Twinkles hovered over the market square and shouted her plan for the third time. "A festival! Fairies, humans, aliens, and trolls, all together!" No one looked up. In the Bleeding Expanse, folks kept to their own kind. A lone fairy the size of a thumb could not change that alone. She landed on a cart rail, wings drooping. Her sparkly blue bunny hopped up beside her and nudged her hand. Twinkles scratched his ears. "They won't listen, Sky. I need someone big. Someone they respect." Then she saw the flowers. Someone had built a huge arrangement near the well. Bright roses and sunflowers spilled around fat orange pumpkins. Palm trees rose behind them, strung with lights that glowed even in daytime. A crowd had gathered to stare. Trolls, humans, and fairies stood shoulder to shoulder, all silent, all looking at the same beautiful thing. At the center, a builder wiped her hands on her apron. She was a tall troll, taller than the cart, with mossy green skin and careful fingers. She tucked one last rose into place and stepped back. The crowd clapped. Even the humans clapped. Twinkles flew straight to her. "You made this?" Twinkles asked. "Everyone's watching. Everyone. Trolls and humans, together, and nobody's fighting." The troll grunted. "They watch flowers. Flowers don't argue." "That's the whole point!" Twinkles buzzed a circle around her head. "I want a festival. One where all of us belong under one banner. But nobody hears a fairy. They'd hear you. They already do." She pointed at the crowd, still gathered, still calm. The troll frowned. "I build. I don't lead." "You don't have to lead," Twinkles said. "Just stand beside me. Let me borrow your shoulders. If you say the festival is real, they'll believe it's real." The troll studied her a long moment. She looked at the crowd. She looked at her own flowers, glowing and full of every color. Slowly, she nodded. "One festival," the troll said. "You dream it. I build it." Twinkles shrieked with joy and nearly dropped from the air. She had her ally. Someone with weight. Someone the Expanse already trusted. The troll turned to the crowd and raised one huge hand. "Listen," she called. Every face turned. In one breath, she had the silence Twinkles had begged for all morning. "This fairy has a plan," the troll said. "A festival for all of us." The crowd did not laugh. They leaned in. Then a human near the well spoke up. "A festival where? On whose land? Fairy ground, troll ground, or human?" The question hung in the air. Trolls glanced at humans. Humans glanced at fairies. The warm silence turned sharp. Twinkles opened her mouth and found no answer. She had won her ally. Now she needed a place to stand, and no one in the Expanse would share their ground.