Vol.5 – Epilogue

Epilogue: Family Reunion

I got up immediately, on full alert within a moment. The moment I got up I realized I was wearing my adventuring clothes. Yume was similarly dressed in the kimono she'd worn to Olympus, although without the blood splatters caused by decapitating Ares.

I held a hand out for Yume and hauled her to her feet before opening the sliding door leading out of the building. I still had no idea why Yume's kingdom considered sliding doors made of parchment a good idea but in all fairness it did make the door pleasantly easy to open.

Once outside we found ourselves in a valley clearly located somewhere on a mountain range, a small meadow surrounding the house. A small stream was flowing along a path leading away from the building and toward a red wooden gate. It was hauntingly similar to the place she had summoned me to back when she'd still been under the Chosen One's thumb.

“I think I know what's going on here,” she muttered and went over to the stream.

There was a little washing station prepared next to the stream, a little stool, a bucket and a wooden ladle. I'd seen this back then and so I was not surprised when Yume approached the setup, picked up the ladle and used it to run cold water over her hands, then used it to rinse out her mouth. She spat the water back into the ladle and then washed it in the stream. When she was done she held the ladle out for me and I repeated her actions. The water was horribly cold but it did help wake me up, or at least it brought me to full consciousness. It didn't rouse me from the sleep my actual body was experiencing. I knew this was some kind of cleansing ritual, to be completed before important discussions, though the full meaning still escaped me.

“So, who is meeting us?” I asked as I got up. “Your mother?”

“We will find out soon,” she said and led me down the gently sloping meadow to a small open building, not far away from the wooden gate. The building was tiny, just a wooden floor with a roof over it. At the center of that building was a table with ridiculously short legs and several soft cushions placed around it. And at that table sat a woman.

This woman was gorgeous. Her features were obviously Southern, sharp and delicate, and her skin was as pale as what I'd seen back in our Underworld. The woman wore an ornate white kimono, far more opulent than the ones Yume wore. The woman had long, flowing hair, with two adorable little fox ears poking out of it, both the hair and the fur the soft pink of cherry blossoms. Behind her sat an enormous mass of undulating fur. They were clearly her tails but between the sheer volume and the way they were swaying I found it impossible to count them out.

But what struck me the most was that the woman was tiny, a little shorter even than Yume, and her features gave her a youthful air despite the dignified posture. After the conversation we'd had before I wondered if this might be Yume's mother but she just looked so young. Dignified, yes, but youthful and short. Maybe it was a sister she'd never talked about?

Yume and I looked at each other and she gave me a nod before we both sat down opposite this woman.

“Yume,” the woman began and then spoke in a language I'd only ever heard Yume speak when she was either incandescently furious or close to orgasm, apparently the language of her homeland. I could not make heads or tails of any of it.

“Okaa-san,” Yume began, then spoke in the tongue I knew: “There is a Northerner present. Speak the language Otou-san taught us, please.”

The woman looked at me, her look neutral but not cold or distant, then said: “Very well. Though I am not as versed in it as you are, Yume.”

Yume gave the woman a deep nod of her head and I had spent enough time with her that I knew this to be an expression of gratitude.

“Well then,” the woman continued. “When I cast this...” And then she said a word in her native tongue that I did not understand.

“Spell,” Yume supplied. “The word is 'spell'.”

The woman gave Yume a nod, much shallower than the one Yume had given her, and continued: “When I cast this spell I intended it to target only you, Yume. You two must have been very... close at the time.”

I could feel my cheeks warm as I sat there and as I glanced to the side I was gratified to see a bit of color on Yume's cheek as well. I had managed to fall asleep while still inside the little fox, after all.

But instead of acknowledging that at all Yume nodded and said: “Of course. Mother, this is my chosen mate, Tailor Felix.”

So the woman was Yume's mother after all, the woman we'd spoken of earlier. But then, why did she look so young? And why did Yume say my name the wrong way around? Well, at least the first one I had an explanation for. At first I had looked at the woman's youthful features and thought her to be Yume's age but I had completely forgotten that kitsune like her didn't physically age at all, something I only really knew of gods. The only measure of age kitsune had were the number of their tails. And even if I was having a hard time counting those swaying tails if you told me there were eight of them I would believe you. And then I tried not to boggle at the realization that the woman facing us had to be older than Starfall Albrecht.

As Yume spoke her mother's expression shifted and she suddenly regarded me in a much less neutral and more positive way.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Tailor Felix,” she said with a lean forward that was almost a bow.

“The pleasure is all mine,” I said, bowing down as much as sitting at that tiny table allowed. A bit of it had been Yume's mind subtly prodding me but even without that I had already noticed that bowing was an important aspect to their culture. The lower Yume bowed to someone, the more she respected them. And if this was my lover's mother, it didn't hurt to be polite.

“A polite one,” Yume's mother said, quiet approval in her tone and expression. Then one of her ears twitched and she went very still. “Nezumi...” she muttered.

I had never heard the word before but whatever it had been, it had set her off. Dark mana, black with streaks of purple and red, curled around her tails and she reached a hand out to a nearby tree. She made a grasping motion and a choked whimper sounded from behind the tree.

Oh shit. Syr.

Syr appeared from behind the tree, floating a foot off the ground and her hands grasping at an invisible band of force around her throat. Yume's mother must have thought her an intruder.

I was about to jump up but Yume was faster. She interposed herself between her mother and Syr and said: “Don't hurt her, mother, she's a friend!”

Yume's mother hesitated for a moment, then let the spell drop and I rushed to catch Syr as she fell.

“Are you alright?” I asked her, a hand on her cheek.

“Yes,” Syr croaked out, a hand rubbing her throat, which had red marks all around it.

Slightly bemused Yume's mother waved a hand and a third cushion appeared on our side of the table. The three of us sat down.

“I have some idea how my spell managed to bring you two here but it should not have drawn anyone else in,” Yume's mother said.

“I am Tanner Syr,” Syr said, bowing low and also saying her name the wrong way around. “It's a long story but I live in Felix' mind for now. My own body was stolen by...” her eyes went distant and she let out a small fluttery breath, “something.”

Yume's mother's eyes went just a little wider for a fraction of a breath but then her expression recovered. “I see,” she said, then looked at her daughter expectantly. For a moment I wondered what she was waiting for but then I remembered that Yume still hadn't introduced her mother by name.

Yume took a breath and then said: “Felix, Syr, this is my mother. She has gone by many names over the centuries but she is most commonly known as Tamamo-no-Mae.”

The End Of Book Five