"I guess we can see each other off there." Iris said hoping that the nekos could help them with resupplying in this familiarly alien city.
The high sun washed away the reality outside the gatehouse in blinding light making the elf squint as she stepped out the other side. Iris raised her hand to block out the sun letting her acute eyes time to readjust to the outside. The imperial city changed in front of her as the horizon was suddenly dominated by circular buildings with a dome which came rapidly to a point like the bottom of a beetroot. The strange bulbous buildings had their entrances suspended in the air with a smooth ramp leading up to them while hugging the building all the way around so that the start of the ramp was just below where it ended.
As one of the vegetable-shaped domes got larger while she followed Shiro through the broad cobbled streets littered with stone droplets Iris began to wonder why was the buildings still standing. She doubted demi-humans' ability to build such marvels of engineering which rivalled the Seat of Aspects in Havenfall in height. The temple would probably rival the Seat in beauty too if the elements had been kinder to it façade, long water stains cleaved through its walls while many of the brick-coloured roof tiles were missing leaving large ugly patches on its strange dome. Whatever had reduced large sections of the walls to molten slurry must have seen those temples of man at least as worthy of its flames, unlike the buildings she was passing by.
If the attacker was a dragon it might have chosen to spare the tall sturdy buildings as places to safely land without needing to land on the ground where all the things wanting to kill it were...
Iris thought about the possible reasons for the temple's continued existence but only came up with vague answers before her mind began to wonder about the strange architecture of the temple and how many things the world had forgotten about since the days.
Long shadow creeped onto the women's faces as they got closer to the temple. A large wooden door which must have cost a small fortune in the vast steppe creaked as Shiro pushed it open, letting the strangely silent fox through. Her ward stopped at the door threshold seeming to be contemplating something as her face remained serious. She turned around and her grass-green eyes met with the elf's. Iris motioned the shaman with her hand to step forward but the fox only flapped her ears in response as she looked down only to see the necromancer wielding unholy powers casually stepping over the threshold of the temple looking simultaneously curious and bored.
*Sigh*
Iris watched as Nakatei's shoulder slumped a little bit as she looked at her borrowed clothes and her oversized weapon which looked like a cruel joke compared to her slim frame. Her foot rose and the heel of her foot caused the plank to creak under her weight, the young woman resembled more of a soldier preparing to do battle rather than about to become a shaman.
Upon entering inside the dark and tranquilly silent hall illuminated only by embers from incense sticks and the light flowing from behind them, Iris noticed that shrines to the beastmen idols surrounded the hall. She snickered to herself that a familiar scented smell managed to fill her nostrils even on the other side of Vitas.
"Hello?" A male voice quite a voice thundered through the empty hall.
"Hello," Shiro responded as she turned around. Behind them standing on another ramp leading to the next floor was a man with a large tail which wiggled behind him as he stared into the dark hole. "I have brought you a shaman from the Akane clan." The cat pulled Nakatei's arm so the petrified woman stood next to her, in the orange light of a lantern carried by the beastman.
The ember-furred tail which wiggled from side to side helping the fox with balancing stopped suddenly, all the hair on it standing straight causing her tail to resemble a pin cushion.
"What are you doing?" Shiro turned her head around wearing a face of complete confusion as Nakatei pulled a vial out of her backpack and emptied half of it into her hand before slipping her hand under her trousers. "Are you okay, you look... odd?" The cat whipped the air with her tail as she turned her body and watched the fox drink the remaining contents of the vial.
"Yesss, I needed that." Nakatei responded, her eyes jumping between her guardian and the beastman slowly making his way toward them.
"Mmmm?" Standing beside Iris the undead mage had her eyebrow raised as she tapped her chin with her finger while watching the fox.
"I'm so glad the spirits had gifted you such a blessing. There are so few of our kin born with this blessing that I began to worry that the temples would stand empty again," The man's tails swayed excitedly from side to side as he picked up Nakatei's hand. Taking a closer look at him, the shaman was of the same sub-race of demi-human as Nakatei. He was wearing a similar attire to what Nakatei was wearing when she met her but dark yellow and blue instead of white and red. "Hello?"
"Give her some time she sometimes those this. What's your name by the way?" Shiro asked as she gently pulled the male fox away from the frozen woman.
"Tamas, my name is Tamas." The twenty something year old fox scratched his dirty blonde hair on his head which where cut short almost to his scalp before scratching the bottom of his throat exposing a patch of blue scales which rattled as he ran his finger across them. Under the mutated patch of skin, the skull of a rat hung from a yarn rope with small colourful beads flanking it on either side.
"H-hi?" Nakatei sheepishly lifted her hand and waved at the other fox while she seemed to be looking for someone around her. "I'm Nakatei, I give myself in your care." The beast woman managed to compose herself enough to bend her body forward as she held her sword in both hands, pressing it against her chest as if wanting its craftsmanship to create a façade concealing her grey clothes.
"You don't have to be so formal with me," The shaman who seemed to not have realised what had gripped Nakatei's body still said.
Tamas turned around and led the woman upstairs which partially resembled a warehouse with one side of the room showing signs of life as something gurgled in the cast iron pot hanging over a small fireplace with two plates prepared on a nearby desk. On the other side of the room, Iris saw flax sacks stacked against the walls with long dining tables covered in thick layers of dust bending from the weight on top of it as she crossed the room through a narrow path cutting the room in half.
Tamas wasn't done climbing the tower and led them into the next floor where racks packed full of tablets dominated the floor creating a maze between which Tamas skillfully navigated through, his large tail moving in such a way that it didn't brush against the shelfs.
"You have to wait here, I will fetch for you the proof she had arrived here safe and sound." Tamas said to Shiro as he held open the door for Nakatei to step through. His eyes then shifted onto the young ember-furred fox.
"Bye Shiro," Nakatei seemed to interpret Tamas' look as the moment she would have to say goodbye to her guard and open a new chapter of her life. "I will always remember you, Shiro."
"How sweet of you, Tei. I too will remember you." The powerful demi-human warrior almost fell over as her ward lunged at her and wrapped her hands around her. "I may even forget all the embarrassing things I had seen you do while we travelled. You know like-"
"Shiro!" Nakatei pressed both of her hands over Shiro's mouth franticly trying to stop the mischievous nekos from embarrassing her in front of the other fox.
"I guess than you rather me remember these things," The nekos said as the fox lowered her hands before tapping her finger on Nakatei's olive-toned nose. "I can't wait to see the faces the people in your village will make after hearing you made it here. They will be proud of you and I'm proud of you too. I will be looking forward to seeing you defeating monsters I can't kill after you learn a bit." Shiro lifted the songbird's skull hanging around Nakatei's neck closer to the fox's face before letting go and giving the fox a large warm hug someone would do seeing off their child. "Ahh, but no matter how good your clansmen are I will not be staying for the feast they will throw in your honour."
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"Hehehe, I don't blame you," Nakatei laughed before separating herself from Shiro and turning toward Iris. "I wished our first meeting wasn't so... violent. I don't think I can ever forget you and Kia so thank you very much for everything and I guess you open my mind a little. Could you tell Kia that I forgive her for touching my tail?" The shaman bend her body forward so much that her torso is almost perpendicular to her legs, her tail stretching behind her as a counterbalance.
"Sure?" Iris responded as the fox disappeared behind the door after a long moment of stillness.
"Wait, she is an elf?" Tamas was about to close the door before he noticed the long pointy ears on either side of Iris's head after Nakatei had left.
"Yeah, she helped me. Tei and I wouldn't be able to get here without her." Shiro answered.
"I guess..." Tamas' eyes scanned the undead elf from top to bottom before his gaze fixed on the tablets around them. "You can downstairs for me but try to keep quiet."
"Why?" Iris asked as she turned around and noticed Kia was not standing behind her.
"This is a temple dedicated to the gods of death."
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Pov Change
Orange light flickered on a snowy skin of the ancient necromancer as she was sitting down on a three-legged stool in a corner of one of the shrines. The fluffy humans with weird biology had left perfectly eatable slices of meat in front of all the tables surrounding her. Iris had said that wasting food was horrible so the necromancer wore a small frown as she collected all the deliciousness from the floor before finding a place to eat her spoils in peace. Her righteous frown quickly lessened as she bit down on the salty meat before deciding that the demi-humans could be forgiven for their transgressions.
In no time at all every strip of the deliciousness she had collected disappeared without the necromancer even realising causing a new far more fancier frown to appear. With no one to aim her frown at in the large empty hall shrouded in darkness, she decided to look up at the skull with curled horns placed on the table beside her.
"ልርርቹየፕ ፱ነ, ልርርቹየፕ ፱ነ. ልርርቹየፕ ፱ነ, ልርርቹየፕ ፱ነ." Dark whispers brushed the mage's ear from behind causing her to turn around almost hitting her nose against the wall while magical energy crackling and arcing between her fingers.
The pair of glowing eyes scanned the darkness in search of the source of the whispers before she jumped up from her seat as she felt something touch her shoulder. Turning around again, she saw tendrils of pure blackness grow out of the ram's eye sockets, growing in size with each passing moment she stared at it unable to look away. From the bottom of the skull, a dark mass began to emerge, creating a body of shadow for itself.
The monster slithered forward, the ram's skull on top of the shadow was jagged and deformed, with hollow, empty eye sockets that seemed to consume all light and life around them as they stared at Kia with unrelating focus. The sound of crackling got louder as the mage blasted the monster with one powered-up spell.
The mage saw her spell simply disappear in the shadow's dark form and she felt her mind being gripped by fear as in the corner of her vision the temple was shrouded in complete darkness as hundredths of shadows began to surround her.
"No!" Kia shouted or felt like she did as bone-white skulls and pitch darkness formed a wall around her which slowly got smaller. In the blink of an eye, the ancient undead felt squeezed by the shadows as a choir of whispers thundered in her mind.
"You can't run away."
"You're fake."
"One of Many."
"Be ruthless."
"Be the merciful."
"Be decisive."
"Be passive."
"Kill."
"Spare."
"Judge."
"Unquenchable Killer."
"Help me! Iris!" Kia cried as she felt her body hit the ice cold ground. Curled into a ball among the shadows, the small girl felt claws begin to rip her into tiny little shreds. Time itself seemed to have halted but the girl continued to weep as the claws dug deeper.
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"Kia?" Iris's lavender eyes scanned the hall in front of her as she erupted from upstairs.
*Sob*
Quite whimpers thundered in the empty dark hall but Iris couldn't find the one who caused it making her chest pound with worry.
"Kia?" The elf walked down toward the base of the ramp and looked to her right finding the girl at the base of the stairs, in a dimly lit corner.
Kia's body trembled violently. She cradled her knees close to her chest, her fragile frame shaking with each quivering fearful breath. Black tears flowed from her tightly shut eyes, streaming down her pale cheeks leaving long dark stains in their path before splashing silently onto the cold, hard floor. She appeared to be in a worse state than after being smited and having her mana links shredded.
The girl's sobs were like the distant rumble of a thunderstorm, a soft and haunting sound in the oppressive stillness of the room.
"Iris..."
Weak, desperate cry for the risen's help escaped from Kia's lips in whimpered pleas, like a fragile bird trapped in a dark room, her soft chirps contrasted by the hard stone surrounding her. Kia's entire being seemed to have retreated into that small, desolate corner, seeking the tiniest bit of refuge as she showed signs of severe fear affliction.
"My dear, what happened?" Iris kneeled beside the mage, scooping her up into her arms after the girl didn't respond.
"Iris?" The girl seemed to have not trusted her own eyes as she looked up and saw the elf holding her. "I don't want to be here, I'm scared." Her eyes twinkled in the darkness as they alternated between gold and blue. The two colours flooding, fighting and struggling for dominance over each other inside her gem like eyes with the blue colour looking to be winning, slowly purging gold from Kia's right eye. "I'm scared." Kia quietly muttered, her stiff cold body melting in the elf's arms while her eyes slowly began to return to normal.
"Interesting." Iris's ear twitched as she heard Shiro behind her. Instinctually her eyes were drawn upward to see what nekos had seen. At first, she didn't notice anything until a glowing ember piqued her attention.
A scorch mark had cracked a pillar near one of the shrines. The dark mass of partially melted stone in the middle had arcs of dark energy jump from one point to the other as it slowly ate its way into the stone. Iris began to notice more scorch marks all over the empty ceailing but other than that nothing seemed too unusual.
"Well, there goes our shopping," Shiro said while helping the elf stand up. "I guess, it's not like you really need those supplies."
"I have to go." The elf stated as she looked at the curled-up undead in her hands.
"Well then let me help you with this." The white-furred nekos said before opening the temple door for the elf and escorting her all the way to the edge of the city.
The two women gave each other one last look silently exchanging a farewell to each other which expressed more than words could do before the elf sprinted into the grass sea toward the great river, quickly disappearing like ghosts and leaving the old warrior only with memories.
"Everyone seemed to have found their place," The nekos said to herself before turning her back toward the wind, heading back toward Nishimine with the tips of her tail intertwined as she planned out her last journey. "I wonder if they remember me..."
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Star-filled heaven hung above the East Edor where tall grass swayed in the gentle night breeze. Unnoticeable in the sheer vastness of the great plain, two undead were lying between the blades of grass.
The porcelain doll remained motionless like a marble statue as she squeezed herself against the tall elf in whose warm arms she was wrapped around, unwilling to let go as she blankly watched the stars hanging above her. Next to the mage, Iris was running her fingers through the girl's hair while lying on her side. She could watch the sky reflect off Kia's eye for eternity but her wish didn't last for so long as the girl turned around looking troubled by something.
"My head hurts." The necromancer murmured while staring into her protector's amethyst eyes managing to somehow worm her body closer to the elf's chest in search of protection. "I hate it, despise, loathe..." She suddenly came to life, covering the area around her with thick black ice while she began to flay her arms trying to chase off something.
The undead elf grabbed Kia's arms and hid Kia's head in her jacket in a practised movement. The girl still struggled to control her emotions since entering the demi-human temple, going from being as lively as a sculpture to sudden and violent explosions of frustration.
Iris wanted to ask about what happened to the mage but Kia remained consumed by rage toward what had attacked her, tirelessly maintaining a zealous tirade against the effect slowly becoming more deranged as her words changed from Common to Cyclopiean before the elf's Masterful Translator became unable to keep up.
The word effect didn't belong to the undead mage rather it belonged to the mysterious being called Vesa. The risen wondered if she could somehow summon the shapeshifting woman to her but she put that thought behind remembering the uneasy and troubling atmosphere hanging above the stranger. She listened to Kia's whine while she prodded the link connecting their minds.
Usually, the link connecting the two appeared like two dams with the amount of water being controlled by flood gates but today the necromancer's dam felt broken, violated even as if something had stripped away all of Kia's mental defences leaving her poor kitten vulnerable and bare. Through that that gap, Iris gently poked Kia's mind trying to at least grasp a glimpse of what had reduced her saviour to a little crying girl buried in her arms. Iris felt like a blind woman as she rummaged through Kia's immortal emotions, sifting them into tangible sensations her mortal soul could process.
"Iris..." A shy murmur deformed slightly from Kia's crying drew the laying elf back into the real world. She gulped as she thought her fruitless raid on the vulnerable girl's mind was detected by the mage.
"Yes, Kia?"
"I want you." The snow maiden's shy whisper caused the elf to stop, trying to process what had happened while she was distracted.
"In what way~" Without her knowing it, the risen's arms slid down Kia's slender body and rested on her hips, her body eager to get rid of the tension which wore even on her undead body.
"I want your blood." The necromancer answered, her face pink from embarrassment.
"Oh..."
Iris watched her kitten for a long moment, she could see the desperation in Kia's voice as a corner of her lips began to tremble.
"Answer me first, why?" The risen asked as she rolled her collar down exposing her slender neck.
"I..." The petite devourer's multi-coloured eyes fixated on the elf's fair skin, she appeared like a cat waiting in the bushes for the perfect opportunity to pounce. "I want to forget."
In a blink of an eye Iris saw the girl turn into a bloodthirsty monster which forced its fangs into her neck. Her undead mind kept her conscious as intense pain pulsed through her body while the monster drank her blood, her HP quickly began to plummet past 50% mark but her body refused to push away the pale killer latched onto her vein.
"Kia?" Iris finally managed to push Kia's head, feeling the enthralling force keeping her from reacting suddenly ceasing to exist.
An intoxicated smell hit Iris's nostrils and memories began to flood her mind causing her body to feel like a furnace as something hot burned inside her even as her mind wasn't up for it.
"Kitten?" The risen cupped the necromancer's cheek and turned Kia's head toward her while a droplet of warm blood roll down the back of her palm.
The monster was gone, replaced by her delicate saviour who had fallen into a drunker stupor. The warm blood rolling from the corner of her mouth left a steaming path behind it as it painted a path across Kia's pale cheek. The elf sighed, feeling the desire to shout at the blood drinker leaving her body. The only thing left for the risen was to wait for the mage to wake up but until then she will do what she always does, standing vigil over her precious kitten.
"At least you calmed down for now."