Ancient Spirit

"I have kept tabs on your daughter. Waiting to see if what I had witnessed in the forest so many years ago would manifest."

"And what was it that you saw, your highness?" The room became quiet for the voice coated in venom. "It has yet to be made clear to me what my daughter is and why it's ruining our lives." His arms were folded and he'd been scowling at the fae and the demonborn since all the chaos had started. It'd taken Yuen a week to arrive and within the hour Samhir and Mikhail were demanding answers, while three witches and the sullen assassin sipped tea on the side. 

Yuen leaned against the counter of the quaint kitchen. Next to him was Mikhail. Both sported minor cuts and bruises that were quickly healing. 

It'd been briefly therapeutic watching the two fight. The fae's strange green blood mixing with red and staining their fists. Yuen had not approached with caution as the assassin had. He was taught like a warrior not a shifty cutthroat, and he took the immediate offensive when he encountered the Maaroi. Mikhail only played into it without really explaining himself. The cunning man and his possessing passenger looked entertained in the chaos. Samhir broke it up only after a while of watching the two beat the hell out of each other. Both men now refused to sit down in the other's presence. Chests still puffed out, they toyed with one another using their proximity. Respective body languages saying, 'I'm not scared of you.' 

Samhir hadn't shied away from their pissing contest either; insanity had overtaken him. He was human and easily killable. But he didn't care. He sat right in front of the two–strained tension flying around– with a huge chip on his shoulder. He lifted a brow whilst taking a sip of booze and eyeing down the other man. "Let's have the truth shall we?"

Mikhail had a bemused admiration for such a reckless spirit in the face of the fae. Samhir was not entirely aware of just what kind of power existed within the ancient plant beings, and ignorance was a wonderful kindling for bravery. A growing sense of loyalty had him protectively siding with the man, nodding along with him, ready to jump in should either of the fae decide to harm him. Even if he could feel the hostility towards him rolling off his body. 

Samhir was also demanding answers to questions that would not be appropriate for Mikhail to ask. Events and details he wanted to know, though his desire to rebuild some of his good graces with the man had him biting his tongue and the demon agitated. It was hiding information, but it did not know everything. It watched from within, Mikhail's spring green eyes flashing as it played along his skin. It was eager to hear what had to be said by the being from the high realm. 

"I witnessed as your daughter's soul awakened. An incredibly old one." Yuens' eyes leveled with Samhirs as the entire room watched him. "The last records I could find were nearly thirty-thousand years old. They were hidden stories of an ancient powerful sorcerer who once roamed the world, a celestial spirit who fell in love with the material plane and refused to ascend to the celestial heavens. Thus it entered into the wheel of reincarnation and has been reborn over and over again. In the past this being was usually located and put under the stewardship of the fae, to protect and help guide them."

To control them. Mikahil, the demon, and Samhir all shared the same thought.

"A sorcerer you say?" Interjected Ms. Menia with squinted eyes. The old witch and her apprentice(both of whom had experienced the insidious wave) were brought into the secret by Talis. With Samhirs consent she told them the truth, which they had seemed not entirely surprised of.

Much softer and polite toned, Samhir turned to Menia, "That's a magical practitioner like you or the girls?"

Menia shook her head. "Not entirely. Witches, wizards, shamans, the like; we have to study our crafts. It takes concentration, time, and cultivation." He'd made sure that she was seated in the most comfortable chair they owned. Dwarfing her figure the elderly woman had a sip of her tea before continuing, "Unlike us the sorcerers were people born with innate power, who had untethered access to the cosmic forces. Sorcerers are not widely believed in anymore, but there are ancient records within locked libraries of the capital which speak of such beings. I studied a lot of the old systems of cultivation during my time there, and fell into the obsession of honing my craft through whatever means necessary. I would eventually be employed by the state to write an informational tome on my findings. A great work of reference to be used by the state and high council."

"I don't remember any reference to sorcerers in there." Idoni had eyebrows pinched in confusion, cheeks tight in disbelief. 

"Edits were made, and certain sections were to be left out." Menia said with a flat laugh and a shrug. "The book was never meant for the public yet certain knowledge was still to be omitted."

"Why?" Asked Talis.

The old woman raised eyebrows with dull amusement, "Well the last account I'd found of one was from thirty-two thousand years ago, in correspondence with what the prince here has said. They were a monk who resided in a monastery in the lands of A'Veria before that was its name." The northern continent. The last true home of the gods. "With a lapse in so much time, and without more accounts, it could only be assumed that they were extinct… Well they were left out for that reason and of course because the sorcerers were obscenely powerful. There are stories of them turning palm-fulls of cliff grains into nuggets of gold. Men who could summon whatever desire from thin air, prophets who knew all the truths of the universe, and even warriors capable of slaying entire armies alone. They were considered to be volatile and dangerous. Their untamable powers often led them into madness; unable to maintain the cultivation needed for such great energies. Some suggestions were even made that at various points in time they were hunted down by gods and men alike." Menia huffed with a miniscule shrug, lips pulled flat. "Including them in the book would have been like adding demi gods to a codex of men. There was no way to present them without what was deemed as glorification, so they were omitted by the high council… I wouldn't have guessed they possessed celestial spirits, however."

"Not all of them did. Or at least not in our records. Like I said, the celestial spirits left material realms eons ago, very few remained behind. Those that did would eventually be sucked into the flow of time and reincarnation."

"And Korin is one of these celestial spirits…" Samhir wanted clarification "What happened in the forest? Why did it make her like that?" 

Yuen could not say for sure but he offered as much as he could. "I can only guess that it was because she was not born with a soul and thus unprepared for the merging. Souls enter bodies in infancy, when babies are still fresh from the womb and their channels to the great cosmos are open and unmolded by life." Yuen was not able to find any accounts of souls that had entered bodies post growth. Identities were like mazes, complex structures sculpted by a being's environment and circumstances. He could only assume that the soul, large and grand, would have had to shove itself through the thick and cluttered walls of her memories and character. "Celestial spirits are incredibly large, and it probably damaged her psyche when it entered her… As for how that happened, I-" Yuen faltered for a moment, wondering if speaking too much in front of the demonborn and his shifty eyes was a good idea. "There is an old portal, four mountains from here, that connects this world to that of the fae. As a child my little brother found it and thus he also found Korin." Well he supposed he and Delta could always take care of Mikhail later. "It is forbidden for the fae to enter midworld, but he would sneak through it quite often to play with her anyways."

Samhir let out a defeated bark of laughter as his hands rubbed at his face aggressively. "If I remember correctly his name was Esali."

"Ineed." 

He sunk into the back of his chair, slumping in exhaustion. "She'd come home from playing in the woods and tell me and her mother about a boy named Esali with purple hair and glowing skin. We just wrote it off as an imaginary friend. Besides the wild description, there weren't any other children for miles around so we assumed she just made up a playmate because she was lonely." 

"Unfortunately not. And I only found out once he started taking his cousins along with him."

Samhir nodded with dry pursed lips. "Yes I remember a few of her recountings involving more than one friend."

"I let them be for a while. Nobody ever visited that region of the imperial grounds and, at that time, I was too young to see the dangers of midworld. Then one day Esali came to me frantically begging for help. An accident happened and they somehow managed to hurt the girl. When I arrived his cousins were doing their best to hold her down but she was thrashing everywhere and screaming. I could see these huge arching flares of aura flying all around her body." Samhir ground his teeth as his fists knotted into the fabric of his trousers. "Esali said they were trying to make a blood oath, foolish children that they were."

"Blood oaths are soul binding. If she had no occupying soul it would have opened a door for the celestial spirit to find its body." Menia caught on.

"I would not find that theory until I had done much research. At first I did not know what was happening. I was only eleven at this time, still very young but the oldest there so I tried to take control of the situation which was only getting worse. She began to bleed, and everyone was starting to panic." Yuen could still recall Esali screaming and Asariel sobbing. Asarath just stared at the girl with his eyes all round and full of fear, watching as her nose, eyes, and ears leaked little trails of blood. There was something about her that enabled the mass paranoia. Beams of wickedness breaking through with every flare of power.

"I was just barely capable of singing so I resorted to trying to use different powers." A moment of contrition entered his expression as he leveled his gaze with Samhir. "I had used the hypnosis mist in limited and controlled environments before and I did not expect its effects to be so potent in the human world. I kept telling her to 'be calm' and 'forget'. When she was done screaming and seizing up she was entirely limp." Almost unnervingly unconscious. He thought he'd killed her for a moment. However Yuen did not include these details for the distraught father. "Unfortunately so was my little brother and his cousins. They had not escaped my influence and I was left with four unconscious children."

"You are the reason she was in a coma when we found her?" Samhir half snarled. Doing his best to stay rational. 

Nothing about the man looked rational. He'd drank through the week, a growing collection of bottles he kept hidden in the cupboards added to his routine favorites. Heavy bruises exaggerated already tired eyes. He hadn't shaved, his clothes were wrinkly, and he only managed to take one bath so far. A kind reminder to look after himself from Ms. Menia encouraged him to do that at the very least. 

"I'm truly sorry Samhir, but I'm not certain. I asked the hollow of an old juniper to keep the girl while I took the boys back to Kissian. On the second day they woke up but, when i returned to the juniper, she was feverishly unconscious. I could see that the strange aura had returned as well.I was trying to figure out what to do when I heard the calls of your search party way off in the distance. I knew it would only be a matter of time before someone found her."

Samhir shook his head, his voice was becoming stretchy and drawn out, "We found her on the second day. I met you on the second day. How were you so sure of what she was? You even gave me instructions."

"Yes, you met me on the second day, but I met you on the twenty-eighth day…"

Samhirs eyebrows knitted together.

"Korin looked as if she were about to explode. In.. a very literal way." Yuen could see the girl's aura oscillating around and through her in cracking pulses, like the flares of a burning star trying to shove themself into her skin. "I was afraid of what would happen if I left her there. So I brought her to my realm and took her to the only person I felt I could trust to keep a secret. He's a very old fae. Incredibly knowledgeable. He had some idea of what may have been happening. Together we found the appropriate information while she was monitored. After a couple weeks her fever broke. Three weeks and the spirit finally seemed to settle inside her. It was decided that we would return her to her place in time after she woke up. By the twenty-fourth day we had acquired the necessary tools for time dilation. The twenty-seventh day she had still not woken up, but her energy was stable and all tests reported perfect health. It was getting risky to keep her in Kissian. Any longer and individuals who did not need to know would have begun to hear whispers. So, on the twenty-eighth day, Korin and I came back to the second day and met you in the forest."

A chilled and damp blanket of emotion laid over the room. Tears streaked down Samhirs cheeks in a steady flow. He didn't sob or hiccup. Only quietly cried as he gazed into his lap. Studied the stains of metals shavings and oil. 

In his own home, surrounded by all the messes of his hobbies, the whispers of his daughter's presence taunted him. A glass she left on the counter. The throw she had embroidered to hide the massive stain on the cushion Nimara sulked in. The cool air he could faintly feel blowing in from upstairs because he knew she had left the window next to her bed open. She always left it open. So he tried to focus on his lap. Taking shallow breaths and counting fraying weaves in the linen of his trousers.

Menia and Idoni's faces had contorted in sadness, beside them Talis eyes misted as she struggled with regret and that awful way she always felt ashamed around Korin. Somehow it was all her fault Korin was trapped there. Not that she ever had made the order herself, but she certainly had never spoken out against the way she was treated. It was as if the lack of her odd presence had revealed a curse of another kind. The licentious cruelty the community had so mindlessly adopted now plainly visible for reflection. 

Through the corner of a calculative eye, Mikhail and the demon steadily watched Yuen. The demon secretly knew that she had been this powerful being but there was more it hungered for. Its skepticism and obsessive curiosity mixed with anger and anxiety and the swelling green emerald of jealousy. Do not trust him, he knows things we do not. It warned, no clawing demand, only grim caution in its hollow voice.

No, he didn't trust him at all. The fae had given a half truth wrapped in a voice singing spells between breaths. Yuen charmed his words and spoke with the confidence and allure Mikhail had seen from rulers of this world. 

The Ipanish amongst them, human and unaccustomed to beings with auras and powers like the fae, were caught in his tale and absorbed in his subtle manipulation. But a pot usually recognizes a kettle and the demonborn was well aware of how Yuen spoke level and smooth. Molding his expressions, and only pausing to take breaks where he wanted the questions asked he had tailored answers already prepared for. 

The only other one of them that saw through the imperial fae was Nimara. She hadn't heard much of what was said. Didn't need to know what he said because she already knew he was a manipulator. Instead her eyes had been trained on the demonborn, ragged nail between her teeth and a cool cup of tea next to her. Her thoughts were preoccupied with the want of freedom and desire for revenge.