55
Aihi
Mud seeped through the knees of Aihi’s hakama as she sunk into the wet earth. In front of her, a wiry, sunshine yellow seedling poked from the freshly toiled dirt. A stone plaque hovered above the tree; the stone’s surface was inscribed with the names of Lacotl’s victims. Aihi’s friends.
Imai Fuyuko, Kobayashi Kahari, Satō Manami, and more than a dozen others. The memory tree, when it finished growing, would be magnificent. Clan Leader Benri had made right on her promise to honour the dead.
Dark clouds crackling with thunder swelled over Tsukiko and the surrounding rice fields. Rain pattered in the grass and dirt, dotting Aihi’s robes, hair, collecting on her eyelashes.
Aihi caressed Torra’s name, the grooves in the stone cold beneath her fingers. “I miss you, Torra.”
She bre
