She doesn't recognise that tree.
She's been here before, she's not that far from the estate, this isn't some unknown place. She must've taken a wrong turn, of course, but where? She should probably just try to retrace her steps, Jaol will be incredibly mad at her...
"...Keeping in mind that Reim's the first fox-spirit I've ever actually met - not counting the guardian spirits at shrines - there's stories about fox spirits. And in some of those stories, they have a small, glowing ball that they carry in their mouth or on their tail, that if you steal they'll do anything to get back. Nobody agrees about why - common theories are that they contain the fox's power or soul - but you can definitely extort them in exchange for the ball."
"...well, then. That's. Interesting. And slightly unethical but it makes me wonder about the lord."
"Very unethical, and also usually a bad idea, since foxes are tricksters. But, yeah, if it is a star-jewel, I wonder what he's doing with it?"
"Powering his magic, apparently. Do your stories not explain what these jewels do?"
"I can see how he wouldn't mention it to start with - this can probably be used against him - but yeah."
"How are we even going to find him to give him the jewel back?"
"...I mean, presumably he's still on the same island we met him on? I think Sarati said it's called Telmiln. We can find a ride back there."
"I guess. Will be a hassle but I can't thank him enough for the translation magic."
"It's been a major help! Hopefully whatever he rewards us with will be just as good, if not better."
He grins. "Yeah, hopefully. ...so I was thinking, while it seems more likely than ever that this jewel has in fact been stolen, I'm not seeing much of a downside to acting like a character from your world and wanting to talk to the lord about it."
They hum. "Yeah, that makes sense to me; I can try and keep watch from a distance in case something goes wrong. Though I'd feel more comfortable if you practiced a bit more at breaking illusions, since Reim said he uses them."
"Yeah, good idea. But they're—not the same kind so I don't know how much the skill will transfer."
"I'm not really clear on how local illusions work. Though from a brief description of local magic, disrupting your chakra probably can't hurt for dismissing illusions."
"No, I'm exhausted and way too full of food and want to sleep."
"Then let's get to bed."
Sleep can be had (and cuddles. Tetsuma's a bit like a limpet in their sleep.)
D'awwwwww.
The next few days return to their easy routine, with Dayo working more and more on illusion breakage.
Tetsuma helps as much they can - they're pretty good at breaking illusions, no matter how little skill they have in casting them.
"I'd strongly recommend going in with the wood manipulation active, and paying attention to your wood sense. It's really hard to fake a sense you don't have, so that'll be your most reliable metric of the outside world while under an illusion, unless local illusions work really differently from genjutsu," they say during one of the practice sessions.
"I'll keep that in mind. I think I'll wear the face of someone with a similar ethnicity to yours, to sell it better."
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