"It is theorised that a master of illusion magic is akin to a divine since their craft can fool the world itself to believe their tricks but thankfully for all of us, illusion-type magic is possibly the most fickle magic to work with, as should be expected from magic largely drawing power from the playful Aspect of wind, Tilly. Most people who attempt to learn illusion magic remain on a level of a common fool, a trickster who gambles in taverns with the lowest of the strata of society until their suspicious luck draws unwelcomed attention. Therefore any with a talent relating to illusions ends up as a corpse with a slit throat at the back of some tavern.
Invisibility is the most coveted spell in an illusionist spellbook and a true mark of the wizard's skill. For all the hard work illusionists spend on unlocking invisibility it is a spell with as many benefits as drawbacks. All hair has to be shaved off completely and your nails removed, as they are unaffected by the spell. The spellcaster has to also discard all clothes and possess immense mana reserves as depending on how many eyes look in the direction of the illusionist, the spell's cost increases immensely. Even potions enchanted with invisibility spells are fickle by nature and cannot be relied upon to save mana as weak potions will leave the teeth partially visible.
In all honestly, most paranoid people fearing the invisible assassin sneaking into their homes and killing them either severely overestimate the safety provided by a set of wooden doors or are paranoid by stories told around a campfire."
Extract from "On Winds of Magic" whose author was found dead inside his locked room with his left hand missing.
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"It worked... happy... Iris will be... will be... mmmmm..." The sleeptalking girl hanging on Iris's neck started to hum as the previous thoughts she had were being replaced by a familiar tune.
"Kia is quite adorable." Nakatei commented as she looked back at the two.
Iris felt her ear being flicked whenever one of the demis spoke her mistress' name but refrained from commenting as she followed the white-furred cat who seemed to know where to go in the maze of meandering tunnels.
"Shiro, how old are these tunnels?" The fox asked her guard who led them into a small tunnel filled with dust.
"I don't know, you should ask this question in Nishimine. I just know they were here before any of my kind existed."
"So very old since nekos are one of the oldest tribes I know of."
Listening to the two Iris entertained herself as compared to her walking speed the two beastwomen speed was almost sluggish. She shouldn't be surprised by that since she couldn't tire or needed to stop to eat or drink but the more time passed in her new body her mind got more used to using her new body.
"What are you even doing in here, Iris." Shiro asked.
The demi-human way of speaking was different to what the elf was used to. The two spoke quite quickly with words she had never heard of while also being quite brash, using her name casually without proper permission although calling her Miss Undead would probably be worse.
"We had to hide from the wind."
"What are you made from, sand?" The fox chimed in, half giggling.
"I could ask you the same question." The undead elf retorted.
"Ehhh..." Puzzling the elf, the fox's face got redder and redder the longer she thought about it resembling a beetroot in the end.
"Because we want to avoid the males above ground." The warrior answered.
"Why is that?" Iris couldn't comprehend why would they choose dark and labyrinth-like tunnels above the sunny overworld where they occasionally have to meet one of their own.
Before the elf got her answer a meow calling her name tickled her ears drawing all of her attention away from the demi-human. "Ibis?"
"Did you sleep well?"
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"Hehe..." The undead mage giggled quietly before stretching her body. "Oww."
"Calm down, Kia." Iris instantly extinguished the flame burning in the girl who looked ready to pounce on her at any moment.
"I am calm." The spark of pride in Kia's eyes remained as she pouted at the doubtful elf.
"We should stop for a rest, I'm tired." Nakatei stopped suddenly while panting slightly followed by her guard who agreed with her opinion.
The group found a flat piece of ground with as little rocks as possible and began to clear it further piling the rocks into a circle for the fire before kicking the rest away. Iris had to make Kia stand while she lay down the thick white fabric acting as their bed. The girl leaned against the tunnel's walls but her legs shook, unable to support her weight for more than a couple moments.
"So about the potions." Shiro said as she started the fire on the silk the elf had given her.
"Kia, could you pull out the health potions you have." The risen asked after helping the girl to lie down on her side.
"Wow." An amazed sound came from both demis as Kia pulled out twenty vials of health potion and set them in front of herself in a neat line. That many potions surprised even Iris thinking the pale girl had at most two more potions looted from somewhere but quickly realised that the signet ring on Kia's finger gave off a weak light. If she was the girl, she would have stopped after she pulled out the eight vials but it wasn't like she or Kia could use them.
"I will be taking those," Shiro said as she picked up eight vials in between her fingers before stuffing them in a backpack. After picking up another eight she seemed to struggle to find a place for them. She stuffed the potions into Nakatei's backpack which appeared full. "I didn't plan on looting so much." She said while motioning to Kia to hide the remaining potions.
Iris sat down next to the girl who instantly demanded to be picked up and placed on the elf's lap. She snuggled against Iris even more than usual appearing more like a cat than usual. The warm flickering light given off by the fire made Kia's pale skin come to life as the undead hoplite stared at her with confusion.
"What's gotten into you?" Iris whispered into the necromancer's ear. The girl appeared almost restless and resemble a cat even more as she played with Iris's hand.
"I don't know," The mage's big eyes looked up at the elf. "I feel like doing this."
"I'm unsure if she is a human and not a nekos sometimes?" Shiro commented leaning right toward Nakatei as Kia began to rub her face affectionately against Iris.
"Y-yea... I have to go for a moment." The flustered shaman quickly stood up and walked away with the torch in her hand.
"Where is she going?" Iris asked while defending herself from the cold radiating kitten who wasn't supposed to move that much.
"Relive herself." The older beast woman responded while flashing a playful grin at the elf.
"Is that alright for me to know this? That sounds like something that should be private."
"True but it is her first time going through a mating season." Shiro said but to Iris, it sounded even more of a reason to keep that fact a secret.
"Is that related to why you are travelling through underground tunnels?"
"Yea, "Shiro replied before biting a piece of what looked like cured meat. "Unlike humans, we have a mating season, each tribe experiences that time of the year differently and in different times. A month or two before the mating season males who reached adulthood began to gather into packs and start wandering the plains trying to get as large and powerful as they could. The bigger they are the more... you know, attractive they are," The warrior bit her finger, reminiscing of something before returning to reality. "Then the urge to do it hit us all and gets harder to ignore as time passes. Some women give themselves outright while some make it a game seeing which partner is the strongest before dragging him into the tall grass. Nakatei is from a small tribe and I'm past my prime but since she is a shaman we would have been stopped by every pack which smelled us trying to mate with her strong lineage."
"Which one were you?"
"Now that's rude you know. You don't ask things like that to a woman." Shiro scolded the undead elf who found the beastmen even more weird.
"So you only mate with people who look the same?"
"Generally yes, nekos with nekos and so on but on occasion a woman can't find a proper mate in the packs which passed her and the urge to mate grows until she hunts down the most powerful male to mate with and creates a mongrel."
"Is that how the living are made?" The sole magical being whispered quietly, looking confused at the two talking women around her.
"In us, yes. I had a couple of litters in my life to raise," The demi-human pointed her thumb at herself. "It is somewhat different in other races but vaguely similar although the more I look at you the more I think you are a difform nekos and not a human." The cat woman said staring at the pale kitten in Iris's hands.
"Wait, you have children?"
"Yea, why wouldn't I have children?" The forked tail rested on Shiro's lap as her crimson eyes watched the elf.
"I don't know, you didn't strike me as someone who had time to raise children." The risen responded somewhat ashamed, the cat woman looked to be in her mid-thirties and if she was a human she would have plenty of time to have plenty of kids and demi-humans have a reputation for breeding like rabbits.
"Mmmm, well today would have been the start of my mating season and if I found a partner quickly enough, I would have given birth in early summer. First litter is always a pain since you are new to being a mother but motherhood only lasts a year or two for nekos at least. After that, the juveniles can survive on their own." Iris didn't know what to say, she knew humans and elves raised considered anyone below fifteen to be a child and would take care of them as such and even after coming of age their partial childhood would extend for a little while longer.
"That sounds like most children die before they can reach adulthood."
"The strongest of your line survive to mate again and it's not like we can resist the call to mate each year. I saw that humans keep their young until their twenties but for us by the time you had two litters worth of children to feed, most of them would starve regardless or by the time the first litter reaches the age of twenty the mother would have been almost at the death's bed." Shiro took a breath before looking at the elf once more. "It's not like I popped them out in the wilderness and leave them there. My tribe is full of good people but that life was never for me. We only live for fifty years, after all. I'm fucking called an elder by Nakatei and that already drives me mad." The white ears on top of the woman's head began to move as both she and Iris heard an echo of footsteps somewhere far away.
Iris looked down and found her hand covering the girl's ear. Kia seemed not to mind the elf's hand on top of her ear as she played with a loose strand of linen coming off Iris's shirt in desperate need of laundry.
The kitten peeked out of her cradle as the fox came back looking a bit more flustered than before. She watched silently as everyone greeted her before speaking.
"When will you have young?" Kia asked casually.
"WHAT!"