Kitsune in the Shadows

Chapter 40 – I Shouldn’t Be Watching This

[Ovia POV]

“I-I s-shouldn’t be watching this!”

…

But… I want-

“No!” I shouted at myself.

On the panel floating just in front of me was Kierra, sitting on the floor, hunched over a hair clip, surrounded by various pencils and paints.

She even spoke about the gift in her sleep…

“S-she’s working so hard… I-I shouldn’t ruin the surprise.”

I waved my hand to get rid of the screen in an attempt to get rid of any temptation, but it didn’t do much. Almost all I had done for the last few years was watch Kierra, so it was hard to tear myself away without a good reason.

“M-maybe I can distract myself… I-I could…”

…

What can I do?

…

Is there even anything to do?

…

I made my way out of the side room and into the throne room, hoping that an idea would just come to me. Or maybe a Spirit would finally have an issue for me to solve. That’s what most Gods do… I think.

But I’ve never had to do that. Nobody really uses Dark Magic even if they can because they’re all scared of it, so the Spirits can just take care of it all themselves. Dreams just work by themselves, which I assume is also thanks to the Spirits.

Why am I even a Goddess?…

The spirits just do everything by themselves…

Even my other…

I froze up. I didn’t want to think about that, it was too embarrassing.

…

What else can I do?

…

I guess I could go to Ellaria… I do need some help planning… something…

But… I can’t keep bothering her like that…

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“I-I’ll just… visit… s-someone else…”

…

…

…

“I… don’t… know anyone else…”

…

…

…

Maybe I should just go back to watching Kierra…

I can just… pretend I didn’t see it when she gives it to me…

…

Probably…

I turned around and started walking back to the side room, thinking about different ways to censor the panel so I wouldn’t ruin the surprise. But just before I could open the door, someone came into my domain.

“Sister!” All of a sudden, Ellaria came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my neck, “Wait, why are you out here and not in the side room like usual?”

“Ell-”

“Not that I’m complaining,” Ellaria cut me off, “Now, before anything else, look at this!”

She held up a vial containing grey mana in front of my face. Or at least, it looked to just be grey at a glance. But after looking at it a bit closer, rather than just being grey, it was closer to a swirling mess made from strings of both black and white mana.

“Is that?-”

“It’s somehow holding itself together even though it isn’t stable!” She interrupted me again, “It’s almost like this is not the perfected version, like this is only the first step to something much greater.”

“Um-”

“I don’t even know what this could eventually turn into,” She interrupted me a third time.

I had almost forgotten how she gets when it comes to anything magic-related. After all, it had been a long time since I had seen her this excited about something.

She continued going on about all these different theories about how the individual strings of mana weren’t repelling each other, or maybe they were repelling each other, just in a specific way. I didn’t really understand it, so I just kept quiet, hoping she would stop talking soon.

It took a while, but she eventually stopped rambling and just rested her head on my shoulder.

“A-are you finished?” I asked.

“No, there’s still-”

“N-NO!” I interrupted her this time, really not wanting to let her start all over again, “… l-let’s just… g-go sit down.”

She didn’t say anything for a few seconds as she rocked her head back and forth on my shoulder.

“Fine.” She eventually responded.

Despite what she said, she didn’t take her head off my shoulder and just kept it there as we walked over to the two couches that were added for Kierra’s last visit, where she finally separated from me and sat down.

“Now then, back to the topic at hand,” She opened up the vial she had brought with her, just letting the mana hang freely in the air in front of us.

“I-Is that?-”

“It’s some of the mana from that little kitsune that you collected before,” She explained, “The thing is, the more I look into it, the stranger it seems to be. Like, look at this.”

She released some of her own mana towards the grey blob. However, as soon as the Light Mana got close, it was repelled.

“I-isn’t that n-normal for Light Mana and D-Dark Mana?”

“No, no, keep watching.”

I looked back at the mana, but it didn’t seem any different. The Light Mana was just being repelled by Kierra’s.

“I-I don’t understand.”

“It’s not just repelling the mana,” Her eyes lit up, “Look closely, the Light Mana is being held at a set distance from the little kitsune’s Mana, it’s almost like the Light Mana is forcefully being pulled into an orbit.”

If you say so…

You were always the expert when it came to this kind of thing…

“Now, you do it too!” She pointed at me, with her eyes wide as they could be.

“O-okay Ellaria…”

I released some of my own Mana, letting it float towards the grey blob. Almost immediately, it got sucked inside, although it hadn’t disappeared or been absorbed, at least not in the usual sense. It almost felt like it had become entangled in the weave, being forcefully manipulated just like my sister’s Mana.

As I unsuccessfully tried to take my Mana back out of it, Ellaria took out a notebook and started frantically writing notes in it.

“If it’s able to… that must… move shadows… but… constant… in theory… almost unfair… limits….” She started mumbling.

There wasn’t any room for me to say anything, so I just sat there in silence as she continued taking notes.

…

I still need to plan…

…

How many days are left?…

…

…

“Sister?”

At that moment, I snapped back to reality with Ellaria only centimetres away from my face.

“Are you back now?” She asked as she leaned forward just a little.

“Y-yes…”

She then just suddenly burst out laughing before going and sitting back down opposite me.

“W-what’s so funny?” I asked as I felt my face start to heat up.

“It’s nothing. It’s just been a while since I’ve seen you zone out during one of my ‘lectures’, as you liked to call them,” She leaned back, “The last time… must have been just after I ascended. When we were playing around with divinity for the first time.”

…

Has it… really been that long…

…

Ellaria was always the smarter one out of the two of us, always trying to understand all the different types of magic even if she couldn’t use most of them herself. I don’t know where all that motivation comes from, though, because I just never had to study like her. For some reason, whenever I tried to use magic, it just worked as if my body already knew exactly how it all worked.

“H-how come you didn’t become a G-Goddess of Magic?” I asked impulsively.

I had never given it much thought before, but given how much she knows and how much she has continued to research even after ascending, it would only make sense.

“I would have loved to be the Goddess of Magic…” She looked a little annoyed, “Unfortunately, some old elf beat me to it by a few thousand years.”

“I-I’m sorry,” I responded reflexively.

“Come on now, don’t be sorry for something like that,” She started laughing, “It’s not like it was your fault.”

That’s… not why I said sorry…

…

“Why don’t we do this more often?” Ellaria asked, “We used to do it all the time back in the village.”

I was suddenly hit by a wave of memories. I hadn’t thought about the village in many years yet, I could still recall everything like it was only a week ago.

“… I-I don’t know,” I mumbled under my breath, “Y-you always c-came to me.”

“Don’t be like that. I know you enjoyed my company,” She chuckled.

“…”

I couldn’t come up with anything to say in response.

“It might be a good idea to send the little kitsune to that village eventually. It would be nice for her to meet some other kitsune after all… it might even be a little easier for her to talk to them… She spoke to us pretty quickly after all,” She paused for a moment, “By the way, how is she doing? I haven’t had the chance to check on her since she left.”

“S-she told them her n-name.”

“Really?!” She sounded genuinely surprised, “I thought it would at least take her a month to work up enough courage.”

Even though I didn’t really do anything to help Kierra, I still felt proud that she was able to do it.

“So, does that mean she’s talking now?”

“A-a little,” I responded.

“That’s great. But you need to make sure you congratulate her properly when she comes back, we don’t want her to go back to being silent now.”

…

That’s what I want to do…

But…

“I-I need help,” I blurted out.

She came over and sat down next to me, “I already told you that you can always ask me for help. You don’t need to be so nervous,” She pulled me into a hug, “Now tell me, what have you decided on so far?”

“…”

“Um… sister?”

“…”

“…Nothing yet?”

“Mmm…”

“…”

Is it really that bad?

I’ve never done this before.

How am I supposed to know what to do?

“Well… What do you want to do for her?” She brushed my hair out of my face, “She liked the gift you gave her last time, so I’m sure she’d like anything that you come up with.”

“B-But… I want to do it… p-properly”

“And what does properly mean?”

“… Doing it r-right?” I answered.

What else could it mean?

“I don’t think so.”

“T-then what?”

“I think doing it properly just means that you’re doing the best you can.”

“B-but-”

“No buts,” Ellaria interrupted, “You asked me for help, so now you are going to let me help you. That’s how this works. ”

…

How does she do it?

Where does all her confidence come from?

…

“O-okay,” I responded.

“Good. Now let’s get to work, we’ve got a celebration to plan out.”