“If what you said about the Illar is true, it should come as no surprise. The Tap is alive. It burgeons and boils with the hopes of all who are touched by it. When those dreams are concentrated enough, things happen that break the laws of nature.” Lilith raised her hand and closed her fingers into a claw. She concentred her will onto the maelstrom and it began to shrink. In a heartbeat it was closed, and the storm of blades settled into a static array. Ruby watched in awe, then realised what the blades were.

“Your tanto. What purpose do they serve?”

“When I discovered this wellspring, the shrine was all but gone. I rebuilt it, a way of reconnecting with my ancestors. The more time I spent here though, the more I realised something strange was happening. The closer I brought the daggers the more powerful the maelstrom became.”

“The tanto, or the Oni perhaps?” Ruby tried to stay focussed but struggled with yet more world breaking news. “I’m lost.”

“The Tap creates as well as consumes. We thought it devoured things, but it is not as simple or as crude as that. It adapts. I started to see Kami in the grounds, then I recognised it was taking the very idea of the daggers and giving them life.”

“You told me the Oni were different, though. Why would benevolent creatures stem from such malevolent beings?”

“The more I experimented the more real the Kami became. From fleeting glimpses to tangible, living things. I questioned everything I had been taught as a spirit-warder, seeing the barriers between worlds fall before my eyes. Turns out the Oni and the Kami are cut from the same cloth.”

“I remember you telling me the Greater Oni were once Kami who became too powerful. They wanted more faith, as all gods do, and the Greater Kami cast them out of…well, the Tap I’d wager.”

“You’re catching on.” Lilith commanded the blades to return to her and they floated neatly into the scabbards on her hips. “The irony that I could bring the Kami to life with the souls of the Oni is not lost on me. I’m still not sure it’s the right thing to do, but when they are bound in the maelstrom, I can become in part the Kitsune.”

“Wait. You’re telling me you found a way to lift the curse?” Ruby’s heart lifted.

“Not completely. Once before every full or crescent moon I must remove the blades and let the Kami falter. There are some parts of our culture that speak of Kami devoid of reason. Creatures once so dangerous the Greater Kami cast them to the stars and bound them in celestial bodies. I am fettered by my actions still, but no longer tortured by the Crab, Crane. Komodo, and Spider.”

“What will happen, Lilith, if you are not here to tend to the shrine?” A sense of foreboding grew in Ruby’s heart.

Lilith sighed. “Though you seek to severe our ties to the Aria, the part of the Tap which gives all bards their power I have made another connection. The bond I share with the Kitsune will remain, and with it the burden of a Kami.”