Prologue
Time changes little when it comes to matters of the heart .
"Hime-sama! Hime-sama!"
She spun to face the incoming messenger.
"Taeko-sama has arrived"
She sighed, no doubt aware of the news.
"Very well, let him in," she responded.
He burst through the door and bowed lowly to her. His entire face red and his dress marked in the finest of silk and gold threads. His one hundred watt smile beamed at her. He who brought the winds of change with him yet who knocked at the forever sealed; she could not hide or mask the love that radiated towards her, the forever sealed.
"Hime-sama," he said in his most reverant voice and bent towards her, even lower than before,
"HIme-sama, I have only spent a week's time with you but I hope to remain forever with you,"
He held her hand now and continued,
"Hime-sama, slowly, with time, I will receive your love, I assure you, so please allow me to rule at your side."
He looked to her for a response, his handsome gaze sure to melt even the hardest of hearts, his mere presence reddened the faces of her lady servants yet had little attack against the forever sealed.
"Hime- sama," he continued in a more forward voice, will you be my bride."
The silence that followed was long and pronounced. She took her hand off his hold and turned to the open balcony window and gazed at the lighted night sky a moon hid behind the clouds. He could have the most beautiful of woman, but not the forever sealed.
"Taeko-sama," she begun staring out into the night, "I cannot love you."
She said with the simplest of words. No sense to beat around the bush, she thought. He opened his eyes wide with horror and hurt.
"Hime-sama," he pleaded in a puppyish way then when no response came he quickly got to his feet.
"I will find him," he said firmly, "and bring him back, here, to you," Startled she looked at him questioningly.
He left with those words, as abruptly as he came. A light breeze blew sending tufts of her hair into the wind and blowing past a few clouds in a gentle glide.
There the crescent moon stood, an unattainable glory, over the dark night sky. A single tear glistened by the moon's ray slid down her cheek as it all came back to her, by the light of the crescent moon in the peaceful meiji era.