Deep in the Azeria forest, well away from the primary settlement of the clan, a small, white-haired kitsune witch sat in meditation and communion with the forest’s guardian spirit. Shizoku was preparing herself for her next duty and saying farewell to her mentor.
“The Matriarch has decided she likes the dungeon’s suggestion, and is sending me back to meet with them and several young people from Riverbridge in a joint exercise to delve the dungeon.” She spoke slowly and in time with her breathing cycle, letting the words wait when she inhaled. “My cousin will be traveling with me, and there will be some more experienced people from Riverbridge too.”
“I think she is wise to foster closer relations with both this dungeon and the nearby city.” The reply did not come from a physical body, instead the whisper of wind over leaf and branch carried thoughts and meaning to the young witch. “But I sense a bit of discontentment in you. Do you resent this duty that has been placed upon you? Or have you been keeping a thought from me since you returned from your visit to the dungeon?” The voice sounded amused to the kitsune. Had the spirit known she was keeping a secret all along?
Shizoku managed to not sigh or shift her body and continued her breathing cycle as she replied. “That is not the problem.” She didn’t want to admit this, the spirit was not above teasing her, but she didn’t want to deny it now that she’d been directly asked. “I told you before that the dungeon has a dual-core, Kazue having been reborn as one of them, and they are married to each other and their contractor, Moriko. The other half, her husband,” Despite the control imposed by her meditations Shizoku could feel her cheeks heating up, a blush of red across her pale skin. “I’ve developed a crush on him.” It was stupid, she knew that, and he was far from her first crush on an older man.
The worst part is that the thirteen-year-old prodigy knew why the whole thing was a bad idea. She always felt like other boys her age were dull or immature, which made older men much more interesting. But any man who was worth her attention and affection wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole, and she certainly wasn’t going to pursue one of them. That did not make her feelings any easier to cope with. And only falling for guys whom she’d despise if they returned her affections had to be one of the stupidest things she’d ever heard of. But still, it happened to her with distressing regularity.
“Again?” Oh, the spirit was definitely amused. “Is this why you have avoided telling me his name?”
She hadn’t been as subtle as she thought. Shizoku had been avoiding the name to keep the thought of him at a greater distance. She answered reluctantly, “Yes. His name is Mordecai.”
The forest stilled and fell quiet for a long moment. “Mordecai? As in the dungeon that fell long ago?”
Now Shizoku suddenly felt nervous, the spirit’s voice had been extremely, carefully neutral. “You know him? They didn’t go into detail but they did say he was a much older dungeon that had been trapped for a long time. I don’t know more than that. The Matriarch might know more, she was talking with him when I was with the group running the dungeon’s levels.”
“I see.” whispered the forest. “I have not spoken with Aia in a while. Perhaps you should ask your grandmother to visit me again.”
Grandmother had spent time with the forest’s guardian before? Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise. “I will do so, teacher. Shall I go now?”
“Yes, I think you should. I look forward to hearing more of your adventures upon your return.”
Shizoku scooped up the small slime that had been resting on the ground in front of her and rocked smoothly to her feet before bowing. “Thank you for your time and teachings, Great Spirit.” She returned home with a hurried pace, briefly stopping to see her grandmother and tell Aia the forest spirit wanted to talk.
After the girl had left, the wind and leaves rustled again, this time whispering in a much older, mostly forgotten tongue. “Little sister, I feel your attention. Come speak with me.”
The form of a young human woman with long black hair and dark eyes appeared in the forest. “Hai Oneesan, what did you want to talk about?” The figure responded, cheekily blending in a third language not even native to this land.
The spirit ignored this and asked “Is it true? Mordecai lives and has returned to the surface?”
The young woman sighed. “Maybe. I can’t exactly visit and find out, but everything I’ve heard sounds like it’s actually him. But I wasn’t around back then, so I can’t verify his mana signature or anything. I am fairly certain Aia believes it's him, as does another descendant. His wife Moriko seemed sane at least. And I can verify that her soul bond is balanced and seems to leave her equal to the two cores, not controlled.”
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“Have the Empyreal Pillars said anything?”
“No, on this subject my prayers are unanswered and silent. This means the gods know something, but believe that saying too much will be tipping the scale too hard. Oh, that reminds me though, Ozuran did nudge a champion of Amirume this way. If he’s some sort of fake, she will probably wind up in conflict with him. If he’s real, he’ll probably end up with a powerful guardian, once she’s finished her Marked training.”
… “Of course she’s Marked. Well, it seems I must visit him in person to know for sure.”
The woman frowned. “Are you sure? That seemed like it would be difficult, all things considered.”
“I am sure. The price should not be too high, though Shizoku may need to cope without my guidance for a little while.”
The figure shrugged. “Up to you Oneesan. I’ll do what I can to help.”
“Thank you.”
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In addition to her family, there were several bunkin present as Kazue began teaching everyone how to treat the tea set properly. She knew that everyone was at least passingly familiar with this sort of tea set, but she wanted to make sure everyone knew how to take care of this prize.
“Rule number one, no magic. Everything about how these work is just simply materials and craftsmanship, and I want it to be perfectly authentic. I don’t want to even use dungeon magic to move them. This will be their first time getting tea, so our previous storage shouldn’t be an issue.”
She looked sternly at the group sitting around the large table. Everyone was attentive, but her husband, wife, mother, and father all also looked a little amused. The bunkin were taking her seriously at least.
“Now, for serving tea. Each of these teapots will only be used for one type of tea. They are identical right now, so we have to be careful about keeping track of them and putting them in their respective boxes, which are differentiated with a small mark. Mordecai and Moriko have agreed to let me choose the types. So, the flavors are going to be oolong tea, green tea, and black tea.” As she spoke she touched the respective teapots.
“They will only be washed gently with clean water. Over time their color will change, do not try to wash out stains. The stains are the point. This also goes with our adorable tea pet dragon here.” The clay sculpture in question was sitting in a bowl filled with cold water. “Except we don’t wash him at all. Cimbu is to be fed a bit of tea every time we have some, but we don’t have to do this part. This is just for fun.”
Kazue grinned as she picked Cimbu up out of the bowl and shook him lightly while listening to the water slosh inside, then tipped him forward and shook a few drops of water out. “That should do it. For Cimbu to do his trick, he needs to be half full of cold water. The more perfectly balanced the water and air, the better.” Kazue set him down on a tea draining tray, a wooden grate fitted over a matching box. “Now, for the next part, we need hot tea! I’ll start us off with a jasmine green tea.”
Kazue had already gotten the leaves and water ready, so she placed her selection of tea inside and poured the hot water in, then closed it and let it brew. She did her best to not bounce in place, she was so excited! Kazue had always wanted a set of her own. She could have begged her daddy for one, but when she was sharing living space with the other shrine maidens she’d have had more trouble taking proper care of it.
Once the pot was ready she picked it up and turned to the tea pet. “Cimbu always gets the first sip” Kazue announced and tipped the teapot forward just enough to pour a brief stream of tea over the clay dragon.
The hot tea immediately caused the air inside to expand, and the pressure force the cold water out through the tube connecting the reservoir and the mouth. A stream of cold water streamed forth from Cimbu’s mouth, splashing onto the surface of the tea tray and draining into the box below. “Isn’t he cute when he spits?” Kazue beamed. “And now we can all have tea.” Kazue happily served everyone present, insisting her bunkin friends stay seated for this part. The perfect craftsmanship of the teapot meant that the pour was incredibly smooth and barely left a ripple on the surface of the tea as the cups were filled.
When there were only dregs left in the pot, she went back to the table and poured those last dregs over Cimbu. He’d already been warmed up, so did not spit any water for her this time.
“Now, Cimbu needs more attention than just being fed tea. He also needs to be brushed regularly too!” After setting the teapot down, Kazue picked up the special brush that had been laying on a rest that was also part of the set. “This will help even out his ‘coat’ of tea.” She said as she lightly brushed Cimbu, spreading out the residue of tea to cover more of the clay surface. “And that’s it! It’s not hard, you just have to be careful.”
The bunkin were very enthusiastic and asked a lot of questions, but her family on the other hand … Well, they cared that she cared at least, and would take good care of the tea set including Cimbu. But it would be nice if they cared about the tea set with the same enthusiasm as she had for it.
Then again, she had trouble finding quite the same level of enthusiasm that they had for things like training and meditating and stuff. So maybe it was only fair that they didn’t share her enthusiasm for all of her hobbies.
When the bunkin’s curiosity was satiated, Kazue moved on to teaching them the proper tea ceremony. She had been focused on the care of the tea set before, but it was also important to be respectful of the tea itself. Getting everything to the exact right temperature with the right timing was an art form in and of itself.