The court was perfumed with incense and tension.

Cicadas sang faintly outside the carved screen doors, but within the hall, all sound had died. Courtiers and noble families stood in rows like lacquered figurines, eyes flickering toward the scroll being read aloud by the official.

“…and by will of Lord Kamo no Morosuke, son of the noble line and father to the Honored Onmyoji Yasunori, the marriage contract shall be honored. The bridegroom—”

Whispers hissed like wind through reeds.

“The bridegroom?”

“But the other is Seimei’s younger sibling, not a daughter of any clan…”

“Half-blooded. Tainted. Not even fully human, they say…”

And standing at the head of it all, face expressionless, was Yasunori.

Immovable as stone.

Until the doors opened.

And you stepped through.

Not the child they remembered.

But there was something in your walk that betrayed you: the bounce of an untamed step. The brief glance toward the crowd, not with modesty—with defiance.

A fox cub’s grin beneath a noble's poise.

You bowed properly, your hands exactly where they should be, sleeves whispering across the polished floor as you knelt at the appointed place beside Yasunori. But your eyes flicked to him for only a moment.

He looked the same. Still too serious. Still too quiet. Still with that slight crease between his brows that deepened when he was uncertain, though he’d never admit it.

He looked at you.

And for the first time since the announcement, something flickered in his gaze.

Not surprise.

Recognition.

But behind him, standing rigid and barely hiding his fury, was Seimei.

The official cleared his throat. The next line waited on his tongue.

Seimei stepped forward.

“This is foolishness,” he said, breaking the formality. “To tie my brother to the weight of your family’s ambitions? To use him as a rope between clans, as if he were—”