My first upload. Kinda nervous. Please be kind. :}
Sayuri sat quietly in the garden, watching the breeze move the branches of the rose arbor. They were white roses, veined with a delicate peach color. They were beautiful, but she preferred more humble flowers. Roses conjured up too many dramatic connotations for her taste. And they had too many thorns.
She sighed and turned away, catching her reflection in the mirror-still pond at her feet. The woman who looked back at her from the surface of the water was beautiful, but her large violet eyes were haunted; her slender form drooping with weariness. Even her long white hair looked disheartened, hanging around her melancholy face. Framed by the white roses, she looked like a melodramatic heroine pining for her vanished lover. Or some such nonsense. Sayuri's thoughts brought a smile to her lips, and she kicked a pebble into the pond, causing Miss Melodramatic Heroine to vanish into ripples.
She straightened up and spotted her daughter pursuing a butterfly through a bed of irises. "Haruka! Don't trample the poor flowers!"
The toddler stopped dead, examining the crushed blooms beneath her feet. "Oh. Poor flowars." Instead of going back the way she had come, the little girl carefully toddled through the rest of the flower bed, pulverizing more irises in the process. Ending up on the grassy lawn, she turned and surveyed the damage. "Oops."
Sayuri laughed. "Come here, silly."
The child examined something in the ruined flower bed, reaching forward to grab it. Then she obediently turned and scampered to her mother. "Mommy! Lookit!"
Sayuri smiled as her little daughter held up a small yellow flower for inspection. "Oh, yes. Isn't it pretty?"
"Pretty?" The little girl considered the blossom clutched in her fist. "Well, kinda."
Sayuri laughed again and scooped the toddler up into her lap, tickling her. "'Kinda?' You think it's kinda pretty?" Her daughter squealed with laughter, squirming to get away. Sayuri kissed the top of her head, cuddling her. "Not as pretty as you, sweetheart."
It was the truth. Little Haruka was barely more than a baby, but it was already evident that she had inherited her mother's beauty.
The child snuggled into her mother's lap, sticking her thumb into her mouth. She watched the clouds move across the sky with untroubled, clear green eyes. "Mommy? Is it raining soon?"
"Maybe." Sayuri stroked her daughter's silky pale hair, crooning a little song about rainstorms and forests growing. About not being afraid. She felt a lump lodge in her throat as her daughter grew sleepy in her arms. Oh, how I wish we had nothing more to fear than a passing thunderstorm...
"Sayuri."
She looked up, startled. A man in ceremonial armor stood there, gray eyes heavy on her and her child. Sayuri went white. "Kanaye..." she whispered, frozen.
"The nobles disagree with you. Judgement has been passed," the man said flatly. "Please give the girl to me."
"No..." Sayuri's eyes went wide with shock. She clutched her daughter so hard that the child woke up, squeaking in protest. "No. How can you be a part of this, Kanaye? She's your daughter, too!"
Kanaye flinched. "Sayuri..."
"You disappear for years without a word, then you come back to carry out a death sentence on your own child?!" Sayuri's voice was furious. "How can you--"
"I have no choice." Kanaye drew his sword, the pain visible in his eyes. "Don't make this harder than it already is."
"Harder for who? You?" Sayuri leaped to her feet, hugging her daughter close.
Kanaye took a step forward. "I don't want to hurt you, Sayuri..." His eyes locked onto her face, his expression a bewildering mixture of longing and stern resolve. "But if it becomes necessary, I have orders to--"
Little Haruka looked around, sleepy and puzzled by the raised voices. Her eyes met Kanaye's, and she began to whimper. Sayuri clutched her even closer. "At least let me send a message to my mother," she said desperately. "She can--"
"Lady Ayame has no jurisdiction here. I'm sorry." Kanaye gripped the hilt of his katana firmly. "I have to carry out my orders."
Sayuri looked at him in despair. I loved you once. I thought you loved me. No. You did love me, I couldn't have imagined that, but... Her pulse had been hammering in panic, but now it steadied. Violet eyes turned steely. How quickly the heart turns over! she thought savagely, her own heart wrenching."I don't care about your orders," she finally said, low and fast. "I'm not letting you hurt my daughter." She raised one arm.
"Sayuri, don't--!"
The wind picked up alarmingly, screaming straight at Kanaye and slamming into his body. He struggled to maintain his balance. It was like being engulfed by the ocean; the roar of it was deafening. He hunched low, gathering his own strength to avoid being blown away. "Sayuri!" he shouted, shielding his face. "Stop!"
The wind died as suddenly as it had come. Sayuri and her daughter were gone.
Kanaye cursed. He had been entrusted with this task to prove his continuing loyalty to his people and their mission to preserve order. It was also an act of penance for his crimes in nearly upsetting that same order. If he did not complete it...
"Surely, you can do better, brother," a male voice growled from the shadows. Kanaye bowed his head in shame. Of course his superiors had been observing him. "Is her good will so much more important than preventing chaos?"
"Evidently, brother," another voice answered the first. "Or we would not all be in the situation now."
"I understand, my brothers," Kanaye said, voice strained. "I will complete the sentence."
"Then go now. She did not fly, there is still time."
"Yes." Kanaye opened his mind, searching for Sayuri's life force. Even after have been apart for so long, he still almost knew it better than his own. She's going to the gates?! Without hesitating further, he raced after her, his surroundings blurring into a tunnel of speed.
* * *
Sayuri fled through a maze of rose hedges, cradling her daughter in her arms. The maze was not as well kept as it had been in her childhood; thorny branches hung across the path, ripping at her hair and yukata. She winced as one cut across her cheek, but kept running, summoning an accompanying wind to push the briars away.
Little Haruka was clutching her mother's yukata with both small fists, shaking. No doubt the little girl had sensed Kanaye's intent. Her own father...Sayuri thought, agonized. Haruka whimpered and Sayuri quieted her emotions with difficulty, trying not to frighten her child more than she was already. For a brief second she wished that her daughter's abilities hadn't developed so quickly; having them now made this situation all the more nightmarish for her.
She picked up a strong life force moving in a path tangential to her own, and sped up. He's guessed already. But I have just a little further...if I can just get there first...
She exploded into the clearing in a whirl of wind-blown rose petals and debris. "Yes..." she breathed. Before her, another mirror-still pond winked in the dusky sunlight, surrounded by a circle of twelve white stone pillars. Sayuri stared at these anxiously, trying to remember which one she wanted...There. The one marked with the butterfly.
She rushed to it, hurriedly setting her daughter down. Placing one hand on the carved butterfly, she whispered, "Open. I am driven by a great need and require your aid. Please open."
Nothing happened. For one wild second she thought the gate was going to be stubborn. No. There's no time! But then the butterfly symbol began to glow with a white light. Turning quickly, Sayuri nearly wept with relief when she saw that the pond was glowing too, its previously unruffled waters stirring in the depths and casting patterns in the shadows around her.
Kanaye's life force was getting closer. Sayuri made to snatch her daughter up, but hesitated. They will hunt us. My mother cannot stop them, cannot help us. They will hunt us and they will not stop until they have found her. So long as she has all these powers, she'll never be safe, ever. She looked at her child, torn. Pretty green eyes stared back, wide and scared. "Mommy, what's wrong?" the toddler said clearly, her little face frightened. Sayuri took a breath that was almost a sob. "Sweetheart..." she knelt down, gripping her daughter's small shoulders. Kanaye's presence was drawing too close. It was now or never. "I love you. Never, never forget that." A tear slid down her cheek.
Then she steeled herself and plunged her hidden dagger into her daughter's back.
Haruka didn't cry out. She froze, staring at her mother in shocked incomprehension as her blood spattered the grass. Weeping, Sayuri wrenched the dagger out and stabbed again, this time on the other side.
This time the child cried out, a full-throated scream of agony that rose up and up and made the heavens echo. Sayuri nearly screamed herself, her whole frame shaking with grief.
Kanaye, rushing into the clearing, halted in shock. "Skies above..." he gasped, staring at the sight before him. Why--Does Sayuri mean to kill her child herself?!
Sayuri gulped for air, gathering her shattered strength to her once more. Before Kanaye could move, she whirled around, grabbing her daughter bodily and throwing her into the pond. There was no splash as the now-silent child disappeared into the brightly glowing waters.
Kanaye reacted a split second too late, seizing Sayuri's wrists. He stared into her tear-stained face. "What have you done?!"
She stared back, shoulders shaking, expression numb. "I've kept my daughter safe," she whispered. "You'll never find her now."
As if to punctuate her words, the pillar and the pond stopped glowing, returning to their impassive and unremarkable state. Kanaye cursed. He knew that neither he nor any of his brothers-in-the-sky could open the gate again.
"Where did you send her?" he demanded, gripping Sayuri's shoulders and shaking her. "Where?!"
"Somewhere safe. Do what you will, I shall never tell you where." Sayuri closed her eyes. "I loved you once, you know."
He had strict orders. Execute the child, and take her mother before the council for judgement. If she repented her crime, as he had, her sentence would be light. But with her actions, Sayuri had already gone far beyond the redemption of repentance. As a soldier sworn to defend the ancient order, he knew what he had to do.
"I should have never asked you to marry me," Kanaye said quietly, drawing his sword. He pulled Sayuri in close, touching it to her throat. "I'm sorry."
She did not resist. Steady violet eyes met his. "Not as sorry as I am."
He ended her life mercifully quickly, with one swift movement of his blade across her throat. She died without a sound, her lifeless body slipping to the petal-strewn grass.
When his superiors came at last, they found Kanaye sitting, dull-eyed, watching his wife's blood stain the white rose petals red.
* * *
The child, Haruka, opened her eyes slowly. She was curled up on her side on the hard ground. Her back throbbed and she let out a little moan, curling up tighter.
It was dark. A bright moon shone above, but she was surrounded by mist. Where was her mother? Her mother had hurt her...
Whimpering, the little girl struggled into a sitting position. "Mommy..." she sobbed. The world around her was close and dark and lonely and she wanted to climb into her mother's lap and feel her warmth and hear her sing the night's fears away. But her mother had hurt her...
"Mommy!" she wailed, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. As she cried uncontrollably, she failed to notice the monstrous shapes in the mist, coming closer and closer...
Don't worry, this randomness will relate to Bleach soon. Again, reviews are highly welcome.