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Not knowing what she’d say or do, Sora exited the creepy room the organization had created for Wendy, leaving her best friend to figure out her wardrobe.  She bet the brunette would spend some time staring out of the window, though; after all, they were on the flipping moon!  Yet Sora’s mind was on more significant problems.

She awkwardly found her elbow behind her back as the door silently slid shut, and Fen scrambled to her knees across the large, empty hallway; in a bowed position, the terrified vulpes pressed her face against the polished steel floor, tails quivering.

Instinctively, she wanted to jump forward and tell her to drop the whole holier than thou act, yet her years of bullying kept her motionless while putting herself in Fen’s shoes.  This wasn’t going to be solved by playing it off or in the same way she’d pushed Daisy into a more positive state of mind.

Vision flicking to the left and right with her tail hanging low, Sora spotted security cameras lining the zone; they were being watched.  Now thinking about it, she wouldn’t be surprised if there were some inside the room she’d woken up in.  From what she’d learned from the assault team’s swift departure, it was fair to say that these people feared her mother, and for good reason.  The question was, what did they want from her?

Scooted to the side of the door, she slid down to her butt, fixing her dress to spread over her crossed legs.  Sora let the silence drag on as she let her feelings and thoughts work through the problems she’d awoken to since this was the first time she’d had the chance to process things without interruption.

Closing her eyes, she drew her hair over her shoulders to lean her head against the wall, listening intently, yet the only sounds came from Fen and her since the isolation field was still active in the room.  It was as if they were the only people in existence.

Fen fidgeted uncomfortably, waiting for whatever order came next.  Sora didn’t plan on giving any, though.  She hated it when her bullies ordered her around.  Then again, she would have been happy for them to ignore her and act as if she didn’t exist; Fen wasn’t in the exact same circumstance, and she had far more life experience than her.  There was very little she could say that the vulpes wouldn’t have already thought.

“Haaa.”

She let go of a long sigh, mind returning to the battle and insanity that had been her sixteenth birthday:

The memory of Kari, broken and pleading, lost and scared, unable to face her tyrannical brother alone.  Aiden’s desperate attempts at keeping his family together and mitigate the damage.  Her part in building the wolf up to face her trauma.  Seeing the brother and sister tear each other apart, blood soaking the hellish stadium’s red stone floor.

When Jenny tackled her and broke the illusion she’d cast on Kari, shattering the black wolf’s courage and sending her into a spiral that resulted in her loss.  Eyia’s chilly rescue, killing Jenny, and the consequences that came from it…  Consequences, such as Wendy attacking and mortally wounding her father.

Sora’s throat constricted at the picture of her best friend transforming into a mindless animal to savage her father.  A cyclone of horrendous possibilities gripped her chest as she imagined the panic that her father must have felt, not wanting to leave her alone in the world and knowing who was attacking him; Jenny’s laughter at winning in life or death burned her ears.

Jin stepping into the ring to face Eric, enhanced by Aiden’s feather, yet he’d been utterly outclassed by the dominating dragon, only for Jenny’s true plot to spring.  That ominous abyss that produced the galaxy-chewing 4th Generation Fenris Wolf shook everyone to their core, well, except for the Cat Mother.

Ylva’s powerful entrance, her indomitable sky-blue eyes that made her feel like an insect, while effortlessly shutting down Eyia with a simple tap of her cosmic sucker.  Yet, the gray-tailed wolf had subverted her expectations by dropping down in front of her to talk.

Nilly’s involvement and Ylva’s respect as she sat in front of her still baffled her, offering a way forward to save Kari once revealing the truth behind her uncle’s horrific plot.  It had been so much pressure that even now, Sora clutched at her chest, attempting to regulate her breathing.

Wendy had no clue that she’d been the cause of her father’s injuries; she knew her best friend couldn’t handle the guilt that her father was in a coma because she attacked him as a werewolf.  It was Jenny’s fault, but she knew all too well that wouldn’t matter to Wendy herself.  Some things were better left unsaid.

“…Lady Sora, is something wrong?”

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Sora opened her eyes to stare at the three-tailed Huli Jing, focus still locked on the ground.  However, her streaked makeup and puffy red face reflected her internal struggle.  At least she’d been the one to initiate, which was always what Mary had done to her.

“We should talk.  Lean against the wall; it’s okay.  I told my mom I didn’t like the way she treated you.  I’m sorry.”

Her heartfelt apology seemed to make the woman’s ears twitch as she straightened and mirrored her posture, which was far less decent due to her short qipao’s design, showing parts of her silky purple underwear.

“I… don’t understand.  What do you want—is there something you want from me?”  she corrected, tone lowered and becoming more meek; the fox still refused to look at her.

Sora searched her soul for an honest answer that she could give instead of some half-baked response; just saying she wanted her to feel free and live a better life probably wasn’t going to fly.  As Dr. Mason once told her, it wasn’t what you said, but how you said it that could change an entire conversation.

“Hmm.  I guess I’m a bit conflicted and confused.  So… will you talk to me honestly so I can better sort out my feelings?”  she asked with a small, strained smile.  “I promise, I’m not here to judge, and I’ll leave myself as open as possible so you can see it in my aura.  You can see aura, right?”

Fen’s brow furrowed with bewilderment.  “I can sense your spiritual pressure and determine mood from it, but it’s not all that easy with the array of energy you absorb and produce…  What do you mean when you say you are not here to judge?”  she whispered, fingers knotting against her tight belly.  “Is… your mother judging me in this discussion?”

Sora’s head tilted to the side at the unexpected angle, realizing Fen would always take the most negative route.  “No…  Well, heh, she probably will and does, but I’ve made it pretty clear that I’ll make up my own opinion about you.  Want to know what that is?”

The black-haired woman glanced to the side, somehow looking even more vulnerable as her Chinese accent thickened.  “Do I have a choice?”

“Sure.  If you want, I’ll shut up, let you take me to this dinner, and let whoever is in charge know that I’d rather have someone else do, eh, whatever job this is that they gave you.  But… I’d rather not do that.”

She rubbed her arm and showed a pained grin.  “I mean, sure, you’re kind of prickly and sarcastic, but you’re pretty and skilled.  I want to learn more about other vulpes cultures, and you’re the first one I’ve met—well, other than my mom, and she’s biased, so… yeah.”

Fen slowly moved her three tails to her lap, stroking them in what seemed to be a self-comforting gesture as she processed her rambles.  Sora could sense the ebb and flow of her emotions as she debated multiple angles.  Her spirit was totally open, leaving herself defenseless, which was probably on purpose to not give the impression she was a threat.

“…In essence, you freed me of my seal, almost getting me killed.  You don’t want me calling you ‘Princess’ or any other honorary title.  And your, ahem, mother… threatened to erase me if I got close to you…  Now, you claim to have reprimanded Lady Mia…  Lady Mia,” she stated with serious emphasis, “who no one speaks ill of on fear of death while saying you want me close to be your… vulpes instructor?”

Her guarded yellow irises lifted to show her an apprehensive look.  “Forgive my inability to follow what might be an appropriate response.”

Sora scratched her left ear, and she tilted her body with each contrasting statement.

“Hmm.  How about I rephrase it, then?”  she asked, letting out a dry laugh.  “Sorry, I’m trying to work my way through this, too.  Umm…  I’ll be more blunt: my mom fears what will happen if you touch me and trigger my Aunt Inari’s magic inside your tail.”

Fen’s face turned ashen as her claws paused in the act of combing her fur.  “Why… would you give up such a weakness?”  The woman collapsed to her knees, forehead touching the metal again.  “Please, Lady Mia, I will strike the memory from my mind!”

“Uh…”  Sora’s mind blanked.  “My mom’s not going to hurt you, or I’d get pissed!”

The Chinese woman’s red and tear-stained face lifted to glare at her.  “Why else than to attempt to murder me again, then to inform me that someone like your mother has her hands tied and can do nothing against me due to fear of her sister?!  Do you not think that she can’t compel someone from this organization to do her dirty work?  You never reveal a weakness when in a position of power!”

Utterly thrown off her game, Sora hadn’t even seen that side of things.  “Ugh.  Look, my mom says that Huli Jing culture is toxic and makes them hate other vulpes.  I think that everyone’s an individual and that we can work together.  She says I should kick you out of my life to be safe.  I said that I’d only do that if you proved to be someone I don’t want hanging around…  Well, I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of it,” she mumbled.  “I’m not trying to kill you!”

Fen’s aura smeared with one sensation, forcing Sora’s mouth to become a line.  Is this fox stupid?  It was swiftly brushed aside as the Huli Jing’s defenses restored, now blocking most of her ability to perceive her emotional state.

“Ahem.”   The woman took a deep breath and straightened.  “If I am interpreting this correctly, and pardon my language, Lady Sora…  You are an idiot pup who has no idea how the universe works due to your privilege and you want to know if I am a good person to… hang around with?  And,” she chortled, “this according to humanity’s morality, of which we are not,” she firmly stated, vision narrowing as she went into a small tirade.

“Humans feast on animals, so do I feast on humans.  Judge me; all of you do.  I have consumed the souls of over eight hundred people in my two hundred and eighty-three years of living…  I’ve manipulated nations into war to obtain more power and seduced emperors for my ends…  All in order to survive.

“Yet,” she showed a lilting smirk as mirth touched her voice, “that isn’t a speck of dust in the universe compared to what your mother has done to countless multiverses…  And we Huli Jing are the bad foxes?  Of course.  Why?  Because Founders have power.  And we weak Huli Jing… do not!  I reject your idea of ‘good,’ Princess.”

Sora fell to her side to straighten out and look up at the ceiling, pondering the Chinese woman’s words that she no doubt thought would be her last.

“Bold.  I like it,” she mumbled.  “I’ve never really been challenged on stuff like this or thought about it…  I don’t know what to think about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ overall, if I’m being honest.  I mean, you have a point with the animals and humans, too.  What makes humans so special?”

“Power,” Fen answered without a second thought, a huff following while she shifted to pull her knees up to her chin.  “Humans exert power over other creatures because they can domesticate them… dominate them.  Humans need to eat, and I see no problem in it as much as natural foxes need sustenance.  Humans are just so much more efficient.  So they kill to survive.”

Her eyes widened while pulling her messy locks back.  “Some… vulpes are the same.  I cannot gain my sustenance and live through typical animals due to their incompatible spiritual energy for my needs.  Yet again, to you uppity, privileged vulpes, I am the villain.  I cannot laze my days away having fun and tricking people like Nogitsune, so I am judged for what I cannot change.  If that is what it means to be evil, then I was born evil so, once again, blame the Founders!”

Resting her hands behind her head, Sora streamed out a long breath.  Daisy was in the same position as Fen.  Although true to her convictions, she was willing to slowly die before letting herself feel the guilt and betrayal of her feelings by using other men besides Howie to fulfill that need.  On the other hand, it wasn’t like Daisy’s moral values would be the same as Fen’s or that it should be expected of her to conform to them.

A new thought sparked in Sora’s mind as she contemplated Fen’s position; it helped better ground her in the monster world and its gray moral spectrum.  “You’re… trying to get into my aunt’s Kitsune Academy, right?  If so, why?  If you enjoy feeding off human souls, as my mother implied, which comes from Huli Jing culture, then why go there?”

Fen spread out her fingers across her forehead and cheeks, frustration in every word she spoke.  “The ignorance…”  she breathed, trying to remain calm and swallow other biting remarks.  “Have you ever tasted a human soul and its variety?  The sensual pleasures of desire freely given, the sadness of a mother’s loss at her child’s death, or the succulent nectar of a man desperately in search of love that he can never satisfy?”

“Can’t say I have,” Sora mumbled, shifting to look at the spiraling woman, believing her life would be over at any moment.  She did have her own experiences, though.

“I know how soothing and refreshing it can be to walk inside of a rain storm, feeling the energy wash through me.  The comforting arms of the earth when I’m inside of her.  I can feel the mysterious pulse of the moon, whispering secrets underneath me, despite not being inside its rays or the warm embrace of the sun that can fill me with joy.”

“Nogitsune privilege,” Fen spat.  “No, so much more than that since they are limited to elements…  Founders can obtain their energy from essentially everything—the fabric of magic itself!  You don’t know what it is like to be starved… you could never know… to fear of feeding on someone with the chance you are discovered and are too weak to defend yourself… to be hated by everyone, including your own kind.”

“Haaa.”  Sora slowly shook her head.  “You’re right; I don’t.  It sounds horrible…  And I have been privileged my whole life, I won’t deny that, as a human and now as a vulpes…  But I went through my own hell for three years, so I can empathize.  Comparatively, three years for me is like fifty to you.  I want to help those I can.”

Sora chuckled and forced herself up to lean on her side.  “Not help everyone in the whole world or universe or anything stupid like that.”  She flashed her teeth.  “I’m not a saint.  I’m not totally selfless, either.  I don’t want you hurting others to live.  I want to have fun.  I want to grow stronger and have adventures with friends.  So, I’m going to offer you this…”

Standing up, Sora poured most of the energy she’d regained into her desire, spinning the magic around the alarmed Huli Jing as she scrambled to her feet.

“What are you doing?!  This is…  What?”  The dark-furred vulpes calmed down as Sora puffed out a tired sigh and tried to remain standing.  “I’ve never sensed a more complex repulsion spell… for it to only apply to you, and filter past any magic or spiritual force I use?  Wait!”

Sora pushed herself forward, making Fen stumble against the wall in a panic, yet nothing happened.

“I’m… not erased?”

“Hehehe.  Oops.  My bad,” she said with a true smile, having forgotten about her mother’s threat as she fought the spots dancing across her vision.  “How about this?  I will teach you how to create your own magical seed to convert natural energy to spiritual energy and let you live in Miami with me if you promise to follow the house rules.  Wait…”

Her fingers curled slightly, dizziness subsiding as lunar energy rushed back inside her.  “Doesn’t that sound like I’m asking you to be my pet fox that I’ll feed and play with?  Hmm.  Hehe.  Probably not the best line I could have come up with.  Am I right?”

Fen looked stricken, staring at her hand as if a viper as the woman held her arms against her chest.  “You placed this repulsion field around me… to prevent us from ever coming into contact?”

“Mhm!”  She raised her hand and made a fist.  “Bump knuckles if you’re cool with trying out something new.  If you don’t want to ever be hungry, then I’ll work with you to fix that.  In truth, the barrier around you is a condition my mother gave me if I wanted to have you around since she knew she wouldn’t get me to budge on the topic.  So long as we don’t touch, then she is cool with you.  No erasing!” she chimed.  “We cool?”

“No erasing?”  the Chinese fox slowly repeated, her back and tails remaining against the wall as she processed.  “No matter what you say… I am still your slave.  Either I do what you say, or I am killed by the Foundation or your mother.  If you want to play this… game, then so be it; I’ll be your pet until you get bored.”

“Aww,” Sora groaned, lowering her fist and rubbing the back of her neck as Wendy exited her room in her strapless summer dress, wearing earrings and a necklace.  She studied them silently, trying to gauge the situation.  “Look at it however you want, but what I’m trying to say is… I want to help you become more independent, and hopefully, you won’t prove my mom right.  Deal?”

“I am still slightly confused,” Fen whispered, her voice fluctuating a bit while forcing herself forward, “and half concerned that you’re too energy-deprived to know what it is you are saying, but… any deal you want to propose must have an addition.”

“And that is?”

Fen lifted her fist, clearly having never done this before by her unsure and knuckle-raised position.  “If you will free Jian and keep him by my side.”

Sora immediately wanted to go for a hug instead but thought better of it as her half-lifted hand paused, brain catching up with her.  “I… don’t know who that is, but so long as they follow my house rules, then I’ll do whatever I can.”

“I have your word as a Founder?”  Fen asked, gulping and showing how serious this topic was by the intensity of her eyes.  “You will allow him to remain by my side?”

“Is… it something I can do?”  Sora tentatively asked, now on the opposite side of the spectrum.  “You’re not trying to trick me into something that’s unreasonable, right?  Can I have him come to this meeting?”

Fen’s tails twisted around each other.  “I do not see why not?”

“Okay!”  Her fist shot forward to meet the Huli Jing’s, only for all of her momentum to strike a buffer field of her own creation, keeping them centimeters apart.  “Feel that?”

“No?  Why are you tempting fate?  I thought your mother didn’t want you near me.  Is this another attempt to end my life?  My heart can’t take this anymore,” she whimpered.

“Sora!”  Wendy huffed, grabbing her arm to pull her back as she laughed.  “What is going on?!”

“Huh.  Sorry!  I just needed to see how it would work, and it worked.  I have to have faith in my magic!”  Glancing around, she frowned at the makeup smear marks and puffy red cheeks of the Huli Jing.  “Cool.  Cool.  Uh, let’s go to a bathroom, or whatever, so you can freshen up.  Here, Wendy…”

She snapped her fingers, sending the very easy and inexpensive magical wave over her best friend to polish up her fingernails, clean her skin, and make her hair shine.

“Perfect!”  Fen glared at her as Wendy smiled and spun around to examine the makeover.  “What?”  Sora defended as she started down the hallway.  “I’d do you, too, if I could use magic on you, so don’t be cringe and think I’m discriminat—”

The three-tailed vulpes wiped her cheeks and cast a shockingly elegant weave of magic over herself, causing a twinkling glow around her frame.  Half of it was to clear away makeup and tear marks, while the rest were light-based illusions, bending the photons to enhance her appearance.

“Nice!”  Sora chirped, flipping backward while still walking to grin at the woman.  “I think we’re ready for dinner.  And you’re joining us, Fen!  Wait… do Huli Jing eat normal food?”

“Don’t be silly,” Fen sniffed, her previous attitude returning and popping the sound bubble inside Wendy’s temporary room.  “Not only do Huli Jing have energy needs, but we also require physical sustenance.  One more thing to worry about.”

“Tough,” Wendy hummed, peeking around Sora as the vulpes caught up to them.  “So… I’m Wendy, but, uh, I guess you already knew that.  Do you know what happened to everyone else?  Will they be at the dinner?”

Fen shook her head as they came to a branching hallway that she turned them onto; a giant window ran on all sides to give a full view of space.  It momentarily snatched her attention as they walked.

The futuristic, smooth, and simple designs of the small metropolis on the moon must have supported over 500,000 people, or at least that’s what Sora thought at first glance.  And in the center of it all was a colossal black tower without a bubble or sphere separating it from outer space, yet a vast forest surrounded the structure.

“What is that?”  Wendy asked, awe bringing them to the glass wall to follow the path of spaceships the size of an ocean freighter, outlined with red lights and a sleek frame.  “Are those… planets circling that tower?”

Fen’s mouth became a line as she followed the colorful spheres rotating around the solitary dark structure, the phases of the lunar cycle slowly passing down its visible length with the moons orbiting it.  “That… is the reason the humans on your planet don’t know the truth about the moon…  The Moon Wizard’s Tower, as I’m told.  It distorts this space, cloaking it.”

Wendy’s eyes grew to the size of saucers.  “Moon Wizard?  Cool.  Is he in charge of this place?”

“No,” Fen bluntly replied, bringing them back on course to reach the next building over, which was dwarfed by the gigantic black monolith.  “As far as I’m aware, he has refused almost all contact from the Foundation, and this city acts as a containment precaution since… that is the Foundation’s whole goal…  Lock up and keep hidden whatever threatens humanity.”

The bitterness in the woman’s voice stole Sora’s attention; Wendy was too taken in by the scenery, though, looking every which way.

“How did you get here?”  Sora asked, spotting people in futuristic suits exiting out of the side of a building to reach some giant metal cap over a crater; on a desire, her vision overlaid with colors, showing her festering darkness trapped within that made her gulp.  “Do they… keep prisoners or evil creatures here?”

Fen gave her a tight smile.  “Only some of the worst, I hear.  Why, thinking of having a little fun and letting them loose?  Haha.  No, you don’t seem like the type,” she answered, following her gaze to the spot as they drew closer to the next building.

“I went to a meeting your aunt holds every century in order to scout candidates for her school…  Unfortunately, I stayed a bit too long doing… things, and the portal back to my multiverse collapsed… flinging me to this Inari-forsaken territory… where your mother provides no support for vulpes, unlike her benevolent sister.”

The spiteful shade thrown at her mother certainly did paint a picture of how people viewed her mother.  Mia kept to herself and didn’t typically get involved.  It also brought up another concern that poked at the edge of her mind.

“So you met my aunt personally?”

Wendy gave her a nervous glance before returning to her scrutiny of their surroundings.

Fen looked away and rubbed her left elbow.  “Lady Inari is very… thorough when it comes to screening candidates.  If your mother is fire in its purest, chaotic form, Lady Inari is the earth… firm and stable.  I felt…  Never mind.  Humph.  She demands the impossible.”

Sora frowned at her smirk and haughty huff; it was a mask.  A crack formed in her strong defenses, proving how monumental the event had been for her, yet the sensation she had was one of unworthiness, guilt, and shame.

“It is here.”

The thick steel door automatically opened as they neared, the same AI’s voice speaking from some hidden speaker nearby.

“Welcome, Lady Sora, Wendy, and Fen.  Doctor Ferdinand Fischer and Doctor Diane Auclair are awaiting your arrival behind the fifth door to your right.”

 Taking a deep breath, she strode into the lavish living quarters; the steel and plain architecture changed to polished redwood and pristine white carpets.  Extravagant paintings that her father would have loved hung between other works of poetry and strange alien devices radiating electromagnetic pulses.

Her gut cramped a little as she scanned the area; everything, from the walls to the decorations, was laced with fairly potent magic.  Fen opened the door as they neared.  Inside was a rectangular, marble dining table, trimmed with gold.  The whole aesthetic was bathed in a light coppery glow that cast a classically rustic look to the space.

From the huge chandelier to the showcases filled with artifacts to the comfortable, cushioned gray chairs, everything matched the ritzy atmosphere that even made her privileged upbringing look poor in comparison.

Cross-legged and sitting inside a chair at the head of the table was a dark-haired, middle-aged woman.  She wore an ebony gown and a half-smile as she appraised them, her bronze skin shining in the overhead light.  Beside her was a well-dressed man wearing a white business suit.

“Please,” Diane greeted, her French accent thick as she gestured to the chairs beside her, “join us, Lady Sora; we have much to discuss regarding your mother’s desire to see you enrolled at the Fae’s Avalon Academy.”

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