Many an Emperor had taken affront at this, as did Oama's brother, who had ostracized most magical people from the court for daring to raise a claim that would mark them as equal to their line, the descendants of Amaterasu-o-mi-kami.Ī decision on the matter would need to be made, but nobody was sure yet which it would be. She'd been taught that while some thought of their abilities as a gift from nature itself, that it was a skill that could be honed with dedication and study, like any other, others claimed that their powers had been given to them by the gods themselves as a favor. The court was of two minds about the magic-practitioners. She'd had to know, because it was one of the main things that created the strife between him and his elder brother, the Emperor. She'd known what her husband was even before she'd been officially introduced to him.

Uno hefted Kusakabe up, scrambled for purchase in the muddy lake, and in the next moment they were lying on the jetty, both soaked to the bone. Still, the wet garments made her heavy, almost pulled her under with the unexpected weight. She had no need to swim, it was improper – still she jumped in after him, draped in her heavy curt robes, and she was lucky, lucky that the lake was shallow enough at that side that her toes met solid ground when she slung her arms around her son. It was one of the many things that were reserved for the lowborn, the servants and commoners. She should have seen it coming, with how much he loved the fish, but one moment he was sitting beside her, staring intently at the lake's surface, and the next he was in the water, flailing and screaming. Uno disliked leaving him to her ladies in waiting, even though it was improper, even though it was beneath her to be her son's nursemaid. He loved to explore the lakeside, to play hide and seek in the reeds or sit on the jetty and watch the fisherman work in the distance. Fond enough that they took no pleasure in hurting one another.įrom a young age, Kusakabe was curious, bright, a bubbly, happy child that wanted to explore the world. Because they shared the same fate, and against both their wills had grown fond of each other. 'If you want more children, get them elsewhere,' she ordered him, and he conceded the point. They'd needed to produce an heir, but she'd told Oama she wouldn't have another, couldn't bear to bring a daughter into the world and see her bound to the same life she lived. One with more leeway, with more prestige, but a pawn nonetheless.

She wanted to hate him when he was nothing but polite to her, didn't impose on her, never ordered her to do things even though he could have – because he was a pawn too, Uno realized. She hated him in the beginning, simply for the fact that she was now shackled to this man that she'd never chosen. It was an honor, they said, she was his first wife after all, but her husband Oama was more than a decade older than her.

When she was 17, Uno married the current Emperor's younger brother. Uno learned reading and writing along with her sisters, was introduced to poetry and courtly culture, but ultimately lived a sheltered life as daughters were only one thing to an Emperor: pawns in their political game, to be married off to whoever offered the highest gain for their hand. She had siblings aplenty, more female than male, though she only ever met the ones of sufficiently high enough rank to matter to the throne.

If asked about her name, she preferred to be called 'Uno,' thank you very much.īeing a daughter of an Emperor, her life was predetermined from the moment of her birth. Princess Uno-no-sarara (' She, of whom the cormorants proclaim how pleasing to the eye she is'*) was born in 645 AD in Shigatsu at the Lake Biwa, which was then the capital of Japan.

Mahoutokoro school of magic houses