Kiima -- Her Inner Demon

The reason behind her collar.

When some people say they have inner demons, they usually mean it figuratively. Well, not Kiima...

Some Emfarin Kitsune have high spiritual energy even at birth. It's not particularly rare, but nor is it incredibly common. This makes them a prime target for possession--their high spiritual energies make them easy to access, but yet they have no honed skill to ward off possible possessors.

Usually, when an Emfarin child is born, several others of the tribe or village will gather at the birthplace, to stand as guards against such possible possession. However, they haven't ALWAYS been successful in doing so...

Having burrowed deep into her heart, a demon managed to bypass her Guardians, and began to slumber and wait for her powers to awaken. This demon was quickly detected, but not quickly enough--an exorcism of it by the village's means would've ripped away part of her very soul with it.

And so, they had to craft an item to seal away the demon so that it would be unable to harm anybody, Kiima herself included. First they fashioned a collar(The one worn on her leg) to seal the demon's powers. Then, the most powerful and experienced Emfarin of the village she was born in cast a safeguard seal on her--a seal powered by the demon's very energy itself; were that demon ever to awaken and bypass the Collar's enchantment, or were the collar to be removed altogether, its own energy would slowly strengthen the Seal until finally, it would be sealed away again--but only long enough to put the collar back on.

Twice has this collar been removed--once was mistakenly, but cost her dearly, as her temporary madness caused her to slay her first love, and almost cost her far more. The second, is now.

But every time the seal is used, it weakens--and should it weaken too much, then Kiima will be eternally lost to the demon within...

Kiima Yuki and this artwork is (c) to me, ~Burninghart.