A tale of Shattered Gates and Scattered Souls.

[Kitsusagi Staff]

Welcome young Kitsusagi as we grow we learn to ask questions and one such question is always 'where do orbs come from' perhaps you are asking the question or perhaps your kit is asking you and you do not have a good answer for them. This book might help to explain things just a bit.

Firstly let me speak of the past. The God of Life brought us the orbs that became our young when we wished out to them and the winds carried our prayers for children. The God of Death would come and gently collect the souls of those who were at the end of their time and slowly guide them over a reflection of their lives stripping the impurities that held back the soul and let the soul cleanse itself so that it might be reborn after a long time walking by the side of the Gods. And thus the Gods of Life and Death walked with us and cradled us while the others helped to guide our lives.

Of course that changed with the the war of the realm and the breaking of gates. The heart of the Gods was broken with the senseless violence and they could not bear to watch the pain of their children knowing they could not solve it. When they left they wrapped each realm in a magical guard to protect the lives within but this also kept each realm separated. Life and Death had not hand to guide them and those who faded found their spirits lingered and no new children were born for such a long time that the Kitsusagi of the realms feared they would have no next generation and the time of the last fade would be upon them.

It is said the trapped spirits of the faded watched in pain of young lovers truing old desperately still praying to Gods who had since left. The will and desire for love, family, for hope was enough to bring a small miracle. The faded spirits themselves became the reborn even with the impurities of their past lives. At first this seemed like a wonder and some even said perhaps it was the Gods returning. Sadly this was not the case. The first many rebirths held to many memories of the war and so they often cut short their lives in tragedy. Still over time the rebirths became more stable and more peaceful memories carried over and now not a memory of past lives remains during rebirth, sometimes though old markings seem to return and some are born with such striking similarities to the past that it is thought they are the first rebirth of the oldest souls. May their memories now be more pleasant then before.


Of course this is merely the speculation of this author extrapolated from a number of written accounts of those who have claimed to hear the voices of the faded. You can tell your kits whatever you would like. Following are some of such accounts. Feel free to read at your leisure.

 

[Kitsusagi Staff]

Greeting to those who find this I am Leander of House Broken Horn. The war has passed and what could be called a victory in survival may yet be a loss for us all. I survived the battle and the breaking of the realms. The gates are closed and dead to numerous to count. The will of the Gods is unfathomable as they have abandoned us to die. I write this account in my age of grey and I feel the fade coming to claim me as it has my mate and children. My nephew will carry the house duties forward after I am gone. It has been seen to in that way.

Today I heard the whispers of my mate as though she was here with me once more. The things she said I fret could be called heresy should they be written but I can not stop my paw for it's age has made it careless of the minds of others. And thus I continue.

My sweet song Merlin came and whispered to me that the souls are trapped and can not leave. When the Gods left and the realms broke each was left a blanket around it to protect the ones inside. A final gift from our Gods to protect us. The souls of the dead have no where to go as no God remains to take their hand. They have gathered and watch us the living suffer and weep. For with no God of life to bring us children we may well see the last of our generation those trapped like my own children whose species of Kitsusagi pull strength from another realm have already faded as this realm holds no love for them even the strongest feel the fade and panic wishing to get back to their home realm and yet cannot. My tears have long since run dry weeping for them.

Still Merlin whispered to me that I need not fear for a wonder had taken place. Souls gathered by one who had such strong will for a child found that an orb had formed and the faded around them who could not be seen or heard had seen some of their fellows disappear and become the orb. Thus allowing the dead to be reborn.

Merlin was gone then as the night had passed but she visited me once again a few months later. I had time then to venture out and had found several young had been born though they seemed to be haunted in a way. Some were so disturbed they acted in reckless abandon causing their own demise at a young age it was almost to much to hear of. Merlin said without the Gods to cleanse and purify the souls of the faded they had been born with memories of the war and they could not stand it. They could not fully remember their lives and it was hard as the souls could not help them until the young had passed then they remembered it all and once more found a sort of peace. Thus I knew then a secret I dared not share. The life that has come was the same as those who had passed. It was not a miracle but a sad tragedy to be born with no way to fully wipe the slate clear.

It was many years until I saw Merlin again. She whispered to me that souls had been reborn enough they were not longer tormented by their past and could once more journey forth as the number of rebirths since the was had made their memories muddled so they could not truly remember their pasts anymore. Then she shared that our children who had faded being separated from the realm that sustained them had already been reborn. I felt this may be true as I saw young kits who mysteriously reminded me of my own. Still even if they were their souls they would hold no memory of me until they passed and we met again. Merlin said she wearied of the life of a spirit and that it was time for her to be reborn as well. Nevermore did her faded visage find me.

Now I feel the fade coming to claim me at the end of my life and I wonder, no I pray to any voice that may hear. May her words be true so I might find my love and once more be reunited and perhaps this time we may be reborn together so one of us is not left behind in this realm.

-Leander of House Broken Horn

​

 

[Kitsusagi Staff]

(warning next story is much darker- Trigger warning)

 

[Kitsusagi Staff]

NO MORE NO MORE!!

I can't stand it. I still hear the screaming. I still smell the burning. It's gone. The King is dead and the gods have abandoned us! We did nothing wrong. It's so quiet now. They don't understand why I jump as the door closes. The laughter of kids from down next door scares me to my core because i remember those laughs ending in screams. The smell of smoke it's in everything even when they say it's not there. I can't sleep. They say I'm a child but I can't be because I have kids of my own. I was there when they died. The one who now calls herself my mother kept crying telling me it was alright. it was then that I stopped fighting them and started to understand. I was dead but then I wasn't the reason they were all bigger and stronger then me was because I was a young kit once more. I have tried to live in peace for the sake of my reborn parents but now with them gone and I am an adult i don't have a reason to keep holding one anymore I just want to fade once more so I don't have to keep hearing my friends dying and leaving me behind. Still I can't because when I woke up I found this orb next to me. it looks so much like my old friend who died at the beginning of the war. I feel that special warmth that only they had. Am I a coward for staying here longer to hold this warmth or am I strong for protecting a life so innocent? Either way I can't tell them anything and I will pretend like the past never happened so i can give this kit a happy life like I never received.