Hatsumi managed to find us a suitable corpse of a recently deceased cat. The cat had been old and died of some disease. I looked at the corpse. It was a beautiful calico. The fur was a mixture of orange, black and white.

"How did you find a corpse?" I asked Hatsumi.

"There is a doctor specialising in animals. I paid him a few coins to inform me when there was a dying cat. The family parted with the corpse for free." Hatsumi explained.

"Huh. Good thinking." I had not considered something like that. I had never pondered if there were doctors for pets.

Then I focused on the corpse again. Cassie had improved her potion and we decided to soak the corpse a while and raise it on our next day off. I placed Ivy and Yoru as guards to ensure no one messed with it.

A few days later we were ready. Our experiments had given us a workable method. All that was left was to find out if the corpse could hold enough magic. Nyx was sitting on my head, as if she was supervising our efforts.

The other cats and Hatsumi watched as we got to work. Skadi, Helena and Cassie were circulating the potion. Then I started to raise the undead. Cassie's mana poured into the spell strong and steady. Our practice had paid off.

As I formed the runes I felt Nyx on my head. Did my runes just slightly shift? No matter, I had to concentrate. I poured the mana into the spell and felt the connection form. I also felt the connection to the other cats respond, somehow.

Suddenly the spell became harder than anticipated. Sweat formed on my head as I focused on completing it. I had to pull more mana from my core. Was it going somewhere else too? Was there a new spell? Then it was done. A new undead was formed and I sighed. I felt tired. Nyx patted me on the head with her paw.

"What happened there?" Helena asked, looking concerned.

"Not sure. It felt as if Nyx was getting involved, somehow. Also the other cats…" I stared at the other cats, who were moving. They seemed to be examining their own bodies. Was Nyx up to something again? No…

"They… they have cores…" I said with wide eyes. What happened? Why were the other cats somehow evolving? My links were now using more mana. They had clearly changed.

"Meow."

It was the new cat and she brought my attention to her. The orange patches on her fur were a bit brighter now and the cat looked healthier. Which was a strange thing to think about an undead. The new cat looked at her paw. Then it ignited.

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"Cool." Cassie commented.

"No explosions. Seems like it worked." Skadi commented.

Nyx jumped from my head. All four cats were now sniffing each other.

"I still don't know what happened…" Were all my cats connected somehow? How could raising a new one evolve the others? Had they been close to evolving? I had a lot of questions.

"So, you have five tier three now?" Helena asked.

"Yes she does! Isn't it wonderful?" Hatsumi replied.

I narrowed my eyes. "Do you know something about this?"

"Well… I felt Nyx interfering with the spell. She, uh, she might have funnelled some mana into the other cats. I think she has been studying them for a while in order to create some improvements…" Hatsumi admitted.

"She… what?" I asked.

"Nyx has been commanding them a lot. But not just that. She has shown some interest in necromancy books. You know, I don't sleep as much as you do, neither does Nyx. Well… at least not at night." Hatsumi explained.

That was a lot to take in. "You are saying Nyx developed a spell somehow, that evolves tier two cat undead to tier three cat undead?"

"Something like that." Hatsumi confirmed. "I think Nyx has some unique magic that helps with other felines."

I scratched my head. "I think I need to talk to Gronir…"

"I shall fetch him." Hatsumi offered and left.

"She needs a name!" Cassie said, while petting the new cat.

"Definitely." Skadi added.

"So everyone of us has a tier three cat companion now? This is going to be awesome." Helena commented, while petting Yoru.

While I was still coming to terms with what had happened, my friends seemed to just accept it. They were playing with the cats…

I was still lost in thought when the door opened.

"What have you done this time?" I heard Gornir's amused voice.

I quickly described what had happened while Gronir studied the undead. When I finished he pulled a flask from his pocket and took a sip. "So you have created more tier three…"

"It was an accident! Well, it was Nyx' fault." I replied.

Gronir pondered that for a bit. Eventually he said: "Curious. We don't know a lot about Nyx' species. But there are undead wolves who raise packs of undead wolves. They are not a real hive mind but they are connected in a magical pack. Their alpha can telepathically communicate with them. Rather scary to face such a pack, they are excellent hunters. It is possible that Nyx has an inborn ability to raise other cats."

"But they were just normal corpses! Not even magical! How can they become tier three?" I asked.

"If they were wolves we would call that pack magic. Nyx has likely absorbed some of the stress that would have damaged their bodies. You might have absorbed some of it as well. I have never heard of an undead influencing their master's spell like this. You must trust your undead a lot." He observed.

"Well, Nyx has defended me when my life was in danger. I do trust her." I replied.

Gronir nodded. "You do seem to have a rather special relationship with her. Hopefully you will manage to keep all of your tier threes under control. You know the rules." Then he stopped, looking at the new cat summoning a small flame. "You made a fire undead?"

"Um, yes. Cassie helped. We did some joint casting…"

Gronir sighed. "Of course you did. Well, that is going to be interesting. Bring her to our next class." Then he left.

My friends were still playing with the cats. I looked at Nyx. She was lying there, looking smug. Also… wounded? Her bones had tiny cracks in them! I hurried over and cast my undead healing spell. She purred.

"Nyx, you have to be more careful!" Apparently what she had done came with consequences. At least it did not feel like any permanent damage. Oh well, I guess I had more tier three now.

"Hey, can any of you speak?" I asked the other cats.

"Meow," was the collective response.

I sighed.

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