It was dawn when Jacob knocked on the door. I blinked at the still unfamiliar wooden beams of Count Radel's bedroom. I was lying on the blanket on the floor. The count was still asleep on my underbelly, cradled by my paws. I tickled his ears. "Count, waking!" He just babbled incoherently. The next escalation was the tail, which I rubbed through his face. That made him sneeze and then he was awake.

I lifted him forward so I could kiss him. "Now going!" Before the kissing could escalate, I rolled him off me and onto the blanket, rose, and put on my shirt. There was no way to mask the smell for before, even with the windows open all night. So I opened the door for Jacob while the count was still struggling to get dressed. "Good morning, Jacob. Please looking after Count Radel." And then I was out in the castle corridor.

Otherwise, I would have made a scene and cried. No, I was determined to be a strong countess, I would let him go in style, not a clingy countess. But when I reached the third courtyard, I remembered the letter I had written to Count Larel. And Karenburg was close to Litra, there should be someone who could take it to Litra. Since Mage Tarik was an early riser, he should be awake too. I sighed at the thought of the spiral staircase ahead. Indeed, two nights had been time enough for the busy spiders to have woven many of their dreaded webs.

I sniffed outside the door. The air was literally clean, no emissary had been here for at least half a day. And there was the smell of fresh ink, so he was awake. I knocked gently and opened the door.

The mage was sitting at the window with a half-finished rune in front of him. "Oh, good morning, countess. Very good to see you. I have news!"

"Good morning, Tarik."

He was so eager that I let him tell me his news first. "Today, I will give Larina a full soul, I hope it will be enough to merge with a horse's soul. And there were two poor victims who lost their legs. They will also get new legs, as the horse will be dead after taking its entire soul. And we start after the morning service, so very soon. I am so excited."

I smiled, his enthusiasm was contagious. "I coming for letter I writinged yesterday."

He took the paper and folded it. I took the signet ring from its velvet pouch. I still had it with me, having brought it to the baron yesterday. "You having, er, resin?"

"Wax?" he asked, taking out a dark, smelly candle. Then he sat there, concentrating and rubbing his fingers over the wick. It took three times before it lit, and he looked quite exhausted.

"You ok?"

"Yes," he sighed, "Soul magic is so much easier. Come on!"

I took the candle and let the wax drip onto the fold, finally pressing my signet ring into the warm wax. The first seal I had done entirely by myself. I blew on the wax to cool it, and then "See you later."

I raced down the spirals like a squirrel down a larch, made wide strides through the courtyard, and then the wide stairs up again to the count's door. They were still there, and he opened the door. "Here, letter for Count Larel," I said, kissing him passionately.

"Hrmph." Jacob made it clear that kissing in the open door was certainly frowned upon as a totally uncountessily behaviour. And the sooner they left, the sooner they would return. "Hurrying, my count. I love you."

The count smiled beautifully. "Dear countess, I will make haste. Do not worry, I will succeed!"

Then we kissed again, while Jacob made all sorts of distracting noises. "I love you." Then I ran away, because I was so close to tears again.

* * *

I had asked the kitchen for a vegetable omelette. No table, just a bowl with a fork. When I came up from the kitchen, Count Radel and Jacob were sitting on their horses. I waved goodbye. Then the count galloped his horse to the gate and was gone, Jacob close behind.

I sat against the wall in front of my room, lower shoulder and hips on the floor, tail curled forward, bowl on my underbelly. I sighed, still looking at the gate. Absent-mindedly I chewed the salad.

"Lady Kiara, I thought you would not eat before?"

I looked up. Tarik was there, grinning. I had completely forgotten about the soul magic. "Starting now?"

"Yes, come on."

I handed the bowl to a random servant near the kitchen stairs and then followed the mage into the stable. Again, there were guards outside. Inside were Vice-Administrator and the emissary, Sir Hofengart and an obviously high-ranking cleric from the white faction. No nobles this time, but more healers. And next to Larina on two tables lay a man with amputated legs and a woman with a shattered hip. Kendrick was there with a very old mare.

I stood next to the healers. "Hello Freya."

Freya put her hand on my lower back and used mindspeak from the start. "Hello, I missed you. And your fur too." She sounded sad, and I felt sorry again. But now the mage spoke.

"Thank you for giving these people, Robert and Hiranda, a new chance for their lives," the mage began, "I have asked them for their special wishes and will follow them to the letter. Again, please do not disturb me." Then he turned to me. "Countess Kiara, I would like to ask you to assist me later, together with Equerry Kendrick."

I was surprised but nodded. Freya's frown went deeper instead.

"Since I will merge the soul of this mare today, the first step is the actual soul magic. I will transfer a tiny spark to Robert, Hiranda and myself, and then the rest of the soul will be merged with Larina. Kendrick, please."

Kendrick led the mare to step on the rune, where she immediately froze. He nodded to the two humans, who raised their heads and laid them down each on an individual rune.

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Then the mage reached inside the mare and pulled out some amber threads, first to himself and then to the humans on the table. And now he took out the soul. It was duller than Larina's soul, but bigger, a yellowish glowing ball. Next, he took out Larina's soul, blinding me again with the bright violet light of Larina's much smaller soul. Then he moved the souls together and, well, not kneaded, but more gently blended them. The violet took a reddish tint. More importantly, the merged soul was much larger, but still very bright, still blinding me. And then he put it back into Larina and my vision slowly returned.

"This completes the actual manipulation of the soul. It felt heavy enough to sustain a human soul, I am optimistic about that. Now I will begin to improve Larina. First, a second windpipe with a valve." He reached into the mare and soon had a tube and something else in his hand. "The valve comes from the heart. This windpipe will only allow air down to her horse’s lungs. It worked well on the countess."

I involuntarily took a deep breath, but I could not detect any valves or anything. But the mage's work continued. Next, he pushed the old mare's windpipe into Larina. Her throat swelled, and I swallowed and tasted bile as the mage pushed it further in, along with the heart valve, hands deep near her ribcage. I closed my eyes for a moment.

"Next, requests from Larina," he said simply, and I opened them again out of curiosity. He then reached under the mare's belly and removed her teats, sliding them into Larina's breasts. They were now clearly protruding, still small but perky, with black and slightly wider nipples that were the same colour as the mare's teats. He then took out several lengths of muscle and inserted them into her arms, which were very bulging. Finally, he reached under the mare's tail and ripped out her vagina and uterus. I looked away because I was on the verge of vomiting again.

"Countess Kiara?" the mage asked. He smiled at me. "Now I need your help. Please hold the mare's belly."

I stepped forward and supported the belly, eyes closed even before he finished. "Perhaps you would like to close your eyes," he suggested. Still, the wiggling flesh and the strange squishing and cracking sounds were testing my limits.

"Kendrick, the table, please."

The table was moved noisily right in front of me. "Countess Kiara, you can set it down."

I lowered my hands and slammed them down on the table. Slowly, I pulled my hands out from under the mare. But I still did not dare to open my eyes.

Freya came to my side. "Please turn to the left. Now you can open your eyes."

I just looked at the healers and the stable wall. "Thank you," I just whispered and took her hand, still looking to the opposite wall.

"He is now fusing the mare's hip with the woman's hip. Best not to look, there are a lot of things to merge, take out, and rearrange. But it is fascinating. I wish we could have done this back at the battlefield."

I did not listen and thought instead of Count Radel riding his gelding towards Karenburg. His red hair was blowing in the wind.

"Countess Kiara, excuse me, could you help me again? Please stand in front of the mare."

I turned around. My fault. The mare was half on the table, but her hindquarters were missing. There was a lot of discarded flesh on the floor. Quickly I focused on the mare's head, swallowed several times, then bit my lips together and shuffled forward until I was facing the frozen mare.

"I will remove the front legs and use them for the man. Please support the mare in the middle of the shoulders and then push her fully onto the table on my command."

I nodded, "Holding mare, then pushing," my eyes closed again. Suddenly the mare was leaning and then I held it all. "Now, please." And I gently pushed the remaining body back until I felt the table. And then I waited a long time, trying very hard not to imagine the source of the squishy noises.

"It's done," the mage said. "I'll wake her for a quick check and to be ready for the final adjustments."

I turned my head towards the mage and opened my eyes. He was walking over to the woman on the table, who now had very wide and furry hips with horse legs. Well, not quite horse legs, the legs ended in three small separate hooves. But the legs were furry, the same fur as the mare.

He lifted her head from the rune, made a few magical chants and whispered. She opened her eyes and then opened them wider.

"I feel different, Sir Mage. Did it work?"

"Yes, I hope it did. Please try to sit up."

She had strong arms from having to carry her body around. She pushed herself up without effort and smiled. Then she touched herself, bent her knees and even wiggled the strange three-toed hooves. Her smile grew wider and wider. Then she slipped off the table and stood wobbly, taking a few steps. While the legs were probably shorter than the mare's original length, she still stood tall. "These feel very strange," she said. "But I never thought I would be able to feel anything below my waist again. And now I can even walk. This is a miracle."

"Please walk around a bit," the mage said, "try bending down and making all sorts of movements. The adjustment of the ligaments and muscles was very difficult."

She walked and then turned. Only then did I realise she still had the mare's tail. Why hadn't he removed it?

But the mage had already awakened the man. He just blinked and then his legs twitched. "It worked!" he shouted, almost jumping off the table and falling into the pile of discarded bones, flesh and - whatever. I quickly looked up again. "Yes!" he shouted, jumping around wobbly, not minding his three-jointed strangely bent furry horse-like legs.

The mage smiled a little and went over to Larina. It took a little longer for her to wake up.

"Huh." She looked around and saw us looking at her expectantly. Then she took a deep breath and another. "Wow, I can breathe so easily." She closed her eyes and breathed in again. "Countess, I should challenge you to a race soon!" she grinned. Then she looked down and cupped her breasts. "Wow, thank you! And the, er, other one?"

"Has been transferred too. No idea if you can get pregnant, but everything's there."

"Great!" She galloped the short distance to the wall and then pranced around.

The other two were running and jumping around as well. The woman shouted, "Look at me!" She jumped on one leg and held a stick with the three hoofs of her other leg.

"Thank you, Mage Tarik. You have made them very happy," said Sir Hofengart, rather distracted by the only half-decent man, woman and full naked now well-endowed centaur jumping through the stable. Actually, everyone was quite distracted. "I think the clerics will retire for now." It was a very fast retreat, moments later only the healers and the emissary were left.

"That was fantastic," Freya said, "how many poor men from the battlefields we could have helped! There was no shortage of arms and legs from the dead."

"The donor must have a soul. He must be alive," said the mage. "But yes, I think there would be mortally wounded victims who could donate an arm or a leg. But then you would be mixing human souls. I have never dared to do that."

"Mage Tarik, you have never mingled souls between humans?" the emissary asked.

"No, it did not feel right. To enrich the experience of a returning soul, yes. I could justify that to The Soul. But merging conscious souls feels like fiddling with things that only The Soul should be doing."

"So you are saying that only your feelings prevent you from manipulating people's souls?"

Tarik sighed. "Emissary, you knew how the Soul Wars were fought. Yet you keep asking this question. Yes, the technique would work to make a four-armed human or to kill someone by ripping out their soul and not putting it back. Yes, it is very dangerous in the hands of people without morals. That is why I came here and put myself in the hands of the clerics and followed your rules. Because I believe great things can be done with it. See those two happy people running and even jumping around you. How could I deny them that? Anyway," he sighed again, "the trial will decide, and I will abide by the judgement."

"Thank you, Mage Tarik," the emissary said. He clearly wanted to ask more, but maybe not in front of an audience.

"Hiranda," the mage called, "please come here and stand up straight. I think the legs are not quite equal in length."

I did not need to see any more soul magic and went outside too. It was dark already, we had been inside all day. And now that the excitement was over and I was no longer on the verge of gagging, my stomach reminded me that I had neglected it all day.