I don't know how long I was in the darkness, but a noise was growing louder. I hear... a cat meowing.

"Hello there, Kitty Cat. People say you have nine lives," I heard a woman say. I suddenly saw a woman smiling at a cat who was smiling back at her. "If you have so many, could you maybe give one to me...?" The woman and the cat slowly faded away from my sight and the sound of a train grew louder. I could see light through my eyelids and I scrunched them to block it.

"Are you awake?" I finally opened my eyes and looked up to see my head in someone's lap. Elias? I slowly sat up and looked into his face. "Good morning, Reika."

"Morning?" I asked curiously while rubbing my eyes before looking around. "Where are we?"

"On a train, en route to our next destination. You fell asleep soon after we left The Dragon Aeire."

"I did?"

"It was a trying day for you," he told me and I sat on the other side of him and looked outside.

"I'm sorry." I had remembered feeling dizzy, but not being that worn out.

"There's no need to apologize," Elias told me as someone knocked on the door to our compartment. Elias quickly covered his face before calling for them to enter. A lizard guy opened the door and stepped inside the compartment doorway.

"A messenger has arrived for you, sir."

"Send him in." The man nodded before exiting the compartment. "As you've likely gathered, Reika, this train isn't meant for humans.

"It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Sir Mage." I looked at the doorway to see a cat standing there.

"Word travels quickly," Elias stated.

"Indeed. News circles the world in a day among our kind," the cat informed us.

"I'm sorry, but how are you talking right now?" I asked as he jumped up into the seat next to me.

"You find that odd in an age where metal boxes and glowing boards can talk?" he asked and I thought about it.

"I've just never heard a cat talk before," I told him. "I've only heard them say meow and stuff."

"Ah. They're likely only one their first - or third, at most." He laid his head on my lap and I instinctively started petting his head. "As I'm on my seventh, it would be far odder if I couldn't speak."

"Your seventh... what?" I asked him curiously.

"Haven't you heard?" Elias asked me and I turned to him. "Cats have nine lives."

"Precisely. And the more of them we've lived, the cleverer and wiser we become," the cat informed me. "We too have the idea of countries and kings." He lifted his head and turned to Elias. "Sir Mage, here is my message. The King of Cats awaits you in Ulthar."

"Welcome to Ulthar, the town where cats congregate." I stared in wonder at the number of cats playing in the bushes and foliage around us.

"Wow, they're cats everywhere!"

"Well, yes. It is our kingdom. It's a natural spot for us. The humans here with few exceptions, have always cherished us. Although, we also have other reasons for it." I yelped when something jumped on me from behind only to see it was a cat jumping on my shoulder. "Barney! Where have you been, you layabout?! Everyone's been looking for you!" Barney moved from my shoulder and more into my arms so I was holding him.

"Oh, pipe down! The king told me to check things out! I've been on patrol. And what're you going, having casual chit-chat with these guests? Show some respect, Jasper!" Barney moved his head into my hair and sniffed at it. "Hmm? I've smelled something like this before. You smell an awful lot like some mages I used to hang around, Missy." Elias grabbed Barney by the scruff and held him aloft.

"Well, aren't you a loose-tongued beast."

"'ey! What's got you all prickly this time, Thorn Mage?" Barney growled. Elias dropped Barney back onto the ground. "Don't worry! I ain't gonna sharpen my claws in your precious bride."

"So, even the cats know about that?" I laughed nervously.

"Cats' rumors will even reach the underworld, Missy," Barney told me before jumping back into my arms. We followed Jasper to where the King was waiting for us when someone passed by someone in a black jacket. I turned to glance at her and she glared at me. Did I see that right? Was she watching us? I stared at her back for a moment as I followed Elias.

"So..." I said after a bit more of walking. "Where is your king?"

"Right beside you." I looked up to see a beautiful ginger cat looking down at us with her golden eyes. "Good day, mage. Good day, young apprentice."

"You're the King of Cats?" I asked curiously.

"Yes. My name is Molly. And you are Reika, yes? I must say, I expected you to seem more eccentric, as you chose to be the mate of this boneheaded... gentleman." Chosen...? Mate...? "But that's neither here nor there. Welcome, both of you. We're pleased to see you. I was afraid that they'd send alchemists to us."

"Are alchemists really that bad?" I asked her.

"You bet there is, Missy," Barney told me. "We can't stand 'em! They're as cunning as us cats, as greedy as pigs, as sly as serpents, ad as enslaved to their own desires as any demon. No cat would ever willingly go near one."

"I'm aware that you're here at the Church's request," Molly said. "I would love to tell you that our domain is worry-free, but we do have one pesky concern. Might we ask your assistance, mage?" Suddenly, a young girl came around the bushes towards us.

"Hullo. Who're you?" she asked me.

"Uh...?" I looked next to me to see Elias was gone.

"Why're you outside our house? Is something wrong?" the girl asked him with a large smile on her face.

"Oh... uh... I... I was just admiring this cat!" I told her quickly, trying to think of a lie she might believe.

"Really?!" She asked me excitedly. "She's our kitty! Isn't she super pretty? It's almost time for dinner, Molly! Come back in soon, okay?" the girl ran back inside the house.

"That's my human," Molly told us. "I've known her since she was a babe. She's like my own kit." Molly jumped down into my arms.

"She seems like a kind girl."

"Yes. She is my pride and joy." I looked down to see a vine with thorns on it.

"Elias?" I looked down to see Elias' as a shadow. "Why'd you disappear like that? You startled me."

"I don't like children. They're far too good at perceiving the truth of things, sometimes including me, through my illusions. I'll take this opportunity to investigate some things."

"What? Where are you going?!" I shouted at him.

"Something's not quite right here. I mean to find out what," Elias told me.

"Well then," Molly said turning to look at me while still in my arms. "I'll take you to see the source of our trouble." I nodded my head at her.

I followed Molly through the forest and she told me the story behind their problem.

"Long ago - so long that even we who have nine lives were not there to see a man lived here who took joy in slaughtering our kind."

"He liked killing cats? How could someone do that?" I asked, but she just shook her head.

"However far we ran, and no matter where we hid, he found us and took our lives one by one. It was the first King of Cats who put an end to him. The first king gathered those few of us who remained and attacked. They bit, they gnawed, and they tore until not a scrap of the man remained. Afterward, the king sacrificed several of his lives to bind the festering blight that remained here. Ever since the kings of cats have been honored. And in turn, we kings likewise sacrifice our lives to refresh those bindings and keep the blight sealed away."

"It's sealed away in a lake?" I asked Molly. Barney climbed up my legs and torso until he was at my shoulder.

"On that wee spit in the middle, to be more precise. Your Sight should reveal it to you, Missy." I stared at the island and my eyes widened as an inky darkness seemed to grow from it until it took control of it completely.

"Do you see it?" Molly asked me and I nodded.

"It looks like a huge black blob!" There's something about it... I can't put my finger on it...

"That location was chosen because humans go there so rarely. But for some reason, recently it's begun attempting to escape. The blight is composed of tainted souls that have not been purified or moved on to the next realm. Its ravening hunger drives it to steal the lives of anything - man or beast - it can grasp. I will do anything in my power to keep it bound, even sacrifice all my lives."

"Because of that girl?" I asked looking down at her.

"What mother does not protect her children?" Molly asked me and I stared at the blight again. "To not shield her is unfathomable to me."

"I suppose you must be right," I said. Suddenly, someone grabbed my arm and I turned to see the girl from earlier. "Who-? You're that girl from before." She gripped her necklace before a flash surrounded us and I saw the lake under us.

"Reika!" I heard Molly call out. The girl pulled me to her.

"Sorry. Nothing personal." And with that said, she pushed me into the lake.

"Reika!" I felt the cold water engulf me in an embrace.