Completing the spider web formation, Velvet went back to the hut to activate and calibrate it.

Formations were drawn in a circular or cylindrical manner, to ease the magic circulation. Explained why pet containers were round, brooms and staffs were cylindrical, and most mages fancied towers.

Escas principally grew on the palms for this exact reason. Most mages casted magic using their hands, because fingers were cylindrical, facilitating the magic transference.

Hats also were both round and cylindrical. Perfect for mages.

Going back to Hyde’s formation. Its core was under the roof’s tiles, entering Velvet’s room and hanging there. A sachet, made from spider webs wrapped… something.

“What did you put as a core?”

“Dried bugs. Corpses work well as stabilizers, even when they aren't human.”

Velvet’s smile twitched. “Well, at least you’ve sucked them for all they’re worth, so no rotting smell…” She pondered for a moment. “If I hang a dried bug sachet on a broom, will it fly better?”

“Probably.”

“Do you have spares?”

“I can have some for tomorrow.”

She remembered Hyde’s eating habits on the train. He munched on bugs at a fast pace, making crunching sounds. Velvet believed he ate them whole, but maybe he just crushed them to make sucking the insides easier, leaving the destroyed carcasses behind.

The sachet didn’t look bumpy, which supported her theory.

“Great.” Getting to work, they calibrated the formation to warn Hyde when something over forty kilograms stepped on the floor threads. For the air ones, if they broke, Hyde would get notified.

Apart from hares, foxes, and birds, who didn’t pass the weight limit, there weren’t animals big enough to trigger the formation. The safe part of the forest simply wasn’t big enough.

Setting up the formation and doing flying tests had taken almost half a day, so Velvet made food and went to Kartal’s Riverside Villa.

After checking on the salamander, who was fine.

The big, expensive houses weren’t ‘on’ the Mergifari, which was the reason why she hadn’t seen castles, manors or private areas around, only the residential edifice that held the middle class mages, where Gertine stayed.

Instead, they were placed in pocket dimensions, as Murrs explained to her, all of them accessible (only with the owner’s permission) from the First Tower.

Once Murrs confirmed Velvet’s permission to access the Riverside Villa, she simply told Velvet to ‘Enter the elevator’.

She had never used an elevator. Like the telephone, they were relatively new inventions, their uses not widespread.

It was a small metallic room, whose door closed once she got in, before starting to shake, to Velvet’s dismay.

Luckily for her, it only lasted for a minute, before the door opened to a garden. Once she left the elevator, the door closed behind her, becoming part of a decorative monument.

Wow… Velvet thought, looking at the green, neatly trimmed area. It was flat, with several monuments in white marble depicting dragons next to some bushes cut in fancy shapes, this must be hella expensive… are the peacocks included? Or did Kartal bring them in?

Apart from peacocks, who were extremely attention-calling, even more colorful bird species flew around, some with curiosity towards Velvet, some with wariness.

The sound of running water came from several spots in the distance, some closer and some further away, due to the canals around the garden transporting the water.

Taking a deep breath of fresh, relaxing air, Velvet started walking towards the direction of the villa, in the pocket dimension’s center.

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Every few steps, a white thing crossed her path, hiding when she looked for it.

“Hello?” She said, once the thing in question flew too close to her face for comfort.

“Hell-o, he-llo!” Something repeated, in a strange, broken tone.

Velvet turned around, seeing a red parrot on top of a statue. Not the thing responsible… at least not responsible for bothering Velvet, since she was pretty sure it was responsible for the expensive estatue’s scratches and missing parts.

The parrot climbed down the dragon statue, using its beak and claws, before reaching the edge. Then, it started to make clicking noises at Velvet, stretching in her direction, calling for her.

“Aren’t you a bird? Can’t you fly?” Still, she went to the bird, offering her arm. Her gloves were thick enough, anyway.

“Too high! Scary, scar-y!” The parrot said, climbing to Velvet’s arm. Something skittered in the bush, but she pretended to not hear it.

“And I’m not high enough?” The parrot answered by making noises, bobbing its head up and down repeatedly. “Hehe, look Hyde, I could become a pirate right now! Oh, if I had known, I would’ve brought a pirate hat…”

She supposed that this parrot wasn’t a magic familiar, just a normal bird, only a bit more talkative than most.

“Higher than Lulu! Lulu is short!”

The thing on the bushes got out upon hearing that. It was Kartal’s small dragon, the one who looked at Velvet like she owed it money. It growled annoyed at the parrot.

“Oh, you’re right! Lulu is short!” Velvet repeated, mocking the dragon.

“Short, short! Like a tin can!” The parrot followed.

For a reptile, it made an expression closely resembling annoyance, before exhaling flames at them.

Small flames, who didn’t even reach Velvet.

“Wow, it just got colder!” Velvet said.

“Cold, so cold!” The parrot said, pretending it was shivering. “Kekekekekeke!” It laughed, and Velvet laughed together with it, using the same tone, mocking Kartal’s dragon.

Someone cleared their throat, stopping the poor little dragon’s mockery.

Velvet turned around, meeting face to face with Irsen Kartal. She had the decency of looking a bit ashamed, unlike the parrot, who kept snickering.

“O-oh! Captain Kartal, is the Selection over already?”

“Yes.” The dragon climbed Kartal, coiling around his arms. “Luraulu is still a young dragon, her temper will calm down with time. But,” Kartal explained. “Dragons hold grudges for a long time.”

“I am sorry.” Velvet lied.

For being caught. She thought. The dragon has started it, after all!

Kartal didn’t say anything, taking a step aside. Someone came out from behind him, assuming it was time for introductions.

A guy, around Gertine’s age, dressed in noble Idirian clothes; a long silk coat, green in color with golden flower patterns, white pants, long brown hair and purple eyes, androgynous in appearance, spoke.

“Welcome, I’m the Second Prince of Idir, Syon Idrees.”

Velvet grabbed the edges of her dress, doing a curtsy. “Velvet Consestella Dobastro.”

Syon nodded a bit. He seemed pretty inexpressive, Velvet noticed. Not having the arrogance of nobility like Ethra, but having the delicate and frail appearance of someone who never worked once in his life.

He can at least protect himself a bit, right?

“We can wait at the villa,” Kartal said, interrupting the uncomfortable silence that had started to take root. “The other two will come soon.”

“I need to speak to you first.” Velvet said.

“What is it?” Kartal asked. Velvet motioned to Syon with her eyes, which meant that the conversation should be private, but Kartal refused with his head.

“Someone snuck into my house. Left a strange corpse.” Velvet gave the container to Kartal, who looked inside.

“Tell me how it went, leave no details.”

Velvet recalled everything, from when she entered, to when Udulluay told her the intruder’s name.

Kartal returned the container, speaking. “You made the correct choice. That thing contained a curse, if you had looked in its eyes, the wraith inside would’ve possessed you, making you feel the same pain it suffered.”

“A wraith?” Syon asked.

“It’s inside the container. From outside, it might look like a blur.” He said. Velvet looked inside again, noticing the grayish blur. She showed the container to Syon, who was curious.

“Do you know how wraiths are made?” Velvet noticed Kartal was explaining it to her, not to Syon. “You noticed the black ropes on the corpse, right? It’s a way to prevent a soul from leaving a body after death, condemning it to eternal suffering.”

Syon nodded. “It’s one of the punishments for traitors.”

“This person wasn’t a traitor, they were someone who was in a bad place at a bad moment.” Kartal’s eyes met Velvet’s, speaking directly at her. “Who crossed paths with a mage who needed a human to inflict enough suffering until they became a monster.”

Just like Nathaniel. Velvet finished Kartal’s unspoken sentence.