Tsuki had stared at the violet gem for a long time; maybe longer than she should have had. She was simply entranced by the perfectly cut shiny facets. The light from the nearby fire refracted many forms – most just a creation of the girl’s imagination – and she imagined herself going on an adventure inside of this refracted world.

She dreamed she was holding a sword made from crystal and riding a mighty steed down a hill. The sun in her back, she lifted the blade to shine every color at her foes who crystallized in the same color they were marked. Waves tried to drown her but she solidified them and they looked like a forest of glass which she ran deeper into until she came upon a castle protected by a sea dragon. She fell the beast in one strike while it was distracted and entered the castle filled with lavender and groves of wisteria.

She wanted to go deeper but a sound came from behind her; someone was there and was falling because they had tripped on a root. Tsuki caught this strange person she couldn’t quite discern, almost like something blurred them, but noticed their eyes made from a light violet. This person came close to her and whispered some words in her ear which she sadly didn’t know as it was in an unknown language.

Then suddenly, she felt something tugging behind her which brought her great pain. The reverie was over as she looked at the cause and found Bakasura hugging her tail while his brother was trying to pry him from it. She still had no clue why a tail suddenly grew. With the two brothers seemingly knowing the reason, she asked them.

“BECAUSE, sister is the best!” – “Ufff… Sometimes I want to hit you, brother… Miss Tsuki, us, rakshasa, were first born after tasting the flesh of a god. Since it’s basically impossible to do so now, we mostly gain our power from the flesh of mortals. Paundraka was a part of a more powerful god. Since you ate his flesh, which comes with his divinity, you became a full fledged rakshasi. The more god you consume, the stronger you will get.”

“How come I have a tail and you don’t?” asked Tsuki.

“Never killed a god. Sister, was it good? Wait, Krimira! Let go of me! Nooooo, sister…” – “Leave her alone. She needs to rest.”

Krimira had managed to pull his brother to him while he placed his head on his lap. He struggled at first but went to sleep right after his brother started brushing his shoulder-length hair.

“Sorry,” said Krimira. “We don’t know what that tail really means. After all, we only became rakshasa by accident. We wanted to live and became this. There are others like us, jailed in Naraka. Maybe you can ask them once you have a way to free them…”

“Yes, I’ll try when I can. Thank you Krimira.”

The boy turned red with some tears appearing in his eyes. When was the last time someone told him ‘thank you’… Quickly, he managed to dry them and put on a smile. He had to be strong in times like these, all for his brothers.

❀

The group had rested for an hour or so while Gupta tied the corpse of Paundraka so it could be transported. During that time, Tsuki had managed to fully close the cat’s wounded back. Alas, a patch of fur was missing with a big scar visible. What more was that his precious trench coat was completely ruined, although it was already in a pretty bad condition.

Following Gupta’s instructions, Tsuki managed to create a portal leading back above ground by using the gem.

How surprised were those waiting when hands appeared from nothingness to tear a hole in the fabric of reality, even more when not just one girl they thought they were saving came out but five people in total. Finally, all reason left them when the beast was pulled out of it as it was so tall that it ought to have had its head always stuck in the leaves of trees when walking around while still alive.

But the one who was the most shocked was Luk. None of those five were human nor were they any race he knew. Even the cat, for it was undoubtedly a cat walking on two legs, wasn’t what its shape promised. After all, Vergeltung wasn’t really a cat but a story. The two boys were man-eaters, yet they were molded by a different faith Luk knew and learned magic from their diet. Fi who was still flying on the alligator plush was an elemental spirit. Luk was used to them, yet saw something more primal or even primordial with her.

Yet, with all of them combined, only the dark hair girl made him feel fear. Her blue and green eyes were filled with confidence, yet he knew better than anyone the darkness they were hiding. He, the father of monsters, knew she was a creature more insidious than any of the four others. “Hati,” he whispered.

From the forest came the howling of wolves. “We’re under attack,” added the trickster while observing the newcomers. His face became ashen once he saw the girl rip her right arm and throw it on the ground.

“Sinorous,” she whispered in between pained breaths.

The hound, not of this world, was summoned. It howled a sound like metal grinding against metal as sickening fumes dispersed behind the tree line. The beasts that were threatening them got stuck in a temporal rift they couldn’t escape.

Tsuki got onto Sinorous’ back as a white wolf came from above and bit at her. Sinorous moved between planes and avoided the attack before reappearing further in the forest where he snapped the neck of one of the weaker beasts.

Luk, feeling a sharp blade in his back – the sword wielded by Kriemhild which he felt like he saw somewhere – dismissed the wolves by throwing a ball of fire toward the largest in an attempt to hide his first intention.

Once they were all gone, Tsuki came, with a young wolf barely alive, and ordered Sinorous to drop it in front of the other where it died while twitching violently. Luk was in pain upon seeing this. At first, he was only curious after detecting the smell of something unknown on Folkvang – a smell that shouldn’t be able to follow him in the first place. But now that he was looking at her, fear managed to seep into his mind.

This fear was something he never really felt. His lips took the better of his and whispered to the hound’s rider, “Who are you?”

Such a question was followed by a rain of violet lightning and the outcry of Hoomaikai to stop everything. “STOP! SHUT UP! I asked you to save my friend! Nothing more. Nothing else. If you have any complaints, then leave!”

One of the little snakes was going on and about while more sparks formed around it but was silenced by the one she was trying to protect. “Maikai, it’s fine,” she said. After this, Tsuki got off the hound and came in front of Luk who wanted to back down but still had a sword pointed at his back; its wielder not showing any sign of pulling it back. “Thank you for coming to our help. I hope we can work together from now on to carry all that meat.”

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“I was told it would only be one person that we would need to bring back. We deserve an explanation,” said Luk.

At this, Tsuki gave a simplified description of what she went through. She left out parts that were obviously strange, such as the market with neon light or the gem she received from Gupta. “Basically, I left alone and found those guys along the way.” She then added that it would be best to start moving already since the meat obviously attracted a pack of wolves. There were only two people who understood that Luk was behind the attack: Tsuki and Kriemhild. If Vergeltung would have been conscious, he would have been delectated by such events.

A small hand then pulled on Kriemhild’s clothing. It was Fionn who looked worried at the lady. Her tired and tense traits softened at the boy’s sight, and she pulled back her sword which lamented silently not being able to drink a sweet nectar. She had lost her son in the past after some unfortunate events. Fionn that was in front of her reminded her of him.

❀

Things moved slowly at first, but soon enough the group of now 13 was transporting a large carcass in the forest. Fi used her magic to lift the corpse a few centimeters (Let’s say one inch) from the ground. Only one of Luk’s mounts was needed to pull it along; the poor beast was scared at first that its master was just punishing it with an impossible task.

Krimira and his brother were riding the dead Paundraka while using some magic to manifest some water they then used to clean the fur. As for Hoomaikai, her snakes were guiding the group back toward the carriages. Lastly, Vergeltung was riding Sinorous together with Tsuki. He was slowly waking up while grunting in pain.

“Good morning,” said Tsuki while petting the cat’s head.

“Gah, don’t touch me,” responded the cat who lazily tried to swat the girl’s hand away. “Where…” A ringing pain was hammering his brain; too tired, so tired – if only he could sleep more, maybe the pain would go away.

“Oy!”

Tsuki didn’t allow him to rest anymore as he wanted to. Instead, she forced a few yellow petals to numb his pain while shaking him awake. There was something she wanted to ask him: she wanted guidance, and he was the only one she knew who could give her an answer.

“Vergeltung, I need your help with something…”

With how direct and sullen she was, Vergeltung was confused. “Talk. What is it,” said he. There were things he wanted to ask also, the hound she was making him ride being one of them, but allowed her to go first. Hopefully, it would be something simple.

“Say, you had a family and all, right?”

“Yes…I did.”

“Then you must know about love, I suppose. Tell me, what is it like to love someone…”

She asked, yet the cat remained silent. This was something hard for him to respond to. Not that he didn’t understand what love was, but because he was recently doubting having ever loved anyone. He was a character made by someone. All his desires were molded by his creator: his plight, his fear, his joy, his sadness, his hate, and his love. All that he was, was a bundle of paper. That is until recently…

“This…” he tried to say something but took another long pause to straighten his ideas. “My creator gifted me with the idea of loving… I do love my wife and my kid. I do. But all I can remember of them are a few simple images. I have experienced more things since appearing in that strange market. So, how can I say if I truly ever loved anyone if my emotions were not developed but implanted…”

The two of them were silent for some time. The cat was forced to love someone he didn’t really know as his life started with him already married and with a kid. His story, compared with the others of the same maker, wasn’t that popular. A useless detective who only knows to drink at the loss of his family who is right below his nose: this was the opinion readers had of him. As such, any character development was cut short, and he never had an ending made – always searching for his family even after many years went by and the colors of his story faded.

He had been wondering about who he really was since hearing Fi was created by a legend. The spirit talked as if the two were similar, yet the cat couldn’t help but think how it wasn’t the case. For a legend, it describes the possible actions someone will take while never fully describing the hero inside of it: Ho, the great hero will rise once the stars align and he will cleanse the world of all vileness… or so they go.

“I cannot answer as I am now,” said the cat who looked down at his burned paws. They were damaged because he loved, this was a truth he didn’t want to let go. But as he loved, he also despised his maker for those emotions he had no say in. He wanted his love to be by his own volition for exactly this love… “Why do you ask me such?”

The girl was then the one to not say anything for some time. She was thinking about how to best describe her issue. She opened her lips before freezing. She was scared of what she was about to say, but upon realizing this fact forced herself to talk, “Why do you think I followed you in the market?”

With this asked, the cat’s brain started working overtime. It was strange for her to simply follow him. After all, he was accusing her of a crime, yet she said nothing against those accusations. He could have been a murderer: they were attacked inside the market which he could have been part of. Yet, she followed him as if not scared of him. The cat realized she was either confident he couldn’t hurt her or that she was simply mindless with the latter less likely.

Seeing the cat still thinking, Tsuki gave him the reason. “You had no intention of hurting me… This, the ideas others have of me, I can feel them since I was born…”

Vergeltung, about to understand what she was leading to, asked, “The brothers, the spirit, the snakes… everything… were you acting like you were because of this?”

The girl responded by patting the cat’s head who tried to brush it off but gave up in the end. “You look like a cat, but do you really think you are one?” she asked. This time, her voice was trembling as she was getting closer to the thing that scared her.

The cat decided not to respond, he lacked the information needed to do so and not hurt the girl.

Tsuki followed after a few minutes of silence, “A lot happened, but I used to be a shepherd. Weird right?”

“A good profession. Free yet stuck with a lot of responsibility.”

“Yeah… I forgot a lot of my past but recently some memories seem to be coming back. I remember a boy who came to buy a few sheep along with his father. They wanted to invite me to a party, but I refused.

I remember… When the father died. I sold some wool for cheap so they could make him clothes before burying him.

I remember… When the boy became a father himself. I sold five sheep and two lambs. There was a big party of which I could see the light in the distance.

I remember… When the newborn became of age and started merchandising his goods between villages. I was happy seeing the beautiful dresses exchanged that were made from the wool I sold.

I remember… When this merchant bought three sheep from me. He came with his father whose head was filled with gray and his arms held onto two adorable twins.

Then his sons came, all grown up followed later by their own kids. The gray hair growing like weeds mixed with the soft hands of newborns. I saw them live, I saw them die, I saw them cry, I saw them despair, I saw them smile, I saw them love, and I saw them be. Until the years passed and their village was turned to cinders; I saw them burn.”

When the girl was done talking, Vergeltung was too shocked to say much more than, “And what does it have to do with love?”

To which she responded, “Because I want to change.” She took a deep breath before pointing at the snakes made from lightning. “That girl, she has been in love with me since we first met… Not long ago, I had a sort of vision where I saw someone that I can only describe with the color violet. I also felt that they loved me for some reason… That emotion, it’s something I never felt in my life – I never loved anyone like how they love me… I don’t know that emotion.”

ꙮ

Gupta’s report of the week.

Gupta started cleaning the visitor’s rooms. The floor broke while he was cleaning. Require wood for repair.

Gupta is researching how to remove the people and furniture inside the walls.

Gupta is now keeping records of resources needed and current research progress.

Resources needed: 50 units of wood. Lockpicking tools.

Researche: 25% sludge. 0% walls.