Three days later, the slaves are making good progress and using Anwen's design to hold up the ceiling is working better than the 'experienced' miners thought it would. She still uses her powers to move larger objects and help hold up pieces normally too heavy for humans, even as she tries to avoid the immortals while not looking like she is avoiding them. The problem is her cramps are getting worse and it's harder for her to focus.

She is barely able that night to pop herself back to the Palace, where she collapses in her bed. Sarah finds her there and takes to mopping up her sweat and trying to help her deal with the pain. All Anwen will say is a spell went wrong, she is not up to telling anyone what really happened. Partly because she is not sure it did. She is feverish and hallucinating about elven assassins looking for a traitor that may or may not exist.

Sarah, knowing Anwen works with Bast seeks help from a Priestess of Bast, telling her about the mages illness. The priestess sends her, to her surprise, to a priestess of Sekmet who upon hearing the tale follows the girl back to the palace and to the room of the foreign mage.

Anwen by this time is on the ceiling, her blanket still partially draped over her as she writhes in pain. The priestess looks up and makes a sign against evil. Sarah slapped her hand and told her, "she is a mage, magic flows through her, especially when she is in pain."

The priestess, Sarke slowly nods, then sets about putting special incenses and herbs around and has Sarah boil water with other herbs, for their smell sooths the mind and drives off evil.

Once she has that done she sends Sarah outside the room, telling her to stay there no matter what she hears.

In the room Sarke beseeches Sekmet aid in this woman's delirium. The spirit of the Northern Lion Goddess comes and see's what is happening then laughs, to her priestess, "Oh looks like Sister Bast is up to something with this one. Trying to make a new breed of kit, a new female dominant Lion line. Silly sister. This one though is of 3 parts to start with and the Lion is now having to contend with all 3 in making a new life. The pain is those 3 parts trying to come to terms, proving which of the 4 is dominant. From what I see though, the original 3 were already in high balance, adding in the 4th in such a manner is throwing them out of balance. You may need to call forth your inner Lion to help comfort this kit. She is already one of great power and adding this will make her more powerful still. But if balance cannot be achieved then madness is what will result. To add to this ones problems she is in charge of a project and can Not be long from it, so her training will have to be different than is normal. May take longer than a year and a day for this one. Elf blood, fa, much magic but weak in body, but in this one some human resides as well as something from brother darkness. If we can keep her from going mad, then I think she may achieve what my sister hopes for. A line whose men do not have their heads in the sand and will rule through intelligence not strength of arm." All this is said in short burst as the spirit moves around and through the thrashing mage. Seeing much of what is in and with-out.

Sarke nods and strips, first her robes then from her human form to that of a lion woman. She pulls the child down, holds her and sings soft songs of life on the savannah, of the hunt and of the family of cats and men, of peace and war and balance of natures. Her songs work and Anwen Cinaed and Robert the traveler and the child of darkness, come to peace with the great cat spirit Bast mated them with. In the world of their minds a peace is made, using the songs of the cat and the knowledge of the strange and the magic of the worlds, something new and more than either cat goddess realized, is born.

In the waking world, Anwen curls up in the arms of the lion-woman and sleeps peacefully till morning. Anwen wakes, sees the lioness, then forces the lioness on to the floor and curls up on her, calling her 'warm pillow girl'. No fear, not one wisp or flick of it. Just a sense of peace and comfort.

Having been up all day prior and all night Sarke finds this not a bad place to be and herself falls asleep.

Around noon, not being able to take it any longer, Sarah slips in and sneaks a peak in to her mistresses room. When she sees the lioness, curled up around her mistress, she has to wonder if the Goddess Sekmet turned her priestess thus or if her Mistress did it to her in her sleep, seeing either as a real possibility. She slipped in further to get the water pot, only to brush against Anwen's leg. Anwen popped awake, saw who it was and grabbed the girl and pulled her in to the pile, mutters, "Teddy girl" and used her as a sleep aid. Not that Sarah really minded, it was just so unexpected. The lioness woke, yawned, looked down at the girl, now in the mages grip and grinned. She stretched and shifted back to her human form and sighed, "That mistress of yours is powerfully single minded. I think she will be ok in the long run, but she is going to need help in the short. She likes her naps to. Very cat like this one."

Sarah nods, "Bast says the same thing. She comes by sometimes. Before I came to the Palace I did not really believe the gods still walked the world. But here I see some all over the place."

Sarke nods, "They like to be near places of power, such as the Court of Ramsey. He encourages them to be their best, to show the world that the Gods of Kemet are greater than any other. He also likes to surround himself with the best people the world has to offer. This one, she is strong, but humble, smart and fierce but not proud, a strange mix to be sure. She is also a collector of secrets and a mistress of misdirection. I think she will do well with Bast blessing. Sekmet thinks so to. You be good to her little slave and I think she will be good to you in return."

Sarah nods, "She has been good to me, though I sometimes wish she would be better to me. She has a lot of love in her, but is not good at letting it out."

Sarke messes Sarah's hair, "She is careful whom she shows herself to yes. Earn her trust and return it and you will get what you desire and more." she yawns, "I for one need to return to my temple and do my chores, I will return this evening to check on her." Sarah nods as Sarke slowly removes herself from the sleeping woman. "Oh she will need allot of rare or raw meat for a little while, make sure she eats it." Sarah, cuddling up with her Mistress nods as the Lion Woman leaves.

Anwen wakes to a squirming Sarah, "hmmm, what is it ?" Sarah plaintively, "mistress I need to Pee badly." That brings to mind Anwen's own predicament, her eyes fly open and it's a scramble between them to whom makes it to the pot first. Anwen cheats and teleports there. Sarah whines, "NO FAIR!"

Anwen smiles, "You can always crawl out the window and use the bushes."

Sarah glowers, "We are on the 2cd floor, I am not a cat you know."

Soft voice coming from the 'magic picture', " Well that can be fixed you know"

That startled Sarah so much she lost control of her bladder. But seeing who it is she moans, "Mistress Bast, you scared the Pee out of Meee."

Bast snickers, "Is your mistress in ?"

Sarah frowns at the goddess, "She got to the pot before me. Why are you in there and not out here ?"

Bast, "Safer for me actually. I did something without thinking it through and now, well let's just say making Anwen mad would be a bad thing. Thoth looked in to what I did and well it seems I may have accidently turned her in to a god."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Sarah stares at her for a long moment, "I thought she was a goddess already she just does not like temples and priest and that stuff."

Bast shrugs, "I gave her Immortality and a little more that she was lacking before. She was more like a greek demigod before, now, wellll." makes an Eee face.

Anwen, who had been listening, comes in to the room up to the mirror and smiles at Bast, before reaching Into the mirror and wrapping her hand around the goddess throat, "Mirror path goes 2 ways. Now what is this Thoth said ?" she says in a sickly sweet voice with enough venom behind it to poison a legion of snakes.

Gurgling, "He's not sure, but it is a tiny bit possible, when I added immortality to the mix that I may have made you a minor goddess. Admits he could be wrong, um your hair is on fire." Anwen glares, then her whole form is engulfed in flames, the burning hand around Bast throat does not move, if anything it gets stronger, when the fires die down a literal flame haired bipedal lion-woman with a Huge rack is standing there, she looks down at the fiery red furred body and then up at Bast, "Yesss, we came to a realization, thanks to the priestess of Sekmet who helped us through the madness. You were of No help then when we needed you most. You just ran and hid didn't you ?"

Gurgling and trying to remove the massive clawed hand, "was conferring with Thoth, can't breathe." Anwen-lion pulls her hand back, and the goddess with it, tossing the cat goddess on the floor.

Sarah has not moved a muscle, her eyes are just huge as she watches the confrontation.

"I knew you were impulsive, but you have no idea what we really were when you put your blessing in to Us. The true nature of this being that is Us."

Bast backing away to the wall, "Your speaking in the 3rd person, that's not exactly sane my dear."

Anwen-Lion, "That is because there is already more than 1 mind in here. The 3 that were here before were in Perfect balance, then you tossed in this wild monster cat and a ball of fiery yarn."

Bast, rubbing her throat and looking perplexed, "3 ?"

The lion monster nods, "Male Aspect, Female Aspect, Vampire Aspect. You Know what you get when you cross a Vampire Aspect with a Shifter Aspect ?"

Bast eyes go Very wide, her voice tiny "oh shit" then she rally's, "But the vampire aspect, she would have been drinking blood."

The great flaming head shakes, "Revenant, descended from a thrall line. All the power potentials without the Cursed need for blood."

She slowly considers that, "Ok I can see it put that way. Does explain her attraction to Them as well. So you are not a full abomination then … are you going to kill me ?"

Wide smile, "I am tempted but the others point out it would be bad as I would likely end up either in a fight with the other gods or worse, with your job."

Bast looks offended, "What is wrong with my job ?"

Flaming headed cat leans in, "What part of me no liking being responsible for more than me are you missing ?"

Bast slowly nods, "Right, you are ok with working with people but don't like being in charge of much more than yourself."

Hearing that Sarah, despite her desire for self-preservation, has to ask, "Um excuse please, but what am I then ?"

Anwen glances at her, "You’re a pet, pets are different. Pets I can take care of, play with, that sort of thing."

She considers that then nods, "Ok then." and happily goes gets some rags to clean up her mess.

Anwen and Bast watch her go, "Strange girl." both comment.

Anwen turns to Bast and sighs, "What is done cannot be undone without consequences. So for now I will forgive you. But if you ever decided to gift something on me again, ask first or I will likely remove more than our friendship."

Bast stands, rubbing her neck and nods. She really had no idea what kind of powers were with in her friend. Also Thoth pointed out that Anwen was likely just Playing with idea of being a shifter, not really expecting to be one. He went on to tell her to be careful how she confronted Anwen cause if she did it wrong she could end up minus her head. It was her own fault for forgetting the mirror was magical.

Anwen turns back to the mirror and really looks at herself and shakes her massive, flame maned head, "My tits are gigantic in his form and my hair really is on fire. Wow. El'nar Bastet indeed."

Bast standing shakily, "What was that ?"

Smiling back at the smaller cat, "Fire of Bast, came to me when the change happened. For the time being I think that is a good name for my line, yes ?"

Bast considers then nods, "Better than burning Simba."

"I hate Simba, arrogant over bearing pricks that think they are better than everyone. Acting like everyone should just fall in line and bow down to them because someone long ago called them the King of the Cats. One of them tries that crap with me and I will shove his tongue out through his ass."

Sarah from the floor with a bucket and some soap, "Dominatrix of Lions."

Bast gives Anwen a strange look, "Dominatrix ?"

Anwen shrugs, "I taught her some terms from the BDSM lexicon of phrases."

Sarah looks up and smiles, "A Dominatrix is a dominant female who likes being in charge and does not take gruff from others easily or lightly." wrings out her rag, "I don't know what 'gruff' is but it sounds bad."

Bast, "Gruff is like back talking or insulting, depending on the situation."

Sarah nods, "ok, thank you."

Anwen looks down at Sarah and smiles, she has been teaching her to be polite even in bad situations. She turns back to where Bast was only to find the goddess has disappeared. Seeing as she has done the same when she did not want to talk more she can't say much about that.

Sarah looks up at her mistress, "I like your new form, it is pretty and the fire is not all burny just light."

Anwen test this and is somewhat glad she is not going to accidently set the Palace on fire.

Though, "I wish Bast had stayed, I don't know how to turn back and I really am not ready for anyone to see me like this."

Voice from the door, "Then you need to remember to close your door." Sarke comes in. "My you are big and … nice mane. Bast over did herself I see. Sekmet said you would be different, did not expect that however."

Anwen nods, "You were the one that sang to us ?"

She smiles, "Yes. You do well to remember that in your waking form."

Sarah picks up her bucket, "She remembers most of her dreams. She has been trying to teach me to do that to." she moves past, "Pardon me, I need to get past." and she is out the door.

Sarke watches her go, "Remarkable child. Most humans who witness a change tend to run off screaming."

Anwen sighs, "I did not have a normal change. Bast appeared and I got all hot and angry and I wrapped my hand around her throat then I was covered in fire, then I was like this."

Sarke stands still then nods, "No that is not a normal change. You have some powerful Ka indeed."

Anwen shrugs, "Care for a little trivia ?"

Sarke smiles, "Sure."

"In the orient, Ka is called Chi but it is the same thing despite the different words."

Sarke looks thoughtful, "Interesting. I know very little of the orient. Do they have cats there to ?"

Anwen nods, "Tigers mostly. Lions are only found in the African content, Tigers are more widely based. Hmm, well Lions with manes I should say, there are other species of great cat called lions but they work differently than lions from here."

She grins, "Sekmet told me you know many things from many lands and like to share them."

Shrugging, "Um, do you know how I shift back ?"

She nods, then over the next few hours teaches the new shifter all she can about shifting. Adding in bits and pieces of cat philosophy and teachings.

Sarah comes back and listens and watches and pets anyone who will let her.