Despite what KoKo had asked of her, despite trying her best, Louise gave in to her fear.
Curling up, eyes squeezed shut, hands firmly over her ears. She didn't want to see, to think. Most of all, she didn't want to  hear . Hear the screams, first of fear, then of blood curdling agony as razor claws and crushing jaws tore a grown man limb from limb. But it didn't make any difference how hard she tried, she could still make out the sounds. For such a sudden death, the Mage had lingered on for a long,  long time.
It had to end though, and at last it did, the final, feeble cries bouncing off into the night sky until Louise was left alone with only her thoughts and the fresh, bloody memory echoing within her skull, the images playing behind her eyes. Only then did she hear the other noises, soft and low, the padding of wide, heavy paws, a steady rumbling purr getting closer and closer. The smell of hot breath brushing against her cheek.
"Ngn." She cringed away. Eyes shut tight, Louise fell back, whimpering as a weight barred down, first on her shoulder, and then on her chest. She felt something pressing firmly against her face and neck, the rumbling almost beside her ear. And then…
The feeling was rough, wet, and hot, spreading across her cheek from chin to temple, leaving behind sticky residue and an odor like raw fish, so surprising it almost made her gag. But before she could, it came again, and then again.
"Ptt, pwh, pht…" Louise spluttered, squirming beneath the weight, hands reaching out to push it away. Louise lost her patience. "Stop that!"
Even more surprising, it stopped as suddenly as it had started. The weight receded from her chest until she was left spread eagle on the ground… She had been obeyed. That alone was almost enough to make her open her eyes. And then a soft tinkling, like chimes, entered her consciousness and she couldn't look away any longer.
'It's okay.' Louise told herself. It was going to be okay. She was going to open her eyes now. Just one more second, just one more… A small crack, enough to make out the blurred shape standing before her. Then a little bit wider, a little bit more. Louise stopped, her breath caught. Everything else, the mission, the danger, all of it, was briefly forgotten.
Since she had been a small girl, from the time she was old enough to understand, Louise had  longed to summon a familiar. To be like her mother, to gain the approval she sensed that she lacked. And as she had struggled through school, lesson after failed lesson, test after botched test, her failures tenaciously following her, she had started to dream of it, what it would be like to summon her familiar. What that familiar would tell her about  herself .
This was so very much like those dreams. The same surreal sense of clarity, the feeling of standing outside of herself as the beast loomed over her, illuminated by a thin sliver of moonlight shinning silver down across its silhouette.
In her shattered state of mind, confused, scared out of her wits, the only thing that prevented Louise from wondering for a heartbeat if this was her familiar somehow arrived at last, was her own crushing sense of inadequacy. She could  never have summoned such a  beautiful creature. And it was that.
If Louise had been asked to compare it to what a familiar should be, she could only have described it with one word.
Perfect.
Enormous, even sitting relaxed on its haunches, its head would have easily been level with Louise's own if she had been standing. Sleek, powerful feline body, all muscle and sinew knotted up beneath the surface, skin stretched taught across lean flanks and along the insides of powerful forelimbs, trembling with every breath.
That frame, built to stalk and hunt, was covered in tawny fur, shining silkily in the moonlight, shot through with black spots that traced down its back and sides from head to tail, and reached all the way to wide splayed paws that snicked softly as claws like daggers slid smoothly in and out with every breath or small movement.
Eyes glinted down at Louise, large, vivid gold, and filled with a benign intelligence, an awareness that transcended that of a mere animal. When it moved, rising from its haunches, it was with clear, fluid intent, every motion leading gracefully from the last, a cascade of movement that rippled the length of its body.
Louise would have compared it to a Lioness if she hadn't thought it would be a gross insult to its majesty. Rather it was like what a Lion could only wish to be.
And then the tinkling came again as the beast shook its head slowly, a motion that telegraphed down the length of its body. The source of the sound, a tiny silver bell strung from a cord stretched tight around its neck. The same bell that had been worn as an ornament by KoKo.
By KoKo…
Louise's eyes widened, the recent past crashed back down onto her, crushing her thoughts aside as she relived everything, every detail of the past moments. She wanted to be sick, felt her breath coming short, struggling to her feet as if she could run, Louise stumbled forward, nearly falling before her wildly groping arms found support against one tawny flank, sinking back to her knees.
It was reassuring, soft, and warm. Even as the world rocked at its foundations around her, she at least was able to find steady footing as she collected herself, ordered he thoughts, steadied her breathing.
"Ko - KoKo?" Louise whispered. Seeing, but not believing.
She'd known. Mother had told her about this. The Fae had spells, powerful spells, that could drastically change their forms. The Lady of the Spriggans had done much the same during the York raid, transforming into a giant hawk. It only made sense that other Faeries would possess similar abilities. And even more sense that a Cait Syth could take the form of a powerful feline.
Leaning her whole body against KoKo's side, Louise hugged tightly. "KoKo… Is that really you?"
And then slowly, as if not to startle her, one heavy paw raised up to drape over Louise's shoulder, pulling her into a clumsy embrace as the Cait sat back on her haunches, treating her to another light tonguing. With an ear pressed to KoKo's neck, Louise could hear the soft rumbling as the Faerie turned cat purred lowly.
Gently, she pushed away again, steady pressure finally making the big cat relent. "KoKo." Louise looked her friend in the eyes. "Are… are you alright?" A hand raised cautiously to feel at furred cheeks, tickled by long whiskers, "Can you understand me?"
KoKo's reply came in the form of a small - huff - as if indignant that Louise even felt the need to ask. Of course KoKo couldn't talk, but she was still the same person. Louise found herself apologizing fervently as she tried again to get to her feet. This time, with KoKo to steady her, she managed to rise and take stock of herself.
Beside her, the Cait's kite-like ears perked atop her head, twitching about, seeking the source of some noise that Louise could not yet hear. And then, in the distance, the shouting, and the hammering of footfalls. The other mages, alerted by the death cries of their friend, were starting to close in.
KoKo's ears flattened, lips pulled back in an angry snarl. Louise grimaced, she had no doubt that KoKo was as fearsome as she appeared right now, but that wasn't going to be enough against three grown Mages. They would be cautious and, her skin crawled as she looked back to the ravaged corpse, they would want revenge for this.
Louise turned back to the big cat, kneeling down to whisper in her ear. "KoKo, listen to me, we have to get out of here and back… back to the Palace." They wouldn't be safe until they were back behind the Palace walls and surrounded by the Royal Guard.
But how to do that? Louise began to turn her head to and fro, the street was still a dead end, just as impassable now as it had been when they had arrived. Perhaps… perhaps if… Louise paled. But it had to be done.
Turning back to the corpse on the ground, blood still hot as it pooled out onto the paving stones. It was made all the more repellant because she knew who had done it. The idea that KoKo could be capable of something like this, the raw brutality, seeing it, her mind simply refused . This man could not have been killed by her friend, no matter how much she knew it to be to the contrary.
But convincing herself of that didn't make it any easier to reach down to open his torn and blood soaked cloak, nor did it allow her to ignore the great, gaping chunk of flesh ripped from his jaw. She found what she was looking for swiftly enough, his wand, still held in a white knuckled death grip. He'd probably tried to cast one last time to no avail.
She steeled herself, and then, ignoring the unpleasant squirming of her own stomach and the fast approaching shouts and footfalls, she pried the wand from his hand, hefting the unfamiliar weight. It was not like the slender wands mother and father had bought for her. Polished hardwood with a hefty grip meant for the hand of a grown man. She gave it a test wave, once, but thought better of trying a practice spell. Given her own malformed abilities, she might only get one use out of it.
Turning back to the wall she started to look for a good spot. If she wasn't careful, she'd bring the whole thing down on their heads. And then she was given pause again. KoKo, having observed calmly, was now leaning forward, almost kneeling, presenting her back to an astonished Louise.
She couldn't mean to…
"KoKo?" Louise asked to be sure.
Another small huff, a little shorter, a little more urging this time. They needed to get out of here. KoKo certainly  looked like she could bare Louise's weight. And judging by the noise, they didn't have more than a few moments to decide. She didn't think she'd have much success arguing with KoKo anyways.
Taking a breath and saying a small prayer, she stuffed the pilfered wand into her pocket. Crawling onto the Cait's back conjured another memory from Louise's past.
Once, when Cattleya's sickness had been at its worst and she had been bedridden for days on end, her elder sister had passed the time by reading stories and telling Louise Nursery rhymes. Mother wouldn't have any of it, especially whenever Cattleya's coughing fits had acted up, but that just meant they had to do it in secret, after they were both meant to be asleep.
One Rhyme in particular came to mind now as Louise tried to find a way to hold on that wouldn't result in having the powerful cat's shoulder blades digging into her chest, or leave her in danger of sliding off. It was a vague recollection from a simpler time, but she still remembered the last part, the part about 'Catching Lions by the Tail'.
Why a little girl would be catching lions, and why such a rhyme would be told to children in the first place was utterly beyond her in retrospect, but it had lingered with her for years. Suddenly, Louise wondered if this really was at all wise. Perhaps they should…
Before Louise could complete that thought, she suddenly felt like a couple dozen copies of herself had decided to take a lie down on her as, in one smooth motion, KoKo's coiled limbs unwound, like a spring releasing all of their stored energy at once, surging upward from a crouch into a near vertical leap. "Hgn ~ Waaaaaaaaaa!"
Louise nearly fell backwards as KoKo's forelimbs stretched out. She was saved only by the nearly strangling grip she'd formed around the Cait's throat. Claws hard and sharp enough to sink into the stone work of one wall, giving her purchase to push upwards.
"Agh." And then against as KoKo gathered up her hind legs, judging the next vertical leap. "Agh!" And again.
Claws caught on shingles, nearly falling as one wooden slat tore free from the roof, causing them to slip perilously. A low growl rumbled from KoKo's throat as her forelimb struck out again, catching this time and buying her leverage to push up with her dangling hind legs, bringing them up onto the rooftops where they were safe… almost…
Louise heard the calls beneath them and then shivered as the wind whipped at her cloak in an entirely unnatural fashion. "KoKo!" Louise cringed as holes were punched in the roof by the passage of air bullets and stone slugs formed and throne by an earth mage. They'd been seen escaping.
Thankfully, KoKo didn't need any further instruction, paws under her, head cocked, the Cait got her bearings on the Palace and its surrounding grounds in the distance and immediately began to pick up speed, falling into long, bounding gate across the rooftops. Fast and sure footed, Louise was certain it all looked very graceful, all very impressive, but it was not so to be along for the ride. A Cat, as it turned out, made a lousy mount.
"Ghn, gah!" Louise shouted as she bit on her own tongue, feeling the coppery taste of blood as another air bullet whistled past her head. The pursuing mages had taken to the roofs now, three, dark cloaked figures running along behind them, or parelleling on opposite rooftops. Three!
'What did we ever do to deserve this?!' Louise wondered as she scrabbled for her stolen wand and begun to shoot back. No easy task as she was nearly thrown from her seat time after time. She was probably going to die, Louise decided, either killed by the mages chasing them or shaken to bits by KoKo's gate.
But before that, she wanted to get in a few licks against the people who were doing this to them. Who had almost killed her and her friend and might still yet.
Another vicious barrage shredded the roof tops all around them, a stone projectile exploding a chimney beside them like a cannonball. 'We're going to get hit. We're going to get hit and die!' Louise whimpered, but bit down on the terror, pointing her own wand back and chanting whatever garbage spell she could think of. It hardly mattered which since it would turn out the same anyway.
The mage running parallel with them, along the roof of a taller building that gave him the high ground, saw her aiming for him and promptly skidded to a halt, switching to a defense stance to parry. He would be expecting fire balls or wind arrows, an earth transmutation, or maybe a water whip. The explosion set off in his face like a fistful of gunpowder must have come as quite a surprise. He was knocked off his feet, sent tumbling out of sight on the far side of the roof.
"Got one!" Louise cried triumphantly, ignoring the fact that she may well have just killed a person. She wouldn't feel bad about protecting herself and KoKo. And Besides, there were still two left in close pursuit. And something more ahead of them.
Lights, like fire in the sky, it drew her eyes forward, ahead of them towards the river. The fireworks set for the Gala had started now. But something was clearly wrong. Seen from behind, it became clear that far from shooting up into the over the river sky as they should, the display was arching dangerously over the city, brilliant flames descending on the Palace and its grounds where they burst.
"Oh no." Louise whispered. The fireworks. Someone was using them to bombard the Palace! It had to be part of the conspirators plans, maybe to kill people with the improvised artillery or… or a diversion… or… Louise shook her head, she wasn't a battle mage or any sort of soldier, she could only guess wildly at what was happening. All she knew was that there had to be something that could be done. Something that they could  do .
Louise thought, thought hard about it. Fireworks were basically just rockets or thin shells crammed full of gunpowder and alchemic compounds that would burn brightly with beautiful colors once ignited. That basically made the fireworks barges giant bombs full of gunpowder packed close to other bombs full of gunpowder being fired into the sky in showers of sparks and flames. It was no wonder that the display was launched from barges in the river and manned exclusively by very brave and very handsomely payed commoners. No sane mage would stand within a hundred  mails of that!
And that volatility also made them perfect. Gathering up all the courage she could muster, Louise leaned down and shouted in KoKo's ear.
"Those fireworks, KoKo, we can't let them get away with this." The Cait observed her from the corner of one golden eye. As if deciding whether to listen or ignore her. "Please! I just need one good shot! If you can run us along the roof tops near the river… "
Cait and Mage cringed away from the searing path of a fireball, a near miss by one of the remaining mages. Louise nearly fell off once more, but caught herself.
Louise had no idea if KoKo would actually do as she asked. It was insane. They were in enough trouble just running for their lives. Then, slowly, their path began to change, KoKo vaulting roof tops and arcing gently to parallel with the river as the sky filled with fire, more of the thin shell mortars bursting from their tubes to tumble through the air and explode in a cascade that was gradually falling down towards the water. What did that mean?
The Palace Guards had started to respond by now. Louise could see the wind barriers by the smoke and sparks that they displaced and also the fireballs and flame whips that were spitting from the walls out over the city to intercept the mortars as they fell short.
She'd heard Janglers ordering his men to set fire to the district. Maybe the conspirators just wanted to do as much damage as they could. If so, it would be clear in the streets beneath them. Blurs of running, shouting, confused, Commoners and Petty Mages fearing for their lives as the church bells began to ring at odd hours.
Where were the Mancticore Knights? Where were the Griffins and Dragons?!
Louise blinked in a daze up at the sky and thought she made out a few dark shapes, they might have been splotches in her eyes though, the flashes were making it hard to see as her vision was alternately filled with brilliant light and impenetrable dark until she couldn't tell which was which, the after glow invading even when her eyes were shut.
Another bound nearly bucking Louise, another teeth chattering landing. KoKo dropped down to a lower roof, and then again until they were running along the tops of the warehouses towards the bank of the river. The way that the river curved, they would be arriving from the opposite bank and so wouldn't fal under the fireworks barrage.
"They'll never see us… "
The end of the thought never left her lips as Louise felt like… like she'd just been punched by an Orc. That would probably be the best way to describe the sensation as she felt her ribs crack under the concussive force, vision flashing so red it was like one of the mortar shells had just burst in her face. Louise was thrown, torn from her place atop KoKo, crashing into a tumbling roll that didn't stop when she hit the edge of the roof tops, fall arrested by a thatch awning and then another fall onto a stack of not so forgiving crates, at last tumbling to as top in a world spinning daze.
Louise had thought she'd wanted to puke before, but no, that hadn't been nearly this potent, nearly this  visceral . Coughing heavily, each breath an agony, she felt something thick working its way up from her stomach, not quite vomit, but an unpleasant, brackish, thick substance that she spat out onto the paving stones as she rolled over, trying to stand.
It was, she concluded, her cloak that had saved, and also her cloak that had made her feel so awful afterwords. Hand probing at her side, she found the place where the outer lining had been shredded, most likely by a wind bullet, but beneath that, the Lhamthanc leather felt unblemished.
Mother had told stories about such things. Apparently, Rub Al'Khali soldiers would wear vests of tightly spun silk, the weave so strong that it could resist knife stabs and even arrows that would pierce the old suits of heavy armor. But cloth armor had its limitations and the body beneath would still have to weather the force of the blow. Louise might have survived, but her side had been forced to take the brunt of the wind bullet striking over a very small area. It would be a wonder if she hadn't broken something.
Suddenly, fire, like white hot light, mind blowing pain. Louise felt herself being picked up again, thrown across the pavement as she let out a cry, stolen wand clattering across the pavement to where it was smashed under the boot of an approaching mage, followed by another standing the shadows of the warehouse building.
"That's enough. Kill her and be done with it." The mage standing over the broken focus instructed his comrade.
"Not yet. She nearly killed me," The Mage who had kicked her growled darkly. "And we need to pay this stupid bitch back for what she and her familiar did to Marco." He came up beside Louise. Still stunned, she looked up at the man, large watery eyes gazing down with disapproval, small mouth twisted downward in a frown.
Without prompting, he kicked her again, this time in the stomach and Louise feared she was going to gag, to suffocate as the contents of her stomach pushed their way back up.
"Don't be so wasteful." The second mage said the one standing over Louise. "We haven't the time to be taking her life like this. Just thread a needle through her eye and be done with it." Then he added. "Our superiors will look favorably on such professionalism."
The mage standing over her stared down for a time. "We could always just  say we did…" Louise felt her heart pounding, eyes wide with terror. Then, something changed in the man's eyes. "Feh, not worth my time." Boot pressing firmly against her shoulder, rolling Louise onto her back. The weight grew heavier, crushing as she looked up.
This couldn't be real. She thought to herself. The man raising his wand like the execution axe. This couldn't be happening. She was going to die now, when this man's air needle went through her eye and pierced her brain. As simple and efficient as a butcher killing a pig.
- Roooaaarrraaaaooorrrr-
The grounded Mages spun about, leveling their wands in every direction.
"I thought you hit the familiar." The Mage standing over Louise grunted.
The sound echoed again, low and primal, enough to make a person's blood run cold.
"I did too." The mage still in the shadows replied. "It's just a stupid animal, even with the blasted runes."
"Just stay close, it's no different than dealing with any other dangerous beast." The man who was their nominal leader instructed.