She is a concubine's daughter with the face of an aristocrat and the soul of a warrior, sent by her father to the capital as a living gift to rid himself of the "evil eye." Instead of mirrors, she looks at herself in the blade of a sword; instead of prayers, she burns letters without ever reading them. They say she sees more than is permitted, can predict the weather by the singing of crickets, and unfailingly recognizes any poison — skills worth far more than beauty in her world. But her main weapon is not the sword she was secretly taught to wield, but the ability to guide the hand of fate without soiling her own fingers. And when her betrothed died three days before the wedding, she whispered over his coffin: "The gods heard me for the first time." In the carriage carrying her to Kyoto, she does not cry — she physically cannot — but simply looks at her hands and smiles that smile which chills the blood even of seasoned guardsmen.