Birth of Seimiro

Seimiro’s birth interrupts the festivities for Cajeiri’s ninth birthday and changes their meaning: the celebration becomes the shared birthday of a brother and sister whose years, according to atevi fortune, will not remain in step. Damiri has been in labor since the previous day but has tried to spare her son’s occasion. The birth is safely accomplished, yet its coincidence with Cajeiri’s birthday leaves him with a lasting concern about the different fortunes attached to their ages.

Labor During the Festivity

Damiri’s labor becomes apparent when she catches at Bren’s arm, bent and breathing hard. Bren does not know how to support her; Jago steps in and holds her upright. Damiri identifies what is happening, then straightens and insists that she can walk. Rather than allowing the discovery to turn into a public commotion, she gives clear instructions: her physician is to be called, her husband is to be told first, and she will walk while there is still time.

The people around her treat the situation as both a family emergency and a security matter. Banichi directs that security be advised, while Algini divides Damiri’s guards between staying with her and privately informing the aiji, Tabini, so he can give orders. Bren is told to remain with the group. Following the principle that security should not be made more difficult, they take Damiri by the service passage at a sedate pace. She walks under her own power, passing people who look on with mild curiosity rather than being drawn into the private crisis.

Only after Banichi asks how long the labor has been underway does Damiri say it began the day before. She explains that she did not want to spoil her son’s festivity, and recalls that Cajeiri’s own birth took two days. Her effort to preserve the celebration has kept the labor private, but it also means the attendants must move quickly once the birth is imminent. In the later account, Jago says Damiri had no trouble and that the baby arrived before Lord Tatiseigi did.

The News and the First Meeting

While the adults wait, Cajeiri is given the news that the aiji-consort is well. The household official starts to say that the young gentleman has a sister, but Cajeiri has already sprung up and run for the door. His young aishid rise in confusion as he goes. The interruption shows how completely the news has displaced the birthday festivities for him: he leaves before the announcement is finished, intent on reaching his mother.

The first meeting is presented through Cajeiri’s experience. Damiri is propped among pillows, her hair tied with a ribbon, while Tabini sits beside her. A white blanket rests in her arms. The arrangement reminds Cajeiri of a machimi, and for a moment the family seems to him like a scene being acted by someone else. But Damiri smiles at him and moves the blanket, showing him a tiny, newly born face. She names the baby Seimiro and tells him that she is his sister.

Cajeiri studies the infant, then looks from her to his father and mother. He has never seen a very young baby and can only ask, in a whisper, whether she is asleep. The question gives the family revelation its intimate scale: Seimiro is not merely news announced during a disrupted party, but a real, unfamiliar presence whom Cajeiri must learn to recognize as kin. Damiri’s naming makes that relationship explicit at the bedside, with Tabini there to witness the meeting.

The Household Regroups

Afterward, the people gathered around the family reassemble in the sitting room and share a modest brandy while those present recount what happened. The baby’s name is confirmed as Seimiro; Jago reports that Damiri is well and that the birth occurred before Lord Tatiseigi arrived. The account closes the immediate uncertainty around Damiri’s condition and confirms that the hurried change of plans ended without difficulty for mother or child.

The festivities have nevertheless been unsettled. Kaplan and Polano remain in the hall with atevi guards, who have orders to return them upstairs after the gathering breaks up. Jase reports that the youngsters and guests were worried when people began leaving. Ilisidi takes charge of explaining the situation, and Jase escorts the youngsters to Lord Tatiseigi’s apartment while the guests turn to wine and brandy. The response redirects the celebration rather than abandoning everyone to uncertainty: the children are moved, the guests are reassured, and the adults who handled the birth compare what they saw in privacy.

A Shared Birthday, Unequal Fortunes

Lord Tatiseigi congratulates Cajeiri and calls the day fortunate: it is Cajeiri’s ninth year and Seimiro’s first, both beginning on the same date. Cajeiri understands the consequence with sudden clarity. His sister was born on his birthday, so the date will be hers as well, forever. The coincidence binds them in a way no one had asked him about beforehand.

That bond immediately carries a complication. Cajeiri’s next fortunate birthday will be his eleventh, while that same day will mark Seimiro’s infelicitous second. Their birthdays will recur together, but the auspiciousness of their ages will diverge; Cajeiri sees that they will always be out of rhythm, with nothing able to correct it. The scene therefore ends not with a simple resolution to the festivity’s interruption, but with a new family fact that is joyful and troubling at once. Seimiro’s birth gives Cajeiri a sister and a permanent shared date, while making him newly conscious that closeness in time does not guarantee shared fortune.