Chapter 190 – Three for Me

“We attribute growing strength as a physical thing. We tie it to our bodies maturing and how we exercise our muscles. Our magical strength is often thought of as natural or part of our education and practice. What I recently witnessed leads me to believe that we have been blind to several other contributing factors.” – Personal Journal of Dr. Foris Trazin, Order Stabilitas.

“Are you sure that now is the right time?” Inari asked in a suspiciously calm tone that made Val double check her reasoning.

“Yes.” Val answered after a minute to consider, while staring at the lush valley below Inari’s home.

The goddess smiled softly. “Tell me again, what are your reasons?”

This was the third time they had gone over the list, but Val recited it regardless. “I need the power for several reasons. Firstly, we will be leaving our safety net of Earth and the Order. And, while we have Rindi, I still want to be as prepared as possible.

“Secondly, it feels right. After meeting the other Kitsune on the property and those two hybrids, I have this… this…” Val struggled with the wording again.

“An itch?” Inari suggested, using a different word than the last two times they had talked about it.

Val scrunched her face. “Kinda? It’s like an itch, a pressure and an instinct all rolled into one.”

Inari nodded, somehow making the simple action look obscenely graceful. “Please, continue.”

“The last part is because I need to separate myself even more from my family. While yes, I have emancipated myself from the clan and the house, I don’t trust them to not try something.” Val had been worried about that for a while, and this was the best solution she could think of.

“So, to stand above them, without peers to use as a pretense for controlling you.” Inari tapped her fingers on her lap for a moment. “Have you thought that doing this would make you too high value to let go?”

She had in fact not thought about that. “Would they do something like that?”

“Val, you know I have a connection with all kitsune, not all elves. Your mother’s clan had initially floated the idea of trying to ‘recover’ you but quickly let it go when the patriarch declared you ‘rightfully discarded’. Not to hurt your feelings.”

Shrugging, Val accepted it. She knew the feelings of familial connection didn’t run deep in her mother’s side. Beyond her maternal grandmother and grandfather, there wasn’t much love from that part of her family.

Seeing Val wasn’t going to comment, Inari continued. “That being said, I think your father’s house might try for something. Can’t tell what, but your mother has her suspicions.”

“Are you, like, spying on them or something?” Val wondered how she got that detailed information.

The goddess laughed softly. “No, dear. Your mother prays to me. She expresses her worries and hopes in those moments when her spirit is more directly connected.”

“Ah. God stuff.”

Inari nodded. “Indeed. So, are you sure you wish to go through with this?”

“Yes.” Val was resolute in her decision.

“Very well. I understand your position on this and wish you the best.” Inari yielded to her.

When there weren’t any additional concerns from Inari, Val hesitantly asked the question she was actually there for that night. “Any advice for gaining my third tail?”

“And so, we come to the crux of the matter.” Inari paused as her foxes went past, darting through the shadows of the landscaping. “You have already found some answers but let me help you remember them.

“Your aspect is?” Inari asked.

Val remembered talking about it but not so bluntly. “Shadows and illusions?”

“Those are things you can manipulate, dear.” Inari chided. “What is your aspect?”

Thinking hard, Val ran down the list of all the things she personally was. What her goals were, how she accomplished them and how she intended to expand them. She wasn’t a liar, so disguise was out. She wasn’t a fraud, which also ruled out deception.

A moment later, it all clicked. There was one facet of her that continually came into play. It was something fundamental to how she had lived and trained her power. An aspect that she could leverage to protect what she loved.

“Concealment.” Val whispered, her words somehow carrying despite the nature of the divine realm she was in. She felt a sort of connection to the concept that she hadn’t realized was there until she spoke it in reference to who she was.

“Exactly.” Inari sighed. “And to what end? What is it you will do with this concealment?”

Again, Val had to think but not for nearly as long. “I will hide through concealment?” She shook her head before Inari could even speak. “No, not that. It’s…”

Val let the words fade for a moment before things clicked back into place. “Conceal things important to me?” She shook her head, that felt closer but not quite right.

“Own it, Val. This is yours and no one else’s.” Inari coached.

“I conceal what I love from others.” That was farther away.

“Not quite. Be less specific. Go broader with it.”

Val screwed up her face. “Conceal to protect what is mine. AAAShhHHHH!” The feeling that she got in that moment was like her soul had turned into a bell which had been smacked by a felted hammer. She felt like she was about to vibrate apart as she rang from the blow.

“Hold it. Ride out the feeling.” Inari grabbed her arm, touching her for the first time.

The feeling of coming into contact with Inari was even more intense than the feeling of realizing her aspect. A power surged into her, equally as disruptive as the energy coming from her aspect but in counterpoint. It stabilized her soul with an even greater power that she couldn’t resist even if she wanted to.

Less than a second later, the sensations faded and Val was left barely able to sit upright. “Wha- what. Was. That.” She gasped, already knowing full well what it was.

While the question was rhetorical, Inari still answered. “Congratulations. You have finally connected to the universe and begun your next step on the path to divinity.”

Val groaned, taking several long minutes to recover. She had decided that sitting up was too much effort, even as a soul projection, so flopped back onto a pillow. The pillow had been a nice surprise since it suddenly appeared before her back contacted the floor.

“That sucked.” Val said, still not sitting up.

“Worse than when you grew your second tail by force?” Inari asked.

“Well, no but it still wasn’t fun.” Val would freely admit that forcing her second tail on a mission had been a stupid thing to do.

Inari sighed. “Well, then I have bad news for you.”

“Aaaaaahhhh-Balls.” Groaned Val before sitting up. “So, it that it? do I just grab some mana and push again?”

“In the effort to not make this sound easy, yes. But there are other requirements.” Inari continued as she saw Val was once again paying rapt attention. “You have the first, a bond to an aspect. You also have the second that is important for your divinity. Do you know what it is?”

“Kurt’s big ass bank of batteries.” Val winced at the scowl Inari leveled at her. “Sorry.”

The chastising look vanished from Inari’s face “You have the most crucial thing, at least for us kitsune. You have belief. Not your own belief, but that of others.” The goddess explained.

“Those kitsune living on the property?”

The look Inari gave her showed that the goddess was not impressed. “And, oh I don’t know, your lovers?” she asked rhetorically.

Val gave a guilty smile. “Oh, yeah.” That did make her suddenly think of something else. “So, what happens if I lose followers or believers? Like if there aren’t any, do I just go ‘poof’ and cease to exist?”

Shaking her head, Inari explained in a little more detail. Val hadn’t known that gods operated on different principals but was assured of one thing. The more followers, or devout belief, they had, the more power they had.

That was where Kurt had been able to jump ahead, since there was a portion of the werewolf population that still worshiped a lycan god. It just turned out that it was him… kinda… someday, anyway.

“He cheated.” Val grumbled.

“He did not.” Inari rejected her complaint. “Besides, even if he did, would you want to have gone through that? Do you want your soul and mind tortured by your instincts while living in fear of losing control?”

“If it would spare him from it, then yes.” Val had no doubt that she would gladly take that burden but also knew it couldn’t happen. She decided not to correct Inari about how Kurt had changed that dynamic, him coming to an agreement with his wolf was his business.

Inari smiled warmly. “You really are a good girl.”

The praise made Val’s tails wag, both of them beating a furious tempo against the cushions. “Then what is next for me? What is the next thing I need to do to complete this step and gain my third tail?”

“In the past, like most kitsune, you began manifesting a phantom version of the next tail. This is what many call a ‘half-step’ and shows that you are on the cusp of advancement.” Inari summoned her own fan of tails that swayed in such dizzying patterns Val couldn’t count them all. “This time will be different.

“This time, you haven’t quite taken that half step yet, though this is a longer step than the previous one. It’s more like a three part. The rest comes down to power and having to channel enough of it to force that step to finish.”

“Oh.” Val’s ears flattened and she hunched her shoulders. “I have to do the mana thing again?”

“Yes.”

Taking a moment to lament her future self, Val considered how she would do that. She began voicing her thoughts aloud. “So, last time I just forced a larger concealment spell, held it for a long time and eventually passed out. I feel like this time I need to do something more. Like push a boundary beyond just obscuring something or replicating an image.”

Nodding, Inari gestured for her to continue. “I don’t think it has to be part of my shadow ability but… Hmmm.” Val thought for a moment, recalling how her powers had advanced. “Can I… can I make something beyond an image?”

“That is a path.” Inari confirmed. “However, you should not discount your ability to enter that sub dimension. Perhaps there are other things you can do with it…”

Having been led to an answer, Val realized what she was missing. “What about taking someone into there? I could try an assert my will over that part of my domain and bring…” She trailed off as the goddess shook her head.

“Val, while I admire your ability to see that far ahead, don’t try that.” Inari said gently. “Taking things beyond yourself to that place, living things that is, would be a very bad idea with your current control. Rindi might be able to, but she has decades of experience with it and has some control over souls.”

“But you didn’t say anything about pulling things out…” Val concluded. When she spotted the twinkle in Inari’s eyes, she knew she was onto something. “But I can take something from there and… and what?”

She returned to thinking and took a few minutes to watch Inari’s giant foxes play in the landscaping. Their barking yips had distracted her, but Inari seemed content to let her figure it out on her own, regardless of how long it took.

Val always found them so entrancing, especially after they had changed color to look like her. There was something in the way the moved. It was like they were more firmly a part of the world around them and that world didn’t quite want to let them go, clinging to them.

That wasn’t to say they got dirty or anything. It was more like they carried bits and images with them before those images drifted off to return to where they belonged. Even now she watched the blurring effect as one of the midnight-black foxes lunged out from under a bush.

Having been in the darkness of that dense bush, the fox had been invisible to her. As its partner ran past, the one in hiding sprung its trap and pounced. It seemed to materialize from the darkness, like it hadn’t been there at all but suddenly was, similar to a spliced image in a film strip.

When that fox had leapt, the shadow clung to it, looking like a cloak of smoke trailing behind the creature. Then, as always, that shadow broke free and wafted back to…

Val’s mind finally made the connection. “I can pull physical shadows out of that dimension.” She declared. “If I can manipulate shadows and make them physical things, like with my switchblade, I can do the same with an illusion.”

She turned to Inari and saw the goddess nodding encouragingly. “If I can make a physical illusion, something that can touch, be touched, and interact with the world… But the- of course.” Val sighed, realizing what she had been missing. “The next step would be to advance an illusion past an illusion and make it real. But, to do that, I would need a lot of power.”

“And more than just mana…” Inari calmly reminded her.

“I need my connection to reality. I need that and the power, in this case mana, to do it.”

A tea service suddenly appeared on the low table that sat between them and Inari poured them both a cup. “Now, let’s talk about exactly how you are going to do this. Instinct did most of the work last time, but this needs actual intent to work.”

*****

The next day found Val surrounded by her family… and Jay… and the doctor elf who had overseen their implant procedures. They were in another part of the medical facility but this one was a cleared-out operating room. They had also only turned on half the lights for the time being, since Val would need some shadows.

“Ok, batteries are set and the wires are connected. Just hold this and you should be good to go.” Kurt said, handing her a metal baton he had enchanted just that morning, specifically for this purpose.

“It looks like you are trying to jump start a car.” Jay drawled from where he stood off to the side of the room.

Kurt looked down at the red and black cable that ran from Val to his large bank of mana batteries twenty feet away. “Well, I thought a set of jumper cables would provide some utility and just… you know.”

Jay raised his eyebrows before shrugging. “Eh, I guess not everything has to be made custom.”

“Most of Kurt’s tools are just enchanted versions of normal ones.” Rindi agreed.

“Are you sure I need to be here?” Foris, the elf doctor and magical healer, asked while looking nervously at the setup Kurt had rigged before sighing. “Actually, probably best I am. But will someone at least tell me what we are doing?”

“I am going to try to force my next tail to come in.” Val answered while adjusting her hospital gown. “It should work, but last time I was in pretty rough shape afterward.”

“Wait, you have done this before?” Foris asked, now looking curious. “I thought that it took decades for even the most disciplined and talented kitsune to advance.”

Waving her two tails, Val nodded. “Yup. Last time I only needed mana though. This time I had to get a whole laundry list of things.” Not that 3 were a lot of things, but the fact that she needed them was still surprising.

“Like what?” Foris asked, stepping closer but still staying out of the way of Kurt and what looked like a jerry-rigged torture device.

“Umm…” Val looked to Jay who shook his head. “I probably shouldn’t say.”

Foris looked disappointed. “Ah, well… That might be for the best.”

“Are we doing this or not?” Kristi asked. She was still irritated that her ‘vote’ was overridden by the rest of the group and they decided to go through with the attempt rather than waiting and slowly building up to it. She also didn’t like that the others had, in turn about, suggested that she not fight any more angels.

Grabbing the baton with both hands, Val stepped back into the middle of the room. “Alright, let’s see what we can do.” She sat down, cross-legged on the floor and started breathing deeply. As she did, they all felt a pressure, like they were being slightly compressed, as mana began to concentrate in the room.

Everyone’s head turned as Val held out one hand, gesturing at the empty space on the far side of the room. Their eyes then went wide when the shadow of a cabinet, cast by having fewer of the lights on, began to change.

First the shadow darkened, becoming denser and less like a shadow while still retaining the mostly transparent quality. Then that dark spot shrunk, pulling the rest of the pool of shadow with it. Once the shadow had condensed, Val was visibly sweating and had a soft glow coming from behind her as a ghostly third fox tail began forming.

That condensed pool of shadow then moved, advancing into the room to stand separated from the rest of the shadows. Once it was isolated, they could see that it was in the shape of a pyramid. The structure was only a couple feet tall and equally wide, but they weren’t sure of its exact shape since all of it was the same color and reflected no light. When that pyramid began to change into something else is when things got weird.

The mass of darkness began to warp and bend like a reflection in a funhouse mirror until it was distinctly not a pyramid anymore. They couldn’t be sure what it was, but they knew it wasn’t what it used to be. Still the shape kept changing, warping through a series of colors and even textures until it began to settle.

From the amorphous blob of darkness came a color that looked like the brown from a pack of Crayola crayons. Then that brown gained more colors, tans and reds mixing in and swirling until they formed a pattern. That pattern also had a texture start to show as the colors blended and resolved into wood.

“Not sure what the plan is here…” Kurt said to Rindi, Jay and Kristi as they watched in silence. He used the implant so he wouldn’t disturb Val.

Jay was first to respond. “That’s not an illusion.”

“What?” Kurt and Kristi asked at the same time.

“Well, not totally an illusion. I don’t think you would know about it yet since you have only just begun to manifest your will into reality but yeah, this is… frightening.” Jay immediately responded. That answer also placed a seed of concern in Kurt’s heart.

Never before had Jay described something as frightening, scarry or in any way like he was afraid of it. That he would use that word now was not what Kurt needed to hear, especially as he saw a bloody tear start to well up in Val’s eye.

The lump of wood grained image began to shift again, going through another warping motion as the shadow once had. While it did, the phantom tail behind Val began to resolve and lose some of its ghostly transparency.

A moment later, the wriggling mass of wood resolved into a simple table. There wasn’t anything particularly outstanding about it and it looked like any ordinary small end table made from dark, open-grained wood.

It was a simple design. Looking like a shaker style end table without a drawer. A square top was held onto four tapered legs with a simple side skirt of matching material. The flat top even had a slight sheen, and it reflected the lights off the surface like a regular table would.

Kurt glanced down, not moving his head as he read the gauge he had placed on the batteries. In the minute and a half that Val had been working, she had consumed nearly half the total capacity of the battery bank. It was a monumental amount of energy that would have allowed Kurt to make dozens of the storage rings, possibly hundreds with his new method. He returned his attention to Val as he heard a gurgling noise.

“Gooohhh. T-t-tooouch. NNnnnnnow.” Val urged though clenched teeth, forgoing the mental implant due to the strain she was under.

Acting immediately, due to his heightened elven reflexes and mental capacity, Kurt pushed past Foris and reached out a hand. He knew exactly what Val wanted and within a second of her speaking, placed his hand on the table.

He touched the table. He didn’t touch an illusion. He didn’t dispel an apparition. There wasn’t even ay give to the object as his hand met a smooth, slightly textured surface.

Kurt’s amazement was cut short by a quiet triple beep from his gauge, warning him that the mana level had dropped below 20%. In that same moment, there was a flash of something that wasn’t exactly light but more like the disappearance of light. He almost gave himself whiplash as his head snapped from the table, to the gauge then back to Val as the ghostly image of her third tail suddenly resolved.

The tail came into being in a way that made Kurt think of when he had last gone to the dreamscape and Jade had come after. When the two wolves had merged into one in an action that blurred the two clear images together. In that moment, they all began moving.

“KRISTI!” Kurt barked, recognizing the sign that Val had told them to watch for.

He needn’t have said anything as Kristi had already yanked the lanyard attached to the clips on the battery side of the jumper cables. The alligator clips popped off the terminals with a click and the pressure in the room suddenly decreased. It was like all the mana was rapidly venting from the space after being held inside. Rindi leapt forward, claws puncturing the tile as she flashed across the dozen feet between her and Val, Foris right behind her.

“Ungh.” Val grunted and pitched forward, just as Rindi reached her and caught the falling Kitsune.

The table dissolved under Kurt’s hand, but he was already rushing to Val and reached her just after Rindi and Foris. He summoned a stretcher from his ring and Rindi flopped Val down onto it, trying her best not to smush her tails under her.

“Subconjunctival hemorrhage. Increased intra-cranial pressure.” Foris began mumbling as his little screen popped into place and he examined Val. “Mana pathways are dilated. Nanobots seem to be repairing.” He immediately cast several spells that Kurt didn’t recognize.

“How is her spirit?” Jay asked, standing a respectful distance away though still within arm’s reach.

“Can’t-“ Foris began.

“It’s significantly expanded.” Rindi cut the doctor off from where she crouched and placed a hand on Val’s neck. “Her soul has… mmm, thickened?”

Foris cast another spell with a short chant and looked to Rindi. “Anything look broken or like there is a tear, hole, thin spot, anything?” He instantly deferred to her since he didn’t have the ability to monitor that aspect of Val.

Rindi shook her head. “No. It just looks more real. Like Kurt’s”

Kurt decided to ignore the look he got from the doctor and got the conversation back on track. “Are there any other physical problems? Anything you personally can fix?”

“Where do I start.” Foris turned back to his screen. “If I didn’t know better, I would say she had some sort of blood transfusion during a brain hemorrhage while having a heart attack.”

“Well, let’s fi-“

“I already took care of the brain part, that was a pressure build up from something. The heart has already healed but there isn’t much I can do about her blood.” He scrunched his face as he thought for a moment. “I think that it’s the bots. The nano bots that you agents all have.”

“Like they are in her blood?” Jay asked. “They aren’t really supposed to do that.”

“Yeah, well, people aren’t supposed to be able to do this either.” Foris snapped. “I think they are being pushed out because they are dead. Something about the mana and her pathways would be my initial guess.”

Taking a step back, Jay summoned a book and skimmed through it while Foris cast another spell. “I think they got burned out when her pathways expanded and they got caught in the mana flow while trying to repair or strengthen them.”

“Probably.” Foris moved his screen up and down Val’s body. “As far as I can tell there aren’t more entering her blood supply.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Kristi asked.

Foris shook his head and closed his screen after casting one last spell. “No but her pee is going to look really weird for a couple days.” He walked over to his discarded bag and picked out a note pad which he spent several minutes scribbling on.

“Here. Doctors orders.” He handed the list to Kurt but addressed the room. “Bed rest until she is recovered enough to EASILY walk. Then light duty for another week. No lifting, no running, no fighting, nothing more than walking, eating and resting. Paperwork or other calm activities at most.

“After that week, she needs another booster of nanobots. Her current colony just lost over a third of its population. Then she can return to duty. Given the healing spells I cast and her own regenerative abilities, I predict two to three days of bed rest.

“She needs lots of protein, lots of vitamins. Juices, dairy products and hearty soups would be good.” Foris finished. “Call me directly if something happens.”

Kurt nodded and stored the rather extensive list of restrictions and instructions in his storage space. “Alright. Thanks, doctor Foris. We will get her home and into bed.”