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Quiet Foxes

Kyoto, March 27th, 998 AD

I kiss the young man who sleeps beside me and slip from my bed, moving softly so I won't waken him. It's only habit; he's in a sleep deep enough that a war could break out around him and he wouldn't awaken. I like this one. He's a scholar, a student of history, very sweet and very eager to please. And please he does. It's a pity I'll have to move on soon, really. But it's getting to the point where he's getting attached, and getting attached to me is a dangerous thing. Perhaps two more nights like this one and I'll send him gently on his way.

The silk robe falls around my shoulders and I wander out onto the balcony. The spring air is chilly, but I don't mind. I love the smell of the green things all bursting into bud, once stunned by the cold and the snow but now warmed by the sun and the gentle winds.

My husband is perched on the railing, smiling at me. "Did you feed well?"

I incline my head. "Very well, thank you. The scholar is a most tempting treat." I can see the wood of the railing through his body. "I must be careful, though. He will be useful in the future, if I do not harm him now."

Setto comes down off the railing and stands behind me, wrapping his transparent arms around me. I can feel only the prickle of his energy along my skin, but I remember the solid warmth of his body, and that memory warms me. He murmurs into my ear, "You really ought to remarry, Rei. You're not meant to be alone."

I shake my head. This is a discussion nearly a century old, and we only argue it for form's sake at this point. "I am married, love. Just because you're dead doesn't make me any less married to you. And I'm not alone. I have our family, I have my lovers, and I have you."

"I am cold comfort, I fear. You ought to love, truly love, again. I'm your past. Your future is very long, and while I'll always be here, you ought to have someone there who's actually present on the physical plane."

I smile at my maddeningly stubborn but still dearly loved husband. "You just want to watch me raise another child. Fine words from someone who isn't expected to change diapers. I think Yasuo was enough for me, and I've helped raise all of the children of our line since."

He tweaks my ear and I grin at him. "Vixen. It's not children I'm concerned with, and you know it."

"Ninety years of this argument and we're still at stalemate. One of these, you're going to admit that you're stuck with me forever." We are laughing softly at each other, mindful of the sleeping boy in the next room.

I lean against the railing, looking down into the gardens of the estate that has been my home for the last eighty years. "I am happy, Setto. Perhaps not as happy as if you had lived, but if you had, I'd still be without you today, and I might not have caught your spirit. So there is no point in wondering what might have happened. I miss your physical presence, but at least this way I get to talk to you." I stop talking as I see something that doesn't belong in the garden. A dark shape, moving where nothing should be.

Without thought, I flow into my other form, blessing yet again that my fur is black as coal. I squeeze through the decorative railing and drop to the ground.

Ears pricked and nose working, I run through the gardens, the silver tips of my four tails catching the moonlight. But no sound betrays me as I draw closer to the thing that should not be there.

Fox grimace, that smells wrong, whatever it is. Not human, quite, but overlaid with the scent of rot and dankness. I circle wide around it, trying to get a better look at it.

I risk showing myself, trying to get a better look. Ah! It knows I'm here. It swings around and I know this game, it's keepaway. Vulpine grin, still silent, circle circle circle pause. What is it? What is it? A name comes to me. Undead.

And then it moves more fluidly than I expect, and it's got something, a net. I jump away and the net misses, and I bark an alarm, three short yelps. But I am the Lady of this House and I will defend my lair. It knows I am here now and I run back and forth before it. Whoever sent this, and it was sent, was clever. It has no mind to enthrall. Whine of frustration.

Pause, panting. Too long, the thing throws the net again and I dodge but I stumble against a rock. That'll leave a bruise, but no net catches me.

I hear the sound of feet running towards me. Help, I hope, maybe the guards. I keep my eye on the wrong thing. Circle circle pause circle. Keep it here. I am beginning to enjoy myself. I make a lunge at it and it sways back. Afraid of me? It ought to be. I am kitsune. Every mortal thing should have a fear of me.

Fox and undead dance. I drive it backwards. The net again, easily dodged.

And then--hands! Who dares lay hands on me? I yip with surprise as I am grabbed from behind, realizing these are not my guards which means that my guards are dead, because the man who holds me is someone I have never seen before.

But nobody ever held onto a kitsune who did not wish to be held. I change, kicking away from the man in mid-transform, rolling away from them and landing on one knee. A spell shapes itself in my mind. But one of them is raising a blowgun to his lips and I dodge but not quickly enough, feeling the sting of a dart in my shoulder.

There is nothing but escape. I don't know how long I have but I am fast and I am clever and perhaps I can get away. Flat-out running, men in pursuit. Vaulting over a bench, back towards the house--I stumble, my legs collapsing. Whine of confusion as I shake my head. I cannot get to my feet.

As the darkness closes, I see the two men standing over me. I try to snarl but even that is too much work. Breathe out and everything goes away.

Wake, now. I lie silent, my breathing still the deep slow breath of sleep. Not a sound, not a sound. Where am I?

I listen to the sounds around me. Low talking, I cannot make out words, there's some sort of machinery working. Water falling. A mill, then, with a water wheel? I am in my human form and the air currents tell me that I am naked and sprawled on my back. I reach out a questing thought to my extremities, moving only a little bit. Everything's in working order, but reacting so slowly.

I open one eye. The first thing I see is Setto, leaning over me, looking worried. I speak to him without words, as I can when I wish. Where are we?

"I'm not sure. I was too distracted to notice where they were taking you. It's got a water wheel, but it's not a mill."

How much time has passed?

"Four or five hours. You looked like you were dead, Rei. You were barely breathing. Whatever was on that dart was a powerful poison."

How many people? My thought is urgent. I do not know what these people want but whatever it is cannot be good.

"Seven total. Four big bruisers of fighters. One samurai. Someone who appears to be a wu jen, Deer Hengeyokai, probably. And..."

Who? My thought is sharper than I meant it to be, but his hesitation does not bode well.

"Lin."

Our granddaughter?

"The same."

Prisoner?

"She...appears to be in charge."

I groan silently. Oh, my wayward granddaughter. What could I have given you that would have made you happier with your life? She's almost seventy and she's still angry at me for some reason. This isn't like her, though in recent years she has become more and more distant from me. But to actively attempt to harm me, just isn't something I would expect from her.

I open the other eye, slowly. Rough wooden ceiling. My hands are beginning to respond a bit better to my thoughts, but I am almost certain that if I tried to change now, I could not. I need time. If I am lucky, I will get that time.

Unfortunately, I am not that lucky. My granddaughter leans over me. "Reiko. I know you're awake."

The whine is far more pathetic than I feel, and perhaps that is just as well. "What have you done to me, Lin? I can barely feel my body."

"A little concoction my wu jen made for me. Like it?"

"No."

"It doesn't matter either way, really. We'll soon do what we came here for, and then you won't have anything to worry about, ever again."

"What are you going to do to me?"

"It's more what we're going to do with you, but I'm not such a fool as to tell you. It'll be a surprise."

Pins and needles in my hands and feet as the feeling returns to them. She doesn't look worried, she looks like she trusts this poison to keep me harmless. Perhaps I'm in better shape than she thinks I am.

The samurai is speaking sharply to the biggest of the fighters. Lin turns to look at them, and say, "You can have her after we're finished. Not before." She looks down at me and says, "I fear we've promised the use of your body as payment to the fighters. Fortunately, you won't have much of a mind left once we give you to them. Grandmother."

I close my eyes, letting my fear show to my granddaughter, projecting harmlessness, helplessness. Setto is standing next to her, rage showing in every line of his body. I need more time, but Lin doesn't give me any, sliding her hands under my shoulders and dragging me to a low table. I wince as she pulled me up onto it, scraping my elbows and thumping my head ungently against the wood. She is talking to the samurai and the wu jen is bending over me, anointing my body with something, scented oils perhaps. Preparing me for something. He lays a finger on my lips and says softly, "I am sorry, Lady. But she has a hold over me that I could not counteract."

One word in hengeyokai, "Yharis." I forgive you.

I do not know why Lin is acting this way. But it is time to do something about it. I am beginning to lose my temper. I had been having such a lovely evening, and as soon as I have control over my body back--there! My fist closes convulsively, and I can feel my magic burning through the fog that the drug had draped over it. Finally! Setto, what's outside?

He flashes out and returns in a few seconds. "Forest. Full moon setting in the west. River to the east."

I could almost smile. All right, then. I begin to spin out strands of starlight. Without moving, I construct the image of what I want in my mind. A distraction. Something they'll believe.

Sounds, shouts coming from outside the building. "Lady Reiko? Lady, are you in there?" Sound of booted feet, ten or fifteen of them, and swords being drawn. The samurai shouts in alarm and he and the fighters run out the door. They will spend a minute or so fighting before realizing that the men are an illusion, but that's the time I need.

Touch the power. Reach for my other form. Change.

Lin realizes what's happening and begins to cast a spell. I ignore her. If I run, I can lose myself in the forest. She is between me and the door, though, and I am about to run head-on into whatever she's casting. Leap to the side, knock into an oil lamp, the lighted lamp catches the oil and begins to burn. Distract her. Break her concentration. But she's good, better than I thought, and though the room is beginning to burn around her, she is still casting. What is she doing?

And with my fox eyes I can see her spirit beginning to leave her body. It reaches for me, sticky strands of power coming from her hands. I know now what she is doing. She would posess me, evict my spirit, take my body for her own. Walk in my skin whenever she wanted.

But I am shaman, and I am kitsune. And I strike first.

My teeth close on not her body but the arm of her spirit, and my leap carries me past her body, spirit form shredding in my mouth. You're coming with me, Lin. Despairing cry from my granddaughter as I pull her spirit from her living body and run with it into the night.

And the hungry flame behind me consumes the building and all inside. Including Lin's body. I can feel the moment the tie between her and her body severs. And into the night I run, coal black fox on velvety black forest floor.

Under a tree I loose her spirit from my mouth. I nibble at a paw as I watch my granddaughter's spirit feel around her, howling softly with bewilderment. Fox laugh, soft chuffing as I watch. A bit of sadness, but knowing what she was about to do, I do not feel sorry for what I have done to her.

But--what is this? My tails fluff out as I sense the approach of something. Some things. Smell of spirits. Three, approaching. I cannot make them out, they move too quickly, and they swirl through the clearing. Lin raises her arms as if she knows them.

I hear laughter.

And then I hear nothing.

I wake.

There is a man across the room from me, watching me. I can see the window he is against through his body; me must be a spirit, then. I rub my eyes. Where am I?

An old woman comes through the open door; she too is transparent. Wrinkled face, white hair pulled up sharply, intelligent black eyes. I glance down at my own hands, which are smooth, without a mark of age.

The old woman says, "You're going to be late if you don't get out of bed, Reiko."

She knows me, knows who I am. "All right, Grandmother. Remind me, what am I going to be late for?"

She barks a mirthless laugh. "You have an appointment to entertain a certain man of business, geisha. Don't you remember?"

"I...no. Entertain?" I am bewildered. I don't know what I am doing here, but the certainty that was so strong a few seconds below that I was in the wrong place is fading quickly. "I don't know."

"I'll help you. Guide you. I know what must be done." Her voice is soft now and her face is kind, and I struggle to remember the brief cruelty I saw when she told me where I was supposed to go. Everything is so difficult to remember. "You can trust me, Reiko. I am your guide."

The male spirit--who is he? I don't remember--simply looks on. There is deep sadness in his eyes as I struggle into an underrobe, ready to go be costumed for my appointment. And led by the spirit who I can no longer think of as anything other than grandmotherly and helpful, I go out of the room and down the stairs, waiting to see what my future will hold.