Hare of Misfortune

Nia bundled her curled hair, a hair tie appearing between her fingers as she bound it in a high ponytail. ”Minimal improvement, as I can tell. Yes, the ichor is speeding up your recovery, but the actual stress to your spirit is showing little improvement, which is likely due to our overall loose spiritual synchronization.”

”When will I gain consciousness?”

”Sometime in the next few hours,” she responded, sitting back and skirt shifting as she crossed her legs. ”It’s hard to tell exactly. As I understand it, your spirit is the transmission between thought and physical action, or the medium, which means you’ll be extremely weak until Nike’s ichor can overcome the primary issues.”

”Hehehe.”

”Major?”

Rachel scratched her forehead, her chuckle dying off as she realized the true offer Chang’e had presented her. ”I need Positive Force to find balance, and your connection with Nike is helping that, but I flooded myself with multiple negative energies. I’m sure Chang’e’s blessing will provide a way for her to watch...unless I allow something more, such as with Moongmor and Eostre.”

Nia’s vision narrowed. ”Quid pro quo?”

Shaking her head, Rachel relaxed. ”Doubtful. She knows that won’t get anywhere with me. Chang’e doesn’t have many allies or friends, and she can’t trust everyone in the big show, so she’s looking to start from the grassroots, down here amongst the mortals. She probably does want to find some kind of friendship, and saw I was in need of something she could provide. She made the hopeful first act to start a dialogue.”

”As enamoring as she is,” Nia whispered, leaning against the armrest and cupping her chin, ”you cannot believe she doesn’t have ulterior motives. Aligning herself with you brings her into a camp of deities already circling you, and we’ve already seen Cerridwen is a force to be reckoned with if she could draw the attention of Izanami.”

Rachel shrugged. ”You’re not wrong. Maybe she’s trying to use this vision she can gain by me accepting her offer to feed my enemies information. There’s no way to be sure.” Her gaze drifted to Nike, the personification’s chest rising and falling under her sheets. ”You said I was hurting Nike with Negative Force; does that mean Positive Force will speed up her recovery?”

”Mmm.” Nia’s mouth drew in while observing the resting woman. ”It’s possible, yet just as there are different types of Negative Forces, there are many Positive Forces. There’s no way to tell exactly how they will interact, just as the one I felt lingering when I woke up had kickstarted your recovery.”

Vision snapping to her captain, Rachel’s fist pressed against her stomach. ”What Positive Force—Nike’s?”

”No, some other one.” Nia sat back and scratched her left ear. ”It was very faint... I can’t even feel it anymore, but it was what initially jogged me awake to carry you closer to Nike. Is something wrong, Major? Was it Moongmor or Eostre?”

Rachel worked around her jaw and crossed her arms, glaring at the wall while deliberating on the revelation. ”No. Eostre would have already done all she could before we left. No, this... had to be someone my mother channeled... What are you doing, Mom?”

Her focus shot to the bunny when she turned away, the back of her wrist held against her mouth. ”Rach, on that note, I...might have overheard something yesterday. My child’s mind just saw your mother sad and needed time alone because she was having a fight, but she was quick to bounce back, so she dismissed it.”

Finding the strength to push against the headboard, Rachel tried to soothe the pain in her thumping heart; it didn’t make sense in an inner spiritual world, but it was likely just a way for her to understand the stress she was under.

”Show me.”

Nia gestured to the opposite side of the bed as a windowed room appeared, the White House visible in the distance, illuminated in the dark night. Only part of the repurposed room was visible as her mother sat with her brother; Alexa was beside him.

Her brother was recounting a story about the time when she refused to go down in a competition against a larger woman when their mother got a call, and her countenance changed.

”...nose bloodied, Rachel had that death stare that—Mom?”

Molly’s cheer fell, a somber look crossing her brown eyes as she motioned to them to continue. ”No, keep going, Nam. I’ll just be a moment outside...”

Her mother left in a hurry, prompting her sister-in-law and brother to exchange questioning looks as the scene cut to the opposite side of the room. The sound enhanced to show her what Nia had heard, focusing in on the conversation between Molly and whoever called. Answering, Rachel’s skin prickled at her somber, respectful tone, spoken in Korean.

”Mother, to what do I owe the honor?”

A woman Rachel had never heard answered, cold and biting. ”Do not act as if you do not know what this is about, Chan-hee. You agreed not to use your powers without my express permission. Your oath is broken.”

Her mother’s cadence took on a harder edge. ”I did not break my oath in this situation, and you know it, Mother. Which spirit has turned you against your own daughter? I can—”

”You will what, Chan-hee? You used mudang as your arm; we are exposed,” her grandmother snarled. ”You have drawn attention we cannot contest and have put all of South Korea at risk...and for one soul. After all we did to help you through your grief... Do not return...or you will die. You are no daughter of mine.”

A shiver ran through Rachel’s spine as the call ended, and her mother stood outside in the hallway; the silence stretched, and security personnel walked by without comment.

Had her mother just been disowned? And for what, using her shaman powers to save her daughter? She didn’t know much about her mother’s side of the family, other than that their shamanistic practices were a big thing in their community, but her mom always talked about them with the utmost respect.

Nia gave her a studious stare. ”Is that important?”

”Important to me,” Rachel whispered.