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The bountiful estate of the Sugawara’s was expansive as it was beautiful. The night casting grand shadows across gardens, and buildings alike. The family noble in both sorcerer and non-sorcerer societies in equal measures. Contributing to their prosperity no matter the family members calling. Of the many central buildings on the estate, there was one young woman laying wide awake in one of the inner most rooms. If anyone passing by strained their hearing, they would hear what sounded like muffled crying.
The darkness did little to help Tsumiki fall asleep. She had long stopped trying to wipe away her tears when this started to became a nightly occurrence. Letting them pool at the corners of her eyes as the gnawing dread she carried throughout the day flourished sending the tears to stain her pillow.
No, you don’t have to do that.
Tsumiki bunched up the thick blanket in her fists at the passing echo from the head of the Sugawara clan’s words to her from three weeks ago. The start of her self-doubt after years of believing she knew her purpose within the clan. If she wasn’t to wed, then what was she to do? Another bead of tears slipped cooly down her cheeks. The complete darkness of the canopy above her giving her no answers or comfort as she lay there. The usual self-berating followed at her own self-pity.
Here she was laying in an expensive bed, all of her needs met, when not that many years ago she had been worrying over how she was going to convince the villagers to give her work or food or something for her and Megumi when it was clear that neither her mother nor their father were coming back. Then out of nowhere appeared the, at the time, soon to be head of the Sugawara clan with his strange, otherworldly blue eyes and brilliant white hair. They never saw their old shack of a home again. A good riddance to the little specters she had seen plenty of around that old place, but were barely present here. It was difficult at first to suddenly be elevated to such a high status. Let alone the studies both had to catch up on to fit with the clan’s baseline expectations of them.
Now it didn’t feel like any of it mattered. Megumi was off doing whatever business that the head of the clan did. They never talked of what it was and though she wanted to know, she knew better than to pry. Even if it did create something of a wall in between her relationships with them. It hurt to have that with Megumi. She wanted to know about his life but he seemed even further from her than ever before physically and emotionally.
What was she supposed to do? What other purpose could she have in her life?
Again, these questions circulated in her mind as was the norm. Again, there was no answer for her. Only the ever-pressing worry on how she was supposed to live after yearlong expectations being uprooted. In the quiet of her bed, she heard the distinct sound of something moving, a door sliding open, someone entering the shinden. An odd occurrence since usually none came through at this time of night that she could recall. Perhaps it was a servant that didn’t want to brave the cold on the veranda. She could hardly blame them. Another set of wooden rails making a barely perceptible sound against the wooden frame of another door sliding open.
Tsumiki sat up. That sound wasn’t from across the other side of the shinden as she would have expected. No, that was much closer. The even footsteps crossing the moya eliciting a spark of concern as she wiped away her tear tracks. It must be serious to come to her in the middle of the night. She sat up properly as the tsumado doors lightly squeaked on their hinges as they were opened to her bedroom. The curtain around her bed shoved open unceremoniously to let in a streak of moonlight from all the way outside that illuminated the backdrop of the woman standing at the end of Tsumiki’s bed obscuring her face. The dark shadow held the curtain open with one hand.
Tsumiki was the first to speak to rid herself of any worry before it could take root. “Is something wrong?” At first there was no answer. Something about not having an immediate response set off a sense of danger within her mind. As her eyes rapidly adjusted to the darkness and light once more, she could see more of the woman. Long dark hair, a loosely thrown on haori, and if she had more light she could confirm if her features were as delicate as they appeared to be. Tsumiki tightened her hold on the blankets as her body tensed. There were plenty of women who served the Sugawara family. Plenty that attended to her over the years. She didn’t know this woman.
The unknown stranger glanced around before settling back onto her, “They really just left you here.”
“How did you get in here?” Tsumiki gathered her feet underneath her ready to flee if there was an opening. If this stranger had made it thus far, then she wasn’t to be trifled with. The woman dropped the curtain as she stepped inside. Darkness enveloping them both, but she could still clearly hear her voice. “They didn’t even bother with a shikigami to stand guard? Talk about lazy. Or should I say careless?” Tsumiki slowly brought herself up into a crouch as she rapidly blinked to adjust her eyes. Yelling might be a safe bet but the question was how quickly would anyone be able to get to her if she did. What the stranger would do in that time frame. Shifting her weight back slowly towards the back side of the canopy.
“I think you need to leave.” Her words coming out steady despite the rapidly shifting emotions she was going through. There was only one entrance in her room. She just needed to get past her. The outline of the woman talked without a care, “You’re quite the difficult person to find, Tsumiki.” The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end at the mention of her name. “The little treasure they had hidden away, so,” there was something that shifted in the air that gave it a metal tang and crawled into her lungs, “what kind of technique are you hiding?” Tsumiki’s back brushed against the curtains, parting to let in the minimal light across the stranger’s face as she took a step forward onto her bed. The stranger’s face indeed did have delicate features, beautiful even, but the shifting reflection on her arms is what caught Tsumiki’s attention. Frozen at the sight of the reflective armor shifting upwards from the wrists. Extending as the stranger took another step towards her with no hesitation. “Does it make you frail?" The woman was crossing the space too quickly. "Have they forbidden you from using it?” Tsumiki’s foot slipped off the raised platform of her bed falling on her back. In the space between the canopy and the stationary walls, she twisted and scrambled to pick herself up while kicking the curtain out of her way only to have a hand clamp onto her ankle and yank her back down causing the end of her robe to bunch up at her knees. Her heartbeat pulsing rapidly in her ears as she glanced back at her would-be assailant emerging from the dark as liquid metal crawled up her face molding into a frightful mask. “Are they afraid of you?”
Tsumiki could feel true fear in its entirety permeate her whole body. Mirroring back her failures to live up to her own expectations. The Sugawara’s expectations. A life cut short before finding its true purpose. Would anyone even care? Or would she be just an unfortunate by-product that couldn’t be avoided? Nothing to do but sweep it into the trash to be forgotten in its inability to do anything useful.
“I don’t know!” The terror talking through her when no other coherent thoughts would come to her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” That unmoving bug-like mask reflecting death.
“You don’t know what I’m talking about?” There was a buzzing quality to the strangers’ voice.
“No,” the word came out desperate as Tsumiki’s thoughts still failed her. She was going to die here. And nothing would change in the world. The bug mask split apart though no pieces fell to the floor. There was a twinkle of interest in the midnight light of the woman’s eyes.
“You don’t know what a curse technique is?” Tsumiki shook her head. The armored hand left her ankle but that hardly mattered as the stranger leaned forward one armored hand on each side of the prone girl’s thighs. “Shikigami?” Almost on instinct, Tsumiki shook her head as she flipped onto her back with her elbows supporting her, trying to create some more distance. The stranger didn’t miss a beat as that twinkle in her eyes intensified. Armored hands moving forward to box in on either side of Tsumiki’s chest as she moved even further forward practically crawling over her. “Curses?” The woman got so close that Tsumiki had to give up on supporting herself to lie flat against the ground but still the woman’s hair pooled down over her with barely any space left from how close she was. The distraught young woman could only give a tentative, “No?”
What felt like an eternity passed as the stranger that had barged into her room stared down at her unflinchingly. The woman pulled back and Tsumiki could breath again only for it to falter with the other resting her hands on top of her sternum followed by her chin. “Huh.” The statement from the stranger doing nothing to calm Tsumiki’s fried nerves. Her heartbeat was still going wild. There was still someone in her room that shouldn’t be here. The ceiling stared back for just a second long before she was able to scrounge up the courage to lift her head and look downward, “Could you get off?” The other was wearing practically nothing underneath her askew haori from what she could see and with her body pressed up against the one layer of her own robe it felt impossibly indecent so she redirected her gaze back to the ceiling. “Please?”
The stranger hummed. “You don’t know what a sorcerer is.”
“Should I?” There wasn’t anything that came to mind on what that could be implying or any of the other things she had mentioned. It all sounded like nonsense. The woman let out a sharp laugh that made her flinch. Surely someone had heard that. The young woman kept staring upward and didn’t see the way the other woman had settled to cradle her own face in her palm as she kept looking down at this new specimen. One hand stayed on Tsumiki’s chest. “I’d say so. Seeing as you’re a part of one of the biggest sorcerer clans in the country.” The information still made no sense. Not with some stranger laying on her chest like it was some ordinary thing. That fear still lingered but it assisted her creeping agitation at the sudden casual address. “Why should I trust anything you say? You barged into my room and threatened me?!”
“Oh, but Tsumiki how else are you to approach the unknown? With a bouquet in hand? For all I knew you could have been their last defense for desperate measures.” The stranger played with a piece of the girl’s loose hair. She fought down the urge to slap that hand away. “But I see they’ve shoved you into this cage with no intention of letting you out.” There was a part of her that didn’t want to agree with that label on her circumstances. No matter how fitting it felt. She barely left the grounds as is. The pressure on her chest disappeared as it settled on her thighs.
Tsumiki pushed herself up as much as she could. Keeping her eyes fixated on the woman’s face and not on the way her haori hung off the stranger’s frame leaving a strip of bare skin from her neck downward. She wasn’t wearing anything at all. “My name is Yorozu. I’m a sorcerer. A strong one at that.” The glint in her eye cut into her with precision. “Much like your brother.”
It struck a sore nerve she’d kept buried. When was the last time she saw him? It had to have been more than a couple months. He’d grown so distant over the years. Did he even think about her anymore? Or was she just a burden from their previous lives prior to the Sugawara’s? An unwilling obligation to keep any connection with her.
“What about him?” The question came out bitter. “What does that even mean?”
“He has quite the cursed technique. I wondered if you were the same.” She leaned forward and Tsumiki instinctively leaned back. “They haven’t taught you the basics. The history of the family you’re a part of.” There was a hint of a smile on Yorozu’s lips. “I could teach you those things.”
Tsumiki shifted her weight but nothing gave way for her to slip out from underneath the woman. Apprehension leaving the young woman in waves as she questioned if she should even try to push the other off. “You need to leave.” The space between them was non-existent in an instance and a tiny involuntary whine slipped out at the hand that firmly gripped her jaw. The armor cool against her skin where it touched. Yorozu tapped her pointer finger, the one still holding her jaw, over Tsumiki’s lips. “I can take you with me.” The sorcerer scanning, searching within the girl a hairs breadth away from her. “Unless you prefer your cage.”
“And you’d be any better?” Tsumiki, still terrified, was able to whisper out.
“You’d have my honesty. That’s more than what you’ve been given staying here.”
“You know nothing about what it’s like here.”
“No? Then surely, you’ll be married off.” Yorozu’s eyes were calculating like she’d already seen through to Tsumiki’s soul, “I should have heard someone mention you in one of those stuffy social parties. Yet there was nothing on a prospective Sugawara bride.”
Being shoved into a corner to be forgotten. Everyone was moving on and experiencing life while she was stuck in her misery. Did anyone even care? Curdling fury scraping against her skin fighting for the surface. Tsumiki wrenched the hand off her face. “Get out.”
The way Yorozu’s eye’s uplifted at the corners like she’d won did nothing but stoke her fury further. The hand holding Yorozu’s wrist was empty for less than a second before Tsumiki’s wrist was in a bruising hold. The smooth armor having warmed up from being in prolonged contact with skin. Tsumiki’s eye twitched at the pain but she paid it no mind as she kept her attention on Yorozu. The fury was ebbing at the prospect that she might actually get hurt and the fear was returning. She knew she couldn’t beat someone in a fight. She refused to just lie down and admit defeat. No matter how scared she was.
There was a glimmer of something in the sorcerer’s eyes, “You’re skeptical. Good. How about this:” the woman settled back to sitting back on Tsumiki’s lap, “That technique your brother has is called the Ten Shadows, and the one inherited by the Sugawara’s is called Limitless. Confirm them for yourself. Though don’t be surprised if someone tries to stop you.” An involuntary noise of surprise left her as she was hoisted up onto her feet like she weighed nothing. “I’ll be back in one week.” Yorozu smoothed out Tsumiki’s rumpled sleep robe. “You can let me know then if you’d rather stay a little trophy in their backroom,” Yorozu’s eyes practically smiled as they met hers, “or if you’d like to stretch your wings.”
Tsumiki didn’t get a chance to properly understand what just happened. By the time her mind caught up, Yorozu had already left her bedroom. Her sure footsteps denoting the casual nature she hadn’t dropped.
“I’ll tell them you were here,” her bare feet quickly padding against the floorboards to the door of her bedroom. She couldn’t just let Yorozu walk all over her. She had to take some kind of control. “You won’t get back inside!”
The low night lighting illuminated Yorozu’s figure at the open sliding door she must have come through to reach her room. One hand on the door as she looked over at Tsumiki without any indication that she was put off by her attempted threat. “Would anyone believe you?” The delivery wasn’t sharp, but it needled its way into her psyche seeding doubt. Yorozu inclined her head the slightest, “Someone breaks into your room in the middle of the night, and you haven’t screamed once. That doesn’t quite lend to your story’s credibility.”
The staff knew she was miserable. It was hard to hide it entirely. Maybe… maybe they would think she’s doing it for attention. Tsumiki couldn’t keep eye contact. “I could do it now…” Her voice coming out soft. The staring from the sorcerer hadn’t lessened making her skin crawl. She fought down the urge to fidget. They both knew she wouldn’t follow through on that weak threat.
“One week, Tsumiki.” The eerie silence filled by the sorcerer. “I’ll be expecting an answer.” The girl glanced up at the woman once before looking downwards again. “Sleep well.” Out of the corner of her eye, Yorozu slid the door closed behind her as she left. The retreating steps of the sorcerer echoing out in the shinden. The click of her bedroom doors followed suit. Leaving Tsumiki to her solitude as she stared at nothing with her hands still on the doors.
Sorcerers… Ten Shadows… Limitless? It could all be nonsense.
They circulated through her mind on repeat as she retreated behind her canopy and tucked herself back into bed. The pulsing soreness in her wrist indicating it would surely leave a nasty bruise later. She’d have a visitor in a week. Whether or not she wanted one. Tsumiki closed her eyes though she knew sleep wouldn’t come. There was research to be done. A decision. Part of it hinging on just how much information was going to be withheld from her.