(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 11)

[DracoOmega]

>"And it's just arachnids that it's focused on, no other kind of being?"

>Sumiko nods. "As best as my abilities can determine."

[Oldmansour]

>"But if this sword was in that shrine for the purpose of a barrier of some sort, a seal to hold the spiders I found underground, then someone would have had to have stayed down there to generate it, wouldn't they?"

[DracoOmega]

>"But if this sword was in that shrine for the purpose of a barrier of some sort, a seal to hold the spiders I found underground, then someone would have had to have stayed down there to generate it, wouldn't they?"

>"Perhaps not," she says. "Once the barrier had been established, the sword itself may have allowed it to endure for a great while without outside intervention."

[Oldmansour]

>"But such a seal could have weakened with time, though. Enough to let a more... advanced arachnid dislodge this sword and break the seal down?"

[DracoOmega]

>"But such a seal could have weakened with time, though. Enough to let a more... advanced arachnid dislodge this sword and break the seal down?"

>"I suppose it is possible," she says, though there is a touch of reservation in her voice. "Or perhaps some external force acted upon it first. But I am afraid that regarding what may have happened there, I know no more than you."

[Oldmansour]

>"Yeah. I'm thinking that I may need to visit those caves again, if I want the whole story. Not that I think I'll find the whole story in one go, but you never know what you might find. Kinda part of the Seeker's package, there."

[DracoOmega]

>"Yeah. I'm thinking that I may need to visit those caves again, if I want the whole story. Not that I think I'll find the whole story in one go, but you never know what you might find. Kinda part of the Seeker's package, there."

>"Part of the Seeker's package!" Kyouko concurs. Sumiko nods silently.

[Oldmansour]

>"Well, I appreciate what you've been able to tell me about Kumokirimaru. There's still a lot of mysteries about it, but at least I know more than I started."
>"Now, you mentioned more 'esoteric' rites could be worked with this sword, or the power in it. Would you know of anyone in town capable of doing so?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, I appreciate what you've been able to tell me about Kumokirimaru. There's still a lot of mysteries about it, but at least I know more than I started."
>"Now, you mentioned more 'esoteric' rites could be worked with this sword, or the power in it. Would you know of anyone in town capable of doing so?"

>Sumiko nods again. "I am glad the Nanashizumi Shrine was able to be of service to you."
>She pauses for a moment here, a trace of distaste in her frown which you had not noticed earlier. When she speaks again, it is with a slow and sour note. "Rightly speaking, I do not believe so. The older faiths are no longer valued here - we are nearly the last of those traditions kept alive and only barely so. And while we have kept vigil over the sacred spring since before this city had a name, the power in that blade may be older still. I have inherited all the arts of my line since the founding generation and I do not know it. None of the others shrines will, either."
>"None of the other shrines?" Kyouko asks. Sumiko's unmoving countenance is her only reply.

[Oldmansour]

>"I might have thought a city like this, with its reputation, would have maintained knowledge of traditions such as these."

[DracoOmega]

>"I might have thought a city like this, with its reputation, would have maintained knowledge of traditions such as these."

>"People maintain the knowledge they value," she says coolly. "The rest is lost. Who is left to record an art whose practitioners have all abandoned it?"

[Oldmansour]

>"In some ways, I guess that'd be people like me. I know I'll never take shinto powers and knowledge for granted again, if that means anything."

[DracoOmega]

>"In some ways, I guess that'd be people like me. I know I'll never take shinto powers and knowledge for granted again, if that means anything."

>Sumiko shakes her head. "That was not directed at you. I apologize."

[Oldmansour]

>"No need. I can't say I understand completely, but I think I know where you're coming from."

[DracoOmega]

>"No need. I can't say I understand completely, but I think I know where you're coming from."

>Sumiko simply nods.

[Oldmansour]

>"You'll forgive me, but, I have to ask. What about outside of Val Razua, in, say... Hanashibara? Would the old knowledge of this sort be more... readily accessable?"

[DracoOmega]

>"You'll forgive me, but, I have to ask. What about outside of Val Razua, in, say... Hanashibara? Would the old knowledge of this sort be more... readily accessable?"

>A sour note tinges the elder miko's face. "The state religion of Hanashibara is little more than an empty symbol controlled by their military. I do not know what the kappa venerate, besides the own inventions. Although...." She drifts off here, focused thought displacing disapproval for a moment.
>"Though forgotten now by most," she continues in a measured tone, "there is one bloodline whose traditions stretch back further even than our own; they maintain the equilibrium between our world and those which border it, and once safeguarded fledgling civilization from the feral spirits that preyed upon it. They are smaller now and lesser-known, but Within their clan ran extraordinary power and it may still. I do not know if even they would recognize this art, but I can think of no one better-suited to the task."

[Oldmansour]

>Stifle a grin. First a mostly forgotten race, then a forgotten sword, then a plant with a forgotten use, now a forgotten bloodline with forgotten power? Man, we could make a mint as a historian, at this rate.
>Now, when someone says 'feral spirits', does that mean things liek demons, specters, ghosts and undead, or more traditional, corporeal youkai such as ourselves?

[DracoOmega]

>Stifle a grin. First a mostly forgotten race, then a forgotten sword, then a plant with a forgotten use, now a forgotten bloodline with forgotten power? Man, we could make a mint as a historian, at this rate.
>Now, when someone says 'feral spirits', does that mean things liek demons, specters, ghosts and undead, or more traditional, corporeal youkai such as ourselves?

>You stifle a grin. You might even be able to make yourself a mint selling some of this to a historian.
>It could well refer to youkai like yourself, at least in physical terms - tales of the old days paint a very different picture of human and youkai interactions - or it could refer instead to one of these other things, or perhaps both.

[Oldmansour]

>"So how do they feel about youkai nowadays?"

[DracoOmega]

>"So how do they feel about youkai nowadays?"

>"I have never met them," she says, "but I assume if you are of good character, you would be treated no differently than by anyone else."

[Oldmansour]

>"And where might I find these practitioners?"

[DracoOmega]

>"And where might I find these practitioners?"

>"The home shrine of the Hakurei Clan is to the north of the city," she says, "in a woodland near the island's northermost edge, upon a point where leylines of spiritual and aethereal power meet. The area is scarcely inhabited now, but they still maintain their ancestral grounds. It is west of Senhoku and the old airship port along the route to Meijima."

[Oldmansour]

>About how far away is that, do we know?
>Do the words Hakurei, Senhoku or Meijima mean anything to us?

[DracoOmega]

>About how far away is that, do we know?
>Do the words Hakurei, Senhoku or Meijima mean anything to us?

>If you had to guess, perhaps a day or so's journey.
>Meijima is an island and nation, far to the north of Val Razua, isolated and isolationist in foreign political affairs, though open to visitors. The skyway which connects it with the rest of the world is unusually transient, causing the entire nation to periodically drift in and out of reach of the rest of the world, sometimes for decades at a time, though it has remained accessible for the whole of your own lifetime so far.
>You believe Senhoku is a small village some distance north of the city of Val Razua - you know nothing of it and believe it to be completely inconsequential, but have seen the name on maps.
>The name Hakurei means nothing to you.

[Oldmansour]

This is a possibility I hadn't counted on. If the flowers don't bloom, for whatever reason, Reimu might be able to cure us without us resorting to Yuuka. If she can work her mojo with this sword, she might be able to do something with its power to drive the blight from us.

>So not out of our range of travel if needs be.
>"Are we talking remote woodland, or well traveled? Like, would there be roads, or at least obvious paths, to Hakurei territory?"

[DracoOmega]

>So not out of our range of travel if needs be.
>"Are we talking remote woodland, or well traveled? Like, would there be roads, or at least obvious paths, to Hakurei territory?"

>You imagine you could make the trip, yes.
>"There is a road to Senhoku, of course. I presume there is also some path to the sacred precincts themselves, but I do not know how large or groomed it is, nor how easy for outsiders to find."

[Oldmansour]

>Can't be any worse than finding Yuuka's place would be. Probably safer, too, if this Yuuka is as dangerous as Dai made her out to be.
>Still and all, would such a thing even be possible, from what we know of magic? Using the faith in this blade to expunge the blight from our body? If the power is keeping the blight from melting our insides in a matter of minutes, could someone skilled enough use that power to cure us?

[DracoOmega]

>Can't be any worse than finding Yuuka's place would be. Probably safer, too, if this Yuuka is as dangerous as Dai made her out to be.
>Still and all, would such a thing even be possible, from what we know of magic? Using the faith in this blade to expunge the blight from our body? If the power is keeping the blight from melting our insides in a matter of minutes, could someone skilled enough use that power to cure us?

>You suspect that it would be easier to find; if a normal sort of people are living there, they presumably have some meas of coming and going - for supplies, if nothing else - and that would leave traces. For that matter, you don't believe the terrain in that region is as rugged as near Isir's Cross, either. You suppose that a clan of ancient youkai hunters could be dangerous to you in others ways, but hopefully they're not particularly inclined to be hostile toward you, either.
>That, you do not know; the spiritual arts are well outside your prevue and this seems to have been a tricky subject even for experts in that field. Perhaps it's possible? Or perhaps the best they could do with it is break into the pest control business on a grand scale.

[Oldmansour]

>"Well, then I may have some travelling to do in the days to come. After I take care of my business here in town, of course. I am a professional, after all."