"S-so what happens now?" Amy sniffled, uncurling slightly to peer through her legs towards the setting sun over the balcony.

"Whatever you wish, my dear Apprentice," Felin purred, leaping from her lap to sit in front of her, peering back. "You have to contact your... superiors? Whatever you call it, and maybe see where this damned plague is coming from. However, if the situation becomes too dangerous, and it is an active mana beast or monster causing this, I will force you to retreat. You are simply not well-enough prepared for such a fight."

"Alright... I think... I think I want to look for the plague first. If only just to say I tried to - tried to make an effort at all against this," Amy said, wiping at her baggy eyes. "Especially if I'm calling the Empire down on all this. It'll mean... the village gets exposed to magic... Which is something I didn't even consider. What if the Empire denies my request? If they don't introduce the village into magical society."

"Then it's all the more important that you look into the plague's source. Admittedly, I don't know much about your Empire. In my time, I knew it as the Iyrtiran Republic, not what it is now; so it seems the government capitalised on the end of the Mage Wars quite a bit. I imagine, however, that they wouldn't dally about a problem like a wild mana beast or monster harming their people. It's simply something you don't play around with."

"Alright, then."

"And even if you don't discover anything of the sort, play the problem up a bit. They are mana beasts and, inevitably, monsters roaming about the forest and that is an issue all on it's own. Merely suggest that your sightings of these creatures could be related to this plague and that'll be sure to raise the alarms on the situation.

"Either way, how are you contacting them? Not through Henry, I hope."

"There's... a shared notepad that's locked away in my drawer that transfers anything I write on it to the paired pad on my superior's side, but I have no idea if he'll notice it in time. The emergency contact is... with Henry."

"Damnit."

"Yeah... damnit, indeed."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now, so no use fretting about it," Felin sighed, getting up into the air. "Before we go, however, I need to put up a better shield than this, if we are to prevent any nosy Mages from discovering the Tower that is. Sadly, that means a more solid defence, also. So, it might be a good idea to remove the bird's nest on the balcony and move it... elsewhere."

"The what?" Amy asked, straining her hearing to see if she could hear any birds.

"Yes, the chicks in it were screaming the entire time we were here. And considering how gaunt they seem through my mana senses, they've gone unfed for a long time. Maybe even a day; deadly for a bird that young."

"The parents?" Amy said, getting up and over to the balcony, trying to get a good view onto the roof, where a nest might've been built. The only sign she could see, or consider as one, was a stray twig poking at over the roof's corner.

"If they've gone unfed for this long, then dead. That, or they've simply abandoned them. Unlikely, but in either case they still have nobody to look after them."

"We can't just leave them there, though!" Amy protested, jumping up as she leaned to the side, finally able to get a look at the small batch of twigs and branches meshed together into what she assumed to be the nest.

"And how are you supposed to take care of them?" Felin pointed out, stepping out in the air to fly up towards the roof. Calling back down, he said, "Not to be rude but I severely doubt you have any knowledge at all in how to care for birds, yet alone baby ones."

"I'll... I'll sort it out, eventually!" Amy winced. "And I could find some pet shop in the city and sell them to them too. I only need to take care of them for a little while until then."

"And feeding them?"

"It's just things like berries or seeds, right?"

"These don't look like regular chicks, Amy. These seem like baby falcons or hawks. Birds of prey."

"You can tell that?"

"Well, I don't mean to claim to be an expert in bird-species identification, but they don't seem like they feed on fruit, or the like."

"Just bring them down here, Felin, and then we can see."

"If you say so, my Apprentice," Felin shrugged. With a wave of forceful mana, Amy spotted a perfectly held together float down from the rooftops with a cat by it's side, three baby birds huddled together inside, trying to be completely still. The nest came to rest on the floor, the birds' heads frantically bobbing about disturbed at every noise. It doesn't seem like they can see either. At least they have some sort of feathering, as I know some birds aren't born with them. "And there you go."

"...At least it wasn't more than three?" Amy said hopefully.

"That's still three to care for. Remember, if all goes to plan, you're going to be trying to get out of the village after all of this is said and done. A hard journey isn't going to be kind on them at all. And, again, how are you supposed to get food?"

"I can see about buying small vermin or meal worms or something but... you're a cat, aren't you?"

"Really?" Felin grimaced, shaking his head in frustration. "I can hunt for these things but... Fine. Yes, I can do it, if my dear Apprentice wishes it so."

"Thank you, Felin!" Amy grinned cheerfully, squatting down to inspect the birds. "They don't seem hurt, at least, just hungry..."

"I would've told you if they were hurt, Amy, what do you take me for?"

"You were the one saying to leave them, okay?" Amy said, raising her hands, trying to ease him.

"And I wasn't saying to leave them per se- Never mind, we're only going in circles," Felin cut himself off, sitting back down on the floor. "I need to concentrate on the shield so busy yourself with the chicks, or something or other."

"Alright, Felin, alright."

Keeping her main focus on Felin, she looked back down towards the birds, thinking on how to transport them. I could just keep them in the next on the way back then put them in a box. It'll keep them warm - with a blanket too - and it means I can move them around easier. Though- And what is Felin doing now?

Amy's attention whipped back to her Familiar, as mana, both Fae and Unknowable, swirled around him in a whirlwind of power. Even limited by the strength of the Spell, his skill with mana couldn't be more evident, or hampered. In front of him, a small translucent sphere of monochromatic Illusion formed, gaps dotted around it. The winds of strength's directions all suddenly changed, stopping still and needling down through the gaps to be contained within the cage of Illusion. All that remained of the working of magic was literal lightning in a bottle, the sphere deformed by the forces inside to a different shape.

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"I shall be priming the shield using this Familiar form as fuel such that when I am next summoned it will activate, completely sealing the area off from the outside world. So, be prepared when you summon me next and ensure you aren't within the range of the shield."

"What?"

Without any warning, Felin's form split into threads and streams of verdant mana, stitching itself into the outer sphere of the magic, forming strange arcane patterns in a somewhat floral design. In his final act, he smashed the sphere downwards with his dissolving paw, flying straight through the floor and deeper into the Tower as if the floor wasn't even there. And then he, and his magic, was gone. Leaving Amy all alone; and with a delicate nest to deal with.

"Damnit Felin!"

* * *

"What the Hell were you thinking?! Leaving me like that with no warning; I could've hurt the birds carrying them all down too!" Amy shouted, pointing at a sheepish looking Felin skulking on the ground. The nest in question was propped up on an unearthed tree root, the birds back to begging for food. Amy had, following Felin's command, left the range of the shield and now the Tower was once again hidden behind that curtain in reality.

"Well... it was something that needed to be done so I thought I'd get it over and done with."

"Fine, but just give me some warning, please! Especially with the birds as delicate as they are."

"Here, let me make it up to you," He smiled, suddenly turning to the side and waving a paw around. With a flick of mana, a small mouse floated out of a nearby bush, unmoving in the air. "Food. For the chicks!"

"Oh Felin..." Amy sighed, shaking her head. "Just get on with it then."

"Allow me to strip this first," Felin said, swiping the mouse towards him. With deft claws, the mouse's neck was snapped and soon cut open, his insides torn into shreds of meat. The meat strips floated over to the bird nest, hovering over the chicks. Tapping their beaks, the birds all suddenly stopped their complaints, opening their mouths wide and bobbing up and down. The meat practically vanished down their gullets, their throats puffing up slowly as more food floated on into them. By the time the mouse was almost a skeleton and skin, each chick was well-fed, their throats bulging full. "Are they... supposed to do that?"

"I think so. I think they store food in... something, near their throat in case they can't have food later."

"As long as it seems normal then."

"You're doing the shield now then?" Amy asked, curious about the working of magic.

"Indeed, if all goes well," Felin nodded, turning back to the invisible curtain.

"How does that even work, by the way? I saw you weaving all the Wizardly Elements there."

"Indeed. The 'inner' shield of Fae and Unknowable forms the foundation of the 'Spell', to conceal the Tower from outside forces using Unknowable, with a complement of Fae to make the concealment less like a hole in reality and more real; a natural hiding of sorts. The covering of Illusion hides the working of magic and makes the shield itself less noticeable, meshing better with it's surroundings. This is, in a sense, the true 'shielding' part of it. Finally, the pattern of Fae on the outside is to make sure that the area within the shield can actually be traversed, so people don't suddenly 'teleport' around. It connects adjacent areas and paths into the area to others out of it, so that even if there is a 'gap' in the forest that can't be walked, anyone actually walking it wouldn't notice."

"I think I get it."

"I imagine that if you get skilled enough in all three Elements then you'll be able to weave a similar shield at Journeyman, my dear Apprentice," Felin smirked at her, eyes narrowing, a whiff of Fae mana escaping him. Like the sound of a locking the door, the entire area clicked in some strange sense, and the curtain that Amy had been able to recognise before disappearing. The familiar look of the Tower's shield vanished, as the real shield took its place once more. It was a bit different to how she remembered it, but Amy found it almost identical to how she thought the area looked like before the shield originally went down, when she went hunting for herbs. The shield was back up in true. "I'm still very limited in this low Tier form so this isn't my best work and will likely be noticed by someone looking too closely. Hopefully, however, this will be enough for any snooping the Empire's Mages end up doing."

"And if it isn't?"

"Well, then there's nothing that could be done about it."

* * *

Felin ended up staying behind to take care of the birds while Amy scouted the river ahead of her, walking along the bank at a slow pace. Her Familiar had said he'd 'look over her shoulder' to keep an eye on things in case the plague did end up being from an active mana beast or monster. I wonder... Felin said that mana beasts follow a different layout of Mage Tiers compared to humanity, but how do monsters end up arising? I only remember that they do... something incorrectly. Maybe they follow the wrong steps in ascension? Infusing their brain before their body for example? Then... he said that early human Mages infused their body before their mind. I wonder... does that mean human monsters exist? Humans who incorrectly ascended and ended up going insane? Possible. Something to ask him about later.

The first sign that something was wrong was a twinge of something on the edge of her mana senses, an off smell nearby. Squinting her eyes, and activating her Mage Sight, she caught the hints of a sickly dark green mana floating in the air, almost unnoticeable. Recognising took her only an instant. Plague mana. With no warning, the voice of Felin came into her ear, weak.

"The Plague's originating from a mana beast," He said, his voice coming from over her shoulder, "But the mana itself isn't controlled. You'll have to get close for me to get a better look but I surmise the mana beast causing it is dead, and this is simply their polluting corpse tainting the stream and the air. "

"Got it."

Covering herself in Wards from head to toe, a strain on her already low mana pool, she approached. The Plague mana's effect on the forest and the stream itself only became clearer the closer she got to the source, the Water mana floating along the stream becoming cloudy with the taint of Plague. Earth and Nature's presence was lessened but was not quite overcome outright by the Plague. And then, of course, were the corpses. They started off small, simply rodents and vermin dead on the ground. Then the odd bird, and larger animals soon enough. Each animal's bodies formed rings spiralling around the centre, the origin, deeper into the river and the forest, separated out by size.

Gulping, Amy took another step forward.

And there it was, hidden before by the treeline, half submerged into the stream, far away. The monster's corpse.

Rotting, squirming with flies and maggots. A sack of carrion and wind, bloated, green and bloody. Plagued.

It only took one look at the thing for her Mage Sight to be overwhelmed, blood vessels in her eyes popping. Plague mana swarmed in. Wards strained and cracked. Evil concentrate encroached on her mind, her sanity.

"Run."

Resisting the urge to vomit, to break down, to die, Amy ran.

By the time she reached the outer ring, the first Ward shattered. The chasing Plague sought the gap in her defences and tried to crawl inside. In a quick flash of mana, a Shield Cantrip popped up in the Ward's place, barely holding on. The other Wards could only groan in protest. Still, they held.

The further she fled, the weaker the mana got, the Plague's influence dying off. Her mind slowly returned to her, that which had been eaten away by the mana's power. The Wards regained their strength, the mana she had been pumping into them finally able to repair them, no longer having to fight against the mana. It was only when she was half way back to Felin that she finally stopped to take a breath, almost falling into the river from exhaustion.

"I'm- I'm sorry, Amy. My senses... they aren't what I'm used to in this form and I didn't notice what it was until too late."

"What was that?" She demanded, the urge to throw up coming out again.

"It was indeed a monster and it was dead. However... I had anticipated an Apprentice or Journeyman Tier monster; not an Archmage. I only noticed its proto-Domain when it was too late. Fortunately for you, it was dead and its proto-Domain wasn't active, otherwise you would've been long dead before that. It was only when you observed it that the monster's remaining will noticed you in turn."

"Damnit-!"

"I can't sense you as well through this perspective but you don't seem infected. Still, to be safe, I'll approach you first and decontaminate you. Don't want the birds getting hurt, do you?"

"Yeah...don't want that," Amy said, calming down.

"I really am sorry, Amy, I... come back to where you left and I'll meet you there. Be safe."

"Alright, Felin, alright."

In the end, Amy did empty her stomach into the river, if only to relieve that urge. Mainly, it was the memory of the thing, burned into her retinas, that made her sick. As if, even in thought, the monster had power over her. And that thing, it could only be a monster, for no mana beast was so terrible, so revolting.

After finishing collecting herself, it only took a couple minutes for Felin to meet her. He looked frantic, his eyes darting up and down her body, inspecting her intensely. Even when he didn't find anything, he went through her Wards and looked inside, trying to find any sign of Plague mana, casting small Healing Words all the while, just to be sure. Finally, after almost ten minutes, Felin was finally sure of Amy's safety, allowing her to take down her Wards and lead her back to the birds. They were exactly as she had left them, only calmer and not warbling around the nest impatiently.

"Never again?" Felin asked, his voice unable to hide a hint of worry.

"Never again."

Carrying the nest gently in her hands, the pair of Mages made their way back home.