EIGHTH BLOOD

Chapter 124: Tower of Dawn

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The inside of the mansion was just as magnificent as the outside.

The interior walls were painted red with gold accents, and the floors had been polished to perfection. Jade ornaments lined the corridors, ranging from tiny figurines to huge statues tall enough to touch the roof.

Mikan led them through a set of gold doors and into a large, dome-shaped room. Octavia's eyes were immediately drawn to the ceiling, which was an enormous mural of the sky. The reflective floor created the illusion that they were standing in the shallows of a lake on a warm summer's day. She caught Rin's eye in the reflection and smiled at her.

On the far side of the room stood a dais that housed three gilded chairs of varying sizes. The centre chair was the largest and most elaborately designed, but the other two were just as impressive.

Octavia's throat tightened as she studied the man and woman seated atop the dais. It was obvious who they were. With her rose-pink hair and raindrop tattoos, the woman in the centre chair was a dead ringer for Mikan. The similarities between her and the man were more subtle, but his presence on the dais confirmed him as her sire.

"Welcome home, Daughter," Mineru said with a restrained smile. "We have missed you very much."

Mikan returned the smile and lowered her head as tradition demanded. "I've missed you too, Mother." Lifting her head, she approached the dais and said, "You're looking well, Father. I can no longer detect the smell of illness on you, but should you really be out of bed and resuming your duties so soon after your treatment?"

The man chuckled as he rose from his seat and descended the dais steps to meet his daughter halfway. Octavia felt a pang of jealousy when he opened his arms and embraced Mikan. She had no memories of her own father, but if the contents of his notebooks were anything to go by, he'd seemed more concerned with bodily mutilation than showing his children trivial things such as love and affection.

"You worry too much," Mikan's father said as he drew back to look at Mikan. "I'm as good as new. Ask your mother if you don't believe me."

Octavia's gaze shifted to Mineru, who was staring at her guests intently. Although Mikan had inherited most of her physical features, she had her father's smile and friendly demeanour. Mineru, on the other hand, exuded no such warmth. Her aura was that of a natural-born predator.

"The resemblance truly is astonishing," she remarked, commandeering everyone's attention. "It's like peering into time."

Her vermillion eyes remained fixed on Sesshoumaru as she climbed down from the dais and strode towards him with purpose. The bells in her hair jingled as she walked, filling the room with music.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, my lord. I am Mineru, Head of the Ether Clan and scourge of the Northern Mountains." She gestured to Mikan's father and said, "This is my husband and consort, Jiahao. He taught your father how to fight. He also taught him how to speak Chinese. Not that it ever amounted to anything.

"Your father was supposed to accompany my husband on an expedition to the Continent, but he backed out of it at the last second and announced that he was leaving the clan. His decision came as a surprise to all of us. Didn't it, Jiahao?"

He nodded. "Oh, yes. It was the talk of the town for months, even after he'd left. But that was more due to the fact that no one understood why he did it. Touga lived a comfortable life with us, you see. Shizuka here had just been elected matron of the temple, and he was one of the finest generals our clan has ever produced, so he had no reason to leave. Although it sounds like he did pretty well for himself whilst out in the wider world."

Did he, though? Octavia wondered, casting the High Priestess a fleeting glance. She'd never met the man, but she knew exactly why he'd left. It was obvious, really. Touga had been obsessed with fame and glory, and living a cushy life on Mount Reimei simply hadn't been enough for him. He'd wanted to be the centre of the universe, and for that to happen, he had to cut out the rest of the competition. After all, it was easier to appear extraordinary whilst surrounded by the ordinary.

Mineru's gaze slid to Octavia and Rin. "Who are your companions, my lord?"

"The girl is Rin of Suruga," Sesshoumaru explained. "I found her after tragedy had befallen her birth family and claimed her as my ward. The mage is Octavia Petridis. She alone secured our victory over the usurper. Without her efforts, our forces would have been wiped out by the ngea, and the Western Lands would've remained at the mercy of a tyrant."

Mineru's eyes lingered on Octavia for longer than necessary. "I see. And why, pray tell, have you brought them here?"

"Your daughter invited them." He changed the subject before Mineru could question him further. "Why the Continent?"

"It is my homeland," Jiahao answered for her. "My brother and I crossed the ocean a little over two thousand years ago, but we maintained close relations with our old tribe. We used to make the trip home every fifty years without fail to maintain a good rapport between our two clans. Until Touga and my brother left the mountain in search of greener pastures."

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. "I was under the impression that he travelled alone."

"I'm sure you were." Jiahao made a point of looking at Sesshoumaru's armour, then at the cuff bracelets on Octavia's wrists. "I see that friendship ultimately soured," he muttered under his breath. "Not that either of you could have known about it. I doubt you would have come here wearing my deceased brother's bones if you had."

Octavia gasped. "Kumoshi is your brother?"

"So you have heard of him?"

"He's not dead," she blurted out. "I've met him. Recently, even. He and Touga were friends, and they stayed that way until the end." She raised her arms to show off the enamel bands. "Kumoshi helped make these. And they're made of teeth, not bones."

"Teeth, eh?" Jiahao moved closer and tapped one of the cuffs with his claws. "Have you heard the theory that teeth contain memories? It's why we struggle to recall so much of our childhoods. The milk teeth fall out and our memories disappear with them."

It wasn't the weirdest thing she'd ever heard. Maybe that was why the Tooth Fairy was so obsessed with collecting teeth. They might as well be DVDs, Octavia mused, imagining a library of shelves stacked with tiny white denticles. If that was indeed the case, it meant that the coins left behind in their place weren't prizes. They were payments.

Was all magic just a series of transactions?

"He never mentioned you," she said carefully, unsure of how Mikan's father would react to the news. "When we met, I thought he was just a wild animal that was terrorising the local livestock. I didn't find out about his connection to Touga until later."

"You said he was involved in the making of these artefacts?"

"That's right."

"Why would he give up his fangs for you? Our kind has the ability to grow new ones, yes, but still. What made him want to bestow such a rare gift upon you?"

Kumoshi's words ran through her head. I know all about you, Erem's Vessel. Suitopi told me everything. She knew you would come. Her visions often wavered, but you were the only constant.

"I think he did it out of kindness."

Jiahao looked puzzled. "What makes you say that?"

"It's a long story, but he knew we were in trouble. I must have seemed pretty desperate because he agreed to give up not just one fang, but several of them." She rubbed the bracelets with her palms. "This was his way of helping us. For him to go to such lengths to protect Touga's legacy, he must have really cared about him."

"See, Father?" Mikan said with a grin of her own. "I knew we were right to get involved with them. You always say that Uncle was an excellent judge of character. And your Chinese lessons didn't go to waste."

To prove her point, she uttered something in what was presumably Old Chinese. Octavia had no idea what she'd said, nor did she understand Sesshoumaru's swift reply.

"You speak Chinese?" asked Jiahao.

Sesshoumaru answered in the man's mother tongue.

Jiahao flashed him a dazzling smile. Even Shizuka and Mineru seemed impressed. "How marvellous!" he cried. "Your pronunciation is incredible. Who was your tutor?"

"My father," Sesshoumaru said. "He also taught me Cantonese and Mandarin, alongside several other languages from around the world."

Jiahao's expression turned melancholy. "I see. So he was paying attention."

Mineru took her husband's hand and brought it to her lips. "That's enough reminiscing for one day, don't you think? Our guests must be exhausted from their travels. Let us excuse them for the evening and continue this conversation at a later date."

"Good call, my dear," Jiahao agreed. "We can regroup on the morrow, since we still have much to discuss."

Mineru's vermillion eyes flicked back to Sesshoumaru. The way she stared at him was almost serpentine. "We're so pleased that you decided to accept our proposal, my lord. May our clans go on to have a long and prosperous future together."

"I have no doubt that they will," he replied, bowing slightly. "Until tomorrow, Lady Mineru."

"I am no mere lady," she corrected. "I'm a queen. Only on this mountain, mind you, but a queen all the same."

Sesshoumaru didn't flounder. "Then allow me to apologise. I've never met a queen before. It is an honour to make your acquaintance."

Mineru seemed to appreciate his quick response. "Well met, my lord. Well met." She tugged Jiahao towards the set of gold doors, her bells jingling with every step. Before exiting the room, she turned to face them all and said, "Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your stay here more comfortable. We are officially at your disposal."

Sesshoumaru acknowledged her with a nod. "As are we, my queen."

Without another word, Mikan's parents stepped over the threshold and vanished into the jade-embellished hallway with the High Priestess in tow.

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Octavia slept poorly that night.

There was nothing wrong with the room she'd been assigned to, but she spent the night tossing and turning, kept awake by unquiet thoughts and gloomy imaginings.

Fortunately, Rin was there to keep her company. The girl fell asleep easily enough, but she woke often and violently whenever a vision seized hold of her. It was an awful sight to behold. One moment, she'd be sleeping peacefully, until her eyes flew open and she started speaking in tongues.

She always struggled to recall what the visions had been about afterwards. As soon as the candlelight hit her eyes, her memories of them seemed to disintegrate. Octavia checked to see if any of Rin's teeth were missing, but the pearly whites were all accounted for.

No surprises there, she thought. After all, the Tooth Fairy wasn't real. She was just a myth born from the superstitions of the time she was conceived in. But if they were going by that logic, then surely monsters and magic would also fall under that same umbrella?

When Kohaku knocked on the door at dawn to begin his shift, Octavia forfeited the opportunity to take a nap and ventured out into the town by herself. The streets of Hoshiochita – or Starfell, as it would be called in English – were mainly empty. Most people had the sense to stay indoors when it got cold out, but she encountered a few of the townsfolk during her walk.

Unlike the inhabitants of the stronghold, the town's residents didn't treat her like a freak. In fact, they hardly noticed her. They smiled as she passed, but that was pretty much it. They didn't have the time to waste obsessing over a stranger. They had their own lives to worry about. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so free.

For such a small settlement, Hoshiochita had a lot to offer when it came to recreational activities and sightseeing. There was an abundance of shops, an inn with a hot spring, a public bathhouse, a dojo, a pottery studio, and even a park with a large koi pond.

Her exploration came to an unexpected halt when she heard the sound of children laughing. As she searched for the origin of the noise, a kemari ball came spinning towards her, before rolling to a stop at her feet. She looked in the direction the ball had come from and locked eyes with a young boy swaddled in furs. There were other children standing next to him, all clad in similar outfits and wide straw hats.

The one who'd kicked the ball waved at her, then pointed down at his feet. Smiling, Octavia picked the ball up and threw it. The pattern blurred together as it whizzed through the air, creating a kaleidoscope of colours. The other children cheered when the boy caught the ball, before spreading out to signal the start of a new game. Octavia watched them play for a while, until her eyes drifted over to a tall building on the other side of the park.

She felt an overwhelming urge to hide when she spotted Mikan's father leaving said building and waving goodbye to a swarm of children who were loitering by the entrance. He paused at the bottom of the steps and watched the kemari game taking place in front of him. She didn't need to see his face to know that he'd spotted her.

"Good morning!" he shouted from across the field.

Octavia raised her hand and gave him a reluctant wave.

He cleared the field in a single leap and landed in front of her. "Are you enjoying the game?"

"Um . . ."

Jiahao snorted. "Say no more. I keep pestering the school about implementing a more in-depth sports program, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere. They ought to be snatching my hand off if you ask me. We'll never win anything with such a sorry excuse for a team."

A smile tickled her lips. "Who are they, anyway? Some of them look . . ."

"Human?"

She nodded bashfully.

"That's because they are," he said. "The orphanage accepts children of any species. Human, youkai, hanyou. All are welcome here."

"Did you say orphanage?"

"As a matter of fact, I did."

The building seemed ten times taller all of a sudden.

"Is there a problem?"

"No," Octavia mumbled. "I just . . . I used to live in one myself. More than one, actually. None of them looked anywhere near as nice as this, though."

"You're an orphan?"

She nodded again.

"How long?"

She was going to recite the lie she'd told the Western Court – the one about avenging her family – but she couldn't bring herself to do it. "Fifteen years," she said. "I was four. I've been on my own ever since."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't be. They weren't winning any awards for parenting, I'll tell you that much."

Tucking his hands into his sleeves, Jiahao turned to face the orphanage. "We had it built after the loss of our first child. It was a stillbirth. Mineru and I were inconsolable. Until our scouts returned from a mission with a strange child in tow. He was a hanyou whose parents had been murdered in cold blood. We offered him sanctuary here on the mountain and quickly developed a close bond with him.

"When he entered adulthood, my wife and I decided to build a home for people like him – children whose birth parents had either died or abandoned them. Many of those children still live here today and have even started families of their own. The hanyou we raised runs the orphanage now, and our scouting parties perform regular sweeps of the surrounding areas in pursuit of new orphans."

Octavia's eyes stung with tears. "How often do you visit?"

"As often as I can. I've always enjoyed telling stories, and they seem to enjoy listening to them."

That explained where Mikan's love of stories had come from.

It was as if he'd read her mind because the next thing he said was, "My daughter seems quite taken with you. I daresay she prefers your company over her betrothed's."

Octavia laughed. "The bar is pretty low there. My lord isn't exactly known for his friendliness."

"The two of you seem to get along well enough."

She clenched her jaw. "I'm afraid you're mistaken. He only puts up with me because I'm a gifted mage. If I wasn't, I'd have been kicked to the curb months ago."

"Gifted is an understatement. If the stories I've heard about you are true, then no power on this earth could stand against you."

I hear you're something of a Sunbringer yourself, echoed Mikan's voice. They say you destroyed an entire army of those shadow creatures with a snap of your fingers.

"Don't take everything you hear at face value. People tend to exaggerate certain events to make them sound more exciting. Especially storytellers." She winked at him. "I might be powerful, but I'm hardly the most dangerous thing in the universe."

The ball flew towards them at the speed of sound, only to be batted away by the 'reverse' mark. The children whooped and hollered as the ball crash-landed in a deep pile of snow. When one of them ran to retrieve it, Octavia saw that it was smoking slightly.

"Come with me," Jiahao said, offering her his arm. "I want to show you something."

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The Sky Temple was essentially a larger and more lavish version of the shrine that she and Mikan had broken into. The layout was more or less the same, and the bronze statue of Amaterasu looked almost identical to the one they had back home. The only real differences between the two statues were size and cleanliness. Nitpicking aside, it seemed unfair to compare the two. After all, only one statue was being actively tended to, whereas the other had been left to tarnish in a forgotten corner of the Western Stronghold.

"This is our most sacred building," Jiahao told her. "Few people are permitted to set foot inside it—most of which are in the room with us right now."

Octavia peeked over her shoulder at the dawnsingers and other clergymen. The only one bold enough to glance up from their duties was the curly-haired priestess who'd had the gall to roll her eyes at Mikan. Octavia met her gaze and held it, warning her to stay in her place or suffer the consequences. The priestess's mouth scrunched into a frown as she followed the other dawnsingers out of the room through a side door.

"Are you familiar with the tale of the sun goddess?" Jiahao queried.

"Not really," she confessed, gazing up at the statue's flat, lifeless eyes. "I remember reading that she shut herself in a cave for a while, but that's all I know."

"Then allow me to enlighten you."

He climbed the altar and withdrew a white cylindrical case from a cabinet behind the statue. Returning to her side, he unscrewed the cap and tipped out the scroll. The silk looked old and battered, but the paintings themselves were in excellent condition.

"Long ago–" Jiahao began, "–after Izanagi's failed attempt to rescue Izanami from the Underworld, he performed a cleansing ritual to purge the evil from his body. From this ritual came the birth of the sun goddess, Amaterasu, followed by the creation of her two brothers – the moon god, Tsukuyomi, and the god of storms, Susanoo.

"As the eldest child, Amaterasu was chosen to rule over Takama-no-Hara, which is the domain of the kami. Although she and Tsukuyomi were married for a time, she had a long-lasting rivalry with her other brother, Susanoo. The pair bickered constantly, leading to his eventual banishment from the heavens.

"One day, Amaterasu was weaving in her palace, when Susanoo suddenly appeared and hurled a flayed horse at her loom, resulting in the death of one of her weaving maidens. Amaterasu was so upset by this that she sealed herself away in a cave and refused to come out. Her disappearance cast the world in permanent darkness, allowing evil spirits to run rampant. She was eventually lured out of the cave by the goddess Ame-no-Uzume's provocative dancing, which enabled another god to pull Amaterasu out of the cave when she least expected it, bringing forth the dawn."

Jiahao rerolled the scroll and placed it back inside its case. "The other clans may call us heathens, but what they fail to realise is that the first Daiyoukai were also born from Izanagi cleansing himself in the Woto River. That makes Amaterasu our sister, and Tsukuyomi and Susanoo our brothers."

"Unless you believe in something else," Octavia countered, thinking back to the tale of the God Stars. In that story, Daiyoukai had been the result of Aramitama's children procreating with demons from the Underworld, not the by-product of a god washing himself in a river.

"It makes sense though, doesn't it?" Jiahao pressed. "Youkai come in so many different shapes and sizes, like Amaterasu and her brothers. Some of us even possess the same powers. Take Ryukotsusei, for instance." Octavia's heart accelerated at the mention of him. "When he was alive, people used to say that he was Susanoo come again."

"But he wasn't," she argued. "Ryukotsusei was no god. And neither was his pathetic son, Tsunayoshi."

Jiahao's eyes flashed. "I heard about that, too. You and my future son-in-law executed him, did you not? Lopped off his head and mounted it on a pike for all to see, until it became so rotten that you were forced to cremate it, maggots and all."

"He shouldn't have attacked our home," she hissed. "You call it ruthlessness, but I call it justice."

"How very Amaterasu of you." His lips curved into a cunning smile. "Perhaps Ryukotsusei wasn't the only reincarnated god among us."

He wants me to be his precious sun goddess reborn, Octavia realised. That was why he'd brought her to the temple in the first place. Were his wife and daughter in on it, as well? Was that why Mikan had invited her? Although nothing had been confirmed yet, Octavia couldn't help but feel a little betrayed anyway.

Unfortunately for them, she was done playing the role of an unwilling deity.

"What do you know about comets?"

He seemed caught off guard by the sudden change of topic. "Why do you ask?"

"Just answer the question. Do you know anything about comets or not?"

Jiahao grinned. "But of course. Our tribe has always been interested in astronomy. It's one of the reasons we called ourselves the Ether Clan. We have detailed charts and records dating back centuries, alongside shelves' worth of research on the subject." He placed the scroll back inside the cabinet and said, "I can show you if you'd like?"

She followed him up a long flight of stairs that felt like it went on forever. It wasn't until they'd climbed well past the halfway point that Octavia realised where they were.

Mikan had referred to it as the Tawā Akatsuki, meaning Tower of Dawn. It was somehow even taller than it looked from the outside. The stone was blindingly white and had a peculiar texture that was riddled with tiny bumps and craters. Octavia wrinkled her nose in disgust as the smell of asphalt forced its way into her nostrils.

As strange as that was, the weirdest thing by far was how her lone earring strained against her earlobe, as if trying to get closer to the tower's central wall. Weirder still, the Prophecy-Breaker and the ring that Sesshoumaru had given her were both unaffected. Only the earring was acting up. It was also the singular piece of jewellery that was made of iron.

Intrigued, she removed the earring intending to drop it, only for it to fly out of her hand and stick to the wall. "It's magnetic," she deduced, staring at the earring in amazement.

"What was that?"

"This building is magnetic," she repeated. To verify her theory, she pinched the earring with her fingers and tugged it away from the wall. The moment she let go, it was dragged straight back by an invisible force. "See?"

"Oh, that," he said. "Fascinating, isn't it? It only works with certain metals, though."

"Why?"

"We don't know for certain, but we know it has something to do with what the tower is made of. It's no ordinary rock, you see. According to our ancestors, a star fell from the heavens one day and levelled the mountain's summit with the force of its crash. Believing it to be a gift from Amaterasu, our ancestors built a town around it, then chiselled it into the shape of a tower so that it could watch over their descendants for years to come."

The tower being a meteorite hadn't been on her bingo card for the day, but given everything else that had happened since her tumble down the Bone-Eater's Well, it wasn't surprising. The town's name made a lot more sense now.

"And that's not all," Jiahao continued. "There are rumours that the star brought something with it. Several somethings, actually." The hairs on the back of Octavia's neck bristled in anticipation. "After it crashed, the rock split open and four unearthly beings emerged from within. Creatures from another world . . ."

She swallowed. Extraterrestrials hadn't been on her bingo card, either.

Jiahao chuckled at the nervous look on her face. "Worry not," he said. "That last part is just a story we tell to scare children. There's no evidence to suggest that the tower was ever anything but a piece of rock from the great beyond."

They resumed their steady climb towards the observation deck on the top floor. When they were within reach of the spire, Octavia realised that she had forgotten to retrieve her earring. She thought about going back for it, but Jiahao's words froze her in place. If she turned around, would she see strange creatures scaling the stairwell behind her?

She'd never liked that earring much, anyway.

The observation deck wasn't quite what she'd expected. Telescopes weren't due to be invented for another fifty years or so, therefore the room had been designed to maximise the view of the sky. The lack of walls would have been an acrophobic's worst nightmare, as would the transparent safety bannister that curved around the outside portion of the deck.

There were eight skylights in the dome-shaped roof, arranged in a circle around a gold ring with a scarlet centre.

"The windows represent the Yaoyorozu no Kami," Jiahao explained when he saw what she was staring at. "Or the eight million gods that Amaterasu rules over from her throne in Takama-no-Hara, as they're more commonly known. In reality, there are far more than eight million of them, but back in the old days, there was no such thing as infinity, so they settled for the next best thing. The number eight is often referred to as the luckiest number, both here and on the Continent."

There've been eight vessels so far, Octavia thought. Technically nine, but she and Augustus were both eighth on the chopping block.

She hadn't noticed it until now, but the number eight had been cropping up everywhere. The eighth born from Suitopi's prophecy, the eight-pointed stars, the eight birds mentioned in Purple Eye, even her own name, for God's sake. And now this. What were the chances? It was like the universe was taunting her.

The number eight is often referred to as the luckiest number.

Or maybe the universe had something else in mind.

"You must have a great view of the stars from here," she mused.

"That we do. Perhaps I'll show you sometime." Mikan's father dropped to his knees and yanked open a small trapdoor containing centuries' worth of scrolls and journals. "We have to store everything in here to protect them from storms. The tower isn't exactly the most sheltered place on the mountain, as one can imagine."

"Can't you just move them down to the temple for safekeeping? They'd be a lot less prone to water damage that way."

"It is forbidden to take anything out of the tower, regardless of reasoning. Our ancestors made that abundantly clear."

The hairs on her nape stood up again. "Because of those creatures?"

"No," he laughed. "It would be disrespectful to Amaterasu. This research was done in her name and in her tower. It'd be like stealing."

"Right . . ."

He caught her eye and smiled. "They really are just stories, you know. Those creatures were probably none other than youkai who were native to the mountain at the time. Like my wife, for example. Dog youkai have always been common in these parts, and in all fairness, their true forms can be rather terrifying."

He talks about them like he isn't one of them.

"What sort of demon are you?"

He seemed pleased that she'd asked. "In my country, we are called tiangou."

"Like the black dog that swallows the sun during an eclipse?"

"You do know your mythos."

Octavia shrugged. "Not really. When I was with Augustus, all I did was eat, sleep, train and read. The kasbah's library was pretty extensive." Her apprehension grew as she recalled what she'd read about his kind. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"The sun-eating part."

He laughed again. "Why? Are you worried I'll try and take a bite out of you once your back is turned?"

His witty response filled her with relief. "Something like that."

"Don't worry, my dear. I won't touch you until you want me to."

She tried not to cringe at his wording. He must not have realised how wrong that sounded.

"Here it is," he announced, lifting a thick tome out of the trapdoor and slamming it onto the floor. "An encyclopaedia on comets. I've read this book before, it's quite a good one." She took a seat beside him and watched as he flipped to the index page. "What is it that you want to know?"

According to Kanetsugu, Augustus was allegedly planning on using a comet as an energy source to power some kind of ritual. Unless Asuka had been lying. Octavia wouldn't have put it past her.

"Are there any comets due to appear in the sky soon? Or maybe later on in the year?"

"Hmm. I'm not sure. Let's find out." Jiahao swept through the book at a ridiculous speed, muttering to himself as he did. "Not this one. Or this one. Or this one, either."

Her eyes ached from trying to keep up with him. She nearly jumped out of her skin when he smacked one of the pages and shoved the book towards her.

"There," he said. "Look."

Octavia studied the double spread carefully. There was an A5-sized painting on the left page of a white star with a silver tail. The sky around it was blacked out with ink, making the comet stand out more. The right page housed a short paragraph containing details such as the comet's orbit and estimated size.

"The tobosha no yome appears in the sky roughly every four-hundred-and-fifty years," she read aloud. "It is visible for two to three nights per rotation and was named after its resemblance to a fleeing bride."

Could this be the comet that Asuka had been talking about?

"When is it due to reappear?"

Jiahao pointed to a list of dates underneath the sketch and said, "Based on the last recorded sighting, about two months from now."

Octavia's stomach sank. Was that all? Two months to find out what Augustus was planning and put a stop to it. Two months until she either defeated him or died trying.

It seemed like no time at all.

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Author's Corner

The Continent = China
Izanagi = creator deity and the god of life
Izanami = creator deity and the goddess of death
Ame-no-Uzume = the goddess of dawn and the arts