Tapestry of Lives
Chapter two
Quick Fix
"Did you get them? We have to catch them all quickly before they fall through the Well."
"I know."
"Well? Tell me? The Weaver's dying, she needs to know now. She's the only one who knows how to fix this."
"Give me a minute."
"Alright, I'll wait."
"..........."
"What're those lights there? Why are you letting them fall away?"
Kirin stopped all motion and turned to face his young supervisor. "If you keep pestering me while I'm doing this then we're going to have a bigger problem on our hands than the Weaver dying without telling us how to fix her tapestry."
"Really?" Leila stared up at the broad shouldered young man with wide green eyes. "But I thought you said you could do this type of retrieval work in your sleep?" She picked at the heavy embroidery work along the bottom hem of her wimple. "I'm just so scared."
The young man bit back a sharp retort and sighed hugely. "I'm saving them. I'm having no problems, but these things do take time." He turned back to the flow of light he'd been manipulating and grinned. "Here, take a look, here comes another one."
A flood of multi colored threads began to float downwards. One stood out due to its complex pattern. It not only held a deep green base, but there seemed to be a pattern of silver curlicues weighing it down. The thread was falling faster than the others were, but Kirin's deft hands snagged it quickly, leading it towards a swirling point of light he had already attached several others to.
"There, see? I've only got three more to look for."
"Which one was that?"
Kirin scowled and lightly touched the writhing thread with his fingertip. A low and vibrant hum sounded as he drew back. "Umm.. a swordsman, but there are several in this group. This one's a master, I know that."
Leila sighed happily. "I'll go tell her right now. The Weaver will be happy to hear that we're getting them all."
Kirin smiled and patted the little Priestess on her covered head. "Yes, your teacher will be very happy to hear that her work can be restored." He watched the white and gold clad girl bounce from the room with a happy skip. "The question is, how soon will you be up to taking the Weaver's place, little one." He sighed sadly and snagged another patterned thread. "Mmm.. this one's a.. wolf?"
`(U'.') ~~~ Wolfie
Two figures stood in the center of a circular room surrounded by what seemed to be pastel colored statues drenched in waterfalls of light, ten of them in all. The two beings turned to face each form separately as if taking stock.
"Alrighty," a cheery voice cried out. "Let get this party started. I'll call them out and you mark them off." The second figure nodded in agreement and began.
"One Hiten Mitsurugi Dragon."
"Check"
"One Wife of the Wolf of Mibu."
"Check."
"One apprentice to Kamiya Kashin."
"Check."
"One rooster for hire."
"Check."
"One genki Okashira of the Oniwabanshuu."
"Check."
"One needs a foot up his ass former Okashira of the Oniwabanshuu."
"Ummm.. check. So you've already been told about all these people?"
"Yeah, I get to be the one to welcome them and explain everything to them."
"Mmm.. fun. well, continue please."
"One foxy lady doctor."
"Check."
"One Wolf of Mibu."
"Check. Damn, he looks scary."
"One assistant master of Kamiya Kashin."
"Check."
"And last but not least, one mixed up in the head, needs a bit of self- esteem dragon with a cross-shaped scar."
"Check. Is that all for this group?"
"Yeah, there's another bunch, but they're gonna be a lot easier to return home than these."
"They've got to have a home to return to first."
"They will. With the death of the Weaver we've had to hasten the training of her apprentice, but Leila is in fine shape and taking things well. She knows much more than we had thought earlier. By the time we have all the components together she should be finished with the new tapestry and ready to reweave their threads into it."
"What do we do with them until then? Are we just going to leave them asleep like this?"
"I wish we could. The danger that results from introducing the originals into a mirror world is not something I want for them to experience, but unfortunately they're going to have to. There are certain things that only they can retrieve from their mirrors. Those required items will be what makes it for Leila to reweave them back in."
"What do you mean? Doesn't she just put them in and everything's done?"
"No, it's not that easy. Right now their threads are dead, their entire world is dead. That demon destroyed it when he destroyed the tapestry, but he was stupid. He left the anchor threads hanging; they unraveled but remained so we can rebuild. All the fallen threads that weren't anchored though were lost. Kirin is still retrieving what he can, and The Well of Souls is doing everything it can to help us, but it can't deny what it is."
The shorter of the two rolled back on her heels and groaned loudly. "Have you considered using the Celestial Mirror to recover lost threads? Souls can sometimes be easier to find while on the pathways"
"The pathways have begun to experience.. problems. It's going to be hard enough to move from one world to the next, much less search the pathways themselves, though that would make it much easier on us. Once the tapestry is remade and their threads rewoven, we will use the Celestial Mirror one last time to return their souls to their destinies. That's what your department is working on, right? For right now though, their souls have been separated from their destinies. That's where the problem in just sending them straight home comes in."
"Returning their souls to their destinies?"
"Exactly. Right now they're like us, outside of time and destiny. They can't survive very long without that anchor, that thread that tells them where to go, so we're going to send them around to the other worlds to collect some of their mirror's destinies."
"That's... confusing."
"Ok Ok.. Let's see if this makes it easier. There're three aspects to a person, right? Where they are, the physical, what they're thinking, the mental, and the path that they're on, their destiny."
"I always thought it was body, soul, and mind?"
"Alright, try it this way, but let me finish. Consider the soul to have three separate aspects. Just like a triangle which actually has four sides when you think about it. Three sides that come together to create a fourth side, the inner side otherwise known as the soul. The three edges would be mind, body, and destiny. When attached properly they form a complete person. Right now we have separated the body and the mind from the path that they need to walk, we've broken off the destiny edge of the triangle. We can't just stick them back on this path, we need something to re-anchor their souls to it. So we're going to use some of the complete souls of their mirrors to remind them. It'll be like gluing their broken triangle back together." The speaker took a deep breath. "It's a little more complicated than that, but that is the easiest way to explain it."
"That was the easy way? We have to use the souls of their mirrors to glue their own triangles back together?"
"Yeah, the souls of the originals are the most important. I could go on about how we're actually reweaving the destiny bar of the triangle straight back onto the tapestry itself, and how we'll be gluing them to that thread completing the triangle, and how a thread is actually a triangle, but that's Guardian stuff and might be a bit out of your league."
"It's confusing, but I think I understand. So, we can reweave their destinies back into their world, but it would actually be just reweaving their needed actions into their world, but we can't place them back into their world without the help of the Celestial Mirror, otherwise known as the Worldgate after we uhhh.. after we..." The slighter figure sighed and slumped over slightly. "I understand what needs to be done, but I just can't see the process in my mind."
"Well, that's enough for me, now shoo, they're beginning to wake up. I just saw that Wolfies' hand jump. It would be him to wake up first." The only slightly taller figure led the other out of the room then returned to the center. "Did you get all that, or are you still pretending to be asleep?"
Saitou Hajime opened narrow eyes to glare at the female in front of him. "It's not something easily believed," he replied. He moved his foot to take a step forward causing his eyes to widen as he began to fall.
"Oooh, watch that first step," she called as she ran over to him. With a quick grab of his waist she centered her weight and kept him from falling. "You're body has just been through an ordeal, it's gonna take a minute for the pathways to reinstate themselves. Let me help you down."
Saitou's eyes narrowed even more as he stared impassively at the floor. "I'm not used to needing help. Who are you?"
The female smiled as she helped him to the floor from the slight pedestal he'd been floating above. "I'm a priestess, Nadine, by name. Don't worry about the help, I'm sure that you're not used to having your center torn to pieces, either. Just think, since you woke up first you get to watch every one else make silly fools of themselves." She grinned at him as they moved slowly across the room. "Here, I'll lean you on the wall near your wife. By the time she wakes up you'll be in fine enough spirits to help her. Just take some deep breaths and refamiliarize yourself with your body. Do jumping jacks or something."
"Jumping jacks?" Saitou whispered as he placed a hand on the wall near Tokio. His eyes traveled over her Kimono clad form. She looked to be fine, just sleeping; sleeping while floating upright above a flat pedestal that emanated a flow of upward shooting light, but still just sleeping. Her aristocratic features seemed composed, the side of her mouth was even lifted in a slight smile.
After making sure his wife was alright, his eyes turned to the others in the room. Nadine was just then running to catch the weasel girl before she fell face first onto the stone floor. He heard the odd girl laughing.
"Why, you're still asleep, silly. Yes, yes, your Aoshi-sama is quite fine. Lay here and you'll see him in a bit." She laid Misao flat on the floor and watched protectively as the ninja girl curled up while whispering about her Aoshi-sama. Nadine looked around the room to see that most of the other eight were beginning to wake up. "Ooooh, there are gonna be some bruised noggins in the morning," she whispered to herself as she ran to catch Hiko.
To be continued
AUTHOR'S NOTE: *sigh* this one's coming out so quickly!! I'm surprised at myself, but like I said. This story travels through my mind constantly. It'll be nice to get it out. Thanks for the three reviews I've gotten this morning after my first post. I just have one thing to say.
Nemo: This should clear up some problems. A better explanation of what this fic is about.
Marstanuki: always nice to see one of my favorite authors enjoying my stories.. here's your update.
JML: Yeah, there's gonna be some SERIOUS mess with Kenshin in this fic, I plan to actually get pretty deep... I hope it works out.
Quick Fix
"Did you get them? We have to catch them all quickly before they fall through the Well."
"I know."
"Well? Tell me? The Weaver's dying, she needs to know now. She's the only one who knows how to fix this."
"Give me a minute."
"Alright, I'll wait."
"..........."
"What're those lights there? Why are you letting them fall away?"
Kirin stopped all motion and turned to face his young supervisor. "If you keep pestering me while I'm doing this then we're going to have a bigger problem on our hands than the Weaver dying without telling us how to fix her tapestry."
"Really?" Leila stared up at the broad shouldered young man with wide green eyes. "But I thought you said you could do this type of retrieval work in your sleep?" She picked at the heavy embroidery work along the bottom hem of her wimple. "I'm just so scared."
The young man bit back a sharp retort and sighed hugely. "I'm saving them. I'm having no problems, but these things do take time." He turned back to the flow of light he'd been manipulating and grinned. "Here, take a look, here comes another one."
A flood of multi colored threads began to float downwards. One stood out due to its complex pattern. It not only held a deep green base, but there seemed to be a pattern of silver curlicues weighing it down. The thread was falling faster than the others were, but Kirin's deft hands snagged it quickly, leading it towards a swirling point of light he had already attached several others to.
"There, see? I've only got three more to look for."
"Which one was that?"
Kirin scowled and lightly touched the writhing thread with his fingertip. A low and vibrant hum sounded as he drew back. "Umm.. a swordsman, but there are several in this group. This one's a master, I know that."
Leila sighed happily. "I'll go tell her right now. The Weaver will be happy to hear that we're getting them all."
Kirin smiled and patted the little Priestess on her covered head. "Yes, your teacher will be very happy to hear that her work can be restored." He watched the white and gold clad girl bounce from the room with a happy skip. "The question is, how soon will you be up to taking the Weaver's place, little one." He sighed sadly and snagged another patterned thread. "Mmm.. this one's a.. wolf?"
`(U'.') ~~~ Wolfie
Two figures stood in the center of a circular room surrounded by what seemed to be pastel colored statues drenched in waterfalls of light, ten of them in all. The two beings turned to face each form separately as if taking stock.
"Alrighty," a cheery voice cried out. "Let get this party started. I'll call them out and you mark them off." The second figure nodded in agreement and began.
"One Hiten Mitsurugi Dragon."
"Check"
"One Wife of the Wolf of Mibu."
"Check."
"One apprentice to Kamiya Kashin."
"Check."
"One rooster for hire."
"Check."
"One genki Okashira of the Oniwabanshuu."
"Check."
"One needs a foot up his ass former Okashira of the Oniwabanshuu."
"Ummm.. check. So you've already been told about all these people?"
"Yeah, I get to be the one to welcome them and explain everything to them."
"Mmm.. fun. well, continue please."
"One foxy lady doctor."
"Check."
"One Wolf of Mibu."
"Check. Damn, he looks scary."
"One assistant master of Kamiya Kashin."
"Check."
"And last but not least, one mixed up in the head, needs a bit of self- esteem dragon with a cross-shaped scar."
"Check. Is that all for this group?"
"Yeah, there's another bunch, but they're gonna be a lot easier to return home than these."
"They've got to have a home to return to first."
"They will. With the death of the Weaver we've had to hasten the training of her apprentice, but Leila is in fine shape and taking things well. She knows much more than we had thought earlier. By the time we have all the components together she should be finished with the new tapestry and ready to reweave their threads into it."
"What do we do with them until then? Are we just going to leave them asleep like this?"
"I wish we could. The danger that results from introducing the originals into a mirror world is not something I want for them to experience, but unfortunately they're going to have to. There are certain things that only they can retrieve from their mirrors. Those required items will be what makes it for Leila to reweave them back in."
"What do you mean? Doesn't she just put them in and everything's done?"
"No, it's not that easy. Right now their threads are dead, their entire world is dead. That demon destroyed it when he destroyed the tapestry, but he was stupid. He left the anchor threads hanging; they unraveled but remained so we can rebuild. All the fallen threads that weren't anchored though were lost. Kirin is still retrieving what he can, and The Well of Souls is doing everything it can to help us, but it can't deny what it is."
The shorter of the two rolled back on her heels and groaned loudly. "Have you considered using the Celestial Mirror to recover lost threads? Souls can sometimes be easier to find while on the pathways"
"The pathways have begun to experience.. problems. It's going to be hard enough to move from one world to the next, much less search the pathways themselves, though that would make it much easier on us. Once the tapestry is remade and their threads rewoven, we will use the Celestial Mirror one last time to return their souls to their destinies. That's what your department is working on, right? For right now though, their souls have been separated from their destinies. That's where the problem in just sending them straight home comes in."
"Returning their souls to their destinies?"
"Exactly. Right now they're like us, outside of time and destiny. They can't survive very long without that anchor, that thread that tells them where to go, so we're going to send them around to the other worlds to collect some of their mirror's destinies."
"That's... confusing."
"Ok Ok.. Let's see if this makes it easier. There're three aspects to a person, right? Where they are, the physical, what they're thinking, the mental, and the path that they're on, their destiny."
"I always thought it was body, soul, and mind?"
"Alright, try it this way, but let me finish. Consider the soul to have three separate aspects. Just like a triangle which actually has four sides when you think about it. Three sides that come together to create a fourth side, the inner side otherwise known as the soul. The three edges would be mind, body, and destiny. When attached properly they form a complete person. Right now we have separated the body and the mind from the path that they need to walk, we've broken off the destiny edge of the triangle. We can't just stick them back on this path, we need something to re-anchor their souls to it. So we're going to use some of the complete souls of their mirrors to remind them. It'll be like gluing their broken triangle back together." The speaker took a deep breath. "It's a little more complicated than that, but that is the easiest way to explain it."
"That was the easy way? We have to use the souls of their mirrors to glue their own triangles back together?"
"Yeah, the souls of the originals are the most important. I could go on about how we're actually reweaving the destiny bar of the triangle straight back onto the tapestry itself, and how we'll be gluing them to that thread completing the triangle, and how a thread is actually a triangle, but that's Guardian stuff and might be a bit out of your league."
"It's confusing, but I think I understand. So, we can reweave their destinies back into their world, but it would actually be just reweaving their needed actions into their world, but we can't place them back into their world without the help of the Celestial Mirror, otherwise known as the Worldgate after we uhhh.. after we..." The slighter figure sighed and slumped over slightly. "I understand what needs to be done, but I just can't see the process in my mind."
"Well, that's enough for me, now shoo, they're beginning to wake up. I just saw that Wolfies' hand jump. It would be him to wake up first." The only slightly taller figure led the other out of the room then returned to the center. "Did you get all that, or are you still pretending to be asleep?"
Saitou Hajime opened narrow eyes to glare at the female in front of him. "It's not something easily believed," he replied. He moved his foot to take a step forward causing his eyes to widen as he began to fall.
"Oooh, watch that first step," she called as she ran over to him. With a quick grab of his waist she centered her weight and kept him from falling. "You're body has just been through an ordeal, it's gonna take a minute for the pathways to reinstate themselves. Let me help you down."
Saitou's eyes narrowed even more as he stared impassively at the floor. "I'm not used to needing help. Who are you?"
The female smiled as she helped him to the floor from the slight pedestal he'd been floating above. "I'm a priestess, Nadine, by name. Don't worry about the help, I'm sure that you're not used to having your center torn to pieces, either. Just think, since you woke up first you get to watch every one else make silly fools of themselves." She grinned at him as they moved slowly across the room. "Here, I'll lean you on the wall near your wife. By the time she wakes up you'll be in fine enough spirits to help her. Just take some deep breaths and refamiliarize yourself with your body. Do jumping jacks or something."
"Jumping jacks?" Saitou whispered as he placed a hand on the wall near Tokio. His eyes traveled over her Kimono clad form. She looked to be fine, just sleeping; sleeping while floating upright above a flat pedestal that emanated a flow of upward shooting light, but still just sleeping. Her aristocratic features seemed composed, the side of her mouth was even lifted in a slight smile.
After making sure his wife was alright, his eyes turned to the others in the room. Nadine was just then running to catch the weasel girl before she fell face first onto the stone floor. He heard the odd girl laughing.
"Why, you're still asleep, silly. Yes, yes, your Aoshi-sama is quite fine. Lay here and you'll see him in a bit." She laid Misao flat on the floor and watched protectively as the ninja girl curled up while whispering about her Aoshi-sama. Nadine looked around the room to see that most of the other eight were beginning to wake up. "Ooooh, there are gonna be some bruised noggins in the morning," she whispered to herself as she ran to catch Hiko.
To be continued
AUTHOR'S NOTE: *sigh* this one's coming out so quickly!! I'm surprised at myself, but like I said. This story travels through my mind constantly. It'll be nice to get it out. Thanks for the three reviews I've gotten this morning after my first post. I just have one thing to say.
Nemo: This should clear up some problems. A better explanation of what this fic is about.
Marstanuki: always nice to see one of my favorite authors enjoying my stories.. here's your update.
JML: Yeah, there's gonna be some SERIOUS mess with Kenshin in this fic, I plan to actually get pretty deep... I hope it works out.