The wind rushes by. I can feel it. I can smell it. The Lord of the Thrush signals me as I move, but I don’t reply back. I don’t know how, but I can understand. Using scents, emotions, and sounds I can communicate with the beasts. I can talk with the wild things. Perhaps I am one of the wild things.

The trees move fast, or maybe it’s me that’s moving fast; sometimes I can’t tell. The feeling of freedom is incredible. This world is incredible. I don’t understand why November would ever want to go back. Well, perhaps I do understand. It’s love. She deeply loves her mother. I still remember, on a cold day over a year ago, how she cried. Losing her father hurt her. I couldn’t console her then. It hurt me too, being unable to soothe her.

Tenia doesn’t remember the before times well. I do. I understand. This world, this is where I belong. This is my home, my true home. My memories are fractured and broken, but I can piece together enough of them. Of the ‘Summoning’ that trapped me in the void. The ‘Contract’ that bound my soul to the machine Xternity.

Tenia must have been young when she was bound. She doesn’t have her memories of before but she has knowledge. Knowledge without the wisdom of years makes her a fool at times. Both her and the mistress will need to grow. I think I can guide the mistress down the right path. I think I can help her. Tenia… She might be a lost cause. She’s like me, after all. She’s just another lost soul, broken and battered. I won't abandon her, though. She’s like me, after all.

The mistress will learn eventually, on her own. I don’t need to teach her much or tell her answers. If she stops learning... only then will I teach. I want her to discover the answers herself. It’s important in that way. To explain is to deny the ability for her to grow. It will stunt her mind in a bad way.

Perhaps one day, when she’s ready, I will tell her the whole truth.

The trees around me start to thin. I focus on my chest and make a burning sensation appear. My footsteps grow silent. I focus on my fur and an ache appears just beyond my physical form. My body turns to shadow.

The Guildmaster, a rude insufferable woman, is still in her office at this late hour. I found her easily. Her smell is as vile as her tongue. I consider mistress’s demands, for a moment, and I quickly come to a decision. I will not kill her. I will make her smell of ammonia, though.

I started with something simple. I moved things in her office. Whenever she’d glance away or down, I’d shuffle things about. It was a terrible deal of fun. When she started to notice, the look in her eyes grew strange. It was both distant and filled with panic.

I felt her mana start to roil. My mana always felt like fire. Tenia’s felt like the water from a wide river. Mistress’s mana was soft like the morning breeze. This woman’s mana, though, was churning like shallow rapids. It didn’t feel good. She was looking for me… Then she laughed to herself. Her wariness grew as shallow as her personality.

I moved her chair this time as she was sitting down. She fell to the floor and immediately jumped back to her feet, mana wrapping around her hands like a felt puppet, waiting for the ventriloquist to give it a voice; it wanted to sing.

I moved my mana outward this time, creating a bubble. The heat moved from my body to the walls of the room. Then, letting the flow of mana on my fur change, I disembarked from the shadows.

The woman’s eyes flashed with viciousness and her hands, charged with dark folded magic, assaulted me. I caught her fist and snuffed the mana out as if it were a tiny flame.

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The look in her eyes then was delicious.

“I will not be insulted by you again,” I spoke softly, almost in a growl.

“What kind of game are you playing, do-”

I cut off her words by snapping her wrist backwards. The crack gave me shivers of joy. I was glad she decided to ignore my words. It meant I could hurt her. If she had simply obeyed I would have left unsatisfied.

She screamed and I felt her mana rushing again. I countered it with my own. My fire boiled her shallow rapids to steam and her voice cracked with pain.

“I will not be insulted by you again,” I repeated, louder this time. I met her eyes and I could see, for the first time, that fear had finally taken a firm hold.

“H-how?” She asked.

“Does it matter to the prey how the lion guts it?” I replied. I couldn’t remember much from my fragments, but I don’t remember women all being this uneducated. Why did they all need teaching on proper things? It didn’t make sense. Perhaps, due to a small sample size, I was just being misled. All women couldn’t be stupid, after all. Mistress learned fast. She wasn’t stupid, she was ignorant. It is not a bad thing to be ignorant, it just meant you had things to learn. This guildmaster, though, was given a chance to learn and did not take it.

I unsheathed my blade with my free hand, letting the metal scrape the scabbard. The noise, like the diluted scream of a rabbit in the jaws of death, put terror into the woman’s eyes.

“N-no!” She cried, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

“I will not be insulted by you again,” I repeated for the third time as I swung my blade down.

When I returned to Journey’s End, I found Tenia unconscious with a satisfied grin on her face. Softly, I could hear the mistress’s sobs coming from the room above. I shouldn’t have left. The Blind cannot teach the Blind to see. Leaving Tenia with the mistress was like letting one dog hold the leash of another. In the end, they will still both chase the wild squirrel…

But this was something I could not teach, even if I wanted to. Tenia had mentioned the need for it, and I agreed. The mistress used to be a man. She hasn’t come to terms with the fluidity of the body versus the adaptability of the soul.

Both Tenia and I have worn different outer shells in Xternity. Perhaps one day she will learn, that it’s what’s inside that matters most. The body fades, but the soul is immortal. This is the truth of all things… But I must resist the urge to teach it.

Much like how water conforms to the shape of a bowl, the soul conforms to the shape of a body. In time, the mistress will learn this on her own. There is no need to rush these lessons.

I made my way to the fridge, keeping my footsteps quiet, and found the meal left behind for me. Tenia had prepared me a double-sized serving… Perhaps I will not punish her for giving poor lessons, after all.

I carried the bad teacher to her bed upstairs and laid her down gently. I decided to let the mistress be. Her sobs sounded softer, now, and sleep would take her soon without my intervention. 

My bed was warm, due to some strange magic. I removed my armor and curled up into it, letting out a soft purr by accident. Thankfully there is no one to overhear. I closed my eyes and sleep came quickly. Today had been a good day.