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5. New beginnings

The first thing he did the following morning was to look for a job. He had enough to cover his living expenses for at least four months and a few things he could sell if worst came to worst but did not want to try his chances.
If he was honest with himself it was as much for keeping busy as it was for the money.

His search was surprisingly short. Afrit had stayed back at the inn as he had made his way to try his luck at the weekly market in the north of the city.
While he was still only half way a member of the caravan spotted him. Werees, compared to him, was a permanent escort of the group and just on his way back from a friend.
This friend of his, Kasiem, was a merchant, but one of the rather ambiguous kind. His work lay in the selling of beasts or monsters as some called them.
He had tried to coax Werees into taking a job for him. The pay he had offered was quite high, but so was the risk and the arrangement would have only been of a temporary nature so he had refused. He was delighted that Fharan expressed interest in this matter. He hadn't had much contact with the mercenary during their journey, no one had, but he had seen his skills.
Without much delay Fharan and Kasiem were introduced to each other and Werees hurried back to camp since the convoy would be leaving soon.
Negotiations went fairly well and both came to an agreement. Fharan would help out twice a week when Kasiem auctioned off his rather special inventory and in return he would be paid three times the amount he had received from the caravan. The risks were higher after all.

After they parted ways, he would start on the next day, Fharan went to sign up for the upcoming entrance exam.
When he returned to the inn he found Afrit sprawled across the bed.
"I really should get a two-bed room. Then you wouldn't always have to wait for me to be gone before getting yourself comfortable.", he pointed out raising an eyebrow at the cats behaviour.
A low chuckle resounded in his head, almost like the first time they had met.
I'm really quite surprised on how the life of a cat seems to suit me so well!, Afrit answered lazily.
It hasn't even been a month, but I'm adapting to this body shockingly fast. It seems it has been worth the effort we put in!
Fharan just returned the gaze of these piercing silver eyes and sighed.
"I certainly hope so. It almost cost me an arm after all."
Now, now, don't be such a child! Where is the fun when nothing ever goes wrong?
"You are quite a hopeless creature aren't you?!", he remarked.
You should have that figured out by now!
But you are not much different from me, are you?!
He absent-mindedly touched the mark that lay just above his heart. "No, I suppose I'm not."
A brief smile crossed his lips. "I guess the world is quite strange indeed."
My words exactly, Afrit hummed. Now then... What are we doing for the rest of the day? Nothing too exciting I presume?
"We haven't finished all the documents from last time." Afrit hissed unwillingly, but then his body started to glow with a faint light.
First, he just seemed to grow, but then his form started to change. Less than a minute later a tall young man with dark skin, black hair and silver white eyes sat on the place the cat had just been. He got up and lazily stretched his limbs before looking back at Fharan.
"Where do we start?", he asked.

When he had left his imprisonment it hadn't been quiet. With Afrits help he had used the time in captivity to hone his skills close to the maximum.
He would have been able to escape even before Afrit had appeared in his life, but had stayed for various different reasons.
Maybe a small part of him had hoped to die in that horrible place, to finally free himself from all his misery. But no matter how long he waited, he had lived on. It seemed as if the gods had wanted to deny him even this small mercy.
Anyway, before destroying the side in its entirety he had collected all the seemingly relevant documents he could find. After that they had burned everything to the ground.
The few that had escaped did not come far.
Since then he and Afrit had gone through them page by page whenever they had gotten the chance. He had already managed to gather quite a bit of information from his wardens alone, but there were still a few fatal pieces missing.
Strictly speaking, he didn't particularly care about all this, but as long as someone with a reason to hunt him down was out in the world he could only improve his chances by trying to gather as many facts as possible.

While browsing through the papers Fharan realized that Afrit had at some point stopped sorting through his own pile of documents and was now staring at him. He paused.
"What is it?"
Afrit took a moment to carefully sort through his words before answering: "We are almost through more than half of the papers and it's still the same as last time. There is barely any information regarding your stay there. The rest is also clearly incomplete. I think it's safe to say that our first theory was correct." Fharan nodded. "That seems to be the case. I only wonder how many of these institutions really exist on this continent. It was definitely more than two then, I suppose."
"It certainly looks that way."