The following morning, Arlott was nowhere to be found. The curtains were shut, but the sun still got through them. I stayed in bed until I heard something in the kitchen, so I got up and went over to see what it was.

I found Arlott there, making breakfast. Ever since the Bunny Chow, I found out she was really good at cooking and baking. The only reason she didn’t do it more often was only that she didn’t think doing it for herself was a good enough reason.

By the smell, I could tell she was making something sweet, and oh, I so need that.

Arlott lifted her gaze from what she was doing and came running to greet me with our usual morning routine; A sweet, sweet kiss. 

I’m so in love with my lovely girlfriend.

“I’m so happy you are safe,” Arlott said once again as she guided me to the kitchen. There, she sat me down with another kiss and a hug. After that, I asked for Kiandra and Breena.

“Kiandra is still locked in her room.” She replied while arranging the table for us. “I’ve heard some noises coming from her room all morning. I think she didn’t even sleep.”

“I’m not sure about Breena.” Arlott dropped her gaze “She’s still asleep , but she still doesn’t look entirely as I knew her.”

A silence took over the room really quickly after that. Trying to change the topic, I asked Arlott what she was preparing. That got a shy smile from her.

“I woke up earlier than usual, and thought you would be a lot more tired than most mornings.” She got to the kitchen, starting to move things around. “So, I decided to cook up a nice breakfast to help you recover your energy.” She glanced at me. “And try to cheer Breena up a little.”

“I cooked you a carrot cake and some poached eggs.” Arlott put a little more honest smile as she showed me the cake cooling on a rack next to her. “I hope you like them.”

She gave me a dark and bitter coffee, just as I liked it, two slices of the carrot cake and a toast with ham and topped with one of her creamy poached eggs..

I moved the chair a little and Arlott sat on my lap. I looked at her with a puzzled expression. Seeing this, she hugged me, resting her head over my shoulder.

“I was so afraid yesterday.” she said quietly. “You just vanished there.” I caught a glimpse of her playing with the ring I had gifted her. “At least the ring worked, and that makes me feel like you won’t really disappear again.”

I gestured to Arlott to go on. As she did so, I started to eat the amazing breakfast my girlfriend made.

“When you disappeared I searched for you.” She kept her face on my shoulder, looking at the ring and never stopped fiddling with it. “When I couldn’t find you, I ran directly into the portal and got here, looking for Kiandra.”

“When I got here, she wasn’t home and I guess I just panicked a bit.” She paused, as if reliving the sensation of that night. “But thankfully, Kiandra noticed someone crossing the portal. Since she knew we were supposed to stay at my place, so no one should be using the portal, she came soon enough to check out what was happening.”

She closed her eyes, moved to a more comfortable position before going on.

“She asked me what was going on. I said what I could between my anxiousness taking away my breath. After she understood enough, she grabbed my hand and imbued the ring with some magic.” She let out a relaxed sigh. “ And then you both appeared here.”

“You never got to tell me how I should use this.” Arlott said, without taking her eyes from the ring in her finger. 

I finished my breakfast and we stayed cuddling for a while. She really was worried about me. I’m still not used to having people who care about and love me around. But it’s still so nice that there are some now.

I gave Arlott a kiss on her forehead as she fell asleep in my arms. It seemed she woke up very early that morning. She must have been so scared yesterday.

After spending some time cuddling Arlott while she slept, Kiandra came from her room with bags under her eyes. She had a really serious demeanor. 

She sat down and took a slice of half eaten carrot cake from my plate. She then began to ask me some questions with her mouth full.

“Istas, I need you to be completely honest with me.” She made herself more comfortable on the chair before continuing. “Has Arlott ever taken a picture of you without vanishing your tail and ears?”

I just shook my head. I couldn’t recall Arlott doing so, at least.

“Hmm…” Kiandra thought for a moment. “Is there any difference between the child sleeping in the other room and Arlott’s friend?”

“How do you know?” I replied to Kiandra in surprise. “Did Arlott tell you?”

“No, she didn’t.” She trailed off, thinking over for another moment. “I hope this one is a dud question…” I managed to hear her whispering under her breath. She then gazed towards a blank space, as if pondering something.

“The things you saw in the Sea of Wills.” She suddenly said, almost making me jump with Arlott in my arms. “Were they like a complete human being but with a weird head?”

I thought about it for a second before answering.

“More than a weird head,” I said, trying my best to recall those things. “They had a mannequin-like one, without a face.”

“Great, at least they are not finished.” Kiandra said, looking more relaxed. Though that only just raised further questions.

“Also, when you got into the Sea of Wills,” Kiandra asked once again. “Do you remember appearing at the same place that you were when in the realm of the living?”

At first, I didn’t understand the question. I was about to reply to her that of course I did, but was I?

I put a hand on my chin, trying to recall it better. It took me some time, since most of what I remembered was running away. But then it hit me.

“I think I was some blocks away, why?”

Kiandra looked a bit gloomier again. She then told me I should wake Arlott up first, and see if we could tell Breena everything.

After gently moving Arlott in my arms, she woke up. From looking at Kiandra and me, we both with a serious look on our faces, she understood immediately it was important.

She got up from my lap and sat on another chair. I wouldn't have minded if she had stayed with me, but I guess she couldn’t focus if she was on my lap.

After we were ready, Kiandra made her mist magic and began projecting some things.

“Istas already know this.” She made a little spirit appear, floating alone. “But I’m not sure I have told you, Arlott.” She made the image a little bigger so Arlott could see without any trouble.

“Spirits need a connection with our world. That is usually accomplished by creating a contract with a living being. But also, there's only a few of us that can really interact with them.” The spirit met a person and they created a simplified version of the contract and the spirit got a cat form.

I glanced at Arlott, but she was really focused on the image.

“Only people that can see spirits can create a contract and become witches.” Kiandra continued the explanation. “You have the potential as you have always been able to see Istas in her spirit form.”

“But for everyone else.” She created a small image of me without ears or tail. “Istas simply looks like any other human being.” 

“I took some time last night to see if that was the same with pictures, and it is.” She took an old phone she had and began showing some weird pictures one by one. “So, how did Breena see that Istas had ears and a tail?”

She put the phone in her pocket as the Istas model in the illusion popped some ears and a tail.

“Then, the only explanation is that Breena also has the potential to become a witch.” Kiandra began looking gloomier, took a deep breath and then said something that shocked Arlott and me the same.

“Here is where the problem starts.” 

The mist became white again, and a spirit appeared within it. It met with the illusion of a tiny girl there, and jumped right to her body.

“There are some kind of witch that are called warlocks. They can only be created by a spirit possessing a potential witch.” Then, the girl floated in place and did some magic spells that vanished after some time. 

That makes an in between a witch and spirit. They’re  not as powerful, but don’t need a connection with anything.” Kiandra made a pause. It was so weird seeing her talking this calm and collected. “And I think that what happened to the poor kid is that the man she talked about was a spirit and possessed her to become a warlock.”

The little warlock in the mist became a little Breena with an evil look.

“The problem is that the kid should have really died if that were the case,” Kiandra said, letting out a little sigh. Arlott and I looked at each other in worry.

“Wait,” I asked. “So, you’re saying she should be a spirit? But if she was in the Sea of Wills, she should be dead, no?”

Arlott froze in place, understandably. After all, Kiandra and I were talking about the possibility that her friend could be dead. Also that the thing that killed said friend had been using her body for the last two weeks, and had tricked her into thinking she was still alive.

“Yes, that's how it should be.” Kiandra looked at Arlott and made the mist vanish in order to continue. “That is why I needed to do the experiments last night.”

Kiandra went to her room and came back with a little metal thing.

“When you are a normal spirit, you’re not bound to anything,” she explained while setting up her instrument. “But when you are a familiar, you have a physical bond made between you and your witch.” 

She showed us the little thing. It looked like two discs, one inside the other, and with some weird runes on it.

“When you have this type of bond, some things can interact with it.” Kiandra dropped the metal thing between her and me.  When it was at the height of our hearts, it stopped midair, and the inner disc began spinning in place.

“I tried this many times last night.” She explained again. “It took me a while, since I needed to calibrate it with an unknown bond, until I got something that stuck.”

She started moving things off the inner and outer disc. Then she stopped and approached the door to the room where Breena was sleeping. Kiandra dropped the disc again and it floated closer to the floor. 

“If she has a bond, then it can only mean one of two things; she is a contracted witch or she is a contracted spirit. But from the story she told us, she can't be a familiar.”

“And then comes the other part of the equation.” She put the metal discs back into her pocket. “Warlocks need ghouls to sustain themselves.”

She recreated the mist. This time, there was an unknown person.

“Warlocks can't connect to the Will of the World, so they need to use their own will to do magic. But if they run out of magic they’ll just disappear.”

The person began mutating, and becoming like the things that attacked Breena and myself.

“To fix that, the warlocks dominate the will of wandering spirits and transform them into ghouls.” Kiandra glanced at me. “The creatures that followed you.” 

“This is a complete ghoul.” The thing began having more monster-like factions. “They follow the orders of the warlocks and feed them with their own wills, so they hunt spirits and devour them to replenish their own. That creates a cycle that maintains the warlock.”

“So, what I think is that the man that attacked the girl is a spirit that forced her to do the ritual. ”A little image of the ritual appeared on the mist with a shadow as the men and a little Breena with him.

“The weird thing is that he then must have done the second ritual to take the soul of Breena out of her body without breaking their natural bond to use her body in the same way warlocks do.”

Kiandra looked really confused. I could barely follow about a half of what she was talking about. But Arlott was a lot smarter than me, so she asked.

“But why would he do all this extra work and maintain Breena alive?”

Kiandra looked as if thinking it through for a second.

“I have no Idea. “She shrugged. “I didn’t even think it could be possible.” But then she gazed at the space between Arlott and me. “But that also means we can save Breena,” she said, smiling.

Arlott and I looked to where the door to Breena’s room should be, but there it was Breena looking at us instead. It seemed she had listened to everything.

As Breena approached, I stood up so she could sit in my chair. I began tending for her. First, I went to my room to get a blanket. I covered Breena with it and began to brew some tea for her. I also got some more slices of carrot cake she could eat.

Arlott glanced at me, moving her lips to spell out ‘thank you’.

“Now. There are two things we need to talk about.” Kiandra resumed her explanation. “The first one is that we need to create stronger defenses. We got the soul that the warlock was trying to hide in the Sea of Wills, to the point he had a complete swarm of his ghouls protecting her.”

Breena, Arlott and I got really nervous about that. We didn’t know what that warlock could do, but going by Kiandra’s expression, it wasn’t pretty.

“The other thing,” Kiandra got our attention again and looked at Arlott. “Do you want to be my disciple?”

Arlott froze in place again, trying to say something, but she just couldn’t. So instead, Kiandra took that opportunity to continue.

“Look, There are some weird things happening here and I can’t leave my familiar’s girlfriend all defenseless. Also I could use that time to help the girl.” She pointed at Breena. She really needed to learn her name. “How to defend her bond with her body so she wont die.”

Then I noticed, I haven’t said anything about Arlott being my girlfriend to Kiandra. Did Arlott tell her something? How did Kiandra know? It couldn’t have been so obvious, could it? Damn.

Arlott thought for a second and then made a question I hadn’t thought about. “But, don’t witches need a spirit to do magic?”

“That’s why I think I should unbound from Istas, so you can become her witch.” Kiandra said, smiling as she looked at me.” “This will make the will that Istas has accumulated for me thus far become hers again, empowering her. And it’s not as little as she wants to think whenever I need magic.”

I was shocked. I first looked at Kiandra, then at Arlott, and then Kiandra again.

Arlott seemed to think it out for a minute, as we all looked at her, expectantly. She then stood up, got right in front of me, and with a solemn voice said.

“Istas. My beloved Istas.” She raised her hand, asking for mine. “Would you like to become my familiar?”

At that moment, everything else disappeared from my view. Only Arlott and I remained. I hesitated for a second, but then, with total determination, I grabbed her hand.

“Arlott, I would love it if you could be my witch.” I looked directly at her eyes. “I love you.”