Sarah wiggled her paws, trying to slip out of the meowtain of eclipsiarchs and getting nowhere. Nyota had an arm wrapped entirely around her and Lyra, while Lyra’s arms encircled Saryn’s waist. Contorted around her lil sister, ‘protecting’ her like a big sister should, or at least, that’s what Niana had said. Right now it felt more like she was being asphyxiated by catgirls! A fate quite low on her list of preferred deaths. She’d spent a few lives batting for the other team, and found it lacked a certain level of satisfaction. Plus, these were her blood relations, even if she’d been capable of emotional attachment, her inner id would rebel against the notion –violently–.
A paw came free. Sarah scootched the limb higher, hooking it over Lyra’s shoulder. Careful not to use her claws. Nifty as they were, Lyra had done her no evil, and her dress was rather cute, no sense in ripping it. Besides, that would wake her. Delicately, Sarah exploited all her feline grace, wiggling free of Nyota’s grip and Lyra’s crushing talons.
Alright Sarah, cats are liquid, just squirm softly and flooowwww.
Ten minutes of cat-yoga and she was free of the family meowtain, after somehow converting her spine into a slinky and stretching approximately six feet to wrap her forepaws around the bedpost and escape. Leaving her sitting on a throw pillow.
The obsidian walls of Greenwood Keep presented an interesting challenge to climbers, and ultimately prevented a clean escape. But Sarah wasn’t looking to escape. Nor did she need to freeclimb. Four panther shaped umbraquins lay guard around the room, prone in front of each door, window, and the secret passageway out of Lord Green’s bedroom.
For the first time in her existence, Sarah was simultaneously totally lost, and exactly at home. Here she had protectors, a purpose, a family that showered her with a disgusting amount of love, –like really! What did mom even want from her? No one was that nice without expecting to be repaid!--, a fortress safe from attack, and enough food to get ugly on. She wanted to flee, yet knew the world outside was far more dangerous than any city in America. She didn’t have a weapon, or strength. Two problems she could solve with magic.
Once she found the on-switch…
Currently there was an odd tingle behind her eyes. It felt like a waiting migraine, just beneath the surface, buzzing inside her skull, yet untouchable. She had seen the child use it… No… The child was Liam. She shuddered. Taloc, you took all the wrong lessons from Zeus.
A shake of her head brought her mind into focus, she had real power now. If she could find a way to unlock it. Which she would do-
-right after grooming herself.
Being a cat was strange.
Taloc had warned her she had chosen an unusual creature, and strongly encouraged her to select another, but this body was soulless, a lost cluster of cells fabricated by the Tartarus' power. Perfect in form, empty in essence, for whatever power ensouled the beings of this world had skipped Liam and Nyota’s child. An odd occurrence, but Sarah did not believe in coincidences. Everything happened because someone manipulated it, or because they failed to act.
Still, she was in the body of a cat. Strangely large, very serval-like, long, intensely leggy, and slender. Like a runway model, or a cheetah, and 100% feline.
Mom had guessed she was similar to the umbraquins, cause one or two of the dark affinity mutants had been born in their black panther form, but those had truly been slain by her captors. Not secreted away to distant lands as her sons and daughters had been, leaving Saryn with no one to ask about becoming human. The other umbraquins said the shift simply became available to them in times of dire need or during puberty. Instead of getting wet dreams, they’d shifted into panthers. As if shedding their skin was the same as having testicles drop! Another dead end that left Sarah with no way to shift into her more desirable human figure. She wasn’t a furry, and being a literal cat was a whole level beyond that! Like a grandma duck-tapped into a fur-suit. A hot mess.
Saryn found herself in front of the mirror. Assessing her form. As cats went, she was a gorgeous kitten, fluffy, wide eyed, and strangely leggy. Like a Savannah housecat with orange and tan patterns across her fur. Easily the most gorgeous kitten the world had ever seen. A few moments later and she finished grooming herself. Quickly pivoting to sniff the umbraquins, telling them apart was strangely tricky, as if they were all clones of each other in panther form. But their scents were unique. It might have something to do with their guaranteed dark affinity, for umbraquins were always born with the ability to shift forms and wield dark affinity in addition to having access to one other affinity as well. An oddly unnatural occurrence that made Saryn wonder just how much Taloc had altered them. She and Liam had taken genetics 303 together, but he had been on the rightmost edge of the curve while she had been on the rightmost plunge, they weren’t even in the same standard deviation. But it was clear that catgirls, umbraquins, and werewolves had not evolved naturally. Nor did magic seem widespread enough to alter entire species.
A familiar scent interrupted her musings.
Gotcha. Thought Sarah, catching a noseful of what smelled like forests after a summer rain. Warm, crisp, kinda tasty, and most importantly, fresh air.
She pounced, claws extended and landed on Orion’s back, using him as a scratching post until the wind umbraquin started awake. Baring fangs at the intruder digging their claws into his rump.
Fangs that could have crushed every bone in Sarah’s body in a single bite. To call the umbraquins panthers, was to call a lion a kitten. Their skull was massive, with a jaw fully capable of crushing multiple watermelons, and their bodies were far larger than any zoo tiger’s. If Sarah had to guess, they weighed closer to two tons than to one.
But they were hard-wired not to harm eclispsiarchs. So she swatted his nose.
“Take me outside.” She ordered.
At her command, Orion shivered, some basal part of his brain recognizing the order and obeying. He stood, pausing to let her climb higher along his back before pushing the hidden wall open and scampering down its spiral staircase.
“Saryn! It’s the middle of the night– wait, how long have you been able to talk?”
“I had a dream where I could fly. Teach me wind magic.”
Orion spluttered, a sound that was a bit like five squirtbottles trying to pick up the last drop of fluid in a bottle and hammering away at the triggers.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Wind magic?! My lady, I can’t–”
“You’ll do just fine, take me somewhere we will be alone.”
Orion continued to prowl, moving through the castle, taking them outside of the keep and into the nearby forest.
“Lady Saryn, this is dangerous, and foolish! I am no sage, Let us call upon Master Renosipe, or send message to the elves if you wish to learn the power of wind, I am a terrible teacher, well, unless we’re playing cards. I could teach you about that all month– Ow!” Snapped Orion, his words interrupted by Saryn’s claws.
“Shut up. You’re louder than a farting dwarf! Wait, stop.”
At her command Orion paused, one foot hanging in the air.
A stick broke,
something moved in the dark.
Dozens of thoughts entered Saryn’s mind, all violent. With the exclusionary zone extending around Greenhaven there shouldn’t be any portal beasts here, but the exclusionary zones did not affect all creatures equally. Anything naturally born or intelligent as a human could come and go as they pleased. Orion was right, this midnight escapade was a foolish habit of her previous life, one she should have culled.
The creature ahead of them took two steps forward, oblivious to their presence. Orion shrouded them in a barrier of wind, cloaking their sight and sound from the rhinoceros sized mega-fauna. Two enormous horns extended from the bull’s head as the Auroch grazed over a bush. Flat teeth crushing a cubic foot of underbrush with each bite.
Saryn shivered, and tried not to drool. Aurochs were effectively cows, sorta. They were of nearly identical shape albeit of meaner temperament and far grander scales. Aurochs were to cows, what elephants were to rhinoceri, comically larger in every dimension. But it was a naturally occurring herbivore, a rare wild bull that must have been driven closer to Greenhaven after the portal plague. Orion padded away from it, careful not to make a sound as he avoided the medieval version of truck-kun. While Saryn marveled at it, terrified at the seven foot tall cow.
The pair of cats were silent for long minutes, not speaking again until Orion paused at a ring of ashes. Without realizing why or how, he had hiked through the forest to Rhendal’s tower, an archaic structure of Pandoran obsidian that the old sage had once inhabited. Thick steel reinforcement had been added to the doors, as well as two low earth walls, one a measly foot high barrier that encompassed the entire area of Rhendal’s ashland. While the second wall was a proper ten-foot-tall, though it only encircled the tower and a few recently added lighthouses. Just enough to feed the researchers within the tower.
“This is purrrfect.” Said Saryn, hopping off of Orion’s back and scenting along the ground.
Taloc knew a great deal about levels, enough for Saryn to suspect they were contrived. Enforced by things beyond this world’s understanding, but not beyond her understanding, giving her more than one idea on how to power level. She inhaled, trying to scent the air and not snort the ashes. Something her feline nose was quite well crafted for. It just felt right to stuff her nose into the ashy dirt, inhaling deeply to detect the lingering magic. This dirt had been cultivated, not with a shovel and plow, but with flames, and shredding darkness. Heat that gave life to vibrant flowers, fragile things that needed cleansing flames to eradicate all competing life before its own strength could prevail and blossom into the world. A sensation Saryn had endured over many lives. Rage boiled inside her at the thought of Sarah’s father, at the abuse he’d–
–flames sprang into life, blossoming forward from Saryn’s face in the figure of her father. Without a second thought she raked the flames with her extended claws, unleashing the hatred she felt. Venting the memories of abuse and violence. Compared to him, she was the world’s best mother. She never locked her child in the closet, or a barrel, or passed her around to his ‘friends’ who only came by their trailerpark once and never again.
Three dark crescents slashed through the air, extinguishing the flames. Mana once more burned and plowed the fields of Rhendal’s tower.
[fire] increased to level 2
[dark] increased to level 2
[mana manipulation] increased to level 2
As if to mirror her blades of darkness, three alerts appeared within her mind, just as Taloc had assured her they would. Rhendal had left many secrets behind, and this was but a single one, left to be inherited by the heir of his queen.
Saryn’s birthright.
Taloc had no tact, but he did have a plan, one that involved her claiming this body. What did it matter that the soul of this body had once been Liam’s mother? And was now the daughter of his previous vessel’s strength. It didn’t. Not to Taloc, not in a war amongst gods, for all ends justified the means.
“Orion, keep watch, I will be occupied with my meditations.” Said Saryn.
He growled, but was prohibited from interfering. So she was free to begin her training. Fire flared across Rhendal’s fields, dancing with claws sheathed in blades of darkness. Saryn scourged the fields to ashes with fire and heat. Only to extinguish them with blades of darkness. All her mana was given to the land, yet the dark tower returned a trickle of power to her, just enough for one more shadowblade, or one more sneeze of flames. As the night wore on, her mana depleted, causing her body to ache with every cast. Joints cracked and popped, arthritic; like Rhendal’s old bones had been. But the obsidian tower was a locus of power, so long as Saryn had the willpower to continue, it would feed her the power she sought. Even if her body screamed for her to stop. Her limbs slowed, stiffening with every cast.
But pushing past one’s limits was how one expanded their mana. For a strange secret of this world was that levels did not come from practice or vain repetitions. No, they were granted to those who required more power, more ability to perform the tasks their minds could picture, and Saryn pictured a field of Rhendal’s fireflowers. Though she had never met the man, he was her guiding prophet. The soothsayer who could grant her power just as he had granted Liam power.
She pushed through the pain, when blood began to leak from her nose, she jammed her face into a pile of ash, clotting the bleed. When her luxurious mane began to fall out she ignored it, or threw the patch of fur into her flames.
On and on she went, circling the tower in an endless loop of burning darkness. All the while Orion chased her, his dark form blending into the night. The moon passed overhead, invisible to Saryn’s focus. Nothing would dissuade her. She demanded power, and Pandora’s tower answered, increasing the tickle of mana at a price. Her fur fell away entirely, leaving her looking like the only true hypoallergenic cat. A naked and ugly thing.
Orange flames dulled as the morning sunrise began, diminishing her efforts, yet still she pushed on. Flames alternated with darkness, her will feeding off the tower. Twelve hours after it had begun, it ended. The levels were a simple lie, and one she now understood.
Powerleveling was possible, not just for her, but for all magi.
Saryn opened her mouth to breathe fire once more, and paused, finding the earth in front of her already burned and plowed.
“My Lady! Please stop! You’ve scourged the entire field!” Cried Orion, picking her up by the scruff and racing towards the tower before she could order otherwise.
“Oh… Really?” asked Saryn, succumbing to the exhaustion as the last patches of fur fell from her feline figure.
It was nice being carried by a big strong man.
A smile crossed her face, as two level indicators rolled to level ten.
Ha, take that Liam.
Darkness took her.
—
In the primordial chaos lay a dead god.
One slain in the moment of her rebirth.
Through the nothingness Pandora sensed a supplicant, and answered her call.
They demanded power, and she supplied it.
Feeding them.
The drain was extensive, depleting years of accumulated mana.
But it was worth the expense.
For she would have paid a thousand times the price to touch her slayer’s daughter.