"Akiko was the granddaughter of Kamo no Tadayuki, my primary teacher. It was an arranged marriage, and initially we did not like each other very much. She was not what you would call warm and friendly, and I was a socially inept lad who had no idea how to relate to women other than the ones I grew up with."

So a match made in heaven it was not.

"She may not have liked me much in the beginning, but she recognized that her welfare was very much dependent on my own. She also took to heart her grandfather's pronouncement that I just might amount to something." Seimei smirks. For Kamo no Tadayuki, that was high praise.

"So early on she sat me down and said, 'It is the duty of a wife to support her husband whether they have great affection for each other or not, for their fortunes rise or fall together. I will offer you what help I can, if you are wise enough to take it.' And fortunately, I was." Seimei chuckles.

"She was right. We did not choose to be allies, but there we were, so we decided to make the best of it. Affection came later, although it took a few years." Seimei pauses, lost in thought. "It's been a long time since I thought about those days, let alone talked about them."