It wasn't Orenia, but another human. A young male, by the looks of it; tall, with short black hair and dark skin, black form-fitting clothes, and a rather lithe poise to his movements. He walked about the room, collecting various items. Perhaps he was a servant. Arianna's hopes for escape began to rise, having conveniently forgotten for the moment that she was not only stuck in mouse form, but with a mouse's vocabulary.
However, as the person drew nearer, Arianna finally got a look at his face. Although handsome, there was nothing especially noteworthy about his appearance, but something gave Arianna the feeling she knew him from somewhere. It couldn't be the castle; there was no way she would mingle with such a lowly person as a servant, let alone a servant to a witch. Where, then?
It wasn't until Arianna saw his eyes that she began to put two and two together. They were bright green. And slitted.
"Mistress seems to be feeling rather generous today," a familiar voice sneered as his tongue ran over his pointed incisors. "Why waste a cypher charm on someone with nothing intelligent to say?"
It could not be...the cat? Arianna gasped to herself. Of course, if she could take mouse form, it should not be surprising that a cat could take human form, right? But what was he going to do to her? Oddly, she felt greater pressure from his human form than she did when he was in cat form. Or perhaps that was just the ignorance of someone who had spent life as a human.
She was so surprised, she failed to react when a huge hand reached into the beaker and plucked her out. She came to herself just as the man was bringing a stone with strange runes on it closer to her with his other hand.