Ultimately, Gin and Sólstaður won. Rei could tell that much just by how many of Kuro’s soldiers were retreating or dead. He knew his own side had losses too—he tried not to think about Taiyo to his left, who had stopped breathing after a few minutes—and honestly, if this had been in Gin’s capital, the silver army would have retreated.

Granted, it didn’t look like a lot of people paid much attention to the twins. It was completely possible they hadn’t realized Taiyo was dead yet.

Even after the battle ended, Rei stayed with Taiyo. Somehow, his only wound was the cut on his leg—that was the only one that still hurt, at least. It helped that he had just got a little closer to the front lines when he saw Taiyo. He hadn’t fought much until his own brother stabbed him.

He just waited for anyone to notice them. Roken came through the area first, with Kasper right behind them. Rei was brave enough to speak up when he saw them.

“Are our parents close?” Rei asked when they noticed.

Roken walked a bit closer and offered his hand to help Rei stand. “They went to see how much is left of Kuro’s royalty,” he explained. “We want to know how many there are aside from Toru. They’ll be back out shortly, but for now I can take you back to camp.”

Rei nodded, glancing at Kasper. The agemate bent down to where Taiyo sat, and pulled back before Rei could offer any explanation.

He assumed whatever Kasper said was a Sólstaðuric curse. “Gods. That’s Taiyo.”

Roken frowned and looked at the younger twin himself. Then, he looked back at Rei. “I heard your mother say he wasn’t fighting,” Roken noted.

“He wasn’t supposed to,” Rei replied, refusing to look at his brother for now. It brought…unpleasant things to mind. “But he did, so he’s…”

He really didn’t want to say it out loud.

“I can take Rei back,” Kasper offered, standing up and looking at his father.

Roken nodded his thanks, and Kasper walked alongside Rei as they left the Masaaki’s house. When they were out, the few miko Gin brought with them—he noticed one or two of Kuro’s miko as well—saw it fit to add Rei to their list of wounded soldiers, so he sat alongside some others. He didn’t answer if anyone asked him where Taiyo was.

He sat there for a while, watching the people coming and going. There wasn’t much else he could do while some aspects of the battle were still catching up to him.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

It was probably still an hour after the battle ended that he actually saw Sorai. His father gave him a smile not unlike one he showed when Taiyo first disappeared, except a little more forced.

“Can you stand all right?” Sorai asked.

Rei nodded, and carefully got up. He still winced at the pain.

“Don’t force it,” his father suggested. “The bright side is that we can head home soon; Kuro’s kitsune-advisor and two younger heirs aren’t accounted for, so we can assume they left. Whether or not they continue to fight depends on how much the people trust the kitsune.”

“And did you see?” Rei asked, realizing after a second that he couldn’t really phrase it. He tried again with a lot more trouble actually trying to say it right. “Taiyo…”

“We saw,” Sorai said, nodding a little. He let his smile fall, and his own kind of awkward caution showed instead. “We saw him, at least. Were you there for very long before..?”

Rei really didn’t want to tell his father that he saw Taiyo immediately after his brother stabbed himself. Sorai seemed to take it as a sign to rephrase his question.

“Did you watch him?” Sorai asked instead, kindly but leaving out the sensitive words.

“Not necessarily,” Rei replied hesitantly. “I was there, but…tried not to look.”

His father nodded. It probably said a lot about the family that not watching someone die was considered good news. Sorai gestured for Rei to follow. “Your mother needs some time to process it, but if you’re up for it we can start making preparations for heading back.”

Rei nodded, and followed his father as they went about the battle aftermath.

——

Kyoumi hated that this would go against her; she never wanted to see either of her sons dead. She imagined Sorai didn’t necessarily want to hear her ramblings, either, yet here they were.

“I don’t even understand why he left,” Kyoumi said. Somehow, Roken had Masaaki Toru tell the people to give them lodging for the night—they were allowed to stay in the Masaaki’s house. With next to no Kuro citizens left in the city, they accepted after confirming some of Gin’s soldiers could guard them. She had yet to lay down, and at this point questioned if she would. “Taiyo shouldn’t have even left camp.”

“I can’t help,” Sorai maintained, as he has been for the last few minutes. “Rei was the last one to talk to him before the battle, but I don’t want to ask any more than I have to. He looks like you did when Utaka and Erize died.”

“It’s concerning,” Kyoumi agreed. Finally, she wandered over to the bed and sat down next to Sorai. “Aside from Rei… There was a lot we never asked Taiyo. He said he was in Kuro no Shuto, but we don’t know why. The kitsune-advisor might have been able to say anything, but we couldn’t find her.”

“We could try asking Masaaki Toru?” Sorai suggested. “It’s unlikely he was there the whole time, but for the time being it seems like Roken wants to keep an eye on him.”

Kyoumi sighed. “I wouldn’t be ready to ask before Roken heads back to the north.” She finally gave in to the coming tiredness, leaning back completely. “But I wonder…if somehow, this could’ve been prevented. If Rei didn’t fight, or if someone kept a closer eye on Taiyo, then he wouldn’t…”

“I…don’t think there’s anything anyone did wrong.”

“You only think?”

“…It’s hard to say. Maybe, maybe not. I still need some time.”

“I’ll try to put my worries aside, then. There will be plenty of time to ramble once we’re back home.”