At Night All Cats Are Grey - Chapter 7-9
Even if it was hard for Kresimir to believe that the girl ‒ or rather the young woman in front of him ‒ was actually already 23 years old; her reaction seemed genuinely shocked.
“I know I look young,” Cary began to explain. “But I swear I’m not underage!”
“Then where are your papers?” Kresimir objected seriously. "I have a hard time believing you if you don't have them."
“I-I had them! I lost them when I traveled here...really!”
“So if I were to ask the merchant if he has seen your papers, he would be able to confirm your version for me?”
The young woman looked at him in shock, her ears slowly flattened guiltily and her tail hung sadly to the ground. Kresimir sighed. “I thought so. If you lie to me, it won’t be any easier for me to trust you.”
"...I'm sorry...but I..." Kresimir could feel her negative emotions rising again. He hadn't intended to deal with this cat woman anymore. But as unstable as she was... was it really the right thing to take her to the capital now?
"I-If I'm honest," she interrupted, apparently not noticing. “W-Will you just take me back to the capital then? Because I...I don't want to go back there...!"
She looked like she was having a hard time opening up to Kresimir. Somehow, he understood that, too. But in her condition, perhaps doing what she really wanted might have been the best. "No, I won't," he promised her. "So...you don't have to tell me the real reason yet."
Cary looked at him a bit startled, almost even…disappointed? "O-Oh...um, well, I don't mean to impose myself either, haha!" She must have been more than willing to tell him about herself. But to be honest, Kresimir didn't really have a sympathetic ear for that.
“You just have to promise me one thing: try to control your emotions better. The Schattenfresser came mainly because of your strong, negative energy. Get a better grip on that, alright?”
"How um... do you control that?"
The knight looked at Cary, genuinely shocked. "... you... aren't you a witch?" He pointed to her cat ears. She tried to understand what he was getting at.
“I-I never learned that or anything! Like, being a witch... I've just always used magic without really knowing how I did it or how it worked ...” He almost couldn't believe that, but she seemed to be serious. “Can you … maybe teach me? At least a little bit? So I can control my emotions and don’t end up… summoning Schattenfresser again…”
A heavy sigh escaped Kresimir. He didn't feel like it at all ... but in the situation he was in with the cat woman ... does he really have a choice here?
“... ok. We start the training tomorrow.”
8. Magic course for beginners
Kresimir never thought he would ever become a “real” teacher. But even though he found the whole situation to be a bit stressful, he preferred it that way to leaving Cary on her own. She seemed to have too much potential for that – both in a good way and in the other, worse one. They couldn't afford to lose any more witches to the darkness.
So the knight took her under his wing. This didn't seem to bother the merchant who had brought her here in the first place, quite the opposite. But it was important to Kresimir to make it clear to this guy that he should be more careful around people. After all, it has been his fault that the Schattenfresser had attacked Cary ‒ and thus the entire camp.
She remained hidden, even when the merchant left the camp. She came surprisingly close to a real cat, which surprised Kresimir a bit. Her appearance seemed much more open than she actually appeared to be. At dinner, Cary quickly disappeared, and at breakfast, he could only see her grabbing something to eat and then quickly disappearing back into one of the tents. It was probably important to talk to her about the division of labor. Just because she wasn't supposed to be here didn't mean she couldn't help. But her condition still seemed unstable, so he left her alone for now.
After the knight had done his own work, he picked up the young woman and took her to one of the quieter corners. Unfortunately, there weren't many of them around, so he decided to go with her into the forbidden area. Since he was with her, she couldn't do anything stupid.
“Why is this area blocked off?” she broke the silence that had emanated from both of them.
“Because the tree has been dead for some time. It used to be a popular place, and so that no one gets hurt because, for example, they get the idea to climb up the tree…” He gave Cary a quick side-eye. "... the knights have decided to forbid entering the area."
“Ha…you’d have to be really stupid to ignore such obvious caution tape, huh?”
Kresimir looked at her skeptically for a moment. Was she aware of the irony of what she had just said? She seemed to notice his look because she immediately became nervous again. “T-That was… sarcastic. Because it was stupid of me...” It might take a while for him to understand her humor. But at least she didn't seem to be as unwise as he had first suspected.
"At least we're undisturbed here...let's get started." At Kresimir's words, Cary sat down on a rock, her short legs dangling slightly, and she looked at him expectantly. "Let's start with the basics of magic."
“Ahhh…” Cary said in surprise as she turned her gaze to Kresimir’s greatsword. “The sword looks really cool, too…” Had she even listened to him? Somehow, it seemed as though the cat woman was easily distracted. But she responded to his explanations shortly afterwards. "Now that you say it like that, I think I've heard it somewhere before... but yeah, not much stuck." She laughed a little embarrassed, and scratched the back of her head.
But the knight, lowering his sword again, shook his head. “It’s never too late to learn. Your potential seems to be high at least.”
“Oh yeah?” That seemed to make Cary curious. "How do you know that?"
“Your feline appearance. I'm assuming it's not innate." He paused briefly to acknowledge a nod from Cary before continuing. “So you must have conjured it up with summoning magic. And it’s not without reason that this is the most difficult form of magic.”
“Eh… really now?” She seemed genuinely surprised. The knight nodded. A smile appeared on her lips. “So I could become a real witch?”
“Having potential doesn’t mean you can implement it well. If you can't do more than make yourself look like a cat, you'll be of little use in the fight against the darkness." Kresimir didn't want to sound harsh, but honesty was important to him. However, that seemed to bother Cary quite a bit. She lowered her gaze to the ground.
Maybe he should have phrased that more nicely? She seemed to take things personally easily. “But that’s why I’ll teach you the basics. If you can use your magic more consciously, you can become a powerful witch.”
“…do you really think so?” Cary looked up carefully again. Apparently, it was important to her to get validation. So Kresimir nodded to give her some encouragement. It didn't seem so easy for her, but she smiled weakly again. "...thanks." From then on, Cary tried to compose herself and listen. "So, the three forms... physical magic is the basic form, so to speak, right?"
“Exactly.” Kresimir raised his hand, and it began to glow with a soft light again. “With it, you collect your positive energy in a desired place in the body. This can make your punches stronger, but also protect your organs from attacks. Being able to use them fundamentally is therefore very important.”
He lowered his hand and raised the sword he held in the other hand. It began to glow, too. “In the second form, malleable magic, your energy flows from your body. Weapons can become more powerful, or you can use them to influence your surroundings, as I did before.”
“And I can already do the third one! So no need to learn that one, right?”
