Dinner was a stressful affair to say the least with a tense silence having settled between Aunt Maya and mom like a storm rolling in over a harbor. The room felt like a powder keg ready to explode with just one misplaced word. Sorcha and I exchanged looks across the table prompting the other to break the silence but neither of us dared to speak a word. Mom had been quite firm in exiling Rameses from the table despite my protests. Currently he was in the room with Jasper, who knew when we would hear yelling or fighting with how those two always seemed to be getting on each other's nerves.

"Girls after dinner we will be going to Beria to get supplies." Aunt Maya told us earning a dirty look from mom who opened her mouth as if to retort but obviously decided against it as she turned back to her food. As soon as dinner was done Sorcha and I made a quick escape back to our room where Jasper was sitting on the bed one of the books open while Rameses was laying on his side stretched out across the end of the bed his eyes closed and paws twitching. I was worried at first but relaxed when I realized he was just dreaming rather than hurt.

I collected my things quickly and quietly not wanting to wake Rameses until we were about to leave. Jasper had other plans as he closed his book and noticed that Rameses had fallen asleep, I gave him as stern of a look as I could as his eyes lit up with mischief. Sure enough Jasper scooted up so he wasn't sitting on top of the covers anymore before grabbing it and fluffing it causing the covers to roll like a waves dumping Rameses onto the floor with an angry hiss. Jasper wasn't quite done though as he quickly flung the covers over the end of the bed leading to a clothe avalanche to bury Rameses, who from his growls, hisses, and screeches was not pleased with the way he had been woken up.

Shooting Jasper a look who gave a semi apologetic smile back, I grabbed the twisting and churning bundle of cloth and picked it up. I had been trying to free Rameses but he was struggling so much that he had become tangled in the blankets. Now I was left with a wriggling bundle of cloth so I reached down to try and get a hold only to be clawed as Rameses claws poked through the blankets in his struggle. I grabbed the top again firmly and began shaking the bundle up and down hoping to shake him loose without being clawed again.

"What in the world is going on?" Sorcha asked confused as she came out of the bathroom while Jasper was cackling madly at this point.

"Rameses is stuck and I'm trying to get him out. Jasper shut it, this is your fault!" I replied before turning to Jasper who tried unsuccessfully to stop laughing like a hyena. With a tearing sound Rameses dropped to the ground before darting under the bed in a shadowy blur. I dropped the covers and leaned down peering under the bed, at first I couldn't see anything until golden orbs met mine.

"Are you okay Rameses?" I asked only getting a growl in return before Rameses started coming my way to get out from under the bed. I stood and moved back so I wasn't in his way, he squeezed out from under the bed before jumping back onto the bed. Rameses stood still for a moment before launching himself at Jasper who quickly took flight as a small ball of fire leading Rameses on a chase around the room.

"Enough!" I yelled after a few minutes of Rameses chasing Jasper not paying any mind to what was in his way as he leaped on dressers and any surface to get closer to catching Jasper. Japer zipped into his lantern as Rameses came to a stop on the dresser just in front of the TV. I quickly put Rameses harness on not wanting to delay leaving anymore than we already had. With all of us ready we went to the main room of the hotel where aunt Maya was waiting a tall standing mirror with a sigil drawn on it already waiting.

Arriving in Beria left Sorcha speechless as her head whirled as she tried to take in every new and strange sight and sound. To be honest so was I as I saw more of Beria as aunt Maya led us to another part of Beria. Eventually we reached a large area with a glowing fountain in the center, around the walls that made up the houses or apartments that surrounded the park were pretty pale pink blossoms with silvery green leaves that were climbing up the walls like ivy. Several ponds with streams connecting them ran through the park with many Japanese style bridges connecting them which seemed to match the overall theme of the area as the park looked like it was based off of a Japanese garden.

lining the cobblestone path that ran throughout the park were tents wand stalls where people were selling goods and an assortment of strange instruments and art. What caught my eye the most though was whenever we passed someone displaying magic one that we passed was a man who was bending water to his will, making different shapes that would then sparkle as light was shown through it.

Another entertainer was a woman dressed in a red and gold dress that seemed to move around her like the fire that she wielded. It took me a few minutes to see the small snakelike dragons that flitted around her and the streams of fire that moved to the beat of a violin that her companion was playing.

"Familiars, familiars of all kinds here, if you want em, we got em!" A burly man called out from outside one of the tents getting aunt Maya's attention as she led us over. The man held the tent flap open for us which led into the tent which was bigger than it seemed. Along the walls were tables with large eggs displayed, below the tables were crates filled with eggs as well while along the walls were hung all sorts of equipment of some sort. At the end of the tent was a woman standing behind a glass display case that also held eggs of varying sizes.

"Hello how are you all today?" The woman called out as we came in.

"Well enough." Aunt Maya replied before she started looking over the displays.

"Aunt Maya aren't familiars spirits?" Sorcha asked and honestly I was curious too, Rameses hadn't come from an egg as far as I knew.

"Technically these are pseudo-familiars, it is illegal to trade or sell what you are referring to which is called a spirit-familiar. There are also beast-familiars which are beasts or monsters who are bound to a witch as a familiar these are illegal in Beria so we don't have any like that. Another kind of familiar is the kindred-familiar like my husband outside, a normal person who has no interest in magic but is willing to allow a witch to bounce there own power off of them thus making the witch stronger." The woman explained kindly.

"Then what is a pseudo-familiar?" Sorcha asked.

"A pseudo-familiar is a created familiar and they're the most common kind of familiar. Pseudo-familiars are safer than both beast-familiars and spirit-familiars and are much stronger than kindred-familiars. The way that our pseudo-familiars are created is that we ethically source materials such as claws, fangs, scales, fur, feathers, and blood from a beast or monster sometime multiple species in our higher end ones. We then fashion them into an egg which we then sell, once someone has got an egg all they have to do is keep it close at all times and put a couple of drops of blood on the egg a day. How long the egg takes to hatch is dependent on how strong the witch is and how much blood they are willing to part with each day. The added benefit is that the pseudo-familiar is bound to you as soon as it hatches plus unlike other familiars it is very easy to have more than one." The lady replied showing us the eggs as she explained.

"Sorcha you should have a familiar, it will be beneficial to you learning witchcraft." Aunt Maya told us having finished looking over the little shop.

"I wouldn't know where to start." Sorcha replied making the shopkeepers eyes light up, I went to stand with aunt Maya as the lady swept over to start showing Sorcha her choices. Eventually Sorcha settled on a kitsune egg which from what the shopkeeper said was very popular and versatile meaning it was a good choice for a beginner especially since its power would grow in tandem with Sorcha. Aunt Maya got Sorcha a satchel bag to carry the egg in so she didn't have to hold onto it all the time as we left the tent and moved on deeper into the market.