13

Cassandra waved her hand dismissively and said, "There is plenty of time yet, and you both are still figuring each other out if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, may I introduce you to my daughter, Aliara?"

The girl with the piercings looked at us both and gave a halfhearted wave as she muttered, "I go by Ali."

It was pretty clear that Cassandra and her daughter did not have the warmest of relationships, but when I would look at them I could somehow sense a genuine affection for each other. We spent some time getting to know Ali, and found out that she had just finished her degree in history and was taking some time off in order to study a bit more of their craft with the Circle. Apparently witchcraft runs in families.

"So, you look very familiar to me for some reason," I said.

"Well we might have seen each other around campus at some point," she replied.

Kelli then piped up and asked, "You were at the McAllister party weren't you? Up on stage with Jessica and her group just before midnight."

Thankful for Kelli's insight, I finally remembered that Ali had been dressed as one of the Disney princesses, though the movie version probably did not have quite so much jewelry.

"Yeah, I was. Were you two there? I can't remember seeing you."

"We were the couple that kissed a minute or so after midnight," I said, blushing. "And it was our first kiss so everyone was cheering us on."

Ali laughed then and said, "I remember you two now! The maid and the foxhunter. I gotta say you two were hot, and made a lot of people there jealous. I also remember a burst of magic then as well." Ali turned to her mother and asked, "That was your doing wasn't it?"

Cassandra just smiled gently and replied, "Oh, the totems led me to Myka, but the kiss was all them, as if you couldn't see now for yourself."

Ali chuckled again at that and we all lapsed back into more comfortable conversation for a while. Apparently, however, I was avoiding conversation about the proverbial elephant.

Cassandra finally sighed and said, "So, Myka, tell me what happened last night in your dream if you would dear."

At this Ali leaned forward, showing a great deal more interest in the conversation that was about to occur.

"Well, it felt real," I replied, "More real than anything I have ever dreamed about. In fact, for the first few minutes after I woke up, when Kelli was trying to calm me down, I was having a hard time sorting out what was dream and what was real."

Cassandra nodded and motioned for me to continue.

"I wrote down everything that I remembered, like you asked," I said, and handed over the pages that I had filled with my experience. "Everything is pretty much there, even how I was feeling."

"Thank you my dear," she acknowledged, as she quickly scanned through the things I had written down. "I will get this to Millicent, another in the Circle, who is most talented with things related to the dream world. If anyone can explain what happened, she can."

"Thanks," I replied. "It was so real, and the feelings so intense. I still feel like I'm going to lose Kelli, and that there is nothing I can do to stop it."

Kelli leaned over and hugged me tight and whispered calming words in my ear, while Cassandra reached out and placed her hand on mine and squeezed it gently.

"Fret not my dear. We will have the Circle looking into things and we should know very soon if this is nothing more than a nightmare, or if it is a premonition of things to come. However, I want you to keep something in your mind. If it is a premonition, or a clairvoyant dream, remember that knowledge gained now may allow you to direct the flow of events to some extent in the future and change the outcome in many different ways."

I nodded to her, even though her words gave me scant comfort, and wiped away the tears that had been forming in my eyes. I could figure things out later, as there were a couple of other questions that we needed answers to. Cassandra seemed to sense the change in my demeanor at that point and pulled out her ever present notebook.

"You have other things to ask, don't you," she said, and gestured that I should proceed.

"Well, first, I have noticed that no one thinks it strange that I am a Neko. I get funny looks, and looks of surprise when people first see me, but no one fails to believe that Neko exist, they are just surprised that they are seeing one for the first time. Even at my medical checkup for school the nurse that examined me mentioned that it was the first time she had treated a cat-girl, but that everything looked healthy and she even recommended a special conditioner for my ears and tail."

"That is quite interesting, and certainly worth investigating," Cassandra replied, while taking several notes.

"Also," I continued, "Kelli remembers me before I transformed, and sometimes comments that she likes me better with the tail. And I've talked to Paul once or twice since New Year's and he's asked me if I was having trouble with anyone freaking out about how I grew a tail and cat ears. Apparently he also remembers that at the time they were just part of a costume. I guess, maybe, that people I had sex with the night before I transformed remember?"

Kelli then spoke up, "Along that same line of thinking you should all see this, because I think it reaches way beyond me and Paul."

She then took a newspaper clipping out of her purse and spread it on the table. I recognized the picture from last September, when Kelli and I had volunteered to assist with the campus blood drive and the paper took a group photo for the article. Kelli had thought it was cool that we were in the paper so she kept the article. I was not sure what this had to do with me and becoming a Neko and both Cassandra and I asked her what was so interesting about this picture.

It was Ali that spoke next and asked, "When was this taken Kelli, and when was it printed?"

"Last September. Do you see it?"

"Oh yes, and it makes things much more interesting don't you think mom," she asked as she tapped on my place in the photo.

Cassandra and I gasped as we finally saw what had her daughter's attention. There I was in the photo, right where I should be, with my ears and tail prominently displayed in black and white for all the world to see. It was impossible, but somehow a photo taken and printed months ago had changed and showed me in my transformed state. I looked up at Cassandra and she had a thoughtful look on her face as she contemplated the clipping.

"Could the magic actually be that far reaching Ali," she asked in awe.

"I believe Millicent would also know about this better than anyone as well," Ali replied, and was thumbing through a very old book that looked like it was an arcane note and doodle journal.

"That is probably true, and I will certainly ask her straight away when I get back. Now my dears," Cassandra said as she again addressed us. "Is there anything else you need before I take my leave?"

I shook my head no, but Kelli quickly spoke up, "Would it be possible to get a book or some notes or something on magic itself, how it works, what is involved in the practice. Perhaps some basic text I could study to get a better idea of what is happening to Myka and me?"

Ali looked up at Cassandra with a slight shrug as the two paused for a moment to consider what Kelli had asked. It seemed to come as a bit of a surprise to them, and Cassandra eventually gave a slight hand gesture and shrug back to her daughter, apparently turning over the decision to her.

"I suppose I could make you a copy of my grimoire, here," Ali said. "Though without the magic that I have imbued in the creation and writing of the actual tome, it will have no functionality. In other words you won't be able to accidentally cast a spell from just reading it. The information in it, however, could be written into another grimoire, so I would ask that you safeguard this well if I give it to you. Can you do that?"

Kelli nodded her head and said, "I understand and I will keep it on me at all times, and if someone tries or takes it from me you will be the first person I call. Will that be alright?"

"That will be fine, though I do not think there will be a problem. Do you have an empty notebook, or notepad I could have?"

Kelli looked through her bag quickly, and pulled out a couple of regular spiral bound college notebooks and placed them on the table.

"Will one of these work," she asked.

Ali nodded and took one of them and placed it on top of her grimoire and took out an old fountain pen and ink bottle. She proceeded to draw some strange looking symbols on the notebook cover which she then surrounded by a circle and connected with the lines of a pentagram. Ali then took a quick look around to make sure that no one was watching our table before she placed her hand over the circle she had drawn and muttered for a few moments under her breath.

"Let me see your hand," she asked Kelli at that point.

Kelli placed her right hand in Ali's just before she pricked her middle finger with a small silver looking knife, and then dropped a single drop of Kelli's blood into the center of the design. The ink at that moment glowed with a faint orange light that faded almost as soon as it started, and when it had faded completely the circle and all of the other symbols had disappeared.

"There," Ali said as she handed the notebook back to Kelli. "Sorry about your finger, but I decided to tie the reading of your copy to you, and who you give permission to, and for that I needed a drop of your blood."

Kelli just shrugged as she sucked on her finger for a moment and then said, "Not really a problem, and better safe than sorry, right?"

"Exactly. So open it and tell me what you think," Ali replied grinning.

Kelli did as she was asked and opened the notebook, and gasped. I looked and saw blank paper.

"Did it not work," I asked.

Kelli then looked at me funny then said, "Oh right, you can read this too Myka."

The moment she told me that I could read it the pages filled with strange text and different symbols and drawings. It was kind of cool to actually see magic work like that and let Ali know as much.

Ali shrugged it off and said, "Nah. That was a fairly simple spell. Hopefully you two will be invited at some point to a gathering of the Circle and then you can see some real magic."