Whispers from the Year of the Vanished
By Sana Komaru

Sana Komaru is the younger sister of Midoko Komaru, one of the most prominent social forces in the Komaran Royal Court. She is not as beautiful as her sister, and not as popular, but her publications, even at their most acidic, are popular reading among the court.

Possession of this tome is worth **** Research Point per session, on the subject of ****.

For as long as I can remember, a songbird has come to my window and sang me awake every dawn. When I was a child, I thought it was magic, that she had watched over me as a baby and been charmed. When I was eleven, I woke up before dawn and lay in my bed listening to the sounds of morning. There was the quietest muffled curse, and I peeked over the windowsill to see the gardener climbing to his feet, a cage in his hand, my songbird in the cage. And after I ducked my head down again, I could hear the latch of the cage as the gardener released the bird. A few moments later she began to sing.

I have kept track; there have been fourteen different birds since I was eleven. They are all very similar, and quite expensive. Some of them have escaped, and some of them have died. There has never been a day without a songbird.

This is the life I lead.

One day last summer, I was at a party that Aimee had planned. Tohru was there, of course; I remember when I was fourteen and at my first ball. Tohru asked me to dance and I was left breathless; I thought he'd stolen my heart. Midoko was amused, and looking back, I am too. He is such a fool, shining and brave and easily led. I think his first encounter with Arabelle Sone was at Aimee's party, and it is clear everytime I see Aimee and Tohru how much she regrets inviting Arabelle to that revel. She is venomous where once she was sweetly conniving. Fortunately, Arabelle seems quite capable of taking care of herself; she is a Sone. Poor Tohru, forever caught in the middle, never seems to learn how to balance the women in his life.

Still, he is useful. Sometimes, we have dinner, and he tells me stories from the front. He wants to impress me, of course, and I am, but not by him. Woven in among his own heroics leading the mighty armies of the Komaru are tidbits and fragments of the exploits of others I do not know as well as I know Tohru. I have always been impressed by the Princess Consort, for example, but I scarcely know her. While the strategies of the armies are certainly interesting, it is the tensions of the strategy room and the intensity of the Royal Couple that interests me. They have been a pair of caged falcons for years now, and I have heard that some of my cousins have sympathy for them. But the Komaru are falconers, and they know that every time a falcon is freed is another chance for it to vanish forever. I have heard that the Aten have the heads of animals; I have heard that eagles are used to hunt smaller raptors. It makes one think.

I also hear the occasional tale of Faust Yuasa. Apparently he exerts and iron grip over his family - he even chooses to lead his family's armies into battle. He is elderly, although very well preserved - at sessions of the Royal Council I have seen him in the capital, and I am not surprised that he has such a wife as Purity Touraine. And that infamous statue of him... well, even I have heard the rumors about that. It surprises me, though, that his lovely young wife has borne him no heir. Perhaps he should follow the peasantry's example and beseech his statue for a miracle.

Last year, Faust seemed to age about a decade overnight and this year, while he has had Melisande Sone's magic to help his war, he scarcely looks better. From many people, I have heard stories of the mysteries that the Aten have left behind in their retreat, of the missing people. I remember stories of other vanished people, from when I was a child, and I think again of birds. It isn't surprising; bird watching has been reasonably popular this year and unlike many of my more fashionable companions, I read the accompanying volume of lore that has been circulating through the parlours. When I was five, my sister would tell me stories of birds that would steal away children and replace them with monsters. I am sure her stories were the product of a cruel elder sister's imagination, and I wonder what the Yuasa are telling their children about the disappearances in the north.

I did not attend the garden party of the Royal Children, but my sister came home and told me about it. She teased me that Ajiro had been there, and they had shared a game of croquette, but I was serene. I chose not to attend the party for precisely the reasons Ajiro was uncomfortable - only a few scant years ago I was one of the children on display (and of course, I am shy). Still, I had a chance later that week to meet Sakura Minamet. She is near my age, and a mother, married to a man many years her elder, and her awkwardness in court was balanced by her startling beauty. I must stretch to imagine the appeal of such older men - even though a number of my sister's peers have chosen to marry men of power, I can not think but they have sacrificed their own youth in order to have the illusion of political security. It is not a path I think I will follow, no matter what plots my oh-so-unmarried sister and the Marchessa may hatch.

For my birthday, Kahana gave me one of her own fans, of the style brought back from the Castle by the Sea. I was properly impressed and waved it around grandly; the Marchessa laughed. I suppose I am a success now, even though I do not have half the skill as cousin Nadeshiko in making the fan do tricks. Then we had iced fruit drizzled with chocolate and Shien showed the garish scarf a merchant had sold to her. She would never wear it, of course, and had purchased it for the novelty. Apparently the merchant had been quite audacious, and Shien sounded scandalized as she relayed how this once-trusted vendor had waved such a tasteless garment at her. It is obvious to me, since Shien nows owns the scarf, that the merchant knows his customer even better than she claims to know herself. I shall laugh myself sick if, in two years, when she thinks everybody has forgotten, the scarf comes out of the closet again. We all teased her without mercy until Tohru interrupted my tea party to bring us news of the war.

The war, the war. At the time, I had no patience for his news - the war is always old, always there. The armies change, but the facts of life do not. It was exhilarating and terrifying the year of Adriana's birth, the year of Lucien's marriage to Glorianna Touraine, when he fortified the city, but then it was close to home, and we worried that the Interregnum would return. Now Melisande Sone has the armies of the Aten on the run (and the armies of the Yuasa quite on edge) and Yamato is to lead the final battles to drive the armies through the Aten town of Spear. Spear, Sirocco - I can imagine dusty Yamato around a table in a tent, coming up with such names. It is quite possible the desert people have beautiful descriptive names for their homes, but generals may only see towns in light of their strategic importance.

Yamato is another of the old men who frequent the yearly gathering of the Castle by the Sea. When I was sixteen, I wanted to visit Glorianna Touraine, but that year, Alessandro vanished again. Now I am content to watch from afar. The Princess Consort attends every year, and last year, she took Alessandro with her. I have heard a rumor that save for the Royal Tutor Jet Touraine, and that retired scoundrel Onyx, he was the youngest man there! That's scandalous, given the number of women of an age with the Princess Consort that frequent that castle, and the Crown Prince's background. Just think - three rakes, a number of elderly men and a bevy of beautiful young women. I do wonder what strange rites they develop there - like many, I have heard tale of the lessons Crescentino Sone gives. Meiko Komaru is uncommonly fond of him, even as his popularity wanes and waxes among his own family, and sometimes I have wondered if Onyx is too caught up in becoming a proper Royal Council member, full of schemes and plots, to properly attend to his more spiritual and scholarly wife. Shiliya taught that women are closer to the Light than men, and should have the freedom to become scholars while their husbands attended to more earthy affairs, but I wonder if even Shiliya would have found the oh-so-scholarly magician Crescentino interesting. Meiko is close to the Principal Light, too....

I do not understand this fascination with old men! Maybe it's because they'll all be dead soon, and then they hope to be widowed women of substance and power like the Marchessa. Or maybe there's simply some appeal in men who can barely walk and are older than one's father - some feeling of safety. At least it seems to go both ways; at the premiere of Soron's latest production in the autumn, I saw Sidonie Sone send away both a Minamet lad I didn't recognize and one of Onyx's cousins within ten minutes of each other. I am entertained by Sidonie, although her son makes me nervous. He approached me once, for fairly obvious reasons, and when I sent him away, he struggled to hide his displeasure. I shall have to work harder to not offend my suitors, I am sure, but I am certain my suitors must also work harder not to offend me.

In the winter, Kahana thought it would be amusing to send me on a ride through Butterleaf Park with half the noble children in the city, along with Ajiro. I feel such sympathy for him - his older brother has escaped into the army but when his father remarried he was caught in the middle and now he is always the companion of his younger brother. I spent most of the ride feeling sorry for myself, though. I think Kahana was trying to teach me to appreciate older men, and tease me for my criticisms. But I have always been lucky; Jet and the Royal Children joined us. With Jet, I found my customary shyness again, but for a while, Hideo and Adriana decided I was interesting and rode on either side of me. They were both excited about their soon-to-born sibling and I admit I was completely charmed by both of them. Hideo in particular displays an intelligence I have trouble finding in men my own age, kept imperfectly cloaked under the demeanor of a playful and easily distracted six year old. In six years, he will be astonishing; in twelve, he will be his sister's greatest ally, or her greatest rival.

I teased my sister for three days about the wonderful young man I'd met on the ride, but when she started preparing to confront Jet Touraine, I relented. He's too new to the capital to be thrust into that kind of trouble. She wasn't the least bit pleased, of course, and whirled off to go to her luncheon with Violaine Yuasa, leaving me to sort through her calling cards. Fabian Tourneur had left her an invitation for a stroll along Kashi Avenue, which I decided to accept for her. I do not normally much enjoy the company of duelists, but Fabian runs in Kyan Touraine's circle, and I was so curious about what would be happening at the Castle by the Sea in the spring. Fabian was pleased enough to see me; I'm sure his invitation to my sister was one of the many he left with her; I make fine enough company for a Komaru bastard whose previous plan was to accost strangers on the street. Now, many duelists are better than this, but Fabian... I shall say that Fabian truly belongs in one of Soron's plays, and leave it at that.

Still, he was full of opinions and terribly secret gossip on Glorianna Touraine's upcoming duel. Apparently she has not announced a request for a champion. I have trouble imagining that very feminine lady picking up a weapon to defend herself, but I suppose she did lead armies against her own family in defense of Skye and the Castle by the Sea. I haven't yet heard any word from the Council on the death of her kinsman in her home - everybody is left pondering the issue, and watching to see what will happen. If Kyan kills her, that will be that. I wonder if Alessandro will miss her then. If she survives, I suppose action will be taken. Everybody I know with the Oath of Blood is so solemn and serious, I can't imagine what they would do if the Royal Council ignored the oath and let her infractions go unpunished.

Eventually, I had to send Fabian away. He wanted to walk me home, but I know better than that.

This morning, my songbird was the most subtle shade of purple. Sebastian Komaru was born last week and today there will be another celebration. The wind is cold and angry, though, and black clouds settle on the western horizon, waiting. My songbird was frightened away by thunder and I have to wonder what sort of omen the storms bring for little Sebastian's first year. Later this spring, the eastern invaders will be met by Yamato. I wonder, when they are conquered, who we will fight next.