The tall cleric who had taken control of the room after the merging of the nuncipal's soul stood in a corner, unscathed. With him were many clerics wearing black headbands. Seeing me rise, he shouted an order to the approaching inquisitors, who were forming a circle around me.

Then he hurried over. He held up his hand and the inquisitors stopped their approach two paces away. He went to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Can you walk? I am the First Voice." Great, the one called First Voice knew mindspeak, how fitting.

"Yes," I rattled, shoving off the harness. Blood ran down my body where the leather and chains of the ill-fitting harness had torn my skin and fur. I took his hand and put it back on my human shoulder. "They were building up a soul wave. I saw the souls resonating. Mage Tarik and I had to stop it."

The first voice looked even more frightened. "Soul wave! Thank you. Where is the mage?"

I raised on my hind legs and walked close to the first voice. We soon found Tarik, who had already been arrested by equally confused inquisitors. They were not sure what to do and were glad that a trusted authority assumed command. Tarik was released and stood by my side, supported by my lower body. He was physically and magically exhausted.

Together we slowly followed the first voice across the courtyard to the main building. As the inquisitors saw us pass, they followed their colleagues. Soon almost all the inquisitors were in our wake. We entered the main building again, this time taking the main staircase. We had not even reached the landing of the third floor when a young cleric came running to Tarik. While he spoke to Tarik, I only understood 'Nuncipal'. I put the hand of the first voice on my shoulder. "What are they talking about?"

"The nuncipal infant is dying. Tarik says that is the job of a healer. The healers have no clues though."

"The nuncipal's soul is gone," I said. "Yes, I saw it, I can see souls. There was not much left, too little to take over even an infant. It is almost only the soul of the infant."

"Mage Tarik says the same. But the healer says he has never seen such an infant."

"Let's hurry over." He said a few words to Tarik, who sighed, and then we went back to the second floor.

There was a large bed in the room where the four-breasted mother lay next to an oversized infant, a human dachshund. Its head, arms and legs were normal infant size but its midsection was grotesquely elongated. And its belly was swollen to the size of a cantaloupe. Perhaps the rest of the nuncipal's soul wanted the body to grow as quickly as possible. But the only thing a newborn can do is drink and digest, so only that part had responded.

Tarik probably said something similar. Nobody looked happy. But there was no rune left, all his mana was spent. Tarik would not be able to do any soul magic tonight. He even repeated it to me in Kren. "I can do nothing, I have no mana left, no runes. Nature must take its course."

Whatever nature that was.

I went to the first voice, took his hand and explained my own experience of the after-effects of soul magic. And Larina's changes too. Well, he could only look at the human udder on the woman on the bed: As she drank water from a large carafe, her breasts swelled again.

The first voice sat down, pale, face in his hands. The leaders of the inquisitors came for him, but he shooed them away. They retreated, hesitantly.

I motioned to Tarik. We left too. There was nothing more to be done here.

* * *

Without a word, we turned towards the stairs leading to the roof. It was well past midnight, a light ground mist and a cool breeze from the sea below would have made for a pleasant night had it not been for the recent events. Not a sound could be heard, except for the distant breaking of the waves on the rocky beach far below.

The carpet from before was still there, slightly damp. I did not care, I threw myself on my back. Tarik lay next to me. My furry body shielded him from the wind.

We both stared up at the starry sky. Then he turned, tears in his eyes. "Hold me."

I wrapped my paws around him and lifted him onto my white belly, the body he had made with the best of intentions. I had raised my torse, supported by my arms, and stroked his thin hair with a foreclaw as he wept quietly. I felt bad too, tired and confused.

Then there was a flapping of wings. The crow girl landed. She looked at us but said nothing and came closer. She put her wings over Tarik and rested her head on his chest which was as far as she could reach standing. Her scent was strange, not the strong smells of crows but a rather nice fruity smell. But Tarik cried harder.

I lay down again when my arms were tired.

A shooting star shot across the sky and distracted me for a moment.

We lay there for a long time. Tired, but too troubled to sleep after tonight's events.

The first stars were already fading, the night would soon be over.

Tarik finally looked and raised his head, pushing into my lower ribcage. I silently sighed. went off and sat, looking at both of us. "You know, Countess," he began in Kren.

"Tarik, please call me Kiara. After all this, we not needing titles."

"Dear Kiara, you were a blessing." He turned to the crow girl and nodded to her too and spoke a few words.

"Blessing? What Tarik"

"When I created you, I wanted to make a perfect blend. Well, as good as I could make with squirrels, cats and goats. And yet, you are more than human, better than human. The best of woman and animal. You really are." He stroked my belly fur.

I blushed at all his compliments, even though half of them were for his work.

"I wanted to show the world what soul magic can do." He swallowed. "But then you awoke on your own with a full soul, after you had died." He hesitated. "And you too," he nodded to the crow girl and stroked her head with the other hand. The girl came closer to cuddle. But Tarik looked to the ground. "At that moment, soul magic was doomed. I did not realise it then. But now I think it was lucky." I was confused, so I said nothing.

"Here I am, the last soul mage."

He waited for my answer. "The last soul mage?"

"The others had their magic taken away after the defeat. Taken away by the inquisitors, the good ones. While the Nuncipal was developing his soul magic. Well, I am quite sure that after tonight they will be hunting down all their soul mages as well, taking away their magic and burning their books. Again. Silenced for another 500 years. So by tomorrow morning, I will be the last practicing soul mage."

"The last soul mage? Well, I am the only cat-squirrel woman. She the only crow girl. No problem."

He sighed.

"I wanted to do good with soul magic. If you had not awoken yourself, it could have worked. Soul magic could have healed people."

I started to protest. "What? You doinged good. And you doing good with Larina. Not bad. Soul magic healinged. You showinged."

"Yes, it did. Soul magic could give soldiers new arms or legs after they lost them in battle. And then what? More soldiers to send back into battle."

"More soldiers coming home. Not soldiers, people."

"Soul magic had disfigured six people, most recently that human udder woman down there. And poor lonely crow woman here."

He hugged her, bringing a smile to her face.

"Woman doing self," I protested.

"No, she had no choice. She was overwhelmed to the soul magic. She wanted to suck the soul out, the whole camel, like and addict. And that infant, who I killed indirectly. No, humanity is not ready for soul magic. If soul magic stops today, they will remember the soul wars and today's fiasco. The conclusion is that soul magic is not good, no, it's dangerous. It is only good for killing people with soul waves or reviving stale souls in strange creatures".

"I not strange," I protested, "you are wrong. I feeling better than human. I do not wanting being human, even bad dreaming of being human."

"Countess"

"Kiara!"

"Kiara, you are great, I know. You are the best person I have ever met. Hug me."

I rolled around and sat up and took him in my arms. After a while, he lifted his tearful face again.

"You can doing good. Showing the world the good soul mage Tarik. A new healing magic."

"No use, sorry. It did not have to be. Soul magic might have worked well. For a while. But then the same would happen, sooner or later a soul would awake on its own. And then again, ruthless rulers seeking immortality."

He was right, he had been abducted for the Nuncipal on the very first occasion. "We protecting you better. In Litra, only one way to the valley. No one coming or going."

"Then they come with an army and wage war. Kiara, you underestimate mankind’s greed for power." He grabbed my shoulders and tried to shake me a little. But of course, he mostly shook himself.

"Tarik, the world not black and white. Thinking of centaur dying without you helping." I was always thinking of them, seeing Larina before and after.

"They were dead before, we had stolen the souls."

"Like me!" I became angry, "you can helping them. Really helping. Forgetting the nuncipal. Thinking of who really needing helping!"

"I can't. Every time I use soul magic, more people can copy it. The more people learn, the more dangerous it becomes. No, soul magic has to go. There will be always someone just waiting to get their hands on immortality if soul magic stays."

"But the clerics," and then I stopped. Yes, the clerics in Krenburg, and hopefully in Kwal, had been trustworthy. Today. But the nuncipal's clerics had only learned a little soul magic and then started the soul scarring. And the nuncipal had even been the head of the blue clerics.

So a different approach. "But awakening in human form, that not working."

"This time, Kiara, this time. But the future soul mages will be more skilled, better than me. Since I have still much to learn, I think it would be possible. I started this new soul magic by trial and error. There was nothing in the books. Maybe there was, but those books were destroyed after the Soul Wars. As they should do tonight. The soul wave is bad, but immortality for the immoral is worse. No, somehow it was lucky we learned about the reawakening of souls early. From you. And you." He nodded the crow girl.

"So what doing now?"

He knelt down and offered his knee to the crow girl, which we sandwiched between us in our hug. The last soul mage, the first crow girl and the first cat squirrel woman on the rooftop of the Nuncipal's residence. A solitary occurrence in time.

We hugged for a long time until the last stars faded and the sun rose along the beach line. Then he stood up silently, walked over to the wide stone railing and sat down, his legs dangling over the wall.

I walked beside him and dangled my forepaws over it, the crow girl flew over and landed on his other side. We all enjoyed the first rays of the rising sun in silence.

This side of the building was also the outer wall of the residence, which ran down to an almost vertical cliff. Far below us, the surf and a few seagulls played the eternal soundtrack of a beach. The wind had died down and you could smell the sea. The silence betrayed the events of the night.

The sun had risen well above the horizon when he spoke again, very quietly. "Kiara, I," he sighed. "You know I always wanted to help humanity. Improve them."

"You wanting helping so many. And you helpinged me. And there being many more who needing helping," I whispered back.

"I am the last soul mage," he said suddenly, very determined. "Kiara, you are great, thank you." And then he kissed me on the lips for a second. "I still love you. I am sorry." He turned and jumped down in one smooth motion.

"No!" I screamed and scrambled straight down to the outside of the building, my claws desperately trying to grip the joints between the stones. This was the outside wall, going straight down to the cliff and then down to the beach. I was falling more than I was climbing. Of course, the crow girl had overtaken me.

I quickly reached the cliff and continued my frantic descent down the rocks. And then I landed on the small beach, perfect white sand, turquoise water and the twisted body of Tarik, red blood streaming to the surf line in the low sun. His body was glowing from his soul, which was swirling around him like a mist.

The crow girl had laid his hand over him and was crying.

"No!", I screamed again, racing to his body, lifting his lifeless head, stroking his thin hair and crying while seagulls and crow girl screamed with me. His soul embraced us and then dissolved.

He died only because of me. Because I lived and remembered my former life, because of me, he and so many others he could have saved had to die. I did not need those memories of Earth. And because of them he was dead, Tarik, the last soul mage dead, his lifeless head in my arms.

* * *

I am not sure how long I was like this, but when I finally became aware of my surroundings, the emissary and three inquisitors were sitting on the beach next to me with a boat on the sand. The crow girl was gone.

"Countess, sorry, my condolences. I am sorry," the emissary said slowly, knowing my problems with understanding Kren.

I did not want to see him. I wanted to be alone. I wanted Tarik, alive. I started to cry again.

The emissary rose and performed the rites for Tarik. I wished for someone else. But I had seen his soul leave, so it did not matter. Nothing mattered.

"Countess," the emissary asked again. " May we join your friends at the inn?"