“He’ll wake soon. There was only minor swelling and a broken jaw,” a harsh voice said, sending waves of pain through Gregory. “See, he’s waking up.”
Gregory groaned and opened his eyes. He squeezed them shut as light stabbed into them like knives. “Pain,” the word was whispered, but even that seemed too loud.
“It will pass on its own,” the man said. “Give it a few minutes.”
“You are sure?” Yukiko asked with concern.
“Yes. The last hit the other novice delivered should have made the match a draw, but this one has a harder head than anyone would expect.”
“You may go, healer,” Yoo-jin said politely, “thank you.”
A soft hand touched his forehead a moment later, “Greg?”
“Head feels like a boulder hit it,” Gregory whispered. “Who won?”
“You did,” Yukiko replied softly. “Jenn used all her aether and passed out. You got to your feet after she hit you. The adjudicator declared you the winner.”
The pain receded slowly. The soft, cool hand on his head brushed his hair, and his lips turned up at the corners.
“Now that you know he is fine, you need to get going, Yu. I will stay with him.”
Yukiko’s hand stilled on his head and was removed, only to be replaced by her lips. “I’m off for my fight. Wish me luck.”
Gregory reached up blindly and caught her hand. “You don’t need luck. You will win, and easier than I did.” Pulling her hand down, he kissed it. “I’ll still wish you luck, though.”
“Go,” Yoo-jin said gently. “He’ll be waiting for you.”
“Yes, Mother,” Yukiko sighed as she gently pulled her hand away from Gregory.
“Your plan could have been better,” Lin said after a few minutes of silence.
“If I had waited another minute, it would have worked fine,” Gregory said with a grimace.
“If she had gotten ahold of you sooner, you would be in worse shape and would have lost.”
“True.”
“He did win, though,” Yoo-jin said. “No one wins every fight without setbacks.”
“That is also true,” Lin admitted.
“I should have lost,” Gregory muttered. “She had me outclassed in magic and skill. If she hadn’t hurt her leg against the shield, I would have lost pretty quickly. It was only that which let me capitalize and win.”
“It looked like you planned it,” Yoo-jin commented.
“It was my worst plan, but she had a depth of aether I wasn’t expecting, so I had to try it.”
“Excuse me,” a feminine voice said, “may I speak with him?”
“Of course,” Yoo-jin replied. “We’ll be staying in the room, though. I promised to watch after him until he is recovered.”
“That’s fine,” the woman said. “You okay, Gregory?”
“Jenn?”
“Yes, they got me mobile again. Feels like a carriage hit me. I wanted to come apologize for hitting you like I did. I was just so upset that you had managed to stop me and I wanted to get a solid hit in on you at least once.”
Gregory slowly opened his eyes, wincing. The pain was less, but not gone entirely. “You did that. If I hadn’t delayed you as long as I had, you would have won.”
“But I didn’t,” she sighed. “You better win the rest of the tournament. Then at least I only lost to the winner.”
Gregory snorted, which caused his head to pound again. “I’ll do my best.”
“I wanted to ask how you made it feel like I hit a wall. Twice, once when you tackled me and when I broke my own leg.”
“Enchanted barrier,” Gregory mumbled.
“The healer said you’re going to be okay, right?” Jenn asked, frowning down at him.
“Yes,” Yoo-jin answered for him. “He just has a nasty headache that is supposed to fade shortly.”
“Good,” Jenn nodded. “I’ll be watching tomorrow.” A bell chimed, and Jenn looked over her shoulder. “The next fight is starting. I wanted to watch it, so I’ll see you later.”
Gregory frowned, his memory a little cloudy, but after a moment, he asked what was troubling him, “Didn’t Yuki fight third?”
“Yes,” Yoo-jin replied. “You’ve been out for a while. “Nick Shun won his match after yours. I believe that Hayworth is still being tended to by the head healer.”
“Fire?” Gregory asked.
“A few of them, yes,” Lin replied.
“Hmm,” Gregory muttered as he wondered about how hard it would be for Yukiko to beat Nick tomorrow if she won her current fight. “Be safe, Yuki,” he whispered as he waited for his headache to subside, closing his eyes again in the hope that it would help.
~*~*~
“Greg, are you feeling better?” Yukiko’s voice pulled him from sleep.
Blinking, he saw Yukiko bending over him when his eyes would focus. “Hey. How did your fight go?”
“I won, but I won’t be surprising anyone with the shadow leap anymore. Franco didn’t stand a chance when he attacked me. I had backed myself against the wall, and he rushed me, expecting to pin me there. I vanished, he hit the wall hard, and then I broke one of his knees. He gave up pretty quickly when I started to grind it with my heel.”
Gregory chuckled, “Well, turnaround is fair play.”
“That means you both move on tomorrow,” Yoo-jin said. “Lin is collecting my winnings and once he’s back, we will be going.”
“You bet on us?” Gregory asked when he sat up.
“Of course. Though you did give me a fright at the start of your fight. Yu didn’t bat an eye, just kept telling me it was going to be okay.”
“I’ll end up facing Jason or Klein Armit, and you get Nick,” Gregory frowned. “Are you going to be able to handle all the flames he threw during his fight?”
“I’ll be fine. I have a couple of ideas on how to handle the fight. Will you be able to deal with Jason?”
“Nothing will stop me from reaching you,” Gregory said seriously as he stared into her eyes.
Yukiko blushed a deep red at his words. “Oh. Then I will have to fight twice as hard.”
“Now that you’ve both won and Gregory is feeling better, we can go. Tea, and then to meet your father for dinner.”
A knock sounded at the door and Lin entered. “I have the vela.”
“Good, let’s go.”
As they left the building, Gregory heard cheering behind him. “Did the last fight start already?”
“No, two adepts had a disagreement and asked to fight before the last match,” Yukiko explained.
“I won’t know who I face until later,” Gregory said. “I’m thinking it’ll be Jason, though. He’s Nick’s right hand and will likely be outfitted with quite a few tricks.”
“That is likely, which means we will really earn the ire of the Eternal Flame.”
Gregory and Yukiko shared a smile as they walked side by side, following Yoo-jin. Lin trailed them, shaking his head as he watched the two of them, comparing them to Yoo-jin and Hao from years before.
~*~*~
As they made their way to the tea house, Yukiko explained what Gregory should expect. She did her best to reassure him that it would be okay if he made minor mistakes, but as he would be following Yoo-jin and her, he should be fine.
“This is common for those who are about to experience a major life change?” Gregory asked.
“In the heart of the empire and major cities, yes. Even in most large towns,” Yukiko replied.
“The custom has helped us avoid some bad deals, as well as helped assure us of good ones,” Yoo-jin said. “The meditative nature of the ceremony helps focus the mind.”
The carriage came to a stop, cutting off conversation. Getting out after the women, Gregory was surprised when Lin stayed behind.
“There is no place for him to wait without being involved,” Yoo-jin explained when she saw Gregory hesitate.
Looking at the wall that surrounded their destination, Gregory felt a sense of peace begin to settle over him. The door opened, and a mature lady in an elaborate multicolored kimono bowed to them and motioned them inside. Gregory had to force himself to not thank her, as you were supposed to remain silent once in the garden.
The door closed softly behind them and the lady moved to the front, leading them down a path. Trees lined the path, screening the path so anyone on it could not see what might be beyond them. They moved at a slow, deliberate pace, and Gregory felt the peace of the area start to relax him.
Walking at the pace set by their guide helped Gregory find a light meditative state as the path wound around the interior of the walled area. They eventually came to a small square building near the center of the grounds. Pausing on the threshold, their guide removed her slippers and set them aside. The other three copied her, not putting on any other footwear as she opened the sliding door and entered.
The room was not large. In the center was a small fire pit where a covered pot sat. Gregory followed Yukiko, taking a seat beside her on one side of the room, with Yoo-jin to their left side and their hostess across from them. Once they were seated, the lady bowed again and presented each of them a small lacquered plate, upon which a single small confection sat.
Gregory accepted the plate with a bow of his own, setting it before him. Yukiko waited for the others to have their plates, then used the chopsticks provided to eat it. Bowing to their hostess, Yukiko set her chopsticks back on the plate. Gregory did as Yukiko did, though he almost dropped the morsel, being unskilled with chopsticks. The small treat melted almost instantly, spreading a warm feeling through his mouth, then down into his chest.
Their hostess laid out the tea service, wiping each item in a ritualized manner with a clean white cloth. Her total attention was on her task, cleaning each item in what was clearly a specific manner.
Once she had set aside the cleaned items, she picked up the kettle and poured a small amount of hot water into the ceremonial tea bowl. As she went about cleaning the whisk and the bowl, Gregory felt his mind start to drift.
The space to his right seemed to fall into shadow, which grew deeper with each breath. He kept his gaze straight ahead, knowing what the shadow represented.
“A tea ceremony? Well, that is one way to get my attention,” a familiar silken voice said from the shadow. “Don’t frown— they can’t hear me. Only you can, since I’m not really here.”
The hostess measured two scoops of powder into a tea bowl and added hot water from the pot, then used the whisk to combine them.
“She is a devoted woman. I should be jealous that she’s getting all of your attention,” the shadow pouted. “But how can I be when she brings you such joy? Yes, Yuki, not the hostess. You are supposed to get a sense of whether the path before you is a true one or a false one. What you get instead is me and my assurance that the path is true. Yuki shall be your most devoted and loving follower, and soon, your wife.”
Gregory felt detached. He had questions he wanted to ask, but the moment just seemed to wash over him as Yukiko accepted the tea bowl from the hostess and drank. She handed it back to the hostess with her eyes closed, looking to be lost in a trance. Gregory watched the hostess rinse the bowl before making more tea.
“I know all of what you want to ask. I’ll tell you one thing. Your path is going to be full of hardships, but also full of love. Yuki will help keep you on the right path; you two are perfectly matched for each other. It reminds me of… well, that’s a topic for later. The tea is ready, drink up.”
Gregory reached out, taking the bowl from the hostess. He bowed his head to her and drank. The thick green liquid felt like it opened the world wider to him. Handing the bowl back slowly, his eyes closed and the room vanished, leaving him in the opulent bedroom he had come to know when speaking with the darkness.
“There we are,” the darkness giggled. “Now, we can have a little fun.”
Yukiko appeared beside him. She appeared shocked when she looked around and saw him there in the room with her. “A dream again?”
“No dream, dear,” the darkness said happily. “You and our heart are inside his meditative state. This is hard to do, so use these moments well.”
“Greg?” Yukiko asked hesitantly.
“It seems we are both really here,” Gregory said, reaching out to take her hand.
“This must mean we are on the right path, that we should be wed,” Yukiko’s smile could have blinded anyone who saw it.
“Yes,” Gregory murmured as he reached up and brushed her hair back behind her ear.
“Something he wanted even more than me,” the darkness sighed. “I was a little upset by that for a few days. I realized, though, that not only are you not trying to take him from me, Yuki, you are helping him grow even faster.”
“Who are you?” Yukiko asked the darkness.
“He’s spoken about me already. I am his aether, and he is my heart,” the darkness replied with a laugh. “Your mother’s tale is true in a way, but has lost some of its meaning over the long centuries since it was first spoken.”
Yukiko’s brow furrowed, “Your heart?”
“As well as yours, don’t be jealous. You know that powerful men attract others. I have conquered my jealousy of you. Even though you get to be with him in the flesh, something I won’t be able to do…”
“Greg?” Yukiko asked as she stared into the darkness. “I’ve seen this room before, in a dream.”
“I know, I remember,” Gregory admitted. “It was hard not to ask you if that was how you really felt.”
Yukiko was blushing, but she shook her head, “It was. I hoped so much.”
“Yuki, there is one thing I need to know,” the darkness said, stopping them before they could follow that line of thought very far. “What would you do for him?”
“Anything,” Yukiko replied without hesitation.
“Kill?”
“Yes.”
“Support?”
“Yes.”
“Share?”
“…”
“Come now, I shared him with you,” the darkness said. “I could have whispered in his dreams and turned him away from you. Instead, I brought him closer to you.”
“Share with you? Do I have a choice? You are his aether… he can’t divorce himself from you.”
“We’ll leave it for now. But Yuki, if you ask nicely, I can let you share dreams together on occasion. That would let you get to know him before your wedding.”
Yukiko went crimson and started to stammer, then she vanished.
“Sadly, our time is over until the end of the tournament. You are growing a following and that makes me happy. Next year will be even harder for you in some ways, but much easier in others. Until later, dear one.”
Gregory blinked, coming back to his senses. The hostess was bowing to them and he bowed back by reflex. He got to his feet, following the hostess as she left the building. The moment was broken the second they crossed the threshold of the wall.
“Well?” Yoo-jin asked them.
Gregory and Yukiko shared a long look, each thinking about what had just occurred. Yukiko spoke slowly, “We are destined to be together. Our life is going to be complex, complicated, but full of love.”
“Together,” Gregory said softly as he took her hand in his, “forever.”
“Then it was a success,” Yoo-jin smiled. “Let’s go eat.”
Gregory frowned in surprise when he saw the sun was setting. “We were in there longer than I thought.”
“Yes, that is normal,” Yoo-jin said. “The meditation of the tea ceremony is a complicated thing. I’m sure the academy has books on it.”
“I’ll be looking into it,” Yukiko said, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink.
Gregory corrected her gently, “We will.”
