Tapestry of Lives Chapter 7
Later that same night.
Aya met up with Coralie as soon as she was sure the entire group was asleep. Her soft steps took her past the dormitory rooms that had been assigned to her and the Priestess and into a thin passageway lined with shelves. Occasionally she passed a discarded scroll, book, even a thin dagger that had been left and forgotten on the way to a secret meeting, the only type of meetings that were ever held in the room the hallway led to.
She passed through the first of many shields with a shrug of her shoulders. If the powers that protected the Weaver's room didn't recognize her by now they never would. Up ahead were softly glowing spheres of light suspended in the air above an arched entryway. Aya's eyes found the small knot of whispering people unerringly as soon as she entered the protected room.
Coralie's serious eyes turned and greeted her friend with a blink. "Kirin has confirmed it; none of the trusted Priestesses had anything to do with their reconstruction."
"Who was in charge?"
"Priestess Tariki, a newer Priestess, good at her job, but that's normally mapping out coordinates for the Celestial Mirror." Kirin waved her towards a free chair. "She's got a great mind for finding the best way through the pathways, but I wouldn't exactly call her a stupendous crafter of seals."
"What else?"
Coralie sighed. "Guardian Nadine was the one who ordered Tariki to head the working of the seals."
"Nadine?" Aya nearly jumped out of her chair as soon as she had sat down. "Does Nadine have that authority?"
Kirin nodded. "She was given a high position here in the Central Web nearly two years ago when we lost Yukino. None of the other Guardians questioned the decision; they were actually the ones who made it."
"Then they're all in this."
"That can't be, Aya." Dionne, a slim blond apprentice under Kirin leaned forward. "How can all the Guardians be in on a plot to destroy the Originals? They're the ones that the Guardians are supposed to be guarding!"
"Well they obviously haven't been doing a very good job of it." Aya sighed and shook her head. "We'll need someone to go over their soul seals. I can't have any of them falling apart at a crucial moment. I need their souls to stay in their bodies for right now." She paused in thought. "Coralie, I think we should wake up any latent powers within them."
"Ehhhh??"
"This... this isn't really about them anymore. They're a liability that must be protected. You and I both know we don't have nearly enough Warriors and Priestesses to protect them adequately, not with what we're looking at having to fight."
"What are we looking at having to fight," Kirin asked quietly.
Coralie's eyes remained rooted to the floor so that she didn't see the all eyes turn to her at her whispered response. "Battousai."
"Battousai," Dionne repeated. "We have to defeat a demon of his power? How can we do that? Even you, Aya... even you would be hard pressed to keep away from his sword."
The Warrior shrugged. "I have my ways, and we won't be fighting him immediately. He's just the big one to defeat before we can take further steps to destroy the vipers' nest we've found within our midst."
Coralie looked up into Aya's dark eyes. "Do you think they know about us yet? At least one of the Guardians should know about us."
"Nahh." Aya grinned and fell back into her lazy speech patterns. "None of them high-faultin horse turds're gonna be lookin fer a couple of legends like us. We're the scary stories they were put to sleep with when they were kids. Their eyes are gonna pass over us as if they'd known us all they're puny lives."
Kirin chuckled. "Sounding like that, they're going to think you're a low class Warrior from a level two world. It always makes me laugh to hear you like that especially when I know how much power you really have."
Aya grinned at him and leaned back with her hands clasped behind her head. "You don't know the half of it, my friend."
Kirin stood up and motioned to Dionne. "We should be going. We two weavers need to be up early to assist Leila. Call us if you need anything." The Priestess and the Warrior stood and nodded as the two weavers left.
Coralie turned to Aya. "I'll speak to Nadine about their situation. I'll explain how we need to allow them to acclimate to their new surroundings before we go dragging them off to other worlds."
Aya pursed her lips in thought and sat down again. "We'll need more Warriors, and I don't mean the ones that stay here at Central. I'm thinking to call some of the warriors who've been given positions on various worlds. It's going to be hard traveling with someone we know is working against us, but we'll manage."
"There are so many worlds that we need to pass through, we'll be able to lose her somewhere I'm sure."
"I don't want to lose her; I want to keep her right next to me so I know what she's telling her master."
"Her master?" Coralie's eyes widened. "Who do you think is behind all of this?"
"Well, we know somebody's using Battousai as a puppet, destroying certain worlds and people that hold some very important items. We now know that all of the Guardians are in on it, they've probably been the ones manipulating Battousai. I wouldn't be surprised if Nadine was pulling the strings herself. She is certainly powerful for a Guardian. But she doesn't seem to have the brain capacity to plan very far ahead or to recognize something odd when she sees it."
"How do you mean?"
"Well, she didn't take a second glance at my power signature and she completely overlooked you. What does she take us for?"
Coralie coughed. "She probably thinks that I'm a young Priestess fresh from my world with an odd ability for handling souls and that you're an older Warrior with a seal on you that inhibits your power using ability."
"Why would she think that?"
"Because that's what I listed us as in the roll book. We've been under those descriptions for about fifty years now, but the dates keep changing."
Aya's eyebrows raised in shock. "You're manipulating the roll book? You can do that?"
"Well it's either that or have her KNOW that we're actually both Legendary status and that you've destroyed more demons than she's ever read about and that I'm the Priestess that holds the seal on Eelotarqn. She would know that we're two out of five survivors from the fight to seal him when he destroyed the other forty-five Warriors who set out to put him down."
"In other words she would know that we're out for her boss's blood."
"Yeah."
Aya grinned and patted her friend on the head. "Let's get some sleep, little lady. We've got a big day tomorrow. The plan is to start off small, correct?"
"Mmhmm. We're taking Megumi on a short trip to her first pivot's world. I've already had Tariki map out the world and spot the portal."
"Portal?"
Coralie glared up at Aya. "Yes, a portal. We will be traveling by portal for the shot, easy jumps and only using the Celestial Mirror IF we need to. That stupid thing requires too much power for us to use it consistently." She sighed and began walking down the twisting hallway that led from the hidden room.
Aya stretched and clasped her hands behind her neck as she followed. "Well, the Mirror can get us anywhere while the portals are subject to special limitations, you know?"
"Yes, but the Mirror requires the sacrifice of a soul in able to activate, and the soul required for sacrifice normally depends on the people who will be traveling through the stupid thing. Since we're going to be traveling around with ten, count that TEN originals, I thought it might be nice of us not to keep sacrificing one of their mirrors just so we can jump to a different world wherever and whenever we want. The pros do not outweigh the cons, at least in my opinion."
"Well, when you put it that way. So, what're the details I'm going to need to know for tomorrow's' trip?"
Coralie shrugged as she paused at the mouth of the hallway. After a careful check to make sure no one was observing she stepped out into the wide pathway and turned left. "There's not much to be concerned about. It's a peaceful world. Megumi's mirror owns a small herbal company that grows, and packages herbs for consumption. The garden itself, where the mirror is normally found, is a short thirty minute walk from the portal. There will just be the four of us, Megumi, Nadine, you, and I. We should be fine. At least check that the world has neither offensive demons inhabiting it, nor does the world have enough power to breed any upon our e
"Yeah, that's annoying, damn breeding worlds. You remember when that one spat out a fire breathing plant as soon as we stepped down. That was annoying. And that ice maiden that went crazy when we accidentally blew that mountain range? She was pretty pissed, huh?" Aya laughed. "I'm truly not looking forward to this."
"Neither am I, sword lady, neither am I." Coralie stopped causing Aya to bump into her. "Did you mean it when you said bring out their powers?"
Aya nodded seriously. "I did. We've already lost all of the Guardians and possibly some of the Warriors. We both know that we're not going to be able to protect them properly. They're going to need to be able to protect themselves at times. I can't watch over them all the time. What're they going to do if I go gallivanting off after some sneaky demon and the sneaky partner of that demon decides to attack them?"
"You mean, what's going to happen to them if you don't do your job?"
"Hey," Aya protested. "You're the one in charge of shielding, I'm in charge of killing."
"Do you want me to wake up the powers? Say yes and I'll walk into that room and fix Megumi's soul. She has one of the smallest powers, but I might as well do it now since we're going to start with her."
"Do it."
Coralie nodded and sighed. "Are they all asleep?" At Aya's nod she slid open the door. The two women slipped into the room. Coralie immediately knelt beside Megumi's prone form and held out her hands. With a quick thought she brought out Megumi's seal. Even as she studied the intricate patterns held within the circle her delicate fingers were running over the untidy strands, smoothing them into a semblance of order then reweaving them to open certain abilities to Megumi's mind.
She found a possibility of earth connection and formed a loose knot allowing a controlled amount of that ability through. When she found the pattern controlling the plant empathy she cut the entire pattern open and formed a tight edge around the that deep well of power. A small amount of human empathy was brought out and along with a good sized well of illusion. Coralie finished with a general smoothing down of all the strands causing the off-kilter circle that represented Megumi's soul to straighten and fill out while beginning to give off a healthy red glow.
She leaned back and sighed feeling the power drain from her. Handling a soul within the confines of the central web was not impossible, but definitely not enjoyable. She made a mental note to arrange to rearrange the other souls while on a world where not only did her soul manipulation not have the possibility of being monitored, but the world wasn't going to be working against her while she was doing it.
As Coralie sat and breathed deeply she felt a spark of awareness. With a quick turn of her head she could easily see Misao's wide open eyes. Aya, Misao.
Got it.
Coralie nodded as she heard Aya's soft command. We need to get some sleep.
I'll follow you out. Good job on Megumi.
It wasn't easy. There's a possibility they might have been alerted to what I did.
No chance. The two friends were now walking towards their own assigned rooms looking as tired as they felt. Coralie opened her mouth to speak but found herself too worn out for speech.
Explain that.
I made a deal with Keiko earlier, after she met our Kenshin. She's with us all the way and will be personally shielding them, actually she has been personally shielding them. Anything we do to them or their souls will be hidden from any who might be watching.
You could have mentioned that to me. It would have eased my fears a bit.
Coralie, I just did.
Coralie scowled as she stopped at the door to her bedroom. Idiot.
Grandma.
Go to sleep, Aya. I'll wake you in time to help with outfitting Megumi.
You do that.
To be Continued... Next chapter: Megumi's Secret Garden Please look forward to it
Author's note
Gosh, but it's been a long time since my last update. Wow, I never knew doing so much work for so long could be such a muse. This chapter flew form my fingertips along with the beginning and hopefully the end of the next chapter. Look for an author's note chapter soon to help with the explanations and confusion regarding how this world of mine works.
Love you all!
Later that same night.
Aya met up with Coralie as soon as she was sure the entire group was asleep. Her soft steps took her past the dormitory rooms that had been assigned to her and the Priestess and into a thin passageway lined with shelves. Occasionally she passed a discarded scroll, book, even a thin dagger that had been left and forgotten on the way to a secret meeting, the only type of meetings that were ever held in the room the hallway led to.
She passed through the first of many shields with a shrug of her shoulders. If the powers that protected the Weaver's room didn't recognize her by now they never would. Up ahead were softly glowing spheres of light suspended in the air above an arched entryway. Aya's eyes found the small knot of whispering people unerringly as soon as she entered the protected room.
Coralie's serious eyes turned and greeted her friend with a blink. "Kirin has confirmed it; none of the trusted Priestesses had anything to do with their reconstruction."
"Who was in charge?"
"Priestess Tariki, a newer Priestess, good at her job, but that's normally mapping out coordinates for the Celestial Mirror." Kirin waved her towards a free chair. "She's got a great mind for finding the best way through the pathways, but I wouldn't exactly call her a stupendous crafter of seals."
"What else?"
Coralie sighed. "Guardian Nadine was the one who ordered Tariki to head the working of the seals."
"Nadine?" Aya nearly jumped out of her chair as soon as she had sat down. "Does Nadine have that authority?"
Kirin nodded. "She was given a high position here in the Central Web nearly two years ago when we lost Yukino. None of the other Guardians questioned the decision; they were actually the ones who made it."
"Then they're all in this."
"That can't be, Aya." Dionne, a slim blond apprentice under Kirin leaned forward. "How can all the Guardians be in on a plot to destroy the Originals? They're the ones that the Guardians are supposed to be guarding!"
"Well they obviously haven't been doing a very good job of it." Aya sighed and shook her head. "We'll need someone to go over their soul seals. I can't have any of them falling apart at a crucial moment. I need their souls to stay in their bodies for right now." She paused in thought. "Coralie, I think we should wake up any latent powers within them."
"Ehhhh??"
"This... this isn't really about them anymore. They're a liability that must be protected. You and I both know we don't have nearly enough Warriors and Priestesses to protect them adequately, not with what we're looking at having to fight."
"What are we looking at having to fight," Kirin asked quietly.
Coralie's eyes remained rooted to the floor so that she didn't see the all eyes turn to her at her whispered response. "Battousai."
"Battousai," Dionne repeated. "We have to defeat a demon of his power? How can we do that? Even you, Aya... even you would be hard pressed to keep away from his sword."
The Warrior shrugged. "I have my ways, and we won't be fighting him immediately. He's just the big one to defeat before we can take further steps to destroy the vipers' nest we've found within our midst."
Coralie looked up into Aya's dark eyes. "Do you think they know about us yet? At least one of the Guardians should know about us."
"Nahh." Aya grinned and fell back into her lazy speech patterns. "None of them high-faultin horse turds're gonna be lookin fer a couple of legends like us. We're the scary stories they were put to sleep with when they were kids. Their eyes are gonna pass over us as if they'd known us all they're puny lives."
Kirin chuckled. "Sounding like that, they're going to think you're a low class Warrior from a level two world. It always makes me laugh to hear you like that especially when I know how much power you really have."
Aya grinned at him and leaned back with her hands clasped behind her head. "You don't know the half of it, my friend."
Kirin stood up and motioned to Dionne. "We should be going. We two weavers need to be up early to assist Leila. Call us if you need anything." The Priestess and the Warrior stood and nodded as the two weavers left.
Coralie turned to Aya. "I'll speak to Nadine about their situation. I'll explain how we need to allow them to acclimate to their new surroundings before we go dragging them off to other worlds."
Aya pursed her lips in thought and sat down again. "We'll need more Warriors, and I don't mean the ones that stay here at Central. I'm thinking to call some of the warriors who've been given positions on various worlds. It's going to be hard traveling with someone we know is working against us, but we'll manage."
"There are so many worlds that we need to pass through, we'll be able to lose her somewhere I'm sure."
"I don't want to lose her; I want to keep her right next to me so I know what she's telling her master."
"Her master?" Coralie's eyes widened. "Who do you think is behind all of this?"
"Well, we know somebody's using Battousai as a puppet, destroying certain worlds and people that hold some very important items. We now know that all of the Guardians are in on it, they've probably been the ones manipulating Battousai. I wouldn't be surprised if Nadine was pulling the strings herself. She is certainly powerful for a Guardian. But she doesn't seem to have the brain capacity to plan very far ahead or to recognize something odd when she sees it."
"How do you mean?"
"Well, she didn't take a second glance at my power signature and she completely overlooked you. What does she take us for?"
Coralie coughed. "She probably thinks that I'm a young Priestess fresh from my world with an odd ability for handling souls and that you're an older Warrior with a seal on you that inhibits your power using ability."
"Why would she think that?"
"Because that's what I listed us as in the roll book. We've been under those descriptions for about fifty years now, but the dates keep changing."
Aya's eyebrows raised in shock. "You're manipulating the roll book? You can do that?"
"Well it's either that or have her KNOW that we're actually both Legendary status and that you've destroyed more demons than she's ever read about and that I'm the Priestess that holds the seal on Eelotarqn. She would know that we're two out of five survivors from the fight to seal him when he destroyed the other forty-five Warriors who set out to put him down."
"In other words she would know that we're out for her boss's blood."
"Yeah."
Aya grinned and patted her friend on the head. "Let's get some sleep, little lady. We've got a big day tomorrow. The plan is to start off small, correct?"
"Mmhmm. We're taking Megumi on a short trip to her first pivot's world. I've already had Tariki map out the world and spot the portal."
"Portal?"
Coralie glared up at Aya. "Yes, a portal. We will be traveling by portal for the shot, easy jumps and only using the Celestial Mirror IF we need to. That stupid thing requires too much power for us to use it consistently." She sighed and began walking down the twisting hallway that led from the hidden room.
Aya stretched and clasped her hands behind her neck as she followed. "Well, the Mirror can get us anywhere while the portals are subject to special limitations, you know?"
"Yes, but the Mirror requires the sacrifice of a soul in able to activate, and the soul required for sacrifice normally depends on the people who will be traveling through the stupid thing. Since we're going to be traveling around with ten, count that TEN originals, I thought it might be nice of us not to keep sacrificing one of their mirrors just so we can jump to a different world wherever and whenever we want. The pros do not outweigh the cons, at least in my opinion."
"Well, when you put it that way. So, what're the details I'm going to need to know for tomorrow's' trip?"
Coralie shrugged as she paused at the mouth of the hallway. After a careful check to make sure no one was observing she stepped out into the wide pathway and turned left. "There's not much to be concerned about. It's a peaceful world. Megumi's mirror owns a small herbal company that grows, and packages herbs for consumption. The garden itself, where the mirror is normally found, is a short thirty minute walk from the portal. There will just be the four of us, Megumi, Nadine, you, and I. We should be fine. At least check that the world has neither offensive demons inhabiting it, nor does the world have enough power to breed any upon our e
"Yeah, that's annoying, damn breeding worlds. You remember when that one spat out a fire breathing plant as soon as we stepped down. That was annoying. And that ice maiden that went crazy when we accidentally blew that mountain range? She was pretty pissed, huh?" Aya laughed. "I'm truly not looking forward to this."
"Neither am I, sword lady, neither am I." Coralie stopped causing Aya to bump into her. "Did you mean it when you said bring out their powers?"
Aya nodded seriously. "I did. We've already lost all of the Guardians and possibly some of the Warriors. We both know that we're not going to be able to protect them properly. They're going to need to be able to protect themselves at times. I can't watch over them all the time. What're they going to do if I go gallivanting off after some sneaky demon and the sneaky partner of that demon decides to attack them?"
"You mean, what's going to happen to them if you don't do your job?"
"Hey," Aya protested. "You're the one in charge of shielding, I'm in charge of killing."
"Do you want me to wake up the powers? Say yes and I'll walk into that room and fix Megumi's soul. She has one of the smallest powers, but I might as well do it now since we're going to start with her."
"Do it."
Coralie nodded and sighed. "Are they all asleep?" At Aya's nod she slid open the door. The two women slipped into the room. Coralie immediately knelt beside Megumi's prone form and held out her hands. With a quick thought she brought out Megumi's seal. Even as she studied the intricate patterns held within the circle her delicate fingers were running over the untidy strands, smoothing them into a semblance of order then reweaving them to open certain abilities to Megumi's mind.
She found a possibility of earth connection and formed a loose knot allowing a controlled amount of that ability through. When she found the pattern controlling the plant empathy she cut the entire pattern open and formed a tight edge around the that deep well of power. A small amount of human empathy was brought out and along with a good sized well of illusion. Coralie finished with a general smoothing down of all the strands causing the off-kilter circle that represented Megumi's soul to straighten and fill out while beginning to give off a healthy red glow.
She leaned back and sighed feeling the power drain from her. Handling a soul within the confines of the central web was not impossible, but definitely not enjoyable. She made a mental note to arrange to rearrange the other souls while on a world where not only did her soul manipulation not have the possibility of being monitored, but the world wasn't going to be working against her while she was doing it.
As Coralie sat and breathed deeply she felt a spark of awareness. With a quick turn of her head she could easily see Misao's wide open eyes. Aya, Misao.
Got it.
Coralie nodded as she heard Aya's soft command. We need to get some sleep.
I'll follow you out. Good job on Megumi.
It wasn't easy. There's a possibility they might have been alerted to what I did.
No chance. The two friends were now walking towards their own assigned rooms looking as tired as they felt. Coralie opened her mouth to speak but found herself too worn out for speech.
Explain that.
I made a deal with Keiko earlier, after she met our Kenshin. She's with us all the way and will be personally shielding them, actually she has been personally shielding them. Anything we do to them or their souls will be hidden from any who might be watching.
You could have mentioned that to me. It would have eased my fears a bit.
Coralie, I just did.
Coralie scowled as she stopped at the door to her bedroom. Idiot.
Grandma.
Go to sleep, Aya. I'll wake you in time to help with outfitting Megumi.
You do that.
To be Continued... Next chapter: Megumi's Secret Garden Please look forward to it
Author's note
Gosh, but it's been a long time since my last update. Wow, I never knew doing so much work for so long could be such a muse. This chapter flew form my fingertips along with the beginning and hopefully the end of the next chapter. Look for an author's note chapter soon to help with the explanations and confusion regarding how this world of mine works.
Love you all!