The m, Niphru began practig sitting upright again, wanting to reach a point where falling over wasn’t aual certainty. Dawn, meanwhile, went to go speak with Morris.

  Some time into Niphru’s practice, Daw a message through their bond, “It seems like we’ve finished everything here, and leave now; please e help us load up the wagons again.”

  Excited to finally leave this b vilge, Niphru switched back to fox form. He then picked up the few things Dawn hadn’t taken with her, ahe bedroom, finding the man who owhe house present. After inf him that they were leaving aing a nod in response, Niphru tioward where they had parked their wagons when they arrived.

  As he approached, he saw the rest of the group present and loading their own belongings up, with the two padiing against the side of their wagon. Niphru found Dawn and handed over the rest of her belongings. As he was watg her carefully set them dowiced the rest of the group looking at him in surprise, then remembered none of them knew he had actually ged retly. After assuring them it was still him and he was fine, he then asked if there was anything they needed help with.

  Apparently, the vilge had a signifit amount of leftover meat now, and they were giving a rge amount to the people who had helped them so much retly. Due to this, there was still a fair amount to load into the wagons, and they likely wouldn’t have to stop to resupply when they reached the town of Misty Valley.

  With everyone w together, it didn’t take long to get everything gathered and loaded, and soon, they were on their way again, the vilgers waving behind them.

  A short way into their journey, Niphru asked if anyone would mind if he were to y down in the wagon and practibsp; Apparently, her Dawn nor Morris had said anything about his skill, as the others asked what he would o be lying down to practice.

  Quite amused at the idea of how they might reaiphru focused for a moment and shrank in size, returning to the same form he began the journey with. As they reacted, he remarked, “One of the things I do now is shapeshift! Dawn and I have been w oing me able to use a human-ish form. I ’t quite focus on a purely human form because it is so different, but if I leave some parts fox-like, it is much easier.”He paused for a moment to think before tinuing, “Huh, I just realized that it feels fih a siail, even though I have two now. Weird. Maybe because I had one for so long? Anyway, I was thinking to practice using my hands, they are a lot more plex than using force magic to grab things, somehow. And maybe work on talking properly, I at least do a little bit of that already. I ’t stand, though, aainly ’t walk, so I’d o y down in the wagon. I also don’t have any clothes to cover up with.”

  It didn’t take much discussion at all before everyone agreed that it was fine, especially sihe wagon owered by magic rather than needing ao pull it. So, having gotten permission, Niphru took a running leap and nded in the back of the wagon, quickly crawling out of sight before slipping out of his harness and shapeshifting bato humanoid form, finding that the transformation ended in an aosition.

  Niphru stretched and shifted around a bit, finding a more fortable position uhe camping equipment. Onfortable, she then reached out with a hand and grabbed a small cup that was nearby.

  As she began carefully maniputing the cup, Niphru called out with an illusion, “I’m safely covered now if you want to see my face.”

  “Wait, you’re female now?!” excimed Miana whe a glimpse, leading to the others muttering in surprise, as well. She then tinued, “And I certainly tell you aren’t human with those ears and eyes. You look almost like Dawn, though!”Niphru nodded before remarking, “Well, I had to study someoo copy how their body works, and I’ve been around Dawn the lo. Plus, she let me study her more ih with my magibsp; So, my first attempt was a direct copy of her. I am at least trying to sound a little different when I try to speak.”

  As an example, she began saying a few of the words she’d managed during practice with Dawn, revealing that her voice wasn’t quite the same.

  “Well, this is certainly a surprise!” Richard stated as he gnced over at her before tinuing, “And you are cute; somehow, those ears make me want to pat you on the head.”

  Hearing this, Niphru couldn’t help but feel her ears pull babsp; Perhaps it would be fine if it was Dawn, but it felt wrong to think of anyone else petting her.

  Seeing her face, especially her expressive ears, the man responded, “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that without permission, Niphru, just like I never did when you are in fox form.”

  Once everyone had gotten a look at her new form, mostly agreeing that she was cute, they went back to their own activities as they traveled on.

  Eventually, they had to stop for the night, and Niphru shifted back to his small fox form; then, hearing that he and Dawn would be on sed watch, he grabbed his harness and jumped back down. He quickly tossed it into their tent as Dawn pulled it from the wagon and began helping her set it up with his magic.

  Once everything was set up, he joined Dawn in trying to sleep. A while ter, Thomas woke them up, and they prepared for their shift, which was, as expected, peaceful. Later on, they woke up Viera and Lisryn for their turn before returning to bed.

  After waking, they packed up and tinued onward. Eventually, they reached the town of Misty Valley, finding it seemingly unged from their earlier visit. After a bit of questioning, they found out what had happened in their absence.

  It turned out, surprisingly, that none of the guards from the town were willing to fight, and no one had heard directly from the lord for months, instead only hearing from his advisor. The men from the capital found it just as suspicious as the guards, ao see the man, who immediately tried to flee. Apparently, it turned out that he had been poisoning the lord and took his pce, living well off the lord’s money.

  After the man was restrained, his crimes were decred to the citizens of the city, and he ut under watch for the trip back to the capital to be judged and punished. They then found someoo be the new lord, allowing the previous to bee an advisor to the new, since he did still know a great deal about the job, even if his judgement oor a himself poisoned and repced.

  Curiosity satisfied, the group took a night to rest before tinuing onward back to the capital. For the rest of the trip, nothing of note happened, and they made good time. Eventually, they returo the spire, Lisryn splitting off from the group with her guards to return to the Church of flict.

  The day they arrived, Niphru didn’t bother trying to practice with the humanoid form, instead opting to simply rest after the journey. The very day, however, Morris visited with a request for him to visit the high mages to be studied, with an invitation for Dawn to join to relieve any worries about his treatment.

  As expected, Dated the invitation and they traveled several floors up the tower until they reached a floor that was quite obviously designed for experimentation, the whole ter a heavily ented tai chamber.

  Upon seeing the rather intense design, Niphru couldn’t help but ask, “Is this going to be dangerous? This is very ing; I feel the magiing off the walls from here without even trying!”

  Dawn nodded in agreement before Morris chuckled and replied, “No, there is no expectation of any real da all, for you or anyone else. This room does have ways to amplify magical senses in addition to its role of taining dangerous effects. That would be why we are doing this here instead of in a simple lounge.”

  Feeling a bit relieved, Niphru let himself be led to a thick metal door that had multiple massive bolts to hold it closed. He felt much better when it was left wide open after they entered. Looking around, he saw several mages sitting in chairs and talking among themselves.

  As they walked into the chamber, one of the mages looked up and called out to them, “Thank you freeing to e here, Niphru. As I’m sure Morris mentioned before, we are quite curious about your ‘foxfire,’ as you’ve e to call it. Quite simply put, it should be impossible for you to maintain such things active at all times, so we would like to study it.”

  The woman theured for them to sit down oher side of the chamber from them, with Morris sitting in a chair beside Dawn and Niphru, who was gd to see he got a chair as well. Clearly, the high mages viewed him as being just as much a person as anyone else.

  One of the men reached to the side, and a small n of stone rose to meet his hand as he requested, “Could you please put one of your foxfires in the ter of the chamber for us?”

  While the others watched, he moved one of his ‘bnk’ illusions off of himself and shifted it bato fire form before letting it drift into the middle of the chamber.

  The man hummed slightly before shaking his head and remarking, “Odd… Without the spire’s amplification, I ’t tell that anything is even there. Even then, I only feel faint fluctuations.”

  He then turo the woman beside him aured at the stone pilr, which she grabbed. Not long after, she agreed with the man, and the pilr sunk bato the ground. The man didn’t bother, simply staring ily at the fme before fog on Niphru, frowning as he looked bad forth between them for a moment.

  “You probably ’t sense much because this isn’t magic,” the man began, pausing for several seds before tinuing, “There is a clear e between him and three other clouds of spiritual energy above him, as well as toward the fire. It appears almost as if it is burning his spirit itself. But that doesn’t expin how it is possible to keep them active at all times. It would require an immensely powerful spirit to be able tee at that speed.”

  At this point, Dawn spoke up, “When he inally only had one fme, he exhausted himself making a sed to protect me. This crippled him to the point that he was barely alive until we visited people who helped transfer some of their spirit to him. Maybe that is part of it? Perhaps he needs a certain amount to maintain the regeion?”

  Niphru nodded before admitting, “I retly learned how to shapeshift, and after draining myself with it, my fmes were very weak, and I was extremely tired, but after a night of sleep, they were back to normal.”

  In respohe man replied, “I’ve never seen anyone able to create a spiritual fme for more than an hour, let alone four of them. It should be impossible without more spiritual power than everyone here bined.”

  To this, the first woman shook her head before remarking, “He is the first natural Awakened we know of. Perhaps that makes him fun differently than us humans, and the artificial Awakened we’ve ended up with. Maybe his spirit simply heals that much faster.”

  An idea suddenly struiphru, and he spoke with Dawheir link, “Do you think I should tell them that I was blessed by two gods?”As he asked the question, the man who had determined his fme iritual snapped his head up to look at them, clearly shocked at what he sensed.

  “Is that telepathy? I’ve known it should be possible for quite some time, but never ma!” he excimed, leaning forward with i.

  Both Dawn and Niphru were shocked at him notig, though Niphru recovered first and replied, “Yes, our bos us speak to each other, as well as even share senses. You feel it?”

  Sihe man hadn’t mentioned anything about gods, Niphru assumed that he couldn’t actually read the link, and told Dawn as much.

  After a pause, Dawn respoo his question, “I don’t know; I think you should be the oo decide. I’ll support you either way.”

  As the man looked at Dawn, Niphru took a moment to think before finally asking, “I’m worried about revealing this… Morris, should I trust them?”

  Morris nodded before replying, “I trust all of them with my life, and in some cases, that has been literal while we’ve been in the wilds. I made sure that none of those I didn’t trust would be here.”

  Niphru nodded back before he let out a deep breath and admitted, “I became Awakened because of the blessings of two gods bined helping me. I know this because they’ve tacted me directly retly, and even helped guide my st major mutation. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I have two tails rather than the normal siail. That is part of what happehat day; shapeshifting was another part.”He then took a moment to shapeshift bato a smaller fox, proving at least some of his words before pausing a few seds aurning to his true form.

  “Blessed by the gods?” several of them said in varying amounts of disbelief all at once.

  “Not just o two gods?” the man asked, eyes wide in shock before he shook his head and said, “That might expin it, I’ve seen someone who was blessed before, and they were incredible in their abilities pared to others. To be blessed by two at once…”

  A quick discussioween the high mages quickly ended with a remark that they had a lot to think over, and Niphru was free to leave, as they o think about what had been revealed.

  While they returo their residence, Dawn said, “I think that went well?”

  Niphru shook his head as he replied, “I have no idea, but I hope giving that away was safe…”