Beyond?

“The warcat is the loved pet of every man with valour. Though they were previously used to assist in the hunt of fleeing enemy soldiers, they turned into pets and guardians of house and garden. They are available in different colours and degrees of fluffiness. The biggest of them reach a height of two metres while on all fours.

It is recommended for the owner to keep the cat well fed in order to be tolerated. It is necessary to feed the cat regularly. Once or twice won't do any good. Of course an extensive garden is recommended.

That and the cat's natural desire to stay within a small territory as long as it doesn't get hungry make them perfect guardians. You don't have much more to do than to listen to the terrified screams of thieves and assassins, as they try to reach your house. The cats haven't lost their vile nature, despite being bred to be easier to handle for many generations.”

-Equerry.

***Free City States of Nict, Capital***

***Azir***

Something moves under me and wakes me up. I am lying on top of Stella. We are still partly in our clothes and the bed is completely messed up.

Stella is awake and trying to push me off. “We have to get up. I have lessons in an hour... and you are heavy.”

I grin while remembering last night and kiss her neck. “But there is something that has to be taken care of in the morning.” Stella gasps as I place my hand on her precious place.

Even though she reacts well, she still tries to push me off. “I need to shower and take the contraceptives.”

“Can't you just change your body accordingly? You are studying medicine and still rely on your friend's reports. When will you learn that she is playing tricks on you?” I start rubbing my body against hers.

She squirms under me. “But the books are all avoiding detailed descriptions of the act itself for some reason. And I told you that messing with the body is dangerous. Especially when it comes to fine details inside it. It's hard to control the change when you can't look at the effect. I don't want to harm my organs permanently.”

“Too bad.” I grab her hips and penetrate her. She lets out a cute shriek, but its different from yesterday. Fired up by her moans I start to move at my own convenience. Yesterday she played with me while being on top all the time. This is payback.

After a while she shudders with a cute moan and I feel her tightening, which brings me to the end of my endurance and a burning sensation courses through my body as her legs close around me.

*Crack*

I stop moving as a searing pain shoots up my spine and the built up pressure releases itself inside her. I gasp. “This is supposed to happen when I am an old man! Why?” Returning to reality, I find that Stella's legs press down on me like a vice.

Finally she relaxes and realizes what she did. “Ow! I am so sorry!”

I force myself to smile. “Can't... move... hurts!”

“H... Heal!”

The stinging pain disappears and I roll off of her. “Why can't we do it normally? Are we cursed?”

“Jeez. You deserved that one. Now I'll be late for sure.” She pats my cheek. “Don't worry. Louise said that it takes time to find the right pace.” Rolling out of the bed herself, she stands up and takes a robe and a set of clothes out of one of the wardrobes. Then she rushes out of the room.

I stay in bed for five more minutes while applying healing magic to my back. This could become problematic if it goes on like this. Finally I find the courage to try to move. It works out somehow. Though there is still a strange feeling.

Next I get dressed and ravage the kitchen for something edible. It doesn't seem like a maid was included in the package. There is some bread, salted meat and vegetables. A sufficient breakfast. That done I visit the bathroom myself and am almost run over by Stella on her way out. A little later I leave the house and meet my pet outside.

The warcat looks at me expectantly. Fortunately I brought one of the rabbits with me. I store them in an iced cooling box at the entrance. Holding the rabbit out in front of me, it disappears with a snap of the warcat's jaws and all I am left with the rabbit's ear at which I was holding it. “I think I'll call you Ghost, since you are almost completely white.” Ghost's fur is long and soft, just his face, paws and tail are speckled with brown and red.

Ghost starts purring and rubs its head against my chest, almost toppling me over while doing so. I pet it and hurry through the courtyard. Maybe I should consider to enter and leave my house by flight.

At the entrance I am awaited by the hairy guard who nods at me. I greet him too and leave the property. A few students are eyeing the construction which appeared over night and I hurry to get away from there.

I want to visit Talia, Louise and Karsen to bring them the happy news. Karsen and Talia should be at Ryland's office today, so I'll seek them out first.

Indeed, a few minutes later I find them there. They are reading reports. “Friends! I have happy news!” Both of them look at me with inquiring expression. “I am in love!”

Talia shrugs her shoulders. “We all know that. There are enough rumours about you and Stella.” She takes a sip from a glass of water.

“And from today on we are betrothed to each other. It's a finished deal.” I smile at them.

Karsen frowns while Talia spits her water onto the document she is reading. “Your parents will kill you. No! They'll kill me because I didn't stop it!”

“No! It turned out that Stella is a Gejene and hid her identity since she wanted to go to school.” And so I take my time to fill them in. A few surprised questions later I am done.

“Congratulations?” Karsen asks with a raised eyebrow, still not entirely believing my tale.

“Annice and Olivia will explode.” Talia snickers, stands up and hugs me. Then she lets go.

“Like I care about that. What are you two doing with all these reports by the way?” I nod at the stashes of folders in front of Karsen and Talia.

Karsen answers flat out. “We are trying to find a pattern in the attacks of the black magicians. The incident we were involved in made us think.”

“A pattern?” I take a look at one of the folders.

Talia nods. “Yes. There is definitely something strange about all the incidents throughout the years. The first question is as follows. Who are they?”

Karsen continues. “They don't follow the pattern we would normally expect. We call everyone who commit moral crimes by using magic dark magicians. So who are they? Group number one belongs to mages from noble clans who turn power hungry. They have access to education and knowledge. So it's possible for someone from that group to create an incident on the scale like we experienced.”

Talia raises one finger. “The second possibility for the surfacing of a dark magicians are rogues, formerly unknown mages who slipped through the country's detection net and developed their skills in secret. That may happen by having a commoner's child develop magical powers. But they would have no access to knowledge or education. It's unlikely that someone like that develops the skills to create portals on his own. That implies that someone is searching for those people very effectively and training them. Even more effectively than the country!”

Karsen takes over again. “That brings us to the third group. They come from outside and are trying to create havoc and unrest to prepare the country for a bigger event. That would fit the pattern since most of the dark magicians in our files tried to kill as many people as possible. The recent event we were involved in topped everything we knew so far. If that magician had summoned a horde of monsters under our feet and let them loose, it could have cost us many lives. And not just any lives, but the lives of the next generation of the country's leading personalities.”

I started chewing on my lower lip while listening to Karsen and Talia. “So I assume that you checked your files for the identities of the offenders?”

“They were all unknowns. At least most of them, but it has to be expected since not all incidents have to be related to each other. We are talking about numbers from one previously known magician to fifty complete unknowns throughout the country. And we can add that the recent case was an unknown too, after examining the body dug out last month. There are no obvious relationships between the dark magicians themselves, nor do they have any family ties with the known magical families. That last incident occurred within the past two years. We went farther back by looking into the archives. The country started to be plagued by waves of these incidents about six hundred years ago. And in the recent hundred years we have a significant increase.” Talia pauses to let me think.

After a while I give my interpretation. “So we are looking at a big organized group from outside the country. Probably another country. Unless they breed their own magicians in cages somewhere. I can't believe that someone can manage to stay hidden for that long while snatching gifted children away from their parents. Not to mention that there aren't many such cases. Just in case it would be good to search for cases of missing children or whole families dying at once. If you don't silence the parents when abducting, they would surely talk.”

Karsen shakes his head. “Already done. There are some, but not enough.”

“Then they come from outside and have a means of passing the border in secrecy. Most likely another nation. Though the timespan of the preparations worries me. Until recently they were too small in scale too.” I murmur. “But they kept the country occupied and focused on itself. Is there any country which benefits if Nict doesn't look outwards?”

Talia frowns. “All of them. I don't think that a single one of our neighbours is unhappy as long as we stay away from them. So you came to the same conclusion as us.”

“Yes. You should take this to Ryland and Quarma. They can ring the right bells.” I place the report back on the table.

We keep talking about other stuff while the time flies by. Mostly about Stella and me though.

After a while the door opens and Stella enters with Louise. “There you are. Azir already filled you in?”

Karsen and Talia nod with awed expressions. “To think that we worked with the leader's daughter all this time”

Stella hugs both of them. “Please don't treat me any differently. And I wanted to invite you two to the party at the palace tonight. Helen Gejene will announce our betrothal there.” A grin spreads over Stella's entire face.

Both Karsen and Talia nod eagerly.

.