“I remember now.” Ruby looked up at the branches of the cherry blossom. The way the sun danced through the blossoms took her back to the moment she had said goodbye to Lilith. “It was spring. You had just shown me the Sukoshi Kitsune.” She sighed. “I was scared that I was going to lose you to whatever you were becoming.”

“You were excited for me at first. But I saw your heart deflate. You knew what it meant.”

Ruby tried to hide her admission, but it was clear on her face.

“It doesn’t matter now. I know why you were scared. We have been so intertwined we were forgetting who we were apart.” Lilith walked forwards, ignoring Ruby’s flinch. “But I know, now, who and what I am.”

As they hugged, the wind danced through the boughs and the toll of distant bells marked the start of late afternoon. The hug was bittersweet. Old friends, sisters, and war-torn heroines reunited beneath the tree that had served as a backdrop for many of their successes and failures.

“Mortal or not”, Lilith continued, “you are my sister.”

“I never had doubt.” Ruby let the tears flow.

“You did.” Lilith pulled away and looked Ruby in the eye. “I felt it. You were scared not of me, but for me. You know what it meant to become consumed by your hopes.”

Ruby had fallen foul of her own rage countless times. She had been consumed by her power and it cost her dearly. She embodied the Phoenix just as Lilith now embodied the Kitsune.

“I did. I do. But you seem to have mastered those fears.”

“Rather than become the Kitsune, I allowed myself to be it’s vessel. Through me, it became its own entity. All those years harbouring the souls of the Greater Oni steeled my soul against the fires that tried to consume it.” Lilith pressed a hand to her chest. “Feel here.”

Ruby held out a hand and was surprised to hear two heart beats.

“What the hell is that?”

“The Kitsune and I are twinned. Neither will consume the other so long as we accept the existence of the other.” Lilith pushed Ruby’s hand away and pointed east. “Come on, we’re nearly there.”

Ruby looked back at the tree and frowned.

“That wasn’t what you wanted to show me?” Confused, furthered by Lilith’s silence, Ruby had no choice but to follow.

On the far side of the hill the garden continued to the verges of Lilith’s grounds. The neat sculpted landscape gave way to a wall of bamboo thicket. Lilith waved her hands in intricate patterns and purple symbols flew from her fingertips. They shot into the bamboo and parted it, a gravel path leading inward.

“If you had read any of the letters, I have sent over all those years apart, you’d be prepared for what I’m going to show you.”

Ruby quickened her pace, cursing her lackadaisical approach to communication. She had received some of the letters but held her own grudges and refused to open them.

“I thought you weren’t angry?” she pleaded.

Lilith chuckled. “I’m not. But it’s far too much fun to tease you after so long.”