The breeze near the beach had grown colder.
Not violently so, but enough that the air lingered against the skin instead of slipping past it. Even the sea looked different now that the season had begun settling in. The water had lost some of its summer brightness, turning darker beneath the early morning light while thin waves dragged quietly across the shore.
I stuck my finger into my mouth again, trying to soothe the sting on my tongue.
Too hot.
Again.
"I guess he knew what he was saying," I murmured.
The tea from Mrs. Isabel's stall had nearly burned through my senses on the first sip, yet somehow the warmth still felt worth carrying in the cold.
I turned around for what had to be the tenth time.
Still no Steven.
Just a pair of fishermen walking farther down the shoreline with baskets hanging from their shoulders.
"Good morning," I called automatically.
Tired greetings drifted back before they continued on their way.
The world still felt halfway asleep.
"Maybe he isn't actually an early riser," I thought.
Or maybe I had simply come too early like an idiot.
My elbows rested against my knees while I cupped my cheeks against the wind. There were still stars faintly visible overhead. Not many. Just enough to survive dawn.
The sea sat with me in silence while we waited for the sun.
Then slowly, like coal beginning to glow beneath ash, light spread across the horizon. Blue-violet faded first. Then came streaks of orange. Red. Gold.
The sky opened itself gradually.
I stretched against the bench until my back cracked softly, then knocked sand from one sandal against the wooden leg.
"Still not here."
The excitement that had dragged me out this early began cooling little by little.
A little pathetic, honestly.
"I'll just continue my book."
At least then the waiting could pretend to have purpose.
I pulled the novel from my bag and glanced at the cover.
"Woman in White," I read quietly.
Sunlight strengthened quickly after that, flooding the beach in pale warmth, though the wind still bit through my coat. I pulled it tighter around myself and tucked my chin lower.
"Steam…" I thought.
Yesterday returned clearly.
The paper.
The spell.
Steven's mother.
I stared at the page without actually reading it.
"It's not too early to visit a relative stranger… right?"
My eyes drifted toward the city.
The morning sunlight seemed to approve.
Good enough.
Or maybe I just wanted an excuse.
I closed the novel, slipped it back into my bag, and stood. My bicycle rested nearby where I had abandoned it earlier in the sand, tilted awkwardly to one side.
"We'll just ride by," I told myself while pulling it free.
"No harm, no foul."
And with that flimsy justification acting as permission, I pushed onto the street.
The ride didn't take long.
Which only proved my earlier point.
The city was already awake now. Shopkeepers arranged signs outside storefronts while voices drifted between buildings. Laundry fluttered overhead on suspended lines, and somewhere farther off someone argued passionately over fish prices.
The sound of the sea faded gradually behind me.
Or maybe distance simply swallowed it.
The streets changed too. Brick houses replaced crowded storefronts. Iron fences appeared. Gardens.
The neighborhood surrounding Steven's temporary residence carried a quieter kind of wealth.
I slowed when the familiar red brick house finally came into view.
But something immediately felt wrong.
The house no longer looked settled.
A carriage stood outside.
Luggage was being loaded into it.
I stopped pedaling.
"Was he leaving today?"
The thought struck hard enough that I remained frozen beside the road.
"And this early?"
Something in my chest dropped unpleasantly.
I didn't approach immediately.
Instead I stood awkwardly beside my bicycle pretending not to stare.
"Good morning."
I looked up so suddenly I nearly tipped over.
Steven stood directly beside me, dressed for travel in a dark coat with gloves tucked beneath one arm.
"Sorry," he said quickly, catching the bicycle before it collapsed entirely. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah—I'm okay…"
The words stumbled out unevenly.
Then, before I could stop myself—
"I was waiting for you at the beach."
The sentence came too quickly and cut directly across whatever he had been about to say.
Wonderful.
Absolutely wonderful.
I wanted to throw myself directly into the ocean.
"Steve," a voice called from the carriage, "is that the girl you were talking about?"
Heat climbed instantly into my face.
Steven, thankfully, looked more amused than embarrassed.
"That's my sister," he explained before gesturing lightly for me to follow.
I walked beside him toward the carriage while trying not to think at all.
"Good morning," I greeted.
The young woman sitting inside looked enough like Steven that the relationship was obvious immediately. Same dark hair. Same eyes.
Only sharper somehow.
"You must be Mayumi," she said warmly. "I'm Josephine. Nice to meet you."
"He has a sister," my mind repeated uselessly while panic quietly unfolded somewhere deep in my chest.
"That's all?"
Another voice came from inside the carriage before footsteps followed.
An older man emerged carrying a briefcase, dressed almost entirely in black. The only unusual thing about him was how tired his eyes looked despite the calmness in his posture.
"Oh," he said after noticing me. "So this must be Miss Mayumi."
We exchanged greetings.
"Thank you for the flowers," he added.
Then his gaze shifted briefly between Steven and me.
"My son's plans seem to have inconvenienced you."
"Ah… hmm…"
I had no idea how to answer that.
Steven meanwhile had drifted toward the carriage entrance, his eyes resting somewhere beyond the houses toward the unseen sea.
"If it wouldn't be troublesome," his father continued gently, "would you accompany us to the harbour?"
And somehow, not very long afterward, I found myself inside a carriage heading toward the docks.
The ride remained mostly quiet.
Josephine read near the window while Steven's father reviewed papers from his briefcase. Steven sat opposite me watching the streets pass by outside.
I wanted to say something.
Anything.
But every sentence I considered sounded stupid before it reached my mouth.
Finally I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"Steve."
Three heads looked up briefly.
"I looked at what you gave me."
Steven's attention settled properly on me.
"And?"
"And I learned something."
I lifted one hand carefully.
"Look."
I inhaled slowly to steady myself.
The air around my fingers tightened faintly before moisture gathered there. Tiny droplets condensed into a floating sphere of water resting above my palm.
The carriage quieted completely.
Then gradually—
steam began rising from it.
Thin white trails curled upward into the cold morning air.
"He was right," I thought while staring at it.
A ridiculous amount of satisfaction bloomed inside me.
I looked up.
Three pairs of eyes stared back at me.
The silence suddenly felt solid.
Too solid.
"Even if it's the heavens," Josephine said with a smile, "I'll pull them down."
The tension broke immediately.
Steven laughed quietly beneath his breath.
"My wife used to do that," his father said softly.
For a moment the exhaustion in his face seemed lighter.
"She'd make entire fog banks," Steven added. "It felt like the clouds came down to visit us."
Something tightened unexpectedly inside my chest.
I had never met their mother.
Yet somehow she already felt strangely real.
Warm.
Present.
Like the kind of person who left traces behind everywhere she went.
The harbour came into view not long after.
Noise reached us first.
Voices. Crates shifting. Chains clanking against wood. Sailors shouting across the docks while gulls wheeled overhead hunting scraps.
The ship waiting at the pier dwarfed the smaller fishing vessels nearby.
Everything after that moved quickly.
Crew members loaded luggage while passengers crossed the boarding ramp in waves.
"Can I ask you for something?" Steven said as we stepped a short distance away from the others.
Josephine stood near the railing speaking quietly with her father, though her gaze occasionally drifted toward the sea with strange distance.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Could you water the plants for me?"
"I'll do it."
The answer came immediately.
Truthfully, I had already planned to do it anyway.
But I kept that part to myself.
Then, before caution could stop me—
"I plan on coming to the west to study."
The words escaped all at once.
Even Josephine looked toward me now as the wind caught strands of her hair.
Steven didn't answer immediately.
The pause lasted just long enough for regret to begin crawling up my spine.
Maybe that had sounded childish.
Or desperate.
Then finally—
"I see."
A small smile appeared.
"That would probably be best."
Relief hit harder than expected.
"Did you tell her you're planning to join the army?" Josephine asked suddenly while adjusting her coat.
Steven glanced at her.
Then at me.
"You want to join the military?"
My voice came out quieter beneath the noise of the harbour.
"Yes."
Just that.
Simple.
Certain.
Something about that answer unsettled me.
Not because it was wrong.
Because it sounded too decided already.
"I see."
I looked away briefly toward the water because I genuinely didn't know what else to say.
"I'll be coming to the west," I declared after a moment, firmer this time. "Expect me."
That only earned another smile from him.
"An Eastern mage, huh," Josephine murmured with amusement.
Not long after, I stood on the docks watching the ship depart.
The ropes loosened.
The vessel drifted gradually from the harbour while gulls followed overhead.
I remained there until distance began swallowing details.
Until Steven became too small to distinguish properly among the figures on deck.
Eventually I climbed back into the waiting carriage alone.
The silence inside felt different now.
Too open.
It returned me to the brick house.
For a while I stood quietly beside the garden, watching the flowers sway beneath the cold breeze.
Then I picked up my bicycle again.
And like winter slowly forming beneath autumn's fading edge, a plan began taking shape inside me.
Unreasonable.
Difficult.
Probably expensive too.
I didn't care very much.
High above, the sun had fully claimed the sky.