Page 205 of Mercy Written in Blood

"The council commissioned it."

"Shibata?"

"I don't know."

"You think he was involved."

"Yes."

"Do you remember the attack?"

Renji's body tightened.

"Fragments."

"Anything that contradicts the official version?"

Fire. Snow. Hana screaming his name. His father's blood across the threshold. Men wearing white lotus emblems beneath dark armour. He had remembered the lotus as decoration — a crest belonging to one unit among many. He had never asked why it appeared in the Archive. He had never asked because the Accordtaught that memory distorted under trauma. That was true. It was also useful.

"I remember council soldiers," Renji said.

Haruki's hand remained on his wrist.

"The official history says rival bloodlines attacked."

"Yes."

"But you remember council soldiers."

"I remember their armour."

"Could both have been there?"

"Yes."

"Could the council have authorised it?"

Renji stared at the final lines of Genkei's entry.

They came first for the records. Lord Takahara ordered copies hidden in the shrine and beneath the eastern granary. Renji has taken the younger children north. Hana refuses to leave.

Renji stopped. His name. The younger children. North. He had always remembered being inside the compound when the attack began. He remembered waking beneath bodies near the inner gate. But the journal said he had taken children away before the assault.

"What is it?" Haruki asked.

Renji pointed, his finger touching the protective sheet above the page.

"I was not there."

Haruki read the line.

"You returned."

"I must have."

"Do you remember?"

"No."