We had plenty of time. I asked for seconds twice. Around us, the servants were also waiting for their masters and eating picnic-style while the sky above us turned red. The shadows grew longer and then the sun set behind the parapet. As darkness fell, the kitchen staff brought lanterns, one for each group.

Finally, the stable door opened. Administrator looked like his usual self, but the others were visibly tired and shaken. The chief healer supported the mage who could barely walk upright. Freya came to our table, also weak and tired. "She should be better now," she said, then took the last slice of bread and ran after the other two healers.

As we entered the stable, Larina came towards us. She still stank terribly and was much slimmer than before, especially at her human waist. But she looked much better, and she was panting less. In the dim light of the lantern, her skin could be any colour. "So you better?"

"Yes, yes! The burning inside is gone, so much better. And I can move more. See!" She bent forward and forward until her head was behind her front legs, almost as far forward as I could go. "I can now buckle my belts myself too!" And when she was upright again, she turned until her face was facing her tail. "Just like you. The mage has done a great job. And I am so hungry. Absolutely no meat, unfortunately."

"Then let's eating before kitchen closing."

They were already cleaning up, but a basket of raw vegetables was negotiable. And she also needed to eat some hay for her digestion. A full horse's stomach, so the side dish was lots of grains and fibres from the stable store. Chewy food. She ate for a long time, her mouth too full to even speak. I yawned several times but stayed until she finished.

* * *

I woke up again at the crack of dawn even without the birds singing. Well, a single distant bird was singing and the last stars were still in the sky. Too early for a breakfast - they would just start working in the kitchen.

So I went over to the stables. Because Larina still slept in her box, I silently slipped out to the back door. Apart from some morning stretches, I did some morning stretches but mostly enjoyed the changing colours of the sky. And the absolute silence. No humming of anything electrical, no fans, no ringing of telephones, no sirens of ambulances in the distance, no planes high in the sky. There might have been servants crossing the courtyard, but here, behind the stables, no steps were heard. Absolute silence, even the single bird had stopped his song.

As if I were alone in the world.

Alone with my thoughts. I shouldn't have been such a wimp yesterday, bolting at the first real use of soul magic. I really wanted to know more. If the mage had not worked all afternoon and evening, I would already be visiting him right now. But he had earned his rest.

With the dawning daylight, other birds began to sing. A distant call from a rooster soon found several answers. Smoke billowed from a few houses in the town below, probably the inns and bakeries. All the houses were too close to each other to see down to the street level from my vantage point. But I could see the shutters being opened, and I saw people emptying their chamber pots out of their upper windows. Krenburg was awaking.

"Oh, Countess Kiara of Earth and Litra. What a wonderful morning this is."

I turned around. The mage was just closing the stable's back door. He didn't look very tired. But he limped a little.

It took a moment to remember my manners. "Good morning, Mage Tarik. Calling I lady is good. And you ok? You arrivinged very, err, hard?"

"Dear lady, do not worry. We were both lucky for that wall." My confusion must have been easy to read because he continued. "I must confess that I used your soul to anchor my transport rune and."

"Sorry, my Kren is bad."

"Ah. Simple then. I made your body." I nodded and swallowed my questions for now. "Each time I worked, we exchanged souls." Yes, I understood now, nod. "So I could find you. Like finding my own soul." Nod, but this means we were literal soul mates! But thankful he ignored my expression which must have been an emotional rollercoaster on my face during those few sentences. "Travel magic?" Nod. "Travel magic was homing, err, going to you." Nod, hopefully. "So without the wall, I would have hit you."

Despite the long build-up, I was surprised. "Eh?"

"Yes, sorry. Travel magic is difficult. But it worked. And dear lady, may I ask another question?"

Smiling, "Sure."

"Yesterday, you saw the soul magic?"

"Yes, violet light, er, ribbons. And soul had very bright."

"Hmm." He made a long pause. "I had been working on your body for half a year. Maybe some of my soul magic went to you when we were exchanging souls so many times."

"I can doing soul magic?"

"Please do not try! No, but maybe that is why you could see the soul strings. Not even the clerics saw them."

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Now I really had to ask my questions. "Mage Tarik, why make me?"

"Oh," he hesitated. "I don't like horses. And for the masterpiece, I had to create something new with soul magic or show a new application of soul magic. I could have done a two-tailed squirrel. But I have helped to develop the real soul magic technique you saw with Larina." I nodded after each sentence, filling in the blanks. "And all the horses were reserved for the war. But I needed a fighter, my masterpiece had to be war-related at that time. And I wanted to show them how to create a better fighter without a broken body or soul. But I needed mass to build up a lower body that could support a human. Therefore, I used three squirrels, two cats and two goats and their features. And the seven souls gave you an almost full soul. Your luck, this way you could wake on your own. A miracle even, no one would believe that this was possible."

Clue for the next question, the most important one. "And why I?"

He smiled. "Honestly, it was chance. Catching a travelling soul is hard, like fishing. And I wanted a young soul with potential and a female one for the female body. And it seems that I chose well."

I ignored the flattery. "Why female?"

"The first two squirrels were female and." He stopped. "No, scratch that. I wanted to create the perfect body," he whispered and blushed. "Not a fighter but a companion bodyguard. And you have exceeded expectations." His face was completely red. He dropped to his knees. "Countess Kiara of Earth and Litra, please accept my services forever."

I was speechless. The mage was still on his knees. "Please getting up!" Then I took his hand and yanked him up and pulled him close while I sat down on my legs. Now at eye level, I hugged him. "Thank you, I am really, er, thank you for making I. Thank you." Tears were flowing down my cheeks. "You giving my new life."

He held his arms first to his side until he also put them around me, hesitantly at first. We hugged for a long time. Slowly he relaxed and really comforted me.

Until the back door opened violently and Larina shot out to vanish around the corner, where the dunghill was. That did not sound too good.

We broke the hug and waited.

She came back much slower, looking rather defeated.

"Not good?" the mage asked.

"Sorry, no not very. At least it came out in the back. Could you get some water for, uh, my backside?"

I understood and ran to the well. As deep as the well was, it took some time to rope up the water to fill the two buckets I found beside it. When I returned, Larina was still talking to the mage but was looking a little better. When she saw me approaching, she came to me as it was more spacious on this side of the stables. I washed her soiled buttocks and legs and praised my luck in not having had to deal with diarrhoea so far.

Larine apologized a thousand times, but I just worked, muttering "ok, no worry."

Tarik had come to Larina's front, out of splashing range. "The healer needs to check how your former horse's digestive tract is recovering. If this does not get better, one could try to merge or replace it with another horse's digestive tract."

I did not want to think about any internal organs, just having cleaned her. I dumped half of the second bucket on the insides of her hind legs and then washed my hands with the remaining water. A shower or running water would be great.

We slowly returned to the spot near the back door, away from the smelly dunghill. We stood in silence and watching the sun rise over the ridge. The beast in my belly rumbled as soon as the first rays broke through the distant trees. "Sorry."

Larina laughed. "I could use some breakfast myself, too."

* * *

Over breakfast, Tarik told us about Kwal, the university there, and his origins. However, his level of Kren was comparable to Larina's, and both were far above mine. The fact that they switched to Kwal for more complex words did not help. Still, I understood that he came from a poor family. His father was a carpenter. When a weather mage visited the village cleric, he discovered his talent for magic and wrote a recommendation for the school in the next town. So he was invited to university and was one of the youngest graduates of the last ten years. He was 14 in local years, so 21 by my obsolete Earth counting.

There were two groups of students at the university: The sons of the nobility who were training for a career at the royal court. Attending university was enough for them. And then were the bright students who got there by recommendation. The latter would be conscripted afterwards to serve as practical mages for ten years. He had escaped this for the time being by his travel spell. Not fully escaped, a trial would await him here at Krenburg, to condemn the last practising soul mage. He had no illusions about it. Even if all he wanted was practising soul magic to help the people.

Half of the morning had passed when Senior Healer Yutan arrived. "Dear Countess Kiara, dear Centaur Larina, dear Mage Tarik." He nodded to each of us and then turned to Larina. "I am very sorry to disturb you, but I would like to check your current health, if"

Larina was already on her hooves. "Yes, of course. In the morning, I had still, err, diarrhoea."

He nodded. "Then we should see." He put his hands on her back, about an arm's length apart and took a distant look. He stood there for quite some time.

"Thank you," he removed his hands. "It is a little difficult to see and my knowledge of horse anatomy is still lacking but the inflammation of the first stomach seems to be receding, ah, the stomach seems to be getting better. The upper, ah, space of your former human organs show no traces of scarring or bleeding." He turned to Tarik. "I must say, Mage Tarik, the soul magic technique is amazing. I think it could totally change the way we operate."

Tarik was visibly proud. "You have seen nothing yet. And there is still the issue with the small soul. That could be cured by merging Larina with a horse soul and at that time I could also merge the err digestive tract and cure her breathing problem for good."

"Dear mage, this is not for me to decide."

He slumped. "Yes, I know. But Larina deserves better."

The senior healer took a small irden bottle out of his pocket. "Since you have already eaten, please drink this."

As he uncorked it, I saw a bright green glow like a radioactive soup. "What is it?"

"Ah, this is soul shards made from the blood of living animals that will be slaughtered afterwards in the kitchen. This contains enough soul to keep her soul healthy for three to five days."

"And it tastes awful."

Well, it smelled terrible even from a distance. But Larina took it, swallowed it and quickly ate two cabbage leaves. Shuddering. "Let's hope I keep it this time."

"Dear Larina, after breakfast and the potion, do you feel ready to visit the clerics?"

"Never," she sighed, "so let's go."

We watched her slowly walk away with the senior healer towards the deeper courtyards.

I was alone with Tarik again. Somehow, he seemed to have thought the same. "Mage Tarik" "Countess", we spoke simultaneously.

"Ok, let's going my room!", I said, shoving the last cabbage leaves in my mouth and waving to a servant to indicate that we had finished.