“No!” Amikavi screeched the white flames that made up her body writhing shapelessly, turning from body to face to bursts of sputtering light. “No! Lies! How could that be? The curse on him could not have been undone! My magic could never be so weak as to be thwarted by Che magic! How could such a thing be!”

Guin stepped back up onto the dais as the wild flames began to lick at her feet. Oddly calm in the moment, she looked up at the flames and said, “I have heard from someone who knew him well that he paid her a visit just recently. I’ve no reason to doubt her.”

“How could you not!” Amikavi asked, her voice lined with a sound akin to nails on a chalkboard. Twitching, Guin's ears went back as the fox spirit continued to challenge her: “Do you believe them so much as to doubt my power?”

“Lithe and the city folk had no reason to lie to me,” Guin explained, struggling to have her voice carry over the crackling sound of the flames, then sighed, resigned to the fact there was little else she could say to defend Lithe and the hunters. “Honestly though,” Guin started saying, more to herself. “I should have noticed all on my own. If someone like that, a prince and all his men and even his kingdom, had been affected by one tragedy or another, even the people of the game would not have ignored it.”

Frozen in her place as she listened to Amikavi’s cries of pain and hatred, Guin stood on the platform. Liorax floated over and into Guin’s chest, where she took him up into her arms and held him tightly.

“How could this be?” Amikavi’s flames wailed, echoing so loudly through the chamber that Guin nearly dropped Liorax in order to block her ears. “Curse! Curse, upon curse, upon curse! I placed so many curses on him with my magic—all my remaining strength to place such powerful ill luck upon him—and yet he still lives? He still walks this land? I know my power! And I know it worked! One by one, I watched his men succumb to my will! To my corruption! Their flesh rotted, and their minds were lost to madness, killing one another as they walked! How is it that this Che still walks this land? After all I did to him? After all he did to us!”

The wails turned into sobs as the flames died down. The fox spirit’s normal, regal form emerged—yet regal was not the word that Guin would have used now. The once great and powerful mistress of White Fox Forest seemed small. Broken.

Ducking her head and burying her face in Liorax’s soft fur, Guin remained silent as Amikavi whimpered, “My friends, family—my people! Lost! Lost! And for what? Greed! My children, so many of my children... gone...” Guin’s eyes burned as she listened, but the air grew warmer. Amikavi’s face grew increasingly grim and desperate as she began to pace. Hackles rose, the air in the chamber grew warm with every step she took with her padded paw, and sparks began to shoot off her fur like thousands of falling stars. Pring eyes blazing, Amikavi’s head snapped to Guin with sharp teeth bared. “You!” she bit. “You! Half-Che! Find him! Find him for me!”

Guin looked down at Liorax’s fur. Somehow, she was not surprised at the request, yet she wished she had done her quest in a different order. “And then what?” she asked, reflecting on the conversation that they had had before. “Would you have this Tatterskin finish the vengeance that you had started? Would you have me further the rift between the Che and the Veil and become the same as the one who did you wrong? And even if I were willing to do such a thing, even you could not end him with all your power—what hope could I have to end him?”

“Yes! Kill him!” the fox spirit shrieked, sending a chill down Guin’s spine—but then she seemed to let the words sink in and got a hold of her senses. Her hackles fell along with her face as shame set in. “No... No. That... Would not work. It is, as you say, Tatterskin. Nor is it how I would like it to be. The image of destruction in my mind would only bring a million more crying souls to the mercy of our hidden war. No. Che lives are short, and this man is but one. But each day he is allowed to walk the land, ignorantly reaping, the land will suffer. He must be stopped—though by what means, I do not know,” the fox spirit said and met eyes with Guin. Amikavi raised her head tall and proud, breathing in and closing her eyes, then opening them with renewed determination. In answer, Guin did the same, the bells in her hair tinkling ever so slightly. “Half-Che—no, Tatterskin,” Amikavi went at last. “I ask—no, I beg—will you aid us?”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

<<>>

[Quest Offered: Amikavi’s Revenge]

This quest is optional. It can be skipped. (Difficulty: C)>>

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“I will not pretend it is an easy request,” Amikavi continued as Guin stared at the block of text. “This man thwarted not only me but so many spirits of the land that we share. Great ones. Powerful ones. And you, I realize, are but a kit,” she said. “But now I am all but powerless, bound to this room, for should I leave, the corruption will take me again. I am not so blind yet as to wish that upon those who are innocent. But you, you can come and go as you please, with my power bound to you. You may die. You may suffer. Those around you may not understand your mission, be they creatures of Che or Veil. Knowing this, would you still accept my request?”

“I will do this thing,” Guin told her with an amount of confidence that surprised even herself. Liorax took a place on her shoulder as Amikavi bowed her head.

“You do me and the Veil a great favor, Tatterskin,” the fox spirit said. “I shall help in whatever way that I can. Speak, and I shall listen. Ask, and I shall give. Command, and I shall obey.”

Guin bit her lip at Amikavi’s words, but the only thing she could think of asking was, “Is there anything more that you could tell me about Octarius? About why he would be so powerful?”

Amikavi shook her head. “There is none,” she said. “There is none, but be wary of him, Tatterskin. Even now, to this day, no matter how many hundreds of hours I have dwelt upon it, I cannot understand how he bested me. Perhaps there is a connection: his power and his thwarting of my curses. He must have something! For he must be powerful to have felled me or Tethaigou! Yet, there was nothing impressive about him. If you do meet him, girl, take care.”

Looking at her clawed hands, her ears twitched. Her tail twitched. The road before her in the game was more clear now than it had been—she only needed to accept it. In her arms, Liorax looked at her expectantly.

“I guess the first thing, then,” she went. “Is that I need to get stronger? A kit I am, but a gumiho I need to be.”

Amikavi nodded, and her pink eyes grew more fierce than they had before. The fox attendants in the room began gathering around them, their eyes starting to glow. “Before you go on, you should test your new coat, at the very least,” she went, grinning now as she moved past Guin to settle herself back on the dais. “If you die here, you would have been successful anyway!”

Hopping out of Guin’s arms, Liorax gave her a broad, challenging grin. “Come, Tatterskin!” he said excitedly. “Lut us spar with the minions of the Thundertail! I shall teach you to use my powers, that you will not die against such vermin!”

“Wait—now?” Guin blinked, looking between them all. “I’m not ready for that!”

Amikavi tsk-ed. “Life never waits for you to be ready!” she mused. “Foxes! See to training the girl. Kill her if you must; baby her, and she will never improve.”

“Ah—wait!” Guin cried, but Liorax kicked her forward with a laugh. Stumbling forward, Guin growled, summoned her spear, and broke into a run.