There was momentary silence in Yuuki's room until Alice barged in.
"There was something weird here."
Yuuki was still thinking about everything that happened, but she decided to shelf it for now. She sat down on her bed and Alice sat in her lap.
"Yeah, I got a visit from Mystra."
Alice's ears perked up and she was ready to pounce. "She's not trying to make you reincarnate again, right?"
"Not yet, probably."
That seemed to calm the wolf-kin ever so slightly as she leaned into Yuuki.
The curtains in the room moved by themselves and covered up the large windows of the room. Yuuki threw herself on the bed, on her side. Alice, being enveloped in a hug, got dragged along, causing her to burst out laughing from the unexpected action. The hug wasn't so tight that she couldn't change position, so she turned to a strangely tired Yuuki. The eyes were barely open and had bags under them, her limbs were mostly limp, just very slightly squeezing the wolf-kin.
"Are you alright? You said you don't get tired?" Alice asked worriedly, and put a hand on Yuuki's cheek.
"My body doesn't, my soul does. I've been suppressing it for a while." She spoke softly and slowly, while shifting a bit closer to Alice.
"Don't worry, you can sleep. You deserve the rest. And besides, I'll protect you!" She said, smiling widely. Yuuki opened her eyes up, staring from shock as she heard those words. She felt relief, as if a weight had been pulled off her. And so, she met the wide smile with her own and put her head to Alice's neck. She had feelings of safety and happiness. And they were all her own.
Alice hugged the larger kitsune's body, as it fell asleep in seconds. This was the first time Yuuki showed herself vulnerable to her on purpose. She began humming a lullaby that Yuuki sang to her a long time ago, but she herself did not feel tired in the slightest. She brushed the long white hair with her hands as she watched Yuuki’s sleeping face.
Yuuki slept until the morning of the next day, which considering it was before noon when she started, was quite a long while. She did not dream, but she felt comfortable. After she woke up, she still didn’t want to get up, so she cozied up under the blanket that was now over the both of them.
“You should get up now, you have work to do, right?” Alice said softly.
“It can wait.” Yuuki said and made the hug even tighter.
“Ah, who knew you were so clingy?”
“Would you like me to recall all the times I had to sing you a lullaby because you wouldn’t stop moving around otherwise?” Came the counter.
“Hey, that’s not fair, I was five!”
“And I’m pretty much immortal, so I can be childish whenever I want to be.” There was a smug grin on Yuuki’s face.
“That’s not how that works.” Alice pouted before they both chuckled. “You really need to get up though. Amanda came in while you were sleeping and apparently you were asked to give a report.”
“Alright, fine.” She didn’t move for around another ten seconds, before a second Yuuki teleported to the bed, got in and hugged Alice from the other side. “All done.”
“You wrote a report?” She had a deadpan voice.
“Mhm.” The two Yuukis said in unison.
“Fair enough. Is that the only thing you had to do?” She asked, knowing the answer beforehand.
“No…” The Yuuki that just arrived sighed and disappeared. “This one stays.”
“That’s fine by me.” She decided to use this opportunity to enjoy some rest.
--
Carriage wheels turned slowly through the mud, letting out a wet squishing sound. Horses and people walked next to one another through overcrowded roads. Igraine was walking home with a basket full of newly bought goods from the market when she noticed she was being followed. It wasn’t too hard to figure out. There was a large, hooded figure trailing her that no one else seemed to even notice.
She quickly made her way through the crowd and hurried off to one of the alleys. Igraine had confidence she could deal with her attacker, but she didn’t want to involve bystanders. After a few turns, she had come across an empty alley where she hid behind a few large boxes. She had to squat down in the mud, but it wouldn’t make a large difference for how she looked. She was dirty, and while she wasn’t poor, she could never spend enough time in one place. The clothes she did have were old and ragged, but that came in handy, as she blended right in.
A raven flew down from the sky and landed on one of the boxes next to her, catching her off-guard. She had past experience with these birds, their arrival would always warn her of impending danger. Readying herself, she listened to the incoming footsteps. The wet mud made the incoming stranger’s movements obvious. Whoever it was, was following her at a leisurely pace. That was, until the sounds made the turn into the empty alley. Igraine could hear cloth being dropped on the ground and she heard no more footsteps. She assumed when the stranger would get close and jumped out from behind the boxes to get the first strike.
She saw a figure and attacked on instinct. The stranger’s hands were nowhere near the knife, it should’ve been a clean kill. Should’ve. Instead, Igraine’s hand was caught in a grip that didn’t hurt, but she had no way of escaping.
After failing to escape, with no counter-attack coming, Igraine stopped struggling and took a look at the stranger. She was a tall, white haired fox-kin with glowing violet eyes and flawless skin. She was wearing an intricate robe, fancy shoes and had a floating metal circle above her. What stood out specifically though was that she was also glowing. Igraine’s hand was let go and the raven jumped from the box to the stranger’s shoulder before letting out a kraa. Igraine also noticed the long black robes and simple shoes she was wearing before, burning away behind her.
“Good morning, miss Igraine.” The stranger smiled faintly, but it was overshadowed by her soothing voice, melting the previous tension. “I have come to bring news of your son.”
“Arthur? How is he? Did he grow up to be a warrior? No, maybe a scholar, he did always have that smart look. What of Uther, how did he treat him? Don’t tell me that son of a-” Her rant was cut off by the stranger.
“Arthur was cared as well as would be expected of royalty. He is next in line for the throne and the only problem is the question of his legitimacy.”
“You mean the lack thereof.” Igraine said, snarky as ever.
The stranger smiled. “I have a solution. I am the head of the Church of Mystra. If you join the church, you will be safe from any who would harm you while also making Arthur’s claim valid.”
Igraine was confused. “So I just put on a dress, call myself a priestess and Arthur suddenly won’t be a bastard?”
The stranger chuckled only to reveal a set of sharp teeth. “By definition, he would be. In reality, no one would dare say it. After all, when a priest has a child, that child is often blessed. As such, it’s not a completely unheard practice to have children with members of a church. It typically takes some arranging with the leader, but that won't be an issue this time.”
“And it works retroactively?” She didn’t want to believe it. It was too good to be true.
“It will if I say so.” There was no threat, no show of force to come with that sentence, but saying it so confidently had an effect on Igraine.
“What do you gain from this?”
“Arthur is a talented fighter, intelligent and to top it all off, good person. His older half-brother is a prideful dimwit. Which one would you rather have lead a country?”
Her doubts repressed, she decided to make the gambit. the clothes behind the strange figure were already gone, not even ash left behind. “Alright, what do you need from me?”
“Faith.” She said simply as she held out her hand, which Igraine took after some hesitation. And all the sudden, the world around them shifted.
Melisent· Nov 4, 2020
