Chapter 8
Climbing the Seer’s Mountain was a bit like getting lost in time.
“Are we nearly there yet?” Eli said, staring blindly ahead. White mist swirled over the path, deceptively thin wisps curling over their clothes. Five paces away, it lay brittle over the world like pale stained glass. Ten, it was a solid bank only Kotori could see through.
“Not yet,” said Kotori, eyes narrowed in focus. “There’s another set of stairs coming up - watch your feet.”
Pieces of the mountain’s long history swam in and out of sight. Here, a section of wall that was more moss than stone; there, rough-hewn handrails for a steep climb, not yet weathered by time.
According to legends gathered scrap by scrap, the Seer’s Mountain was one of the places where the last King of Otonokizaka might have made his last stand. With the silent past staring at her from every side, Eli could believe it.
Ever since they’d left the mountain village behind, they’d exchange words only to guide each other over the rugged paths. Kotori had seemed to sink into herself, eyes far away beyond Eli’s reach; she wouldn’t look Eli in the eye. Eli didn’t know how to bring Kotori back, or even if she should.
So they walked on in silence, weighing each step with self-conscious care, as if their journey weren’t about to end.
Eventually, Kotori said, “I see a light.”
It was another few minutes’ walk before they came up to the lantern Kotori had spotted, but by that time, they had surfaced from the worst of the mist, and even Eli could see clearly. Several paces ahead hung another lantern from a tree branch, and another, lighting the path up and up a wide staircase. And at the top of the staircase sat the home of Otonokizaka’s seers.
White rock scrolled round and round, piled in smooth whorls like a clay pot half-finished, pointing straight at the sky, narrowing as it went. Time had worn its edges down to soft curves until the spirals were barely visible. Dark windows with occasional pale faces peppered the length of the tower, its occupants peering down at their visitors. The tower’s base swirled into the ground, and high above, the mist swallowed its top: no beginning and no end.
The largest of the doors opened without a whisper. In the doorway stood a person dressed in robes of seer’s purple, an almost sheer white veil covering their face.
Eli knew who it was before they reached up to push the veil back.
“Welcome, Elichi,” Nozomi said, eyes warm and creased with her smile. “You’re a bit later than I expected.”
“Oh, please, you knew exactly when I would come,” Eli said, and took the last stairs two at a time to catch Nozomi up and spin her in a hug.
Nozomi laughed as they whirled; it was like music to Eli’s ears after so long. She breathed in deeply and hugged tighter, even as she set Nozomi back down, tucking her head against Nozomi’s neck and feeling Nozomi smile against her ear.
“You’ve sure grown,” Nozomi said admiringly, patting the top of Eli’s head. “Not as much as Alisa has, though.”
Eli chuckled and pulled back. “How is Alisa?”
“Just fine, don’t you worry. The ceremony went off without a hitch.” Nozomi winked. “To be honest, the things you’ve been up to have been much more interesting.”
“How long have you been keeping tabs on me this time?” Eli said, fondly exasperated, thinking back along their trip. Which reminded her - “Oh, I have letters for you.”
“From Maki?” Nozomi perked up. Eli peered at her; something suddenly struck her.
“Is that a blush I see, Nozomi Toujou?” Eli accused, squinting playfully at her friend.
“My,” said Nozomi, trying and failing not to let the blush spread. “I have no idea what you might possibly mean.”
“No wonder she had so many letters to give you…”
“Letters I can read later,” Nozomi interrupted. “Guests come first. Speaking of which - nice to meet you at last, Kotori.”
Kotori was standing behind Eli, arms wrapped around herself. She said, an uncertain waver in her voice, “You know about me?”
In response, Nozomi tapped her temple. “I know a lot of things that might happen, and also a lot of things that have happened,” she said. Her face softened with sadness… no. Pity? “I can answer your question. But won’t you come in first? You must be tired from the walk.”
Then she glanced up and added loudly, “And our acolytes are quite the busybodies too. Never have a conversation in open air here, Elichi.”
Muted giggles and the scrape of windows being shut followed Nozomi’s comment. Amused, Eli said, “Wouldn’t they See what you’re going to talk about anyway?”
“Oh, no - we don’t See each other often. Muddies things, you know, when you’re predicting what someone’s predicting; and if that someone’s better or worse than you… what a mess.” Waving off further questions, Nozomi stepped to the side and beckoned them in.
The halls were strangely quiet, for all the other Seers the tower seemed to contain. Once, Eli saw a girl being tugged around the corner by her companions. Her wide eyes rested on Kotori for a second, then were gone.
Nozomi seemed not to notice any of it, padding barefoot through her domain with confidence. Kotori did, though. Despite not saying a word, she walked right behind Eli, close as a shadow, practically tripping over Eli’s feet. Her eyes darted restlessly.
“We can use my rooms to talk in private,” Nozomi was saying, leading them up a dizzying array of stairs. “Normally we have visitor’s rooms, but I think we can drop the formalities, don’t you?”
“Are you allowed to take us wherever you want?” Eli said, trying not to sound out of breath. Nozomi must have calves of steel by now.
Nozomi winked at her. “I’m a senior Seer now. Not many people can tell me what I’m allowed to do. Oh, but I’ll do anything for Elichi, of course.”
“Don’t say things like that,” Eli scolded her mildly. There was no heart behind it, though, not when she was so, so proud of her friend. “You really are amazing, Nozomi.”
Nozomi glanced back, blushing lightly. “Thanks, Elichi. Takes one to know one, huh?”
Before Eli could think of a retort for that, they came to a sudden stop. Kotori bumped into Eli’s back and let out a small squeak of surprise. Automatically, Eli’s arm went out to steady her, pulling Kotori to her side.
“Ah,” Nozomi said dreamily, leaning against her doorframe. “Young love.”
“Nozomi,” Eli said. Her cheeks burned. She looked down at Kotori, waiting for the cheery retort.
“Sorry,” Kotori said quietly instead, eyes on the floor. Eli’s gut twisted.
“Kotori? What’s wrong?”
Kotori’s mouth opened, but the words seemed to stall. After a long moment, she said, “Eli, I… I lied to you, when we met. I didn’t mean to keep it from you for so long, I just - I’m so sorry.”
Eli stood still. When Kotori swallowed, throat bobbing, Eli could hear it in the silence that had fallen. “What,” she said faintly. “About, about what?”
Kotori shrank in on herself a little more, and Eli’s limp arm fell from around her waist. “About why I was here,” she said in a voice barely bigger than a whisper.
“I don’t understand,” Eli said, because she didn’t. What was going on, what could Kotori be lying about -
“Oh dear,” Nozomi sighed, and Eli looked at her helplessly. “Elichi will never understand unless you say it bluntly, Kotori. You should ask your question.”
Kotori nodded, shutting her eyes tight for a second. When she opened them again, there was a determined edge to her expression. She said, “Where are the gods? Or am I the only one left?”
…
Technically, nothing had changed for centuries, and nothing would change now that Eli had had a glimpse of the truth. She wasn’t even all that religious. If Kotori hadn’t appeared, her fleeting thought of finding the rightful ruler would have come and gone, with no more seriousness than a daydream.
None of that stopped Eli from feeling as though the world’s foundations had disappeared from under her feet, and she was falling, falling.
Nozomi was pouring them tea, calm and clear as glass. “The Seer’s Mountain helps train Seers and teach them how to control their abilities, it’s true,” she said as she dropped sugar into Eli’s tea and stirred it in. “But the Seers who could See what it was going to try to do came to help, not to be helped.
“We wanted to find out what happened to the Hungry King, and why the gods disappeared, and if they were ever going to come back. It wasn’t just a legend, you know: the famines he caused, his rebellion against the gods, the Seneschal who stopped him.”
“Yes, I know,” Eli whispered, staring into her tea. “I’ve been living in its shadow all my life.”
Nozomi paused and dipped her head in acknowledgment. “And for Kotori here, it was just like yesterday. Wasn’t it, Kotori?”
Eli looked up slowly. Kotori was sitting with her hands folded in her lap, staring at somewhere around Eli’s feet. “Yes,” she admitted.
Nozomi patted Kotori’s knee comfortingly. “We still don’t know everything,” she said, low and gentle, as if calming a spooked horse. “It would help, if you could tell us - tell Elichi.”
“I don’t know if I can,” Kotori whispered, looking desperately afraid. “I tried telling Eli - just a little bit, about the heavens, but she - “ She shook her head.
“I didn’t understand,” Eli said numbly, thinking back to that unreal night. “At least, at the time I didn’t. I think a little bit of it made sense later after I slept.”
“But you didn’t go mad,” Nozomi said in a reasonable tone.
“I-I’m sorry?”
“In all the old stories, unless you were an oracle or a ruler, you went mad if you tried to hear or read testimonies about the heavens. Except you obviously didn’t,” Nozomi said matter-of-factly. “And Kotori, didn’t you hurt yourself a while back, and couldn’t heal yourself?”
“How did you kn- oh. Well, yes…”
“This is only a guess,” said Nozomi, putting down her teacup, “but you might not be entirely, well, godly anymore. How much time did other messengers spend on the mortal plane?”
“Not much, only enough to say what they needed to.” Kotori hesitated, then added, “I know there’s been others who fell in love with humans and left, or were exiled. They became mortals, but I always thought it was a choice.”
“Being a living thing means changing. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse - but nothing stays the same forever.” Nozomi looked fondly at the plants scattered around her small living room. “Living in our realm must be affecting you. Which means… you might forget some things, but you could probably talk about the heavens now, if you’d like.”
“W-what if I can’t?”
Nozomi shrugged with complacent acceptance, and said, “If Elichi survived, I’m sure I will too. Well, just do your worst, okay?”
And so, the truth.
“The gods move slowly,” Kotori began. “They don’t notice things that happen too fast. Like with the King; one moment everything was fine in the mortal world, and the next, thousands of prayers were being sent up every day.
“I’m… I mean, I was only a inter-god messenger. I’m not even really sure what the King was trying to do, or why the gods were worried. But the King managed to kill a lot of the cross-world messengers the gods sent, and the rest were too busy, so they - they asked me to go. To tell him that if he didn’t stop, the gods would raze his lands and destroy his family.”
Kotori’s face was pale. “Except when I arrived, the only person there was you,” she said, looking Eli in the face for the first time that day. “And you told me he was dead. And I didn’t know what to do.” She stuttered a laugh, high with nerves. “I suppose that meant I was a terrible messenger, somehow arriving so late.
“But when I - when I tried to go back, I couldn’t find the way. So I thought, if there were any other gods or messengers who had been here recently, if I could sense them and follow their trail back… and then you asked me if I would guide you to the ruler.”
It made sense. It made so much sense, Eli could kick herself for not realising Kotori’s fear, for not seeing her early cheer for the desperate mask it was.
Eli couldn’t even trust herself to know when Kotori had put the mask aside for good. Or if she ever had.
“I just didn’t want to go alone,” Kotori said. She pulled her cloak, Eli’s cloak, tightly around her shoulders and tucked her chin down until her hair shadowed her face. “There was no ruler. I’m… I’m sorry I lied to you, Eli.”
Eli Ayase was the greatest fool in the world.
“The Seers’ biggest project in the past few decades has been trying to See what really happened to make the gods disappear nine hundred years ago,” Nozomi said, smoothing over Kotori’s silence. “In some ways, it’s easier; the past is fixed, so you only See exactly what happened, compared to the future. The only problem was trying to go back so far.
“From what we can tell, the King wanted to cut off the gods permanently, so he could use his powers however he liked without their interference. To sever the connection between worlds, so to speak; I won’t bore you with the theory.” A wry grin. “I barely understand it myself.
“Well, he succeeded, but died in the effort. Except no spell lasts forever. Slowly but surely, it’ll unravel, until the gods come back one day.”
“Like Kotori did,” Eli said. Her throat was a desert. With numb hands, she picked up her tea again.
“Kotori was probably caught in the connection just as it was closed, which is why she’s first. And everybody gets a little more religious, dreams a little more about a heaven-blessed ruler when a Seneschal’s about to go on their pilgrimage. If the block’s going to be weakened, then it would be at a time like this, don’t you think?”
“So none of the others have been back,” Kotori said in a small voice. The muscles in her forearms jumped with tension. “I… I should’ve known, shouldn’t I? It was horrible of me, dragging you along with me.”
“No,” Eli said, hurting and seeing Kotori hurt. “No, I - you didn’t - “ She was the one who hadn’t seen what was wrong. She was the one too wrapped up in her own insecurities. She reached out for Kotori, trying to bridge the gap the only way she had left. Kotori looked up into Eli’s eyes and flinched at Eli’s distraught look.
And Kotori ran from her.
Before Eli’s hand landed, Kotori was out of her seat, tea spilling over the sides of the cup. “I have to,” she said, shaking, “I’m sorry, I need to - “ and then she set the cup down and darted out the door and Eli was left behind, watching her retreat, helpless.
Eventually, Eli realised Nozomi’s hands were on Eli’s shoulders, guiding her back down into her seat from where she’d half-risen in dismay, pushing Eli’s uselessly stretched-out hand back to her side.
“Give her a bit of time,” Nozomi advised, settling herself beside Eli and rubbing Eli’s back soothingly. “She won’t go far, don’t worry. And she probably wants to be alone for a bit.”
Anybody else, Eli would have shrugged off. But this was Nozomi and Nozomi always knew what to do when Eli didn’t. So Eli let out a shaking exhale and let Nozomi fuss quietly over her. She barely felt her touch; like an animal in the grip of a storm, she tucked her head against Nozomi’s shoulder and waited for her thoughts to fall into some semblance of order again.
“I’m so stupid,” she whispered.
Nozomi said nothing; she only waited. Nozomi and her blessed intuition. Good, because Eli wasn’t finished with herself.
“I’m an idiot,” Eli repeated. Anger boiled up in her throat like an angry cloud of bees, and she slammed her fist against her knee. “How did I not - I’m the worst, the worst - “
Partner? Lover? Girlfriend? What was she, if she couldn’t even see Kotori’s struggle, if Kotori couldn’t even tell her this truth?
With a convulsive shudder, she shrugged Nozomi’s gentle arms off, burying her face in her hands. She didn’t deserve comforting.
But Nozomi made a quiet shh-ing sound and drew Eli back relentlessly. “Maybe you made mistakes, but you didn’t make all of them,” she said, soft but firm. “There are at least two people in a relationship. Kotori sounded sorry too, didn’t she?”
Eli shook her head, then couldn’t seem to stop. “She’s- she’s kind, of course she’d say sorry, but I was the one who didn’t listen to her enough.” It took effort to work the words through the lump in her throat, but Eli didn’t know anymore, and if anybody else could, it would be Nozomi: “What if she never–if she only did it to get along with me, what if she never l-loved- “
“Elichi,” said Nozomi, and Eli stilled at the silk-wrapped steel in her voice. “I don’t need magic to see she’s head over heels for you. And do you really think she would be the kind of person to play with your feelings like that?”
She was right. Eli forced herself to take a deep breath, recentering herself. No matter what Kotori did to get into Eli’s good or bad graces, Eli would still protect her as the gods’ messenger. Kotori knew that. Anything else they felt, did or said must have had nothing to do with duty.
“Are you mad at her?” Eli asked in a small voice. She didn’t want her two favourite people to fight.
Nozomi tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Hmm… I’m not the happiest that she kept it from you, but the truth itself didn’t hurt you, just the hiding, yes? Then I’d be a hypocrite to scold her for running away.”
It took a moment for Eli to understand. “I’ve told you that you don’t owe my future to me,” she sighed, not for the last time. “You don’t owe it to anyone to tell them exactly what you know. I thought we’ve already been over this.”
Nozomi smiled at her. Eli immediately got the familiar feeling that she’d said and done exactly what Nozomi had wanted her to. “I think so too,” Nozomi said cheerily. “Remember to tell her what you just told me, okay?”
“Do I talk to her now?”
“When you’re ready,” Nozomi said, nonjudgmental as always. “She’s not far, just on the roof; take the main stairs and you’ll be there in no time.”
Eli nodded. Just a moment more, then, to rub her eyes and gather her courage, so she could approach Kotori with a clear heart.
Then she realised something. “Oh, gods,” she whispered. “I really am going to be the next ruler, aren’t I?”
For the first time Eli could remember in years, Nozomi looked surprised. So when Nozomi burst into giggles, of course, Eli had no choice but to follow her.
Kotori sat on the very edge of the roof, arms wrapped around her knees. Eli pushed down her instinctive prickle of fear. Of all the people in the world, Kotori was probably the safest there.
Instead, Eli scuffed her way across the flat circle of the tower’s roof, letting Kotori hear her approach. Under her cloak, Kotori’s wings shifted, but she made no other sign.
“Hey,” Eli said, settling cautiously onto her haunches beside and slightly behind Kotori.
Kotori peeked at her, half her face hidden by her arms. “Hi,” she whispered, and glanced away again. The circle of her arms tightened.
All of Eli’s careful preparations vanished like morning mist in sunlight in the face of a downcast, guilty Kotori. Instead, she said the first thing that came into her mind: “I think I knew we weren’t going to find the ruler.”
Slowly, Kotori’s eyes came back round to rest on Eli. Eli readjusted her seat - two, three inches closer - and nodded. “I don’t know why,” she said, almost to herself. “It just… didn’t feel real. Even though I was the one who wished for it. And–I think I’m glad we didn’t find them.”
“You’ll make a wonderful ruler.” Kotori scrunched into herself a little tighter. “You’re so intelligent, and so brave, and you work so hard - no one’s more qualified than you.”
Eli chuckled quietly. “It’s probably a good thing I didn’t have to hand the reins over to someone else, actually. If they weren’t absolutely perfect at it, I don’t know what I’d do. The second deposing of the Otonokizaka throne, maybe.”
“You’re not… upset that I tricked you?” Ever so slightly, Kotori uncurled. “I- I took advantage of you. I made you travel with me because I didn’t tell you everything.”
“I would have travelled with you anyway,” Eli said, scooting close enough to tentatively bump her shoulder against Kotori’s. “A beautiful woman appearing in front of me, asking me for help? How could I refuse?”
Involuntarily, Kotori giggled, and then sniffed. This close, Eli could see the unshed tears clinging to her eyelashes; she itched to wipe them away.
“Pretty or not,” Eli continued, sobering, “I would have gone with you. Even if you told me the truth about what you were looking for, I would have gone with you.”
“Because of your duty.”
“No,” Eli said. Well, it was partially true - but only partially, and she realised it as she went on. “In the beginning, yes. But later, no.”
Kotori dared to let her eyes slide towards Eli again. “Then, why…”
“Because you wanted me to, and I could, and I wanted to,” said Eli, pulling scant words from the whirlwind of her thoughts, finding her path as she went. “Because I, I wanted to see you happy. And it made me happy too, seeing you happy. So if I seemed upset, it wasn’t at you. It was only because I thought–I failed, I didn’t pay enough attention to see what you were feeling.”
Then, abrupt as a turn in a road, Eli came to an end. There was nothing left she knew to say. She could only wait for Kotori to meet her halfway.
“You know,” Kotori offered, only the tiniest of hitches in her voice, “I think I knew too. That the gods weren’t here. But I just… I didn’t want to give up. So I couldn’t find a time to tell you. It was my fault, not yours.” Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. “I just never wanted our journey to end.”
“Me neither.” It tasted like a confession when she said it at last. The past two years of grief, healing, acceptance, preparation - Eli hadn’t had anything to herself for a long time. And once she did, she only got greedier and greedier, chasing their journey over the horizon for one more scrap of happiness with Kotori, until she almost forgot what they were there for.
At last, Kotori unfurled from her tight ball. She leaned against Eli’s shoulder: her wings whispered free of her cloak, and her legs swung over the edge of the tower. Eli felt her shoulder warm and leaned into it, too.
“But no more keeping things like that to yourself,” added Eli. “I mean - if it’s your secret to hold, then by all means, hold it. But I don’t want you to ever feel like you can’t tell me something. I promise, I’ll always listen.”
Kotori nudged her head up to look at Eli. “Even if the truth hurts?”
“Hurts less than finding out someone dear to me’s been struggling alone.”
With an abashed yet pleased smile (finally, her smile, Eli missed it so), Kotori reached up and cupped her hands around Eli’s face. “You sweet-talker,” she said, and kissed her.
Eli’s heart thumped once at the first touch of Kotori’s lips, and then again at the fading taste of tear-salt, but Kotori was kissing her so intently and so thoroughly that she couldn’t feel anything else after that. She was supposed to tell Kotori more - she wasn’t finished - except the soft slide of Kotori’s tongue told her yes, she was finished, quiet now.
When Kotori pulled back, they were sitting hip-to-hip, Eli breathless and uncaring of the precipice inches from her.
“Wait,” said Kotori, still watching Eli’s mouth. “I was going to tell you something.”
“Can’t it wait?” Eli said hopefully, half to see Kotori pout at her.
“No, we need to talk about it.” Kotori pulled her hands away. Her fingers trailed over Eli’s cheekbones; Eli let herself tremble just a little. There was a curl to Kotori’s smile that suggested she knew exactly what she was doing, but it faded as Kotori took Eli’s hands in hers.
“I think,” Kotori began carefully, “that we should travel separately for a bit.”
Eli couldn’t breathe. Her heart dropped out of her stomach. Kotori quickly tacked on, “Not for long! I just thought… I wanted to know I can do it on my own. You’ve been taking care of me this whole time, but if you’re becoming the ruler, then you won’t always have time for me.”
“I’ll make time,” Eli said heatedly, but she knew it was impossible even as she said it. Kotori was right. She didn’t like it, but Kotori was right. She faded, trying and failing not to imagine all the ways she could have to choose between her country and her love.
Kotori saw, of course. She tangled her fingers with Eli’s. “You can’t, Eli, that’s okay. You shouldn’t have to. You’ve already done so much for me. You’ve shown me the world. But I need to do this, for me, so I can come back and stand by your side and feel like I belong.”
A dozen rejoinders came to the forefront of Eli’s mind. She was already enough, Eli didn’t want her to go - but with a clench of her jaw, she drove them all back. This wasn’t about her. This was about Kotori. “Nine days,” Eli said, looking into Kotori’s eyes. “I’ll be back at the castle for my coronation then. You know how to find it?”
Kotori nodded, and leaned in to kiss Eli once more, chaste and light. “I’ll come back to you,” she promised.
They sat there alone as their shadows lengthened into the afternoon - for how long, Eli couldn’t tell, storing up soft touches and murmured words for the time apart.
But in the end, there could be no delaying the inevitable.
They helped each other up, dusting specks of dust off their clothes and tucking stray hair back into place. Kotori opened her arms for one last hug; Eli went, like a moth to the lamp, tucking her head down against Kotori’s, the circle of Kotori’s arms the bowers of Eli’s world for a few last blissful seconds.
And then Kotori moved back to spread her wings. Behind her back, the whole world lay open, offering itself up to them.
“I’ll see you soon, then,” said Kotori, giving Eli one last wistful smile.
“See you soon,” repeated Eli, already feeling the connection between them straining, stretching-
Up went Kotori’s wings: down they came, and the gust of wind sent Eli’s bangs awhirl. Kotori leapt into the air, dropping from Eli’s view for one stomach-dropping second, before she rose above the tower’s edges-
“I love you,” Eli said, too late-
But Kotori heard. Eli knew from the turn of her head, the tiny ‘o’ her mouth made, before distance hid the details from Eli’s weak human eyes. Kotori could still see, though, so Eli stood there, mouthing the words again once, twice, until Kotori was too far to look back.
The bright sail of her white wings shrank and shrank until Eli no longer knew whether she was looking at Kotori or at a wisp of cloud. Still, she stood there, as if no harm could come to Kotori while Eli watched over her, no matter how far.
When the sun dropped and her eyes ached, Nozomi was waiting for Eli at the rooftop door.
“If you love it, let it go, hm?” she said, arms already opening to fold Eli into her uniquely Nozomi hugs.
Eli only let herself indulge for a few moments before pulling away. “Sorry for keeping you waiting,” she said ruefully.
“Oh, that’s fine - I had plenty of letters to occupy myself with after all.”
“Couldn’t you just have Seen them?”
“Ah, but where would be the fun in that?”
They shared a quiet laugh, Eli shaking her head bemusedly. Nozomi and Maki - only two people as persistent and stubborn as they could make it work.
“I’d better start thinking about how to get back,” Eli sighed. If Kotori could live in a new world on her own, Eli could go and rule the country she’d prepared for her whole life. “Would you happen to have any horses and supplies I could borrow?”
Nozomi’s eyebrows danced. “About that - there’s a visitor downstairs for you.”
The visitor, as it turned out, was a very small and irate knight.
“Took you long enough,” grumbled Nico, laid out across Nozomi’s couch. “You two sure led me on a fun chase.”
“Nico? What are you doing here?”
“Looking after your dumb ass,” Nico said, downing the rest of her cup in one go. “Listen, if you’re going to go around showing your weird travelling companion to people you know, you gotta know they’re gonna ask questions. Do you know how many favours I had to promise Maki not to dig?”
“You’ve been following us?” Eli said, feeling a little faint.
“No, I was just going to let you wander off with a girl who doesn’t even know how to tie shoelaces,” said Nico, rolling her eyes hard enough Eli worried she’d strain something.
Then it occurred to Eli. “Ah… how much did you see…?”
Nico made a mocking thoughtful sound. “That fight with the bandits? You’re training with me every morning for a month after we get back, Ayase. Oh, and I saw your girlfriend flying off to who-knows-where just now.”
“Uh,” said Eli. “About that. Kotori’s, um…”
“Don’t worry, I got the run-down from Nozomi already.” Nico looked at Eli. Deep in her eyes, there was a hint of worry, even if she’d never say it out loud. “Are you two all good? She seems like fun to keep around, I’d hate to lose out on talking to her now.”
Beautiful, blessed Nico. “Yeah,” Eli said. “She just needs some time alone. We should meet back at the capital.”
“Nice. Do you have anything else you need to do?”
On instinct, Eli looked around the room, as if she’d find her responsibilities hiding under Nozomi’s furniture. But she couldn’t think of one more reason to keep the journey going. “No,” she said, trying not to sound forlorn. “No, it’s time to go home.”
“Well, the mountain’s pretty safe, so I think we can get down to the village at least before we sleep. I brought a horse for you too.” Nico wrinkled her button nose. “And that… alpancake thing, are we taking it back too?”
That got a laugh out of Eli. “I don’t know anything about it, it’s Kotori’s,” she denied.
“A little bit of relationship advice,” Nozomi said serenely. “Keep the alpaca.”
“You’ve got to be joking,” said Eli. Nozomi only smiled her Seer smile at her. “Ugh - fine, yes, I will take the alpaca home.”
At the stairs to the Seers’ temple, light spilled out onto the mountain path, soaking into the darkness. The land smudged into the dark sky, lit only by the first stars coming out, as beyond reach as they were one night when Eli lay under the night sky and dreamed of an angel’s loneliness.
“Are we going to be okay?” Eli whispered to herself.
Nozomi stepped up beside her. There was a twinkle deep in her eyes. She said, “Are you?”
It didn’t take long for Eli to find an answer she liked. “Yes,” she said, and meant it. “Yes. We’re going to be just fine.”