I heaved a sigh, not only was my head cleared of the effects of the Catnip tea, I was alone in the room that Belua set aside for me. I vaguely remembered Torill telling me that she needed to level, and she wanted to talk to the spirits a little before she fell asleep. I felt so lonely, there wasn't even any elemental mana in the Conceptless space to keep me company.

After taking a few moments to collect myself, I ended up being pretty glad the relaxed feeling hadn't followed me into the godly realm. I had a favor to ask of Belua, and I wanted to get it out of the way before Torill joined me. I had a feeling she would have words with me about what I was going to ask for.

I had mixed feelings about it myself, what I was going to ask for would influence who I was for the rest of my existence. Only the faith I had in Randy let me open my mind to the idea, and commit to the plan.

I prayed to Belua, outlining my request. Moments later, the door opened, and the goddess stared at me from the other side.

"Child, that's quite the list. Are you certain you want to do this? I advise caution with some of your choices."

I nodded. And sent a prayer requesting a shift to my demihuman form to ease communication, since I couldn't sense her to use mind speech across the threshold. When I felt myself shift, I spoke.

"I have the chance to choose for myself, so I am going to. It seems like something I should take advantage of considering my contract. I'm not sure of some of them myself, but I'll know if they fit me when I actually encounter them."

After what appeared to be some deep thought, Belua sighed.

"I can't promise that I can find even a quarter of these nearby. I also can't do it for free, and I won't point you to some of them until I know you can suppress Concepts enough to defy them for a moment if need be."

"How do I do that? I usually end up being the one suppressed if I fight them." My ears perked up, if I could do that, I'd be one happy kitty.

"I can't tell you. Let's talk about your payment. I miss watching you play the night away. I want you to do that again. I'll find you one Concept for every night of play. I'll even try to get you something really good if you manage to do more than just meet my demand to return to the play area."

Belua smiled at me, showing her teeth. Before continuing. "While you figure that out, well, the path to my other requirement might just come to you!"

I ran my claws through my mane, she was working around some rules I didn't know about again. She wasn't even being subtle about it.

To re-enter the play area, I would have to allow her realm's Concepts to fully take hold of me again. It was something that she strongly hinted I should do after I'd grown resistant to them when I started eating cores. I had put it on my to do list, and promptly forgot about it. I would have to make it a priority.

"Can Torill help me figure this stuff out? I know she's fighting to get rid of at least one Concept. She must be suppressing it, right?"

Belua shook her head. "Nothing would stop her from giving detailed instructions, but she isn't doing it for herself, so I doubt she knows how. She has used her class to buy a spirit's help. The method it is using is also unlikely to help her learn to do it for herself any time soon."

"I see. Can you tell me what the spirit is doing? Since it doesn't work…"

"She gave it every memory associated with that part of her Legend. Its possession of those memories, along with her permission, allows it to reroute all of the Conceptual energy to itself. She still technically has the Concepts she is trying to remove, but they don't have the energy to activate unless something in this life powers them."

I shuddered, giving away the memories that made who I was sounded horrifying, though that might be mostly because I had so few. it was easy for me to forget that Torill had multiple lifetimes worth of memories. I had so much less.

The goddess reached her towards me, and I saw her start to take a step forward before stopping herself from crossing into the room. It looked like it physically pained her to hold herself back.

"I should go, I can't offer you any advice, and your lady will be joining you in a few minutes. Send me a prayer if you need anything at all." She disappeared, leaving the door open.

It took me a minute to realize that she had shown me an example of her ability to suppress her core Concepts. From her expression, doing so was a highly unpleasant experience.

I looked towards the bed longingly, reminding myself that Torill would be there soon, I wouldn't have to be alone for long. I had to mentally pry my instincts away from the idea of waiting at the bedside until she showed up.

I ended up having to convince myself that I could guard her entryway into the realm while standing right outside the door.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The moment I crossed the threshold I felt the Concepts of the realm have their way with me. I paid close attention to how it felt, hoping for some clue about how I was slightly resisting them. I felt them soaking into me, I could almost hear the voices of the world full of believers repeating the words, "We are all the Great Mother's children."

There were a vast number of Concepts tied to that phrase. Since different people interpreted its meaning in vastly different ways. The feelings of safety, and being loved unconditionally were very dominant. The image of literal youthfulness was strong as well. I could almost see the depictions of Belua with children playing at her feet and babes in her arms when I inspected it.

Then the desire to play hit me, as the words, "The Great Mother's realm is filled with endless play and love" played through the myriad Concepts people held of the realm itself.

I almost lost my focus, but the fact that I was following the spoken request from a mother that I respected. I had to figure out how to adjust how affected I was. I thought that my species would give me an advantage in that area.

My first attempt at drawing them in was a dud, as a sensation not unlike when I ate mana filled.my being. Mother's Concepts tasted strange, very sweet, but eating them felt wrong, and didn't seem to change the impact they were having on me.

I sat down just outside the doorway, and closed my eyes, focusing on my task. It didn't take me long to call on my instincts, allowing them to lead the way on the task. I trusted them to know what to do, and I was right.

Something, some part of my being that didn't exist in the physical realm flexed, and relaxed. I became a sponge, soaking in the power of the ideas that surrounded me. At first I caught some elemental mana in the mix, mostly life, but I was able to beckon the realm Concepts to push it out of me.

My vision grew blurry, and I laid on the grass unable to properly move my body by the time I had filled myself with the power of the realm. I knew I had done it, I even qualified for "something really good."

I let out a giggling mew, it was good that I would get a bonus for going too far, because my mind was quickly filling with fuzz. The rest of my time in the realm that night was a blur, I remember crying when I realized that I was still all alone.

Then I remember the joy and comfort of being held. I remember happy words being exchanged between two people that passed me between them. I don't think I was capable of truly understanding language at that point, but I felt the idea of being praised.

When I woke up in the real world I heard the words. "You accomplished that faster than I expected, I will send you and your mate far into the mountains after today's hunt. You will need her help."

I nuzzled Torill gently. It had been strangely wonderful to be held by her while I was under the influence of Belua's realm. But having shifted to my demihuman form in my sleep, and waking to her curled in my arms felt even better.

She seemed to agree, and cuddled close to me. Neither of us felt even the least bit tired, but neither of us wanted to get up. Though, it ended when she needed to go do her morning business.

After she left, I got up, and went through my morning routine with my brush. I took the time to appreciate my work in the mirror before she came back in. She smelled faintly of Catnip tea, which was odd. I sniffed at her, vaguely offended that she hadn't brought me some.

"I went to check on breakfast. I had tea while I was talking to Nefen."

"So early?" I asked, she didn't look like it hit her the same way it did me, but still…

"I'm not a cat, silly, it's just a nice tea for me. Don't worry so much, besides, we're still locked down. I won't be leaving town till tonight!"

I smiled at her and grabbed her, drawing her into a tight embrace, and taking long, obvious sniffs.

"But what about the side effects! You'll attract every stray cat for miles smelling like that!"

"Oh, you're right, it seems like I've picked up an especially clingy one already."

She somehow managed to slip out of my grip, and out the door. I heard her saying that she hoped the big bad cat remembered to put on some clothes before following her as she dashed down the hall.

I was halfway out the door when I manifested my outfit. I heard her giggle ahead of me. We had a couple hours to kill before breakfast was ready.

She led me on a merry chase through the compound. We took a little extra time in an unused building while we had our fun. What happened there to make her smell more like me than like catnip is best left up to the imagination.

We found the time to return to my room where she helped me put my fur back in order after our energetic play before heading to breakfast.

I wasn't the least bit embarrassed by the knowing grin on Ivo's face when we walked in a little late.

When he asked if we had fun, I smiled and asked him if he was jealous. He put an arm around Pierce and said that he was perfectly fine, commenting that not everyone had that kind of energy first thing in the morning.

Pierce grumbled something about how I used to be so quiet in the mornings. I laughed, fully enjoying the perks of having visited Belua's realm.

After a lovely breakfast where I tried not to annoy the other grumpy guild members who were obviously not in the mood banter during breakfast. The boys asked me if we had a target for the day.

"I found a cluster of young fire salamanders who are making their way through the canyons. Your guild leader was going to take care of them this afternoon, but I'm sending you three ahead of him. His attention is best spent elsewhere."

The boys seemed relieved, they were a common monster type, and they knew well how to fight them. We set off for our targets with a spring in our step, they referred to it as "almost a second day off."

They weren't wrong. I channeled quenching water while Ivo pulled all of their attention. We didn't crush them, the monsters were still high enough level to put up some fight, but it was as uncomplicated as combat could be.

I did learn that I could save myself some pain by projecting water out of myself instead of following my instincts to bite and claw, but that should have been obvious. I held back from eating the cores, putting them in a bag that I had Ivo carry for me.

I carried the boys back to the guild as usual, but none of us were more than a little singed by the encounter. We even took the time to properly write up a report on the encounter and leave it on Nefen's desk with our signatures. It was one of the options that I learned about in the guild rulebook.

I was told that I wouldn't be pointed to the next target until after dinner. Torill filled our extra time quizzing me about the books we had read before. I did far better than I expected.