[ There's a soft chuckle at that first part; van Zieks is a logical man, but Stronghart wouldn't have entirely put it past him to ascribe something to some Far Eastern sorcery.

He's a little surprised to find that he has some knowledge about this particular subject (was this something he'd read up on here, or something he'd heard back in London?) but even more so by the way he relays the information — as a relatable shared concept rather than something esoteric and foreign. ...In any case, it makes sense enough, and he nods. ]

As I recall, they last something like ten days on average. I always thought it would be maddening trying to plan any sort of event around an occurrence whose timing was determined by something as uncertain as the weather.

[ This place certainly found a solution to that problem, and he respects it, even if it seems to go against the intended spirit — ephemerality rather loses its meaning when both the beginning and end are within someone's power to control, and he doubts that these newly-conjured trees are just going to be left here to finish shedding their petals after the end of the week when the festival is done. ]