Also don’t call them jie. They don’t like feeling old either.”

Shua couldn’t control herself before it slipped out. “That’s downright cruel! Aren’t they fairies too?”

“Elfwood is very offended by that s— “

“They’re betraying their own kind by doing that!” She cried.

Merana flinched at the volume. “Shut up!” They whispered, hands coming up too late to shield the faeries in the basket.

The two hold their breath, hunched over the basket. None of the fairies seem to stir thankfully, though a drop of glittery faerie blood drips from Merana’s fingers onto one of the faeries. Shua’s eyes bug out of her head.

“And that’s what the sedative potion is for,” Merana laughs awkwardly, wiping their fingers on a cloth.

“Sorry, Merana,” Shua glumly drops her head.

“Ehhhhhhh...” Merana turns to looks thoughtfully towards the view of the mountains. Or perhaps they’re just avoiding having to look Shua in the eye. “I think, well. I don’t know everyone here that well. I don’t know Elwood or Utility’s motivations, or how they feel about it.” They clarified, answering her earlier question. “I don’t like thinking about that sort of stuff, Shua. It gets me too worried and sometimes it’ll all be for nothing.”

They lean over the table and ruffles Shua’s hair with their (thankfully clean) hand, swatting a rabbit ear playfully. “I’d like to trust that they know their own limits. Besides, faerie skull keychains sell for like, 20 crowns each. Sounds like enough motivation to me!” They scoff, successfully getting Shua to smile.

“That’s... I guess that makes sense. And I guess I’m not very good at this either,” she motions to the spread in front of her. “We’ve only done one and I don’t even remember how you did it.”

Merana considers it. “Do you still want to try? I know it’s a bit. messy. But I do need help wi—”

Shua nodded furiously. “Actually, I do it’s so gross but cool are their bodies squishy? Are they warm? And—”

Needless to say, when Utility received the next batch they were not surprised to see that only half were up to standard. Hmm. The house could do with some decoration.