"Try not to take offence, human," the cat said from its position at the oven. "Akash has suffered much at the hands of your race, he finds it hard to overcome those strifes."
"Ah, no offence taken," I said in response before allowing myself to slump down onto the nearest beanbag. "I hope my species hasn't done anything bad to your people."
The alien flipped whatever it was they were cooking and stayed silent for a moment.
"The human race destroyed the third moon of my homeworld as a show of strength, we did not move against them after that," They said, before flipping their food once again. "My name is Yr'Arl, of the Vetox."
"Jacob Lyre, I'm sorry about the moon Yr'Arl," I said, once again completely sincere.
I didn't know much about the human race from this universe or their motivations for waging war against what seemed to be most of this galaxy but what I knew for certain was that I could be a very different type of human.
"Were you on the Graviships that ripped the moon out of orbit?" Yr'Arl asked.
I shook my head in response.
"Then what have you to be sorry for, Jacob Lyre. Nothing at all," Y'arl said, finally taking his meal off the stovetop. He cut the thing, which looked surprisingly like a grilled cheese sandwich, into two halves and places them onto two separate plates.
Yr'arl sat opposite me and held out one or the two plates. "Please," he said, "this is one of many delicacies on my world, I implore you to try it."
I took the food, and the first thing I realized is that it most definitely wasnt a grilled cheese sandwich. In fact, it didnt seem to be any kind of sandwich at all.
The meat was white and well browned, with the scent of fragrant spices slowly wafting off of it. If I had to compare it to something from Earth, I'd say it looked vaguely like a tandoori spiced chicken breast.
Yr'arl hadn't provided me with any cutlery, and had already begun tucking into his meal by using manna to separate chunks from the meal mentally before bringing it up to his mouth to eat.
Unfortunately I hadn't gained the power of telekinesis just yet, so instead pushed BB back down into synchro mode so I could create some manna constructs that vaguely resembled a knife and fork- though their edges constantly flickered and warped as my focus on them shifted. Manna constructs were hard.
I took my first bite and tried to mask my shock. I was expecting something that tasted like chicken or turkey, but instead the flavour that danced across my tongue was unlike either. It was much closer in taste and texture to a juicy rare steak, dusted with delicious and flavorful spices.
"This is absolutely delicious," I exclaimed around a bite of food.
"It was my Kindle-Mother's recipe, passed down through the centuries. I am glad it I'd to your liking, Jacob."
We are in companionable silence after that. I was unsure if it was because Yr'Arl was too engrossed in his meal to make any conversation or if instead it was because he could see that my construct utensils flickered that much worse when I was having a conversation.
"Your manna seems very powerful, but equally untamed," Yr'Arl stated after I had taken my last mouthful of food.
I let the cutlery flicker out of existence and gave my eating partner a shrug.
"Would you believe me if I said that I'd only just gotten these abilities recently?" I asked.
Yr'Arl was silent again, a state that I was now taking to mean that he was in deep thought about something.
"Yes, I believe that I would," He replied. "Human's usually display a reduced affinity for manna, and will instead supplement their shortcomings with advanced technology based on non-magical science."
Yr'Arl was blunt and to the point, I appreciated that about the cat person a great deal.
"What seems uncertain is how you managed to obtain this wildly elevated manna power," Yr'Arl continued.
"Well, if you figure out an answer let me know, yeah?"
"I will endeavour to do so," Yr'Arl said before they stood and worked the cracks out of their back. "For now, I would like to ask for you to train with me. I have heard that new abilities have manifested, and we have only one more sleep until the main event"
The cat alien didnt wait for me to respond and, instead, dropped onto all fours and began to sprint through the hallways.
Luckily for me, BB was still deep in my synchro mode, and so that meant I was able to use my enhanced speed. I managed to catch up to Yr'Arl in a few more moments and then matched my pace to theirs.
We worked our way down through the depths or the facility together, until eventually at the bottom of a large stairwell we came across a door.
"This is the door to the training room, in here we can unleash almost any level of attack and it will do no damage to the surrounding area," Yr'Arl explained.
He opened the door and we walked through. Honestly, I didn't really know what I had been expecting. But a completely white room with no other obvious features had certainly not been on the list.
"Fire one of your energy blasts," Yr'Arl ordered, "Full power."
"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to blow a hole in this place like I did the Mannachoid from earlier," I said.
"These walls are no Mannachoid, so go, assault them."
I let the familiar hum of energy build up in between my hands, building and building until the pressure between them had actually begun to hurt. I let the shot loose into the far wall.
For a moment it seemed like the wall of the room had started to turn a deep red, as if it were being worn away, but before long the white had returned and my manna energy beam had been absorbed completely. That was pretty impressive.
Yr'Arl and I could get up to some serious sparring in here!