WHISPERS OF A BUTTERFLY • Kamisato Ayato

thirteen. 十三

On the day of Chisato's wedding, you braced yourself for the weight that would lay upon your ascension to the highest seat of the Kanjou Commission. It frightened you. The idea of being Ayato's equal in terms of rank had been a fantasy. Now, the title was only one ceremony away. All you had to do was give Chisato's hand, and you were officially going to fulfill your role as the spare.

You doubted your parents and Chisato's father would be very happy once they caught on. Nevertheless, it was no longer in their power to stop you. You would be the head. You would have the last say in every decision. The thought of having the power to control a fraction of Teyvat's economy as well as the flow of supplies and outlanders made you shiver.

Ayato deliberately avoided you the whole morning and when you did cross paths, he regarded you with nothing but the permanent polite smile he constantly plastered on his face. He had forced himself to shut you out. Now that the wedding was in motion, he clearly did not want anything to do with you anymore.

"Heizou predicts that if Tenshukaku finds out that this wedding is an elopement, chaos will ensue."

A composed face painted your features so that Aether wouldn't see how worried you were. If word got out that all three heads of the Tri-Commission were involved, it was going to get messy. Could an elopement destroy the Shogun's pursuit of eternity? You felt sick.

"Reports say they don't take you seriously. You're the youngest, so they don't think you're a good leader."

"I'm aware," you said. "The Kanjou Commission could use some softening up. Everyone thinks we're too harsh."

Outlanders like Aether might not understand just how big of an impact this could cause, but every political clan did.

"It's inevitable someone got married," you continued. "Our connections directly influence our commissions, thereby affecting Inazuma."

"So if the Kanjou Commission and the Tenryou Commission got into a fight, the economy and the security clash too, Lady Hiragi?"

You nodded, thinking over the ramifications. Once you were vulnerable, the weaker clans would try to usurp your power. The pretty picture that you and Ayato worked hard to paint together would vanish in the blink of an eye and your engagement would have all been for nothing. One of you had to be wed, and that was going to be Chisato.

"You can call me F/N," you told Aether with a rare note of warmth. "Please."

You smiled, not too much that made you seem overly eager but not too little that it made you look disinterested. Aether's friendship would be a useful investment for the Kanjou Commission. Connections meant power. Power meant stability. Stability meant that your people would live in peace and balance for the duration of your reign. Your spine crawled. This was exactly what Ayato had done to you.

Laughter greeted you when you returned to Konda Village. You expected to find Ayato as he left you, solemn and dull, but instead, he was conversing with Kujou Kamaji's officers. He didn't look the least bit bothered about the Tri-Commission. This was all in a day's work for him. You still had so much to learn.

"Lady Hiragi," he greeted, bowing. As though you hadn't been swapping spit last night. "I take it that Heizou has informed you of some, ah, minor setbacks?"

"Lord Kamisato, I would not refer to them as minor. And it was not Heizou who informed me, it was the Traveler."

Ayato let his gaze linger on you for a few moments more than necessary. A brief flash of annoyance coursed through him. So the Traveler was still close to you. He would take note of that.

"Once they're married, there's nothing the rest of the Tri-Commission can do about it but accept," he explained. "Your reputation and mine are good enough that we can get out of this unscathed, as well as Chisato and Kamaji. Fear not."