"Master!" Nina screamed as she leapt forward, right towards her teacher's lap.

It was a horrible moment of doubt and desperation. Master Yoji was all too far away from her, the flame bolt approached her teacher all too quickly. She could never make it in time, she knew it just as clearly as she knew that she had to try it. After all this old man had done for her, she could not let him die like this!

Already wounded and a little exhausted, Yoji was easy to push over. The momentum of Nina's leap sent both her and her teacher to the ground. The wizard gasped with pain and surprise as his back hit hard the ice-chip covered stone pavement.

The flame bolt streaked above their heads in one red flash and exploded against a brick wall a good distance away.

"Fool", Essar muttered as he struggled to his feet. His reptilian face was twisted with pain, but his eyes burned with cold determination as he lifted his unwounded hand to cast another spell.

"No!" Nina shouted as she scrambled to get herself between Yoji and Essar. "Don't harm him!"

Essar never got a chance to reply. A loud, ominous growl emerged behind him. The snake-wizard whirled around just in time to see how the shadows themselves seemed leap up from the pavement to assault him. A pair of sparkling green eyes flamed with hungry glee. Hissing with surprise, Essar lithely twisted his lean body, barely evading sure death as mighty, black paws came down at him. Curved claws sank into the hems of the snake-wizard's voluminous cloak, tearing thick, warm cloth as if it were paper.

Surprise and fear could be actually heard in Essar's voice as he yanked at his cloak, attempting to free it from the clutches of whatever creature had attacked him. He gasped with pain, one of his scaled hands groping at the clasp holding his cloak around his neck.

The black beast gave out another ferocious growl. A maw filled with razor-sharp, startlingly white fangs opened from the darkness and the attacker leapt for Essar's slim throat.

Actually shouting with alarm, Essar stumbled backwards, the remnants of his cloak fluttering around him. However, even as he fell, he spat out a desperate spell.

There was a flash of red light.

What was left of Essar's broad cloak sank to the ground into a disfigured bundle. It was followed by Essar's attacker, still partially tangled in the red cloth. Of the snake-wizard himself, there was no trace.

Their eyes wide, not daring to move a muscle, not daring to draw a breath, Nina and Yoji stared at their saviour. It was a panther, black as night. Its fur sleek like the finest of velvets, its muscles powerful and rippling with every move, the beast raked the alley with the burning gaze of its moss-green eyes. It was wounded, panting and absolutely, positively furious at the disappearance of its prey. Then, snarling, it suddenly turned to stare at a lean shape perching painfully on the rooftop of a nearby building.

Safely -- at least for a fleeting moment -- outside the panther's reach, Essar had no time to return its flaming glare. His fingers and the tip of his long tail twitched convulsively. Coughing and panting, every gasp sending a surge of agony through his reptilian body, he hurriedly felt through the pockets of his robe, pulling out his vial of healing potion. Yanking the cork away and sending it bouncing off the rooftop, he urgently emptied the entire bottle into his mouth. Shuddering and gasping as the medicine took effect and began to burn his wounds together, he looked down at the scene below with disbelief.

It seemed that the panther had decided that the snake-wizard wouldn't be worth the effort. It had turned at more present prey.

That was, Yoji and Nina.

Hunger blazed in the beast's eyes. Hunger for blood, hunger to taste fresh meat in its maw, hunger to feel how its razor claws ripped through flesh. While its eagerness could be seen from its every move, it still crept forward ever so slowly, crouching low, hunting, prowling… Its eyes never leaving those of Nina, it watched carefully her every move, ready to pounce on her should she do so much as flinch.

"Oh dear…" Master Yoji muttered with barely audible voice.

The panther crept closer. Its enormous black paws gave out no sound as they touched the cobblestones.

To Master Yoji's amazement, Nina made a shaking move forward, closer to the beast. "Miss Nina!"

The Windian girl's face was pale as she stared squarely into the black-furred face of the panther. Her mouth was dry and her heart raced faster than ever, but still she slowly crawled forward, stunned, mesmerized by the beast's moss-green eyes. "It can't…" she whispered, "it can't…"

Something sparkled in the panther's eyes. Something like a recognition. A shade of something it had forgotten what seemed like ages ago. It hesitated, its muzzle flaring as it inhaled the scent of the Windian girl.

"It's…" Ignoring Yoji's nudge, Nina crawled closer. Those eyes… The same color…

Suddenly, as if in pain, the panther shuddered and allowed its head sway downwards. Its ears twitching, it let out a quiet, mournful growl.

"It's you", Nina mumbled, tears glimmering in her eyes as she gently wrapped her arms around the beast's muscular neck. Sobbing, she buried her face into the black, velvet-soft fur. "It's you, Aryn…"

The panther growled again, this time as if in shame. Slowly it sat down and closed its moss-green eyes.

"Uh…" Yoji swallowed, "W-what did you say?"

"A sspirit!" Essar hissed up from the rooftop, failing to keep amazement from trailing into his voice. "Aryn hass joined with a sspirit beast!"

"A-a spirit beast?" Master Yoji repeated shakily, still eyeing the panther warily, "He has made a pact with a spirit?"

"A spirit beast?" Nina asked, her eyes still full of tears as she lifted her face from the night-black fur, "What's that? What do you mean?"

"I know not how he hass gotten it," Essar said quietly, his eyes narrowing as the panther that was Aryn turned to glare hungrily at him with its burning gaze. Nina had calmed the beast, it seemed, but had not tamed it. "But it sseemss that Aryn walkss with a sspirit companion. A sspirit of an animal that matchess hiss ssoul. Ssomehow, he hass tuned himself with that sspirit animal, merging with it. Honestly, I did not know Aryn had knowledge in sshamanistic magic…"

"I have heard legends that some Worans are able to shift their shape into that of a weretiger", Yoji suggested, "Perhaps… Perhaps he…"

"From what I have read", Essar replied, eyeing the panther, "Only true purebloodss can change their sshape. And true purebloodss are very rare, even within the few-numbered Woran Clan itself. Aryn would possibly have no ssuch ability, but if he knowss how to call upon the cat-side of hiss ssoul, that might trigger the fusion with the sspirit beast…"

"How do you know so much about these things?" Master Yoji asked, warily glancing up at Essar. While the snake-wizard currently didn't seem to pose much of a threat, Yoji had learned his lesson and was ready to hurl a defensive spell at the first suspicious move. Why was Essar suddenly so helpful to them?

"You ssaid it yourself, Master… The Hadiyashi sschool dealss much in demonology. While the demonss and the sspirit beastss differ like a ssun and a moon, there sstill are ssome basic ssimilaritiess in them."

"Free him", Nina suddenly said.

Both Essar and Yoji turned to look at the Windian girl. Nina stood beside the panther with a determined mien on her face, her black wings framing her golden hair. One of her hands rested between the beast's silken ears. She continued seriously: "If you know so much about spirits and demons, then free him, Essar."

A pause followed. The snake-wizard allowed his slits of darkness drill deep into Nina, but this time, the Windian girl stood firm and unmoving, gritting her teeth as she did so.

"The hunter'ss instinctss have taken over him", Essar pondered slowly, breaking the silence. "He iss more a beast than a quarter-Woran now."

"Free him, Essar!" Nina snapped.

Sensing her anger, the panther let out a low growl.

Essar was quiet for another long moment, his yellow eyes gleaming as he once again studied the former princess of Windia. She was determined to help her bodyguard. If she couldn't make Essar free Aryn, then she would find another way to help him, no matter what it would cost her. It was not only rather naïve, but also quite impressive.

A hint of a smile appeared onto the snake-wizard's scaled lips as he said: "I sshall make you a deal, Princesss Nina."

Nina lifted her eyebrows. "A deal?"

"Uh-- Maybe you shouldn't do that, Miss Nina…" Yoji interrupted before the snake-wizard could continue. "He's trying to take an advantage of the situation."

"Indeed", Essar replied dryly. "What kind of devilish villain would not?"

"What kind of a deal?"

"One life can often come with a price of ssseveral otherss", Essar began. He was interrupted by a sudden fit of hissing coughing. Drawing a shaking, painful breath, he silently cursed himself for not having brought more healing potions with him and hissed bitterly: "And my life almost ended a moment ago…"

He coughed once more before continuing: "By now you sshould know that you are rather valuable to me alive. Sswear that you will co-operate with me in my planss and I sshall help Aryn."

"M-miss Nina…" Yoji stammered.

Nina swallowed, a fearsome suspicion entering her mind. "You won't get ransom from me."

"I'm aware of that", Essar answered, shifting his position on the roof a little. "Even I am not a fool enough to try to get a ransom from a girl who iss no longer accepted in her own family…"

At this, Nina swallowed again, the snake-wizard's words having stung deep into her heart.

"However", Essar continued, lifting a single finger to emphasis his point, "You have been a most useful… sstool pigeon."

"A bait?!" Yoji puffed with an amazed tone of voice.

"A bait", Essar echoed, "A decoy to fool my enemiess. And, Misss Nina, I must admit, you have done most excellent work. Now, only one part of thiss task remainss…" His voice trailed away, his mask of calculated calmness was replaced by that of grim attentiveness as his gaze focused into movement that had caught his eye.

Nothing but a tiny shadow among other, greater shadows, a single bird fluttered over the rooftops. With a little, squawking acknowledgement it arched around the alley, then turned in the air and swept towards its master, Essar Shoo. Red pinpoints served as its eyes, glowing faintly in the darkness and indicating that this bird was not guided by a natural mind.

Keeping one eye on Nina, Master Yoji and especially the panther down in the alley, Essar allowed the raven to land onto his slim wrist and quickly detached the message from its leg. Recognizing the handwriting of his agent temporarily stationed in Windia, he skimmed through the words.

As the message burst into purple flames, Essar turned his attention back to Nina and… actually, honestly... smiled. Illuminated by the purplish light of burning paper, he looked far more ominous than usual.

Nina swallowed. She had no idea that the message had held, but she was sure that the consequences wouldn't be pleasant for her.

"Well, Misss Nina..." Essar said slowly, "I'm afraid we won't be able to co-operate any longer. A certain person back in Windia, the one who had been willing to pay to ssee you... hm… disappear, hass been caught. There iss no longer a reward on your head, and thuss... Your dayss of being a bait sseem to be over. And that meanss, the overture of my war against the Jokerss iss finally behind uss. Now, the true battle sshall begin."

"Your… war?" Master Yoji asked with a puzzled tone of voice, "What... what are you talking about?"

Essar did not bother to explain. He focused his dark-yellow eyes at Nina. "Misss, it sseemss that I have no need for you in my next task. Sso, I sshall rephrase my request: sswear upon your life, give me your word, that you sshall tell local officialss not a word of what hass occurred here tonight. I prefer to work with velvet glovess, and -- honestly -- tonight'ss business hass failed to meet that requirement. It would be most uncomfortable if the officials would find out about me... Or..." the snake-wizard added, his eyes gleaming with a subtle threat, "...about you..."

"What do you mean, 'war against Jokers'?" Nina asked with suspicion, one of her hands unconsciously scratching the black ears of the panther at her side.

Essar did not answer. Instead, he lifted his gaze in the direction of the burning warehouse. Shouts, quickly barked orders and hasty responses could be heard across the rooftops as the folk of Hometown fought to keep the flames from spreading.

Nina realized that the snake-wizard would not wait much longer. And Aryn needed her help. "I promise."

"Good", Essar turned his eyes back to the Windian girl. "I trust you sshall keep that word... Especially because it sshall also be for your own good. And for the good of Aryn. And --" Suddenly he focused his attention on Master Yoji. His eyes narrowing into slits, his voice lowered into a barely audible hiss. "I assume it sshall also be for your good, Master Yoji."

Slowly the elderly wizard nodded. "I shall stand with my apprentice."

Essar nodded. "Misss Nina, ssearch through the pocketss of my cloak. In one of them, you sshall find a red piece of parchment, tied with a red thread." As Nina hastily bent down to examine the snake-wizard's discarded and tattered cloak, Essar himself felt through the pockets of his robe and was pleased to find out that his slender-stemmed pipe had not been damaged during the rough going tonight. As he began to load the pipe with his unusual tobacco, he explained: "I had originally prepared that sscroll for myself, to get rid of... certain ssomething... once the time comess. However, I can alwayss create another scroll."

"So", Master Yoji said nervously, looking up at the snake-wizard, "You indeed have made a pact with a demon."

Essar's cold eyes drilled deep into the elderly wizard. His gaze never straying away from Yoji, he made a gesture over his pipe with deliberately slow moves. With a little puff of flames, the tobacco ignited. He inhaled, deeply, and let out a cloud of purple smoke. "Yess…" he finally hissed softly, "It wass… necessary. Even demonss can be most helpful, when you sshow them who iss the lord. Thiss…" he puffed his pipe and examined thoughtfully his own, scaled hand, "…appearance iss a drawback, but I have grown… fond… of it over the yearss…" He fell silent, blew two clouds of purple smoke through his nostrils and lifted his gaze towards the yellow-orange halo of the burning warehouse.

Allowing a little, grim smile pass through his lips, Essar turned to look down at Master Yoji.

Nina stood up from the tattered cloak and gently pushed away the panther that had been eyeing her doings curiously. "I found it!" she called up to Essar, displaying an angular piece of red parchment in her hand.

"The sspell wass designed for demonss", Essar explained and shifted his position a little. After a sudden, violent cough, he continued with a more softer tone of voice: "However, it sshould work also with sspirit beastss. Unfold it, Miss Nina."

The Windian girl did so, untying the red string and letting it top drop onto the cobble stones. The inner side of the parchment was drawn full of arcane runes and spell-circles. Each marking was a separate symbol of its own, yet they all connected and intertwined together, forming a complex wholeness. Nina couldn't help but to admire the beautiful, flourishy style the runes had been drawn with, but soon she lifted her gaze from the scroll. "What now?"

"The sscroll iss activated by placing it onto Aryn'ss forehead…" As if by afterthought, Essar added: "I would ssuggest turning your gaze away after that. It won't be a very… pleasant ssight."

While many things that passed Essar's lips sounded rather suspicious at best, he spoke true this time. On the very moment Nina placed the scroll against the panther's forehead, the black beast flinched with alarm. Shuddering and trembling it arched its back, the muscles in its legs tensed in a horrified anticipation of what would soon follow.

Slowly, gradually, the runes in the scroll began to pulse with soft yellow light. Dimly at first, but gaining strength with each pulse. And with each pulse, the panther shuddered more and more, until it collapsed to the ground, its paws no longer able to support its weight. The beast writhed, convulsed on the cobblestones, its once shining-black fur beginning to melt away like some thick, dark fluid flowing down from its body.

Drawing a quiet, shuddering breath, Nina took several steps backwards and turned away, hiding her eyes into the wide sleeve of Master Yoji. The elderly wizard himself looked more and more nauseated with each passing second. His gaze slowly began trailing away, toward the shadows of the alley. Even Essar Shoo, who had studied in a school where being used to watching similar transformations was a necessity, narrowed his eyes and focused his attention onto the burning warehouse instead.

Giving birth to something is a painful experience, but how it feels to reverse the process? How does it feel to make something cease to exist, rip it away from your own flesh, so that it -- and you -- could become something else?

After a short while that seemed like an eternal lifetime, it ended. The writhing ceased and the pained growling of a panther was replaced by panting of a human being. Nina could barely recognize Aryn in his current condition, a crumbled, bloody quarter-Woran, lying as a miserable, naked mound on the cold cobblestones. His entire body gleamed with sweat. His hair was a wild mess, the fur covering his ears was sticky with blood.

"Ah", Master Yoji uttered softly and removed his long, blue traveling coat. It had been stained and cut during the battle, but it was still better than nothing as he gently wrapped it around Aryn and began helping the exhausted bodyguard onto his feet. The protector did not resist, clinging instinctively to the supporting hands. It was one of those countless of times when Yoji regretted the fact that he had not chosen the path of a healer instead that of a War Wizard.

"Aryn…" Nina sighed with relief as she took a step forward and saw that her bodyguard seemed to have survived through it alive. Her smile, however, froze as the protector lifted his green eyes and stared right into hers… There was no recognition apparent on his face. He could just as well have stared at a complete stranger.

A fearsome thought forming in her mind, Nina swung around to ask for Essar to prove her fears wrong. However, she couldn't make the words come out from her mouth as she saw the snake-wizard slowly levitating down onto the street.

Guessing correctly the reason for Nina's distressed expression, Essar shook his head. "No", he whispered as his feet soundlessly touched the ground. "Sseparating the sspirit from the host causes a moment of disorientation. Right now, Aryn iss not ssure which he sshould be, a man or a beast…"

As if to prove the snake-wizard's words true, Aryn's eyes snapped into focus at Essar. Letting out a fierce snarl, he bared his teeth and leapt forward – or, at least, he attempted to leap forward, but his bruised and battered body was no longer able to follow his will. With a frustrated sigh he sank down, leaning against Master Yoji for support. The elderly wizard grunted as he fought to keep the protector from falling.

"Now, now, Aryn…" Something of a dry smile could have be seen passing through Essar's scaly lips as he watched the protector's reaction for the sight of the snake-wizard. Then he bent down to pick up the tattered remnants of his cloak and began fastening it around himself again. "Ssstill you consider me your enemy… After everything I did to keep you and Misss Nina from falling into the clutchess of the Jokerss…"

"What are you saying?" Nina gasped, exchanging a worried glance with Master Yoji, "Don't try to lie! You've betrayed us too many times already!"

"Thanklesss is the way of the world", Essar reproached. Quickly he lifted his fist over his mouth and coughed. "I wonder, who wasss it then, who helped Aryn out from the clutchess of Captain Rajen? Who warned you about the bounty hunter aboard Golden Auria?" He tilted his head at Nina's disbelieving mien. "You do not believe me? Ask Aryn when he comess to hisss ssensess."

"He… speaks true", Aryn whispered quietly, the words coming haltingly from his lips as if he would have to struggle just to remember how to talk. The bodyguard's eyes were now more focused and he was becoming more and more aware of who he was and what was going around him. With a wheezing sigh he lifted his hand to wipe his lips.

"And who did not inform the Jokerss about your location after I found you from Lady Ayena'ss Trading Post of Artss Arcane?" Essar continued as he carefully tapped ashes from his pipe and hid it into his pockets. "Honestly, I did not expect Aryn'ss dagger to be powerful enough to break through my warding runess back there in the warehouse, sso I had also been prepared to… ah… cancel those runess in time. And finally…"

"That spell you had used to lock the warehouse's door", Aryn suggested, his lips drawing up into a sarcastic smile that still looked all too much like a cat's snarl to Nina.

Essar nodded. "Very perceptive, Aryn. You cannot cancel ssuch a sspell just by ssimply wounding the one who cast it. Sso, to ssummarize everything", the snake-wizard coughed and grimaced as if in pain before he continued: "You have much to thank me for."

"I'll thank you later", Aryn growled with disgust, "but before that, tell me… Why? I once almost thought you as my friend."

"We have dealt for sso long, Aryn, that you forgot one crucial fact…" Essar replied with a thin smile, "I can be trusted… to the certain degree, that iss. But why, you ask…" Essar sighed. "I must be ssounding like a finishing chapter in a book of fancy tale of adventure… Very well, then."

The snake-wizard was silent for a moment, his eyes slowly making their way to Princess Nina Windia and the black wings in her back. "I needed to keep the fish sswimming… Yess… You, Misss Nina. I needed to keep you sswimming, luring the fishermen… The Jokerss, just in case you did not guesss it already… into deeper watersss sso that they would waste their recoursess and energy chasing ssuch an elusive prey. And, in deeper watersss, the fishermen could be preyed upon by my pet sshark…" He turned his gaze at Aryn, "Yess… You. But now, I can no longer use Miss Nina for a bait, sso the first sstage of my war against Jokerss iss over. I have no need for you any longer."

"What do you mean, 'war against Jokers'?"

Essar was clearly beginning to get annoyed. He sighed, like a glowing ember plunging deep into cold waters, and shifted his cloak around his lean form. "I told you. I'm not in good relationss with them. For ssome time already they have been eyeing my territory with greedy gleam in their eyesss. I want to keep them out from my area, sso I made a pact with them…" His voice sounded like it was made of frost as he continued, "A pact both Joker and I knew we would break ssooner or later. I am preparing a war against them, and you, Miss Nina and you, Aryn, were my gambit."

Aryn clenched his teeth as he glared at the snake-wizard. Even in his weakened state he seemed to be considering if he should leap to choke his old ally. "So all the time we were your decoy bird so that you could play friends with the Jokers and make them waste their time and men at us?"

"Indeed", Essar said. Did he really have to explain everything to them just now? "You sshould know, when it comess to the art of double-crossing, I am an expert. But now", he shifted the remnants of his cloak a little more, finally beginning to be satisfied with how the tattered cloth covered him. "If you have no further questionss about the ssituation, I believe it iss the time for me to leave…"

"As it's the for Nina to leave again", Aryn snarled back to the snake-wizard, "Just when she had found some sort of place to live in, your little schemes force her to flee again! The Jokers are after her and they know that she's here. Haven't you thought about that?"

"The Jokers have other thingss to think about now", Essar countered, then added with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "Trust me."

"I won't run again", Nina put in quietly, gently putting her hand onto Aryn's arm. She summoned what she hoped would be a reassuring smile onto her lips as the stunned bodyguard turned to stare at her. "I found the School while running from one thing." She paused, shrugged a little apologetically. "I don't want to run from two things at the same time."

Yoji lifted his eyebrows, wondering what this was all about. However, the wizard had enough sense to keep his puzzlement to himself.

"But girl," Aryn began with disbelief, "You won't be safe here anymore! With all the --"

Essar snorted and interrupted the bodyguard: "If you would listen to my advice, Miss Nina, I would tell you to learn magic. Magic to protect yourself. I have no need for you any further, but Jokerss may sstill have ssome interest in you… That much of Aryn'ss wordss are true. But if they even come for you, I doubt that they will come very ssoon. The Jokerss most closely involved in chasing you perished just tonight: the rest of their gang do not know your exact location. And, like I ssaid, they will be very busy during the following yearsss, waging war against me…"

Aryn looked like he would be about to protest, but Master Yoji spoke out first, his words silencing the bodyguard down: "Ah, Mr. Aryn, Miss Nina will be safe within the Great School of Magic. Its walls are warded and guarded well, both to keep the School safe from the outside world…" He paused, then added a little sheepishly: "…as well as to keep the outside world safe from the School… However, Miss Nina will be taken good care of there. One of our guidelines is not to leave an apprentice in trouble."

"My thoughtss exactly", Essar said calmly as he turned and took a few visibly limping steps down the street. However, he halted and threw a glance over his shoulder. "Do not underestimate the Jokerss, Miss Nina. Their leader can be cunning and deviouss. Many timess his men acted in ways I had not predicted, they moved too quickly or toos smartly, forcing me to alter my planss… Sseveral timess. Pray for your own ssake that I sshall win my war. If you wish to live in thiss dangerous world of oursss, Misss Nina… Learn to take care of yourself. Learn to ssurvive."

Nina swallowed, her mouth dry like desert, her back stiff as a spear.

Finally becoming too heavy for Master Yoji to support, Aryn collapsed to his knees with a whimper. "You…. You demon…"

Essar halted, his yellow eyes glimmering as he turned to smile coldly to his former ally. "You have no idea how close you hit."

With those words, Essar Shoo, the snake-wizard, the dealer of information, the master of schemes and deception, walked into the night of Hometown and disappeared. Only red pieces of red cloth on the stone pavement and a sweet smell of purple tobacco lingering in the air indicated that he ever had been there.

"Damn you…" Aryn whispered, closing his eyes and allowing his head to sway down.

Unable to see her bodyguard in such a state, Nina turned her face away. Doing so, she happened to land her gaze onto a little, black bundle on the street. Blinking her eyes once, she took a step forward to examine it closer. Then, with a little gasp, she recognized it... barely.

"Cat!" Nina whispered with amazement, then tossed a quick glance over her shoulder, fearing that Aryn might have heard her. If the bodyguard had been badly wounded, his pet was an even more miserable sight. The once so perfect, beautifully black coat now looked more like a matted and tangled fur rag. One of the ears was in tatters, the tail hung limp and lifeless. Its eyes were closed and its side barely moved up and down with its breath. Aryn couldn't bear to see his pet now.

Sighing, Nina kneeled to damp stones and gathered the animal into her lap, warming its little body by pressing it against her own. Gently snuggling her cheek against Cat's sticky-furred head, she rose and turned to exchange a tired look with Master Yoji.

In the distance, leaping tongues of flames spat a shower of sparks, accompanied by a flood of heavy, dark smoke, into night-time skies.

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Next: Chapter XXIV
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