Chapter 6: Causality

Tomoyo gave that thought a moment's silent consideration, before continuing in a more subdued tone. "So then, is there nothing more I can do for him? Now that that one small comfort has been taken away?"

Yuuko looked at her sharply, "You offer prayers for him every day, don't you?"

The princess was taken slightly aback by the question. "Yes…of course. I always have." She answered, not sure what the dimensional witch was driving at.

"Then you are already making the best effort you can on his behalf."

This time it was Tomoyo's turn to offer up a bitter laugh, "You know," she said, with a fresh tear beading up at the corner of her eye, "Kurogane's mother did that too. He told me once. She offered prayers for her husband, prayers for their village…every day. And do you know what happened…?" She looked down, again trying to collect herself.

"I do." Answered the witch, with unusual solemnity.

"And I suppose that, too, was your…Hitsuzen?!" Tomoyo accused, misdirected anger welling up in her voice.

Yuuko merely nodded.

"Then what were her prayers worth!?" she demanded, "What are MY prayers worth?"

Yuuko just looked at the princess for several moments. She did not lack an answer, but it was necessary for her chose carefully how to express it. As was always the case, she must take painstaking care not to reveal too much, nor to little.

"Let me ask you this:" she said, at last, "if it is a man's destiny to kill someone, does that make him any less a murderer?"

"No…" the princess answered slowly.

"Then if it is a girl's destiny to save someone, does that make her any less his savior?"

The princess frowned.

"You see," Yuuko went on, "Hitsuzen is merely a concept that describes the state of all matter in the universes; past, present, and future. Hitsuzen is how things were, are, and will be. But it is not why. You, with every choice and decision you make, create the "why."

Tomoyo nodded, though the look on her face showed the effort it took her to conceptualize 4-dimensional reality.

Again the witch waited, till her supplicant was ready to hear. "Your prayers may, in fact, be the reason for his survival; the cause, as it were, of his salvation. And eventually—his return."

Slowly, understanding was creeping into Tomoyo's expression.

"Know, then, that the value of this ribbon," Yuuko displayed the coveted object one last time, "pales in comparison to the power of your prayers."

Something akin to peace settled at last on the princess's countenance. "Thank you, Yuuko-san." She said wistfully, before bowing deeply to the now wavering figure of the dimensional witch. The spell by which they were talking was dissipating and neither of them made a move to re-cast it.

"I will do my best." promised the princess.

And she thought she saw the witch, that hedonistic executor of Hitsuzen, reply with a genuine smile.

But it could have been a trick of the light.