Chapter 6
Saki
The Well of Sukune pulsed with the tides of earth, the waterfall rushing and thundering in the enclosed shrine. On a lone rocky outcrop in the middle of the pool of dark water, Saki Inugami knelt. The water, which a moment before had been dark and mysterious, now churned with blue foam and froth from the falls, the vision gone, and with it, her last hope. The Vessel of Yamato too had vanished into the mists of the pool and she knew not its final disposition but this she did know: her son was missing. He did not step out of the mists that surrounded the Vessel before it vanished. Neither did the young Anastasia. Both young people lost for good. Before her heavy heart could break, she rose and left the shrine, her steps heavy, her head down in sorrow.
Was it only a week ago that her life had taken a change for the better? Surely not. Surely her son returning to her with the young Anastasia had been longer than seven days? And her nephew, the young rapscallion Yuri – her brother's only child. How her heart ached when she first saw him standing before her at the Shrine, his youthful strength and vitality a radiant aura around him and his eyes, so like her brothers. Her heart had caught in her throat that day, but she had work to do. But later, when they had come to visit her in her room, then she had wanted to reach out to him, take him in her arms and hold him, the only link she had to her beloved brother, now gone. But time had been fleeting, and she put aside her wants and desires for the future of them all, with the hope of seeing her nephew again. She should have known better, for his dark star had winked out just as had her son's.
She took the stairs to her now empty home in silence, the late afternoon sun warm on her shoulders. The buzzing of insects could be heard in the garden and the lone call of a tree frog in the pond. She remembered the day her son had first brought the tree frogs to the garden, and how she had admonished him. But he had stood there, all of five years old, and told her quietly but firmly that they were staying because he liked them; they made him laugh. She had relented and now, now that he had not returned, the call of that frog brought tears to her eyes. What would she do now?
The door to her house was in front of her, the frosted glass panes bright in the sunlight; but she did not see them. She was seeing Kurando taking his first sword lessons, his little hands wrapped around the bamboo kendo sword and barely able to lift it above his head. The day he told her he was going to go with Sensei Kawashima and be his bodyguard in Tokyo; her heart had pounded so hard in her chest she thought it would break. And now...
Now she stood on the threshold of the house her husband had built for her, for them, the three of them, and she stood alone.
