The journey's last leg

[Amaterasu]

The posts below take place after the events in the Oververse!

Amaterasu felt a pinch of regret at simply leaving Oki and the others behind for something that was no fault of their own. They weren't weak, but if they had to make their way back down the mountain in the same way that they had come up, it would be very problematic for them to do without a Prime to back them up: after all their equipment and provisions had been stocked up with her summoning powers in mind.

Well, maybe Omni would be able to drop them somewhere. Or they would be able to find another way out through one of the Void Gates if they followed her, and from there find their way to the Fields again. She just needed to be there before them, to have a few mounts at hand. Either way she couldn't turn back now even if she'd wanted, because the instant that she had stepped through the portal out of the Oververse it had zoomed off into the distance, far beyond her reach.

On the plus side things were finally silent around her. She was alone and had time to straighten things out with herself. Involuntarily it reminded her of that age-old episode when she had been younger, when her brother Susano-O had destroyed her rice fields, desecrated her temples, razed her people's homes and even thrown a flayed horse carcass into her home. She had gone into hiding and with her had taken the light away from the world, plunging everything into complete darkness. She had withdrawn and with it caused a great deal of trouble to even the other kami. It would not be like that this time, however. She was determined to return, and to prove to Omni how brightly the just light of life could shine.

She walked along the leyline that had led to the portal, without a clear goal in mind. She just needed some way to get out, to return to the Nexus and from there to the Frozen Fields. She would have to ask King Bruenor about what evils plagued the Omniverse, what dangers lurked that were greater than all others. Surely he would name the trolls, but she was beginning to have her doubts. Were they really and truly evil? She had heard only one side of the story so far. It would be wrong to judge them without hearing them out first. Of course, having killed several of their tribesmembers to get in with the dwarves would probably not sit good with them, so simply finding their cities and speaking to them would not be a proper solution either.

A sudden shift of weight on the back of her dress caught her attention. She stopped and turned around, but nobody was there. However, the weight shifted as she turned, and something heavy bumped against her backside. Something attached to her dress? She frowned as she tugged on it, and found - the black orb that Oki had taken from Omni! But he had never given it to her, had he? When had he... and how she wondered as she reached out and grabbed it, finding that it had been balancing between her sash and the Yasakani no Magatama very precariously. Had she walked much faster it probably would have fallen off. The strange item was visible only against her hand in the blackness of the Void, matching its color perfectly.

There was plenty of time right now, so... perhaps it would make sense to try and find out more about this. Was it simply an orb of some black material that she did not know about? It didn't feel like metal or rock, but it felt relatively light... perhaps it was hollow, a shell containing something within. There were no cracks or unevennesses on the surface, no hints of anything that indicated that it was a container that could be opened. Was it an egg or something else with no opening - in other words, one had to be made? Was it not meant to be opened at all? Would it open on its own at some point, when a certain trigger was met? What could it possibly be?

It was cold, that was for sure. Hmm... perhaps attempting to warm it in some way would be helpful. Objects expand under heat and eggs need heat to hatch, so perhaps this would react? She had not tried this before, but it could work somehow.

"Taiyo", she murmured as she drew a circle of ink onto the surface of the orb. Several particles of her golden ink pots detached themselves from her sash and formed a tiny sun over her head. As sunlight started to shine down on her she held the orb up.

Luckily nobody was around to see this. She probably looked like a baka right now.

Amaterasu is feeding 2 SP worth of energy into the Wover Tear (SP: 5/7).