? One never speaks of the way.

? Everything is deserved except for that which deserves a swift revenge.

? Nothing one does happens by accident.

? Success after a thousand failures is still success.

? Love is as warm as a spot in the sun.

? Indifference is as sharp as the claw that slits the belly.

? Hate is a waste of time, ignore it or kill it.

Danika dismissed the page and looked at the new skills listed beneath "The way of the Cat". Night Vision and Sharp Ears were natural skills like her Breath and Flight, which were currently greyed out. Claw Swipe was an attack like her Wind Slash. She already had 1 point in each of them.

Poise, Flexibility, and Status were all 0 point skills. She wondered if perhaps they were pa.s.sive abilities rather than skills, as they were the same color as her 0 point Strong Luck, and had no description when she tapped them.

She was still able to activate her Dazzling, and other spells and cantrips. She commented aloud, "The way of the cat is pretty different," or at least, that's what she meant to say. What came out was, "pretty different." She tried just saying, "the way of the cat," but nothing came out. It was the same as when she'd spoken inside her egg.

Danika returned the rest of the apple to her inventory and got to her feet cautiously. She looked down. It was a long way down and she wished that she hadn't chosen such a high landing spot. The decorative cornice extended around the corner of the building, so she followed it carefully. She was hoping there was a window she could step through or an awning to jump down onto somewhere along one of the building's faces.

Danika returned to her starting point a while later, and sat down with a long sigh. The cornice continued completely around the building, but the ground was just as far away on all sides, and there hadn't been any windows at this level.

On the street below her, she spotted Ais.h.i.+n's tall dark figure and called out, "Up here!" He didn't appear to hear her, and after a moment she realized that it wasn't him. The person who looked like him was dressed in blue instead of black and didn't carry his blades. Through her menu lens his name was revealed as "Sky-Voice", a human and a Novice Bard.

Danika's friend list said that all three of the people on it were currently offline. After a minute she laid down, folded her paws and tucked her chin down. She had tried the pose just because it was one she'd seen cats using, but it was surprisingly comfortable. Sunset crept quickly over the human capital while she waited.

--

Danika was still a cat when Ais.h.i.+n's little bat arrived with a message: "Someone recognized us as we were about to leave the restaurant, so it's taking a lot longer. Sorry."

Danika sighed, but then chuckled. The sound startled her because it came out as a sort of purr. She sent back: "I understand. Once on our annual shoe shopping trip someone my mom went to school with recognized her, and we were there for two hours while they talked and talked. Um, I'm back in the human capital anyway, so I don't know if you'll want to spend another point of Karma to meet up again tonight?"

Ais.h.i.+n's bat returned a couple of minutes later: "I don't mind, I still want to try to learn your attack. You only shop for shoes once a year?"

Danika hesitated before replying. She rewrote her message a couple of times before her little bird was finally allowed to carry it off: "Less often now."

Ais.h.i.+n didn't reply again for a long time. When his little bat showed up again the moon was already overhead. His message read simply: "Finally escaped."

--

Danika used her menu screens to browse the forums while she waited. "The First Dwarven Smith" had gathered quite a following since she'd last looked. Apparently the two dwarven players had managed to craft a working flintlock pistol, and people had started flaming their posts, and telling them to go play other games.

In one of those little ironies of life, all the bad attention had actually drawn the good attention of a lot of people who suddenly became very interested in dwarves. The number of dwarven players had jumped from 2 to 20 in just a few days, and hundreds of people posted that they were just saving their Karma up to reincarnate as one.

Danika's own "1000 Karma Character" posts had been vastly boosted by the sudden interest in dwarves. She answered as many of the questions as she could, and then wrote an abbreviated summary of her recent adventures. She also warned new characters to be careful not to fall into her current state, where she might be killed without enough Karma to revive, and thus waste her 1000 Karma start.

--

Danika was still a cat, and still sitting on the high cornice when she spotted Ais.h.i.+n. She checked through her lens, and it was really him this time. He looked like he was tracking her through their party menu again. She got to her feet and called down, "I'm stuck up here!"

Ais.h.i.+n spun slowly with a puzzled appearance, but didn't reply.

Danika called out again, "Ais.h.i.+n! Look up! I'm the cat."

He finally looked up and asked uncertainly, "ZipZing, you can shapes.h.i.+ft into a cat?"

Danika replied, "It was the apple I got from the wizard in the beginner's vale."

"Are you stuck?" Ais.h.i.+n asked with concern.

"Yes," Danika admitted with embarra.s.sment.

"One meow for no, two for yes?" he suggested.

Danika blinked. "Meow meow?" she said questioningly.

"Ok, just a minute," Ais.h.i.+n said comfortingly. He tossed a couple of his throwing stars at the side of the building and bounded upward like a goat, balancing on a toe tip for a moment at each one. On the last bounce he reached up and s.n.a.t.c.hed her off the narrow ledge of the decorative cornice. He dropped neatly back down, slowing their descent as he touched each one again on the way down.

"I need to get some more of those made soon," he said a bit ruefully.

"You can't understand me can you?" Danika asked.

Ais.h.i.+n petted her. It felt great, and it took her a minute to realize that he hadn't answered. She pulled up her menu and sent him a message: "You can't understand me can you?" Her little bird gave her a look as it circled them and then dropped the message into Ais.h.i.+n's other hand.

Ais.h.i.+n read it and laughed. "No," he replied aloud, "it's all meows. What happened to you?"