It was amazing how easy it was to turn a room full of destroyed junk, with nothing functional beyond its physical shape, into a well-equipped campsite. The only thing previously present in the room we truly used was the grate in the floor, allowing water that spilt from the laundry machines to drain. With a bit of magic, mostly water though I added an application of Fire Magic into it to make things hot, I could easily create a shower and the same magics allowed me to prepare some simple, hot food using minimal supplies. There was a reason why I had pushed myself ot learn at least a bit of Fire Magic, just for this, it had been worth it.

I considered trying to soften the concrete floor with some Earth Magic but ultimately, that wouldnÄt really work, the amount of power and skill needed was beyond me. In addition, the best I could accomplish would likely be a pile of sand, which wasn’t much softer than concrete, just more shifty.

I tried to recreate the shadowy wards I had used on Mundus for a while and I managed to expend some Astral Power. Only, I had no idea if I had actually managed to do something or if I had just wasted my efforts. There was no tangible change and even with my magic sight, I was unable to detect anything, so I was somewhat confident that I had wasted them. But then, if I wanted to place an alarm, would I want it to be readily visible to anyone capable of detecting magic, or would I want to use the concealment aspect of Darkness to hide the strands of power? I might have managed to hide the alarm, even without deliberately trying to do so, simply because of Darkness’ inherent affinity to do so.

Unless something stumbled upon us during the day, we might never know. Though, despite enjoying new discoveries, somehow, I didn’t want to actually gain confirmation on this one. At least not with any sort of actual danger stumbling upon us. Some small, weak critter, sure, no problem, but getting mobbed by a horde of Shattered was not my idea of a good time. Or getting mobbed in general, not unless I prepared the battlefield and controlled it myself.

My dreams during the day were, just like the last few days, strange. Disjointed, with shadowy figures, images and symbols floating through my mind, nothing I could actually understand making me wonder if it was a simple nightmare, playing on a primordial fear of the unknown, or if it was something else. Neither option sounded particularly fun, though I made a mental note to try meditating on the images at some point.

Sadly, the day didn’t pass quietly, even after we woke up. At some time in the afternoon, Silva’s ears perked up and moments later, I heard a strange noise, distinctly different from the usual noises of the city. It sounded somewhat similar to Silva, running across concrete, only softer by an order of magnitude or two. Scratching claws, if my guess was correct, but luckily not a lot of them. One, maybe two animals, or four, if they were some sort of two-legged beast. I had no idea what was coming towards us, and I wasn’t really worried, not with all three of us rested and alert.

Waving to the others, I spun the shadows of the room around us, allowing us to blend into the environment. We all moved to different parts of the room, spreading out so we took up ambush positions. Then, it became a waiting game, the hardest part of the battle. Knowing that the enemy is coming but being unable to perfectly time things, due to echoes and a general lack of information. I had no idea where the creature might jump out from, there were a few open or broken pipes but nothing hinted at anything.

The first to twitch was, amusingly, Lia. While she was the one with the lowest Intuition, and therefore the weakest senses between the three of us, she was also the one with the highest agility and dexterity, giving her the best reaction speed and manual acuity. While my mind was still trying to process the sounds I was hearing, Lia was already jumping forward, her hands striking as quick as snakes into one of the broken pipes.

The next moment, a strange, mix of squeal and screech caused me to flinch in discomfort, my ears completely focused in that direction and as sensible as possible. The noise continued for a few more seconds and soon, we could see the source. It was a racoon, but a strange one, completely unlike anything I had seen before.

I had seen normal racoons, with small, beady dark eyes, I had seen Shattered Racoons, their eyes replaced by pits of blue fire but this? It looked like something between the states, only not. It still had eyes but there was also a greyish-green flame flickering around them, confusing me. It was almost like the thing was some sort of odd hybrid, trying to struggle free from Lia’s grip until she used her second hand to force it to the ground.

Following my nosy nature, I used Observe, only to learn that it was an ostensibly normal Racoon, with a respectable level of fourteen. Not bad for a trash panda but far below anything we would be interested in fighting.

“What are you doing?” I asked, when Lia didn’t simply kill the thing, or drain its Blood and Astral Power.

“I’ve got an idea, something I would like to try if you’d allow it, Mistress,” Lia asked, briefly looking at me before focusing on the animal again.

“Let’s hear it,” I nodded, curious about what she had in mind.

“This one is weird, isn’t it? Smells weird, looks weird, might be special,” she began, studying the form that had stilled in her grasp, likely knowing that there would be no escape at this moment. Not quite sure what she meant by weird smell, I sniffed the air and noticed a peculiar scent, one that stood out even amongst the scent of beast coming from the critter. It was eerily similar to the scent around the Undead and the Slaughterhouse, the scent of Death Magic, only that the thing didn’t seem to actually die, it seemed to be relatively healthy.

Trying to find out more, I blinked to activate my magical sight and took a closer look, immediately noticing the streaks of power coming from its eyes and trying to invade the body. Or maybe from somewhere beyond its eyes, I couldn’t be quite certain. But it certainly was an interesting specimen, one that I wouldn’t want to kill off without getting a better idea of how it actually worked.

“I want to turn it like you turned me,” Lia continued, her eyes shining with a spark I hadn’t seen before, glee, interest and joy. “I think it could be quite useful, just like Silva is useful to you, it could be a companion for me.”

“So, you want your own furry critter?” I grinned, reaching over to stroke Silva’s fur, endlessly amused that my daughter wanted to have a pet of her own. Maybe there was more of the teenager she once had been in there than I thought.

“Granted,” I nodded, already looking forward to the process. It was the first time for us, so no matter what, there would be some interesting discoveries about it. “What do you need from me? I will help you, though I’m actually not certain how I can. Your creation was almost as much happenstance, luck and maybe fate as it was my ability,” I admitted, trying to work out how I might be able to facilitate what she had in mind.

“The big thing is obviously power. I’ll have to take in some of your blood, maybe even while I’m working, to gain extra Astral Power,” she began and once more, I simply nodded, “I think I’ll try to put a circle around it, similar to those you use for your runes. Blood Runes, those should work, right?” she continued and I nodded, already planning to put together a circle of Blood Runes alongside a Sacrifice rune, hoping to turn the thing into its own sacrifice to make it better. The concept didn’t quite fit but I had stretched the innate meaning of a rune further than that so it might just work.

Lia and I continued to discuss our plans and after tying the little critter up, we began to draw the circle. I had to do most of the work, taking my time to instruct Lia on what I was trying to accomplish, but we had the whole day, giving us more than enough time.

Finally, after Lia had once more knelt before me, drinking the blood from my hands, I took a step back, nodding that the preparations were complete. Now, it was Lia’s show.