“Waiting is going to be necessary regardless. I need to use the time to get the various seals set up. But if you want to throw money at your problems, you go right ahead. Speaking of, where’s the nearest Kafra operative? I’m going to need more materials for all of this…”

"There is one in the village square."

Akiho nods. “Okay. Thank you. I’ll prioritize protective seals first, for if this goes horribly, horribly wrong.”

Speaking of: have another seal!

"Thank you," says the High Priestess, accepting that one too.

"Yeah if we're going to have to wait anyway we might as well sleep. Do you have lodgings?" he asks Akiho.

“Nope! But I need to be easily findable by the adventurer guarding the cave’s exit. So, here if possible.”

"We have rooms available," she says. "Do you need food? We still have plenty."

“That would be great, thank you!”

The seals she’s shuffled over already should absolutely pay for food several times over. Not that she’s actually charging anything, but in the realm of imaginary social zeny, she’s deeply in the green.

So it can all be arranged. Her room is simple, a straw mattress on the tatami floor and a blanket and a chair and a table with a bonsai on it, but it's cosy and clean and well-cared for. The food is also simple, rice with curry and vegetables, but tasty and filling. The temple isn't overflowing with luxury, but it's loved and comfortable.

Aw! How homey. She likes the room immediately, though that’s probably mostly the bonsai. Bonsais are very charming.

She retrieves the rest of her sealing materials from the Kafra operative, then settles in to do some serious seal making. Several for helping her peer suppress her demon side, then more for Taharqi’s spiritual protection, and then significantly more than that in general protection, to seal the entire mess inside the cave if they fail horribly. She would love to succeed at this task, but as they say, hope for the best, prepare for the worst. If their souls get eaten, then the surrounding populace will survive. …. And she’ll leave them a copy of her notes on the situation and the logic for her sealing plan, along with a copy of the seal she plans to use. Both in case they fail, and general recording of data for future generations, in case something like this happens again.

Then she’ll turn in for the night, and get a little bit of sleep before morning.

Taharqi wakes up feeling much better. Not 100%, injuries to the soul like that heal much slower than injuries to the flesh—and so a resurrection wouldn't even have helped that much—but still, having had time to rest helped a lot.

Annika is not in their room anymore by the time he's up.

...oh they had better not have snuck out without him, he'll go into the cave by himself just out of spite if they did. He gets dressed and goes looking for her.

She's outside, in front of the cave, arms folded, watching the seals slowly deteriorate. More than half of them have burnt out completely overnight, including one of the sturdier ones, which means that the remaining ones are also being consumed a little bit more quickly.

There's an adventurer standing next to the cave. She seems to be completely invisible to Annika, but Taharqi can see her fine—though it's probably on purpose, as she winks at him when she sees him.

...if Annika can't notice Lea (the adventurer, a rogue he knows) that must mean she's cloaking her spiritual signature too, not just her body. 

Taharqi didn't know you could do that. 

He is suddenly consumed by a need to learn how.

But that's for later. For now, he walks over to Annika. "Morning."

"Mm." She doesn't turn to look at him.

Akiho is up a bit later, carrying a bundle of various (neatly colored) seals. She looks a bit bleary, because she was up late and comparatively got up early, but she got a lot of sleep on the boat to Alberta, so. She’s good.

“Good morning,” she says, immediately passing one bundle (of seals with a red ribbon) to Taharqi, and then pulling out a blue bundle of seals to see about replacing some of the ones that had completely faded.

"What should I do with these?"

“Wear them. In various places around yourself. Front, back, get and put one on a hat, attach a couple to each of your legs, that sort of thing. Imagine each one is a little personal shield that will meld with other shields. If you stack them on top of one another, you’d get something that is very strong in that one direction, but since you are insistent about being stupid and going inside the cave, well. Put them everywhere. I’ll check your work after I’m done here.”

She is very careful about how she hangs up her replacement seals; placing them where the array is weakest, instead of just replacing what’s completely deteriorating.

"...alright. I assume they can go under clothes?" he asks, sitting down on the ground to start to unclasp his boots.

“They can, yes,” she says, agreeably.

Alright then. It takes him a while to fully undress because his clothes are, uh, not extremely easy to get out of, since he runs fast and doesn't want to risk losing a shoe, but that is also exactly the reason why he wants the seals under them in the first place, so.

"Help me with them?" he asks Annika.

"Mm."

He gives her some of the seals and turns his back to her, then starts taping them to the places he can see and reach: chest, shoulders, stomach, legs, feet, he'll do his arms later after grabbing some armbands to keep them secure but he also wears gloves so seals can go under there.

"It's a good thing my cloaking Skill covers sounds because otherwise I'd crinkle like crazy."