Chapter 165

• The second morning in Kyoto felt a little different from the first. The sunlight still entered the room slowly, as though it was asking permission before crossing the threshold, but there was a faint heaviness in the air that I could not explain. I sat on the floor cushion by the low table, sipping the green tea the hotel staff had left outside my door. The street below was quiet except for the occasional sound of a bicycle passing and the soft hum of a shop owner rolling open the shutters.
• I had planned to spend the morning at the workshop again. Nakamura-san had said he would show me the second stage of the dye process, the part that required the most precision. I was looking forward to it, not because I wanted to master it quickly, but because there was something steadying about being in that space. It asked nothing from me except attention.
• Julian knocked once before letting himself in. He was carrying two small paper bags from the café across the street. I could smell the warm bread before he set them down.