Open Skies Above
Open Skies Above stepped around the edge of the cavern mouth, ducking to avoid the glistening drops of spray from the waterfall that filled the cavern entrance. She smoothed her crimson hair back from her shoulders and tightened her Shroud of Heaven's Glory nervously. The newest Night Caste in creation was a creature of beauty, delicate in frame and manner, with strangely vulnerable eyes. She was dressed not for stealth or combat that day. A kimono of deep violet silk, embroidered with black whorls along the seams, was her only adornment beyond the shroud. She entered the cave on bare feet and waded through the knee deep pool to where they waited.
Rivers Between Us wore a black silk kimono trimmed with mazes of purple embroidery. On his brow he wore a wreath of laurel. Beside him stood Chi Wen, the long, green blades of her hair pulled back and knotted behind her head and the simple civil robes on her shoulders.
Rivers looked out through the curtain of water at the sun, nearly disappearing in the western sea. He smiled and said, "You're late."
"Work," she responded simply, as she stepped out of the water onto the warm stone floor at the rear of the grotto.
"You're damned, damned to the void and worse!" The ghost writhed in her grasp but could not break free.
"Was damned." Skies tightened her grip, her pale fingers shredding the ghost's corpus. As it began to shriek, she turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry Lotharius. You helped me more than once..."
"By all that you once were and all that you are now, I beg you, not that technique! Do not eat my soul!" The bravado faded from his face, and sheer terror filled his eyes.
The Night Caste paused. Around her, the remnants of the safehouse burned, filling the air with rolling waves of heat and smoke. A falling timber as wide a tree trunk smashed down beside her, but she did not move.
She turned and met the ghost's gaze. "All right. Swear to me that you will cross the river Lethe, and I will speed you..."
"I swear!" It spat out the words, shrinking in her grasp.
"Very well. We shall both have our chance at a new life," she whispered, and with two hooked fingers she drove him back into the cycle of reincarnation using the spirit cutting attack.
The building finally collapsed. Open Skies Above emerged from the burning wreckage stepping gingerly over flaming debris, her head bowed. It was then that she noticed the dying light in the west.
"Forgive me?" She asked sweetly, her hands behind her back.
Rivers glanced through the waterfall of the Cavern of the Fading Lilies. "The sun has waited for you this long. How could I not?"
Chi Wen sighed and shook her head. "I'm not certain this is the most auspicious location for such a union... the tragic love story of the fox and the green maiden ends here."
Skies laughed brightly. "It was my choice, and a fitting end to that story. We also began with deception..."
"...and no guests? Not even your siblings, Rivers?"
The sorcerer looked down at his own bare feet. "We both feel that our relationship has already been in the public eye too often. The sun is enough of a witness for our union."
She bowed slightly. "Well then, if that is to be the case, we'd best begin. Please, take her hands in yours..."
And the ceremony began.
