Spirits of the Earth

In a small riverside town in Jadenshine, Eckhart Von Musel perused the dusty shelves of an old library. He was looking for books about life magic, hoping he'd be able to use them to learn some new spells- as Eckhart's abilities seemed to have stagnated after he learned how to stop bleeding. So far he wasn't having any luck, as the few books the library had on the subject were ones he had already read. Eckhart sighed as he picked up a large book titled The Healer's Handbook and put it back down. "Nope, I've read that one too." It was true that Eckhart had read most of the widely published books on life magic, but smaller libraries like this one sometimes had older, rarer books available. Like, for instance, the small, beat up book he had just spotted jammed in between two much larger tomes. Curious, Eckhart painstakingly removed the book from where it was stuck and looked at the front cover.

Curing the Cursed: A Guide to Maladies Most Unusual

Upon opening it, Eckhart realized he had struck gold. The book was clearly hand written, meaning it was likely one of a kind. Flipping through the pages, he spotted quite a few things that interested him- namely herbal remedies for ailments that you'd normally need an alchemist or priest to cure. "Curing lycanthropy? Removing curses? Stopping a demonic possession? Holy shit this is crazy, who wrote this?" Looking at the cover again, he saw only the letters V. O.

Thanking V. O. profusely in his head, he took the book to the librarian to check it out, only to discover that the library had no record of the book in their massive filing cabinet. Incredibly upset that a book had escaped her meticulous filing system, the librarian snapped at Eckhart and told him that he could keep the unusual book. Overjoyed, Eckhart left the library hugging the book tightly to his chest. "It's a beautiful day" he thought. "I think I'll read this over by the water, that would be relaxing." Smiling happily, Eckhart began heading in the direction of the river.

Money was always tight. It had taken Ewan some days to amass the coinage for the library deposit. Mind you, no one quite trusted him to work magic so he mostly pulled weeds. The title was A Guide to Maladies Most Unusual. Life Magic usually incurred a cost to match to whatever it restored. His own body, healthy and ageing yet forever small and clumsy, was testament to that principal. But this tome had a list of simple cures for the most arcane ailments. He had to have it.

And so, coat and shortpants laden with grass stains, he trudged back into the library with a fistful of coins. The prim librarian frowned, "Oh I am sorry. The book's been given away. But I hardly think its the sort of a thing a boy your age should be reading, now is it?"

"But-" color was beginning to rise to Ewan's cheeks.

"I've some adventure tales in the back. Why don't you take a look at those?"

Ewan's mind raced. He had to think up a good lie, "Well I'd wanted to get it as a present for father. Couldn't you tell me who bought it? I'll just ask to copy it. I'll not be a bother, I promise!" he smiled sweetly and batted his batted his eyes. Apparently that was enough. The librarian told Ewan about the scrawny youth who bought it, and pointed him out through the window. Lucky. Ewan dumped the remainder of his coins on the counter and dashed outside to join Eckhardt by the river. The book's new owner looked young; almost too young to be delving into magical secrets already.

"Hello? Are you the one with the book? Unusual Maladies - I mean - Maladies Most Unusual?" he called out shyly. "The lady back there said you'd taken it. I wanted a peek too. Not that she gave me an easy time of it."

Eckhart's head whipped around when he heard the young boy's voice. The boy seemed to be about 9, which deeply concerned Eckhart. "Wait, what? The librarian didn't even know this book existed, how did this kid know?" A terrible thought suddenly struck him. "Aren't there stories of monsters posing as children in order to gain people's trust?" Trying not to show any trace of worry on his face, Eckhart smiled. "Haha, I guess it's a popular book, huh?" His eyes narrowed. "What do you need from it?"

There was something off about the youth and Ewan didn't know what. A nervous titter? Most adults seemed content to indulge him or shoo him off. Few believed his tale and he stopped bothering to tell it.

"Saw it yesterday and wanted to check it out but the lady inside said I couldn't because I had no money for the deposit. It had a really good bit on how dead monk's wort can turn a person's skin part way into a troll's so that it can grow back without scars or burns and then how cranberry tea reverses it and..." he babbled on excitedly, all in one mouthful. There were definitely bits of magical and alchemical jargon in there no boy ought to know. The boy looked more like a local brat than any wizard's apprentice.

"I, um, thought my... mum might like it so I wanted to copy some pages," Ewan lied badly. Master would be more plausible. A grubby hand was extended for a handshake, "Sorry, my name's Ewan."

Eckhart frowned. Fifteen years of living with his older sister had taught him what a lie sounded like, and this was a particularly bad one. "Alright, probably not a monster then- he'd be good at lying if he was. He's probably just some kid with a hobby." Eckhart himself didn't want the kids in Hyoite to know he was interested in healing when he was young- it was considered a bit girly.

Eckhart took the boy's hand and shook it, a smile beginning to form on his face. "It's Eckhart. Eckhart Von Musel. And yeah, cranberries are surprisingly magical apparently. I was just reading about a de-aphrodisiac that's basically just a spiced cranberry sauce. The only other remedy for love potions I'd ever heard of used something called bixbite as the primary ingredient. Like, what even is that?'"

Closing the book, Eckhart turned to to look at Ewan and motioned for him to sit down. "So, what got you into healing? I can tell that it isn't your mom who wants to see the book. There's nothing to be ashamed of y'know, it's a perfectly valid school of magic."

"Well its awful nice to meet you Eckhart. But what's an aph...ro...des...iac?" Ewan tried to look perplexed, poorly hiding a smirk. Either Eckhart guessed his real age (the youth seemed astute enough), or just wasn't very used to filtering himself in front of children. Making him try to explain it would be funny.

Ewan looked a little sheepish at Eckhart's pre-emptive consolation, though his tone turned haughty awful fast "The book is for me. And I think life magic's wonderful! I'm bet I'm the best in all of Serendipity - I mean - who wouldn't want to regrow bits that have gotten lopped off? Or enormous muscles? Or stay young and pretty forever? Every other problem you have comes down to it.

"Did you come all the way here just for this thing? Or are you in love with someone you shouldn't be? I think bixbites are a kind of swamp worm... maybe?" he had no idea. It sounded like an awful worm.

Eckhart couldn't help but smile at Ewan's proclamation that he was Serendipity's best healer. "Wow, It's like he's a smaller me..." he thought wistfully. "It's good to see young people so interested in life magic!" "Sweet Ansgar, I sound old" he added to himself. "The reason I came to Serendipity was to get better at my healing magic, I've been training since I was about your age and I still only know three spells. Serendipity has a lot of mages, so I thought being here would be a positive thing for me. Believe it or not, I also want to be the best healer!"

After a brief pause, Eckhart looked at Ewan with a inquisitive look on his face. "Do you know any spells yet? Or are you still, like, learning the magical theory behind it and stuff? Personally I always thought that Faustisole's essays on life magic were really interesting." Suddenly, Eckhart got red in the face. "Idiot, he's too young for Faustisole" he chided himself. "At best he's read Gwyryl and even that's a stretch."

"Faustisole... he said... you need to change people so they mend faster rather than patching them up?" the boy squinted at Eckhart. The young man hardly seemed more sure of himself than Ewan... blushing as he was.

Grown-up memories of facts were always distant. He remembered the friends he apprentices with, girls he liked, and being a part of some competition where they had to grow giant carnivorous lilies. Was that what Faustisole was about?

"And I can do spells! I- well I know a few. And one good one but you wouldn't believe me!" he blurted out, sounding a touch defensive. "What sort do you know?"

Eckhart shook his head. "No, it was Surrnkf who said that. Faustisole was the one who who said 'every force of destruction has it's antithesis'. I don't blame you for getting the two confused, Faustisole was one of Surrnkf's apprentices. Most of his more famous theories are based off of his master's groundwork." Eckhart's face turned an even deeper red after he said this. "This is going to go right over Ewans head, isn't it? I'm slipping up all over the place today."

Shaking himself, Eckhart continued. "I know how to regenerate a person's cells, and I know how to clot blood. I only learned the last one about 4 months ago actually, came as a massive shock to me when I did. I thought that maybe my magic was just really weak, but now I'm a lot more hopeful." Eckhart scratched his head. "Oh, and I suppose I can clog earwax too. Honestly though, it's such a lame spell that I barely even think about it."  Eckhart smiled encouragingly at Ewan, hoping to stroke the boy's ego a bit. "Now, tell me about this spell I wouldn't believe. I bet it's really cool!"

The boy screwed up his face in embarrassment at the wrong answer, crossing his arms and looking surly. He didn't like being upstaged! The Hyoitian probably hasn't meant to show him up anyway, though regrowing flesh with precision was impressive. Of course Eckhart's enthusiasm inflated his ego just enough he'd... let it slide.

"Well I know little spells to make you mend faster or become an animal. Transfigurations." he enunciated, brimming with haughty excitement, "My best one makes you younger. Reverses everything 'n makes you good as new!

"Only ever managed it once..." he paused to study Eckhart, wondering if the young man would laugh. Or figure out what he meant.

Eckhart began to giggle at Ewan's remark, which soon turned into full fledged laughter. Nearly doubling over, he clapped the young boy on the back. "Good one! And me? I'm- pfffffthahahahhahahahaha! I'm an envoy for elder gods! I came from another dimension too!" Eckhart would laugh at his own joke for about a minute before calming down again. "I haven't thought about Althris in forever, I wonder if she ever made it to Connlaoth?" he briefly thought before turning his attention back to Ewan. "But seriously, transfiguration is pretty advanced- or, at least that's what I've heard. That's really impressive for somebody your age." Suddenly, an idea came to Eckhart. "This kid, he's training to be the same as me... Maybe I could help? It's not as if I mind his company..."

"Um, Ewan... Would you like to be my apprentice?"

"Hey! I don't... I don't need a teacher! Especially not one whose just started shaving!" the boy stamped his foot... not quite sharing Eckhart's laughter. And having reversed ageing Ewan didn't much like the idea of being anyone's apprentice. "Uh, sorry. But ask me anything! I'll prove I was a grown up- uh, an adult! Bet I could do one of these spells easy."

Ewan's wriggling fingers grabbed the old tome from a very apprehensive Eckhart. He flipped haphazardly through it until landing on a dogeared page. It was a mixture of common common mushrooms and apple meant to loosen joints and repair muscle... advised for use on old farm animals or to extend active years in humans by as much as a decade. Oddly appropriate and surely child's play. "If I can whip that up will you believe me?"

"Wait, was he being serious?" Eckhart grimaced when Ewan snatched the book away from him. "Please be careful..." he muttered under his breath. "Uh, alright, I suppose. If you can make that, I'll believe you. Let me just take a look at it first..." Eckhart gingerly took the book back from Ewan and looked at the recipe. It seemed simple enough, but in the footnotes there were some very specific directions on how the apples needed all the juice squeezed out of them for the remedy to work properly. "This seems alright," He said as he handed the book back to the child. "Just be sure to read the small text at the bottom of the page, okay?"

There was a market just across from the bookshop. The hamlet had no hedge-witch, so they settled for the farm-stand. The burly shopkeeper gave Ewan and Eckhart a suspicious glare as they entered. With the older boy smelling of salted fish, and the younger grubby and half-dressed, his fear of lost customers was palpable. His scowl vanished when they approached with a bushels of apple and several handfuls of rare and expensive mushroom.

"Just what are you lads makin' with all that anyway?"

"Its um... a potion kind of... a cure for old cattle," Ewan piped up cheerfully.

"Aye? Reckon my girl out back could use a few drops of that. Thirty bits."

"Uh oh! I... I left my silver at the Library!" Ewan's eyes grew wide with panic. How could he have forgotten? Oh right. Chasing after an old magic book. The boy peered up Eckhart expectantly, and a little sheepish. Grubbing for change was hardly an indicator of his... maturity.

Eckhart sighed as Ewan looked at him, no doubt expecting him to pay for the ingredients by himself. Eckhart grew up poor, and made the minuscule amount of money he did by doing odd jobs for his neighbors. He had hoped that his financial situation would have changed when he came to serendipity, but nobody wanted the talents of a novice life magic user like him. "Not when there are a million other healers in this country better than I am" he thought bitterly. Luckily, growing up with little money made him an expert at whittling prices down to something he could fit into his budget. Eckhart looked at the shopkeeper intensely. "These mushrooms look like they're about to rot! You want thirty bits for this garbage?" Upon saying this, a few other customers gave the shopkeeper a dirty look and began to leave.

"Hey now... no need to make a scene. I'll can part with them for twenty five, how's that sound?

Eckhart feigned disgust at this. "That's too high. Give them to me for ten."

"What! That's outrageous! You cant expect me to-" the shopkeeper started before Eckhart cut him off. Grabbing Ewan by the shoulder he began to drag the boy away from the stall. "Come on, we can get better prices somewhere else." It took only took seven steps before Eckhart heard the shopkeeper call after them. "Fifteen! I can give them to you for fifteen!" "Perfect! He's right where I want him to be" Eckhart thought with smirk. Turning to face the man once more, he wore an expression of hesitation on his face. "Fifteen... that's still a lot. Tell you what, you said your cow was sick? Me and my friend will heal her up for free if you give us the ingredients for twelve bits."

The man seemed to chew this over for a minute before agreeing, and Eckhart and Ewan were pointed in the direction of a small farm. "Alright, time to see if Ewan is as good as he claims."

"You're awful full of surprises. Where'd you learn to do that?" Ewan glanced up at Eckhart in newfound admiration. Callow as he looked the youth was certainly a shrewd haggler. As they walked Ewan caught glimpse of a mangy black cat from the corner of his eye. It slunk after them as if stalking prey. The boy considered offering it some lunch. Of course, all he had was some cheese and hard-tack and that was his lunch.

The farm middled rustic and dilapidated. The orchards and garden were lush but the rusty tools were strewn about the yard, and the fence was in need of patching. Out back a small stable housed a pair of cows, one of which was scrawny and past her prime. They snuffled with lazy curiosity toward the two boys. Ewan narrowed his eye, "I remember this place. Picked apples for two whole days to get that Library fee. All he paid me was a single silver." Of course that was probably generous given how much work such a scrawny creature could do.

Ewan fished around his pack and produced a small cookpot, setting it down, and motioning Eckhart to put the book near it. "So first we need... apple juice! I think you just need to cut them up and boil it out" Ewan began cutting and mashing the apples in preparation to strain out the juice. He motioned for Eckhart to help, but hovered about the book possessively. He was happy to give direction and didn't want to be second-guessed. Of course, the boy-wizard did a rather lazy job of it. He cut large chunks and surely not all the juice would be boiled out; or large bits of skin and core would wind up in the juice.

Eckhart watched closely as Ewan got to work. Ewan's cooking skills were clearly lacking, and at one point Eckhart had to hold back the urge to correct him on the proper way slice apples. "He clearly doesn't know what he's doing, he grimaced. "This is his test though, I need to let him do this himself or he won't know he needs improvement." Eckhart figured that if Ewan screwed up this time, Eckhart could just make the cure again- they had enough apples for it. Still, he couldn't help but feel a sense of dread as Ewan finished up the remedy and went to give it to the cow...

A dark robed figure stumbles through an alleyway, its hand nearly scraping along the wall for support. The figure stops to clutch it's side, where a small glow emanates from under the pitch black robe. Throwing its head back in pain, it's hood falls back,  ruffling short silver hair and revealing the face of a young man, not far into his twenties maybe, gritting his teeth. His eyes squint, and his brow furrows as he soldiers on. Damn my rotten luck, that of all the books in that library, the ONE with the information I need would be given away. The glow becomes a bit brighter, and the young man winces once more, pressing down on the area, causing small black particles to coalesce around it, dimming the glow. No matter... that merchant's descriptions were more than adequate, and his directions were quite clear. To the farm...


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The brew contained a little too much of the mushroom spores, and far too much apple skin, though Ewan hadn't paid that much mind. The boy blew on the cookpot and cheerfully lifted it up, trotting over to one of the cow's. "Here girl!" he called softly and held it under the bovine's nose. "There you go. You'll feel so much better. Right?"

The cow, probably named something like Bessie (the stupid farmer probably didn't have much imagination!), sniffed the potion suspiciously than dangled a tongue to taste it. It was sweet enough and she lapped it up. "See she likes it!" the boy smiled proudly, soon blushing. "Uh - sorry - its supposed to work not taste good. I know that."

At first the old Bessie seemed to brighten. Her crooked posture straightened and her bony haunches rounded with thick muscle. Was she getting big! And then it all went wrong. Her tawny fur began to shed in clumps as the flesh beneath took a mottled, green hue. Ewan stared in awe, a look of childish glee plastered across his face.  "Sure looks amazing! I bet... I bet the fungus part is supposed to grow big and strong then change back! Right? I think that's it...."

If that were the case the book made no mention. Bessie flexed her muscles and trotted in a circle. Perhaps she even enjoyed it? Though Eckhart might have noticed the saliva oozing from her mouth was rapidly turning the nearby grass into slurry...

Eckhart was initially impressed, but as the cow began to change color he quickly grew fearful. "Ewan, I don't think this is..." his voice trailed off as he noticed the ground around the cow becoming sludgy. A putrid smell began to fill the air, causing Eckhart to gag. Suddenly, an angry voice called out to them. "Bessie! What have you done to her! I'll have your heads for this!" "Ewan, we need to go, like, now." Grabbing the boy and the book, Eckhart began to run, dragging Ewan in tow. "God damn it, I was having such a good day too. Why does this always happen to me?" As if responding to their movement, the cow began to give chase...

"Sorry! Wait! I bet we can undo-" Ewan was tugged along by the arm after Eckhart. The older boy ran like the wind and Ewan had enough trouble keeping up let alone arguing. At least he was right about the cow's name.

The Farmer was joined by a younger farmhand trailed after them shouting and cursing. Out of fear or loyalty to their neighbor two women, an old man, and a shrieking girl joined the chase. A black cat scampered at the head of the pack. Eckhart and Ewan ducked and weaved their across the green and down main street until they reached the river-dock. There was no losing the posse. Eckhart with his furs and Ewan shirtless and barefoot they stood out like sore thumbs.

"THERE THEY IS!" came the shrill call of an old woman's voice.

"Uh gosh... uh..." Ewan looked from left to right, panicked. They could sprint up or down the river bank but not across. It was fields in either direction where they'd be easily seen. Ahead of them was a rotted old barge being filled with sacks of grain. Ewan gave Eckhart an apologetic look, "Do you got any money? Maybe we can work or trade or uh... we gotta move!"

"Fuck." The two boys had managed to make it off the farm and through the town without getting caught, but now they were faced with a dead end in the form of the Ora River. "Well, this is quite the mess I've gotten myself into" Eckhart thought with a frown. When Ewan pointed out the boat being loaded with cargo, Eckhart had an idea. "We don't need to pay if we're the cargo!"

Sneaking up to large stack of wheat sacks yet to be loaded, Eckhart quietly opened one and motioned for Ewan to comply. After the younger boy had gotten inside, Eckhart opened another bag and just barely managed to squeeze himself in. Eckhart could hear the frenzied mob approaching outside, and silently prayed that they wouldn't think to search for the two amateur healers among the the boat's cargo. Luckily, Eckhart could soon hear the voices get quieter. "It worked! I'm a genius!"

Suddenly, something small and hairy crept into the sack he was in, nearly giving Eckhart a heart attack. Before he could try to get his unwanted companion out of the bag, he could feel two pairs of hands lift him up and toss him onto the boat...

None of the crewman noticed Ewan when they tossed him about the ship. It was actually a fun ride! Well, the grain was itchy, and it was hard not to squirm. He made it. But Eckhart, small as he was, had the sailors straining to lift him. The grain sack landed on the boat with a thud. The black furry thing hissed and dug its claws into the young man, who couldn't help but emit a yelp of pain.

"Eh?!" the bearded sailor exclaimed, staring in shock at the yowling grain-sack. A pair of rough hands tore it open to reveal Eckhart with a black-cat clinging to his shoulder. "Just what the hells are you doing in there, lad?"

Something was wrong. Ewan wriggled forward to take a peak. No sooner had he done so than a pair of strong hands grabbed him by the armpit. "Got another one!" a tattooed woman held up Ewan like a carnival prize.

"Put me down! We we weren't stealing! We, uh, we were... playing?" that sounded stupid. It might work for him but not for Eckhart.

Resting her back against a large sack of grain, Kino Vanden slid the everglass knife beneath her fingernail. The wandering apothecary absentmindedly worked the clear blade back and forth, cleaning out the accumulated grime with the razor's edge. Behind her "plague doctor's" mask, she chewed her lower lip as her mind wandered.

The barge she had chartered passage on was three days from Kia's Court, and from there it would be less than a week to Arca. It would be good to see some of her fellow alumni - the alchemists-in-training she had apprenticed with under the watchful gaze of crotchety old Grandmaster Bevoke. The cantankerous bastard had been a harsh teacher, and few apprentices lasted more than a fortnight. The few who persevered had bonded over a shared resentment of their master, and a shared respect of their master's skill. By the time Kino had gained recognition as a full-fledged alchemist and set out on her own, she was close as siblings with shrew-faced Galma, mischievous Corbec, gluttonous Rawne... By the gods, it would be good to see them all again.

The barge had just cast off when she was brought out of her lazy half-trance by a sudden yelp. Kino tucked her knife away and pulled herself upright. As she ambled over to the cause of the commotion, she discerned from the cries that the deckhands had caught a couple of stowaways. The waters were slow and calm, so they would most likely be given the options of "swim to shore" or "swim to shore right now you damn punks!" Kino readied herself for some good, clean entertainment.

Sure enough, a tattooed deckhand that called herself "Hoss" was holding aloft a scraggly-haired, bare-chested child of about ten. He squirmed in her grasp. Kino's attention then drifted towards the other stowaway. She stopped. Kino Vanden never forgot a traveling companion, and certainly wouldn't forget a traveling companion as amiable as the one who forlornly stood before her.

"Eckhart?"

*THUD*

Eckhart slammed onto the deck of the boat, letting out a cry of pain as he did so. Whatever had crept into the bag with him sunk claws into his shoulder, cause him to cry out a second time. Almost immediately he was hoisted up and out of the sack by a large bearded man. "Yeah, this seems about right" Eckhart thought gloomily. Looking down at his shoulder, Eckhart saw the mangiest cat he'd ever seen before in his life.

Spoiler

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"What happened to you?" he thought before hearing a familiar, raspy voice say his name. Looking up, he saw the distinctive plague mask of his old friend.

"...No fucking way. Kino?"

After the drudgery of hauling grain sacks tossing two stowaways into the river was their afternoon's entertain. Hoss and Garrick turned toward Kino with surprise. Eager as they were for fare, the crew was wary of their masked passenger. "You know this one Kino?" Garrick quirked a brow, awkwardly dusting off Eckhart's shoulders... unsure if he should be offering an apology or throwing him overboard.

"Look we... we'll work on the ship or something! We won't eat much either. Or we can trade!" he gave Eckhart an apologetic look. The young healer was going to bare the brunt of whatever promises he rattled off. "Can you put me down at least?"

"Ssh!" Hoss set him down, still gripping an arm. She looked beteen Eckhart and Kino, "Well our larder ain't exactly full. We're going to need a fare or they better be able to pull their damn weights.

"Or swim," the riverboat was only fifty feet from shore. Not that returning to the village was an option.

"They're, er, with me," stammered a rather startled Kino. "That's right. They're with me. I'd sent ahead to meet up with some relatives at that last port. My older 'sis's kids. I've the coin for them right here." She quickly regained her composure, despite quizzical looks from Garrick and Hoss.

"And I'd thank you to stop manhandling my nephew, Garrick. Eckhart Vo- *ahem* Vanden, Eckhart Vanden's got quite the nasty temper, that one. And he's a mage. Turn you into a toad soon as look at you, he will." Kino paused. "And Hoss, the other one bites. Fair warning."

The man Kino had called Garrick loosened his grip on Eckhart, who proceeded to run up to his old companion. Stopping abruptly in front of her, Eckhart made a motion as if to hug Kino, but then thought better of it and stopped. "It's only been a month or so, her ribs could still be a bit sensitive."

"Auntie Kino, it's good to see you again!" he said playing along with his friend's bluff. "Me and Ewan were playing hide and seek! We've gotten so good at it that the entire town was looking for us." Hoping Kino would get the message, Eckhart turned to Ewan. "You were really young last time you met her Ewan. You remember Auntie Kino, right?"

"Come on Ewan, don't fuck this up."

A look of bewilderment crossed Ewan's face though he followed it up with a hesitant smile. Masquerading as Eckhart's brother and a complete stranger's nephew was going to be hard. "Oh! Hi Auntie Kino! Yeah I remember. Mostly from the mask. Didn't know this was actually the ship we were sailing on." The boy disentangled himself from Hoss, giving her a particularly toothy smile as if to make Kino's point. Ewan did know a spell called Morrigan's Mangling Maw besides. He never used it, but did bite a pirate once. That sort of counted.

Garrick gave a grunt of annoyance, but did not argue with Kino. "Just keep an eye on your brother, yeah?" the boatman clapped Eckhart on the shoulder and walked off, taking up his pole.

"Thanks. I owe you," Ewan whispered to Kino, then turning to Eckhart with a blush. The boy couldn't meet his gaze. "And you too. Sorry for that whole mess! I swear I did what it said - you got the book right?"

Eckhart smiled gently at Ewan. "Don't worry, I got the book." The cat, now sitting on his shoulder, shifted uncomfortably and mewled. Eckhart looked at it nervously, only to quickly look away when it stared back at him. "I don't know where you came from, but you're creepy." Looking back at Ewan, Eckhart tried his best to appear stern. "I don't want to hurt Ewan's feelings, but bringing down his pride a tad wouldn't hurt him."

"You did not, however, follow the instructions in the book. The book called for no chunks of apple to get into brew, but they did. The book was also very specific on exactly how many mushrooms the brew needed, but I saw you throw a handful in without even counting them." Eckhart would smile again, trying his hardest to assure Ewan that he wasn't angry at him. "It was a beginners mistake, but it was a mistake nonetheless. I can help you learn, but you need to let me help you."

"I'm pretty sure I did it right" Ewan puffed his chest out defiantly. He took the book from Eckhart to show him, and the boy's mouth hung open. Eckhart was right! How could have missed that? Well, he did get over-enthusiastic at times. "But I -- I mean -- I guess I got rusty since I made myself younger.

He swallowed and averted his eyes, "Okay. Maybe I could use some help with my animancy. But I just finished being an apprentice! It'd be awful embarrassing..." Well, really, who would think he was anything but a little urchin anyway? But still.

He cast an apologetic glance at the inscrutable masked woman. Gods, what did she make of all this? "Sorry miss. I mean -- Auntie Kino? -- Its an awful long story."

"Well, I'd love to hear all about it" she crooned. Her throaty rasp of a voice was low and warm. Kino bent down to Ewan's eye level, then inhaled deeply and slid her mask up. A lank strand of hair clung to her brow, and the bridge of her pointed nose was smudged with soot. She smiled. Before the child could say more, Kino preemptively silenced him by pressing an index finger to her lips and letting out a gentle "Sshhh."

Pulling herself up and affixing her mask back into place, Kino turned back to her old friend and traveling companion.

"Eckhart." She said flatly.

Then, catching him off guard, she quickly lashed her hand out and ruffled his hair. Dislodged wheat kernels skittered and bounced off his jacket. The mangy stray perched on his shoulder hissed.

"Where are your... apprentice's, parents?" she asked. "I do hope that he's not yours."

"His Parents? His parents!" Eckhart went red in the face. "Am I kidnapping him? Oh Ansgar, I am aren't I"

"Ewan... do your parents know you're here?"

The alchemist was younger than he expected. She really hadn't anytthing to hide besides the paler. Why did she wear it? Sick? Ewan cringed back at the thought. And then she shushed him! The boy stood in silence, giving Kino the stink-eye as she and Eckhart spoke.

"Well my dad passed and my mom and family are in La'marri mostly -- And besides that I'm much older than I look! I'm really twenty five and I don't need minding and I haven't got any reason to lie!" His squawking had turned Garrick's head.

"I've just come to Serendipity to get back into practice with magic." Ewan patted the large grimoire jutting from his pack. It did look rather wizardly.

A warm sun beat down on the odd trio, and blue-green swirls lazily eddied and twisted on the placid river's surface. The barge passed a small farmstead.

Kino was ready to tell Ewan that real wizards were taller and that little boys mustn't fib. She then bit her tongue at the last moment, realizing that antagonizing the lad would only make him dig his heels in further. He'd open up to the real story about his parents sooner or later. It was three days to Kia's Court after all. From there, it wouldn't be too difficult to dump the waif off on some honest folk heading in the direction of the boy's parents - or on a decent orphanage, depending.

"I'm sure you'll make a fine archmage one day, Ewan." Kino left it at that, for now. The cat mewed, almost as in assent.

The lice-ridden stray had made itself comfortably at home on Eckhart's shoulder, and was busy licking the back of its paw. "Does that little fella have a name?" Kino asked as she absent-mindedly rubbed the nape of her neck, trying to work out a stubborn kink in the muscle.

"Man, Ewan really likes that joke, huh?" thought Eckhart. Snickering, he looked at the cat who'd decided to make a home on his shoulder. "I'm not sure what it's name is. It just kinda... showed up in the bag with me." Slowly, Eckhart removed the mangy cat from his shoulders and placed it on the deck. "I've always wanted a pet," he thought wistfully. "But I have to be realistic. I don't have the money to feed this poor thing and Ewan." Eckhart halfheartedly tried to wave the cat away. "Go on, shoo."

Looking back up at Kino, Eckhart smiled. "So, how are the ribs? They healed OK, right?"


Well, it had finally happened- somebody checked out Maladies Most Unusual from the library it had been placed in. And of course, it had to be taken by two total amateurs. Belladonna had been waiting three years for this day to come, but it looked like that may have been time wasted. 'I can't believe this." the cat thought angrily. "Why couldn't it have been somebody competent?"

Belladonna couldn't help but feel exasperated at the boy's attempt to dismiss her. "Uh, no. You took the book, you're stuck with me now." Meowing in protest, she began rubbing against the younger boy's legs, hoping he may pressure the older one into letting her stay. "I'm still cute, right? Gods, I hope so."

Ewan heaved a sigh of exasperation and sat cross-legged besides Eckhart. Maybe his life story just wasn't very believable.

The flea-bitten cat certainly looked affection starved. Ewan picked up the black cat, and idly stroked her while the grown-ups talked. The patchy fur wasn't exactly soft or nice to pet and he could feel her spine. Poor thing. His gaze swiveled from Kino to Eckhart and the cat's followed, both looking equally pathetic. "Do you got anything for her to eat? She looks hungry...

"And you're not really his auntie are you? Do you do herbs and stuff too?" the boy squinted toward the lifeless eyes of the bird mask. Real articulate.

"The ribs have never been better." Kino proudly thumped her solar plexus. "Helps that I had the future world's-best-healer set them back into place. You really did a bang-up job, Ecks. You and I have some catching up to do," she continued.

Their reunion rudely interrupted by the urchin's plea for cat food, Kino sighed to herself and began to fish a strip of dried mutton out of her pocket. She held it out for the ugly stray to nibble on.

Nearby, Hoss and a bald man with several piercings were chatting as they worked to correct the barge's course. Her voice hushed lest they overhear her, Kino addressed Ewan. "You're right! I'm not his auntie. But that's a secret. It'd be bad if pe-"

"It'd be bad if people thought I was a ransomer or a sicko" - like hell I can say that to a kid!

"Erm, it's a super-duper se~cret, m'kay? "

"Damn Kino, you really do suck with the wee ones, eh?"

"And yes, I'm an alchemist. I "do herbs and stuff.""

Between her voice, her mask and the smoke wafting out of the censer in its beak, Kino tended to make less-than-favorable first impressions with children. That was probably why she had never learned how to properly interact with them. Ewan had yet to run screaming from her. This was by far an improvement.

Noticing the awkward tone in Kino's raspy voice, Eckhart leaned over to Ewan and whispered in his ear. "We used to be traveling companions. She had to go to Connlaoth though, and considering the, uh, magic I have, I thought it'd be best to part ways." Briefly glancing at the cat ravenously eating the food Kino had given it, he turned back to his old friend. "It's feels like it's been forever. I bet my adventures have been crazier than yours!"

Suddenly realizing that he had just boarded a boat without knowing where it was headed, Eckhart began to go red in the face. "Damn it, I'm losing it today!" He gave Kino an embarrassed smile, desperately hoping she wouldn't think less of him for asking what must seem like a silly question. "So... um, where are we headed?"

A smirk crossed the boy's face and he squinted up at Kino's beaked face, "I think I'm supposed to be your nephew too. According to Eckhart."

Ewan tried to contain himsef as the two adults got caught up. He wanted to see what else was in that book. If a few apples could turn a cow into that THING -- what else could it do?! Evidently the mangy cat was growing restless at well. It squirmed in the boy's grip, beady yellow eyes trained on Eckhart as it mewled. Ewan thrust her toward, "I think she wants you.

"And where-ever we're going do you suppose we could try that again? Or something else. I'm surprised you haven't shown her even!"

Eckhart flinched as the cat jumped back onto his shoulders, paws digging into his coat. "Ow, what gives?" he said angrily. The cat hissed back at him in return. "What's this thing's damage?" Eckhart asked nobody in particular. At Ewan's remark, his eyes lit up. "Oh yeah!" He pulled the book out from under his coat. The cat's eyes seemed to light up a bit. "Check this out Kino!"

Flipping to a random page, he handed the book to his friend. "Check out all these remedies! There are a tone of obscure ones in here, stuff I didn't even know. Who know you could cure measles with birch wood and shiitake mushrooms?"

"Kia's Court. We're heading to Kia's Court, about three days downstream. Nice pleasant cruise for us, eh?" Kino merrily chimed. "Thanks."

"Hmmm..."

Not noticing the cat's baleful gaze firmly affixed on her, Kino accepted the book and began to leaf through the pages, occasionally pausing when the mention of a particularly obscure or interesting reagent caught her eye. Behind her mask, she frowned.

"Eckhart, this book is a hoax. Measles are caused by an imbalance of phlegm and black bile, but shiitake only affects the blood. And there's no documented case of birch changing the..."

"Oh. Oh dear."

Kino paused. She had just flipped to a page detailing the third step of a complex brew to rouse the comatose. A tertiary ingredient had caught her eye. A sudden weight grew in the pit of her stomach and the hairs on her neck's nape bristled. The recipe asked for extract of gray fenshade.

Gray fenshade grew in the bleakest of marshes, unholy places where vile things walked. It was said to come from the tears of a mad god. It was rumored to corrode the very soul of the imbiber and draw them into a depraved insanity. Gray fenshade was the kind of plant that would land you in deep, deep trouble. Not trouble with the local constabulary - trouble with inquisitors and witch-finders and hunters of the damned.

Forcing her hands not to tremble, Kino Vanden lowered the book and looked her friend in the eye. That damn cat's gaze seemed to pierce through her. Any hint of the previous joviality in her voice was gone.

"Eckhart. Where did you find this?"

Eckhart went red in the face. "I-I got it from the library... Why?" Pausing, he remembered how confused the librarian had been to see the book. "Well, actually, I'm not sure if it was supposed to be there in the first place. But don't worry, I'm sure it's not dangerous if we do the recipes correctly, right Ewan?" Looking back at Kino, Eckhart frowned. "What's got you so worried?"


Belladonna hissed at the boy. "Idiot! Did you not see what you did to that cow!" She jumped off the boys shoulder, determined to somehow communicate with the only smart human the entire boat. Scrambling onto Kino's shoulder, Belladonna meowed and touched the woman's mask with her good paw. Come on, talk to me. You seem fairly intelligent for somebody who isn't a cat."

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Kino returned the open book to Eckhart. She spoke in a hurried manner that was all business.

"The tertiary reagent that's dehydrated, a third of the way down the left page. The concentrate added in the fourth stage of brewing, halfway down. The strained extract added two moons following that."

She paused and caught her breath. "Tell me, Eckhart, do you know what any of those are? Do you know where they come from?"

As her friend pored over the tome, Kino swallowed. The blood was pounding in her temples. She closed her eyes and began a simple calming meditation exercise she had learned long ago, when she felt a light tapping on her mask. Belladonna mewed. The cat's gaze was flitting back and forth between Kino's eyes and the book with an eerie clarity of purpose. A thought occurred to her. It was unlikely, but Kino Vanden hadn't lived as long as she had by not covering all of her bases.

Reaching her arm around to scratch behind the cat's ear, she crouched down and addressed the dark-haired ragamuffin. Her gentle tone belied the gnawing at the pit of her stomach.

"Ewan, can you tell me exactly when this kitty started following you?"

"Yes..." Ewan replied to Eckhart with a sigh, turning to Kino. With a knitted brow he thought back. There was a stray he felt sorry for in town. "Um, I don't know... Maybe when we went from the library to the store. Or from the store to the farm. Why?

"And come on! You don't need to hide it from me!" He was of course much more interested in just what got Kino so riled. Why wasn't she telling him? The boy scrambled atop the crate to read over Eckhart's shoulder, blocking the young man's view. Social nicities like personal space had departed with much of his patience and education, after all.

What was she pointing at again? The third after the fourth of what? Oh there it was, "Isn't Fenshade used for werewolves? No that's nightshade. What's this recipe meant to do anyway?" He scanned the page.

Eckhart eyes scanned the page that Kino had been worried about. Alright, what do we have here..." This particular recipe was very complex, taking over three months of preparation to complete. "Let's see, water, fern root, cranberries, beeswax, rosemary, cranberries again- oh, really now?" Ewan had decided he also wanted to read what Kino had ponted out. He had also decided he'd do this by blocking Eckhart's view of the page with his head. He was about to tell Awan to move, but his blood froze when he heard the boy say "Fenshade'. "Oh fuck. That stuff is a heavily regulated substance, isn't it? Like, I know that only certain alchemists given a permit by the queen are allowed to work with it in Hyoite." Eckhart began to fiddle with his necklace. "It isn't, uh, illegal here... is it?"

"Illegal? Eckhart, let me tell you a story my old Master told me. Back when he was an apprentice, a colleague of his snagged some gray fenshade from this Essyran merchant. Real sketchy type character, right?"

Kino paused to scratch behind the stray's ears. She continued, watching the mangy feline out of the corner of her eye as she spoke.

"So, this would-be alchemist thinks he's a hotshot, and decides that he can concoct a rejuvenant solution with the fenshade. Locks himself in his room to work on it. Now, he ain't coming out to eat or nothing. Time goes by. By the third day, there's this horrible smell coming from the room. My old Master knocks, all concerned-like for his friend. No response, see? Now 'nother day passes, smell getting worse. Then all the apprentices start hearing this creepy laughing coming from the room. Finally, they bust the door down. The laughing is, like, this half-scream by now. The walk right into the room, and come face to face with the poor sonuvabitch, right in the middle of-"

Kino noticed that Ewan had stopped intruding on Eckhart's reading space, and was watching her, face rapt with fascination.

"Godsdamnit, Kino. Like, really."

"In the middle of something real bad."

The apothecary was almost too busy kicking herself for her conduct in front of the child to notice the golden glitter eminating from behind the cat's ear. Almost. The powdered banyan bark she had subtly rubbed into the stray's fur was shining brightly. And banyan powder only glittered in the presence of magic. Her paranoia vindicated, a surge of grim triumph pumped through her chest.

Ewan, Eckhart and the stray had yet to notice. Kino continued to talk, slowly bringing her hand up to massage the cat's flank.

"Th' point is, gray fenshade's serious shit. Maaajor liability. Not just to your health or legal standing, Ecks. I'm talking threat-to-your-immortal-soul type stuff, here..."

Her fingers probed the wrinkles of the cat's skin, kneading the loose flab like clay.

"And the recipe you're lookin' at, that also has Dante's Tear and Witherwisp in it..."

Kino's hand worked its way to the scruff on the nape of the cat's neck.

"But I'm sure..."

The apothecary made her move. Clenching Belladonna by a fold of loose skin, Kino whipped her arm in a smooth arc. Before the cat could react, it was dangling by its scruff and staring right into the opaque black lenses of a plague doctor's mask.

"That this little gal could tell y'all more about that book than I could."

Belladonna's eyes widened as she dangled in front of the masked woman, hissing in surprise. After the initial shock however, she began to purr. "Thank the goddess, somebody finally figured it out." Sniffing the air, her newfound respect for the woman grew. "Is that banyan bark too? Goodness, you are clever." After a few moments of awkward struggling, she managed to wriggle out of Kino's grasp. After brushing up against the woman's legs, Belladonna meowed and ran over to the edge of the deck. She sat there, waiting. "Come on Kino, you've done well so far. Don't you want to see where I want to go?"


Eckhart would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit freaked out by all of this. "Dante's Tear? How the hell do I keep getting dragged into this dangerous shit?" As the cat scampered off, he turned to Ewan."I think we may have made a huge mistake with this book, kiddo." Rolling his eyes, he began to follow the cat to the edge of the boat. "Next thing you know somebody will try to kill us for it, or the book will come to like and try to hold our souls for ransom. Fuck my life."

Ewan sat in rapture by Kino's story. Was that one of the ingredients the Erlking had him use? He hadn't recalled anything daemonic. The way Kino talked, not to mention her accent, suggested she ran in much seedier circles. It was all very interesting up until she copped out at the end. The boy heaved a sigh as she censored the best part, "Well what did he do exactly?

"And any magic worth doings gonna be dangerous! You've just to protect yourself properly," Ewan took on a haughty tone. Despite the incident with the cow he did conquer death! "I mean I could've put a damping -- dampering -- hex on the cow to make the spell go real slow speed could correct it!  mean we cook with fire right?"

The boy's eyes darted back to Kino as she held up the mangy feline, "How do you figure? Oh! You reckon the owner turned into a cat!?" He leaned forward to inspect Belladonna.

The cat impatiently paced from port to starboard at the influx of attention. Something was up. The feline hopped up on a crate beside Eckhart and rubbed her head again his side with stilted affection. And then she nipped a gold bauble from his pack and dashed toward the edge of the ship, jingling it in the air triumphantly.

How th'fuck am I supposed to answer that, wondered Kino.

Well you see Ewan, sometimes grown-ups have... friends, that are really big and really far away. And when those friends are really really big and really really scary and really really far from here, grown-ups make things called pentagramic evocation circles. They're like doorways, you see. Well, they're really pictures that act like doorways, you curious little scamp. But they're not pictures made from ink or chalk, oh-no-no. The bestest pentagramic evocation circles are made from people-parts. Soooo... my Master's old friend was standing smack-dab in the middle of the biggest, bestest, most complicated-est circle you ever saw, made from all his own different people-parts. Now isn't that just so silly?

Kino swallowed to stop herself from laughing.

I. Am. A. Horrible. Person.

"Well Ewan, you see, um... BAD CAT!"

Shiny bauble clamped tightly in her mouth, Belladonna had propelled herself over the edge of the barge. Surfacing a moment later, the black stray began to paddle purposefully towards the shore.

Leaning on the railing, Eckhart looked at the scenery pass by. "At least Kino is back," he thought, trying to cheer himself up. "I suppose that will make things a bit easier, she always seems know what to do." Suddenly, Eckhart felt something lightly touch his backpack. Turning around he saw the cat running off with the gold earring he had acquired from the obnoxious dragon he'd ran into about a month ago. "Hey you mangy shit, give that back!" Moving to give chase, he saw the cat jump off the boat and begin to give swim to shore. "No! I still need to get that thing appraised, I can't loose it! It's probably worth more than my entire house!" Running to where the captain stood at the wheel, Eckhart spoke to him in a panicked voice. "Please sir, you need to to stop and let me off here!" The captain was about to say something snide, but Eckhart cut him off by shoving his entire money pouch into his hand. Shrugging, the captain pointed to the the small lifeboat hanging off the side of the ship. "You can take that."

Nodding in thanks, Eckhart cut the small rowboat off the hull of the larger vessel with his scalpel and jumped in. He was followed by Ewan and Kino, and the three began to make their way to shore.


Upon reaching the shore, Belladonna looked back at the water. "Good, they're following me. Really, humans and their trinkets." Belladonna would wait for them to landfall before making herself visible to them, running into the brush in the direction of her old home...

Belladona wasn't a very fast swimmer. The trio had no trouble catching up to the furry black head cresting waters. Judging by her glower the cat wasn't enjoying the prank or whatever this was meant to be.

Ewan lazed against the stern as Kino and Eckhart rowed, imagining himself a prince in a pleasure barge. It was a perk of being so little. The boy briefly wondered if he should take an oar on account of Kino's rasping, but waited until they were almost ashore to offer. "Need some help? I'm tougher than I look you know."

The trio (perhaps quartet) found themselves a few miles down-stream from where they began. The sun was low in the sky and to the north they could see thin wisps of smoke rising from village chimneys. It was a charming place minus locals looking to pelt you with fruit. To the suit there was a dense forest. At the treeline Belladona sat on her haunches, surly and damp, tail flicking to-and-fro.

"You mentioned you had some theory about her, Kino? So what do you reckon she really is?"

Ewan dangled from a low-hanging branch, merrily swinging himself back and forth like a ragamuffin-sized pendulum. Kino glowered at him from behind her mask as she tried to massage the soreness out of her arms. Like seriously, to hell with rowing.

"A theory, eh? Nothing as solid as that. But our little friend here's magic. That much's certain. Take a look at that spot behind her ear." The banyan bark hadn't been entirely washed away by Belladonna's river-plunge, and subtle sparkles were barely discernible in the setting sunlight.

"So, ask yr'selves, why would a magic cat - or at least something cat-shaped - be following you two around? Now I'm just gonna assume that you two picked up little Felicia here at around the same time..."

Caught by a pair of quizzical looks, Kino paused.

"C'mon, the thing needs a name. She's Felicia for now. No arguments. And I'm assuming that Fellie started following you two at around the same time you picked up the book. So we've got a magic critter following a magic book."

Kino paused to yawn, then continued. "Magic isn't my thing, but maybe we're looking at an imp or a sprite or a familiar or something. Summoned 'an bound to the book, y'see. Your guesses are as good as mine, really."

Upon hearing Kino's suspicions, Eckhart nodded. "That would make sense. I once read a book about binding rituals like that, they kinda create these weird symbiotic relationships between the things being bound together. Like, when a wizard gets hungry, his familiar will get hungry too- stuff like that." Scratching his head, he gave the cat a confused look. "But doesn't Ryvvyll's Law state that binding an intelligent being to an inanimate object will grant the object an intelligence of it's own?"

"Please tell me the book isn't going to start talking to me. I don't think I could deal with that."

Eckhart slowly approached the cat, gently outstretching his hand. "It's alright Felicia, we won't hurt you. I'd just like my-" he began before the cat ran off again, this time heading deeper into the forest. Cursing, Eckhart began to run through the woods after her.


"Felicia?" Belladonna thought angrily. While impressed that Kino had been able to guess her true nature, she was not happy with the name the woman had given her. "I'm a cat, not a tavern wench!"

Belladonna turned and ran when the older boy asked for his trinket back. She wasn't finished with it, not yet. After about seven minutes she reached it- an abandoned cottage in the middle of the forest. The door had been barred up, and what was once a well kept garden was now a overgrown mess. Belladonna waited until she knew the travelers could see her before entering the building through a shattered window. "Home sweet home..."

Ewan screwed up his face; his swinging slowed to a halt. It should have been obvious the cat was a familiar; she was acting awful funny. How did he miss it? Of course they both missed something obvious too so the score was even. The boy lept from the tree in a flurry of crunching leaves, pulling a large grimoire from his pack. His own spell book was ratty and dog-eared, and filled with misplaced sketches, "Well someone wrote the book. Maybe she's just got an owner?

"Hey wait!" he took off in pursuit of Eckhart and the cat. Ewan's little legs couldn't carry him quite so far as the older boy; he was just about able to keep pace with Kino whose affliction no doubt slowed her. "You don't got to run we're following you!"

The chase took them deep into what was not so much a forest but a coniferous swamp, nourished by the ebb and flow of the river. It was dark and wet and trees blocked out most of the sunlight, but the mud and pine needles made the earth soft like a fine carpet. Their journey ended at a ramshackle cottage, nestled in the bough of a dead tree. It was impossible to tell where the little hut ended and the tree began. The plot was encircled by a rotted picket fence and an overgrown garden. The only sign of life was a crooked scarecrow, positioned by the gate as if he were a doorman.

Eckhart was waiting at the gate.

"Whoa! Its... well I bet it used to be pretty," the smaller boy peered up at the house. "Fellicia's" yellow-green eyes were just visible through the window. He reached out to open the gate, giving the scare-crow a grin, "This must be the place. Looks abandoned. Except for the witch inside, I guess, but we kind of were invited..."

"Then let's not keep this "witch" waiting, eh?"

Kino jovially patted the scarecrow twice on the shoulder before tapping the decrepit gate with the tip of a boot. It swung inwards with a silence starkly at odds with the patina of rust on its worn-out hinges.

Neither of the boys bounded past her towards the cottage, so Kino shrugged, shook the loamy swamp-peat off her boots and stepped past the gate onto a lichen-encrusted cobblestone. Then onto another, and another. Taking great care to only tread on the stones that "Felicia" had bounded over, lest she trip a hex or a ward or some other manner of arcane deathtrap, she made her way towards the cottage proper.

The structure's interior was disappointingly devoid of the bile-filled cauldrons and skull piles which Kino had envisioned. A moldy bed took up one corner of the ramshackle room; a shelf of moth-eaten books filled another. A soot-caked, stone fireplace was embedded into the far wall, and the center of the chamber was dominated by an empty table with a lone chair. The musk of mildew was nigh-on overpowering.

The black stray was perched neatly atop the table, features emblazoned with a look that couldn't be described as anything other than "moody." It regarded each of the trio in turn, scrunched its face into something that half-resembled a wink, then jerked its head towards the fireplace. Eckhart's bauble sailed in a clean arc towards the hearth.

Eckhart gingerly followed Kino into the cottage, a determined look on his face. As somebody who had grown up with nothing of value, having something stolen from bothered him a lot more than it would normally. "Stupid cat. Why does this bullshit always happen to me?"

The house was a mess. Cobwebs hung from he ceiling and Eckhart could hear mice under the floorboards. "It doesn't look like anybody's lived here in years. If the cat is a familiar, than whoever she belonged to doesn't live here." The cat was sitting on a table in the middle of the room glowering at them. Upon seeing Eckhart, it threw the earring out of it's mouth into the fireplace. Without thinking, Eckhart ran to catch it.

And then the chalk circle in front of the fireplace lit up, right as Eckhart stepped in it. Eckhart felt a brief *WOOSH* of magic, and then everything was still. After a pause, he snatched the earring out of the fireplace and pocketed it. Turning around, he grimaced at Kino and Ewan. "Alright, lets get out of-"

"Not so fast, tuna fish." said the cat. Eckhart stopped mid sentence and stared at it. "Quit gawking at me you dipshit. Give me permission to speak to the others, I want to talk to them too." Eckhart swallowed nervously. "Dammit, I knew something like this would happen..." "Oh, um, ok..." Eckhart said, feeling very confused. "I guess you can talk to them."

"No!" said the cat. "It needs to be a definitive yes! Saying "I guess" has no power behind it." Eckhart looked at his companions apologetically before stating "You may speak to them." The cat nodded in appreciation before continuing.

"Alright, so," the cat said, jumping off the table. "First off my name is Belladonna, not Felicia. That name is awful, never call me that. Walking to the fireplace, Belladonna pushed on a tile with her nose, causing a trapdoor to open in front of her. "Come on you nimrods, there's a lot I need to explain." she meowed before jumping down into the room below...

"Nothing. Good. At. All." Ewan was busy browsing the books and assorted nicknacks, which lay behind a curtain of cobwebs. There was a decades old copy of Encyclopedia Serenia, a book of bedtime stories, a book of bedtime stories, and a particularly dog-eared bodice-ripper. Nothing to suggest the occupant was anything other than a lonely shut-in. Then came a flash of light and whoosh of stale air. The boy whirled and then noticed the chalk markings for the first time. He shriked a warning, but by then the cat was yowling at Eckhart, and then she was talking. Ewan gave a sour look as she fled down the fireplace, "Why didn't you do a ! And what's a talking cat going to do to us anyway, Felicia?"

The little sorcerer stepped forward to inspect Eckhart, steering clear of the crude magic circle. It had something to do with conjuration and possession and binding.  "Guess it wasn't a trap. What did she do? Did she take over your body? Or wait. Is she your familiar now? Or are you her's?" Whatever the answer to that question Eckhart felt suddenly damp and uncomfortable. The scent of fresh water, dead mice, and mildew flooded his brain. It was as if he suddenly had a new appendage. The older boy seemed alright, all things considered.

The boy scrambled to the hearth, peering with interesting down the narrow, dark passage behind it. Then he began to hum... a stalk of phosphorescent mushroom bloomed from his palm. "Come on, yeah? We'd be dead if she wanted it!"

***

The cramped passage way spiraled into the earth. The tunnel was pitch black and formed of damp earth. It opened up into a rough-hewn basement in the hollow of the tree. Old, petrified roots descended from the ceiling like pillars. The edges of the chamber were lined with shelves and work-benches. One shelf was stocked with jars of pickled pixies and other tiny creatures - were they moving? Another table was laden with long, desiccated tentacles from a river kraken.

At the center of it all was a circular slab of stone covered in chalk dust. Belladonna sat in the center, tail flicking side-to-side as she waited.

Kino swerved her head to avoid a low-hanging, calcified tree root as the trio filed into the decrepit cellar. Belladonna stood up, arched her back, and thrice flicked her tail back and forth in impatience. Three pairs of eyes on her, the familiar met the gaze of each of the humans in turn before clearing her throat in a dramatic manner.

"Ahem. Ah-hah-ha-hem. Now listen up. I'm sure the three of you are nitwits are wondering-"

"Why a familiar who's bound to a tome with the recipe for Fithvael's Fantastic Flea Finisher can't stop scratching herself? I was wondering about that, I'll admit."

Kino knew that she was playing with fire by goading the cat, but the alchemist was never one to stand slack-jawed and passive as fate unfurled around her. For better or worse, she would take the unknown by the horns, on her terms.

"Also, why are we here?"

Belladonna's good eye twitched a bit at Kino's remark. "How dare you talk back to me. I wouldn't even let another cat treat me that way." "One of these days, us cats will overthrow you two legged freaks. You'll be sorry."

Tail lashing angrily, she stood up and scampered to the messy, reagent covered desk in the back of the room. A crumpled witches hat was lying on the floor underneath. Pushing aside moldy fungi and decayed rabbit feet, she found the candle she was looking for. While she wasn't too happy with the human she'd gotten as her new partner, Belladonna was glad to finally have her cantrips back. Touching her nose to the candle's wick, she caused it to spring to life. Reacting to this, the other candles in the room lit up immediately. Turning back to see that Eckhart had finally made his way into the room, she jumped off the desk and back onto the chalk circle.

"Alright, now if you're done interrupting me," she began, giving the masked woman a dirty look. "I'll tell you why you're here."

"How long has it been?"

"Her name was Vanya. She was only eighteen when she found me and took me in." Looking sadly at the dusty old hat, she continued. "When she first bound me to her, we were so exited. So... stupid. We were going to cure the world together, she told me." Looking back at the humans, Belladonna let out a quiet chuckle. "For a few years, all we did was experiment with reagents, trying to find new cures for illnesses. We... never had much luck. When he showed up, offered to give us the remedies we wanted..." Belladonna's voice trailed off before she continued, fur bristling with anger. "Well, how were we supposed to say no?"

"Why didn't I say something?"

"This... being. It never gave us a name, but he told us that he sympathized with us. Wanted to see us succeed. Vanya and I were young and foolish, so we believed him." Belladonna took a look at the hat once more. "We ended up calling him "The Giftgiver". My girl signed a paper in blood, and she suddenly knew a whole bunch of cures that we never would've thought of. They'll apparently only work if the person mixing the ingredients knows what it will create, so we were making remedies that literally nobody else could. We never stopped to think about what happened until Vanya had that accursed dream..."

"I failed."

"Some witches, before they pass on, will receive a dream the day before. Call it fate throwing them a bone. In Vanya's dream, saw the Giftgiver taking her away, and leaving me behind. When she realized what she had done, who she had made a bargain with, she became obsessed with atonement. She knew the Giftgiver was probably watching her, so she had me write down all of the most useful remedies we discovered and leave them in the library for somebody to find, in hopes that somebody else would make good use of them." Belladonna stopped talking for a few seconds, before quietly continuing. "When I got back from the library, she was already gone."

"Why couldn't it have taken me too?"

Looking at Eckhart and Ewan, Belladonna's tone of voice became very harsh. "Imagine my surprise when, after four years, you two idiots pick up the book and start misusing it. Now, because you two are stupid, I'm going to have to follow you to make sure you don't fuck up again." Now looking solely at the fishy smelling boy, Belladonna's eyes narrowed. "You'd better not think that because we're bound together it means you can treat me like a pet either. You're not Vanya, and you never will be."

Looking at Kino, Belladonna meowed snidely. "I can tell you've wanted to say something for a while. Spit it out, Beaky."

Ewan stood, arms crossed, as the rude cat went on and on about her old mistress. Annoyance turned into fascination as she went on. The bit about the Giftgiver was awfully familiar. And after what Vanya did how could the cat call them stupid? He was squirming with impatience by the time she finished the tale.

"Whose to say we didn't make that cow better?!" he shot Eckhart and Kino a glance as if looking for moral support, "And I don't think we need to listen to a cat at all. What are you going to do to us anyway? Scratch us? Spit up dead mice?"

Ewan narrowed his eyes, turning serious, "And I know this Giftgiver of yours. Prince of Dawn, yeah? You don't give gifts to fair folk. Its his brother, the Prince of Dusk, that does trades. Gave him all my years and learning and he made me all immortal and whatnot." The boy puffed out his scrawny chest, preening. He was definitely better at magic than this... dumb operation.

As Belladonna finished her story, Kino couldn't help but pity the ugly little creature a bit. Living with the fallout of one's hubris hurts like a sumbitch, and the remorse in the cat's mewling was real. Not that the alchemist felt any less inclined to give the tramp a good punt, mind you.

As Ewan chimed in about the Twin Princes, she wondered just how exactly the little boy had heard of such esoteric mythical beings. There was more to the urchin than there seemed, at least that much was certain. Was it that farfetched that there might be a grain of truth to the boy's outrageous claims of being some kind of former archmage? The odds still were that he was just an endearing scamp with a gift for bullshittery, but that wasn't exactly a hundred-percent sure bet now, was it? The alchemist's musings were rudely cut short as the cat addressed her.

"I can tell you've wanted to say something for a while. Spit it out, Beaky."

"Stow the jabs, furbag. Here's what I'm thinking. If your "Giftgiver" and Ewan's "Prince" are one in the same, and if my 'ol gramp's stories were true, then I've an idea about what happened to this Vanya of yours."

Seeing that she had Belladonna's attention, Kino continued.

"The Twin Princes, they're extraplanar tricksters. Ethereal gamblers. Eldritch dealbrokers. They collect the souls of mortals to use as gambling trinkets. Keep 'em stored in gemstones and use 'em as prizes for the games they play with each other. At least according to my alcoholic, Alzheimer's-ridden bastard of a grandfather, that is."

"But gramps knew his stuff. And if I'm right about this, your old master ain't moving on to any afterlife. Not while she's all bottled up inside a cosmic poker chip. But the Princes love themselves a gamble. Her soul might not be beyond your reach, if y'wanted to try 'n set things right. Try 'n let her... move on."

Kino concluded with a flourish of her hands.

"Well. Thoughts, mangebag?"

Eckhart looked on as the cat addressed them. He could feel sympathy for her, for sure- but he didn't much like how he was being treated. "You're the one who tricked me into this relationship, asshole." he thought bitterly. "What gives you the right to insult me for not being good enough?"

After listening to Kino's story, the cat's fur bristled. "You think I don't know all that?" she hissed angrily. "The first thing I did after he took her was research his true nature. The Giftgiver doesn't appear to the same person twice." Belladonna's whiskers drooped. "Vanya's soul is stuck in limbo, and I have no way of reaching her."

At that, something clicked in Eckhart's head. "But wait, if the Giftgiver gambles away the souls he takes, what's to say he still has Vanya? Maybe somebody else has her now?"

"That was smart Eckhart, now the cat will worry that her friend is in the hands of someone even worse. Good going."

"By the time the sidhe are through with a soul its always different." Ewan said in a small voice, almost reverently. But he was beginning to get angry. With all that could have happened an eternity of being ten wasn't a horrible fate. Stupid, bossy cat. He trotted from the stairwell over to a nearby workbench. No way did this all belong to some lonely girl with a cat. Either she had a a prior master, or had been receiving a LOTS of gifts. The boy paused to examine a straw farmer's hat. And, with a flourish, modeled it before a nearby mirror. It looked good, in a wholesome, ragged farm-boy sort of way.

"Paws off it, ratboy!" Belladonna bared her teeth.

Ewan felt the hat grow heavier, and brackish slime was dribbling down his bags. Was something in the hat? Cringing, he lifted up the hat to reveal a dead frog. "Oh-gosh-what!" he flung the offending object away. It sailed through the air, over Belladona and Eckhart, and landed with a wet thud on Kino's beak. Wretching and whining he shook out his tangled hair. "Sorry your friend is gone, but we can't go chasing after sidhe tricksters if that's what you think. I did it once already! And Eckhart got the book fair and square so we can do what we want with it!

"And uh. Sorry Kino," he bit his lip, averting his gaze from the imposing beaked figure.

Belladonna's yellow-green eyes narrowed, fixing on Eckhart. "If the book is all that's left of her! I'm going to make sure its used properly..."

Kino plucked the hat from her beak before twirling it around her finger then discarding it. She placed her hands on her hips and stared at the child, adjusting her posture so as to radiate an aura of taciturn disapproval. Ewan grinned sheepishly. Behind the cold, dead eyepieces of her mask, the alchemist was grinning from ear to ear at the ragamuffin's antics, but he didn't need to know that.

She cleared her throat.

"If your master did get traded to somebody else, I'd imagine some an oracle or scry-seer might be able to point you in the right direction. Pantheon's Plaza in the capitol might have someone along those lines. Or maybe the arcanist's district. Would a piece 'o Vanya's clothing help them track her soul? I mean, it works that way with bloodhounds..."

"An' also, the capitol's as good a place as any to go t'sell some of the book's remedies. We'd make bank what with all the sick folk there, 'an feel good about it to boot. What do y'say, Ecks?"

Eckhart's eyes lit up at Kino's suggestion. "Yeah, that sounds great! There are healing schools in Arca too, so I'll be able to take classes with the money we make!" Eckhart's mood began to improve. "Oh Ansgar, this is going to be awesome! So what if that stupid cat comes with us?"

Belladonna, however, had different plans. "No. I want to go to Altas Verde, that's where the connection between the faerie realm and our world is the strongest."

Eckhart looked at the cat, and then at his friends. "Um, well, we out number you."

Belladonna stared at him. "I don't care what you want. You have the book, you're sticking with me. I'm going to Altas Verde, and so are you."

Beginning to get annoyed, Eckhart turned to look at Ewan and Kino. He said nothing, but his eyes pleaded for help.

"Well I was going to Arca anyway. No harm just looking I s'pose..." Ewan nodded in agreement with Kino, glad he got a laugh out of her. Then the dumb cat started running her mouth.

"We're not getting pulled into your mess!" the boy put his hands on hips defiantly. "I'm right sorry about your friend but that's how it goes!"

Bella flicked her tail and curled around Eckhart's angle. "Oh I don't need you or beaky! Just Tunafish here and Vanya's book," she purred. Just then Eckhart's eyes flashed yellow and the young man began moving on his own accord. He began chanting an unfamiliar tongue. It was easily recognizable as a gating spell.

"Hey what are you-?!" the boy hurled an old shoe at the pair, but an invisible barrier deflected the projectile. One of Kino's knives followed, getting stuck mid air and oozing acid. "Let him go!"

"I'm not going to trade him. That would be suicide. No, no, he's better off..."

Ewan shouted his own spell back. Within Bella's barrier the floor cracked open' revealing a toothy mouth. Morrigan's Mangling Maw. A trio of tongues slithered fourth to snatch the cat but it was too late. A corona of foxfire illuminated the room and Eckhart and Bella are gone.

"I hate cats. Not good for a single thing except mousing," the boy scowled, staring with incredulity where Eckhart and Bella once stood. He gave a heavy sigh and gathered up his hat. "I guess we know where they are. But, um, I reckon we deserve to loot this place, yeah?"

The pair set about ransacking Vanya's cottage in restitution, gingerly stepping over the probing tendrils of the extradimensional maw.