On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Nine: A Good Match

              He enjoyed their meetings long after the pale blossoms had fallen from their trees, dyeing the Kimsura gardens green and staining the ponds purple as the wisteria vines that conquered Hikarishi each and every May. Dai waited eagerly for the end of his lessons and rejoiced at the setting of the sun every night. Especially tonight.

Tonight, every step forward brought satisfaction and pride.

But at the same time... confusion.

And fear. Fear that it wasn't enough. That he wasn't enough. Fear that it mattered. Fear that he cared. Fear that-

Fear that his promised would take one step too many and plummet twelve storeys to her death.

His hand caught her before his words could, and his breath hitched as she slowly turned around. "...Stop."

Her lips parted slightly, a plum months past its season.

Stop. The word was for him, he realized, more than it was for her. Dropping her hand, Dai stepped back. Stepped away. Stepped out of the breeze and out of the light and into the covered pit where he'd killed a hundred men.

A terrible place to bring her, really.

But it had the most impressive view.

Yuina reached for her blindfold- giving him reason to touch her again. "No. Leave it," he told her, speaking softly though no spies waited in the shadows. The castle's eyes had closed for the night.

Only the lantern lighters stirred.

"Why?" Again, she tugged at the white swath of fabric covering her eyes. "If you want me to spar like this, it-"

"Would be a disaster."

Yuina clucked her tongue, swaying in the gentle wind. More and more every day, he thought of her as a willow, lissome and flexible, yet unmovable and strong. Unbreakable as a blade. One not meant to pierce or slash or hurt. A blade too precious for war. "That's not nice, Dai."

"I'm not nice."

She smiled at that. He didn't know why.

"Have you brought me here blindfolded to murder me, then?" she laughed, and Dai shook his head, forgetting she couldn't see him.

A moment passed. A long, strained silence that made his skin itch and stole the smile from Yuina's face. Clever as she was, she couldn't read his mind.

She could speak to the spirits, but she could not read his mind.

Yuina tucked her hair behind her ears, waiting.

Dai remembered to answer. "...No."

"Then what do you want?"

Time. Midnight came slowly tonight. Lazily, like a leaf drifting over an untroubled stream. Not even his father, the mighty Amihan Kimsura could bid it come faster. So for a few minutes, at least, Dai would stall for time.

"Tell me where we are."

For a moment, all was quiet. All was still save the rustling of the trees. The whistling of the wind as it roamed the benches and the cages in which they held their Black Claw foes. Their beasts. Gently, Yuina lifted her face to the sky.

"I smell the cool, damp air of night and feel the wind in my hair. It sings with the Phantom, so we must be facing northward."

"What else?" he asked, watching men scurry like mice through the gardens below. Lantern lighters. Or was it wrong to call them that?