Chapter 4

The year I turned twelve, I was chosen as the sacred maiden. To refuse it, I burned the blood pact in front of everyone and knocked over the covenant potion that had been passed down for generations.

Afterward I was shut away for a month, and the elder ordered that no one was to bring me food.

But every day a pair of small, grubby hands still carried food to me and slipped it through in secret.

I was a little startled. "So that child was you! But after I came out, why did I never see you again?"

"I went down the mountain with my parents to study, and that studying stretched on for more than twenty years. But I always knew I would come back here."

"My roots are here. My people need me. So I came home."

As he said it, he turned his head and smiled at me. The sunlight fell across his face, and he looked so good.

The moment we got home, my mother pulled Aunt Brooklyn aside to talk over old times. The two of them had grown up together, close as sisters.

My mother had chosen to stay in the village. Aunt Brooklyn had chosen the man she loved.

That parting had lasted half a lifetime.

There hadn't been a wedding in the village for a very long time. The quiet, sleepy place came alive as everyone prepared for ours.

The elder cast our fortune himself, and the reading was the most auspicious of all.

Vivian and I exchanged betrothal tokens the way custom demanded.

The token I gave him was a sash I'd worked on through the night. I'd had a sash before, but I'd given that one to Nat.

I never once saw Nat wear it. He always said my people's things were strange, and he didn't want to be looked at like some oddity.

But the moment Vivian received my sash, he couldn't wait to tie it on.

Then, carefully, he took a small crescent-shaped beast fang from his pocket and handed it to me.

Every year my people hold a hunting contest, and this fang

was his prize the year he was thirteen, when he took down a full-grown wild boar on his own.

My mother always said that trading true heart for true heart makes the finest match of all.

Looking at the happy smile on Vivian's face, it finally hit me.

The signal in the village was poor, so after coming back I'd barely touched my phone.

When I finally picked it up, I found that Nat had left a whole string of missed calls.

I called back, and Nat said angrily, "Didn't you say you weren't upset?"

"We were fine just a moment ago, and now you're sulking and not answering the phone?"

"Is something wrong?"

"That sash you gave me. Gertrude took a liking to it. She wants to borrow it for some photos."

"Oh. So did you lend it to her?"

"I did, but I thought it was better to tell you. I remember you had a hard time embroidering it back then."

A hard time? That was the first sash I ever embroidered. Countless nights without sleep, the needle jabbing my fingers raw.

Climbing the mountain to gather all the herbs for dyeing the cloth, breaking my leg in the fall.

Weaving strands of my own hair into the body of it to carry my heart, so it would bind us together and keep him free of sickness and harm.

I was quiet for a moment, then said, "Nat, if there ever comes a day you don't need that sash anymore, give it back to me."

"What nonsense are you talking? I'm only lending it to her."

"Ains, let's do a video call so I can see you. I suddenly find myself missing you a little."

I agreed, and I meant to invite him to the wedding too.

The instant the video connected, fireworks burst behind me, and Nat asked, "Where are you? Why is everything behind you so festive?"