21
Dec

La Belle Eliza

by Koizumi Shinme (恋墨新芽) (mirrors http://s2b2.livejournal.com/35087.html) We could see the dust cloud from a long way off, and I wasn’t ready yet. Eliza kept moving between the window and my side, touching my shoulder lightly with one finger, then turning back to watch the progress of horses and wagon. Too fast. Too soon. “Vivito,” she […]

8
Aug

Buttercup

by Koizumi Shinme (恋墨新芽) (mirrors http://s2b2.livejournal.com/23541.html) The maidens must learn to spin and weave as their mothers do, but they are not women yet, and need not spend the whole day at it. They have made games of the lightest kitchen chores (for the servants do the rest), and they have appointed themselves the gatherers […]

5
May

World Enough, And Time

by Koizumi Shinme (恋墨新芽) (mirrors http://s2b2.livejournal.com/14188.html) I: Tarn May, 1857 The wind was a soft sound in his ears, distant but real, and the world existed as a steady rocking. Not the long, low sweeps of a schooner, but the rapid side-to-side sway of a train in good working order running over well-laid track. It […]

14
Feb

The Tao Master

by Koizumi Shinme (恋墨新芽) (mirrors http://s2b2.livejournal.com/10953.html) In olden days the Tao masters were much revered in the capitol, where daily the fears of the highborn were averted only through the vigilance and skill of a few powerful men. One such man was Seimei, who, coming out of his home one morning in early autumn, chanced […]

22
Dec

Wintering

by Koizumi Shinme (恋墨新芽) (mirrors http://s2b2.livejournal.com/8740.html) Outside, a Gulf wind blew the rain into sheets like some old B movie effect, lines of water rippling and splatting against the storm windows, gusts rattling the back door where the latch still held, barely, fingers of damp wind trying to sneak in where it was warm and […]