Daybreak

Sixteen - Saihi

That man was hiding something. Saihi just knew it. It was precisely why the prince decided he would return to that lake no matter what.

    When the duo left Doctor Kennedy's house, they returned to the palace but Saihi's mind was still at the lake.

Those girls had appeared, Saihi thought. Nothing, then suddenly there. Cranes, then girls. 

Kenta parted ways to visit Emiko and to check to see if Odilia had departed the capital for home. It was a relief for Saihi who was quickly forming a plan.

The prince first went to his room where he changed out of Kenta's kimono and into his personal clothes. Then he hurried to the library, ignoring the piles of paperwork sitting on his desk. Saihi paused. He shouldn't have paperwork on his desk. He had an office for that.

He stepped back and looked down at the neat pile stacked on his desk. The first that caught his eye were creamy envelopes that looked like party invitations. Next to it was a stack of papers that was thick as a book on the history of ceremonial rites for the passing of the crown to the next emperor. A note was written on it by the head council member instructing the prince to thoroughly read the texts by the end of the week.

Other things Saihi found on his desk were letters of congratulations and well wishing. A letter from the empress was there also. Assuming that it was likely about the wedding, Saihi ignored it and left his room altogether.

Saihi stopped by the kitchen where he surprised the workers who happily provided him with a bowl of fruit before he left for his next destination. He went to the library where he immediately went to the shelves that promised topics regarding spirituality and ghosts. After gathering a handful, Saihi took a seat between the aisles on the marble floor and crunched on his red apple slices as he flipped through the pages of the book.

The prince wasn't really sure what he was looking for. Perhaps some validity to the words the doctor had said earlier. There was something in Doctor Kennedy's eye that unnerved the prince. It made it hard to trust the man. Saihi wanted to believe the man spoke the truth. Not because he'd rather have hallucinated the seven girls he'd seen the previous night, but because there's a few options on how to deal with seven spirits. Seven girls who turn into cranes however...

"Strange..." Saihi mumbled, flipping the page after reading an introduction to ghosts. According to the exorcist who'd recorded their findings, ghosts were spirits who couldn't leave the physical world due to attachments. The journal wasn't alphabetical, so Saihi had to flip through a couple of chapters before finding a page that spoke on the topic of sirens.

Primarily young women, sirens are a type of ghost that bear a vengeful spirit. Ghosts are identified as spirits that haunt the mortal realm but cannot physically interfere with living beings in the mortal realm.The basic factor that identifies a siren would be its haunting space which would be a body of water.

So the part about their haunting space lined up with what Doctor Kenndey had said. However vengeful? The girl in the crimson dress had appeared to be hostile, but the others had cowered in fear when they'd seen his gun. Saihi didn't think the dead could be afraid of a human weapon.

He continued to read.

Although uncommon, sirens tend to also help each other if their spirits share the same resting space. A resting space is the same area that they haunt and is located in the exact spot of their passing.

Saihi scanned the words once more, thinking. If those girls were the girls who'd died in the fire four years ago, it would make sense for their spirits to haunt the land... His thoughts trailed off. It still didn't explain the cranes. He definitely saw them transform into humans from cranes.