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Prince Touya wasn’t sure what had his parents, the King and Queen, and the brat looking so melancholy today on Sakura’s birthday. Her coming of age ceremony should be a celebration, but the air of woe was palpable as he entered the chamber. He’d just opened his mouth to ask what the brat had done now when he was interrupted by the jingling of Sakura’s arrival.
Touya felt his chest swell with both pride and sadness as his sister followed Yukito into the room. She looked so grown-up in her ceremonial outfit, the tiny coins sewn to the edges tinkling as she moved. She wasn’t a child anymore, but she was still his little monster. He exchanged smiles with Yukito, both of them beaming at her even as she went immediately to talk to Syaoran. He stepped closer to Yukito, also in his ceremonial garb, and was just coming up with a pointed comment when without warning Sakura started to pitch forward, a look of pain and horror on her face.
Touya felt his heart freeze, and it was as if everything was happening in slow motion. He reached out hopelessly, though he was too far away to catch her as she fell. He heard Syaoran cry out, anguished, and saw his mother raise her staff, and everything suddenly st—
***
Yukito started from his doze as King Touya finally stirred, opening his eyes and looking around in confusion. Yukito shook his head, shaking off some of the exhaustion that had plagued him the past few days, the aftereffect of such powerful spellcasting and little sleep.
“Yuki-” the King croaked, and started coughing.
“Please don’t try to talk yet, Your Majesty,” Yukito told him, hastily pouring a cup of water. Touya tried to take it from him with shaking hands, but finally subsided at Yukito’s firm look and with ill grace allowed Yukito to hold the cup to his mouth. Yukito made him drink the entire cup, and then another, before finally allowing him to speak.
“What happened?” Touya asked. His voice was steadier. “Is Sakura-?”
Yukito took a breath. “She was attacked. Someone took her memories - her soul - and scattered them, away from this world. I… sent them to the Witch of Dimensions.” It was better to tell it all at once like this. Delay wouldn’t make it any better.
“You sent her and that brat...” Touya’s jaw clenched. Yukito could tell that he was angry, but trying not to show it. “So he didn’t manage to protect her. Couldn’t you-” Touya stopped, abruptly, and Yukito knew that he was trying not to cast blame on him.
“I could have gone with them.” Maybe Touya would say that he should have gone with them, and maybe Touya would be right.
Sending them to the Witch of Dimensions had been his fail-safe, in the face of no other option. Even with all the plans that he and Touya had made, in the case of different calamities, it was hard to know what to prepare for without even knowing the nature of the threat. All he had seen was that something terrible would befall Sakura, and that Syaoran was the only one with a chance to save her. Yukito and Touya had been prepared to back him with all of the magic and might of the Kingdom of Clow, but the scattering of Sakura’s memories through entire worlds was not something that he had anticipated.
“I could have gone with them,” he repeated. “And you would have died.” That was the lynchpin of his decision, the one thing he could not allow. He firmed his voice.
“The Kingdom of Clow would have been left with no King, no Princess, and no High Priest. The Witch of Dimensions has more power than I do, and you know that Syaoran is willing to pay any price to help Sakura. He is the only one that can save her, not me.”
Touya looked at him for a moment, and then cast his eyes down. “I know.” He didn’t sound happy about it. “You did the right thing, Yukito.”
He offered Yukito a small smile, and Yukito felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted off his chest. Touya wasn’t angry with him, and Touya was alive - he would be fine.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Yukito said softly, inclining his head towards Touya. His own smile felt brighter.
“I thought I said you should-” Touya was interrupted by another coughing fit, and Yukito scrambled for another cup of water.
“Please rest,” he urged Touya as he helped him drink from the cup. He quickly cast another spell, but all traces of the poison were still gone. The spell only confirmed what Yukito already knew - it had been close. Though he had purged Touya’s body of the poison as quickly as he was able, it had already done a lot of damage. Touya’s recovery would be slow.
“It will take time for you to recover your strength.”
His own hand trembled as he removed it from Touya’s forehead, and Touya reached for it, much more slowly than he would have normally. Yukito allowed him to grasp it, clasping their hands together.
“Hey,” Touya said raspily, ”are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” Yukito assured him. “Crossing dimensions takes a lot of energy.”
“Have you slept?” A frown creased Touya’s face. “How long has it been, anyway?”
“Ah-” the truth was that while he had passed out for five solid hours after purging the last of the poison from Touya, he hadn’t had time for more than a few brief naps since then. He had had to make sure that Touya was entirely out of danger, and now that he had woken up, he would be. Yukito would be able to rest easily.
“Two days,” he told Touya, ignoring the first part of the question.
“You need rest, too,” Touya told him, his eyes already drooping. He was obviously fighting to stay awake, and losing. “Promise you’ll rest, Yuki.”
Yukito smiled softly at the childhood nickname. “I will, To-ya,” he assured him, squeezing the hand that he still held.
Touya’s eyes finally slid shut again, and Yukito let out a sigh, feeling a surge of gratitude come over him at the rise and fall of Touya’s chest. He tucked Touya’s arm back under the covers, carefully covered the jug of water from the sacred reservoir, and went to find his own bed.
*
“Are they doing all right?” Touya asked, fixing his gaze on Yukito, who in turn was gazing at the moon. Looking to the moon, the source of his powers, always made him feel more grounded. He basked in its comfort, along with the fact that Touya was well enough to sit out here on the balcony with him on this quiet evening, ten days after he had nearly died. No matter the troubles facing the kingdom, it has its King and High Priest together.
“I still haven’t seen anything of them,” Yukito admitted quietly. He knew, and had told Touya, that Syaoran and Sakura had reached the Witch of Dimensions and had been sent on their way with two other mysterious companions, but he knew nothing else. “But I’m certain that they’ll be all right. The Witch of Dimensions has a reason for everything that she does.”
“She’s the one that my father told you about, right?”
“Yes,” Yukito confirmed. King Clow had spoken of her several times as he oversaw Yukito’s priest training, impressing upon him the great power that the Dimension Witch possessed - power that came at a price. That was why, when he first learned of the threat to Sakura, he had immediately thought of contacting her. He’d known even then that she should only be a last resort. And, of course, she had been.
“I’m not certain how he knew of her. Sometimes, when he spoke of her, he seemed wistful, like he was thinking of something precious to him,” Yukito mused. The previous king had often been a mystery.
“I don’t remember my mother,” Touya blurted out suddenly, and Yukito turned to him, startled. Touya was staring at the moon now, his gazed fixed somewhere distant. “I don’t remember her face, or her voice. Sometimes I dream of her, of my mother and father and Sakura, but my father...isn’t my father.”
Yukito shifted closer, but Touya didn’t look at him, still frowning up at the sky. “You were very young when your mother died,” he told Touya gently. “Your heart will always remember her, even if your mind forgets.”
Yukito himself had never met the queen, who’d died before he came to the palace. Except- hadn’t he been here for Sakura’s birth? In that precious time before they had been King and High Priest, he had waited in the hall with Touya who eagerly anticipated a new sister or brother… hadn’t he? Yukito shook his head, suddenly troubled, and tried to shake off the feeling of unease.
Touya looked over at him, and Yukito could see the exhaustion settling back in his frame. Perhaps that was what had prompted his outburst. Touya wasn’t usually so free with his words, on topics that were truly important to him.
“It’s fine,” Yukito assured him. “But you need more rest now. You are still recovering.”
Touya nodded silently and followed him inside, but the unease remained.
*
Yukito dreams. He knows that this is a true dream, one that may give him the answers he seeks. He’s not certain what his question is; he knows only that something is wrong in the Kingdom of Clow, and that if he knew what, perhaps he could help.
Whatever the problem, he thinks it is connected to the Princess and Syaoran as well. Are they the key? The unrest in the Kingdom began when the Princess was attacked. Is it connected?
As he thinks of them, he is suddenly standing nowhere, in a vast emptiness beyond anything he’s known. He sees a vast ribbon shimmering before him, and he knows that his mind is trying to make sense of something that he cannot truly comprehend.
He watches it unfold for countless eternities, lost in the way it flexes, shining, always moving inexorably forward. Suddenly the ribbon twists sharply, shudders, and he cries out soundlessly as it begins to fold back on itself, turning in a direction it was never meant to go. Cracks spread out from the place where it is warped, spreading backwards along the ribbon like runs in silk.
Yukito watches in horror as bits of the ribbon begin to fray off, hanging on by the barest thread. The Witch of Dimensions stands on the nothingness beside him, and he turns to ask her a question, but she shakes her head.
He wakes, and remembers nothing.
*
“Hey,” Touya greeted him, raising a hand as Yukito stepped into the room. He sounded like himself, but Yukito could see the dark circles under his eyes. Touya still wasn’t fully recovered, nearly six weeks after he was poisoned. “How was the meeting?”
Yukito hesitated, and Touya sat up straighter, frowning slightly at his hesitation. He hated to bring this up to Touya now, hated it for a lot of reasons, but this was his duty as the King’s advisor and High Priest.
“Your Majesty,” he began carefully, willing Touya not to interrupt. He needed to get this out. “Your advisors have met, and we,” he emphasized the word, saw Touya’s eyes narrow, “are concerned about the state of the kingdom. The people are worried. With the Princess -- away -- and your recent illness, they wonder what might happen to the future of the kingdom if something were to befall you. There have been rumors of warriors gathering in the kingdom to the north, and the signs suggest that there could be war in the future.”
Yukito took a deep breath, gathering himself before he went on. “We think that the best way to alleviate the fears of the people, and the best option for the future of the kingdom, would be for you to take a wife, to have an heir.” Yukito ignored the pain in his chest as he said it.
Touya looked at him searchingly. Yukito did not allow his smile to waver. The last time his advisors had brought this up, Touya had dismissed it entirely, refused to even hear of it. Yukito had been terribly, selfishly glad. Even if their stations meant that they could not act upon it, he knew that he held Touya’s heart as much as Touya held his. But he also knew, deep down, that things could not stay this way forever. If things had been different, if they knew for certain that the Princess would be the one to carry on the bloodline... but it didn’t matter now.
“Sakura will return soon,” Touya said slowly, as if in response to Yukito’s thoughts. His expression was serious.
“I also believe this, Your Majesty, but the people are afraid now. They have been since that day.” Yukito took another deep breath, let it out. He said his final piece. “This is something that I wish for the kingdom.”
Touya was silent for a long moment. He looked at Yukito, and past him to the city, where the people muttered with unease. Beyond the city lay the ruins, the place where they had been attacked. Touya could not see to the border, where an army might be amassing even now.
They were both quiet for several minutes. Yukito willed his expression not to change. Then Touya slumped in his seat, rubbing a hand over his face. He looked older than Yukito had ever seen him, and more weary. “All right,” he said quietly. “You’re right, Yukito. If this is what is best for the kingdom, and if you want me to do it, then I will.”
“It is what I want, Your Majesty.” Yukito tried to smile again, but he wasn’t sure if he succeeded. He blinked hard, fighting back the tears that suddenly sprang to his eyes. Touya looked up at him, and Yukito could see the pain on his face.
“I’m sorry, Yukito,” Touya whispered, and Yukito abruptly turned away.
“Please don’t apologize to me, Your Majesty,” he replied, and closed his eyes against the tears as he walked out of the room.
*
The engagement celebration was dying down by the time Lady Kaho managed to corner Yukito out on one of the open balconies. He smiled at her automatically, and then turned back out to the cool night, the light of the moon painting both of them silver.
“Princess Sakura will be sad have missed her brother’s engagement,” Yukito said, and then wasn’t sure why he’d brought that up. The Princess and Syaoran had been gone for six months, and Yukito didn’t know anything other than that they were still traveling, still searching for Sakura’s lost memories.
“She will be sad,” Kaho agreed, as calmly as always. The silence stretched between them. Kaho regarded him steadily. “Yukito-”
“I know that you and Touya will be happy together,” Yukito said suddenly, finally turning to face her. His smile was real, but pained, and he knew she could tell. They were very similar, in some ways. “He cares for you.”
It’s true. She has been a friend to both of them for many years, and she is someone that Touya can come to love. That was why Yukito had chosen to ask her in the first place.
Her face softened as she smiled back at him. “It will be fine, won’t it.” It wasn’t a question, and he drew strength from her quiet certitude.
“It will be,” he agreed. He could see Touya inside, engaged in easy conversation with several courtiers. His gaze kept straying to the balcony, darting from Yukito to Kaho and back to his companions, who politely ignored the King’s lack of attention. He wondered what the court gossips would have to say tomorrow.
Yukito offered Kaho his arm. “Shall we go back in?”
“Of course,” she said, and took his arm gracefully. Touya turned to look at them as they re-entered, then turned and said something to the courtiers that caused them to back away, bowing. Yukito walked Kaho back over to her fiancé, who only hesitated for a moment before taking her hand.
For a moment, Touya looked like he was going to speak, but instead he just nodded at them both. Touya was trying his best to keep his expression as carefree as it normally was, Kaho maintained her serene expression, and Yukito could feel his usual smile in place. It felt strange. He wondered what they looked like from the outside.
“I’m going to bed,” he told them, bowing as he would to take his leave. “I’ll leave His Majesty to you,” he told Kaho, who nodded gravely. He didn’t meet Touya’s eyes as he left the room.
*
“Any news on the well at Kuraku?” Touya asked him, continuing his stride down the long palace corridor.
Yukito, walking beside him, shook his head. “The priestess reports that it’s gone dry. If she can’t start another, I will need to go myself.”
Touya gave him a sharp look. “What about the rites here?”
“Not for another month,” Yukito replied. “But you will need to re-open the ruins, so the other priests can start preparations.” The ruins had been declared off-limits to all but the High Priest for the nearly eight months since Sakura had been gone.
Touya nodded reluctantly. “Yukito,” he began, and Yukito noticed the aborted movement of his hand, as if Touya had started to raise it and stopped. He’d seen that gesture many times over the years, at times when he underwent purification for his duties and Touya was careful not to touch him. The gesture hadn’t hurt, then.
“Lady Kaho will need to-” Yukito began, and stopped as he suddenly felt it: a massive surge of magic slamming into him. It felt somehow wrong, and hurt as it slid over his skin.
Touya shouted something, next to him, and Yukito looked up hazily to the window to see the sight that matched the magic he was feeling - a roiling, twisting mass of greenish black, centered over the ruins. As he watched, it pulsed and grew bigger, sending out tendrils of something like lighting to touch the sacred ruins below.
“Yukito,” Touya said urgently. “Yuki, what is it?”
“I- I don’t-” Yukito could only shake his head. He’d never seen anything, never felt anything like it. Whatever it was, it was evil, and it was more powerful than anything he’d experienced.
He looked on in horror as the darkness spread and the sky began to crack, like shards of a mirror falling to the ground.
“Can we fight it?” Touya asked, and he sounded as frightened as Yukito had ever heard him.
“Touya,” Yukito said, dragging his gaze away from the horror in the sky to meet Touya’s gaze. He didn’t know what Touya saw in it, but he stepped forward and took Yukito’s hand. Yukito gripped it, squeezing hard. He could feel - could feel the world unraveling around him, even deeper than the cracks in the sky. He could feel the magic in the land being pulled out, twisted, deformed.
Touya was the only source of steadiness there was. He was glad that Touya was here with him. “Touya,” he said again, and felt the world crack. “I—“
There was a golden glow, springing up suddenly from the same place the breaking had begun. It grew and grew, blinding them, until searing gold was all that existed.
The world ended.
***
Prince Touya shifted nervously, standing outside of his parents’ chambers, until Yukito nudged him.
“It will be fine, Touya,” he murmured, and Touya took a deep breath.
“Right,” he muttered, and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” his mother called, and Touya pushed the door open, trying to summon his usual nonchalance. Yukito had agreed already, so surely the hardest part was over? He gestured for Yukito to precede him, and Yukito shot him an amused look as he passed. Yukito, at least, wasn’t nervous at all. Touya wasn’t sure why he was, either. He knew his family would be happy.
“Big brother? Yukito?” Sakura looked up from where she was sitting with Queen Nadeshiko, helping to brush her hair. Well, at least everyone was here at once. Touya glanced from his mother to his father, writing something at his corner desk, and caught himself before he looked around for the brat. He cleared his throat.
“Mother. Father,” he said formally. “Mon-” he caught Yukito’s head shake and finished, “Sakura.” She glared at him anyway, but that was fine. At least she looked more like herself now than she had in the month since she’d returned, days after her disappearance on her birthday, with the brat, two strange men, and a story that he still didn’t like to consider the implications of.
“I,” he went on, “well, Yukito and I, would like to ask you...” Everyone was looking at him, interested. He foundered, and looked to Yukito. Yukito smiled at him gently and took his hand.
“Prince Touya has asked me to marry him,” he said, and his words were almost drowned out by Nadeshiko’s happy squeal. She leapt up to embrace Yukito, as did Sakura, who was smiling brilliantly.
“I’m so glad!” she told Yukito, who beamed back at her, and Touya smiled at the sight.
His smile faded a little as Fujitaka approached, his expression grave.
“Touya,” his father said, “of course you have our blessing.” He broke into a broad smile and pulled Touya into an embrace. Touya let out a breath he hadn’t been aware of holding, hugging his father fiercely. He wasn’t sure what he had been worried about, after all. This was always what was inevitable.