[Red Sands: In Search of the Scarlet Dawn]

“Sister!” a familiar shout pierced through the hazy murk she found herself trapped in. “Sister!” Ren called once more, a light tapping on her face making her groan softly even as her eyes cracked open. “Sakura.” Ren breathed a sigh of relief, and she could only ponder on why she was lying on the floor of the library. “What happened?” her brother demanded, looking uncharacteristically stern – an expression more suited to Ichiro, she mused, even as the events of—she squinted, noting the skyful of stars in the skylights and through the wall of windows on one of the upper floors—what could only have been a few hours previous came rushing back to her. She sat up with a start, almost headbutting her brother with the suddenness of the motion.

“Itsuki?” she mumbled, frantically looking up at the ceiling, remembering then the inky black blob behind the inky black rain which had lingered above them. The ceiling was clear, her view of the skylights unobstructed, and Sakura could only frown, feeling incredibly confused all of a sudden.

“What about Itsuki?” Ren questioned, looking as puzzled as her. “He actually came to dinner, unlike a certain someone.” His tongue clicked, and then he was pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and pressing it to her nose. “Your nose has been bleeding. Do you know what’s caused this, or should I sent for a doctor?” He frowned. “Unexplained nosebleeds do warrant some concern, especially given how you’ve only just recovered…”

“I’m fine,” she grumbled, grabbing a hold of the handkerchief and pinching her nose shut. “Itsuki was here. In the library. I saw him, before I, well… passed out,” she said, wincing at the sharp pain which started throbbing behind her temples. Her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, and she hummed under her breath, trying to ignore the first pangs of hunger.

Ren blinked, expression turning wary, his hold on her suddenly becoming that much more gentle. “Sister, darling. I know Itsuki hasn’t been the kindest to you as of late, but even he wouldn’t be so callous as to abandon his unconscious sister in the library, more so without telling anyone.”

“But he was here, I saw him!” she exclaimed, waving her one free hand at the spot he had been standing before she had collapsed. “There was this dark inky rain, and Itsuki looked weird,” she explained, fearfully glancing up at the ceiling, remembering the eerie, creeping sense of fear which had filled the room. That ominous feeling was gone, seemingly nothing of it remaining, and Sakura could only grit her teeth and wonder exactly what was going on. “There was a dark blob on the ceiling.” She pointed up at the ceiling currently free from any gelatinous black blobs. “I’m not making this up!”

Ren looked at her, and Sakura had the creeping sense that he didn’t truly believe her, and there was something that stung about that very fact. “Did you, by any chance, venture into a section of the library with red carpet?” he asked, one pink brow raised in question.

“Well, yes—” Her eyes widened in realisation. “I bled on one of the books there!”

“Oh goddess, don’t tell father that—”

Sakura scrambled to her feet, frowning as she realised that she was no longer in that red-carpeted section. Had she been moved by that dark blob? Itsuki? She hurried back to where she knew the purple carpets were, tracing her footsteps from earlier. Purple turned to red, and Sakura could only frown at the empty reading ledge – the place she knew she had put that book down to flick through it. “It was here,” she declared, eyes frantically scanning the shelves and noting the gap in the row of books. “I took this book out,” she said, pointing at the empty space where the book whose title she couldn’t quite remember should have gone. “But now it’s gone. Itsuki must have taken it—”

“Or,” Ren cut her off, green eyes seeming so infinitely soft, “perhaps father or Ichiro took this book out. Earlier in the week,” he murmured, and Sakura felt her blood run cold.

“You don’t believe me,” she said flatly, hating that she felt the stinging of tears in the corners of her eyes at the seriousness of his expression.

“Sister,” Ren said gently, hands finding their way to her shoulders. “You’ve had a lot on your plate recently, and books on demons are not something you should be reading at your age – they gave me nightmares when I snuck into this section a few years back now.”

“But—”

“An after-effect of Negative Mana Reflux is hallucinations, sister,” he informed her, and Sakura could only blink numbly as that little snippet of information sunk into her brain. “Reading books on demons could only provide the worst kind of fuel for that much…”

A frown crinkled her brow. “But it felt so real – it was real,” she said almost cautiously, hating the wavering sense of uncertainty she felt towards what she had seen, suddenly feeling that much less sure of herself. “Why can’t you even consider the possibility that what I saw was real?” she demanded, folding her arms as if to ward over the cold she was feeling all of a sudden.

“There are wards around our property,” Ren explained, still sounding exceedingly gentle, and Sakura despised that gentleness in that moment. “They were checked a few weeks before your return, and they were fine and working.”

“Wards?” She met his stare, wondering then what she was supposed to trust in that world if she couldn’t trust what she had seen—felt, even. What could she trust if she couldn’t trust her five senses? That was a question she didn’t have an answer to. “What do they do?”

“Wards are a set of anchored sigils, carved into certain mana-conductive materials like marble or other stones – I mention marble because that’s what our wards have been carved in.” He smiled at that, yet it looked infinitely more strained than his usual grin. “Maybe I’ll take you to see them sometime… but those are what keep demons from entering this estate.” His hand slid to her back, urging her to walk forwards ever so numbly. “It’s impossible for a demon to be within these walls, sister.”

“But I saw it,” she mumbled, hating the way her voice wobbled, tears escaping her.

“I’m not saying that you didn’t see something,” he said gentle as ever. “Only that a lot of bad things have happened to you recently. One of which could have caused lasting aftereffects that we’re only beginning to see. Don’t cry,” he murmured, stopping just outside the library to wrap her in a hug she felt she sorely needed. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise.”

“Upsetting your sister now, imp?”

Sakura stiffened, quickly wiping at her tears with her sleeve as best as she could, lamenting then that the last person who she wanted to see her crying was right there. What was it with Sasori’s habit of appearing out of nowhere? Idly, she wished she had that ability, before reminding herself that she could probably wrangle it once her chakra and body were in better shape.

“She’s not well, uncle,” Ren grumbled, looking highly affronted at the accusation.

“I’m fine,” she muttered, not knowing whether or not she was lying. How could she be fine when she wasn’t entirely sure of what she saw or heard? Like a genjutsu, only there was no simply way to break out from it.

“She’s hallucinating,” Ren stated as if that was a fact. Sakura could only desperately wish that wasn’t true – yet if it wasn’t true, then it meant a demon was within the bounds of the Haruno Duchy. Something which was apparently impossible according to her most knowledgeable brother. She didn’t know enough about demons to be certain of anything the contrary to what her brother said. Besides, who was she to dispute the knowledge of those who knew more about the logic of that world than herself? She hadn’t known that Negative Mana Reflux was a thing, nor that it could cause people to remember a past life until she had been told of it. Until others had realised what she must have gone through, and that her mind had hidden the events of it away. Sakura wondered if the one thing she had thought she could always rely on was somehow failing her. What could she trust, if not her own mind?

“She is also right here,” she grumbled, folding her arms with a huff. “If you’re going to discuss what’s wrong with me, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do it within my earshot.”

“Sakura, don’t say it like that,” Ren said, closing his eyes with a soft sigh.

“Well, if that’s a sensitive topic, then why don’t we simply discuss what we’re going to do with the ones who harmed you, darling niece?” Sasori spoke, an odd skip to his step that had her wondering if she was somehow hallucinating her apparent uncle’s existence for how strangely he behaved to her eyes.

“There’s no need for such dark talk—” Ren spluttered.

“Hang them by their entrails?” she offered, a dark, almost sardonic smirk curling at her lips at the look her brother shot her.

“A bit more of a gory suggestion than I thought you’d come out with,” Sasori acknowledged, his expression almost matching her own – and Sakura could only wonder about what that said about her and her uncle. “I prefer ensuring a swift death, or perhaps a drawn out one with poison. You need to be certain your enemy is dead, after all, ideally without wasting too much time on them. Otherwise that just complicates things.”

“Then you just watch them until you’re certain that they’re nothing more than a corpse,” she muttered, grimacing then at the side-eye she could feel Ren giving her. It bore into her like a focused ray of sunlight, only growing that much more intense with every second which passed.

“Any suggestions from yourself, imp?” Sasori questioned, giving her brother a passing glance then.

“Personally, I find this conversation distasteful,” Ren said flatly, lip curling in an expression which wouldn’t have looked out of place on Itsuki’s face. “We will find the culprits, the fiendish individuals who dared to attack a Haruno, and justice according to the law, not Sasori, will be meted out.”

“And that’s why, imp, you’ll make an excellent holy knight, should you decide to venture to those Holy Lands everyone keeps harking on about,” their uncle said, ruffling Ren’s hair, proving that she wasn’t the only one whose hair got ruffled by their many family members. “That stuffy attitude will make you fit right in.”

Sakura glanced down at her hands. “Would I not make a good holy knight?” she asked, wondering then if that career path was off the table to her already. Not that her chances as being a saintess hadn’t been ruined… only severely compromised, more than likely. A soft sigh escaped her, and Ren touched her shoulder.

“You can be whatever you want to be: saintess, holy knight, or whatever tickles your fancy,” Ren said, expression telling no lie. “Everything will be fine.”

Sakura wanted to believe him – she really did. Yet her mind was an uncomprehending, confusing place at that moment in time.

“Ah, so the prodigal child returns,” Itsuki drawled, and Sakura felt her left eye twitch at that, even as she sat at the breakfast table, feeling absolutely awful from the terrible night of sleep she had. Their father was conspicuously absent from the table, leaving only the four of them there, staff having returned to their other tasks.

“Itsuki,” Ichiro barked, levelling a glare in the direction of his younger brother, evidently taking over the mediation between them all. “What exactly is the matter with you?” her eldest brother demanded, pausing in his breakfast. “You’ve been snappish for weeks, and I’ve tolerated it thus far, but this is going too far now. Sakura hasn’t done anything to you – in fact, you barely see her outside of mealtimes. Apologise.”

Itsuki sighed, a long, drawn-out thing. “I apologise, sister,” he grumbled, glaring at his breakfast plate, even as he listlessly pushed his food around on its surface.

“What exactly is the issue, brother?” Ren asked, one pink brow raising in question. “Ichiro’s right. This isn’t like you at all.”

“I’m just tired is all,” Itsuki said, determinedly not meeting her eye as she glanced at him curiously. “And all everyone ever seems to be doing these days is running about after our darling sister.”

“If you want to spend time with us, then all you have to do is ask,” Ren said, voice as soft as it had been when he’d told her that she wasn’t well the night previous.

“Besides, if you have trouble getting to sleep, then you know I can help you,” Ichiro answered, and Sakura distinctly remembered the time he had helped her get to sleep dreamlessly. A shudder rolled down her spine at the memory of that, and she frowned, wondering why her grip had tightened on her cutlery.

The sound of ceramics shattering had her looking up, head moving to the left on instinct as something silvery embedded itself in the headrest of the chair.

“Itsuki,” Ichiro spoke, and Sakura only stared at her third brother, eyes narrowing on the shaking hands which had thrown—she side-eyed the implement buried in the fabric of the chair—the knife, seemingly on accident for how Ichiro wasn’t yelling at him. “Are you okay?” he asked, and Sakura could only sit there and watch the situation unfolding in front of her. “You don’t seem—”

“I’m fine,” Itsuki hissed, backing away from their eldest brother then, sparing a single wide-eyed look her way before he stormed out of the room.

“Well,” Sakura mumbled, the air of stillness to the room almost palpable. “That happened.”

“Are you alright?” Ren turned to her, eyes fixed on the knife buried in her chair. “That almost took your eye out.”

“I’m fine,” she mumbled, feeling like she was echoing her brother. Who she didn’t think was as fine as he claimed, but then again – neither was she. What a pair of liars they made… A soft sigh escaped her at that, the image of Itsuki standing in that library, blank-faced and white-eyed. “Have you ever seen anyone who looks awake, but their eyes are completely white?” she wondered aloud, pushing her eggs around her plate as she tried to muster the will to finish the last few bites of her breakfast.

“Yes,” Ren answered. “Yet that is hardly a discussion for the breakfast table, sister.”

“Does it have to do with demons?” she asked, shovelling the last few bites of her breakfast into her mouth.

Ren sighed softly, and Sakura knew that she wouldn’t like the next words out of his mouth. “Is this to do with the accuracy of your hallucination?”

“Hallucination?” Ichiro demanded, blue eyes fixed on her all of a sudden.

It was her turn to sigh then, pushing her chair back as she rose to her feet. “I will see you at lunch, brothers,” she said flatly, ignoring the way Ren called her name as she exited the dining room.

Her uncle leant against the wall opposite, a smile on his face as he spun a dagger in his palm. “Fancy spending some time with your darling uncle?” he asked, and Sakura couldn’t turn down the inevitable distraction that Sasori would bring. At least until her classes started back up in a week’s time.

“Sister!” Ichiro called, and Sakura could only glance up from one of the books Ren had left for her in her room.

“Come in,” she bade, uncertain of whether or not she would come to regret that much. She didn’t want to deal with her eldest brother being concerned over her hallucinations. Her teeth sunk into her lower lip, a niggling sensation in her gut just refusing to go away whenever she thought on the memory of what she thought had happened in the library.

“Ah, I’m just here to inform you that Madam Fuji has sent your order – it’s arrived here, I mean,” he said. “You’re the one who knows where you want to place it, so you’d be the best one to direct the maids.”

Sakura blinked, abruptly reminded that she wasn’t expected to ferry her clothing deliveries to her room. “Oh. Right. I can do that,” she said, setting down her book, placing her bookmark in, before she climbed to her feet and went to her cupboard.

“Lady Sakura,” a soft voice called, and Sakura could only blink and smile at the young maid who had an armful of clothing in varying shades of colours. “Where would you like your latest order of clothes?”

“We could move some of last season’s dresses to the storeroom?” another maid, whose name she thought was Aiko, offered.

“Um,” Sakura mumbled, silently debating as she stared at the full wardrobe and the clothing which was arriving. “Yes. Move old dresses to the storeroom,” she ordered, feeling vastly unsure of herself. Who knew they had a storeroom for her old dresses? Sakura certainly didn’t, and she was only reminded then of just how much she didn’t know still, despite the weeks she had been there for. “Thank you,” she said, feeling as though she ought to be helping as they bustled about, storing away her new clothes – something she could only be thankful for, what with the amount of dresses she had ruined whilst trying to do light exercise in them. Her only set of jodhpurs and riding gear had been drying on the line those days. A matter she no longer had to worry about, with the arrival of more trousers and shirts.

Somewhat awkwardly, she returned to her reading, knowing she would have more questions ready for when Ren next decided to drop by to teach her more about magic.