A Vulpine Spanner in the Works
Chapter 16: Ninya: You Know, the Thing About Actions…
With a flash of gold, Kashia appeared in the room standing before Nfirea. At that point, I couldn't stop the tears from leaking from my eyes as my mind was split on how I should be feeling.
There was elation and relief that Kashia was here to help. But there was also worry and fear because I might just witness my teacher and friend be butchered before me.
Yet, the moment that mine and Kashia's eyes met, something changed. The warm, friendly orange that I was so used to almost seemed to transform into a gold that reminded me of the eyes of a wolf at night when torchlight reflected off them. It was almost inhuman, and I watched as her eyes left mine and swiftly analyzed every person in the room before coming back to me.
Then, I found myself and the others all sitting off to the side of the room. What was amazing was that all of their critical injuries were healed. The only proof that they'd even fought being the holes in their clothes. Then, I looked down at myself and saw that my hand was covered in flesh once again and the acid injuries I suffered were now just smooth skin.
Looking across the room, I saw that Clementine was smashed into the wall, Kashia was still standing where she was except now, she was looking at the old mage who was just as surprised as we were at this turn of events.
Ignoring how everything changed within a second, my friends and I immediately got back onto our feet and tried to move to aid Kashia, except we couldn't. Some invisible barrier stopped our path and all of us could only bang our fists futilely against this barrier and watch our friend as spectators, unable to help.
"Who the hell are you? Where did everyone go-" The old mage asked before he finally noticed us all at the side of the room. "How did you-"
He was quickly interrupted as Clementine pulled herself out of the wall while holding the side of her slowly swelling face. "What the hell was that? What happened to my face?" She demanded while spitting out a few of her teeth. One of her stilettos was brandished at Kashia as she slowly moved closer to my teacher.
Lukrut's struggle to get to Kashia was renewed as Clementine drew closer. "Kashia, get out of there!" He desperately screamed. This desperation that Lukrut showed me one thing. He utterly felt that the woman he loved was about to die, the feeling that I shared with him.
"Please, Kashia, run!" I joined him. I didn't want to see my teacher be killed, especially now that Clementine was focusing on her.
"They are too strong. Run while you still can!" Dyne warned, his normal calm having been broken after the past few minutes.
"Please, get out!" Peter begged. Yet, even as we all called out to Kashia, it seemed like she was completely ignoring us as she focused on the old mage.
"Just end her, Clementine! We need to finish this quickly." The old mage stated as he prepared another spell with his staff. At the same time, Clementine rushed at Kashia from behind. What I didn't expect to happen was for Kashia to wave her hand and the spell the old mage was preparing to fizzle away without any fanfare. Clementine's fate was much different as an invisible force grabbed ahold of her and slammed her into the ground.
Kashia didn't even seem to pay attention to what happened behind her as she continued glaring at the old mage with those animalistic eyes of hers that seemed to bore holes into the man's soul.
"Before I finish this, why are you here?" She asked in a voice that lacked any hint of the playfulness that I was so used to.
That was also the moment I realized that Kashia didn't see this as a fight. A fight would imply that either side could have a chance at winning. No, she already knew that she was going to win. This was simply a slaughter for her. Now, she was just playing with them, the same way that they had played with us.
"We are here for the boy." The old mage answered. His body language showed a growing fear as Kashia continued to look at him.
"DON'T JUST TALK WITH THE BITCH! KILL HER!" Clementine demanded from the floor. We all watched as the same invisible force that had grabbed Clementine now slammed her head into the ground repeatedly until we heard wood cracking, and the woman began spitting out more blood and teeth.
"You touched my friends. You tried to touch my business partner. You. Touched. My. KID!" When she shouted that, I finally understood a little bit of the rage that she was feeling.
We hadn't known each other long, but even then, she had grown attached to me enough that I felt certain that she might see me as more than just a student, but instead as a daughter. In the few days that we've known each other, she's been like the parental figure that I hadn't had for years.
A lot of emotions ran through my head at this. But the one that stood out was that she cared about me this much. Enough so, that she'd likely fight an army on my behalf to keep me safe, and she'd very much be able to do it.
Kashia then launched a green orb at the old mage who quickly tried to defend himself by forming a shield of bones in front of the orb. Yet, instead of stopping the spell, it just melted through the bones and splashed upon the mage, ignoring the arcane protections that my spells hadn't even been able to penetrate earlier.
We all got to witness the man make a horrific gurgled scream of pain as the top half of his body melted away from the acidic spell. All that remained was his waist and legs which crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. In a grotesque, yet karmic way, he died by the same method he was using to kill me.
We didn't have long to take in the brutal execution as Clementine attracted Kashia's attention once more. "YOU BITCH! WHEN I GET OUT OF THIS, I'LL CUT YOUR LIMBS OFF AND MAKE YOU WATCH AS I FLAY-"
She was cut off once again as the invisible force holding her once again slammed her face into the ground a few more times until she stopped speaking. When the force lifted Clementine's head from the floor, I saw that she no longer had the fair appearance of before.
Her nose was broken in so many places that I felt the cartilage in it likely resembled gravel instead of anything solid. Her remaining teeth continued to fall out with the mixture of saliva and blood that drooled from her mouth. Her eyes were almost rolled into her head, and I could no longer see the devious predatory look she once had. Instead, she seemed completely broken.
"You've got nothing of value to say. Keep your mouth shut."
But it seemed that this wasn't enough for Kashia, as the invisible force smacked her face a few times until she came back to consciousness. "Awake?" She asked while Clementine's eyes widened in fear. "Good." Kashia mocked with a vulpine grin that made her canines seem sharper than they should be.
"STAHP!" Clementine begged before a magic took hold of her, freezing her body in place, the look of terror permanently stuck on her face. The petrified woman was then dropped onto the ground with a thud, still unmoving. I took a glance over to Lukrut and couldn't help but think that she was suffering just like how Lukrut had earlier. I then looked back to Kashia and almost fell over when the invisible barrier I was leaning on seemed to disappear.
Yet, my focus was trained on Kashia as I saw the animalistic gold in her eyes finally faded to the orange that I remembered, yet there was a sadness in her gaze as she slowly walked towards us. She began wiping her eyes as I saw the beginning of tears form in them.
"I was almost too late…" She stated, the emotion that had been missing in her voice from earlier had finally returned. Shock, worry, and fear were something that I had never seen or heard from Kashia before. She was probably the strongest woman that I've ever met, and the normal confidence being missing from her voice was just unnatural to me.
She was hurting, and it hurt me to see her like that. Breaking from my thoughts, I finally decided to do the one thing that I could to help her, just as she helped the rest of us. Running towards her I wrapped her into a hug as much as I could considering her body type. I soon felt the others join me as we all tried to help her.
"I was almost too late…" She said once more before she started sobbing and held onto me tightly. We were like this for a while as she let out her pain.
"But you weren't, Kashia. You were there when we needed you." I said in an effort to comfort her.
"If you hadn't gotten here when you did, we'd be dead, and Nfirea would've been taken. You did amazingly. We're still here, Kashia." Dyne stated as he put a hand on her shoulder.
"But-"
"But nothing." Peter interrupted her. "No one could've predicted what happened. I've known enough adventuring groups that were killed because they didn't have someone to save them. We are all still alive because you arrived on time. Beating yourself up on what-ifs will just destroy you."
"You saved us, Kashia. But by the gods, you scared the shit out of me." Lukrut stated as he gently pulled Kashia into an embrace. "I thought that you were going to die and there was nothing that I would've been able to do to help you. Thank you for saving us and for surviving through it all as well." Kashia seemed to reciprocate the gesture as she just rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
We remained like this for a while longer until Kashia finally opened her eyes and lifted her head away from Lukrut's shoulder with some reluctance. She gave a soft smile before speaking again, "I probably look like an absolute mess right now." She joked with more of the confident tone that I'm used to.
"Kashia, if you look like a mess, then we look like rotten meat." Lukrut responded, which made me have smirk at that. Even if we all lacked injuries now, our clothes still were shredded.
"I don't know, I think rotten meat typically smells worse." She then moved her eyes over to Nfirea who stood to the side looking a little out of place. "Nfirea, are you alright?"
"All things considered, I-I managed to get away pretty much unscathed. I'm just a little thrown off from this whole ordeal." Nfirea admitted while rubbing the back of his head, nervously.
"Speaking of, why were those two after you in the first place? They put in a lot of effort just to take you, so it had to be something big."
I decided to answer this question for her, "From what the woman, Clementine, said. They needed Nfirea for his talent to use any magic item in order to raise an undead army to kill the city. That said, I don't know of any normal type of magic item that could do something like that, so it is probably an ancient relic. I think I recall Clementine saying something about a crown?"
"It would probably be a good idea to check those two," Kashia motioned over to the bodies, "for any more information. Raising an undead army requires a lot of power and work, more so than just these two could do themselves. This is probably something much bigger, with a lot more people behind it."
"Speaking of power, Kashia, what did you do back there? One moment, we were dead to rights, the next, you just appeared and then all of us are on the other side of the room completely healed while Clementine was smashed into a wall. And then there was all the weird magical stuff you did afterwards." Peter asked, voicing a question that all of us had been wondering for a while now. Well, technically, I knew that Kashia was already strong, but what happened tonight was beyond anything that I could imagine.
"If I told you, would you be able to even handle some of the truth?" She asked in response. I really couldn't care less about what truth Kashia might've said. She's my friend and teacher and that wouldn't change any time soon.
"Of course we would. You're our teammate and friend." Peter answered. Kashia snorted before laughing. Eventually, Kashia's laughter died down and she spoke.
"I guess I really am an idiot for thinking anything less from you guys." Then, her became more relaxed as she finally answered, "I stopped time with a spell."
I couldn't stop my eyes from going wide like saucers when she said this. Controlling time was just a fairy tale told to children. The amount of mana needed for just the theoretical idea of trying to cast a spell to control time would kill the caster if they attempted it alone. And even then, the years of study it would take to learn and cast such a spell would be measured in lifetimes.
The only time I've heard of people casting spells equivalent to what Kashia just admitted was from stories of the Thirteen Heroes, the Evil Deities, the Eight Greed Kings, and the Six Great Gods. I doubt that the others would fully understand or appreciate what Kashia just said, but I did.
Was she…
"You stopped time?! I might not know much about magic, but wouldn't something like that be very powerful, like empire-ruling powerful?" Lukrut asked in surprise.
"Something like that." Kashia responded before adding, "After I did that, I healed all of your injuries and moved you away from danger. From there, I hit Clementine, sealed me, her, and the old man within a barrier. Threw an acid spell at him, and permanently paralyzed Clementine with a spell."
"Then she's still alive?" Dyne asked as all of us couldn't help but glance at the woman's frozen form, expression still filled with terror and pain.
"Yeah. She can see, hear, and feel everything, but she can't do anything. She's likely in absolute agony considering what I did to her face, but since she's frozen, she'll just remain there with nothing else to occupy her mind with except for that pain. I felt it a fitting punishment for what she did." I noticed Kashia's eyes flickered to Lukrut when she said this.
"Any idea on what should be done with her then? It's not like we can just leave her on the floor in Lizzy and Nfirea's pharmacy permanently." Peter asked curiously.
"A few, but there was something that did catch my eye that I wanted to see first before we make any final decision." Kashia answered and looked like she was about to go over to Clementine's prone form until Lukrut grabbed her shoulder. Kashia turned to the archer with a curious look.
"Kashia, I can tell that you're deflecting. You didn't fully explain exactly how powerful you are. All you gave us was an ambiguous answer. Please, my beautiful sorceress, can you just give us a straight answer?" Lukrut plainly asked. Kashia gave a sigh before bashfully meeting Lukrut's gaze.
"You're lucky that I enjoy your compliments. Fine, I'll give you a straight answer. I can drop a meteor on this city and completely wipe it off the map and it would, by far, be my most boring method to do so. I can cast spells that would force cartographers to rewrite the maps of kingdoms on a random afternoon and be unbothered by the effort. There are so many things that I can do, but none of them are what I want to do." Kashia stated, which finally told me a bit more about just what kind of level of power she was at.
The hints were all adding up, yet it was hard to comprehend. Only gods, or those with matching power, could do what she claims, and if it were anyone else, I'd write them off as making false claims or being crazy. But I know that Kashia isn't lying right now. I could somehow just feel it in my soul.
And I wasn't afraid in the slightest. She is my teacher. It doesn't matter if she's human or…a deity. I know that she'll never hurt me and she'll always be there to help me. Since she'll be there for me, I was going to be there to help her when she needed it.
Oddly enough, it was during the moment I finally accepted this that something inside me just felt stronger, like adding more logs to a furnace. It was hard to explain.
"And what do you want to do?" Lukrut asked, the others eagerly waiting for an answer.
"I want to continue adventuring with all of you. I enjoy spending time with you all. At least, if you're still all open to it and not that intimidated." Kashia responded.
"You joking? You're stuck with us now. The Swords of Darkness don't abandon their own. And you're one of us." Peter stated, making Kashia's smile grow even wider.
"Thanks for reminding me." Kashia said in appreciation before finally letting me go, much to a small sense of disappointment from me, and finally walking over to the fallen form of Clementine. What was odd about this was that I could somehow still feel a warmth around myself, like she was still embracing me. I ignored this strange feeling and instead focused on what Kashia was doing.
We followed after her until we stood over the paralyzed blonde. Then, the invisible force from earlier wrapped around Clementine's form and flipped her over. Somehow, whereas before, this telekinetic force of Kashia's was completely invisible to me, I now could somehow just feel nine forms coming from Kashia's body which wrapped about Clementine.
The force then let go of Clementine and the feeling in my mind disappeared with it. What was that? It didn't feel like magic but it wasn't something natural either. I need to ask Kashia about this later since right now I felt like it wasn't the appropriate time to do so.
I finally pushed my thoughts back and focused on Kashia pulling open Clementine's cloak, revealing armor that made me feel absolute disgust at the woman frozen at all of our feet. The others, and Nfirea, all came to the same conclusion as I did from the looks of disgust that on their faces that matched mine.
Clementine's armor consisted of a multitude of scaled pieces of metal that were melted or sewn together to create a grotesque whole. What made it terrifying was that each of these metal scales were made from adventurer plates. Hundreds of them. Copper, silver, gold, and one or two platinum plates.
She had made her armor as a monument to display the trophies collected from all of the adventurers that she had murdered over an untold number of years. So many innocent people, likely slowly toyed with until she grew bored, suffered to make this abomination.
"She's a fucking monster…" Peter muttered in shock.
"I've never seen anything like this in all my years." Dyne stated with a scowl.
"Whatever punishment she gets will be too good for her." Lukrut said angrily. I couldn't have agreed more with him.
Kashia then started fishing through the satchel on her waist, pulling out a handful of gold coins and a strange circlet that looked like it was woven with gold lines like spider webs. Dotting the sections where the webs connected were precious gems. The item by itself was worth a fortune, just from the materials alone.
But I could sense the magic coming off that thing. Whatever this thing was, it was powerful and likely more dangerous than any price could be worth. Could this be that 'crown' that Clementine was referring to earlier?
"This is a pretty fucked up item." Kashia stated simply after casting a spell on it.
"What do you mean?" I asked. Did it have a curse on it or something similar? Kashia looked back to us before her eyes finally landed on Nfirea.
"A person wearing this thing would become an ever-flowing battery of mana. Small downside to using it would be the removal of your mind and willpower. You'd literally be nothing more than a living, breathing magic item." She said in disgust.
"They were likely planning on putting this thing on you after killing the others so that you'd be easier to move." Nfirea's face paled at Kashia's summary, and I couldn't help but share the feeling of horror. What kind of monster would make such an item?
"What should we do with this thing, then? Moral implications aside, that object is too dangerous to just be left around." Peter asked with a fair bit of concern.
"Don't forget, anyone that could gain control of that thing would very easily have a massive amount of power that could be abused. I know a few nobles who wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice someone for that level of power." Dyne added.
I could already picture Baron Baldric attaining this crown. The idea of him forcing that thing onto Tuare or some other poor girl he had under his thumb upset me immensely.
"There's a simple enough fix for that." Kashia stated before she squeezed her grip on the crown and crushed it, causing the item to burst apart into motes of mana that fizzled in the air.
"I guess that's one less thing for us to worry about." Lukrut remarked as Kashia began pulling a few items out of the scabbards on Clementine's form. By the time she was done, there were two stilettos added to a third one Kashia had picked up from the ground.
In addition, was a large morningstar made of a black metal with wickedly sharp spikes on the end and ten throwing daggers. When Kashia offered the morningstar to Dyne, he immediately declined, saying that such an item was stained in too much innocent blood for his taste.
Kashia offered up the stilettos to us, saying that all of them were enchanted to store a one-use spell that could be freely cast. I took one of the stilettos since being able to cast a free spell would always be useful, even if the weapons were used by that monster previously.
Only Lukrut took up the offer as both Peter and Dyne, besides being put off by the blades' history, felt that they didn't suit their styles of combat.
That just left the gold which Kashia divided among us all with Nfirea included for any repairs that the pharmacy would need.
After this, Kashia checked on the remains of the old man. Oddly, she pulled out a strange dark orb hidden the lower robes of the remains. She seemed to gain a look of intense concentration before a small dark portal opened before her hand which she shoved the object into.
"What was that?" I asked.
"A dangerous sentient artifact. Well, dangerous for most normal people." Kashia answered in a tone that just showed how unthreatened she felt about the artifact.
"Are you sure you're going to be safe handling that thing? I've heard some stories about sentient magical items before, and they typically weren't happy endings." Lukrut asked with a lot of concern.
"It's more annoying than anything else since it doesn't exactly like me. Probably because I'm innately an antithesis to its nature as an object of necromancy." Kashia said in reassurance, "But I'm going to try and find out what it might know about its previous owner. After that, I'll probably just use it as a paperweight."
"Of course you will." Lukrut remarked with a smile.
"Now, that just leaves the last two current loose ends to deal with. What to do with the body, and what should be done about Clementine?" Kashia pondered as she looked down at the remains.
"Normally, I'd say that we should report what happened to the city guards." Peter answered before giving Kashia a sly look, "But I think that you have a different idea."
"You're correct. As I said before, I have reason to believe that this is something much bigger than these two. And because of that, their potential associates would likely catch wind of these two failing. They'd either go underground and change up their plan, which is not good for the longterm health of E-Rantel considering that they wanted to raise an undead army to kill this city. Or, they'll double down on the original plan, attempt to take back the relics they'd believe we or the authorities have, and try to grab Nfirea again." Kashia answered.
"Then what would you suggest, Kashia?" Nfirea asked curiously. Kashia just gave a large smirk in response.
"First, we can get rid of the corpse." She snapped her fingers as she said this, causing a ball of unearthly blue flame to ignite above her hand. It then floated over to the remains and made contact, consuming all bits of the remains until it finally dispersed. Not even ashes remained after this, yet my eyes continued to focus on that spot as my mind put only one word to the spell: [Foxfire].
"Then, I'll find out a little bit more about Ms. Statue and her friends." My attention was dragged back as I looked to see Clementine disappear in an instant. "And finally, we'll need to keep Nfirea safe for a day or two. I'll want you guys to watch over him to my room at the inn since it is probably the safest place he can be in the entire city." Kashia finished.
"Sounds like a good enough plan. Is there anything else that you'll need us to do besides protecting Nfirea?" Peter questioned as he leaned against the table. "Also, is this agreeable with you, Nfirea? This does concern you, after all."
"I don't have any issues with it. I just wonder if it wouldn't be too much of a problem to also protect my grandma since she could also be a target?" Nfirea responded.
"I have an idea or two. The main crux of this plan is that it buys at least a day or two before this organization that's after you figures out that something is wrong. Lizzie will run her shop like everything is fine, and I'll make sure that no one will touch her. After that, I'll meet back up with guys later tomorrow and then we can plan out more from there. I just need all of you to hole up until then."
"Appears that we've got everything set then. Guess we should get walking before any more of these death fanatics show up." Lukrut said as he sheathed his weapons.
The click of Kashia's heels echoed on the floor as she sauntered over to Lukrut with a bit more sway in her step and then lightly flicked him on the forehead, causing the lovestruck archer to jerk back in surprise. I took note that her eyes were beginning to take on hints of that animalistic gold from before.
"What was that for?"
"Dummy, who said that you would do something so mundane and dangerous as walking the city streets at night where there could be unknown assailants waiting to ambush you." She teased before stepping back and adding, "See you all tomorrow."
A moment later, all five of us were standing in Kashia's room at the Hero's Respite, much to their utter confusion, and less so to mine due to her teleporting me before. Nfirea was the first to comment on what happened.
"W-Where are we?"
"In Kashia's room at the Hero's Respite." I answered before moving over to the door leading to Kashia's Sanctuary. I quickly opened it and said, "Let's get inside now and we can discuss everything afterwards."
Even through his long bangs, I could see Nfirea's eyes go wide like saucers at the pocket realm before Peter ushered him inside and the rest of us followed after. Whereas before, Nfirea was too shocked for words, now, Nfirea seemed to almost act like a little kid in a toy shop as he started investigating each of the plants that were planted on this floor to be used as alchemical ingredients.
I made sure to close the door behind us and was able to overhear Nfirea making comments as he continued studying the plants. "This plant here looks like the rare Life God's Tear!" The plant in question had a curved stem that ended in a pure white bulb. "They are only known to grow in a single spot in the Slane Theocracy. They are known for their ability in curing diseases. Many alchemists have tried to replant it or grow it elsewhere but almost all attempts were met in failure. How are there so many here?" His eyes then were dragged over to a small row of plants that were reminiscent of tulips if the petals were green and glowed while the stem of the plant twisted in spirals.
"These are Saint Juenna's Spiraling Arrows! They should be extinct due to overharvesting because of their ability to boost a magic user's power." Nfirea exclaimed in amazement. "Just these plants alone would be able to buy a kingdom with their rarity. And there are so many more that I can't even recognize. What is this place?"
"From what Kashia told me, it's a pocket realm that she created to store and create items. We are only on the first floor at the moment since there are seven more under this one that have different uses. I don't know much else beyond that since Kashia didn't tell me much after that and Meepo didn't want anyone else to venture into any of the lower floors until he finished cleaning it up." I explained while heading to the cabin in the center of the floor.
"Who is Meepo?"
"He's a scary little bastard is what he is. The guy has had it out for me since the day we met." Lukrut quickly answered with a shudder. "Don't even know how he can be so scary when the guy is barely two feet tall?"
"Well, he is a bit protective of the person that you've been trying to romance." Dyne remarked with a pat on Lukrut's shoulder, "Though I will admit that it is a little funny that a tiny kobold can get under your skin so easily."
"Dyne, after we got introduced, I am absolutely certain that he was spying on me the night I got home. I could just feel it, even if I couldn't get a look at the little monster."
"Maybe you should let Kashia know about it?" Dyne recommended.
"And give the tiny asshole the satisfaction that he managed to get into my head? No, thank you." I couldn't help but giggle at Lukrut's response. Meepo was certainly overprotective, but Tuare and I have both found him to be quite friendly, if a little odd.
"So, Meepo is a kobold?" Nfirea asked.
"Yeah, pretty intelligent, too. Doesn't stop him from speaking a little weirdly." Peter answered. Meepo was quite strange for a kobold. From what I've heard, they typically were at odds with the dwarves in the Azerlisia Mountains and were barely intelligent enough to speak and make traps. Meepo was able to craft potions and magical items, something that was quite beyond what an average person could do, more so when factoring other kobolds.
"I see…"
"He's Kashia's servant that is devoted to her family. Meepo typically helps her out by making magical items and potions for her. You two would likely get along, considering that both of you are alchemists." I explained before I motioned for Nfirea to follow me into the cabin, "Let's get your sleeping arrangements set up. I'm certain that Kashia set aside some extra pillows and blankets for guests."
It didn't take long for me to gather together enough blankets and pillows to make a few simple beds for everyone to sleep on for tonight.
After that, we gathered together inside and everyone started claiming their sleeping spots.
"You know, what really sucks about the events of today, besides almost dying, is that I'm going to need to get some new armor." Peter remarked as he pulled off his pauldrons and short hardened leather jacket. It was completely stained in blood while numerous holes filled it.
I saw the greater extent of the damage with the chainmail shirt he wore under it which had been unable to hold up against Clementine's assault. The armor was ruined as too many of the metal rings had been punched through and the shirt itself was barely holding itself together from the few intact rings remaining.
"Better the armor than your life." Dyne responded in his sagely manner, "But this does show us that there are people out there who totally eclipse us in power. At least this was a good teaching experience."
"Almost dying was a teaching experience?" Lukrut asked in surprise.
"It was. We learned something that a rare few ever get to survive through: What it's like to fight for our lives against an overwhelming opponent." Dyne answered.
"I feel like I barely learned anything. I got paralyzed and had to just listen to you guys get torn apart." Lukrut said with a grimace as he rubbed the spot on his collarbone where he'd been stabbed.
"Actually, you learned the lesson on not rushing an unknown opponent. Fighting with blades are not exactly your specialty which put you at a handicap from the beginning. If you want, I could help you practice your bladework a bit. Gods know that need to practice on my defense since Clementine just ripped through mine during the fight." Peter said, making Lukrut consider the idea before nodding.
"I'll take up your offer. I've really been letting my close combat skills decline since I haven't needed to use them for a while."
I already knew where I was lacking. Besides just power, I was also too slow. My reaction time needed to be faster since I couldn't expect [Reinforce Armor] to protect me from every spell. If I had been able to jump out of the way, perhaps I wouldn't have gotten so injured and I may have been able to do more.
Looking at my bare hand, my mind couldn't help but flash back to the mostly skeletal image that was burned into my mind. I wanted to become stronger so that I wouldn't feel that absolute helplessness like before.
Still, that was a thought for another day. After everything, I just wanted to sleep after today's events. So, I walked over to my bed, pulled off my one remaining boot and glove, and bunched them up with my tattered cloak along with my staff.
"I'm calling it a day, guys. Wake me up if you need me." I stated as I finally collapsed on my bed. I didn't even get to hear them say 'good night' as I was taken into the sweet embrace of sleep.
When I felt myself come back to consciousness, something felt wrong. Instead of the bedsheets that I was expecting, my hands were tickled by soft grass instead.
My eyes shot open and I looked around to see that I was no longer in Kashia's Sanctuary realm. Actually, this didn't look like any place that I had even been before.
The grass I had been lying upon was a pure reflective silver. If I hadn't been able to touch it, I would've assumed that this grass was razor-sharp instead of the inviting softness that I could feel.
Looking upwards, the sky, like the grass, was also completely unnatural. Instead of blue, it was gold, streaked with white auroras while a pure silver sun hovered above the sky. I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the ever-shifting sky which I could only assume was part of a dream that I must be having.
An extremely vivid dream. Too vivid, in fact.
With some effort, I finally broke my gaze away from the sky and looked at my current surroundings, except all I saw were plains of silver grass as far as the eye could see. Only a single landmark broke up this beautiful monotony. A lone hill with what looked to be a figure sitting upon it.
I don't know why, but I felt this urge to go to that figure which compelled me to begin walking towards that hill. I couldn't tell how long that I had been walking. Minutes or hours? Time just seemed to blur as I made my way up the incline of this hill until I finally reached the top and got a clearer look at the figure that I saw earlier.
My first thought when I laid eyes upon her was beautiful. She had long hair that was pure white. It almost seemed to glow as shadows seemed to be driven away from any section of her hair. Sitting atop her hair were a pair of matching colored fox ears.
I couldn't help but think they seemed completely natural on this woman, just as much so as the ten fox tails that slowly moved behind her, almost seeming to float around her like they were in water.
She wore a strange outfit that looked like a white robe with some cloth holding it together that was wrapped around her waist. While extremely conservative, it did little to hide her generous figure.
Yet, it was when I finally saw her face that I couldn't help but feel that she looked familiar, yet I couldn't place where. She had a very inviting appearance. She had warm silver eyes with slitted pupils that looked at me with a myriad of what seemed to be positive emotions.
I don't know why she would be so happy to see me, considering that this was the first time we've ever met? Yet, why did she seem so familiar?
"Would you like to sit, Celicia-Ninya?" I froze when the woman said my full first name. I hadn't referred to my full first name in years, and the only other person who knew it was Tuare, and she only called me Ninya because that is what I prefer to go by.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Just a friend, little one." She answered with an amused smile which held no malice in it. "Would you like to take a seat now? It probably isn't that comfortable to just stand there looking down at me. I assure you, it's quite pleasant to sit here." She asked while lightly patting a spot on the grass in front of her.
The sincerity in her voice squashed down any argument I may have had and I found myself sitting in front of the bestial woman.
"Where are we? I know that this place is too fanciful to be reality, but it's also too real to be just a dream."
"And would you consider it that bad of a dream? This is my home after all." She asked with a hint of a saddened tone. My eyes widened at the insult I might have given to this woman who had done nothing more than just talk.
"N-No, it is nice. What I meant-" I went silent when I felt one of her tails patting my head.
"You can relax, little one. I'm only teasing you." She calmly said with an expression full of mirth. "I'll try to answer a little bit of your questions, little one. While I won't tell you my name just yet, you can call me Grandma if you'd like."
I found it a little odd that a woman who looked as young as she did would want to be called Grandma, but I decided to humor her.
"If that's what you want…Grandma."
What I didn't expect after saying that was for her tails to then pull me towards her before she quickly smothered me in an embrace.
"Oh, you really are just too adorable for words!" She said while holding me. At this point, the formal air that surrounded her earlier had completely broken. Now, she seemed a lot more like an excited mother.
While the hug was nice, it was getting hard to breathe because of two large reasons. Just when I thought I might start to get light-headed, her grip loosened enough to no longer crush me and I was able to get some air into my lungs.
"Sorry about that, Celicia-Ninya. Your Grandma just got a little too excited. Are you okay?" Grandma asked with some concern.
"Just a little surprised about the hug is all." I answered while looking at her warm eyes. I avoiding telling her that she almost suffocated me with her enthusiasm.
"I'll admit that I can be a little over-affectionate. I guess it comes from being unable to interact with my children for so long." She remarked as her tails snaked around me and changed my position so that I was looking at the sky with my head in her lap. Then, I felt her fingers idly playing with my hair.
I don't know why I wouldn't question the reason for her doing that? All I know is that my mind was telling me that everything was fine and that I should just relax.
"Why aren't you able to interact with your children?If you miss them so much, wouldn't it just be easier to go and visit them?" I asked.
"I would if I could, little one. Sadly, even if I could go to them, only one of my children still lives." She answered with some sadness before looking down and giving me a bright smile,"So, instead, I must remain content with watching my last child live their life. I'm quite invested in seeing what they'll do next."
Grandma then glanced around conspiratorially before leaning down and whispering to me, "My child is quite clever, but they also tend to have their own plans backfire on them. I've had a lot of moments of laughter for the past few days because of it." She then smirked and asked, "And what about you? Have you had many moments of laughter recently?"
"I have. I've also had a lot of joy in my life recently as well." I answered while completely relaxed. Grandma's fingers just kneading my hair just seemed to take away all the stress of the past day, enough so, that I felt like I could just talk about anything if she asked.
"Oh! And why might that be?" Grandma asked with interest.
"Things have just been looking up for me. Recently, the adventuring group that I'm part of recruited this powerful sorceress to the team. From there, she took an interest in me for some reason and then decided to make me her apprentice. I never would've thought that anyone would actually take an interest in teaching me, but she did. Then, with her help, I was able to finally rescue my sister from slavery after searching for her for years. And now…" I couldn't help but look away from Grandma's eyes in thought.
"What is it?" She asked with a mixture of interest and concern.
"If I tell you, you won't think that I'm crazy, right?" I asked, while thinking that it seemed almost insane to ask a person from a dream if the dreamer was sane or not.
She gave an amused giggle before answering, "I won't think that you are crazy, Celicia-Ninya."
"So, just today, my team and I, we were escorting a client back to their home when these two people attacked us, trying to kidnap our client. We almost died. We should have died, but then Kashia arrived out of nowhere and stopped time to save us. She stopped time, and after beating those two people, we find out that she is probably the strongest person in the country, if not the world. But I think it's more than that. I think…I think she might actually be a goddess."
"And where might there be an issue with that? Does that change how you see her right now?"
"No, well, not exactly." I said while trying to put my jumbled thoughts into words, "It's what she said before she admitted to what she did that I can't help but think about. I saw her angrier than I've ever seen her before, and while angry and protecting us, she referred to me as her kid. I think she sees me as a daughter, and I'm confused and worried on how to reciprocate it. Would our relationship get better or worse if I treated her like a mother or a teacher? I just don't know."
"The thing about relationships is that they are like a puzzle with the pieces scattered about. When you begin the puzzle, you can't exactly be certain on what pieces go together, so you tend to guess and fiddle about with it. When those pieces slide smoothly together, more naturally, they make a stronger and greater whole. But there comes the problem if you just try to force pieces together that aren't right for each other which could end up fracturing or even breaking the puzzle entirely. Try what feels natural first, be it either treating Kashia like a teacher or like a mother. The rest will follow."
Thinking about that advice, I couldn't help but think that Kashia has basically been a maternal role-model that I haven't had for a long time. I missed having someone be there that cared if I was happy or sad. That had a home for me if I needed it, would listen to my problems, and be there to keep me safe. I missed my mom and dad. And while it still hurt, Tuare, and now Kashia, had been there to help me when mom and dad were no longer able to.
"You know, that's some helpful advice. You seem pretty wise."
"Live as long as I have, Celecia-Ninya, and you'll also learn a thing or two." As Grandma said this, my mind went back to a conversation that Kashia and I had when talking about her past.
"She's kind, a bit of a trickster, but also very wise. While she could easily use her power to conquer, she preferred peace and instead used her abilities and magic to aid her people. I've no doubt that she'd love to meet you if she could."
"Are-Are you Kashia's mother?" I finally understood why her face looked so familiar! She almost looked like Kashia with a few minor differences in facial features. But then, looking at both the ears and tails of hers, does that mean that Kashia also has them?
Grandma's smile widened and she spoke once more, "There's the intelligence that my daughter likes so much."
"But if that's the case, then where are we? Why am I even here? What are you?"
"So inquisitive. Well, little one, your mind is currently in my realm of YGGDRASIL known as the Realm of Foxes while your body still resides in your bed. I brought you here for a few reasons, some of them a little selfish. Your mind was in a bit of turmoil, and as someone my daughter cares about dearly, I wanted to help you. As for the selfish reasons, I have two. The first one is that I wanted to meet the closest thing that I've had for a grandchild in a long time. And, I wanted to reinforce your belief in my daughter, which would also reinforce belief in me. That's what leads to your third question."
She then looked to the sky for a moment before looking back down to me, "I am the ten tailed kitsune goddess Inari. My daughter is a nine tailed kitsune demigoddess." I was hard to imagine Kashia with multiple tails, but it would explain all the weird things that would happen around her which seemed like a telekinetic magic.
Those were her tails!
And then there were all the times where she could hear and smell things that no normal human should've been able to. It's because she wasn't human at all.
But then thinking back to what Grandma just said about her reason for meeting me, I couldn't help but ask, "Why did you want to reinforce my belief in Kashia?"
"Us deities of YGGDRASIL are unable to interact within your realm unless invited in, which is temporary, or have a large enough number of mortals worshipping us which is permanent. While my daughter has unintentionally been gathering worship by just her actions, it helps to reinforce the faith of the most devout. And currently, you are the most devout of Kashia's worshippers. I hope you don't mind, Celecia-Ninya?"
Wait, was Grandma asking me to help start up an entirely new religion based around Kashia? I couldn't help but ask this question as this was exactly what it sounded like.
"Not exactly. Just keep doing what you've already been doing. But, if you wanted to do so, I wouldn't be against it. In fact, I could even help you. All you have to do is ask."
"I'd have to think about it." I answered. It was at that point that I finally noticed that my head seemed a lot heavier than before. Moving my hand to my hair, I didn't expect to feel quite a bit more hair than I was used to.
"I'm sorry, little one. Your hair was so soft and I couldn't resist playing with more of it." That was when I sat up and saw my hair falling past my eyes. Pushing aside the hair from my eyes, and action I hadn't done for years, I noticed that it had managed to grow down to my chest. "It may grow a bit faster for a while, but it does look quite pretty."
"Wait, are you telling me that outside this dream my hair has actually grown to this length? How would I even explain it to the others?"
"Magic can typically can be the end-all answer to any question."
"And by 'a bit faster', what do you mean by that?" I asked with a little concern. Grandma just looked innocently away while trying to cover up an amused smile.
"That may or may not be your default length even after you cut it."
"Now I understand why Kashia mentioned that you were a bit of a trickster." I retorted as I tried to fix this new mess of hair that I now had which I was completely unused to until Grandma leaned over and began doing something with my hair. She then turned me around and pulled me back into her lap as a mirror appeared before the pair of us, showing that she had put my hair into the same ponytail style as Kashia's.
"Already starting to look more and more like your teacher. Who knows? Give it enough time and you might even start adopting my daughter's unique clothing style."
I couldn't help but blush at the idea of wearing clothes as revealing as Kashia's. But I also couldn't help wondering how I might look dressed like that.
"Unfortunately, our time is starting to come to a close, Celecia-Ninya. But before you go, I'd like to give you a final gift." As Grandma said this, she turned me around and kissed my forehead, causing my mind to fill with the image of that blue fire that Kashia had cast before.
[Foxfire].
"What was that?" I asked. I felt her hands cup both of my cheeks and I couldn't help but look into her eyes and feel myself melting into her glowing silver orbs.
"You'll find out soon enough, little one. Now, if you would be a dear, could you keep our meeting just between us? I'd like to let Kashia continue the path she's taking without letting her know about my assistance."
"I can do that, Grandma." I said, finding myself unable to refuse her request in the slightest.
"Then wake up."
I felt someone shaking me as my eyes slowly blinked themselves awake. That was an odd dream that I had.
"Ninya, are you awake?" I heard the voice of Tuare ask me.
"Y-Yeah, Tuare. I just woke up." I answered with a yawn as I pushed myself into a sitting position to rub the sleep from my eyes.
"What happened to your hair?" She quickly asked, sobering me awake as I quickly noticed how long my bangs were before feeling the top of my hair which was styled into the same ponytail that Grandma had put it into.
That wasn't a dream…