Himiko tugged at her obi, flattening the already perfectly flat fabric for the hundredth time as she watched the distant island grow slowly larger on the horizon. Aside from this small betrayal by her hands, she stood completely motionless at the rail of the Kirin Maru and awaited her future.
“Inoue-san?”
The woman bowing to her could have been twenty or forty; her skin spoke of youth, but the lines and shadows around her eyes argued otherwise. Whatever her age, the woman’s beauty was beyond dispute; Himiko had to forcibly prevent herself from staring, and almost failed to return the bow before the other woman noticed. She flushed with shame as she realized how close she had come to starting her new life with such a serious breach of etiquette
sightless among miracles 