Chapter 21
When her friends had left, Midori slipped on her mask and stubbornly opened her trunk to find Kalen's letter, the one he'd wrote to her only days before, on top of her sword sheath. It was somehow a sign, she knew. Midori of Queenscove felt her throat close up and a quiet sob escape her, as she fell to her knees barely unaware of the echoing silence.
She felt a cool, calloused hand on her shoulder and looked up. A woman stood before her. Skin, as creamy-brown as her own, shone in the bright shafts of golden sun that peeked through the window, her black hair was tied in a bun with blue hair ornaments tucked into the bun. The woman gazed at the stunned squire with kind dark brown eyes as her lips, accented with bright red lip rouge, curled into a slight smile. Midori noticed she wore a dazzling cerulean kimono embroidered with white blossoms; her obi was a dark green. These particular colors meant that this woman meant her no harm, or so Midori hoped.
"Who are you?" the squire asked.
The woman slipped on what seemed to be a Yamani mask and replied, "I am a wife and mother and a lady of the Yamani Isles, child, nothing more. I have come to remind you of your heritage..."
"I already know my heritage" Midori interjected.
"But do you know of the prophecy?" the woman asked.
"What prophecy?"
"The prophecy that let your father agree to your shield"
"I do know of that prophecy, but what else is there to learn?" Midori asked, standing as the woman walked over to the mirror and waited.
"Many things." Continued to woman, "I know you do not speak in the tongue of Yamani but it is time you began to learn, it is time you learn my language."
"Your language? I do not understand" Midori replied.
"Sate suki, oyobi ki-pu goshujin furenzu seimitsu, mai goreijou" the woman replied in Yamani, turning to the mirror and letting the mirror liquefy to a gateway.
"Wait! Who are you?" Midori cried.
The woman turned to face the young girl-squire and whispered, "Reifujin Yukimi of Queenscove."
Yuki stepped into the mirror as it solidified and, the silver gate the mirror had made, disappeared, leaving Midori to stare in disbelief.
Her mother had been dead for fifteen years.
So why did she appear?
TRANSLATIONS:
Sate suki, oyobi ki-pu goshujin furenzu seimitsu, mai goreijou: "Then love, and keep your friends close, my daughter"
Reifujin: "Lady"