As blue light suffused the Kitsune, the cloud of drilling insects lifted from my armor and landed in a black cloud on the corrupted creature. In the final roar of defeat, I heard not the sly voice of the Kitsune, but the roar of the Festering itself, like a million daemonic voices all screaming at once. The thing disappeared under the weight of the drilling insects, writhing in pain as a thousand tiny teeth tore into it.
I didn’t hesitate. I took two steps forward and brought my axe down to sever the creature’s head from its body. There was a sudden flash of white light, and the monstrous form with its horrible insect tormentors crumbled to a pile of fine gray ash. The black wall which had blocked the entrance vanished like a puff of black smoke, and a sudden fresh breeze from the sea swept through the little space. The pile of what had been the monster was swept up by the breeze and blown out of the shrine to disperse in the air.
All around me, I heard a sound like a person breathing a deep sigh of relief. As I raised my head, I found that I was no longer in the shrine. For a moment, I saw the whole scene as if from the outside. Cara had half risen from her crouch while I stood with my axe buried in the floor of the shrine. The little priest, frozen in time, wore a terrified expression while he peered over the low wall surrounding his house.
Then my awareness spun away, and everything had changed. I stood in a woodland glade at night. Fireflies danced above the long grass that washed around the knees of great knobbly trees. The sky was dark blue, dotted with stars. A new moon hung over low hills in the distance.
At first, I was confused, then I realized I had been transported to the spirit realm.
I breathed deep, smelling the fresh green smell of the deep forest. Away to my left, I caught a glimpse of something white, moving silent as mist through the trees. I knew what it would be. I turned toward it and watched with fascination as the Kitsune spirit wove its way through the trees toward me.
It moved through the air just below the lowest branches of the trees, a clean, white shape. The Kitsune’s head was shaped like that of a real fox, alert and sharp-featured, though it was pure white and a little larger than a regular fox. The body was like a comet’s tail of thick mist, with no sign of legs or tail. It moved through the air toward me with the grace of a seal through water, stopping at the edge of the clearing and regarding me with dark, intelligent eyes. After a moment, it spoke in a soft voice like the sound of wind in a tree’s leaves.
“You saved me from oblivion, Soul Binder. The Festering would have used me against the people and the land which are dearest to me. Through consuming me, it would have consumed them. You have saved me, and you have bound me to the service of your destiny. No longer shall I inhabit the Kitsune shrine. I am yours now, and my power passes to you.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but the whole scene shimmer and dissolved. There was a sound in my ears like a rushing wind, and suddenly my hand was on my axe again, and the axehead was buried in the wooden floor of the Kitsune’s empty shrine.
I wrenched my axe from the floor and slung it over my shoulder. As I did so, I felt the Renown from our last fight collecting in me, with that now-familiar feeling of satisfaction, like gold coins clinking solidly into a strongbox.
Chapter Six
I was keen to test my new Kitsune Persona, but I paused as Cara approached the gap in the wall. I saw from her smile and her momentary pause that she had felt the increase in Renown too. Behind me, the civilians were stirring.
“Are they all right?” she asked me as she hopped through the gap into the shrine room.
I glanced at them. “They seem to be. I think the Festering used them like puppets, but I don’t think it had actually begun to corrupt them.”
I reached up and touched my helmet, intending to remove it and wipe my brow. To my satisfaction, the helmet vanished, but the rest of my armor stayed in place. So I could remove parts of the Ironside armor without removing the whole thing. That was good to know.
“Let’s get these three out into the open air,” I suggested.
“Good idea,” Cara said.
Together, we carried the man in yellow and the elderly couple out into the sun and laid them on the grass. I was pleased to see that, although they were unconscious, they seemed unharmed. Cara knelt by them and began to check them over for injuries, and I turned away to walk over to the priest.
The old fellow was peering short-sightedly at me as I approached. To him, I must have looked like a giant. My weapons and my new shield were on my back, and my armor gleamed in the sun. He leaned on the wall, his arms crossed on his chest, looking bemusedly up at me as I stopped before him.
We looked at each other in silence for a moment.
“You seem displeased,” I said, stating the obvious. “Were you harmed in the battle?”
“I was not the one who was harmed,” he snapped, his tone accusatory. “Tell me, foreigner, what has happened to the fox-spirit?”
I bit back my anger at his total lack of gratitude. I had just gone to great lengths to help him. Well, maybe he was frightened and this was how
