Blink. Breathe.

Blink. Breathe.

Tanya woke up with a feeling of surprise because, well, she really shouldn’t have woken up. In fact, the last thing she could recall was blacking out while grasping his waist, her energy fading into the brink of oblivion.

The first thing she noticed was that her head was throbbing like someone was hitting it with a hammer. The second was that she was lying in a bed. In an unfamiliar room. She could feel monster-hide beneath her.

And she was naked.

With a bedsheet covering her front.

Years of her senses becoming attuned to danger allowed her to maintain an exterior calmness, while a turmoil raged within her. Her nakedness meant she wasn’t in prison, and the sheet was proof that she wasn’t being restrained in any form. But it also meant that her fractals were not on her person. At least her lifeforce and mana were both working perfectly, and from what she could tell, the sole person in the room wasn’t displaying any hostile behavior.

‘Oh, good. You’re awake.”

Tanya froze at the familiar voice, her eyes widening as she locked gazes with the one woman she had not expected to meet again.

“... Maude.”

“In the flesh,” Maude spoke with a friendly shrug. “Half of your clothes were burnt and sticking to your skin. I removed them and cleaned your wounds.” She paused, cupping her chin. “I think some of my clothes might fit you, or maybe not. I’m a bit of a runt compared to you, so…”

Her casual tone did not ease Tanya at all. She had long learned that appearances could deceive and that even something that looked benign could be a terrible evil, and something that seemed sinister could be good. It didn’t matter whether it was a bremetan or a creature.

And Maude was difficult to gauge even before her possession.

Grabbing the sheet tighter against her body, she pushed herself against the bed.

“Where am I?” she demanded, glancing around. She was already figuring out the best way to escape from this room. Unfortunately, there were no windows, and Maude, or whatever she was now, was sitting between her bed and the most direct route to the door. Tanya wondered if there were any traps in between. Perhaps Maude thought that she’d be helpless without her fractals? It wouldn’t be an incorrect assumption against normal asukans…

“Blunt as always,” Maude chirped, and tilted her head. “But do you really not realize where this is? We spent so much time together here…”

That was when it hit her. There was no Eternal Light. Normally that would’ve been the first thing she’d notice, but staying in that borderland for that long was messing with her sense of normalcy. The dim fluorescent lighting on the walls, the shadows on the floor, and the stalactites jutting down from the ceiling could only belong to one place.

A shiver ran down her spine.

“What are you?” she demanded.

Maude quirked a brow. “Were you always this rude or has being in the borderland has made you crankier?”

A cold draft blew across the room.

“Answer the question.”

Maude made a placating gesture with her hands. “Relax. You’re safe. I treated your wounds and put you in an enchanted sleep while you healed.”

Seeing that her words made no difference to Tanya, who remained tense, and was looking like she was coiled to strike, she continued, “And I’m Maude. Or the closest thing to her, anyway. And stop looking at me like that. If I meant you any harm, would I have given your fractals back to you?”

As she said those words, she pulled out a familiar pair of fractals and threw them her way. Tanya reached out and grabbed them, her bedsheet dropping, revealing her upper torso to her. Tanya instantly pushed back and pulled the sheet back over herself.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Maude scoffed. “This isn’t the first time I’ve stripped you. You realize that, right? Besides, you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”

She licked her lips.

Tanya froze a little at her expression, before quickly wearing the fractals on both wrists, feeling a little relieved. She was far from helpless without them, but she was significantly more dangerous with those in her possession. If Maude, or whatever she was now, meant to threaten her, Tanya would make her regret returning her fractals. She knew better than to let down her guard, but at least the idea of her having her fractals back meant she was more comfortable with the idea of a forced escape should it become necessary.

“How did I get here?”

“You don’t remember?”

Tanya narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “I — I fell through the rift and... Lukas. Where’s he?”

That brought a grin on Maude’s face. “Lukas is with Leader. He should be here soon, though I wonder. Just what happened between the two of you? The last time I saw the two of you, you were trying to kill him with your frost.”

Tanya stiffened. “You — you were there?”

“Of course,” Maude quipped. “I vanished while you were playing with Olfric’s kami, and then you went after it. The next thing I saw, you were fighting the Outsider. And what a battle it was. It was fortunate Olfric didn’t see you. He’d die of an inferiority complex.”

Tanya narrowed her eyes. “You… know Lukas.”

It wasn’t a question. She had called him an Outsider, a term that only three other people could call him.

“Of course I do. I was there for his security, after all. And then I found Maude. It was… strange. I’d have never thought that a mere yurei like myself could fuse with a vanir with so much potential. And to think that I, a devout follower of Eir, would be so willing to lose my identity to become… more.” She grinned. “It was a surprise for both of us.”

The way she kept referring to herself as both Maude the vanir and the yurei, a yokai, was incredibly chilling.

“What is this place? Who’s this leader you’re talking about? And how do you know Lukas?”

“So many questions all at once. I wonder, were you always like this, or did the Outsider contaminate you with his bad habits?”

Tanya gritted her teeth. The casual manner by which she talked about Lukas suggested prior acquaintanceship with him. Obviously Maude the vanir had no way of knowing Lukas, so perhaps the yurei? Her old suspicions rose to the forefront of her mind — Olfric’s claims about how the yokai came after him for attacking Lukas. But while Lukas had admitted encountering yokai, he had painted them as monsters wearing bremetan flesh that he had to survive against. Was he perchance lying about it?

A pang of betrayal shot through her heart. She had opened up to him, confided the dark secrets of her horrendous past to him, and he had, in return, shared his own story in return. What reason would he have to hide his dealings with yokai? Did he not trust her?

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Get a grip, girl. Tanya admonished herself. Sure, she had gotten someone she could reasonably trust, someone that had known of her sins, understood the stains on her past, and still accepted her. But that didn’t mean she’d become ‘smitten’ with him. Sure, she had found a new levity in her life, but she wasn’t a naïve little girl. The world was still as ugly as ever. Yes, cynicism suited her better. She felt more comfortable taking things with a grain of salt. It spared her from many bitter disappointments, and she had experienced enough of them to last a lifetime.

In that light, she could understand why Lukas would’ve chosen to conceal his acquaintanceship with the yokai a secret. After all, he was living among Asukans. By the Goddess, he had even stated that he’d tell her nearly everything, barring anything that was too dangerous.

So why did she feel this bitterness in her stomach?

“Call Lukas here. I want to talk to him. Right now.”

Maude threw her head back and laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“Oh, you. The Outsider said the same thing when he woke up. Speaking of which, can you tell me where he got Kvasir’s treatise from? I didn’t think Zuken was the kind to hoard forbidden tomes like that in his mansion.”

Okay. Maybe she was imprisoned after all. Sure, there were no manacles, but she was stuck in a room, naked under a flimsy sheet, with a thoroughly maddening Maude who wanted to drive her to suicide through confusion.

“Can you,” Tanya began, cursing herself when her words came out bleaker than expected, “can you give me my clothes?”

Then she remembered how Maude had described her earlier state.

“... or anything that might fit me?”

Maude chuckled softly.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. Just… reminded me of my earlier days. Maude is obsessed with proper dressing and decorum. But yurei do not have such sophistications. Dressing, eating… Even now, I have to remember to breathe. In fact, even this conversation feels unnecessary. Life as a yurei is much more… monochromatic.”

“You’re an Oni now?”

“That is what they call me,” Maude replied, exhaling. “Even between my kind, I am a stranger. I am not yurei, and not vanir. I’m… something else.”

“If it’s that bad, why don’t you…” Tanya trailed off, hesitating to finish that sentence.

“Return to Haviskali?” Maude asked. “I apologize. I like it here better.”

“And what is this place?”

“It’s yokai territory. Well, a yokai territory, but the only one that I know of. This one, though, is significantly larger than I expected. I don’t think I’ve even seen it in its entirety. As a yurei, I stuck to patrolling these parts.”

“And it's all underground?”

Maude smiled. “Yes. All the way to Haviskali and Cyffnar.”

Tanya suspected the anomaly might be larger, way larger than what they had originally expected. Especially if it covered the entire desert and then more. That was… nearly as large as half of the Llaisy Kingdom itself.

And it was populated by yokai.

“Why are you telling me all this? I mean, I’m an Asukan.”

This time, Maude smirked at her. Tanya wasn’t sure why, but it rankled. Far more than anything else she had done.

“... what?”

“You can pretend all you want, Tanya,” the Oni said, “but you’re no more Asukan than I am.”

Tanya froze. How did she…?

The thought died as a far more dangerous suspicion arose in her mind. Maude had said that Lukas was with the Leader of this territory. The Leader of yokai. And Lukas was also the one person she had trusted enough to reveal her past. Had he…?

No. She told herself. No. She had trusted him. He had promised to be on her side. He would not betray her secrets to the yokai like that. No way. No fucking way—

Clutching the bed sheet with her left hand, she materialized multiple wind-blades in mid-air, all of them aimed for Maude’s vitals. Maude might have thought that handing over her fractals was a good way to get past her defenses and play with her emotions.

She’d teach her to expect better.

“Enough with the chitchat,” she all but snarled. “I want to see Lukas, so by the goddess, you’ll get me some clothes. Or I swear I’ll kill you right now.”

“If you kill me, you’ll have to go find him naked.” Maude chirped.

Tanya was not amused.

…

…

…

Fortunately for Tanya, she didn’t have to actually end up killing her former teammate. Maude did, in fact, have an apparel set ready for her. That she could get her to react so easily was maddening. That she was treating her as completely harmless wasn’t helping things, either.

At least she was out of that freaking bed, and she had clothes on.

No matter how uncomfortable she felt in clothes two sizes too small for her. Knowing the Oni, she did that intentionally.

“So, Lukas stayed here before? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Oh yes,” Maude said, smiling. “It was quite entertaining. Seeing him battle Quonnan naked.”

“What?”

“Technically,” came a familiar voice from the doorway. “They stripped me way before the fight. It was part of their prisoner treatment package.”

Tanya spun around and found Lukas standing there, arms crossed, as he rested against the doorway. She didn’t know what came over her, but the next second, she was sprinting across the room and hurled herself at him, hugging him for dear life. After a surprised grunt, she felt relieved as he wrapped his arms around her as well.

It took her another moment to realize what she had just done.

Maude made an odd, throaty noise in the background.

As if stricken, she pulled herself back; her face burning with embarrassment at her sudden impulsiveness. Lukas looked gobsmacked for a moment, before a lopsided grin formed on his youthful features. Then she remembered what she had just found out.

“You lied to me!”

“Well—”

“You lied to me!”

This time Lukas didn’t even try to apologize. “I did.”

Her hands rose to her waist as she glared at him. “You’ve lived with the yokai. And yet you lied to me. Every single time.”

Lukas winced. “I did say that it’s closest to the truth I could give you.”

“HOW IS—” Tanya barely stayed away from erupting. “How is this close to the truth?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t know how you felt about them.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you turn this on me, Lukas Aguilar. Don’t you dare turn this on me. I told you — I told you everything! And you—”

“Your everything included nothing about yokai,” he said, and held up his hands in surrender. “And contrary to what you think, I’m not best buddies with them either.”

“Evidence points otherwise!”

“What evidence?” Lukas shot back. “They captured me and forced me to play ball. You know as well as I do that sometimes a choice isn’t a choice at all.”

Whatever Tanya was about to say next died in the face of that comment. If they captured him, it certainly explained how the yokai knew him. And he had even talked about fighting this kasha earlier. Honestly, there were just so many unknown variables that she wasn’t sure what to feel anymore.

“I agree, Outsider,” Maude quipped in the background. “Tanya enjoys threatening over giving choices.”

“That’s not—” Tanya began with a hiss, before she glared back at Lukas, “You thought it’d be a great idea to leave me all alone with her?”

“I thought you were old friends.” Lukas said, confused.

“You thought wrong.”

“Now isn’t this interesting…” said an unfamiliar feminine voice from behind Lukas. Tanya didn’t know why, but something in that voice set her at edge. She took a step back and shifted into an offensive stance, wind-blades forming in each palm. The stranger entered through the doorway, the darkness outside no longer shrouding her. She looked young, closer to herself in age, with jet black hair and eyes, with small dimples on either side of her cheek that contrasted with her otherwise square jaw.

“Who’re you?”

“I’m called Solana, my dear,” she said. “Do you know who you are?”