The Day of Thunder

[Jiyo Sora]

Phi was bearing up well, but he knew it was a wrench for her. She was quiet, and withdrawn in a way that was unusual for her as they made their way out of the mountains.

Shirayuki wasn't with them. And while the twins had been parted briefly in the past, Phi was smart enough to know this would be a longer stay.

"I suppose you're wondering why you can't stay with your sister, among the Dragon."

She didn't speak- she just nodded, the bells in her hair tinkling.

"It's the same reason your brother Soryu will be heading south to learn from the Nezumi."

He paused. Sighed.

She was the most unlike him in the ways most people noticed, and yet the most like him in others.

"The same reason you'll be visiting the Spider for a while."

There was a tinkle of bells as she looked up. Swallowed. "'Yuki and Taiyo are engaged, so that makes sense. Soryu's been interested in the Nezumi ever since he and that ambassador got to talking two years ago, and they seem fond enough of you that they'd look after him for a bit. So I get that you're scattering us for some kind of... safety. I know you, Dad. All these years on, you still think like a Hikaru raider when it comes to safety. But I think we'd have been safer if we all stayed together, wherever it was."

He glanced at her and grinned. Then he reached out to ruffle her hair, drawing a combination of jingling bells and an aggrieved teenaged squawk.

"DAD!"

"You don't know me as well as you think, kiddo. Or maybe you just overthought this one. If it were safety I was worried about, don't you think I'd keep you all in the Imperial Palace? I was going on raids when I was Soryu's age, and by the time I was your age, I'd been forced to get a tent of my own, out on the edge of the camp because nobody wanted this eye of mine anywhere near them."

She blinked at him. He thanked the Fortunes she looked more like her mother than she did him. "So... why, then?"

"Because you can only learn so much staying in one place, Phi. Shirayuki's going to become a Dragon, that much is true- but she was also learning the basics of monastic skills from Nozomi five years back. With what Togashi can teach her? She'll learn more. Soryu can speak to spirits, and he's been around Isawa and Yuzuru spirit-talkers most of his life- time for him to see other ways of looking at the world, and the Nezumi see it in a way no human does, at least not naturally. And you..." he trailed off, raising his eyebrows at her.

She took a moment, then spoke "... I'm one of the first of the Loremasters, and I write to Dojihime-sama often. Aunt Saruko has taught me a great deal as well. Therefore I doubt you're sending me to Auntie Reiko's to learn the courtly arts. So..."

He nodded, gestured for her to continue.

"... so you want me to learn something the Spider can teach that you and the finest Imperial scholars including Mom could not. What might that be?"

He grinned. "I have no idea. But I expect you to tell me all about it when you come home."