Kitsune in the Shadows

“I- What?! I-”

I immediately tried to cover my ears.

‘Ah! U-um… c-calm down… please…’

Even with my hands over my ears, I could still hear her voice as if she was sitting right next to me.

Aria quickly got out of her seat, crouching down in front of me and gently pulling my arms down, “I guess that means it’s working.”

“I… I…” I was so shocked that I couldn’t put any words together.

She’s talking… but it’s inside my head…

Does it work if I leave her domain?

Can I talk to her too?

Wait…

If she’s in my head, can she hear my thoughts?

Can she hear me now?!

What else could she have heard?!

My eyes locked onto Ovia, but she didn’t seem to be reacting to any of my thoughts, not that it proved anything.

“I can’t tell if you’re excited or scared at the moment,” Aria put a hand firmly on my shoulder, “The necklaces are linked. As long as the two of you have them on, you’ll be able to talk to each other whenever you want, wherever you are, okay?”

Talk? So, it does go the other way.

But…

“How?” I asked.

“Ah… mmm… It’s a little difficult to explain… It works when you want it to… if that makes sense,” Aria replied.

That’s it?

I decided to try it as soon as possible. If it worked… If I could talk to her through it… That would mean the world to me…

Hello?

No response.

Was that not right?

Hello…

Again, no response.

I don’t get it…

What do you mean it works when you want it to?

Once again, I looked up at Ovia. She was looking back at me expectantly, leaning forward just slightly with her eyes wide. My gaze slowly moved up, looking at her hair clip… the same hair clip I gave her almost two years ago now…

After taking it all in, I could only come up with one word to describe her…

‘… Pretty…’

Right at that moment, Ovia flinched, her ears suddenly twitching.

Wait, did that?

Did I?!

As my face started to heat up, I saw a similar blush creep over Ovia’s cheeks.

“I must admit, I’m already a little sad that I can no longer listen in on your conversations,” Aria’s voice immediately made me snap back to reality, “Now… Sister, didn’t you have another gift you wanted to give her?”

“Y-Yes,” Ovia immediately stood up and headed over to the side room, her blush not fading for even a moment.

She slammed the door behind her, and right after, I heard her voice in my head again.

‘Thank you…’

…

Am I ever going to get used to this?…

“Shall I let you in on a little secret?” Aria moved back to her seat.

I nodded, a little confused.

“Since I was the one talking to the Goddess of the Moon, I took the opportunity to ask for an extra feature to be added to the necklaces. My sister doesn’t know about it yet, but I thought I should tell you. Though I will still keep the feature itself a secret,” She giggled, “All I will say is to pay attention to the gemstone on the pendant, so you’re hopefully not too surprised.”

It does even more?

Do I really deserve something like this?

“Okay… I will…”

It doesn’t matter…

I don’t think I could give this up.

“Oh, and something I need to mention is that if anyone else touches either of the necklaces, they will be able to listen in on your conversations, so just be careful,” Her face changed to a soft smile, “Not that I’m expecting you to just let people touch your neck.”

Right then, before I had a chance to respond to Aria’s warning, the door to the side room swung open, revealing Ovia standing there with one hand behind her back. She quickly made her way in front of me before kneeling down, avoiding eye contact the whole time.

“This is… from m-me,” She brought what she was hiding around in front of her.

In her hand was a fox plushie with nine large tails, its fur and eyes perfectly matching Ovia’s when she was in her fox form. The match between the two was so exact I wouldn’t have been surprised if she told me that she used some of her own fur to make it.

I reached out with both hands to grab it. But it seemed that there was still one more surprise left for me because as soon as my hand brushed up against the plushie’s fur, I felt that all-too-familiar chill, albeit a little tamer than what I had grown used to.

‘A… mini Ovia…’

Her ears twitched just as the thought crossed my mind.

…

I… need to learn how to not do that by mistake…

I carefully brought the plushie into my lap before instinctively starting to pat its head like I normally would with Umbra.

“Now you two can match,” Aria giggled.

Match?

How can we match?

A blush crept over Ovia’s face again, but she didn’t say anything.

“What do you-?”

Before I could finish asking my question, I was interrupted by Umbra leaping out of my shadow, carrying the note that they had given me this morning in their mouth. They looked around for a bit before quickly making their way over to Ovia, nuzzling up against her leg.

“Oh? What’s this?” Aria leaned forward, reaching towards Umbra.

Umbra immediately pulled away, going to the other side of Ovia so Aria wouldn’t be able to reach her.

“What is it about me that you dislike?” Aria suddenly raised her voice, catching me off guard, “It’s been two years, and you still won’t even let me get close to you.”

Aria was completely ignored by Umbra, who instead continued to nuzzle up against Ovia until she eventually lowered her hand so Umbra could give her the note. As soon as Ovia took the note, Umbra jumped into my lap, quickly taking the Ovia plushie and slipping back into my shadow.

I was so surprised by the whole interaction that I almost didn’t notice Umbra stealing the plushie from me… almost…

I can’t believe you took that without asking.

…

I’ll have to talk to you when I get home.

Ovia carefully unfolded the note, her eyes going wide as she started to read.

What is it?

“What does it-?” Aria got up out of her seat to get a look at the note, but as soon as she laid eyes on it she immediately stopped talking.

Is it something bad?

But when I read it…

It was just-

My mind was immediately taken back to the faint letters I wasn’t able to make sense of.

“Um… well…” Aria was struggling to say anything, “This… How did-?…”

‘Is it that bad?!’

I didn’t even need to look at Ovia to know that she had heard that.

‘N-no… maybe…’ She replied, though her words didn’t help to calm me down at all.

Aria eventually just let out a sigh, “Where do I start?”

It’s that bad!

“Well, I guess the right place to start is the note itself. It’s a little special. To most people, it seems perfectly ordinary; however, to those with divinity, it shows a different message. It’s normally used between Emissaries to disguise their letters.”

It seems ordinary? But-

“Next, who it’s from… Unfortunately, the note did ask that I hide their name from you, even if it’s for a ridiculous reason. What I can tell you is that they are a very old, very important God… so important so that the two of us really can’t afford to get on their bad side… and… they can be a little… petty? That’s probably the right word for it.”

It’s someone even a Goddess has to be wary of?

W-why would they send me a note?

Is it something I did?

Could it-?

At that moment, it felt like I was close to a realisation, but lost it just before I could put it into words, just being left with a slight pain in my head.

“The message itself doesn’t seem bad… and, in my experience, they don’t go out of their way to antagonise people or anything like that, so it’s… probably a good idea to listen to their advice… although they already know if you’re going to listen and will have accounted for it.”

They already know? What do you mean they already know?

“All the note says is that it would be a good idea for you to head towards Haelmor. It’s a small port town right on the edge of human territory. They do add that it would be better to go there sooner rather than later,” Aria folded up the note and handed it back to me, “He didn’t write it in the message you could read because he thought you would be more likely to listen if one of us told you.”

Haelmor?

Wait, does that mean-?

I would have to leave the city!

“I… I…” I knew I had to say something but didn’t know what.

 I had thought about leaving the city to go on an adventure and get more stories to tell Ovia. But I wasn’t ready yet. I was nowhere near ready.

Isn’t it too soon?

I… I…

But it’s advice from a God… An important one…

What would they do if I didn’t listen?

Ovia suddenly wrapped her arms around me, bringing me back to reality, “It’s okay, I… We’re here.”

I immediately hugged her back, pulling her in even closer.

“Look, you don’t need to decide on anything right now, alright?” Aria joined the hug, “The note was just some advice, not a command.”

For a while, none of us said anything, just staying huddled together until I could finally calm down completely.

…

“What… would happen if I did what the note asked?” I eventually managed to squeeze out a question.

“Well, while I don’t know the reason you’re being advised to go there, you would definitely get to see more of the world at least,” Aria replied, “For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve been holed up in this, quite honestly, horrible place. It would be good for you to go and see that not everywhere in the world is like this.”

But I don’t need anywhere else…

This is where Ovia is…

Where Raynelle and Ava are…

Where my…

“A-And after today, no matter where you go, we can still t-talk through the necklaces!” Ovia added, “W-we can even talk more often than we used to.”

…

Do you… also want me to leave this place?…

…

If even Ovia thinks I should…

…

I’ll… have to think about it…

Even with Ovia suggesting that I should follow the advice I was given, I just couldn’t make that decision. Not at that moment anyway.

“How about this? You go back to your friends for the rest of your birthday, just spend some time relaxing. Then you can think about it later,” Aria suggested as she stood back up, “Does that sound like a good idea to you?”

“Mhm…”

“Good. Then, Sister, it’s time for you to say your goodbyes,” She smiled, “Even if it will only be for a moment.”

Ovia suddenly hugged me tighter, “Again… Happy birthday Kierra.”

With that comment I felt the chill of Ovia’s domain start to gradually recede.

Just before I felt Ovia’s presence disappear, I managed to say one last thing, “Thank you… again.”