Kitsune of the Blue Sun

Chapter 219- Split

[Keeno POV]

The shops Mostima led us to were all quite strange. They sold mostly potions and other medicines of varying degrees of potency with explanations that it was better safe than sorry and so we wouldn’t be burdening Pram for her being the only one with healing magic. They ranged from antidotes that healed all kinds of poisons to something as simple as things that dulled our sense of smell. After all of that and the gathering of other rudimentary supplies we left the city. According to Mostima it was only a few days walk to the border of Tamist, so it was best to just start making our way there.

It was turning out to even be pleasant as we made our way to the border. The trees around us had largely remained the same, though we could all feel a drastic change in humidity. After two days though, we could tell we were closing in on the border as the trees had thinned quite a lot and the road was becoming noticeably muddier with marshy water appearing in patches. The trees that were growing here were young willows, not yet sad enough to weep or mangroves with their knotted roots sticking up from the water.

The sounds of frogs and insects creating a background symphony that mixed well with whatever type of music the Music God’s blessing was providing. It was quite interesting and the vaguest memory from my past life told me it was zydeco, though I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.

Pram and Freya were enjoying a riveting conversation abo- creak…My ears twitched at the out of place sound. Pram and Freya similarly froze at the glass like cr- crack. We looked around but couldn’t find what was making that noise. I turned to Mostima to see if she knew only to see her paler than fresh snow, her eyes wide and her body trembling. Her breathing was quickly, on the verge of hyperventilating. I ran over to her just as her knees gave out and caught her, slowly moving until we were both sitting on our knees. She had wrapped her arms around herself as her breathing grew even more disordered.

“Why?”

Her voice was faint enough that only I, being as close as I was, could barely hear her.

“I-I didn’t do anything.”

CREAK! CRACK!

The sound like ice slowly cracking underfoot sounded again, this time right next to me. Looking carefully at Mostima I saw her already cracked wings and halo growing more, finer cracks, spiderwebbing from the ones already there when- SNAP – a new large crack appeared in on of her shard-like wings. She doubled over, her expression showing extreme pain. Things when Pram and Frey rushed over.  Pram immediately tried using healing magic, but nothing happened. This left Pram in a state of shock.

“I-nnuh-I don’t want to Fall again.”

With another cracking noise, a large crack appeared in her halo, nearly snapping it in two. When that happened she passed out in my arms. I looked at Pram and Freya with a worried expression before we silently decided to set up camp so we could watch over Mostima.

Camp was set up quickly.  We used our large tent this time and were taking turns watching over Mostima. Pram had tried to use her magic a few more times, but it still didn’t have any effect on her.  It was only once night had fallen that Mostima finally woke up. I was the one on watch.

“Keeno…”

“Are you still in any pain?”

“A little.”

Judging from her expression and body language it was more than just a little.

“Stay laying down. Do you want me to wake Pram up to see if her magic will work this time?”

“No.” She said, wincing as she sat up. “It won’t do anything. This is something that no kind of healing magic can fix.”

Her normal tone was gone, replaced by one of extreme vulnerability. It hurt my heart that I couldn’t do anything to help. Hel, I couldn’t even call Fia…

“I wouldn’t want you to call Fia anyway. I don’t want her to see me like this. She didn’t see me Fall the first time, I want to keep it that way this time.”

“Mind reading aside, can you tell me what happened?  I know it has something to do with Falling with what you just said, but that doesn’t explain everything. I understand you don’t like talking about it, but we’re friends-no, family at this point. You don’t have to hold it in.”

She smiled her usual had smile, though it faltered with the pain she was in.

“I don’t know what happened either.  I was fine one second, then I just started to Fall again.”

I could tell she was still hiding something, which hurt, but that thought was completely lost when she started to get up.

“Mostima do-”

“Keeno, listen.  I agree that we’re family at this point, but some things are best left alone. It has nothing to do with how much I care for all of you, I can’t share that with anyone.” She winced again and almost fell down, but caught herself. “I need to leave for a while.”

“What!”

“I’m not leaving the party, but we need to travel separately for a bit. Look, I don’t know what happened today, but there is a place that might have information on it. Just let me head to Aesir by myself. It has the biggest library in the world with as much information as you could dream of finding. There HAS to be something there.”

“…”

I truly don’t know what to say. This is one of those times where Ama would say something or tell me how to deal with the situation.

“Keeno, I am NOT leaving all of you.  I just want to fix this problem myself without all of you worrying about me.”

“But we ARE worried about you.  Just up and leaving won’t change that.”

“Forgive me for being blunt, but this is how things work. Not everything should go the way you want it to just because you’re a god.”

I felt my tails and ears droop at her words.  Those words hurt, a lot.

“That’s enough, Mostima.”

It seemed our small commotion woke the others up and Pram was glaring over at Mostima.

“That was harsher than I meant it to be, I’ll admit, but I stand by my decision. Let me go for a while, meet back up with me once you’ve made it to Aesir.”

With that, she turned and left the tent. I was still stunned by Mostima’s words and just how useless I felt for not being able to get her to stay.

“Keeno, try and sleep. You look exhausted. We can worry about it in the morning.”

“But Pram-”

This time it was Freya who spoke up.

“Keeno, you know that’s just how Mostima is.”

“Why are both of you not worried!?  Our friend is hurt and leaving us in the middle of the night. Even if she’s been on this continent before, she’s weakened right now! Who knows what’ll happen!”

“Keeno, you’re being overprotective and sound like when we were kids.”

I couldn’t respond. My mind just couldn’t comprehend why they weren’t understanding what I meant…

“Ah. . .”

My mind went blank. I was overwhelmed, my biggest confidant wasn’t here to talk me through this, one of my friends left while the other two were seemingly more worried about me than the injured one who just left, it was all too much that I simply passed out.

Chaos Realm:

Luna: Wow.  I knew a meltdown was coming, but this is just…wow.

Order : I thought she’d have a breakdown sooner.

I thought she’d make it longer. She’s held out for almost two months before.

Luna: Yeah, but the circumstances are different here.  She had no way of having full control over the situation and she couldn’t kill her way out of it either.

Wow. I never realized just how muscleheaded Keeno’s become.

Order: She’s way too dependent on Amaterasu.

Luna: Agreed.

*both Payto and Order look at Luna*

Luna: *chooses to willingly ignore that stares*