When Gilly met Tenshio at the convent gate at the end of the next week, it was a bright, chill day and the sun brought out the burnished copper of the fallen leaves that moldered away on the grass. There was the smell of snow in the air.
“Please excuse me, Master Tenshio,” said Aiko in her gay voice, as she bowed to him. “I must go to the village to post a letter; you and Gilly please go ahead.”
“Of course,” said Tenshio pleasantly. “Good afternoon, Gilly. How was your first week back?”
“It was busy, Master Tenshio,” she replied, not quite meeting his eyes. “It seems but a short time now until graduation.”
“I am sure. Time passes quickly.”
“Yes, Master Tenshio, it does.”
Gilly walked along beside him quietly. Over her shoulders, she wore a shawl his mother had given her for her eighteenth birthday. The bright scarlet and cream silk brightened up the dull gray of her dress.
Her spirit was muted and subdued. It was as though she were weighed down by something, some fear or sorrow. It frightened Tenshio, all of a sudden. Ever since he had returned from his last trip to the Kagamihara, it was as though his own, well known Gilly had been lost somewhere.
He looked down at her in concern. “Did something happen at school this week?” he asked.
“Why no, Master Tenshio,” Gilly replied.
“Are you worried about leaving the school that you have known so well?”
“No, Master Tenshio. I’m sad, of course, to leave. But everything must come to an end.”
He stopped in the path and took her elbow in his hand.
“Gilly,” said Tenshio quietly. “Gilly, please tell me what is troubling you.”
Gilly’s heart was pounding in her chest, and for a moment, she could not speak at all. “I’m very sorry to have worried you, Master Tenshio,” she said in a low voice. “I assure you, I am well.”
Tenshio looked at her in disbelief, his golden eyes narrowing for a moment, almost in anger. “Gilly, to whom do you think you are speaking?” he asked crisply. “I can see with perfect clarity that you are not well.”
“I am very sorry to have troubled you,” Gilly repeated. “Please don’t concern yourself with me. I’m simply in a poor mood. It will pass.”
He looked at her face in bewilderment. “Gilly, we must have walked this path together a hundred times, but lately I feel as though I am walking beside a stranger. Why won't you talk to me? Where have you gone? I miss your company.”
“Master Tenshio, I’m right here,” she said in surprise.
“No. No, you’re not,” he replied, taking her by the elbows. “Frankly, I’d rather you yelled at me than say one more pleasant phrase. Now, tell me what happened.”
Gilly clasped her hands together tightly; she took a deep breath. “I’m so sorry, Master Tenshio,” she breathed.
“Sorry for what?” he asked, in growing disquiet, when she did not speak further.
“I am very sorry that it was your fate to be sealed to me by the Sacred Realm,” she whispered.
Tenshio’s eyes went wide in dismay. “What are you saying, Gilly?” he asked, his voice deepened.
“You didn’t have a chance to choose the person you will spend your life with. You must take me out of obedience to the Sacred Realm, and I’m not a fit mate for you. You should have been given a graceful, lovely daemon girl with poise and beauty, but I’m… marred and… spoiled…”
“Stop,” said Tenshio, his voice rough and deep. “Stop it at once; stop saying those things.”
“But you know that it’s true,” Gilly insisted, with perfect sincerity. “I know that you do not love me, not as a woman. I know you’ll be kind to me and we’ll have a good life together. I will do my very best for you. I just wish that you could have chosen someone that you truly loved.”
