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Posted by RackhamRose at 00:04:46 22/12/2002.
Just another bitty snippet. ^,^ Set during the same time period as Sidestory A--the first night after Hinoto's murder.
*`-,--
Hien, it was agreed, would stay at the mansion until she was stable enough to contact her family. The other Seals were all on alert, agreeing to take shifts to watch the grounds until dawn--just until they could be sure "that sneaky son of a bitch", as Sorata called him, wouldn't come back for her.
They found a spare futon, and Subaru was adamant that she stay in the room they'd picked out for him: he wanted to make sure that he'd be close to her should she go catatonic again. Though she showed no real signs of relapse, her gaze was dead-eyed, her motions mechanical as she endured the Seals' fussing over her. Her expression was blank, her voice flat and monotone; when she crawled into bed she slept immediately, curled in on herself with an unmistakably exhausted sigh.
In the darkness of her mind, little was different: Hien lay curled on her side, motionless as she had been when the Sakurazukamori had struck her down. The world around her was a wide void, dark as burnt glass, vast and silent. Not even her own heartbeat broke the quiet.
When her sister had been alive, they had occasionally shared dreams--always bright, confusing, full of motion, as if they had suddenly touched down in the middle of a carnival. Occasionally she had seen her sister's dreams, as if watching them through water; she rarely remembered those, but to judge from the few times she had and had told Souhi what she'd seen, Souhi had never seen hers.
Despite their being twins, there was always that little difference between them.
Hien was beginning to hate those memories.
The darkness rippled soundlessly, the void's perfection disrupted--something else was here. Hien glanced up, unable to stifle a little gasp of hope--maybe her sister had come back for her, maybe they were going to be together again, and normal--
The figure moving through her dream was female, but not her sister.
Her hair was long and black, and it hung limply around her face like cast-off snakeskin; the dark gold of her eyes was dull and lifeless. An indistinct sigil, pale as a scar, shone on her forehead, but everything else about her was unkempt; there was despair in the slow way she moved.
She looked as if she had lost her soul.
Hien shifted slightly, sitting up, watching the stranger.
Who are you? she asked.
The woman stopped, then turned her head to look at Hien. The physical laws of the dream bent, and suddenly she stood barely an arm's length away.
It doesn't matter now, the stranger said.
Who were you, then? And why are you... here?
She closed her eyes, and the sigil on her forehead became clearer--a twin to Princess Hinoto's, that design that was almost like an eye but not at all like one.
I was her flesh and blood. I failed her even more than you did.
Hien flinched. I didn't know, she whispered. I was watching, believe me, I tried--
You think the fault is yours? The yumemi's eyes were alight with anger now, cold and glaring. How could you have betrayed her? You were with her until the end. I was not.
The sea of shadow rippled again, and an image rose out of somewhere in its depths--a vague shape cocooned in red thread. The stranger gestured, and that thread began to unravel, revealing a pair of figures together--
Hinoto cradling her sister's lifeless body in her lap as the world fell around them.
This was what I wanted, she said. I would have died to make her wrong. I would have died. Because if she had been wrong in even one prophecy she would have been free--I would have had my sister back, free to live her life somewhere other than the cage they call "the future". No matter what she did to hurt me, to hurt the people whose lives she was protecting, I would have died to save her.
But in the end, I was the one who was wrong.<br><br>
And I wasn't even there to hold her.
Hien reached up to touch the woman's hand, tears blurring her vision--or was it that the dream-world blurred and buckled under the force of her grief?
I know, she said. If I had gone for help sooner, asked someone in security to keep a closer watch on us after Kamui visited--I'd still have her with me. There's so much I could have done, and I didn't do anything.
Because I didn't know.
The yumemi looked down at her, startled--and Hien could see tears beginning to form in those storm-dark eyes, anger finally giving way to grief.
Maybe next time you will, she said shakily. You have the gift, a little.
I think that's why you were chosen to protect her... you could see just enough to keep her safe.
Hien looked away in shame. I couldn't see that.
And then the woman's hand was on her chin, turning her face so they could make eye contact again.
I don't think she did, either. At least I don't think she saw the when. Or that your sister...
She has a name. The younger woman felt her "voice" rising, choked with sadness. She has a name. Souhi. My sister Souhi.
Souhi, the stranger repeated, not unkindly. Then you're Hien. I saw you sometimes, through her dreams. She paused a moment, her lips quirking with a faint, sad smile. She knew you were faithful to her. I think she liked that.
And for that... thank you.
I'm Kanoe.
Kanoe-san... Hien faltered, and then she was crying again. This time Kanoe's arm found its way around her shoulder, pulled her into a circle of warmth and safety and mutual hurt--they had both lost something precious to the same man, to the same mistake.
It didn't hurt so much to know that that pain was a burden they shared.
I miss her so much, the yumemi murmured through her tears.
I know. The younger woman sagged gently against her, closing her eyes. It's the same for me...
I can't go back to--how things were before. Kanoe's hand moved in her hair, a gentle phantom touch. She gave me my dreams. I have to find somewhere to be before--before he finds me.
That "he" had a strange sort of power behind it--not the cold fear of sakura petals, but something deeper, more sinister, like the scream of an angel's wings ripping air. And Hien found herself suddenly chilled by the thought that this person who understood, the only person who really knew how she felt, would disappear the way Souhi had.
Don't leave me, she murmured. Please don't.
There was a long pause. The yumemi drew back to look at her, searchingly.
I have to, she said at last. You're going to wake up and forget this--
I won't. Hien reached up and scrubbed at her eyes with the back of one hand. I won't forget what you've said. It... it helps, a little, and--and I want--
I want to be your friend.
Kanoe blinked, stunned. Silence fell between them, interrupted only by the not-sound of Hien's quiet sobbing; time seemed to slow to an agonizing crawl.
And then the yumemi brought a hand to her own face, to wipe at the tears that had already begun to spill.
I'm already on my way out of Tokyo, she said softly. I can't tell you where I'm going--and I'm not sure I can visit your dreams, not for a while, he might find me...
But if you really want... when this whole thing is over...
Kanoe drew her close, cradling the girl against the hollow of her shoulder--an older sister comforting the sibling afraid of the dark.
I'll come back for you.
Because I don't want to be alone, either.
The yumemi's face and warmth blurred; the void began to fade into a pale arch around and above her...
Hien woke in the Imonoyama Mansion.
She turned her head, and a long-limbed boy was standing in the doorway, watching her; his expression changed, beginning to open with something like hope as she found a focus on him.
And she smiled.
"Good morning, Subaru-san."
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