My first stop? Fox’s shrine. I managed to find it with a quick search of the Mapp™. It was in the Sabyt sub-district about a block from Viceroy Street and Absolom Clinic.
As for why Fox over the other Eidolons that were participating in the Request? C’mon, that was easy. Fox was the one I was closest to out of all of them, though close wasn’t necessarily a word I’d use to define our relationship. But I had her Trait and Perk, which counted for something.
Now that I think about it, I’ve interacted with Crow the most out of the elusive bunch. Between all of his Requests to klep shit and my face-to-face meetings with him via his Wheel of Wares, he was definitely up there.
Fox’s Shrine sat at the tippy top of Vixen Tower, which seemed to be a tower solely dedicated to service and shops. I looked through the directory on my way in, and the tower had at least three food courts scattered around its floors with hundreds of shops filling in everywhere between. It was a massive shopping tower and even had an indoor amusement park taking up the first several stories.
Then, it was thankfully one long elevator ride up to the top. The first two elevators I tried quit working as soon as I pressed the button, but the third time proved to be the charm. I was worried I’d have to climb over a hundred flights of stairs for a minute there.
The elevator opened up to another world- well, not really. I could still smell the stench of the city and the ever-present neon gleamed in the distance, but the shrine was like a sanctuary in the midst of it all.
The place looked as though it had been plucked out from my interface, actually. The shrine sat in a massive patch of grass and artificial hills that covered the entire roof of the tower. Off to the side, there were rock gardens and small ponds with stone lanterns calmly flickering around. Trees provided nice bits of shade scattered around with a few city folk resting up against their trunks.
A familiar massive pagoda sat in the middle of the garden, reaching high into the sky. I’d seen this place from my spot on the outskirts of the city, but I never knew quite what it was.
The pagoda was done in shades of blue and black. Its walls shined with an internal light that would look quite spectacular in the night. The corners of the roof had intricate stone foxes lying on them, lounging around the place. Back behind the pagoda sat a massive tori gate framing the rest of the city in what I could only call picturesque.
It felt like I was walking into an ancient world as I looked around. I couldn’t spot one sign of anything technological outside the several people around. There were no lights, signs, or anything of the sort. Even the sounds of the city, which should’ve still been fairly loud, sounded muted as if a layer of water blocked off the shrine from everything else. It was quite peaceful.
But of course, this wasn’t just any shrine. No, I could see the signs of it being something quite special without any effort. Foxes stalked around the place, playing around in the grass without a care. Some lounged around in the shade, sleeping peacefully within reaching distance of the city folk resting. Some lay in the trees, watching over everything. A few mischievously stole a sleeping man’s lunch from his bag, snacking it down as the poor guy slept on blissfully unaware.
Not all of them were physical though. For every materialized fox in the area, there was one that was still in its sprite form. The pangs of the Aether hung around them as they played around much the same as the others.
As soon as I stepped free of the elevator, I flicked on Aetherial Perception. The entire place glowed faintly with the pagoda shining like a spotlight in the middle of it. I wasn’t quite sure what the enchantments were, but they felt faintly like some kind of calming effect. Also probably a wind block of some kind considering how gentle the breeze was this high up. I decided to stay vigilant of my mental just in case.
Foxes sat along the path occasionally, unlike the others playing around. These ones were quite large, at least the size of a wolf. They sat in strong contrast to the playful ones around them. Each of them seemed a little cold as they carefully observed everything like guards.
Another note of difference was what they wore. Unlike other foxes, these wore what looked like black plate armor. Sapphires sat on their shoulders, shining with a protective light. Each piece of the armor must’ve cost a ton, and yet I spotted at least sixteen of the guard foxes scattered around the place.
Two of them sat on either side of the elevator. As I exited, they both stood up, their tails wagging playfully as the massive sprites lost their cold indifference. One bounded up to me, rubbing its armored side against me. Unfortunately, I was quite sho- erm, they were quite tall, so it nearly knocked me over as it hit my hip.
I laughed lightly and dropped a hand onto its head, rubbing it slightly. The one I pet shot a triumphant look at the other. The other one harrumphed loudly and returned to its spot by the elevator. The other followed me as I headed off further onto the roof.
It was a bit weird having my own personal escort as I walked around the place, catching plenty of looks from the gathered foxes as they inspected me for one reason or another. Some extremely small ones looking like babies tried to approach me, but were scared off as the fox growled at them deeply. They were so cute as they scampered around with little yips.
I walked through the gardens, the armored fox closely following me, and took my time to look around as I waited for the notification that the Request was completed. It never came. Though I did get a sense of tranquility and calm that not even the neon flashes of the city skyline could take away.
Maybe I needed to actually enter the pagoda? I headed there next, pausing momentarily as two wrestling foxes tumbled through the stone path. One grabbed the other by the scruff, easily launching it into a nearby pond. The red and white-scaled koi fish scattered as the fox struggled back to land.
The winning fox let out a cheerful cry and headed back to the object they were fighting for: a silver watch. Only, a third snuck up while they were distracted and already vanished with the prize.
I chuckled to myself as I headed for the entrance to the pagoda, checking my pockets to make sure I hadn’t been a victim of these cute bandits yet. Thankfully, the answer was no. Still, I kept my eyes wide open as I headed for the blue and black building.
The wood. actual wood I think, doors to the pagoda were wide open as I stepped into it. The inside was a fairly large room with benches centered around a massive silver statue of Fox. The statue of her was wrapped around a rock, staring intently down at the door with a sort of superiority and cunning to its eyes. Two large sapphires acted as the statue's eyes, and the whole thing altogether must’ve been quite expensive.
Candles and lanterns were scattered around, burning with a weird blue fire. The flickering flames illuminated massive paintings on the walls., each depicting what looked like ancient Ukiyon. No- that wasn't quite right. The structures were about two-thirds ancient looking and a third early two thousand ish.
A woman carefully polishing the statue’s fake fur turned back as I stepped in. She wore a baggy black shirt with detached sleeves falling over her hands. The shirt’s seams were highlighted in brilliant blue with each thread done to look like a crescent moon. She wore a blue skirt, contrasting sharply with the black shirt.
A mop of curly blue hair fell from her head, perfectly framing her - quite frankly - beautiful face. A bright smile, looking a bit like a corpo one but somehow more genuine, lit up her face as she saw me. She didn’t even try to hide the look of confusion as she spotted the fox guard with me. “I don’t think I’ve seen you here before. Welcome to Aythryn City’s Fox shrine.”
The fox bumped me on the side before walking off to sit by the door. I glanced down at it briefly before looking back up to meet the woman’s blue eyes. “Thank you…”
“Are you a Magus?” She set down the cleaning supplies and stepped over to me, folding her arms in her sleeves.
“Oh, no… my uh, my coworker is though. He talked about this place the other day, and I got curious.” I shrugged.
“Ah… weird. Normally only Her Magus have the same feeling you do… and the guards typically ignore outsiders." She smiled politely, though her confusion deepened. "Well then, feel free to take a look around. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them.”
That's weird. What is she sensing? The Trait maybe? Why hadn't Feras sensed something similar- ah, but she was a Shrine Maiden. I wasn't sure about the Magus ranking, but surely she had a higher rank than the grifter.
“I uh- I do have one question.” This one’s been weighing on the back of my mind since I first heard about this place. “I didn’t even know there were eidolon shrines until a couple days ago. My coworker and I were… indisposed, so I didn’t ask too many questions, but why the shrines? Do Magus worship eidolons?”
I’d always thought it was more of a contractual thing, but hearing about the shrines made me rethink that sentiment. That, and paired with the words Feras used like 'Favor' and 'Revelations' had a more religious feeling to them.
The woman glanced at the statue and shook her head with a chuckle. “Ah, I can see your confusion. No, we don’t worship eidolons. I mean, I’m sure there are some Magus that do, but generally, the sentiment is no. Lady Fox made it abundantly clear not to treat her like a god back when she first started taking on Magus about a hundred years ago. As far as I’m aware, all of the eidolons voiced similar statements.”
“Then why all the-” I waved my hand around the place.
“Tax write-offs.” The Shrine Maiden grinned. “I’m only partially joking. Fox’s Shrines are primarily meeting points for her Magus, which we need for various reasons. They’re also spots where sprites can freely exit the Aether and materialize, at least within the bounds of the sanctuary.”
Ah, that explains all the fox sprites around. “Thank you.”
“Of course!” The woman bowed her head slightly and then walked off back to her cleaning supplies.
I spent a while just walking around the place and inspecting all of the murals. The woman finished cleaning and left the main hall of the pagoda for somewhere marked as employees only, leaving just me and the fox in the place.
I meandered over to the statue, staring up at its expert workmanship. I felt a kind of pressure descend into the hall. It felt almost like gravity amplified a couple times, but only for my mental state. The weight pressed down on me as I looked up at the statue’s face, seeing the sapphire eyes seem to sparkle with life.
「Crow isn’t the only one with cool toys.」
「Request - Favored Shrine - Complete
Did- did Fox just send me a message? The pressure faded entirely as I stared at the interface for several moments in confusion. Since when could the eidolons use the interface like that?
And what’s this Fox Charm Bracelet-
A plume of ghostly pale blue fire appeared over my hand. From the fire dropped a bracelet I barely managed to catch. It was made from a blue string tied over itself again and again, giving it a fair amount of thickness. Silver brackets shaped like crescent moons backed the string. Three fox charms in various poses, made from something that looked like a pearl, rested at intervals over the bracelet.
Unlike Crow’s tacky rewards, the Fox Charm Bracelet wasn’t stolen. The bracelet was crafted with love by an ancient scholar and brought to life by the brilliant and intelligent Fox’s blessings. Being blessed by the best Eidolon has granted the bracelet a series of effects.
Slightly increased natural charisma
One-time use: Create Minor Illusion
One-time use: Create Minor Foxfire」
Wow. I never realized Fox was so… narcissistic. And what is with all the attacks at Crow? So what if his loot was stolen? I highly doubt I’d ever get anything as useful as Crow’s Canteen of Chaos. Seriously. I didn’t realize quite how strong it was when I first got it, but not having to worry about food and drink is way too strong.
Why would Fox… is it jealousy? That’s the only thing that could make sense. Going off the descriptions and previous interactions, was Fox jealous of Crow-
A pang of Insight hit me, promptly making me shift tracks as the armored fox cautiously approached me. It stared up at the statue before meeting my eyes with a look I could only describe as apologetic. Then, it gently bit my jacket and pulled me to the exit. I glanced one last time at the statue before following the fox back towards the elevator.
Guess she was kicking me out. Thanks for the free bracelet I guess.