An Owl's Rise

Weeks went by as Lucia hammered necessary information about humankind into Evelyn, Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee.

There were all manner of societal norms that none of them had a single inkling about that they would need to adhere to if they did not want to stick out in a bad way.

"You've caught onto this a lot quicker than I was expecting, Evelyn. Do you happen to have experience in human cities, or have you done extensive research into them?" Lucia asked one day after giving lessons.

"No. Since I was born, the only contact I've had with humans is being attacked by them or stuffed into lab where they experimented on me. Honestly, I've done everything I can to avoid them." Evelyn responded, a cold expression on her face.

It was an understatement to say that she had had bad experiences with humans. Both in her first life and second, she'd been subjected to all manner of hardships thanks to humans.

Of course, what she said to Lucia may not have been a lie, but it was not the full truth. While it was not on this world, she had been deeply involved with humans back on Earth thanks to having been one.

"Though, I'm not the only one learning fast. Bylur's doing better than Rehni and Aralee. I suspect he has some familiarity with humans." Evelyn said, wanting to change the subject.

"Yes, you're probably correct. I can tell he has less disdain for them as you, Rehni, and Aralee do. Perhaps he used to be someone's pet before he joined the Roost."

This may have just been speculation on Lucia's part, but Evelyn figured that she was probably correct. When she first met Bylur right before the trials to join the Roost, he was already exceptional in several ways. He had learned how to properly use magic and was clearly of high intelligence despite being a fiend beast.

Someone had definitely taught him, and his familiarity with the human world leaned towards him having been a pet.

Still, he showed a clear drive to get back at the Tyrannis Union like the rest of them. Likely whoever his owner was had not lived there.

"Oh, so you don't know. I figured he would have told you about it." Lucia said, a hint of surprise on her face.

"I'm sure he would give me the details of his past if I asked, but we've all got secrets we don't want to divulge to anyone. If he feels like it, he'll tell us."

Evelyn would not say she was not interested, but since she was keeping her past life a secret, she was not going to pressure any of her companions into talking about things they clearly did not want to.

Instead, she moved the conversation along and asked Lucia what she really wanted to know.

"So, when do you think we'll be ready? I understand that this groundwork is necessary, but I think we're all itching to get started."

For nearly the past two years, Evelyn and her compassion had been working tirelessly to evolve so that they could blend in as humans and attack the heart of their enemies. Having what seemed like endless prep work was starting to wear on them.

"Don't worry it won't be much longer. I understand how all of you feel very well. Remember, I've been getting ready for this for over a century. Every day I think about getting our operation started. Nevertheless, I need all of you to meet a minimum level of understanding about human society before we proceed. A single misstep could get us all killed, or worse." Lucia said, her tone grave.

"Okay, I won't ask again. There are still some things that I should brush up on, so I'll go back to studying with the others."

Leaving Lucia's side, Evelyn headed back over to her friends and sister and began pouring over the information she needed to know to blend in with the humans of this world.

Another few days passed by before Lucia gave her seal of approval to Evelyn, Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee. They were finally ready to begin their infiltration of human society.

"Now, before we go, take these." Lucia said, handing a set of magical tools to each of them.

She then taught them how to use them, and Evelyn and her companions were astounded by the results.

"My wings are gone!" Arale cried once the magic tool activated.

Seeing this Evelyn reached up to the top of her head where small horn-like tuffs of feathers should have been, but she found they had disappeared alongside her wings.

'What about my eyes?'

Pulling out a mirror, Evelyn looked at her objectively beautiful face and focused on her eyes. Even when she transformed into her humanoid form, they retrained their yellow irises.

Yet with the magic tool that hid her bestial features in effect, her once yellow eyes had turned a light brown instead.

"It's a bit uncanny. I feel kind of weird without my wings." Bylur said waving his hands behind him where his wings usually were.

"Yes, it is uncomfortable at first, but you'll get used to it. Without this magical tool, we'd be caught the moment we entered a human city. I can tell you now, most human nations don't take kindly to humanoid beasts. They know what the requirement for this type of evolution is." Lucia said, stressing the importance of hiding their true identities.

Once Evelyn and her compassion got used to moving around with their bestial features hidden, Lucia told them what the second tool she had given them did.

"Now for this one, it will disguise our magical energy. Beasts and humans have different magical signatures that can be picked up by certain magical devices. However, these rings will adjust our magical energy to come off as purely human. They can also help regulate the intensity of our magical energy to seem lesser than it truly is.

Humans at the arcanist rank, which is equivalent to the tyrant rank for beast like us, is fairly rare. To avoid unwanted attention, we'll pretend to all be only at the third rank, which humans call the mage rank."

After giving her reasoning for using the ring-shaped magic tool, Lucia showed each of them how to adjust it and got it set up to hide their true power. For all but those that were incredibly perceptive or had magic items stronger than their own, Evelyn, Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee appeared to be low tier mage rank humans. While Lucia would be acting as a peak mage rank human that was their master.

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