The Waning (GojoHime) - Part 2

The Chains of Fate

"This is the past," a soft, lilting voice declared.

Gojo's gaze snapped to a small boy seated across from him. The child was perhaps four, with hair like spun snow framing a remarkably handsome face. Large, brown eyes, like molten caramel, regarded him steadily. Himself, Gojo found seated at a low table, clothed in a splendid indigo kimono with gold threads. Atop his head, his touch confirmed, sat a black scholar's cap, an eboshi.

"Is this another one of those weird ass dreams?" he demanded, turning from side to side to check his surroundings. Remarkable how real this one felt...?

They were at his estate, which looked spiffy and new and smelled faintly of polishing oils and drying paint. Cedar trees lined the carefully raked paths of the sprawling garden, their branches rustling softly in the mountain breeze. A few crickets chirped hesitantly. The morning was cool, but the sun, peeking over the main house, promised a swift ascent in temperature.

A soft gust of wind carried strands of his long hair across his face, and with it came a discomforting shiver. Gojo lifted his hands in front of his eyes, examining them with a growing sense of unease. They were his, undoubtedly, yet felt as if they belonged to someone else.

"What is happening?" Gojo frowned.

"Do not be concerned," the boy reached out a tiny hand. Gojo took it, marveling at its delicate perfection and how it seemed to vanish within his own. "Come," the child urged. "It's this way."

They walked across the wooden veranda. The soft clinking of porcelain and hushed voices drifted from within the house.

"Who are you?" Gojo asked the little boy and added "What's your name?" when his first question was met by apparent puzzlement.

"Mayu?" The child answered but it sounded more like a question than an answer.

"Isn't that a girl's name?" Gojo mocked him with a grin but the boy only looked at him again with big, confused eyes.

As they stepped into the house through the wide open door, their feet tapping quietly on the tatami mats, a woman poked her head out of a room further down the corridor, her smile as warm as the morning sun.

"Here you are!" She greeted him, affection evident in her voice. "Come and have some tea?"

Gojo's heart swelled with a fierce, protective love. Utahime! Her laughter was the music to his soul, her touch a flame that ignited his world. She was the reason he got up in the morning, she was the reason he hurried home after being summoned to court. She was his anchor in the tumultuous waves of court politics, she was his inspiration, his muse, the woman who made his life complete.

"What is it?" She smiled. "You look like you've seen a divine apparition."

Yes, because he was looking at one! He still couldn't believe that he had managed to make this wonderful woman his wife. It was all worth it – her father's fury, the Taira's relentless demands for compensation, Emperor Uda's reprimand... there wasn't a rule too sacred he wouldn't have broken to have her.

His heart swelled. "I love you," he said, his voice thick with emotion. The words were simple, but they carried the weight of a thousand lifetimes. He had accomplished so much in his relatively short life, and yet, the greatest victory was simply being by her side.

"I know," she replied, her smile deepening into a radiant glow. Coyly, she reached up to tuck a stray strand of raven-black hair behind her ear.

Desire laced through him. It only took such a little gesture to set him aflame. Utahime's face glowed with a radiance that rivaled the scarlet silks of her kimono. Her pregnancy, though still in its early stages, added a dreamy softness to her features, a maternal grace that seemed to belong there.