I watched Akeno trace her fingers over the lines on my abdomen. She seemed completely entranced by what I could not see on my skin.
"Akeno." I asked.
"Hmm?"
"You're straddling me."
Her eyes lit up. "S-Sorry." She moved over to my side and I sat up, grabbing my shirt. I pulled it on and she frowned a bit.
"The future is meant to be hidden." I told her.
"I'm aware of that." She answered.
"Then why look?"
"I wasn't looking into my future." She turned her head away.
"Then what were you looking at?"
"Your past."
I glared. "Why?"
"You're... unique." She answered. "I wanted to know what past caused this kind outcome."
"What did you learn?"
"Nothing of interest if that's what you're wondering." She said before leaning back against the bed.
"You sure about that?" I questioned.
"Sadly. I'd be happy if there was something I thought was interesting, you would know." Akeno said.
"Go to sleep." I sighed.
Akeno pulled the blankets over her head and I rolled my eyes. "We're sharing the bed you know."
"I'm aware." She answered. I grabbed the blanket and pulled it off her and found a fox laying on the bed instead.
Akeno looked up at me with sad puppy dog eyes. I glared at her before laying down in the bed beside her. She snuggled up against my side, resting her head on my shoulder.
I stared at the ceiling for a while before I finally let sleep invite me into its embrace.
My head pounded, and I thought I woke up. I sat up fast and groaned putting my hands on my head to try and stop the pulsing pain. However it accomplished nothing, and I fell from my bed, trying to crawl away from the pain that followed me.
When I raised my head, Akeno was standing over me in her human form. Her tail swayed behind her as she wasn't wearing any clothes, but her hair hid her private areas from view.
I reached for her, but she stepped back and watched me as my hands moved to my head again.
The pain was unbearable. It felt almost like someone was driving a knife into my skull.
"Aken-Akeno." I managed, extending another hand to her.
The knelt down in front of me, her scarlet eyes watching me. She tilted her head like I was interesting to her. Her eyes moved from mine down to my shoulder where she reached out and touched my arm again.
"The Fate Weaver?" She questioned, but her voice wasn't her's. It was different. Older, more toned, the pitch lower; deeper.
I blinked and before me was a different woman, with white hair, and bright blue eyes. The ears on her head moved to the sides more and shrank down a bit. The tail shrinking as well, and changing color to suit her hair.
This woman wasn't a fox.
This was a wolf.
I pulled my arm back and moved so I was sitting on my rear before pushing myself away from her till my back hit a tree. The room around me changed to that of a forest, and the woman before me was wearing animal skins like a tribal.
"You can connect to my thoughts? Even from where you are Fate Weaver?" She questioned as she walked towards me. Her bare feet making no sound as she walked over the twigs and leaves between us.
"Wh-Who are you?" I asked, trying to ignore the throbbing behind my eyes.
"You connected without knowing?" She asked, her blue eyes trained on me. "Who is this Akeno you called me? Was that who you saw me as?"
"Answer my question!"
"I am Edon." She answered. "You are the Fate Weaver. The Gods appointed you to bend fate. But your power is pathetic, connecting to me only shows the power of your mind. Your spirit must be strong too mortal."
"I am not mortal! Not anymore!" I yelled before falling forward, hands on my head.
"The pain is from the strain on your mind. My spirit is too strong for you to maintain the connection." Edon said. "Is Akeno the fox who was taken into my forest?"
"Y-Yes."
"She has much less power here. But her soul might be as strong as mine."
"You know she's a God?"
"I could feel her the moment the humans brought her here." Edon said. "But you must be careful. If you take in her spirit completely, and the two of you aren't ready, it will tear you apart and leave you as nothing but a shell."
I growled and pulled myself to my feet, my ears flatting against the top of my head. "I am not as weak as you take me to be."
"Perhaps not. But you cannot see the Fate written on your skin like we can." Edon pointed to me. "Ask your Fox to translate for you."
"The future is not meant to be known!" I barked. "The Gods forced this curse upon me!"
"The Gods forced nothing on you. You stole the Seers eye, you brought this on yourself." Edon growled, her tail swayed once, her ears folding back as if she was getting ready to attack.
"The Gods are no better than the Demons are they?" I growled.
"Can you say the same about your companion?" She retorted. "Your Akeno is still one of us."
"I don't know her yet!"
"Perhaps you'll find out more than you'd like." Edon said as she began to circle around me, like she was hunting me.
I stood my ground, trying my best to ignore the pain.
"Your spirit is trying to control mine, which will never happen. I will not be tamed by a cat."
"I'm not a cat." I growled. "I'm a panther."
"You're a Lattemer. I'm a wolf."
"All I see is a dog." I retorted.
She snarled before leaping towards me.
This time I awoke to the real world, sitting up in bed and scaring the shit out of Akeno who had just pulled her shirt over her head.
"Don't do that!" She yelled.
My head still ached and I leaned forward, pulling my knees up to my chest while my knuckles pressed against my temples.
Akeno moved so she was kneeling on the bed in front of me. "Did you have a vision in your sleep?" She asked as she put her hands on my shoulders.
"I-I don't know." I answered. "It was like a dream, but it also wasn't."
"What did you see?"
"I saw a Wolf Deity. She called herself Edon." I told her. "She said I was something called the Fate Weaver."
Akeno turned her head like she was afraid to meet my gaze. I took her wrists and she looked back at me. I pleaded with my eyes, begging her to tell me.
She sighed then leaned back, letting her hands fall from my shoulders, but I didn't let go as she sat on her legs and watched my expression.
"The Fate Weaver is a person chosen every era to bare the burden that the Gods do no wish to carry. The tattoos on your body are known as Fate's Weaves. They allow you to change the Fate of anyone, or anything. However they cannot just be used on a whim. The person's soul, or spirit, must be strong enough to control them, and flexible enough to follow them. The Weaves are unpredictable, and must be guided to be changed. Otherwise they do as they please. Mortal eyes cannot see it on your skin, but the Weaves move on your body. A God can see images in the Weaves. They can see what your visions bring you, and the Fate of others." Akeno explained.
"Are you stronger than the wolf?" I blurted.
"I'm much stronger than the wolf. But Edon has a reputation."
"How so?"
"She is known as the Wise Wolf." Akeno said. "She creates strategies hat have known no equals, and she takes knowledge from history. Her forests are filled with her servants the wolves. Although they are not werewolves, they are minor spirits known as Kai. They can take the form of a man, or a wolf. But Edon can turn into a giant wolf."
"What about you?" I asked.
"If I was in my forest, I could do the same. But here, in my fox form, I am just another fox."
"In human form?"
"Like I said, I do not know my limits."
"What do you know?" I leaned forward a bit, trying to coax good news out of her.
"I know that I am perhaps just as smart as she is." Akeno said.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I'm the reason people think the Fox is clever." Akeno smirked a bit. "I might not use battle strategies, but that is also because I do not have an army of foxes at my command. It's just me, myself, and I."
I blinked. "Edon said something about me needing a stronger spirit."
"Did she ask you to merge?" Akeno asked, as she leaned forward like she was ready to attack. The fur on her tail stood up a bit.
"Merge?" I questioned.
"Deities can merge with mortal beings. It allows them to connect on a personal level, but it also allows a share of power."
"But I'm not mortal." I told her.
"You're still considered a Mortal being."
"What's the difference?"
The door opened and Minerva stepped in, closing the door behind her. "Immortal beings are descendents of Those That Came First." She said. "Mortal beings are Those That Came After."
Akeno looked to her then me, and nodded.
"That's supposed to make sense?" I asked.
"I am an Immortal being. My blood leads back to Rose. You are not an Immortal being." Minerva explained.
"I see. I'm not important like you." I glared.
"Don't be ridiculous." Minerva rolled her eyes. "You're not exactly mortal either."
"What?" I raised an eyebrow.
"The Fate Weaver is held on the barrier between mortal and immortal. You will live until you are fated to die like a mortal, but you are also able to resist the fate you were given, like an immortal."
I looked at Minerva. "You aren't fated to die?"
"I am fated to die. But immortal beings can resist their fate, change how long before it happens, or even to change how it happens altogether." Minerva said as she stood next to the bed.
"So you can merge with me?" I asked as I looked to Akeno.
"I could. But like I said, I am a strong Deity. I'm a Kitsune, a Fox Spirit."
"But you only have one tail." Minerva stated.
"What? She's supposed to be a Nine Tailed Fox?" I asked, but Akeno ignored me and glared at Minerva.
"Each tail is a certain level of power. I have one tail because I am not using power at the moment." Akeno said.
"You're a Nine Tailed Fox?" I asked.
"Nine isn't the highest amount of tails I can have." Akeno said. "In my forest I had Twenty."
"That doesn't make sense!"
"A Deity expresses how powerful they are with a symbol. For a Kitsune it's tails."
"And for a wolf?" I asked.
Akeno shrugged. "I have never met Edon, or another wolf spirit."
"I need to practice." I told Akeno. My grip on her wrists tightened, getting her to look at me.
"If I merge to you, I could kill you." Akeno said.
"Is there a way you can do it slowly?" I asked.
Minerva put a hand to her chin as if she was in thought. "This would be easy if we had a Shade."
"But we don't." I told her as I looked at her.
"Why is that collar around her neck?" Minerva asked.
I blinked then looked at the black collar still around Akeno's neck. I sighed and removed it, getting Akeno to look at me funny.
"We both forgot it was there, if you were gonna do something stupid you would have done it." I told her.
Akeno smiled at me before looking at Minerva again. "Perhaps I can try something the Vampires tend to do."
"Hmm?" Minerva raised an eyebrow.
"Instead of merging completely, I can send out my thoughts, or part of my mind into you. This would put minor stress on your soul instead of overloading it."
"Just connecting to Edon felt like someone was drilling into my head." I told her.
"It will still feel like that. Seers are able to see into the minds of others to predict the future. Your eye found its way to Edon and connected to her thoughts. You will have to do the same for me." Akeno said.
"I thought you were gonna go into my head?" I glared.
"It works both ways." Minerva explained. "When a vampire reads the mind of a single person, their mind must temporarily join with the other person's. If that person has a strong enough will, they can tap into the vampire. Humans have done this to my fledglings and it seems to cause pain."
"Would that be why my head hurt when I was with Edon?"
"No. Edon was not aware of how the connection was established." Minerva said.
"How do you know that?"
"You're sleeping next door to a vampire. I was in your dream." She explained. "Or watching it."
"Why?"
"You were having a Nightmare. I was going to snap you out of it, then all of a sudden you're talking to another Deity."
"Thanks for the help." I rolled my eyes.
"Just do your thing. I'll be here in case anything goes wrong." Minerva said as she pulled up a chair before sitting down to watch us. "We have all day. Nightfall is when you torment the King."
I moved so I was also sitting on my knees and I faced Akeno, my tail curling around my side. Her tail moved so it was on her lap where she began petting it, her ears standing tall while she watched me.
"So does anyone know how to start the connection?" I asked.
"Use your eye." Minerva said.
"What if I don't know how?"
She rolled her eyes. "You're a Seer. You know how by instinct. Just try."
I looked back at Akeno before I closed my eyes and exhaled deeply.
How to connect my thoughts to a Goddess, using an eye I stole. Hmm. Fucking vampires thinking they know everything.
"We do know everything since, you know, we can read everyone's mind." Minerva said.
I cringed a bit, but didn't bother opening my eyes.