The snow had stopped entirely, and the sun had risen.
A haze of cloud slowly spread across the brilliant golden sunlight. Through the gaps between the clouds, threads of morning light spilled downward, passing through the latticed windows of the Grand Pillar's Residence. The light and shadow were cut in two — half the living room bathed in radiant brightness, the other half draped in the shadow of the lattice.
The first clearing after a light snow.
"Sara."
Kiyono basked in the sun, feeling warmth throughout his entire body.
When you grew old, you simply loved to bask in the sun — loved the way that warmth seeped into weary, ancient bones.
He spoke toward a corner cloaked in shadow, addressing someone unseen:
"Have they left?"
"My lord."
A calm, cold voice.
The folding screen was slowly pushed aside—
Kneeling in formal posture at the foot of the step within the shadow was a woman of sharp, immaculate bearing:
Knees bent, seated upon her neatly placed ankles, her upper body held perfectly straight. She wore a deep purple samurai's hakama, its long front panels spread flat across the tatami. Upon her snow-white, bare knees rested a slender naginata. Her head was slightly bowed, and her brilliant golden eyes blinked once.
This seated posture was yokozuwari — the formal sitting position used by the people of Inazuma on solemn occasions.
"Lady Yae and the shrine maiden Ringo have departed."
Hearing Kiyono call her name, Sara answered thus.
— Kiyono Sara was a great general of Inazuma, bearing the bloodline of the tengu. Young as she was, she had already made a name for herself in the military, carrying out the will of thunder with an unsmiling, decisive demeanor — swift in judgment, fierce in battle.
She held another identity that drew attention and, more than that, wariness: she was the adopted child of the Grand Pillar's Residence. For ten years, she had served at the side of Kiyono Raimei — the one hailed as the "Pillar of Inazuma" — His Grace, carrying out his will as she walked through the world.
Long ago.
When Kiyono had openly defied the will of the Narukami, opposing the Sakoku Decree and the Vision Hunt Decree — an act of insubordination that defied all convention — she alone had followed steadfastly behind the Grand Pillar, without a moment's hesitation.
In a sense, for the Tenryou Commission that had overseen the Sakoku Decree, Kiyono Sara was even more troublesome than the Grand Pillar himself — because she was younger, possessed a young person's vitality, and at the same time, carried a stubbornness that even the old could not hope to match.
"Are you hungry?"
Kiyono said. "I made two servings of noodles. Come eat with me."
"My lord." Sara said, her gaze earnest, meticulous — this was simply her nature.
"As a retainer, I am not worthy of sharing a table with the one I serve."
As she spoke, her brilliant golden eyes remained unrippled, her expression blank, as though this were the most self-evident truth in the world.
This was simply the girl's temperament. If you tried to force her, it would only make things difficult for her. Kiyono understood her character well.
"You're still as rigid as ever."
Kiyono said helplessly.
"I worry about you. You need to grow up faster."
"I'm sorry..." Sara lowered her eyes.
Crack, pop — the firewood in the hearth crackled quietly.
"Earlier... the things I said to young Miss Kamisato — what I was trying to express... you can probably guess what it was." Kiyono said softly, basking in the sunlight.
His body had not been failing for just a day or two.
Sara attended to the Grand Pillar's Residence day after day. Kiyono knew that, with her intelligence, it would not be difficult for her to guess.
Of course, Kiyono had never intended to hide it from her.
He had simply waited until today to say it plainly.
"I am foolish."
Sara's shoulders trembled faintly. She paused, then said calmly:
"I cannot guess a thing."
"From now on, it will fall to you." Kiyono said.
"I know nothing."
She said the same thing again.
"Don't make this difficult for an old man. You've always been an obedient child."
"..."
"I'm going to die."
Kiyono felt warmth all through his body. He narrowed his eyes slightly, savoring this rare winter sun.
"...From now on, Inazuma will depend on you. I don't have much time left."
"I don't know."
Sara still kept her head bowed. Her expression remained unchanged. Her brilliant golden eyes remained calm.
Only — her clenched fingers, her faintly trembling shoulders, her thin lips pressed ever so slightly tighter — all spoke silently of something.
"Your Grace."
"I am immature. I am not yet ready. I am far, far from enough. I cannot see far enough. I am rigid. I can do nothing."
Sara's voice remained steady, calm — only, at the very depths of that voice, there was the faintest tremor.
"Your Grace, I am still not enough..." Sara raised her head, and her brilliant golden eyes quivered ever so slightly: "You must continue to bear it."
The morning light was thin.
The winter after the clearing was terrifyingly quiet. Only a clump of snow slid from a pine bough and fell with a soft pat.
"You are stubborn, and you are immature — but you will grow, little by little. While I am growing old, little by little."
"You carry the bloodline of the tengu. You have time aplenty. You have youth enough to spare... and I am only a mortal."
Sara kept her head bowed, half her face submerged in shadow.
Kiyono rose slowly to his feet and smoothed the creases in his kimono.
"One day, you will grow into a great general. You have strength. You have time. You have patience. And you have a dream."
He said, with a touch of self-deprecation:
"Ei is also immature. Ei is also stubborn. But that one has a single virtue — she simply lives too long. And the truth is, she is also quite afraid of loneliness."
"I cannot walk with her to the very end. But you can. You must become her strength."
Sara clutched the front of her garment, her nails digging into flesh.
He had said too much in one breath.
"Cough, cough."
"Kiyono Sara."
"You must walk into the grand sunlight. And you must succeed — because you are a Kiyono, because you have inherited my name. And more importantly—"
His lungs were failing him. He coughed, again and again, and with each cough the strength was drawn from his entire body. Yet Kiyono still stood straight. He walked slowly toward the shadow—
"Sara, what I want to tell you is — cough, cough... Sara—"
Silver eyes met the gaze of the young woman kneeling below.
The sunlight was cut in two by the latticed window. Within the room, one half was radiant brilliance, the other half was dim shadow.
"What I want to tell you — what I want to pass on to you—"
Bathed in the faint light of early morning, Kiyono said softly:
"...You have always been my pride."
Silence.
Silence.
They sank into a long, long stillness. In all the world, only the very fewest sounds remained.
The sound of flames burning in the hearth. The sound of snow melting. The sound of wind brushing past... and the sound of tears falling upon tatami.
The young woman raised the face she had kept bowed all this time.
From the moment she had entered the room — or perhaps from long, long before that —
She had maintained that calm, composed expression, that resolute and steady countenance. Because she had to be strong. She was a warrior of the Grand Pillar's Residence. She embodied the will of His Grace. And so she had to be strong. Had to be powerful.
But in this moment, she was somehow different.
Biting her lip, her brilliant golden eyes trembling faintly, her nails buried in her own flesh, and above all:
Slightly damp, slightly bitter, carrying a hint of salt —
Clear tears had appeared on the face of the one who was forever cold, forever strong — the face of the tengu.
"...Yes. As you command."
She gently wiped the clear tears from her face. Then, firmly, without the slightest hesitation —
She spoke from the deepest place within her soul:
"Upholding the will of the Grand Pillar. Upholding your wish."
She drew her blade from its sheath and slashed it across her palm. Vivid blood seeped into the fine lines of her hand, then dripped onto the tatami. Against the white expanse of snow-light, that blood was searingly bright.
"Kiyono Sara makes her oath."
Sara rose to her feet, stepped forward, walked into the light, stood before Kiyono, and made her vow:
"In this life, I swear to defend Inazuma unto death. With this body I shall become the thunder of the Narukami — ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years, until eternity—
Until the last drop of blood is spent!"
She drove the naginata into the tatami. Cold light scattered in all directions. Thunder rolled. Her blood fell alongside the roar of thunder, releasing a resounding peal at the very crown of the clouds.
It was a long time before the echoes faded.