#Airisu: The Crow and the Witch

Dōken-shin (Airisu POV) Post 21
#Wss366 Concert #TimeTravelAuthors Whatever #Edo

“Is the beckoning-cat now the weasel’s master?” Arakawa-sama’s aura had calmed, but his eyes remained fierce.

I took exception to being called a cat and to my mistress being compared to a weasel. However, with the kami’s stew pot metaphor still fresh in my mind, I watched my tongue when I responded, “Neither cat nor vermin. I attend a spotted huntress. Your cord is not for her.”

Sumika watched our debate and remained silent. I dreaded what might happen if she entered the conversation. I doubted she’d mastered the complexities of Edo-era metaphorical sophistication, unlike an educated corvid I knew.

He responded with his fan pointed at me, cobalt sparks snapping along its edge. "I hear an owl in the forest, but does it know the kite has tasted my lure?"

Again with the insults, calling me an owl this time. Thankfully, he hadn’t escalated to physical violence, which would have been impossible for us to respond to. He wanted something from us, so I gave it to him.

“Kindness repaid, but we nest in the wild.”

He tapped his fan; the energy along it began flowing smoothly, mellowing to a soft sapphire, and then replied, “I have been answered.”

Reaching forward, he touched a finger to a trickle of blood from the wound on my mistress’s neck. “A token,” he said.

Sumika flinched, and I whispered, “Silence.”

She nodded assent.

"You may use my gift, little majo. Pay me my daily due until I require you."

The ginkgo spirits sounded their gongs, and the shrine faded away in a fog. When it lifted, we were back at the empty grove. After what we had been through, the lonely forest with its #concert of autumn cicadas was welcome.

“What just happened?” Sumika asked.

“I’ll explain at the car. And you, ‘little witch,’ have much to explain.”

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

#TimeTravelingGhost EP 8: Post 84: 2025 Arkham

#Wss366 Shower #TimeTravelAuthors 03/25. brief/short

Professor Dubois looked confused and, perhaps to buy herself time to think, stroked the rat, and said, “Patroclus deserves a treat for his hard work,” and opened the bottom drawer, extracting both the bottle of brandy and a container of rat food.

“Patroclus, that's the first recorded individual… ghost to transcend time. You were quite clever naming him,” I said.

Emily snickered. “Show-off.”

There was a #short pause while Patroclus enjoyed his meal, and the professor and I sipped the inexpensive brandy she had offered me. I guessed it was what a professor could afford.

“So, why today’s visit?” Ms. Dubois asked, looking over the rim of her tumbler.

“Three reasons. First, tell us about time-travel. Why can we do it?” I answered.

The professor looked perplexed, so I added, “For reasons I can’t explain, I don’t remember anything. Professor Skully has explained to us about time-streams, particles, and pressure. But he didn’t know the details.”

“Good old Dana. I didn’t know he listened to me. Okay, so you want details. Time-travel has been my life's work. After I realized that my mother’s spirit had visited me and given me a time-travel book, I became convinced that magic was the key.”

“Wait a minute,” I interrupted. “Your ‘mother’ visited you and gave you a book?”

“Yeah,” Ms. Dubois said, as she opened the top drawer and took out a dog-eared copy of “The Time Machine.”

I glanced at Emily; we both recognized it. Not too long ago, by our time, I had given that book to a young girl waiting for her mother to recover from surgery.

The professor continued, “My mother used to #shower me with gifts, but this one was special.”

She sighed and put it back in the drawer. “Of course, it took a long time to pick up the trail. It wasn’t until I obtained a copy of ‘Faustus Pakt’ that I made any headway. He talked about what he’d seen, but the key was that the formulas had come from ‘Pompilius’ Spiegel.’”

“Who?” Emily interrupted.

“Faust, of course. He relied heavily on Pompilius’s book, which is also rare. That’s where I learned that you have to tear the soul from its moorings in the present to project yourself into the past. Let me show you the pentagram.”

“Be #brief,” Emily said. “The two of you can be so pedantic. We can already time-travel, so we don’t need any complicated rituals.”

Patroclus:

#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #Serial

#Airisu: The Crow and the Witch

Dōken-sha (Airisu POV) Post 20
#Wss366 helm #MastoPrompt Unabashed #TimeTravelAuthors Whatever #Edo

Sumika’s fingers touched Arakawa's. It was the slow motion of someone half-asleep. Arakawa-sama, Owl-sama, had ensorcelled her.

In a moment of insanity, I plunged my beak into Sumika’s neck, screaming:

          Grain in hand
          Snare in the other
          A gilded bridle

Sumika’s hand jerked back as red and indigo sparks spat from the sacred #helm. Arakawa-sama’s leveled his fan at me, snapping it open. But something stayed his wrath, and he finished my renga instead:

          Crow at dawn
          The rooster struts
          Stew pot awaits

I didn’t need to analyze that verse. The threat was clear.

An unsustainable silence of suspense fell. #Unabashed, I stared back at his blazing eyes.

I wondered, though, why I wasn’t feathers scattered on the shrine’s floor.

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