Starlit Reflections: Dark Quarter

Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics, Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment, Viz Communications and other interested parties. The characters and situation are used without permission for personal entertainment only, and no copyright infringements are intended. No profit is being made from this fic; if there was, Tasuki and Tamahome would lighten me of it, as soon as they could.

Prologue: Voice Across Time - Nuriko

I stretched, yawning, as the young maidservant left the Imperial Library. She had finished lighting and trimming the lamps as I had been reading, and now passed soundlessly out of the room. She did cast a glance back at me as she withdrew, a gently admonishing and inviting glance. I didn't need to hear her speak to know what she would say: "Missing dinner, young master? It will do you no good - come with me and I'll take care of you."

If only she knew....

I stood and reshelved the scrolls and parchments I'd been reviewing. Sairou's plight at the time of the appearance of the Priestess of Byakko was of no help to us.

It was depressing how little historical precedent there was. The advisors would run around like frightened chickens if we couldn't show then that what we were about to do had been done successfully before. Whenever, that was, that Lord Hotohori did decide what we were going to do.

Lord Hotohori hadn't actually given me the order to find possible solutions in the historical records, but I'd go absolutely crazy if I didn't do something, and reading old scrolls had a lot less potential to be embarrassing and/or destructive than throwing things. I was still living down the plum tree.

And anything was better than the daze Tamahome had fallen into. Yesterday he had sat unmoving on the rail of the verandah so long that two enterprising young sparrows had begun to build a nest on the top of his head. It had taken my conscience standing behind me with a broadsword to prod me into gently lifting the small structure off his hair and into a nearby tree. The servants watched him to make sure he didn't hurt himself - and, if I were honest, for the entertainment. He did some very silly things. And, if I were honest, I'd admit I was often among the watchers.

The rack beside the records of the Byakko Shichiseishi was, if possible, even dustier. I sighed as I pulled documents, books and scrolls off it at random. The most notable result of my research so far was that I was getting a crash course in absolutely trivial facts, none of which I needed to know. I didn't follow fashion right now - finding out that a hundred years ago girls used to shave their hairlines to give themselves high foreheads wasn't exactly earthshattering for me.

Kourin would be interested, though, so I made a note of it.

I opened the next book, glanced at it, and then took a second look. It was a very long look. I'm sure I was blushing bright red as I gently closed the book and set it aside. I'd never seen a pillow book before; Kourin would definitely be interested in seeing it, if the librarian would let me borrow it.

A slender hand pressed itself down on the table in front of me. I glanced up, yelped, and fell off my chair.

"Here you are," Lord Hotohori said flatly. "Nuriko, do you know how long I've been looking for you?"

"Since dinner?" I guessed, scrambling to my feet.

"Dinner," Lord Hotohori said, in a low, dangerous voice, "has been waiting for you. And I am hungry."

Uh-oh.

"I'm sorry," I apologised. "I thought it was a Court Dinner tonight." A sudden thought hit me. "A Court Dinner... waiting for me... oh no. You didn't."

Lord Hotohori sighed. "You're in luck. I cancelled the Court Dinner earlier today."

I sighed with relief.

"But it would have been waiting for you if it had occurred."

I should've known I wouldn't get off that easy.

"... So I've been trying to find some historical precedents," I finished my explanation.

Lord Hotohori nodded and took a mouthful of rice. I took advantage of the pause to feed myself.

Eating at the Emperor's table has some benefits - when Lord Hotohori takes his meals alone, or only with me, I will find my dish heaped with all my favourite foods and cooked to perfection. And if the cooks complain that Lord Nuriko has given to the Emperor his fondness for such plebian foods as sweet fried tofuu, I say in return: that just because he's the Emperor is no reason for him to be denied a treat that any poor person within his realm may enjoy.

That is another reason to avoid Court Dinners. I have quite a collection. Maybe one day one of them will prove effective in getting me out of the things.

"I understand your wish to help me," Lord Hotohori said calmly.

"Say 'stay out of trouble' and you'd be nearer the mark," I said wryly. "Or have you forgotten the plum tree?"

He grinned. "I don't think you'll ever be allowed to forget the plum tree," he said seriously.

I sighed. "So I'm trying to behave. It's not easy."

"Especially as the Emperor will be demanding the attendance of Lady Houki tomorrow."

His timing was impeccable. I'd just taken a mouthful of apple cider and it took all my self-control not to choke. "Wh-what?" I eventually wheezed.

A twisted half-smile flashed across his lips. "You are my current official choice for Empress," he commented.

"Now I wish I hadn't told you that," I said, in a resigned tone. "What do I have to do, anyway?"

He lifted an eyebrow at me.

"Oh."

"Don't worry, I just have to be seen to be spending time with an appropriate Empress-candidate," Lord Hotohori said, "so we'll just walk in the gardens. And we can watch the advisors have fits over my chivalry."

"They have fits over me no matter what I do," I mourned, "no matter what identity I'm in."

He shrugged. "It keeps them young."

"I think they'd prefer a different method."

"Probably," he said cheerfully. He wasn't the one being named in nightly prayers among the things to be delivered from.

Or maybe he was.

Dinner ended and I stood to retire for the night. The book I'd borrowed from the Imperial Library slipped from where I'd had it propped against the side of the couch and landed with a whump on the floor.

"What's this?" Lord Hotohori asked, picking up and flipping it open.

"No, don't!" I said quickly, but not quickly enough to stop him looking. I felt myself blush as he opened the cover.

"This is about you?!" he said in a wondering tone of voice.

"What? No!" I said. I might read a pillow book, but pose for one...!

"But it says so right here. 'My sister-in-duty, Nuriko of the Suzaku -'"

"May I see." I held out my hand, and didn't make it a question. He handed it over.

"Of course."

I looked at the first page, and realized that I'd borrowed the wrong book. The one I thought I'd had was still safely in the Imperial Library, and this volume....

"You're right," I said, in a wondering tone of voice. We both sat down again. "It says:

"'To my sister in duty and destiny, Nuriko of the Suzaku. I pray thee, do not turn away from this account, my sister. My God Genbu, Who with His brothers lives outside time itself and so knows far more of the workings of destiny than thee, I, or any of our acquaintance, doth assure me that it will fall into thy hands. And only into thine; from the moment I closed it, until thou didst lift it from its dusty rack, it hath lain untouched and unread.

'While Holy Genbu assureth me that this, my remembrance of my journeyings, trials and joys as a Shichiseishi of Genbu, shalt bring thee strength and eases to thine own pains, I cannot see how it may. Thy burdens are thine own, and this account cannot take any of thy responsibilities from thee. Thou art, as thou hast ever been, a Shichiseishi, with all the pain thy destiny entails.

'Yet my account may yet assist thee, for it will show thee that thou art not alone; thy destiny is hard, but not lonely. Even as I have drawn strength and love from my star-brothers, so too may thee from thine - and from me also, sister in destiny.

'My sister Nuriko, I beg of thee one favour. When thou hast read this journal, I beg of thee that thou burn it. For while I, as thy sister, shalt have no secrets from thee, still I would not share those secrets with others. As one woman to another, I ask this - not for myself, but for all those whose secrets I have written here - for my star-brothers, whose secret stories should remain secret, between Shichiseishi. If thou dost share these tales, I pray thou wilt share them only with thine own star-brothers.

'Thy sister across time,
Mei Ling, Shichiseishi Uruki of Genbu.'"

My eyes met Lord Hotohori's across the table, still strewn with the remnants of food. I reached down and turned the page, but before I could begin reading, he reached over and closed the book.

He looked at me seriously. "Read it tonight, and if you can share it with us, tell me tomorrow," he said.

I nodded. "I will. If I can," I replied.
 

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