Moriko g her wife with amusement. “I thought you broke that habit.”

  Kazue guiltily pulled the tip of her tail from her mouth, then stuck her to at Moriko. “It’s your fault I’m w about the stuff happening bae.” She said, then kicked at a ro the road as they tinued walking.

  They were on the road that went around the north side of the Azeria forest and were enjoying the mixed sery of trees on their left and open farmnd on their right. “Careful wagging that about, I might have to have you put it to better use.” Moriko teased and then grinned as that caused Kazue to perk up with exaggerated hope. “Down girl, behave. And you know everything is going to be fine, Mordecai is backed up by as much help as be expected, and you guys are strohan you were before.”

  “I guess.” Kazue sighed and looked to the sky. “But it’s still hard not to worry.” Her gaze shifted focus as her eyes seemed to traething Moriko couldn’t see briefly before she blinked and shook her head. “Still vulnerable to woolgathering, heh.” She said with a sheepish grin.

  “Too many clouds floating through that cute head of yours." Moriko replied as she rubbed the top of Kazue’s head, c her own . Moriko was certain that Kazue was hiding something, but she wasn’t sure what. This wasn’t the kitsune’s normal distraess, it seemed more like she was occasionally seeing something Moriko wasn’t. It had built slowly at first but became more noticeable ohey had left Riverbridge. It was ing, but she also wao let Kazue e to her instead of being pushy.

  She had sulted with Mordecai, pulling on his attention when Kazue’s core reoccupied to make it less noticeable that they were having a private versation. After thh questioning about everything involving Kazue, he seemed less ed than Moriko was. Her core hadn’t mentioned anything about something feeling off about her e with her avatar, so it was uo be any direct external influence. And like sorcerers, psychics are intuitive casters; while structured training and exercise could help them grow, how they grew was less predictable, and Kazue’s avatar was having new experiehere were a handful of other, also benign expnations, any of which might be fusing enough for Kazue to have trouble finding the words to expin.

  This didn’t mean there wasn’t anything to be ed about for sure, just that Mordecai felt it unlikely. However, Moriko was the oually there, so it to her to decide whether or not to speak up first. For now, she was going to wait until they got to the Azeria to ask Kazue about it, assuming Kazue didn’t say something before that.

  Dismissing those memories, Moriko looked down the road in the dire they were traveling. “I think I see our stop ahead, there’s some roofs.” Moriko had developed the habit of just running by and through all the smaller towns on the way, but she had decided to try something very different this time, and not just because Kazue was with her. If she was going to be a priestess as well, she o be a good one. So she was taking this opportunity to stop by every town, vilge, or isoted farm within a reasonable reach of the main road.

  So far this had only resulted in meneral needs for her to tend to, no fused souls seeking a way to pursue their life’s dream or such, but this was good as well. And Moriko hadn’t been above recruiting her wife as ‘sve betting Kazue to use her ability to call forth ons from her imagination to have her create axes and chop wood, or other simir tasks. The power of Kazue’s spell-form ons was based entirely on her mind and not her muscles, but muscle memory for proper form wouldn’t hurt and it was good exercise.

  Kazue rolled her eyes dramatically, “And here I thought that we were supposed to be going on a jouro expand my horizons and help me grow, not to cater to the whims of my tractor.” She teased.

  “Well, if you don’t want your tractor to alter your pns and put you to work, maybe you shouldn’t have married her.” Moriko retorted with a smile. “Now you have to put up with being bullied and told what to do to please your wife.”

  The kitsune’s eyes glittered. “Of course, an overbearing wife might find a rebellion on her hands, and who knows what might happen to such a tyrant once she is captured and properly bound.”

  The two of them tio flirt by bickering until they got close to the settlement that Moriko had spotted. They had been seen by some of the townsfolk, but no oook partiote of them until they were almost at the outermost building, a smithy with a good gap between itself and the neighbor. A oup given the fire hazards involved with a smithy.

  A little girl of no more than seven dropped the wood she’d been carryiedly shouting “It’s the running dy!” as she rao Moriko. “It’s yht? Zoom! Just like the wind!”

  Moriko ughed self-sciously at the discussion. “I suppose that describes me well enough. And the wind does help me run so fast. My name’s Moriko, what’s yours?” She did vaguely reize the girl as one of the kids who waved at her when she was traveling, and she had waved back to.

  “I’m Tsuki! I want to be able to run like that!” The girl turoward the entrao the smithy shouting “Masa! Masa! e look! I’m the wind! Woosh!” Laughing, the girl started running around Moriko and Kazue, who was barely holding back her own ughter at the description of ‘running dy’.

  An older boy of about thirteen poked his head out. “Tsuki, what are you – oh.” He blinked in surprise at seeing Moriko, then pulled back to talk to someone before walking out to join his little sister. “Hello. You are the monk who es running through occasionally, right?” He smiled as he looked at Tsuki. “My sister loves it when you e running by,” he paused a moment before adding, “A couple of the older boys aren’t as happy, si shows them up. But, well, they are the ones who were bragging about being fast.”

  Tsuki paused in front of Moriko to ask, “So why are you walking today running dy?” as she spun in pce.

  “Well, my wife Kazue ’t run like I , so we have to walk. Fortunately, I think she’s awfully cute, even if she is a slow poke.” Kazue curtsied at the introdu, then made a face at the teasing.

  “Ignore Moriko, she’s just jealous of my beauty and magical power!” the kitsued, before pressing up against Moriko briefly with a smile. “But more seriously, she’s also doing a bit of a pilgrimage, and is seeking to help people in need of a priestess of Sakiya.”

  The little girl stopped her spinning to stare at Moriko. “But I thought you were a monk, cause of the way you ran!”

  “Well, it turns out you do both, though it’s not as easy. And being a priestess is o me, so I o work on deepening my uanding and my faith.”

  Masa tilted his head thoughtfully while his little sister grew even more wide-eyed. “What does a priestess of Sakiya do?” he asked. He seemed such a serious little boy, and Moriko thought it was adorable, but wisely refrained from saying that thought out loud, it would likely annoy him.

  “We guide people to help them fulfill their true passions and their hearts desire. It’s more about the path toward yoal than necessarily reag it.”

  “I wanna run as fast as you!” Decred Tsuki, and Moriko grinned.

  “Well, that’s an easy o least, for me, because you just have to train! But training be hard. And it helps to have someoeach you as well. If that’s what you really want to do, you study at a monastery. Obviously, I think Sakiya’s is the best for that, but you decide where you want to go when you are older.” If she still was so enthusiastic by then. Moriko wasn’t dismissing the probability, but was aware of how votile a child’s focus could be.

  The boy was nodding along, theured toward the smithy. “ I invite you and your wife inside? I think you might want to meet our father.”

  Moriko raised an eyebrow as she resisted the urge to pinch his cheeks. “That sounds mysterious. But if you think there is something I help with, I’d be gd to talk to him.”

  “Carry me isuki demanded suddenly, and Masa sighed.

  “You are too old for that, you walk just fisuki.”

  Whetle girl pouted, Moriko couldn’t help but scoop her up. “It’s alright, she barely weighs more than a feather. And I have a bunch of younger sibs I like to spoil too.”

  “Yeah! Look at me Masa, I’m riding the wind!”

  Masa rolled his eyes. “I should have known, she just wao be able to say that,” The boy shook his head as he led the way inside “She’s smarter thas.”

  Tsuki giggled madly and g to Moriko happily. The inside of the smith retty much as expected. The front was a mix of a storefront for on goods and a dispy area for a feles of more expensive works that could be -ordered, and the back was the smithy’s workspace. Without the stri rules for keeping fire and smoke and trolled, it would likely have had a heavier st, but the entire building still had that hot metal and ash st permeating every surface.

  A man with a bushy, salt-and-pepper beard was w the fe, and maintained his tration upon his current pietil it was at a point where he could let it rest in the furheuro face Moriko and Kazue. “Ah, do we have new ers Masa?” He pulled his gloves off and dried his hands before reag out to shake Moriko and Kazue’s hands. “I’m Melchior. I don’t believe I’ve seeher of you here before.”

  “Yes you have Papa!” Tsuki piped up and patted Moriko on the head. “This is the running dy! Well, I guess you haven’t seen the fox dy before, because she’s too slow to keep up.” She gri her father and then flung herself from Moriko’s arm into his. “And she’s a priestess!”

  “Oho, is that so? And what brings a priestess to my smithy?”

  Moriko gestured at Masa. “Your son invited us actually, though I don’t know why.”

  Masa held his father's gaze as he spoke. “She’s a priestess of Sakiya. They are supposed to help people follow their passions and seek out their heart’s desires.” The way he emphasized the words made it obvious that he had something specifi mind, and Melchior frowned.

  “Is that your thought? Stubborn kid, aren’t you?”

  “I am my father’s son.” Came the reply, though Masa smiled slightly as he said it.

  “Hmmp,” Melchior looked at the two women thoughtfully, “No offense, but my son is suggesting I give the two of you a lot of trust. I take it you two are traveling? If you are willing to stop here for the night, I’ve got a spare room, and we talk after I close up the smithy, and see if we ’t get to know each other before jumping into something rash.”

  Moriko looked over to Kazue, who nodded her acceptance before she turned back to the smith. “t your offer. Do you want us to e back ter?”

  “Let Tsuki show you the house and the room, and you stay and go as you like, supper will be ready by sundown,” He paused for a moment, then asked, “Er, I just realized I didn’t get your names?”

  Kazue giggled. “Your daughter kind of interrupted. I’m Kazue, and ‘the running dy’ is my wife Moriko. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  A very excited Tsuki then slid from her grandfather's arms ahem out of the back of the smith and across the yard to the house. It was a fortable two-story building, but the room that they were shown to was on the ground floor. “This was big sis Doireann’s room before she moved out. She got married. Mom’s visiting her right now, so I have to look after Papa and Masa. It’s a tough job you know. I gotta go get some more firewood though, and the some food for Ember. That’s our pet fire cat, and she likes to sleep in Papa’s fe, cause then she doesn’t have to be careful about her fire. At least, that’s apa said, but I’m not sure cause I never heard Ember say anything but Papa says he talk to her. Anyway, I gotta go, bye!”

  And with that, the two of them were left to their own devices. They decided to shed their cloaks in the room, but Moriko felt better bringing the backpack with them, just in case. Then they went out to explore the rest of this small town, named Akaishi.

  Zagaroth