> "Witch is an outsider term. It is a primary term. It's modern nomenclature for a being dabbling in the arts without a proper master. Those that do follow down the arts with a proper master--and thus, part of some sort of magickal lineage or tradition--are better called mystics. The term wizard is best left for those immortals that have achieved the Iron Soul."

> From Missive of Karunin of the Lazuli Winds to Wonian Revolutionary Okuro Dakasenshi

The cottage of though the living room was bedecked out in various occult accoutrements: hanging wind chimes, sculptures of various buddhas and bodhisattvas, of various brahmas and indras, of gods and goddesses. In the middle of the cottage was a mandala, at the middle of which was a table which itself was engraved and carved out to look like it's a sacred clear-light platform carried by various dharmapalas or Cosmic Law Guardians.

"Welcome!" said Angko, walking rapidly toward the table in the middle. "To Angko's Divinatory!"

"You have good business here, achi?" asked Akazha, looking about, being careful not to step foot into the mandala in the middle of the room. Raxri followed suit, also gingerly not walking into the mandala.

"Of course," said Angko, sitting in the raised sitting cushion behind the reading table. "The people here... before they disembark or invest in a new business, they perform their indigenous rituals to their ancestors, and then come here to ask for blessings from the gods and the buddhas."

"You've turned this into a business?" asked Raxri, wondering. Was this an ethical use of the teachings?

Angko shrugged. "I don't ask for any money. It's all donations! It generates humongous amounts of Merit to donate to an establishment that serves the buddhas and the bodhisattvas." Angko paused, and then smiled at Raxri. "Who is this Raxri Uttara looking motherfucker and why do they talk like they were born yesterday? Are they stupid? Because they walk around and talk as if they were."

Raxri was almost paralyzed. She knows my name? And that wasn't very nice. Raxri, suddenly self-conscious, bit their tongue from the inside.

A silence came over the room, broken only when Akazha said, massaging her temples. She felt like a migraine was coming on. "Forgive me, again. Yes, this is Raxri Uttara, and this is Sintra Kennin. We... met a few months ago."

"Splendid," Angko looked at Raxri Uttara up and down. They felt like a fashion piece being meticulously scrutinized. "So this truly is the Heaven Dancer, huh?"

Sintra Kennin stepped in and said: "For your confusion, Raxri, before we go on to anything more. Achi is the term in the Southern Seas--that is, the Southern Utter Islands--for elder sister. I mentioned it because that meant that Angko here is older than Akazha."

"Ah." Raxri blinked, distracted suddenly by the change in topic. In a spot of social lucidity, they took advantage of the topic switch: "But you look so young! You do not look like someone older than Akazha.... If anything, Akazha looked older."

Sintra Kennin's eyes bulged wide. "Hey! That is not something to say in front of a lady!"

Akazha massaged her temples again. She waved a hand. "It's okay! It's no matter. Yes, achi Angko is around 10 years older than me."

Achi Angko was beaming. "You really thought I was younger? I hadn't even put on the special makeup today. Hoho, this is not magickally augmented beauty either!"

"Yes. I have no disposition to lie! So I am telling straight logical factualities." Raxri tapped their chin. "Capital T Truth."

"Oh you! This Raxri Uttara seems to be much nicer than I thought they would be."

Akazha said: "Achi. Where did you hear of Raxri Uttara?"

"Oh, the Heaven Dancer? To be true, it has been a few years since Raxri's name had any sort of traction in the magickal communities. And the years have certainly obfuscated the truth. But the Heaven Dancer was a powerful vajrasiddha, adamantine mystic, who angered some particularly powerful martial artists and wizards, and even some celestines, and it became a concerted effort to put them down. They were called the Heaven Dancer because they danced against the heavens like a bidaree! Some even say that they were just a few abhishekas away from attaining the Ultima Tantras!"

Akazha crossed her arms, pondering this new bit of knowledge. Her forehead knotted into contemplation.

Sintra Kennin said: "The Ultima Tantras?"

"The ultimate secrets of the universe," said Angko. She began arranging the mystical accoutrements on her table. "The cosmos-defying arcana and magicks. Something that would put them even above the level of an Immortal, and would immediately bring them to nigh Buddhahood."

One of Akazha's hands rose to cover her mouth.

Raxri crossed their hands. "Well, that's definitely interesting. I disdain to disappoint you, however, achi Angko. I have no information of this. I have no knowledge of anything. I am shorn of my memory."

"Truly?" Angko rose to her feet. She walked over to Raxri and reached up with her hands. She could more easily reach Raxri's face since they weren't as tall as Akazha. (Or was it the heels? No matter.) "You've... lost all memory?"

Raxri nodded. "And knowledge. And power. Save for the muscle reflexes of my body enabling me to pick up certain martial arts at a much faster rate than normal."

Angko nodded, looking at Raxri from every angle. Examining the placement of their ears, their nose. Most especially their eyes. "You know... the Heaven Dancer was never described to have eyes this scarlet."

"Truly?"

"The cloud hair was something they attained after taking their bodhisattva vows," said Angko. "As I've heard. It was a particularly auspicious sign, apparently, being chosen by the bidarees and the vidyadharas." She pinched Raxri's nose and Raxri did their best not to yelp out in surprise. They succeeded, for the most part.

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"Perhaps the scarlet eyes might have been a symptom of my... revenant state?"

Angko nodded, deep in thought. "Perhaps, perhaps." She said it as a filler word. She was not seriously considering it. "So you've lost all attainment? All cultivation?"

Raxri nodded. "I begin from the bottom once again. From the mud, as the monks might say."

"Well," said Angko, shrugging. "You know what they say. No mud, no lotus."

Angko turned to Akazha and said: "Shobe, you are sure you've had no recollection of the Heaven Dancer?"

Akazha shook her head. "I did not deign drama within the mystical communities as worth listening to, you see. I was focused on actually learning and studying the esoterica."

Angko rolled her eyes. "Oh wow look at my shobe Akazha! So serious and what a natural talent! No time for the problems of us mortals!" She laughed. "I was a bit too focused on the gossip. It's what makes all the meditation tolerable, you know! Skillful means and all that. Anyway, so what happened to you, Raxri Uttara? How did you lose all memory, suddenly?"

"I've no memory of that either," said Raxri, smiling. "All I know is that I awoke in the Vault of Souls and that was it. I arose from the Healing Buddha''s Lazuli Waters or whatever terminology you might have for it."

Angko laughed. "Ah, you've got humor!"

"Thank you," replied Raxri. "I developed it yesterday."

That solicited a chuckle from Sintra. Akazha rolled her eyes.

"Humor aside, what an interesting turn of events," said Angko. "You must have been... I don't know. Beaten to a fingerspan of death and then thrown into the Vault of Souls so that you would not be thrown into the Interstitial and thus not reincarnate."

"Right, that's what I've been told the Vault of Souls does," said Raxri. "So that might have been a particular goal of theirs."

"But you were not killed," said Angko. "So it seems whatever revival process ripped all your attainments and memories from you. How interesting." Angko turned to Akazha. "You will need to bring this to Guru Sutasoma's attention. This has rather interesting implications to the conception of the Womb Consciousness that stores all karma between contiguous Mindstreams."

Akazha nodded. "That is immediately one reason why I want to bring them to Sutasoma. I thought I would be able to figure it out after a few months of living with them but much of the research was out of my reach, and the Universal Mind could not latch onto any new concepts without negation."

Angko nodded.

Raxri stared at the the two of them like they were blabbering scientists.

"So you must escalate it to the Ultramystic," said Angko. "Good. Do that. I'm sure Guro Sutasoma misses you too!"

"It has been a few years since I've last seen her," said Akazha, smiling. "But I am scared of what she might do to Raxri."

"I'm sure she'll be nice." Angko turned to Raxri. "Would you like to meet our vajracharya? Our Thunderbolt Master?"

Raxri nodded. "I would like to learn the magickal ways, like how Akazha does it. I'd want to be a wizard too."

"Hoho!" Angko clapped her hands together, amused. "How very ambitious of you, young one! Well, if that truly is your decision, then I pray that the Ultramystic will accept you."

Raxri nodded. "I hope so too, as well. Not only do I want to reattain all my lost attainments, I also wish to gain power again so that I can protect myself and all those I hold dear."

"Protect?" Angko raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Currently, 108 Glaives of Heaven chase after me, on a bounty from Heaven itself. They wish to slay me, to take me back to heaven. Anything to destroy They Who Danced Against The Heavens."

"It's hard to be stealthy when you look the splitting image of Raxri Uttara the Heaven Dancer," said Akazha, folding her hands and sitting on a nearby sitting cushion.

Raxri sighed. "Everyone knows the Cloud-Haired one, it seems. I suppose the scarlet eyes is a new thing."

Suddenly, a thought pierced Angko. Raxri could tell, because she suddenly slapped her hands together and then levitated into the air after converting that clapped hands posture into a defiance mudra. "I know! I know!" She flew to the back of her cottage and brought out a few flasks kept within phoenix bottles. "Indulge me, Raxri, Akazha, Sintra."

"She's flying now," said Sintra. Not particularly quick on the pick-up.

"What is it?" asked Raxri.

"Everyone knows Raxri is the Cloud-Haired one. So what if we change it? What if we change your hair color, eye color?"

Akazha let out a small laugh. "I see you never gave up Beauty Magicks."

"Never!" Angko cackled out a laugh. "Raxri! I will turn you beautiful!"

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They made their way outside, to the small courtyard-backyard of Angko's cottage.

"This will be good for our efforts at staying clandestine," said Akazha.

In the backyard, there was a pump for water. Raxri was made to lie upon a rectangular chair, and then a soft cloth around their neck, and then the upper part of their head was shampooed upon a stone bowl, where the water would feed into. After the shampooing, Angko applied fragrant oils to Raxri's hair.

Then, after a moment, Angko began uttering mantras. She had her second hand, oiled with a particularly vanilla-smelling substance, in a particular mudra: pointer and ring finger outstretched. With her other hand, she would run Raxri's hair between the pointer and ring finger, as if she were sharpening a blade.

Every stroke of that movement, Raxri's cloud-hair slowly turned pink. And then as it turned pink, it slowly turned scarlet.

Sintra Kennin watched as Raxri's hair was dyed scarlet. Akazha was busy reading something under the soft glow of a lotus light. A light glistening sweat beaded on her brow. In truth, due to all the walls of stone and hardwood, the flow of the cool sea breeze was impeded. The humidity made her sweat.

Raxri wondered why she wasn't watching them get the new hairdo.

"Oh," said Angko, in her signature annoying pitched tone. "You're going to look absolutely dashing with the new one. Oh, your beauty will arise!" She continued magickally dyeing Raxri's hair, chanting all the while. Raxri's hair slowly became more and more scarlet as they went along. It wasn't a horrible experience, at least. Raxri felt their hair turn more and more scarlet as things went along, but that feeling was nothing but a slight tingling sensation. It felt like a thousand little pinpricks upon their scalp, and it calmed their bundled up nerves completely.

Raxri hadn't even realized just how tense they'd been all this time.

Sintra Kennin stood with their arms folded in front of them, staring down at the process the entire time. He was nodding here and there in seeming affirmation. "Hm. This is good. This is a good process. And that is a good color. Why did you pick that hue of scarlet rather than it's enemy, the lazuli or the azure?"

Angko shrugged. "I don't know. As of this moment, Raxri's aura sort of sings with a scarletine color, if that makes sense. Like a strange pure red flame."

"Strange pure red flame..." Sintra Kennin stroked their flaming beard. "Like Pureflame?"

"Yes, precisely like Pureflame," said Angko, before continuing the mantra chanting.

Raxri opened their mouth, and then closed it out of fear of rebuke. Unfortunately, their curiosity was the golden throne of their consciousness, and they said: "What is Pureflame?"

Angko pouted her lips. "You truly do not remember anything, then? How interesting. The vajracharya will have a field day when it comes to you."

Sintra Kennin took the initiative and said: "Pureflame is the purificatory fires of the Scarlet God. It is the fires by which Metom forged humanity out of the furnace. It is a great, smokeless, emberless fire, and it is commonly associated with the likes of wizards, for only such magickfolk can conjure up the great pureflame. Other than monks and meditatives, of course."

"Of course," said Angko. "That's mostly what is taught. Pureflame is the remants of the burning poison that Ksewran took to save the universe."