The Eden operative who was her ride is an elf, and does not look particularly surprised to see the fox ears and tail. Then again, they work for Eden, and fox ears and a tail are really not that outlandish, when it comes to adventurers (at least the more powerful ones). They cast a little spell that makes a pillar of blue light appear in front of them and when Akiho steps into it her vision flashes blue and she's elsewhere.

On the mainland, Eden lounges are divided by rank, with the rank 0 lounge accessible to everyone (including people not affiliated with Eden at all), but as Akiho is already registered and rank 1, herself, she can go to the rank 1 lounge. It's a reasonably spatious room, with enough space for a few dozen maybe a hundred people, split into several more self-contained nooks with chairs and tables and rugs and bookshelves. It's busier than what she's used to, back in Amatsu, if not by much, but she stands out a lot more: while the all-ranks lounge in Amatsu included all sorts of people, most of the adventurers here are also rank 1, and while the fox ears and tail would be unremarkable on a powerful adventurer they are very much remarkable here.

Still, adventurers are selected for being approximately as chill as possible about people looking weird, so other than a handful of glances and a couple of stares they leave her be.

...except for one person, actually, an employee who's making a beeline for her. "Excuse me, would you happen to be Ms. Morikawa?"

She playfully winks at anyone staring at her, because if she didn’t have a coping mechanism for staring, she wouldn’t have ever left the woods.

Someone knowing her name already surprises her, though. She didn’t think anyone was likely to care about her arrival, let alone flag her down by name.

“… Yes?” she says, politely, but the straightening of her tail and the twitch of her ears gives away her unease.

"Would you be willing to accept a rank 3 mission? We would normally send someone more powerful, of course, but it seems like it fits your particular areas of expertise exceptionally well, and you might in fact be in less danger than anyone else."

“Iiiiiiiiii will need to know more about the rank 3 mission before I just up and say yes?? … But that’s not a no, so. What exactly is going on?”

On one hand: it would look so good on her resume, and earn her so much money!!! On the other hand: if she is uniquely suited towards whatever it is, that has implications. She’s a little concerned about those implications.

"Come with me, please," the person says, then turns around and starts walking towards a reception counter. "What do you know of Payon?"

She follows, of course.

“I don’t.”

"It's a village in the southeastern mountains of the Kingdom of Rune-Midgard, and it lies on top of ancient ruins of a lost city. The cave leading into those ruins had been used as a burial site prior to their discovery, and since the Advent of Magic—pardon me, I'm not sure what the standard Amatsu term would be for the event—their dead have been consistently rising over and over again."

Here's the counter, they walk around it and start leafing through some papers. "This wasn't a very big problem, except recently the quantities and power levels of the undead have been steadily rising, and a duo of adventurers took a bounty to investigate the reason. It turns out the reason seems to be a ghost of a fox demon hybrid, who had been sealed in the ruins, and whose seals worn off enough that she got free." They lift their head up to look at her. "So it's very serendipitous that you arrived when you did! —apologies, were there any questions, and was there anything else I could help you with?"

A ghost of a fox demon…? So. Just like her. Damn. That’s actually worse than she expected, and, well. Now she has to get involved, doesn’t she.

“Well, I am definitely willing to at least consult for this,” she says, firmly. “So I suppose my questions are all about her circumstances of haunting, which is information you might not have. Uh. Who do I go to for that information, and to give my perspective on the circumstances of our shared condition?”

"The two adventurers who found the spirit are still on site as that happened, ah, earlier today, so they and the other people living there might be your best sources of information about that."

“Oh.” She was not expecting things to be moving that quickly, but she supposes that gossip travels faster for adventurers than it does for fishwives, so: checks out. “Then how expensive is the teleport, and is the guild willing to reimburse me for it, considering the circumstances.”

Her, mercenary? Yes. She is a unique consultant and she will be compensated for it, damn it.

"Certainly. Was there anything you wished to do here, or would you be willing to go now?"

(Also: people are definitely staring, now, and it is not even mostly about the fox body parts.)

“I’ve already dropped my stuff off at Kafra. Now’s fine,” she shrugs. Does it amuse her that so many of her peers are staring? Yes. Yes it does. Ha, she got asked for by name for a specific rank 3 bounty!! She’ll be remembered for…. Admittedly like a month or two, the adventurer gossip network is cutthroat.

"Excellent, then, please come with me?"

And down a hallway and they poke a colleague and the colleague crushes a blue gem in their hand and now there's a portal in front of her. "This should lead you to the village proper, someone should be able to direct you to the cave."

“Right. Thank you.”

Into the portal she goes, though she doesn’t mention that she’s doing way more investigation before she just. Up and walks into the danger cave. That is how adventurers burn through resurrection points, thank you, and despite a couple of close calls she has yet to.

Payon is nestled at the foot of a mountain in the middle of a forest. Every direction she looks, even in the village proper, has trees and grass, and the canopy above her is almost, but not quite, thick enough to block out the moonlight. The architecture, however, is very familiar to Akiho. She might even feel at home.

The buildings are wood and thatch, built on slightly raised wooden platforms, with doors of stretched paper. In the distance, to the northwest, she can see a temple or a palace that borrowed very heavily from the same style used by the Lord's Castle in Amatsu. If someone had told her this was a village back there and she got teleported to the wrong place, it would not be easy for her to contradict them.

But not impossible. There are more people than any village she's been in, the trees are different (though there are cherry blossom trees, recognisable even off-season), and people's style of dress isn't really the same at all.

She thinks she would have been less unsettled if it were completely alien architecture. The similarities… well. She’s likely in the right sort of place for self improvement, but. Damn if she doesn’t feel like she’s a stranger in a once familiar land.

“Excuse me,” she calls, to no person in particular, swishing her tail nervously, “could someone direct me to the other adventurers? The ones that just went into the cave? I’m a specialist sent by Eden, I’d like to ask them some questions.”

Someone in what's clearly some sort of ceremonial or religious robe walks up to her. "You wish to go to the cave? I can lead you there; it is by the temple in the Archers' Village."

“Not into it, yet,” or, you know, until someone much better at killing things shows up, because as adventurers go she is made out of paper, “But if directly outside it is where the adventurers are, then yes.”

"I believe they are recuperating at the temple, yes. Please follow me."

“Of course,” she agrees, and yep! She will follow.

They take a road of packed dirt leading north, and don't seem to be feeling particularly hurried. "Do you have personal experience with kitsune spirits?" they ask, using the Amatsu loanword.

Is. Is that a serious question. She. She has fox ears. And her yukata is short enough to show her swishing fox tail. Yes! Yes she is familiar with them!!

“My mother was cursed by them when she carried me in her womb. So. Yes? I am half kitsune, half human.”

They nod. "That has not happened here in centuries, at least as far as I know. It is perhaps a sign of the gods that you have come, though a sign of what I could not say. It may become clear in due time."

Also a sign of the almighty power of the adventurer gossip network, and magical engineering to make teleport points. Those were rather large factors in her being here. But, sure. Local kami might be messing with things. They do be like that.

Instead of saying any of that, she just hums an affirmative.

They don't say anything further and just lead her the rest of the short walk in silence.

The "Archers' Village" is the name for the open area just north of Payon where the Archers' Guild houses and trains its members. Several simple buildings are visible a short way off the road they're walking, and archery ranges of various kinds and difficulties can be seen everywhere. The temple is recognisable as the biggest building right by a wide clearing, but the cave is equally eye-catching off in a corner to the left.

Especially eye-catching are the dozens upon dozens of paper seals taped against its walls and hanging off ropes crisscrossing the entrance and making it effectively impossible to walk in.

Oh! Good! As many seals as can possibly be stuffed onto that space! That is heartening and she’s glad they did that! Pardon her, she’s going to immediately check their work. How good are these seals, and how quickly are they decaying?

Most of them are standard seals that you could get a bunch of non-adventurers to copy over and over and over in a very short amount of time, which is to say that quantity is definitely overriding quality. There are a few better ones, though, with a lot more oomph behind them, and those seem to be doing most of the job of holding the others together, so the smaller ones are fraying a lot less rapidly than they otherwise would due to the distributed loads.

Also, there's an obvious adventurer standing right by the entrance. Had she been there before? Unclear. She's in kind of dark clothes, maybe she was just not standing out very much against the dark stone. "Eden send you?" she asks.

Hmmmm, it’s a patch job, but an understandable one. And the better ones are pretty good, so. This wall of seals gets a pass.

“It did. I’m not going in right now, I’m just checking the seals. Come get me if…” and she points at one of the load-bearing seals, “that one starts to fade or look ragged, yeah?”

"Roger that. You stayin' at the temple, girl?"

“Probably! I just teleported in, my sleeping arrangements are pending. Were you one of the adventurers that went in, do you know specifics about the fox demon ghost girl?”

"No, I was called in to keep anything nasty that slips out from doing a ton of damage, at least assuming it's not too nasty. They're at the temple, too, pretty sure."

“Right. Then I’ll be there, too,” she says, nodding firmly. Because it’s important that she be easy to find in these circumstances. “Good luck, and I hope you have a very boring day. … that sounded a bit like a curse now that I said it out loud, but, well. The difference between blessing and curse can be a matter of perspective.”

"I'm getting paid anyway, getting paid for not dying sounds like the better option," she says with a shrug.

“Blessing it is, then!” she says cheerfully. Then, with a casual wave to respectfully depart from the presence of a person who could almost certainly kill her, she will head off to the temple.

In the main room there are a handful of people kneeling and praying, plus a person in robes that look like those of the person who walked Akiho here but fancier—plausibly the high priestess?—lighting incense before various statues. She looks up when she hears the door open and looks very alarmed to see the fox ears and tail for a moment. Then she realises nothing bad is happening and... looks very confused instead.

"May I... help you?"

This sort of reaction isn’t new to her. If anything, it drives her to be painfully professional, out of spite. Also because if she lets herself wallow in spite, she’ll start burning through some of her seals. Which would be stupid, sealing ink’s expensive, especially when it’s tattooed into skin.

“Hello! I’m Morikawa no Akiho, Eden sent me in to help however I could. Are the adventurers that went into the cave around? I’d like to ask them questions about the situation and circumstances.”

"—oh! That was much faster than I'd expected, yes, if you'll come with me? I'm Ga-in, high priestess of this temple," she says, leading the way through a little back door behind the main altar.

“Pleasure to meet you, pity about the circumstances,” she says, cheered by the immediate turnaround of this woman’s discomfort. She dutifully follows.

The main temple building of course has lodgings to house visitors, and it's to one such room that the high priestess leads her. She knocks.

"Come in," calls a voice.

She opens the door and gestures for Akiho to walk in before her.

The little room has a tiny short table on which there is some food and hot tea. There are two people kneeling by it: someone who's probably a rogue, with the sleeveless leathers and the daggers as long as his forearms attached to his hips, who looks like he's definitely seen better days, and...

...someone wearing a gi which, combined with the footwraps and visible muscle, is probably a monk of the Church of Odin. She looks a lot healthier than the rogue.

He freezes, for a moment, when he sees Akiho, but upon noticing Annika's non-reaction and his own lack of symptoms relaxes again.

With his terrible condition, probably at the hands of another kitsune-human hybrid, she’s honestly not even offended by his flinch response. Instead she brings her hands and sleeves together and bows politely to them both.

“Hello! I’m Morikawa no Akiho, Eden sent me because I am uniquely specialized. Can I ask you some questions about your encounter with the spirit?”

"—of course, please, come in," he says, gesturing at the open places at the table and looking at Mother Ga-in to include her in the invitation. "My name's Taharqi, and my friend is Annika."

She walks in, too, and closes the door behind herself.

“Pleasure to meet you both.” She sits politely, because her mother made her sit in the river until she knew her manners. “So… first, could you describe your encounter?”

Hoooo boy. Could Annika start?

Yeah. 

"We went into the cave to investigate the source of the disturbance. It was very deep inside, and the negative spiritual pressure suggested a rank 3 entity or stronger. It was spawning horongs" (spiritual beings of uncertain nature shaped like floating balls of violet flame, which often spontaneously appear at sites of great spiritual disturbances) "from a large distance, but once we got close enough they stopped." She looks at Taharqi, now, because she feels like this is his part of the story.

Yeah, just give him a moment, he's trying to figure out a way to tell the story without reliving it.

Akiho will wait, and attempt to look appropriately somber. Instead of sitting raptly at attention, tail swishing with curiosity.

(It’s still swishing a little. Look, it has a mind of its own, sometimes.)

...honestly, it helps. It reminds him of the reason he wanted to help. 

"Annika identified where the creature was, and it was—a girl. Young. She was more fox than you are, her hands and feet were paws and her eyes were red and slitted and she had nine tails but she was just a girl. So I tried... talking to her. I wanted to help her."

……. Aw. Aw.

Okay, that gets this fox girl to melt. A little.

“Very kind of you,” she says, gently. “I want to help her, too.”

He grins to himself a little. "She was stuck in the past. Her mother had been the high priestess at the time, and the village had been attacked, and she thought it had been the fox demons, because relationships had been strained."

"We have many stories about the village that came before," the high priestess pipes in. "We never knew which were true, but one of them mentions this, that the fox demons demanded tribute of the village and were angered at some slight by the elders and attacked."

"That's basically what she said. She said her mum was trying to mediate, but it must've gone south, and the demons attacked, and so her mum told her to wait in the temple until she came back. 

"And the girl didn't seem to realise at all that she had already been cursed, and was already dead. She still thought she was just a girl in a temple waiting for her mother to come back."

Akiho nods, somberly.

It was probably the only thing keeping her inner demons from running wild, really. A quest to hold onto. Something she needs more than… (biting, clawing, burning, if the little peasants don’t respect me I’ll make them scream until they have no choice —) … other things she might want to do.

"I wanted to try to convince her to move on, but that wouldn't happen if she thought she should stay where her mother told her to. And while we were talking she said that she wanted to be a princess, and that the fox demons had once taken a girl from the village to be a fox Princess. I told her that being a princess was probably not as good as she thought it would be," and how he knows this is irrelevant, "but she said she still wanted it, and it would be great if a fox demon married her and turned her into a princess. 

"So I... that was maybe the wrong tactic, but I tried to show her that she was already a fox Princess, and she could maybe go look for other foxes. And she remembered... what happened after."

And now he's having trouble not thinking about it, because the thing is, powerful spirits like that aren't... healthy to be around. They create what Annika called "negative spiritual pressure", where they suck in the spiritual energy nearby and it makes your soul not want to stay inside. Coupled with their heightened emotions being projected into other people, Taharqi had a bad time.

Yeah. Yeah he did. She wants to get into the details of all of what the girl’s history was, because the details matter very very much for this, but first:

“….. Would you like a hug?” she offers, gently.

He blinks at her. "Seems a little awkward around the table. And I'm fine now. But thank you."

(...Annika feels a little bit like she should've thought to offer one earlier.)

It is perfectly possible for her to get up and move over for the bestowal of the fabled hug, but yes, fair enough. She’ll take the no gracefully and without argument about semantics.

“Mhm,” she hums. Tail swish, tail swish. … she should draw seals, while she thinks. That is what a clever and competent adventurer would do. Out comes the sealing ink and paper, and she starts carefully painting the characters for a seal. As she does, she speaks.

“So… she’s not afraid of fox demons, and was willing to even become their princess,” cannot relate, but sure, “that implies she’s not directly afraid of them. Do you know what killed her?”

He shakes his head. "She is afraid of them, because... My theory is that the demons cursed her mum, and killed her, and afterwards the village ostracised her. I had—flashbacks—that I think were her memories—"

"You didn't mention that."

That's even worse than she'd thought. Getting actual memories from someone like that suggests a very dangerous suppression of his own mind and self.

He shrugs. "Sorry. It didn't feel that important and I guess it slipped my mind."

Not that impor—okay. Sure. Whatever.

"...anyway. The village survived the attack with heavy casualties but they blamed the girl—or were just afraid of her and her relationship with the foxes. She got extremely depressed, and that made the fox demon within her violent, which didn't help the villagers' impression of her, until eventually she just—wished she could stop existing. 

"The fox took over and sank the whole city and environs into the rock, and I think the foxes themselves also fell victim, and I also think she may have destroyed or absorbed the villagers' souls. I'm not sure who or what sealed her in, probably some later hero, but she's been there for hundreds of years. Until the seal gave out."

She listens raptly, even as she makes her seal, then nods at the end of it. “Ah. I see. So it’s very complicated, and she was… likely repressing her own memories to keep a lid on things? Does that sound accurate?”

"Yeah. Pretty much. I am not sure if she'd be able to do it again, or if she'd want to. Sealing her again would be a possibility but helping her move on would be the ideal."

"We have prayer beads that could help, but they would not suffice on their own."

“I think helping her move on would honestly be easier than sealing her,” says Akiho, thoughtfully. She finishes her current seal and slides it to the head priestess, then starts on another one.

“Especially because I have rather a lot of personal experience at suppressing one’s inner fox demon.”

She says this matter-of-factly, but it does actually make her a bit nervous to directly say, out loud, to three strangers, that yes: she is a walking demon container that could explode at any moment. And apparently maybe sink a city, if her… peer is anything to go by. She was not aware that this was a possible fail state. She’s going to cope by placidly drawing seals, thank you, she’s fine.

Oh if anything that makes Taharqi perk up. "The ears and tail are real?"

Annika stares at him. How could he not tell.

“Yes,” she says, a little amused. She’s aware, intellectually, that adventurers will dress up as all sorts of things, but as someone who grew up stigmatized for what others find cute accessories: cannot relate. What a weird thing to do. “And my tragic backstory matches our wayward ghost girl’s almost completely, except my mother took me and fled into the woods. No dark ending for me.”

There’s a yet that hangs in the air after that, but she will be politely ignoring it, thank you.

"So if we go back we could maybe talk to her and we could teach her how to get the fox under control and—"

A single grain of dry rice finds its way to Taharqi's forehead at a prodigious speed.

"—ow."

“You will not be going anywhere near there anytime soon, Mr. Already-Got-Memory-Blasted,” Akiho agrees, very firmly, in a no-nonsense tone. “That is how you get your soul overwritten by a fox demon or something, which would ultimately make this a bigger problem, which helps no one.”

But she softens a little. “…. If you stay far, far out of it, though, then the idea itself is possible. Maybe.” Maybe because she wants it to be, though. She wants to save this ghost of a girl that could have been her. Now how to make that possible and safe…

She swishes her tail thoughtfully, then looks at Annika, clearly the more sensible one of this duo.

“How’d you get him out? Or could he walk out on his own power?”

"Teleported. But I don't have a bead on the cave and I think the spirit would block me if I tried."

“I was actually considering exit strategies for if this slightly unhinged plan goes south! Teleporting in is likely to alarm her even more. Or do you think that the spirit could block you from teleporting out?”

"It could be a contest if she tried, but I'd win."

"...it's a hundreds of years old spirit—"

"I'd win," she repeats, confidently.

Considering she’s won before, and clearly back out here, Akiho believes her. She nods, agreeably. (And finishes a second seal, passing it to the Mother to mollify her.)

“Okay. And hopefully in those circumstances I could help. I’m a - the name in this dialect is soul linker. Strengthening the force of my allies’ souls is rather my area of expertise.”

"—you trained in Amatsu?"

“Yes?”

"I did not realise Amatsu had a tradition."

“Oh! Yes, though the sealing parts of it are the proper ancient tradition. Soul linking was introduced more recently, by adventurers looking for a pretty retirement home. I apprenticed under a retired adventurer named Mikael. Vested interest in getting good at this sort of thing, and all.”

Annika nods along with that. "So what are your thoughts about what to do?"

She hums acknowledgement, getting started on a third seal while she puts her words together.

“I think… I can make a seal for sealing off just the fox demon side of her. I’ve done it with my own, and we seem similar enough that the practice can transfer. From there, she’d have more ability to reason properly, and I think we could just talk to her, and convince her to move on. It’s not like being sealed in a cave is comfortable, after all. Direct physical confrontation is to be avoided entirely. But if we can’t, we bail, and wait for more reinforcements. I don’t think we could take her in a fight with just the two of us. Just getting to her might be difficult.”

"I'm coming with."

Rice grain.

He's expecting it and intercepts it before it can hit him.

"You are not."

“So I think the hardest part with just the two of us is going to be getting through the chaff in front of her,” Akiho pointedly says to Annika, “But I have some healing capabilities, if you can keep them away from me we might be all right.”

"I should be able to keep most things off you—"

"I can definitely help with that."

"—but if you have any offensive capabilities they'd probably make this easier."

"It'd be a lot easier with me."

"I agree that we should aim for avoiding a fight with the actual spirit at all costs, though."

"But if we can't I'd definitely be useful for that."

Okay she can't actually ignore him that long when he's being so obnoxious so instead she'll glare at him.

Yeah he’s making a pest of himself, despite her obviously clear and correct strategy of just ignoring him.

“If your soul doesn’t get rubbed off and you don’t turn into her puppet. Which is likely. Because she already brain blasted you. Besides, I’m also thinking exit strategies if we can’t pull off this very difficult thing. Teleporting two people out is harder than teleporting just one.”

"...it's not, actually." It might have been strategic for her to not mention this but on the other hand Akiho is wrong, she can too very easily teleport two people out with her.

"See, that works fine. And now that I'm knowing what to expect it'll be a lot easier to deal with it."

"It's unnecessary risk. To you and to others."

"You saw how I acted when I noticed her and had a goal in mind. I was able to resist her effects."

"Until you weren't."

"I wasn't prepared for it to ramp up so much so quickly. I could deal with it now. And I would be very useful in fights, I'm faster than both of you and a better damage-dealer—"

"So if you get turned against us—"

"—and I feel responsible," he finishes, in a smaller, quieter voice.

“…. This is emotional manipulation,” grumbles Akiho, who is admittedly starting to be worn down by his arguments. After all, she can help strengthen his soul, and prevent the very situation she’s worrying about. That’s kind of her whole deal.

"But it's true," he insists. "And I care about her, I want her to be okay. And what else am I supposed to do, sit on my ass for however long, not knowing if you two are still alright, not knowing if she ate your souls and might be coming back with a vengeance at any minute, chewing on my fingers?"

“…. I’m going to cover you in protective seals, you are going to stay within my sensory sight the entire time, and if you so much as start to look too pale I’m dragging you back out by the scruff of your neck, no teleportation required. Understood?”

She sounds very irritated about this, but: yes okay it would be a good idea to have someone who is good at stabbing things around. She guesses.

"...I'd want a less restrictive trigger than just looking pale, and I'm not even sure you'd be able to tell I'm pale with my skin colour, but. Yes. Thank you."

Here's another grain of rice to the forehead for his trouble.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You know what."

“No, the purpose is to be restrictive, even covered in seals and with me around to babysit the state of your soul, no really, this is dumb.” Huff. “But you do presumably have a rapport with her already, and I’d worry that if we recruited any other damage dealers, they might blast first, ask questions later. So. Fine.”

"We should wait until the morning, though. It will allow all of us to recover some, and we'll be more able to act intelligently and quickly."

"We could always pay for a very quick rez and die first."

She... actually stops to consider it. It'd be kind of stupid expensive but Taharqi is kind of stupid rich, or so he's implied.

“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."

"Skill issue," says Lea, appearing out of nowhere (to all but Taharqi). "You can do it out of Cloaking, too."

Annika doesn't twitch, because she is the master of her own body, but she does have to suppress it.

Akiho does not have such perfect self control. Not only does she jump, but her tail goes fully straight, and fluffs up.

“Oh. Good. You’re here,” she says, failing to fake casualness even as she slowly begins to de-poof. “Then I can give the rest of this bundle to you for later, I’m just about done reinforcing this.”

"Sure, sure, I can do that. So you're all going back in?" Aren't you kind of weak and inexperienced?, she doesn't ask, but one can fill in the blanks.

She finishes applying the seals where she can and hands Taharqi the remaining ones 

"We've got a specialist and a plan!"

And then, yeah, sure, clothes go back on. It's uncomfortable but they do actually provide value besides looking nice.

“This is essentially a sabotage mission, not a direct confrontation! If we cannot successfully sabotage her, we will teleport out, because otherwise we’d just die! Essentially, we want to get the spirit herself to help us, by sealing just the fox demon inside of her. … I have a binder, I should give you the binder.”

She touches a bead on the ribbon around her obi, and out comes a tidy little binder that goes Lea-wards. It lovingly has an explanation of the theory behind what they are doing, and also a copy of the seals she’s plotting to use.

Taharqi will go read the explanation then because he thinks he's the most likely one to get up close and personal with the spirit.

Her notes are rather technical, and the bulk of them are about how to differentiate the difference between the spirit’s energy and the fox demon’s energy. It’s assumed that the two types are currently mixed together into something of a slurry, but they are still very much two separate energies. This specification is followed by how to separate them - which leans rather heavily on Akiho herself having a similar energy she can compare and apparently use as a lure - and then after that, the sealing itself is very straightforward.

...okay this is going wayyy over his head, he's just gonna hand it to Annika. "So how do I actually use it? Throw it at her, hope she doesn't dodge?"

“Use the… seal? It’s a set, not one, there are different ones for different points, if you turn to page 12–” is he ready for an explanation of the reasons for the order of seals, and how any of these stages might need a number of seals before moving on to the next stage? Too bad, he’s getting one. About this, and other things, before she finally finishes off with:

“Anyway, I’ll be the one using them?? You do not, these are mine. You will be basically trying to get her to emotionally distance herself and fight against her fox demon half. So, you know. Squishy emotion stuff that doesn’t fit in a binder.”

"...roger that."

He is so glad that other people who are smarter than him exist and can help with this stuff.

Annika finds it all fascinating, though, and very smart. It's not exactly her area of expertise—she can do some spirit stuff, herself, but it mostly stems from the training to perceive and still and control her own soul—but it's still very interesting to observe.

Anyway that was long enough that he is no longer naked, and he has armbands keeping the seals attached to his arms in place.

He offers the unused seals to Akiho. "Ready to go, then?"

“Not quite. Let me check your coverage…”

She does a circuit around him, while humming thoughtfully, then:

Cheekily places another seal directly on his forehead, the bottom of which ends just above the bridge of his nose. It’s not really long enough to get in his way or do all that much flapping around, but it does look very silly.

“I was serious about the hat, you know,” she chides.

...he cracks up. "I don't think this is gonna stay on. And neither would a hat."

“Headband?” she offers, a little amused. “If not, well. It’s very sticky, so try your best.”

"...does it need to hang off my face in this way or can I fold it up? A headband could work."

“The seal needs to not be overly crumpled or folded up too much. So. Yes. It does.”

"...a single fold? In the center? More seriously this does impact my central vision." Not impossibly so, he has two eyes, but he's a rogue, he wants to make full use of those two eyes.

“One single fold, right here,” she points to a specific point of the seal that he, of course, can’t see. Because it’s on his face, “or turn it 90 degrees and attach it to the headband there. But I was working under the constraints of gravity.”

Taharqi grimaces when she does that and sighs. "Horizontal it is." He can acquire a headband to hold it in place.

Excellent. In the time it takes him to scrounge one up, Akiho has efficiently attached a number of seals to herself. She did not have any need to strip; her clothes have obvious places to attach them, including one decorative hair clip that is both cute and functional. Then she can reach out and touch their souls to strengthen them. The weird feeling of it is fairly subtle, but what can be felt is nice. Like a soft warmth, or extra bastion of strength they didn’t know they had. Even for Annika, with her own control of her soul.

Then they can go in, yes.

Well, first they'll need to do something about the seals that are completely blocking the entrance. "Don't suppose you can teleport in there?"

"No hook."

"You can't line-of-sight it?"

"No. The Skill for that has a lot of prereqs."

"And you can't just skip past them? I'm so disappointed."

...

.....why shouldn't she be able to skip past them?

"—that was a joke."

"Mm."

But now she's thinking about it.

"You guys can probably squeeze between the ropes," opines Lea, who had surreptitiously faded into the background earlier and is now back. "Need to be careful not to catch on anything but."

“That was my plan, but it’d be monumentally stupid for me to go first. So.”

Well, obviously it should be Annika first. She isn't the most acrobatic but she can very much make sure her body is where she wants it to be and not somewhere else, so she can go through the ropes in short order.

Taharqi has a much easier time of it. It's kind of bizarre to watch, the way he pulls the ropes away from each other almost not at all and yet ends up on the other side anyway, and more quickly than Annika at that.

Akiho isn’t particularly acrobatic, but she does know where all of the seals are in her very soul, so. She slips through a part of the ropes that are a bit less seal covered, and then she’s through.

“Mnaugh,” she pronounces, when she’s on the other side. It is not a pleasant feeling, this cave, and she’s more sensitive to it than most.

When she's through, Taharqi is nowhere in sight and Annika is standing guard against some twenty or more zombies and an extra ten skeletons, pulverising any that get too close.

(Although given that many of their foes are randomly getting taken down here and there, Akiho might be able to have informed guesses about where Taharqi is.)

Ah! Good, then she has something to distract her.

Zombies, huh? Well, zombies are perfectly flammable. She needs to reach out and unbalance them before her fire can properly bite, but that’s straightforward enough. She can even see Taharqi’s soul well enough to avoid catching him, too.

Some of the zombies get very confused about how ‘attacking’ works. Instead, they will… stop, standing a little listlessly, like they’re confused about what’s going on and why they’re here. Then shortly after, before the window she’s ripped in them closes, they are on fire. It’s a strange and ghostly fire, and it’s sort of like they are spontaneously combusting instead of fire being thrown, but. It sure is fire. That is blue. Taharqi and Annika feel no heat at all, even as it is definitely burning some zombies.

"Hey, didn't you say you weren't a damage dealer?" asks Taharqi, popping up right next to her and then vanishing again to go kill some more skeletons.

“Compared to a mage or something, I’m not! They’d be much better at directly blowing them to pieces. What I’m doing is a debuff. The debuff is that they are on fire.”

Pop up: "If it works it works!" And vanish.

It doesn't take them very long to go through the zombies. There aren't waves of them coming one after the other, it's just the ones that had accumulated near the entrance, and once they're dealt with (and the floor is littered with bones and viscera) the three adventurers are left mostly in peace—though they can hear the vague drum of spirits and undead moaning and shuffling farther down into the cave, the acoustics carrying the sound enough that it's not clear how far anything is from anything else.

The combat lasts long enough that Akiho is called upon to heal, and the way she does it is rather strange. She doesn’t heal by directly casting a healing spell; she casts some sort of… something… on Annika, and then every time one of the zombies swings at her, at the same moment the blow connects, healing energy floods into her. Oftentimes, it’ll heal more than the zombies damage her.

“Onwards?” she asks, softly. She really doesn’t want to linger. What with the… pressure, tugging at her soul, and all.

"Onwards!" he says, cheerfully. "Hey Annika are you going to freak out if my spirit disappears from your sight?"

"Yes."

"So you mean I should try to practise cloaking my spiritual presence at a different time."

"Yes."

"Got it." Poof.

...right. Time to go into the deep. Annika summons a large ball of blue fire that orbits around her and lights up a reasonable distance away from her. Most importantly, though, it reveals any cloaked or concealed enemies, or it will when they start showing up.

Yep. Akiho will be back here. Being supportive and full of debuffs (and fire).

“Let me know if you sense any proper spirits,” she calls, to Annika, “I’ll need to switch what I’ve got on you two to let you fight them better.”

The buff as it current is: is very subtle. …. But it is less cold here, and there are some other effects that are even less obvious. Annika feels like she flows through her forms easier, with less use of mana, and Taharqi moves faster in stealth than he’s used to.

...neat.

Fascinating.

There are two main changes in the cave from the last time Taharqi and Annika came in. The first and most obvious is that all of the torches have gone out, every single one of them, past a certain point; it's pitch black. The second, though, is—or at least starts out—as subtle as Akiho's own buffs.

It's cold. It's really cold, colder than it should be, but that's par for the course. But it's cold in their bones, it's the kind of cold that's not just unpleasant, it's hard to recover from, it's like being dumped in frigid water and being out in the air and not being allowed to dry off, and every time you might be getting a bit drier another bucket of water is dumped on you. The negative spiritual pressure is being converted into actual physical chill, this time, as if the soul of the stone itself were absent and trying to suck in the souls of their flesh to replace it. It takes a while for them to notice that, because it just feels cold, so it creeps on them.

And the spiritual and psychological effects themselves are more keenly felt. Not stronger, exactly, but they're the difference between seething in the back of your mind and being actively angry; a different of focus. And the three of them are being watched, personally.

Akiho haaaaates iiiiiiit. Her ears eventually go flat against her head, because she sure is not having a good time, but she otherwise doesn’t complain. Out loud.

Inside, she hates it she hates it she hates it but she has a mission and she will accomplish it. Mrrrrrrrrrhhhhhh. Onwards. Setting things on fire in this very cold place. Are there spirits around? Please say there are spirits around, she has a surprise for them.

Not... at first. There are undead, which are really just animated matter, and there are horongs, which are spiritual phenomena but not really spirits, so much. And it's... quite a bit of walking. With everything feeling worse. And worse. And wo—

s̷̘̦̟̆̎̀̀́͐̈̊̈͊ẖ̶͖̦̗̙̮̫͖͎͔͓͇̠̣͔̗̓̃̌̈́̎͛̌͜͠e̴̬̫̘̐̐ ̴̧̛̲̳̭͎̘͉̥̐̔̈̽͂͘s̸̨͚̗͇̗̻͎̙̠̊̾̒̊̎̎̎̇̅͘ͅh̴͖͋̊̈́̉̓̇̌͛̉̂̚ơ̷̙̱͇͓̻̜̱͉̣͇͌͆̈̿̾̎̽͋̓ǘ̷̢̢̻͖̗͈̯̟̝̰̥̻͓͍̼̈́͒̄̋̾̾̓̿̐͒͂̊͜ļ̴̧̨̦̫̝̣̣̣̟͙̣̰̜͈͛̎͜͠d̵̢̨̨̫͔̺͇͎̼͚̬͙̜͎͋̌̈́̍͑̓̓̏̓̽͑̍̍̓͠͝n̴̼̘͈̩̝͉͙̞̦̟̞̾͐̈͊͋̒̏̄̌͝͝ͅ'̵̨̢̭͔͓͇͔̺͉̂̕ţ̵̝̯̦̠̰̮̲̍̇͋̃̅̈̓͒̀͘ͅ ̴̳̲͙̾̆͌̀̈́̋̄̈̄͂̓̇̅̚͘ȩ̴̧͔̳̝̪̤̗͇̬̻̗̖͗͊̐̊͗̈́́͐̊̈̿̈͒̿͋͠x̸͈̬͕̼̗͓̖̳͗͐͐͑ḯ̴͖͉͎̜̣̟̖͎̟͎̤̺̣̯͎̯͖̽̅̈́̈́͐͒͊̾̈́͛̇̕͘̚s̴̜͙̳̺̯̠̣̻͓̝̬̲̲̲̩̀̃̈̍̔͑͝t̷̡̧̯̱̭̙̟͇̮̜̹̰̠̪̦̮̽̿̈́͌̉̈́́̈͜͠

—rse.

There it is. She’d been bracing for it, but it stings all the same. Augh augh augh augh and she’s probably the first one to hear it and she will continue to hear it until this job is done. She carries on regardless, until she can’t anymore.

“One moment,” she says out loud, because she’s stopped walking and can’t make herself start again. Yet.

Deep breath. And then, with some trepidation, tapping into her own inner beast.

Yes she does. Yes she should.

“Okay.” She is glowing a little, with her ethereal blue fire, and her hair is kind of…. Swooshing dramatically… but she is in control. Onwards.

...?

"...are you two... fighting?"

“Not exactly. I’m… asserting my presence. I need to, because I’m too similar. But we’re not in any kind of spat just yet.”

"......what's the trigger I should have to teleport you out?"

“If I curl up into a little ball muttering to myself that I exist, or, er. If I grow claws and try to kill you. I expect it’ll be the former before the latter, but. I’m okay for now.”

She nods, and keeps walking.

(Ha how's that for a dose of your own medicine.)

The first actual spirit shows up shortly after.

It's... unclear... if it's a ghost, or an impression of a person, or, or what, but it's shaped in a mostly-human fashion, if you ignore the way their edges fray and sway in nonexistent wind, and the way they don't seem to have defined features just in full generality. There's... something there.

Yesssssssss she can tear it apart with her claws and teeth by sensibly changing the buffs on her allies. From the back. Where she will be doing no ripping apart of anything in particular. These buffs go out one at a time, but they’re very obvious:

Their weapons are now spirit-flavored. Guess what their attacks are now super effective against! It’s spirits. The answer is spirits. Spirits and souls are best for handling other spirits, because the energy is on the same metaphysical level.

Cool he steps over to the spirit and slices it and—

It dissipates harmlessly.

—that was anticlimactic as Hel.

Yeah?? Try hanging out in the back playing support bitch when you are gorgeous and terrifying and powerful—!

… Yeah. Pretty anticlimactic.

Onwards!

Spirits continue to be the exception rather than the rule, but the numbers of foes increase steadily until that means they're encountering one every ten minutes.

Almost all of them are very weak. Almost all of them seem unaggressive until you walk to close to them at which point they lunge at you and dump

despair horror fear loneliness anger hatred emptiness

right into your soul. Killing them early and quick is the best way to deal with it.

And then there are the spirits that aren't that weak, and which do more than just make you feel so bad you want to kill yourself and maybe everyone around you. Those spirits are probably not ghosts of the deceased; big misshapen things with corrosive touch, creatures as black as night with silver eyes with rectangular pupils and teeth as tall as a person, things of fur and claw that don't follow any body plans known to mortals—

None of those had been there, the first time Annika and Taharqi came. None of them are impossible for the party to take on, but they do need taking on, and it kind of becomes clear pretty early that having Taharqi around is helping a lot. They'd be covering ground much, much more slowly without him or someone in his place.

He’s going to be insufferably smug about this, isn’t he. She’s glad he’s here anyway. Grumble grumble, from her place at the back.

(They wouldn't need his help if—) (She is not finishing that sentence.)

They walk.

s̴̜̻͔̣̠͕̺̆̒͐́̈̃ͅͅḩ̶͉̟̳͈̪̻̝̗̞̆͗́͗͛̐̾̏͘e̷̥̘͖̫͇̯̹͉͙̼͒̓̔̕͜ ̴̨̛͓͈͈̼̗̰̫̞͇͕̹̯̞̊̍̌ͅs̸̛͖̰͒̇̄͂̐̃̐̎̀͒̂̄̚ͅͅh̵̢̫̜̓̀̓̃̉̽́͆̒̚͝͠͝ǫ̶̲̲̰͌̓̈́̓̓̏̌̄́̊̓̀͘̚͝͝ü̵̪̣̯͎̗͎͈̘͈̤̓̿̓͊̈́͝l̵̨̼͖̪̣͛͐̀̆̾̅͊ḑ̴͎̝̺̭͙̦̗̦͕̝̉̉́̈́͌̉͝n̸̢̢̢̟͉̱̱̫͈̥̬̬̞̟̟̑̇̆͂͆͌̉͒̽͗̈̕ͅ'̵̨̩̱̬͉̰̹̖̘̥̻̩̥̳̩̟͆̉̓̀ͅẗ̷͖̼́̌̓̑̉ ̸̡͔̞̣̟̱́̈́̅̋̍̽͂̒͜ȩ̷͙̫͇̹̺̱̖̱̖̖̭̏̊͐̌̈́̋̚͜ẍ̵̢̛̮̞͉͕̫̜́̆̂̍̌̀̔͂̾̄͗́̇̃̕͘ḯ̵̲̫̫̝͉͚͓͐͌͂̅̿͘s̷̘̪̰̜͕̄̉̓̓͊͛͋̈͐̑͛̍̋̕̚͝t̴̫̝̆̃̎̾͛́̂

And walk.

s̸̢̛͙̼̙̟͚͇̳͈͍͎̤͊̿̈́̌̇͂̔̃̒h̶͔̪͍̰͕̲̗͌͋͆̈̌̆́̓̍͋̌͌̔̌͘͝͝e̷̡̛̤̤͚̜̯͍̣͈̲̱̽̏̆̀͆͐͘͝ ̵̛̛̝͉̻̘͉̟͇̝̥̳̲͊̎́̑̾̊͛̌̒̚̚ṣ̵̡̡̱̬̠̩̼̣̻͔̀̈́̃̄͑̂̓́͆͌ȟ̷̨̛̗͖͇̱̬̇͛͂̆̏̉̋͋̏̓̅̕͝o̵̝͖̻̼̼̗̥̊́̚͜ų̵̛̛͔̺̝̠͔͎͎̩͉̳̠̹̖̲̭̺̅̃̈͒̐͝l̷̨̢͈̝͎̳͓͔̝̘̍͂͘ͅd̵͚͎̱̦̜̖̳̫̱̝͆̾̈͛̓̾͛̃̏̎̃̌̊́͘͘͝n̵̢̛̛̘̳̭͉̤̻̥̟̤̦̬͗̒̎́̎͐́̓́̉̕͠'̸̧̨̮̻͎̍́̌͌̽̎͘̕̕͝ͅt̶̘̥̲̦̥̹̪̎̂̔́́͒̄͑̔́̽̑̍̿̍ͅͅ ̶͉̟͖͓͔̝̺͇͚̳͓̝̯̆͑̑̃̄̅̕͝e̴͇̪͖͆̍ͅx̶̛̦̘̿̌͂́͋̚i̷̛̹̦͛͌̍̽̍̑͊͆͗̇̾̈̈́̅̚š̵̟͉̱͉͈̥͚̖̹̮̳̜̙͙̞́̐̔͑̂́̏̒͝ͅt̵̡̢̖͈̟̲̜͉͕̤͓̹͈͖̮̉́

And walk.

ŝ̴͍͑͒̈̾͆̈͝h̴͈͗́e̶̠͒̏̋̉͗̀͘͝ ̸̨̰͓͚̼̮̏̈́̃̀ͅs̸̝̥̥͛̔͐͂ẖ̷̢̘͖̪̺͖͝ọ̸̢̢̹̺̘́ú̴̢̲͕̯̜͔̗l̵̨̨̙̪̈͗̓͋̌d̷̛̝̯͓̺͔͂̅͒̋̐̑ͅn̸̦̝͎͖͗̅͋́'̸̨̬̦̱͓̈̈́͛̽͝t̷̰͚͗̈́̍̄͝ ̸̧̣̹̬̭̦͌͗͂̎͊͊̒e̶̫͒̐̿̎x̸̥̟̥̆͝i̸̛͍͈͗̎́͛͠͝s̵̞͈̩̗̭̪̺͖̈́̇̇͘͝t̵̩̥̥̱̖͔̩̓͑̈́

And fight, and walk, and fight, and walk.

s̷̡͝h̶̗̫͑͌é̷͙͗͜ ̸̱̤̓͝d̸̪̂ò̷̭͠e̵͇̯̚͘ş̵͔̊n̸̼͑'̸̰̃̄ṫ̵̇ͅ ̸̳͊ė̵͇̏x̸̧̹̆́i̵̟̰͘s̴͎͌̌t̷͈̠̍

There's the sound of bells.

t̴h̷e̸y̷ ̶d̵o̷n̶'̶t̶ ̴e̴x̶i̷s̸t̷

"She's close."

no one exists

no one should exist

she's all alone, and it's her fault

she made everyone not exist, including herself

it's Akiho's fault

Akiho did this. it's Akiho's fault. Akiho did this. it's Akiho's fault. Akiho did this. it's Akiho's fault. Akiho did this...

Ack. Ack ack ack. It’s not her, it’s not her, it’s talking about the actual fox demons, of which she is not one…

“Okay, now we’re maybe about to start arguing a little,” she informs her party, shivering a little and scrunching her eyes shut.

I’m not a fox demon!

and neither are you!!!

she doesn't exist

none of them do

There's a feeling of vertigo that slams into Akiho like the hammer of Thor as she realises that that's right. She really doesn't exist. None of them do. It's a lie, they've never existed. They dreamed it, they thought it was real but it wasn't. She can see it clearly, right? The rock beneath her feet is real, but she can't feel it. The air is real, but she can't breathe it. The light is real, but she can't see it. It's because only things that exist can touch, breathe, and see. And she isn't one of them. If she ever was one of them, that stopped being the case a long time ago. But that's unlikely. She most likely never existed. Maybe someone else did, that was like who she thought she was, and she thought she was her? But she wasn't. She wasn't her, because she just wasn't. She—

"She's projecting."

"...that's not news."

She can barely hear them, they're so distant. Except, she can't hear them at all, because she doesn't exist, and hearing is for—

"I mean that's what she's feeling. The, the thing where we don't exist. She's not saying that we don't exist. She's saying that she feels like she doesn't. It's her own feelings, amplified, that she's making us feel as if it's us. It's not on purpose."

...no, that makes no sense. She doesn't exist, she is the one who doesn't exist, Akiho doesn't exist, it's not someone, it's Akiho—

"That doesn't help."

"Yeah, it does. Because it can't be healthy for her, thinking she doesn't exist, and having the fox demon part of her able to twist everything around her so that it's true."

It's not true. It couldn't be true.

Could it?

“It’s true!!”

She flares her blue soul fire, her eyes opening and her tail swishing behind her.

“You’re like me!! You exist, and part of you feels like it’s, it’s wild and raging and untamed and should be worshipped, and that is something else. What’s your name??”

There isn’t any kind of manifestation to slap a seal on, yet, but she thinks they can get there soon enough.

An impression of a nine-tailed fox, more like an optical illusion than an actual entity in a location, jumps in front of them out of nowhere, and then flees back into nowhere.

"Moonlight Flower," Taharqi responds, after a beat of silence. "That's her name. It's Moonlight Flower."

“That’s a pretty name. I’ve… never met someone like me before, actually. Hi, Moonlight Flower, I’m Morikawa no Akiho. My mom was a priestess, too.”

There isn't a response. Just complete silence.

...as opposed to the oppressive feeling of unreality from just now. It's not... entirely gone, but it's definitely no longer trying to crush her into paste.

That’s promising! Really promising! But still nothing she can slap a seal on, just yet.

“I can help you. I have some practice with the whole… keeping my inner fox demon under control thing. So it can stop lying to you about what’s going on.”

Still silence.

"...we press on," says Annika.

Akiho nods, still reassured. They can maybe do this!!!! It can happen!!!!

Anyway, yes, onwards.

They approach something that could've been a temple, once upon a time, a large and rich one. The square area that probably used to be the temple's garden is protected by walls, many of which have crumbled enough to be passable. There's a dry pond with a petrified tree over there, and the main temple building would probably be farther into the cave, hidden by the unnatural darkness Annika's floating light cannot pierce. There's no more fighting on the way there, not since they ran into Moonlight Flower's fox, and now it's only quiet and cold. Until they actually step into the temple, that is.

It's the middle of the day, the sun shining high, which feels incongruous with the rest of the scene. There are fires everywhere, their smoke thick enough to form shapeless black clouds obscuring much of the view of the sky. Some people are trying to put the fires out, not very effectively, and not using any magic. It's unclear what they think they'd be able to achieve, without magic; the fire has clearly spread into the forest itself, and it's unclear whether the village is faring any better than the temple.

And in the center of the garden there's a girl, kneeling on the ground and holding her head in her hands. There's a wooden stick with a bell at the end lying forgotten nearby. Her chin-length, golden hair hides the spot where ears would be on a human, but a furry pair of fox ears poking out of the top of her hair and pressed flat against her head suggests there wouldn't be any. There are various patches of golden fur on her body, and her hands and feet are replaced by digitigrade paws (with opposable thumbs in the case of the hands). She has nine fox tails, each about as long as her whole body, and they're stretched straight out away from her. 

There are cracks on the ground, some of the fissures wide enough a person could fall into them, spread in a spiderweb pattern centered on her, and where they've touched any buildings they've greatly damaged them. Occasionally there's a tremour and the cracks spread out a little bit further, or widen a bit, or a new small crack appears. 

Funnily enough, there isn't a feeling of spiritual pressure, here. Maybe because it's unnecessary, made diffuse by the memories and evoked by the scene itself. There's no need to be made up feel like everything is horrible when everything is visibly horrible. 

They are in the belly of the beast.

Another tremour rocks the place, hard enough the only thing leaving Taharqi and Annika standing is their specialised training. Still, Taharqi has to brace, lowering his body a bit closer to the ground and keeping his arms out for balance. 

"Moonlight!" he calls. "Moonlight Flower!"

She doesn't look up. Her ears don't even twitch at hearing her name.