#Airisu: The Crow and the Witch

Dōken-sha (Airisu POV) Post 19
#Wss366 gauntlet #MastoPrompt Disposable #TimeTravelAuthors Whatever #Edo

He bowed with formal grace, though not as deeply as Sumika. “Welcome, I’m Arakawa Dōken.” He stopped and studied my mistress, who remained silent, bowed at a ninety-degree angle.

“I-I-I…” She finally responded, but couldn’t get anything further out.

“And you were one who wore bells at your waist and spoke the names of spirits without bowing,” the spirit said.

He paused again, waiting. But when there was only silence, he resumed. “Now you are soft, tainted with foreign magic. Still, you are the tool that is handy—you may rise samayō miko. Let me have your name.” Despite the disrespect embodied in his words, his tone was hypnotic.

Sumika straightened, and I struggled again not to topple over. Otherwise, I would have warned her not to give her name. Names have power.

“Yeung Su-sumika.”

That was an odd combination, but it explained why she used her given name. It can be quite the #gauntlet surviving in a Japanese school with a Chinese surname.

“Yeung-san, I see you bear my gift,” Arakawa-sama said.

“Gift?” Sumika said, swaying. Her voice fluttered.

“Not good,” I thought. “He is a hawk, and she is a dove.”

“The book. The book you gave me in times gone by, I have returned it to you.”

“What book?” I asked myself. I would have to ask about that later.

Arakawa continued. His voice was soothing. Not a hawk but a serpent weaving its hypnotic spell.

          Lo, seeker
          Mountain sought
          Before you the path

He paused, waiting for an answer. When none came, he recited his own response to the #renga.

          Owl call
          Stem the tides
          Stones smooth

The word "owl" hit me like an arrow, breaking the spell Arakawa-sama had woven, leaving me itching as if I had fleas.

Having escaped the weave of his voice, I thought about what he was saying. It’s an offer. The upper verse says my mistress had found what she sought, and the lower verse offers to change what has passed. How fitting that Arakawa-sama calls himself “owl,” a hunter in the night, and robber of nests in the dark. The tides he wishes to stem are those that have caught him up; those of a forgotten #disposable kami, not Sumika’s.

“Come, bind yourself to me.” He had now switched to prose. “Remember, Ban Zhao says, ‘Let a woman modestly yield to others.’ Yet, I will deliver all you dream of.”

“Pig,” I almost blurted out.

Then he returned to verse.

          Twaining weed
          Moon and Hawk fly
          Wild herb open

He held out his hand, and Sumika reached for it.

#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #Crows #Otherkin #Fantasy #UrbanFantasy #Serial