A thousand thoughts crossed Zalia’s mind as she observed Ember’s annoyed expression. Had she done something wrong? Had she forgotten something?

She briefly considered whether it was too late to pretend she was just walking by, but eventually steeled herself and approached.

“Good morning honey,” Zalia said in greeting, keeping a cheery expression.

Ember narrowed her eyes at her and Zalia waited for it to drop.

“These kittens Zalia, I swear to the gods!”

Zalia breathed a sigh of relief.

“What did they do this time?”

Ember gestured for her to follow and went inside the house.

They walked through the main hall and up the stairs to the second floor. Zalia spotted Boreal in a passing room, pacing back and forth in front of her five kittens, tail flicking aggressively. Whatever they had done must be pretty bad to have Boreal that angry.

Ember brought her to the kitten's playroom and she walked into a scene akin to that of a town after a tornado had passed through.

Firstly, everything… everything, was soaked in water. There was ice all around the place that was still melting and many of the bridges and high-up posts had been either shredded to pieces or ripped down from the walls and ceiling. The floor was coated in wet shreds of cloth and wood. They had really done a number on it.

Zalia didn’t really think it was as bad as it had seemed but wasn’t about to say that to Ember. She knew that the room would repair itself slowly so it wasn’t a big deal.

“Well, they appear to be getting a bit restless in the town.”

Ember gave her a look that said, “No shit.”

“I’ve been thinking, Boreal wasn’t ever this bad. She was a bit of a menace but most of her childhood was spent wandering the world with you.”

Zalia waited for the rest.

“Maybe we should go on a long journey somewhere, take them with us and show them more of the world. Give them some space to stretch out and explore.”

Zalia thought it over. It wasn’t a bad idea and in a world where they were living out in the wild, Boreal’s children would be beginning to stray further away to find territory of their own. Zalia still thought of them as kittens but in reality, they were getting quite big and very strong. It wouldn’t be long before they were Bronze rank and when that happened, they would be stronger than a good portion of the human race already.

They would also level much quicker than a human would, as they only had the one class. Zalia had only been able to keep up with Boreal because of the increased speed her abilities had ranked up to begin with due to her very late start to magic. Boreal would probably pull ahead in rank now that Zalia’s ability levelling had slowed down.

“Okay, we can talk about it. I’ve been thinking of scouting out the Astar lands personally but we could take all of them and Aylie along with us. With you, me and Boreal, they would be somewhat safe.”

Ember frowned.

“Are you sure that is a good idea? I was thinking more along the lines of taking them up to the north to see their homeland, even exploring further than we have gone before. The Astar lands might be a bit too dangerous.”

“I’m sure,” Zalia said, “Aylie is ready and this is what we have been preparing her for. She proved her capability against that demon in the north. The more I think about it, the more I realise we don’t know anything about the Astar. I’m not saying we should attack them by ourselves but surely we can get some kind of intel. Find one of their towns or… anything.”

“Okay, well let me think about it. We’ll also have to talk to Boreal about it as well, they are her children after all.”

Zalia nodded in agreement and they both looked back down the hall towards where Boreal and the kittens were.

“Speaking of, we should probably go check on them.”

They went back to the room and found that the Ancient of War, the kitten’s father, was also in the room now. He was trying to calm Boreal down while the five kittens sat nervously.

“Alright, what happened?”

Rush, Breeze and Prance all started speaking at once, the mental communication soundless yet deafening.

Zalia shook her head, gesturing for them to stop.

“Stop, stop, please. Frost, you first.”

Frost was the most similar to Boreal, both in appearance and temperament.

“Well, Pounce and Prance were hunting Breeze but they couldn’t catch him so I tried to freeze them all but… accidentally froze the entire room.”

She was looking down at her paws, shuffling nervously and Rush, quick as ever, spoke up before the other three.

“Then they all attacked Frost! So I had to help her fight them.”

It felt strange how they communicated. Boreal had developed a passive ability that allowed her to speak full sentences and understand language and not long after that, she had taught her children. It was odd hearing them all talk normally, rather than the short words linked with images that Zalia was used to.

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Pounce went on to explain how Prance had gotten in the way of her attack and had been thrown into one of the posts breaking it. They tried to continue blaming each other and explaining how everything got broken but Zalia stopped them, knowing enough. The echo chamber of chaos created by five carefree kittens was a dangerous thing. When the five of them were alone, there wasn’t anyone to dampen their unbridled violence enhanced with magical abilities and strength and she had seen how that had turned out.

“Can I talk with you a minute?” Zalia sent to Boreal.

Boreal stopped her pacing and walked out of the room with Zalia.

“I’m sor-” she started.

Zalia waved her off.

“Nothing that time won’t fix, little one. Ember and I think it’s time that those five got to see more of the world, explore, make some mistakes and learn from them. I want to explore some of the Astar lands and I think all of them coming with would make for a good opportunity. Of course, you, Ember and Aylie would come along as well.”

Zalia could tell from Boreal’s posture that she was unsure of that idea.

“Think about it and talk with the Ancient of War about it too. I’ve got some other things that I want to do before heading out anyway.”

She watched Boreal as she quietly considered, her tail still flicking with annoyance at the kittens. Boreal bowed her head in acknowledgement of the idea and they went back inside. Zalia squeezed Ember’s shoulders to get her attention and whispered.

“Where is Aylie? I have an idea she might be able to help with.”

Ember turned her head, whispering back.

“She’s down at the market, practicing blocking out people’s thoughts.”

“Are you going to be okay with these five?”

Ember reached a hand up to Zalia’s and squeezed one of them back, huffing.

“These little ones? With ease. Oh hey, I was going to go for a walk outside the city this evening, you want to join me?”

Zalia gave her a quick kiss.

“Of course.”

She left the house, feeling just a little bad for the kittens. They were a lot bigger now sure, but they were also still very young. By Zalia’s reckoning, even Boreal was still young but the life cycle of cats was much quicker than that of humans. She wondered if the Astar thought something similar about the other races of the world and that’s why they seemed to treat them with such neutrality, nothing other than a small race of creatures that died easily, quickly and often to be culled so they didn’t grow too annoying.

It didn’t take Zalia long to find Aylie in the market, the teenager sitting in her usual spot in the high branches of a tree. Aylie had always loved flying and high places, loved the wind and feeling of freedom that came from them.

She waited at the tree’s base, unhurried and not wanting to disturb Aylie’s practice. The girl would notice Zalia there eventually, she always did.

Zalia counted to twenty-eight seconds before Aylie’s eyes opened, a new record.

“You’re still getting better!” she called up.

“And you’re somehow still getting stealthier,” Aylie said at normal volume. She knew Zalia would be able to hear.

Zalia shrugged, watching Aylie jump down from the tree top, some fifteen metres. She had to resist the urge to tell Aylie off for the risk. Even if she had broken something, they were both Druids with healing abilities. Besides, Zalia herself had tested her limits more than once in much more dangerous ways.

“It’s like every time I figure out how to detect that you’re there, your magic fixes the hole in your stealth and makes a new one.”

Zalia tried to keep an innocent face but Aylie narrowed her eyes at her.

“Me? Never.”

Aylie’s eyes narrowed further.

“Okay, yes, I have been doing that. It’s a good way for you to learn to perceive all kinds of stealth specialists. All they need is a single give, one thing to show that they’re there and I want you to be able to find those things.”

Aylie gave a little sniff of annoyance, then said.

“Thanks.”

“What for?”

“You’re always helping me in little ways like that, it means a lot to me.”

Zalia stopped and dragged Aylie into a big hug.

“I’ll always be here for you, I promised that remember?”

Aylie nodded and Zalia let her go.

“Now, I actually came here because I have a problem that you might be able to find the solution to.”

⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻

They stood over a small living ritual outside the city bounds some thirty minutes later. It was the teleportation ritual Zalia had thought of. Just as she had thought, it worked as she wanted… kind of.

If she walked into the little barely glowing outline of a portal that hovered above the ritual she could feel herself being teleported but all it did was teleport her to the exact place she already was. To Aylie looking from the outside, it was as if she flickered for a second. There was also what Aylie saw in the astral but that was something else entirely, something that Aylie couldn’t quite explain with words. She had tried to send mental images of what it looked like to Zalia but she couldn’t interpret what she was seeing.

“What did it look like that time?”

“The exact same,” Aylie growled.

It was getting a little frustrating, the way the ritual refused to work.

There was another of the same living ritual a bit away, sitting there with a similar faintly glowing outline of a portal. Unfortunately, neither appeared like Aylie’s ability did, where you could see the destination through the portal.

“Maybe we’ve been thinking of this the wrong way.”

Aylie looked up at her, her hand tapping against the side of her leg repetitively. Zalia smiled, realising she did the exact same thing.

“What do you mean?” Zalia asked.

“Well, we’ve been thinking about this like my portal. I choose a location and it makes a connecting portal from in front of me to there. What if we need to give the rituals something that belongs to something the other ritual has.”

The second Aylie said it, Zalia knew she was right. She could make the portals target something that was within itself but not outside of itself so she just had to have them both target something that had a fundamental connection through the astral to whatever the other portal held.

She grabbed Aylie’s shoulders

“You’re a genius!”

It only took her a moment to come up with something, pulling out the gloves of her heirloom armour. She put one in one ritual and one in the other, then remade each living ritual, this time targeting the glove within. When she recast the second ritual, the inside of the portals flickered a little before settling into the view of the other, like doors through space.

“Yes!”

All it had needed was a little input from an astral expert.