016

--TheirWorld--

A half dozen white Spirit Foxes with glistening pink eyes watched her as she approached the diaz. She could see the images of the same hero king that she had seen on the door before the golden hallway. Guin knelt down and ran her hand over the cool metallic edge as she looked closer at the painting.

It looked to be the story of some kind of hero-king, fighting against a group of spirits. As she looked closer, she recognized a blue dragon and a white, nine tailed fox standing to defend some sort of white and blue cavern. As she followed the story, she saw the hero-king defeat each in turn, taking the skin of the fox to wear and the horns of the dragon as his crown. The hero-king then entered the cavern, revealing a shrine where some kind of claw or horn was displayed with reverence. Taking the item, the hero king stood triumphant, and journeyed back to the capital city with an entourage of a hundred knights, bringing the bodies of the defeated creatures back as their prize. A great feast was held in the city, the people celebrating the victory of their hero.

“His name was Octarius Eldvein,” came a firm, feminine voice. Startled, Guin looked up to see the brilliant, fiery white image of the nine tailed form of lady Amikavi looking down at her as she lounged across the diaz. “He was a fool Che Prince who sought what was not his — and received his penance. Unfortunately, so too did his people.”

“How did this happen?” Guin asked in a soft voice. She knew there was a time jump between the tutorial where she had first met Amikavi, but surely, it hadn’t been that long. “What of White Fox Forest?”

The spirit flicked her tails and sighed heavily through her nose. “Gone, I imagine,” she said. “Thousands of years we protected those lands. There were good times, and bad. Corruption and purification.” She chuckled. “Of course, any one of us could have told you that it would only take one self-righteous, power mad idiot to ignore the warnings of the stories that preceded him. History, you see, is only consciously relevant to the period it occurs in. After that, it’s all just a cycle of people thinking they are better than those who attempted the feat before. Who are the immortal to argue with the logic of those who prize immortality?”

“But…,” Guin started, struggling to find the words. “I haven’t been gone that long…”

“Time passes, child,” Amikavi told her in a sad, warm voice. “Time does not stop for those who close their eyes in death or sleep — and you have been asleep for far too long. Longer yet, then you realize, for the world is much changed. What takes decades to build can end in a moment.”

Looking down at the mural, Guin’s heart sank. “What of the Dragon King?” she asked, pressing her hand against the blue dragon. Tethaigou, the Dragon King, and its servant Jormund had been of great help to her during the tutorial — but she knew that her choices in the tutorial would not have been reflected in the main game. The characters that she once knew would be gone. She knew the fate of Jormund, at least, and, expecting the worst, her ears laid flat against her head as she asked, “What of Jormund and Dawl?”

Lady Amikavi’s pink eyes held an expression of sadness as she looked off into the distance. “I remember you, you know; you and the path you walked as a child. I remember the feat that you accomplished, the purification that you brought to the forest that I once protected. Tethaigou and Relli spoke well of the child of my child; Gomi’s blood. That story I remember, but so too do I remember a thousand others; each reality created in my mind as an echo. A possibility. A dream.” The fox spirit closed her fiery eyes as she continued. “But this is not that life. This is not that story — and eventually, that is a story that I will forget, just as I have done with so many others in my old age. It is lucky that you have come to me now, while the story is still fresh, else it would be lost in the chaos of my flooded mind.”

Guin sucked on her lip as she listened to the words of the fox spirit. So, the NPCs do have some sort of residual memory, she thought to herself. She looked up at the spirit in her glory, the pure white of her flame-like body flickering calmly as they stared at one another. Standing, Guin looked up at the pelt that hung behind Amikavi.

It was splayed out, hung against a gilded backing that made the pure, glistening white fur standout in the room even more than it might have otherwise; in many ways, it stood out even with the ethereal visage of the spirit of the fox’s owner. As if it had come from a different dimension — which, Guin supposed, it did — it gave off an otherworldly presence that felt as if time could not touch. Divine, made real by the crossing of the Veil. Simultaneously drawn to, and repulsed by, the artifact, Guin stepped back and looked at the spirit of the Lady Amikavi.

A great sorrow filled her. Something that beautiful had once been alive, and now, it was lost. Kept in the darkness of a tomb.

“You told me to come see you when I had grown into my power,” Guin reminded her. “Here I am,” she said. “What would you have of me? What can I do?”

The spirit smiled. “It pleases me, that you have come into your blood,” Amikavi stood over her. “Gomi’s smell is strong on you, and though he wanders the land as I do, in this state of eternal dreaming, I am sure it would make him proud as well. Look up, girl. Let me see your face.” Guin did as she was told, but force behind the spirit’s eyes caused her to look away. “There is power in you,” she chuckled. “Little, but it is there. Were I weaker, I might be fooled by you. Were I younger, I would have mocked you for it. As it stands, I do not hate potential — and the world as it is now relies on such fragile things.”

“M-My lady...,” Guin went.

“I’ve little interest in your humble nonsense,” Amikavi frowned. “There is only one thing that I have an interest in: Shall you pledge your life to the Veil? To your kin? Do you desire the power to change the world?”

Guin placed a hand on her shoulder where Tik-Tak’s head had once been. “... Yes,” she answered. “I suppose I do.” Her eyes lifting to the mighty nine tailed fox spirit that looked down at her, her tails fluidly dancing behind her. Backed by her pelt and the golden background, she was a frighteningly impressive figure no matter how at ease her gaze was.

“Try it with conviction, child,” Amikavi said in lazy voice. “For once you make this choice, there is no going back.”

“I do want such power,” Guin affirmed. “I want to be able to protect my friends. I want to be able to be free without fearing the will of others. I want the power to live in the world in peace. I want to be able to protect those like Tik-Tak, and even you. How then, My Lady, do I accomplish this?”

Amikavi laughed.”Better. Much better — but I am afraid that I have no easy solution for you. No matter your path, you will only gain power equal to the amount of work and effort that you put into it. I can, however, offer you a chance.”

“A chance?”

“It is my blood that runs through your veins,” the fox spirit went, lifting her head proudly. “The bloodline of the Mist foxes — and not just any Mist fox; you are the grandchild of the great Amikavi, Nine Tail, Yipva of the Dusk, Kitsune of the Gale, Gumiho of Thunder Tails. I am power — and you are born of this power, and as such, you should be able to wield it.

“This world is broken,” Amikavi continued, her voice filled with sorrow as she looked at the other spirit foxes in the room. “There is a war that has been building beneath the surface between the Che and the Veil for centuries — a war that has happened before, yet has been lost to memory. In the ignorance that has befallen the world, the cycle or pain and suffering has been born anew. Corruption spreads across the land — Corruption that now bears the face of many a friend and foe alike.

“You are a half-Che. You hold the ability to walk in both worlds; to bridge the gap between them. All that is left now is this choice: Will you take action? If I lend you my power, will you take up the mantle of the one who walks between the light and the dark of the world? Will you gather the tales of the lands and be a voice between us, reminding us of all the good and evil in the world?”

A gong-like sound rang in Guin’s ears as a golden window came up, reading:

[Class Offered: Tatterskin]