The tapping of shoes loudly echoed through the staircase. A person on top of the stairs could have only heard one person coming up but an experienced ranger would have been able to notice the faint noise following closely after each step as if a ghost was marching in lockstep beside the human.

"Lady, Siri. Please could you not look so disturbed. I'm starting to fear what will your maid say if she sees you like this." Sofia said as she and her spooked companion reached the top of the stairs, pocketing the piece of paper she received from a servant waiting at the front door.

"Iris?" The ancient said with a glimmer of hope appearing in her heart.

"Do you want to wait and collect yourself before seeing her?" The human said brushing Kia's shoulder.

Unbeknownst to the alabaster monster, she nodded at the human. For the first time since the encounter with the Hissing Terror, Kia noticed a hint of fear hanging around the human. Oddly enough the humans seemed to be too dull to realise the terrifying reality around them. Maybe it was better for them to have such small souls and remain ignorant of the System's Mistakes, it would certainly explain why all the species had their souls shrunk to such an extent.

I hadn't sensed it, but it sensed me. It doesn't make sense.

Kia wanted nothing more than to feel the comforting warmth of her throne, assured that nothing could harm her there. She was sure that Iris could defeat the Mistakes. Her creation smiled when she was scared not because she didn't realise the danger unlike the dumb humans but because defeating the creatures called by humans as 'animals' was a piece of cake for Iris.

Yes, that made perfect sense, humans were simply ignorant unable to defend themselves and Iris was powerful and able to defeat the animals. Therefore Kia's current objective had to be to meet Iris as quickly as possible.

"Lady Siri wait, why are you running suddenly." Kia's subject of observation and experimentation number null, 'Sofia' called out to her from behind.

The ancient mage was still hesitant to assign the human a proper identification number as the objective of her experiment remained blurry. Rather, her issue with nomenclature was caused by the question of Iris and if she was to be included.

Technically speaking the human was being observed to learn more about the 'anti-Effect properties of Iris'. That meant that her creation couldn't be accounted for in the experiment. Yet, Kia was hesitant to rest this case. After all what else were the bells she spent with Iris, feeling the warm pulses of her crafted heart core than observation sessions?

"What had gotten into you, Ladyship?" The blonde human asked as she caught up with Kia's weakened body. "I guess it doesn't matter now." She added as they stood in front of the doors to Kia's room.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

Sofia hit the door with her knuckles before she grabbed the metal handle. The ancient was too preoccupied with imagining the mechanism hidden inside the wood to notice that the door opened.

"Lady Siri before you go, do you want me to come tomorrow?"

"?" The mage turned her head to face the human.

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"The Conclave, the council comprised of mages ruling the Oriripol has gathered to discuss what the Door of Divination said. All of our lecturers are members of the Geni'i which means that there would be no lecturers but I would be happy to spend the day with you if you would like to."

"Hmmmm," The ancient squinted her colourful eyes and eyed the human, feeling the warmth of Iris's aura brushing against her left side. "I don't know."

With a loud noise, the human disappeared behind the door as the ghostly pale undead shut the door impatiently. The room where Iris liked to be, was empty with the blinds half closed causing the entire room to be shrouded in twilight. Completely unfazed by the haunted environment the necromancer stalked between the couches, taking a quick peek at the table and checking if her throne hadn't left some deliciousness for her.

As Kia extended her hand toward the closed door to the bedroom she felt something touch her nape causing her body to shudder. Her fingers stayed glued on the handle for an extensive amount of time before the sovereign of the undead entered a brightly lighten room.

"Hello, Kia."

The pale girl lifted her eyes toward the warm voice. In the corner of the room furthest from the window she saw the figure of her creation sitting on a chair. With her nape feeling prickly, Kia walked further away from the window under the risen's constant and unbroken gaze. The sitting undead had a white shirt similar to the one Sofia had gifted struned over her knee while holding a needle with a white thread tied to it.

Seeing the the buttons caused the undead to tilt her head to the side as if she were seeing a mirage. The buttons on the shirt had been ripped away by the Iris tugging on the white fabric two sundowns ago. The next day, Iris mentioned that she couldn't find the buttons and that she would throw the shirt away. Given this information, Kia asked herself why her creation looked to be fixing a shirt which should have been turned to rags a day ago.

"You look so confused right now. It's really adorable how you never run out of faces to make." The tall undead's hands stopped moving and dextrously put away the tools she was using on top of the nightstand behind her. "[Flame]"

"What are you doing now?" The clumsy mage said standing beside the foot of the bed.

"Burning the loose thread so that the button doesn't come loose."

"Did you buy a new shirt for me?" Kia asked not understanding why the people in the Overworld had such a strange tendency of changing clothes.

"This one? No, this shirt is the one Sofia bought for you but I did buy clothes for you." The elf said calmly but her creator could feel something else in her voice.

The delicate doll against her better judgment began to creep toward the risen, feeling as if she was about to be jumped. Her body cringed away from the motionless predator, lifting her shoulders up to protect her neck yet like some sort of deficient prey the girl got closer to the predator in elven skin.

"What are you doing Kia?" Something warm ran across the kitten's scalp before she was picked up and sat on her throne.

"I don't know." The mage giggled nervously still predicting the smiling predator to strike.

"You're a very strange girl, Kia," The risen whispered into the mage's round ear. "But you're my strange girl at least."

"Hey! I'm not strange. I am perfectly normal."

"Absolutely, perfectly, normal undead kitten." The hoplite said scratching the feline under her chin causing a loud purr to pleasantly reverberate through the room.

"So, why were you fixing the buttons on the shirt? I thought you would make deliciousness."

"Hmmmm," The risen quickly blew air out of her nose and smiled shaking her head amusingly at the clueless ancient. "I felt like history was repeating itself and a treasure was being locked away."

"And?"

"And I felt bad about it simple as. It's really odd how I still feel things like honour and shame."

"I didn't touch your soul too much so you should be able to feel everything you did before I used the ritual on you," The sun and star in Kia's eyes shined onto Iris's snowy skin overpowering the natural light for a moment as she shifted on her throne's lap. "Do you want me to diagnose you?"

"I didn't mean it like this but thanks." Her creation replied.

"So... you need me to diagnose you?" The way Iris and others formulated their sentences sometimes made the ancient's head spin. They want to know how was her day but don't, tell her to say something is a joke but get angry if she does and now Iris thanked her for no reason.

"No Kia, I thanked you for the offer."

"Ohhhh, that one makes sense."

"I have no idea what are you talking about, but I am glad to hear it."

"Irrrrrisss." A soft purr called onto the elf as she ran her pointed nails across Kia's skull, going back and forward combing the black silk on her head.

"Yessss Kia?" She parroted the kitten's pleasurable voice.

"How did you buy those clothes? I don't see any Resize enchantments on them." The girl said pointing at the five or six sets of clothes on the bed.

"How do you think I bought them? I know your measurements off by heart, silly," A set of sharp pearly teeth dominated Kia's vision as her creation proudly announced with a shameless grin. "And I'm going to teach you how to dress yourself properly so that no other incidents of other women gazing at your body will ever happen again."

"But they never seen me bare. I was covered b-" The necromancer was muted by a finger landing on her lips.

"Kia, I don't want to hear about it. I might have accepted one such incident and forgave it. But don't tempt me, I don't think I can stop myself from being like this," The risen's powerful arms locked the girl in place as she came down from above and stole a kiss for herself. "I really don't."