For Nobara

Chapter 14: Death is Kinder

So in memory of my anime artwork collection, which I have somehow accidentally deleted with no backup and no means of restoration (FML), I made a new cover for FN. This is heavily inspired, so credits to Djade's amazing artwork which I have used as reference to create Nobara's version. Cheers!

· ☽ ·

Light trickled through the glass window. It moved across the mattress and danced on pale cold cheeks before the child finally stirred from the unfamiliar feeling of warmth on her face. And almost reluctantly, her eyes fluttered open, sleep still in her lashes that she remained staring at the empty bedside for a long while before she picked herself up from the sheets.

As she did so, her small hand cradled the dull throb silently searing inside her head. Hollow. There was this hollow feeling inside of her like some part of her was missing.

"Yori...?"

Dragging herself off the bed, the sheets moved and spilled over the edge as her feet met the cold floorboards. But as she stood, she faltered a little, groaning softly as she wobbled on her legs. She looked around the empty room, but there was only the subtle crackling of fire from the cast iron furnace and the gentle gust from the window.

Behind the large door, it was just as cold. But how the high ceiling and the pristine wooden panels of the corridor were illuminated in light felt strange to her.

She had only seen them in the dark where the corners are lined with obscurity of nightfall. Because that way, it was more familiar to her. But now, it felt like she was trespassing into a domain that wasn't hers.

She considered returning back to the empty room, to find solace beneath the warm blankets away from where prying eyes would be, but somehow she found herself following a tune. And as she walked the expanse to trail it, the darkness behind her followed.

The maidservants who saw her seemed surprised to see the child without the young Heika, but despite their ill-bearings at least bowed their heads in her presence—still fearful of the refined bloodline coursing within her veins that prevented them to ignore her completely.

And while they thought of her as filthy, whose tainted blood showed when you looked at her, they did not show it. Their hostility hid behind the walls and manifested through vehement whispers they could only hear.

"That black hair... it's like a bad omen, isn't it?"

"It seems fitting considering the misfortune that child brought upon us... A bad omen indeed."

"How frightening."

"Quiet, you... Someone might hear."

"Let them and they might even agree. The Sesshō despises her existence and sees her as a stain to the clan name... In the end, isn't she still just a child of a traitor even with a blood of a Kira...?"

Outside, it was snowing softly, the light filtering through the thick pillars of wood as the maidservants eventually dispersed from their quiet mumblings. The child, on the other hand, wandered off the edge of the outer corridor on bare feet where the tune stopped. She stared up at the sky, watching the snow fall.

She closed her eyes as white flakes fell on her face. And when she opened them again, the snow gradually darkened before her—until the snowfall turned into drops of blood that fell onto her cheeks.

Chanting whispers. Screams. Voices echoing inside her like a memory one after another.

"What have you done...?"