The room’s tone and mood changed dramatically. Elders Vinollo and Takashi went from sharp accusations to serene and polite instantly. The wards were ordered dismissed with hushed apologies ‘for even doubting one such as you’. Elder Junpei looked as if he was in the presence of a local Spirit, or maybe even a Deity, and was consciously averting his eyes from my bare flesh.

  It was a painfully awkward moment having all these people you looked up to and admired falling over themselves for your attention. My blush deepened at the embarrassment of having Elders nearly prostrate themselves before me, which only caused them to humble themselves further for the discourtesy of embarrassing me.

  Thankfully, Elder Yamamoto was able to cut the building discomfort with another yip of laughter, “Oh get over yourselves. She’s not Akari Nine-Tails reincarnated, she’s a woman of our village who has never left its borders and needs to go very far beyond them. Get up off the floor and get your best advice ready.”

  I turned to Elder Yamamoto and nodded appreciatively in relief. He flashed me a toothy grin, “What can we help you with Adept?” The other Elders looked up guiltily, still unable to meet my eye but clearly ready to help, if only to atone for their public embarrassment.

  I took a moment to pull my arm back inside my kimono and used it to think about what I wanted to ask. So many options it was hard to choose. Still, they were all looking at me so expectantly I just had to pick. Eventually, I started with the most practical one.

  “My memory of the conversation fades out after the instructions to breathe. Flits and moments that I am unable to fully place. The one thing I know for sure is that I am supposed to go to a place called ‘Freeport’. How do I get there?”

  As one, the Elders turned to look at Takashi. There was a moment of contemplation before a solemn nod.

  “I know of it, though it is rarely spoken fondly. The traders I talk to speak of it as a city of merchants and mercenaries. A place where anything and everything that could be bought and sold is traded. Worse, the city is a hub for,” he trailed off, disgust seeping into his voice, “mechanical advancement deep in the Runnan Empire. Freeport is not a safe place for any kitsune, let alone a Starborn.”

  While I was well aware of the bad blood between the kitsune and the Runnan Empire, I didn’t understand the distaste for mechanics. The knowing nods of the other Elders convinced me that asking why was a foolish decision. “Regardless,” I asserted, “it is where I have been tasked to go.”

  I could see the desire to protect me warring with the feeling of reverence across Elder Takashi’s face. Eventually, the reverence won, “The visiting ratfolk merchant does business there and is a mostly honorable sort. It would be easy to get him to escort you in exchange for some supplies or permission to conduct trade again. I shall arrange the details with him and have a messenger sent with word.”

  I wasn’t sure what a ‘ratfolk’ was, but given the context I could make a guess that they were referring to the Porforokin merchant I had bought my necklace from earlier. I would’ve called it convenient, but the impression I had gotten from the… what do I call her?

  Outsider seemed too dismissive. Pale Lady? Descriptive but generic. It’d work for now.

  The impression I had gotten from the Pale Lady was that they were stacking the deck in my favor. Though, now that I considered it, that begged the question of how far in advance she knew of my impending death. Disturbing implications for later. For now, I had other questions.

  “Well, we will need to arrange that. The next question I have is about something the outsider said. She told me that this was ‘an opportunity to be what I was meant to be,’ and referred to magical power that was my due. What does that mean?”

  There was a minor commotion as the Elders tried to talk all at once before remembering themselves. Elder Junpei cleared his throat, looking to move past the embarrassment and spoke in the same tone he had when providing spellform lectures. “We’ve known for a while that each generation is less magically potent than the previous. There are gifts that kitsune once had that are long lost to us, magical ability not least amongst them. In theory, this means you have all the powers of the kitsune at their height of power.”

  I tried very hard not to groan at the obvious answer, mentally mastering myself before responding. I had already made that logical leap, but me of yesterday probably would not have. It would be improper to be cross with him.

  I took a breath to center and calm myself and then addressed him, phrasing my question more clearly, “That was my interpretation as well, Elder Junpei. However, as I’m not as learned and aware of what we lost since I never had it or seen those with any of the abilities I was hoping to know what specifically those gifts might be.”

  “Ah,” he said, blushing slightly but seemingly unashamed of such a blatant show of emotion. Perhaps he had already found himself embarrassed enough he thought one more blush wouldn’t matter? Or perhaps he didn’t even realize he blushed. I pushed those thoughts aside as I noticed he was starting to speak. “Well, the only thing I know for sure is that we were once able to change shapes into full foxes. For anything else, we would need to consult with one of the librarians. Perhaps your mother?”

  I nodded, more amused than surprised, and wondered how many cards in the deck were stacked in my favor.

  *************************************************************************************************

  Our house was a smaller one on the outskirts of the village that had been built for us after an unfortunate fire took our last house and Father with it. I tried hard not to think about how if it wasn’t for a visit with our grandparents, Mother, Kyomi, and myself might’ve been in that fire or the unfairness of the fact that I was able to come back but Father had not. It was hard given that my only distractions were the fact every villager was cutting me a wide berth, the impending dread at telling Mother and Kyomi that I had to leave, and the nagging sensation that there was something off about my body. Thankfully, the village was small enough that I didn’t have to dwell on my concerns for too long.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The sun was high in the sky when I came around the last corner before our house. Mother should’ve been working at the library, but instead she was sitting on the porch making origami cranes. She always did that when she was stressed, be it Father’s death or with food supplies towards the end of winter. Based on the fact that there were only three cranes at her side, it was clearly not working well. I took a breath to ready myself and then called out.

  “Mother.”

  Her head snapped forward and then there was a strangled cry as she dashed from the porch and enveloped me in a hug, her chin struggling to get over my shoulder, her voice broke and wavered, “Oh, Kara. Kyomi told me about what happened. I thought…. I was so worried.”

  My eyes welled up and I was grateful, for perhaps the first time in my life, that our house was on the outskirts of town. Far away from where someone might see us. It was a simple and pure moment that I cherished more than I thought was possible. I relished the moment, because even though the tears wouldn’t fall, I had been taught better than that, there was a joy in this moment that spread from my toes to the tips of my ears. Blinking my tears away, I noticed Kyomi standing in the doorway to our house waiting for her turn. It was a happy sight.

  And then my blood ran cold and the joy was ebbed away by a gnawing panic.

  I could see Kyomi and I saw her from over Mother’s head. Before today Mother and I had seen eye to eye, almost perfectly matched in height and had been for three winters. Now, I had the first undeniable proof that something about my body had changed. A small detail that I wouldn’t have noticed without a reference point. I had changed. Been changed. And while height might seem a crazy thing to be upset about, the sudden certainty that nearly everything I knew about myself had changed broke me and caused the tears to slip from my eyes.

  Mother, not privy to my thoughts, just hugged me tighter and pet my back, whispering as she went, “It’s okay, you’re home and safe now.”

  It wasn’t particularly convincing given my new evidence to the contrary, but I wasn’t about to insult her by dissenting. Instead, I worked on pushing my panic away to a place where it would be a problem for later and let her think that she had successfully soothed me.

  It would have been rude to do otherwise.

  Eventually, we broke from the public display and moved towards the house, each of us pretending that I wasn’t wiping tears from my eyes. The door was barely closed before Kyomi squeezed me in another hug. I smiled slightly at her and hugged her back, proud and darkly amused that the youngest amongst us had the greatest respect for decorum. Thankfully, I had been taller than Kyomi all my life and wasn’t currently perturbed about public displays of affection, so her hug was actually comforting. I lost track of time while I actually calmed down and Mother went over to the kitchen.

  When the kettle started whistling, Kyomi and I reluctantly disentangled and made our way to our dining room table. There was no pomp or circumstance, a rarity given the importance of teaching Kyomi the proper ceremony techniques, but rather a quick pour of boiled tea with a heavy serving of sugar for Kyomi and a small dash of honey for Mother and me. We sipped, enjoyed, and let the moment of quiet come before the conversations that needed to follow.

  I was about halfway through my cup when Mother, as was proper for the head of household, spoke first.

  “There is a group going out to gather herbs tonight. Do you think you’ll be well enough to join them?” she asked cautiously. There was concern in her voice, but I didn’t need any more emotional coddling. There had been too many tears and far too many of them in public. Gathering, work, normalcy are all things I needed right now, if only to distract myself from the existential dread. “Yes,” I agreed very rapidly, before considering my words. I didn’t know when the merchant would be leaving. Before my moment to clarify passed, I continued on, “Though perhaps I shouldn’t.”

  “Oh?” she asked with a concerned eyebrow, silently ceding the floor to me.

  I waffled for a second, trying to find the proper way to phrase it while Mother sipped her tea patiently. There was a desperate desire to ignore it and just go on with gathering herbs tonight, but I had made a deal, and I didn’t want to know what failing to hold up my end would do. And Mother would not take, ‘I took a strange deal with an outsider that made me into an adventurer, so I might be leaving,’ well. Wanting to curse, but trying to maintain decorum, I began.

  “Well, I uh….” Well attempted to begin. Elegant Kara. Elegant. I could see Mother and Kyomi trying very hard to keep stoic and polite faces despite my embarrassing stumbles. Merciless spiders, why me?

  Taking a breath to center myself, I tried again. I aimed for calm and factual. What I got was flustered, squinted eyes, and rushed. Almost coming out as a single word instead of a sentence. “I’ve been marked as a Starborn and might be leaving the village to go on an adventure once Elder Takashi arranges my passage.”

  I closed my eyes, waiting for the yelling or outrage. When silence ensued, I managed to open my eyes to find Kyomi looking very pointedly at the floor to hide her emotions and Mother’s face stuck in a loop between angry, supportive, and neutral. Eventually she hung her head and set her cup down, defeat hanging heavy on her shoulders. With a small voice, she spoke without meeting my eyes.

  “I don’t suppose there’s anything we can do to protest, is there?” she stated more than asked.

  I shook my head sadly, wishing that there was.

  “Well,” Mother said, nodding and biting her lips, “We’ll just have to make the most of the time we have. I’ll run down to the market and see if there is any yellowtail for dinner while you two get ready for a celebration. It’s not every day your daughter gains a second tail and becomes a Starborn.”

  She offered a small smile and even though my body, my future plans - everything really - in my life had changed, the world felt right. There was a small sob and we both turned to Kyomi who was valiantly trying not to cry. Gently, I placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t raise her head, but leaned into my hand.

  “But I don’t want Kara to leave,” she managed between sniffles.

  “Kyomi,” Mother said reproachfully, “She was going to leave soon anyways. Seventeen is the year of coming into your own. She would’ve been moving off to continue her Adept training, starting an apprenticeship, or perhaps even getting married to Dimarso. And before you protest, yes I know. You need to jump over the windowsill if you don’t want it to creak.”

  Kyomi managed a half-hearted chuckle and I found myself blushing. And I thought I had been so clever and careful.

  “But this isn’t going to be farewell forever. Kara’s just going away for a bit, it’s not like she can’t come home.”

  I rubbed Kyomi’s shoulder, “Being crushed by a pile of bricks couldn’t stop me from coming home to you, what’s a little adventure?”

  Rubbing her eyes, Kyomi looked up at me, “Promise?”

  I smiled and pulled her into a hug, “Promise.”