Rei knocked on Taiyo’s door as obnoxiously as he could; each knock patterned out the tune of a folk song, to anyone who listened and cared.

“Stop going to bed so late,” Rei said. “Come out to eat and then you can go back to hiding.”

Taiyo groaned from the other side. “Can you just ask if I can get it later?”

“Do you have an actual excuse?” Rei asked. Since his brother responded to the knocking, Rei stopped.

“Migraine,” Taiyo answered. “I went to bed a little before you; I just woke up feeling awful.”

Rei frowned; it felt like he was using this excuse a lot, but people in this family only complained if it was actually troubling them. With that in mind, he nodded despite still being on the other side of the door. “I’ll see if Mother’s all right with that, but join us if you can. Considering you didn’t eat that much last night, she’ll be worried.”

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll try,” Taiyo replied.

“All right.”

Rei waited a second, then walked to the dining hall. Kyoumi and Sorai were already there, and both of them nodded a greeting when they noticed him.

“Is your brother coming?” Kyoumi asked.

“He said he would try,” Rei dutifully reported. “Another migraine is his reasoning.”

He took his spot next to Kyoumi, and they waited a few minutes before calling in the servants to bring out the food. Meals were never especially extravagant; no one really cared for fancy meals, so usually they just served whatever they could eat and had snacks throughout the day.

Sorai was the one who kept up conversation—Rei took after Kyoumi in the sense that he wasn’t a huge ‘people’ person, so Sorai and Taiyo talked the most during meals—while they all ate.

Rei had finished eating by the time Taiyo came in. His brother didn’t look well—at the very least, he wasn’t trying to hide it like the rest of them would. It worried him.

When Taiyo sat down close to Sorai, Kyoumi looked at him and frowned. “Just eat a little and then you can head back to your room,” she offered. “I won’t make you do anything if you’re not feeling well.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Taiyo shook his head slightly. “It’s too quiet by myself. I’ll just stay with Rei, as long as he doesn’t mind.”

“That’s fine,” Rei said.

There was a brief pause before Taiyo spoke up again, remembering a story that he hadn’t yet told Kyoumi and Sorai. Rei put in a word or two when he could, since he was done eating, and otherwise just listened. There were a lot of things Taiyo seemed to be afraid of—he didn’t like silence, and he didn’t like to train because he got sick around blood. Rei always wondered where it came from; silence in the palace meant that everything was calm and nothing bad was happening, and neither of them had seen anything particularly harsh that involved blood.

Taiyo ate most of what was given to him, and Sorai offered to take the rest so he didn’t have to force himself to finish it. In response, Taiyo nodded his thanks and looked at Rei.

“I wanted to check something in the entrance hall,” Taiyo said. “Then we can do whatever you have planned.”

Rei nodded, standing up as well. The royal family dispersed—Kyoumi and Sorai to do the former’s work, and Rei and Taiyo to wherever the latter wanted to be—as the servants went through to bid them a good day and clean up the remnants of breakfast.

Taiyo rambled a bit while they walked the short distance, and once they were standing in front of the memorial for the past kings and queens of Gin, he looked back at Rei.

“I think I figured out who the woman in my dreams is,” Taiyo said.

“You’re still determined to find out, huh?” Rei asked dully. “Honestly, I thought you stopped dreaming about her.”

Taiyo frowned, likely annoyed as well. “I just stopped talking about her because I knew you were getting tired of it,” he replied firmly. He paused for a second, then continued with his earlier emotion and turned back towards the wall of portraits.

Front and center, of course, was King Utaka—his portrait was placed on a table, with space for offerings. Queen Okimi’s portrait was there before his, but now it was hung on the wall behind it with the rest of the past rulers. There were boxes and chests full of the memoirs and journals of the rulers right up against the wall, marked with the years their contents were made.

Taiyo scanned the wall, then pointed to one of the portraits. “Right there,” he said.

Rei took a step forward and followed Taiyo’s gaze. He chuckled when he read the name underneath the portrait, and gave his brother an amused look.

“Tsujihara Seiko? Really?”

Taiyo frowned at him again. “That’s what I think, anyway,” he said. “The appearance is pretty much the same, and sometimes she talks about how I remind her of one of her sons. She’s been calling me ‘Teiyori’ for years—which is also the name of the king after her.”

“I still think you’re making the woman up,” Rei maintained.

“Wow, thanks for the confidence,” Taiyo replied dully. “It means a lot, really.”

“Hold off on the sarcasm,” Rei said. He couldn’t help but be a little sarcastic with his own response, however. “It’s just not reasonable.”

Taiyo chuckled, becoming happy again. “I’ll just have to convince you one of these days. I swear, it’s the first queen.”