Faint tremors shook the sand beneath her feet and Shiori lightly stepped to the side moments before a spike of earth would have impaled her. Again and again Shiori efficiently stepped out of the way of the lethal stone spears erupting from the ground. Ducking, Shiori felt the fur at the tops of her ears rustle as a wind blade shot through the space her neck would have been. Feeling another faint tremor, she twisted to the side, landing on her hands and feet.

As her hands hit the faintly warm sand, Shiori felt the urge to shift back to her natural form but she quashed it. She would be more comfortable in that form but it would defeat the point to change back right now. Besides, it wasn't like she needed to shift back to deal with the next wave of attacks. Her opponents were far from strong enough to force her to do so. A slight buzz in her mana senses was the only warning she got before a bolt of lightning shot faster than the blink of an eye.

It might as well have been a lazily thrown ball with all the warning its caster's poor mana control gave her. The lightning bolt didn't even make a sound as it impacted a coin sized barrier an inch from her forehead and was fully consumed. As easily as breathing Shiori pulled the mana from her barrier and sent it into a trio of wind bullets that she shot out, intercepting the same number of fireballs in a series of explosions that rocked the training hall.

Shiori's robes ruffled slightly in the hot shockwave from the exploding spells. Beneath the roars of exploding spells she heard several screams as her opponents were caught off guard. Feeling another faint tremor in the sand through her hands, Shiori pushed herself upright expecting another series of stone spikes only to be surprised as a dozen snake-like spells whipped out of the sand at her. Dancing back, Shiori dodged the snares as they came at her in a complicated attack. Left, high, low, right, across. Each attack missed by centimeters as Shiori avoided them.

Feeling another tremor in the sand beneath her feet, Shiori paused for a moment as four of the snares converged on her from multiple directions. As the spike began to erupt from the sand, she started to advance into the snares, narrowly avoiding the spells as they wrapped around the spear that stood in the space she just vacated.

Raising her left arm, Shiori let the remaining snake-like spells wrap around her forearm. She felt a faint tingle as the spell bit at her aura, trying to consume her energy. For the first time in this fight, Shiori grinned as her mana started to trickle into the slavering jaws of the spell. The spell's consumption aspect was powerful. But her own was stronger.

Extending her will into the tendrils of her mana snaking down the spells that held her, Shiori shifted her mana into a mirror of the consumption aspect. Her grin widened as she felt her mana consume the spell from the inside out, shattering her bonds and freeing her arm. Raising her right hand up, Shiori struck out with a knife hand, coating the blade of her hand in a razor thin barrier of mana as she sliced through the remaining snares, ripping out the caster's mana like she tried to do to her.

Feeling the caster collapse as Shiori drained her mana, she charged towards the group of mages. The sand separating her from her opponents started to shake as one of the mages panicked, burning all of their mana to fill the space between them with sharpened spikes of stone.

Shiori didn't pause, instead forming a single barrier under her foot and pushing off of it into the air. Running through the air on thin barriers above the forest of stone spears, Shiori slashed through a fireball with her barrier coated knife hand, the consumption aspected barrier ripping the mana out of the spell before it could explode. Kicking off another barrier, Shiori propelled herself down into the trio as she felt another buzz in her mana sense.

Dismissing her barriers. Shiori reached out to the source of the buzzing, her fingers wrapping around a human hand. Clenching with just a fraction of her humanoid form's strength, she felt the mage's hand shatter in her grip. But despite the debilitating injury, Shiori's mana senses continued to tingle as the buzzing continued to grow stronger. Most mages would struggle to continue casting a spell while the hand they were using was crushed, but this mage had a stronger will than most.

Her grin widening a fraction, Shiori injected her mana into the mage's crushed hand, smothering his mana with her own as she disrupted his spell and prevented his mana from moving further.

Opening her eyes, Shiori looked at Lane's pained but defiant face as he stood over her kitten and Aya, the two girls exhausted from having their mana drained. "Well done students."

Stepping back, Shiori's ears twitched as she listened to Inari talk Corin and Michael through the process of healing Lane's hand from a distance. The two healers wasted an immense amount of mana as they worked together to heal Lane's hand, but their mana control was much improved from where they'd been the week before. She was sure if Inari let them spare with her for a few days, she could improve their mana control further, but Inari insisted on teaching them herself.

"Paws off, cat," her friend sent to her on a wisp of mana. "Leave teaching these two to me. Your training will just turn them into weapons."

"With strong enough weapons, we won't need more healers, fox," Shiori teasingly sent back on her own wisp of mana.

As Inari coached her students, the cat and fox rehashed an old argument they'd had thousands of times before.

"Life is fighting to survive."

"Not everything can be fought with weapons."

"If you're strong enough you don't need weapons."

"You can't claw death to death."

"You can't heal an enemy dead."

"You've never seen instant brain cancer before. Would you like to?"

"If you try hard enough you can eat anything, even death."

As the two trod familiar lines of logic, Lane's hand slowly reshaped under Corin and Michael's combined healing, leaving them drained of mana and immediately sitting to meditate and recover next to her kitten and the other battlemages. They weren't the only ones.

Shiori didn't need to look around the room to know that all of the students were tired. Their auras practically radiated exhaustion. The warrior students slumped against the wall, their stamina drained even though Inari's healing kept them in almost perfect health. Only Sara and Gareth still fought with the masked foxes, Inari's kit already familiar with such training and the young noble used to harsh training methods. Still, even they were showing signs of fatigue.

Repeated healing used up the body's energy and mana after all. Even with the attention of a true master like Inari, healing magic, like any other, had its limits. She couldn't just keep someone going forever. Besides, too much healing magic would hinder their growth.

Interrupting their usual argument, the two beastkin women agreed on a change to their plan for the day. Their students had earned a break. Besides, that day was a good day for a break.

"Students," Inari spoke at a normal volume, her voice carried on wings of wind magic to ensure that everyone still heard her. The background sounds of weapons clashing stopped as Sara and Gareth stopped fighting and turned to focus on the fox. "You have done well these past two weeks. We will end here for today and instead go and join the festival in the city. After all, you're young and it's Void's End. You should enjoy the year-end festival."

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"Come on kitten, this is a time to form precious memories with your friends!" Shiori said in an uncharacteristically excited tone that gave Jun whiplash as the catkin woman led her by hand through the crowds. Jun panted as she strained to keep up with her mother, the unyielding grip of her hand keeping her from getting lost in the crowd. Following behind her were her friends all panting with the effort after the day's grueling training.

She'd seen many sides of her adoptive mother over the past few months. Teacher, guide, protector, mother. Loving but serious and aloof like a cat would be. Caring for her yet allowing her to fail and fall and pick herself back up. Sometimes mischievous but always with an undercurrent of seriousness. A firm foundation for her life in this world.

When Shiori revealed her catkin form to her, a new facet of her mother revealed itself to her. Mysterious, beautiful, powerful. The grace with which her mother moved in a body she claimed to be wholly unfamiliar with filled her with jealousy. She hadn't missed the looks in the eyes of most of the men and quite a few of the women as their group passed by. While most of the people she'd seen on Merinthia appeared young and attractive probably because everyone was far more active, or because of magic, adventurers and soldiers were on another level with all the intense training.

Shiori and Inari were on another level, and people noticed. Jun was sure it wasn't just their beastkin features either, despite them being the only two beastkin she'd seen in all her months here. No, it was because they were objectively beautiful. Making things worse was that while Inari seemed to fully understand how humans viewed her, her mother either didn't know or didn't care about what others thought. More than once Shiori pressed too deeply into someone's personal space, uncaring of the looks of lust or jealousy she provoked from others and Jun couldn't help but be irrationally worried about her. Though it'd been months ago, her encounter with the slavers was still fresh in her mind.

"Kitten, eat this!" Shiori roughly shoved something into Jun's mouth before she could respond, filling her mouth with searing heat and pain as the freshly fried thing burned her mouth. Before she could spit it out, she felt the warmth of Inari's healing magic wash over her, somehow not only healing the burns from the hot food but cooling it just enough for her to eat.

Biting down, Jun felt the crunch of fried batter give way, releasing a gush of a spicy, savory stew. Chewing the treat, she had to admit it was tasty as Shiori happily ate more of the freshly fried fritters uncaring about the temperature. It wasn't long before they moved on to another stall, but not before Shiori dropped a heavy bag of coins in front of the merchant and received a sheet of paper and a massive box of the fritters that she made disappear into wherever she stored things.

From the way the merchant's eyes widened, Jun guessed her mother had wildly overpaid. For some reason it surprised her that Shiori even had money, having never heard Shiori mention paying for or receiving payment for anything. But she suppose if a cat would spend money on anything, it'd be food.

As they moved through the festival, Jun felt the tension of the last few weeks begin to fade away while Shiori continued her antics. After the third time her mother dropped a heavy bag on a merchant's table in exchange for a single piece of paper and more food, she finally asked about it.

"Mother, what are those papers people keep giving you?" she asked, pointing at Shiori's empty hand where a piece of paper had just been.

Holding a bouquet of grilled sausages on sticks, Shiori passed one over, motioning for Jun to eat. "Recipes," her mother's voice floated into her ears while she took another bite. "Try the sausage, it's delicious kitten."

Eyeing the stick in her hand, Jun could see grill marks along the faintly curved sausage covered in a glistening sauce. Steam still wafted off the snack. Blowing the steam away, Jun took a careful bite but the treat was already at a pleasant temperature. The smell of ginger, garlic, and other spices filled her nose as the slightly crisp skin of the sausage popped in her mouth, releasing a tide of juicy meat coated in a sweet and tangy sauce. It almost reminded her of a mix of teriyaki and american barbeque, but distinctly different from either.

Like a home she'd grown up in, but seemed alien to her now. Memories of the home she left behind, of her old family and friends, filled her mind. She could still remember their faces. Her quiet and passive mother, always in the background quietly cleaning up messes while her father ranted and complained. Ash, who could smile so warmly one minute then seem distant and judgmental the next. Bobby, Ray, and Charles, who'd always seemed welcoming to her… until they weren't. A willow tree next to a creek where she played with her first friend in a strange new town, and where she died, betrayed by that same friend.

Bittersweet memories of people and places she'd never see again, and wasn't sure if she ever wanted to even if she had the option. Pushing the memories away, Jun opened her mouth to take another bite, only to realize she'd finished the treat and only held an empty stick. Stuck in her memories, she hadn't realized her group had already moved on to the next stall. All except Shiori who still hovered close by.

Pulling her into a hug, Shiori gently dabbed her face with the corner of her sleeves, wiping away tears Jun didn't realize she'd shed. "Come along kitten, we have much more to see and do this night. We can't let your first festival be filled with tears."

Void's End. Inari was still amused by the name after all these years. The longest, darkest day of the year, and the final one. The height of winter, and yet also a sign that winter too would end and breathe life into the world anew. A celebration of the end of the season of death and the coming of the season of life.

At least, that's what people thought the meaning of the name was these days. For those who had seen other parts of Merinthia, traveled around the planet and spent time in the lands to the far South, they would wonder why the Void's End was so bright there. In fact, it was the height of Summer in those lands, a time of warmth and light and bounty, so unlike the dreary cold of Void's End in the North. And yet, Void's End was still celebrated in those lands at the same time, but for different reasons.

After all, the people of those lands still remembered the truth. Or at least a version of it, one shrouded by age and prettied up by myth and legend. The day an ancient enemy cast the world into darkness, stealing the light of the world. The same day an ancient hero rose to destroy the enemy and return light to the world. The day the Stalker in the Void died, struck down by She Who Paints the Sky Black for her crimes against reality.

A distorted version of the truth. A story of a story of a time best left forgotten except by those few relics who remained. Relics such as herself and the black cat masquerading as beastkin for the sake of her kitten. After all, who would remember that the Stalker in the Void and She Who Paints the Sky Black were the same tiny black cat lashing out in her grief.

Inari swished her tail as she watched her oldest living friend flit from stall to stall like a new kitten, her usually serious and prideful demeanor shed away to reveal the playful cat she'd always been. It was a sight she wasn't sure she'd ever see again. The young ones struggled to keep up as she dragged them about. Treats of all shapes and flavors were consumed in abundance, from the meats her friend usually favored to those she couldn't enjoy except in her catkin form such as sweets. And of course, she started buying the recipes for her favorite snacks, spreading around enough wealth that there would probably be more than a few muggings tonight.

Inari couldn't help but snicker to herself at the scene as yet another merchant was paid more for their recipe than they would have ever made in a lifetime. All because a certain gluttonous cat enjoyed their recipe enough. It was ridiculous.

Already she could feel the eyes of a man eyeing up one of the merchants Shiori overpaid who closed up his stall and rushed home, her friend having bought out his wares. Though wary, the man's high spirits made him less cautious and he didn't notice the group of three following him. The winds brought her their scents, leading her to their hidden homes and hideouts. They were well hidden, warded against magic and even aura senses. But such trifling things couldn't stop the wind. Even the smallest crack was enough for the wind, and it told her everything she needed to know about those men.

Faint whispers of crying and screaming filled her ears. Ghosts of scents filled her nose, painting a story of predation and villainy. Blood and other bodily fluids, drugs meant to offer pleasure while infecting with addiction and robbing people of their minds, and the metallic scent of gold. Evil men, agents of other evil men.

Winds carried whispered orders throughout the city, answered by faint pulses of mana. Her foxes were enjoying the festival, but their duty came first. This was not their home, nor their people, but eliminating vermin was their role. The Wind Blown Messenger delivered news of those vermin's crimes to listening ears, and judgment would be given.

The three men who followed the merchant never saw the masked warriors who took their lives, their bodies not even realizing they were already dead before their corpses vanished into storage rings. The winds carried screams of pain and the clashing of weapons to Inari's ears as dens of vermin throughout the city were hunted down and wiped out.

They deserved it for daring to taint her friend's joy with their greed.

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