Story:

“There is still one thing you have not explained.” Violet’s voice stopped Shiki before she could close the folder.

Seira looked mildly disappointed that the audience was continuing. “What now?”

“Why are we here?”

“We have covered that. You appeared in my courtyard, threatened my guards—”

“At Tensho Jinja,” Violet interrupted. “A month before our intended arrival.”

She sat straighter. “I navigated the passage myself. I had a destination. There was no collapse, no loss of bearing, no disturbance that I could detect.”

Kicho recognized the change in her sister’s tone. This was no longer wounded pride speaking. Violet was examining the workings of a spell, and she expected a precise answer.

“I might accept an error in location,” Violet continued. “An unstable rift can distort an exit. But both location and time, while the passage itself remained apparently intact?”

Seira looked away. It was a small movement.

Unfortunately for her, Violet had spent years noticing small movements in people who owed her explanations.

The witch went still. Then her eyes narrowed. “It was you.”

Shiki lowered her gaze.

“You interfered with my passage!”

“I did not deliberately interfere with your anything.” Seira’s voice had risen a little.

Kicho slowly turned toward her. Ai and Mai exchanged a look. Violet leaned forward as far as her composure allowed.

“Then tell us what you deliberately did.”

Seira adjusted a sleeve that required no adjustment. “For forty-nine days,” she said, “I had been meditating in the inner sanctuary. Seven cycles of seven days, studying the approaching chaos and seeking a means of resolving it.”

Nobody interrupted.

“During that meditation, I perceived a disturbance in the higher dimensions. Something approaching this world from outside its boundaries.”

“Our passage,” Violet said. “Apparently.” “Apparently.”

Seira ignored the repetition.

“I extended my spiritual awareness toward it. Naturally, I needed to determine whether it was connected to the threat.”

“Naturally,” Kicho echoed.