The cougar closed its eyes and let out a purr as she scratched its ears and around its jaw. I was interested to find that I could feel it—not in a direct way, but as an extension of what the cougar was feeling. The satisfaction the summoned beast felt traveled along the connection between us and gave me satisfaction in turn.

“It seems like I can give them any command and they obey,” I said.

Astrid nodded. “That’s pretty damn awesome.”. She stopped scratching the cougar’s ears and came over to stand beside me, her hands on her hips as she admired my beasts.

“The mansion is observing your spells, too,” I said.

“Oh, yeah?” she looked at me with interest. “I sometimes heard Kyrine making weird appreciative noises when I was training. They were kinda like… well, like moans, almost like she was getting off on it.”

I laughed, glancing upward toward the ceiling. “Kyrine?” I called. “Do you want to tell us about the reason the mansion observes spellcasters at work?” I waited almost a full minute, but no response came. “She must be busy.”

“You can ask her about it later,” Astrid said, a sparkle in her eyes. “What about those Flesh Munchers? I want to see them in action.”

“I’ll need to disperse these summoned cougars first,” I said. “Hold on, I think if I just…”

I held my hand up in the air and silently commanded the cougars with a thought to return to my Summoning Sphere, from which they had been formed. One by one, much like the way the creature cores had vanished when Kyrine had consumed them, the cougars faded into streams of dark gray dust that flowed to my hands. I gasped as I felt their combined mana pour back into my Summoning Sphere, ready for reuse.

My center felt much more whole with less active creatures summoned, and my mind felt less frazzled. I had managed to keep from focusing on it too much while Astrid had been sparring with them, but the energy required to control all nine of the cougars at once had left me feeling drained.

Despite my tiredness, I was excited to test the rest of my minions. I was tired, but I didn’t feel like I couldn’t continue, so I pulled on the strand for the Flesh Munchers and filled them with mana. This time, I managed to have all nine portals open at the same time. Unlike the portals for the Dragonling and the Cougars, the Flesh Muncher portals were a sickly green color. Also unlike previous portals, which had opened in mid-air, about my chest height, the Flesh Muncher ones were swirling pools of green energy that appeared on the ground. They swirled and bubbled for a moment before each one ejected seven foot tall monstrous plants.