[ Once she feels him in her mind she replays the memories for him.
Long ago in Japan, a man and woman meet. The man falls in love. He has found her Mana, and he is afraid she will leave him. (What is the Mana? All she offers is that it is both a part of her and an ally, and that without it she will die.) He takes the Mana away, hides it where she will never find it. They marry, and have children. (Is this the right order of events? Hard to say.) She begs him to return it to her, tells him it is her life. The man refuses. She gives Loki only brief flashes of these memories. The woman wanders the world with her children searching for the Mana, but never finds it. She is still young when she dies, leaving her children alone, but the need to find her Mana and her hatred of the man keep her spirit alive. The next time a girl child is born in the family it is Ceres, but it isn't Ceres. She watches from behind the girl's mind, waiting for any hint of where her precious hagoromo is. When the girl dies she is born again in the next Mikage daughter, and still she waits. Centuries pass, and the world grows into something terrible. The Mikage, her children, her descendents are both perpetrators and victims, and Ceres watches as her own twist into something dark and unrecognizable. As her rage grows so does her power, and at long last she is strong enough to take over her own body and fight back.
They murder her. For generations they murder her again and again, always at the age of sixteen. Then, at long last, comes Aya. Ceres is strong enough now, and she overwhelms Aya entirely. Those who would kill her are thrown back by the force of her fury. But Aya remains, the girl who is the product of her upbringing, of this strange and horrible world. Ceres had no hand in this girl's youth. Aya and Ceres are equals in this mind, in this body. Aya even helps Ceres in her search for the Mana. Aya is still there now, in Ceres' mind, going mad with worry for her lover and their unborn child. Ceres understands this worry, she sympathizes. Aya is a good girl, for the most part, a high school student of very little note. Sending her home should be easy, if only she had her powers. ]
spam
Long ago in Japan, a man and woman meet. The man falls in love. He has found her Mana, and he is afraid she will leave him. (What is the Mana? All she offers is that it is both a part of her and an ally, and that without it she will die.) He takes the Mana away, hides it where she will never find it. They marry, and have children. (Is this the right order of events? Hard to say.) She begs him to return it to her, tells him it is her life. The man refuses. She gives Loki only brief flashes of these memories. The woman wanders the world with her children searching for the Mana, but never finds it. She is still young when she dies, leaving her children alone, but the need to find her Mana and her hatred of the man keep her spirit alive. The next time a girl child is born in the family it is Ceres, but it isn't Ceres. She watches from behind the girl's mind, waiting for any hint of where her precious hagoromo is. When the girl dies she is born again in the next Mikage daughter, and still she waits. Centuries pass, and the world grows into something terrible. The Mikage, her children, her descendents are both perpetrators and victims, and Ceres watches as her own twist into something dark and unrecognizable. As her rage grows so does her power, and at long last she is strong enough to take over her own body and fight back.
They murder her. For generations they murder her again and again, always at the age of sixteen. Then, at long last, comes Aya. Ceres is strong enough now, and she overwhelms Aya entirely. Those who would kill her are thrown back by the force of her fury. But Aya remains, the girl who is the product of her upbringing, of this strange and horrible world. Ceres had no hand in this girl's youth. Aya and Ceres are equals in this mind, in this body. Aya even helps Ceres in her search for the Mana. Aya is still there now, in Ceres' mind, going mad with worry for her lover and their unborn child. Ceres understands this worry, she sympathizes. Aya is a good girl, for the most part, a high school student of very little note. Sending her home should be easy, if only she had her powers. ]