They traveled for the remainder of the sunlight, managing to reach a dirt road and parking at its side to set up camp for the night. Mia and the rest of the slaves in her carriage remained silent for the duration of the trip. The entire time it looked like Riley had a lot to say to Mia, but either because of the slave collar or she recognized now wasn’t the time to do so all she did was stare.

The caravan had been parked for a few hours now, Mia could make out the faint flickering of a campfire as the cold night air set in. She tried to remember how the trip went last time, but it was all a blur ‘they aren’t really going to leave us in the cold…are they?’ she glanced at the older women, who had bundled up together with their tails wrapped around each other.

She then looked towards the mother and child, who had done the same thing. And glancing at Riley was… a bad idea, the girl was still staring daggers at her. She didn’t pay it any mind, flicking her ear as she tried to make out the situation of the camp, hearing drunken cheers and shouts she smiled softly to herself.

She stood up, trotting over to Riley and wordlessly plopping her butt down besides her.

“What are you-“

Mia held up her hand, motioning for her to stop “We can talk, just keep it quiet, the collar hurts but it doesn’t do that much damage.”

Riley frowned “Yeah, I know…” Her eyes narrowed “and why do you know that?” She asked angerly.

“Ah, well, figured it out?” She said, technically not lying, actually she was pretty sure that counted as the truth. “But yeah, I know you have some questions for me and now is the best time, they are distracted.” She figured she did not have to completely leave the girl in the dark and answering a few questions couldn’t hurt. She did not have anything else to do at the moment.

Riley twitched, her face furrowing “Ok Mia, who are you?”

“What?” Mia blinked, taken aback by that.

Riley shifted in her seat, leaning forward into Mia’s face “The Mia I know didn’t speak as much as you could, she couldn’t. Well, she also shouldn’t have been able to run away from home but…” She straightened herself up, flipping her hair behind her “Here we are, are you a ghost possessing her?”

“I..um.. hrm…” Mia was tongue tied, clearly Riley knew more about her situation in the village then she did. “Uh, no, I am not a ghost, I am me. The simple way to put it is I have been through a lot and changed. “

“How? You were gone for one day.” Riley crossed her arms, shifting in her seat again “People don’t change that much in a day, and they cannot be you if they do.”

Mia frowned. Clearly, she knew something she didn’t, or at least she thought she knew something that the *normal* Mia didn’t know. She thought back to what that could be, and then it dawned on her. ‘Why does she know about…’

“Are you talking about the brainwashing?”

Riley twitched; she slammed her bare foot onto the ground “That! How did you find out about that!”

Mia noticed the other villagers were now paying attention to them, drawn into the conversation by Riley’s shouting.

“Why do I know – urgh… why do YOU know?” Mia jumped out of her spot, pointing towards the other members in the cage “Why do ALL of you seem to know?!” her mind was racing, it wasn’t just erasing her memory when ever her aunt visited, it was brainwashing, and if these few people knew about it then it was safe to assume that whole village was in on it.

Riley opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped by one of the elder women who had put a hand on her shoulder “Child… how much do you know?” She asked calmly, kneeling in front of Mia.

Mia jumped back away from her, her hair standing on ends “How much? How much of what? About Maria? The shrine maiden stuff? I know a lot! I can read my status! What does the brainwashing do?”

The elder women lowered her head, her eyes heavy as she slowly sat down on the ground. She then reached up, adjusting the collar on her throat before speaking “…There is a lot to be said…”

The other elder sat down besides her, her limbs shaking as she did so “The orders of the Shrine maiden are absolute, she is the leader.” She spoke, like the other she adjusted the collar on her neck.

“This is… not the best place to tell this story, so it shall be brief.” The other sighed, motioning Mia to sit. In front of her.

Mia looked between them, then outside the carriage. The party had calmed down a bit, but they were still going. She then looked towards Riley, who still had her arm’s crossed but was paying attention. “Just tell me what brainwashing does, I already got an explanation about the shrine maiden from Maria.” Mia said as she sat down, a bit peeved, something she was sadly getting used to.

“How could you-“Riley protested, but stopped once an elder raised their hands.

“Clearly, greater things are at work here…”

“We shall not question it.”

“Thanks.” Mia said, thankful she would not have to argue about what she did and didn’t know.

“Hrm, how much of the shrine maiden do you know of? The right of succession?”

Mia shrugged “I know I was next in line, Maria said something about that is why she kept my knowledge of her hidden.”

“We will start there.” The elder adjusted her collar, a light *snap* was heard as it fell to the ground.

“Wait, what did you ju-“

She rose her hand, a smile spreading on her face as another *snap* was heard, the other elder freeing themselves “These collars, so annoying to fight against.” She chuckled.

“We are not young enough to keep that up for long.” The other mimicked the one besides her, lifting up the collar and keeping it in her lap.

“You… how did you two do that?” Mia asked, but she received no answer as the two spoke.

“As you may know, the Shrine maiden is chosen by the current maiden, decided by blood line.”

“This is how it has been for eons, that is how our hero is born.”

“The shrine maiden for the fox tribe, not only has to be of bloodline but it also has to be gifted with high magic.” The two paused, looking at Mia to judge her reaction before shaking their heads and continuing.

“The last shrine maiden, Maria, did not have a family of her own, stubbornly leaving it to her sister.”

“And her niece after that.”

“And her niece’s daughter after that.”

“None were blessed with a child with high magic capacity.”

“Wait.” Mia stopped them “How… how old is Maria? I thought she was my aunt.” The old ladies just smiled, continuing their story.

“Well, everyone has their limits, no matter how they have extended their life.”

“So, a line was drawn in the sand, if no child was born the village would take drastic measures, the shrine maiden title needed to change hands.”

“Before that line crossed, you were born.”

“OK, but what does that have to do with brainwashing me? I already know I was next in line; I have the title.”

“And that is exactly why we are even telling you this at all.” The old lady looked towards Riley “A fact we know before we spoke with loose lips.”

Riley huffed, turning away from them.

“…Maria was both happy, and afraid.”

“She drew her own line in the sand, since she still had time for another kid to be born. Possibly from you.”

The elder pointed her wrinkly finger at Mia “She proclaimed you had to rise to the position, without knowledge, without skills, without the ability to even read your status… “

“She kept adding requirements, eventually ridding you of your ability to even question the situation you found yourself in.”

The elder laughed “Clearly the effect has faded, and clearly you have rose to the position, one way or another.”

Mia sat there for a moment, bringing her tail to her face and screaming into it.

“That is why everyone was so frantic when you vanished.”

“If you were gone, that was part of the bloodline gone, something that could not be recovered. “

Mia couldn’t believe what she was hearing, what the hell was this even. She looked up from her tail “What was Maria even afraid of?” she bluntly asked.

The two shared a shrug “”We don’t know.””

“Maybe she did not think you were up for the task?”

“Maybe she did not want to be replaced?”

“” you ask her.”” They both chuckled.

Mia pushed her tail back into her face, screaming into it once more before lifting her face back up “And just to make sure, the brainwashing does…?”

“From her words, it limits your ability to question your situation.”

“Limits what you consider to be solutions to problems.”

“And mild, maybe permanent, short term memory loss.”

“if there was anything else, she didn’t let us elders know.”

“And you guys didn’t stop her from, oh I don’t know, permanently damaging the brain of your next shrine maiden?!”

“The shrine maiden is our leader; we cannot go against her under normal circumstances.”

“Our drastic measures for if she doesn’t want to hand over the title is complaining to the dragon lord.”

“Yeah, we get someone else to deal with it!”

“There was always your child, the deadline wasn’t over yet!”

They both laughed, then snapped the slave collars back onto their necks.

Riley coughed “I uh… most of us didn’t know it was that bad… just that you were very important.” Riley said, her anger from before completely gone, replaced with pity. Even the mother was looking away in shame at this point.

Mia looked between all of them, then slowly lowered her face into her tail, letting out another scream. “Maaaaariiiiiaaaa!!!!!” She was going to hurt her, she was seriously going to hurt her when she got the chance, and these senile old ladies!

A little while later, the cage was hit, the slave merchant yelling at them to shut up.