The alliance between the Northern country and the Central country had been settled in ink some months before it could be said to enjoy the comfort of mutual confidence. Trade, with its steady insistence upon profit and passage, had first recommended the measure; shared borders, with their unfortunate tendency toward dispute, had soon rendered it indispensable. Of late, certain disturbances along the wooded frontier had supplied the urgency which polite diplomacy alone could not command. After a most industrious exchange of letters, it was at last resolved that a knight of the North should be dispatched to the Central court. He was to consult upon matters of defense, though whether he would secure the frontier, unsettle the court, or accomplish both with equal diligence remained, at that time, a question fit only for speculation.

Sora had schooled herself to anticipate a gentleman of a most formidable aspect: a commander weathered by campaign and contradiction, whose discourse would be measured in cautions and whose very silences might imply rebuke. She had long since perfected the art of receiving their advice with the utmost civility, inclining her head at proper intervals, and rectifying their conclusions in private at her leisure.

The gentleman who was announced to her, however, confounded every such prudent expectation, Nagumo Yoichi.

Nagumo entered with an ease so composed as to seem almost artful. There was in his appearance an elegance bordering on impropriety—as though he might exchange the council chamber for a ballroom without the slightest alteration to his countenance or his conscience. Most disconcerting of all, he smiled. He bowed with a precision that suggested both careful upbringing and an instinct for measure, neither so low as to imply servility nor so slight as to hazard disrespect. When he rose, his smile endured the inspection of her court with an ease that might have been mistaken for innocence had it not been so very deliberate. Sora observed him from her seat at the head of the long strategy table, there was nothing hurried in her manner nor anything indulgent.

By the time the Royal Masquerade drew near, their acquaintance had acquired a degree of comfort which to any prudent observer might have seemed almost perilous. They were not, it must be owned, in the habit of universal agreement; nor had either relinquished the pleasure of a well-placed retort. Yet in the intervals between dispute and concession, they had learned the cadence of each other’s reasoning and found, perhaps to their private astonishment, that contradiction need not preclude comprehension.

The evening itself presented every appearance of splendour. The great hall, resplendent in candlelight, glittered with gold and crystal until the very air seemed to shimmer with consequence. Masks concealed not merely countenances but designs; and if rivalry was not extinguished, it was at least rendered agreeable. Music floated through the chamber with an air of persuasion, as though it would coax sincerity from the guarded and good sense from the vain—though neither was very likely to oblige.

Sora descended the staircase with a poise that might have satisfied even the most exacting hostess. The blue silk of her gown, falling in gentle and becoming folds from her shoulders, moved with a quiet obedience to each deliberate step she took. Her hair, arranged with studied elegance, was adorned by slender touches of silver which caught the candlelight and returned it in modest gleams.

She had not come in search of him.

Indeed, she had determined that such an intention would betray an eagerness wholly unbecoming of the evening. It was far more prudent to admire the spectacle, to exchange civilities, and to allow the night its natural course. Which is precisely why she found him. He stood at the edge of the dance floor in conversation with a visiting dignitary, his posture at once attentive and effortlessly assured. His attire, more formal than she had yet observed, was arranged with exacting taste: a black shirt of impeccable cut, a dark blue vest fitted so perfectly as to appear inevitable, and a cloak fastened with an elegance that disdained excess.

He noticed her almost at once.