No Need For A Core? 147: Spirits

Kazue tried to stay focused on the people around them as she and Moriko were led to where the hunter was being held, but it was difficult. It felt like there were always faint whispers that no one else seed to hear, and the occasional flicker of motion of sothing she could almost see. It was extrely annoying and frustrating, and while she probably could just ask Moriko to talk to Mordecai about it, she didn’t want to have to rely on him for everything.

Besides, she was pretty certain that she was getting close to figuring this out. Kazue was pretty certain she was sensing spirits, but she was less certain about how or why. And while so of them were occasionally angry, nothing ever seed hostile.

Well, not to her. While Moriko was getting the hunter’s version of events directly, Kazue was distracted by sothing else: A spirit had solidified into a wispy outline of a fox setting directly over the pelt being argued over, and snarling soundlessly at the hunter.

The words sounded almost like wind rustling through leaves, but Kazue could tell it was more than that. Kazue and the spirit fox turned to look in the sa direction, and Kazue started to hastily curtsy as she spied the kitsune-like shape of green and purple.

“Nor-” She coughed to interrupt herself before saying the na, “Forest spirit! You honor us!”

There was silence around her for a mont before Moriko tentatively asked “Kazue?”

That was when she noticed no one else was looking at Norumi, and a flush of embarrassnt ca across her cheeks as she realized no one else could see the spirit.

Norumi chided,

Kazue only gave it a mont’s thought before she nodded her assent. “Yes.” Startled sounds escaped every one else as a piece of the forest ca to life in front of them, and Norumi walked gracefully to where all were gathered. Kazue’s own gasp was from the sensation of having so much of her mana drawn out like that. Norumi gently petted the spirit fox in passing, who leaned happily into the touch, though none but Kazue could see it happening.

“Thanks to Kazue’s help, I can speak directly for a short while. While I was not watching personally, other spirits have told of what happened. Though the hunter speaks the technical truth that the fox was trapped in farmland, there is deceit in his words. A trail of bait was used, and this is not the first fox to be lured out of the woods by his actions, as were several other animals.” Norumi looked at the handful of other townsfolk who had been allowed to follow the kitsune pair. “I assu that small ga has been scarce outside of the forest, to warrant such effort?”

The elder recovered first and bowed to the spirit of the forest. “Yes Milady, that is true I am afraid. And hunting small ga is much harder than trapping.” Which was banned in the forest because traps could catch foxes by accident. The old man frowned at the captured hunter. “I thought better of you than this.”

The hunter had paled and then slumped in defeat when Norumi made her appearance, and he said nothing in his defense now.

“Moriko,” The half-elf started when she was addressed by Norumi, “This man has followed the letter of the forest’s law, but I think he has violated the spirit of it. I would like the opinion of a priest of Ozuran, so tell , what does your husband think?”

Moriko nodded briefly, paused, then spoke “He agrees with your judgnt, and is pretty certain you knew he would.”

Norumi smiled. “Perhaps. But it is good to hear nonetheless,” Kazue interpreted that as ‘good to hear from him’, and she couldn’t bla the woman for wanting to hear from her father more, “In this case, I do not think it is my place to decide a punishnt.” She knelt down in front of the man and put a finger under his chin to force him to look up at her. “Which you should be very, very grateful for. I used to be most uncompromising in my punishnts.” Kazue briefly saw the ghostly image of a giant, monstrous fox ready to devour the man, with a feral, insane glow to its eyes. She shuddered and slipped to her knees, causing Norumi to look over, then rise and start walking to her.

“I didn’t an to show you that, but you did see a bit of truth there. Unfortunately, we can’t talk like this for long, you aren’t strong enough to keep anchored without harm. But I think you can start learning how to do this on your own with lesser spirits now. Be strong.” Norumi slid down to her knees and embraced Kazue. “And thank you.” Then her physical form dispersed with a gust of wind and blowing leaves.

Kazue felt the spirit’s presence fading, then felt Moriko’s arms catching her. Kazue realized she was breathing hard in confusion, but she couldn’t figure out why, she was just so very tired.

But she could hear her wife, could hear Moriko’s soft words of comfort and the touch of her lips. This was good, and so the exhausted kitsune let herself drift off into darkness.

When she awoke, she found herself tucked into the bed at lchior’s house. Moriko had been ditating on the floor but jumped to her feet as soon as she heard Kazue stir. “You have so explaining to do,” Moriko scolded even as she started fussing over Kazue, “I was planning on waiting until we were at the clan before pushing, but I think we are past that now.” She kissed Kazue firmly, then cuddled up next to her. “You can wait until tomorrow though. When you feel up to it, we can go eat.”

“Um, okay.” Kazue was still struggling to put her mories together, but her wake-up fog was beginning to fade. “How long was I asleep?”

“Only a couple of hours. You mostly seed exhausted, which matches what the other kitsune were saying to expect for soone who had just helped a powerful spirit manifest for the first ti. Mordecai agrees, and he and other-you are happy to know you are awake.”

“Mm,” Kazue nuzzled into Moriko’s neck to take in the warm scent of her, the familiarity of it helping make her feel better. “What happened with the hunter?”

“He’s been banned from the forest, and will not be allowed to be within ten miles of its borders. One of the clan druids will co to the town to lay the geas on him. He’s being held and kept under watch in soone else’s house until then.”

That was harsh for a hunter, given the amount of farmland to the north of the forest that would be lacking in suitable prey. The hunter would either have to move to better hunting grounds or find a new way to make a living. But given the rules he’d broken, it was not unfair. While a chain of events leading to a young kitsune in fox form being lured into a trap by such bait was unlikely, the clan couldn’t tolerate the chance in the vicinity of Azeria Forest. Elsewhere in the kingdom, such a chain of events would still be tragic, but here it was undue recklessness. If he had at least used safe cages that were checked often and had released the fox instead of taking its pelt, he might have gotten off with sothing lighter.

Kazue sighed softly at the ssy situation, but it could have been worse. “Well, it’s done now. It was nice seeing her again too, if only briefly.” She frowned slightly. “Though I am going to have to think more about what happened.”

Moriko propped herself up to look at Kazue. “As I said, you can tell the rest tomorrow, but you should know that Mordecai said he has a good idea of what is going on and can give tips if you ask, but based on what the forest spirit said, he’s also pretty certain you can figure it out from here. But, we should get you fed.” She grinned. “Word of your little stunt has spread and impressed the locals, and I ntioned that you were quite the eager carnivore who had restrained herself from enjoying even simulated rabbit because of her bunkin friends. Your options include roasted, stewed, and at pie.” She grabbed Kazue’s wrist when the kitsune leapt out of bed and kept her from dashing out the door. “You might want to get dressed first.”

Kazue blushed as she realized she was only in her shift, then hastened to pull on her robes that Moriko had draped over a chair. It was so much easier wearing things like robes when you had tails. Tails? Kazue blinked, then double-checked. She had two tails again! Her celebration cost them a few more monts before she finished getting dressed and they went out to get dinner.

The feast that had been laid out looked like more than the smithy probably would have been able to prepare on his own, but Kazue wasn’t going to question the town’s generosity, she was ravenous. The hot fruit pie topped with fresh cream was the perfect dessert to leave her mostly satiated, and able to speak more than a few words without shoving sothing in her mouth. Moriko looked amused at Kazue’s expense, but the kitsune chose to ignore that for now. It wouldn’t do to stick her tongue out in public after all.

lchior eventually brought the idle dinner conversation, mostly about the food in front of them, to more serious topics. “Now, I had been intending to spend a few hours talking with the two of you to make sure I understood who you are and decide whether or not to follow Masa’s impulse, but I’ve heard about what you said and did, so I think we can skip that.” He had risen from the table while he spoke, and gone to fetch a box from under a counter. Given the stains and the condition of the oiled leather wrapped around the wooden box, Kazue was fairly certain that this was not the box’s normal resting place.

“This is an old family heirloom, at least as old as the kingdom if the tales are true, but it was broken almost as long ago. There’s never been much urgency to get it repaired, whatever our ancestors may have been involved with we aren’t warriors, but the desire to take on the challenge has been growing in my heart since I first picked up the hamr.” He finished unwrapping the box, and then opened it to present it to Kazue and Moriko. “My first challenge is figuring out what it’s even made of. I’m certain that it’s sothing expensive enough that there’s a good reason the family has passed down instructions to be careful with letting people know it exists.”

The broken blade was in the style of the chisel-tipped, single-edged sword favored by so of the nobility and various clans, including the kitsune. Kazue didn’t know a lot about swords, but her limited understanding was that while katanas were excellent in so circumstances, heavier blades faired better against tal armor, so they had fallen out of favor with the military and similar ard forces.

But of greater importance than the type of sword was the tal. It was a dark golden color with reddish tones, but it was speckled with tiny flecks of shimring blue. Kazue managed to keep herself from chewing on one of her tails in thought, but she did still pet it to keep her hands occupied. Moriko pursed her lips thoughtfully, and Kazue was certain that her wife was communicating with Mordecai and other-Kazue. Well, it was Moriko’s show, so Kazue waited for her to speak first.

“Well,” Moriko said with a slight sigh, “I have to admit that I was hoping it was going to be sothing that would be more of a challenge, but on my end, this one is going to be easy. Our husband says he has a guess, but he’d have to analyze it at the dungeon to be sure. If it’s what he thinks it is, your family has been right about the price, as he believes it is orichalcum. As for forging techniques, he says that the dungeon can not currently synthesize it even if they analyze it, nor is it within his current abilities to repair, let alone teach you how to repair. Give us a year or two, and he might be able to help you out.”

Moriko’s words prodded Kazue’s mories of stories about the material. It was supposedly about as strong as adamantine, though it was denser and capable of holding more active runes than anything else.

lchior nodded and closed the box, then began wrapping it in leather again. “I was suspicious that it was sothing like that. When I’ve had enough spare coin, I’ve been ordering books on exotic tals and smithing techniques from the rchants that pass through, and I’ve been able to imbue the right steel alloys with fire essence thanks to Ember’s presence, but I’ve not had the chance to practice on anything like mithral or adamantine. I had already been considering your dungeon given the stories going about lately, but I hadn’t felt comfortable about the idea without knowing more about it. Well, I got that education and more between the caravan that had passed through a few weeks ago, and now the two of you helping out with the situation with the hunter.”

He put the box back under the counter for now, then glanced over the table. “We’ll take care of cleaning up. You two have earned your rest I think. Oh, and feel free to snack on anything you like tonight. This is more leftovers than we normally have, and our cold box’s runes are a little weak, so it doesn’t make the food very cold any more. I’d rather not have it go bad on us.”

Kazue perked up at that. “Oh! I’m no expert, but I have been trained with runic inscriptions. I can work on it for you tomorrow if you like.” She had wanted to find sothing to practice on, and this seed like a good opportunity.

lchior scratched at his beard. “I have to admit, I’ve just been putting it off, it’s a few days worth of work to get everything touched up correctly. But if you are willing to do the work, I am willing to house and feed the two of you until it’s done. I have all the raw materials you’d need.”

“I’ll take it! Er, if Moriko doesn’t mind.”

Neither Moriko nor the kids minded, and in fact, Tsuki was planning on making Moriko her playmate while Kazue was working on the icebox.