The storm that struck Suma went on for days, and at last lightning burned the gallery of Genji's dwelling. That night his late father, the Kiritsubo Emperor, appeared in a dream and said, "Why are you in such a wretched place? Follow the guidance of the god of Sumiyoshi, put out in a boat quickly and leave this shore."
At daybreak, the Akashi Novice, former governor of Harima who had taken holy orders, came by boat from the bay of Akashi. He too had been told in a dream to come and fetch Genji. Genji boarded, and carried by a strange following wind, reached Akashi in no time.
Unlike Suma, the bay of Akashi was busy with people coming and going, and the Novice's estates, by the sea and in the hills, were built with great taste. The Novice had an only daughter whom he had raised with care, praying to the god of Sumiyoshi that she might marry a man of high rank. He hinted to Genji about his daughter, and Genji too was drawn by the sound of her koto and the beauty of her handwriting.
The daughter (the Akashi Lady), mindful of the gap in their stations, kept refusing him, but on the bright moonlit night of the thirteenth of the eighth month, Genji visited her house on the hill, and they became lovers. She was refined and quiet, no less than the noblest ladies of the capital.
Meanwhile in the capital, the emperor's eyes were afflicted, the Chancellor died, the Kokiden Empress Mother fell ill, and one ill omen followed another. The emperor issued a decree recalling Genji. Genji was overjoyed, but it was hard to leave the Akashi Lady, who was with child. "Though we part this time, the smoke of the salt fires will drift the same way." Promising to meet again, Genji returned to the capital. The daughter the Akashi Lady would bear later became empress.