As I approached my paladin summoner, I noticed he had shifted his position slightly, but he remained within the walls of that monastery or whatever it was.

It appeared that a group of priests and monks were heading toward him from the main building, carrying torches in a procession. However, due to the distance, the darkness of the night, and my limited visibility in this shadowmelded form, it was hard to make out the details.

Just as I wondered what to do if they reached him before or at the same time as me — since they were much closer — my summon was abruptly ended.

He might have cut it, afraid of being discovered, or perhaps a higher-ranking cleric with greater abilities intervened, or maybe something else entirely occurred. I'm not that well-versed in summons, but the fact was our connection was severed.

I didn't even have the chance to tell him about Meowra or return the ring before finding myself in that void, that nothingness one travels when summoned.

Suddenly, I feared my shadowmelded form would dissolve and vanish. It might have been related to how shadowmeld manifests, but being a shadow in that dark realm felt like a kind of erasure creeping over my existence. A sudden wave of fear gripped my heart, and I vowed never again to subject myself to this emptiness as a shadowmelded being.

In the next moment, I materialized back in our room, surrounded by the summon's light. The pain that encompassed my body became palpable as I crumbled with a moan to the ground. Half falling over the bed, half beside it, unable to stand on my legs, I embraced the pain, grateful for the proof that I was alive. The darkness of the shadowmelded realm seemed far worse than the pain of being alive, even if mortally wounded.

The room's window suddenly burst, shattering into thousands of pieces, and Lynx appeared by my side as if he had teleported there.

"Take what you need!" he said urgently, his paw touching me as his worried eyes scanned my injuries.

I instantly understood what he meant and began to drain life from him.

Slowly, the blood stopped dripping from my wounds as they started to mend themselves. My collapsed right lung began to reform, and my kidney regrew, sending sharp pains through my back as if I had hundreds of kidney stones being released. My ribs knitted themselves back together, and my skin started to cover the wounds.

As I took in a deep breath, sounding like a deflating plastic mattress, a wet tongue washed over my face. A pained giggle escaped me.

"Thank you," I whispered, trying to hug him, but only managing to hug his paw.

"Heal yourself completely," he answered. "I barely feel the drain."

Judging by the involuntary grimace he made when saying that, he was lying, even if no wounds were visible on him. However, I didn't need to heal myself completely; my regeneration had kicked in, and I felt that I would soon be fine.

I stood up and hugged him properly, letting my weight hang on his broad shoulder. I closed my eyes, taking another deep breath, happy to feel him by my side.

"You have grown," he said with an amused voice.

At first, I didn't understand what he meant. As I raised my head and looked askance at him, he chuckled and added,

"You seem to have recovered some of your power."

I didn't have time to digest that, as the door behind me burst open and a couple of boys' heads appeared in the door frame.

"Is something wrong?" Tom asked, with Mike behind him.

They didn't know how lucky they were to have been spared the mind blast that I had almost formed on my tongue. I even felt it as an electrical discharge, as if I had put my tongue onto the poles of a battery. I sighed and tried to hide my nakedness in Lynx's fur.

"Boys, you don't just barge into a lady's room like that!" I finally managed to say, standing there in the middle of the room, clinging to Lynx's shoulder, surrounded by shards from the broken window.

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Parts of the window's frame lay broken on one side, while one piece still dangled from a hinge. Maybe Lynx had overreacted, but I was grateful he had been instantly by my side.

I had no mana to cast any illusions around me, but after another couple of seconds where they opened and closed their mouths without making a sound, they closed the door, only to have it thrown wide open by Ju and Tina.

"You're back," Tina said, running to hug me.

"Careful with the shards!" Ju cautioned, then she came and whispered in my ear. "I can see you're a demon, I have a wish free!"

She almost did a victory dance there, celebrating her win.

I snorted in annoyance. That wasn't fair!

I concentrated, trying to activate my skill again. Probably the summon had messed with it. Again.

Just as Tom closed the door again, it flew wide open to let Alice in, who came running from who knows where and I received another set of hugs.

After the joy of the reunion faded and I dressed in the white gown Ju provided, which fit me perfectly, and had my hair arranged to look presentable, I joined the others in the dining room for a late brunch and some chat. Alice went to talk to the innkeeper to explain and pay for the 'magical mishap' that had happened in our room and broken the window, which now needed fixing.

I learned that the Trewars had left early in the morning for Guaranga, the provincial capital, following the army's company, while Alice and Ju had decided to extend our stay here by one day. As I ate and everybody drank their favorite drinks, Ju began to provide more information about the land we were in.

"Guarava, the province," she said, "was once just a middle-sized kingdom with the same name. It had the shape and size of the current province, with Guaranga as its capital city. It bordered the Vinayan Empire to the South. The Vinayan emperor, Moximuan the Third, after consulting their oracle, of course, which had foretold the disappearance of a big kingdom, decided to attack the Guaravian Kingdom."

Ju had a knack for storytelling, a talent my history teacher sorely lacked. Instead of the dull lessons I endured in school, listening to Ju was a pleasure, almost like hearing a skilled storyteller. I wished she could have been my teacher, I would now know much more history than I do...

She continued her tale.

"He didn't realize his kingdom was what the oracle had meant, or maybe they just claimed they meant that after he lost. The Vinayans lost the war, their main army wiped out in a terrible battle that lasted three days without breaks. Within a year, the whole Vinayan Empire was under Guaravian rule. That's how Guaravian became the official language of the Empire, even though the Vinayans were the majority.

"The Guaravian King didn't take the title of Emperor, but King of Kings, and moved the capital to Uldaman, the former Imperial capital. All this happened a generation ago and is still relatively fresh in people's memories."

She took a breath, sipped from her drink, and continued.

"After the elves retreated to the densest forests, human kingdoms began to spread across the land, each one trying to claim as much territory as possible. Some of them stretched themselves too thin, like the Vinayans. Even now, the continent remains thinly populated, with vast stretches of land devoid of human settlements."

"Constancia, the anti-magic empire, was an exception. They had their old empire even before the Elven Wars and expanded very slowly. They had a methodical way of expanding, advancing with the speed of a turtle, that they miraculously maintained for over two millennia. This approach served them well, making them the largest empire on the continent."

"Being an anti-magic empire didn't mean they didn't use magic. It just meant that all magic in public places was banned. Children who showed any magical abilities were taken from their homes and placed in 'orphanages' run by the imperial schools. There, they were indoctrinated to join the dreaded imperial administration or its secret police. Those who resisted too much simply disappeared without a trace."

As Ju delved into the details about Constancia, details I already knew, my mind wandered, reflecting on the events of the past day.

Firstly, my level. Lynx was right; I had 'grown up.' I was now at level fifty-two, which had suddenly doubled my levels. I felt much more secure and powerful. Even my magical domain had expanded to about seven to eight meters around me. Of course, I wasn't a monster like Lynx, Alice, or even Ju, but I had become what one might call a powerful mage or warrior. Someone not easily pushed around, someone who instinctively commanded respect.

That was the positive side of things. On the negative side was my skill failure. I wasn't sure why it had happened, though I assumed it might have something to do with the summon. It was crucial for us to have it working without errors, so I needed to look into it.

Then, there was another thought that occupied my mind. Seeing how Mytrides had been treated made me better understand Lynx. I wouldn't want to live as a mount, to be forced into that kind of life, so why would I try to force or blackmail Lynx to accept it? But what if he could transform at will into a human? That would change the equation!

I had the knowledge, and now I felt like I had the mana needed for such a transformation, but was this something I should try? Was it right to ask him to risk a transformation? While tempting him with the idea of becoming human and experiencing human society might work for me and bind him to me long-term, was it morally correct to do so?

Well, first, I would need to do a couple of tests to see if it works. I wondered, where could I find some willing test subjects?