AN: Been a long time since I touched this story. I am really glad to be working on it again. I don't really have too much to say about this one other than enjoy and don't feed the guard dogs. - Phoenix Commander signing off.
Chapter Four: Seals and Fate
"So, Grimm can't be harmed with something as simple as a blade or arrow?" Nora asked Sasuri and Seikatsu.
The three of them were heading to the Shrines of Life and Death to give the dead caretakers and the bandits their last rites, as well as to see what survived the destruction of the shrines. Shi had chosen to remain at Sasuri's shrine with Weiss and Lie Ren. The goddess of death still didn't wish to leave the priest's side but also knew enough to help Weiss if the need arose.
"Not exactly, Nora." Sasuri replied with a small shake of her head. "With the right knowledge anyone can at least hurt a Grimm and drive it away."
"A talisman wrapped around an arrow can do many things to a Grimm depending on what incantation it was inscribed with." Seikatsu interjected, pleased that her shrine maiden was already warming to the idea of fighting Grimm. There would be plenty of chances for that in the coming months and years, the goddess of life was sure of it. "A blade rubbed in salt or coated in certain potions can also cause rather violent reactions if it draws blood."
"Of course, those are only a few broad examples to harm a Grimm." The amber eyed goddess continued, nodding in agreement with Seikatsu's explanation. "To kill one outright you would need to be able to use your own aura as a weapon, which is difficult to say the least."
"The problem is knowing how to control the use of your aura. The first time is…problematic." The red and black-haired goddess replied, a barely disguised grimace curling her lips.
"Problematic in what way, Ruby?" Nora asked, arching an eyebrow questioningly at her expression.
"After unleashing their life force, some mortals had it run wild." Seikatsu's silver eyes misted as she recalled the early years of creation. "Tapping into their auras without restraint or preparation put too much strain on their bodies…their own auras tore them apart."
"You've seen that happen before?" The orange haired shrine maiden asked, disturbed at the implications.
"Not since the war with the Grimm at the dawn of creation. It…It is one of the reasons why my father forbids divine intervention on behalf of singular mortals. He didn't want the needless deaths to continue." The red and black goddess replied, shaking her head to clear away the dark memories of the past. "As far as I am aware, that is the only way for Fateless Ones to be made."
"To be clear, you don't need to be Fateless to be able to use your aura as a tool, it just makes it easier." Sasuri clarified to ease Nora's worry. "With the right practice anyone can manipulate their aura, but it takes years for ordinary mortals to even access their life force. By that point in their lives, they should have already been taught how to manipulate their aura safely."
"Of course, we'll teach you how to access your aura without harming yourself. It shouldn't take years either." Seikatsu hesitated near the entrance to the shrines, "Something on your mind, Nora?"
"Still just coming to terms with it all. Eternity..." The shrine maiden looked down at herself, a small frown curling at the edges of her lips, as she tried to picture how she would look in the future. "While everyone else I've known grows old and passes on, I'll still be as I am."
The goddess of life nodded understandingly. "I know what you mean. There isn't much we can do to ease that feeling, but we will at least try."
"I know, Ruby." Nora nodded, before letting her emerging frown shift into a smile. "Besides, an eternity with five friends is far better than an eternity alone."
"I think that's the root of the trouble with Yang. Ruling over death is lonely when people fear and resent you." Sasuri interjected, her own mood darkening slightly. "She spent more time with mortals than we did in the early days. Taking them from their loved ones to the other side after having gained their trust, that's probably when their fear of her started."
"Well, at least she won't have to worry about that anymore. We're here and as close to being mortal as can be." The orange haired woman replied.
"To a degree, yes." Seikatsu agreed as she looked over the ruins of the shrines. She was sure they could at least recover the weapons that she and her sister had planned to give to the shrine maiden and the priest. Hmm… Do I resent her? I don't like the way the cycle must go, but do I resent my own sister? No…the cycle certainly, but never her. I don't think I've ever really said that.
"Now I have to ask, something on your mind, Ruby?" The goddess' shrine maiden asked.
"Just wondering if I've ever resented her. I know I dislike the cycle even though it is needed. My sister has only been doing her duty after all, and I will never blame her for that." The black and red robed goddess said, almost surprised at the realization. "Yet, I don't believe I've ever made that known to her."
"May I be blunt, Ruby?"
"Of course, Nora."
"She may feel like you do if you haven't actually told her." Nora replied, a little firmly. Her patron's admission had revealed to her that even the gods needed to be taught. "Talk with Yang when we get back. Clear the bad air and bad thoughts, make it known."
"I will." Seikatsu nodded at her words, before starting towards where the bodies still lay. "Now let us take care of the dead and then I need to retrieve a few items from the shrines."
The two goddesses and the shrine maiden left the ruined shrines behind them as the sun finished its climb to its zenith. Their duty to the dead finished and they had recovered what supplies they could. Nora and Seikatsu stood near the gates of the shrine, Sasuri waited at the bottom of the steps watching the pair. The goddess of life held the haft of a war hammer out to her shrine maiden having reclaimed the weapon from the fire ravaged shrine, alongside a pair of green and gold sheathed kodatchi from Shi's shrine.
Nora looked at the hammer that her goddess held in her hands, its cherry wood haft came up to her shoulder and the silver-banded head was engraved with rose wrapped lightning bolts. A pair of red and black talismans marked with incantations of storms were tied just below the head of the weapon.
"I had planned to give this to you during the summer solstice festival this year, as the symbol of your service. But time is against us, my father will likely be here before sundown." Seikatsu said, her hand running lightly over the weapon that she had crafted. Just as the scythe was a tool for peace and the harvest, the hammer could help create.
"What do the engravings represent, if I may ask, my Lady?" The shrine maiden asked, her eyes settling on the rose wrapped lightning bolts.
"If I'm being honest, part of your past. Your family was not originally from these lands, they crossed over the storm-wracked seas of the north-east." The red-haired goddess replied, recalling when the young woman's ancestors crossed into her domain. "I thought the lightning bolts were fitting in a way, given your name."
"You chose my name because of that too then?" The question raised another in Nora's thoughts, one she didn't think she wanted the answers to. If I asked, would she tell me why I was alone before I found her shrine?
"I did, even though you were not born during that crossing, I wanted you to still have some link to your family's past." The goddess of life replied, noticing the slight shift in the storm that raged in her eyes. If you ask the questions that trouble you, I will always answer them. But could I give you a truthful answer?
"Are the storm talismans part of that choice then?" Nora's next question pulled the goddess from her internal dilemma.
"No, I chose them because they will help you control your aura and for a more selfish reason. The same reason for the rose engravings." Seikatsu admitted with a small smile. "I want you to be my right hand, Nora, my breath of life that brings the storm of my judgment."
"I see." The shrine maiden replied, a little hesitant. "Are you sure about this, my lady?" The goddess was giving her the right to speak and act on her behalf. Which could only mean they would not rebuild the shrines, they would travel.
"Yes, my dearest shrine maiden, I am. The events of yesterday only make me surer of it." The goddess nodded, the hammer steady in her hands as she waited for her answer. Dearest? Watching her grow all this time, yes, I suppose she is.
Letting out a slow breath, Nora nodded as she looked her oldest friend in the eyes and accepted the hammer. "Then as I told you last night, Ruby, I will stay by your side. If that means I have to be an expression of your will, as well as your friend, then I do it willingly." As she closed her slender hands around the hammer's haft, the lightning that arced from the weapon's head struck her square in the chest and her consciousness left her.
"A bit of a rough way to seal her aura, don't you think, Seikatsu?" The goddess of healing remarked with a raised eyebrow. "You could have been a lot gentler."
"You may be right, but we don't have much time." Seikatsu said, as she picked up her unconscious shrine maiden and the hammer. Glancing up at the noonday sun, she could see the dark shadow that had started to crawl across its brilliance. "I was wrong, we may only have another hour."
"You had better hope she awakens before he gets here." Sasuri nodded and started back in the direction of her shrine. She had noticed the shift in the light as well. I need to present Weiss with her gift as well. I had meant it to be for her mother but with her eyes I believe it'll serve her well.
Nora found herself standing in a river, the clear water barely coming up to her ankles. The banks towered on either side of her; she could only see a thin blue line of sky overhead. "Where…where am I? Ruby?! Where are you?!" She shouted, her voice echoing off of the rocky walls.
"I am here, Nora." The goddess said calmly, in answer to her servant's shouts.
The shrine maiden turned toward the sound of her voice; her goddess was kneeling in the river. An immense wall of roses spanned the banks behind her holding back the water. It climbed until it was beyond Nora's sight. The orange haired woman's eyes widened as she looked on the wall of crimson flowers, blood red petals occasionally floating in the slow current of the river. "What is this? What happened? what did you do?"
Seikatsu held up a hand at her flurry of questions and gestured at their surroundings. "I am sorry about all of this; it was just the easiest way for you to understand it." The goddess gestured to the wall of vines and flowers behind her, an approving smile lightly curling her lips despite the abrupt way she had sealed the shrine maiden's aura. "I am acting as the dam that holds your aura in check. It takes a lot of my strength; I certainly chose well."
"You're holding back my aura? If it takes so much energy from you, then why do it?" Nora asked, mystified as she knelt in front of her.
"I told you why already." Seikatsu said, taking the shrine maiden's hands in her own. "I won't let either of us make a mistake that could get you killed. Doing it this way will be slow, but you'll learn and be safe doing it."
The turquoise eyed woman nodded slowly; her eyelids fluttered as the vision round them began to fade. "I think I understand. There is still water flowing in the river, so I still can use my aura, yes?"
"Correct, though not all at once, and provided you can call on it." The goddess replied as she pulled Nora into her lap, just as she had when she was younger. "That will be your first lesson. And you will have to learn it quickly, but first, I need you to wake up."
Nora winced as she opened her eyes, the pain from the lightning still made her joints ache. "Oww. You could have warned me first, Ruby." She said, looking up into the goddess' silver eyes, her long fall of crimson hair helping to shield her eyes from the glare of the darkening sun.
"Lay still for a few more moments." Seikatsu ordered, gently pushing her back down onto her lap. "Would you have still said yes if I had?"
"You know I would have. You're in my head now, aren't you?" The orange haired woman stated as much as asked.
"You're right, about both things. Though I promise I won't pry or do something like that again." The goddess of life replied, slowly running her hand through the woman's orange locks.
"Did you find them, Ruby?" Shi asked, gesturing to the bag of supplies lying near Sasuri's shrine. The three of them had been back for only a few minutes.
Seikatsu nodded toward the bag. "Yes, Yang, I did. Although your gauntlets were missing."
The goddess of death shrugged as she picked up the pair of sheathed kodachi. "Perhaps it's for the best, they saw too much blood for my liking." Shi drew each of the short blades, her lilac eyes flashed crimson as they narrowed. She took in every detail of the swords, from the engravings of the flames that bloomed into lotus flowers that played along the blades, down to the gold, black, and white wrapping on the hilts. The golden-haired goddess sheathed the blades with a short flourish as she looked over her sister's shrine maiden. "How are you feeling, Nora?"
"As if I had been struck by a lightning bolt in a thunderstorm." Nora groaned as she readjusted her kimono and her patron finally let her sit up.
"I'm not too surprised. We heard my sister seal your aura all the way from here." Shi replied, giving her a warm smile. "That may be something you'll be atoning for, Sister."
"Perhaps I will be, at the very least I'll help you rewrap your kimono. I was able to find a few spares that the flames and smoke did not touch." The goddess of life replied, reaching for the bag that held the garments. "And we can always have a new set of gauntlets made for you when the time comes."
The gold and black robed goddess' smile darkened to a scowl as she walked over to where Lie Ren still lay. She hadn't let him move since his revival; she could tell his body was still drained. "Hopefully it won't be soon, if we ever do find Adam, I want to feel his heart beating in my hand as I rip it from his damned chest."
"About Adam, I bear some of the responsibility for what he did. I had the chance to kill him here but I-" Sasuri started remorse filling her amber eyes, she had been testing the draw of a white and silver banded longbow.
Her gift to Weiss had been engraved with snowflakes set within belladonna lilies and tied with the talismans of the four elements. Weiss' mother had been an archer before she had been a healer, it was one of the reasons she had chosen the weapon. It would have kept the healer safe at the back of an army while still being able to fight. Now Sasuri hoped it would keep Weiss safe instead.
"You couldn't do it with me present. Am I correct, Blake?" Weiss interjected concernedly, the snowflakes of her eyes shifting imperceptibly from white to a blue almost as clear as the rest of her eyes.
"I have much more to atone for." The goddess of healing replied, her hands slowly stroking over the weapon.
"No." Lie Ren replied, waving off Shi's hand as he pulled himself to his feet.
"What was that, Lie Ren?" The raven-haired goddess asked, not sure she had heard him correctly.
"I said, no, Lady Sasuri." The priest said, his pink eyes absent of any anger toward the goddess. "You did not wield the blade or talons that took my family from me. You have nothing to atone for."
"Well spoken, last of the Ren clan." The voice said warmly. It echoed off of the walls of the shrine.
"Father…" Seikatsu replied, resisting the urge to kneel before her lord as her eyes found him. He was lounging in the branches of a nearby tree. "I thought we had more time… How long have you been there?"
"Only a few moments. You were never good with judging time, Seikatsu." Lord Xaio-Long replied with a small chuckle as he dropped from the branch and landed within the shrine's courtyard. "You know why I am here." It wasn't a question.
"Yes, we do." Shi answered tersely for the three goddesses and their followers. She was in no mood for her father's games, he could have made himself known long before now.
The god of fate nodded. "Then compose yourselves and finish closing the last two seals, I will pass my judgment after you are finished."
The same pledge that Nora had made with Seikatsu passed between Weiss and Sasuri and Shi and Lie Ren. Weiss was to be Sasuri' eyes, to see to the hurt, to heal and bless those who required it. Lie Ren was to be Shi's blade, a swift mercy to the dying and a calming presence that could chase away fear. So it was that the goddess of life stood with her voice, the goddess of healing stood with her eyes, and the goddess of death stood with her merciful hand. So it was that they were all judged as one.
"The three of you have brought forth fateless ones. They stand to lose themselves because of your interventions. Do you deny this?" Lord Xiao-Long stood before the deities and their chosen servants. He had awaited this day knowing it had been set in motion at the dawn of creation. There was no anger in his eyes, only acceptance for what he had to do.
"You know that we do not, my Lord." Sasuri replied firmly, her amber-eyed gaze briefly darting toward Weiss, taking comfort in the fact that Weiss was standing next to her.
The god of fate nodded, tucking his hands into the sleeves of his gold and white kimono. "My decision is this, you are cast out from the shrines. I task you with wandering this land of mortals that you love so dear for eternity."
"You know that is already our intent, what else will you charge us with?" Seikatsu asked in confusion. This was not the judgment she had been expecting.
"You mistake my words; this is a lesson. I had foreseen this; it was always your fate." The lord of fate and deities replied, shaking his head at his daughter's question. "I wish for you three to live as mortals do and to see this land in full as a mortal would. It is one thing to see a way of life as beautiful, it is another to actually live it."
"If you had already seen this, why not stop us?" Shi asked, feeling her annoyance at her father rise.
"It would not have changed things." A sad understanding filled her father's eyes as he spoke. "If not them, then it would have been others. But at least in this way you can wander and learn with people you care for."
"I see…" The goddess of death found she couldn't meet his gaze at that reply. He knew her wish and, in a way, he was fulfilling it. An eternity with friends is better than eternity alone. I understand, thank you, Father.
"I also task you with ridding this land of Grimm." Lord Xiao-Long continued, looking at each goddess and their fateless in turn. "Their numbers are growing once more and must be culled. So it is that you are to wander and to teach your fateless ones that they may teach you."
"In what way could we teach them, Lord?" Weiss asked, confused at what she could teach a goddess.
He nodded, giving the healer a small smile, understanding her question. "These three have seen this world but have only ever walked it while in or near these shrines. Teach them what it means to be mortal, while they teach you about our ways."
"We will do our best, Lord Xiao-Long." Lie Ren replied with a bow. Even though the three fateless had spent much of their lives near the shrines or led a sheltered life, there was always something to learn or to be taught.
"Good. You have until the moonrise to be gone from this shrine. Travel safely and be well. Though you may have no shrine of your own anymore, if your need is great find one of us." The god of fate said, as he turned from them, he stopped by the gates of Sasuri's shrine and bowed to the six of them. "You are not abandoned nor forgotten." A heartbeat later the deity of fate was gone in a cloud of sparks and light.
Seikatsu closed her eyes, a single tear trailed its way down her cheek. "Thank you, Father." She whispered, knowing he would hear her.
Nora said, breaking the silence that had descended upon them. "We had better gather what we can and then decide where to go. The sun has brightened again, but it's getting close to the horizon."
"There is an inn not too far from the edge of the village, they may have a room or two." Weiss suggested. She had stayed at the inn before making the climb to Sasuri's shrine and had planned on stopping at it after she had finished her prayers. "We can decide where to go after that and a good night's sleep."
"I think that may be a good idea, Weiss." Shi agreed as she looked over her priest. He was leaning heavily against Sasuri's shrine. "You should still not be standing just yet, Lie Ren."
"You did not choose me because I was wise, Yang." He retorted with a dry chuckle.
"Hahaha! You may have just found the one person who can be your match, Sister." Seikatsu smirked, ducking as the blonde-haired goddess tossed a sandal at her.