That night, lisa wondered. She wondered a lot, actually.
[If this illness isn’t natural... Can I spot it as it happens?]
Sure, the hypothesis was shaky at best, but if she could see one of these kitsune getting sick in real ti, it would absolutely be a trendous help.
The next evening, instead of heading straight to the bar, lisa wandered the village with her essence detection fully active. She moved through quiet streets, past closed shops and small houses, scanning for anything unusual.
[What am I even looking for? Soone in the middle of getting their essence drained? Like I’d just stumble across that happening in real ti.]
Still, she kept walking. The village was peaceful at this hour. Most people were either at ho or gathered in the various bars and eateries, doing what kitsune do best: drinking, laughing, and fucking. lisa passed a group of kitsune on a porch, their signatures bright and healthy. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Then she spotted a familiar figure on a side street.
Silver hair. Black tail. That confident walk lisa had co to recognize over the past couple weeks.
[Sylra?]
It was. Sylra, walking with a kitsune lisa didn’t recognize. They were close together, Sylra’s hand resting on the woman’s lower back, both of them talking about sothing lisa couldn’t hear from this distance. The kitsune was pretty, green hair, nice tits, the kind of easy body language that said she was comfortable and relaxed.
They looked like they were heading sowhere together. Given the direction they were walking and the way Sylra kept leaning into her space, lisa could guess where.
She watched them turn a corner, presumably heading to the kitsune’s place to do exactly what lisa had been doing with Sylra every night for the past week, and then she shook her head.
[None of my business. I’m not here to stalk my... whatever Sylra is. Fuckbuddy? Vacation fling? Focus, lisa.]
She kept walking, pushing the image out of her mind. A few more streets, a few more scans with her essence detection, nothing jumping out at her. Healthy kitsune going about their evening. A few tired-looking ones, but nothing severe.
Then she heard it.
A weak cough from an alley to her left. Then another one, wetter this ti.
lisa turned and peered into the shadows. A kitsune sat slumped against the wall, her breathing labored, her tail limp on the ground beside her. Even without using essence detection, lisa could see how pale she was. Her skin had a grayish tinge, and she was shivering despite the warm evening.
lisa approached carefully.
"Hey. Are you okay?"
Stupid question. The woman obviously wasn’t okay. But it was better than opening with "you look like you’re about to die."
The kitsune looked up. Her eyes were glassy, unfocused, and it took her a mont to register that soone was talking to her.
"Just... resting," she managed.
"In an alley?"
"Didn’t make it ho." A weak laugh that dissolved into another cough. "Legs gave out. Figured I’d sit for a minute, and then..." She gestured vaguely at herself. "Here I am."
lisa crouched beside her and reached out with her senses. The kitsune’s essence was thin, barely a flicker compared to what a healthy person should have. This was one of the worst cases she’d encountered so far.
"Why aren’t you with the healers?"
"Healers have their hands full." The woman shrugged, and even that small movent looked exhausting. "Lots of sick people right now. Not enough beds. They told to rest at ho and co back tomorrow if I wasn’t better."
[They just sent her away? Looking like this?]
"Did sothing happen to you? An injury, a curse, anything that might have caused this?"
"No. Nothing like that." The kitsune shook her head slowly. "Just woke up feeling tired one morning. Thought I’d overworked myself or sothing. But it kept getting worse, day after day, and now..." She trailed off, too tired to finish the sentence.
"When did it start? Can you rember what you were doing around that ti? Anything unusual?"
The kitsune’s brow furrowed. Thinking clearly seed to take effort.
"Maybe... two weeks ago? Around my birthday, I think." She paused, working through the tiline. "I had a party with so friends. Did so magical training the day after, my sister was showing this new technique she’d learned. What else..." Another pause, longer this ti. "Oh, and I slept with the nim bartender. The one who works at The Laughing Fox."
lisa’s stomach dropped.
"The nim bartender?"
"Yeah. Sylra, I think her na is? Very pretty." The kitsune managed a weak smile. "She was fun. Very enthusiastic. Definitely knew what she was doing."
[That’s... okay. That’s just a coincidence. Has to be.]
"Did anything else happen? Anything at all that stood out?"
"Not really. Just normal stuff." The kitsune’s eyes were starting to drift closed. "Sorry, I’m really tired. Hard to think straight."
"It’s okay. You should rest." lisa stood up, her thoughts racing in several directions at once. "I’ll find soone to help you get ho, alright? Just stay here."
She flagged down a passing villager, a middle-aged kitsune who looked alard when lisa pointed out the sick woman in the alley. The villager hurried over to help, and lisa walked away before she had to answer any questions.
Her feet moved on autopilot. Her brain was busy.
[Sylra. The sick kitsune slept with Sylra right before she got sick.]
But that didn’t an anything, right? Sylra was a bartender. She was friendly, flirty, gorgeous. She probably slept with people all the ti. Kitsune culture was casual about sex, and Sylra had clearly adapted to it. So one sick kitsune ntioning her didn’t prove anything.
lisa thought about the dazed, happy expressions she’d seen on kitsune at the bar. The way they smiled after Sylra touched their arm or laughed at their jokes. The way Sylra was always touching people, always making contact.
She thought about the thin essences she’d detected in the sick villagers. The way their energy felt siphoned, drained, like sothing had been taking from them over ti.
[No. No, that’s insane. Sylra’s a nim. We drain essence through sex, sure, but it doesn’t make people sick. I’ve slept with tons of people and none of them ended up like this afterward.]
But nim were supposed to take only what they needed. A little essence here, a little there, enough to sustain themselves without hurting their partners.
What if soone was taking more than that?
[What if soone was taking way more than that?]
lisa shook her head, physically trying to dislodge the thought.
[She’s not draining people. She can’t be. There has to be another explanation.]
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