Chapter Text
Once upon a time, Sakura thought, and shut her book. It was late, now - half past eleven, and she still hadn't slept. The candle she had lit by her bedside was casting thin shadows around the dim room, and her bedcovers were tossed to the opposite side of the bed.
Her nightdress was thin, wispy, frothy around her ankles as she stood to place the book on top of the trunk at the foot of her bed. The nightdress was the nicest thing that she owned, now, the only valuable thing her guardian hadn't yet sold.
Yukimura had, after all, sold nearly everything. Debts had accumulated over the years, and no sales he had made nor anything any of her siblings had done had changed that. Ryoma, steadfast Ryoma, had left several years ago to try his fortunes as a knight when no other job would accept him as an apprentice. Takumi had began working the next month, swearing to return with money to pay their father's debts, cursing the sky and demanding the gods have some form of mercy. He, too, had joined the army, the most reliable form of income the area had for penniless aristocrats. Hinoka had finally broken down three months ago, left the house without a word and returned later that day with all her hair cut off and her chest bound, pointedly ignoring Ryoma's yells of "How can you do this?" and "You will be discovered!"
Yet not even the combined income of three army salaries could support their father's debts and the interest that accumulated on them like weighty snow. The house never spoke of money, though the answer to any monetary question was written in the way her siblings sat down from their thankless jobs each night to eat dinner. The way they carried themselves, as though each step was a burden. Sakura could tell their debts were only growing from the newly-creased wrinkles on Yukimura's brow, the way he sighed deeply at the tiny house they had moved into from their mansion of old. He had been their father's valet, back when they had servants and a small army of helping hands. Now there was only him, and he was more uncle than anything else.
However, there was an answer, now, to their problems, and it was reason Sakura had thought of packing the trunk at the end of her bed. A strange man had appeared at their door during their evening meal three nights ago with an offer on his lips.
Takumi had gotten up to answer the knock. He had opened the door, and then snarled, voice acidic. "Who the hell are you?"
"Oh, how unkind," the man had purred. It had been purring, Sakura had thought, and her spoon had paused on the way to her mouth. Ryoma had half-stood, knocking his chair back, and all of the sudden the man had pushed his way past Takumi and into their tiny dining room that served as entranceway, kitchen, and dining room, all in one.
But no one had thought of the squalor of their house at that moment. Sakura had almost dropped her spoon at the sight of the man. His hair was white - whiter than snow, whiter than the hot clear gleam of stars on a cloudless night - and his clothes were black as pitch and velvet. More expensive, she thought, than perhaps what Ryoma had once worn, at the height of their wealth, when their father was still alive and his business still running smoothly. However, more jarring still was the golden crest stitched upon the man's lapel - a curling mass of spikes.
"A Nohrian," Ryoma rumbled quietly to her right. Hinoka was on her feet immediately as well.
Yukimura had calmly set his spoon down and stood. "To what do we owe this sudden visit?"
"Oh, no, I need no refreshment, thank you," the man grinned. "Although I'm sure you're too kind to offer me a seat."
"This household offers no seat to the family that takes such advantage of us," Ryoma said lowly, threatening. Her brother had grown taller since he had joined the army, and the muscles in his arms were visible even through the thick-spun clothes he wore. "To those who would milk a family already broken for more coin."
"I object," the man said slowly, mouth tightening into a wider smile. "It is your family that owes ours money, is it not? We have been so kind to allow you to default on your debts for so long, and yet we are seen as the enemy… What a pity."
"What have you come for?" Hinoka hissed, hand tightening on the back of her chair as though to keep her from springing at the man.
"Calm yourself, sweet one," the man said, and had the nerve to wink the one eye that was not covered by an eye patch at her sister. "Although I'm sure the other soldiers find you riveting, I am not quite as easily scared."
"We are eating," Yukimura said levelly. "I am sure you did not come to trouble us with monetary matters at the moment, did you?"
"Oh, no." The man drew out the words even longer, this time. His eyes rested upon each one of them in turn, and then his sole eye found Sakura's eyes. It narrowed, predatory. "I come to offer a solution."
Sakura had swallowed involuntarily.
"Solution," Hinoka had repeated, and she had stepped over a pace so Sakura was shielded by her body. "What do you mean?"
"Don't trust a word he says," Takumi interjected immediately. "He's Nohrian scum."
"Oh, please," the man threw a hand into the air as though to bat Takumi's words away. "This is how you greet the bearer of excellent news?"
"What is the news? We will judge for ourselves whether it is excellent or not," Ryoma said, eyes still fixed on the man.
"All right - I can see you are impatient. I will be brief." He surveyed them all again, and then took a pace to the right as well so he could see Sakura again. "The family of Nohr has devised a solution to your debts."
The man paused. Sakura fought the tremble at her fingertips as he suddenly smirked. "If you offer your youngest sister to the youngest son of the Nohr, all debts will be forgiven."
"Offer her?" Hinoka cried.
"Of the Nohr?" Takumi yelled.
"Never," Ryoma pronounced, and the words were final.
Sakura braced herself on the edge of the table in front of her, head reeling. "All debts… forgiven," she repeated in a tone just under a whisper. All of the little things - all of the holes in the house could be fixed. All of the food would be more than the meagre gruel of peasants. Her siblings would no longer need to work menial tasks for an ungrateful army. Hinoka would no longer return with battered arms, with aching thighs from racing her horse. Ryoma would no longer have to serve men half his age as a squire. Takumi's fingers would no longer bleed from threading and rethreading his bow. Sakura would no longer sit long hours at home, useless, unable to save her family from steadily accumulating despair.
"Now, now. Don't make up your minds so soon," the man said, and Sakura could hear the lilt of mockery in his voice without having to raise her gaze from the table. "You have three days to think upon this proposition. If you desire to take him up on his most generous offer, you -" and he looked at Sakura directly as he did so, and Sakura jolted a bit, "will wait outside your house at midnight, when the fourth day begins."
"Never," Yukimura repeated, hands in fists at his side. "Sakura will never consent to such an offer."
"I see the lady herself has not answered," the man said, and his eyebrow raised.
Sakura drew in a breath, but Takumi cut in front of her. "You must be joking. Her - marry the creature of Nohr?"
There was an unspoken murmur of assent among her siblings, stated only in the set of their jaw. The family of Nohr was dangerous. Even when Sakura's father had been the most powerful man in the land, he had not considered taking the family lightly. They were rumored to live in castles of magic, rumored to be things of horror - animals, or beasts, or monstrous things with horns and teeth like a lion's, or normal people who shape-shifted, or creatures who sucked blood from babes, or not even visible at all, just ghosts or spirits or phantoms.
Some had seen the eldest sister - or claimed to have seen her. They had pronounced her more beautiful than any other living creature on this earth. Some claimed she was a succubus, an angel, a demonic power, or all three. Others claimed they had seen the elder brother, riding across the hills on his black horse, his sword gleaming in horrifying colors - the color of blood, people whispered, and his hair the color of the gold his family was known for possessing in spades. More still claimed to have seen the youngest sister, calling her a naiad or a dryad or a nymph, something light and airy, something lovely but strange. Her siblings collected these stories to mock at the dinner table, to reinforce the hatred they all shared for the family that had drained them of their money, their dignity, their self-respect.
But none had claimed to see the second brother.
As in any land, when something was unknown, it grew all the more horrifying. Sakura could not count the things she had heard about the second brother of Nohr. The stories people had woven about him were hardly to be believed - they were things of blood and shadow, of bone and bile. He had acquired his name over the years due to the silence, the uncanny absence of any real information about him whatsoever. The Creature. The unknown.
Nothing about him suggested he would offer such a deal lightly. Sakura felt her stomach contract.
"Leave," Ryoma demanded, and his voice pulled her back to the present moment. The white-haired man still stared at her over the table, unmoved by her brother's command.
"To prove he is serious, he offers you this," the man said suddenly, and shifted his jacket, withdrawing a single branch from it. It was the length of her forearm, and covered with fragile blossoms. Cherry blossoms. Sakura sucked in a breath. The white haired man left it at the edge of the table, met her eyes, and then walked out the door, somehow escaping Takumi's hands when he reached for him. It must have been a trick of the darkness, the slowly blackening night, but the man slipped out of view unnaturally quickly, as though he had faded into the shadows themselves.
"What is this?" Ryoma rumbled, waving to the branch. "How does he know?"
Yukimura, too, looked at a loss. "I have no idea. Her name is on no official documentation, to my knowledge."
"We haven't allowed her to be signed onto any debt," Hinoka said softly, eying the pink flowers disbelievingly.
"Get it out of my sight!" Takumi yelled, snatching the branch and, taking it between his hands, breaking it suddenly in two. Sakura flinched at the loud noise, and watched the pink petals fall to the worn floor. "Those Nohrian bastards! Are they kidding?"
"I do not think they are kidding, no," Yukimura said slowly, seating himself and removing his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. "That is what worries me."
"Why him?" Ryoma asked furiously. "Why her?"
"Sakura, we won't ever let this happen," Hinoka said quickly, turning to Sakura and kneeling beside her. The worry in her eyes shone brightly, and it was the mix of her sister's fear and her suddenly offered reassurance that finally brought Sakura to tears. For even now, it was her siblings who offered her reassurance - even though she was the one who sat at home with no help to give, with no plan to help solve their impending crisis. Debtor's prison was growing ever closer, and it was Ryoma on the line as the eldest.
But now, she was the one who could offer help. Three days had passed, and now Sakura stared at her half-packed trunk.
Her nightdress was the best thing she owned, so it would have to do. It was long enough, decent, and still had a flash of their old glamor to it - their family's long-ago wealth. She would wear a coat over it, one of the thick, heavy things Hinoka wore when it was snowing outside, long enough on her that it trailed on the ground, but warm enough for the cold that she could already feel through the thin walls of their house. She would bring a basket with two pairs of clothing, a book, and… bandages. Just in case, she told herself, willing the words to remain without their add-on: in case she lived. Looking at the array of objects made her nervous, reminded her just how difficult this might be. Preparing for one's own potential death was not easy.
Sakura was doing her best to avoid thinking about what would happen after midnight. To 'offer herself' to a creature sounded suspiciously like being eaten. The stories painted the creature of Nohr as a monster - a gargoyle with horns and claws, a hunchbacked wizard with red eyes, an ancient man, or a forever-youth, who ate young children to gain eternal beauty. He had hair of every color, or no hair, or six eyes, or one eye, or was instead a true monster - an animal, a minotaur, a beast, a wolf, a lion, a shapeless mass of fur and teeth and gaping maw. And she was to present herself to him, offer her neck for the chopping block, her body for the kill -
Sakura stopped herself, shook her head vigorously. No - it was worth it, any of it. She had already made up her mind, had made the decision. Her siblings were worth any cost. She turned to the preparations at hand, wiling the practical matters to supercede any more terrifying thoughts. For midnight was coming soon.
Sakura looked out the window. The moon was full in the sky, round and glowing, a silver coin upon a pitch black table. She picked out two dresses, ignoring their patches and holes as best she could, grasped the bandages without looking at them, picked up the book, and walked downstairs in stocking feet.
Her siblings slept together in one room opposite hers, to avoid waking her with their early morning schedule, and Yukimura slept on the armchair downstairs. At least, Sakura thought, her sister could now have a room to herself - a bed to herself. It would get easier on all of them, without her. One less mouth to feed.
The hardest part would be getting by Yukimura. Her heart pounded in her ears as she crept down the stairs, peeked around the corner. He was indeed asleep, his glasses at his side. The dying embers of the evening's fire snapped loudly, and Sakura covered her own mouth to avoid letting out a small gasp at the noise.
There - the firewood basket, empty at the edge of the kitchen. Her shoes below it, neatly arranged beside the pile of boots that were her siblings', and Hinoka's coat hung on her hook. She moved silently around the dining room table, picked up the basket, the shoes, slung the coat over her shoulder, and - paused at the door.
Sakura took in a breath. She was going to do this. In the end, her life was a small cost for her family's life - she was the least of her siblings, entirely without use or purpose - and now, if only in death, if only in this offering, she had a purpose. She would save her family from prison, from debt, from shame and scorn and scandal. With that thought a silent prayer on her lips, she turned the doorknob and slipped outside.
It was indeed freezing. Sakura slipped into her shoes first, then shut the door carefully behind her. She pulled the coat as she walked, arranging the objects she was carrying in the basket (that may have been entirely unnecessary, but she shut out that thought immediately). The moon hung, suspended and surprisingly large, in the sky. Sakura shivered, and not from the cold. She was here - at the edge of their property, at the stakes Takumi had driven around their tiny piece of land to mark off its edges. And now she waited.
She did not have to wait long. Galloping, the loud noise of horses' hooves, hitting the ground in a steady rhythm. More than two - it was louder than that. Sakura stiffened in anticipation. She could not think of any other reason someone would be out at midnight.
And all of a sudden, it was there, emerging from the night as though peeling itself from the darkness. Two horses became four horses became a carriage, gleaming with black metal. A golden crest on the doorway, bright as the moon above her, emblazoned with a circlet of thorns. A blond man, seated on the driver's seat, all in black. If fog had rolled in at the exact moment, Sakura would not have blinked - it would have been fitting.
"So, you came!" the man said cheerily. Sakura jumped, having half-expected utter silence. "The beautiful maiden arrives!"
"Wh-What?" she asked, near silent, tossing a cautious glance back at her house. If her siblings awoke now, the gods above knew what they would do.
"Might as well get in the carriage now," he said. "We've got some riding to do until morning."
"Are… Are you…" Sakura fought the swallow, but couldn't stop her words from grinding to a halt.
"I'm just a footman, milady," the man said, apparently catching on. He raised his voice a fraction more, letting his words ring dramatically out on the still air. "I am Odin Dark, servant to the Lord of Nohr."
"I… see." Sakura shivered again, fighting the urge to glance behind her to see if any candles had lit in her siblings' room.
"It's warmer in the carriage, milady," he said suddenly, and waved at the door. "And we should be going. We shouldn't keep milord waiting."
Sakura stiffened at the words, and then took a hesitant step forward. This was her last chance. She could run back inside, be in bed in five minutes, never say anything to her siblings of this strange moment, and pretend this entire encounter was but a nightmare to be laughed at over breakfast the next morning.
At once, the door swung open to the carriage of its own accord. A step she had not noticed earlier appeared at the base of it, and Sakura shut her eyes. She had promised herself she would do this, and she was not backing out now.
In a motion that seemed involuntary, she climbed into the carriage and seated herself upon blankets. Thick furs, black and smooth, surrounded her. The door swung inwards and, suddenly, she felt the carriage begin to move beneath her.
She looked to the side and discovered what she had seen but not recognized earlier - the carriage had no windows. Suddenly, Sakura felt the wave of panic she had fought all night rise up like a wave in her chest. Gods. What was this? Where was she? She felt at the side of the door frantically, but could find no mechanism to open the door. She could not feel the edge of the door at all - the carriage wall ran, unnaturally smooth, from one end of the box to the other.
Her panic burst into a wave of sobs that rocked her back into the carriage seat. She curled into the thick furs around her, burying her face into them, uncaring whether the driver could hear her or not. Her siblings. Gods, Ryoma, Hinoka, Takumi -- they would never stand for this. They would try to find her, they would threaten, beg, borrow, steal. They would never forgive her for this. No one had spoken of the proposal over the past three days - she knew her siblings had assumed it a settled matter. Even so, Sakura had noticed them standing closer to her, offering her more assistance, as though she had been deeply damaged by even the offer.
But now she had betrayed them; Sakura knew they might see it as such. She had left them all, and purposefully. It was for their own comfort, but she knew they were selfless, knew they would not see it as a gift. And each would blame themselves. Sakura knew her siblings, and she cried for each of them in the lightless box of the carriage. For somehow, she knew she would never see them again.
"Milady?" A voice, bright but unfamiliar. "Milady, we are here."
Sakura stirred. Her bed had become so soft overnight. Their house had become so warm. The voice was strange, though - as though Takumi had decided to raise his voice a pitch or two and smile while he spoke. She opened her eyes.
It rushed back. The carriage, the white-haired man, the deal, the creature - Sakura sat bolt-upright, face draining of its color.
"Gods!" The man, half-visible through the open carriage door, jumped backwards too. "Are you all right?"
"I - I -" Sakura stuttered, throat failing her at the view behind the man.
It was a castle - she had no other word for it. It was still dark outside, though she could have sworn she had slept for days instead of mere hours, and so the castle was half-lost in the darkness. Only a single lamp was lit above the main entrance - the rest of it was all spire and rampart, all Gothic window and stone carving, the farthest reaches of it fading into the night. It was imposing beyond belief, and Sakura could scarcely believe such wealth existed to have created such a thing.
"Oh, of course! Lord Leo's palace is most terrifying at night." The man grinned widely. "And, milady, whenever you are prepared, I am here to assist you from the carriage of darkness into the halls of despair!"
"Wh-What?" Sakura said, voice going upwards an octave at the end of her word. Her sibling's faces rushed into her mind - Ryoma, Hinoka, Takumi, even Yukimura's kindly smile. She would die without ever seeing them again.
The man cleared his throat, apparently disconcerted at her expression. "I - I'm meant to help you out of the carriage, you know. Whenever you're ready, milady."
Sakura blinked wordlessly at him. "I… I see."
When she was ready. Sakura looked down at herself, and refastened her coat's - Hinoka's coat, she thought, and shook the thought from her head - buttons, and smoothed it out. She looked for her basket, shifting folds of the fur out of the way until she could see its handle, and ensured nothing had fallen from it. Nothing had.
"I - I am r-ready."
The man offered her a gloved hand, and she took it hesitantly. His hand was warm through the glove, and she relaxed imperceptibly, though she had not realized she had wondered at his solidity before. Perhaps the stories were just stories. Perhaps the carriage had opened of its own accord because of some sort of mechanism. Perhaps she had just been half-tired, half-unconscious from fear. Perhaps there was a greater meaning in this offering.
She stepped onto the carriage's stair and descended onto the ground. It was remarkably firm beneath her, and Sakura took strength from that small thought as well. They were in a courtyard, a gated area where carriages could drive up to an entrance. All the stories were just story, after all. Perhaps death was not so inevitable. He was a person's son, a person's daughter, someone's brother. He had footmen. He was a human.
The castle door swung open of its own accord. The footman barely blinked at it. "After you, milady."
Sakura bit her lip. Surely there was someone behind the door, that was all. She straightened herself to her full height, fully aware this was not in the slightest bit imposing, and walked forward. The entrance had stairs leading up to it; two carved lions roared at either side of her as she walked up them. They were huge, and Sakura tried not to think of how realistic they looked.
"Welcome," the footman said perfunctorily behind her as she stepped inside, "to the home of Lord Nohr."
It was huge - Sakura drew in a breath. Her father's house had been large as well, the rice screen doors covered in paintings from ceiling to wall, but this was a different kind of imposing. All marble - all tapestry and family crest, all statue and bookcase and mahogany furniture. A huge staircase ran upwards directly in front of her, arcing into two different wings. And Sakura's blood ran cold as she realized there was no person behind the door, which shut behind them by itself.
"I am to escort you to your rooms, milady," the footman offered. "If you should like to rest."
"M-My r-rooms," Sakura repeated limply.
"But of course! Did you expect anything else?" The blond looked so entirely at ease with the situation that Sakura could only look at him helplessly, unsure how to express herself. Rooms? Was she to stay here for longer than a night? Had she been correct to pack clothing? Was there really no certain death ahead of her?
"And…" Sakura could not bring herself to finish the words.
"Milady?" The man blinked at her.
"Don't be an idiot, Odin," a voice descended from somewhere above them. Sakura jumped, and turned to see the white-haired man from three days ago at the top of the stairs. "She's asking after Lord Leo."
Sakura swallowed again. The man walked down the stairs to them; his steps echoed in the otherwise silent halls.
He stopped a few feet away from them, and his smile grew positively predatory. "Oh my. Is that a nightdress underneath your coat? Well, well. What a little vixen we've taken into our home."
Sakura almost dropped her basket, but couldn’t help the gasp from escaping her lips. Gods, what was he insinuating?
"I see." The man's solitary visible eye narrowed further; his grin only widened. "She looks so sweet, but in reality she's a little seductress. I see why she's asking after him, now."
"Niles," the blond said impatiently, "It was midnight, of course she was wearing night clothes. Besides, weren't you supposed to be doing something for Lord Leo tonight?"
"I finished," the man said shortly. "Besides, Odin, shouldn't you be doing your job?"
"I am," the man protested immediately. "The maiden was merely pausing to ask a question, which you interrupted."
"Wh-What t-time is it?" Sakura asked suddenly, grasping at some semblance of reality. For surely this had to be a dream of some sort. The entire place was shocking - the entire situation. This was no instant death - just two men, arguing like any two bickering coworkers.
"Uh - It's, um…" The footman scrambled momentarily with his jacket pocket. "It's half past four, milady. In the morning."
Sakura blinked, dazed.
"Perhaps she would like to sleep, Odin," the white-haired man said snidely. "It is, after all, very late."
"Of course," the blond said quickly. "Follow me, milady." He set off at a quick pace up the stairs. Sakura looked at his retreating back, shook herself, and hesitantly began to follow, grasping her basket for some semblance of comfort, the solidity of it reassuring. Rooms. The word was a small prayer.
"I am sure you shall see milord soon," the white-haired man said suddenly from behind her. She half-turned on the stairs, freezing at his words. Though his words were on their surface kind, there was a sharpness behind them, a twisting mockery. "So, don't fret, little one."
Sakura fought the rise of panic, the urge to squeak, and scurried up the stairs to the other man, who was already halfway through a door.
Sakura's thoughts circled around his words as they walked. They passed through room after room after corridor, endless layers of maze-like wall and tapestry and vase, only to suddenly halt at the end of a corridor, in front of double doors. "This is for you, milady."
"Th-Thank you," Sakura said softly, propriety winning over the urge to cower. Were these the creature's rooms, as well? It had not seemed as though it was the case, but the white-haired servant's words rang in her ears: you shall see milord soon.
"You are free to wander about the castle at your leisure, milady," the man said with a grin. "Explore the endless halls! Fight the suits of knights, discover ancient paintings, eat whatever you like… And if you should need anything, just say so."
"Th-Thank you," Sakura said, voice barely above a whisper. She laid a hand on the handle and pushed it inwards, opening the door - and there was no one in the room. She turned around to see the footman again, to say something - but he was gone. Sakura blinked, drew in a breath, trying to ignore the utter improbability of his instant disappearance, and hurried inside.
A bed, larger than Sakura's room in her house, laid front and center in the middle of the room - and above it, as though crowning the bed, was a four-poster structure made of -
"Cherry blossoms," she whispered. They were metal, but the pattern was unmistakable. She laid her basket on the floor and walked over to the structure, as though expecting the flowers to suddenly burst to life under her fingertips. They did not.
Opposite the bed, a fireplace, which was gently crackling; to the side of that, a small desk and chair, outfitted with what looked like writing utensils. And two doorways. Bathroom and closet, perhaps, Sakura thought, mind recalling her childhood home.
But the bed, as she ran her hands across the covers, was so soft. She felt the daze of the night, the sudden fear and transfixing horror of it all, catch up to her, as though it was a wall into her back. Sakura looked at her shaking hands, and pushed back the covers.
It was six p.m., according to the little polished clock at her bedside table, and Sakura still had not left her rooms. After awakening, she had walked through her room, investigating. Taking stock, she thought. Something to keep her mind on, instead of thinking of the footmen, or their… Lord. Better not to call him a creature.
So far, she had found thick parchment and pens in the desk drawers, sticks of wax in every imaginable color and a seal. She had thought it was just interwoven flowers at first, but then she had realized: it was an S. Sakura had dropped the seal like it was burning and shut the drawer quickly. Her siblings' words had come to her (Ryoma, insistent, demanding, "How does he know?"), and she had taken deep breaths until she felt her pulse slow once again.
Then there had been the bathroom. Thick towels, cut-glass bowls and cups and a set of grooming things - hairbrushes, pots, combs, what looked like a series of delicate perfumes. The mirror had only shown her herself - white-cheeked at the splendor, hair an almost dull pink against the cream of the marble room around her. She had flushed to see herself, so out of place - to see the little thread trailing from the ruffles of tired lace at the edges of her nightgown.
The closet was empty. This had surprised her after the rest of the rooms. It was a beautiful room, of course - shelf after shelf of nothingness, but an elegant lack of objects nonetheless. There were hangers made of dark wood, and a rack for her shoes. She had changed into one of the dresses she had brought and then hung up the other dress, her nightdress, and Hinoka's coat. They had seemed out of place, but Sakura had no other place for them.
The fire had been gently going, still, upon her awakening. Sakura had tried desperately to ignore the fact that this was improbable unless someone had entered while she had been asleep to start it up again. She hoped with equal desperation that it had not been the white-haired man.
But now, there was nothing else to do but agonize. She had tried to listlessly page through her book, but it had not helped. The only book she had salvaged from Yukimura's relentless sales had been her collection of fairy tales; last night was the first time that reading it had not calmed her down; she was discovering that today would be the second. The familiar stories of the girl a size of a thumbnail, the princess who had slain seven giants, the prince who had outwitted three foxes of increasing size to win his realm back from an evil power - none of them were helpful.
After all, each time she read of a creature - be it fox, or giant, or troll - she thought of the creature of Nohr. He was in this house, too. Sakura shuddered. As much as she tried to convince herself otherwise, it didn't matter that she had been given rooms, that he was noticeably absent. Years and years of horrifying stories were not so easily erased.
"Milady?"
Sakura jumped upright. "Wh-Who is it?" She ignored the fact that her voice had betrayed her nerves as best she could.
"It is I, Odin Dark!"
The blond one. Sakura did not get up from the chair. "Y-Yes?"
"Good evening, milady! I have come to tell you that the Lord requests your presence at dinner."
"Oh," she managed to say, choking out the syllable. Dinner. Horrifying things came to mind once more - a creature of Nohr. Someone who would eat her alive, leave no bones behind. Or maybe he left the bones behind, decorated a room with them. Maybe he lured his prey to a false sense of security, allowed them to settle in, gave them strange gifts like reminders of their names, and then slit their throats. Sakura shook her head, feeling her hands clench desperately at her skirts. Dear gods, she sounded like Takumi sharing a ghost story to make her squeak and Ryoma roll his eyes.
"Dinner," the man's voice added helpfully, "is in ten minutes. So you should probably come with me, milady."
"O-Oh." Sakura fought to swallow. She looked at herself. It was her oldest dress, this one - green and tattered. She pushed her hair behind her ear and then shook the hair back into place. "A-All right."
Standing, she walked out the door, her legs numb beneath her. The blond man smiled slightly at her, but Sakura did not meet his eyes. "Well, let's get going then, milady. We have a wondrous quest today - find the dining hall!"
Sakura was far too preoccupied to smile. Dinner. The thought circling around her mind - the thought she had relentlessly avoided all day - "offer yourself to him" - would not go away. The white-haired man smirked in her memory, and she fought the shiver.
"All right," Odin said slowly to her lack of reaction. "Well, shall we?"
She nodded wordlessly.
The walk was uneventfully short. Sakura wasn't sure whether she wanted it to be long or short - to get it all over with, or to savor the last seconds of her life for a few seconds more - but before she had decided, Odin was opening a huge set of double doors and she was being ushered inside to her death.
The first thing she noticed was the silence in the room. It was dark - darker than the rest of the house. The candles that flickered at the center of the table were dimmer, somehow, than normal candlelight, and though there was no breeze in the room, they looked almost on the verge of being blown out.
Even so, the table laden with food, the chairs richly embroidered, the huge row of curtained windows lining the wall in front of her - all of them were ignored in favor of the figure on the other side of the table. He was standing, but almost seemed shapeless. His clothes, or the lack of lighting, concealed him. The door shut behind her with a quiet click. The figure did not move.
"A-Are you… the c-creature?" Sakura asked, voice barely a whisper.
"What do you think?" the figure asked. A male voice, low but smooth. It could have been a human voice, but he was swathed in shadows, and though the light was dim, Sakura could see a ring of what looked like horns on his head.
Sakura didn't respond, and the creature took this as his cue to round the table. She instantly flinched away, panicked, and he halted in front of her. "So. I am indeed still the creature outside these walls, I see."
She opened her eyes a crack, but did not see a mouth full of slavering teeth, or a raised sword or claws to strike. Instead, her eyes adjusting to the darkness found the face of a man - a light-haired one, with a thick, gnarled set of horns - no. It was some kind of circlet on his head. Sakura sucked in a breath.
"Not quite what you expected, perhaps?" the creature - man? - asked snidely.
"Y-Y-You're…" Sakura said intelligently.
"A human, perhaps." The man's lips twisted upwards slightly. "Is it shocking?"
"S-So… You are," Sakura said, exhausted by the sudden rush of relief coursing through her body. Human. It was all lie, as it often was.
"Oh, I never said I was human," the man said. Sakura's breath caught again. His lips pulled upwards again at her expression. "Don't fret. I'm no threat to you."
"O-Oh," Sakura said, simultaneously horrified and wondering if this was supposed to be reassuring.
The man turned from her and walked around the table. She could make out his arm resting on the chair on the other side of the table. "Please, sit."
Sakura swallowed but did not move. The person across the table sighed.
"If I promise you that you have nothing to fear from me - that there will be no danger here, in this room, or in any other room in this house, to you, will you be seated?" he asked, waving a hand at the chair in front of her.
"I…" She wet her lips, gathered her arms around herself. "Y-Yes."
"I give you my solemn word." He dipped his head as he said it, and the gesture, strangely like her brother's careful vows to protect her, reassured her somewhat.
"O-Okay." Sakura fumbled for the chair in front of her, and let herself fall into it, her knees buckling. She took in a quiet breath.
"There. That wasn't too difficult, was it?" The man sat opposite her, and it was almost as though the area around him darkened, as though his cloak - for she could see he wore a cloak, now, a thick one - gathered shadows when he walked.
Sakura did not look up from the plate in front of her. Despite the darkness, she could tell that it was thick china, ringed in what looked like gold. A glass at her right looked more like a goblet than anything one put a beverage in. It was absurdly opulent, and this, too, was frightening.
"I will introduce myself," the man said. She looked up. "As you have guessed, I am the infamous creature of Nohr. And now that I have introduced myself, I believe it is your turn."
"B-But that - " Sakura broke off, suddenly aware her thought had been verbalized unconsciously.
"Yes?" He halted in unfolding his napkin in front of him, his black gloves dark against the pale white of the cloth he held.
Sakura swallowed. "Th-That c-can't be your…"
"My name?" the man supplied. He looked away for a second. "No. I am Leo, the second son of Nohr. However, as you noted, I am more commonly known as the creature. Now, yourself."
"Y-You… You kn-know me already," Sakura said, voice quiet. The cherry blossom branch, the branches that made the bed - neither could have been a fluke, or a coincidence. The seal in her drawer even less so.
"So you noticed," the man said.
"H-How?" Sakura chanced another glance up at him. Despite the gloom, his eyes were dark and piercing.
"I am familiar with your family," he said smoothly, "and with you as well."
"H-How?" Sakura repeated. "N-No one f-from your f-family should…"
"Should know of you," he filled in her words. "Right. Your siblings tried so hard to protect you. They didn't even place you on any of the debt documentation. You were, after all, barely born when your father signed the original copies to the name of my father."
"How…" Sakura stopped. "How d-do you kn-know all this?"
"How." He let the word hang in the air for a moment. "Can I trouble you with anything to drink?"
"What?" The change of subject was so surprising she had no time to stutter.
"We have… let's see. Water, wine, juices, seltzer?" He paused. Sakura blinked at him. "I could offer you something harder, but I don't think that would be polite of me so early into dinner."
"I… I'm not th-thirsty," Sakura said.
"I assure you, it's not poisoned," the man said, reaching for some sort of crystalline vessel to his left and pouring the liquid into his cup. "I will drink first, if it eases your mind."
"I - I'm fine." Sakura almost frowned at him. "You - H-How did you know?"
"Please, eat," he indicated the plates around them. "I assure you, it is all safe."
"Y-You’re not answering the question," she said softly.
"You are correct," he said simply, meeting her eyes. "I am avoiding it."
Sakura's mouth thinned. "B-But…"
"Please, Lady Sakura," and her stomach dropped uncomfortably, for he had known her name, after all. "Eat."
"I - I'm not a l-lady anymore," Sakura said quietly, objecting more to his use of her name than anything.
"I shall treat you as such nonetheless," he said. His eyes met hers again over the table, and this time it was Sakura who looked away first. "But I assure you, no matter what they say about me, I do not intend to starve you, nor fatten you up to eat you."
Sakura looked around at her. The plates were laden with things she barely had names for - foods that seemed far too rich to eat after gruel. And gruel made her think of her siblings.
"M-My family," Sakura said quietly. The man paused halfway through serving himself some sort of tomato dish and then continued when she did. "A-Are… Is it all f-forgiven?"
"Every cent," he said shortly. "You do not need to trouble yourself about them anymore."
"Th-They're my siblings," she said, hands tightening on her skirts. "I - I'll always t-trouble myself about them."
He paused again. "That is understandable. However, I can assure you they are out of debt. In fact, you may even say they will be doing well for themselves very shortly."
"Wh-What do you mean?" Sakura asked.
"Hm." He contemplated the dishes around her and then offered her one. "Try this, at the least. It's light enough it won't upset you."
Sakura looked at the bowl. It was some sort of thin soup, something that reminded her of what her mother had made her when she was sick, before her mother had died of illness herself. "Y-You're not answering my q-question again."
"I suppose I have made a habit of it," the man agreed easily. "But eat first and we will talk later."
She looked at him, eyes fully adjusted to the darkness by now, and saw him nod slightly at the dish again. She took it with both hands to avoid spilling anything, and set it on her plate. She discovered it delicious, but even bland soup was a sickening in such an atmosphere.
"M-May I ask something?" she said.
He looked up. "You may."
Sakura paused, fiddling with her spoon. "Wh-why am I… here?"
The man sat backwards in his chair, and the cloak around him moved slightly with him, his high collar flicking as he did so. "Why indeed."
"Y-You…" Sakura thought about how to say this, thought about the white-haired man's declaration. His offering. The single cherry blossom branch, and the implications of it. "H-He said I had to…"
His eyebrows raised. "He?"
"Y-Your…" she waved a hand limply, uncertain what to call the white-haired man.
"Odin," the man guessed. Sakura shook her head. "Niles. The one with the eye patch."
"Yes," she said, taking in a breath. "He said… something about - about off-offering m-myself."
As her words petered off, she could sense more than see him stiffening. The tension in the room, which had been ebbing, snapped tight as a cord once again. Sakura shut her mouth instantly. The room was silent for a second or two. Sakura could feel her pulse ring in her ears.
"And you assumed, of course, I desired to consume you," the man said flatly. It was Sakura's turn to go rigid in her seat, both at the truth of it, and the sudden lack of emotion in the man's voice. "Fear not. You have fulfilled the offering. You came, and were not forced to."
"But…" Sakura fought the swallow.
"Now, offering fulfilled, you wish to leave," the man added, voice still flat as before.
Sakura did not trust her voice to speak, fear suddenly pooling in her gut.
He continued on as though she had agreed with him. "I am afraid I cannot permit you to leave. Such are the terms."
"Th-The terms," she repeated limply, mind running through the stories she had read. A deal, a curse, a contract with the fae. What terms could there possibly be?
"Yes." The man stood suddenly, pushing his chair back from the table. "You are free to wander as you wish. Take as long as you like to eat."
Sakura watched him curve around the table and open the door to the silent room. He paused momentarily, in the doorway. "Lady Sakura."
His tone, the sudden formality, made her jump. "Y-Yes?"
"This is a question, and not a demand," he said slowly, his back to her. "So you may answer how you wish."
There was a pause. Sakura took in his words slowly.
"Will you marry me?"
Sakura's mouth dropped open. Surely she had heard incorrectly. But he was still standing there, his high collar up so she could not see his face, and her pounding heart told her she was not wrong.
"I - I…" Sakura struggled for the words. "No."
"I see." The man stood still for a second more before walking away. "Good night, Lady Sakura."
Before she could even open her mouth to respond, the door shut, and she was left alone in the dark room with her thoughts.