Levi sat at The Dusty Tome’s desk tinkering with his stratus. It wasn’t something he would whip out all willy-nilly in a public place, but it was dark and after hours so he wasn’t worried about any non-magi seeing the equipment.

It had been a day since his fight with Caleb. Just as Levi had predicted, the poison wore off shortly after the assailant left, leaving Levi to drag himself home with only the moon and some bats for company. It was a loss, but he had been left alive.

How lucky. People died from stuff like that occasionally. Levi always had a knack for not kicking the bucket.

The lack of any follow-up attack suggested Caleb had been telling the truth, the fight was a warning. As long as Levi stayed cooped up in the shop and dropped investigating the black monster he could keep his head.

A cool early evening breeze blew in through one of the open windows, obstructed by an aging cat. It hacked and gasped periodically in an attempt to clear its throat. Hugo stared at it pensively. The boy was a golem, an artificial being, and only knew things that Levi had taken the time to prime him on. While Levi understood the cat’s behavior, Hugo was in the dark.

The cat hacked a few more times before opening its mouth. “Apologies,” he muttered. “When it comes to talking there’s a big difference between theory and practice.”

“This is absurd. Cats cannot speak English. Master! Contradiction detected!” Hugo pointed at the cat.

“Well actually…,” started Levi.

“You must be joking,” said the boy.

“Don’t act so surprised, false child. By the time you’ve gotten to your ninth life you pick up a thing or two,” said the cat.

“Why haven’t I heard of this before?”

“Just because we can doesn’t mean we want to. I’m a middle-cat.”

“…”

“Ah! A middle-man, sorry. I forgot it isn’t a species desig…des…”

“You mean designation,” said Hugo.

“Right. Regardless, I’m here on Talise’s behalf. Weird dame, it’s like she’s whispering in my ear despite being miles away.”

“She has a way of doing that with animals,” said Levi. “I’d think an old guy like you would appreciate having a woman whisper sweet nothings in their ear.”

“…moving on,” said the cat, “Talise says a woman named ‘Noelle’ encountered some monster and a few suspect fellows last night.”

“That idiot…,” groaned Levi.

“After that, there’s no new movement to report. Guess she got spooked. Speaking from personal experience, most stay away from areas where they’ve encountered a predator.”

“At least she backed off. That’s good.”

“Oh my!” gasped the cat.

“What’s wrong?” asked Levi.

“Oh…Talise wasn’t pleased with that answer. She’s linked up with my hearing and vision through magic, you see.”

“That’s some fun magic. How does it work?”

“No idea. I’m just an old cat. Don’t put me on the spot with questions like that! I’m in a difficult position here, playing middle-man! It’s more awkward than getting pet while licking your nethers!”

“No idea how that feels…”

“It’s worse than cleaning down there and getting a taste of something!”

“You doubled down on it! Hey Hugo! This cat’s pretty funny isn’t it!”

Levi turned his attention back to the stratus on the table. It had been acting up ever since coming into contact with the monster. The bracelet was designed to produce fire after receiving an input of magic from the wearer, no faith required. Simply put, it was a simple, rugged tool which shouldn’t stop working after a scuffle or two.

He had already cracked open the casing and the results were anything but ordinary. There was no physical damage to the magical circuitry on which the spell was encoded. Quite the opposite, it was in excellent condition. The issue was more a case of what was missing rather than what was damaged.

Huge chunks of the spell were missing from the circuitry.

“That’s interesting,” said the cat.

Levi glanced up. The cat was fixated on the stratus. No doubt Talise was instructing it to keep its eyes on the device.

“Talise says everything but the control measures are missing. Honestly you humans, cramming a spell into something like this…”

What the cat said, or rather, what Talise had said to the cat, was correct. The bracelet stratus contained an encoding of a spell derived from Pele, the Goddess of Volcanoes and Fire. Supposedly the original spell was devastatingly explosive, but over time it was recorded and refined with countless control circuitry to produce a safe stratus. To strip that information out was no small feat. The monster’s merit clearly extended past stretching limbs and screaming.

“Why are you even looking?” asked the cat, “Were you already suspecting this?”

“Why would I be?”

“Because finding out what that black beasty was taking from you can help you figure out what’s going on.”

“Get real,” said Levi as he closed up the stratus and shoved it unceremoniously into his pocket. “There’s nothing useful to gleam from this thing.”

“If it’s so useless why are you looking at it?”

“Quit acting like I’m giving you what you want.”

“...”

The cat fell silent and its eyes had lost focus. “Seems I’ve lost my connection, give me a moment here.” It continued to idle, but Talise did not return. It was truly just the cat now.

“I guess something came up?” offered the cat.

“Umm...want some milk?” asked Levi.

“No thank you. That stuff’s bad for the stomach. Would you mind getting rid of that noise? It’s quite irritating.”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“That annoying buzz coming from your pocket! All humans have it these days! The last decade has been beyond annoying with that damned noise constantly going off!”

“You mean my phone?” asked Levi as he pulled it from his pocket. Cats were known to have a higher range of hearing than people, so it was definitely a possibility. A light at the top was flashing indicating that a voicemail had come in. The call history showed an unknown number. Levi had listed the cell as his shop’s contact information on the web so he wouldn’t have to pay for another line, so it was probably just someone calling about stock or hours.

He didn’t have anything better to do so he pulled up the voicemail to listen to it. “Don’t worry, I’ll switch the phone off after this,” he assured the cat.

To Levi’s surprise, it was Noelle’s voice that came through his speaker. The message content was even more alarming.

The voicemail concluded, Levi returned the phone to his pocket, stood up, and made his way to the door.

“I’m heading out a bit. Lock up for me Hugo.”

“Of course.”

“W-wait? Talise hasn’t come back yet!” said the cat.

“It’s about time I got going. May as well take care of this if all we’re going to do is chat about it over and over,” said Levi. He pushed the door open and stepped into the night, leaving the safety of his shop behind.

“Hmmm,” said the cat to himself, “You’re back? No, he’s gone now. No, I don’t know where he went. You’re the one who wanted to trust the lad! Just let him go about his business! Follow him? Goodness no that sounds dangerous. I’ve had many a back alley scrape with toms of all shapes and sizes but…”

“What an annoying cat,” said Hugo to nobody while he withdrew the keys to the shop from the desk drawer.