The Ruler of Ruin

I stared blankly at Uncle Remy. Combined with the newly revealed color-tone shift, his auburn hair looked a lot like Miyuki’s orange hair. The large fox ears atop his head twitched slightly while he waited for a reaction from me. It took me back to our reunion in the forest, when upon realizing that the dragon man who came to their aide was his nephew that Remy mentioned it must run in the family….

Clearly, he had meant that getting transformed into non-human race ran in the family. Did dad know his brother was a fox-man? There was no way mom knew, she hated non-humans with the passion of a true believer of Mithras.

“How long have you been a Kitsune, and.. how?” My thoughts escaped my mouth.

Miyuki looked at the floor uncomfortably. Obviously at least part of the blame lay with her.

“After we killed Yukiko and I freed her from the curses on her, she gave me her blessing in apology. Afterward, Miyuki hunted me down, beat me to a pulp, and cursed me with the concept of the Fox of the Nine Tails. Am I a Kitsune, or a human touched by the power of a Kitsune?” Remy asked Miyuki. The anger and uncertainty in his tone showed Remy had no answer to the questions he asked.

The green-eyed woman shrugged.

“I’m no Arch Magus, I’m not even a real mage. My foxfire calligraphy hardly qualifies as arcane magic, and my Celestial Warding strays even farther afield from matters arcane. I’m a warrior who dabbles in magic at best. You are nearly immortal, have the powers of our kind, smell like us, and have the temperament. I would call you a Kitsune and recognize you as our kind between what I did and the actions of Yukiko. I am sorry.”

Miyuki bowed her head deeply.

“I should have known what Yukiko’s blessing upon you meant, but I ignored it in my anger.”

I looked back and forth between the two, not entirely following the conversation. There were things being spoken in a language I didn’t understand, subtle nuances of a bat of Miyuki’s eyes, or a flare of Remy’s nostrils. Were they speaking through scents? Pheromones? Body language or tone?

“They are both Empathic creatures. They are speaking to one another with emotions as much as words,” Arx Maxima interjected with an answer to my confusion.

“I have questions. First, you cursed him with a concept. How?” That verged into enkindling territory, did that mean I could force concepts on people? That seemed adjacent to my need to burn out the old concepts of Mithras from Etienne and reignite his power with different ideas.

“The Fox of the Nine Tails is the highest of the Kitsune racial concepts, born by the strongest families. We can bless others with our power, which both Yukiko and I did to Remy. After you took my beating and refused to fight back, I knew I was wrong, but I couldn’t admit it to you. I needed you to be the bad guy, and I knew nothing about Alrik at the time. I was horrified by what I had done, and you didn’t even try to get revenge. I blessed you and fled, and have avoided facing you ever since. I learned of Alrik afterward and began training to depose him. Then the Lion went and changed the curse around the arena, and Alrik could no longer leave. I couldn’t assassinate him outside the arena, so I needed to be strong enough to kill him in the arena.”

Remy and Miyuki finally made eye contact, instead of avoiding looking directly at one another. I could practically see sparks and flames, a bitter tension. Years of self-loathing had eaten at both of them and taken a dramatic toll upon their souls.

“I forgive you,” Remy whispered so low that it was barely audible, the words almost catching in his throat at the idea he would forgive her so easily. “But I’m not forgetting, and weaponizing your guilt and self-hatred against my empathy is a low blow. What kind of person can stand up to knowing he’s responsible for someone else feeling that way?”

Miyuki winced at his reproach. There was a faint hint of humor underneath the bitter words, a painful truth hidden in plain sight.

“I will earn your forgiveness in truth,” Miyuki promised, and then stood back at her full, tiny, height.

I wondered, what would have happened if I had earned the right to challenge Miyuki before this meeting between her and Remy could have happened. What if I had attacked her the moment she entered? It didn’t matter, that possibility was gone, but I did find it amusing that Remy had asked me to kill her not that long ago, and now he was forgiving her.

Or was this a trick? Was he going to wink, and I was supposed to stab her?

Remy’s gaze swiveled my way, as did Miyuki’s.

“He’s got a bit of a one-track mind. At least he doesn’t want to eat me,” Miyuki laughed and tried to wave off the mere idea of violence between us.

“In his defense, I did ask him to kill you not that long ago,” Remy admitted with both of his hands lifted in apology.

“… I’m glad I quit putting it off, and came when I did,” Miyuki said with a nervous laugh.

“Then we can work together. Emery needs the aid of the Lion, and Alrik needs to die for a lot of reasons, Yukiko included. What’s your plan?” Remy didn’t seem happy, but his shoulders were held a little higher, and the tufted fox ears seemed to make him more at ease than looking human had.

It seemed like the trauma of a decade ago could heal in earnest for Remy. All of the dark looks, the glum stares, and melancholy I recalled of him from my youth made sense now. He had been hiding a terrible secret. If the Horizon Guardians had found out he would have been taken by the inquisitors and made to repent for associating with fey creatures, if not outright killed. Given mom’s beliefs with Mithras he definitely hadn’t told her, and there seemed to be a decent chance he'd never told dad either.

No wonder he’d looked so burdened, for so long. A whisper of any of it would have forced him to flee Solarias and the only family he knew and seek refuge in the very Gossamyr that had changed his race on him.

“Didn’t we already talk about it? Emery and I will kill Alrik, you will break the curses that fill the Obsidian Arena. The curse that prevents Alrik from leaving should be broken prior to his death, it is the work of the lion and why Alrik can no longer leave the arena. Xian bound Alrik within the same curse that keeps him there, it is why there have been so few repeats of Yukiko’s tragedy recently. That curse is what resurrects both Xian and Alrik daily. Until it is undone, victory is impossible.” Miyuki shrugged, and the charms hanging from the hilts of her six swords jangled with the motion.

For the first time, I realized something strange. For as beautiful as Miyuki was, I didn’t feel any kind of attraction to her. Objectively, I could see she was gorgeous. Why was that? Because Remy had asked me to kill her? Because she smelled like Remy? Normally creatures like a Kitsune would have a powerful aura, an overwhelming glamour like Amaranthine, but nothing like that radiated from the foxy warrior. At least, not towards me. Did she lack a glamour because she wasn’t a Mist Lord?

Remy, on the other hand, looked at her a lot. Directly and indirectly.

“You haven’t learned to fully process your observations into your conscious awareness. You are relying strongly upon your reptile brain, and what you call your gut. If you wish to be the Lord of Monados, you must learn to read others actively, and not rely on pure intuition,” Arx Maxima proclaimed, no doubt preparing a lesson plan for me.

“That’s not much of a plan,” Remy heaved a sigh of exhaustion at Miyuki. “You’re the Champion of the Silver Arena. That means we can move on as soon as we’re ready, and Emery doesn’t need to challenge you anymore, yeah?”

“Correct,” Miyuki nodded in the affirmative. Her ears were entertaining to watch, like a cat who could hear everything and shifted slightly to hear more.

A rap at the door announced more visitors, but it was only Claire and Chrys, who I quickly caught up on why the woman Remy wanted me to kill was here. Remy and Miyuki seemed amused by my simplistic understatements about how we were a team now.

“You’re a fey too? So, all of you older Dustwalkers were dealing with fey left and right, why didn’t you tell me!?” Claire demanded of Remy once I had explained everything.

“Not certain what I am anymore,” Remy answered Claire with a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. “As for the deals with Lady Sadow, you would’ve been told in a couple more months, when it was time to enkindle your concepts and enter the pact with her yourself. At least the Dustwalker’s made pacts with a humanoid Mist Lord, unlike some of the other groups.”

“Wait, did Celestine make a deal to be that pretty? I remember her being more homely…” Claire trailed off at Remy’s incredulous look at her.

“Back on topic. Are you joining us for our assault on the Obsidian Arena?” Remy didn’t answer the question about Celestine, but I was pretty sure he’d nodded ever so imperceptibly in answer.

“Count me in. Creeps like Alrik should be ten feet underground, and I’ve never seen an Urmahlullu before. He must be powerful if we’ve gone through all of this to recruit him.” Claire’s eyes lit up with wonder, and imagined adventure, while she leaped to conclusions about Xian.

“I’m part of your retinue, it would be improper for me to remain behind. Besides, my support abilities combined with those of Lady Miyuki will help bridge the power gap between the Emerald Alrik and the rest of us.” Chrys addressed me directly, and when she brought up the power differential between us and Alrik, the atmosphere in the room grew more somber.

“How severe is that power gap going to be?” I broke the silence after a few seconds.

“For Remy and me, with all of the support elixirs, spells, and other buffs we can generate, and both of us being on the road to Emerald ourselves? Tolerable. For the three of you? Dangerous. Even with every buff we throw at you, you will be dramatically outclassed.”

“Xian is only a ruby, how does he fight Alrik daily and not immediately lose?” I wondered.

“Maybe Emery is in a similar situation to the lion. Xian is an immortal Urmahlullu, with an incredibly powerful artifact tier weapon, and potent concepts.” Miyuki thumbed her lip, then looked at me, then at Chrys.

“The two of you might fair better than I initially estimated. This one should focus upon survival above all else, though,” Miyuki set her hand on Claire’s shoulder for a moment, as if testing her strength.

“We need to gear the kids up before we stomp off to the Obsidian Arena,” Remy said. He stood from his chair and patted some imaginary dust from his pants. “No time like the present.”

“I don’t have any money,” I pointed out as everyone got excited to go shopping.

My three companions who had all been to Monados burst into laughter. In fact, even the floating invisible Arx Maxima laughed in my head, humored by the idea that I was poor.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded an answer.

“You’re a Mist Lord with a realm, and you think you’re a pauper?” Claire asked, struggling to contain her incredulous laughter.

“Emery, you can summon chunks of EternaStone at will. Ignoring everything else, you can generate wealth on a whim, and there are few who wouldn’t gladly barter with you for precision dimensioned pieces of EternaStone,” Chrys tried to impress my vast wealth on me, but her views were entirely based on the weird idea that people other than Gneisslings wanted rock walls.

Remy pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Anyway, we’ll talk to Sabin. The gnomes might have some gear we can buy. Are there any other markets around here besides Stonehollow?” Remy asked Miyuki, and completely ignored my financial situation.

“The dragon is a Mist Lord? I’ve never heard of him before, what realm does he own? Can a Topaz even be a Mist Lord?” Miyuki struggled to keep up with the others, but when no one answered her she threw her hands up.

“The Bazaar will be held outside of Silver Arena tomorrow, and then move onto Red Arena the next day. If you need gear, that is your best bet, but barter is the rule of the day at the Bazaar.”

Chrys seemed to perk up at the mention of barter.

“Good, we’ll scour whatever goods the merchants of Stonehollow have now, then the bazaar tomorrow. That lets us move on to the Obsidian Arena as soon as possible.” Remy laid out the plan. We just needed to find Sabin or Sven and con one of them into being our Stonehollow tour guide.