At a nod from Ara, Ine opens the door and we leave the room together. As Ara doesn't tell me to get down to the ground, I keep my place. Front limbs hooked at the front of her shoulder and my rear limbs just below the back of her shoulder allow me to practically stand. Technically lying down would work, but it feels wrong to do so. Claw-rending, gut-wrenching and jaw-clenching wrong. So I stand, a little bit uncomfortable, as we go.

The women are heading in the other direction than we've come from. At the end of the narrower corridor we turn left, then right until we reach a big straight corridor. I think it goes down the length of the entire building. We turn left again, so the place we previously exited and entered from is straight behind me. Straight ahead is a similar big set of doors, closed this time with a man in grey clothing standing on the right side. He opens the right side of the door as we approach and we enter a large hall. It's not the hall I first appeared in, but similar in style. A few people, mostly men, are standing around talking while others are walking around with a purpose. Almost everyone is wearing blue.

This hall has several sets of doors on my left side and big stairs on the right. Straight ahead are doors similar to the ones we passed through now. The stairs start on either side of the hall, next to the doors, and meet up in the middle. Both on the ground floor and on the top of the stairs are large doors with men in grey next to them. It makes me wonder if it's normal to have people to open doors for you. The devils also had people to open doors, much of the time. I add it to the ever growing list of things to think about.

As we go up I notice there is enough space between the stairs and the wall to walk and a small door hidden there. They carry me off higher up the stairs before I can make up my mind to investigate. From the top of the stairs is a great view of the hall floor. It's interesting to see the humans from above when I can usually only hope to look at them from an equal level. Having hair starts to make sense as it allows me to tell them apart a bit by the color and length. From here the random seeming motion of people going about their business looks more orderly too. It's truly a change in perspective. I try to get one more good look before Ara and Ine walk through the big doors at the top of the stairs, taking me with them. The view is good, but not worth jumping off for.

Past the double doors is another corridor. Even I can see the difference. The one where Ara has her room is rough compared to this, the stones so smooth I wonder if I could fit a claw anywhere. Many things are covering the wall, cloth-like rectangles with people coloured on them. On both sides are doors with a metal plate in the middle at regular intervals. We pass all of them, six if I counted correctly, and head for large doors at the end. Metal shapes are placed above it, for what purpose I don't know. A man in grey is once again present to open the door.

Inside is a ledge of some sorts with a slight downwards slope with 'benches' on it. Benches are for sitting, but it seems only comfortable for two-legged creatures. The ledge is overhanging and overlooking more of these benches on the floor below. That's what I can see from here, at least. At the far wall is a raised area with a pedestal of some kind. On the ceiling are constructs carrying light-orbs, crystals giving off a yellowish light that is quite pleasant on the eyes, though they give off almost no heat.

We are not the first to arrive. As I am walked through the door I can see a variety of people are already there. I think they're all women, but if their mammaries aren't very big they are easily hidden by the robes. Due to that it's a bit hard to tell with some of them, but they seem female-ish. All of them have their own familiars. Birds, cat-things and dog-things mostly, though one is wearing a serpent-like creature. As familiar as they are looking, none of them ring as 'demon' to my senses, so none of them are very interesting. They're also quite timid, just my presence is enough to cow a few of them. The same can be said for Ara. When they see her, eyes widen and breaths catch. It's quite nice to both be recognized as superior.

The others make space as Ara walks us to the front, to the edge of the ledge we're on. A quick look behind shows me Ine is not following us. She is probably standing with some other grey-robed people further back, but it's hard to spot her among them. As Ara arrives at the front it gives her and me a view from above on the area below. More benches, also on a downward slope to the far end. The idea I get is a lot of people sitting and all looking at the raised area on the far side. Interesting, but only creatures that hopelessly enjoy one another's company could possibly enjoy the situation. Like humans. Below the area is filling up with other humans, males to the best of my guessing. All in all it's getting quite noisy and the enclosed space makes it all the more unbearable. Up here the other women start talking too. They try to avoid Ara without being obvious about it, which makes it all the more obvious. My sense of Ara becomes cold and sharp, she can see it too and is angry about it.

Before I can poke Ara to find out more, silence starts to spread below and here above soon follows. Quick footsteps are from the grey-robed people handing little rods and ... something to the women, Ine taking care of Ara. A rustling from below tells me the same is happening there. I can also hear heavier footsteps below as well, though I doubt anyone else up here can. They are moving steadily from the back to the front and suddenly I can finally see the person they are coming from. It's a human, no surprise there, but his robes are green instead of the blue and grey I'm used to and I wonder if it means anything. The human walks towards the raised area at the far wall and stands behind the pedestal. That's one mystery cleared up, though a room this large just to listen to one person seems a bit too much to me.

The man, based on his facial hair, raps the pedestal in front of him and suddenly it's very quiet indeed, except for two of the young women nearby discussing the physical characteristics of some of the men below. I'm torn between who to listen to. My understanding has advanced enough to hear the women are talking about noses, cheeks and other parts of the face. Knowing more about the things humans themselves pay attention to would help greatly in recognizing one from another other than by scent and sound. On the other hand, the man in green is probably important and part of me tells me I 'should' listen to him.

Ara is solely focused on the man in green. For this time I'm willing to admit she probably knows better than I do, so I do the same. It is but a moment before the man begins to speak.

"Welcome all of you. Knights in training, future estate managers, engineers, mages and young nobles, to your first mandatory group lecture on familiars. We're holding this lecture to rid you all of bad teachings and preconceptions. As much knowledge as the old noble houses may hold on the subject, they still often contradict one another and those of you common born have access to even worse information. We're doing this as a group because I'm not going to spend the time to approach everyone separately." His voice booms through the large space. It must be something about the shape of the room, because my ears are picking up strange reverberations.

My attention is drawn back as he continues speaking.

"First of all, I would like to ask those of you who already have a familiar to have them move to one of the places reserved for them at the sides and rear of the room!"

Is this a good moment to tell Ara I can mostly understand what people are saying now? Probably not, maybe not ever. I wait for her to click her tongue and point to a pole with a broad, flat top in the back. Scuttling over a few rows of benches I find the pole easy to climb. Taking care not to cut into the wood makes it a bit harder, but soon I make myself comfortable. From here I can't see the lower floor, but the man who is speaking is still easily visible. The other familiars take more time to find a good spot, some barely responding to instructions. Laughter from below hints the same is going on there. Should I have been less obedient? Ara shouldn't get the idea I'll always obey. As the noises die down the man continues

"So, there is your first lesson, I hope you've all been paying attention? They're not pets, they have a will and personality, likes and dislikes and you should keep their body type in mind with whatever you ask them to do."

Slowly blinking my eyes I consider these words. Is this not a given?

"That being said, they're not that intelligent, so you need to take care of the training with diligence."

On one hand I feel insulted, but on the other hand, it hasn't been that long since thinking was much harder for me. I also don't know how other summoned creatures manage it, but the language learning thing is helping out. A lot.

"As you all know, your familiar will understand your words, but the same is not true the other way around. It may be unable to speak a language you understand." The man pauses and slowly looks around the room.

"This is the main reason people think familiars are nothing but animals, they can't understand them. That is entirely the fault of the owner of the familiar. Familiars have been taught sign language among things. There is always a way. If all else fails, they can learn how to send more complex messages through the link between you." Again he pauses and looks around the room as if to make a point.

From here the lesson continues on the rights, duties and responsibilities of my 'owner' and I tune out. This is not interesting at all, nor do I understand much of it. There are technicalities about who is responsible when for what kind of damage done to whichever thing. What is interesting is the women who have resumed their talk about the defining features of males. It teaches me about human faces and what I should look for as identifying marks. Interestingly, their eye color varies as much as their hair color. In the next half-hour I learn more about chins, noses and cheeks than I ever want to remember. Somehow I'm confident I will anyway. By now the women are starting to giggle and speak in riddles about something and specifically the size of the thing. Bored, I try to find something else to busy myself with.

Didn't the man earlier say something about sending messages through a link? Remembering the 'poke' I gave Ara earlier today gives me some idea what he meant. Carefully crafting the feeling, I send her the sensation of being bored. On her seat, Ara stiffens a little and I feel both amusement and irritation coming through as feedback. There is also the sensation of sternness.

To while away the time I start staring at one of the felines here. As we both have secondary eyelids, we manage to stare a long time before I get impatient. As some of my irritation starts to affect my body language, the feline quickly looks away. As I gaze around for another opponent to intimidate, Ara pokes my mind. She's paying less attention to the speaking man and instead doing some glowy hand waving thing. Is that magic with the gloves off? It looks much more complicated this way. The women around us are sneaking glances at what Ara is doing. Suddenly the glow is gone.

I feel something coming through my link with her as well as an intention. Touch the wood I've been standing on. Looking under me, the surface is marred by dozens of shallow scratches. As careful as I try to be, it's hard not to damage something so soft. With a popping feeling whatever was coming through the link arrives and one of my claws glows a faint greenish light. Where I touch the small wooden platform, the wood starts to repair itself. Slowly I move my claw over the entire surface, mesmerized by seeing wood act like that.

Before I recover from it, the magic is gone. Some of the feeling still lingers, but I really wanted to know more about magic. So far my biggest issues have been with magic and not just getting hit by it, also the summoning itself. What went through me a moment ago is gone now, but I'm sure Ara will do something like this again. We did attract some attention and the women are now whispering about me and Ara. They should be more quiet if they don't want me to hear.

Surely Ara can hear them whispering, even if she can't hear what is being said. Instead of staring them down and showing them who the dominant female is, she is moving the little rod she got from Ine over a white square sheet. In fact, I know she can hear them. Her anger is slowly rising on the rhythm of their conversation. It's making me giddy and nervous, so it's hard for me to stand still. My tail is twitching behind me and my front claws flex and relax rhythmically. One of the whispering women sees me staring at them and pales, hurriedly saying something to the others. They look at me and I can see their eyes go wide. Then they look at Ara and I can almost see them shrink in on themselves. One of their familiars hisses at me, but a quick glance and twitch from me have it scrambling to find a place further away from me.

Humans are strange. A superior swarmling would just have challenged small fry like that or shoved it aside. Weaker swarmlings also wouldn't act like that, knowing there would be consequences. What puzzles me is why an obviously superior human like Ara would tolerate such looks from inferior creatures. At least the women have shut up now, or at least are talking soft enough that Ara can't hear them. As her anger subsides I regain my own calm as well. The man in green continues on with his talking, oblivious to what went on here.

When the talking ends and the doors are opened I run out. So much doing nothing! The man in grey at the end of the corridor sees me coming. For a moment he looks like he doesn't know if he wants to run or not, but he stands his ground. He looks weak and I would be able to rip him to pieces, but he faces me anyway. A bit wide eyed, but as stoic as can be. When I reach the door I jump for the left side, landing with a satisfying 'thunk' as my claws gain purchase. The next jump takes me to the wall, close to the ceiling. From there I push myself back into the corridor and towards Ara. Already running when I land, just the sensation of moving and using my muscles soothes me. I'm not the only familiar doing so, but the others stay close to their 'owners', as if that would ever protect them from me!

From the corridor and down the stairs, through the side doors and the other corridors I keep walking, enjoying just walking and darting around for a while. I can ride Ara again later, for now I need to stretch my claws. There is one question I want to ask though. I tried to ask earlier, but I can sense a coldness from Ara as we walk which tells me not to try. It takes until we reach the room for her mood to mellow enough.

"Ara," I begin, drawing her attention. "Ara, not hurt women?" The w and the m give me some trouble, but I think I got the sound of it.

She looks at me in confusion. "Of course I heard them."

Hissing at her for misunderstanding I compose the feeling and send it through the link. The feeling of being superior and not receiving respect from the inferior. Intimidating the lesser being. The triumph of knowing yourself to be better.

As my message sinks in, I see something flash in Ara's eyes which compliments the anger from before. She fusses a bit with her clothing before replying in a soft voice.

"Those girls think they're high class. That they are my equal, or at least not much lower. They are wrong. They are not even close and one day they will know it. All of them. For my father, my family and for me. They'll know." A small smile plays along her lips. Her anger cold and hard despite the soft voice and the smile. "But not today. There is a time and place for everything and their time has not come yet."

Ara turns around and waves at Ine to do whatever maids do. As Ine is doing her thing she continues, without looking at me.

"It was enjoyable to watch you threaten them into submission, thank you for that."

Humans are strange.