On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Forty-Five: Crystalline Keys

           Daiki Kimsura didn't expect a warm welcome. Judging by the darkness shading half his Circle's eyes and the contempt that lined their mouths, the shogun knew to expect frigidity from his Shirub wife. Either that or rage fierce and hot and bright enough to blind them both. He'd prepared for that.

He hadn't foreseen the empty bed, walking into the room he owned with bedsheets still scented with last night's perfume- but seeing no one. Dai didn't believe in ghosts, but if he had...

"Where is she?" he asked in a low tone, entering the receiving room quietly enough to make the attendants jump and turn white as the vases that lined them.

"Pardon me, Your Excellency?"

"Yuina. Is she..." A pause weighed heavily on his chest. He looked to the floor. If he'd dropped his thought, he couldn't find it.

A meek smile from the man. "The Lady Kimsura met with the ladies' flock this morning, My Lord," he said, and Dai physically, violently jolted.

Shit, he thought, watching the servant's smile fade into nothingness. Shit.

No.

Within a blink, he was storming the halls, every inch the conquering hero. Every inch his cousin.

But Yuina wouldn't see him that way. Not unless he beat the snapping beaks and beady eyes of the Phoenix's court. Not unless he found his wife before-

And there it was, that soft, morning, mourning light. There she was in the garden, obscured by a small gaggle of ladies-in-waiting.

...On top of a high mistress of the Dragon Court, ripping and tearing and weeping as three guards wrenched them apart. Something they never would have done that with his mother.

Then again, Raia had never been quite so wild.

A guard held each of her arms, holding her upright, holding her steady. Holding her prisoner. Yuina didn't fight them- just gripped those severed black hairs with all her might.

A trophy- reclaimed.

Dai stopped in his tracks.

Yuina's companions didn't know what to do. Most kept their distance and watched with concern or disapproval upon their painted faces. One or two attempted to comfort her with a hand on the shoulder, a pet on the head. The rest followed the Second Lady of the court inside.

Amaya Warauryu smirked at Dai as she passed, eyes bright as the few remaining silver beads glinting in her hair.

...

                   Nothing fit. Nothing felt right, with Amaya wearing Oddyii's beads and Yuina wearing hair sticks stolen from Isuto, her own guards holding her, and her husband gazing at her with guarded pity... and then looking away.

"Miizhair," she managed, warbling like a mournful autumn bird. The very tears in her eyes shook. Below her feet, the world tilted.

Then vanished.

She stumbled forward and only her husband's strong, firm grip kept her grounded. Tied to a reality she could not escape.

Laughter, brief but definite, came from all parties but her own. Yuina chewed her lip as Dai's eyes flashed before dimming to black. "Walk with me," he ordered, pulling her along before she could take a single step. "You must stop crying."

"How-"

Singing beads, no longer soft and mournful, presented her answer. Yuina buried her sobs, her tears, her very breaths as Amaya jingled them. Their cries were mocking, and so were their faces. She couldn't breathe. Grief and soggy air built up inside her, turning her quivers violent as the attack that had spawned them. But despite their linked arms, her husband didn't seem to notice. Dai didn't seem to mind.