I was standing in a web of stars. A young man stood next to me, staring out into the infinite. He had a strong western jaw, and dark eyes and hair. He was not terribly tall and stood with a tired slouch. His face was a portrait of agony as he turned to face me. "I cannot remember her face."

There was a discordant chime in the distance – the twang of a poorly tuned chord.


Wakefulness was abrupt but no more startling than any other day. I ran my hand over my face, stretching the skin under my eyes a little in an attempt to speed up the process of waking. It didn't help.

Flopping out of bed like an ungraceful harp seal I rolling easily into a standing position. I grumbled under my breath about strange dreams, working fingers through my hair to tease out the knots. The dream was a new one, and it had left me unsettled. I was more accustomed to having dreams about my trip across the continent, and the memories of my decisions that followed me.

Splashing cool water on my face helped some, and I slapped my cheeks to regain a little color. The air slipping through the open windows was lousy with birdsong and it did not serve to make me less grouchy, regardless of how peaceful or refreshing it's supposed to be.

Genkai had beaten me to the table, no surprise. The extra teacup was already waiting for me and I poured a cup swiftly. The green tea didn't have nearly as much caffeine as a cup of Turkish coffee, but it served as a good remedy for my general morning lethargy.

"What do you know of interpreting dreams?" I asked the old woman abruptly. Genkai wasn't one for banal small talk, and I was more likely to get a real answer if I avoided beating around the bush.

She barely raised a glance over her teacup, sparing me the slightest of dismissive looks. "Nightmares?"

I shook my head. "I am not afraid of the ghosts that haunt me," I paused, swirling the tea in my cup. "This is a new feeling I do not recognize." It had lingered well past waking when the strangling feeling of regret typically dissipated. Instead, I was left with a tension lingered in my shoulders and an itch in my feet that I was unsure of how to interpret.

Genkai set down her teacup and graced me with her full attention. "Your strength has been building, creating pressure against the limits you set for yourself. It's no wonder you're sleeping poorly."

I ignored her accusation and shook my head again. "That's not it. Blue's strength is no different from one day to another, and only my physical strength has changed. The two are completely unrelated."

She slapped a palm against the table, irritation thickening in the air. "Like hell they aren't related; her strength relies on yours – if you sat around getting fat your life would get shorter, so she would be weaker. Don't you know how this works yet?"

A seething anger blossomed in my stomach. "I know better than you, better than anyone living how painfully unfair the rules surrounding the operation of this device are. But you know," my tone turned mocking, "so how could anyone else know? No one knows more than the great Genkai, yes?" I stood from the table in a jerky motion, knocking over my teacup. "Forget about it." I spun on my heel and left the table, hoping to get some air outside to cool the bubbling cauldron of irritation in my belly.

I would get no such peace, though, as Genkai followed me as I descended the short steps to the courtyard. "I don't think you know how to control it," she sneered. "I think you're afraid of it."

The anger in my stomach exploded into a hot rage. I whipped around, spinning on my bare heel on the cold stone paver. I could feel the hum of the shuttle against my chest, burning with equal fire to match my fury. "You think I don't know how to work this power?" I roared. "How do you think I survived?"

Her expression was so doubtful, so patronizing, I couldn't stand it. I shoved a hand down the collar of my sweater and grabbed at hot bronze. Yes, it was screaming through my flesh, yes! A swift tug at the cord released the knot behind my neck that bound her in place.

I clasped the shuttle, holding it high, and blue starlight burst into gleaming around it. Blue did not form behind me, though – instead I summoned only the parts I needed; her left arm became my left arm, emerging from my useless stump. I raised the new hand, spreading fingers wide. It wasn't hard to find the threads – they almost threw themselves into my hand; starved for a Tkadlec's touch they moved as easily as air.

With Blue free to act the Tapestry of the World was exposed to me. Great churning patterns flexed and fluttered with life. It took little effort to splay the pattern beneath my feet wide, moving the threads apart without breaking them. I moved them with a will – stone flexed and grew, softened and sighed. They wanted to change under my touch. That was the secret to a weaving – the object being changed needed to want to change. It wasn't difficult to coax an object into wanting the change, and some objects or people took more convincing than others.

The stone of Genkai's courtyard was tired and hummed with the desire for Blue's touch. It was visceral, and I could taste the yearning in the air. My hand – Blue's hand – plucked at their threads, teasing them from their long-held pattern into the object of my desire.

I didn't need to physically knot or thread each design, I simply willed it to be so, moving Blue's hand through the threads. They followed my will so long as I held focus and the strength of said will firmly in my mind. If I lost focus or grew uncertain, the entire pattern could fall apart, leaving only empty dust in its place.

There, I could feel it as the tapestry shuddered, taking hold in the new pattern. There was a mental snap as the abrupt change took hold. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for mild nausea that followed the swift change.

A sweet smell washed over me, and wispy tendrils brushed against my legs in the breeze. The sigh of the wind picked up the rush of grasses and sedge leaves. I opened my eyes and blinked once to adapt to the sudden rush of color that had burst into life. Bare stone had given way to rich soil teeming with a high field of wildflowers open to the rising sun.

Soft pink flowers drifted in the air on gauzy stalks, looking more like tinted snow than flowers hovering on delicate strands. Heady yellows filled the middle ground, demanding insect attention. Deep blues and passionate reds were scattered in the scene, their petals fluttering like dancers.

The air was completely silent – Genkai was up to her waist in gently blowing stems, each dipping and standing again in the light breeze. Confused birdsong erupted again, and I moved a step closer to Genkai, running Blue's hand through the soft sea of grasses.

"I am alive today because I could control the shuttle when I needed it most. That may have taken a substantial number of years off the end, but…" I wouldn't know until the end came roaring up to meet me.

Genkai said nothing. Her gaze flashed over my shoulder and softened just slightly.

Uh-oh. I turned slowly, dread rising in my stomach and swallowing the anger and passion that had bubbled there. Following Genkai's gaze to the temple steps behind me, I turned my attention to the Torii gate, filled at the entrance with the wildflowers that had taken over the courtyard.

Kazuma stood on the top step of the temple stairs. His face was an open book – eyes wide and mouth slightly open. His face didn't express any real emotion, per se; he was simply experiencing and his brain was too busy processing the information his eyes were passing on to do much of anything else.

A bag of groceries lay forgotten at his feet – ever the gentleman, he had replaced those broken the previous day. I'm sure they've broken again, I thought idly.

He walked slowly through the new field of wildflowers, kicking up loose petals and the occasional cricket. He leaned down and plucked a flower, rolling the stem slowly between his fingers. The flowers brushed against his knees, not swallowing nearly as much of his form as it threatened to do to Genkai.

"Are you a demon?" he asked, his face a portrait of confusion.


The little boy had fallen and impaled himself on a spike. I took the shuttle, holding it in my good hand, and summoned Blue. The little boy shrieked in terror, trying to both scramble away from me while simultaneously concealing his agony.

"Wait – I can help!"

"Demon!" the boy cried. "Come to steal my soul – demon!"


"Are you a fox; like Kurama?" he clarified. He had never seen anyone pull plants from nowhere like the Kurama.

Novak shot him a confused – yet pained – look. "No – not a demon, and not a fox. Just a June." She had been glowing – glowing a fierce blue from her left hand – and the plants had suddenly sprung to life. She had a left hand, and even as he stared with disbelief she followed his gaze, and the hand faded. She shuddered and slipped her hand into her pocket. Her gaze fell to the ground and the flowers at her feet.

"She's human – through and through," Genkai confirmed. Kuwabara's gaze flickered between the Novak and Genkai, shame apparent on the former and a thin satisfaction in the latter.

"So – you're here to train, then?" Kuwabara asked. "To fight? All the great spiritual powers have trained with Genkai! Yusuke and me – oh man – we spent a lot of great days here when we were younger-" Kuwabara stopped his rambling when he saw Novak's universal expressions for 'you're talking too fast for me to understand'; a mild smile and a slight tilt of the head.

He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head with a free hand. "Sorry," he talked a little slower and tried to enunciate. "You're here to train as a fighter?"

Novak laughed – angry, barking – and shook her head. "No – no fight." She held up one small fist and her stump in a mock fighting pose. "Could only fight small things. Fight rabbits. Still lose." She dropped her arms again. "Here for safe sleeping only."

"But when you do the thing with-" Kuwabara struggled to describe it.

"Blue," Novak offered.

"Blue?" Kuwabara asked.

"Da," Novak nodded.

"When you do things with Blue – doesn't that make you stronger?"

She sagged a little in the shoulders. "No – she make… she make me tired."

Kuwabara was reaching the end of his logical understanding. He walked towards her a few steps, cutting a wide swath through the field. "Well if you do it more, won't you be tired less; like training a muscle!"

Novak shook her head, shifting from foot to foot.. "No – would make me dead."

Kuwabara stopped dead. "What?"

She reached out her hand. "When Blue comes-" she gripped her stubby arm, "she hold on – hold on to…" she struggled to find the right word. "She holds to my heart." Novak emphasized the word slowly, tapping a closed fist against her chest.

She pulled the closed fist away from her chest sharply – a ripping motion. "She takes heart. Every time." She held her fingers very close together. "Little heart."

Kuwabara was beyond confused. Novak looked to Genkai with a frustrated look.

Genkai crossed her arms behind her back, tilting her head down slightly and closing her eyes. "Novak's family has no spiritual ability of their own; all the power comes from a totem that they pass down from mother to daughter – a bronze shuttle. Every time she chooses to use the shuttle, the spiritual power binds to her life energy to get a foothold in the physical world, and a little of her energy gets used up."

Novak murmured something in Russian, and Genkai opened her eyes, rattling something back. Novak nodded. Genkai continued, "The strain is tremendous. The bearer develops a near-dependency on its presence as the spiritual energy of the shuttle and the bearer's life force will have begun to tie together; so the shuttle is passed to the next Tkadlec as soon as possible. In essence, the more a Tkadlec uses the shuttle the faster they die."

Genkai murmured something to Novak, gesturing with a hand, and she nodded again.

"Does – does it hurt?" Kuwabara asked. He was rubbing a hand on his chest subconsciously.

Novak's face softened. "Nyet – no."

Genkai frowned, clearly not satisfied with Novak's answer. "A Tkadlec is doomed to die quickly from the day they take the shuttle." Genkai returned her hands to clasp behind her back, speaking as casually as one might list grocery shopping to be done. "The actual work of weaving is done by the shuttle, but the Tkadlec acts as an anchor. Her entire family line has existed through history only to serve that purpose."

Kuwabara's confusion slowly gave way to righteous rage.


He was speaking quickly, stumbling and tripping over words in a jumble too fast for me to follow. His face was hot and red and angry, and veins in his neck were starting to pulse violently. He pointed to the flowers, and to me, and walked towards Genkai swiftly, stomping flowers under his feet.

I shouted in surprise as he lifted Genkai clean off the ground by the front of her tunic, snarling in her face. His form positively rippled with anger – more so than I thought the gentle giant was capable of maintaining.

Genkai responded with venom in her voice, speaking slowly, clearly unconcerned with being lifted like a rag doll. "What do you expect me to do about it?"

Kuwabara held her like that for a few more seconds and abruptly released her. She landed easily on her feet, never bothering to unclasp her hands from behind her back. He stood, hands open, staring at the empty spot that Genkai had just occupied. His hands trembled a little.

I approached the taller man and laid my hand on his arm. "Kuwabara?" I tried to make my voice as soothing as possible.

He yanked his arm away from my touch and turned on his heel, tracing his path through the wildflower field back to the Torii gate, and began to descend the stairs without a word.

"What did I do?" I asked Genkai, confusion, shame, and hurt nearly choking me.

Genkai brushed wrinkles out of the front of her tunic in the shape of Kuwabara's fists. "What has any Tkadlec ever done?"


A/N: I hope the changes in POV weren't too confusing, but I wanted both sides of this.

This scene has been waiting in the wings for some time – our first true demonstration of the power of a Tkadlec! Now we know why June refuses to use the shuttle – she doesn't want to die young – although too much goading from Genkai can force her to use it out of pride.

So why's Kuwabara so angry?

Two chapters in two days? I'm spoiling you!

Many thanks to my reviewers: FireDancerNix, halem847, Leahcar-Soutaichou, and rezgurnk!

PLEASE REVIEW!