Whatever had caused my instincts to intensify when it came to Torill didn't disappear, but it slowly faded to the point where I was able to focus on things she wasn't associated with by the time Nefen came in to start dinner preparations.

He looked at us as he passed by, and sniffed. "Well that's one way to get him to read, keep up the good work."

I wanted to object, but she'd gotten me to pay attention to stuffy rulebooks, and even the books on politics that I had failed utterly to keep focused on before.

She had the book on light magic open to a cleansing spell that I dearly wanted to learn, and though part of me still felt the urge to reject the idea. She told me that was a class related thing that I could safely ignore. Learning to use magic outside of my class might slow down my experience gain a little, but it was something every Contractor learned eventually, and well worth it if I could pull it off.

I'd just have to learn how to move mana with no assistance. She told me that when we were in private she would tell me more, but it was hard to go into details with Alexander so close by. His perception didn't seem to be very high, because she did whisper some things that I was certain were restricted. It would still be a pain to give full instructions at that volume.

Before Nefen disappeared into the kitchen, I asked if there were any books specifically on Concepts, or elemental mana interactions.

He stopped, and thought for a moment before nodding. "I'll deliver them to your room after dinner. You must make sure the restricted one does not leave your sight if you take it out of your room. And be very careful with it. It's worth more than your hide."

Knowing what I did about my hide, I would bet it was worth a fair bit more than Nefen predicted. I wasn't about to announce that to the world if he didn't already know though. I just nodded, and told him I would make sure to take good care of it.

"You'd better, now I've got to make dinner for you lot. By the way, stack the books you're done with on the table, so I can return them to my library." He pointed to the coffee table in the reading area.

Torill let me know she'd take care of that for me. But only after I passed a test she was going to give me on the various things we'd read the next day. I groaned, but it made sense. We had covered a frankly obscene amount of reading in one day. My memory seemed to work very well for the important things like Concepts, and such, but I wasn't sure how my retention would be with other things.

She giggled at me, saying "oh don't give me that groan, I'm pretty sure your intelligence is high enough that you'll be able to remember anything we read if you actually try."

I ran a self conscious hand through my mane. "I don't know, maybe it doesn't work that way for me? I feel like I forget about things pretty often."

"I doubt it, I'd bet you forget things because you are in a constant state of utter distraction. Your intelligence can't handle parsing all the new sensations you keep getting from your level ups, while simultaneously keeping the things you should remember in the front of your mind. I'd bet everything's there if you try hard enough to remember it."

Focusing on all the input I was getting from my various senses, both magical and mundane, threatened to overwhelm me.

In theory I could lower how sensitive my physical perception was. If I did that, I wouldn't have to deal with filtering through things like the sound of Nefen softly humming to himself while he cooked what sounded like, and probably was, ten different dishes at the same time.

My instincts strongly resisted the idea of blinding myself to danger like that. If I lowered any one of my senses to what I thought of as a more reasonable level for the safe environment that I was in, I would find myself instinctively jumping at shadows. My instincts pushed a paranoid fear into my mind until I returned my senses to the point where I could hear heartbeats from across the room.

Parsing through the myriad sounds was far from the most distracting of my physical senses. That was my sense of smell. Mostly because while I was learning to identify the various scents that tickled my brain, I still had no idea what a lot of them really meant.

My instincts helped in a vague sort of way. At least I knew food when I smelled it, even if I couldn't immediately identify what kind of food it was. They also told me if something I smelled was predator, prey, male or female. They didn't help me figure out pretty much anything else though.

Thinking about that sense led me to understand that whatever had them pushing me to pay extra special attention to Torill was something in her scent. Something subtle had changed, but I wasn't sure what it was. People's scents shifted subtly all the time, it could be as simple as something she ate.

"Angel? Getting lost in your senses is the opposite of what you need to teach yourself to do."

"Ah, yeah, sorry, I was just trying to figure out why you smelled so good right now." I said with a smile.

She had a complicated look on her face for a moment, before patting me on the cheek. "I don't usually smell good?"

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"You always smell lovely, you just smell… more lovely? I'm not sure why though, did you eat anything interesting?"

My mate giggled a little bit. "Good save, I have been trying a new tea lately, maybe that's it?"

"That must be some tea."

"Yep. You know what? Keep reading, I'll go brew some for us."

"I'll help!" I said, starting to get up, as she headed for the kitchen, she seemed to be in a hurry to get us that tea.

"We wouldn't want to get in Nefen's way, would we? It doesn't take two people to make tea. Stay. I'll be back soon."

I tried to go back to reading, but my attention was on her. I listened as she made small talk with Nefen. He seemed very impressed by how much I'd read. Frankly, so was I, I had more new knowledge knocking around my head than I knew what to do with. It would take a long time to process it all. I hoped that I could keep it all straight.

While listening to Torill make tea, and chat with Nefen, I thought about the kingdom I'd found myself in. Some of the laws made my lips curl in disgust.

Estian was very human centric, non-human rights were limited. Owning property, running your own business, or even renting long term while technically possible for a non-human all required permits. When I asked, Torill had told me that the cost of the permits varied from town to town.

The rental permit, required even if I just wanted to stay in an inn room for more than a week, cost one hundred gold a year in Brightwood. The same permit in the capital would cost several thousand gold.

Guild compounds were exempt from many laws. They were ruled by the System and the guild leaders, not the king. Compounds were created automatically by the System any town that had over a hundred of a given class type who called the town home. The System enforced guild territory could.be lost, but it took five years. Most of Brightwood's guilds only had three years before they dissolved.

Torill whispered to me that she had never seen a king so brazenly put so many guilds at risk. When the timer ran out, all of the buildings inside would crumble to dust. From what I'd seen of Brightwood, that would mean the destruction of more than half the town's structures; they also provided a large portion of the defensive walls.

I hated to think of what would happen to my guildmates when the Adventurer's guild was destroyed. Torill said she had plenty of money saved for a permit. She also told me that Nefen and Samuel would already have moved on if they weren't automatically assigned as guild leaders by the System.

Zeke was the one she was most worried about. Without the guild to shield him, life could get dangerous for the half elf. She thought he would do best to head to The Homeland. Demihumans weren't particularly hospitable to outsiders, particularly ones who rejected their class, but they were better than the alternatives for the poor kid.

When I tried to ask more about him, she told me it wasn't her story to tell.

I found myself in a rather strange position legally. My status as a verified goddess marked individual had given me the right to citizenship. The guard captain hadn't been required to simply hand it to me, particularly not the crystal tier.

I had no idea at the time, but that identification crystal was very expensive. So much so that Torill wasn't even sure how much I had cost the church beyond "more than she'd see in this life." It didn't exempt me from the need for permits, but it did allow me to travel the whole kingdom without an escort.

It also gave me rights, like walking around as an apparent beastkin without a collar to sap my class resources, and disturbingly, self defense. The others had no such right. It was still illegal to harm them, anyone found having done so would find themselves fined or jailed. If a non-citizen fought back, they would be in more trouble than their assailant.

Thinking about it made me send a prayer to Belua asking just how the hell she expected me to get spirit beasts to subject themselves to those rules.

"With every passing day they grow more desperate for defenders from the monsters of the wilds. Such laws will be the first to go if they see salvation coming from non-human hands."

I was about to ask if she was sure about that, when the kitchen door opened, and something that smelled positively divine hit my nose. I barely managed to stay in my seat while Torill walked over with two cups of tea.

Well, a cup and what looked a whole lot more like a tankard. The scent of the tea captured my complete attention, it was the best thing I had ever smelled.

"I thought it would get that look from you, so I ordered it special from The Homeland. It came in yesterday while you were out. Catnip tea. It should help you relax."

She held the tankard out to me, but pulled back when I reached for it.

"Be aware that I'm not sure how it will affect you. Catkin have pretty varied responses, some of them are pretty energized by it, most end up just relaxed and happy for a few hours."

"Sounds like a good way to unwind after a day with my nose in all those dusty books!"

"I thought so too, I hope you like it."

I held out my hand, practically begging for the tankard with my eyes. It smelled so good. She handed it to me with a tinkling giggle, and I greedily drank it. I wasn't a big fan of intoxicants, but everything about the tea called to me.

When Torill took her seat back on my lap, I put my arms around her, my chest vibrating with what might have been a record breaking pur.

I was astonished by how quickly it kicked in. All of my worries faded away, I sank into the cushions below me and stared at the dancing mana while holding Torill.

Dinner was lovely, everything tasted better. People were funnier. My instincts seemed to have gone to sleep. I spent the few hours before heading to bed and falling asleep wrapped around Torill in a ball that might just have been a little fluffier than my usual form.

My Concepts even seemed less intrusive than usual.

I was pretty sure I loved that tea.

I was disappointed when I opened my eyes completely sober in Belua's realm.