Seth scooped his notes and supplies into his bag, hardly pausing to even make sure his ink bottle was securely closed. He rushed out to the atrium and tried to sense where Mau was. She'd just gone from angry to panicked.

She was straight up. And falling.

Seth ran to be positioned directly under her. Just catch her? No, wind to break the fall first. He shut his eyes and cast Breeze smaller and more focused than he'd ever done before. With his eyes closed, he used the familiar link to 'see' where she was.

It was enough. Her fall was significantly slowed and he caught her gently.

"I should strangle you," Seth said between his teeth.

"Nice catch!"

Seth turned to see three people drop to the ground beside him. He looked up at the tower's upper floors wondering where they came from. "Did you drop down from way up there?" Seth asked.

"Sure did. Name's Ace. Leader of the Wingmen." Ace showed Seth his wing patch. "That was some quick casting. Sorry about your familiar. There was a collision up there and mine knocked yours over the edge." Ace gave the cat a little bow. "Auru apologizes."

Mau grumbled. Seth held her firmly and told Ace, "Mau apologizes too. Are you Ace from Lilandrium? I think you know my brother, Saben."

"Of course!" Ace indicated his two mates. "We are all friends with Saben. I was really hoping he'd be able to take over as leader when I graduate this year. He was fantastically talented." Ace shook his head and put a hand to his chest. "I am so sorry about what happened last spring. We did everything we could. We really did."

Seth nodded. "Thank you. I'm still doing what I can, too. If you're available, maybe we can talk about what you've tried and what happened? Saben hasn't really wanted to talk much about it."

"You bet. Anything to help out a friend. As Saben's brother and with a wind talent too, you're a shoo-in for the Wingmen! You'll have to come to our tryouts in a few weeks. Boss says we've gotta give the fresh meat time to acclimate first. But joining the Wingmen is the best. All of us can fly! You start as a plebe and learn all the best stuff. And after, when we leave school, we join the Windguard and are part of the first line of defense against wyverns. Wingmen are top tier and the place to be. Don't listen to any sparkies or charheads."

Seth wasn't so sure about fighting wyverns. He'd rather pass on that. And he'd never heard of sparkies or charheads.

Another Wingman dropped to the ground nearby and Mau got really tense.

"Hey, I gotta scram. I'll catch you later and we'll talk. In the meantime settle in. I'll send Auru with a message in a few days." Ace pointed finger guns at Mau and winked. "Flying familiars are the best familiars. And you, kitty, practically flew!"

Ace and his buddies joined the newcomer. After talking for a moment all four shot up to the upper floors.

"I might join them just to learn the fly spell," Seth said. "And now you." He turned the familiar to look her in the face. "Just what were you thinking? I'm still on probation! You can't be wandering off like that."

Mau blinked slowly. Seth sighed. He didn't know if that meant she was sorry or if she didn't care. "Let's go."

Outside Seth decided to head for the dining hall. It was a little early for dinner, but he figured he could get at least one assignment done before it was served. He was about half way there when Mau suddenly struggled to get down.

"No, I'm not letting go of you. You've been a bad kitty."

Mau struggled more and Seth tightened his grip. Until the cat started gagging. Then he put her down in the grass. She immediately took off but only to run behind some bushes. "What's wrong, Mau?"

Mau started coughing and gagging.

"How did you get sick so fast?" Seth asked. "You were fine just a minute ago!" Seth paced around the puking cat as much as the bushes would allow. "I don't actually know if there are healers for familiars, or what to do if you're sick." He looked over at the Circle Tower and debated running over there. He didn't want to leave the cat though. He tried to figure out if he could carry her while she was coughing or if that would make things worse.

Finally the cat finished coughing. In front of her, in a pile of cat puke, was a whitish object. Mau brushed her tongue through her teeth as if clearing a bad taste. Then she blinked smugly up at him as if she'd done something amazing.

Seth looked from the pile of puke to the cat and back. The object made a noise. It was magic.

"Oh, no, no, no. What is that? I'm on probation Mau! What did you do? Did you steal that by swallowing it?" Seth ran his hands through his hair and kept pacing. "I can't return it. If I go back there with this they'll know we took it and I'll be expelled. I can't keep it. If they find it on me or can detect it somehow, I'll get expelled. Why would you do this?"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Mau looked from the slimy object to Seth and meowed, clearly still proud of herself. Seth had no idea what she was trying to tell him, but answered anyway. "I have no idea if they can track this. I don't even know what it is." Seth paused his pacing and looked at the cat. "We can leave it here. This has nothing to do with us. We'll just pretend you never touched it."

Mau shook her head.

"I said we're leaving it."

Mau stood and lashed her tail. She turned to face him and sat firmly. She tilted her head and shook it 'no' again. The message was clear to Seth. She wanted it and was going to keep it. If he tried to leave it she'd just come back for it. And probably puke it on his bed next time.

Seth closed his eyes and sighed. "Fine. Just what exactly do you want me to do?"

She pointed a paw at Seth and then the stone and flexed her claws.

"You can't pick it up or carry it, so you want me to."

Mau nodded.

Seth stared at the slimy thing. Why would she take it? Was she attracted to its magic? Was it doing something she was interested in? He didn't think it was an artifact, it was more likely to be someone's enchanted trinket for something minor. Actually, he had no way of knowing that other than he really hoped it wasn't an artifact.

"Actually, I do know where I can put it. All right. Let's hope Isaac is out of the dorm." Seth snapped a twig off the bush and flipped Mau's stolen loot onto a piece of paper. He then folded up the paper and stuffed it down the bottom of the bag.

Seth didn't pick up Mau and didn't let her climb up to his shoulder. "No. I'm really mad at you right now. You can't be doing this to me. I can't get expelled, Mau. I can't. I need you to be working with me on this."

Mau followed dutifully, keeping right at his heels. Mostly.

Seth made a quick stop in a washroom to rinse off the slimy stone. Thankfully, it wasn't making noise anymore. Seth was relieved to open the door to the tiny room to find it unoccupied. Isaac wasn't bad as a roommate, but he was pretty casual about keeping his things to his side of the room. There was currently a pile of dirty clothes at the foot of Isaac's bed that was transforming into a carpet. Isaac's sword and shield were currently under the bed with other mostly unseen junk.

Seth sighed and stepped over to his trunk and unlocked it. He pulled out the long wooden box. It had been months since he last opened this.

Mau meowed at him from the bed. Seth realized he'd been standing there just looking at the box.

"Sorry," Seth said to the cat. He turned and sat down on the floor and leaned his back against the trunk. He laid the box in his lap.

Mau hopped down and sat next to him.

"This was my father's," he told the cat quietly. "He gave it to me a couple years ago. There are enchantments on the wood, so your stone should be safe in here."

Seth gently worked the lock and opened the box. Inside was his father's spyglass lying on rich blue velvet, just as it was when he'd given it to Seth. It was made of polished black metal trimmed in copper. Leather wrapping covered the eyepieces.

"He loved the stars," Seth told Mau. "I loved them too. He was a teacher, and he would show me charts and we'd go look at the stars. I know every constellation in the sky, and almost all the names of all the stars. I loved it, watching the sky with him."

Mau shoved her head under his arm and leaned into him.

"It should have been him teaching me today." Seth took an unsteady breath. "It should have been him teaching me wind spells, like he taught Saben."

Seth felt the hole in his heart where his father had been. It had been months now, but the hole was every bit as empty now as it had been then. He rubbed a palm on his cheek.

This wasn't helping anything. He needed to get a handle on himself, but couldn't quite manage it. "I'm sorry," he apologized to the cat again. "Today was a bit rough, you know?"

Mau snuggled up to him and mewed, the tiny sound of a little kitten. He hugged her close until he felt calmer.

"Thank you," he whispered a little while later.

He let go of the cat and pulled over his bag. "Here," Seth started to pull out Mau's stone. He indicated a depression in the velvet at the far end of the box. "We can put it here where my mom's necklace was. I lost it not long after my dad gave this to me." Seth chuckled sadly. "I never told him I lost it. I suppose it doesn't matter now."

Mau put herself between Seth's hand and the box, and put a paw on the stone. She shook her head.

"This is the safest place for this," Seth said.

Mau shook her head, then patted the spyglass with her paw, and then shook her head again.

Seth puzzled over that for a moment. "Not the spyglass? Don't risk the spyglass?"

Mau nodded.

"I don't think you understand, Mau. I cannot get caught with your stolen stone."

Mau gently closed the wooden box with one paw. Then she got down off his lap and trotted over to Isaac's dirty laundry. She snagged a sock in one claw and brought it back to Seth.

"You want me to hide this stone in Isaac's dirty sock? That's not going to stop someone from tracking it."

Mau nodded.

Skeptical of the cat's plan, Seth put the stone in the sock. Mau made a circle motion with her paw, and Seth bundled the stone more securely.

"All right, now what?"

Mau snagged the dirty bundle and dragged it with her under Isaac's bed. Seth lay on the floor and watched her navigate through Isaac's junk and slice a hole in his mattress with her sharp claws. She stuffed the sock into the hole.

Seth blinked at her. "They'll think he's the one that stole it."

Mau nodded.

"That's not right."

Mau shrugged. She pointed to the bed, then to Seth, then to the spyglass in its box.

"I get it. What would be the biggest risk." Seth considered it. "Isaac doesn't know anything about it. He might be able to claim it was there all along. No one saw you with the stone because you swallowed it, and I never went up the tower. And because Isaac hasn't been in any trouble, he'll probably just get probation even if they think he did it."

Mau nodded again.

"Alright. We'll leave it there. I hope this thing is worth it." Seth gently put the spyglass box at the bottom of the trunk. He covered it and shut the trunk.

Mau jumped up on the trunk and Seth picked her up and hugged her. "Let's go get dinner."