Dust And Snow

[Amaterasu]

Amaterasu stood up as well once she had handed over the silken dress to Amber. “Be sure to keep the sash at hand, the dress comes apart easily if not held together”, she remarked. “I gave you a basic cut, but that will make it easier to replicate if you like it.”

“I love the fabric! You said it’s silk?” asked Amber as she let the dress run through her fingers. “It’s so much softer than regular silk.”

“It would seem that the silk moths that are used to make Tamagahara’s clothes are-”

“Gesundheit.”

“What? Oh, no! Tamagahara is the name of the Celestial Plane where I come from!” She laughed. “Supposedly that is where the silk for my own dress was made. With Omnilium it’s very easy to replicate.”

“Makes sense.” Amber then opened a door along the corridor that they’d been traversing, which as Amaterasu could tell from a peek through led to her room. She went in but left the door open. Amaterasu didn’t follow, however. Amber peeked over her shoulder when she noticed. “I don’t have a problem with you coming in while I change, you know. We’re both girls.”

“I was actually intending on departing again”, the kami replied. “If everything is sorted out here, I should make haste to proceed with my plans. Time is short.”

“Right, well at least take one of these then.” With her shirt half over her head already, Amber picked up a business card from her desk that she handed to Amaterasu. “Here’s my Communicator’s number. Do keep me updated, okay?”

“Very well. I would like to arrange for another meeting fairly soon though, to build up the details of our alliance.”

“Details?” asked Amber while working out how to put the dress on. Its eastern cut meant that it was a little different from modern western clothing, and it might require some adjustments to fit her properly.

“Like a flower, it is but a bud now, but I would like to see it blossom soon. When that is the case though, we should know what flower it will be. I would like to work out who will stand at the head of this alliance, what our image outwards will be and such.”

“Huh. We should probably make up a name, first of all, if we want an outwards image.”

“A name? I haven’t thought of that.”

Amber, now fiddling with the sash, eyed Amaterasu, who still stood in the doorframe, and mumbled. “Wait. Celestial Plane, you said… Celestial… Sky, no, heaven… and Atlas, the titan… on his shoulders rested the… hey, this is kind of sudden, but how about ‘Heaven and Earth’ for a name?”

“Heaven and Earth?” parrotted Amaterasu.

“Yup. It’s a random idea, but you as a deity represent heaven very well, and I am from a city called Atlas, so earth is fitting. Besides, I’m a pretty down-to-earth kind of person!”

“I am not sure why this Atlas would be associated with earth…”

“Oh right, let me explain. Atlas was this titan in greek mythology who held up the earth, like the planet, on his shoulders.”

“That makes more sense indeed”, admitted Amaterasu. “And this name, Heaven and Earth, implies that we’re split, yet one.”

“Exactly. We don’t need to have just one leader. I’d rather stay in control of my city, and you want the same, I imagine. We could split leadership between the two of us.”

“Ah… that sounds feasible. But we would need to work out whose responsibility what matters are going to be.”

“We can discuss that on the Communicator. Let’s arrange for a conference call sometime. I want to involve the others on this, but not right now after ending the meeting.”

“Very well. I may return to Dwarfholm to see if we can get King Bruenor interested in involving the dwarves in this alliance. Hmm… do you by any chance have any affiliation with the trolls of Zul’gurand?”

“Nope. I’ve not had any real contact with the trolls yet. As for the dwarves, I had somewhat of a run-in with them before, but ”

“Perhaps I should seek a Prime who is on better terms with the trolls than I am. Though I may have judged them based on a biased first impression only, I am starting to think that making peace with them, one way or another, would be a good way to build up goodwill.”

“Why don’t you try posting on the Dataverse?” Giving up on replicating the knot that Amaterasu had done to hold her sash together, she did a simple shoelace-style one and looked at herself in the mirror. “How does it look?”

“It suits you!” Amaterasu exclaimed. “Although some adjustments may be needed. I have made it too big in some areas so you can adjust it downwards, rather than making it too small. Lacking proper measurements that was the best I could do.”

“That’s okay! I’ll get to work on it.” She turned around to face her again. “Be sure to call soon. I want to hear what my new ally is up to.”

“Very well! It will likely be a week or so before I contact you once more… I must first seek out a suitable location in the Fields to create a base of my own.”

“What’re you gonna name it? Fort Amaterasu?”

“The base itself, maybe. As for the city…” The kami thought for a moment. If Atlas was associated with Earth, she would need something associated with Heaven. With the hopes and dreams of humans. What about…

“I will name it Hoshi.” Seeing Amber’s puzzled face she grinned and pointed up. “It means ‘Star’.”

“Very fitting! Now, see you around!”

“Until soon, Amber-san!” With those words Amaterasu backtracked through the corridors and conference room into the bar, where Oki, Fiara and Urist were already waiting for her. No words were exchanged, only nods… Oki had already guessed what Amaterasu’s next step would be, and they had prepared for leaving immediately.

Not ten minutes later the gates of Fort Amber opened and Amaterasu, Oki, Fiara and Urist departed on two large Nimbus clouds, loaded with supplies. Their course: towards the center of the Frozen Fields, far out once more, like they had done not too long ago to reach the Roof of the World. Although, they would not be going that far this time. They needed only a suitable location to build what would one day be a city that rivaled Dwarfholm and Zul’gurand in size.

A city that would be named Hoshi.