So, the theme for this year's  furnalequinox was 'Graduation'... and, well, I had a story that had been percolating for a while which involved a big empire of mice using magic, with Roman-level technology... and the cats as the barbarians at the edges of the empire. The first story involved a cat being bound by a mage to help protect a town, and the second one would involve the cat going off to attend the actual magic college in the empire's capital city, though initially using a 'remote' statue to go there. This little scene is pretty much the epilogue to that story, where the cat receives her diploma.

Oh, and all of mice, rats, and cats have about the same relative sizes as they do in the 'real world', so cats are giants...

(It looks to have been the only story in the conbook this year. I guess 'Graduation' was a theme people had trouble with.)