forest

@iris s. If hollow eyes could have rolled, they would have; but the Yokai's empty sockets made no such motion. Only their twisted lips showed a sour expression, displeasure written across very carefully crafted features. "You were never weak. You never crumbled or fell." Their words were whispered, still edged in ice, but interlaced with something else. Wonder, perhaps, or maybe curiosity.

"So that is why... Costs are high in those magical works." The costs could be higher, but this was merely a game of semantics beyond the sacrifices required. Those kinds of magic - ones that frayed the edges of worlds and brought them together, stained in loss and tainted with blood - That would make sense of the staticky tingle that Eden felt in their very form when they touched the barrier hiding this place. That would make sense why it called out to this specific spirit.

Their spirit.

"You've gone from farming your fear to trading that of others." The cold was fading fast from the yokai's tone, and soft understanding was starting to rise in its place. "Any magic you can cast is stained in it. No wonder it cried out for me. Fear is the closest thing I have to pleasure in this world and those beyond the veil rarely know to harness it so... efficiently."

@eden b. "I abandoned you because I am no longer tied to that fear... No more." He said, his voice growing colder just like the air surrounding them. "I've spent too much of my life hanging onto that fear. I am tired of being weak." He told the yokai, now staring directly into their icy stare. "I have my reasons not to join the Onibaba." The witch knew that this answer would not satisfy the yokai, but that was not his problem right now.

"I've accepted the magic of alchemy and necromancy. I understand those two type of practices are nearly frowned upon, but what do you expect from a witch that came from nothing but pain? I've expressed my fear and pain now, but in my own way. And I will continue to do so until I stop breathing..."

@iris s. Darkness swirled in the empty gaze, reflecting sparks of color to match the stories recounted. The dark, melancholy blue of deep night skies, white gleaming of stars twinkling faintly. Russet ropes, stained in violent merlot, charred black and gray with ash around the ends. The white whisp of cold breath, hanging against the deep green of trees at night. glowing red embers amongst charcoaled bones, cured in the flames.

Each brutal memory sent delightful sparks down the spine of the yokai, and their soft voice rose again, paired with a smile. "So you do remember me. I walked with you through each of those nights... Each of those fears you held so close. Every time you tried to avert your eyes, I was the whisper in your ear reminding you to keep your gaze where it belonged, the soft touch leading you towards the things you wished not to face." Their delight in the pain shared was wholly their own, this much was sure, but they cared not for the worries of creatures - until it benefitted them.

"Yet... For as long as I walked with you every night, held you so close to bask in your pain and anguish... You. Abandoned. Me." The light, airy tone suddenly held the weight of brutal winter storms, cold and pointed, sharp with chill as their empty eyes fixed onto the Witch again. It was clear enough, that the power the witch carried was well earned, but that did not excuse them from the pleasure they owed the spirit at their feet.

"You haven't joined the Onibaba." It was both a question and a statement, their empty voids narrowing in a show of displeasure. "So you should not be able to escape my touch. What magic have you accepted that skirts the rules of the spirit realm?

@eden b. Iris wished to never go back to that time. ‘The taste of Eden’. It wasn’t that the taste of power terrified him… it was the reason /why/. And it pained his heart just to remember such a thing. Iris looked over at the yokai as his familiar trotted his way to his master. Jade sat in front of Iris. A sign of comfort for his master. His familiar could always tell when Iris’ emotions went far.

“I was only 18…” The witch began. Eyes not even focused on the yokai. They were focused on the fur of his Jade. “I had already lost both of my dear sisters to the fires of the witch trials…” Iris chewed on his lower lip for a little while before continuing. “My sorrow was not taken care of, let alone had time to /feel/ it. I was always on the run. Trying to survive as a witch during those times… one would rather die. But we never did under our own circumstances. We kept going until there was none left…”

“Nightmares plagued my mind nightly. Whether it was death by the hands of fire. Or darkness over taking me…” Iris trailed off for a moment. “All I remember… I was looking for my mother.. who’d been missing for weeks. I cloaked myself. And found myself witnessing a live burning. With my mother in the middle of all the victims.” The witch’s eyes hardened visibly. Turning from beautiful blue crystals, to a stale concrete. “My breath was gone… my mind.. my mind had been lost…”

“I watched as they hung her. /Burned/ her. And all of the suffering in my heart came to a head at that moment. I felt it cloud my vision. As if my eyes eclipsed to black. All I can recall is the burning flesh of every watching human and creature in that crowd. As I stood there with the charred remains of my mother.” He nodded. “It was quiet… no screams. Just the flicker and pop of flames and culling of wind. As if all of my pain became one with silence…”

@iris s. Eden smiled as the basket hit the cool ground, their filmy form gently settling on bare feet at the same moment. The smoke that composed them clouding into a gauzy white shift, tied simply at their narrowed waist and squared shoulders. Long dark hair bundled together into a braid from the smoke, and finally, their delicate, feminine features appeared solidly on their face.

A more or less human form, though still ephemeral and fleeting to those not gifted in the spirit world.

Bare feet could not feel the cold ground; just as bare skin covered by the thin shift only noticed the pleasant, staticky tingle fading as the magic waned, and the small house came into view. It was beautiful, and they entered in line with the tiger and witch, being sure to close the door, as nobody else needed an invitation to enter.

Looking about the space, Eden took up their residence on the very hearthstones, basking in what they knew was warmth, but had forgotten after being immaterial for so long. The corporeal world would take some time in getting used to once more.

They turned to the smooth voice of the witch, and offered a pretty smile, soft lips curving slowly. "Your magic called to me. It screamed to be known. Funny thing, putting up a magical shield - it protects, but it also acts as a beacon to those of us sensitive to the blending of worlds." 'Sensitive' and 'blending' were wholly incorrect words to use, but they were reminiscent of times when Eden moved freely between realms last.

"Your magic calls to my spirit, which means your spirit must remember mine. Tell me, darling witch~" Their words lilted playfully as they slid from hearthstone to floor, kneeling at the feet of the other with their head cocked to the side, a playful gleam igniting iridescent sparks inside of dark eyes. "What do you remember from your sweet taste of Eden?"

@eden b. As soon as their voice hit the witches ear, Iris froze. A flash of memories clouding his vision, taking away the light in his eyes for a visible second. Iris’ hands went limp for a moment, dropping his basket. When the object made contact with the ground was when Iris had come back to his present being.

Iris quickly picked up his basket. It’d been too long. And for some reason, his heart was quickening. Iris opened his mouth to speak. “You may enter…” He whispered. Without a word, the spell that was on his cottage had diminished by his will. It now showed a m small, mossy house with a water mill attached to its side.

Iris walked forward without a word. He entered his home, letting his familiar, Jade, walk in first before the witch. Iris put his basket on a counter and sat in a seat near by the fire. The cottage was much bigger on the inside. A spell within another.

“If you have found me then you have been looking for me. For whatever reason it may be…”

@iris s. "I'm not like the other yokai~" Eden mused, voice rising and falling through the trees in a riff of some modern pop culture reference they'd learned recently, delighted at the hubris shown. Their voice was soft, playful, and hardly matched the chill that the wispy form carried. "Wards only keep my physical form from haunting you like this."

Auras were indistinct to his gaze and therefore meant next to nothing; abyssal eyes trained to find only the dark secrets that few willingly admitted to anybody in their lifetime. Witch -at least that gave the blonde human-creature a proper title. Magic was not so much an aura as a sensation. It carried a certain... Entrancing tingle to it. Hence why Eden had been drawn; Without the city to corrupt, something so pure sent a haunting call that rang in the yokai's essence, until they could find the source. So... Yes. They were very happy at this turn of events, but needn't verbalize as much.

With a soft sigh like a lover might utter - ironically something disturbingly common in the nightmares of lovesick humans - Eden's voice brushed against the witch's ear, despite their figure remaining within perfect line of sight. "I've already felt you, and known you, lifetimes ago. A different you, and a different I, but that doesn't change our tie. You can't get rid of me so easily."

@eden b. Iris stood firmly in his spot. The movement of the yokai did not phase the witch. Out of all the years he lived, something like this could never move him. This yokai was in his territory and he could easily ward them off, but there was something that peaked his interest in those lifeless eyes. They… oddly had taken him somewhere in his mind.

The witch smirked. “Master of dreams is so issue to me. I’ve warded off worse than you, yokai.” He nodded, reaching out to put a hand on his Jade’s head. Jade growled at the new presence. Jade wasn’t fond of intruders. And neither was Iris.

“What you see is not all…” He informed the yokai. “A witch never shows her full aura to anyone. Does not matter if they are in hiding or not…” The witch stared the yokai down. Both souls unmoving. “But if you must know. I enjoy my solitude more than most.. the dirty city clouds my magic.” Iris raised an eyebrow. “Happy? Now-“ The witch walked around the Yokai with his black tiger. “I have things to do. Please see yourself out.”

@iris s. A vision sparked to the yokai's eyes - as drawn as he had been to the magic, the voice that led him to a bloodied human shape earned a quiet look of awe, and the lowering of a hand from the sparkle of a magic barrier that was nearly under Eden's ephemeral fingers. Then the smile that was too perfect to be human rose, unnerving in the way it tugged at the delicate features chosen for this decade. How dare this creature speak to him in such a way.

Moving as easily as the breeze that wove through the trees, Eden was before the speaking creature, sensing the same magic that had thrummed beneath gentle touches buzzing through his frame. The smell of damp and moss grew in the air as he surrounded and studied this - witch, sorcerer, wizard - slowly moving until they were within an inch of one another; face to face.

"You think a ward can charge the master of dreams?" He asked, black eyes searching rapidly for anything of note - Nothing he couldn't already *feel* stood out. With the most important part of the magical human taken in, his body evanesced, clouding as it reformed around the proud and iron-stained feline, brushing a gentle breeze through the dark fur. Though his focus was not on the human-creature, Eden still spoke to him, while endearing himself to the large cat.

"Your magic speaks volumes, but none in a tongue that might turn my head. Tell me... What makes a creature such as yourself hide so deeply?"

@eden b. Iris couldn't believe what he was seeing. Iris was standing there with his larger than life familiar, Jade; covered in blood from head to toe from a recent hunt. And there was a yokai in his territory. Iris could see the invisible field spell he put around his cottage starting to trickle at the sudden intrusion.

Iris gripped his little basket of herbs and feathers.

"You must be lost... and I am failing to understand why you choose to stay here instead of seeing that this place is taken, yokai." Yokai were very mischievous creatures. And what they come across, they claim as their own. Not this witch.

"Unless you are truly lost, please leave. I ward you from this place."