The snow barely moved under her feet as Itori walked, having been there for so long that it was practically white ice. It covered the darker ice below, which formed the glaciers which had earned this place its name. While Itori's ear still caught the soft crunching and her footsteps still resounded in her ears there was indeed a quietness here that couldn't be found in many other places. A quietness which you couldn't attain in any place with a significant amount of life.
The kitsune looked around with vermillion eyes as she made her way forward step by step, her three tails making slight movements from side to side with every step. She looked lost in thought, dreaming, but at the same time as if she was looking for something. Her eyes darted from side to side. Her white sword was sheathed and held with a relaxed grip. With her other hand she was idly thumbing a set of prayer beads which emanated an ominous aura. For all intents and purposes she looked like something like something out of a story. A white kitsune travelling through a white land of snow and ice, the only real colour coming from the kitsune mask on the side of her head and her own vermillion eyes.
She was having fun actually interacting with the living again. She'd wandered alone for a long time, not wanting to get attached to people who from her perspective only lived briefly. The fact that in the past a lot of those lives had been cut short by her own mistakes made her even less attracted of the idea of repeating that mistake. However she'd let herself get pulled in once more, and while she was worried that she'd have to go through all those worries and sorrows all over again for the moment she had to admit that it was pleasant to have people around. She wasn't a very popular person nor was she very talkative, but the presence itself had value. It helped you remember that there was something in the world aside from you, and that it was a beautiful place with many things. Many things which you couldn't predict and which could excite and surprise you, because of those other people changing the world as they interacted with it.
However she was still a spirit kitsune and a medium, so she had duties to perform which didn't have anything to do with the living. At least, not directly. There was a reason for going to this place of cold and emptiness. People often became nostalgic and reminiscent during the winter. They'd stare out of their windows to the snow that fell down outside, or they gathered with lots of old friends to both stave off the cold and talk about the past. This wasn't unique to the living.
Having found a good spot the white-tailed youkai came to a halt and closed her eyes, closing off her physical senses as she instead sharpened and opened her spiritual senses. Hooking her sheathed sword onto the cloth around her waist she spread her arms as all around her the physical plane was joined by the plane of spirits, ghosts and lost souls. For those without the ability to perceive it'd just be a three-tailed kitsune standing alone in the middle of an icy field. From Itori's perspecitve the world around her was being filled with countless souls.
There were natural spirits who were of the spiritual plane the moment they came into existence. Itori herself was somewhat similar to that, as her people were as much spirit as they were flesh and blood. But there were also the souls of the dead. What remained of the living once their flesh had rotten away and their bones faded to dust. The vast majority of these souls only lingered very briefly before fading away, heading to either the afterlife or to a new body to reincarnate. A small period in which they could easily be called back if they died prematurely, a small period where they could say goodbye one last time to their loved ones... and if they were extremely unlucky, a small period in which a demon or another soul stealer could grab the soul and trap it, either tormenting it for their own amusement or using it as a source of power.
But there were many living things, and even if the vast majority passed on without issue there were still countless who would for one reason or another linger. Maybe they had strong attachments, maybe they didn't want to leave their loved ones behind, maybe they had been given a task which even death would not excuse them from. Many reasons could be found, and sometimes there wasn't even a good reason, sometimes the soul would just find itself not moving on without there being any explanation why.
Souls who still had strong attachments to a specific person, place or task wouldn't appear here. This place was for those souls who had trouble passing on but who didn't have anything to obsess about any longer. A soul which stayed behind because it wanted to look after its descendants, but once their line died out they found they couldn't find the path onward. A soul which had been called back with a ritual, only for the ritual to never be finished so they ended up wandering the physical plane.
With her eyes closed and her arms stretched out as if trying to welcome the spirits Itori began the process of helping these souls pass on. This place of ice and snow was where lost souls would end up. This place wasn't unique, but it was as good a location as any. It was a place which made people think of the past, and the souls of the dead only had the past to cling to after everything else had faded away.
The kitsune looked around with vermillion eyes as she made her way forward step by step, her three tails making slight movements from side to side with every step. She looked lost in thought, dreaming, but at the same time as if she was looking for something. Her eyes darted from side to side. Her white sword was sheathed and held with a relaxed grip. With her other hand she was idly thumbing a set of prayer beads which emanated an ominous aura. For all intents and purposes she looked like something like something out of a story. A white kitsune travelling through a white land of snow and ice, the only real colour coming from the kitsune mask on the side of her head and her own vermillion eyes.
She was having fun actually interacting with the living again. She'd wandered alone for a long time, not wanting to get attached to people who from her perspective only lived briefly. The fact that in the past a lot of those lives had been cut short by her own mistakes made her even less attracted of the idea of repeating that mistake. However she'd let herself get pulled in once more, and while she was worried that she'd have to go through all those worries and sorrows all over again for the moment she had to admit that it was pleasant to have people around. She wasn't a very popular person nor was she very talkative, but the presence itself had value. It helped you remember that there was something in the world aside from you, and that it was a beautiful place with many things. Many things which you couldn't predict and which could excite and surprise you, because of those other people changing the world as they interacted with it.
However she was still a spirit kitsune and a medium, so she had duties to perform which didn't have anything to do with the living. At least, not directly. There was a reason for going to this place of cold and emptiness. People often became nostalgic and reminiscent during the winter. They'd stare out of their windows to the snow that fell down outside, or they gathered with lots of old friends to both stave off the cold and talk about the past. This wasn't unique to the living.
Having found a good spot the white-tailed youkai came to a halt and closed her eyes, closing off her physical senses as she instead sharpened and opened her spiritual senses. Hooking her sheathed sword onto the cloth around her waist she spread her arms as all around her the physical plane was joined by the plane of spirits, ghosts and lost souls. For those without the ability to perceive it'd just be a three-tailed kitsune standing alone in the middle of an icy field. From Itori's perspecitve the world around her was being filled with countless souls.
There were natural spirits who were of the spiritual plane the moment they came into existence. Itori herself was somewhat similar to that, as her people were as much spirit as they were flesh and blood. But there were also the souls of the dead. What remained of the living once their flesh had rotten away and their bones faded to dust. The vast majority of these souls only lingered very briefly before fading away, heading to either the afterlife or to a new body to reincarnate. A small period in which they could easily be called back if they died prematurely, a small period where they could say goodbye one last time to their loved ones... and if they were extremely unlucky, a small period in which a demon or another soul stealer could grab the soul and trap it, either tormenting it for their own amusement or using it as a source of power.
But there were many living things, and even if the vast majority passed on without issue there were still countless who would for one reason or another linger. Maybe they had strong attachments, maybe they didn't want to leave their loved ones behind, maybe they had been given a task which even death would not excuse them from. Many reasons could be found, and sometimes there wasn't even a good reason, sometimes the soul would just find itself not moving on without there being any explanation why.
Souls who still had strong attachments to a specific person, place or task wouldn't appear here. This place was for those souls who had trouble passing on but who didn't have anything to obsess about any longer. A soul which stayed behind because it wanted to look after its descendants, but once their line died out they found they couldn't find the path onward. A soul which had been called back with a ritual, only for the ritual to never be finished so they ended up wandering the physical plane.
With her eyes closed and her arms stretched out as if trying to welcome the spirits Itori began the process of helping these souls pass on. This place of ice and snow was where lost souls would end up. This place wasn't unique, but it was as good a location as any. It was a place which made people think of the past, and the souls of the dead only had the past to cling to after everything else had faded away.
