Eventually, a thought comes to me. What am I going to do with her when I am not here?

At least it worked, I have my loophole now.

I stand up, cradling Vel in my arms. She cuddles into the spectral folds of my clothes, quickly falling asleep.

I look around me, at the desolation I had wrought upon the land. Nothing living remained, and when I feel out the Gray katra, all I can find is plain Gray katra, everything else stripped away from it.

The dust shifts as I walk up to one of the trunks. I shift Vel into the crook of my left arm, reaching out with my right hand.

I tap the dead tree, and my finger moves through the grayed bark, puncturing it like rice paper. The entire thing starts crumbling away to dust, forming a pile where a tree trunk once was.

I am going have to be very careful with this.

With a push of my will, I slowly rise into the air and look down on the lifeless and barren land I had accidently created. It is a giant circle, about two miles wide.

I think next time I am going to have to do it more slowly, and with as much of my own katra as I can spare.

From the fact that I saw no other life, not even that lizard, I can guess that even the fauna was converted into Gray Life katra to help fuel the creation process.

I suppress a shudder, If I was able to do something like this in the real world, I don’t think anyone would survive.

Though, theoretically, once I was powerful enough, I would be able to surround myself with my own katra. Creating a sort of “domain” that would allow me to interact with vital aura. But I don’t think my katra would be able to do much, and I would need a massive reserve of katra to do it.

I shake my head of these thoughts, deciding it was best to let them lie for now. Think before you try something. If getting struck by lightning wasn’t enough of a lesson already.

I chuckle a little at that.

So, what am I going to do with Vel?

I could try and summon her to the real world, but from what the Artificer message had told me, it would require katra. And I used it all up already.

Trying to think of what to do with my newfound pet, I slowly float over the barren circle, drifting out of it.

I could leave her with Vengeance.

An image of him trying to take care of Vel comes to my mind. All serious and stoic, trying to get the panther to eat something or freezing her. On second thought, maybe that’s not a good idea.

I drift along the wind in thought, cradling Vel in my arms. Then an idea strikes me. What about the girl? Vengeance said she was having some problems.

Wrapping my arms around Vel, making sure I have a good grip on her, I flick my will. I launch myself into the upper atmosphere with a shove of my will, then I speed in the direction I know the village to be in.

Vel startles awake, her claws digging into my chest and phasing through, doing no damage. I tighten my grip on her, shielding her from what I can assume is whipping winds.

I pick up the pace, feeling Vel’s protests as reverations in my chest and over our mind link. I send her reasurances through the link, calming her.

Soon, I recognise the valley in the ground far below, and slow my speed. I quickly descend below the white clouds and over the edge of the valley.

I can see wisps of smoke rising from the clearing that the village is nestled in. People mill about their business, moving around and doing various chores.

Scanning over it, I eventually find the little girl. She is playing at the edge of the clearing, a sentry stands by, watching her.

That’s going to be a problem. Though, isn’t a armed guard a little overkill?

Clearly her father, and from what I can guess, the chief, had posted someone to make sure his daughter didn’t wander off again. I’ll have to wait till a time she isn’t being watched.

My best bet would probably wait for it to start getting dark. Though, I don’t know if I have that time.

I look down at Vel, who is peeking out of my arms and staring at the valley below. I scratch her behind the ear, considering what to do.

Well, I can remake my body…

From what I can tell, I could make a body for myself to inhabit on Amia, and before I didn’t spend time trying to change it, just stamping down an image of myself. Could I alter the image a little?

Though, the option of just going down there like I am is always open, of course I am pretty sure it would lead to some negative outcomes.

No, the image altering won’t work well, I can’t make clothes.

I ponder on the problem. The only solution is if I do something to draw the guard away from the girl. But it was unlikely I would be able to do that, he was probably under orders to not let the girl out of his sight.

I scratch gently behind Vel’s ears, she purrs, pushing her head into my hand.

Blinking, I say out loud, “That’s it!”

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If I could control and shape Vel’s body, there was nothing stopping me from using it to affect these peoples bodies. After all, they were made of my own katra.

I can do what I did with Vel to put her asleep.

It had been more instinct than anything, and seemed humane to not subject her to the process. I can cut off the blood flow to the bodyguard’s brain temporarily, it’ll knock him out for sure.

I was a little uncomfortable with the idea, but I wouldn’t be doing any permanent harm, and the worst he would get is a headache when he wakes up.

But I should try to lure him out of the sight of the village.

The easiest solution would be to draw the girl from the field into or near the trees, her bodyguard was naturally going to follow.

I scratch Vel under the chin, mumbling to her, “How would you like to meet someone?”

***

Thana sat in the grass, brooding. She mutters, “So stupid, all of them…”

She sighs, rubbing her forehead.

The girl had to admit that with her father being the chief, and the fact that she wasn’t the same as the other children, that things had escalated in a bad direction. Now she was clearly different from anyone else in the tribe, the adults feared her, her father treated her like a fragile object, her mother was constantly worrying about her health and the other children’s reasons to dislike her having been given even more support.

“Can’t help if they’re all dumb.” She mutters angrily.

Thana looks over to Luca, who is leaning on his stone spear and staring out into space. He looks at her with a bemused expression, saying, “Miss, you know I can hear your muttering.”

Thana scoffs a little and turns away from him. She didn’t hate Luca, but the idea of being under guard whenever she wanted to go out was taking paranoa too far. Her mother had pressured her father into assigning someone to make sure that she would be okay, but it wasn’t enough for it to be one of the many nurse maids.

“Nooo, it has to be someone who can protect her!” Thana says in a more annoying, nasly version of her mother’s voice.

Though, she couldn’t really fault her mother. After she had died, she distinctly remembered falling off the cliff and floating above her body, she had been dealing with many psychical problems.

Thana gently curled the blade of grass around her finger, tying it into a knot.

She closes her eyes, trying to clear her mind. Soon, she is able to blank her mind of all her many thoughts, opening it.

It was just a flicker, on the edge of her consciousness, but she could feel it there.

Carefully, slowly, she reaches out. Grasping it gently, she can feel her mind open up.

She can sense her surroundings, sort of like seeing, but with her mind. She could feel the energy that everything is made of, but it is hard to keep a clear picture of it, like a hazy, half remembered memory.

Focusing, concentrating hard, she tries to reach out and touch that energy. Then, when she touches that energy, her mental image seems to evaporate, becoming nothing.

Thana opens her eyes, disappointed. Everytime the image gets a little more solid, tangible. But whenever she touches it, it’s like running her fingers through water. She couldn’t grasp onto the energy, even though she could sense that she could do something with it.

She knots the blade of grass once more, but in her irritation she pulls to tight. The blade splits in half with a quiet snip.

Thana pulls another from the ground, and starts over again.

Ever since her encounter with the “stranger”, she had been getting this feeling of energy all around her. In everything, flowing through everything. And to help deal with stress, she had taken to her father’s sagely advice that meditation is a good way to clear the mind.

She had been surprised when she first sensed this, had been just a quick, gentle brush on the edge of her mind, but definitely there.

Thana puffs up her cheeks, making a quiet whining sound, “Just not fair… no fair at all!”

She could remember falling of the cliff, than floating above her body. A strange comforting presence had enveloped her, saying that everything would be okay. Then she had awoken again, and he had been there.

For some reason, she felt calm when seeing him, even though he was clearly some kind of ghost. Then she had felt something, a surge was the best way to describe it, and it had knocked her out.

She had come to in her father’s and mother’s arms, they were crying tears of relief and joy.

That was when everything had gone down hill. Her mother fretted over her like she was going to die at any moment. Her father had seemed rather disturbed, and she couldn’t blame him.

From what she had been told, the stranger had brought her back to the tribe, and from the description her father gave, he gave off a pressure that was suffocating.

“If only he were here so I could ask him…” Thana mumbled, completing the final knot of the grass blade. She tosses it and pulls out another blade of grass.

A movement catches her attention, and Luca stands up straighter, his grip tightening around the spear with a quiet creak.

The bushes are shaking violently and a deep vibration is coming up from the earth.

Luca hauls Thana to her feet, shoving her behind him. “Miss, we need to go!”

Then Her bodyguard lets out a groan, collapsing on the ground.

Thana blinks, trying to process what just happened.

A purple glowing specter stands behind where Luca had been backing up, his hand outstretched.

He had gripped the back of Luca’s neck, and the bodyguard had simply passed out.

The specter brings his hand up in front of his face, saying, “Oops, I thought he would go check the bush. I guess he was better trained than I thought.”

The specter looks over at Thana, and she trips over her own feet, scrambling back. Her mind is filled with confusion and surprise more than fear.

The Stranger holds out his hand, palm open hand waving back and forth, “No, no, don’t be scared! I just wanted to talk to you.”

He crouches down, and it is at this point Thana realizes he has been cradling his left arm to his chest, a gray and black spotted fluffball in the crook of his arm. He gently grabs it, setting it down on in the grass.

Thana blinks as the ball uncurls itself, large Gray eyes stare back at her. I meows, looking up at the Stranger.

The specter scratches it behind on of it’s ears, and the cub purrs contentedly. The stranger looks Thana in the eyes, “I need you to watch her for me, and take care of her when I don’t need her. Her name is Vel, would you like to hold her?”

For some reason, Thana felt an inexplicable trust with the Stranger, an aura of calm and kindness. But there was also something lurking behind that aura, something hard and dangerous.

Despite everything she sensed, Thana crawled over to the Stranger and his baby panther.

She holds out her arms, and the Stranger scoops up the cub, placing it gently in her arms. The panther tenses up a little, but Thana quickly starts petting it, and the thing seems to melt in her arms with content. “She’s so soft…” Thana mumbles.

She looks up, about to ask the Stranger one of the many questions in her mind. Only she is met by a empty field of grass and a out cold bodyguard.

Thana’s cheeks puff up and her face starts getting red, from anger or something else, she is unsure.

The panther paws at her hand, and she realizes she had stopped petting it. She starts scratching behind its ears like the stranger did, and she can’t help the genuine smile of happiness from spreading across her face.

***

I smile as the little girl pats Vel. I didn’t want to stay because the bodyguard could wake up at any moment and the fact that the people walking around the village had started coming over, curious of why there was rumbling.

I can feel myself waking up in the real world, like a pull on the back of my mind, getting more and more insistent.

Sighing, I give into the pull. I wish I could have stayed a little longer…