In the evening we stopped at a roadside inn. The Empire had well maintained roads and along the major ones there were places where you could spend the night. Instead of being forced to camp, or having to make it to a village, travellers could enjoy safety and comfort, for a price. Generally travel within the Empire was rather safe, I was told. Frequent patrols held the monsters in check and bandits were dealt with rather swiftly and brutally. I suspected that was slightly different in the more rural areas though.

While we enjoyed the night at the inn our honour guard was camped outside. 100 knights were too many for the establishment. There was a relatively large space nearby where they put their tents. I wondered if that was intended. Maybe higher nobility frequently travelled with a large house guard?

When it was time for bed we had to decide just how paranoid we were. Of course we had our own guards with us. They would keep watch inside the inn. We also checked for any listening runes or other magic but it was clean. Lucy suggested we should use our animal forms during the night, since their senses were better. I suspected she just wanted to see Loriel transform. In the end the queen remained an elf and used a bed, but Lucy and myself slept as animals on the floor of the same room.

I woke up in the morning smelling something strange. It was somewhat intoxicating. Still in my panther form I began sniffing the floor. I somehow felt rather happy and playful. Not sensing any danger I rubbed my head on the carpet and began rolling around. That is when the laughter started. Lucy clearly found the situation rather funny. Loriel sat in her bed looking confused. That is when it dawned on me: “Lucy, you put catnip on the floor! That is what you bought yesterday!”

Lucy laughed even harder. I stopped rolling around and gave her my best annoyed cat look. I was not really upset. I had to admit it was a rather nice prank. I also wondered if there was a similar substance that worked on foxes. My musings were interrupted when Loriel spoke: “Wait! Did you just talk as a panther? Only certain magical beasts have that ability. That is not an ordinary animal transformation!”

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“I have no idea what you are talking about.” I answered. Then I began licking my paw.

“That is a big deal! Even becoming an animal is rare but magical beasts are a lot more powerful! That makes my bloodline so special. As a shadow beast I might lose access to my magic but I gain certain abilities instead. It compensates for the weakness of sorcerers in close combat and it makes me dangerous even if I run out of spell slots!”

“Huh.” Lucy said. She had finally stopped laughing “We can still use spells as animals.” While Loriel’s mouth hung open Lucy summoned a brush from her storage and approached me. It was a nice sensation and I started purring. I still expected that it was all part of Lucy’s plan to see Loriel transform.

Loriel sighed. “You two are strange but at least you are on our side.”

After we stopped playing around we went for breakfast. The knights were already dismantling their camp outside and soon we were on the road again. We did not plan to stop in any city on the way to Unitera. I wondered why that was the case. Maybe they did not want the delegates to interact with the local nobles. Maybe it would just delay the journey too much. The ruler of any city would likely throw a party and invite the delegations.

While the scenery was nice to look at, just sitting in a carriage got somewhat boring after a while. I did have some cards in my storage though. So I taught Lucy and Loriel a game from my world: Skat. It is a game for three people played with a deck of 32 cards. We had a lot of fun and Loriel was intrigued about the game's origins. I just told her I grew up with it.

The days passed uneventfully until we finally arrived at Unitera. The city was on a slight hill surrounded by a massive wall, about 20 metres high. It was covered in runes which made it look beautiful. There was no river or any other visible body of water close by. At least none that I could see. I wondered how they handled the water supply. Maybe they had aqueducts? Magic might also offer solutions.

Part of me was looking forward to exploring the city. It really looked impressive. Unfortunately we were not here for a vacation.