The Glass Coffin: HOFAS x Elriel
Many HOFAS spoilers ahead!! This is an INTENSIVE post on all the Elriel coding in HOFAS, so strap in! This is largely a theory post and my personal interpretations, so take it or leave it! It's all in good fun.
Let's start with The Glass Coffin. When it comes to the analysis of the songs Bryce played for Azriel and Nesta in the much beloved and much dissected bonus chapter, I have seen a lot of conversation around Stone Mother and significantly less (if any?) around The Glass Coffin!
The Glass Coffin is played next after the Stone Mother. And it is a ballet.
What is the The Glass Coffin?
My friends, it is Sleeping Beauty.
Now we all know that many suspect Elriel to be a Sleeping Beauty retelling. And I'll be honest, I take a lot of the mythology or "retellings" with a grain of salt when it comes to SJM, because she doesn't do incredibly loyal retellings but takes bits and pieces of inspiration. I suppose it's up to you where you draw the line of a retelling, or free IP inspiration. But one thing to understand about IP is that Sarah J. Maas would have to get Disney's permission to call her work a retelling of Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Much like Beauty and The Beast, she did not "retell" the Disney princess movie, but the original La Belle et la Bête by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve published in 1740. So with that little lesson in intellectual property, lets look at the story of The Glass Coffin, because it is actually quite interesting:
A magician forces a proposal on a Maiden using his magic. The Maiden is repulsed by the use of magic in the proposal and rejects him. The Magician turns her brother into a stag, traps her in the glass coffin, and enchants the land around them.
There is a LOT to unpack here. I do not think Lucien is "The Magician" in this story. Instead, I think the Cauldron is, and I do think that the use of magic to force a proposal is a very close parallel to what Azriel discovered in HOFAS: That the Cauldron had been corrupted by the Asteri to serve their will. If you have read all of the books in the multiverse, you know that there is no other SJM universe where mating bond rejections happen. There is no other universe in which there are unhappily mated pairs forced together because the function of the mating bond, at a base level, is simply to produce the most powerful offspring. Mates in other worlds are true soulmates, and they fall in love before discovering they are mates.
In HOFAS, Azriel listened to a song from The Glass Coffin. He also listened to the story of Silene, and learned that the Cauldron was corrupted by the Asteri. It is not a theory or interpretation that the Asteri curate powerful bloodlines to ensure they have the strongest food from the souls that they eat. It is a fact. So it is not a jump to interpret that the Cauldron's corruption by the Asteri, and mates that are not a good fit on a soul level but forced together to produce powerful offspring, are one and the same. At this time, both Azriel and Elain have discussed feelings of repulsion or discomfort regarding E/ucien's bond. There are also negative consequences to a female rejecting the bond, as there were for the Maiden in The Glass Coffin. Rejecting a bond can lead to madness on the males end in Prythian because he believes he is entitled to her, just as the Maiden rejecting the Magician's proposal led to him trapping her in glass and enchanting the lands so no one else could have her.
This is already quite interesting, but it gets even more powerful as you continue to breakdown the Elain coding in HOFAS.
This line basically started a war:
"I can hear your heart beating through the stone." She angled her head, as if the city view held some answer, "Can you hear mine?" (ACOWAR, chpt. 24)
Now many people have used this to claim she is Lucien's mate, because she can hear his heartbeat. Though only a few pages earlier, we had this moment:
Elain can hear Feyre's heartbeat. She says if she listens carefully, she can hear hers too. At the time, we all assumed she was talking about Nesta. And yet we've discovered that Vesperus, an Asteri, (or Valg, depending on which theory you vibe with) was also a beating heart under the stone.
Inside a glass coffin.
More than that, we have this passage:
We now know that the Prison was once the Dusk Court, and just like UTM, The Hewn City, and Ramiel, it is encapsulated in stone beneath the mountain. Within the stone of the Prison lies the long buried heart of the Dusk Court. When you look back at Elain's line to Lucien, and see that she is staring out at the city, looking for answers at the heart she can hear beating beneath the stone, and not Lucien, this all starts to click together in a brilliant way. And the imagery, the island having a soul nurtured and blossoming under her care, has Elain written all over it.
Now, the reason I bring up the Hewn City here is because I believe there is a reason for Elain's lifelessness and distress in the Hewn City that has nothing to do with her wearing the color black.
In HOFAS, we discover a few important things about Earth Fae. Lidia discovers in her time on Team Archives what the Earth Fae did, and what their powers were used for:
Earth Fae were used on Midgard to discover ley lines of power to create powerful strongholds. One important thing I have noticed is that all Fae on Midgard are said to come from either Erilea or Prythian (at least that is all that is mentioned) and yet there is no indicator of where the Earth Fae come from. it is my personal belief the Earth Fae are from Prythian. Yet the entire Dusk Court disappeared, and their story continued on Midgard. It is my belief that Elain is not only a Seer, but that she has also been gifted with the Earth powers that have since been lost on Prythian, priming her to both restore Earth powers on Prythian as well as the Dusk Court.
What does this have to do with the Hewn City?
Earth Fae experience distress when they are in places where the magic is dead or warped, and they are the only ones that can feel it:
Bryce mentions she forgets the Earth Fae even have magic, because what they can do is often unseen.
If Elain is in possession of the lost Earth power, she would have been able to feel her power literally shriveling up and dying anywhere that has been warped by that magic.
And then of course we have the fact that the cave on Prythian is an exact match to the Cave of Princes on Avallen. We end HOFAS with all the weapons in the possession of the IC, the knowledge that there are cache's of magic hidden in the lands, and that there are places where the magic has been twisted and must be freed, one being the Prison/Dusk Court.
This was the imagery used once the magic was freed on Avallen, and it took its true, lush, blossoming form:
If what is true on Avallen will also be true once the Dusk Court is freed on Prythian, answer this question honestly: When you read this imagery- blooming vines and roses, beautiful and surreal, the land seeming to know her, small blooming flowers nestling around her body and in her hair- who do you think of? Who could this possibly be alluding to back in Prythian?
Elain's coding was all over HOFAS, and Azriel's "what if the Cauldron was wrong storyline" continued. These statements are true, even if none of my theories about her being an Earth Fae are right, though I know I'm not the only one who believes that is where we are headed!
The fact that The Glass Coffin is Sleeping Beauty, and that Azriel listened to it, may not be a powerful statement on its own (though I think it is). But the fact that the Cauldron corruption was revealed, and The Glass Coffin is a story of a woman who was entrapped due to her rejecting a proposal forced by magic, and Sarah used the Glass Coffin again with Vesperus, potentially tying her back to the heartbeat Elain can hear if she listens closely, it's all just too much to ignore.
I was personally overwhelmed by all of the Elain and Azriel nods in HOFAS. I think they get buried under all of the criticism in the book. I am so excited to see where everything goes, and I hope you had fun going down this rabbit hole with me!
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May Reading Recap
A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine. Rereading A Memory Called Empire was a treat - an expected treat, but it was good to find out that it lived up to memory. I liked A Desolation Called Peace a little bit less, but only a little bit - it very much followed up directly on the themes from A Memory Called Empire that I appreciated.
The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik. I devoured these books. I'm very surprised by this fact, since I'm not generally a "magic school" person, but there we are; Naomi Novik apparently managed to make me one temporarily. The last book was a particularly strong one and did some very interesting things with its worldbuilding that'd been set up in previous books and delivered in the last one.
Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End by Bart Ehrman. I've read and enjoyed some Bart Ehrman previously, but I feel like the quality of his books has diminished from his earlier work, and this book confirmed that for me. I'm a bit of an eschatology enthusiast (the main reason I picked this up, as well as the fact that (a) it was available at the library one time and I grabbed it on a whim and (b) author recognition), but I learned very little from this book that I didn't already know.
Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge. One of the things that made me happiest about reading this book was, unfortunately, the fact that I thought I recognized the ways in which it was referring back to Classic of Mountains and Seas, which I felt (again, unfortunately) sort of smug about. Checking the Wikipedia page for the book, apparently "Additionally, each chapter begins with a brief description of the beast which, in the original writing, was written in Classical Chinese, while the rest of the book was written in standard Chinese," which is so cool and I wish had been conveyed in the translation.
In general though, this was a good one, though I feel like the descriptive copy was a little misleading. It's less a mystery than a series of interconnected stories following a central character investigating the titular strange beasts, and learning how they connect to her life and history.
Dark Heir by C.S. Pacat. I liked this one significantly more than Dark Rise - which I guess makes sense, since a lot of Dark Rise was setting up the concept that most compels me about the series (the main character being the reincarnation of a notorious villain from the past). It still feels YA in the way that YA usually does, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if stylistically less my preference (and something I feel worth mentioning in the context of a possible recommendation). The ending was a gut-punch of a fun kind. I will be looking forward to reading the third one.
"There Would Always Be a Fairy-Tale": Essays on Tolkien's Middle Earth by Verlyn Flieger. I loved Splintered Light and was disappointingly underwhelmed by most of the essays in this collection. There were a couple that were more interesting to me, but on the whole a lukewarm response.
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Adrian Tchaikovsky wins again!!! I don't love this one quite as much as I've enjoyed the Children of Time series, but I actually think that I liked it more than The Final Architecture series. Fascinating concept, as usual fascinating worldbuilding for societies wildly different from our own, and dedicated to themes of cooperation and unity-across-difference without it feeling preachy or didactic.
Aphrodite and the Rabbis: How the Jews Adapted Roman Culture to Create Judaism as We Know It by Burton Visotzky. This was a good one! I already was familiar with some of the information here, but not all of it, and the work around art and architecture was new to me. I felt in some ways like Visotzky overstated his case a little, but on the whole a very interesting read.
Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives by Phyllis Trible. This one is kind of a classic of feminist Bible scholarship - a short book that does a close reading of the text of the stories of four biblical women who suffer in some way (Hagar, Tamar, the unnamed woman from Judges 19, and Jephthah's daughter). It's a powerful work, though it felt a little basic to me on the whole - probably due to the fact that it's relatively early scholarship on the subject working from a literary angle.
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. Books with footnotes are very hit-or-miss for me - not meaning books with contextual footnotes, but books with footnotes that are part of the conceit of the text itself. Some authors can pull it off; others really shouldn't try. In this case, the author felt a bit too taken with his own cleverness to pull it off; in general I felt like this book was trying a little too hard to be edgy and voice-y and ended up just feeling kind of shallow. It was a fun read, in some ways, but not a good one, and I'm torn on if I'm going to continue reading the series. If I do, it probably won't be in a hurry.
Tolkien and Alterity ed. by Christopher Vaccaro. I was excited about this particular collection of essays (you can probably guess why) and found them mostly uninspiring in the reading. The exception was a bibliographic essay on the treatment of race in Tolkien scholarship, which proposed more use of reader response theory, a suggestion which seems fruitful to me and more interesting than debates about whether or not Tolkien/his works are or aren't racist.
Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson. I feel like this is going to sound more critical than I really mean it to, but this was a perfectly adequate horror novel. I wouldn't call it exceptional, and it didn't freak me out, but I read it pretty much straight through and enjoyed the experience on the whole.
Thousand Autumns: vol. 4 by Meng Xi Shi. I liked this volume more than I've liked some of the others, and am enjoying the development of the central relationship, though I feel a little like I've been bait-and-switched about the level of fucked up that it's involved. Maybe that's why I'm enjoying this one a little less than I feel like I should: I was expecting more fucked-up between the two main characters based on the initial conceit and don't feel like the novel has really delivered on that. But I am enjoying Yan Wushi getting a little more...outwardly affectionate toward Shen Qiao, and Shen Qiao's concomitant confusion about it.
This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer. More than an adequate horror novel but less than an excellent one, I felt like this book relied more on gross-out horror than I typically prefer. Still, was definitely spooky, and confirmed for me that wilderness horror gets to me in a very specific way.
I'm presently reading Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, which I have mixed feelings about (not negative! just mixed). I'm not sure what I'm going to read after that, save that I'm now trying to alternate genres and might try to read some nonfiction, which I've been sort of off for a while. Otherwise I'll probably just end up reading Translation State by Ann Leckie, and possibly A Fire in the Deep by Vernor Vinge. But I'm really going to try for some more nonfiction next month.
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Shigehira Main Story: Chapter 13
← Chapter 12
✦ part one
Yasuchika: So it seems Yoshino-san has safely returned to Kamakura!
Yasuchika was holding an audience with one of his subordinates in an elegantly furnished room.
Yasuchika: Those two were lovely test subjects. I’ll have to thank them for giving me such a great research opportunity.
Yasuchika’s Subordinate: If I’m not mistaken, you had the woman exterminate a hallucinatory ayakashi… correct?
Yauchika’s Subordinate: Such ayakashi are rarely seen near human settlements, but they are hardly a serious threat. I am certain that its appearance would not incur suspicion towards you, Yasuchika-sama.
Yasuchika: Oh, I’m not worried about being seen at all! I just wanted to conduct some research for a new technique.
Yasuchika’s Subordinate: O-Of course…
Yasuchika: I’m so happy I got to see Shige-chan get injured, too.
Yasuchika’s Subordinate: …Hm?
Yasuchika: Shige-chan seems like such a disciplined warrior,
Yasuchika: But as soon as the ayakashi turned into a little girl, he immediately hesitated to attack it. How wonderful.
Yasuchika squinted as he stretched with the languor of a cat lounging in the sun.
His gaze, however, was not heavy with sleepiness—it gleamed with a sharp, cold brilliance.
The subordinate stiffened at the chill in the air from Yasuchika’s change in demeanor.
Yasuchika: I suppose the next time I’ll see the two of them will be on the battlefield. I’m really looking forward to it.
Yasuchika’s Subordinate: Yasuchika-sama, isn’t it…
Yasuchika: Hm?
Yasuchika’s Subordinate: Isn’t all of this business with the shogunate and the rebel army rather frightening to you?
Yasuchika: Well, in my opinion, someone who views his work in terms of whether it’s frightening or not wouldn’t be fit to be an onmyōji at all.
Yasuchika: Especially when you work at the palace. You get asked to do all sorts of crazy things, but you can’t exactly turn down the requests, so you just have to get used to it!
Yasuchika’s Subordinate: I understand… Well said, Yasuchika-sama. It is only natural, given your superior skill in onmyōdō.
The subordinate’s polite words hardly concealed his eagerness to curry favor with Yasuchika.
Yasuchika’s Subordinate: I sincerely hope that you will demonstrate the new technique you are developing to us when it is ready…
Yasuchika: You know, I think I will.
Yasuchika nodded, the gesture somehow childlike and elegant at once.
Yasuchika: I’d really like it if lots of people got to see it.
(So this is Kagetoki-san’s mansion…? Somehow I’m starting to feel on edge just by being here.)
Shigehira: This way, Yoshino-san.
Yoshino: Okay!
Shigehira confidently led me towards Kagetoki’s estate, seeming as though he'd taken this route many times before.
Yoshino: Do you visit Kagetoki-san’s place a lot, Shigehira-kun?
Shigehira: I guess I do.
Shigehira: Kagetoki-san mentors me in my studies, so I often borrow books from him.
Shigehira: At some point, he started letting me come and go whenever I wanted.
Yoshino: Really…?
The image of Kagetoki—staring cold, sharp daggers from behind his spectacles—popped into my mind.
Yoshino: It’s a little hard to think of Kagetoki-san being any sort of teacher…
Shigehira: You’d be surprised. He’s a pretty good mentor, since he’s so knowledgeable and logical.
✦ part two
Shigehira: You’d be surprised. He’s a pretty good mentor, since he’s so knowledgeable and logical.
Shigehira: But I doubt he would spare his time to teach just anybody, unless they give him a good reason to.
Yoshino: Then what’s his reason for mentoring you?
Shigehira: I give him koto lessons in return. We're really just exchanging services.
Yoshino: Really?!
Yoshino: I didn’t know you could play the koto too!
Shigehira: I just know the basics, that’s all.
(But he’s such a skilled biwa player… I’m sure he knows more than just the basics of the koto, too.)
I felt a surge of admiration for Shigehira as I looked at him.
I admire you (Romantic +4, Dramatic +2)
You’re a prodigy (Romantic +2, Dramatic +4)
You must love it (Romantic +4, Dramatic +4)
Yoshino: You must really love playing music.
Shigehira: I’ve always enjoyed it. I try to make time to practice every day, no matter how busy my schedule gets.
Yoshino: That's amazing! I bet Kagetoki-san must be a wonderful koto player if you’re his teacher.
Shigehira: Well… I don’t know about that.
I turned my head towards Shigehira to see an uncharacteristically dodgy expression pop up on his face.
Shigehira: Teaching him never fails to remind me that, uh, everyone has unique talents.
Yoshino: What do you mean?
Shigehira: Um… Anyways, Kagetoki-san should be in here.
Shigehira stopped in front of the door to the main room to call out to Kagetoki.
Shigehira: Kagetoki-san, are you home?
He didn’t wait for a response before opening the sliding door, when…
Woman: …Oh! E-Excuse me!!
Shigehira: …?!
(Huh?)
A woman stumbled out of the room in a panic. I glimpsed a flustered expression on her face as she shot past us.
Then I caught a whiff of a heady, sensual fragrance—there must have been incense burning inside the room.
Kagetoki: You’re too impatient, Shigehira. Did you never learn not to invite yourself into a room?
(O-Oh…)
When I finally looked past the mountainous stacks of books blocking most of the view into the room,
I saw Kagetoki straightening the lapels of his robe, looking uncharacteristically relaxed as he raised his gaze to us.
Shigehira: W-Well, you’re usually too wrapped up in your reading to respond when I knock, so I just assumed—
Kagetoki: I suppose you’re not wrong.
Kagetoki: I did tell my retainers to ask any guests to wait to be received. There must have been a miscommunication for this to have occurred.
Despite our sudden intrusion, Kagetoki hardly seemed bothered.
(Well, now I definitely know what was going on in here before we arrived…)
Yoshino: …I’m so sorry for the intrusion. We wouldn’t have bothered you if we’d known that your lover was visiting you.
(If anything, I’m just a little surprised.)
(Kagetoki-san is quite good-looking, and I’m sure that he wouldn’t have any trouble finding a partner if he wanted one,)
(But he doesn’t seem like he lets people get close to him very easily. I can’t imagine him being interested in romance at all.)
Kagetoki: Lover? She and I have no such relationship.
Yoshino: R-Really?
Kagetoki: She made an offer to me, and I accepted it. It wasn’t as if I had any reason to refuse her.
Kagetoki: Unfortunately, thanks to you two, our rendezvous ended before it could begin.
(...This is so awkward.)
Shigehira: …Disgusting.
I could only stand there speechless, but Shigehira didn’t hesitate to mutter his displeased response under his breath.
Kagetoki: Are you still too young to understand such things, Shigehira?
Shigehira: It doesn’t matter how old I am or how old I get! I will never engage in this debauchery for a single day in the rest of my life!
Kagetoki: What an uncouth thing to say. It’s hardly debauchery.
Kagetoki: If you’re not in the mood for it, you can simply refuse.
Kagetoki: You don’t eat when your stomach is full, do you? In that sense, it’s no different than satiating hunger.
(That sure is an interesting way to think of it.)
Yoshino: Personally, I’m inclined to disagree…
Kagetoki: That’s a rather foolish opinion.
Shigehira: No, I agree with her.
✦ part three
Shigehira: No, I agree with her.
Kagetoki: Is that so?
Kagetoki: I would expect nothing less from a man who receives countless love letters and rejects every single one.
(Love letters, huh…?)
Yoshino: Well, I’m sure it wouldn’t be feasible for him to accept every letter…
Yoshino: Haven’t you considered at least one of the people who’s written to you, though, Shigehira-kun?
Shigehira: No. I don’t have the time to bother with my love life right now.
Yoshino: …Oh. That makes sense.
(He’s trying to reestablish the Heike, after all, and the shadow of the past is still hanging over him.)
(When he’s on a mission that’s so important to him, he probably thinks that pursuing love would just be a distraction.)
I was sure that my guess was correct, and if so, it would be a perfectly rational reason not to be interested in a relationship. But, for some reason, I felt a sharp prick deep within my chest as I thought it over.
Shigehira: It’s a pain to be barraged with letters from people I barely even know…
Shigehira: But it’s not like I can stop them, so I still reply to all the letters.
Kagetoki: If you’re truly not looking to begin a relationship with anyone, then why do you bother with responding to any of the letters you receive?
Shigehira: It’d be rude if I didn’t. Not receiving a response would imply a rejection, so it’s better that I tell them the truth outright.
Kagetoki: I’d think that receiving an implied rejection would be less emotionally damaging than an explicit one.
Shigehira: Do you think so…?
Shigehira: I don’t know. I feel like it would be more stressful to someone if I kept them waiting for a response that they were never going to get.
(He thinks of others so much…)
Kagetoki: That's very earnest of you.
Shigehira: …You’re being surprisingly prudent now, Kagetoki-san. But you’d better be careful not to slip up and say the wrong thing, or else you’ll definitely regret it.
Kagetoki: I would never make such a grave mistake.
Kagetoki nonchalantly pushed a pile of books to the side, gesturing for us to sit in the space he'd cleared off.
(Even beyond the initial surprise, I'm genuinely shocked by how cluttered Kagetoki-san's room is. Everywhere I look, I see books.)
Shigehira: Be careful, Yoshino-san.
Shigehira: If you knock over one of these bookstacks, you’ll set off an avalanche. You might never make it out alive from underneath all the books.
Yoshino: …Got it.
(I think I finally get why Shigehira-kun said that Kagetoki-san’s place was dangerous to visit.)
Yoshino: Um... I don't mean this to be rude, but I don't suppose you're particularly keen on organizing your books?
Kagetoki: My arrangement is organized by my own standards. Your opinion that I am untidy is of no importance to me.
(Huh.)
Shigehira: Alright, fine. Sure. There’s no need to quibble over this.
Shigehira: Your room is even messier than usual today, though...
Kagetoki: War is on the horizon, after all. In times like these, it’s not unreasonable to give a bit less care to the trivialities of daily life.
Shigehira: Just a bit less, huh…?
Kagetoki turned towards me, almost as if he was physically deflecting Shigehira's doubtful look.
Kagetoki: Now, I assume you’ve come to discuss our medicine reserves and the proposed combat medic system?
Yoshino: That’s right.
Kagetoki: Then why are you here, Shigehira? Is Yoshino babysitting you?
Kagetoki: I didn’t know that you were such a pampered child. She’s spoiling you rotten.
A teasing smirk tugged at Kagetoki's lips as he removed some documents from a drawer.
Shigehira: I just wanted to borrow a book from you! That’s the only reason why I came with her!!
Kagetoki: Oh, really?
Shigehira: Can you quit being facetious and actually listen to what I’m saying for once?
Kagetoki: I’ll see what I can do.
✦ part four
Kagetoki: I’ll see what I can do.
His tone did not indicate in the slightest that he intended to stop. Once he had made his way back to us, he handed me the stack documents he'd retrieved.
Yoshino: What’s this?
Kagetoki: They detail our estimated rations, the route for our troops' march, and other such matters.
Kagetoki: The information in them will be used to calculate an estimate of the amount of medicine we will need to stockpile, and the format in which they are written will be used to document it.
Shigehira: ...These must be the documents that Yoritomo-sama asked you to compile last night.
Shigehira: Have you already finished them?
(Does that mean that Kagetoki-san finished all of this paperwork in less than a day?!)
Kagetoki: Of course. I wouldn't accept a woman's invitation just to make her wait until I finished my paperwork.
Shigehira: ...I can't believe this.
Shigehira: You can write all of these documents in one night, but you can't even clean up your own room?
Kagetoki: These documents and the state of my room have nothing to do with each other.
Kagetoki responded curtly before presenting us with another document.
Kagetoki: This here is a summary of the structure of our field medicine system.
Kagetoki: We'll use this as a basis upon which we can develop the details. Shall we begin?
Yoshino: Y-Yes. If I may ask, when did you happen to write this document...?
Kagetoki: I had some spare time while preparing the documents I gave you previously, so I used it to write this one.
Shigehira: Seriously... If you were capable of cleaning up your room, and you stopped treating women the way that you do,
Shigehira: And you stopped teasing me so much, I'd defer to you without a single complaint.
Kagetoki: How cute, Shigehira.
(Shigehira-kun said that he and Kagetoki-san were just exchanging services with each other, but these two must be fairly close if they're speaking to each other like this.)
From then onwards, we began to discuss our medicine reserves and our field nursing system, using Kagetoki's documents as our reference.
Once our work was winding down to an end...
Kagetoki: Our discussion has gone on for quite some time now. I think I’d like to have something to drink.
Shigehira: I’ll call one of the maids to make some tea.
Shigehira quickly rose to his feet.
Kagetoki: Much obliged.
Yoshino: Thanks, Shigehira-kun.
Now, I was alone with Kagetoki...
Kagetoki: It seems like Shigehira has been getting along with you quite well.
Kagetoki: You’re far more persuasive than I expected you to be, Yoshino.
(What?)
Flustered, I felt my gaze dart around the room, landing everywhere but on Kagetoki himself.
Yoshino: That’s not true. I didn’t persuade him into doing anything for me.
Yoshino: It’s really just that Shigehira-kun is a kind person. That’s the only reason that he’s being so nice to me—in his own way, of course.
Kagetoki: Is that what you think?
Kagetoki: You should know that Shigehira only takes such interest in people whom he approves of. Especially when it comes to members of the shogunate.
(I guess I can see what he means… I know Shigehira-kun comes across as quite uptight to a lot of people.)
Yoshino: …Did you know Shigehira-kun before he joined the shogunate, Kagetoki-san?
Kagetoki: In a way, I did. After Shigehira had been taken as a prisoner of war, I was the one who escorted him to Kamakura.
✦ part five
Yoshino: …Did you know Shigehira-kun before he joined the shogunate, Kagetoki-san?
Kagetoki: In a way, I did. After Shigehira had been taken as a prisoner of war, I was the one who escorted him to Kamakura.
(Really?!)
Yoshino: I wonder what Shigehira-kun was like back then.
I couldn't help but let my curiosity win over me.
Kagetoki: He was the same at heart as he is now. He was stubborn, straightlaced, and terribly oblique—yet everything he did was for others' sake.
Yoshino: That certainly sounds like the Shigehira-kun I know.
The sentiment brought a slight smile to my face.
Yoshino: But I bet he must have been especially full of resolve when he was on his way to Kamakura.
Yoshino: …His intention in coming here was to negotiate with Yoritomo-sama, after all.
Kagetoki: Oh? Shigehira has told you about that?
Kagetoki's gaze, usually so cool and unconcerned, seemed to sharpen with interest.
Kagetoki: In any case, you would be correct. Back then, Shigehira was…
—flashback
Yoritomo: Unfortunately, our negotiations are now off.
Shigehira: …I take it the Imperial Court has intervened.
Yoritomo: Do you have any last words, Taira no Shigehira?
Shigehira: None in particular.
Shigehira: I no longer have anything to say for myself now that I am captive.
Shigehira: For one who has lived their life on the battlefield, there is no shame in dying as a prisoner of war. Just behead me quickly.
Yoritomo: ……
—flashback ends
I was silent as Kagetoki quietly recounted the past to me.
Kagetoki: His honor and resolve astonished everyone in the room, myself included.
Kagetoki: Even Yoritomo-sama was moved by it enough to spare Shigehira’s life and offer him a place in the shogunate.
Yoshino: I see…
(Shigehira-kun told me that Yoritomo-sama formed an alliance with him on a mere whim.)
(It seems that Yoritomo-sama’s true reason for proposing the alliance was because of Shigehira-kun himself.)
Kagetoki: Yoshino.
Yoshino: …What is it?
I was caught off guard by Kagetoki’s hushed voice, and my response came out nervous and hesitant.
Kagetoki: I’m sure you’ve realized that Shigehira is a pitifully honest man.
Kagetoki: It would be far too easy for someone to take advantage of his most glaring weakness and hurt him.
Yoshino: …Right.
The memory of Shigehira interacting with the nobles of the Imperial Court, their honeyed words masking poisoned sentiments, came to my mind.
Kagetoki: But Yoritomo-sama approves of him nonetheless…
Kagetoki: …Because Shigehira possesses a special quality.
Yoshino: Special? What do you mean?
Kagetoki: I won’t tell you that.
(Huh?)
Kagetoki: If Shigehira truly cares for you, then you will eventually learn what I mean for yourself.
(Well, that doesn’t answer any of my questions…)
I must have looked exceptionally confused; Kagetoki studied my face for a moment before he smiled.
Kagetoki: Do my words truly puzzle you so much?
Yoshino: W-Well, I just…
Kagetoki: Then allow me to put it this way, Yoshino.
(Uhh...)
Long, deft fingers trailed down my jaw before tilting up my chin.
(What is Kagetoki-san doing??)
His eyes narrowed, and his intense gaze from behind his spectacles focused on me as though he was sizing up prey he’d caught in his clutches.
Kagetoki: I’ll make myself clear to you, if you’re willing to take the place of the woman who was visiting me earlier.
Yoshino: Huh…?
My eyes widened in shock at the sultry timbre in his voice, but at the very next moment—
Shigehira: Wh—What are you doing?!
Chapter 14 →
Notes:
The koto is the national instrument of Japan—a long, many-stringed zither that’s played by striking the strings with one’s fingers or with plectrums.
Shigehira’s “last words” in the flashback are a paraphrase of a quote by the real Taira no Shigehira that was recorded in the Azuma Kagami, which was a historical chronicle written in 1266 that recounted events of the Genpei War and the Kamakura Shogunate. The full quotation was supposedly* spoken by Taira no Shigehira when he was living as a POW, painting him as a warrior of dignified and humble character—even in the face of his impending execution.
IRL Taira no Shigehira was killed shortly after being taken as a POW by the Genji. During the Genpei War, Shigehira served as a Heike commander in the 1180 Siege of Nara, which was part of a revenge campaign against warrior monks from various monasteries who had aided the Genji in a prior battle. Despite being vastly outnumbered by the warrior monks, the Heike won victory by burning down almost every single monastery and temple in the city of Nara, including the powerful Kōfuku-ji and Tōdai-ji temple complexes. However, their methods earned them revile from many (including the Imperial Court) due to the sacrilegious act of destroying temples and the shocking scale of death and destruction that they inflicted on the city—around 3,500 people died during the siege. A great deal of hatred was directed towards Shigehira personally… even though there doesn't seem to be consensus about if he himself ordered the burning of Nara, or if the Heike even intended to cause the level of destruction they did at all. (Setting fires on the battlefield to increase visibility during night time was a common battle tactic of the era, and the weather conditions during the time of the battle may have spread any fires set by the Heike further than they might have intended.) Regardless of the extent of Shigehira’s role in the Siege of Nara, he would eventually pay the ultimate price for it. After he was captured by the Genji at the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani in 1184, he was handed over to the surviving monks of the Tōdai-ji, who executed him in 1185 as revenge for the burning of their monastery.
*Though the Azuma Kagami is considered the most important historical document about the Kamakura shogunate, it’s important to note that it’s not a completely reliable account. It was compiled in the 13th century by the Hōjō clan (which the real Minamoto no Yoritomo married into; after his death, the Hōjō clan took control of the Kamakura shogunate), who were very obviously biased towards their own clan and against the Minamoto clan in their retelling of historical events. Throughout history, the Azuma Kagami has also passed through the hands of many others (most notably including everyone’s favorite shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu) who may have altered it to fit their own agendas. Thus, it’s not certain whether everything that was recorded in the chronicle was completely true to real life, including its account of Taira no Shigehira’s last days.
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