Dawn’s eyes went wide at Niphru’s statement, and her mouth opened soundlessly for a moment. When she recovered from her shock, she demanded, “What do you mean that was a god?!”

  Niphru paused to think how to phrase things, then replied, “I decided to speak through the new link while you were asleep, since I felt no real hostility through it. The response was from a being called Inari, who cimed to be a god, along with the other who tried to talk to me before. With the power I could feel, I believe it. And it made an oath that it eaking the truth, then, immediately afterward, the pressure that woke you up happened.”

  “That seems unbelievable; why would a god, let alowo, be ied in you? I mean, yreat, but…” queried Dawn, her eyes still wide as she shook her head and dropped to sit on the edge of the bed.

  Niphru felt simirly, but shared what he had been told, “Apparently they were the ones who helped me awaken inally, and I was given a warning that I’m about to evolve. Apparently, if nothing ges, I might lose my mind and ge who I am. Alternatively, they offered to guide me dowh they’ve helped others take in another realm. They also said they wanted my help because they have rules they must follow. But I was also told that they don’t demand that I follow them or work for them.”

  In response, Dawn closed her eyes in thought for a few moments. Eventually, she opened her eyes again and inquired, “So, basically they are ied in you because they chose you for something and helped you bee who you are now? But then why wouldn’t they demand you serve them if they basically created you? I mean, I’m not pining; I’m gd they aren’t, but it seems strange.”

  Niphru remaiill for a moment as he went over everything again in his mind, then replied, “That seems about accurate. What do you think I should do? I’m worried about maybe losing my mind, but I’m also worried about blindly following the instrus of a god that I don’t know.”

  Dawn’s response shocked Niphru, as she simply leaned bad ughed. Once she caught her breath, however, she expined, “If you lose your mind, you would basically die. But your other worry could be solved by simply getting to know this ght? While I’m worried as well, it seems like an obvious choie!”

  Hearing it made so simple, Niphru shook his head in amusement before he replied, “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that… They said I had something like a month at best, but that means I do have some time before I have to gh with one choice or the other.”

  As Dawn stroked his head, Niphru shifted on the bed and thought about what would make him feel better about the god if he knew. He felt he could at least trust the being; something about the power that pressed down on the world as it made its oath spoke to him on a primal level. Somehow, he just khat the oath held sway, even over such a mighty being.

  In the end, he couldn’t e up with any specific list of things to ask or talk about and decided he should just talk with this Inari, and maybe Atryna as well, if they learo not be painful to listen to.

  After veying his io talk with them again to Dawn, she responded, “I’m still worried about you. Are you sure you felt that they were safe to talk to?”

  “I’m not sure of it being safe, but at least they didn’t mean to hurt me, and seemed polite at least,” Niphru answered, somewhat worried still himself.

  In the end, after a bit more bad forth, Dawn finished with, “If you are sure you want to do this, I won’t try to stop you, even if I’m really worried. But I should get back to helping with the vilge. I’ve already spent a lot of the day here with you, and I’m sure the others are worried. But if there is anything I help with, let me know through our bond, and I’ll head back here immediately!”

  Feeling happy about how much Dawn was showing she cared about him, Niphru nodded and promised, “I’ll let you know if anything happens, and I’ll try to keep in touch so you know I’m okay!”

  Smiling at his words, Daw him on the head a few times before heading out of the room, waving at him as she passed through the doorway.

  While he was still trying to build up the ce to bother Inari, being worried about wasting such a powerful being’s time, he heard Dawn through their bond, “It looks like we didn’t miss lunch at least, so be sure to e get something to eat in about thirty minutes!”

  It only took a moment of sideration before he slipped off the bed and began to return to where he had helped with the food the night before. He didn’t want to get started just to immediately stop, and this was a good excuse to put it off a little longer. As he expected, the people making lunch were quite thankful for help bringing the food to the middle of the vilge.

  Once everything was delivered, people began to show up, and Niphru quickly ran to sit beside Dawn, leaning up against her for a moment as she scratched his ears. As they ate together, however, he heard a shout from the dire of the wall.

  As he looked in that dire, he spotted several shapes growing closer in the sky before an eg crack rang out, making one fall from the sky. Several people nearby removed their belts, now revealed to be slings, and pulled stones from pouches sewn into their clothes.

  Moments ter, the air lit by dozens of loud crag noises and the whistling of air as a hail of projectiles flew upward toward the floonstrous birds in the distanbsp; It only took three volleys before all the shapes were dropping from the sky, and everyone began to their slings back around their waists.

  The whole time, Niphru sat there in shock, fling at the deafening noises, despite having pressed his ears ft against his head at the first sound. Looking to the side, he saw Dawn’s mouth open in surprise as well.

  “Well,” she slowly remarked, “I suppose that expins why they didn’t seem worried about flyis, despite saying they were attacked by them occasionally over the st weeks.”

  Niphru nodded, still shocked by the very effective respoo their sighting. It took a few moments to get over his shock, but eventually, he was able to resume eating once he had verified that no one else seemed worried.

  When he finished his meal, he informed Dawn that he was going to help, theed his as from st night, beginning to the bowls even as they began to pile up. Eventually, he helped to stack them under a small near where they had brought the pots. It was at this point that he realized he hadn’t helped bring the pots back st night, and he began to feel bad about it.

  Instead of fog on what he sidered a failure on his part, he checked with the people who were ing up the pots, finding that none were upset about it, but were quite willing to accept help now. This made him feel much better, and he joined in on ing the pots aurning them to the group kit they had used before.

  Having finished up helping for now, he realized he didn’t have any more excuses to put off speaking to the god, and began to head back to the home he and Dawn were staying at. Remembering just in time, he knocked on the door before opening it, finding that the man from before wasn’t present, so he hadn’t actually o.

  After getting himself settled on the bed and fortable, he closed his eyes aally poked at the e in his mind. There was a short dey, and then Inari’s calm voice came through, “Hello again, I was not expeg to speak with you again so soon.”

  Niphru paused for a moment before replying, “Well, I think I trust you; there was a feeling of power when you spoke that oath, but I don’t know you, and it feels wrong to just go along with whatever you say if I don’t. I don’t want to waste your time, but I also want to get to know who is trying to guide me.”

  A faint feeling of amusement passed through the link before Inari spoke again, “You worry about taking up my time. I simply o split off a tiny portion of myself to i with you, while the rest do other things. Gods and other powerful beings typically have an immense number of things that we have to, or want to pay attention to, so it is quite the on thing for beings like us.”This took a moment for Niphru to uand, though eventually he got the basic idea – he didn’t put his entire focus on each of his foxfire orbs when he used them, nor into a single part of his magistead, he split his attention. This limited uanding made him feel better about talking with Inari, si meant he wasn’t pulling its attention away for himself.

  “I don’t fully uand, but I think I see the basi of that idea,” he responded, before pausing to think again.

  “Why is it that you decided to help me awaken? Surely you didn’t just do it on a whim, right?” he inquired, his curiosity and wariness both c the e between them as he shifted on the bed.

  A sense of approval flowed back down the link as Inari answered, “That is correct, little one. Atryna has been trying to ge the course of her world for turies, but she is failing to make much impabsp; I offered a potential solution, with some warnings that it might not work, ht even backfire. She approved of giving it a try.”

  A slight pause followed, though there was a clear feeling that Inari was not finished speaking, so Niphru held babsp; A momehe god tinued, “In the realms I am most active within, my servants are mostly foxes that have grown in magical power, some of whom have nearly reached the level of deities themselves, though those are quite rare. I offered the ce to produce such a being within her world. Unfortunately, ods wished to limit our pn heavily, and instead of aire family, we were restricted to a single individual. Furthermore, we were not allowed to select, but instead, a ral third party was brought in to decide who our power would be sent to.”

  Feeling that Inari was done for the moment, Niphru immediately let Dawn know what he had heard. He then asked the first question that came to mind, “It sounds like you were pnning on trolling me, even if you said you didn’t mean to do so. Which is it, do you want to trol me or not?”

  The response began as a sense of amusement, which seemed at odds with the inquiry, though the following words made sehat is somewhat of a plex topic, actually. The vast majority of foxes I offer my path to, at least in worlds with suffit magic, willingly take my path. A good portion of those willingly choose to serve me, at least part of the time. Furthermore, there is the luck of you happening to form such a strong bond with another, setting you oh of following Atryna, as she is an aspect of cooperation.”

  As Niphru shifted unfortably at the idea he was already doing the bidding of a god, Inari tinued, “I feel your disfort. You are still in full trol of your own choices and as, Niphru. You have simply grown in a way that aligns you with Atryna, much as the one you’ve bonded with has aligned herself simirly. If you wanted, you could simply choose to act differently, though it would likely feel wrong to you. Another option you have is to return to the wilds, break your bond, and bee one of the more powerful beings out there, though your mind would likely suffer.”

  At the final statement, Niphru felt enraged and was about to respond before another flow of amusement came through the link, and Inari spoke once more, “Yes, I expected as mubsp; But it is an option you could choose, even though it goes against what both Atryna and I desire. Our wishes for you are mostly aligned with your own, partially because our blessings influenced you as you awakened, and mostly because of your choices and experiences.”

  Calmed somewhat by the being’s words, Niphru let himself rex again, finding his entire body had tensed up. Eventually, he was able to ask, “What would you wao do if I did follow you?”

  For this, a feeling of approval flowed down the link once again, and Inari responded, “I would simply request that you tio grow in power while helping those you without too much effort. Eventually, you would bee able to wield immense power, capable of reshaping the ndscape and blessiire vilges. However, those are quite some time away, even if your realm allows far more rapid development than most. Atryna would like you to cooperate with others, even if you dislike them, when it is for the good of all.”

  Even as Niphru sidered these words, a chuckle reached him, and the voice tinued, “Are you not already doing that, however? flict’s followers are ly the around, yet you are helping them while it aids many others. This is not something you are being forced to do, but rather something you chose to do.”

  The addition of that information made Niphru pause. It was true; he didn’t have to do any of this. While Dawn had chosen to help, he could have refused, even now, aher stayed behind, or simply followed Dawn without doing anything. While he was sidering this information, he went ahead and tacted Dawn again, finding her opinions oter matched his own.

  He took a mio think things over before finally asking some less weighty questions, simply seeking to get to know the god.

  Some time ter, he felt more fortable, and asked one of the other questions that had been on his mind, “If I accept your offer, what will happen to me? You said it would ge my body.”

  The respoo this was one he didn’t expect, “You have already begun the ges, in fabsp; You developed foxfire, learo use illusion, moved much of your power and spirit into aernal tainer so it didn’t you, and when we aided you before, you grew in size. The st part of this portion of the path would see you grow slightly rger, and your tail would split into two. Those who follow my path gain more tails as they age and gain more magical power, each progressive tail being harder to earn tha. The main downside is ohat you have already begun to have, that of being able to lose your power or even die if your spirit crystal were to be stolen, and its destru would be catastrophic for you at best.”

  Inari paused to give Niphru some time to process what he had said before tinuing, “It is likely that if you followed the more natural path of your world, you would find yourself either merging with your spirit crystal, or your spirit would reattach to your body. Either of these would signifitly reduce the downsides you currently possess, and prevent them from getting worse.”

  After a bit of sideration, Niphru decided to ask Dawn what she thought. After she brought up that it sounded like he had already followed the god’s path so far, and even had the same weakhey both eventually agreed that it robably best to accept its offer.

  Niphru waited a little while lorying to see if anything popped into his mind that might ge his decision, then finally decred, “I will follow your path, Inari, though I ’t say if I will serve you iure or not.”

  “I’m surprised you decided so quickly, little one. Are you certain?” inquired Inari, a faint feeling of both surprise and fusion c the liween them.

  “Dawn and I both discussed it together, and we agreed on it being the best option,” Niphru replied, surprised and somewhat grateful that the deity actually cared to make sure he really wanted his choice.

  “I see. Am I right in assuming you wish your bonded panion to be there when you proceed with your choice?” Inari questioned, further improving Niphru’s opinion of it.

  With a nod to himself, Niphru immediately responded in the positive, and was told to tact the being again when he was ready to start the process.