At last, she looked toward the Wind Pillar.
"You won't kill him."
Nakime spoke softly. "I don't think you will."
The Wind Pillar's pupils contracted. He felt he was doing a rather poor job as a hostage-taker.
For one thing, his hostage showed no fear. Well... to feel fear, the young man would first have to know what fear was.
For another, the person he was threatening did not seem threatened at all.
She was not merely calm. She even seemed... relieved, as though a wish had been granted.
The Wind Pillar found the situation increasingly strange. He wanted to say something to salvage the dying tension, but before he could, Nakime spoke again.
"I've forgotten exactly how many years have passed. I've forgotten what I went through, too... Perhaps after I became what I am now, much of it was sealed away in the deepest reaches of my mind."
Remembrance filled her single eye. "That night, I'd planned to go home to visit my parents. My husband was worried about me, so he came along. Something delayed us, and we didn't set out until dusk. He told me it would be dangerous to travel at night. But I missed my parents, whom I hadn't seen in four years, and I wouldn't listen when he suggested we wait until morning. Instead, I stubbornly took our son and left... As always, my husband followed with a helpless smile. I knew he would cherish me and indulge me no matter what... In those days, that seemed quite remarkable."
A smile unlike any demon's touched her lips. There was a little sweetness and shyness in it, but far more longing and regret.
"Looking back now, perhaps what hurts most, what I can least accept, is that we never grew old together. If I