Chapter 1: Prolog

The door flew open. "We have lost!" The sign 'taur-laboratory' slid across the floor until it hit the far wall.

Tarik sighed and looked up. "Erik! Gentle!"

"How can you be so calm?"

"Delicate work. See she would be able to write with them now." He held up a paw-like hand, which was attached to the middle shoulder.

"You are still working on that cat-taur creature," Erik frowned. "You had not only paid attention to the paws," he snickered. "Didn't know you were a breast person."

"For your information: She came like this. Well, maybe they swelled a little after the goat soul merge."

"There is a goat inside?" Erik looked sceptical.

"Goats have the most sturdy vegetarian stomach and can eat almost everything. They are good climbers, too,” he held up the paw again. "You see that black pad in the paw? That is divided for better grip like a goat, but of course thinner. And still sturdy for long walks."

Erik shook his head. "I see cat, likely horse, and that gigantic tail is almost certainly from a squirrel. Why on earth squirrel?"

"There is no horse in her, but two goats, one cat, and three squirrels. Otherwise I could not get enough mass. Her lower bone structure is carefully grafted, blending human, goat, cat and squirrel. You know, first, the squirrels were only because nobody cares if I work with squirrel souls, but then"

Erik waved his hand, "Thanks, too much info. Why are you still working on it? It looks finished."

"She is. The ultimate personal guard."

Erik looked sceptical. "Ultimate guard, writing poems with the middle paws." He shook his head. "Anyway, the general capitulated. We lost the battle and we lost the army."

"So no more centaurs."

"Err, yes, also no centaurs," Erik was puzzled, "Why do you care about centaurs?"

"Unlike some other students here, I want to graduate. No centaurs, no reason to delay my exam. I will try to get to the dean today."

Erik did not share his enthusiasm. But he was also less blessed with soul magic. Being a student was almost ideal, carefree and paid for by his family without responsibilities. And the Imperial University was in Kwal, the capital of the empire. The place to be. He really did not get Tarik, ok, a great work ethic, and Tarik was good. But life is more. "Tomorrow is the weekend. Come on, I met a nice girl, and she has a cute friend too. You will whither prematurely with all that studying."

* * *

Despite being Saturday noon, he was working. The dean had agreed to defend his Master's next week. But three mages had retired, so it was difficult to get a committee together. He was just writing a letter to one of them to ask if he could supervise his defence before full resignation.

"Tarik?" Erik bolted into the room.

"The door is in perfect working order and opens without force," he sighed and put down his quill. "Yes? Ah, your new ladyfriend."

"What, no, I mean yes." He stepped aside to let a preternaturally endowed woman enter the room, who was visibly struggling with her balance. "Belinda, this is Tarik."

He sighed mentally. "Nice to meet you." Then he looked for a rune in his drawer. "Do you want help with your back?"

She looked at him not very intelligent, but that was somewhat expected for Erik's victim.

But Erik understood. "Let him check you. He is the second best."

She nodded.

"Please step on this rune. It will help with your back and balance."

As soon as the second foot came to rest, she froze.

"Erik are you stupid?"

"But she would be my Masterpiece. So we can graduate together."

"Work on a living human is forbidden. And you were not even subtle, I am pretty sure there is an entire cow's udder in there."

"But"

"And not even basic alteration for support. If she turns fast, she could rip her udder off."

"But"

"You never learn!" He sighed.

"But she wanted that big. I did discourage her. This is just to show her that it would be too much."

"Liar." He gave Erik a sceptical look and took a deeper look.

"And I added also plenty of support muscle."

Indeed, there was a lot of excess mass he could use to strengthen bones, tendons, and cartilage. Interesting challenge. "You are really stupid. There is almost half a cow grafted to her soul. I told you many times, keep additional souls as tiny as possible."

"I just wanted to play it safe with so much extra. What could happen?"

"Not sure, with so much extra soul vitality, she might get pregnant on the first occasion, despite protection. Maybe needs milking twice a day. Damn, I cannot remove the extra soul anymore."

Erik paled. "Maybe it will be ok."

He tried his angriest look. "Erik, keep your wits together and think properly."

"Can you fix her?"

"I thought she will be your Masterpiece."

Erik looked dejected. "Ok, I give up. But, can you fix her, please?"

"Ok, puppy eyes, let me try."

He took the other rune and went with his hands inside her. For his Masterpiece, he was well into the human bone structure, maybe more than some healers. Unfortunately, he had to do with touch, since he lacked the healer's vision. "This will take some time."

"I will get some food," and Erik left.

It took the entire afternoon. From time to time Erik came and left again soon afterwards, way too impatient and not curious at all. No wonder he was rather a butcher than a proper soul mage. Or his stupid self-appointed title of Student of Cosmetic Magic, what for bullshit! Or cowshit in the current case.

It took until sunset, and she had changed a lot. Her shoulders were more than a handspan broader, and thus her still large breasts were not so obvious and much better supported laterally. And her shoulders and back would properly support her, and maybe even feel normal to her. It could have been worse: She had been a strong woman to start with, probably a blacksmith with the smell of metal in her hair. (Well, how could he not notice it when he was inside her shoulder for an hour.) Thus, the extra muscles were not too obvious, and the broader shoulders were hopefully acceptable. He had added some extra-human ligands inside her mounds, to restrain them against too much movement. Also, he had loosed a lot of stiff tendons and tightened some others. There was not much to be done about her soul, Erik had merged them quite well. It was still mostly human, but with a patchy shade of cow.

He let the rune fade. Scientifically, working on a human not mindwiped had been exciting. But he worried of course. So his interest was very earnest:  "How are you?"

She blinked a few times, while the rune waned off. "What, ah."

"Please take a step!"

Just a step, but immediately she smiled. Then, she hopped, turned, and walked. "Moo!", she, yes mooed enthusiastically that the windows rattled, pushing the arm in the air. Unstilted: "I never felt so good." She kicked her leg as high as her head, and nearly fell backwards.

He smiled. "You had a bad stance before, so I had to lose quite some ligaments. Please try to walk straighter."

She did, pushing her mounds out even further, and the clothes were creaking. She did not notice though. "You are great."

He smiled. "Mages strive to help society. Ah, there is Erik."

She threw her at Erik. "Tarik is very skilled," and kissed Erik. She had honestly fallen for him. Then she turned back: "Thank you, Mage Tarik."

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"No problem, and psst" He put his finger to his lips.

"Yeah, Erik told me already. Come, Erik, let's go." Since Erik did not move immediately, she just took him up in her arms.

Tarik chuckled. A customer well served. Then his stomach reminded him that he had skipped lunch and dinner. But it was worth it, that was the work they should do. Even if forbidden, there was so much they could do with soul magic, like help cripples and injured warriors. Smiling, he went his way to the refectory.

* * *

A bleary-eyed Erik opened the door to the lab slowly.

Tarik looked up, surprised. He was not sure how to react. Let's state the obvious, "Erik, you look awful."

"What did you do to her?"

"Well, restored her tendons to a healthy state. Reinforced some muscles and bones to support the mounds. Kept as much of your udder update as feasible. And updated her protection as well, which you had also neglected."

Erik waved it away. "Sure you not added horse stamina?"

"You grafted half a cow to her soul," Tarik reminded him. "She is a blacksmith or so, surely had plenty of stamina even before."

"She demanded three times last night. Mooing in ecstasy. And then I had to suck her milk for breakfast. Seem like their shape has even changed a little."

"Erik, I warned you."

Erik ignored him. "She just threw me on my back. Ouch. And you could have left some belly fat. Her stomach was like stone."

"I aim to please. She seems happy, despite your butchering job."

Finally, Erik's rant came to an end. "Do you have Tee?"

He poured Erik a cup.

"Anyway, I heard rumours from the kitchen. They might send the inquisition."

"What?"

"Tarik, we lost the war. The king is weak, and the centaurs were never really a big factor. The clerics hated them. They consider souls their domain."

The longer he thought about it, the more he agreed.

"You mean, we are."

"Yes, the price for peace and for keeping the king in power," sighed Erik. "What a mess. You still want to graduate?"

Tarik did not answer. He had no answer.

* * *

As soon as the door banged on the wall, Tarik knew it was Erik.

"The inquisition is here!"

Now, he was surprised. "You mean really here?"

"They have taken the dean!"

Oh no, why now? In just three days, he would have graduated. He pondered his options. "How much time do we have?"

"Maybe a quarter? They announced a lockdown and someone is at every staircase."

He looked around. His masterpiece, she, laid finished on the middle of the operating table, surrounded with runes to freeze her.

Unfortunately, this means hiding a body of about 30 stone and in a sealed environment as an additional challenge. Or they would detect the stale soul.

"You cannot hide that," interrupted Erik his train of thought. "They came for our department, asking the dean about the centaurs, or rather their souls."

"But it is just three days since we lost!"

"Don't complain to me. According to yesterday's evening rumours, one condition for surrender was no more centaurs. Hence the Inquisition."

They must have been already in Kwal, just waiting for their chance. While the clerics were not fond of the Republic, they seemed to like soul mages even less. True, clerics considered themselves the only one's allowed to dabble in other people's souls, and the centaurs were too big a challenge to ignore. But, if they could ...

A muffled explosion and a green flash came from the courtyard window. They pried their heads through the narrow opening. The dean was fighting with two inquisitors. In other words, 72 years of a sedentary lifestyle against two cleric executers: The fight was over in less than a minute. Just when the executors would put shackles on the dean, he exploded himself.

Quickly they withdraw their heads.

"Tarik!"

He sighed. It meant she had to go. "A quarter you said?"

He took an old saddle bag and stuffed everything into it which might have any traces of his mana in it. Then he copied his notebook and stuffed the old one in the bag as well. Erik understood. After a few minutes, the overflowing saddle bag was strapped to his masterpiece.

"Now the mana!" He took the biggest container and faded the runes. Then they drained all mana out of everything on the table, her, and the items in that bag. It was more than they thought, and time was ticking. Finally, there was nothing left.

"She is breathing!"

Erik shrugged. "You have done a great job, it can survive without magic."

"But her soul is not going back, even though the magic bond is no longer there." He had expected to revert her to a dead human, which they could easily call a failed last-ditch effort. But she was living independently. He should ...

"Tarik, focus. This soul must go!"

Erik was right. "Let sent her to the battle." Tarik got two the last two runes out of the storage.

"You want to send that to Kerwnough?"

"They had 50 centaurs there, so one creature more won't give an extra notice."

"But we lost. It will now belong to the Republic. If we are unlucky, she even gets a healer's attention there." Erik shook his head.

"Come on. She won't remember anything. Stale Soul. So let's hurry." He handed Erik a second heavy transport rune. "On my mark: One, two, three!"

As many times before, their synchronization was near perfect. With enough practice, Erik could be good!

The blue runes on the yellow paper flashed, and the still nameless and stateless soul started to fade, together with the bag of incriminating evidence.

"You are really lucky, that you did not name it yet," commented Erik

"Lucky?" Tarik shook his head. How can he be lucky? "Masterpiece is gone, and"

"Lucky indeed", nodded Erik. "And maybe you even have a new topic for a cleric-save Masterpiece, creatures after mana drain."

Tarik stopped. Should Erik really have a good idea?

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