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Airos tugs the stopper from his gourd and fills the cups and the lone dish on the table in his room, which he nudges towards Alyx. “Go on,” he says. “It won’t kill you, probably.”
“You cast some kind of spell on that gourd?” I ask. “I’ve not seen you refill that thing a single time.”
“Ahh, a priest of the Cult of Gnosis knows many spells,” Airos says, waving his finger. “But unfortunately, unlimited wine is not one of them. It’s just a very big gourd.” He takes a long drink.
“What is the Cult of Gnosis, Airos?” asks Tyler. His hand sits on my leg beneath the table.
“A fantastic question,” he replies. “And one that I will answer, once Alyx answers mine.Whya cat?”
Alyx licks at the wine in the dish, then rubs his facewith his paw. “It suits my work. It attracts much less attention.”
“We’re safe here,” Airos says. “No one within these walls would harm a Phoenikos. Do you ever use your human form at all?”
“I’ve learned not to.”
Airos leans back, strokes his chin, and doesn’t press any further. There’s a story there, of course, and perhaps I’m one of the few who knows it.
“I suppose if I could transform into a cat, I’d probably live that way too,” Tyler muses. “It seems a hell of a lot more fun than being a person.”
“I don’t know,” says Airos. “Not if you can only fuck other cats.”
“Alright, there are some things I don’t use this form for,” Alyx says.
I laugh and pound the table. “There was an occasion when Alyx did have a stalker. A handsome gray tabby that wouldn’t leave him alone.”
“Let’s not talk about that,” says Alyx, and the others laugh with him.
The warmth feels foreign to me. A group. Companions. Friends. And my…
The wordmatedrifts around in my head. Love is an arrow strike, and my wound is mortal.
All of these things that I was sure I would never have, I suddenly do. It’s wonderful—and it’s also fucking terrifying.
“Alright,” Tyler says to Airos. “Your turn.”
“Mm. The Cult,” he says, nodding. “We are a brotherhood of priests who serve at the altar of knowledge. Members of all clans are welcome.”
“So you… read books?” Alyx says.
“More or less, yes. I’ve been chasing after all of the world’s strongest magic. Finding the Great Phoenix will finally allow me to release the limitations on my sorcery.”
“Aren’t priests supposed to, I don’t know, abstain from vices?” I ask. “When I think of a monk, the last thing that comes into my mind is a tipsy flirt.”
“I can introduce you to more monks if you’d like,” he says with a grin.
“I’ll pass.”
“Ah, speaking of sorcery.” Airos unrolls the map across the table. “This map is proving more difficult than I expected.”
He summons his staff from whatever realm he keepsit in and waves it across the surface of the map. We all lean in to look, and to my shock, the ink shimmers and starts to fade.
“You’re erasing it!” I exclaim.
“Use your intelligence. I’m rearranging it.”
The runes change shape on the parchment, disappearing and reappearing like fireflies.
“Hold on,” Tyler says excitedly. “Wait, stop it! I could read that!”
