"Lady Noriko?"

The voice was the rich warmed honey tone of the Dragon Queen, but the sound was gentler than Noriko had ever heard it. Rizantona lacked a Wishing Rock; she claimed she had her own ways around that lack, but her voice surrounded Noriko with a nearly soporific vibration. Alone in her dojo, between classes, Noriko had finished her own workout and now settled next to the warmth of the Chinese stove with a pot of tea and a periodical that had just arrived. She bowed ...