"H-hello," I stammered instead of untying the note from the cat's neck, staring at her, baffled. 'What did she just call me? Lady? Why? I never saw the cat.'

That was how it worked, wasn't it? The animals had to have a taste of my presence to know I was… well, this lady thing. That was how it worked with both squirrels and scalehoofs. Or were some animals more sensitive to that stuff than others?

»Lady?«

"Have we met before?"

'This is nuts.' No matter how many times I spoke to an animal, it still made me feel crazy.

'And maybe I was.' Maybe I went nuts, and this was all an imagination of my decaying mind while I was locked up somewhere on Earth, strapped in the white straitjacket. It would explain all the craziness I had to go through. Heck, just a moment ago, I was holding my tail under the covers to contain my poisonous farts.

»Yes. Yes, we seen.«

"We did? Where? In the stables?" It wouldn't be weird if there was a cat like the one sitting on my windowsill.

»Stables?« the feline cocked her head, confused. »No, alley, box. My home. You fought there, protecting kitten.«

'Holy fucking shit! The eyewitness!'

"You're the one who was there. Thank you."

»Why?« the feline asked, confused once more. Not her fault. Even I didn't know exactly what I was thanking her for.

"For… for speaking up for me." Not everyone would do that, preferring to mind their own business.

»Shouldn't, Lady?«

"No. I mean, I'm glad you did. If there's anything I can do for you..." Sure, right now, I was having trouble taking care of myself, but even if it meant sharing what little I had, I wasn't gonna let that cat back on the streets.

»Take human writing,« the feline interrupted my train of thought.

"Ah, yeah. S-sorry. I was thinking more like food or something," I clarified the meaning of my vague words while untying the message from the cat's neck.

»Humans guarding the city came. They gave food. Place to stay.«

"They did?" I thought they had interrogated the cat, and after giving it some food, they released it back into the streets.

»Yes. Good humans,« the cat meowed, stretching on the windowsill now that her neck was free. I, on the other hand, rushed to unwrap the little scroll, more than curious about its contents.

'Was this how Rayden wanted to communicate with me?' Why not give me the fancy messaging tool I saw at the city gate? That would be way less noticeable. Or was the tool not as simple as I thought? Most likely. If anything, it must have been expensive.

Anyway, Rayden's stinginess aside, I had to admire how much the message writer managed to fit on that small piece of paper.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

│Quite a stunt you put on in the stables.

│Not low profile, but not necessarily bad.

│Might speed things up. We need to talk.

│Tomorrow, stables, lunch break.

│Excuse yourself for needing to use the shitters.

No signature, nothing to tell me who sent me the message. However, that first line spoke clearly, twisting my insides into a knot. Whoever wrote the note saw what happened in the stables, most likely even me using my might. A few came to mind.

Obviously those who were in the stables at the time.

But I might as well have ruled out the scalehoofs, the stable master's dog, and any other animal that might have been there, as none of them knew how to write. The old man, Ria, and Mr. Hale had no reason to send me such a message, which narrowed the options down to some future colleague of mine, whoever was watching my tail, and last but not least, the mind mages.

'Were they the ones who sent the cat? They would be able to do that, wouldn't they?'

"W-who wrote this? Who sent you to me?"

»Male. Good Human. He gave home.«

As much as I'd like to, that didn't rule out mind mages.

"Is he...?" I said and stopped short, realizing I should watch my tongue when talking to animals. It wasn't just them who understood what I was saying. If that message was sent by the one I hoped it was, I might give away more than I wanted to by saying something unnecessary. Actually, I might already have.

»Lady?«

"Sorry. I...so he's a good man?" I asked, placing emphasis on whether he was one of the people guarding the city.

»Yes,« meowed the cat, basically confirming that whoever wrote that message was the one watching my ass, hopefully. There was still the possibility that the mind mages were taking good care of this cat, or at least making her think so. Either way, the animal wasn't to blame.

'Besides, I can just ignore the message.'

"Thank you." Scratching the cat behind the ear, I chuckled when she purred.

»Glad to help,« the feline meowed, stretched again, and with one last look jumped from the windowsill onto the roof and ran away, leaving me there with nothing but a note in my hand and another problem to worry about as if sorting out my weaves wasn't enough.

'Shit!' With a curse almost slipping from my lips, I quickly put the note away, realizing I was standing there in the open window with it in my hand like a fool.

'Being bait sucks!'

It really did. Acting normal might have seemed easy, and it might as well have been. Not for me, though, not when I knew what was at stake. In fact, the note now in my pocket more than illustrated what Rayden was talking about and what a dark time it must have been during the Mind Wars. Just now, I had suspected a cat of working for mind mages.

'Crazy, right?'

Terrifying, in fact.

So, no. If I had any doubts about being the bait or becoming stronger, they were gone. Never in my life did I want to suspect old Scoresby or Ria of the same thing. Or to be afraid that the mind-mages' hounds were watching me from the shadows. And for that, I needed weaves with the number of glyphs matching the number of my array sigils.

‘For the shit's sake! I need to make up my mind.'

[Flight]; [Never-Dying]; [Beast]; [Tail of Poison Empress] or some other General Weave?

Each choice had its pros and cons; each had its consequences. Should I take the risk, I could lose everything. But a safe way entailed the risk of never reaching my goal and possibly remaining stuck here on Eleaden.

'Fuck it. Just one night.' I thought and swapped [Flight] and [Thrifty Drinker] for [Never-Dying] and [Tail of Poison Empress]. While none of the first circles of weaves brought me anything new - I truly didn't feel any change after taking them - I was more than curious about what their other circles held. I could only hope for a way to better control the creation of poison in my tail or a regeneration that would restore me to my former self.

But to be more moderate in my hopes, it would be enough to see if the two weaves interacted with each other - that my apple-scented death would trigger my bloody resurrection.

'The night will tell, I guess.'