The thing is that she is FUCKING WITH ONE OF MINE AND I WANT IT TO STOP ASDGJFHSHAH AAAAAA

She's low on spells right now. Because I helped mine escape. And Areelu Vorlesh really wants mine back because [sealed].

Here's a bit of legibility a big part of me is possessive protectiveness!

There's more but you'd need to do the secrecy-promise-thing.

Iomedae is willing to do that.  She legibly displays her ability to make such commitments.  She makes sure to highlight some bits someone unfamiliar with how Iomedae operates might overlook (for example if Iomedae independently, without using Tamamo's information in any way, even indirectly, learns of the information, that information isn't covered by the confidentially.  They can negotiate for confidentiality on that independently learned information also, but it isn't covered by the standard 'secrecy-promise-thing'.)

Eh good 'nuff. Most of the repayment I want for this is going to be local. If I resolve this I'm going back to my tiny corner.

So here's the sitch---

If there's anything 'good' about this situation, it's that the scrying attempts have stopped for now and she's detected no signs of pursuit. But she went from fast asleep to mind controlled in, as far as she could tell, an instant, last time, so...

Miles and miles of broken horrible terrain are eaten up by steady strides. She tries to avoid... Anything that looks alive, really.

The land is warped and tainted for as far around as she can see.  The plant life is often struggling to survive, and animal life seems even rarer.  As for anything more exotic than animals... there are no clear signs yet. 

There is a nasty chill in the air... and some rain clouds coming in.  As the rain starts, it turns out to be blood, not water, that is falling from the sky.

Oh, fucking gross. Is this what 'cursed lands' really means?

She can't actually become intangible to solid objects. But - in addition to all the illusions she's already holding - she can make a sort of umbrella, and separately, warp up a complicated illusion hitched to her invisibility that makes it appear as if the rain is falling normally.

The intellectual challenge of attending to the details, and the physical need to keep running, help push away all other thoughts.

There's a dangerous, painful spark of hopefear inside her, though.

The umbrella is sufficient to block the rain.  It stinks like blood, and is already coagulating as it lands around her, making a sticky mess beyond the radius of her umbrella.

There is one benefit to this cursed land.  It seems like many of the crevasses in the landscape lead down to otherworldly rifts. (Or maybe they are offshoots of one giant rift?)  So there is theoretically plenty of magical energy for Weiss to work with, although the nature of the energy is consistent with the taint of the land.

She does notice, eventually, that she is recharging faster than normal.

Weird, corrupted, alien dimensions must count as 'otherworldly'. That's what it feels like. Whatever Tamamo did to build her is pretty robust. It should hold up to this. She'll just have to hope so, at least. But it's a relief- Her total energy store has only gone down maybe another 10-20 in a couple of hours, that's plenty sustainable with some moonlight-dance to supplement it.

...If this place gets moons.

Onward, onward...

Onward.

Onward.

This is sure taking a while. Even the intensity of run run run fades after a while, letting dull anxiety come back to the front. But what else is there to do but move, and try to navigate the broken, cursed terrain without accidentally going in circles.

Eventually, she re-enters the Woods Between, hoping to at least try to get some sleep.

She can get a decent stretch of sleep... before being interrupted (shortly before she would normally wake up) by an odd intrusive thoughts?

A brief section of words running through her mind standout.  The words are coming from herself, except not?  And she can reply to them if she cares to?

What if I had another life before this?  And that experiment was an attempt to trigger memories of it?

The thought wants to stick firmly in her mind, as if it was genuine fact.

She tried waiting quite a while for the subject to sleep, a Dream would prime the subject ideally for the follow-up Demand (it follows the same basic limits of suggestion, with a further limit of 25 words).  But perhaps the Kitsune has some trick for evading remotely delivered illusions?  Or maybe she just refuses to sleep?  Or maybe she was some way of being on a slightly different plane.  She should really have researched Kitsunes better before attempting this, maybe even ran one through a full dummy version of her procedure.

So after most of a day of frustrated waiting, Areelu breaks the trance that precedes sending a Dream, and instead moves directly to casting a Demand. 

Of course I had another life before this! I miss my mom... I miss New York... Is it really...? Mom's not a wizard... Is she?

She can work with that reply.  It will take her ten minutes to cast it again.

She'll play it by instinct, see if the subject is buying it, or if she should back off and give it time.  She has 40 hours to follow-up while the original suggestion is active (she used a greater extend rod).

After ten minutes another intrusive thought sticks in Weiss's mind, fitting in like a true fact.

What if I had another life before my previous one?  If this isn't my second life, but my third life?

Again, it feels kind of like Weiss's own thoughts, except coming from somewhere, and she can again reply.

Mrrrrrrrrgh what. There's some kind of disquiet in her now but there are plenty of reasons why she wouldn't be sleeping well.

Maybe... Or four? Infinity? Can that many memories fit in one soul? Are we memories? Are we patterns? I'm thinking like [Vsauce]*. I need sleep...

*This is a proper noun referring to a person or group, Areelu can tell.

Something cuts off Weiss's reply as she finishes her last word, as if she couldn't add more even if she wanted to.

Areelu calculates swiftly.  So the subject was asleep (finally a stroke of luck in her favor to catch that last word!), and has someway of avoiding the Dream.  Areelu will hold off on follow-ups, for the moment.  She can layer in some more suggestions tomorrow, building up to the perfect one...

No more intrusive thoughts come to Weiss, but those two intrusive thoughts stick quite firmly in her mind, albeit in a way that is hard to directly notice.

She forgets things. Memories fade, details fade. Skills fade, friends drift away. It all turns to dust. Identity is a revolving door. She knows she has lost big parts of herself, it's called growing up. She used to want to be an electrical engineer... When's the last time she tried to engineer anything on Tirra? Decades and decades ago. She tried, for a year or so, and everything was absurdly expensive and difficult, and nobody she tried to collaborate with understood what a 'volt' was, and she gave up because it was stressful and doing random storybook heroics was more compelling, which makes her a horrible person when she could instead optimize for technological development and the long term good, with great power comes great responsibility-

-Bad thoughts-

What is identity? What is 'Weiss'? Didn't she used to be 'Walta'? Didn't she used to be an ordinary person with no particular power? She's lost that. Maybe she's died without dying, slowly, over time. Not changing, not losing anything, not finding new friends and new hobbies... You keep living, motion is being alive, and not changing is called being a dead rock. If this - alien wizard kidnapper - really is trying to recover older memories lost to the aether and lost to time - It's not impossible but anything is possible except literal paradoxes like 'true equals false'. Everything is blurry, it feels like. Is she going insane? Surely not. Tamamo hasn't talked to her though. Very little makes sense. It's almost as if she's dreaming, the mind leaping between two unrelated things and simply declaring that it is fact. If this is all just... A weird dream, a nightmare of nightmares. Does she remember what she did yesterday? Just pulping some curse-monsters, and shopping, and hanging out, nothing special. What did she eat for lunch yesterday...? She can't remember.

If it was some kind of experiment to restore memories, they could've fucking ASKED for permission. She probably would have said no, admittedly. Which really doesn't inspire confidence in Horns Lady. If this isn't all some twisty nightmare or illusion, as the blood rain and cursed evil land sorta suggests. But what if she did have a third life? She'd want to remember it more, if so. She just... Has no way to actually tell if it is so or not. And maybe it's mind-fuckery. If you can experiment with memories you can probably do a lot more stuff to brains. If she has a brain anymore. (She's pretty sure she does? She never exactly looked into it. Squicky! Being a flouncy foxgirl was so much easier than worrying about philosophical or annoying things.)

The version of her from a third life... If it even is still her, or something like a sister. They should get to exist, too. When she gets philosophical, it's one of her greatest dissatisfactions with the Light Gods. They're surely better than many, many, many possible grimderp 40k bullshit setups, but- The way ghosts are, living last regrets, and the way that most ordinary people of Tirra only ever remember impressions and fuzzy remnants, less than even her memories of New York, and nobody ever remembered past lives on Earth, or at least, not in a way that seemed legitimate- So maybe they do, maybe everyone has past life after past life, and just can't access them- If there was an experiment to recover these seemingly-forever-lost memories, some might think it's worth it even if you don't get consent about it-

It's. Better. Than oblivion, that souls are reincarnated with recognizable personalities and faint figments of memory, on Tirra. Better than twisted made-up visions of punishment, of Hell. But that doesn't mean it's good enough. What can she do about it, though, from here? Little to nothing. It's... Impossible to even begin to approach, theomechanics and philosophies of existence and preservation. Where do you even start? It's like a 15th century peasant being asked to do the moon landings. Not impossible, but where do you even start? No, it's even worse than that. Like a 15th century peasant being asked to build something they don't even have concepts for, like a world-spanning VR game. At that point you might as well ask them to become God. The Light Gods are trying, maybe. Or if they're just running good PR, it's really good PR, and consistent for a long while... Should she try to get into medical wizardry, when the Long Road Home finishes refreshing?

(.......If she's having nightmares and losing memories, is she right that the Long Road Home even exists?)

Ugh, such heavy thoughts. If she's not going to be able to sleep, she should at least keep moving.

The Woods continue on as before... except if Weiss is paying enough attention, she might notice a stretch of Woods that look... not right, but closer to a living healthy equilibrium.  The rotten section of trees have new life growing within them, fungi eroding the rot into detritus, which new saplings can in turn grow in.  The resulting new growth... doesn't look quite right, it is stunted and twisted and discolored, but it is growing and living. 

She could divert to explore that section?  It isn't as direct a path to the distant mountains, but it isn't too far out of her way.

She's suddenly glad, pondering growth and the possibility of forage, that she doesn't need to eat. She does have food stored in her Tail of Holding, but it's for pleasure, not sustenance...

...Yeah, she should probably check that out. It might be an oasis. Or something. Staying in the Between, at first, to see if any hinting clues can be gleaned from its echoing, dream-like metaphorical reflections of real-world features.

If she is looking really closely... there is a hint of intelligent intervention in the healthier equilibrium.  Place where it looks like maybe a person aerated the composting material, or transplanted some plant to live within it, or scraped away rot to leave healthy tree behind.

Also, separately from the healthy equilibrium, but in the same general area of Woods, there is a small area with some bizarre illusions.  Every reflective surface, (whether pool of standing water, or tree worn of it's bark) shows a twisted image.  Healthier trees seem dead, dead trees seem alive and living, and if Weiss looks at her own reflection, she will see some sort of demonic monstrous version of herself.  The illusion isn't very strong, at least by Kitsune standards, if Weiss concentrates she can disbelieve it and see normal reflections.

That's not really how illusions... Work...

Or at least not how she thinks they ought to work...?

She can see right through it, like focusing and unfocusing her eyes. But kitsune illusions - they're not impossible to disbelieve, to shift your perspective around and realize it's fake, and there is something magical there that supports the illusion, gives it additional density or timbre or oomph or whatever that makes the viewer not question it - but it's still there, illusory light really does let plants grow, illusory fire with enough oomph can take on the oxygen-consuming properties of real fire through the grace of Tamamo's laughter, and only spells designed to get rid of them really do so. Illusory darkness is more a substance than a mental trick. This is all mental.

(Again with the mind fuckery! Maybe horns lady is doing memory-recovery experiments, but she did not go through the Ethics Board and does not have her informed consent!!)

But someone's trying to fix the place, maybe. Or it didn't get quite as thoroughly damaged, maybe.

...She'll drop out of the Woods, still invisible, and have a nose around.

She is just outside the walls of a small, primitive village.  The walls are a simple wooden palisade.  The village is on a hill, so Weiss can see thatched roofs over the palisade.  Outside the palisade are farm plots. 

Functional agriculture! Ragni bless this land. (Please. If you can hear her, literally do. It seems like the kind of thing you hate.)

Ragni, of course, does no such thing.

She hops the wall, wondering if it's better to just... Keep moving. Small village like this is probably surviving on dregs and stress, suspicious of strangers, might leave information for Horns Lady to find, etc etc. She can stay invisible until she decides.