EPISODE XVII

May Your Revenge be Justified

“Hey, Amaris!” Scarlet called from her obnoxiously red car. “Want a ride home?”

Amaris looked at the sidewalk she was walking on. It wasn’t that far back home, but a ride with Scarlet was always welcome. “Sure!”

Scarlet pulled over and Amaris hopped into the passenger seat, setting her backpack in the back seat. Pitch slithered out of the backpack and made his way to Amaris’ arm, licking her lightly.

“How’ve things been?” Scarlet asked.

“Same as usual. A dogman lives in the Dregs. He can swim through rock.” Amaris shrugged. “Had to dig Jenny out of the ground.”

“Interesting… afraid I can’t help you with that one, information on the Dregs is hard to vet. However… I have found some interesting leads on that basement of yours in the school.”

“Really?” Amaris perked up.

“Yes.” Scarlet’s warm smile faltered slightly. “The original school plan didn’t even have a door there. The modern instance of the plans show the door, though—it was added later. But there’s no evidence of any construction or even someone updating the floor plan. It was actually somewhat difficult to even find the original blueprint.

“So either someone built it and didn’t want anyone to know, or it just showed up one day, or something weirder.”

“It’s a little more ominous than that. I started performing a search on other buildings, entirely randomly. Houses, business offices, restaurants, gas stations… They aren’t too common, but I have found a few dozen instances of doors that were not there in the original plans but are there now.”

“So this is a recurring phenomenon.”

“Exactly. And we can’t blame a particular construction company for just doing it deliberately, as the buildings I found them in show no relation to each other. Most were built by different people.” She made a hard right turn in the car, jostling Amaris. “The most unnerving part is how the floor plans are just updated to include them. Nobody seems to care or notice.”

“You’re able to notice it, though.”

“Yes. Except… is that only because I’m actively looking?’

Amaris clicked her tongue. “Maybe, but if there was some kind of memory magic afoot you wouldn’t even be able to remember it, like the angel orb.”

“Or maybe it just works differently.” Scarlet paused. “It’s not just limited to Nuk, I found floor plans like this across Yeshalo. The timescale is also… impressive. Your school is one of the newer buildings that has a door like that. I’ve found ones that are over a century old with it.”

“So whatever this is, it’s been going on for a while…” Amaris scritched Pitch under his chin. “Is there any pattern in where these doors lead?”

“The majority of them lead to basements that aren’t well-defined on the floor plan, but not all of them. One literally just makes a hallway to connect two other hallways. Another creates a second entrance to an attic.”

Amaris nodded slowly. “Thanks, Scarlet. I’ll keep you posted. …How are you doing?”

“Well, there’s another murder I get to cover today!” Scarlet smiled. “Those are always so exciting.”

“Wish they didn’t happen…”

“Oh, of course, but this one’s special, the kid went missing a month ago and his body is now turning up in parcels all over town, quite the story. Watch the news, it’ll be fun.”

Amaris rolled her eyes. “You and your morbid curiosity.”

“Someone’s gotta do it, right?”

“It is helpful that you aren’t squeamish, this is true.”

At this point, Scarlet pulled up to Amaris’ house. “We’re here. Let me know how your next adventure goes!”

“Will do!” Amaris said, waving goodbye. She went inside and called out. “Hi, Mom, I’m home!”

“How was school?” Amaris’ mom asked as she painted a potato that was cut into a helix pattern. She was currently painting it while upside-down on a chair. Amaris didn’t question this, it was as normal as anything else her mother did.

“Eh, boring. Most exciting thing that happened was Judit trying to subtly trip me. I’m really starting to frustrate her by being impossible to bully.” Amaris chuckled. “Still waiting for that ambush to strike while I’m on my way home one of these days. …I might have just avoided it, actually, considering that Scarlet picked me up.”

“We are fortunate to have such a neighbor. How is Emma doing?” Amaris mom frowned and she switched her paintbrush to her other hand, trying to get the shading on the edge of the potato just right.

“She’s… well, she’s doing better?” Amaris shook her head. “It wasn’t a good experience by any means, but she seems to be more scared of her parents finding out than anything right now.”

“A child should never fear her parents…” Amaris’ mom sighed. “But there isn’t much we can do.”

“Yeah.. When’s Dad coming home?”

“Should be back in time for dinner. Irene too, though her grocery hours are much more predictable.”

“I wonder how she’s doing…”

~~~

“I’m here to return this,” a small, lanky man said.

Irene blinked. “…You want to return a half-eaten apple?”

“Yes. It tasted terrible. I demand a refund.”

Irene let out a long, drawn-out sigh and rammed her face into the counter.

“Refund. Now.”

Irene put on her signature forced smile. “I’m sorry, we aren’t allowed to offer refunds on produce.”

“That’s a stupid policy. Change it.”

“I’m just the cashier, I’m not allowed to change policy.”

“I know you can, just ignore the policy, give me my money back.”

“That would get me in trouble.”

“Do you think I care?”

Irene’s smile widened even further. “Do you think I care? I’m a grocery store cashier, of course I don’t.”

The man curled his tiny fingers into a fist. “You. Are going to give me my refund.”

“Uh. No. I’m not.”

“I’ll bring my dogs back here and have them eat you.”

Irene blinked. “My word, you’re serious. What on earth is wrong with you?”

“Just give me the freaking refund!”

“How about instead I call management and maybe the cops…” she picked up the phone.

“Your days are numbered, witch.” He slammed the apple into the counter, splattering its remains all over everything. He stormed off angrily.

Irene sighed. “What a wierdo…” rather than calling management, she called the intercom. “Cleanup at cash register four…”

~~~

“Oh, Amaris, could you get the mail?” her mom asked. “I’m a bit… occupied in this position.”

“Got it,” Amaris said, walking out to the mailbox and opening it.

Immediately the noxious fumes of rotting flesh hit her nose. This did not make her recoil, but it was highly unpleasant. Inside was a rat carcass with a note on it. For your halfbreed friend.

“Geez…” Amaris grunted. She went back inside. “I think Judit left me a rotting rat in the mailbox.”

“Goodness, how terrible, let me…”

“Don’t get down, I can deal with it. There was no mail, by the way.” Amaris quickly got a plastic bag and a can of disinfectant spray. She went out and sprayed the entire mailbox and the rat carcass. She put her hand inside the plastic bag and used it as a glove to grab the rat, the note, and everything else in the mailbox. Then she sprayed down the entire thing again, to the point at which it was dripping with so much disinfectant it smelled like a chemical factory. There were enough fumes that Amaris began to wonder if it was healthy to be breathing right now.

At least that would take care of any rotting anything.

She threw the rat in the outside garbage and proceeded to entirely disinfect her hands.

“Taken care of,” Amaris said.

“You sure you’re not bothered?” her mom asked.

“I mean, maybe a little bit? She’s just a bully trying to figure out how to get to me. Not gonna work.”

Her mom smiled. “That’s my girl.”

“We might have to deal with some other annoyances, though. I’m expecting her to try and push the ‘you’re friends with a neko’ angle as hard as she can. Which won’t be very far since she’s not that clever, she seems to have forgotten that cats like rats too, and she’s a cat.”

“Some people…” her mom sighed. “I do wonder what happened to that poor girl to make her this way…”

Amaris shrugged. “No idea.” She went to the kitchen and started preparing herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for a snack. She had just finished and was about to take a bite when she noticed something white and fuzzy in the backyard. She had only seen it out of the corner of her eye, but it had been on top of the fence and dropped down behind a bush.

“Hmm…” Amaris said. “C’mon Pitch, we’re checking that out.” She set her sandwich down and went into the backyard, Pitch curled around her wrist. Cautiously, she approached the bush, circling it at first, trying to get some sense of what was hiding behind it. It was white and fuzzy, yes, but there was also a fair amount of red—either it had just finished hunting something or was injured itself, it was hard to tell through the foliage.

It noticed her circling and started growling. It wasn’t all that threatening of a growl, all things considered.

Amaris eventually found a good angle where she could see what she was looking at. It was a fox-like creature with pale fur that had soft blue highlights. Much of it was bloodied and battered—clearly from its own injuries, not from whatever it might have been hunting. It had two tails, both of which were twitching angrily.

The creature glared right at her and snapped its jaws. Amaris could clearly see that it was trembling, though.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Amaris said. “…You don’t look too good, but you do look mystical. Can you… understand me? We have medicine inside… you can come in and take it.”

The creature snapped at her, but Amaris had seen understanding in the deep blue eyes.

“Look, I don’t have to even be near you, you can just go in…” She backed up and gestured at the house. “If you think you can use medical supplies yourself…”

The creature snapped at her, growled… and then its eyes rolled into its skull and it passed out from blood loss.

Amaris clicked her tongue. “Well. Let’s hope you’re not too far gone…” She approached the creature, warily at first, trying to make sure this wasn’t just some elaborate ruse. Satisfied that the creature really had lost consciousness, she gingerly picked it up and carried it back into the house. “Mom! Injured probably magical creature, get the medicine chest!”

Amaris’ mom left the project she was working on immediately and ran for the medicine chest. Amaris brought the creature to the kitchen table and set it on the tablecloth and checked its wounds closer. Most of them appeared to be cuts, the sort that would be made with a knife rather than the teeth of some predator. They weren’t very old wounds either—had it really passed out due to blood loss, or simply the pain of being cut in so many places and all the excitement of trying to face off against Amaris?

Amaris’ mom ran back with the medicine chest and popped it open. “Well, let’s assume this creature is close enough to a cat for first aid to work…” She pulled out a shaver. “We need to clear the fur from the wounds so we can properly bandage it.” Her hand was shaking.

“I’ll do it,” Amaris said, taking the shaver. “Just keep instructing me.”

“First of all, disinfect the shaver, then carefully…”

It took a few minutes, but they managed to trim the fur away from the wounds. They were not doctors, they couldn’t do stitches, but they could clean everything and use a special kind of powder that helped blood clot. Then they bandaged everything up and… that was all they could do.

Amaris let out a long breath. “Well, that’s all we can do for now… I’m going to send word to Coleus, ask her to come down, don’t exactly think a vet or doctor will be that helpful with a mystic creature.”

“You sure it’s magic?” Amaris’ mom asked.

“I’m… pretty sure, but even if I’m wrong, Coleus will still be better at this.”

“Yes, of course. Right. How…” Amaris’ mom sat down. “Silly of me.”

“I’ll be fine, mom. Well. In general.” With that, she got up to send word to Coleus.

~~~

Amaris moved the fox-like creature into her room for the moment and watched it closely. She was rather surprised to see it wake up.

I didn’t think we did that good of a job… maybe she’s hardy?

The creature tried to stand up, but was too shaky to pull that off so instead it just sat on its haunches. It turned its gaze to Amaris, eyes digging right into her.

“I’ve got a dryad coming to help you,” Amaris said. “Do you know what a dryad is?”

The creature nodded.

“She’ll get you fixed right up.”

“…You saved me,” the creature spoke with a deep, but feminine voice.

“Yeah. What was I gonna do, let you die back there?”

“But you’re human.”

Amaris frowned. “Humans aren’t…”

“I know,” she said, hanging her head. “I’m just… cursed to have humans hurt me. I have not seen… kindness from your kind in a long, long time.”

“Cursed?” Amaris perked up. “By some guy named Freddloi? Gave you the curse in a ‘may your’ format?”

The creature stared right at her. “ ‘May your revenge be justified.’ “

“ ‘May your life be interesting.’ “

“It is certainly… interesting that I’m allowed to interact with you without suffering for it.”

“Definitely is.” Amaris frowned. “So, you’re cursed to have humans do terrible things to you?”

“Yes. When it first came upon me, I… was young, angry, and foolish.” She looked out the window. “I thought humans were a blight on the world. My tribe originally hunted them for sport, but then we were forced into a new way of life by society around us, one dominated by humans. I wanted nothing more than to return to the old ways, to get them back for making me change, but it wasn’t societally acceptable to do so. The curse… was so that I would be ‘justified’ in my hunts.”

“That doesn’t sound like it’s possible.”

“It isn’t,” she said. “But I sure thought so…” She flicked her two tails. “I have not been able to… to talk to a human in so, so long. I… it…” Tears started welling up in her eyes. “Please. I have killed so many of you, and I regret every last one. I… I am sorry beyond words, my soul screams within my chest, I…”

Amaris walked up to her and placed a hand on her back. “Shhh… it’s okay.”

“It’s… it’s not okay at all…”

“The death, no. But right here, right now? You’re here with me. And you’re safe. And I’m not going to hurt you.” She paused. “Unless you were particularly attached to that fur of yours we had to shave to help you.”

The creature looked at the sections of her fur that were shaved. “…If that’s how the curse manifests with you that is extremely mild.”

“Good. Anyway… you say it’s humans that the curse affects? No other races?”

“Not except by proxy.”

“I’ll keep my family out of the room then, and Coleus—the dryad—will hopefully be able to help you.”

“All dryads close to a Glen can heal.”

“Yes, but she’s also good at purging evil. She’s never tried to get rid of my curse—I’ve come to think of it as a gift—but I’m sure she can try.”

“You… you can try?”

“I can’t promise anything. But I think it’s worth a shot.”

“Th… thank you…”

“I’m Amaris. Amaris Kelvin.” Amaris smiled. “You?”

“I’m Vayvaresi, a kitsune.” She flicked her two tails. “You have… no idea what this conversation means to me.”

“Maybe one day you can help me understand.”

~~~

Irene had headphones in her ears and was dancing and going “da da da” to the tune of the music as she walked back to Amaris’ house. She was in an extremely good mood. Work was over! She was going back and then she’d get to cook dinner! And this song was really bopping, it really was such a shame that Unrust hadn’t had much in the way of technology, she didn’t think she could ever go back now.

“Da da da da da da, la da da da da da da da DA da…”

She twirled around, jumping forward along the sidewalk like she was a girl playing hopscotch.

As she was fully invested and rather oblivious, she didn’t hear the barking for quite a while. However, not even the loudest and most bopping of songs could drown out the cacophony that was a dozen angry dogs barking as loudly as they could.

Irene eventually opened her eyes in annoyance and looked behind her, only to see the dogs charging at her. All of the dogs weren’t cute or cuddly; they were tall, muscular, and fit, the kind of dogs that worked as guards or police dogs. All of them had their teeth bared and were charging right at her.

Immediately Irene let out a scream of panic and ran off, her feet hitting the pavement in time to her music track. She held her hand behind her, applying happiness to the dogs.

This did not get them to stop chasing her.

“AAAAAAA!” She screamed. “Somebody HELP!”

Nobody came to help. The few people that were nearby saw the pack of dogs and decided to run away themselves. They were able to get away because the dogs were most definitely after her.

“Why oh why did I have to get the freaky weirdo with the dogs!?” Irene whined. “Why me… oh, wait, right, Amaris. AMARIS! HELP ME!”

Amaris wasn’t anywhere nearby, naturally. Neither was Jenny, today. Irene was alone as she ran from a pack of dogs and despite her freakishly long legs and surprising speed, she was not faster than the dogs. With a bark, the lead dog pounced her, paws pressing into her back.

With a shout, she fell over onto the pavement. Her torso provided her enough cushioning that her head didn’t slam onto the sidewalk and crack open, but she got numerous scrapes and bruises. The lead dog opened its mouth…

…and started licking her face. The rest of the dogs filed suit, dog-piling on top of her and licking her all over, wagging their tails excitedly.

“O-oh… guess it did work…” Irene laughed nervously. She tried to sit up, but it was rather difficult with a dozen or so dogs jumping all over her. She found that she could get them to move if she scratched them behind the ears and at the base of the neck, which made their tails wag even faster.

I wonder if these dogs have ever really felt happy before…

She eventually managed to stand back up, and now she had a dozen happy dogs following her and playfully nipping at her heels.

“W-well,” she stammered. “If I release you, you’ll probably eat me… so…” She realized she wasn’t very far from Amaris’ house. “Ah, idea. Y-you all be good now.” The dogs seemed to understand that she wanted to walk now so they didn’t get in her way too much, but they were still a little annoying.

She arrived at the house and knocked on the door. “Um… hey, don’t open the door, it’s Irene, I have a d-dog problem.”

Anastasia Kelvin came to the window and opened it. “You really do have a dog problem.”

“It’s worse than it looks,” Irene said. “They want me dead by default. N-need a way to get them off me.”

“Hmm…” Anastasia frowned. “Have you tried showing them a cat?”

“Ana!”

“Right, right… um… Coleus is upstairs with Amaris right now, I think she can do something with her plants? Hold on, let me check…” Anastasia left the window.

“Oh. Okay. I’ll just stand here. With a dozen really happy vicious dogs. No problem.” Irene looked down at all the canines. Happy though they were, those teeth were still visible, and slobber was dripping all over her shoes. She only now realized how badly all of them and, by extension, she smelled.

A moment later Amaris and Coleus appeared in the window.

“Huh. Dogs,” Amaris said. “Guess this really does confirm that interesting things happen to people when I’m not around.”

Coleus nodded. “You want me to hold them down?”

“Please,” Irene begged.

Coleus threw some seeds out the window. A few seconds later, some vines erupted from them and wrapped around the dogs, tying them down. They didn’t whimper, they were still happy dogs, tails expectantly wagging, they just couldn’t move anymore.

Amaris opened the front door and Irene scrambled in, breathing heavily.

“Have a nice run?” Anastasia asked.

“Oh yes quite definitely uh-huh,” Irene shivered. “Let’s… let the dogs go first.”

Coleus released her grip on the vines and the dogs were free. They could no longer see Irene. They could smell her, though, but they knew they couldn’t get in the house and they didn’t mind that. They just started excitedly moving around in random directions.

Amaris closed the window. “Let’s see what they do when you release them, Irene.”

Irene released them. Immediately, all the dogs became very serious and aggressive-looking—but they were not actively barking. They looked more confused than anything. They gave each other uncertain glances as they formed back into a single pack, almost as if they were discussing something. Then they all left at once, trotting away.

“Well, that’s good,” Amaris said, hoisting up her backpack. “Coleus and I needed to go out anyway.”

Coleus nodded, pulling a backpack on her own shoulders tight as well. “Yep. Sorry Irene, can’t tell you about it.”

Irene slumped into a chair nearby and let out a relieved sigh. “You can have your secrets, right now I just want this chair…”

“You two have fun!” Amaris waved back. “Let’s get going, Coleus.”

Irene paid them little mind. She just sat and recollected her thoughts, breathing.

That is, until she noticed Anastasia go into the kitchen.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“Hey, I’m still cooking dinner!” Irene said, standing up suddenly.

“You look—”

“I like cooking, give me that frying pan.”

~~~

“The elders will have to let us in,” Coleus said as she and Amaris they approached the military checkpoint around the Strider. Both of them had their backpacks. Amaris’ was filled with all her normal things, but Coleus’ had a very special passenger within hidden away from the sight of humans. This had annoyingly been the best thing they could come up with, even though Vayvaresi had said that being hidden rarely kept the curse from manifesting. “Vayvaresi has never used dryad hospitality before, we must offer assistance to the needy.”

“Good,” Amaris said.

“Just saying, they definitely wouldn’t be on board with this if Vayvaresi was some kind of evil art-ifact.”

“Mom’s paintings aren’t evil.”

“Some of them look really weird. She was dissecting a potato! With math! Terrifying.”

“Coleus, you use math to build your plant engineering.”

Coleus giggled. “I know.”

They arrived at the military checkpoint and Coleus waved at General Mason. “Hello, General!”

The General nodded in her direction. “Coleus. Please hold a minute, I need to enter you in the system.”

“Can-do,” Coleus said, sitting down.

“Bringing Amaris in with you?” General Mason asked.

“Yep!”

General Mason grumbled. “That’s gonna drive the paperwork monkeys insane.”

“I thought my special channel a-void-ed that?”

General Mason sighed. “Yes, technically, but the fact that you have express access at all really annoys them.”

“Diplomatic importance has its benefits. And I really do have to move in and out quickly sometimes, so…”

“I know,” General Mason said. “They’re still going to give me a hard time, as always. You too, if they can get their hands on y—”

“You!” A man with rectangular glasses shouted. “Are you running proper efficiency again? All the numbers are going to be out of alignment!”

“Oh do stop it,” Amaris said. “She’s the leader of the Strider, the President would get the same treatment if he ever wanted to come here.”

“The President knows not to come so we can keep everything aligned! Leaders should stay in their seats of power save for—”

“Ahem!” General Mason shouted. “I understand that you’re technically not one of my subordinates, but you are out of line. Get back to your tent, calculate your numbers, and deal with them being out of alignment.”

“I’m writing a complaint about this!”

“You do that.”

The man stormed off.

“That has to be really, really annoying,” Amaris said.

“It’s worse in meetings, then I actually have to listen to them. Or pretend to, anyway.” General Mason sighed. “You’re clear, by the way.”

They quickly got on one of the elevators and began the ride up to the Strider.

Vayvaresi poked her head out of the backpack. “He didn’t even check the backpack… no humans elbowed it…”

“I’m the leader of this place,” Coleus said. “You don’t need to check me for contraband since anything I bring in is automatically not-raband!”

Amaris facepalmed.

“It sounded better than the rubber band pun I was going to go with first.”

“For someone who uses so many puns, you aren’t the best at them,” Veyvaresi pointed out.

“Oh u-uh well… it’s… uh…” Coleus shuffled her feet awkwardly.

“And decidedly awkward for a leader as well. You are right, Amaris, you are cursed to be interesting, this is endlessly fascinating.”

“Glad I could be of assistance!” Amaris beamed.

Coleus stared at her hands. “But… I was… the interesting one… not…” Coleus shook her head. “Right, abandoning the brain train, we have a curse to remove.”

“To the Glen!”

The journey to the Glen was rather uneventful. Once they were down the stairs and past the area anyone could publicly go, Vayvaresi left the backpack and walked alongside them. Fully healed and healthy, she had a presence far beyond that of a wild animal. She was slightly larger than a cat and her fur was unnaturally smooth. One could almost describe her as glowing, but she produced no light of her own, her fur merely refracted light in an eye-catching way. Her two exceptionally bushy tails continually swiveled left and right, almost as though they were made out of liquid.

“This place… it is pure,” Vayvaresi said, looking up at the trees and the runic stones that surrounded the Glen proper. “Such purity I have not felt in… ages.”

“How many tails did you have when you were cursed?” Coleus asked.

Amaris blinked. “What kind of question is that?”

Coleus blinked. “Oh, you don’t know! Kitsune have nine lives when born, one for each tail, when injured to the point of death they consume one of their tails to regenerate.”

“Oh. Did… I not need to help you?”

“I am still glad you did,” Vayvaresi said. “I only have two left. I had all nine when I was cursed. Despite all the suffering, only rarely does one of my tails get consumed.”

“It’s similar to my curse, then,” Amaris said. “I wouldn’t be very interesting if dead.”

“Being dead does get in the way of revenge… though, in this time, I am more of an obstacle to the revenge than anything.”

“You just don’t want it anymore.”

“And yet, until today, the world continued to give me reasons for it.” She sighed. “I hope this works.”

“We’ll see,” Coleus said. She paused in front of the entrance to the Glen. “You aren’t going to be mean to Amaris again, are you?” She glared at the dryads in the center of the Glen. “Are you?”

Amaris took a step forward. The Glen did not block her entry.

The three of them approached the central pool. Vayvaresi stared at it with wide eyes. “Unbelievably pure…”

“It’s a puree of purity!” Coleus declared. “Kinda. You make it by congealing nature essence and then grinding it in a sort of metaphysical sense.” She kneeled down. “Could you paw-sibly place your front paws into the pool?”

Vayvaresi did as asked. The water not only soaked into her fur, but also her skin and somehow her bones. The feeling was pleasant, though slightly unnerving.

“Now, let’s see here…” Coleus placed one of her feet in the water. “We have a visitor, members of the Glen. She is cursed. Let us purge it from her, for it is our duty.”

The elder dryads responded. Slowly, they placed one of their branches in the pool as well. Vayvaresi actually started to glow.

“An injured heart…” Coleus frowned. “I am so sorry. All you’ve ever loved has been taken away… let us ease your pain…”

Vayvaresi let out a sigh of relief as the sensations of the pool washed over her.

“The man who cursed you no longer walks the earth… we know who he was… we can see… there it is. Very subtle…” Coleus opened her eyes. Amaris jumped back a bit—they were white, devoid of any pupils, which was quite jarring considering how massive Coleus’ pupils were in the first place. “We shall… remove th—”

The light level in the Glen dropped suddenly, as though an oppressive dark fog filled the area. Coleus winced, but didn’t back down. “It’s strong… a curse shouldn’t be this strong…”

The air around them became darker. Coleus started shaking from the strain.

“Coleus…?” Amaris asked. “Are you…”

“Trying…” Coleus said through a haggard breath. “It’s… something… unusual…” She clenched her jaw. “But we can see it, we just have to… to…”

Vayvaresi let out a yip of pain.

“How… how dare he!?” Coleus shouted. “It’s attached to her soul! It…” Coleus’ expression became forlorn. “No…”

Suddenly, the darkness abated and Vayvaresi stopped glowing. Everything was back to normal.

Coleus collapsed to her knees, a few tears rolling down her face. “I… I am so sorry…”

“It… can’t be removed?” Vayvaresi asked.

“It… it’s sewn into your identity, like… imagine… imagine a tapestry of threads sewn into your body. To remove them, we would have to take you apart piece by piece, and we wouldn’t be able to put you back together. At… at the very best case, you would get immense brain damage. It’s… it’s far more likely to just outright kill you in a way your tail wouldn’t be able to fix.”

Vayvaresi let out a sigh. “So there is nothing you can do. I… suppose I let myself get too hopeful.”

“It… shouldn’t be like this.” Coleus said, standing up. “No, really, it shouldn’t. I was angry at Freddloi for daring to violate the soul in such a way, but the more I look at it, the more I realize… he did not have the power or capacity to do something like this on his own. The level of precision and detail in the soul imprint… it’s so complicated the Glen as a whole couldn’t even see it all.”

Amaris blinked. “What does that even mean?”

“It means Freddloi definitely couldn’t have been giving these curses under his own power.”

“Then… where do they come from?”

“I don’t know,” Coleus said, sitting down in the pool, allowing its pure energy to flow into her and rejuvenate her. “It’s… far beyond us, though. Such a huge, nasty thing… that hides so well. Most healers wouldn’t even be able to see that there was anything there…”

“I thank you for trying, maiden of the leaves,” Vayvaresi said, tearing herself from the pool. “I… shall return to my old way of life, trying to find a land with few humans in it. Such places are rarely peaceful for long, but they are peaceful for a time.” She turned to Amaris. “I am truly glad to have met you, Amaris. It… is an immense blessing to be able to speak to one of your kind.”

“Are you sure you want to leave?” Amaris asked.

“It is all I have ever done. With this curse remaining… it shall not change. You may be immune, but others are not. They will either be humans and torment me, or be those I forge close bonds with only for them to be killed by humans in some way. It is the way of my life.” She flicked her tails to the side. “But even in those times, I can hold to this memory. As a moment… where there was hope, and there was actual understanding. I do not have many memories like this, Amaris, I shall treasure it greatly.”

Amaris kneeled down. She was unable to resist giving the kitsune a hug. “I… really hope you find a way to escape your curse. If I ever find a way to get rid of them… I’ll find you.”

“If your ‘interesting’ curse can really go that far… then I await that day.” She gave Amaris a lick on the cheek. “Thank you for all you’ve done, and goodbye.” With that, Vayvaresi backed away from them… and vanished in a puff of white flower petals.

Amaris blinked. ”…Can all kitsune do that?”

“Um… no,” Coleus said, tilting her head to the side. “What even was that?”

“She is an ancient one,” one of the elder dryads spoke, startling the two girls. “A great spirit of a bygone age.”

“What does that mean?” Amaris asked.

The elder dryad said nothing further.

~~~

The next day, Amaris, Emma, and Rin were walking along the sidewalk with recently purchased ice cream cones in their hands.

“So… this is going to be a little awkward,” Emma said. “My birthday’s coming up.”

“Oh.” Amaris stopped short. “Oh my, Emma, I entirely forgot I’m so sorry I…”

“Amaris, don’t worry about it. That’s not the awkward part. The awkward part is that I can’t invite Rin even though I really really want to.”

Rin took a long lick of her fish-flavored ice cream. “…Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be missing out on much.”

“It’s the principle of the thing!” Emma said. “You girls are my best friends, and I can’t invite both of you.

“Just save me some cake, it’ll be fine,” Rin said. “You and I can have an after-party or something.”

“I know, but… mmm.” Emma kicked a rock. “I just don’t like it, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“I’ll try to bring enough party for both of us,” Amaris said. “…Even though big parties aren’t usually my thing…”

“Are you kidding, Amaris? You’re the most interesting person in the room! You could be the life of the party if you wanted to!”

“But I don’t want to…”

“You could or…” Emma blinked. “Amaris. Invite as many weird friends as you possibly can.”

“Huh?”

“My parents won’t know what to make of it. Invite Jenny. Invite Coleus. Invite… I don’t even know, just invite crazy people. Make this party the party to remember.”

“I’m pretty sure Coleus at least will make your parents very uncomfortable…”

“Ah, ah, but! Maybe they need to be made uncomfortable! Get them to… I don’t know.” She put her hands on her hips. “Just so long as none of them are nekos, my parents won’t have any ground to stand on.”

“Not Suuk, got it…” Amaris said. “It really is a shame that the elder dryads have put their foot down about allowing travel from here to Genk. I’m sure I can throw something together though. How long do I have?”

“Three weeks.”

“I think I can work with that.”

Rin chuckled. “Be sure to tell me all the details about how badly you mess up that party. I’m sure it’ll be great.”

“You sure you want to potentially self-sabotage your party like this?” Amaris asked.

“Yes,” Emma said.

“All right then. Auntie Nina might know some people too…”

It was at this moment they heard the dogs barking. Looking around in confusion, they eventually spotted the form of Vayvaresi jumping over the top of a fence. Following close behind her were a dozen angry dogs that were very familiar to Amaris.

They were not familiar to Emma. “How… how cruel! They’re chasing that poor creature!” Emma ran toward them. “Bad dogs! Bad dogs, leave that fox alone!”

“Emma, get back!” Amaris shouted, pulling out her crossbow.

Emma was not afraid of dogs at all, she had a way with them. However, when Amaris spoke with that tone of voice, she knew something was up. “Uh…” she took a few steps back.

Vayvaresi noted that Amaris was with Emma. With a nod, she diverted her path to the left, slowing herself considerably and allowing the dogs to catch up—but now her path would no longer take her past Emma and leave her between the dogs and their prey.

Amaris aimed her crossbow at the lead dog and let the bolt fly, skewering it in the neck. It rolled to the side, limp. The other dogs completely ignored this.

Rin took out her throwing knives and began assisting. Since the dogs were dead-set on going after Vayvaresi, they were making little if any attempt to defend themselves from the girls’ attacks.

Emma was crying, she couldn’t bear to watch.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY DOGS!?”

Amaris didn’t take her hand off the crossbow. “They’re attacking one of my friends.”

“You’re friends with that animal!?”

“She’s not an animal!” Amaris shouted, still not even looking at the owner of the voice. She let another bolt fly.

“You stupid kids! Who lets kids carry weapons? You… that’s it, dogs! Get her!”

The remaining dogs immediately stopped chasing Vayvaresi and went after Amaris. Amaris and Rin did their best, but they could not take them all out before they arrived.

However, now that Vayvaresi was no longer a target, she could become a predator. She let out a growl that reverberated with an otherworldly echo. Her eyes went red and crimson patterns appeared on her fur. She opened her mouth and her teeth became encased with a red aura that extended them considerably.

Even with this, the dogs were still able to reach Amaris and Rin. However, there were so few of them left that Amaris’ agility was more than enough to deliver kicks and jabs and knock them down.

“You… you stupid kids!” The man shouted. Now that there were no longer any dogs around, Amaris bothered to look at him. He was decidedly unimpressive, lanky, and looked kind of like he could play a goblin in a movie. Wait, do goblins actually exist…? “I will make you regret this! Do you think that was all of my dogs!?”

“Sending dogs to attack little kids?” Amaris asked, tilting her head. “Pretty sure that’s a crime.”

“Definitely a crime,” Rin said.

“Why… why would you make your dogs so cruel!?” Emma shouted.

“They’re my dogs, I can do what I want with them!”

“Well, you can, you just have to face the consequences of breaking the law,” Amaris said.

“No I don’t! You dumb kids don’t understand how anything works, do you?” He laughed. “With my dogs I get what I want and nobody can stop me!”

Amaris frowned. “That’s it, girls, we’re paying a visit to the police station.”

“You think they’ll listen to you!? Naïve little morons!” He let out a deep cackle. “I’m not a Strider, they don’t give a rip!”

“Pretty sure they’ll care about a man sending dogs to attack people.” Amaris took out a notepad. “Let’s see, description of assailant… short… goblin-like… obsessed with dogs… happened at 4:30 PM…” She looked up at him. “The longer you stand there the more likely it is they’ll be able to ID you.”

“Idiots. Fools. You’re in for a rude awakening… a very rude awakening…” He laughed. “I wonder if my dogs will get you first or not!”

“Send more dogs after me, I beat them up, okay?”

“You…”

Vayvaresi bared her teeth. “Leave, human.”

“You can talk!?”

“Leave before I rip out your throat!”

This finally got the man to run off.

Vayvaresi let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Amaris.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“But there is someone else I wish to thank.” Vayvaresi turned to Emma. “You tried to help me.”

Emma, through her tears, nodded.

“You… are a human?”

“Y-yes…?”

“I thank you for your kind heart, young one.” Vayvaresi turned to Amaris. “It seems as though your curse extends beyond just you.”

“I… really?”

“Such a thing could not have happened before.” She approached Emma and let the girl pet her to calm her down. “I believe… here might actually be the safest place for me.”

Rin frowned. “Eh… safe is pushing it… we’ve been getting into death-defying situations every few weeks with her around.”

“But those around her will be made ‘interesting,’ and I shall be free. And I… can use what I know to mitigate the consequences of the ‘interesting’ events that plague you.”

Amaris gave her a warm smile. “Two are better than one?”

“True, in many ways.”

“Great to have you on board then, Vayvaresi.” Amaris paused. “We should still report this to the police.”

“Yes. Though something tells me the man was not bluffing. He must have some sort of trick against them.”

“Please, he attacked us in broad daylight with a ton of dogs, that might not even be magic, they’ll get him.”

“I do not know… but we shall go nonetheless, my testimony shall corroborate things, and we can determine to what extent your curse counteracts mine.”

~~~

“And you got his description?”

Amaris nodded. “I’m not the best artist, but here’s my sketch.” She ripped the page out of her notebook and handed it to the officer sitting behind the receptionist’s desk at the police station. The officer in question was a calico cat, and she took the page neatly in her paws and laid it down on the table to look at it. She nodded slowly.

“Thank you for your report, we will do everything in our power to get him behind bars, don’t you kids worry none.” She tipped her hat at the four of them. “I’ve taken all your statements. I would suggest having us drive you home, but you sound like you can protect yourselves.”

Amaris nodded. “Thanks for the offer, officer. Come on girls. Vayvaresi, let’s show you the basement…”

As they left, the officer looked down at the sketch and let out a long, drawn-out sigh. She quickly put the sketch in the shredder.

An older officer walked by. “Those were the kids?”

“Yeah. Derek neglected to mention the fox-creature entirely. Not surprising, considering his track record.” Her ears twitched. “You really gotta stop that grandson of yours from playing all these mean-spirited jokes, it’s just going to get more of his dogs killed.”

“The man listens to no one,” the man said, taking a long drink of his coffee. “I’ll fine him again for disturbing the peace.”

“I do wonder how he manages to get those dogs to be so convincing when chasing people…”

“Man has a way with animals, what can I say?” The officer shrugged.

“You think losing so many will get him to stop?”

“Nope.”

“Maybe we should do something a little… more, this time? He is a bit of a nuisance.”

“What’re we gonna do, lock him up? Pretending to attack people ain’t a crime. Threatening is, but that’s what the fine is for.”

“I…” The cat looked up and out the window. She thought she had seen that… kitsune creature out there for a split second. “Nevermind, just seeing things.”

“Let’s focus on more important things. There was that kid who was actually murdered…”

Vayvaresi slowly assembled herself from white flower petals on top of Amaris’ backpack. “I doubt you are going to appreciate what I just heard.”

“What?” Amaris asked.

“Well—AGUH!” Vayvaresi jumped off the backpack, hair on end, as Pitch poked out his head. “SNAKE!”

“Pitch is harmless,” Amaris said as Pitch coiled around her arm and between her fingers. “…And not venomous.”

“You… have a snake… okay that would be interesting…”

“Had him before I was cursed.”

Vayvaresi stared at her. “…Why?”

“Snakes are cool?” Emma ventured.

“Her parents were weird?” Rin suggested.

“I… forgive me.” Vayvaresi shuffled her tails around, trying to use them to lay her fur flat. “It will take some time to get used to his… presence.” She let out an unusual half-whine half-growl noise. “I had news. The police are not investigating our man.”

“…What?” Amaris said.

“They know the man, Derek. He’s the grandson of one of the older officers. They apparently believe that he has trained the dogs to pretend to attack people and fine him for threatening people and disturbing the peace.” Vayvaresi narrowed her eyes. “Those dogs were not pretending.”

“How… the cops are supposed to help us!” Emma shouted. “This… this isn’t how it works!”

Rin frowned. “I really did think they were more effective for you people…”

“What are we gonna do?” Emma asked, eyes widening. “He’s… just gonna send more dogs after us!”

“Me, specifically, I think,” Amaris said. “But yes, that will get annoying, and something tells me his supply of dogs is nearly limitless…” She tapped her foot angrily. “We can’t just lock him beneath the school, that would definitely get the cops on us.”

“Then… what?”

“We aren’t out of options. If the cops won’t listen… we do have other avenues.” Amaris slowly started to grin. “Time to call in some favors.”

~~~

Derek lived in a very nice house, one with a huge backyard that had to hold hundreds of dogs, all of them tough, strong breeds that were often violent. Every last dog continually growled and walked in regular, circular patterns. The yard was somehow devoid of dog poop—every last one of them went to the hole in the ground to do their business without fail.

Derek himself lived alone aside from the dogs, but only a chihuahua was allowed inside the house.

Most of his money had been inherited from his father and was slowly accumulating interest, so he never ran out. He had no job aside from letting the computers in his basement gather cryptocurrency. The rest of the time he either spent prowling around the town like some kind of vulture, or scowling at his computer and arguing with people on the Internet.

Considering how new the Internet was in Yeshalo, this setup was not only supremely unusual, most people wouldn’t even be able to understand his life. But it was what it was.

Derek scowled as he got up from the computer. The only time he showed restraint was when he wanted to punch his computer. It was too much of a hassle to wait a day for a new one to be delivered, and sometimes he lost data in the transfer. He needed to blow it off somehow, perhaps by ordering his dogs to attack something.

There was a man in his living room in a distinguished suit. He was sitting on a chair reading a newspaper.

“KILL THE INTRUDER!” Derek shrieked.

His chihuahua looked at him in confusion.

“Idiot! That intruder right—” Derek no longer saw anyone sitting in the chair. “Wh… what…?”

“Quite the setup you have here,” the man said, now behind Derek.

“You… KILL HIM!”

“They can’t see me, only you can.”

Derek’s eyes widened. “Wh… what? That… that’s… impossible!”

“I am a problem you can’t send your dogs at.”

Derek thrust his fist forward, punching the man. The man caught the fist in his hand, and the next thing Derek knew he was barfing on the ground. “H-how…”

“Best not to try to touch me. Also… that punch was quite sad. What a pathetic man you are…”

“Pathetic!? You’re pathetic! You hide where my dogs can’t get you!”

“Oh, I don’t have a choice about that, can’t appear in animal minds.” The man shrugged. “Anyway, my work here is done.” He smiled at him. “Make of this what you will.”

Then he was gone.

And Derek’s doorbell rang.

Derek took in a sharp breath, noticing that his hand was shaking. He slapped his hand with his other fist. “Stop that!” He did his best to pretend like his hands weren’t still shaking and he threw open the front door. “WHAT!? This better be important or the dogs will get you!”

There was a soldier in uniform on the other side of the door. “Mister Derek Hauser, I presume?”

“I don’t need to give my name to you!”

“Ah, well, I do have a picture of you, and you do match, so I’ll make this quick. I am here on the order of General Mason. There have been reports of you attacking children with dogs.”

Derek snorted. “I pay my fines, idiot, talk to the police station.”

“Oh, we have.” The soldier narrowed his eyes. “The precinct is currently under investigation for corruption and nepotism.”

“Are you… trying to take away what I have?”

“I am merely following orders, sir. Can I come in?”

“Of course not!”

“I’ll be back later, then, presumably with a search warrant.”

“You will NOT go through my HOUSE! If you do I will send the dogs after you!”

The soldier seemed surprised. “Threatening a soldier? Mister Hauser, do you understand the severity of your claim?”

“You don’t believe me?” Derek laughed. “Oh you fool… I’m untouchable. I’ll demonstrate that to you.” He snapped his fingers. “Get him.”

Dozens of dogs erupted from the house, bearing their teeth at the soldier. The soldier didn’t look afraid, he simply put up his fists to defend himself. The dogs bit down on his arms and legs…

“Scream, idiot! SCREAM IN FEAR!”

“U-uh, he w-won’t be,” the cashier at the grocery store said, holding out her hands. Why was she still alive? He’d ordered her torn limb from limb and devoured! She was… …wait why were his dogs suddenly being friendly to the soldier?

The soldier rolled up his sleeve, revealing that he was actually much thinner than he looked and had subtle body armor on.

“What on earth…?” Derek said, eyes wide.

“That was almost too easy,” Scarlet said, revealing herself to be hiding behind a bush with a high-quality camera. “And there you have it, folks! A menace to society that was slipping through the cracks, exposed! Caught on tape trying to murder an officer with his dogs, what a shame!”

“My… my dogs are clearly just playing with him!” Derek shouted. “See?”

“Oh we definitely have murder-intent bite marks on the armor,” Scarlet said. “Doesn’t matter how we pacified the dogs, really. Or how we got you riled up. Or how we knew exactly what you’d do in certain situations…” Scarlet grinned. “Just know that you attacked the wrong kids yesterday, they had connections. Would you like to know what you’ve won?”

“Your condescending voice needs to END!” He rushed her.

The soldier backhanded him and knocked him to the ground, dazed.

“You’ve won an all-expenses paid trip to jail!” Scarlet declared. “Where you will face a trial and, let’s be honest, we’ll find plenty of evidence of your dogs ripping people up so you’re probably going to get the death penalty, but hey, maybe that grandfather of yours can pull some strings! Maybe lose his job in the process!” She very condescendingly patted him on the head.

He tried to bite her hand. “This will not happen to me! My dogs will…” He looked around with wild eyes at his happy, playful dogs. Tears began to well up in his eyes. “What have they done to you…? My weapons… my faithful weapons! YOU FAILED ME! You…”

“Good gravy, I have no idea how someone could get as far gone as you,” Scarlet said with a click of her tongue. “Take him away, lieutenant.”

“Will do,” the soldier said, picking up Darek and dragging him along.

“This is going to be a great news story,” Scarlet said, beaming.

~~~

Scarlet narrowed her eyes at the station manager. “Explain to me why this isn’t something we can show. Nobody got hurt, we did nothing illegal, and a criminal is now behind bars.”

“There will be way too many questions,” the fat man beside the desk said. “You used magic to get to him.”

“Yes? Problem?”

“The people don’t want to hear about that. And it’s not necessary for them to know about some idiot kid who killed people with dogs for fun.”

“Really? I’m sure there are a ton of families missing kids who would very much like to know what happened.”

The manager let out a long sigh. “Scarlet, I’m going to level with you. You did good, you stopped a terrible man from roaming the streets. But this story is not the sort of thing this station publishes. All this… magic, the people see it as an evil.”

“It’s not.”

“How do you know that?”

“Obviously, we stopped evil with it.”

“Scarlet…”

“You received orders from higher up and are trying to justify them to me to shut me up, aren’t you?”

The manager stared blankly at her.

“It’s fine, I know how it is.” Scarlet stood up. “I do care enough about my job not to run it through the ground by publishing my own work, you don’t have to worry about me getting sanctions imposed on us. But I would very much like to know what the higher-ups actually want from us.”

The manager looked down at the desk. “I would too. I suspect they don’t know what they want in regard to all this Strider nonsense.”

“…Can I still cover the unsolved murder cases?”

“Scarlet, you’re the only one who really wants to.”

“Great! See you tomorrow then!” She walked out of the room with a smile on her face. This quickly turned into an uncertain frown once she was out of sight range. An unpleasant realization was slowly bubbling to the surface of her mind.

They know.

~~~

“So, you keep the monsters you’ve captured down here?” Vayvaresi asked, looking around the basement. “Seems rather empty.”

“Most of them are locked behind doors,” Amaris said. She was giving the tour alone, everyone else had gone home. “That door has the rolling bolder creature, that door has the crocogator. You generally can’t get the rolling creature to do anything, but the crocogator…” Amaris kicked the door. “Oh no, I’m a helpless child, come at me!”

There was a gurgling roar from the other side of the door followed by a loud slam. After this came pained whimpering.

“The crocogator is quite stupid.”

Vayvaresi looked at the angel remnant. “What’s that?”

“The orb that makes you forget about it when you stop being aware of it.”

Vayvaresi blinked, turning to Amaris. “How does that work?”

“No idea.”

“No idea about what?”

“The orb that makes you forget about it when you stop being aware of it.”

Vayvaresi blinked. “Oh.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“We also have some magic crystals over here,” Amaris gestured at a bunch of pink-colored shards lying on a pedestal, mixed with some blue and green ones as well. “Not really sure what they do, but they do glow, and the pink ones can be used to make anti-magic stuff. Also, very sharp.”

“I have seen such things before… there are wizards in distant lands who can do incredible things with these crystals. But there, they weren’t so… rare.”

“Not very common here,” Amaris said. “Most of these come from the Strider, haven’t found any in Yeshalo itself.” Amaris stopped, smiling. “Ah, and here’s the broken magic mirror that started it all.”

“Oh?”

Amaris picked up the broken mirror. “Yes, see, right after I was cursed, I found this thing at the Cat-ival…”