~𝕵ō𝖟𝖚~
𝕺𝖓𝖑𝖞 𝖔𝖓𝖊 strand of the threefold cord around my neck remains intact, taut with my weight. It creaks as it slowly unwinds, and my view of the waves turns.
Behind my back, the rope around my wrists itches. I can't feel my hands. My last breath burns.
The crowd murmurs, restless for disaster. The blood dripping down my neck isn't enough for them. They can't feel its sting, hear its gush, or taste its metallic tang. Arrows wink in the slanted sunlight and whisper there is no escape. The crowd wants me to beg for those. They crave tears, screams, and blubbering words that fail to express how sorry I am, but they will never know my true regret.
A hanged man keeps his secrets.
My legs twitch, adjusting my position so I can steal a glance at Unmei. Sunrise paints a pink glaze over the glitter of his hair but can't touch the ice of his eyes. Do mine look the same, hard and sharp as a sword and glossed with pain?
Look at me, Friend. See the truth I cannot tell them.
The unraveling cord reflects in his glassy gaze. He's not here in the present. He sees another rope as the last thread snapped and a raven-haired girl plunged. Can he still feel the heft of the coarse hemp as it tore at our palms? The weightlessness as we both fell backward. The hopelessness as we scrambled to the edge and watched Kichi shrink in the distance.
I kick again to keep from turning away from him, and his sightline drops to me and the heavy irons jingling at my ankles.
Meet my gaze one last time, Unmei, I wish I could scream. Listen to the words I can't say.
His eyes lift to my face, but without understanding, only sadness and rage.
I should have told him as soon as she fell, the only moment we had alone, where I wouldn't be overheard.
Your sister asked me to give her to the ravine.
The lavender ice of her eyes shone with stubbornness as she thanked me for reporting the trap complete. "Now I will never be the property of that disgusting duke."
"Until you step on that bridge, you can still change your mind. 'Tis a frightful thing we've planned."
"I am courageous, Jōzu. Are you?"
Against my will, my back faces Unmei, and there is no one in this direction I wish to see, especially not our noble lord. I close my eyes and listen to the hum of the wind, the calls of the spectating birds, and most importantly, the groaning rope. It will break soon. I'll have an instant to draw a breath before water swallows me.
Our lord laughs. 'Tis a file against my teeth. His daughter is believed dead—her body turned to dust when she struck the ground—yet he laughs.
Don't think of him. He slaughters my patience, and my timing must be perfect.
On the inside of my eyelids, Kichi steps onto the narrow suspension bridge. As the supports fray and the planks drop, she hovers for an instant, whirling to give me a grin. Her knuckles drain of color as she strangles the loose rope.
I didn't expect Unmei to dive for it or refuse to let go as the weight of the bridge dragged him to the edge. I grabbed it, too.
The sun caresses my face, and I reopen my eyes. Unmei stands within my sight again.
He swallows as our gazes meet. "Say something in your defense. Please! 'Tis not too late."
He has said that at least twenty times since yesterday when they made him testify against me.
"Could Jōzu have saved her?" they asked.
Dead, distant eyes looked past me. He didn't want to say, but their serums gave him no choice. "His Affinity is Wind. He could have called upon it to catch her."
"Jōzu is the child of a maid, and the Affinities of servants are weak. Would Wind have taken such an arduous mandate from him?"
"He never uses it, but testing stones claim his influence is strong."
A judge leaned closer and blocked our sight of one another. "Why would you present a servant's blood to testing stones?"
"To see if he could be a suitable rival."
They called for more stones, slit my palms, and wrapped the pebbles in my grasp. With such a strong Affinity for Wind, they said, I should be able to command typhoons. Why am I not a feared warrior, a general of vast armies? What is a servant to do with this awesome power?
I remained silent. I showed them nothing.
My Affinity is not Wind like my mother's, barely able to summon a breeze to cool her sweating brow. My true Affinity would raise the wrong questions.
Now I hang for not using power I do not have.
I'm sorry, Unmei. If any plan could have spared you, I'd have chosen it.
The rope concedes, and salty air rushes into my lungs. For a moment, I feel I can call upon Wind to carry me, but the ocean beats that notion aside. My legs sting with its reprimand, and fire churns in my nose as the sun becomes a distorted flicker.
A chill seeps into my bones, and something even colder wraps me, soft as a mother's goodnight kiss, limber as molten iron, and harder than steel. A second arm encircles me, then a third, dragging me deeper. Panic stokes the fire within, but still I wait.
Serrated suckers hook into my skin, and I flinch. Much of my captured breath escapes in a parade of bubbles. Krakens have an embrace like daggers. 'Tis why I ensured the bait for today would lure this creature, why I weakened the rope so it would fail. They'll think me eaten and not look too hard for my body.
Yet, that book knowledge did not lead me to imagine it would feel like the prick of a hundred bees.
I clench my jaw and puff my cheeks, swallowing a scream as I deliberately move my arms and legs to saw off my bonds. Even the metal chains slice like paper, rattling as they sink into darkness.
Now I am deep enough.
I call to the energy within. 'Tis sluggish, groggy, unfamiliar, but it slithers to the surface, curious of my voice. Every vein glows, flashing with lightning as icy violet as my eyes. It feeds on my fear, a warhorse pounding the ground, begging to charge forth, and I am hard pressed to hold it back.
It ekes between my fingers and shimmies over my whole body. It jumps and stabs at anything that touches me.
The kraken jolts, grip tightening, then fleeing. My lightning wants to chase the beast, but I hold its reins, keep it quiet. The water fizzes as I draw the energy back in and a few more flashes pierce the darkness. Can Unmei and his lordly father sense the use of their Affinity so near?
My lungs shrivel into prunes as I swim deeper and slip through a passage that has never seen the sun. Its jewel-like walls blink at my bursts of light. The fish hide. I'm in too much of a hurry to avoid disturbing their refuges. Mud and detritus roil in my wake.
Finally, the surface breaks over my face, and I gulp air, choking on it as I drag my heavy body onto shore. A waterfall giggles behind me, and the pond laps at needle-covered sand. Pine and boxwood fill my nostrils and loiter on my tongue. I lie there, panting, forehead on my arms.
A twig snaps, and I look up. Kichi pauses, chagrin in the twist of her rosy lips. The rest of her face hides in the shadow of a cowl.
"Congratulations, we're both dead," she greets as she kneels alongside me. "You look terrible."
"I always look terrible." I rise, knees shaking and dark hair plastered to my face. An arm swiping across my brow only halfway remedies this. A murder of crows drapes a dry cloak over me before perching on Kichi. Her Affinity might become a problem if I have to fight her.
I walk, cloak billowing behind me, and she trots to keep up.
"You're free, Kichi. You can go anywhere. You don't have to follow me."
"You have proven the mettle of your heart. I trust you."
You shouldn't, Little Sister.
If I don't bring her, the plan will fail.
If the plan fails, Unmei will live.
If the plan fails, our lordly father will live.
If the plan fails, I will die.
I keep walking.
"You're bleeding." Kichi points at my neck where the rope scraped and cut into me when it stopped my fall. The birds are much too interested.
I wipe a wet sleeve under my chin. "So what else is new."
"It is deep. If you do not treat it, it will scar."
I stare straight ahead, unable to face those icy eyes exactly like mine. "What's one more scar?"