Teleportation didn't have to involve any sound at all. But it was satisfying to give it a little
pop
.
With a sound like green wood burning, a thin woman with deep brown eyes and shoulder-length chestnut hair appeared in the Gokuri Forests.
She immediately shifted from foot to foot, recovering her balance. The dirt path was uneven. Tall bamboo stalks towered overhead and all around, forming a dense turquoise haze topped with a canopy of emerald leaves. The path she was on was fairly narrow—hopefully, she wouldn't stray off it by accident on the way to the Ward. Nearby stood a great boulder she remembered well from her last visit here.
Mainly because it sort of looked like a giant pug.
She sniffed the air. There was a strange smell about, something like vanilla. Muskier, though. Perhaps someone back in the village was cooking something.
Anya hadn't trusted herself to teleport right to the Verdant Ward entrance. It had been a year since her last visit to her brother, after all, and the mind played tricks. She didn't want a mishap, and she
really
didn't want to teleport into some imprisoned fey's clutches. This—the area just outside of town—was the closest she'd felt comfortable guessing on.
She was mildly relieved she hadn't teleported into a bamboo stalk, but Anya was a good enough mage that this wasn't a massive concern.
"Oh, hi," chirped a voice right behind her. Anya jumped, spinning around and nearly falling over.
A woman with brilliant red hair smiled at her. She was very slightly plump, and just about Anya's height, with a set of layered blue robes and an elegant silver pin keeping her hair up in a bun. Between her large breasts hung a simple platinum medallion depicting a dancing fox with rubies for eyes.
Three fox tails swished behind her back, catching Anya's eye for a second before she returned her attention to the kitsune before her.
"Hi," she said, recovering from her surprise. She cleared her throat and offered a hand, remembering that in the Wild Continent, fey and humans had certain customs. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Anya Wetherdean."
The kitsune gave a wide but tight-lipped smile, her green eyes flitting down to the hand. She took it after a long moment, shaking it slightly. "My friends call me Cui. A pleasure to meet you." She spoke with a distinct local accent, but appeared to have a strong command of the Western tongue, fortunately.
"Yes." Anya almost repeated the greeting, then cleared her throat and pulled away. "What, um... what brings you hereabouts?"
The kitsune's smile quirked a little at Anya's odd phrasing. "I should be asking you that!"
"Ah. I'm here visiting my brother." Anya pointed down the road. "At the Verdant Ward. It's this way, right?"
"Yes and no." The kitsune gave a little shrug, adjusting the clasp keeping her pale baby blue cape on. "I am sent from the Verdant Ward, actually. They wanted me to make sure you make it there safely. It is a winding journey."
"Oh! Wonderful." Anya blinked. "I, um, don't think I recognize you—"
"I was one of the Crows that stayed behind to help maintain the wards on the Ward." Cui gave a sharp-toothed grin. "Your brother is gifted, but knows little of magic. Occasionally there is a need for repairs, or other assistance."
"Well, good... good thing he has you, then." Anya bit her lip. What was wrong with her? She normally wasn't this awkward. She just had no idea what to say—the usual rapid-fire banter that fired out her mouth like darts from a ship's porcupine was nowhere to be found. She actually felt very slightly light-headed—a common side effect of teleportation, but usually it faded more quickly than this.
She took a deep steadying breath under the guise of yawning. That musky vanilla scent was stronger now. Curious. "Well, lead the way, Cui."
"I shall." Cui nudged Anya's shoulder with an easy smile. "It is this way."
Realizing that the smell was Cui, Anya felt her face heating up a little more.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Teleportation must be so very interesting," Cui said happily.
"Mm-hm." Anya gave a small nod.
"Yes, really, it fascinates me." Cui nudged Anya. Anya wished she wouldn't do that—Anya had established a pattern of step that was easy to maintain without thinking. Whenever Cui nudged her, it woke her up a little, took her off-rhythm. She'd had no idea how long a walk this was. No wonder Senya had taken a cart. "The potential applications are mind-boggling. Might I assume you are an adept?"
"Oh, yes." Anya breathed in, enjoying the smell—she'd decided to stop being embarrassed at how good Cui smelled. Cui clearly either didn't know or didn't mind, judging by how close to Anya she was walking. "Teleportation for me is, um... it's a process of stretching. Mostly mental, but there are some techniques."
Cui hopped over a mass of rotting bamboo that had been knocked across the path. "Such as?"
"Well, I think I..." Reluctantly, Anya concentrated. With a pop, she disappeared, reappearing instantly on the other side of Cui on the other side of the pile. Cui jumped a little. "I clench my abdominal muscles a little. One time I strained a muscle climbing up a trellis and couldn't teleport well for a week after."
"So you wouldn't be able to teleport if you were paralyzed?"
"No, but I
can
teleport when tied up." Anya smirked "That's been handy before. I do have to concentrate to exclude the ropes, though. Otherwise, anything touching me travels with me."
"Really?" Cui loked impressed.
As they resumed walking, Anya jumped slightly. One of Cui's tails had brushed over her leg. Anya somewhat regretted wearing such a short skirt—she couldn't tell if Cui was being deliberately flirtatious or if this was just habit, but it was
very
ticklish every time it happened.
"Yes." Anya took a deep breath, trying to regain the rhythm of her steps. "One time I teleported home while, um, a bit tipsy." She giggled. "I teleported the cobblestone under my feet."
Cui glanced behind them. "I'm sorry, um, cobble..."
"A street tile."
"Ah!" Cui nodded eagerly, then laughed, as the context of Anya's anecdote settled in. "Was it inside?"
"Yes. It made a real mess. I stubbed my toe on it more times than I can count, too, since I didn't want to move it."
"Why didn't you just..." Cui swung her hips and moved her arms in a sinuous fashion. Anya realized she was miming teleportation. "Instead of walking everywhere?"
"Teleportation tires me out if I do too much of it. That's how it works for most adepts. Is that not the way with you? What kind of mage are you, anyways?"
"I don't get tired out, but that's because I use an external battery." Cui smiled, turning to face Anya, and reached up to caress her medallion lightly. Anya bit her lip, trying to look at it without noticing the rosy glow of the breasts the medallion hung between. "That's more common among fey mages, I find. We don't like using our own essence, so we use a conduit."
"Huh. Neat." Anya looked the medallion over curiously. It was a pretty thing, and it caught the morning light in a way that made her feel... pleasantly soft.
"It's pretty, isn't it?" Cui said, her voice sounding just a little bit fainter—was she getting quieter, or was Anya getting... um, distracted? "Yes, such a pretty thing. I'm very proud of it."
"Yeah." Anya blinked. "I mean, um—"
She felt a tail brush between her legs, and jumped. "Whoa! Watch it, there."
"Whoops." Cui winked. She looked a little reddened—and was it Anya's imagination, or was the hairpin glowing a little? "My tails have a mind of their own sometimes. Let's keep walking." She glanced over her shoulder, idly undoing the clasp and letting her baby blue cloak slip away. "We're almost there."
~ ~ ~ ~
"It's interesting that teleportation is so effortless for you," Cui was saying, her voice lilting and light. She had a cute, girlish voice, and it was easy to listen to—nothing like the gravelly voices, raspy mutterings, and stern baritones Anya was accustomed to back in the city-state of Nyaska. "It's nowhere near that for me, you know." She glanced at Anya with a wide closed-mouth smile. "Isn't that interesting?"
"... sure." Anya nodded absently. She was mostly just marching along, mindlessly listening as she wondered how much longer they had. She was so tired from all this walking. Bored, too—Cui wasn't a dull conversationalist, exactly, but she kept fixating on topics Anya wasn't very interested in expounding upon. It was exhausting to just be asked question after question about something that was so very routine for Anya, and people were always asking her about it. It got tiresome.
"For me," Cui said, giggling, "I have to go through a terrible amount of trouble. I have to spin my medallion
just
the right speed, and match it to the sun's rays—I can cast under the moon, but I have to reverse it all, and lamplight is usually too unpredictable to work as I wish—and keep my voice just right."
"Incantations, huh?" Anya blinked. Something about their surroundings was odd, but she was distracted between Cui's conversation and the journey. "That's... a pain. What kind of mage are you, again?"
"Oh, well..."
"Hang on." Anya stopped short. It was almost a physical jolt to stop after how long she'd been walking, and she found herself dipping forward for a moment, as though she was about to fall. She managed to catch herself, though—or Cui caught her, actually, hand wrapped around Anya's forearm. "Wait."
"What?" Cui looked puzzled. "Why have we stopped? We're almost there."
Anya turned to Cui, eyes wide as she pointed over Cui's shoulder. "Then
what
is
that
?"
Cui glanced over her shoulder at the great boulder.
The boulder looked a little bit like a pug, if one squinted.
She turned back, blinking slowly. "I think it is a rock!"
"I
know
it's a—it's the rock! The same rock!" Anya looked around them frantically. Nothing looked familiar aside from the rock, but the rock was the only landmark on this trail. Her head spun in confusion. "Cui, we've—we've been in a circle! A fuckin'
circle
! The sun is directly
above
us and we
haven't moved an inch
!"
"Oh, now." Cui smiled, shaking her head slightly. "We can't have done that."
"
It's the same rock!
" Cui was looking at Anya like she was babbling, and Anya felt her face go red. She turned and pointed back the way they'd come. "Are
you
telling me that
if I go this way down the path
, I will
not
encounter the village?"
"Why would you go that way?" She heard Cui giggle. "The Ward isn't that way, Anya." Her voice turned soft. "Anya, look at me."
Reflexively, Anya turned, ready to give Cui a piece of her—
Her eyes fell upon the fox medallion between Cui's breasts, held delicately between Cui's fingers. It glinted in the noon light. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cui give a sharp-toothed smile.
The medallion's ruby eyes began to glow.
