Decided to post the little snippets I've been writing since I've been having slightly more time. Those are all too small or unplanned to be published on AO3 imo.
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Soulmarks are known to appear roughly around a youngster’s sixteenth spring. Most people anticipate theirs with baited breath, hoping against hope that they’ll be the lucky ones to find their soulmate among the sea of people drifting aimlessly with a mark never meant to be completed.
Akemi isn’t one of those people.
She’s nobility, she’s royalty, she’s supposed to uphold her position with a divine grace, and her goal - the reason of her existence, is always to strive to elevate herself and her family higher, until the fingers of her descendants can extend high enough to reach the sky itself.
Soulmates are not for the lot of the nobility. Strictly speaking, it is fairly unlikely to meet one’s mate within the ranks of noble men and women scurrying in the courts all over the country. Those who do gain a tremendous advantage, being seen as chosen by the deities for their destinies to be intimately entwined. After all, could the fact that you and your soulmate were born and raised in nobility not the ultimate proof of the nobleness of your soul? It was even said the first emperor and empress had been chosen by the skies for the perfectness of their bond showed the purity of their souls.
But most people weren’t so lucky. If your soulmate had the unfortunate shape of anything less than noble, you would be ridiculed, shamed, and cast out of polite society. If you had the dishonor of finding your mate amongst the common people, or worse, among merchants or peddlers, it was a sure way to get yourself ousted in the time it would take to pronounce the name of your fatemate. Of course, some had managed to bring their soulmates up in the light of nobility with them. Some soldiers ascended to the noble condition of samurai, some religious monk turned religious council in high places, but oftentimes, it still burned any and all chances you might have had of elevating yourself in society.
And so, noble people awaited their soulmarks, not with baited breath, but with anxious fretting. Girls and boys were covered from head to toe in finery so no one could see any glimpse of skin in case it suddenly showed a new marking. Only when the blasted seal appeared could they reveal themselves anew, covering only the marking of their soulmark away from prying eyes. Often, noblewomen would even burn their mark away, cover the mark with a man made one before their wedding so their husband could never discern the potential downfall that threatened them. Akemi knew of a few that didn’t even wait to see if the fates would be kind and burned all traces of them as soon as it appeared.
She didn’t intend to be so brash so soon, but she didn’t doubt it would someday become necessary.
After all, she had ambition, and the position she wanted, no soulmate could reach, for it was at the very top.
Which is why she finds herself scowling at her collarbones with a mirror that isn’t nearly clear enough.
This is so much worse than she thought it was gonna be.
There are two of them.
Two! How is that even possible!
At least they’re not on her face, she thinks desperately.
