Naeya Class 101

(1) Kaori rises while the others are still sleeping. She steps over them - the sleeping mats in the pilgrims' hostel are closely packed - and pads into the cottage's only other room. Dried sausages and wax-protected cheeses hang from a rail by a window, out of reach of mice and dogs and other pests. There's a sack of oatmeal, and firewood, and a couple of pails of water brought from the well last night. She pokes at the charcoal that used to be last night's carefully-banked final log. There are embers. It's a long time since she's had to get a wood fire going, but the memory is easily accessed. She tucks a bit of the shredded bark provided as tinder, then adds twigs until they've caught enough flame to add logs. Putting water and oatmeal in the crockery boiling pot, she decides more is needed for a really good breakfast, dons her hijab, and goes out to make discoveries.

Half an hour later, she's back. There's a new basket on her arm, with apples picked in the day's early dawn, and dried peaches and liquid honey within, plus a bit of goat's milk, milked as she watched, and the people who've sold them to her did it for a shockingly small amount of copper. The rough-ground oatmeal is bubbling thickly, still a bit firm - no one-minute processed versions here! - but it's almost soft enough to eat. Quickly she chops fruit and tosses it in (the peaches are dried, and need some hydration), along with the milk to make sure it's sanitary. Finally she pulls the pot out of the fire and sets it on the stone counter. Then the honey goes in.

Shana Barr gets up, but doesn't take time to check out Kaori's cooking. Seeing the hanging cheeses, she grabs one and vanishes in the direction of the library.

Carefully, Kaori steps over Gama to straighten the locally-woven sheets and blankets on her own sleeping mat, then returns to the kitchen/common room to try her concoction. It's good. Putting on the hijab again, she takes a bowl of it and sits outside on the front step. The air's good, the green plant life is healing, and the young goose-girl is trying to get her flock to move in a different direction. The geese seem to be winning.

Ester A'Dab rises from her mat, dresses carefully, then watches, hiding inner horror as she sees Jo Kaori eating food that was cooked on (perish the thought) open flame and decides to get breakfast.

Kaori chuckles as the inner horror filters through the wall. "It's the way food's done, hereabouts!" she calls, having figured out how to do stone-ground oatmeal, specifically, by dropping into the mind of the tavern-keeper who's been engaged in the same chore. "And it tastes good."

Ester looks at the cooking pot and thoughtless says "Pot, tsarrayelov meki hamar, yev ayo, ayo, bari luys yev orhnek’ kaysrin:" to it, waits a moment, then sighs, looking at the serving spoon.

Kaori finishes her bowl with a contented sigh.

The goose girl gives up trying to herd and starts going in the direction the geese have chosen. This way, at least, it looks as though it's her own idea.

"When in Vegas, do as Vegas" Ester mutters to herself as she starts eating the porridge standing in the doorway. She glances at a dog that starts howling when it sees her.

Nolae's suddenly there, patiently waiting.

"Ah,,Ala en bhilis magō to you all, er. that is good morning," Ester says.

Kaori looks up at the bowl in Ester's hand. "So how is it?" she asks. "Everything locally grown, harvested, and milled."

"Oh, this hmm, well it's not la Victoire de Perle breakfast service, but what is?" Ester says laughing. "But is there more?"

Kaori wiggles her toes in the light cloth shoes she's brought for village wear, enjoying the grass beneath them and wishing it was proper in her role to take them off. "Yes, lots more," she laughs. "The summer was good for oats, the fruit-seller says - the village has oats in plenty - and it's turning out to be a very good year for apples - that harvest is coming off now."

"Harvest..." Ester peers at Kaori's face "Oh, you mean, this came from... the ... dirt?"

Kaori smiles happily. "Yes. The soil's excellent for proto-Terran varietals and Shylzani variants. Whoever seeded the microbiota sixteen hundred or so local years ago knew their craft."

Ester smiles and nods as she listens, although there's not a great deal of real smile under the surface.

Kaori kneels down and runs her fingers through the grass. "This could be a rich world, under the right conditions."

Ester whispers: "Well if they were rich they might be able to vacuum the floor I would think."

Kaori raises an eyebrow. "Brooms work. Good straw."

Ester looks at her and blinks, then glances about. "So, we passed quarantine then. Bit hard to tell without proper gear."

The exoagronomist - Kaori's mostly an exoagronomist right now - pulls one of her little tubes from inside her sleeve, and tucks into it a tuft of grass with roots and soil attached. She stands and grins. "You can take the girl out of the farm - but - "

(2) Ester's looking around. "More amazing how different each world is, like is the sky supposed to be that green?"

Kaori glances up. "High dispersion of clouds - some volcanic ash mixed in, apparently there's always an eruption going on somewhere on this world - and of course the orange sun has an effect on the wavelengths."

Nolae suddenly speaks. "I will meet you two in the briefing room I showed you when you arrived. Bring the rest of the team also." Evidently tired of waiting, she turns and strides towards the library and its hidden door.

Kaori watches her walk away. "I suppose we should follow. But seriously, how was the porridge?"

"Well enough for my needs. Now where did that Scribe get too?"

Kaori holds out her hands. "Let me put the dishes in the sink to soak for later cleaning, and then let's join Nolae. And I think our Scribe has gone ahead to the study chamber. She's fascinated."

Ester hands the bowl over. "Indeed,"

Kaori runs lightly into the cottage, returning with the basket and apples.

Ester glances about to make sure they are away from any local ears. "Well, if anything I can see your Empress wanting this planet for just the food."

Kaori laughs. "Cyhnon and Nongjangju produce pretty well for the former Federation, and I believe the worlds that came in from the Crimsen Empire have their own sources, too. But this - Natural seasons and organic practices do make a difference, as long as weather doesn't ruin the crops." She starts walking towards the piazza.

Ester limits her long stride to stay at Kaori's elbow. "Sure, with this level of technology, but worlds like this are rare in the galaxy," she observes they walk.

At the entrance, Ester glances at one of the guards, annoyed by his expression. "Yes, I know I am tall..." Certainly she's taller than they are.

Kaori smiles at them. Raising her free hand, she says, "Peace be on you." She opens the door and walks in. The guards, a reasonably disciplined pair, say nothing to either woman.

Ester goes first through the door to the bunker. Kaori takes a moment to figure out how to get the bookcase to slide shut behind her, and follows.

Shana walks in from the bunker's comms-and-computer room as silent as a cat and nods to the others.

"Ah, there is our scribe," Ester says.

Kaori sets her basket of fresh-picked apples down on the table. "For later," she says. "So good. And the basket-weaver's sweet. So's her baby."

Nolae says, "Take a seat and we will start shortly. After I am finished and there are no questions you may get to know the village more. We will not be going to the mountain site anytime soon."

"Any particular reason, or is it just a matter of the time needed to acclimate and learn?" Kaori asks.

"You need time to prepare here before you go. I have many things to explain and you need to become welcome here first so they don't question where you are from."

Kaori nods. Her padd is back on the volcanic island base, but there's hand-pressed paper and charcoal-cored pencils here in the bunker.

"Perhaps we should take a look at the locals for the issues previously discussed?" Ester asks.

Nolae says, "you can use the black and blue crystal to record this for later review. We have the equipment here to analyze the data Kaori will gather with the other crystals. All you need to do is attach the initiator and it will record silently."

Kaori smiles and gets the blue-black crystal out of her pouch. It's small and fits easily in the centre of her palm Something in its makeup lets it stay there, hovering about half a centimeter in the air as she moves her hands. She sets the other crystals on the table: green, pale blue, purple, black, all palm-sized but substantially larger than the recording crystal.

(5) Kaori lets a small responding smile play about her lips. "Probably that's why the reticence is so maddening," she admits. "Though before I fell in with the Myeong Gai, I was trained firmly in the principle that what you don't know may kill you. Information lengthens lives. And...the Shylzani, even those of Cyhnon where I've been training, are not my people. I'm from Genji. I'm the first non-Shylzani telepath to be recruited by the Myeong Gai, at least in recorded history."

"Ahm translation fails me.. hmm what is the word? Zhoghovurd? hmm the ideas of a people, ah, culture, that is the word. You all, come from one and now are many? Right?"

Kaori says, "The Shylzani don't admit that before Shylzan, there was another world. But I eat everything they eat, breathe what they breathe, and raise food crops from many of the same base genomes that they do. Clearly there's a genetic connection, somewhere in the distant past. And there are similarities, in historical art, architecture, cooking - "

"And in ideas. Hmm, limit translation again, but isn't the concept to become a part of the greater whole?"

Kaori smiles. "There are certainly echoes of Buddhism in the teachings of Myeong Mai." She touches the Buddhist icon at her throat gently.

"Hmm.,.. I see. But nothing and shadow, do seem the same to me."

Kaori shakes her head. "A shadow follows. It twins the thing followed - and it vanishes in the light, but while it exists, it can hide much. My people have ancient myths about shadows replacing the thing they've shadowed. Myeong Gai seeks unity - but not replacement. Maybe a meshing of shadow with light, philosophically. The Shadow Clans, though, are seen as the enemy, and it's clear they kill, out of some agenda of their own." She shakes her head. "An agenda no-one who should know will talk about."

"And yet the Empire has shadows for and against it?"

Kaori reaches for an apple. "The Shadow Hunters - rangers and knights - hunt Shadows. I think black's just a convenient tone to do it in."

"Ahh."

Kaori takes a bite, chews, swallows and grins. "And it looks dashing."

"Ah, it is also written "spekjō dhóncelos spekjō awou dhóncelos" basically, look into the abyss and the abyss will look back. "

Kaori glances down the tunnel. "Yes - that happens, too." She reflects on her own abyss of two years before, then returns to the present. "But the abyss teaches, even while it horrifies. After a while, it doesn't horrify; it becomes one more thing to understand."

"Indeed, but only the Maker knows what comes out of the auqslā on the otherside."

"And that's yet another thing to understand. Unity and Chaos both exist in infinity." Kaori laughs. "And in Buddhism, desire - including the desire for understanding - is viewed as the root of discontent. It's necessary to accept that as we learn, we will continue to find mystery."

Ester glances upwards. "I think many here aren't good Buddhists," she says, deliberately thinking of the Admiral.

Kaori (grins. "Buddhism isn't really a thing at all in the Olenji Cycrim Empire. The Myeong Gai Order functions somewhat along the lines of an official cult - but a lot of people are indeed not interested in it, or actively opposed to it. And yes, Mercedes Verne is among them."

"And these Rangers?"

"I only learned about them recently," Kaori says. "Balam Nolae is the first one I've met - or at least the first I know I've met."

"Hmm interesting. They fight war for what, centuries? with these assassins and yet it is not widely talked about."

"Good summary," Kaori says, taking another bite of apple. "Oh, these are good. I'm tempted to take a cutting with me when we leave the planet."

Ester has a grin of her own. "I will just point out that we Sinisters don't exactly make an effort to be public and yet a Sinister "Shanti" and her grining "Ala" are stock characters in my culture's entertainment."

"Oh yes?" Kaori asks. "What sorts of characters are they?"

"Always up to something nasty that no one can really pin them on. Typically making life difficult for the romantic couple in the story."

"Genji has folk characters with that sort of flavour, too," Kaori says. "The Shadow Assassins are in folk culture on Cyhnon - but without personality. They're just dangerous people who can't be observed, and have to be hunted out by Myeong Gai telepaths from time to time." She pauses. "Of course - parents don't raise their children on Cyhnon, or at least most don't. No bedtime stories, with morals to keep the kids in line. The place of those sorts of stories seems to have been taken by rumour."

"So, the Assasins are little more to, hmm...what is the word? dzhvarut’yun, a hmm natural hazard, in the stories?" Ester asks.

"There's something of that feeling about them. They're part of the environment. They seem to have disappeared since unification - but it's tough for people to feel in their bones that they're not hovering somewhere, preparing to become even a greater danger. Life on Cyhnon without Shadows feels...unbalanced, somehow."

(3) Shana stands and takes notes...

Ester looks at one of the crystals. "How are these used?" She waves her hand at nothing and mutters "Come like shadows, so depart!" as she examines the crystals,

Kaori sets the activator - a clear blue orb with an inset handle - on the table in front of her. "Something to do with this, I believe."

"Yes." says Nolae. "If pressed softly to the Crystal the activator will connect with it and activate it but you must not move it after it is activated or it may lose the bond that makes it work."

"So keep the activator in contact when I'm taking readings?" Kaori asks. "Or when I'm downloading - or both?"

"Only when taking readings. Each crystal will store the data as long as the activator is bonded with it."

"And this is not forbidden technology?" Ester asks.

"The blue and black Crystal is a common item the locals have so they will not suspect anything. All these Crystals are found on Naeya, That is why you have them. People use the more common colours for cheap jewellery."

"Crystals don't raise any questions here," Kaori says. "They're as common as iron, and much easier to access. The activator, now - that will take a little more care."

Nolae asks, "Now we can start the briefing?"

Kaori smiles. "I thought we'd started already." Blue-black crystal notwithstanding, she picks up the pencil.

"I was making sure you were able to record this first."

"Do I use the activator for that, too?" Kaori asks. "Oh - there's a telepathic mechanism - but I'll write, too. I won't keep the written notes, but writing helps to set information more firmly into the memory."

Shana begins using the crystal scribe to take meeting notes; it has a touch-activated start mechanism as well as the telepathic type Kaori's found.

Nolae says, "You use the activator for all the functions. They are rare and take some time to manufacture, That is why there is only one. But the blue-black recorder crystals adapted themselves to each of you when they scanned you back on the station."

Kaori nods and writes that down. "So the activator stays in a sack, around my neck, under my chemise, next to the skin, not to be seen or stolen. Convenient that the locals have nudity taboos."

"The first point I want to make is the dangers you will find here." Nolae's voice, already solemn, becomes stern.

Kaori writes "Dangers - " and pauses. "In this region, or generally around the planet?"

"The locals have this belief there are spirits or ghosts in the wilderness areas so they rarely travel at night. The only one's that I know that does not follow this superstition is the Unity Monk and his Companions. We have tried to find out why some of the Naeyans are going missing from time to time but it is still a mystery but it only helps to enforce this belief."

Shana raises and eyebrow as she continues to take notes...

"So local," Kaori nods, and adds "local" to "dangers. "I understand there are wolf-sized wild dogs. Are they blamed for disappearances at all?" The nuisancy front end of the hijab sweeps across the paper; she realizes that down here, she needn't present herself as priestess and removes it.

Nolae says, "A common tale that is told in the Naeyan villages is how a father and daughter were traveling home one day but got to the outskirts of their village just as the sun set. As soon as the sun had set, they say, a spirit came out from behind a tree and snatched the daughter, who was never to be seen again. There are many stories like this but they are hard to confirm, mainly because the population is so spread out."

"So not only a local story, then."

"We have found similar stories all over Naeya"

Kaori strikes out the word "local."

Ester asks, "Have any of your rangers been able to observe the spirits?"

(4) Nolae shakes her head. "Our research is far from complete but the leads so far make us believe there is a shadow assassin group here. Maybe it is how the leaders that colonized this planet were able to keep the society fearful of advancement or technology."

Kaori's pen-strokes become sharper as she considers the generations of high death rates associated with those ancestrally-imposed fears.

Ester says, "Attacking people up and about at night seems a strange way to deter that kind of behavior."

"Another thing you will hear from Naeyans is that people were taken because they dabbled in forbidden Magic," Nolae adds.

"Magic meaning tech?" Kaori asks. "Or the mythic kind?"

Ester looks questioningly at Kaori.

Kaori explains, "Midnight rituals and calling up demon fires...that sort of thing. The stereotypes associated with nontech civilizations." She pauses. "And telepathy. That's sometimes been treated as forbidden magic."

Ester says, "Well, this pointis speculation with not much evidence."

"I believe it is Tech," Nolae replies, "but the books the leaders left behind warn about dabbling in forbidden magic. One warning is to abstain from anything that makes a spark. For instance if you place a small battery and take a metal object across the connectors and it sparks - if you are seen doing this they may exile you or even execute you."

Kaori frowns. "You make a spark when you strike metal on tinder. Is there a different word for electrical sparks? The planetary survey reports violent electrical storms - is that the connection that's kept the warning active? Otherwise it would be pretty hard to get a fire going -"

"Oh, nothing about summoning creatures from another reality then?" asks Ester.

Kaori looks across the table at Ester, interested in the lack of skepticism carried by her comment about creature-summoning.

Nolae sticks to the point. "A fire is acceptable. It is not the type of spark the writing actually describe - a blue or white spark, not like a wood or coal fire." She takes a breath. "Next topic. This facility here has a wealth of knowledge of common herbs and spices that can be used to heal most ailments you find here, collected from the research we have done on Naeya for many years."

Ester's emotional trace carries approval. "Oh, well that is indeed useful."

Kaori asks, "How was it gathered? From local healers, or have you been experimenting down here?"

"Shadow rangers spend a few months here then move on and are replaced by others. We have been collecting this information for as many years as we have been assigned here." Nolae returns to her prepared sequence. "Another precaution we do here for new arrivals is that for the first thirty days they must use the decon stations in the back regularly. It is recommended to use them every three days. Your blue-black crystal recorded a scan of your body before you came. You insert the crystal in the Decon unit then step in the decon shower and clean off thoroughly. After 10 decon washings, all off world evidence will have been cleansed. This is important because of our suspicion the Night Serpents maybe responsible for the strange changes we have observed here."

"Not so much a matter of local health, then," Kaori observes. "More a matter of offworld microbe identification."

"We will go over more later but this should good for the introduction to Naeya briefing. No doubt the Healer will want to study the healing material."

"Well thank you, the herb list should be a lot to study," Ester says.

Kaori writes a little more, and pauses to think. "So part of the reason the Shadow Rangers keep a presence here is in case a Shadow Clan is active?"

Nolae acts as if she did not hear the question and slowly heads for the tunnel to the library.

Ester watches her as she walks.

Kaori puffs in frustration. "Every time I ask an informed person about the Shadows, they change the subject or walk away. It's really getting hard to control the temptation to dive in and take information - most of the minds that aren't answering the question are pretty disciplined, or otherwise protected." She sets the pencil with exaggerated care on the table.

"Seeker: Having perfected our disguise, we spend our lives searching for someone we do not fool. So it is written." She turns to Kaori. "What people don't say speaks as loudly as what they do," she says, and gives an odd smile. "So, what is Shadow, to your people?"

(6) Ester looks at Kaori and considers. "And these Shadows are associated with nothing else?"

"That's hard to pin down. They are disruptive, dangerous, deadly, but visible only to trained eyes. Rumours - there's one that's emerged since Unification, to the effect that they were never real, just a way the Federation kept its citizens in line. Politically, that's certainly possible. But it's clear that they are real, to members of the Order and the political classes who've tangled with them." She pauses. "As a girl, the old Empress, Hae Ri was kidnapped by them, and brainwashed into becoming one of their best assassins. The whole of modern Shylzani history - Hae Ri splitting off of the Crimsen Empire from the Federation, war between Empire and Federation, everything that's come out of all that - started there, with the eldest daughter of the Lee clan being kidnapped." After a small pause, Kaori adds, thoughtfully, "And that's another story found in past tradition. Myeong Mai, the first teacher of the Myeong Gai path, has a story that starts with her kidnapping, at about the same age as Hae Ri's." She examines her apple core. "Interesting."

"Hmm, well interesting," Ester says, not so much agreeing as politely acknowledging. "But I think it is time for the noon meal, and to to study these health care documents."

"And I will continue to get to know the villagers." Kaori puts her hijab back on.

An hour after the noon meal, Kaori re-enters the library, moves the bookcase and hits the sigil for the bunker door, and slides the bookcase shut before walking down into the hollowed-out hill.

She sets a sack of berries picked from the forest behind the village next to the morning's leftover apples; the goose girl's shown her where to find them. "Peace be on you," she says, staying that much in character before doffing her hijab. "I am having far too much fun..."

Shana answers, "Peace be with you sister.

Kaori grins. "In character. Peace be with you, priestess. That priestess label still doesn't feel comfortable - I need help."

Ester's trace is in the hideout but not in the conference area. Unsurprisingly, Kaori tracks it to the lab/comm room, immersed in herbal treatments that may be relevant to yesterday's patient.

Kaori pops some of the berries into her mouth. They're kind of a hybrid between raspberries and blackberries - tart, but delicious. She pushes the basket towards the others with a gesture of invitation. "Try some of the berries, Shana - just as good as the apples - maybe better. Certainly higher in antioxidants."

"Don't mind if I do." The technician gingerly grasps one and nibbles on it as if she were a squirrel.

"These are tasty."

Kaori grins. "Better than anything on Shadow Fox, right? The pineapples and fiddleheads included."

"Please do not let my Captain hear you say that." Shana smirks playfully.

Kaori laughs. "Kahn would likely agree. It's Mercedes Verne who'd be hit in her ego. Admittedly, Shadow Fox does better than some deep space locations."

Shana nods in agreement, then turns to Nolae to ask, "How have the locals accepted our arrival so far, Ranger?"

Realizing that she's not being diplomatic, considering that Shana's one of Verne's people, Kaori pops another berry.

Nolae says, "I will not comment on the Admiral or Captain Kahn. I don't have a lot more to go over today but if you have questions relevant to Naeya, you may ask. I will answer what I can."

"You didn't answer one this morning, about the Shadow Clans." Kaori pulls out her note paper.

The Shadow Ranger says, "The point is I will answer what I can."

Kaori sighs and tries again. "Is the possible presence of a Shadow Clan the whole reason that the Shadow Rangers have been coming here?"

"Yes that is correct. It was our search for the Shadows here that alerted us to the society changing like it has. The significant reduction in the fighting - fights between villages have become almost unheard of now."

"The Rangers have been here since Empress Hae Ri's expedition, I understand. Have they observed any unauthorized landings on Naeya during that time? I assume any such landings would have been dealt with by the Cycrim Empire - but would they have been observed?" As she waits for a response, Kaori: starts unloading sample tubes from her pouches.

"That was not our focus, We were here mainly to blend in and keep an eye on the planet. There is a set of satellites around Naeya to monitor the local space traffic, but we have not seen any reports of unauthorized landings or visitors. There was a Night Serpent ship that passed by Naeya. That is all we believe the ship did, just pass by."

Kaori plants her elbows on the table and rests her chin in her hands. "A planet's a big place, but I'm sure the satellite data was carefully analyzed." She's not sure at all, but it's the diplomatic thing to say. "So - if suspicions about NARI presence are justified, they've been here for a very long time - possibly since settlement. It's clear to me that the quality and speed of terraforming done here required assistance from experienced trained teams, so I suspect NARI may have accompanied the settlers. Surprising, given the settlers' objections to tech - but I can't imagine why human terraforming experts would have agreed to sequester themselves from the universe. NARI, supposedly, would just do the task until told they could stop. Easier to deactivate a NARI team than a lot of curious, argumentative humans." She pours herself a coffee from a carafe Shana's set on the table - grown on planet, presumably, though not locally given the soil types - and waits some more.

Shana turns and speaks to Kaori. "Have the settlers rejected tech, or were they simply kept in the dark regarding it, Commander?"

Kaori ignores the misapplied title and says, "I've been taught that the Naeya settlers went to a planet the location of which was not known to the other colonists. Possible it was terraformed before the exodus from Shylzan - but there would have been records. Mind you, access to complete information isn't one of the strong points of the Empire, either former Federation or former Crimsen. Most things I've researched turn out to be partial, not complete."

Nolae says, "I think that is close to my understanding but we need to find out what is happening here now."

"If NARI from then are still here now, what happened then is very relevant," Kaori says. "It's also relevant if it turns out that Naeya's location wasn't the absolute mystery that it's supposed to have been before its rediscovery 50 cycles ago. Or if Shylzani-born terraformers didn't really abandon tech as Shana's suggested - that tech has really been in use, in hidden, restricted circles, all along."

The Shadow Ranger nods. "That maybe true but we all have our assignments."

Kaori bows her head. "The planetology is part of mine," she says. "And the planetology strongly suggests that work on terraforming was completed less than a thousand cycles ago - also the case on other Shylzani worlds. The planetary survey report indicates that indigenous life is restricted to the polar areas, high altitude areas and possibly sea bottoms. I'll know more after I analyze these -" and she nods at the collection of glass tubes - "but given the timelines, something has to have been going on, technically, for at least a couple of generations after settlement. And that opens the possibility that what's happened here in the past couple of years really started a long, long time ago."

She plays idly with the ceramic stoppers on the little bottles - two soil samples, a water sample, and a mixture of bits of plant. "Shana, could you put these through the genetic analyzer, please?" she asks.

Shana nods. picks up the tiny bottles, and vanishes.

Nolae says, "If we are done with questions. I will go check on the village."

Kaori turns back to Nolae. "Since there's nothing more you can tell me...but please, please reflect on all your experiences here. Every possible anomaly might help with the picture. New twists on old legends - personality changes in your contacts - anything. Have you noticed anyone acting - well, out of character? People don't suddenly become pacifists without a lot of soul-searching first. If they've just changed - " She shrugs. "If they've just changed, that's an oddity." She takes another sip of coffee. "Then there's this goddess a couple of people have mentioned to me. What do you know about her? Is she connected to the healing shrines?"

Nolae says, "I have had my attention on the safely and the shadows mostly. I just report what I find and others do the analysis. I need to make my rounds in the village"

"But you know these people. They know you," Kaori says. "That fisherman welcomed you, with a strong feeling of safety connected to you."

The Shadow Ranger nods. "We can talk more later. I need to make a showing in the village."

"Peace surround you. And Myeong Mai be with you, too."

Kaori goes to join Shana in the lab. A little while later, Ester emerges, en route to the fisherman's cottage, armed with local knowledge.