Marvela Mystic | ✔️

Chapter 11 ✨ Midnight

Vigilance was full of witch-less familiars with nothing to hope for, and nothing left to do but wait for their magic to fade. Marvela could almost feel the magic evaporate from the city around her like mist after a downpour.

The kitten and her rat had returned to their library, exhausted. Without saying a word to each other, they had slunk off into the shadows inside in pursuit of sleep.

But sleep evaded the restless kitten. The stiller she was, the faster her heart beat. Finally, with the light of the moon stretching across the creaky library floor, Marvela sat up and padded out through the window into the night with her tail dragging behind her.

All along the old building's outside wall, purple clematis flowers, stirred by the wind, bobbed and weaved amongst the orange leaves dancing in the air. Marvela and Curious had since buried the bone and the vine they had used in the healing spell in the garden beside the library. Imbued by magic, the vine had grown to immense lengths, smothering every other plant and weed in the garden. Now it focused its attention on the building itself, its vines actively growing up along the side of the building hungrily.

Marvela watched the vines sway in the breeze, her eyes hooded and ears drooping, lulled by the chirping of crickets. She had no energy to pounce after the little bugs. Instead, she only sat in silence.

And pondered.

She found herself wishing she had enough magic to teleport herself far away. Maybe all the way back home to Grudgewood Forest. Perhaps she had enough magic to do so. Perhaps she didn't.

She didn't bother to attempt summoning it either way. All she knew was that she could no longer feel it swirl and shimmer inside her. Ever since her last battle with Asra, she was hollow.

"If it wasn't for that white star of yours, you could almost blend into the dark!" exclaimed a chuckling voice so close to Marvela that it made the fur in her ears prickle.

With a yowl, the kitten arched her back at a svelte black cat that had seemingly appeared out of thin air beside her. Unlike Marvela, this cat's coat lacked any white markings. She was nearly invisible in the blackness. It was almost as if she was made from the night itself.

Sleek and slender, the older she-cat smiled softly down at the kitten and gave her little nose a comforting lick. "I didn't mean to frighten you. There now, small one. No need for alarm."

Marvela said nothing as she continued to stare at the other black cat. The fur along her spine still refused to lie flat.

The she-cat paid no mind to Marvela's apparent shock. She only turned her face to gaze at the nearly full moon receding behind the trees. Starlight reflected in her pale blue eyes. "Quiet night, isn't it?" she mused as if she was talking to herself.

Though the kitten supposed the other cat was right, apart from the crickets, she kept her jaw clamped shut. Something told her the cat wasn't interested in a response, anyway.

The slightest of smiles shaped the star-gazing cat's muzzle. "It's so quiet tonight; one could almost hear the spirits dance a realm away."

Marvela gaped, stunned, at the other cat. She couldn't sense any magic in this strange she-cat. But there was a knowing glint in her crystal blue eyes as she turned to regard the scruffy kitten.

"You... You know about spirits? About magic? Are you a familiar?" Marvela's voice caught in her throat at the last word. If this cat was indeed a familiar, it meant that she was yet another creature Marvela had failed.

The cat licked a forepaw and dragged it across her whiskers. "I was. Once upon a time."

The kitten's heart sank. Her eyes stung. "Oh. Oh, I'm sorry."