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Post by Kikyo / Jaken on Jan 2, 2012 22:12:18 GMT -6
Kikyo did not like the South. The South was hot and there was enough ash to stain her white shirt and socks. The ash came from the volcanoes that erupted at least once a week somewhere in the South.
Kikyo looked at the sky. It was blue because although she was in the south she was on the border of the west. Kikyo knew that in the south the sky was red. However she had to look down to keep the ash out of her eyes.
Kikyo knew that in the south on the border of the west there was a village. The village had a port. Kikyo thought that a village with a port would be a good village to stop at.
Kikyo entered the village and stopped at the black-smith to re-stock on arrows. She learned from the black-smith that a ghoul had been eating corpses. Kikyo was interested and questioned him, "Tell me more about this ghoul."
The black-smith told her, "I haven't seen him. However, the corpses have been stolen before the corpses could be buried. If we do not stop the ghoul, our village will be haunted!"
"If you haven't seen him, how do you know that this is a ghoul?" A ghoul was a demon who ate dead flesh. However, there was no ghoul aura here. "Does it matter?" the black-smith responded "It does not matter whether it is a ghoul or a man. He has to be stopped! There is a reward, priestess."
Kikyo took the job and left the village. Near the village Kikyo encountered a barrier that a common villager would not notice. Upon further examination Kikyo realised that a common demon would not notice this barrier either. It was due to Kikyo's training as a priestess that she was able to sense it.
She removed the barrier. However, it was stronger than a regular barrier. It was morning. Kikyo assumed that who-ever was here whether it was a ghoul or a man did not like the sun.
Kikyo walked into the area and with a shout stepped into the entrance to the cave. The priestess fell through the entrance and landed on her leg. She grimaced in pain to avoid shouting.
She managed to stand and limp further into the cave. She had her bow drawn. Even with a wounded leg she would be able to kill a minor demon. She was surprised to smell herbs but not surprised to smell corpses.
The corpses were laid on tables. Although the corpses were not eaten the corpses had been cut open. Organs were on tables and some organs were in jars. Tools littered the tables and congealed blood littered the floor.
Kikyo realised that this was not a regular demon. It had a serpent demon aura, however, it was not a regular serpent demon. She had never encountered an aura like the aura here before. She was in awe, and leaned against a table to avoid pressure on her wounded leg.
She knew her leg would regenerate, but she hoped it would regenerate before the serpent demon encountered her. She would need to be at her full strength to battle this serpent.
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Post by Sesshoumaru / Yuunagi no Kimi on Jan 3, 2012 14:53:18 GMT -6
There was a tremor--a faint vibration that he felt riding up through the soles of his booted feet. It was not unlike the repetitive sensation of stepping.
Yuunagi frowned.
Something entered his pit. Something larger, much larger, than a rodent. He ducked behind a stalagmite, and pressed his his left palm flat against the damp stone, so that he might get a better feel of the vibrations. He closes his eyes to concentrate, and his head to the left, then to the right, in a manner reminiscent to that of a snake tasting the air. He inhaled as he drew his forked tongue across his bottom lip.
The scents of drying oil, tree resin and beeswax were easily the most prominent--it was an embalming mixture he learned in his travels through Egypt. It had proven quite useful for preserving the bodies in a manner that left their flesh almost life-like. Past the mixture, lied the scent of chemicals and death. Further still, that of earth and clay.
His brows furrowed as he tasted the air again, trying to find a new scent amidst the familiar. Yet, none come be found. The serpent felt the vibration again, and his nose twitched as he used his second sight--his is heat vision. He could see the bats high in the cavern’s ceiling alcove, as well as the flickering flames of the candles he used to light the chamber. He could see that something was moving along the entrance--like a slight, cooler, distortion in the warmer air. The shape was humanoid, but did not carry the warmth of one.
What manner of creature was this?
His curiosity was piqued.
There was a rustle of fabric as Yuunagi steeped out from behind the stalagmite, and stepped toward to face the direction of the intruder. He stood at full height and squared his shoulders.
The serpent was sure to make for a strange sight. He wore a long, bloody, brown robe of foreign design. It obscured most of clothing from view, but the collar of a Mandarin design could be seen where the robe opened at his neck. On his feet, boots that looked to be made of leather, rather than cloth, could be seen. Upon the bridge of his nose, and over his eyes, sat two circular glass lenses affixed to a metal framing which resembled open scissors.
He stood in the chamber’s dim candlelight as he stared forward in a narrow-eyed gaze; although, that gaze was more of squint than anything else. Vaguely, he could make out the form of a woman--a woman garbed in the attire of a human priestess.
Yet, he highly doubted that she was what she appeared to be to the naked eye.
Not wanting to break the silence, he opted instead to merely stand and observe. He’d let the woman make her move first, and evaluate what to do from there.
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Post by Kikyo / Jaken on Jan 3, 2012 17:20:45 GMT -6
Although Kikyo could not hear Yuunagi Kikyo could sense him. She held her breath when she realised Yuunagi was in the same room as her. She was afraid to look at him because she assumed that when Yuunagi realised Kikyo knew he was here, he would attack.
Kikyo was not strong enough to fight Yuunagi with or without her injured leg. She felt his aura now and it was stronger than she had imagined. "Is he a dai-yokai?" Kikyo assumed that Yuunagi had to be a dai-yokai because she had never encountered a regular yokai this powerful.
Kikyo released her breath and said to him without turning to him, "The villagers told me you were a ghoul." She turned around to look at him and saw a tall, thin man with unusual brown hair and blue eyes. He wore clothing that she had never seen before that she thought was demon clothing.
He was an attractive man, but Kikyo knew that an attractive man did not have to have an attractive soul. She smiled in disappointment. She was disappointed in her sense of judgment. "I should have known better. I should not have trusted the villagers."
Kikyo drew an arrow from her quiver. "I am a strong priestess, but not strong enough to kill you. However, I am not an easy opponent although I am wounded." Kikyo had a good range with a bow but because it was dark she took a step forward and fell.
Although Kikyo did not fall often she had moved too fast for her leg, which had a slight crack. When she fell she dropped her bow and her arrow. "Damn." she thought. She tried to reach for them, but they were beyond her reach.
Kikyo sighed and closed her eyes. She had been resurrected to die unappeased. Kikyo again was disappointed in her sense of judgment. She should have known better than to trust the villagers. She should have re-searched this "ghoul" before she acted.
However, this "ghoul" was more than a viper demon. She had known that since she had entered this cave. "What are you?" Kikyo asked although she did not expect a reply.
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Post by Sesshoumaru / Yuunagi no Kimi on Jan 3, 2012 21:47:00 GMT -6
It was a woman who seemed to be injured.
A leg wound perhaps?
With the way she fell after stepping, it most certainly seemed so. The viper moved forward, passing the bow. One hand moved to rest on her shoulder as he kneeled next to the woman.
Instead of answering with what he was, he said, “Soregashi wa Yuunagi desu. I am Yuunagi. And you… what is your injury?”
On closer inspection, he could see that she was dressed in the garments of a miko. A this closer range, he could also taste the scent of reiki upon her. How very odd that a woman would have such a presence, yet be invisible to his second sight. It was a strange contradiction to him, and it left an uneasy feeling in his gut. At the same time, he was curious about how such a person could exist...
At least, it explained how she was able to get past his barrier—it would take someone with more powerful reiki than his to pass through, or even remove, it.
Although…
His reiki was not much to speak these days, not with the fall equinox drawing closer. It would not be long until the youkai blood within him started to peak.
But now was not the time to worry about that.
He had this intruder to consider, after all.
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Post by Kikyo / Jaken on Jan 4, 2012 19:49:53 GMT -6
When Yuunagi approached Kikyo, Kikyo put a hand in her sleeve. In her sleeve on her wrist Kikyo had an arm sheath. In the arm sheath was her tanto (knife). She kept it in her arm sheath as a hidden weapon.
Yuunagi knelt near Kikyo and reached out to touch her. Kikyo assumed that Yuunagi intended to strangle her, but was surprised when he touched her shoulder. Kikyo kept her hand on the hilt of her tanto until she realised that there was not an evil aura emanating from him.
He had a powerful aura, but he did not have an evil aura. When Yuunagi told Kikyo his name she removed her hand from her sleeve. "Yuunagi? Yuunagi is a name." Kikyo sighed, "He did not answer my question. I guess an irrelevant answer is good enough."
However, Kikyo remained cautious. When Yuunagi asked her where her injury was, she told him, "I injured my leg when I entered your cave. However, it is a minor injury and it does not need treatment." Kikyo did not want Yuunagi to examine her injury because it was not a regular injury.
Kikyo was unusual. Urasue had taken her bones and baked earth onto her bones as a replacement for flesh. Kikyo appeared identical to what she had been when she had been flesh. However, her organ structure was not the same. Urasue had given Kikyo a mind to think, lungs to speak and other basic organs but had not given her a heart.
Kikyo did not have a pulse because she did not have a heart. This was the reason she was cold to the touch. Although Yuunagi was a serpent demon (Kikyo assumed he was a serpent demon) and as a serpent demon was a cold-blooded animal, his hand was warmer than her shoulder. Kikyo looked at Yuunagi and saw him lick his lips with his forked tongue.
Kikyo did not know what else but a serpent demon would have a forked tongue. However, Kikyo knew serpent demons to be cruel demons. Kikyo decided she would continue their conversation. "Yuunagi, I am priestess Kikyo. I apologise that I entered your cave because you do not have an evil aura."
"However, I am not surprised that the villagers think you are evil. Although the villagers can not sense auras, the villagers have realised that you have been stealing their corpses. I realise now that the villagers spoke the truth because your cave is littered with corpses!" Kikyo glanced at congealed blood on the floor beside her, before she looked back at Yuunagi. "I am here because the villagers asked me to prevent you from stealing again."
"However, why did you steal them, Yuunagi?" Kikyo had seen the corpses on tables when she entered, cut open but not eaten. It was nothing she had ever seen before and she could not fathom how dissecting the corpses would benefit Yuunagi.
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Post by Sesshoumaru / Yuunagi no Kimi on Jan 6, 2012 14:33:07 GMT -6
After the young women stated she did not need treatment, Yuunagi have an acquiescent nod. This Kikyou certainly looked like she needed treatment--the fall from the cave entrances would not be an easy one for a human to take unscathed. Then again, she wasn't human, was she?
He did not know her true nature, but he could at least determine that much.
Therefore, Yuunagi opted instead to moved his hand from her shoulder to elbow, gesturing his intent to help her stand.
When Kikyou stated he did not have an evil aura, a small smile crossed his lips at the irony of such words. Over his long life, he had encountered many who had thought otherwise. Namely, those who thought his hobbies to be blasphemous.
Well...
By the western definition, he supposed they were correct--in the eyes of the unenlightened, he was quite the heathen devil.
Yuunagi was taken by surprise when Kikyou’s words soon turned to her accusing him of stealing the bodies--an accusation quickly followed by the demon to know why.
“Stealing their corpses?” Yuunagi repeated as he blinked in momentary surprise, “Certainly not.”
He took a step away from Kikyou and widened his arms in a sweeping gesture to indicate the contexts of the cavern. “They were dead. Soon to be discarded, like trash, through fire or pit. It’s such a wasteful ending, especially when I could put the remains to productive use.”
“You see...” He started as he stepped back to stand next to the table of the nearest cloth-draped body. “I am a cultivator of science and alchemy. Humans--especially--are curious creatures. I seek to understand their ways, so I took these bodies to further my research.”
“Consider this decedent.” Yuunagi stated as he pulled back the sheet to reveal a man who’d been cut open and gutted. “He was a hard working farmer. Husband and a father who toiled under the sun to bring food to his wife and children. He died of heat sickness--or, that is what the wife had told the villagers. I took the body and brought it here, so that I may study the nature of this sickness. I preformed an autopsy, and look what I found.” He moves over to a row of jars that looked to contain the man’s stomach and intestines. Next to them lay a small, flat ceramic tray. On it lay a green muck that looked like it might have once been a plant. “I removed the contents of his stomach, and within, found the leaves of the Li lu plant, of false hellebore. He was poisoned. Amateur in execution, I’m sure, but effective none the less. I’d venture to guess that it was his wife who had poisoned him. Such a method of murder is favored by women.”
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Post by Kikyo / Jaken on Jan 6, 2012 17:13:44 GMT -6
Kikyo listened to Yuunagi and his presentation made her feel strange. Kikyo thought that Yuunagi was similar to an actor, with his sweeping gestures and charismatic language. However, Yuunagi was not an actor in a regular performance.
His company were corpses, his crew were tools, and his props were organs in jars. His scenery was dark and dank and the candle light was ominous. His audience was her and the cave itself. In the distance, she heard the drip of water that resembled applause.
Kikyo limped to the farmer Yuunagi mentioned. She had seen enough death to be unaffected by the dead farmer. Kikyo did not kill humans in general (because as a priestess she protected humans), but humans and demons were similar when their corpses were strewn at her feet.
Kikyo observed the li lu plant from beside the farmer that Yuunagi said he found in the farmer. She contemplated what the villagers had told her and she contemplated what she had seen here. The villagers said Yuunagi was stealing corpses, but Yuunagi said that he had salvaged them.
Yuunagi had said something even stranger, however: that he was a "cultivator of science". This was a term Kikyo had not heard before. Kikyo had heard of spiritual power, Kikyo had heard of demonic power, and Kikyo had even heard of political power but she had never heard of science.
Although Kikyo did not know what science was, Kikyo did know what alchemy was. Kikyo dabbled in alchemy herself. She used alchemy to make medicine. However, Kikyo glanced at the half digested li lu plant and knew that she was not a skilled enough alchemist to recognise that plant in its current state.
Kikyo looked at Yuunagi again. She determined that Yuunagi was smart, but was ignorant. "You said that you were a 'cultivator of science'. I do not know what 'science' is but I can tell you more about humans than you will learn from human corpses."
"Humans are not like demons. While demons have small families, humans have large families. While demons are immortal, humans are mortal and die often. Although demons may value the lives of other demons, perhaps demons do not die often enough for them to value their corpses."
"Humans will lose their parents, their partners, and maybe their children to war or famine. Humans value their corpses because their corpses are all that remains when their soul is gone. I lost my mother when I was child. I had to raise my younger sister without my mother. I buried my mother in the village grave-yard and I visited the grave-yard when I was uncertain."
"I became a priestess because my mother was a priestess before me. Without her grave in the grave-yard, I would have felt distant from her. Although this unfortunate farmer," Kikyo glanced at the farmer, "was not loved by his partner he was loved by his children. What child does not love their parent?"
Kikyo looked back at Yuunagi, "If I were his child, I would want him to be buried. It is cruel to take that experience from those children." Kikyo considered how Yuunagi might feel about her words. Did he feel sadness? Did he feel anger? Did he feel anything at all?
From her experience, there were three kinds of demons. There were demons who appreciated humans, there were demons who were neutral about humans, and there were demons who despised humans. This was a personal choice, Kikyo decided, when she compared Inu no Taisho and his son Sesshomaru.
How Yuunagi felt about what she said would come back to how he felt about humans. Kikyo had told him how the village humans felt when their corpses were taken, but what he did came back to what kind of person he was.
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Post by Sesshoumaru / Yuunagi no Kimi on Jan 9, 2012 10:50:10 GMT -6
“Human children love their parents…”
Whether those words were a question, or a simple statement of fact, not even Yuunagi could determine. The truth was, the thought had never actually occurred to him. For all his brilliance, for all his studying, it was the humbling realizations like this that still managed to prove just how ignorant he truly was in the ways of humans. Yuunagi was still a novice when it came to understanding the finer idiosyncrasies of their culture.
That humans hold love for their progenitors was something he should have realized sooner. He had seen the graves where they deposited the bodies, yet, he was never quite cognizant that there was an emotional component attached to the act--at least, not one of this magnitude.
While he could not speak for other youkai breeds, among snakes such attachment to their parents was something completely foreign; after all, the old adage about snakes having no loyalty existed for a reason. Most of his kin, especially the lesser youkai, never knew their parts. Fathers would not stick with mothers after breeding, and mothers never remained with the eggs. Pups, once fully hatched, were quite capable of fending for themselves without the need of a parent. That he knew his own mother, that she was at least partially involved in his youth before she died, was something he had always attributed to her being a divine dragon. That, and dragons seemed oddly bird-like after the laying of their eggs.
While it held true among the lesser youkai that pups never new their parents, it was not quite so among the noble caste of the Viper Clan. True, they lacked notions of parental attachment, but it was tradition among the Snake Kings to keep tabs on his pups. The reason, however, was nothing sentimental--it was more so an act of self-preservation. The Snake King lived his life at the risk of one day being devoured by the strongest of his young.
Among the ruling snake daiyoukai, it was either strike or be struck. This was why, when he had learned about the death of his father as the talon of the Owls, he felt no compulsion to grieve. He never held such things as love, attachment or loyalty to his father--it was something he did not know how to feel. It was simply not how he was raised to see his father. In fact, had Yuunagi not left the pit-- had he chosen to follow the ways of the Viper Clan--he, himself, would have been the one to sly the older snake. He would have devoured his own father and taken his place; for this was the ’rite of passage’ into becoming a full-fledged a viper daiyoukai--to becoming the Hebi no Oh. The son cannibalizing the father was the tradition of the Viper Clan. It was their cycle of life, their concept of creation through destruction--of life, death, and renewal. In a way, they were not unlike the immortal ouroboros.
Regardless of his own upbringing, the knowledge of humans burying or burning their old still seemed very wasteful to him. He did not understand the rationality behind it—but, he was fast learning that humans lived by a rational very different than his own.
“Mah-mah....” Yuunagi sighed has he shifted his pale gaze away from the miko and toward the farmer’s corpse. His expression turned thoughtful as he added, “Humans are truly sentimental creatures in the most bizarre of ways.”
If there was any loyalty to be had amongst the brethren of the Viper Clan, it was amongst their own generation—amongst the Brothers and Sisters who dwell within the Pit of the Earth. However, such loyalties were tenuous in their nature, and only lasted as long as it was convenient. Still, upon learning about the death of his Brothers and Sisters, it had left a different taste on his tongue than did that of his Father. While he did not like most of them, there were a few to which he had grown… accustomed… before his departure from the pit.
Juro… Masaru… Katsumi…
A part of him wondered if they had survived the defeat of the Viper Clan. If there were any who evaded the Owl’s assassins, a part of him hoped it would be them.
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Post by Kikyo / Jaken on Jan 9, 2012 20:16:10 GMT -6
Kikyo nodded when Yuunagi said that humans were sentimental. "Humans are sentimental. It is our greatest strength..." Kikyo looked at Yuunagi with remorse. "... and our greatest weakness." The priestess sighed when she remembered that it had been her sentimentality that had betrayed her to her death.
"Most demons assume that sentimentality is a weakness. However, that sentimentality that demons ignore is what has allowed humans to survive. Humans may be weaker than demons, but while demons attack their own humans protect their own. It makes us strong."
Yuunagi did not look at Kikyo. He was looking at the farmer, but Kikyo could tell from the expression he wore that he was not thinking about the farmer. Kikyo took a step closer to Yuunagi. She held onto the table for balance as her leg had not healed. "You are not a regular snake demon, are you?"
Kikyo reached out and touched his cheek. It was a tentative touch, as though she expected Yuunagi to reject her. Kikyo was cold to the touch, colder even than Yuunagi . Kikyo attempted to sense his aura through touch. However, it was the same aura he had before.
"You are a snake demon but your aura is not evil. A regular snake demon would have an evil aura. A regular snake demon would have attacked me. However... I somehow sense... a benevolence from you." Kikyo smiled at the ironic situation she was in.
"However, whether you are regular or not you must have realised that I am not a regular human." Kikyo tried to make eye-contact with Yuunagi. Kikyo had no fear of Yuunagi now that she had sensed that, deep within him, there was good. He was not neutral, which is what Kikyo had expected. There was something beyond that.
Kikyo was a priestess. She had trained to search the hearts and souls of humans and demons. Yuunagi was no exception.
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Post by Sesshoumaru / Yuunagi no Kimi on Jan 10, 2012 11:59:54 GMT -6
Yuunagi made no move to jerk away when she touched his cheek. Instead, he leaned only slightly into her touch. He lips parted and he inhaled. His eyelids fell to half-mast. It was, perhaps, a movement that could be interpreted as affectionate--but for Yuunagi, such was not the case. As he inhaled, he took in a much clearer taste of her scent, so that he may pick them apart more thoroughly.
He made no move to pull away as he stood still under her touch. Rather, at this closer range, his eyes where finally able focus upon her. He watch her with a certain amount of curious intensity.
And he then spoke:
“What you speak, of strength garnered through the instinctual need to protect, is a predominantly mammalian trait. You claim that most demons view sentimentality as weakness--a human misconception. Granted, while there are youkai who view it as so, such can also be said true for humans. Likewise, as there are humans who use it as mechanism of survival, there are youkai who do the same. The bears in the woods are fiercely protective of their cubs. To similar extent, the dogs of the west, of their territory; the wolves of the north, of their pack. Just as in humans, sentimentality within youkai is the derivative of a territorial instinct, from which they are able to pull power... “
“And yet...” He paused, momentarily, to lift his hand to hers and remove her touch from his cheek. He held her hand in his own, feeling the porous texture of the skin on her palm with his fingers. His eyes drifted downward, and he could see that her skin was soft, and that it easily gave way to his touch.
He continued speaking, his words marking an odd contradiction against his actions. “Regardless of what I may know through observation, I do not understand sentimentally on a personal level. It is a weakness inherit in my kind.”
His eyes shifted back to Kikyo’s once again, “You noticed that I am part snake demon, Miko. Then you should know well that such feeling goes against the inborn cruelty of a snake. Asking one to understand the sentiment is like asking a pig to fly.” At that note, he finally let go of her hand, and dropped his own to his side. Yuunagi straightened his posture then, bringing himself to his full height. Looking down his nose toward Kikyo, he watched her through half-lidded eyes. His lips pulled thin as his facial expression took on one reminiscent of the supercilious attitude rampant among those born amongst the elite.
Standing at nearly six feet, his height seems to dwarf Kikyo by comparison. He was tall--taller than most men and humanoid youkai in Nippon, at least. It was only during his travels west that he had encountered taller men. Over the years, Yuunagi’s height had become a tool for intimidation. He was wretched at combat—all awkwardness and lanky limbs. There had been many-a-times in which he had called upon his stature to bluff his way out of a sticky situation—to discourage a would-be foe from picking a fight. Combined with his serpentine features, he could forge quite the imposing impression when he wanted.
“Any... benevolence...” Yuunagi spoke as though the word left an odd aftertaste upon his tongue, “Any lack of evil that you may have sensed on my part is merely the byproduct of maternal blood. Know this, Miko: I am the last remaining son of the Greater Viper Clan that dwells in the Pit of the Earth. More so, I am the Serpent--the daihanyou offspring of the Hebi no Oh and a divine daughter, the Blind Seer, of the southern Blue Dragon Clan.”
And suddenly, the imposing image was broken as he slouched his shoulders and leaned casually against the table with arms crossed.
“As for you...” Yuunagi drawled the last word while he tilted of his head.
“You are very cold to my second sight.” His eyes raked over her body, then, in a way that was hard to tell whether he was sizing her up, or leering at her. “I see not the warmth of lifeblood circulating through your body, but the cool flow of arcane magic, instead.”
Yuuangi shifted then, leaning in closer to Kikyo--almost too close. His tongue raced along his lower lip as he observed her through pupil-slit eyes, “And you smell thickly of ball clay, kaolin, quartz, and fledspar... of red earthenware...” His voice trailed, and then a crooked smirk pulled at his thin lips, revealing his fanged teeth. It probably would have made for quite the fearsome expression, if it weren’t for the combined note of realization and awestruck and that laced his next words:
“Vivente Terracotta! (Living Terracotta!)”
Spurred by curiosity, Yuunagi’s own hand lifted to press against Kikyo’s face. He traced the pads of his fingers along her jawline before hooking his forefinger under her chin; then tilted her head to the right, then left.
“You... remind me of a homunculus... or a golem” He nearly whispered as his voice pitched lower in contemplative wonder. “Yet you are neither, for you contain too much of both wit and intelligence... I can feel it not only in your words, but see it in your eyes.”
“Nay, my dear priestess…”
His smirk softened to a smile, and there was a glimmer that soon arose in his own eyes.
“You must be an Anthroparion.”
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