Chapter 28: 28. Interlude III

20 years before the death of Ronald at the Hare's Retreat.

The Foxkin Sects

The White Nun of the Jade Mountain Sect was known across the Autumnal Lands as the most ancient elder, among those who once had been Spirit-companions. Of course that was not saying much, if you asked other species. A Foxkin living to the age of fifty was a rare sight, even among the Awakened who cultivated for longevity.

The White Nun however was a legend, despite being from the looked down upon world of Spirit-bordellos. Why such establishments were allowed to exist was because the journey they could take you on was said to allow the opportunity for indulging your darker nature and desires without the price of karma incurred. Young Unawakened Foxkin were connected to spiritually and their every hunt, every impression of the senses, shared across a link. But the experience was doubled, how then could the karma remain the same?

This was argued over and different factions arrived at interpretations that differed only in the minutiae but which started sect feuds and devolved into accusations of unorthodoxy and sects being killed down to the last Awakened.

The one thing everybody was sure of was that the number of potential Saints and Sages who had gone to such a place and indulged, only to later fall to temptation and end their careers in a fit of madness, was significantly larger than those who stuck to the orthodox path in mind and body both and suffered such fates. The puritans on the Path of Sutra made their mind known and restrictions aplenty suffocated most sects. But Foxkin have always been drawn towards forbidden fruit. It is their most fatal flaw.

When the self-righteous Sects gathered to discuss how to combat these influences and then inevitably came to shut such places down, the White Nun would often come to challenge their words and conclusions. By now her age was such that none could easily dismiss her.

---

Swipe was ironically wielding a broom, swiping the courtyard outside the Outer Sect buildings that served as the entry point. This was where you found the true Iron Tempest Sect dwellings on some of the upper floors of Foxhome Peak. Not that he was doing it ironically, just that they kept giving him this same task every week, claiming they had to because of the irony. Swipe was pretty sure either him or they had misunderstood what irony really was.

Being an outer disciple was tough work, but being an orphan had seemed far worse so Swipe remained grateful. His mother was a locally famous singer, who drank until she hacked and vomited for hours, several days a week. As Swipe grew up and learned to take care of her, rather than use the support to make herself quit, and maybe give the singing a real go, she used it for an excuse to lean into her habits, taking Swipe for granted in every way in the process.

One day he'd met an Awakened in the market place, a cultivator who refrained from all hunting, crazy as it seemed. He'd seen a kernel of potential in Swipe, asked him his circumstances and offered a place at the sect. Swipe did not know what came over him, but he lied. He lied about his entire life, claimed to be an orphan and used the same back story he'd heard told at a campfire one time. And it worked. Once the words were out there was no taking any of it back, he immediately regretted this and wanted to at least speak to his mother again before going, but it was just not done. He could think of no excuses, and admitting the lie was as good as declining.

Now here he was, a year in. He was doing good, even fine he would say. But it was tough work. He hadn't had meat for a year, and constantly felt like he was starving despite his growing muscles telling a different tale. He finished the day's mundane task and went to meet Victor and Climbs at the gatherer's merit exchange.

Power was his, but he was already lying awake some nights to wonder at what cost.

---

The Foxkin Sects were an old race, who rose above their nature to reach for deeper meaning through meditation. It was claimed by some that they had a hidden realm, one where their ancestors had found fruits that told of a different path than that of the predator, and how even greater power could be theirs precisely by defying their very nature. The first Awakened was born and started following the Path of Sutra, bringing his entire people onto the path to Awakening and grasping for power in defiance of the heavens.

Many struggled, changing the very nature of a people was not easily done, but those who managed it individually gained power that was undeniable across Elderwood. But even as more and more Foxkin learned the ways to Awakening, more and more also strayed from the true path, and the consequences of doing so at the higher echelons was devastating to Foxkin and allies alike.

Nowadays none were foolish enough to trust the Foxkin Sects as a whole, rather alliances were based on individual reputations and accolades. Even then it was seldom that other species got involved in the affairs of the Sects. Speaking of the issues within was a most heinous taboo and could get a Foxkin family marked for generations as unfit for Awakening.

One other race who did not take kindly to this was the Cloven. When such mishaps were swept under the rug they took it as ultimate proof that Foxkin could never be fully trusted, that their predatory nature would always be at risk of overwhelming even the most spiritual and experienced of cultivators within the Foxkin [System]. Today conflicts bloom like weeds and the individual Cloven and Foxkin who do not attack each other on sight is rare, but less so outside their in common borderlands.

Humans and Cloven early on learned to bond over this, and the Humans shared a poem from their home that stuck in the heads of some influential figures and eventually made it into Cloven culture.

To Timothy foxes are nature's delight;

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Their furcoats are orange and wonderfully bright.
But one of them bit him and that means goodnight;
For this fox is rabid and no cure's in sight.

Although in later years Foxkin have not been known to attack Humans in particular, citing a distinct bad taste, while Humans have proven to have shorter memories than most, leading to a rather accepting stance in many cases. Something which many Cloven have decided to take personally.

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