Yukimi of Queenscove sat heavily on the bed, feeling the weight of her body shift unsteadily as she tried to right herself. Another day, another night soon to pass by, but the pain in her heart would not go completely away. The heaviness in her very soul seemed to increase every minute, and she wished more than anything that she were not alone.
That's not true, she corrected herself. Right now, she wished more than anything to be back in her homeland again with her family and friends. The Yamani Islands… oh how she craved to see the rice fields and bamboo forests again! The cherry blossom trees in their prime, and how red the leaves turned in autumn; the snowy mountains in winter and the green lushness that surrounded the many rivers in summer, how she missed it all with a passion that would not cease or disappear. She had memories rush into her mind at the most inconvenient of times; visions of Yuki and her friends walking in the bonsai gardens and practicing tea ceremony together, beautiful happy memories that always left tears in her eyes and sharp pains in her heart. She wanted to assure her husband that she was happy in her new country, and she was, but her new home did not make her forget her former home, which was as, if not more, dear to her heart.