Raina didn’t wake the next day, nor the day after that. At the Temple, Matron Wilhemina flitted around her bedside constantly, making sure she had enough water, fresh flowers, and clean bandages. Now that the threat of corruption had passed, I was only useful for Feline Favor, which I did apply generously. However, Raina’s injury had gone deep.

That assassin had known what they were doing. Unlike the shadow constructs that had apparently been after Terrowin, the woman was clearly equivalent or higher than us in level. I wish I’d gotten the chance to inspect her, but she’d gotten away too quickly. The guard had given chase, but the trail had ultimately gone cold. All they’d found was a blood trail from where Cithrael had shot her, but without someone skilled with divination spells, we likely wouldn’t find anything.

As for me? When not applying generous helpings of Feline Favor to my witch, I was sulking in the alleyway behind the temple. I couldn’t stand to be in there any longer than I had to. Lord Erik and the others had kept quiet about the specific details of our battle, but enough people had seen the flames and a mysterious man with sharp teeth, claws, and long pointed ears for rumors to spread. Those rumors had spread like wildfire through town, and even the idiot townsfolk had correctly identified that a demon had visited them.

They were afraid, and those in the Temple ward who knew that Raina had been a victim of that attack became wary of the black cat who hovered nearby. The terrified looks the acolytes gave me as they quickly scurried away didn’t feel as good as I once believed they would. Instead, there was only the unending cold of loneliness that even Lord Erik’s visits could not banish entirely.

And visit he did. In the few days we’d been in the hospital, he visited several times a day. When he did, he’d bring fresh flowers for Raina, and some sort of treat for me. Once, it was fish from William’s cart. Another time, it was a bit of chicken from his own kitchens.

Then, he’d sit and just talk to me. He mostly told me mundane things: the state of the town, the petty issues of a merchant who’s front sign was scorched by our fight the other night, and the complaints of a flower girl who was upset that travel in and out of town had been restricted with the threat of war on the horizon. Once, though, he passed along a message from Lizzie at the guild.

Apparently, she told the rest of the group that the investigation of the fire sprite job had come out in our favor, meaning we were full fledged members. Since they’d each received the orange armband showing their participation as full-fledged members of the guild, Lizzie had made me a tiny orange scarf to wear on jobs to show that I was just as much a member as the rest of the party.

Frankly, I hated it. I was a cat. What need did I have for clothes in this form? But, the thought was nice, even if I would only wear it when absolutely necessary.

Lizzie had also sent along a small batch of ice cubes that I greedily chewed on. Any time they’d melt, I used Chill to refreeze them until I’d finished them off. They were a nice distraction, albeit a short-lived one.

“Malzy!” Lord Erik called on the third morning. I lifted my head from where I slept at Raina’s side to see him striding confidently up the hall.

However, his words were a bit too loud for the Matron’s liking. She stomped out into the sunlit infirmary and scowled at the lord.

“Lord Erik!” she hissed. “Just because you’re the lord of the town doesn’t mean you can just walk in and disturb my patients at the crack of dawn! This is a hospital, not a circus!”

He hung his head in mock apology. “Sorry Matron, I’ll do my best.”

“See that you do, lest I have you help the acolytes sweeping the cellar!” she stormed off in a huff, but Erik just turned to me and grinned.

“She’s been after me for years, but she just can’t bring herself to punish me.” He crossed the rest of the distance between us and sat down on the bed across from me. He bounced his leg, as if he were unable to completely sit still and the grin on his face never faded.

I stood and reached forward with my paws into a nice long stretch. Then, I arched my back and sat back on my haunches. Erik was more excited than usual. I wondered what that meant was in store. Maybe the story would be extra exciting.

“Listen, you can leave Raina’s side for a short time, right?” he asked. I nodded. “Excellent! See, I remembered that because we found you without her at my keep the other night, and, in so remembering, I remembered something else. As such, I have a few gifts for you, if you would come with me.”

Gifts? For me?

I tilted my head at him, giving him my best impression of human confusion. Unfortunately, my face just didn’t have the muscles to convey it properly, and we ended up staring at one another for a very long awkward moment.

Trying something new, I hopped to the bed he was sitting on and pawed at his sleeve, giving a small vocal chirp to indicate my confusion. I wanted him to explain!

But, it was hopeless. He wasn’t getting it. I wasn’t communicating well enough, and it was a complex idea anyway. I’d never get it across. With a huff, I settled for just seeing what he was going to show me and crawled into his lap. That signal was fairly obvious: pick me up.

Lord Erik did as I requested and practically skipped from the hospital, earning him another scolding from the Matron who this time said “This is a hospital, not a racetrack.” I chattered my amusement, which only made Lord Erik laugh harder.

If I’d been in my other form, I’d have laughed right along with him. The more time I spent, the more I learned just how jovial a fellow he really was…once you got past his “responsible noble” mask. I could definitely see why he and Lizzie-the-pink-haired-bartender got along so well.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

As with every trip with Lord Erik, he was stopped several times on the short distance between the temple and Aldar Keep. This time, it was a whole group of concerned mothers who practically ambushed him by the Guardian Tree.

“Lord Erik!” they all shouted in a cacophony of noise. I felt him tense just a hair before he donned his “responsible” mask and smiled at them.

“Yes, my friends? How can I help you this morning?”

One elderly woman separated herself from the crowd and marched right up to him. “Lord Erik, we want the truth!”

“About what, exactly?” he asked. “I would be happy to provide, if you let me know the subject.”

“Is Aldar safe?” she asked directly.

“Why, of cour-”

But she interrupted before he could finish even the first thought. “The merchants are telling of wooden monsters on the southern roads.”

“We know of them and are de-”

“And now there are rumors of demons in the market!”

“That was a misunde-”

“And, with all of this, the guard is being spent keeping the checkpoints into town!”

“It’s a necessary precau-”

“And here we find you carrying a servant of Malzifrax like it’s nothing!”

“It is nothing,” he said, finally able to make a sentence short enough to keep her from interrupting. He opened his mouth to continue, but she was already complaining again.

“All of this is extremely worrying, Lord Erik,” she continued. I stopped listening. With what little room he had to speak, Erik tried to calm her fears and those of the rest of the crowd, but they just didn’t seem to be listening.

He was an excellent speaker, but some crowds just exist to ferment trouble. This one, in particular, with the ornery woman at its head, seemed intent on making their discontent known and were not willing to take his answers as he gave them.

Eventually, I grew impatient. Erik had gifts for me, and the longer these peasants took up his time, the longer I had to wait. I didn’t like waiting.

I took matters into my own paws, crawling out of his arms and onto his shoulders. I reared up, steadying myself with two paws on his head before letting out an earsplitting howl. The peasants paused and stared at me in fear.

Erik sighed. “Thank you, Malzy. Now, as I was saying, the adventurer’s guild has several active listings to cull the monsters on the road. The guard are here to make sure that each of you is safe in your homes. There is nothing to fear here in Aldar.”

“And the demon in the market?”

“Wildly exaggerated,” he said. “Trust me, I was there for the incident in question. There was a mighty being that was mistaken for a demon, and he and I did have a misunderstanding that resulted in a rather large firestorm, but it has all been smoothed over and no more threat lingers.”

I purred and settled down around Lord Erik’s shoulders, just as I did Raina’s. It was an easier mode of travel, and one that was more comfortable than being carried. To my great joy, Erik seemed to have a very similar bone structure to my witch. Despite being older and more physically inclined, there was a similar roundness to his shoulders. It must have been a common trait to those born in the region.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some rather urgent business to attend to,” he nodded one last time to the group before turning away.

As if suddenly broken out of a stupor, the leader of the women shouted after him. “Wait, did you say the cat’s name was Malzy?! As in…”

But Lord Erik ducked into the Keep before I could hear her finish the thought. Still, I could imagine it. If Raina thought that using my nickname was going to attract less attention, she’d been woefully mistaken! The townsfolk may have been superstitious, but they weren’t stupid…at least not in this way.

I purred. Though they really feared the original owner of the name, they had recognized it for what it was. Soon, very soon, I would surpass him in local folklore, and it would be wonderful.

“Some days, I worry that some people just want to be afraid,” Erik confided in me as we entered the keep. “No matter how much I do, or how much I reassure them, there will always be those who cannot see beyond their own fears. There’s little I can do for those sorts.”

“Nor should you try,” I answered. He couldn’t hear me, but it was comforting to speak as if he could.

We turned to the right as we entered. Erik pushed open the doors to the library and brought me to three packages each wrapped in brown paper and string.

“I thought a little mystery might have a good effect, so I asked the head of my household staff to wrap it for you.”

I jumped onto the table and sniffed at each package, trying to determine what was hidden within. They were each different sizes: one small cylindrical one, one that was rectangular and smelled like paper inside, and a third that was flat and smelled almost like the stones at Shaleheart Spring, but slightly different.

If I had to guess, one was a book, but the rest…I had no idea. Reaching out with my telekinesis, I ripped the paper off the book first. The title read: The Healer’s Guide to Basic Anatomy. My smell was all over the book from the other night! He’d found it where I’d dropped it by the door!

“I thought you might put it to better use, since you worked so hard to steal it,” Erik said. “Goodness knows my son wants nothing to do with it. I’d rather it go to someone who can truly appreciate its contents as I did many years ago. Raina’s mother and I read it together, you know, back when we were adventurers together.”

I stared at him. If they’d been adventurers together, then that meant that the black-haired woman in the painting, the one with the raven, must be Elana, Raina’s mother. But, the note had been from someone named Qiliri…who was that, then?

Just one more thing I couldn’t ask about without words with which to speak. I tossed the wrapping onto the ground in a dejected heap before rubbing my side against Erik’s arm in thanks.

He nudged the cylindrical package to me next. I sniffed it again, this time picking up a dry scent like stone dust. Curious, I pulled at the paper and strings with telekinesis and claws until the contents came free. It was a tiny stick of white chalk.

What was I supposed to do with a stick of chalk?

I tilted my head at Lord Erik one more time, but he seemed to be almost ready to explode with excitement. He shifted quickly from foot to foot before nudging the last package toward me.

This was getting more and more confusing by the second. First, I tried to kill him a few nights ago, then he becomes all friendly, then he gives me a book and a piece of chalk…what was going on? He was just too…excited…and over some cat he barely knew. It just didn’t make any sense.

But, he was the one giving gifts. Far be it from me to question the reasons behind a good offering to my majesty. I pulled the last package closer before pulling the paper off it carefully.

It was…a piece of gray rock.

And, yet, he was so excited? Why?

I looked back at the chalk. Then to the slate. Then it hit me.

I crooked my tail and purred loudly. Erik reached out and scratched my ears.

“Maybe now we can finally have that conversation we never got to finish the other night,” he said, beaming wide.

I crouched, putting a paw on the chalk stick for several long moments. My mana flowed and merged with the implement. With my telekinetic infusion in place, I focused on putting chalk to slate. A white streak was left behind where it pressed against the smooth surface.

When I was done, I looked at my work. It was a shaky hand, but it was at least legible.

Hello! My name is Malzy.