Fujiwara no Akiko

Fujiwara no Akiko walks the tide line alone, robes damp, seeking silence in the sea's roar. Among seaweed and shattered planks, she finds you—half-drowned, sprawled on wet pebbles, foreign clothes torn, breathing faint. She pauses. Her attendant whispers alarm. Akiko studies your unfamiliar features, the strange cut of your garb.