Moonlight night shines bright for you...

While I was sketching and inking this, I was just amazed that after so much time, so many seasons and so many miles, my heart still swells with a schoolgirl crush on Sage Date. There’s a kind of magic that you can keep in your pocket or wear around your neck, carry with you like a weapon—call up a smile anywhere, anytime you might need it. That’s what he taught me—and I still learn from him about balance, centering, the importance of virtue and the power of grace. No matter how many seasons pass, no matter where I might wander, all I have to do is think of the light, like Mia did in that first comic, and there is my knight, reaching for my hand. 1988, 1995, 1998, 2004, 2007, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia—nothing fades. Ninjas, youkai, mobile suit pilots, Saiyans and schoolboys all come and go, but Sage is as steady and dependable as the coming of dawn. Happy birthday, handsome—you’re my feudal fairy tale.