He was surprised one day to find the door to his abandoned house cracked open when he returned. He had taken to the market street as a cat, and left it through a broken window; the house should've been locked.

Suspicious, he held himself low to the ground and slunk under the overgrown bushes hemming the house in, standing on his back legs to look in the window.

Douglásc was already sitting at the sill, looking out at him.

" Yoohoo," he greeted him cheerfully. " I've been looking for you. Why don't you come in so we can chat?"

He stepped back so Sif could jump through it.

As Sif landed on the floor, he took his human form, standing; took his cloak from where it sat, folded, and a bit self-consciously covered himself.

" How did you find where I was staying?" he asked. Douglásc always seemed to notice things others could not perceive, and Sif was curious as to how he did it.

" You're not very good at tempering the light of your soul," Douglásc remarked. " Little bits of your afterglow are everywhere. I doubt anyone in this era knows how to see them, though. The blood is awfully weak these days."

Sif's ear flicked in annoyance.

" Helna mentioned that before," he said. " The blood."

Douglásc sat down on one of the rickety chairs that stood alongside a broken table, idly dusting a cobweb away.

" Oh, she had awfully strong opinions on it for someone whose blood flowed as thick as it did," he said. " What's your name, little cat? I was going to ask last time, but we had everything else going on."

Sif narrowed his eyes a little bit.

" ...Relnsif," he said.

Douglásc laughed.

" Wow, you're serious?" he said. " Your people aren't very good at naming. I'll just go on calling you little cat, then."

Sif crossed his arms. Douglásc's manner put him off; a name was a name, and he didn't appreciate having his treated as a joke.

" What's so funny about it?" he asked. " Why are you laughing?"

" Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing," Douglásc continued. " It's got nothing to do with what I wanted to see you for today, anyway."

" Listen here-" Sif started to say.

" Calsar's son is busy planning his next military expedition," Douglásc said. " Luckily for you, I had already ingratiated myself to him, and he believes that Dubhán was hexed for disobeying the Lord of Storms. However, he is recalling another one of his priests to the capital."

Sif stiffened with alarm.

" Another skilled one?" he asked.

" Yes, very much so, from what I've been able to gather," Douglásc said. " It may be troublesome for us. This man has apparently been far across the sea, in the land Sorcerer-king Caedwghe came from. Callán wants me to work with him, in order to lift faybane from the outer lands."

Sif's brow creased, consternation across his face.

" Is that even possible?" he asked.

Douglásc looked at him like he was daft, and picked at his nails a bit.

" Of course it's possible," he said. " I just don't really want to do it. The faybane was the last great work of my lord, after all."

This answer, of course, only left Sif with more questions.

" Your lord-?" he began to ask, only for Douglásc to cut him off again.

" Yes, yes, my lord, Hallowed Earth and Water of Assur," he said. " Not relevant right now. Next topic. I want you to help me with a few things. I can't move freely about the city the way you can."

" Why should I help you?" Sif said, a little snippy. " You've been awfully rude to me this whole time."

" Do you want to be burnt at the stake again?" Douglásc questioned, raising an eyebrow. " Because that's what'll happen if this new priest catches on that we've conspired together. Be a good cat and play along with me, please."

Sif found himself wishing he could flex his claws in human form.

" The last time I was asked to play fetch, you were brought back to life and throttled me on the floor," he said.

" I won't backstab you of my own free will," Douglásc sniffed primly. " This land is bereft of spirits now; you're the only one I can hope to call upon."

This was true, Sif reasoned. The only other spirits he had met in a hundred years were Helna, the ghost of his strange thing's mother, and the evil creatures in the faybane.

" Tell me what you want me to do, and I'll think about it," Sif said reluctantly.

" Well, aren't you considerate," Douglásc replied. He looked rather directly at Sif, and when he spoke again, did so with a more serious tone of voice. " One of my lord's other loyal attendants is still trapped within that bastard's jewelry. Lady Iudrige of Bronze Lake. I will need the aid of a familiar and many gravegoods in order to free her."

<- .....->