SFS - Chapter 27 (Patreon)

Crane flicked blood off his sword, and an Ophidian collapsed just behind him. He smoothly sheathed it, and pulled his bag off of his back. “Did Jixie tell us how to activate this thing?”

From my perch up on a nearby eave, I looked down on the skyman. “I don’t think so.”

He held out the Portable Defense Flame and twisted it around for a moment before letting it hang loosely in his hand. ”Well… shoot.” 

“I can activate it.” I hopped down off the eave, and landed on a wooden crate that reeked of rot. I still remembered the Qi pattern, at least, so I should be able to kickstart the device once more.

”If you say so.” Crane tossed the device onto the crate just next to me. His robe flared out, and scattered droplets of water everywhere. I watched the Qi flow around the fabric for a moment.

[Collecting Record… 95%…100%]

[Partial Record: Purity Art]

It wasn’t that hard to record. The guy used the Qi art constantly in the heavy rain. Not to mention everytime his robes got bloody or muddy, which was just about every passing second we were out here. The constant rain had washed most of the roads out into mud baths.

I waved Thorny away and focused back on the device. My Qi flowed through me in a slow circuit. With a bit of focus, I split off a small strand and weaved it down through my paw toward the Portable Defense Flame. It entwined with the array scattered across the device, and easily flowed alongside the channels. There was a bit of resistance getting it out of my paw, but once it was free the Qi was sucked away by the array. 

After channeling it for a moment, the array slowly churned to life. It started to draw in Qi from the surrounding air—from the water, specifically. A blue flame sparked to life in the central brazier section of the device, and a dim blue glow spread across the alley.

“Nice.” Crane grabbed the device, and nodded to the end of the alleyway. “Hope this works like he said.”

”It’ll probably be fine?” I watched the spirit flame for a moment. Just like its much larger brethren, the energy flowing out of it seemed to displace the ambient dull grey that polluted the village.

Crane slowly pushed out of the alley with the spirit flame in his hands. The surrounding blighted instantly noticed his presence, and crowded around the edges of the blue light. They refused to get any closer to the man though. Soon, more and more surged out of the streets to crowd in around him.

”Well, this is creepy,” the man muttered while setting the Portable Defense Flame down. The light illuminated the wash of scales covering the blighted all around him. Blight broken bodies and destroyed skin leered in at him.

I watched him for a moment from my safe spot up on the roof. Once I was sure he was safe enough, I shuffled back and fluffed out my tail with my paw. “I’m going back up to Jixie’s to sleep.”

”You don’t trust the flame?” Crane nodded to the flickering blue flame that kept the surrounding Ophidian back. We hadn’t been attacked the entire time we’d been out here.

”And you do?” Just because we hadn’t been attacked yet didn’t mean the flame would give out while I was asleep. The device was neat, but I’d rather not put my life in its hands.

”… I’ll see you tomorrow." Crane sighed and settled against the side of the alley. Shadows danced across his face from the flickering flame.

Wraithwalk obscured my form once more, and I walked along the edges of the building back to Jixie’s place. I phased through one of the second floor walls—and immediately gagged as the scent of rotting flesh washed over me. I smelled them before

I caught the scent before, naturally. Proximity makes it so much worse, though. I shuffled to a pillar while careful avoiding the old bloodbath. Using it, I easily Wraithclimbed up to the third floor and slipped through Jixie’s barricaded door.

I rounded the room toward the balcony, and dropped Wraithwalk. “Yip!”

“Agh!” Jixie jumped to his feet and drew his fan from his sleeve like it was a weapon. Once he saw it was me, he sighed in relief and stashed his fan once more. “You gave me quite the fright, Snow… everything okay?”

”Crane’s down there now.” I fully stepped out into the blue glue of the spirit flame. This one was so much brighter then the small one down with Crane. I definitely made the right decision to come back up here.

”That’s a relief…” Jixie sat back down and went to tinker on his worktable.

“Yip…” I padded away from the door, and moved for a mostly empty corner. It wasn’t anywhere as nice as a snowbank, but it’d have to do. I curled up, and covered my body with my tail. Even while closing my eyes to sleep, I kept my ears perked up just in case. 

— — —

“Psst!” A voice whispered out into the room. “Sister Fox!”

My ear twitched, and I opened a bleary eye some time later. Jixie stopped messing around a while ago, and peacefully fell asleep in his chair. Since then, I’d only woken up a couple times to noise out on the streets.

”Sister Fox! Over here!” Ponpon called out quietly to me.

A groan left me, and I pulled my tail away from my face. “Yii—?”

The treasure mouse was up, and desperately clinging to the bars of his cage. His whiskers twitched in the dim light, and his tail coiled around the bars just under his paws. “You’re promise—you’re going to keep it, right?”

”Yip yip.” I rubbed at my eyes with my paws, and staggered to my feet. This little guy is really asking for it. Had the guy never heard of letting sleeping dog—ahem, sleeping foxes sleep?

I silently moved across the room and jumped up onto the table next to Ponpon’s cage. Naturally, I was going to keep my promise. Betraying one’s word simply wasn’t something a noble fox would do.

The mouse backed away slightly. “How are you going to get me out?”

I hadn’t thought of that, yet. I eyed the lock on the cage for a few moments, and then glanced back toward the scholar sound asleep right next to us. “Do you know where he keeps the key?”

“In his right sleeve,” the mouse whispered back. “Be careful, Sister Fox.”

”… yip.” I walked around Jixie’s sprawled out form, and slowly approached the loose sleeves of his robe. I dug around it for a moment, and then pushed the key out of a hidden pocket—

“Haah.” Jixie breathed out heavily and shifted. His arm fell off the table, and the loose key clattered noisily against the floor. 

Is he awake? I froze and held my breath. Jixie shifted once more, though remained totally asleep. I shook my head and silently jumped off the table to grab the key. Once I had it, I moved back up to the cage and struggled to fit it into the lock.

”I got it.” Ponpon’s tail whipped out and grabbed the key from me. How could such a small thing hold up such a heavy key?

I blinked, and got my answer a moment later with Eyes of the Recorder. The mouse changed a chaotic flow of dense qi threw his tail, and significantly reinforced the limb. It didn’t look like he was using any particular technique. Or, at least, not one the Record marked down.

Can I do that? I glanced back toward my own tail as the lock clicked open. The treasure mouse quietly stepped out of the cage for the first time in who knew how long, and my attention snapped back to him. “There. You happy now?”

”More than you could ever know.” He took a shuddering breath, and his whiskers twitched with emotion. “A thousand thanks, Sister Fox.”

”… it’s Snow.” I shrugged. Us Spirit Beasts had to stick together in these dire times. Jixie would definitely notice in the morning, though. That might complicate things. “Can you wait until after we leave to escape?”

”Of course.” The mouse took the key, and pulled it into the cage. Then, he carefully buried it under the light layer of wood clippings at the bottom of the cage. “I’m indebted to you, Sister Snow.”

”Yip yip…” 

“Here—it’s not much, but it's the most I can give. Wait a moment.” Qi flowed throughout Ponpon’s body, centered right around his head. It was an extremely dense and complex flow that made my mind churn uncomfortably just from seeing it. My more studious half didn’t seem to have any issues though.

[Collecting Record… .01%… .02%]

[Partial Record: Treasure Sense]

Woah, they weren’t kidding about this little guy being able to find treasure, were they? I want it. I really, really want it. The record, I mean, not the mouse. Being able to find treasure sounded so, so nice.

Unfortunately, copying the record would take far too long. At this rate, I’d have to follow the mouse around for who knew how long just to take the record… unless—should I kill him? I’d be a fool not to notice my direct kills sometimes gave me a complete record. Back when I indirectly killed the wolf, the Record fully collected the Spirit Body Art.

I eyed the focusing mouse, and slowly leaned away from that idea. Nobody would notice, naturally. I could easily gobble up the evidence. It’d be like the little mouse just disappeared into the wind. Killing him after granting him freedom just didn’t sit right, though.

How does this thing dictate how fast it picks something up, anyway? I idly toyed with the thorn tome for a moment. Sometimes the progress went by extremely quickly like with the Purity Art. Other times, like here, it seemed to take forever. Is it the complexity of the Qi flow?

“There’s a treasure two floors down.” The mouse sagged heavily, and the Qi flow abruptly cut off. It appeared his Treasure Sense was super draining. He probably wouldn’t be able to resist if I tried to gobble him up…

I licked my teeth lightly, and backed away from the sweet temptation. More than the record, I was hungry for meat… stupid Crane. “Really?”

”It’s in the northeastern corner.” He took a heavy breath, and stepped back into the cage. His tail whipped out and closed it shut behind him. Just as he said, he’d wait until after we were gone to make his escape. “Should our fates intertwine once more, I’ll show you another.”

”Yip…” I watched him for a moment before dropping off the table. I sunk through the floor with Wraithwalk, and dropped into the room below. I dodged past a mound of blighted, and dropped through another pillar to the bottom floor.  

There were even more Ophidian corpses down here. Only, not all of them were dead. A couple shuffled around the room with scale-covered faces. The front door to the place stood wide open, too, allowing more to enter at any moment should they want to.

I silently walked around the room while invisible, and headed to the corner of the room. There, leaned up against the back wall and covered in grievous injuries, lay a corpse a little different then the rest. Blood soaked his robes, and a broken sword was still tightly held in his grasp. His face was gaunt, and had long lost its color to decomposition. 

Is the treasure on him? My nose curled slightly as I realized I’d have to dig through his clothes to find it—ah, maybe not? I blinked, and Eye of the Recorded shrouded my vision. Two items softly glowed with Qi under my enhanced vision.

I dropped the ability, and carefully snaked my tail forward while still Wraithwalked. While I was like this, most stuff would just pass through me. Things with even trace amounts of Qi, though, were more than capable of touching me. By that logic, was the reverse true?

Qi flowed down through my limb, enhancing the agility and strength of it in almost the same way that I saw Ponpon do it. I snatched a small token from the person’s waist, marked with a dragon head along with characters for the Shenlong Sect. 

The moment I grabbed it, the qi running through my tail scattered. The token tightly held in my grasp was pulled into an ethereal state along with the rest of my body just like the bandages had been. Wicked… this changes some things.

On another note—Shenlong Sect? What the heck is that? Nothing came to mind, though I carefully set the token aside just in case. Something about it gave me a familiar feeling. There wasn’t much that did that, and I refused to give up a potential clue to where I came from.

Other than the sect token, there was a small pendant tied to the dead man’s belt. It was a sparrow feather of some kind, and had a chain loosely entwining it with the belt. With quite a bit more effort than the token required, I managed to pry off the chain from the belt and claim the feather.

At first, I couldn’t quite tell what the sparrow charm was. After a moment though, the Record of all things popped up and flicked to a new page?

[Sparrow’s Charm - Enhances the wearer’s agility, and eases wind Qi.]

I eyed the Record’s silver pages, and immediately slipped the chain of the charm around my neck like a necklace. It dangled lightly against my fur. Woah, you can do this kind of thing too thorny? You really are old reliable. 

This night started off rough with my heart being shattered, but it was ending surprisingly well. With my treasure in tow, I stealthily moved back up to the third floor to sleep through the night before anything else could go wrong.