The sound of wooden sandals clicking across a stone floor reverberated through an ancient palace. The source of which was a kitsune, who was the sole resident of this ancient place. She made her way through the dark ancient dust covered halls; which she had adorned with many paintings and vases of her own creation, though time had not been kind to these pieces. The paintings were long since chipped and cracked, and a thick layer of dust covered everything.
This place was ancient, yet was simply a blip in the history of the sphere it was on. The palace itself was millions of years old, built by the kitsune herself; a single piece a day. It was a living clock, a monument to how long she had been trapped here.
Eventually, she snaked through enough halls to make her way to a small balcony, the sixteenth floor loomed high above the township below, a blue star illuminated her, staining her long golden hair a pale sickly blue; her red ornate kimono partially dyed purple.
She pulled a silken pouch from inside her kimono and removed some dried tea leaves. On a low table on the balcony was a tea kit which had sat for millennia, waving her hand over the kit caused it to glow, when the light faded the scratches and dust that had marred it were gone. Conjuring some water she filled the pot and placed it over an alcohol lamp and lit it. The lamp's flame lazily licked the bottom of the pot, eventually planning to tease it to a boil.
Moving to sit in a chair, she found great discomfort in it; her tails had made sitting in it quite difficult and her height did not help. In a short fit of rage she grabbed the chair and flung it off the balcony, crashing into a lower roof below. Spitefully the chair rolled down the roof, as if intentionally trying to cause as much damage as possible. She watched it with contempt. Only once it had finally crashed to the ground, the dry wood shattering into splinters did she move to grab a bench from along one of the walls.
Setting it up awkwardly alongside the table, she finally took a seat and watched the water's temperature slowly rise, the light showing the hot liquid seductively dancing in the clear glass pot. Soon it would be ready for the next step.
While preparing to make her tea, she sensed something behind her. She shot up at and whipped around with inhuman speed. There was a loud bump and squeal, as a child fell to the ground in surprise. Rushing over she dusted the child off and, and with a mother's affection, helped her to her feet. The child was an emanation, who had come to see what had caused all the noise above. Picking her up the kitsune made her way to the bench and placed what she considered her daughter on her lap. The recognizable sound of boiling water immediately caught her attention and she unfortunately had to set it aside to cool. The excessive heat would burn the tea.
Waiting for the water to cool, the two sat and watched the sky together. The kitsune and her child looked almost identical; as if the child was a younger, more innocent version of herself or if she was a glimpse into a bitter future yet to come to the child. A gentle breeze blew past the two blowing their hair in the wind, the woman's tails lazily drifted in the breeze. With the breeze came a strong floral scent which caused her to wrinkle her nose in disgust, her child did not react, perhaps being raised here caused her to simply be unaffected by the smell.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
After a while, she stuck her finger into the water to see if it had reached a suitable temperature. It had finally cooled. She poured it onto the leaves, and after a few seconds, was dumped off. The wash removed any outer impurities from the leaves, cleaning them and allowing for them to open up. She covered them with a small lid to allow them to steam or a bit..
Ensuring the water was a good temperature was very important, too hot and it would burn the tea, destroying any finer qualities it had; too cold would not allow the tea to develop correctly. A balance had to be struck lest all the work in preparation would be wasted.
Lifting the lid from the steeping cup, she poured the water over the leaves and then after a few seconds poured the second steep through a strainer and into a cup to drink from. Taking the first taste of the tea, it had come out perfect, unsoiled, and pure. Handing the cup to her daughter who looked up with pleading eyes, she quickly drank it down. She was too young and na?ve to understand the effort put into the drink, unable to savor it.
As she prepared a second cup for herself, the ground began to rumble, and an awful sound of shattering glass echoed across the sphere. A planar quake, they were becoming more frequent, something big was moving below. Though brief, the shaking was violent and dust rose from the town below as some houses had collapsed. The palace too was not safe and the building creaked and groaned in discomfort. She felt it shift beneath her and with an exasperated sigh, held her hand up and a bright pink light shone from it. The creaking stopped and the building righted itself.
The child had turned around clinging to her in fear, yet before she could move to comfort her, a loud thunderous crack rang out from above, and a large magic circle appeared in the sky above. The dark red mark ominously loomed in the distance, preparing to open a planar gate. The kitsune stared at the symbol with spite and disdain, she recognized it, and knew who came with it. The symbol soon opened up and two flaming objects emerged, flung far away across the sky.
She patted the child's head and she began to relax, believing the danger was gone. Turning around she looked at the sky, and saw a planar gate for the first time. She was enraptured by the scene, the woman was numb to it. That same gate was how she came here all those eons ago. Taking the child off her lap, the woman stood up and made her way back down the hall, leaving the tea behind. Flicking her wrist all the candles along the hall lit themselves, illuminating it. Behind her many more planar gates began to appear and open in the sky above; though those that arrived with them landed more gracefully.
"Mai, please tell Ardor to prepare themselves for visitors," the woman said walking down the hall leaving the child behind. Stopping for a second she turned her head back and spoke again, "And if you find anyone strange bring them to me," and with that she disappeared down the hall, her voice echoed though it, "you'll know who when you see them."
"Yes mother," Mai said as she ran off to deliver the message to the village below.
