Inari’s Gift

More time passed as Cera continued her work on mending her soul, finding that her foxfire grew in size and strength as she healed.  Eventually, she could manage a hand-width of flame, and control over it was as easy as breathing.

This development was promptly put to use in cooking, as now she could keep a fire at a steady temperature without guesswork about how much fuel to feed to it.  It did drain her stamina as it burned, but she was getting into better shape with her constant walks in the forest, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

In addition, her foxfire meant she could now fully heat the tub of water when she went to clean clothes, so she no longer needed Falron’s assistance.  On the other hand, her illusions were still unable to entirely hide her tail when she was in motion, despite her best efforts.

Falron continued to teach her as time passed, though he began to run into his own limits, as he lacked the tools required to demonstrate the more complex symbols necessary for more advanced magic.  Cera was very glad, however, to learn how to create a strong breeze, as that, combined with her foxfire, was able to act as a hair dryer to use on her tail.

For healing, the most he could teach her was how to examine someone else’s mana flows with her own, so she’d have to experiment to learn more, or find another teacher.  Her efforts to hold mana within her flesh continued to improve the density that was safe, and she continually adjusted the levels as high as possible.

Cera began to feel quite irritated at her lack of progress with hiding her tail, as she couldn’t appear before anyone without it unless she wanted to risk being attacked.  Since Falron had reached his limits in teaching her, she threw her full effort into a combination of healing her spirit and working on her illusions.

Finally, after months of effort, she managed to actually hide her tail… as long as she was stationary and in a static environment.  But it was progress, finally.  If she focused too hard on it, however, the illusion would fail, going fuzzy as her tail swayed, though it remained steady as long as she left it to her subconscious to control.

In time, there was another attack on the village, and Falron headed out to protect them.  This time, however, he didn’t return even after several hours, and Cera began to become concerned.  Noises outside the building didn’t help, and she dipped her staff into the well, freezing an incredibly sharp blade on the tip before creeping outside when she didn’t hear any movement.

Poking her head around the corner of the building, she spotted several people lighting torches.  They didn’t appear to be villagers, so she wasted no time in sending her foxfire flying at them even as she threw a spike of ice condensed from the air.  As the first man went to throw a torch, the man beside him was hit, causing him to spin and spot her.

With one of the men down, the other five dropped their torches and drew weapons before spreading out and advancing toward her.  Her foxfire caught one of them as she failed to condense enough water from the relatively dry air for another blade.  Instead, she threw a fireball at another of them, making him dodge and separate from the remaining three.

Cera began moving her foxfire towards the man who dodged, trusting her subconscious to keep it on track.  She then charged the group of three with her staff-turned-spear, shocking them, as they clearly thought their superior numbers would scare her off.  Instead, she slid to a stop outside their reach before thrusting the point of her weapon toward the head of one.  Even as the man stepped back, Cera swung her spear in a wide arc, driving back both of the other opponents as her tail helped balance her.

As they noticed her tail, one of the men shouted out, “Demon!”

A scream from the side signalled the failure of the separated man to avoid the foxfire, and Cera let loose a cruel grin toward the men in front of her as their heads twitched toward the noise, only barely remaining focused on her.  A sweep at knee-level pushed them back again before Cera darted forward, thrusting toward the throat of one man, then redirecting her strike to sink into his stomach as he tried to dodge, sending him to the ground with a gurgle, her tail lashing to the side to offset the sudden shift in movement.

The remaining two shared a quick glance before backing off together and then fleeing.  Cera sighed in relief and took a deep breath as she let them run, having barely managed to hold them back as a group.  Content that the man with an ice spike through his heart was harmless, as were the men her foxfire turned to charcoal, she dismissed her foxfire.

That left her with one person who was likely to die if left alone, but still currently alive.  Unwilling to risk underestimating the man, she hooked his weapon with her own and flung it out of reach before advancing on him.

“If you are willing to turn on your fellows, I will heal you and let you live.  Otherwise, you will die.  What do you choose?” she asked bluntly, tail thrashing behind her in agitation.

The man gurgled out a request for help, which was good enough for her.  She stopped maintaining the ice blade on her staff, turned, and jogged behind the house to pick up some of the rope that was there.  Now that she had something to restrain him, she quickly returned and tied the man’s hands tightly, then focused on healing him.

The wounds were much more intense than she had expected, though also far easier than they should be to heal, given the extreme sharpness of her ice blade.  It took her over an hour to fully stabilize the man, though she was sure she didn’t do a perfect job.  The man cooperated at least, and didn’t take any action to try to disrupt her, even when she was done, which she was immensely thankful for.

Since it wasn’t too bad outside, she stayed with him out in front of the house as she questioned him, finding that the attack this time was multiple groups of bandits with the goal of drawing out Falron and ambushing him, then burning his home while he was occupied in an attempt to make him leave and stop protecting the village.

Cera had obviously foiled the attempt to burn the house down, but remained worried about Falron, keeping an eye on the trail for another two hours until he finally arrived, covered in blood and his clothes torn in several places.

Resisting the urge to run to check on him, she waved at him from where she sat with her prisoner.  Falron looked both surprised and thankful at the sight of her sitting in front of their unharmed house, so he’d probably learned of the plan on his own.  He waved back as he wearily approached.

“I’m glad to see you safe, Cera.  When I heard them bragging about burning my home, I was quite worried.  Are you okay?” he began as he glanced at the man beside her.

“Yes, I managed to ambush the group that showed up here, luckily.  I heard movement I didn’t recognize, then went to check it out and found people with torches.  I got lucky on my first shot and nailed someone in the heart, then got another with my foxfire, drove one away from the others before catching him with foxfire too.  This man I got with my spear, then his two remaining fellows fled.  I managed to remain untouched due to superior reach, surprise, and magic disrupting them,” Cera explained as she led him to the battlefield.

“I said I’d heal him and let him live if he turned on the others, and he did, so I’m not sure what to do now.  They know what I am, since I couldn’t hide everything while fighting, so that might be a problem,” she added.

As Falron looked over the corpses, he sighed, then gestured to the distance near the forest, remarking, “We’ll have to get rid of those.  I don’t want them buried by my home.  For the survivor…  How about we send him to the man you saved?  He could always use some extra help and can ensure that he doesn’t say anything to the wrong people.”

Cera turned to the survivor and saw him nodding, so she agreed with Falron and untied him, gesturing for him to grab one of the bodies as she hurried to the one she’d shot through the heart.  While she was willing to help, dead bodies were icky, especially damaged ones.  She wasn’t against a little manipulation to keep herself from getting too sick at what she was doing.

Not long after, they’d reached the forest, and Falron gestured, opening a pit that they put the bodies into before he sent the soil back over the top.

They then returned to their house, the man following along, and Cera volunteered to keep guard as Falron took care of himself and got some rest.

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