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Fates Parallel Chapter 245 - Origin
🕑 Added 2022-07-29 18:58:53 +0000 UTCGrandmaster Murayoshi stared down at the tiny figure of Heian, nonplussed. He took his hammer back from her and set it down on the anvil without breaking eye contact. When he finally spoke, his voice was uncharacteristically soft.
“Don’t call me Ienaga, girl. I threw that name away for a reason.”
He knelt down to meet Heian’s curious eyes, and she tilted her head as he scrutinized her in almost the same way he had examined Yoshika’s artifact moments ago. Forge was more enthusiastic—the tsukumogami’s form swirling around Heian excitedly and eliciting a small giggle from the girl.
There was a rapid exchange between the two spirits that Yoshika wasn’t able to follow, but Forge quickly returned to Murayoshi and appeared to whisper something in his ear. The old master frowned and glanced back up at Jia, looking away from Heian for the first time since she’d manifested.
“Ye said ‘daughter’? Whassat about?”
Yoshika shrugged.
“She’s like a child, and we’ve been raising her together—teaching her how to be more human. Heian is technically only four years old.”
“Kami don’t work that way. She looks like a girl because she got the idea from ye. Her true self is older than either of us. My Forge is much younger, an’ I’ve had her for over a century.”
Yoshika was about to retort, but Heian ended up beating her to it, crossing her arms and pouting.
“Mommy is my mommy! I’m not the other me anymore, I’m Heian. Sometimes I’m Lee Hei or Mommy, but I’m always Heian. I won’t go back to the other me—she can find her own mommy!”
Murayoshi blinked, then looked up at Yoshika with a confused expression.
“The feck is she talkin’ about?”
“We have no idea. That’s one of the longest and most coherent things she’s ever said. She’s probably talking about the greater panther spirit that she spawned from. Actually, we’ve got that spirit with us as well, but it’s been dormant for years.”
The smith went back to looking at Heian appraisingly.
“Huh. Well she’s certainly impressive, but ye ent convinced me of nothing. That ritual dies with me.”
Forge whispered something in Murayoshi’s ear and he shook his head, growling.
“No! I won’t hear it! Ye can spoil my metal for another year or another hundred!”
Yoshika watched the exchange curiously. She couldn’t hear anything Forge said, and suspected that no actual sound was being made—it was a form of telepathic communication. Forge noticed her looking and waved excitedly, sending a surge of emotion as she did—mostly sympathy.
She sighed, stepping forward with Eui’s body and putting a hand on Heian’s shoulder.
“We’re not asking you to do the ritual again—in fact, we agree that it should never be repeated. It’s far too destructive and probably limits the potential of anyone who undergoes it. But if there’s anything you can tell us about creating artificial bodies out of essence, we’d appreciate it. The only other person we know of with experience with it is...difficult to work with.”
Murayoshi’s eyes widened.
“And I was yer alternative?!”
Yoshika rolled her eyes. At least he was self-aware about it. Truthfully, she’d probably have preferred getting Jianmo to teach her about simulacra, but the copy residing in her soul didn’t have enough of the demon’s expertise left to be helpful, and the real Jianmo was still nowhere to be found.
“Yes, Grandmaster. Believe it or not you’re actually only our second worst teacher.”
“Tch. Must be gettin’ soft in my old age. Fine! Bring that damn Takeda girl before ye leave an’ I’ll at least look at yer technique. I can’t promise anything else.”
Yoshika bowed with both bodies, and Heian quickly copied her.
“Thank you, Grandmaster. That’s all we ask.”
He waved them away, scowling.
“Like I said, ye have no idea what yer askin’. I’ll look, but that’s all. Now piss off.”
Before they parted, Forge flew over to give Heian a hug, leaving a tiny mote of essence behind before she returned to Murayoshi’s side. Heian frowned uncertainly at the tiny piece of Forge, a paradoxical combination of Fire and Water, then swallowed it. She bowed.
“Thank you, Aunt Forge. Bye grandpa Murayoshi.”
Forge waved goodbye while Murayoshi silently got back to work. Jia and Eui each took one of Heian’s hands and departed, heading back to where they could sense the auras of their friends and family gathering in one of the barracks.
“Well, that could have gone better.”
Eui snorted in response to Jia’s comment.
“Could have gone a lot worse, too. You think he’ll actually help?”
“I don’t know. I hope so, but I can’t really blame him for not wanting to.”
Heian looked up, glancing between Jia and Eui as they spoke.
“Mommy, why do I need a body?”
The question caught Jia off guard, and she paused mid-stride.
“Heian? What do you mean, honey?”
The cat spirit furrowed her brows in concentration as she tried to find the words.
“I like being with mommy. I like sleeping in your soul when I’m tired. Why do I need a body?”
Eui frowned.
“I thought you wanted a body. Wasn’t that why you—or, the bigger you I guess—joined with Jia in the first place? Isn’t that why you copied the shikigami spell?”
Heian shook her head.
“I don’t want a body. I need a body. Why?”
Jia looked down at her daughter and scratched her head. Heian was being a good girl and not cheating with spirit ‘language’ but for once Jia kind of wished she would.
“I don’t know, sweetie. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. We’d be happy to have you stay with us.”
Heian shook her head again and grumbled.
“I have to grow up!”
Jia and Eui exchanged worried glances. It was always a bit difficult to figure out what Heian was trying to say, and Jia decided that this was too important to risk miscommunication, whatever it was.
“Are you okay? You can just show us if the words are too hard—you’ve been a good girl.”
Heian hesitated, then squeezed their hands tightly. Suddenly, Yoshika was in her soulscape with Heian’s panther form before her. The little kitten had grown into a large cub, nearly as large as a regular panther but still not finished growing. Heian nuzzled up against Yoshika’s side, and the scenery around them disappeared, to be replaced by a cliff at the top of a mountain. Yoshika recognized it right away—the very same outcropping where she had first met Heian.
Their daughter’s form was replaced by the enormous shape of the greater spirit she had spawned from—a massive black panther with deep blue eyes that bore into Yoshika’s soul. In those eyes, Yoshika saw Heian’s soul reflected back at her.
She blinked, and then she was a flower bush. A sturdy white stem supporting countless little branches, each hosting dozens of dusky gray petals. Her vessel was a strange little plant, and not very good at absorbing the sunlight—not that it got much of that under the outcropping. But the essence here was strong, and the innocuous little bush was the first vessel she’d found in over a century that could host her—and even then only after she’d lost so much of herself that she could barely remember why she even loved shadow or took the form of a cat.
Then, she was a mighty sorceress. Long before she would ever reach the mountain outcropping or impart a piece of herself to her kin, she resided in a vessel of peerless strength. The vessel drew on her strength, and she gave it freely. She knew that the vessel would return the spent power with interest. The vessel was concerned, it feared betrayal, it betrayed in turn, and as it fled, it joined with others like it to make a final plea.
The vessel wanted power. Power that would outlive the vessel itself, power that it could pass down through the generations, power to defend itself from those it once considered friends. The spirit of shadow could not grant such power and survive. She lamented as her vessel did. All their struggles would be for naught. But salvation came from an unexpected place.
Among their allies was a spirit of mischief, deceit, and desire. She understood the vessels better than the other spirits—communicated with them in strange ways. She offered a pact unlike any other. The spirits would live not alongside the souls of their vessels, but within. The spirits would give all of themselves in exchange for all of the vessels. Spirit and vessel alike would be destroyed and reborn, and their spawn would be neither spirit nor vessel, and also both. The ritual commenced, and the sky fell upon them.
Then, she was only a single thought. Before her kin, before the vessels, before she understood anything of the world, was the moment of her birth. She was an inexorable need to be hidden, to beguile the senses of those who would either seek or avoid her. She was a shroud of safety, impenetrable to all but her own gaze.
Then, she was nothing. Before she had existed, before her soul had taken form, when she had only been the raw essence of the world that would one day resolve to call herself Heian or learn to love her mother. A singular emotion dwelled within her, even then. One that would haunt her through a thousand lifetimes, through every fragment and incarnation of her existence—the sense that something was missing. An overwhelming need to fill that void and become whole.
“Jia?”
Yoshika gasped as the world around her came back into focus. For a moment, everything felt wrong, as if the world was fake and she was trapped within a painting. Then, the burning in her lungs snapped everything into focus. She’d forgotten to breathe. How long had she been gone? Who was talking to her?
“Yes! We’re fine, sorry!”
Rika frowned down at her, looking back and forth between Jia and Eui’s bodies before settling her gaze on little Heian, who was staring down at her feet with a guilty expression.
“Right...well some soldiers just came to get me because you’d been standing in the middle of the road with a blank expression for the last hour, which doesn’t sound all that fine to me.”
Yoshika smiled apologetically.
“A bit of impromptu meditation. A little flash of insight, you know how it is.”
“Uh huh...”
Yoshika shrunk under Rika’s skeptical gaze.
“Anyway! Do you mind coming with us to see Murayoshi tomorrow? He’s agreed to help us work on our simulacrum technique...uh, sort of.”
Rika raised her eyebrow.
“Really? You managed to talk him into that? Well, sure, but let’s leave that until tomorrow. I need you guys to save me from Jung and Hana talking about babies non-stop, and you seriously need to take a break from all this cultivation stuff. Seriously, you work way too hard and spacing out in the middle of the street is not healthy.”
Yoshika sighed.
“You’re right. We have been pretty stressed out lately. A break would be good. Just catching up with old friends.”
“Perfect! Let’s get going, then—oh, and Heian?”
The cat spirit looked up in surprise.
“Me?”
“Yes you! I have two important jobs for you.”
Heian straightened up seriously, her eyes filled with determination.
“I’m listening!”
“First, I need you to help entertain Narae—the poor girl is bouncing off the walls because there’s nothing kid-friendly to do in a military base.”
“Playing with Narae is easy.”
Rika giggled at Heian’s serious tone.
“Good. Job number two is to make sure your moms don’t sneak off to do any cultivation tonight, okay? I’m putting my foot down. They’re on mandatory rest and relaxation, and you’re going to be my spy and enforcer, okay?”
Heian saluted.
“Yes ma’am!”
Rika ruffled her hair with a grin.
“Good girl.”
Yoshika chuckled ruefully at the display, but didn’t object. She really could use a night of relaxation, catching up with her friends. Anything to help take her mind off the fact that she’d probably just discovered the origin of her race by accident.
