The subsection of Creation known locally as Tirra is supposedly mostly isolated from the rest of it, as part of a local divine scheme to win and fully, properly lock down this small section of existence. The idea was to build a new stronghold of Good, with a closed bubble where no Evil gods had any actual influence, with a cabal of mostly-aligned-with-each-other minor deities with interests on the one particular planet taking total control of their pocket marble of Creation and building it into a force of prosperity, learning, and all other such Good and Neutral things.

It's not going as well as could be hoped.

The Calamity was awful beyond all expectations, as cosmic powers far greater than the nine Light Gods Foresaw what was about to occur, Foresaw what the cabal was willing to pay and do for it, and took the chance to make it as expensive as possible out of spite and strategic denial of resources.

Thousands of years later, things are mostly still being cleaned up. Very few souls go to Judgement from here. Most of them are Reincarnated by a specialized metaphysical process the Light Gods have built here, if stripped of most of their memories beyond faint signs. (The reasons for this are many, and full of Godconcepts.) But part of the reason they get away with this, from Pharasma's perspective, is that they have made many sacrifices and pacts, limiting all but the barest interventions outside the bubble of Tirra.

But someone is poking their nose through the bubble.

And being watched. Subtly, by a jealous, Chaotic goddess who knows when some souls that are her favorites are being looked at, Mind Blank or no Mind Blank. Sanctum or no Sanctum.

She can't see the intruder directly. But she's watching the ripples and shadows of their actions closely.

Almost all of the most compatible souls are local Tirran-Kitsunes, more humanlike than Golarion's race of a similar aesthetic, but all with a touch of divine power, great compatibility with esoteric energies and malleability of form and thought, and already molded thrice over with complex, subtle, extensive soul-modification work. It's beautiful magic, if you have any true insight into it. Although the source is divine, and there are metaphorical flags left in for Tamamo the Fox Goddess to more easily see, each kitsune stands alone and independent, not at all drawing on divine power ongoingly, a one-time investment in an auto-reincarnating pseudo-demigoddess sort of existence.

The most favorable soul according to this divination is currently busy exterminating swarms of local Evil vermin in her quadrupedal form, none of which pose any real threat to her. She wields illusions as an additional limb, and moves with fluid grace.

Areelu will study her target carefully.  Her Greater Scrying will last nearly an entire day, and she can wait for an opportune moment.  She needs a moment where the Kitsune is alone without anything unusual going on around her.  When it looks like the moment is arriving she'll layer on all her usual buffs and many unusual ones besides, this is worth dipping into her stockpile of scrolls.

She exterminates vermin! She sneaks invisibly into town and buys food! She talks with a priestess at a shrine to local gods! She enters the Spirit World via a portal in a graveyard, a pseudo-astral not-quite-separate-plane, and jogs through there to exit hundreds of miles away! She goes to a cabin in the woods and plays with illusions for a while. She dances, bare, in the moonlight, and a faint touch of divinity fills the air. Eventually, she goes to sleep.

She studies the Kitsune carefully with all the detections she can fit through her scrying sensor, just to reduce the odds she has somehow been taken in by an illusion.  Then she prepares.  She casts spell in order from her longest duration spells to her shortest duration spell.  All the standard protections and some unusual ones, even ones that don't seem to have any apparent application in this scenario.  Divinations so she can identify any useful information, including true seeing, she'll be ready for any illusions.  Various enhancements to her skills and morale and luck. 

Finally she is ready.  Greater Teleport.  Dominate Monster.  A strict set of orders, given in the Kitsune's native language, forbidding both conscious and unconscious actions so thoroughly the Kitsune can only barely breathe of it's own accord.

As she gives the orders, her gaze sweeps over the room, her permanent Arcane Sight checking for any traps or notable magical items.  She'll grab the typical gear of the Kitsune for the eventual scenario of releasing her with her memory erased but ready to adventure.

Almost all of her usual gear is kept within what seems like a Bag of Holding built straight into her soul. The only thing to take is a set of clothes and a few scrolls. There are layered illusion defenses, to confuse and raise alarms. There is a single magical trap on the door, with what looks like a big dumb lightning bolt hooked to it. There's a small library of different objects with semi-permanent illusions hooked to them in inactive states.

Oi. Oi oi oi oi oi oi OI! Interdimensional kidnapping is Very Bad Juju. Especially of one of her cuties!

Across Tirra, dozens of foxes who were pretending to be mere flesh and blood get up and run and hiss and yowl and bark all at once, as Tamamo reacts in shock to this sudden, silent, invisible intrusion.

She DEMANDS that one of her closest foxes investigate AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, with a level of emotional panic and urgency that sees them obeying even as dubious as they are.

But it's far too late.

Areelu moves quickly, an order not to resist Areelu' magic, followed by a Greater Curse on the kitsune's ability to resist her magic, then an Interplanetary Teleport to get back to Golarion, and a Greater Teleport a moment later to get back to her oldest laboratory.  She will do the initial procedure immediately.  She begin preparations.  She was a few tricks she's picked up over the years from practicing fleshwarping and similar techniques to help the subject survive in optimal condition.  A Suggestion that the Kitsune can endure this successfully.  Another Suggestion that putting every bit of will into living will be worthwhile.  A Heroism.  A Greater Belt of Mighty Constitution.  She'll hold off on the cloak of resistance until just before the procedure itself in case she needs to use anything else to subdue or examine the subject.  She wakes the subject and uses a Detect Thoughts.

-She's not in her house. And a few moments of blank incomprehension resolve to great alarm when she tries to stand and cannot. She tries to leap to the Woods Between and cannot.

Nightmare? High-level monster? Some noble or heretic kidnapping her? This is all too much for one of her sisters' pranks, they've Charmed her before, this feels like something different-

Tamamo, you fucker, what's going on here?-

(Intelligence 14.)

Tamamo... that is one of the her planet's Gods.  Areelu's laboratory should be secure beneath her many wards and protections.

She speaks into her recording device in Halit "Desnus 17th, 4716 Absalom Reckoning.  Kitsune subject acquired, dominated with full restraints, cursed only in capacity to resist spells.  Subject is approximately two deviations above baseline mortals in intelligence, awake and alert, although disoriented as to be expected.  Subject attempted a casual prayer to a God of their planet".

She address the subject in its native language.  "Please communicate out loud clearly what you feel as you feel it to the extent that does not interfere with your breathing.  Please only scream as is beneficial to coping with the pain or maintaining your will to stay alive.  Please try to maintain regular breathing.  And please try not to die to the extent it does not violate any of my other instructions or commands."  She backs up her requests with mental orders over the dominate.

She directs the Kitsune into a reclining chair, gently straps some padded restraints onto the subject, place a mouthpiece (with a mundane and spirit thermometer) in her mouth (it serves as both a recording device and a means of preventing the subject from biting their tongue or cracking their teeth), tucks in a high quality cloak of resistance on the subject's back.  This all only requires gentle nudges since she has the dominate to reinforce her control.  And checks her thoughts one more time, Areelu kept her detect thoughts up.

So.

So. 

So, situation: enslaved(?) by a terribly powerful Cryptid? Remnant of the old Empire, woken up again? Something from Beyond?

Her mind rails against every order she is aware of, cataloguing them and trying to probe at the edges (try not to die? don't scream too much? way to be fucking ominous, kidnapper). Can she cast a very small, subtle illusion that doesn't do anything. Can she twitch a finger. Can she pull an object from her tail, thinking of it carefully by its sensory impression and not its purpose-

-She manages to interpret 'communicate out loud what you feel' as narrowly about physical sensations.

"Tail's pinched."

She adjust the chair slightly and puts pillows under the small of the subject's back and upper legs to give the tails a bit more space.  "Emotional sensations aren't as important as physical sensations, but please include any that are unexpected or unusual relative to the circumstances."  She backs this up with a mental order again.

An injection with some preparatory substance.  (It should initially only hurt as much as an ordinary needle, but be followed by some faint weird burning numbness spreading from the site of injection in the chest to across the body.)

She waits around half a minute for the substance to take effect.  Then she pulls out a large crystal.  A spell to dissolve it and fuse it with the subject's soul.  (The primary soul fragment is already attached to the purified crystal.  And this should cause some deep existential pain to spread through the subject as it takes effect.)

She speaks measurements and notes in a calm collected voice for her recording device as she does this.

Weiss is starting to look at herself from the outside in. Refusing to register what's happening is not really an option. Focusing on her terror and hate and the steadily growing dread, to the detriment of introspection (and hopefully this kidnapper's frustration), is, and one she attempts to take.

-It feels like something about her is being changed. Like one of those alien weevil bugs slowly consuming from the inside. Turning her into this evil creature's puppet or loyal minion.

Tamamo, you promised I would be safe. Maybe not explicitly, but the kitsune form, the reincarnation-

There you are.

Tamamo is wroth, and expending a lot of focus and energy on this situation. Oho, what's this?

Little Weiss is still just a kitsune. This new soul-work is orthogonal to all the kitsune features, sorta-kinda-mostly.

Oh.

It's not that she doesn't approve of change, growth, and becoming new people, but in this case she has Chaotically decided to disapprove. Now, where are some options to disrupt this process...

Someone else sees Tamamo looking, and can almost see who they are looking at despite the many countermeasures to interfere with divine observation.  Overall, they have a different sort of divine vibe, but they do share very similar tastes in aesthetics.

Daikitsu shares information about the creator of those countermeasures: Areelu Vorlesh, here is her likely motives (rage at the world/revenge/reconstructing her daughter's soul), here are her powers (quasi-divine witch spellcasting), here is her role in the Worldwound.  Of interest if her follow vulpine deity is planning on doing thing: there is a very high discount on actions to counteract Areelu Vorlesh, some are free or even net positive once you take into account open bounties by the Aeons and Inevitables!

If her counterpart would be willing to share some of what she sees maybe Daikitsu can help her figure something out?

Oh right other gods than her usual clique exist.

One of Her BLORBOS is being ASSAULTED by Areelu Vorlesh. She's so mad!! All that hard work on making such elegant soul structures, hijacked, not to mention the whole 'forcing entire other soul structures into it as if that will have the consequences she expects' thing, and the thing where she is apparently?? Trying to overwrite?? One of Her chosen souls with an entire different one??!! Or that's what She thinks is going on from Her kitsune's prayer and new context bits. Not to mention poking through the veil around Tirra. It offends Her sense of aesthetics AND Her possessive protectiveness, even if thumbing one's nose at death and going to extremes for your goals are not exactly unaligned with Her.

She can only see very faint outlines here and only because Weiss is actively praying for help about it.

She is definitely going to Do Something, but everything is so expeeeeeensive out here.

Prophecy is broken, and it makes it so hard to tell for sure what mortals are doing... but it seems like maybe Areelu Vorlesh is trying to glue... her daughters soul (?!??) to that adorable kitsune.  Daikitsu doesn't have a full plan yet... but if Tamamo is as good at shapeshifting and deception as she is, just the right nudge right here could set Areelu Vorlesh off balance.  Sometimes the best way to trick a mortal is to give them exactly what they think they want!  No guarantees on exactly how Areelu responds, here is the best guess model of Areelu's psychology, collected from multiple Gods and collated by the inevitable response team (Daikitsu has some additional notes slapped on top indicating places inevitables don't understand mortals right).

As for follow-ups... have this information packet on common Golarion mortal magics for divination and information gathering, along with the top three dozen ways of tricking them.  Areelu Vorlesh is likely to have these ones.  Mortals often underestimate what illusions and shapeshifting can do if you push them to the point of near perfection.

The mechanism by which Tamamo-built-kitsunes generate a body is somewhat resistant to nudging but she could in fact nudge it- She gets a little sidetracked into the artistic details-

And Weiss does have the capacity to perform complex, abstract illusions, even over a large area. Oh, that one is clever- Simply rename the local terrain features, shifting the spells return-

She has a scroll that could remove the Dominate but is currently forbidden from trying to cast it.

.......Mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr she needs to add some extra metaphorical buttressing and barriers and filters in here to avoid the overwrite actually completing, and avoid too much intractable mixing. To preserve option value.

At first she thinks she is deluding herself, but then she is sure.  She speaks into her recorder "Subject is manifesting physical resemblance to soul fragment source.  This-" this is wildly beyond her best hopes for this stage of experimentation.  It isn't a deliberate deception on the Kitsune's part, she can see her thoughts.  She should be checking if the physical resemblance is temporary or permanent or instantaneous and if it is illusion or transmutation or something else, but she is too shocked to focus.

"In light of this unprecedented success, further alterations and manipulation will be postponed, sedating subject to ensure an optimal recovery period prior to extended observations."

She gives a mental order to drink a specialized potion she holds up to the subject's mouth.  She had planned on using an injection for most of her sedations but if it's actually her daughter she would rather -, she doesn't want to risk damaging this massive leap forward in progress and the potion has slightly lower risk overall.  The potion contains two spells at once and also has some mundane non-magical sedatives incorporated into its operation.

She attempts to be clumsy and inattentive about the potion. Maybe spill it. It doesn't really work.

The scroll-

-Don't think about it in specific-

She is going to kill this puppeteer-demon some day.

Areelu is lost in thought.  She doesn't quite have the room ready yet, and it could also serve as another test if she moves quickly.  She'll do that before she rests and place the subject there.  She should have 8 hours, absolute minimum, with that potion, so she can rest to regain her spells and make some other preparations and have 4 hours.

If memories and personality start coming back ahead of schedule... Areelu make some adjustments to her orders.  She thinks she has the feel of kitsune magic and can handle it.

Weiss awakens on a comfortable bed.  The bed and the room it is in and some strange echo of familiarity, like an adult returning to their childhood room of their parent's home.  The orders enslaving her seem missing or at least greatly relaxed, she can sit up from the bed and stretch her magic.  She also has a groggy sort of headache, like she didn't sleep quite right.

She feels a sick feeling of dread - about identity replacement and ego death -

Gods.

...

...

Are the restrictions looser now? That... Doesn't make sense. But she'll take it.

She- tries to avoid thinking about it, because - the orders might have a general 'don't escape' - yes, she needs to cast a spell. For no particular reason. This spell needs to happen, disconnected from any later plans.

She can cast a spell from a scroll. So she pulls it out, and opens it, and starts pulling her will, trying to focus on the practiced execution of this task.

-The scroll of Mind Purge fires off. It cost her around the equivalent of 400 gp (not that she thinks of it in gp) but it's so fucking worth it as an oh shit option. Mind magics are the worst. (She says, knowing she often uses illusions against people)

Weiss can feel a mental hitch of the edge of some command as she rationalizes using the scroll but overall she is able to cast it without problems. It seems to have worked?  At least, she can't feel any more mental orders for the moment.  No one comes bursting into the room, it seems she is still alone, at least for the moment.

Okay, plan time.

So.

It might be possible to just go into the Woods and go home. But... There's no reason to suspect this - whatever she is - won't just try again. She could go hang out with Sinnah, who will be delighted at the prospect of conflict with an unknown magical powerhouse (for the things she could learn), or lean on a major temple to the Light Gods (but then she's endangering them for her own protection), or the Inquisition (ugh) or actual Nobles (ugh ugh)-

-But any information she can gather on the situation will surely help. Especially since she feels so... Sick, and evidently step 1 of the ego replacement thing is already gone. (Aaaaaaaaaaa. But she can't do anything about it from here.)

Even if poking around might be dangerous- Well. Who dares wins?

First, she activates her magic sight and has a good look around.

The room has a lot of miscellaneous junk, all the accoutrements of a child's life crammed together.  Among them: a baby's crib, drawings and notes on a table, a few toys, a thick book.  But the only active magic in the room is something coming from a chest and that chest itself (which is invisible to mundane sight but shows up plainly to her magic sight).

...Grieving mother? With enough power to do something about it.

...Scary.

She will loot the gloves on general principle, reflecting on how weird it is to see invisible things by the invisibility magic.

...Leave a note to throw her off? Hmm. HMMMMM.

Weiss extends a faint tendril of illusion energy past any doors, if one is present, using it to reflect the scene outside in a fish-eye lens sort of way and look around.

The gloves are some kind of luck effect!  They can help her attack more accurately and reliably, and they have some sort of general protective effect that helps along several different lines: evading hostile area effects, mentally resisting them, and physically enduring them.

The door out of the room leads to a long (seemingly) empty hallway.  Magical lights glow in distantly placed sconces.  There are doors to other rooms or hallways but they are closed.

Oh, she's not putting them on. And she can't tell much more than rough magical strength, herself. Which is why she's not putting them on. They can sit in her Tail of Holding. The used scroll too. Deny the enemy information. 

...She doesn't reckon exploring is a winning move. Okay, time to-

-Shift, and in the same motion, leap to the dream world, the Woods Between.

The terrain here naturally forms a sort of reflection of the terrain in normal reality, if shifted into a spatially inconsistent dream-like idyllic wild vale by her own influence. It's a great way to cover ground and get out of places.

(It can also take her home, no matter the start, but that's a once a month thing, or thereabouts, and she used it two weeks ago.)

Her ability works as expected, but there is something Wrong with the Woods Between here.  There is rot deep within the trees.  It is exposed in places where trunks are broken or knots have decayed, and looking closer Weiss can see the rot section opening to a vast void deep below in the earth.  The ground is treacherous, with seemingly minor ruts and trenches opening to crevasses and caves quite unlike the normal Woods Between, if she fell through she might end up outside the Woods entirely.  And the Woods Between seem to be in a bit of a valley here, with imposing mountains off in the distance enclosing and isolating the rotten trees and foul caverns, they might impose some obstacle to trying to get back to a more normal part of the Woods.

Hey. Hey. You need to be veeeeeery sneeeeeeaky and do [this] when you go back into the real.

Holy shit, the Woods are fucked up here. That's concerning, is she trapped between dimensions or something? And WOAH Tamamo is talking to her unprompted. She needs to do - a weird abstract illusion that... Renames terrain features?

Maybe Tamamo is trying to help and is having trouble, given the fuckedupness. Hopefully.

Tamamo, can you tell me why? What's going on?

Information is so fucking expensive she haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaates it this place sucks. But spending so much of her leeway elsewhere for ""intervention budget"" beyond a certain amount just ain't worth it. No response.

Of course not.

...Towards the mountains, perhaps, as far as the Woods will take her. It generates a circle a few miles around each time she enters them. She'll move carefully and have her wand of Sinnah's Fly out to arrest any falls.

She's gonna need to move. Put lots of dirt between her and the wizard-witch-person who wants to ego-death her. It's lucky she finds intense running kind of theraputic, she guesses.

She picks a direction - towards the closest seeming mountains, why not - and gets going.

The terrain continues to be treacherous and difficult to navigate.  Some areas are a bit worse (the land is entirely bare in one area, with the chasm blatantly visible), a few spot are almost normal (although the trees still seem a bit sickly), just with a bit of unevenness to the ground.  If she can judge the distance accurately and there aren't any complications, it might be a day or two of travel to reach the mountains. 

She reaches the edge of the Woods Between, and drops back down into reality soon enough. The terrain is even worse here. Cursed lands, and cold. She has some resistance to cold, at least. And also foxfire.

And she remembers Tamamo's warning, and spins up that weird abstract illusion that renames places around her misleadingly, in a really weird and meta way. Probably it's supposed to throw off tracking magic? It's neat and mind bending to think about. This illusion will be somewhat expensive, energy-wise, to keep up for the long term. (And there's another pang of anxious worry). If she's being tracked in one way, there might be others. She spins up... Every obfuscating trick she can recall. She remains invisible. The reactive blackness-sphere that works on magical remote viewing. She insulates her paws from the terrain, running on air, so as not to leave tracks. She scrubs her scent and the disturbance of air in her passage. She makes sure she's not losing any fur, and does not radiate infrared or occlude sound or have a detectable 'life force' (what a pain that one monster was).

Regardless. Pick a direction and try to keep going in it. The terrain will change eventually.

Areelu awakens deeply refreshed (she slept a bit more than she strictly requires given her ring of sustenance).  She feels a deep sense of hope she hasn't felt in some time.  All will be made right with the world, one way or another, she will make it happen.

She hasn't prepared spells yet, but she should still have plenty of time with how long that potion should last, so she'll take the time for using one her previously prepared Greater Scryings...

Areelu did not use the technique to ensure her scrying sensor ended up covered by the mindblank she herself is still under, so if Weiss is alert and has the right detections active, she can observe a tiny magical sensor appear above her and float over her head!

The scrying sensor sees perfect blackness. She notices it pinging off her illusion specifically meant to intercept remote magical viewing. Not much she should do about it except keep running, though.

That doesn't look like the room, but maybe the subject is still in it...  Areelu loosened the dominate orders a lot to let the subject stretch her magic a bit, so maybe an illusion to cover the sensor?  Areelu's overland flight is still active, so she takes off flying towards the room.  She casts a true seeing from a scroll along the way, she shouldn't let a false alarm about an escape attempt lead to screwing up in a way that allows an actual escape.  She tries to issues orders over her dominate but it seems like the dominate is gone, one way or another.  Her heart is sinking further and further as she flies, by the time she gets to the room she isn't surprised to the subect isn't there.  She checks for her own scrying sensor with detect magic, just in case, and doesn't see it. 

…Also, leaving her scrying sensor up is a mistake if it is not returning useful information.  She dismisses it.  Hopefully (but Areelu is really past wasting effort on hope), the subject didn't see it, not that it matters as the subject apparently already decided to counter scrying.  Sensible, the subject would have made good raw material for recreating her daughter.

How did this happen?  No, no time to waste thinking about that, she needs to fix this.  She starts casting a Discern Location.  It will take ten minutes...

Oh, the remote view dropped.

She keeps running.

...She's already down to, it's hard to put numbers on it but she's got a gutfeel for it after a while, around 900/1000 energy. A big chunk of that was entering the Woods Between, and she probably wasn't quite at full, but she notes the feeling and tries to repeat to herself to check again later, see just how much the illusions drain and whether it's sustainable off of moon dancing. The other options would-

-Dammit, it would suck, a lot, in a bad way, but maybe better than literally being pod personed. Put it out of mind for now and consider it if it comes to that.

She's got a location.  She casts a few of the most critical buffs (true seeing is a must have for this situation), and attempts a Greater Teleport... and reappears in her original location.  Did the subject... fall through to the Abyss and the Greater Teleport fail for that reason?  The location she got with Discern Location sounded normal and not Abyssal... maybe too normal (the subject should still be in the Worldwound)?  

Her feeling have reached the point of despair and started to harden into grim resolve.  She's overcome the will of Gods, destroyed nations, she is quite possibly just one step away from success at her one true goal.  I promise.  She repeats it like a mantra.  She will find a way.  She goes through her portal into a demiplane just to try Gating from there.  It opens to a location in the Worldwound... that is too far for her subject to have traveled to, so her Discern Location is entirely garbage?  She isn't quite sure.

She's exhausted her previous days spells and her mythic power to dangerously lower margins. And spent quite a few scrolls.  She needs to prepare spells and reorient.  She'll try all the fundamentals again, start trying obscure tricks, whatever it takes.  I promise.  I promise.  I promise.

An hour later Weiss will get another ping from Areelu's scrying.  And another a few hours after that.

Hey.

Hey Iomedae.

I know a thing. A thing you might want to know. I know that I keep to our tiny clique and you've maybe barely heard of us and the fact that I'm talking to you at all narrows down the kinds of things that it might be about, and that I know you know that and am saying it anyway, and the knowing that I know that you know that-

Anyway. I know what Areelu Vorlesh is doing today.

Who is talking to her?  Iomedae pulls up a report on Tirra and puts more of her attention on the conversation.  After a small delay (semi-randomized to minimize side channel leakage of information).  Iomedae replies.

That is potentially very valuable information, such as if it enables a strike team to slay Areelu (even only temporarily), or to steal from her, or destroy her resources, or perhaps some Chaotic other thing that Tamamo has in mind that isn't incompatible with Iomedae's goals or methods?

Iomedae includes an expression of possible payments in the concept of "very valuable" (Iomedae can pay so much directly, and potentially a lot more if drawing from the payment of other Gods opposed to Areelu, and can launder/anonymize Tamamo's involvement this much, given this tradeoff in total payment.)

The thing is that she is FUCKING WITH ONE OF MINE AND I WANT IT TO STOP ASDGJFHSHAH AAAAAA

She's low on spells right now. Because I helped mine escape. And Areelu Vorlesh really wants mine back because [sealed].

Here's a bit of legibility a big part of me is possessive protectiveness!

There's more but you'd need to do the secrecy-promise-thing.

Iomedae is willing to do that.  She legibly displays her ability to make such commitments.  She makes sure to highlight some bits someone unfamiliar with how Iomedae operates might overlook (for example if Iomedae independently, without using Tamamo's information in any way, even indirectly, learns of the information, that information isn't covered by the confidentially.  They can negotiate for confidentiality on that independently learned information also, but it isn't covered by the standard 'secrecy-promise-thing'.)

Eh good 'nuff. Most of the repayment I want for this is going to be local. If I resolve this I'm going back to my tiny corner.

So here's the sitch---

If there's anything 'good' about this situation, it's that the scrying attempts have stopped for now and she's detected no signs of pursuit. But she went from fast asleep to mind controlled in, as far as she could tell, an instant, last time, so...

Miles and miles of broken horrible terrain are eaten up by steady strides. She tries to avoid... Anything that looks alive, really.

The land is warped and tainted for as far around as she can see.  The plant life is often struggling to survive, and animal life seems even rarer.  As for anything more exotic than animals... there are no clear signs yet. 

There is a nasty chill in the air... and some rain clouds coming in.  As the rain starts, it turns out to be blood, not water, that is falling from the sky.

Oh, fucking gross. Is this what 'cursed lands' really means?

She can't actually become intangible to solid objects. But - in addition to all the illusions she's already holding - she can make a sort of umbrella, and separately, warp up a complicated illusion hitched to her invisibility that makes it appear as if the rain is falling normally.

The intellectual challenge of attending to the details, and the physical need to keep running, help push away all other thoughts.

There's a dangerous, painful spark of hopefear inside her, though.

The umbrella is sufficient to block the rain.  It stinks like blood, and is already coagulating as it lands around her, making a sticky mess beyond the radius of her umbrella.

There is one benefit to this cursed land.  It seems like many of the crevasses in the landscape lead down to otherworldly rifts. (Or maybe they are offshoots of one giant rift?)  So there is theoretically plenty of magical energy for Weiss to work with, although the nature of the energy is consistent with the taint of the land.

She does notice, eventually, that she is recharging faster than normal.

Weird, corrupted, alien dimensions must count as 'otherworldly'. That's what it feels like. Whatever Tamamo did to build her is pretty robust. It should hold up to this. She'll just have to hope so, at least. But it's a relief- Her total energy store has only gone down maybe another 10-20 in a couple of hours, that's plenty sustainable with some moonlight-dance to supplement it.

...If this place gets moons.

Onward, onward...

Onward.

Onward.

This is sure taking a while. Even the intensity of run run run fades after a while, letting dull anxiety come back to the front. But what else is there to do but move, and try to navigate the broken, cursed terrain without accidentally going in circles.

Eventually, she re-enters the Woods Between, hoping to at least try to get some sleep.

She can get a decent stretch of sleep... before being interrupted (shortly before she would normally wake up) by an odd intrusive thoughts?

A brief section of words running through her mind standout.  The words are coming from herself, except not?  And she can reply to them if she cares to?

What if I had another life before this?  And that experiment was an attempt to trigger memories of it?

The thought wants to stick firmly in her mind, as if it was genuine fact.

She tried waiting quite a while for the subject to sleep, a Dream would prime the subject ideally for the follow-up Demand (it follows the same basic limits of suggestion, with a further limit of 25 words).  But perhaps the Kitsune has some trick for evading remotely delivered illusions?  Or maybe she just refuses to sleep?  Or maybe she was some way of being on a slightly different plane.  She should really have researched Kitsunes better before attempting this, maybe even ran one through a full dummy version of her procedure.

So after most of a day of frustrated waiting, Areelu breaks the trance that precedes sending a Dream, and instead moves directly to casting a Demand. 

Of course I had another life before this! I miss my mom... I miss New York... Is it really...? Mom's not a wizard... Is she?

She can work with that reply.  It will take her ten minutes to cast it again.

She'll play it by instinct, see if the subject is buying it, or if she should back off and give it time.  She has 40 hours to follow-up while the original suggestion is active (she used a greater extend rod).

After ten minutes another intrusive thought sticks in Weiss's mind, fitting in like a true fact.

What if I had another life before my previous one?  If this isn't my second life, but my third life?

Again, it feels kind of like Weiss's own thoughts, except coming from somewhere, and she can again reply.

Mrrrrrrrrgh what. There's some kind of disquiet in her now but there are plenty of reasons why she wouldn't be sleeping well.

Maybe... Or four? Infinity? Can that many memories fit in one soul? Are we memories? Are we patterns? I'm thinking like [Vsauce]*. I need sleep...

*This is a proper noun referring to a person or group, Areelu can tell.

Something cuts off Weiss's reply as she finishes her last word, as if she couldn't add more even if she wanted to.

Areelu calculates swiftly.  So the subject was asleep (finally a stroke of luck in her favor to catch that last word!), and has someway of avoiding the Dream.  Areelu will hold off on follow-ups, for the moment.  She can layer in some more suggestions tomorrow, building up to the perfect one...

No more intrusive thoughts come to Weiss, but those two intrusive thoughts stick quite firmly in her mind, albeit in a way that is hard to directly notice.

She forgets things. Memories fade, details fade. Skills fade, friends drift away. It all turns to dust. Identity is a revolving door. She knows she has lost big parts of herself, it's called growing up. She used to want to be an electrical engineer... When's the last time she tried to engineer anything on Tirra? Decades and decades ago. She tried, for a year or so, and everything was absurdly expensive and difficult, and nobody she tried to collaborate with understood what a 'volt' was, and she gave up because it was stressful and doing random storybook heroics was more compelling, which makes her a horrible person when she could instead optimize for technological development and the long term good, with great power comes great responsibility-

-Bad thoughts-

What is identity? What is 'Weiss'? Didn't she used to be 'Walta'? Didn't she used to be an ordinary person with no particular power? She's lost that. Maybe she's died without dying, slowly, over time. Not changing, not losing anything, not finding new friends and new hobbies... You keep living, motion is being alive, and not changing is called being a dead rock. If this - alien wizard kidnapper - really is trying to recover older memories lost to the aether and lost to time - It's not impossible but anything is possible except literal paradoxes like 'true equals false'. Everything is blurry, it feels like. Is she going insane? Surely not. Tamamo hasn't talked to her though. Very little makes sense. It's almost as if she's dreaming, the mind leaping between two unrelated things and simply declaring that it is fact. If this is all just... A weird dream, a nightmare of nightmares. Does she remember what she did yesterday? Just pulping some curse-monsters, and shopping, and hanging out, nothing special. What did she eat for lunch yesterday...? She can't remember.

If it was some kind of experiment to restore memories, they could've fucking ASKED for permission. She probably would have said no, admittedly. Which really doesn't inspire confidence in Horns Lady. If this isn't all some twisty nightmare or illusion, as the blood rain and cursed evil land sorta suggests. But what if she did have a third life? She'd want to remember it more, if so. She just... Has no way to actually tell if it is so or not. And maybe it's mind-fuckery. If you can experiment with memories you can probably do a lot more stuff to brains. If she has a brain anymore. (She's pretty sure she does? She never exactly looked into it. Squicky! Being a flouncy foxgirl was so much easier than worrying about philosophical or annoying things.)

The version of her from a third life... If it even is still her, or something like a sister. They should get to exist, too. When she gets philosophical, it's one of her greatest dissatisfactions with the Light Gods. They're surely better than many, many, many possible grimderp 40k bullshit setups, but- The way ghosts are, living last regrets, and the way that most ordinary people of Tirra only ever remember impressions and fuzzy remnants, less than even her memories of New York, and nobody ever remembered past lives on Earth, or at least, not in a way that seemed legitimate- So maybe they do, maybe everyone has past life after past life, and just can't access them- If there was an experiment to recover these seemingly-forever-lost memories, some might think it's worth it even if you don't get consent about it-

It's. Better. Than oblivion, that souls are reincarnated with recognizable personalities and faint figments of memory, on Tirra. Better than twisted made-up visions of punishment, of Hell. But that doesn't mean it's good enough. What can she do about it, though, from here? Little to nothing. It's... Impossible to even begin to approach, theomechanics and philosophies of existence and preservation. Where do you even start? It's like a 15th century peasant being asked to do the moon landings. Not impossible, but where do you even start? No, it's even worse than that. Like a 15th century peasant being asked to build something they don't even have concepts for, like a world-spanning VR game. At that point you might as well ask them to become God. The Light Gods are trying, maybe. Or if they're just running good PR, it's really good PR, and consistent for a long while... Should she try to get into medical wizardry, when the Long Road Home finishes refreshing?

(.......If she's having nightmares and losing memories, is she right that the Long Road Home even exists?)

Ugh, such heavy thoughts. If she's not going to be able to sleep, she should at least keep moving.

The Woods continue on as before... except if Weiss is paying enough attention, she might notice a stretch of Woods that look... not right, but closer to a living healthy equilibrium.  The rotten section of trees have new life growing within them, fungi eroding the rot into detritus, which new saplings can in turn grow in.  The resulting new growth... doesn't look quite right, it is stunted and twisted and discolored, but it is growing and living. 

She could divert to explore that section?  It isn't as direct a path to the distant mountains, but it isn't too far out of her way.

She's suddenly glad, pondering growth and the possibility of forage, that she doesn't need to eat. She does have food stored in her Tail of Holding, but it's for pleasure, not sustenance...

...Yeah, she should probably check that out. It might be an oasis. Or something. Staying in the Between, at first, to see if any hinting clues can be gleaned from its echoing, dream-like metaphorical reflections of real-world features.

If she is looking really closely... there is a hint of intelligent intervention in the healthier equilibrium.  Place where it looks like maybe a person aerated the composting material, or transplanted some plant to live within it, or scraped away rot to leave healthy tree behind.

Also, separately from the healthy equilibrium, but in the same general area of Woods, there is a small area with some bizarre illusions.  Every reflective surface, (whether pool of standing water, or tree worn of it's bark) shows a twisted image.  Healthier trees seem dead, dead trees seem alive and living, and if Weiss looks at her own reflection, she will see some sort of demonic monstrous version of herself.  The illusion isn't very strong, at least by Kitsune standards, if Weiss concentrates she can disbelieve it and see normal reflections.

That's not really how illusions... Work...

Or at least not how she thinks they ought to work...?

She can see right through it, like focusing and unfocusing her eyes. But kitsune illusions - they're not impossible to disbelieve, to shift your perspective around and realize it's fake, and there is something magical there that supports the illusion, gives it additional density or timbre or oomph or whatever that makes the viewer not question it - but it's still there, illusory light really does let plants grow, illusory fire with enough oomph can take on the oxygen-consuming properties of real fire through the grace of Tamamo's laughter, and only spells designed to get rid of them really do so. Illusory darkness is more a substance than a mental trick. This is all mental.

(Again with the mind fuckery! Maybe horns lady is doing memory-recovery experiments, but she did not go through the Ethics Board and does not have her informed consent!!)

But someone's trying to fix the place, maybe. Or it didn't get quite as thoroughly damaged, maybe.

...She'll drop out of the Woods, still invisible, and have a nose around.

She is just outside the walls of a small, primitive village.  The walls are a simple wooden palisade.  The village is on a hill, so Weiss can see thatched roofs over the palisade.  Outside the palisade are farm plots. 

Functional agriculture! Ragni bless this land. (Please. If you can hear her, literally do. It seems like the kind of thing you hate.)

Ragni, of course, does no such thing.

She hops the wall, wondering if it's better to just... Keep moving. Small village like this is probably surviving on dregs and stress, suspicious of strangers, might leave information for Horns Lady to find, etc etc. She can stay invisible until she decides.

The village does have some kind of undercurrent of fear or stress, but the villagers are putting on a happy front.  It seems to be mostly humans, but a few people have horns or hooves or tails.

One person looks very inhuman with bright red skin, a hunched posture, and a gaunt, almost skeletal, body.  They take a long look in Weiss's direction, as if trying to see through her invisibility, but then give up and look away.

He can probably see the MAGIC. Fuck.

Can she apply an illusion to an illusion? Yo dawg, I heard you like illusions, so I put illusions in your illusion so you can illusion while you illusion-

...She's been stretching the mental and magical muscle in unusual ways, today. It's twisty, but surprisingly thrilling and compelling. She'd gotten lazy.

So. Can she? There's only one way to find out, and it's to try.

She will hang out somewhere out of the way, maybe out by the fields, and noodle at it until she can at least hide things from her own arcane sight.

Does Red Guy, then, seem to react again when she brazenly (invisibly, invisi-magically, inaudibly, etc) walks right up to him?

He doesn't seem to react... he picks up his spear he had left planted in the ground.

Without a word or gesture, he uses a Dispel on Weiss, targeting her invisibility.  Then he suddenly seems to notice her!

"Demon!  Call the guards!"

(The babau had already alerted a few of the other demons with his telepathy, so a dretch is already ready to charge in!  He is holding back from using his stinking cloud, he is playing a crusader without magical powers and is committed the bit, even carrying a cold iron sword instead of relying on his claws!)

'Demon' is really quite a fair thing to call an unfamiliar giant fox.

Nope this was stupid, time to run now!

She is really quite fast when she decides to book it. And also reapplying her invisibility, and sending two decoys to go straight and left as she jukes right.

How the fuck is it still seeing her. She needs to find out. So she can hide from it. But - staying around after being detected and called out is just an absolute idiot move.

He will try to put up a chase, but he really isn't fast enough and he doesn't have the innate ability to see the invisible, just keen senses, and it seems his quarry has masked scent and sound.

"Careful everyone, this is a job for us noble crusaders!"

He can see invisibility, but he can't see through illusions in general, and the decoys are quite convincing.  He'll follow one for a bit and then take the opportunity to "accidentally" stab one of the villagers and blame it on an illusion.

"No, ignore the foxes, go after the demon!"  One of the villagers yells.

It must be a decoy illusion, which the illusion swapping crusaders (and other non-demon, non-cultists outsiders) with demons and demons with crusaders missed.  The correct solution would have been to suppress his see invisibility and then figure out which fox he stopped being able to see... Oh well, whatever.

"Egads, some illusion has beset me!"  He stumbles around and stabs the yelling villager.  That'll teach him.

"The horror, I seem to have been fatally misled."  He is careful to avoid vital organs, even with an excuse that the villagers will force themselves to accept he can't go breaking the toys excessively without permission. Although he really, really wants to. 

...What is going on... She doesn't even know and can barely begin to guess. More horrible, deranged experiments, committed for the sake of madness or amusement rather than any reasonable purpose? Alternate-cryptids walking the earth and amusing themselves?

Maybe she should go back and try to... Help? Or something. But usually it's best to leave things alone. She's not safe herself, she's probably being hunted still.

Onward, onward.

The forest around the village is the most vibrant and living area she has seen in this wasteland yet!  It basically looks like a normal forest.  Well, some of the wildlife looks a bit off...  She could try to get a closer look at some of it to see what is going on?

This place might be a good spot to camp...? No, the Woods Between are safer, and she's still absorbing energy fast enough to use them.

She'll slow down to observe, at least. Maybe try to figure out how to take bearings or star readings (they're different constellations...) in case it's the only bit of civilization anywhere on the continent or something. There aren't any Spirit World shortcuts around here, it's a seemingly endless hostile plain.

Some of the wildlife has strange brands or markings!  It otherwise seems normal?

If she is paying enough attention to the energy, she might note it significantly less tainted in this forest than anywhere else she has been since her kidnapping.  And there is an unusual concentration of energy she could follow along a footpath towards.

Is she really equipped to investigate this? No, not really.

She does note down the brands and markings, as best she can, binding them all into inactive illusions on a random rock, which then goes into her tail.

Unusual less-fucked-up energy is worth investigating. Maybe it's someone sane.

Following the energy and the footpath leads to a cave which has clear signs of habitation by a person.

Outside the cave, to the south, she can smell a bear along with some strange rot and decay, but the cave has normal smells like cooked food and various drying herbs.

...

...She shouldn't drag uninvolved people into her troubles. It was selfish to even investigate the village.

The undead, though, that is something she is well used to sensing, and going out of her way to remove. At least, she thinks she smells undead.

The bear (which is also the source of the rot) isn't particularly trying to hide itself or its trail.  Weiss should be able to track it down quite easily.

Okay but it is obviously undead, right? Not, say, horribly sick but living?

At least part of the bear is still living!  Part of it's body is rotting away, to the point maggot and insects are living in it and Weiss can see exposed bone.

Actually, focusing her senses further... the bear isn't just a bear and the maggots aren't just maggots.  The bear is some sort of spirit, embodied or maybe bound in physical form.  And the maggots are also spirits, tied to it in some sick symbiosis.

The bear notices her studying it, and looks back at her.  Its eyes hold deep pain.

.........Another thing that can see through all her stealth. Is her flight just hopeless?

Regardless. It's clear enough that what she's about to do can be interpreted as a mercy kill.

It reminds her of the sick shit that the parasitic or body-stealing sorts of cryptids put people through. Some things just need to burn.

Actinic blue fires rush out, blooming hot and high. They're meant to only burn the rot, the evil, the foul, and the bindings that hold it here. As painless as possible. Will it work on this strange sort of spirit? They're magical fire, they should. If not, she has little else to try.

"O illumine, the soft clouds that lace the sky... Take this one in your arms and give them sleep."

The bear silently and solemnly allows the flame to wash over him.  It takes a moment, but indeed, the maggots and the binding holding them to the bear-spirit burn away.  The bear is fatally wounded without the binding, but it's eyes seem to thank Weiss as it passes away and its spirit is free from its tainted body.

Something shifts subtly in the forest, some balance is disturbed...

For the good and light, one hopes. Though she is beginning to suspect that the Light Gods have no reach here. Or very limited reach.

Tamamo is usually too chatty.

Sigh.

A bit of time in Not Horrible Wasteland can't hurt anything too much, can it? Just an hour or two of laying here, among trees.

It is indeed peaceful for the first half hour or so...

But before an hour has passed, someone comes from the direction of the cave.

It is a strange looking dwarf woman.  She bears a magical amulet that matches the brand Weiss has seen on some of the animals in the forest.  She walks over to the corpse of the bear.

"Oh Orso…"

She casts a spell and proceeds to look around the area.

Weiss closes her eyes and tries to ignore a steadily building sense of dread. Impulsively interfering and destroying things might have bitten her once again. Maybe it was spreading corruption over time, or maybe she burned before thinking, again. And should have just moved on.

But the pain... Who would do such a thing to a nature spirit? It can't be for a good cause... Right?

After looking over the bear more closely, something seems to occur to the dwarf woman and she suddenly seems frightened.  She casts a few spells on herself.  She looks around, but can't seem to see Weiss.

"You've doomed this forest you know!"

She speaks loudly, just short of yelling and Weiss can hear her clearly.

Oh yeah? Fuck you. Fuck everything. Maybe she should burn the whole world, when so much of it sucks like this.

Horrible rot monsters get fire. That's her rule, and the priors that created it still make sense.

Sigh.

With no response Soana turns back to the bear.  (It was a long shot that the perpetrator was still in earshot and that they could be talked around into usefully helping.)

The forest isn't actually doomed if she can bind another spirit strong enough to serve as a keystone.

She sadly starts butchering the bear, it's body parts and organs might serve as useful foci, catalysts, and reagents for another binding ritual.

A particular cloud catches her attention, seeming oddly soft and comfortable among the sad sky.

There is a wordless sense of endurance and hope to it. These terrible things are terrible indeed, and you are trying, and that is good. And things can be better.

She is doing what she thinks she must. As are you. It's hard, but it can be okay in the end.

There coalesces from nowhere in particular a weary boar spirit. It has been sent by the god of Cloud, and knows that there is painful work here, and is willing in the way spirits are, not exactly in humanoid terms, but because of its nature. Save and suffer and then in time be saved.

Maybe the God of whatever foolish do-gooder slew Orso has decided to take pity on her forest?

She doesn't actually have all the materials for the bindings and rituals on her right now... although if the spirit is actually truly willing she could take some shortcuts and get started now?

She considers carefully...

She addresses the spirit.

"How much time were you thinking of serving the forest in this way?"

Even just 3 years would probably be worth the expenditure of ritual components and reagents, she could use that time to find another spirit.  7 would be more preferable.  And she is kind of hoping this is one of the spirits that is bad at mortal time and will agree to decades without really considering how long that is to suffer.

"I can establish the basic binding now, but I'll need to supplement it with additional abyssal spirits over time for it to properly anchor the forest against the Abyss."

If it can't talk or can't even properly understand her, she has a few open slots she can try to use for communicating properly.

The Mist Boar from Carmine Valley cloud forest is kind of fuzzy on the whole 'time' thing. It's had twenty and two winters of peace since its last duty, so perhaps twenty and two years again of burden. A long time, but nothing in the face of eternity.

"That time should be sufficient to be worth the ritual.  I may wish to release your binding earlier than that if it threatens you with a true death."

She begins rummaging through her pouch and through her pockets.

"The initial binding will feel like a weight, then a prick, then some numbness, I have a technique and a concoction to ease the first connection."

She approaches slowly and carefully, circling around and looking for the right spots to bind the first maggoty abyssal spirits to where they will be far away from any vital organs.  With Orso's corpse right there, she can incorporate it into the ritual.

The Mist Boar will cooperate even if there is a faint sense of 'maybe keep trying to find something better'.

That's

Illumine

Not damning her, but the goddess of hope and healing never would. Nor praising her, for she made such intervention necessary

A lot of feelings 

She can't watch. She leaves and returns to her run. Onward, onward, towards the mountains.

It is just as well, a spiritual being like a Kitsune lingering nearby might throw off the rituals.

The Woods are as they are before.  The area she just left was the most lively patch of it she's seen yet, there is some variance, but it is all dying and decaying and falling into ruin to at least some degree.  As she comes to a foothill of the mountains, there are several sites and potential path that stand out.

She could take the straightest path to the mountains, if she does this, she might be at the start of the mountain by the time she next exits the Woods.

There is a ruined church, with something dark underneath it, in a way distinct from the darkness of the crevasses.

There is a ruined fortress, sitting uneasily over an especially large crevasse, almost more like a bottomless canyon.  It seems the fortress was once built into the mountains, but a crevasse open and tore down the mountain from around it.

There are standing stones, arranged in some puzzling manner that just begs to be solved by an inquiring mind.

She's still tired and scared, but that excuse can only hold up for so long. Maybe there's something useful in these places. She'll check out the ruined fortress first, it seems the most - open and traversable with her advantage in mobility over most things.

Upon exiting the woods, she will realize that although the fortress is ruined, as the Woods indicated, it is not abandoned!  Monsters like the ones that chased her ought of the village are milling around.  Some are scattered on top of the ramparts, not so much acting like guards, but more like they want their space from each other and the ramparts were convenient for that.

...WELP. She's glad she dropped out a decent distance away. Any red guys visible? Maybe she should... Illusion herself as something unsuspicious. Maybe call up spooky fog. That rather gives up that something is going on though.

...She'll prowl the perimeter a bit, watching. She's sort of getting the sense that these ones are the baddies, from the weird illusion (and one of them randomly stabbing a civilian), and so on. That's thin to go on to start attacking though.

There are some of those red guys!  A few of them above the gate to the fortress actually look like they are putting in half-assed efforts as sentries (as opposed to not even trying, like most of the monsters).

One of them has spotted the spooky fog and is openly staring at it, but he (she? it?) doesn't seem to be raising any alarms.

She ran from them once before, successfully...

Once there's a nice setup of fog, and she has an idea which corners are being watched by less attentive sentries-

-Smaller bodies are easier to sneak around with. She'll pick a section of wall that seems especially abandoned, particularly by red guys, and creep forward invisibly, and leap to the top of the walls and have a very quick look around, looking for things she needs to react to immediately.

Along the western side of the fortress city, where the wall meets rock, she can find a path to clamber up, and there doesn't seem to be any more red ones watching along that edge.

From atop the wall at this angle, she can see the fortress has two layers of walls, and an inner keep.  It is built going up the hill.

The city is despoiled with many building in disrepair, trash in the streets, and more of the monsters loitering around.  There are a few humans among them, most of them moving more purposefully and taking care to avoid getting to close to any of the monsters.  Some of the humans are wearing horned masks and many carry crossbows, scythes, or glaives.

She's suddenly struck by how she doesn't really know how forts work. They're not really meant to stand up to Cryptids, and that's the only time she's ever close to one, fighing a Cryptid. The design feels unfamiliar. It's really more of a small walled town than a fort at this point, isn't it?

Watching the monsters in their natural habitat, so to speak, might be informative. It's pretty troubling that these 'monsters' are intelligent. Some part of her is oddly sure that they're definitely evil - the same sort of vague recognition that her kitsune-senses for Curse energy and Cryptids detect-

She tries to carefully work her way inward, still covered by All The Illusions and just... Watching what people are getting up to. ...Actually she pulls out the wand of Sinnah's Fly and holds it at the ready, in case she has to escape in a big hurry. She's on the lookout for magic stuff, too.

The monster mostly keep their distance from each other, occasionally one will accidentally or intentionally get too close and a fight will break out.  None of the fights are actually to the death, but some look pretty close.  Some humans crossing through the streets of the fortress city get garbage thrown at them by one of the squat, fat monsters.  Over in another corner of the city, a red monster brandishes its spear (the red monsters seem to strongly favor spears, while other monsters prefer claws) threateningly at some humans that pass to close to its area.

Many of the monsters are innately magical to some degree, as if they had spells constantly running built directly into their bodies.  The red monsters, for example, have innately magical eyes.  Also, if she's paying attention to how their body interacts with the environment... it looks like their skin is literally coated in slimy acid.

If she watches long enough, she might notice occasionally notice a monster suddenly appearing or disappearing, perhaps via teleportation, or perhaps via some form of invisibility activating and deactivating?  

Eventually, a monster with two sets of arms (giant crab claws on the outside, and more human like arms on the inside) comes out and looks over the spot where Weiss's illusionary fog first appeared.

It's pretty convincing fog! It'll condense on weapons and skin and everything! It's probably some sort of spell. This kind of fog is pretty unnatural. But even if you could tell it was an illusion, it wouldn't go away.

(Invisible foxgirl wants to avoid Red Guys, and also wants to know: Is a massive predisposition to random cruelty pretty much universal among nonhumans in this city? She's really strongly predisposed against just starting blasting, but...)

The crab-armed monster looks over the fog carefully, then disappears in a crack.

Random cruelty seems pretty common among the monsters!  Some of the fat, squat monsters seem more inclined to just sleep, but even they seem eager to at least threaten violence if anything weaker than them (like on of the uncommon humans) happens to bother them.

......Would it be unwise to intervene? Maybe-probably. Will she, if she detects an unusual level of cruelty on display?

Probably.

She's like that. Even knowing that she can't salvage a whole city alone.

...

...Maybe she can do some kind of contingent meta-illusion search for underground spaces. Dungeons. Or, like, people locked up generally? She can define metal restraints in physical terms well enough... And illusions can react to facets of reality...

...She keeps working her way closer in as she thinks. Under her invisibility, she's going to disguise herself as an Ordinary Downtrodden Human TM.

The crab-armed monster from earlier has come back out with a few more monsters following along behind him, and seems to be calling other monsters to attention and inspecting them.  It's a big city, and luckily it seems it has turned the other way for the moment.

One of the more human like monsters following along turns off and walks in another direction, not directly toward Weiss, but in her general direction.

A voice speaks into Weiss's head.

They are on to you, they know someone has been casting an unusual style of illusion.  The Glabrezu, the demon with crab arms on the outside, has true seeing and can see straight through any illusion it gets within 120 feet of.  The Marilith Aponavicius, that is a demon with a snake-like lower body and six arms, if she comes out, she also has true seeing.  The Babau, the red demons, can see invisibility at any range, but can't see illusion in general.  And many demons have generally better sense and perception than mortals. 

Uh huh.

Random voices in her head are ~definitely trustworthy~ and she will commit the whole thing to memory.

NOT.

The really big, Cryptid-type ones can probably see through illusion, or so is claimed, it's not unbelievable. Maybe she can make an illusory bridge that holds up her and not them, if they chase her.

...The "army" of nonhuman-things here appears to only be a real army so much as a mob is. They're not gonna be able to grid search.

Why is she even here. What is she hoping to gain. Information? Magic stuff? Some sort of - not being lonely - allies against Horns Lady?

Sigh.

She pauses and makes sure that, under all the illusion work, she's wearing a dark hood and coat that look... Peasant-y enough and conceal her ears and tail. And watch the new horns lady who is coming after her with a remote illusion-lens-thing high high in the air and zoomed in. Drone view, like.

The crab-armed demon is indeed failing to do a proper grid search.  Some lesser demon is slow to answer his demands, and he rips it apart with his claws.  An idea seem to occur to him, and he grabs one of the humans milling about...

What is it... oh no.

Arueshalae continues walking not quite towards Weiss.

The Glabrezu is coercing one of the human cultist into a mental state where they will be able to use one of the Glabrezu's wishes, I think probably something intended to reveal your location or help with the search for the illusionist?  I know it is probably pretty unbelievable that a succubus like me would be trying to help you, but I really am trying to help you... it's a long story.

Look. That is Sus. So very sus. And anything I mention while questioning this is more info to lie with so, you know, some sus sauce for the top of the sus steak. This entire region is like vomit pie made of evil and dread.

But you might not like Crab Guy much, so. Can I make it a waste of his time and effort somehow?

You're in the Worldwound, you know, the rift leading to the Abyss that was opened up a century ago?  I don't know exactly what form the wish will take it, it could basically end up being any spell of 8th circle of below directed towards solving that cultist's most intense desire, which the Glabrezu is working to make sure is about finding you.  If I know in advance how the wish would work out I could try to warn you... I could get closer to mind read the cultist but then I would be out of range of the telepathy I am using to talk to you.

He's taking his time with it.  It is actually quite tricky to direct abyssal wishes granted to mortals in useful directions!  He can't just hurt the mortal, otherwise their wish will be for healing.  He can't make himself the enemy (too much), otherwise the mortal's desires will be lashing out at himself.  And abyssal wishes tend towards really twisted and destructed directions, so even once he gets the mortal in the right mental state with the right desires it's going to be tricky to keep the wish constructive and useful.

He has one succubus helping him by layering on suggestions, but it's still taking a while.  "Get over here Arueshalae, help us work over this mortal!"

She turns back.  I'll try to think of a way to mess up the wish that they won't notice.

Ughhhhhhhhh this is painful to watch.

This is going to be Expen$ive, but NYEH.

Hey. She's halping, ya dingus. She has a PORTRAIT. Multiple of them! Important. [Impression of an ear-scritch.]

My goddess just said you're legit. Want ME to cover YOU out of here?

Do you worship Desna also?  I had a plan to try to collect some useful information, I think the demons will have another big attack ready within the next year or two.  I can probably escape at almost anytime, but I want to do something to make up for, well, sorry going out of range.

"Never mind, we've got it!"

A wave of tainted energy pours forth from the Glabrezu.  Every illusion within two thousand feet (including Weiss's illusions) is dispelled.

"Shit!"

Okay fuckthis wand out, command word Sinnah's Fly-

-pause for just half a round to put a self-hiding tracker illusion on Aree-whoever, and shove a really generous amount of energy in so it'll last-

-Sinnah's Fly is extremely fucking fast when you are really booking it. It starts at highway speeds and can get up to airliner speeds in straight lines, if you have the right supportive spells active. Maybe she should have brought it out earlier, but she definitely is going to make best use of it now.

The locals might get parting shots before she's too high if they're quick.

She draws her bow like she is going to take a shot, she is desperately weighing how much she can stall before it will look suspicious.  Luckily she only has to delay a moment, that flight spell is far faster than any ordinary flight spell.

"That was too fast for a flight spell, it is probably a new illusion, search the area!"  The wish was supposed to stop new illusions from forming as well, at least for a little bit, but abyssal wishcraft is finicky even by the standards of wishes.

A brimorak uses it's fireball, but Weiss is accelerating so quickly she is past the radius of the explosion before it can go off.  No one else is even close to getting a shot off in time!  

Flying high up in the sky, there is a definitive pattern in the landscape, the rifts and ruin are worse to the Southwest and more moderate to the East and North.  It is a cold and barren landscape even without the Abyssal ruin, but off to the East edge of the horizon it looks like it might actually be clear of the horrors?

Her mind unaccountably goes to Sun Wukong and his Journey to the West, at this observation. She's going East.

I marked you with sneaky magic, I might contact you again. her tracker-illusion will mention, whisper quiet. (Unless it was destabilized by the aftereffects of... Whatever that was. A genie wish??)

Sinnah's Fly is kind of powerful. And the wand she has is a high-power version of it, even. She could probably reach space before it expired if she could breathe up there. It's too powerful to actually go all out - even once she points into the wind and lets it slam and ripple over her at over a hundred miles an hour. She would start really injuring herself, outpacing her regeneration, if she tried to go too much faster.

...She refreshes all her anti-Horns Lady illusions, once she catches her metaphorical breath.

...Regardless, she's definitely going east. She didn't want to burn irreplaceable wand charges, but now that she has, she's going to use it to clear as much distance as possible.

She can't figure out how to reply to the illusion, it might only be one way.  Who was that?  Some lone adventurer on a reckless spying mission?  But they did not seem nearly as prepared as a spellcaster with uniquely powerful illusions and flying magic ought to have been.  Well, she can't exactly get mad at other people trying to pull off reckless spying.

The demons know she has some unique abilities as a tracker, she could use that as an excuse to pursue the adventurer...

Over the next half hour, Weiss passes ruined fortresses and abandoned buildings below.  As her flight spell comes to an end, she can make out a fortress that looks like it is still inhabited off in the distance. 

Sinnah's Fly warns you when it's going to expire - well, the feeling is really alien actually, but you learn to interpret it as a warning. So she knows when to take one more good look around, making a mental map, and let herself fall towards the ground. The Feather Fall it casts at the very end takes her gently to snowy stone.

She's gonna curl up here and not-quite-cry the way she can do in quadruped form, for a while, actually. She'd definitely be crying if she had just two legs. (Invisible. Of course. Just... Augh.)

...

...Reeeeeeach out across great distances, searching, searching, for the piece of magic that is her, that is redacting the appearance of reality into the way she prefers and link-

-This is expensive. But she continues to regain energy faster than usual, she's pretty sure. She can afford short bursts.

Hey. I can hear you, for a little bit. It just seems important to talk, goddess Tamamo all but asked me to. If it's a bad time I can try again later. I don't know most anything about this place. Someone's after me still...

She is searching through the abandoned buildings of Drezen, the Glabrezu is convinced the flight is an illusion and is organizing the demons (so much as they can be organized, which isn't much) in searching the city.  And Arueshalae has made a habit of making herself unusually helpful (by demon standards) in order to be in position to get the best information she can.  So she is alone when the (illusion based?) communication comes through, and with a few glances she is sure she is safe to talk.

I have time.  Any communication limits I should manage?  Duration, wordcount, something unusual?  Glabrezu thinks flight was illusion, was too fast, organizing city search.  

She picks her words carefully but swiftly and allows some slight (but not illegible or ambiguous) grammatical errors to save on word count in case this spell is like Sending or Dream.  Actually, there is one obvious thing to try.

Testing word count?  Did you get all of that?

Duration, concentration.

Flight was a wand charge, three left.

I was kidnapped by- 

Helpful silent image of Areelu Vorlesh! 

-Escaped with probably luck. Suspect she's after me.

That is Areelu Vorlesh, the architect of the Worldwound, archtraitor to humanity.  How did you even escape?  And I would assume she could recapture you quickly if she actually tries, a Discern Location or Greater Scrying would get your location, then she could follow up with a Greater Teleport or Gate directly to you while under so many spells you wouldn't have a chance against her, even with your unusually good illusions.

....I think divine intervention told me how to evade Discern Location, the illusion She told me to cast was - abstract and made no sense until now. Unless it avoids Discern Lofation. I did get scried a few times but I blacked out the sensors. I have deep and powerful illusion sorcery. I'm not from around here, this magic is weird, and-

-I think she's trying to replace me? Reincarnated someone into me? She seemed... Desperately hopeful, and did something before I got away, and now I'm starting to vaguely recognize things I shouldn't. Like the mind control, I know she must have LET me do things, didn't think I could actually leave. And I know this language.

Those are the most obvious strategies Areelu has to find you.  Give me a moment and I'll try to think of the less obvious strategies she might try next and maybe how illusions could counter them.  As to replacing you... the rumors do say that Areelu opened the Worldwound in revenge against Sarkoris.  I assumed that meant against the inquisition persecuting her, but maybe if she lost someone to them... except I don't know why she wouldn't just use an ordinary True Resurrection, she should have the means to get one, one way or another.

 It sounds like a terrible tragedy and also she needs to be thinking of Archmage tricks for tracking a person that can beat the standard methods... 

(I really hope you're right about this person, Tamamo.)

It's scary. Maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite, suddenly caring when my own safety is torn away, but it's- Ego death is still a form of death, who am I and how do I know I still am that person?

I was never really afraid, not of death, because I know I'd reincarnate. Except now- It's soul nonsense. So I don't know. I know some assholes would say this kind of fear is 'good for me' or 'a bit of perspective'... Ugh... 

If she lost someone...

She can see the outline in her head. Desperate hope and hopeful desperation, lines not crossed but outroght ignored, fury and spite at anyone who says 'wait, that's evil'.

Well, that's awful. I did not volunteer for this though. Like- It's better than pointless blood sacrifice, but not by much, from my perspective...

She isn't sure what comforting thing to say about that well actually she can generate a maximally comforting thing to say but it would be a total lie completely made up for purposes of manipulation.  And the concept of personality death... actually bothers her personally for some reason?  She'll focus on what she can actually help with.

So in terms of other things Areelu might try next... given a few months to a year to buy one or steal one or make one, Areelu can get a crystal ball that can do a scrying that pierces through illusions like a true sight could.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't already have one nor do any demon factions she's allied with.  I've heard rumors of a variant of the spell sending that will let her send a geass or maybe a suggestion (I'm not sure which) with the sending.  Do you know what sending is?  I've also heard of a variant of the spell dream that can send any spell with it, I think that might be Lamashtu cleric only?  But Areelu might have the spell, witches get some cleric spells.  She doesn't have any high level cleric lamashtu allies or servants she could get to cast it for her.  Are you following so far.

She's probably message-suggested me. I knew that line of thought was weird- About past lives, forgotten memories-

Sending is normally 25 words, I haven't ever heard of any tricks to get more words in.  You normally get a sense of who is sending you, but I can almost see how a few tricks around that might work, I bet Areelu could make it seem like your own thoughts.  Suggestion normally makes some course of action or thought on the target creature that fits into a sentence or two and is at least somewhat reasonable sound much more reasonable.  …There is a lot you can fit into "somewhat reasonable".

She knows that very very well from personal practice.

She might be building up to a more critical suggestion by getting some other suggestions in place first.  A suggestion cast by Areelu will last 20 hours, 40 hours if she extends it.  Maybe a few extra hours if she boosts her casting strength beforehand?  You might get a few minutes free of an existing effect if you get Protection from Evil or Protection from Chaos cast on you, but probably not, Areelu's spellcasting is very powerful and hard to resist.  Likewise if you step into a Magic Circle Against Evil or a Magic Circle Against Chaos.

...I'll keep all this in mind. And try to hold very firmly that mind control is a thing and notice if I'm acting weird, I guess... I guess there's just not a lot you can do if a strong wizard is after you, specifically.

I should probably conserve energy and go soon. And it'll be harder to contact you at longer range. I think I'm near the edge of this place...

You don't need anything? Things to help others with, even?

I... I'm trying to collect information to aid the crusaders against the demons.  Except if they knew I was succubus they wouldn't trust me.  If your God personally informed you that you could trust me, that would help a lot.  Was it Desna?  Desna was the reason I was able to repent at all... anway, I think with short of a commune with a trusted God the crusaders won't trust me, faking repentance is like the 4th or 5th most common scam succubi like pulling on people.

My goddess, if I have one, is Tamamo. Chaotic... Either Neutral or Good? Probably Neutral. She likes foxes, she makes Tirran kitsunes like me, she likes... Sex and pranks and performance art and protecting people and taking down hypocrites.

...That's bad. People don't trust Tirran kitsunes much either because we tend to run the range of Chaotic, good to evil. Freeing slaves and gaslighting people into doing evil at the extremes. Well- It's a bit complicated, but yeah.

I personally trust Tamamo, chaos or not. And it would be way harder for someone else to replicate the... Feeling of Her. She'll prank me but she won't REALLY betray me.

They probably won't trust a revelation you got from your God then.  And even if they would in principle, succubi might try layering on suggestions and other magic to fake a divine revelation, so if it happened with any succubi recently near you they won't trust it.  Desna at least knows about my situation, so if you can get one of her priests to commune about me that would help?

Back to the question or Areelu... I've heard rumors her power is tied to the Worldwound.  Or at least, the mythic semi-divine aspect of her power is, she is probably still a very high circle caster even independently of the Worldwound, even if the rumors are mostly true.  Anyway, at the speed you were flying... I don't know how long it lasts, but even an hour or two at that speed should get you past the Wardstone containing the Worldwound.

Half an hour... The worldwound also gives me more energy. No new capabilities, but freer use of them. I probably should leave though, if she's less free to act away from it.

Thank you. We're both... Trying. May we continue to do a bit better than before.

I don't know if you have any need of supplies or resources, the northern border of the Worldwound is held by Cheliax.  They are Asmodeans, but have a treaty in place.  Do you understand what that means?

-No. Oppressive regime?

Asmodeous sounds evil.

They worship the Lawful Evil Ruler of Hell, Asmodeus.  Like their God, they keep the letter of their deals and contracts, while trying to manipulate and abuse the contract in their favor.  I think the ones at the Worldwound are maybe relatively better, since the Worldwound defense treaty is important to them in the long term, but still, you should be very careful if you stop by any of their forts for aid.  I think also by the letter of the treaty they are allowed to charge you a standard rate for any aid they give you past the very bare minimums?   If you don't need immediate help, you might want to cross the Wardstone border, then head south along it until you get to Mendev.  Also I think any of the Worldwound defenders, whether Chelish or Mendevian or Lastwaller, will be suspicious and want to examine you with detect magic and other divinations without your illusions active.  Maybe you should just keep going if you can, get entirely away from the Worldwound and people won't be as paranoid.

I was headed east. Maybe I should just keep going. This place clearly needs a lot of help and it seems cowardly to just abandon it... Way, way more help than I can manage alone... I know from experience that throwing myself into doomed causes tends to break me. And also I have to consider whether the lady who is probably Areelu Vorlesh will menace any friends or allies I find... The one problem with that is, I'm not sure I can maintain anti-scrying illusions and anti-discern location illusions while surviving alone, they're kind of expensive.

There's no way I'm dropping my illusions. And the more people who see me, the more ways for her to hear about where I am and what I've been up to...  Maybe I should invent a whole new persona but I've always been bad at that kind of thing...

You'll need illusions that trick detect magic itself, and if anyone learns you've concealed yourself against the standard divinatory checks they will be even more suspicious of you.  But I don't think you can afford the risk that Areelu finds you while they are down.  If you could convince someone powerful, maybe Lastwall's leadership, of your story, they might be interested in the possibility of using you against Areelu, maybe setting a trap for her.

I figured out illusions that hide from my own arcane sight... I'm not sure how to CHECK if it's the same thing.

...I don't generally trust powerful organizations to have sensible responses to things.

Cheliax will look for some angle to advantage their Diabolical masters.  And Mendev is weary of this war nearly to the point of breaking.  But Lastwall at least carries out their procedures and protocols consistently and reliably.  Too reliably for me to work with them though, they would never let a succubus get anywhere close to being trusted.

...And Tirran kitsunes have no such pre-determined bias against them, I suppose. I think, we are, fundamentally different things than demons.

I don't know Lastwall, though, and that sounds really very scary and stressful. I'd almost trust priestesses of the gods at home, but... I don't think Lastwall follows those, probably.

I meant to ask about that, do we have time do talk about more details?  You sound like you aren't from this continent, is Tirra a nation in Tian Xia?

I'm fairly negative on energy regeneration while talking to you but it would be worse later, and- I want to talk to someone, and you're guaranteed by Tamamo, so even if it's maybe unwise I want to continue talking. It makes you a little crazy to run for days and not talk to anyone.

No, I don't think so. Tirra is a planet. How many planets circle this star? I'm quite sure there should be six others. A molten one, a gas giant, three ice balls, and a small rocky distant one.

I'm not exactly sure.  There is Castrovel, the planet the elves come from, Eox, were everyone is dead or undead, oh, and I think Triaxians come from a planet near this one.  The planet we are on is Golarion.  If you've ever heard of Rovagug, the ancient Qlippoth the Gods sealed away, this is the planet where it is sealed.  I think there are at least a few more inhabited planets circling this star.

Definitely not my home planet, then. The Light Gods are the nine sanctioned deities of Tirra. They're all good if maybe not all Good.

Or the original home planet, either. (...She keeps quiet about that bit, unsure why even to herself. Perhaps it's just habit.)

I’m not sure what you need to know most urgently.  Should I tell you about this planet’s Gods?  Or maybe more about Areelu and her abilities?  Or about the Worldwound itself or the Abyss which connects to it?

...I don't know. I guess I'm not sure. The Worldwound seems very - cursed. We have places like that, 'cursed lands', most of Tirra is at least slightly cursed and some places are much, much worse, but it's not actively getting even more worse. Slowly getting better if anything.

The Worldwound isn’t getting better, if anything it’s getting worse over time, the rifts to the Abyss are spreading.  It took a miracle to make the Wardstones the first time, so the Wardstone defenders can’t get more and they can’t spread them much further without critically dropping their effectiveness in containing the demons and rifts.  Once the rifts cross the Wardstone line it will spiral out of control very quickly…

Probably the Gods step in again at that point, they don’t want Rovagug to be released, but their intervention may be simply smiting everything in the area, since any such intervention will be a compromise between the Good Gods and the non-demonic Evil Gods.

This re-contextualizes some old myths for me. They say the Light Gods could have averted a Cataclysm, but did not, choosing instead to shatter the dark gods in that moment where forces came to culmination. To accept a terrible, awful price in order to create a world where Good is united and Evil is not. That Evil and Good gods would be working at cross-purposes... It would be like...

Okay DOES SHE trust Arue though.

Yes. Have faith in the fox, Tamamo.

Like the old Great Powers and their arms race, building weapons that could destroy the world because it would be intolerable for the other guys to have them when you do not, they could tell you to sit and roll over and you'd have to and we can't LOSE, so let's play brinksmanship with destroying the world and send thousands of people off to kill each other in foreign wars instead.

I'm not sure I really follow what you're talking about?  You mean the history of the planet you came from?  Your Good gods worked to betray the Evil Gods?  Does this mean your planet doesn't have any Evil gods active on it?

She really isn't sure what to feel about that... the Asmodeans help to contain the Worldwound, but she's pretty sure Asmodeus conquering the world wouldn't be much better than demons doing so...

Sorry. I'm being confusing. I'm stressed. There are no Evil gods active on Tirra... I don't know exactly how it went down. But it's said that the Light Gods could have stopped the cataclysm, or ensured there were no Evil gods, and they picked the latter. But it was an incredibly awful cost, even just seeing the implications millenia later.

That must be nice... should I try to give you a basic set of warnings and advice on the Evil Gods of this planet?

I think it is nice, yes. Yeah that would be good... Thanks.

She's only just now realizing that she has Sudden Background Knowledge, which is worrying as all fuck because it implies the pod person memory thing is working.