Morning came slowly to Colludia. The festival hadn’t disappeared, but it had softened. Shopkeepers swept yesterday’s confetti from their doorsteps while bakers carried fresh bread into their windows. Meanwhile, musicians tuned their instruments for another day of celebration.
Race packets waited outside every hotel and guesthouse. For the first time since arriving on Colludia, no one seemed particularly eager to open them.
Emily carried two cups of coffee through the morning crowd. “You still don’t take sugar?”
Sara accepted the cup. “I’ve never taken sugar.”
“I couldn’t remember.”
Sara smiled. “You remembered everything else.”
Emily looked down at her own cup. “…I suppose I did.”
They walked another block before unfolding the day’s clue. Leave Colludia better than you found it. The city will decide when you’re finished.
Emily frowned. “That’s… vague.”
Sara folded the booklet closed. “I don’t think it is.”
Across the city, Mathias read the same clue. “So…”
Liora looked over. “So?”
“I suppose we help someone.”
She smiled. “You sound almost disappointed.”
“I was hoping for a puzzle.”
“I think this is one.”
Hannah had barely finished reading when a loud crash echoed from the next street. She and David looked at one another. Neither said a word. They were already moving.
The delivery cart rested against a stone fountain; one wheel broken beneath a load of produce. Apples and oranges rolled in every direction while the elderly merchant stood nearby rubbing the back of his neck.
“Not again,” he sighed.
David chased down escaping fruit before it disappeared beneath passing feet.
Hannah crouched beside the broken axle. “Do you have replacement hardware?”
The merchant laughed. “I was hoping you did.”
“We’ll improvise.”
Emily and Sara wandered another few streets before stopping outside a neighborhood theater. A dozen children waited nervously in elaborate festival costumes. Or tried to. One little boy had somehow managed to tie half of his costume into a knot that looked impossible.
The instructor spotted the Starfleet uniforms and sighed with visible relief. “Either of you know how to untangle this?”
Emily looked at Sara.
Sara looked back.
“We’re Starfleet,” Emily said.
“We solve impossible problems,” Sara finished.
Emily knelt beside the boy. “Let’s have a look.”
The boy frowned. “I think I broke it.”
“I work on a starship,” Emily said with a smile as she loosened the knot. “Trust me… this is much less dangerous.”
The boy grinned.
Nearby, another child stood quietly beside the stage, clutching the edge of her costume.
Sara walked over. “You okay?”
The little girl shook her head. “I can’t do it.”
“Why not?”
“What if everyone laughs?”
Sara thought for a moment. “They might.”
The girl’s face fell.
Sara smiled. “Then they’ll clap.”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll be laughing with you.”
Emily looked over while helping another child straighten a sash. “I was terrified yesterday.”
Sara nodded. “So was I.”
“I still don’t dance.”
“No.”
Sara smiled. “But you did.”
Across town, Mathias and Liora wandered into a neighborhood preparing for that evening’s lantern festival. Volunteers hurried between tables stacked with colorful paper lanterns waiting to be assembled.
One exhausted organizer looked up. “You!”
Mathias glanced behind him. “Me?”
“Can you tie knots?”
“…Reasonably.”
A bundle of ribbon landed in his hands. “Perfect.”
Liora bit the inside of her cheek. “This should be interesting.”
Ten minutes later, Mathias had unknowingly reorganized the entire work area.
One table folded paper.
Another built frames.
Children painted decorations.
Completed lanterns moved steadily toward waiting wagons.
The organizer blinked. “Who put you in charge?”
Mathias looked genuinely confused. “…Nobody.”
“Huh.”
The organizer looked around the square. “I thought somebody had.”
Liora laughed quietly. She eventually found herself sitting beside an elderly woman carefully painting flowers onto paper lanterns.
“You’re very good,” Liora said.
The woman smiled. “I’ve had eighty years to practice.”
She glanced toward Mathias directing volunteers across the square. “Your husband?”
Liora smiled. “No.”
The woman followed her gaze. “He likes organizing people.”
“He does.”
“My husband was the same.”
Liora watched Mathias redirect another group toward an empty table. “Some people can’t help themselves.”
Back at the market, Hannah had the cart completely apart. Wooden beams, bolts, and wheels lay neatly arranged across the cobblestones.
David looked at the growing collection. “You took it apart.”
“I had to.”
“Can you put it back together?”
She looked at him. “David… seriously?”
“Fair question.”
She smiled. “It was.”
A handful of children gathered nearby to watch. Instead of shooing them away, Hannah pointed toward the broken axle.
“See this beam?”
They nodded.
“It carries most of the weight.”
One boy’s eyes lit up. “Like a bridge!”
“Exactly.”
David smiled.
By late afternoon, none of the teams had thought about the race in hours. The merchant’s cart rolled away stronger than before. The children’s play ended to enthusiastic applause. Hundreds of lanterns now swayed above the streets, waiting for sunset.
Only then did each pair remember the clue. At the next checkpoint, a volunteer accepted Emily’s race booklet and stamped it. “Challenge completed,” he stated.
Emily blinked. “But… we didn’t do anything.”
The volunteer smiled. “Didn’t you?”
Sara glanced at the booklet. “How did you know?”
“The Great Race has checkpoints all over the city.”
Emily looked around. “I don’t see any.”
“You’re not supposed to.” He closed the booklet and handed it back. “The city noticed.”
Later that afternoon, the three teams crossed paths once more in the plaza. No one asked who was winning. Instead, they traded stories. Emily described untangling impossible costumes. Hannah admitted she’d rebuilt half a delivery cart while neighborhood children supervised every decision.
Liora smiled as she described Mathias accidentally taking over an entire lantern workshop.
“I only offered a few suggestions,” Mathias protested.
“You created a production schedule,” Liora replied.
“They asked for help.”
“They asked you to tie ribbons.”
“I expanded the scope.”
David nodded thoughtfully. “That sounds like you.”
The group laughed. As they continued toward the evening festivities, Emily pulled the race booklet from her pocket. For a moment she considered checking the standings. Instead, she slipped it back into her pocket unopened.
Somehow… she no longer cared where they stood.
