Before Friday morning could come, I'd need to take a long nap.

The idea of stalking Killian left a bad taste in my mouth. Fridays were usually my days off. I could laze about the house napping on the empty bed with no recourse. There was a time in the afternoon where the suns rays shone down perfectly on the bed sheets, making it possibly the best nap spot in the known world.

There were however rules. Technically I wasn't a cat. I was a living breathing sentient creature and it was just a tiny bit weird to be sleeping in the same bed as me. Therefore the only time I really could nap on the bed was when Hannah wasn't around. Those moment were quite scarce.

Closing my eyes and willing myself into slumber, I tried to push past the thoughts about an unpleasant tomorrow. That night I found myself in the heavy embrace of dreams.

When I next opened my eyes, I wasn't in a familiar place.

The wind lashed at my body as I stood on a rooftop towering over a metal megapolis of a city. The skeletal forms of obliterated buildings littered into the horizon like some sort of graveyard.

Smoke billowed from craters and all across the maze of wide streets and narrow deadends caused by debris, flashes of light both small and large erupted spontaneously.

I had but a small moment to observe before the wind roared and a gust of force nearly ripped me from the side of the man made spire overlooking the landscape.

Frantically I searched with my claws for anything I could catch a grip on as a dense mass of black miasma, so gargantuan it felt like its shadow would never leave as it passed overhead.

The creature screamed in a language I couldn't recognise. From its belly hundreds of forms dropped into the graveyard of a city, still being lit up by fire. In return, projectiles that screamed with fire as they traced through the sky battered against the great shadow relentlessly.

The wind settled only after the sheer vacuum left by the creature's gargantuan form was filled.

“Finally, the Diemwnt have are here!” I heard someone yell nearby. “Please oh gods have mercy.”

I became aware that I couldn't move my body. I felt trapped as a witness to the scenes unfolding before me.

I could feel relief that was not my own at the sight of the black mass. It was alienable enough for me to understand this relief was not my own. In the distance I spotted four great metallic floating monoliths, caricatures of the human form with wings of wrought iron to keep them aloft. “Why won't you leave us alone!” I felt my own hoarse voice scream.

I was pulled into the embrace of a nearby person whose presence I was only faintly aware of.

Why was I here? What was I doing here? In but brief moments of clarity, as though my real consciousness were in the throes of a struggle, I questioned the dream before me.

I was not cat, but a little girl. I had hands and fingers, not paws and claws. I felt more vulnerable and terrified than I'd ever been as a cat. My parents were right besides me. We were hiding here at the top of this spire like building as the bad men worked their way up past whatever stragglers they found to kill us.

But the Diemwnt were here now. They'd save us. With fang and claw they'd rip and tear the evil-

A scream cut my thoughts short. I pushed my head further into the embrace, hoping to drown out the noise. Reciting my beliefs like a mantra that I'd be saved and this was indeed not the end, I fought my hardest to believe that any second now the heroes of the story would appear.

However the screaming didn't stop. Nor did the smell of fire or the heavy footsteps of the men hidden in their iron juggernauts, washing us away along with our hopes with searing fire. The heat turned to engulf me last, the pleading of my parents fruitless on these cold monsters. I felt relief that it was all coming to an end.

There'd no longer be crawling through a ruined city, or starving for food, or my parents fighting. It was finally all over. But I desperately wanted to know. One burning question was on my mind fuelled by the unfairness of those stolen fun years of my life I knew I had lived but felt so alien I could no longer recall.

Why were humans so cruel? If only somebody would just wipe them all out.

“Wake up.”

“Nggnnn... five more minutes pls.” Rather lamely I attempted to shake off the voice calling from the other side.

My senses were shocked awake when a slice ham was practically stuffed up my nose. I wasn't sure whether I should be happy or angry.

Hannah's shadow loomed over me. “You know the sight of you sleeping so contently really pisses me off, right?”

I lifted my heavy head as Hannah whipped away the slices of ham that were dangling infront of me. It was too early to think let alone come with a retort. I just wanted my ham. But the day would not stop for me.

What was I doing? It was Friday. Ah right, I'd been promised breakfast in return for my services. Today I was going to stalk Killian.

With a hollow numbness in my chest, I wondered where in my life I had gone wrong to end up like this. With not much memory of my past to go by, I just quietly assumed this feeling of meaningless wasting my time was another symptom of my curse.

These were symptoms that could be cured with the repeated and timely application of the treatment called 'feeding'.

“Honestly,” Hannah sighed.

Stretching myself awake, I reluctantly fought off the morning pull back to sleep. “There's relatively few employment options for my kind.” After finishing my stretching, I sat back down, looking around me.

Hadn't I slept in the kitchen? What was I doing here on the end of Hannah's bed? No wonder she was in a bad mood.

“I mean, yeah there's not much you can actually do. But is it much to ask you stay awake and suffer along with me? You know I find lectures and people's personal drama boring as well, right?”

“Then you understand why I'd want to sleep through it.” I replied much to her chagrin.

Hannah glared down at me and then promptly ate the ham in her hands.

“What?! Hey that's mine!” I protest. “We had a deal damnit!” It was my breakfast by right!

Hananh waved off my protests. “I'll feed you when I see results. Stop complaining, I never let you go to sleep starving anyway.”

“You know breakfast has a special place in my heart! The same goes for ham! What you've done is more than just stabbed me through the heart. You've... You've stabbed me through two hearts!”

“Oh stop being so dramatic. Let's get back to doing things, maybe?” Hannah walked past my tantrum and back into the kitchen. I followed behind her sadly with little else to do.

It'd been a week and a day since the failed licence exam. She'd be returning this Friday to the Triolo with both arms intact and no easy excuse available to not fulfil her social contract of being experimented on. Sadly, common sense appeared not to be a viable excuse as she lacked any at all.

We left fairly early in the morning. One belligerent witch with her hungry cat stowed away in her scroll stuffed satchel. The streets were busy. Now that market stands had been set up along the main streets, there was less space to manoeuvrer through the foot traffic.

Permission to start selling wouldn't be given until tomorrow. But that didn't stop the influx of peddlers and merchants setting up. Porters carrying cargo and wagons stowed away were a common sight. Sailors were fresh off the boat, their tanned skins or fair hair as exotic as their foreign words and merchandise.

The variety of alcohols available in local taverns and inns were no doubt larger than what would be available any other time of the year.

Sadly, the weather wasn't too kind. Intermittently it showered just long enough to dampen the ground but never left a pause long enough for it to dry up.

It'd been decided for me that when we arrived at the Triolo gatehouse we'd split up. She'd head to the Nurse's office and I'd look for Killian.

Before I had even begun I was hit with a wave of exhaustion. For a spell after Hannah went out of sight I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to wander far from the gatehouse.

There was simply a numbing pain in my chest that at some point my life had gone horribly wrong for me to be wasting my time with chores like this. It was a feeling I couldn't quite shake.

But breakfast was breakfast. My beliefs on smoked ham were no secret. That being said, maybe I should develop new tastes in the future? A few plain slices smoked ham breakfast was quite bland and... well... Almost too cat like.

I'd have to think about it later. With a dream and a road of fulfilment laid bare before me, it would be worse than wasting time not to do anything.

Firstly, find Killian. That would be the hardest part. Or at least I assumed. I had a good nose and brilliant hearing but I didn't keep track of who smelt like what. I always felt that would be invasive.

I assumed optimistically that he'd be practising outside. I couldn't imagine magic practice being called off due to mildly irritating weather. Alternatively he could be skipping, in which case my best bet might have been to check around the library.

My search was called off early once I realised going outside in even intermittent showers was unpleasant. Fur soaked, I slipped back indoors.

I'd search the library first then.

Shacking myself off, annoying a student who was unfortunate enough to be standing nearby, I traced a path to where most of the knowledge in the Triolo was stored.

Along the way, I tried to steer clear of everyone's path. Walking with Hannah had meant I had a giant whose shadow I could walk behind to avoid being stamped by others. That's not to say nobody was observant enough to notice little old me, but it was surprising how many didn't.

Mather was one of the people who didn't. He walked past me at an eager pace wearing a proud smile on his lips, I couldn't stop the shiver running down my spine.

Is that the way he always carried himself when human experimentation was on the rota?

Pushing aside my irritation I proceeded further through the campus. As the Library came into sight I was faced with the next challenge world had in store for me. The Library was closed.

Great.

There was nothing for it but to just wander the halls and hope for the best. The search had hardly begun and it'd ground to a halt.

For two hours I failed to make any progress. I'd ran out of ideas and I'd ran out of space to wander around. In fact after two hours of mindless wandering around the campus I was surprised I hadn't found him.

I could have carried on for another two hours and probably gotten the same results. I could have tried returning to Hannah but I disliked that idea as well. Hannah's warnings ominously replayed in my head. I didn't really want to risk being around for whatever experiments she was going through.

My options however, weren't limited. I didn't have to slave away fruitlessly. Two hours was enough.

Far out there in the quieter parts of the Triolo, Linth was probably sitting in her den all by herself reading a book. Honestly, who could fault me for wanting to hang out with her? As Hannah said herself, she didn't have many friends so it would naturally be a good thing to socialise.

Of course I couldn't talk to her but it was the thought that counted.

It would involve a brief stroll outside but I wouldn't need to worry about being stepped on at all. Maybe Killian wasn't going to show up at the academy today and we'd grossly overestimated what results we'd get out of today.

Concluding there was not much left to be done, I left the campus and headed north. Being rather shameless, I swept away whatever fragments of guilt from my mind without much effort.

This was the option in which A: I didn't have to stalk Killian. And B: I could hang out with Linth. I couldn't see a way I could possibly lose. Well, that was assuming that Linth could keep her mouth shut about this to Hannah. But that would be some other day's problem.

The hymn of chatter in the campus grew ever distant as I walked. The buzz of life couldn't seem to breach into the bubble surrounding the quiet part of the Triolo. Even the sailors on their ships were silent as they passed beneath the shadow of the Cathedral on their boats.

There were no birds nesting here, no stray cats or lost dogs. The few buildings and stone piers near the river presumably had been abandoned for decades despite their appearance. However when I looked up at the towering fortress overlooking us all on its hill, I couldn't say the same for it.

Deep in my gut I felt nervous. As though the archaic structure itself were staring down at me. It knew that today I was audacious enough to walk in it's presence alone and unaccompanied.

What was I thinking? A building was a building. If I were to believe it was a sign of bad luck, then I'd need to accept that for myself as well.

I hurried further along the path pausing when I came to the door to Linth's building. Since nobody was coming or going, there wasn't any opportunity for me to slip inside. Most of the windows on the ground floor were shuttered shut or too high. Linth was on the second floor. Even if I hurled my body against the door she wouldn't notice.

“Damn...” I sighed. Nothing was ever easy.

The world did not care. It'd make you work for your good ideas. After you'd worked yourself down ragged, you'd wonder what was so 'good' about your idea in the first place. I wasn't going to fall into that trap. A good plan, a good idea, they were the ones you didn't have to work for. They were the ones that worked themselves whilst you reaped the results.

It looked like I'd have to abandon this plan as well. It was a shame but hardly the end of the world. My backup plan of finding somewhere pleasant to nap was always there. In fact, it was the plan that always had my back. Relatively few times had I needed to put in effort to take a nap. The nap rarely caused problems of its own either.

Or at least, that's what I would've done. But the gnawing sense that I was wasting my time hadn't abated since this morning. It gave me pause and left my uneasy.

What exactly did I even want to do? 'Not this' was apparently the only answer I could give. I wanted to be doing something else. Always something else.

And then I heard the door handle behind me rattle. I had but a few moments to jump out of the way of the door as it swung outwards.

Had Linth miraculously sensed my unease and come down to rescue me? Was this proof that our bond transcended the physical world?

Ah no, it was just Killian.

Wait, what?

The door swung outwards, obscuring me from view. He stepped out and paused. Quietly he sighed and looked around him. As the door shut behind him I swore he might spot me but by standing very very still I somehow minimised my presence enough for him not to notice me.

I swore that some people were just blind to me and didn't know where to look. If they just looked down at their feet.

Relief washed over me the moment he started walking away. And then the questions came.

Why was he here? What had he been doing? Where was he going? Should I follow?

Looking between the shut door and Killian's back, I reluctantly understood that the world had now made even the idea of napping seem irresponsible whether I liked it or not.

Just as I was about to give in, the world had decided to slap me by showing me Killian.

There wasn't much for it. If I wanted to know answers to my questions, hanging around here wouldn't be how I found out. With the door closed behind me I wouldn't be able to inspect around Linth's den. I'd have to follow him back to the campus. Wait, where was he going? He wasn't heading back south to the main campus. He was instead walking to the disused buildings by the river.

Just from his gait I could tell he wasn't on a casual walk. Had he been talking with Linth? I swore there and then if he had been blithering like usual to poor Linth I'd mince his ankles. But there was no easy way to head back and check.

From a distance I followed. Stalking came second nature to a cat. They were light, they could walk with their body high off the ground so as not to disturb the grass or low to crawl nimbly through dense foliage. The obvious problem was my fur colour. Black on green stood out. Sticking to the long grass and dense foliage that hadn't been cut back for a long time, I hoped the wind would mask whatever noise generated by my movements.

Killian readjusted the sack he carried over his shoulder. It was small but bulky. He slipped into one of the abandoned buildings and for a moment I was left there in the cold. This was enough, right? Both Hannah and I could check this building later and see if we found anything.

The thick smell of alcohol permeated the building, making me wonder whether somebody was hiding a truly decadent amount of gin here without academy permission. That had to be the case.

The sack Killian was carrying certainly didn't look like it had been filled with bottles of alcohol. Not to mention distilled alcohol like gin was really expensive and Killian didn't seem like he got a massive personal allowance from his family.

Abandoning the mission here would be fine. That being said, some questions may forever go unanswered.

I searched around the building. It was connected to the river by a stone pier. Ships would have docked there and offloaded cargo into the building a long time ago. Perhaps the priests who used to live up in the cathedral had been hiding rampant alcoholism in their ranks. I couldn't blame them. If I lived such a boring reclusive life, I wouldn't want to be sober through it.

It looked like there was somewhere I could jump up onto the pier. There was a chance I could get into the building. Doing so meant going into the mud along the river banks first.

Great. Now I would need a bath next.

I leaped up onto the pier and came face to face with another door to obstruct my entrance. I subdued my frustration. So much for sticking toplans that didn't need work. Never again would I go near rivers or their mucky banks.

The door swung open wide to my surprise. I dove for cover behind a stubby stone pillar that could have been used to tie boats to the pier. Killian still had his sack slung over his shoulder.

He looked out over the river, a pained smile on his face. Firstly, he took off his boots tucked them in the shadow of the building near the door and then rolled up the sleeves of his trouser legs.

Don't you dare, I desperately prayed, however he ignored my mental pleas and jumped off the pier into the shallow water and landed on his feet.

Dammit, it was like the world wanted to spite me. He moved along the pier until I couldn't see him at the angle I was hiding at. The sound of Killian wading through the water came to abrupt halt, followed by the sound of metal scraping against stone and then silence.

I peered over the edge and saw only empty water. I was tempted to throw his boots into the water out of spite but I held back.

If I was going to follow I'd need to figure out where he went. I couldn't see any obvious escapes for him above the water. The walls of pier were made out of stone. I supposed it saved money having not to replace woodrot. It was a shame this place was never used. Or at least it wasn't supposed to be used anyway but somebody was definitely hiding alcohol here. Home revenues and customs would have a field day if they knew about this.

There was no passage above the water I could spot him using. But what about under the water? Ah geez, this really was the best moment to abandon the mission. Like hell was I going to swim in that river. Not a chance. No way.

I'd come this far. This was result enough, right? I could tell Hannah that Killian was, um, well he was, errrr. He had to be doing something right? Having come this far I still didn't know. Too bad because that water looked very unhealthy.

…

A cold wind blew across the pier as I continued to stare down into the murky depths. Killian still wasn't coming up. This definitely felt like I was stumbling across something important. But didn't the city pour its sewage into this river?

…

This pier was a pretty good spot for a nap.

Ah for fu-

Fine!

I dove in.

The cold embrace of the river water was to be expected, unpleasant. I was practically diving head first into the city's sewage outlet after all.

But this dive wasn't a fruitless endeavour. There was a metal grate that looked to be some sort of sewage outlet beneath the pier. It might have been connected up to the entirety of the Triolo. The bars looked just wide enough for me to slip through but an error in judgement would be lethal. I'd drown in this turgid river water if I got stuck.

Eugghhhhhh! Why was I even doing this?!

This could have been Hannah doing this, not me. I was just a little old cursed cat. This was not the job people should put on their elders. I'd earned my dues in life. Presumably. Probably. Surely the karmic gods should show mercy on my current plight.

That was assuming karmic gods even existed. I'd heard people were far easier on black cats in the south. They even had a god with the face of a cat. Maybe there was a trade ship I could stow away on and escape this lame existence of mine.

A for gods' sake, I couldn't believe I was still going to try follow Killian. An error in judgment would just mean sweet release.

I went for the grate. They were disgustingly well lubricated. I wondered whether the great harbour fire of Kasper had anything to do with the fact the river was so polluted it was practically flammable.

I rose up slowly for air after passing through. Rising my eyes and nose to break the surface, my first sight was Killian wringing out his shirt.

“I don't know why I bothered to roll up my sleeves. This is why I brought a spare set of clothes.”

I descended back into the murky pool hoping not to be spotted, lungs in an argument with my brain over the decisions it had decided to make today. Dammit why couldn't he just move on?! I was suffocating for air here!

More to the point, what the hell was he doing? Judging from the brief sight of the ceiling, I figured we were beneath the foundations of the pier. I'd assumed there was some sort of sewage system but never knew where the outlets were, nor that anybody would travel them.

However, not to imply that I exactly knew the taste of fresh sewage, but having this murky water practically thrust up my sensitive nose I was fairly certain this wasn't a sewage outlet. I hoped for both mine and Killian's sake.

Hannah had described this as 'thrilling'. I'd describe this as downright humiliating. I was waiting for some deadbeat to wring his clothes dry whilst I slowly suffocated for air. I'd sold myself incredibly short for a few measly pieces of smoked ham in the morning.

The dark murky depths were becoming unbearable. When I breached the surface cautiously again, Killian was heading down the tunnel. Slowly, I slid out of the water and out into the darkness.

Fresh air had never tasted so good.

The only light in tunnel was coming from the fairy candle dancing at the tip of Killian's finger. This place was chillingly cold. Heat rose and whatever else was left was being carried out by the water. The water run in a deep ditch through the centre. This tunnel's purpose was perhaps getting river water to the wells? That would mean this wasn't set up as a sewage system.

I assumed that the wells that used the water from this system weren't in operation. But knowing the stupidity of people, I wouldn't be surprised if they were.

Fur soaked, morale at an all time low, I followed behind Killian. In the darkness of these tunnels, I finally found use for the colour of my fur.

It was a little difficult to approximate the direction we were headed. But if this was a water system, then I could guess roughly where this was going. And when the thought crossed my mind the darkness ahead seemed somehow denser.

I'd need to keep track of where I was going. The network of tunnels seemed expansive. Getting lost would be a pain.

Ahead, Killian came to a halt at an apparent dead end to the tunnel. It had narrowed to the point where he had to wade into the water being carried through the network, submerging himself up to his waist.

He tied the sack around over his shoulder and let the candle go out. He felt along the wall for bumps just deep enough to rest his feet on and began climbing upwards.

I sat down and watched him as he ascended up and out of sight.

“Shit.” I muttered. I'd gone as far as I was willing to go. Going further would just be too difficult. I'd never be able to claw myself vertically up that stone wall even with the bumps to help. I was matted with damp and no doubt the wall was just as slippery.

But I'd found out a few things. It appeared as though Killian visited the cathedral often. That had to be where he was going. A personal project of his perhaps?

I got up onto my feet again and turned to leave.

This had been a colossal waste of time but like hell was I going to let myself climb up that wall just to break my neck. The game was over. I was done. I quit. Time to go home and-

However the darkness ahead seemed impenetrable, like a dense miasma or a storm of coal dust. The hairs of my fur stood on end as a feeling I never knew I was familiar with rushed over me. It made me freeze motionless, catching my breath in my throat like a coarse ball of ice I couldn't swallow.

What's it doing here? I didn't understand.

Run.

What even is it? Such a thing couldn't even exist. Whatever hid behind that shadowy veil was just a creature of make belief. There was no way such fanciful things could exist.

Don't try and understand. Run.

It's first step forward kicked my stalling mind into gear.

We aren't ready for this. Just run.

Climbing high vertically up a slippery stone surface risking fall and breaking my neck? I could hardly convey in words how eager I was to get started right away.