The path to the south of the garden was littered with brown leaves, most likely carelessly strewn there by an untidy autumn goddess.
Yuuka picked up one, a slim, delicate affair, with two thin blades and a seed stem in the middle, almost like a mockery of flowers. She put it back exactly where she had found it and opened her parasol.
The sun was slowly setting as she left the garden behind and traversed across the fading meadow next to it, smiling and at her own pace. The sky had the orange hue of winter-cherries, a sure sign the first frost of the year was swiftly approaching, and much sooner than Yuuka might have wished.
Still, she didn't allow it to ruin her excursion. She too was but a small part of nature, the ultimate ruler of all living things. This year, winter would be long and arduous. Perhaps the next it would be mild and last only from late October to early March. A soul yearning for another summer only had to wait, and Yuuka had nothing if not time and patience.
That night, she was leaning towards a visit to the lakeside. The plants near water always outlasted the rest, and she wished to see if the wild roses that had obstinately taken root by Misty Lake some decades ago and survived despite the shrivelling mist were in bloom.
She halted as she came to a crossroad in the footpath. Something was there that hadn't been there the last time she had walked by. A large, vaguely spherical boulder stood forlorn and forgotten next to the footpath, like some particularly uninspired monument. The most logical explanation decreed some fairies had rolled it over for some half-baked scheme, a conclusion corroborated by the trail of trampled grass and broken stems leading south. Why said scheme had been abandoned was anyone's guess, but as it were, the boulder was casting a shadow on some unsuspecting bellflowers that were still in long after their actual season.
Yuuka wrinkled her brow at the sight, but moved on, slowly but steadily approaching a grove of trees between her and the lake. The maple trees had already shed most of their bright red leaves, leaving their branches barren and the ground a simulacrum of a spider lily field. The tea olives, however, were at the height of their beauty, their leaves as green and lustrous, their blossoms in full bloom, growing in fragrant clusters of orange and dark yellow. Even so close to winter, the grove was a place of beauty and tranquility.
"Take that!"
...And loud, child-like voices, apparently.
Yuuka moved into the grove and towards the source of the noise. It only took her a moment to locate the voice's owner, a small ice fairy in a blue dress and ribbons, dancing barefooted in the sea of leaves. As she looked on, the fairy reached towards a nearby branch. A cluster of tea olive blossoms was instantly covered in perfect frost, turning the flowers both much paler and very dead in one fell swoop. The fairy looked proud of her misdemeanour, and waltzed towards another branch.
Yuuka stepped into full view, wearing her kindest smile. "Cirno?"
Cirno turned her head, one foot still in the air. "Huh?" The look she gave Yuuka likely meant she recognised her, but one could never be certain with fairies. "Hi."
"What are you doing?"
"Helping winter!" The little fairy glowed with pride. "I can freeze anything, so today I'm getting winter started by freezing flowers."
Yuuka smiled. She took a moment to close her parasol and placed it to rest against her shoulder. "Indeed? Do you enjoy doing so?"
Cirno rolled her eyes. "Of course!"
"You do realise winter won't approach any faster no matter what your actions, do you not?" Silly little tricks like creating ice were no more effective than the prayers and meek spells of superstitious humans, but surely Cirno was old enough to know the sheer folly of attempting to tamper with the passage of seasons. The actions of humans were so minor as to be unnoticeable, but even a fairy like Cirno could eventually awaken the wrath of nature should she go too far in defying the natural order of things.
Cirno pouted and turned her back. She froze another flower cluster, as if to make a point.
Yuuka kept her expression perfectly level. Oh, yes. She might awaken it very soon indeed.
"Do you know what these flowers are called?" she asked.
Cirno turned to frown at her, her hands still splayed and raised towards the branches. "No. Why?"
"Then I will teach you." Yuuka stepped towards the tree, crouching to pass under the nearest branch, then gestured at Cirno to follow. The fairy hesitated, then followed her anyway.
Yuuka placed one hand gently against the trunk and cupped a cluster of particularly vividly coloured blossoms with the other. "The tree is called a tea olive. Have you ever smelled the blossoms?"
Cirno tilted her head sceptically. She allowed her feet to leave the ground all the same, until her face was on level with the flowers. She took a deep breath. Her eyes widened.
"It's not bad," she admitted, descending.
Yuuka allowed herself a moment of savouring the scent herself before continuing the lesson. "One can pluck the flowers to make sweet tea and jam. Doesn't that sound nice?"
Cirno perked up at the word sweet. "Uh huh!"
Yuuka smiled. "Of course, one can hardly do that if the flowers are frozen. The flavour is quite ruined."
"Oh."
"Now then, did you freeze any other flowers before this grove?"
Cirno kicked at the earth, her eyes averted. "A few."
"Can you show them to me, please?"
Cirno's brow furrowed for a moment. Then, she nodded, she ducked back into the meadow and began walking eastwards. Yuuka followed, once again opening her parasol though sunlight was rapidly fading.
The trees near the lake had also begun to shed their round, yellow leaves, and it seemed to Yuuka she was was walking on flat gold coins. She idly wondered whether the leaves might serve as money to pay the Sanzu ferryman, or if the souls of plants travelled for free. All in jest, of course; she knew their souls simply returned to earth and re-emerged as new life, with none of the hassle of the Ministry of Right and Wrong.
After a while, Cirno took to the air, flying low over the withering flowers and still flourishing grass, but Yuuka had no inclination to follow her lead. She'd reach their destination by foot just as well. "Hurry" was a word reserved to those with the lifespan of a mayfly. Either way, it wasn't long till Cirno landed, waiting impatiently for Yuuka to approach by the side of a meadow.
There, in a large depression, only just visible from a short distance, bloomed a ocean of chrysanthemums.
Yuuka's serenity grew profounder still. Of all the wondrous plants that flourished within the confines of the Great Hakurei Barrier, chrysanthemums were by far the most diverse, having adapted well to the magic in the soil. She took in all the hues in the sea of blossoms, from faint pink to magnificent purple, from the most violent of oranges to a faintly green bloom. Some of the flowers had evolved further still: red and blue petals mingled peacefully in the same blossom, and one small specimen was radiant in all the colours of a rainbow.
She then spotted the reason why Cirno had brought her there. In what was admittedly an impressive display of control, she had frozen every white blossom and nothing but white blossoms.
She affected a sigh. "Now then, Cirno, do you know what you've done?"
Cirno puffed out her chest. "Practised my aiming."
"Yes, but you've also waged war against truthfulness."
"Eh?
Yuuka sat down on the grass next to the chrysanthemums, folding her legs on one side, and patted the grass next to her. Cirno picked up on the idea and sat down cross-legged by her side.
"You see, Cirno," said Yuuka, adopting a teacher-like tone, "Every flower has an important meaning to it. Some are so important even humans know their significance."
"Uh huh?" Cirno's eyes were bright and attentive, an eager pupil despite her earlier misgivings. In truth, this was the fifth time Yuuka had explained the concept to this very child in as many decades, but then, the memories of fairies were as transient as the seasons themselves.
"A white chrysanthemum is an envoy of truth. Surely you wouldn't wish to attack something like the truth, would you?"
Cirno frowned. "Guess not."
"Good child." She allowed her eyes to drift back to the flowers before continuing. "Very soon, all of this will be gone. The blossoms will disappear and die under a sheet of rime. The trees will turn white and appear as if sculpted from liquid silver. It will be so cold no human will dare venture out, and at night, in stark darkness and with frost hitching your breath you can see every star in the sky reflected in the snow."
Cirno was listening raptly, with a blissful smile on her face.
"All of this will come. And just like that will make you happy," Yuuka fixed her gaze on Cirno, "seeing these flowers bloom unharmed till then makes me happy. Do you understand?"
"Uh huh..." Cirno's voice was very small. Her eyes flitted to the nearest frozen flower. She bit her lip, as if in deep concentration.
Yuuka placed her hand on Cirno's head. It was small and frail, and radiated cold. She made sure to keep her touch as light as air. "Winter is approaching fast this year. The autumn will come and go before you know it." She smiled. "Allow winter to claim its bounty when it's due, and until then, allow the fruits of summer to remain."
Cirno said nothing for a while. Finally, she nodded. "Fine."
"Good child." Yuuka gave her hair a gentle stroke before letting go. "Naturally, once the first frost emerges, you are free to do as you wish with the flowers. Freeze them as you please." She found the notion distasteful, but there was no sense forever suppressing the childish whims of the fairy. Acting based on her ability was simply a part of her nature.
Cirno's brow turned into a map of wrinkles. "But if I wait that long, will there be any flowers left to make pretty?"
Yuuka paused, then regarded the fairy with a fresh tenderness. Though ice was poison to flowers, in the moment she felt distant kinship with the child.
"There will be plenty of flowers," she assured her. "Just like every other year. Run along, now."
Cirno's brow cleared. "Okay!" Without further courtesies, she scurried off, holding her hands to her sides as she took to the air, apparently pretending they were a fourth pair of wings.
Yuuka regarded her departure silently, then looked around. Not far grew several more tea olive trees, younger but less verdant than the ones in the grove. They appeared unmolested by Cirno or other miscreants: perhaps something about them making them less interesting targets.
She stood up and walked to the nearest of the trees, placing her free hand on its slight frame and breathing in the scent of the blossoms. She focused on the power looming behind her eyes and coaxed out a spark of it, allowing it to flow to her fingertips and from there into the tree. The leaves swished and the wood creaked as the tree reached a new level of vitality.
Yuuka smiled at the orange blossoms above her head. Several clusters would remain even after snowfall.
"We will meet again," she said as a farewell to the tree. Come spring, the tree would bear fruit, hatched slowly over the long winter. A reminder, if one needed such, that nature never slept, only grew dormant under the ice.
As she bounded towards the crossroads, eager to finally visit the roses, she again regarded the autumn colours on her path before raising her gaze to meet a sky as brightly coloured as the leaves were. The rolling clouds were cast in darkening hues, one minute pink, the other orange, but always changing.
Yuuka slowed down to enjoy the view. Not much longer, and the sun would finally set: the colours would vanish and melt into the shadows of the night.
She paused entirely.
How many sunsets just like this one had she already witnessed? It was senseless trying to count.
She raised her hand and regarded it. Her skin was pale and delicate, like those of the finest noblewomen shielding them with gloves at every opportunity, betraying none of her efforts at gardening. For a moment, under the last rays of sunlight, it looked almost transparent. Any thinner, and the light would shine right through, as if she were nothing but water.
For a flicker, she felt all her years as pinpricks in her bones.
She remained still for a long while, both hands on the handle of her parasol, rooted in place as firmly as the tree olives were. The sun had gone down two more notches when she finally continued, her pace as leisurely as before.
All the same, it didn't take her long to return where she had first strayed from her path. The boulder remained obstinately right at the centre of the meadow, the flowers in its shadows looking like mere spectres.
Again, Yuuka paused. What had brought it there, exactly? A prank? A dare? A random unpredictable happenstance of the kind that abounded in Gensokyo and which she couldn't blame on the fairies?
She found a dry and clean patch on the grass and set her parasol down. She adjusted her cuffs, then placed her hands on the boulder. It surface was barren and unyielding, but she soon found a decent grip. She picked the boulder up, holding it at an arm's length. The grass beneath had been severely trampled, and to her consternation she saw the remains of several bellflowers, their stems broken and flowers crushed.
She considered the boulder. It was ten times her size, and far more ancient: no doubt it had been moulded into existence at the dawn of the world. All the same, it was no living thing.
Holding on with both hands so that it wouldn't careen back onto the ground, she placed most of the boulder's weight on one hand and turned it so that its thinnest part stood up towards the sky. She lobbed it into the air.
As the boulder turned into a miniscule speck against the setting sun, then vanished entirely from view, Yuuka began languidly gathering some fragments of her strength into her palms. She raised them towards where the boulder had disappeared, and released the power.
A pillar of energy pierced the sky. Yuuka waited for some moments, then increased its radius beyond the initial guiding beam till it was sure to cover the entire boulder's size. More and more raw power pulsed towards space.
Eventually, Yuuka clapped her hands together, killing the beam at once. She frowned. It had been a long time, centuries no doubt, since she had performed this little trick without a parasol, and she had forgotten how warm it made her palms.
As a flock of birds fled the nearby trees, cawing wildly, a couple of flaming pebbles fell close to Yuuka. With deliberation, she placed her foot on the nearest one, smothering the lingering flame.
After making sure none of the others would make the grass catch fire, she focused her full attention on the damaged bellflowers. Most were beyond hope, but one had its stems mostly intact. With the utmost care, she raised it back towards the sky and granted it a sliver of her power. The flower perked up at once, standing up on its own merit after Yuuka let go and stood.
She picked up her parasol, gave the blossom a curt nod, and walked towards the lake, smiling and at her own pace.