Six Crimson Cranes

The sound of screaming outside of the castle interrupts Shiori’s kitchen tasks, and she finds Oriyu, a sentinel, fatally poisoned with Four Breaths. While she inspects the body, Hasege accuses her of murder, but Takkan defends her and wants to hear her assessment. Shiori suggests Oriyu inhaled the poison, which Takkan confirms after inspecting the body more closely. He orders the fortress sealed to uncover the assassin, and suspects that Oriyu was not the intended target, given the letter he found.

Fueled by anger and convinced that Raikama is involved in Lord Yuji’s betrayal, Shiori works on her starstroke net. She struggles with conflicting feelings, not knowing if her and Raikama’s familial love was ever genuine.

Shiori finishes de-thorning the starstroke nettles and needs to start spinning them into thread, for which she will need Zairena’s spindle. To win Zairena’s favor, Shiori bakes her some monkey cakes, but Zairena criticizes them and does not eat one. Shiori finds Zairena’s behavior suspicious, “as if she were an imposter” (308). She later snoops in Zairena’s room but cannot find any sign of the Four Breaths poison. That night, while Zairena sleeps in Hasege’s room, Shiori sneaks into her room to use the spindle while Kiki keeps watch.