Nekoko's current teacher is Mark Kerr Howell, an Arch-master of the Euthanatos Tradition. This extremely powerful wizard is the one who sent Nekoko back to achieve Archmage status without the distraction of the Thousand Year War. He visits her psychically almost every week on Saturday afternoon. A game of chess or go is played while they discuss her progress. Mark is more than her mentor, though -- he is Nekoko's soulmate and they both know it. Secretly and subconsciously, Nekoko misses every moment they are apart. Perhaps, secretly, Mark feels the same.
The Familiar -- Nodin
Nodin is an ancient Cougar-Spirit given certain charges by Thunderbird. Of perhaps Preceptor-level, Nodin has been known among Native American shamans for at least 500 years. His history entails all that has concerned the Pure Lands of North America, from the first European settlers to the War of Rage, from the alliance of the tribes to the Great Expansion of America pioneers. Nodin has seen it all, remaining aloof and silent. In many ways, Nodin is a representative of Puma himself. He is intelligent, clever, wise, and traditional, yet wild and untamed.
Though sentient and highly intelligent, Nodin is loyal to Puma. He watches and remains quiet. He does not pursue some grand ambition of his own but with one exception -- and this is his motive for approaching Nekoko and bonding with her. Apart from curiousity, Nodin was instructed by Puma and Thunderbird to join with Nekoko to keep an eye on her. The gods understand who and what Nekoko is, will be, and may become. Nodin's duty is to make sure she does not betray her own Destiny (as she can well take care of herself against external threats). At a personal request, he demands that Nekoko look over his mortal kin, felines of all colors, and give him his space.
Although he at first disliked this mission as he had never linked with an Asian willworker before (only Dreamspeakers, really), he and Nekoko soon became friends. She respected his space and rarely required his presence for anything. She likewise demands little knowledge of him. Sometimes, Nodin even wonders why Nekoko sought him -- she does not need him, yet calls him by his True Name ("Notis", pronounced "no-teesh") in private to remind him of their bond.
But Nekoko knows Nodin has a greater motive than what he told her -- "only you can keep my kin safe in that hellish, brutal city". Nekoko also knows he wonders what she wants with him. But only Nodin knows the basic workings of the Spirit Courts, as Nekoko requested when she first summoned him in late fall of 1999. Nekoko knows she's going to need that information to fulfill her temporal ambitions...
The Celestial Bureaucracy
In early 2002, Nekoko successfully performed a quest for the High Officials of the Celestial Bureaucracy (Eastern Spirit Court). She captured the illegimate immortal, Xian Meng, and brought him to Heaven for the gods' justice. In return, she was granted leave to proceed with her plans to create a Horizon Realm in the fringes of the Spirit Court's province. Ennobled by Duke Feng Po, Nekoko does not yet bear the Imperial Seal until she has a "land" to claim. After all, noble without a land is no noble at all. Nevertheless, her authority stands and it is evident in how Yang-spirits react in her presence. Even Yomi recognize a Knight of Heaven, and the Spirit Adept is given in equal variation great respect and distance.
Significant Others
Tess makes no bones to herself and to those she grows closest to that her purpose for being here and now are to enjoy herself. Despite her petty intrigues and breathless gambits and little shadow wars, she exists in this time and place to relax. Even with all the scheming and fighting, she's on break, off the clock from the real war. As her hiatus draws to its close, as the caesura of her destiny passes its zenith before the long plunge back into the War of the Apocalypse, she concentrates her affections into three prime groups, each with a intensely great use to Nekoko beside the pleasure. They are:
The Shining Hostesses
Tess adores the fae and especially Sidhe. The noblewomen epitomize her purpose here. But she has begun to gather multiple Sidhe lovers, of as many different noble Houses as possible, for an additional reason. The Consensus is on the brink of falling into either Stasis or Entropy (she happens to know, it falls to Entropy), and with it a collapse all Mythic Threads. A re-ordering of the Consensus results in a grim intolerance towards high magic indeed. The Sidhe she gathers into her embrace will help her, unwittingly, channel a powerful ritual that presents a lasting Mythic Thread upon which to tug in the coming long nights of war. In more concrete terms, this shadowy witchcraft she undertakes with her unsuspecting faerie brood will provide a living cache of concentrated Tass upon which she may draw in the future. Such a ritual will demand the highest levels of Prime and Spirit magick, imputing the mystick to master these Arts ere her return to the Thousand Year War.
The Kli'im of Proliferation
Nekoko honestly cares little for the fate of the Ajaba werehyenas. She knows little of this African Changing Breed, and in fact even to one as knowledgeable as she, they exist more as an occult rumor than a lore-verified fact. The one Ajaba called Uzome "Uzi" Obike gathers to himself a vast harem of lovely ladies, some connected to his lust only by their connections to each other. Nekoko herself falls into this latter web, but willingly -- the Rainmaker himself is of little interest to her, but rather his broad and often imprudent associations yield a number of opportunities for her contemporary schemes to further flourish.
To that end, she has devised a trinket -- a fetish-talisman -- that serves as a nexus for this dizzying assortment of ego and beauty. The fetish is a classic witch's deceit: bestowed upon the supposed master of the harem, Uzi Obike, it surreptitiously serves only its true master, its creator, Nekoko. Like the One Ring from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" saga, this object enables Tess to override any oaths, compulsions, mind control, Blood Bonds, forsworn demon-rites, blood-and-spit handshakes with Yama Kings, anything, through the Moebius loop claim of "first come, first serve" (which bolsters Nekoko's own expertise with such Arts). The fetish-talisman was imbued with Correspondence, Entropy, Mind, Prime, and Spirit at the highest levels she has mastered. The object was further bound up with a willing fragment of Kung Kung (an unclaimed Mao'lung Fragment -- in short, a Preceptor-level Dragon-spirit), which unites the fetish-talisman to Nekoko's Avatar and, by extension, this mage's will. (Nekoko doesn't realize this but other Mao'lung Fragments could contest her claim, should they learn of its existence.)
This Level 6 fetish-talisman has been named the Light of Ngai. It is a flawless diamond, teardrop cut, set in platinum and so bound with a delicate chain. Despite its fragility, due to the willing and powerful spirit residing within, it is nearly indestructible. (Tossing it into lava or the equivalent is the only recourse.) If one peers into this clear gem long enough, the wiry form of an Eastern dragon can be observed swirling contentedly through tiny clouds. It is only ever seen flying, even when a new wearer is attuning to the fetish. (This behavior changes in the grasp of a Mao'lung Fragment, especially Tess herself.) While worn, the fetish grants the power to command the loyalties of anyone who views the wearer. This is not a direct compulsion but rather boils up as an organic feeling and attitude from within the viewer. This overrides any form of supernatural compulsion or ban, even at the divine level (e.g., Yama Kings or Incarna) who might stipulate disloyalty and/or disaffection to the owner. (However, note that "wearer" is not the true "owner" -- Nekoko is the true owner, and thus that fealty ultimately bends to her will, like Sauron manipulating the Númenór kings.) Other powers (possibly clear sight or fertility) may manifest over time; the talisman aspect of the item serves primarily to secretly bind its power to Nekoko while the fetish aspect -- the Wani-spirit within -- is what manifests the fealty generation power and possibly others.
The Mao'lung Fragments
The Mao'lung Fragments is the name given to a small group of ancient and powerful supernatural denizens drawn together by a Juncture-like event that Nekoko calls the Mao'lung Exigency. This event is directly correlated to Tess's inwards explorations of her august Avatar, Kung Kung. As she learns more about her Avatar's past lives and how she relates to humankind across the globe, denizens of all stripe with a similar unconscious and spiritual tie have begun to emerge and be drawn towards Tess like some horizon event. The creatures may or may not be friendly and while few of them could directly challenge Nekoko alone, they may join together against her. But curiosity drives them thus far, and may unite them all despite their disparate origins and natures.
