The Stone Played at Tengen
ShortStory 6,510 words Recommended by 3 award/anthology sources
"The moon was full that night in the summer of Meiji 29 when three hundred and sixty new stars appeared in the sky. Glowing even brighter than the capital’s newly installed electric lamps, they formed a nineteen-by-nineteen grid. My wife, Tsuru, and I were out getting some air so that she might breathe better before she tried to sleep."
Content warnings 1
illness-and-pandemic
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.