Chapter Text
The cat in his hands stirred as he considered what he needed to do to care for it. Kishiar couldn’t help but coo at its tiny yawn.
It shifted and his hands instinctively tightened to keep it there.
“Mrr?” It looked up at him questioningly.
It was probably better to let it go than hold it against its will.
When he released it, the cat immediately jumped out of his hands and onto the bed. Then it sat down, tail curling around to its front, and it stared right at him with deep purple eyes.
Kishiar smiled at it, a bit bewildered. Once again, he had to wonder where it came from.
Before he could contemplate further, there was a knock and Nathan opened the door.
“My lord…” he trailed off at the sight of the cat sitting on the bed.
“It was laying on me when I woke up,” Kishiar answered the silent question.
Nathan nodded slowly, looked at him, then looked back at the cat.
Said cat was sitting strangely still and staring right back at Nathan unblinkingly. It was a strangely weighted gaze for a cat. At least he thought it was. Admittedly he was lacking in experience with cats.
“...Your first meeting today is in two hours,” he finally said, facing Kishiar again.
He nodded and began to get up as Nathan began reporting the progress of the knights on background checks and other things related to the progress of the formation of the cavalry.
Kishiar nodded, starting to get up and watching the cat out of the corner of his eye. It was looking at Nathan as though listening to what he had to say.
Once Nathan had made his report, Kishiar made to get dressed.
When he went to the closet, the cat hopped off the bed and when he turned his back, it was gone.
A strange sense of disappointment filled him as he made sure to finish getting dressed and left the room.
In the office however, he found the cat sitting on the desk, impassively staring at Nathan, who was holding a tray. Normally the tray would have already been set down but considering the wary look in his adjunct’s eyes and where he was keeping his attention, Nathan was concerned about the cat eating what he set down.
Once Kishiar sat, Nathan set the tray in front of him carefully and they both watched the cat out of the corner of their eyes. The cat just sat, flicking its tail once. It didn’t even look at the food, instead just watching the two of them.
On the tray sat an extra plate with some meat on it and a small bowl of water.
Kishiar looked up at Nathan and smiled charmingly. The man knew him well, not even needing instructions in such a case.
The man looked back, a long suffering look in his eyes.
Since Nathan needed to do some more things with the Peletta Knights in preparation for the Cavalry, he left after delivering the food.
“Just you and me again,” he told the cat.
Said cat tilted its head in confusion.
Kishiar let out a breathy laugh, then tried to beckon it closer.
The cat stayed firmly where it was, only flicking its tail.
So, he changed tactics and held out the plate of meat.
The cat just watched him, its head still tilted.
“Won't you come here? This is for you.”
The cat made a small noise and untitled its head but otherwise didn’t move.
Kishiar set it off to the side and put the water bowl next to it after one more try and decided to focus on his own breakfast.
As much as he wanted to spend the morning building rapport with the cute little cat, he had things he needed to complete before his day’s meetings.
Once he started eating however, the cat began to carefully move. It seemed cautious from what he could see out of the corner of his eye since he made an effort not to look directly.
Despite the fact that he set them at the edge of the desk, the cat stood on the far side, balanced precariously on the edge so it could see him as it bent down to drink.
As Kishiar began to look over documents on his desk while he ate, the cat leaned down over the meat and he heard the quiet sound of chewing.
When he smiled at that, the chewing stopped until he refocused on the document in front of him.
Later, when Nathan came back in, the plate was clean but the cat slunk out of the room.
Kishiar felt disappointment but he supposed he should be happy with feeding the cat after it gave him a peaceful night.
Thus, he went about his day, focusing on what needed to be done.
Contrary to his expectations however, that afternoon, after he returned to his office, the cat reappeared.
It had a piece of paper in its mouth and approached. None of the earlier caution seemed to apply. It placed the paper - which surprisingly had been held carefully in its mouth that there were no bite marks or much saliva - directly in front of him, then sat down and watched him expectantly.
Extremely curious and a bit amused, Kishiar picked up the folded paper.
“What do we have here?”
Unfolding it, he saw it was a Cavalry application paper. He almost discarded it when he saw that it was marked as a fake applicant but his eyes caught on the listed ability. It was written by one of the officials and even though they obviously thought the person was lying, they were required to fill it out entirely for posterity.
‘Claims to have the ability to read knowledge about things by touching them but it doesn’t always work.’
It was an ability that, if true, could be difficult to prove in the process they set up for the applications. But it could be extremely useful to the unit he intended to create.
He looked up to see the cat watching him. “Thank you.”
The cat dipped its head slightly as though nodding.
Kishiar blinked.
It seemed strange but he had a sudden realization that the cat was even more unusual than he thought. He knew there wasn’t a magic item on it but it felt like the cat could genuinely understand him.
For a moment, he considered that the cat was a person. Historically, shifters were extinct, if they had truly existed at all in the first place. But now, with the powers from the Red Stone, people could conceivably have such abilities.
What would they gain from giving him this?
Even so, the ability on the paper was an attractive one. So, he sent Nathan and some others out to investigate the person as deeply as possible.
The next day, he found out that the woman was an illegitimate child of Count Gallon who was soon going to be sold off into marriage to a far older man for her father’s prestige and money. As far as anyone could tell, she had no attachments to any of the four ducal houses and was otherwise clean.
This made Kishiar willing to take a chance and try to hire her anyway, should she prove her ability in front of the tribunal.
The cat stayed close after bringing him the paper, even spending most of the evening laying across his shoulders while he went through reports and filled out paperwork. He made sure to do things that weren’t sensitive information, just in case.
However, the presence of the cat, for whatever reason, felt extremely calming.
When he went to bed, it settled on a pillow he hadn’t been sleeping on the night before while he undressed and didn’t move when he settled in.
Very carefully, he reached out and caressed the cat who made a confused noise before starting to purr.
Kishiar laughed softly before saying, “Good night.”
As he fully settled and closed his eyes, he felt a slight movement beside him. Then, he felt tiny paws on him and once again, the cat curled on his chest.
Carefully, he stroked it. It felt so small when it was curled up, even smaller than when it sat in front of him.
He fell asleep soon after it started purring.
The next day, he woke up to the cat still laying on his chest.
It slipped out of the room as he changed and he found it in the corner of the office where Nathan had set down a bowl of food and water.
Rather than facing the wall and eating as had been obviously intended, the cat was awkwardly positioned behind the bowls rather than in front of them. The position looked uncomfortable and unbalanced but it seemed this was something it wouldn’t compromise on.
It looked up at his entrance and stared back until Kishiar turned away.
Kishiar considered the cat and wrote a letter to arrange a meeting that evening after the first day of the tribunal for Cavalry applicants.