As Saera waited in the courtyard, she felt a presence at her side.
"I'm here," Akira said.
Saera hid the hands she had been wringing together in excitement and nervousness in her sleeves. "You didn't have to come."
Akira made a low, amused sound in his throat. "Funny."
The woman who debarked from the litter was even more extravagant than her vehicle. A headdress adorned with jewels towered above her head and her robes trailed heavily on the ground as she walked. It was all the more surprising to see that the woman herself was elderly, her frame thin to the point of being frail.
"I know her," Akira murmured playfully in her ear. "She's one of the elders of a nearby clan, but she's said to be eccentric."
"Is she truly eccentric, or is that just what men say?" The smile fell from Akira's face.
