The secret leader of the order

She was before a great tree, it moved as if it had flesh as parts of it, exposed flesh that oozed a red sap, every fruit known to men, and some lost to time dangling from the branches. She stood in a great garden, the leaves cracked when she moved, it had been ages since someone had set foot on that ground. She felt the insects walking happily around her feet, the trees around them all bearing different fruits, from the tree’s sap one red river was born, it then divided into four currents, the trees around clearing the sap leaving it as water when it finally came out of the garden.

Even in this digested state said water fed earth’s rivers with life. The source of 8MS as a whole, the creator of life as we know it on earth, and of course its protector. The tree of life, in a world between worlds, where the small streams fed great rivers, the Ganges, the Amazon, the Yang Tze and of course the Nile spreading through earth feeding humans as a gift, a promise made by the tree eons ago. Seshat held her sandals on her left hand, she had taken them off before coming before the great tree.

A fruit dropped before Seshat, a golden fruit with a sweet smell. She bit into it, then could hear the tree inside of her mind. “Has our debugger succeeded?”

Seshat nodded, of course it had succeeded, it had even sealed its fate, its father too had complied fully knowing what would happen next “LD 2001 has complied too as well as her mate”

Seshat continued eating the fruit, she felt how it gave her strength

“I wish we could save them all, but shielding them too much will regress the species. Only now had that damage been done” The tree said with a sad voice. It had given humans fruits to make them powerful, to make them smarter, and they built great cities with that knowledge, two capitals, Lemuria and Atlantis, but said cities began relying on the tree for sustenance, hedonism took over their society. When the tree stopped feeding them their cities collapsed, Lemuria, located in Yucatan exploded causing a massive extinction event, Atlantis was less impressive, it did not go out with a bang but a wimper, it slowly declined until its society had completely forgotten about their wonders.

Just now had humans learned how to manipulate nature again, then war struck and killed most of them, then they learned how to control the tree’s own pollen, 8MS, the gift allowed them to survive, but it had to be taken away again. Gladly LD 2001 had planned accordingly and worked in said plan independently. Humans themselves knew that they were relying too much on it. The three of life, yes it had helped them, but if LD 2001 did not work with her servants to undo the human actions with its pollen, the tree would have turned it poisonous. There was no way of predicting that, but humans had passed the test.

Now it was all on the debugger, and it was working fine, the supervisors of the tree of life, the council of god, would see that their project was working. After all they had succeeded in producing more angels, LD prime, BC 00, Aurum, EUA, all of them products of said project, all of them far more powerful than the tree. Of course the tree was a God, an angel of ancient times, a Seraphim who had taken upon the task of working with the failed human project. Seshat was her acolyte, and both had seen it succeed. Though humanity was not stable, it would be the second time humans would die. Why were gods creating a species that could create things more powerful than them? Because the Gods believed in something greater, and feared it, and hope that one day they will produce something powerful enough to make themselves be noticed by the entity that has ignored them, that or actually creating said entity, to be proper angels, and serve a God, even if they had to work directly to create it.

Another fruit fell before Seshat, it was a fruit she had already eaten, she knew it, the fruit of life, the peach of immortality, in legend even if you had offended the gods you could not die by their hand if you ate said peach. Of course immortality is an illusion, it just means you cannot die by common means, though this fruit made the one who consumed it so resistant to everything, that it made them virtually immortal for 10 thousand years. It had been less than that since Seshat had eaten the fruit, it was not for her.

Seshat took another bite, and another thought of the tree came into her mind “It is a failsafe, save whoever needs to be saved so our project does not fail”

“Is this allowed?” Sheshat said to the tree, then took another bite of her fruit

“There is no rule forbidding it, perhaps it will not be allowed after we do it”

Seshat nodded and took another bite “That’s all” The tree said, Seshat respectfully finished her fruit, and planted the seed on her way out. She took the fruit into her pocket, PH426, the most dangerous artifact of the tree of life. So this was their plan, have the debugger wipe humanity, and let Seshat save those who deserved to be saved. After all its promise after flooding the earth was that the next wave would be of fire. Only those who deserve to live would survive. What a terrible fate for humans, though this was the only way to spare them from the tree’s equal.

The face angel, the hand of destruction, it would come soon if everything they did had failed, only the fruit would be the salvation of humanity, though how many people could take a bite of a peach? How many bites does a peach have? Seshat, now out checked that very question in her mind, but no answer came, just recipes for peach pie. Perhaps she could take the juice out and feed a few drops to as many people as she could. That would work, but she had to see who drank said juice, one wrong person and the whole plan would fail.

Midir… Epilogue

Yuuka was watching the fights during the masquerade incident, she looked around and found something odd, Daiyousei was nowhere to be seen. She shrugged, perhaps she was busy writing or something around those lines. Yuuka rarely went out of her home, but this was an interesting occurrence. Kasen approached her for a moment and handed her a small letter with a harp wax seal on the envelope.

“Some elven courier left it at my temple years ago… I imagine I could hand it to you today” Kasen sighed “I tried to hand it to you earlier but your garden is a maze… and your home honestly creeps me out”

Yuuka sighed “I should get a PO box actually… This is not the first time this happens. I think there is a vampire in my lawn and she eats trespassers”

“You just found out about Kurumi?!” Kasen couldn’t help it but laugh

“Her name is Kurumi? It’s cute… Perhaps I should invite her in, maybe that way I can get visits again” She laughed

“It wouldn’t make any difference actually”

“Let me dream okay?” Yuuka sighed and opened the letter, it was from Daiyousei, she was in a far away kingdom she managed to single handedly conquer from an undead army. There was a smile on her face, it would be offensive to think any less of Daiyousei, after all there was little difference between herself and her sister. Yuuka made up the physical shortcomings with magic, in fact they were born in equal conditions, Yuuka’s own physical handicap gave her the need to develop her magic to a greater degree. That was the only difference between them, Yuuka had to fight for survival from an early age. Both carried the seed of destruction, Bhairavi and Bhairava, two halves of a whole. Something Daiyousei never believed, though perhaps now she would begin to learn about it.

Yes it was true Yuuka’s own body was honed to be an unstoppable force, but Daiyousei could achieve greatness through other means, Yuuka’s own path was not the only one. She could not teach Daiyousei how to find her own strength, after all the Mahavidyas, the destroyers, were killed at birth. They were alone in that path, even Rudra who had walked it, the only one besides them who had walked on said path of destruction, knew that the best way to go was to let others find it out themselves.

Midir the other half

Daiyousei, or better said, the fairy known as Daiyousei has a secret, a secret she keeps from everyone. Every time she feels down she goes home and dresses up as Kazami Yuuka, she curls her hair using rollers and puts on clothes exactly like hers, she flies around the house acting entitled and sits to have a cup of tea, then tosses the teacup on the ground and complains about the quality of it.

A few of those times she goes outside with some gold coins, gold coins she gets from Larva and expends them on flowers and desserts in the human village. It is not the fear humans show towards her, but the respect, the way they see her is entirely different. Even those who had dealt with Yuuka personally, such as Kasen or Reimu, do not notice the difference, of course they would not, there is no difference in their face, just the eye color, and even that is not entirely true. Daiyousei could also use magic to turn her eyes red, then her and Yuuka would look just the same, just as how Yuuka turned her eyes green at times to make herself look less intimidating, something that of course, did not work.

Nobody looked down on her, even when she was sitting down, physically people would not look at her directly unless she looked at them first. Daiyousei at first did it for just a few minutes, Cirno flew away scared the time she showed up dressed like that. Daiyousei was actually afraid someone would come to attack her, so she returned home and dressed again as herself.

Though with time, Daiyousei realized that she could go out dressed like that and nobody would even attempt to harm her. Suika or Yuugi had met her in that form, though when they tried to punch her in the shoulder “lightly” to test her strength all she had to do was glare at them with a serious expression. Even the big Deva of the mountain would prefer to laugh at their own actions than probably bothering the Sleeping terror.

She met Aya one day, taking pictures while she drank tea, Daiyousei boldly asked “How tall am I?”

“About 1.80m I imagine” she said then continued working, Aya did not lie, she indeed saw Yuuka as that tall, when in fact Yuuka was about as tall as Daiyousei. She did not even try to change her voice, she spoke normally, yet Aya did not hear any difference in the voice, even when Wriggle or Rumia told her that her voice was more acute than Yuuka’s.

Physically there was no difference between them both, Daiyousei had the same height, the same voice, the same hair, though people could not help it but think of Yuuka as an entirely different person. Daiyousei loved that feeling, not being Yuuka, but being respected, being treated with such care, she had to often overpay restaurants, her endorsement was more than what they could ask for.

After the fairy wars, Daiyousei felt particularly depressed, everyone had ignored her in the entire affair. She was just seen as another fairy while Cirno got all the attention. She wanted to be seen as someone important again, so she got dressed as Yuuka and walked out of her home to the human village.

She went and bought herself a big bouquet of flowers, so big that she even doubted she could carry it, of course she made sure to pay the florist well, after all she was not a thief, Yuuka may get mad at the idea of Daiyousei dressing up as her, but she would be livid to hear that she ruined her image.

An elven child approached Daiyousei and tugged at her skirt. She turned around to see him, then gave him a couple of flowers. Then continued without uttering a word, though he did not let her go. With tears on his eyes he dropped the flowers to kneel before her. “Please help me!” he cried out “We cannot stand it anymore, we need you!”

Daiyousei gave him a coy smile “Child I cannot answer every call for help I hear. There are more heroes around the area”

“None of them want to help us! They say they cannot face an army” He continued still kneeling “Please I beg you lady Brighid, we need you”

Daiyousei narrowed her eyes, nobody around here knew Yuuka’s actual name, much less pronounce it. She replied in sylvan “Kid, Derg should take care of your kingdom for all I care”

“We are not in his kingdom, our lord is dead, our land has been conquered and we had been enslaved by the undead”

Daiyousei wanted to help, but what could she do? Throw stones at the army? Blind them with a flash of light? Maybe make them trip with grass. “Accept your fate then child, I already have to take care of my own land” she turned around

“They said you would be afraid… The Litch King let me go, he said you would never come to face him” He said that in Sylvan, that language was odd, you could never lie in Sylvan, if you tried to the words themselves would not allow you to.

Daiyousei had been careful not to lie in Sylvan, she had to take care of her land, even if her land was just the small place, she called home. She shivered internally, and smirked at the kid with a prideful expression “That bastard thinks he can talk about me like that? Show me the way, carry my flowers”

The kid held the bouquet and guided Daiyousei out of Gensokyo, through Makai then towards a far away kingdom west from their home. One could not even call that land earth, this was a different world, even Daiyousei did not fully know how it worked, she just accepted the fact that there were other worlds.

The land was desolate, burned homes and starving farmers carrying stones to build a great wall. Daiyousei thought for a minute, of course she had to be careful because undead were hard to fool. After thinking of many plans, she decided on the most outlandish of them all, because it is exactly what Yuuka would do. She flew all the way up to the highest tower of the castle in which the undead army resided, and modified their flag using magic to have a green and red flag, with a yellow harp in the green side and a sunflower in the red side.

She then did the same with every flag and began ordering the farmers to stop carrying stones and tend to the gardens, the undead armies were baffled at the actions of this tiny woman, ordering their own slaves, completely ignoring them.

Daiyousei had to keep breaking so her nervousness would not show, luckily the undead who she was ignoring were more afraid of her than she was of them. They saw the flag; they recognized the symbols in the banner and the fact that she began treating this place as her own made them doubt their own orders and so they decided to run towards the castle.

“My leash our flags had been changed to the Dannan coat of arms!” They ran screaming to their master.

The undead necromancer tilted his head “What do you mean by that? Change them back!”

“Milord they had been changed by a fairy clad in red” they said “As red as her eyes” They could not refuse a direct order, though they knew changing the flag would put their master’s life at risk, that was their only fear.

The litch rushed out to a window and looked at the green and red banners flapping in the sky, then down at the farmers carrying soil and seeds, watering the fields. He rushed out to meet Daiyousei sitting calmly in the fields, overlooking the operation.

“Greetings good sir, sorry for the intermission but I consider such an insult to the land offensive in a personal degree. Thus I will be claiming this land as mine, any questions?” She turned to face him with a wide smile

“We leave your lands alone lady, let me grow my empire in peace we pose no threat to you” he said

She laughed “Yes but what you do to the earth is disgusting”

“Then we will make sure the land remains fertile, but we need protection, we need the souls of this farmers to survive. You know how cattle farming works; we can come to a compromise” He sat besides Daiyousei looking at the ground as he spoke.

“You had lands what happened to them?” She asked

“A demon army came and took it away from us, their capital was destroyed and thus they needed resources, resources they decided to take from us. We could not fight them back, so we conquered this place to claim it our own. I know you are reasonable lady; we ask to be allowed to live here if we can meet your demands”

Daiyousei waved away the king “Sir you had your chance and lost it, why would I buy the idea of a demon army anyway?”

The litch looked up, the purple lights in his empty sockets looked deep into Daiyousei “Because you are the one who destroyed their capital. But you do not know that…” He began to laugh

Daiyousei floated up laughing “I know that but why would I care?!”

The litch looked around “Moreover… I made a threat and your only response was laughter. I see it now, you are not Brighid, you are someone else”

She gulped, he used a dispel on her flight and made her plummet to the ground “So lady this is how it is, you are not the princess of the Dannan”

“I am a Dannan princess!” She yelled out loud “I am the eldest of the children of Dagda second king of the fairies, twin sister of Brighid herself. I am Midir and I will have no mercy upon you!”

He chuckled “I don’t need your mercy child, I know of you, the little disappointment of the Dannan family, the one who always lived in Brighid’s shadow”

“If you hurt me she will come back to do to you what you did to me tenfold”

“That is if she finds out” He laughed “But I guess she does not know you are here impersonating her, or else she would had not let you tarnish her image like that”

A stone was thrown at his head, three farmers then launched at him using their tools to attempt to hurt him. The king quickly killed them though this short distraction allowed Daiyousei to fly up again.

She then looked at the castle, its doors were opened, and under the throne a large trunk, she turned herself invisible and flew towards that trunk, she began hitting the lock with her umbrella, the lock was unscathed at the first hit, though the umbrella was not, of course not, it was a replica.

Daiyousei though took one of the wires from the umbrella and began picking the lock, she opened it to find a large skull filled with jewels on it, she punched it, then felt the pain of hitting precious stones with her bare hands.

She thought for a moment, then remembered something, fairy blood can heal, she used the same wire to sever one of her wrists and began to pour said blood upon the skull, a curdling scream came from the outside, the king rushed back inside, though he did not even manage to take more than two steps before his body began to decompose and turn to dust. Daiyousei turned visible again, her wound slowly healing, though she was too harmed to keep the illusion.

The guards inside the place looked at her and dropped their weapons, they rushed out screaming. It was already clear she was not Yuuka, but she had just killed their leader, self-preservation was the only thing driving them now, and Daiyousei was a threat to them.

The flags returned to their former dark colors, her eyes turned green again, she was drained. Outside the people began to cheer they poured into the castle and lifted Daiyousei up into the air cheering her name, her actual name.

III Smoking mirror

When we arrived from the sea a dragon was already waiting for him, green hair and eyes just like the one I had helped cross the sea, and black scales, it was a little larger in size, though a young one too. It glared at me the moment I came to land, but he was glad to see his brother, something he let clear by lowering his claws when the white dragon explained something in their tongue. The land had forests too, so I could continue traveling.

In the forest I found Devas, wild, illiterate Devas, I would even doubt they could be called such, thus we fairies begun using the term humans to describe them. They were foraging for roots to eat, insects and fruits. It was a sad scene, so I decided to walk up to them, I removed a leaf from my hand and allowed blood to drip to the ground.

I didn’t know Devas like this could exist, and it made me sad, there were no Devas at home, only dragons and fairies. After all this was a dragon world, Devas did not like dragon worlds, full of wild fairies and dangerous animals, yet here they were. My blood and some magic fell onto a wild plant, making it grow and become something they could better eat, a single husk full to the brim with big fat corns of several colors.

They found it tough and tenderized it with some minerals they had in their own land, after all they were still Deva, they still changed the land to fit them, we fairies did the same but not to that extent. With those seeds they made flat breads, within a year they were growing said corns, elotl or maize they named it and they named me Xipe or “Our skinned lord”

When their first harvest was done and their bellies full a young woman, close to my height willfully gave up her life, so that her skin could be given to me as an offering. Which I gladly took. It felt like dying, or so I thought, I was used to the pain it was to me my sense of self, then suddenly there was none, the wind felt like a gentle stroke, the ground soft and friendly.

The dragons came in later, they gave gifts to the Deva too, it was the white dragon, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake, as they called him who gave them the knowledge of softening their food using lime. The darker one, Tezcatlipoca, the smoking mirror, gave them fire and stone working. I had to tell the fairies at home about the humans in the west, these wild Devas, we could prove to the smart ones that we were better than them, that we cared for those who were below us.

II Feathered snake

It was a rather large dragon, white as marble and hair green and shiny with red tones. A water breathing dragon, as dangerous as a fire breathing one but a lot more reasonable since they found treasure in alliances and wisdom and not just gold like the others. I took out a small honey cake from my bag and left it in the ground before the dragon, he smelled it and licked it off. He was rather young, about twice my size, honestly, he could still eat me if he so wished but he liked the cake.

I didn’t speak Deva, neither he spoke Sylvan, there was a slight bow from his head, and I retorted, it was clear his intention wasn’t consuming me as a snack. Water dragons were rarely seen in this lands and the fact he didn’t speak Sylvan, like all dragons in the area was reason to believe he was traveling. He also carried a pouch, but it had almost no food, which made me realize his intentions, he didn’t want me to become his supper, but he needed help for it. I was running low on food as well, bread was beginning to get moldy since it was full of cream and eggs, I tossed it out, but the dragon found it to be quite tasty.

Even if I could explain that it was spoiled perhaps, he didn’t want to know, how bad was the food he ate if he considered a spoiled cake was good? Or how good was the food I ate? We stacked in berries and acorns, some squirrels he managed to catch became part of our goods, I skinned them and laid the meat as straps around his pouch so they could dry, I did the same with mine.

This young dragon never tried to attack me, so I kept the Suryan seal to myself. He invited me to ride on his back and fly across the sea, it was clear we both sought to do that, and neither could do it alone. He could soar through wind currents but the wind itself would prove dangerous in the open sea with no mountains to hold it. Swimming was not an option for him either, sea dragons are extremely territorial, they would tear him to pieces, same case as mine.

Though me as a fairy I could control wind, speak to it and make it carry us to any direction we wanted, this is the simplest of spells, so much so that even our children use it to fly, it comes to us as naturally as it does to dragons to spit water. But to fly in the open sea, for someone who can control wind is difficult since we are not large, we cannot pierce through the clouds and ride the wind, dragons do that, we float in the wind we create.

Many love the idea of riding a dragon, but dragons are not rides, I was allowed to do so because I would keep him on air, he needed me as much as I needed him, dragons only allow you to ride their backs if they receive something in return. Perhaps in modern times tales would tell I had a pet but in ancient times the tale would tell it the other way around, after all dragons were way more respectable than fairies, we were created to serve them but some of us escaped and hid in mounds. Wild fairies were seen as savage creatures and to be honest we didn’t make it any easier on them, I knew what dragon meat tasted like and probably this dragon knew it. I assume he didn’t try to eat me for the same reason I didn’t attack him either, we knew we had to work together to travel. I doubt I could had attacked him even if I wanted, later on he actually admitted he was afraid of me when we met, I reeked of blood and was covered in leaves, he was afraid I would vanish into the forest and hunt him down from there, he was amused I was afraid he would try to attack me too, after all it wasn’t cooperation, but fear that kept us safe from each other.

I Our skinned lord

Father told me the day I was born mother passed, he never told me she did it herself when she saw me. It was a blessing though, it allowed him to marry into the Dannan family, considering he was a simple fairy with a sick child, being married to Boann, younger sister of Nuada allowed us to become part of their family. He never stopped loving mother, in fact he never forgot her, he married because he wasn’t sure I would even be able to survive.

The moment I was born I cried and had to learn to live with the pain from that moment, the world’s mere existence, the wind, the sun was all pain to me. Mother could only last for three days after she gave up, father though, decided to raise me, he was unsure the small skinless baby would be able to even grow up to call him father, yet he tried. He held me in his hands so small that I would fit in them, gasping for air to cry, fully knowing the touch of his skin hurt less than the blankets.

Using his sorcery he made the worms produce a filament so thin, so strong it could make a strong fabric soft enough to hold me in without causing that much pain, he weaved it himself and wrapped me in it, the white fabric turned red the moment it touched me, but it was the first time I stopped crying.

Most of my childhood I expended indoors, reading along with father which made my brothers resent me. When left alone they wouldn’t waste a chance to simply spit on me, their saliva being particularly hurtful in my body. I learned later on that to make them stop I had to retaliate, Derg, my older brother had taken one of my notebooks and began to make fun of the way I write, how messy and bloody the pages were.

His mother tried to separate us, but she was thrown away by accident, something I never fully understood, had she tripped on me? Why was her arm bruised? One of the guards came and gripped me wrapping his arms around me, I tossed and turned, I kicked but ultimately, he had me. After cleaning Derg they were outraged at the fact that some of the blood that covered him was in fact his own.

Father tried to tell me why what I had done was wrong, it wasn’t about defending myself, it was about losing myself to rage. Apparently I had grabbed Boann by the arm and tossed her away, something she did not expect, Derg was in pretty bad shape too, we fairies heal quickly but he had sustained major hits, I expected that, he was younger than me but Boann?

It was worth the punishment, being locked away for a month did feel great, I had nobody to bother me, nobody to hurt me which to me was a reward. The same went with the rest of my brothers. Honestly, they could have retaliated, but Boann had made them promise not to try to harm me directly, which was why they were bothering me in the first place. Perhaps she would had chosen her words differently if she knew the outcome.

Boann was in any form of manner my mother, neither did she try to be, though she genuinely tried to maintain me in a rather safe environment, or what she considered safe to be honest. To avoid me the pain of going to war, she arranged a marriage with the Fomorians, that way I could remain neutral in the current conflict.

With father I found a way to cover myself with leaves, using them as skin of my own, it wasn’t as resistant, it hurts all the time, but it made the world more bearable. That made my late childhood a time I fondly remember, no fear of my brothers, no fear of touching anything. Which allowed me to go out more.

I loved going out to find new types of flowers and collect their seeds, categorizing them and writing about them in my own made up language. One day I found lotus flowers in a pond, something rare as I came to learn later, it was the first time I saw one of those, a miracle considering I was in a planet where there had never been a Lotus.

It was out here in the open for a reason, even when it shouldn’t be, it should have died in this environment yet there it was. I brought father to see the flower, he in turn brought Boann, they agreed my idea of going out to see the world was for the best, but they also handed me a seal of the royal Suryan family, this way I could act as an envoy and nobody would dare to attack me. Father crafted me a staff with copper casings on the edges, I was not old, or capable enough to gain my own weapon so this was the most they could do.

Father handed me a silk cape, which was already colored red, as all my clothes were so my own blood wouldn’t show as a stain. Still as a child but not old enough to gain my weapon I decided to leave and see the world, find a cure for my own illness or a way to survive.

I thought they had given me a great amount of food, later I learned all of it would quickly spoil, in fact Boann nor father expected me to actually leave. Knowing that out in the open I would just bait dragons I decided to travel through the forest, when it ended, I was met with the sea. I had never seen the sea, it was majestic but the wind it brought over made me feel particularly uneasy. I’d ride a kelpie to cross it but from old tale a kelpie would feel tired and fall asleep during the way, I wasn’t willing to become a fleshy bait in the sea either.

Tripura Bhairavi, Bright fairy princess

Their civilizations were at the brink of war, Brighid was one of the main pieces on said war, so was Rudra. They were enemies in many regards but they had decided long ago to remain friends at the personal level, they were born into their species for a reason and so they had a duty to ensure the best for each, there was nothing personal on their actions against each other. Brighid had promised to kill the Indra though Rudra would have done the same if placed in her situation, he often asked her for council, fully knowing her advice would affect her negatively she gave it honestly, so did Rudra. After all Rudra saw much of him in the fairy, more than what he saw in the other Mahavidya.

Brighid scared of death for the first time in her life asked Rudra for advice. Rudra the dark-skinned Deva, the pelts covering his body did not hide the fact that it was well toned and athletic. The strongest of the Mahavidyas, he had skill with fire that rivaled that of the Indra but his ability with wind was better than anyone, he could even summon wind in space, using dust as medium, his physical strength and skill in combat made him a great warrior, something he taught Brighid and in turn she taught to Amaterasu. He did not teach how to fight but how to develop your own form of fighting.

Seeing Brighid in fear was uncharacteristic, the woman named “Bhairavi” or the terror by Krishna, Rudra did not even doubt her capacity to dispose of the Indra, he knew she had not done it because without him the Suryan army would attack and they weren’t prepared for it. Rudra knew that whatever troubled Brighid he could help, if anyone could, it would be him.

“What troubles you sister?” Rudra said while she sat to rest on a rock.

“I am married to a man who takes pleasure in killing his wives. They made me vow to not harm him”

Rudra smiled “Is that everything? Remember that you are not a fairy with the power to destroy, we are not forces of nature but nature itself. Our magic is different from other Deva in that we do not absorb mana from the universe from our chakra, our chakras feed the universe”

“Yet my body is a vessel that can be broken” Brighid said, she had heard this before, she had even tested it and it was true, others could do cast stronger spells if she was around, they would be even stronger if they were in good terms with her. Derg usually could only cast minor illusions, though when she was around he could make it seem as if the illusion was real, if she were actively trying to help him the illusion did turn real.

“So is his, you promised not to harm his body, what about changing it?” Rudra laughed “They always forget something in those contracts”

Brighid remained silent for a moment, she then began to smile “Thank you brother” she then stood up and left.

It was not long after their marriage when Bres, her husband, did try to harm her. She was sleeping, he had tried to cut her throat, he even succeeded at it though he failed at actually taking her life. She woke up while her magic passively healed her wound, there was a wide smile on her face.

“I think you had suffered a great deal when a child for you to treat your loved ones this way” Brighid said “You could not have a childhood so here is my gift to you” she came closer while Bres shook in fear, he stumbled against the wall and closed his eyes, all while Brighid leaned forward and gave him a kiss.

He knew the kiss wasn’t it, the transition was not painful, not physically, he saw how his clothes began to grow along with everything else. He looked at the knife, too large for him to handle. Bres had become a child, though his expression became that of despair when Brighid spoke again “Eternal youth and eternal life!”

He was trapped in a child body, unable to harm anyone, even if he tried he couldn’t try to subdue Brighid any more than the wind subdues the grass. Bres took the knife and ran it through his throat, he though woke up a few minutes later alive, unharmed.

“That is not a gift! This is a curse!”

Brighid patted him on the head “Dear husband it is a gift, you will need time to appreciate it though”

When word came out of what Brighid had done the court slowly began to include her more and ignore her husband not out of respect but out of fear, none of them had any idea she could do something like that, before she had only used her spear and her ability which was already intimidating, though now they learned something else, her magic was powerful. Bres was not a simple prince, he was a powerful fairy whose magic could even control life, though to Brighid he was just a toy.

Elatha did not fear her though, he was the king of the Fomorians, Elatha found his son to have twisted ways and blamed himself for his atrocities. When he saw his son trapped, he thanked his new daughter, she had given him a punishment that to many would be a beautiful blessing, many complain about the pains of adulthood something Bres would not have to deal with anymore. So thankful he was that he promised a favor to Brighid, fully knowing what she would ask for, it was then when the Fomorians officially reunited with the Tuatha de Dannan. When they became an unified force that to the surprise of many lend their forces to work for the Deva.

Pork tomatillo stew

Yeah yeah this isn’t touhou related… But know what? This is my website and I think you will all like this recipe. It’s fairly common to find this with a few variations in Hidalgo Mexico, usually served with beans and tortillas (corn).

So we begin with a kilo of tomatillo (the smaller the better), half a kilo of pork, 7 nopales (maybe more or less depending on size, mine were medium, about the size of my hand). So here we have the ingredients.

Here we remember we have to drink water, add half a pineapple you have in the fridge because why not. Yeah this wasn’t in the plan but it’s how cooking often turns out, you make one thing and end up making two.

Some frozen strawberries. Look at the beautiful assemble

Okay we overcrowded the blender… So we divide it into two to blend.

Okay finally blended! Now to add honey, sugar and of course more water (this is for 4 liters)

Okay the shot is done (that glass is for mom) now to serve myself with a less pretty but more sturdy glass since I’ll be in the kitchen dancing around.

So now we cut the nopales, for those who had never minced a nopal before don’t worry. You make parallel cuts but DO NOT CUT THE EDGE, nopales are slippery and gooey, you are welcome to not listen to my advice but believe me you’ll regret it.

Put them in a pressure cooker with just enough water to cover them

Just a nice shot of my water container, nice talavera

Now to mince the pork (it was in the white container) since it was still a little frozen I needed to bring in the big knife. It can be any cut you want, quite literally I went to the butcher shop and asked for a hunk of pork meat, froze it until I needed it, at first I wanted to make pork gorditas but with nopales is way healthier and tastier (also takes 4 more hours to make, don’t worry most of it is waiting time).

Of course it can cut it, bought the cheapest cleaver I could find on amazon, used a wetstone to sharpen it, not my best knife but it’s great for what it is. I use it mostly to cut large vegetables, on friday I used it to make pumpkin candy it was perfect for cutting a large castilla pumpkin.

Now we get a pot searing hot (left a small piece of pork as tester)

Once the oil is ripping hot put the rest of the pork and let it brown a little

While the meat browns it’s time to cool off the pressure cooker (you can let it cool off on its own) a neat trick is to put it under cold water so the pressure drops. The indicator valve has to drop down, a pressure cooker is at supercritical conditions if you want to know what supercritical water steam is like check a video on youtube, don’t try this at home because that’s how you end up in Chubbyemu videos.

As a small parenthesis, critical conditions is the point at which a fluid and its steam have the same density, meaning that there are water droplets floating freely in the mix. Supercritical means you are beyond those conditions, open the pressure cooker or take off the security valve and the water droplets of literally boiling water are going to get out at a high pressure (duh) and if you are lucky leave your kitchen in a very dirty state. Pressure cookers are a beautiful thing but please be very careful when using them

While we still wait for the pork to brown (hey it was frozen it will take a long time) put the tomatillos in a comal (cast iron grill very normally used in Mexican cuisine) or in that ugly pan or pot you don’t care about. We will let them roast, usually people do not use tongs or tools of any kind to flip things in a comal, I recommend you use something, to learn that ability is something that requires years of practice… and a lot of ointment.

Okay finally our pork has browned! Don’t mind if there is little fond, you will get more soon. This is a stew and the meat has to be so tender you can break it with your tongue

Well to get that tenderness we will need to boil the meat in a lot of water, for this, about a kilo of pork I used 2 cups of water, add enough water to cover your meat, then add another cup for good measure.

Now we wait… During that wait we flip our roasted tomatillos, once the color of the skin that isn’t burned turns a darker shade of brown they are ready, note not all will be ready at the same time so it’s a slow process of turning and waiting, you can take a shortcut and just boil them but honestly the roast gives the stew a nice smoky flavor.

Once the tomatillos are roasted we add the secret ingredient! It’s not really a secret, since this is a very typical dish in the area of Hidalgo my family is from. It’s called Rallado, a chile that only grows in a far away town called Progreso, you grow it anywhere else the taste is off and it doesn’t taste as spicy. As a note to those who manage to get a hold of it, it’s way spicier than a chipotle, add them to your sauce one by one and taste it. If you don’t have access to this small chile you can use dried chipotles (canned is fine too) and roast them (yeah you cannot roast the canned ones sadly). Roast them lightly, believe me you will know when they are ready, after all you are roasting chiles, actually it’s a common flu remedy here too not a punishment like they said in the Mendoza Codex (maybe it was but now the chancla is the punishment, burning chiles is a flu remedy).

Now everything is done… Well everything but the meat, well we wait for it to boil off all the water

And wait… Oh wait I forgot to blend the chiles and tomatillo!

Now that everything is done we go back to waiting

Okay that will take a long time… May as well get myself comfortable (British friends please forgive me but good gin is is very expensive here)

Let’s see… Nope okay back to waiting

And waiting

And waiting

Oh hey look if I wait for long enough my phone will realize this is Mexican themed and put that annoying yellow filter on my glass! Well here is proof, Mexico isn’t sepia it’s technology.

Almooost

Okay now it’s ready!

After the meat has properly cooked, now we add the salsa and our cooked nopales. Do not add raw nopales, they will let the goo out inside your stew and make the sauce gooey.

For spices you add marjoram, pepper, oregano and cumin, about half a teaspoon of each maybe even a cube of bouillon in there. Salt it until the very end when the thing is almost ready. Right besides it is the candied pumpkin.

Let this on high heat until it boils, then lower it to let it simmer with the lid for 3-4 hours. Everything up until the simmer is done with high heat.

If you feel like cooking this but want to vary it a little feel free to comment, I’ll gladly help

Food porn

Oddly enough I do not like to take pictures of food, though I do love to cook. I learned very little, mom was working all day long and grandma’s bones did not allow her to do much during the day, so cooking was something I had to learn, it could had been just a couple eggs and that would be it, though I preferred to do a stir fry, which grandma still loves to this day, and serve the meal.

Then came high school, it was abroad so it was either eating whatever was served in the cafeteria or up my cooking game, there I learned how to bake, how to boil because until now I was used to stir fry, a man a pot and I was happy, there I learned other things. College was a vacation for my cooking, though work soon brought back the need to prepare food.

My first work was selling wood, it was not the best salary and it was stressful, so I took cooking again, it was not only helping me save, it was helping me remain sane. All my skills now were honed into a single goal, relaxation.

Cooking is not that different from love, you do it only for people you care for in a certain degree, to nourish those near you. Though it is also there to please, to brag, to show off and of course to earn money. It has some degree of lust, of pride not only gluttony. I don’t take pictures because I don’t cook for the camera, I cook for myself, for my family and for people I care, even in that regard I am as prudish as I am in bed. After all what are Chefs but Porn Stars for their own particular type of porn?

Opera

Chandra was approaching the main halls of Indra, his brother, the Suryan Emperor, the rooms slowly became larger, he doors heavier coated in gold and precious stones all embroidered with imagery regarding the feats of the Manu Dynasty including those of Indra. Even for a Deva walking down that path made anyone feel smaller, automatic locks opened at his path greeting him by name each turn.

Indra was sitting on a rug drinking a masala of tea, sweetmeats besides the pile of scrolls and crystals he had to go through. Chandra came in, Indra offered him a seat, but he did not take it instead he just handed a couple of scrolls.

Indra sighed already expecting the bad news, though what he saw in the new scroll was surprising, earth, a small poorly guarded colony still stood. He had to read it again just to be certain. It was true, the Deva at earth had managed to hold the Ashura forces for longer than expected, they were not even asking for reinforcements but for permission to begin an invasion on the nearing world of Diyu, a world that had belonged to the Ashura for long.

Earth did not even have a true Deva there, just servants who were sent as bait, the Deva expected the Ashura to pour everything into that small planet, then try to invade to meet an ambush.

Ashura though were stopping their attacks on Earth, the small planet had proven too hard to conquer. Prahlada found no use in attacking a well-guarded planet, Indra was visibly angry at the idea, Chandra nodded at his brother’s disbelief. He handed the scroll back “Order them to attack, hopefully they will decimate their own forces”

Chandra sighed and returned, he knew this would happen, Indra’s plan was never very good to begin with. After all the servants who were sent to earth were servants because they were born in that caste, engineered creatures made to serve the whims of the gods, the ones who were sent to earth were rebellious in nature, earth was a punishment for those servants who had thought of themselves greater than their masters. Indra had made a mistake by sending them to war, they had such inflated egos because of their own skill.

Indra was well aware of what the oracles told him, but it wouldn’t be the first time he did not follow a prophecy, the wood people, the fairies were supposed to be the next race to rule the worlds, then the corn people, the second batch of servants they created, though they only brought war onto the Deva which they managed to fend off. Now the prophecies had changed, maybe if it was someone else they wouldn’t be capable of changing fate the same way he did, now the prophecies spoke of a new world, one ruled not by wood people or corn people, but of them both. Wood people thought themselves as gods, corn people were fanatics, together they could bring an equilibrium, finally be the race that inherits the universe once this Kalpa ends.

He remembered his own personal servant, his odd customs, his spells and curses, he now called himself king of the fairies and claimed his child was an avatar much comparable to him. Indra paid too little attention to this, even if the child was powerful, fairies were not that powerful to begin with. Even if the oracles told him to beware the fairies. This meant trickery, it had to mean trickery, to avoid this issue he would have to fight them head on, kill the fairy fated to kill him with his own hands. They were hard to kill but iron was their bane, poisonous to them and iron burns did not heal.

For this specifically he developed a spell, using his glow to turn the oxygen into iron, that would be more than enough to destroy any fairy, he would had been right, though he thought of himself as untouchable, after all he was an avatar of Vishnu, he was unbeatable an avatar of Shiva, if his old servant was right, would not be match for him, though he couldn’t be more wrong.

Lady Brighid soon began to gain more fame and influence, to the point where he saw his own court fall into hedonism and depend on her and her gifts. Indra tried to buy them back but her gifts held them with an iron grasp. Then came his fortune, fairies introduced a substance called sugar into the market, it stopped hunger, it tasted good, it made you energetic. Indra could not find proof it was them but their signature was in its craft. Then came the Kshir Sagar massacre of which only fairies and tengu survived, and now tengu were siding with fairies who in battle found a way to spare them.

The howling did not let him sleep one bit that night, so he decided to leave for Krishna’s planet, the Lotus flower, a place where even servants lived lavish lives but he didn’t care, he just wanted to rest.

There Lady Brighid was waiting for him, Krishna had invited her so peace could be reached, the war of the Ashura had been won, but now the fairies were at war with the Deva. Indra glared at Krishna, another avatar of Vishnu like himself, but now he understood this man was also a traitor and proceeded to kill him with his sword. Krishna did not even flinch, he accepted death as an old friend, though Brighid wouldn’t be so easy, she had promised to dip her blade in his blood.

Indra begun with his iron attack, he saw how Brighid’s skin began to fall off her body, trying to regenerate but failing given the continuous flow of it. She though didn’t let the pain slow her down, she held her sword, made with Indra’s own glow and proceeded to counter. Her strength was easy to overcome, though she had tricks, tricks that allowed her to disappear in thin air and attack from the shadows, tricks that allowed her to divide herself in many, tricks that made her glow like the Indra, a protective glow she could use against him.

The battle was vicious and it lasted for weeks, at the end of the seventh week, Indra was already spent, though he imagined Brighid was about the same, after all she had been withstanding his continuous attacks for days.

Brighid though waited for him to sit and rest, she got up, and cleaned herself. With an uncharacteristically fast move she darted towards Indra, he felt the pain before he noticed what had happened, he was beginning to take a nap just a few seconds, then he felt it, or rather didn’t, he hadn’t let go of his sword, so the fight was not over yet, he could not let go or else it would mean he yielded.

Brighid waited for him to pick his sword with his left arm then proceeded to continue, this time with more strength than what they had begun with, now Indra could see what had happened, Brighid was going easy on him, playing like a cat does with the mouse, until the mouse feels tired then the cat will really try to eat it. Indra thought she was holding him back, but in fact she was just stalling, waiting for this very moment in which he had fallen too tired then truly begin.

Indra tried to use his own glow again but Brighid laughed as her skin finally peeled off, he finally saw what was it, after all she had raised Amaterasu, she had been around her for very long thus she had adapted, Indra actually forgot this aspect of fairies, they were made to adapt, to evolve to their environment and this one had adapted to the environment he made. Brighid never recovered from the injury her skin sustained, this feat gave her the name Xipe Totec by some fairy tribes the skinned lady. Deva began to pay her respects by giving up the skin of people who willingly hoisted themselves at the idea of sacrifice. Indra, the tyrant, the Emperor of the stars appointed by birthright had been killed by the smallest of the destroyers, the one who could had never hoped to kill the Indra with her sheer strength but did it with patience.

Though the great curse, the curse Krishna had placed upon Brighid was still there, lingering, she thought of it as the lack of skin, though ignored this would had happened either way, the curse would hurt her more than the Indra ever could.