lvi. Beauty and Her Beast
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Shirayuki was alone and in distress, fatigued from her journey, upset by the shock of violence, friendless and ill.
What she wanted most was a knight — a champion of the defenseless, selfless in service, tireless in courtesy and charity.
Once, Mitsuhide might have been that to her.
...
He might have stepped into the breach and taken up the mantle, with the confidence born of purpose.
He would have aided her steadfastly, remaining by her side until he was assured of her security and recovery.
Now he knew better.
...
Mitsuhide was no knight.
...
He brought her to a hunting lodge not unlike the one where they had first met, in another time, another life.
It was the nearest shelter, now that night had fallen. Shirayuki’s assailants had lured her outside the city walls, and these would be sealed until daybreak.
The lodge was overloaded with memory, hauntings of the time before the war, but it was also well-provisioned and warm.
It would do.
...
Another man might have shied from the pain of remembering, ignited by the familiar scenes of his former life, but Mitsuhide bowed to it.
He let the reminder of all that he had lost wash over him, allowed the ache to sink into his bones.
He deserved the pain.
...
Like a spur in his side, like a burr or a stone in his boot, the memories served as reminders to him. They bit into the skin of his heart, rubbed the callouses raw again. Some were scored as if with hot metal into the fabric of his mind.
Remembering kept it always before him – why he was here, why he was no longer a knight.
It could do nothing to atone for his failures, but it was better than walking free, as if none of it had ever happened.
...
Mitsuhide carried Shirayuki inside, glad to see that she had drifted into a doze.
He was no nurse, but his former duties — as he thought of them – had extended to mending a scrape or two.
The weight of those years gone pressed on him, paradoxically made heavier in their hollowness.
...
This was the burden that made him grim and unsmiling, taciturn in his hidden struggle as he tucked Shirayuki into a bed upstairs, checked the window for drafts, then retreated back down to warm a brick in the grate.
He kindled the coals. He hauled water from the cistern in the back.
All the while, he was steeling himself to a task he found far more insurmountable than facing old memories.
...
Shirayuki might be feverish; she needed care.
It ought to be someone trustworthy, someone skilled – and someone who could get here fast.
Mitsuhide knew who it must be, for there was none better. Under such circumstances, he would hardly have trusted his friend to anyone else.
Shirayuki wanted a knight, and that knight was Kiki.
...
The trouble was, his former partner deserved to be left in peace, not harassed with messages and favors asked by one who didn’t merit her notice.
Disgraced in his own eyes as a warrior, still worse as a friend, he had never intended to presume to renew contact – least of all after the response his parting gift had occasioned.
Mitsuhide had angered Kiki. There was no point in seeking her pardon, because her anger was justified.
...
He had no right to address himself to her, had forfeited all claims to her attention and assistance — but neither could he abandon Shirayuki to continue her journey alone in wintertime, bent on her dangerous search.
Not to act, in this case, would be worse than to give further offense.
...
He would be brief, Mitsuhide decided.
He would make his appeal not as an acquaintance, not with reference to a history now past, but in the name of charity.
He would write to Kiki.
...
First, Mitsuhide delayed.
He opened the cellar and extracted whatever might be of use from the supply cache stored there. From a sack of root vegetables, he prepared the sort of hardy stew that would warm and revitalize a body.
As food, it was fit more for camping or campaigning than for sickbeds, but he hoped it would do Shirayuki no harm at least.
Leaving it in the pot to simmer, he went out to ameliorate his hasty attentions to his horse, arranging its feed and brushing it down with meticulous care.
...
Satisfied that the animal would rest easy after its unaccustomed exercise, he returned inside to check on his charge.
On his way to the upper floor, he passed the satchel of messages stamped with the Clarines seal. It waited yet on the table inside the door, accusing him with its silence.
There was no one to carry word that urgent business had detained him because he was, after all, the courier of this route.
...
Another time, the delinquency might have troubled Mitsuhide.
Even knowing his absence to be rightful, he would have fretted over the disappointed expectations of the dozens of faceless names. Each was expecting a letter, perhaps eagerly sought, perhaps of critical importance.
Now he accepted the fault as his natural state. It came as no surprise that he would find himself inadequate in neglecting even this simplest of duties.
...
Grimmer than ever, he eased open the door to Shirayuki’s room.
Shirayuki stirred at his entrance but did not wake, so he advanced in silence to slide the hot brick into a bundle of linens at the foot of the bed.
He was tiptoeing out of the room when a sound stopped him.
“Mitsuhide,” she sighed, her eyes unfocused.
...
He set a bowl of the steaming stew beside her bed.
“Where are we,” Shirayuki mumbled, her face turning towards the smell.
“Somewhere safe,” Mitsuhide answered, his shoulders tensing.
...
Before she could inquire further, he hurried to ask, “Are you—shall I—?” He gestured uncertainly to the bowl, but she was already sitting up and pulling it towards her.
“Gotta keep my strength up,” she informed him, gripping the spoon with a look of intent concentration. “Long way to go.”
Mitsuhide didn’t argue with her. He hovered, with just a trace of his old anxiety, as she adamantly ate her way down to the dregs.
...
Shirayuki sank back with a sigh, looking spent but less pale — a touch of color had entered her cheeks.
The wan face on the pillow, crowned like the sun with its halo of red, seemed easier now, the lines of pain and tension eased.
Mitsuhide backed out of the room without another word. He chided, berated himself for neglecting her out of no better motive than the wish to avoid embarrassment. The time for delays had passed.
...
It was a formal, yet urgent letter. It outlined the facts of the case, without any expectations of resuming contact for his own sake on his own auspices.
Shirayuki may be ill, he explained. I fear for her safety should she continue alone, unguarded.
He noted the address. He signed it simply, not giving himself time to dwell on the closing or what reception it might meet with.
Then he sealed it and secured it in his courier bag.
...
Mitsuhide stacked the fire high with logs, so that the stove would not burn out in his absence. He left the stew on a low simmer, for Shirayuki to refresh herself when she woke.
Then he bundled himself into his cloak and set off into the night.
There was a letter to deliver, and that was his work now – the only work he was fit for.
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Plot holes in the lunar chronicles that I’ve noticed on my millionth read through that WILL NOT detract from my enjoyment:
1) Marissa Meyer does not know how freckles work
see Cress having freckles despite zero sun exposure (but ig probably the exact amount of vitamin D she’s supposed to get) aboard the satellite
2) Cinder is wasian/more generally mixed raced and Channary looks so similar to Cinder that Kai sees a portrait of her and thinks for a moment that it is Cinder… but Levana is… white?
I guess the logical conclusion is that levana is also wasian, but I feel as tho that is not the authorial intent bc that is white woman behavior if I’ve ever seen it
the other logical conclusion and the one I personally subscribe to is that Cinder’s father had Asian heritage, but Channary and Levana were white and Cinder just… westernizes/whitewashes herself a little when she uses her glamour…??? Like… to match westernized beauty standards?
idk neither answer is particularly satisfying but I feel as tho the series is thematically stronger if the former lunar queens who want to do colonization, genocide, and imperialism are white women.
3) Dr. Erland should’ve absolutely infected Cinder and Thorne in that tunnel based on the absolutely unhinged and unrealistic but pre-established rules of letamosis
They were in very close quarters for at least an hour as he was entering stage 2 or 3 of the disease. They should’ve all been fucked. (Not to mention how closely Erland interacted with Thorne when they went to the labs)
4)… shouldn’t Dr Erland have had a perfectly good letumosis antidote on him (or at least on the Rampion) yk, from when he stole it from the palace and fled the country???
What happened to that huh? Did we just forget about her?
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