"Ma!" George called, doing his best not to stagger under the weight of the box of books from his mother's collection. While she had agreed to stay with Myles in the short term, as soon as it was for certain to be longer, she'd enlisted George, and the young knights of the realm that were his friends, now to bring all her things to Sir Myles's home.

Eleni had been unpacking, but had stalled out at the sight of the small statue of Rebakah Cooper. Eleni remembered the cat. She did, but…

"Ma, are–is all well?"

Eleni hesitated and then opened the box George had just set down. Sure enough, Beka's journals were in the box. She popped open the first one and started reading hastily, then went very stiff, before darting her eyes back to the figure, back to the cat.

With its faded purple eyes.

"Great Mother," she murmured.

George muttered beside her and, while she didn't register the words, the rising panic in them finally broke her from reverie.

"Do you remember your ancestress, Rebakah Cooper?"

George blinked. "Course, y'always said she'd roll over in her grave if she knew what I'd been up to. Course, then I actually read the journals. D'ye remember that her Rogue was the one that chose the Dancing Dove and she lived next door?"

Eleni snorted. "Don't be pert." She carefully closed the journal. "The cat had purple eyes, how did I forget?"

George's frown deepened. "Faithful's?"

She bit her lip. "Yes, but," she held up the statue to her son, "so did he."

Eyebrows shot up and he took it, looking at the cat. He absolutely did not remember this cat having distinctive eyes at all, let alone purple, but there they were, as much as his darling's.

"That's Faithful," he whispered.

"What?" Alanna's voice choked, followed by the loud thump of a box hitting the floor.

George swiftly turned to meet her overbright, hopeful eyes. He shook his head slightly, but Eleni interrupted. "Our ancestress," she said softly, taking the figure and approaching Alanna. "Let's get some tea, I'll tell you about her and her magical cat, Pounce."

Alanna had devoured the journals once she had the cypher. "You could've told me you were related to Rebakah Cooper," she growled finally.

"Lass, I know she's famous, but–"

"But nothing, I know my histories of Tortall." She was touchy, something was nagging at her.

"She's right. The abolishment of slavery in Tortall changed much in how the country was run," Myles, who'd followed them and picked up another journal to page through, spoke without looking up.

She cast her eyes back to the statue, to Faithful, whose name had been Pounce–she swore very loudly, causing everyone to jerk in surprise.

"Lass, what–"

"Jonathan!"

George blinked. "Um–"

Alanna huffed. "Not you. Faithful, Pounce, whatever. That first night I got back, after I met the Goddess. Jon and the others came to see me and asked if Faithful had a name yet, he didn't, or he did but I'd not said it. He suggested Pounce as a good name. How did he know?"

"He was a magic cat."

Alanna did not accept that. She huffed again and went back to reading, now with a deep furrow in her brow. George gave up. He'd ply her with love and pretty words and maybe some flowers once she was done reading.

Ye're quite the troublemaker, Faithful , he put out into the universe.

Somewhere, the tail of the constellation known as The Cat, twitched.

Notes:

I was listening to In the Hand of the Goddess and Jon comes in, asks about a name for the kitten and says Pounce and I just nod along and then Alanna says she's gonna call him Faithful and I had to hit pause because I was like...wait a second! Hope you all enjoyed, leave a comment or kudos if you like!