“Oh.” Sariel smiled. “It was a joke.”
“Yes, it was a joke.” Day giggled some more, taking the mirror to reverently place it back on the shrine beneath its veil. She gave it one last small touch before returning to them, teasing, “Do you always take everything this seriously?”
“What? I do not take things. Not anywhere.” Sariel pouted. “Taking would be stealing.”
“Don’t worry about it, babe.” Seymour rubbed Sariel’s back. He grunted as he suddenly had an armful of Day again. He hugged her close, chuckling. “Hey, lil’ girl. So, you can understand us now?”
“I could always understand you. It’s not my fault you couldn’t understand me.” Day wrinkled her nose.
“That’s what the mirror does? Opens up your ears or somethin’?”
“Or something.”
Seymour rocked her gently, his attention drawn back to the murals. “What, uh, happened to your family?”
Day frowned. “My great-grandfather was a blacksmith’s cat and learned his craft after many, many years. He made a beautiful sword, a great blade of wondrous protection. He tried to gift it to his masters, but they thought him a demon and tried to kill him. He fled to the mountains, hiding here in this cave, and became a nekomata.
“He found others like him and had a family. There was peace for many years until the stories of the sword started to draw humans looking to claim its power. My family tried to scare them away, easy enough when there were only a few at a time, but one day a warlord came with an army…”
Seymour cringed.
“My family hid me.” Day sniffed, her eyes damp with tears. “I waited for days and days… and when I was finally brave enough to come out, they were all gone.”
Seymour’s chest tightened. “What happened to the warlord? The sword?”
“He never found it. He killed my family for nothing.” Day wiped her face with the back of her paw. “I stayed in this cave, praying for death, and the gods finally answered me. But their mercy was a curse. My spirit became trapped here in the stone, anchored by my grief, until the wizard found me.”
“Norbert.”
“Yes.” Day managed a little smile. “I didn’t know it, but someone had taken the mountain and created the Hisan Inro to hold it. It was Norbert who first opened it and let me be free.”
“Why would someone stick an entire mountain in a little ass box?”
Day grinned sheepishly. “I was not a very kind spirit, and well…” As if on cue, her stomach rumbled.
“Snacked on people who busted up in your cave?”
“Only the rude ones!”
“Got it.” Seymour gave Day ear scratches. Lots of them. He was not above sucking up to her. “So. You’re hanging with Norbert. Then what?”
“I do not know.” Day frowned. “He told me to return here, to stay safe, but he didn’t say why and never came back. No one opened the Inro again until your father did.”
“You knew him, yeah?” Seymour’s chest tightened again.
“Yes. He was a very talented witch.” Day smiled, but it was sad again. “I was not with him long, but he was very kind to me.”
“What happened to him?”
“He…” Day’s breath caught, and her whiskers trembled. “He said that bad people were coming. He sent me back and hid me. Like my family. Like Norbert. Like everyone—” She cried,clinging to Seymour so tight her claws pricked his shirt. “Please don’t leave me too. Please, please,please?—”
Seymour’s own eyes burned, and he petted her soothingly. “Hey, hey, easy, easy.”
Day sobbed openly now, her tiny body shaking in Seymour’s arms. “I’m so tired of beingalone. Please don’t leave me. Please!”
Sariel wrapped his wings around them both, providing warmth and comfort andlightas he glowed.
“I won’t, lil’ girl,” Seymour swore. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere, okay? And neither is Mr. Serious over here. We’re both right here, promise you.” He sniffed back a few tears of his own, adding, “You know, Sariel, here, doesn’t have any family, either. And me, well, my mama died a few years ago, and I never met Clancy, so I was alone too.”
