Yuki's POV – Morning Light in Eldridge
Yuki woke to the sound of soft clinking porcelain and the warm glow of sunlight sliding across the quilt like spilled honey. For a moment she didn't move. She lay still, blinking up at the wooden ceiling beams, feeling strangely… hollow.
Not tired.
Not confused.
Just… off, like someone had rearranged the furniture in her mind while she slept.
A shadow crossed the bed, and then—
"Morning, swamp queen. You drool when you're unconscious."
Rin's upside-down face hovered into view, a cinnamon bun already halfway to her mouth, braid frizzing wildly to one side. Yuki groaned and pulled the blanket over her head.
"Go away…"
"Nope!" Rin tugged the blanket back with glee. "I brought breakfast. And gossip. Guess which one is more important?"
Kazuyoshi stood at the foot of the bed holding a chipped blue teapot—steam curling around his fingers like lazy smoke. His sleeves were rolled to the elbows, revealing the shadow rune at his wrist, and his black hair was still damp from an early bath. Without his cloak and boots, he looked less like a walking warning sign and more… human.
"You slept sixteen hours," he said simply, setting the tray down beside her. "Longer than I expected. Drink."
He poured her tea without prompting. A pale green blend that smelled faintly of mint and crushed pine needles. Yuki wrapped her hands around the cup; warmth flowed up her wrists, into her chest, easing a tightness she hadn't even realized was there.
She took a careful sip.
And froze.
It tasted… familiar.
She couldn't place it, but her throat tightened, and for one heartbeat she felt like she was supposed to be sitting somewhere else, with someone else, drinking this exact tea while—
No. The sensation faded before she could grasp it.
Just nerves, she told herself. Normal travel exhaustion.
Rin leaned in, examining her expression. "You're doing the deep thinking face."
"I am not," Yuki protested.
Kazuyoshi arched one eyebrow, dry as desert sand. "You absolutely are."
Rin flopped onto the mattress beside her. "Okay, real talk: how do you feel? And if you say 'like a carriage hit me,' you owe me one of those buns."
"I feel…" Yuki hesitated. "Sort of… strange. Like everything is real but tilted. And I can't figure out why."
Kazuyoshi set his cup down slowly. His crimson eyes observed her with a stillness that felt both grounding and… heavy.
"That feeling will pass," he said softly. "You're safe. We're moving at your pace today."
Something warm fluttered in Yuki's chest. Gratitude. Trust. And something else she didn't want to look at too closely.
She reached for a bun, tore it in half, and shoved a piece toward Rin's face.
"There. Peace offering."
Rin snatched it with a cackle. "Accepted."
The morning unfolded slowly—Rin braiding Yuki's damp hair like someone who had definitely done it a million times before; Kazuyoshi sharpening his runed shortsword on the windowsill, each drag of the whetstone steady and rhythmic; Yuki sipping more tea, feeling the strange hollowness soften into something more bearable.
Only once did she catch her reflection in the cracked mirror—pale face, wide turquoise eyes, hair half-tamed by Rin's deft fingers—and that odd disjointed feeling came back, harder this time, like the reflection was hers but… not exactly. Like she knew herself, but a piece was missing.
She blinked it away.
Kazuyoshi noticed, even if he didn't mention it.
When she finally stood, he rose from the window and asked quietly:
"Ready?"
She nodded.
And they stepped into Eldridge.
Rin's POV – Market Heat, Noise, and Trouble
The Eldridge marketplace exploded around them—shouts from merchants, clattering cart wheels, the sweet smell of star-honey pastries and roasted chestnuts carried on warm midday air.
"This," Rin declared, slinging her arm through Yuki's, "is what civilization looks like. Merchants. Food that isn't roots. Bathhouses. I'm weeping."
"You're not crying," Yuki laughed.
"My soul is crying." Rin pointed dramatically at a stall selling candied violets. "Look! Sugar that looks like flowers. I'm going to eat them until my teeth dissolve."
She bought three cones without hesitation and shoved one into Yuki's hand.
"Payment," Rin said with mock severity, "for not dying on us. Again."
Yuki's laughter was soft and real—Rin had missed that sound.
Kazuyoshi walked half a pace behind them, expression unreadable, scanning every alley, every rooftop. Rin didn't miss how his shoulders were subtly tense. Eldridge was better than the marsh, but it was a busy city. Busy meant risky.
"Relax," she murmured to him under her breath. "The girl deserves one day without doom."
Kazuyoshi didn't look at her. "One day can cost us everything."
Rin rolled her eyes. "Yeah. But sometimes everything costs less than one burnt-out girl who never gets to breathe."
He didn't respond.
But he didn't argue either.
Rin grinned to herself and tugged Yuki toward a glass-lantern stall glittering with colors.
"You're buying that one," she whispered, pointing to a tiny lantern with a turquoise spark. "And you're giving it to him."
"What? Why?" Yuki whispered, startled.
"Because you want to. And because he'll pretend he doesn't care but actually will explode softly inside."
"…Rin—"
"Trust me. I'm a professional meddler."
Kazuyoshi's POV – The Lantern Gift
He wasn't expecting it.
Yuki turned, cheeks pink from the market heat and something else, and pressed the tiny turquoise-flamed lantern into his palm.
"For… keeping watch," she murmured.
Kazuyoshi's breath stalled.
The flame inside the lantern flickered once—bright, sharp—like it recognized something in her.
He curled his fingers around it slowly, careful not to crush the delicate glass.
"Thank you," he said, quieter than he intended.
Rin made a gagging sound. "Gross. Feelings. Can we go find soup now before I pass out?"
But Kazuyoshi barely heard her.
The lantern was warm.
Warm in a way it shouldn't be.
Warm like something in Yuki's shard was humming in recognition.
Something he could not afford for her to feel too clearly.
He slipped the lantern into his pocket, fingers lingering on the glass for one heartbeat more than they should.
Then—
A crash.
A barrel rolling.
A child screaming.
Kazuyoshi turned instantly, shadow rune flaring—
But Yuki was already moving.
Yuki's POV – The Bridge Rescue
The world sharpened all at once.
A little girl chasing a ribbon—
a barrel hurtling toward her—
a crowd too slow to react—
And then the sudden crash of the barrel knocking into the girl over the bridge and into the winter waters-
Yuki didn't think.
Her shard moved before she could.
Her body moved before she could even think and before she knew it she was already over the bridge and in the water clutching the little girl in a matter of a few seconds.
She swam to the shoreline where the girls parents were frantly thanking her.
The marketplace erupted in applause.
The child slammed into her waist, hugging her tightly as she stood back up to squeeze water out of her now unbranded and drenched hair.
"You're a hero!"
Yuki froze, heat rushing up her neck.
"I—I'm not— I just—"
Kazuyoshi's hand settled lightly on her shoulder.
"Breathe," he murmured. "You did well."
Her heart stuttered. She tried to steady her breath, but the strange feeling returned—that weird wrongness, like she had been told something similar before—but she pushed it aside.
Rin shooed the merchant away before Yuki could die from fluster.
They found a quiet willow-shaded bench, and Yuki sat heavily, hands trembling a little from the cold.
She felt… proud.
Light none the less.
"I didn't mean to do that," she whispered.
"That," Rin said, bumping her shoulder, "is what makes it cooler."
Kazuyoshi didn't speak.
But the lantern burned a little warmer in his pocket as he took off his coat and wrapped it around Yuki.