As time passed, Niphru varied his practice. Sometimes, he would work on his water and earth magic at the spire; other times, he would visit people in town to help them. Occasionally, he also worked at the hospital to improve his healing magic.

  After his practice in the morning, Niphru would sometimes spend a while performing tasks for the spire, such as charging mana crystals or hunting down mutated creatures in the sewers. Surprisingly, he was also allowed to teach some of the newest mages how to work with fire magic, an offer that Dawn was given as well due to their high talent and skill with it.

  During the evenings, Niphru would sometimes go rex, observing the little bubble of nature at the base of the spire, but often joined Dawn in meeting with the other members of their group, sharing their experiences of working with their weakest forms of magic. This exchange commonly led to others being able to share their own insights.

  Unfortunately, everyone struggled with their earth magic, since Thomas wasn’t especially talented or skilled at it, even if he had begun to focus on it more than the other types. However, this didn’t stop the exchange of advice, merely reduced the effectiveness for that topic.

  Lisryn remained absent most of the time, though her efforts weren’t secret, as the Church of Conflict became better at cooperating with others as time went on. There were even a few expeditions into the wilds where they combined forces with some of the high mages.

  The wilderness was a dangerous pce, however, and when Morris joined an expedition, he came back injured, with his group missing three warriors as well as one of the other high mages; casualties in battle as they fought through an ambush on the way back.

  Eventually, as the months passed, the members of the group were each promoted to the spire’s rank of mage, having reached the point where they could each easily use all common forms of magic, even if not specialized in it.

  Once they had reached that rank, each of them had received offers to teach the newer mages of their specialties, with Thomas being a teacher of generalist magic and how to determine the best type of magic for any given situation instead.

  In addition to his fire magic, Niphru also spent time trying to teach others how to use force magic directly, with mixed results. Due to continual practice and effort, the rest of his group did eventually succeed, but very few of the new students he tried to teach managed it.

  Due to their advancement, everyone began to focus on their power instead of just familiarity with their magic, having all agreed that they were skilled enough to handle most tasks.

  During this time, Niphru found himself gaining a fifth and sixth orb of foxfire, allowing him to more easily use his humanoid forms; he could use one to hide the ears and tail, then the two newest ones for other illusions, or the utility of the fmes directly.

  Their time practicing came to a close, however, when Dawn received a message from her mother, Amilya, asking her to return to help with some of the problems the vilge was facing. The message didn’t seem urgent, so she sent a reply back and waited for more information.

  In the end, it appeared that a number of new types of mutation were occurring, and they needed help protecting the vilgers who gathered the pnts and hunted the animals. Fortunately, no major swarms of beasts had occurred, merely a return to the normal levels after Niphru’s time hunting them before they had left.

  Due to this, Dawn spoke with Morris and the rest of their group, letting them know that there wasn’t a major problem that needed everyone, but that she and Niphru would be leaving for a time.

  Not long after, they retrieved the cart they had brought on their initial journey and stocked up enough supplies for their trip before saying their goodbyes and quietly leaving. Due to their efforts in aiding the spire, they had no worries about the maintenance of their residence there, as the reduced cost would let them remain away for several years, when they only expected months away at most.

  For their trip, Niphru decided to ride the cart while using force magic to try to lift as much of its weight as possible. This allowed him to both rest instead of trying to keep up with Dawn, as well as practice his magic. He also considered possibly pulling the wagon for her, but she informed him she was fine pulling it again like the first time, though she wouldn’t mind having a break now and then.

  The passage out of the city went smoothly, with several people noticing Dawn’s staff and moving out of the way to let her go ahead. As they left, Dawn waved to the guards before they continued down the road.

  Days passed without incident, and a short stop in Granitehill let them stop by the shop of the cook they’d met before, Elena, and share another meal with her, along with the same guard as before, Lara. A day away from Blightfall, however, they met with a number of people armed with bows, led by Leanna.The woman stepped forward and greeted them, “Hello, I still remember our first meeting, Dawn. And I must thank you again for your work ter as well.”She looked toward Niphru and frowned before continuing, “I’m afraid I don’t recall the fox’s name, however.”

  Hearing this, Niphru used an illusion and spoke up, “Hello, Leanna, my name is Niphru! I was in poor shape before and couldn’t properly thank you for saving Dawn from those arrows, so thank you.”

  Leanna looked at him in shock for a moment before shaking her head and stating, “I certainly didn’t expect that I’d encounter a talking fox when I woke up today. My apologies for not greeting you properly, Niphru. I had previously thought you were not intelligent, which is clearly not the case.”She then focused back on Dawn and asked, “Are you headed back to Blightfall Vilge? The roads are clear, and the vilge is safe, as of our st contact a few days back.”

  Dawn nodded to her and replied, “Thank you for the news, we are headed back, and it is good to hear that there isn’t anything out of the ordinary.”

  “You are welcome, Dawn. I hope your return is more peaceful than your trip to the capital was,” Leanna said before gesturing for the rest of her group to follow and making her way around Dawn’s cart.

  After she had left, Dawn turned to Niphru and remarked, “She seemed different from what I remember. I think she had at least five times as many people with her when we first met, I wonder what happened…”

  Pausing for a moment, she then continued, “Wait, she said she had contact with the vilge… Bandits shouldn’t be in touch with vilges they are stealing from… Clearly, something major changed. I guess maybe I can ask if Mom has any idea when we get home.”

  Eventually, they made their way to the vilge, entering te at night, much to the surprise of the guards at the gate. Dawn simply went directly home and parked the cart outside before approaching the door and hesitating. After a moment, she knocked on the door and waited while Niphru changed into a smaller fox, much like he had been before they left.

  Several moments passed before the door opened, and Amilya opened the door. Dawn promptly stepped forward and hugged her before she properly registered her daughter’s presence. As this happened, Niphru quietly slipped into the house beside them and sat down in the middle of the living room.

  As the mother and daughter exchanged greetings, Niphru looked at the door in amusement, noting the alteration that was still present, now totally unneeded now that he had force magic, let alone being able to transform into a humanoid form, both of which allowed him to use the door properly.

  Several moments ter, Amilya began looking around before Dawn waved her hand towards Niphru and she turned to see him.“Hello again, Niphru! I didn’t see you come in, welcome back home. I hope you had a good time while you were away, and I’m gd to see you up and moving again,” the woman remarked with a wide smile as she moved to take a seat nearby.

  Niphru nodded to her before standing, twitching each of his tails in different directions and remarking, “I’ve had a lot of things happen since we left. I even have two tails now!”

  As if that wasn’t enough of a shock, he then focused and shifted into the near-copy of Dawn before carefully sitting down in a chair, taking care to keep her tail from getting pinched or twisted.

  “Also, I can do this!” she excimed in a light tone before continuing, “It was really hard to figure out how to use this body, but now I can have hands!”

  Amilya gaped in response for several moments as both Dawn and Niphru ughed. In the meantime, Dawn went ahead and closed the door before moving to sit beside Niphru and hugged her.

  Dawn then remarked, “It really did take Niphru a long time to figure out how to use a human body properly!”

  Amilya eventually shook her head before stating, “Well, I’m not surprised, babies take a long time to figure it out too, and they don’t have to start from knowing the wrong way to move first.”

  “I guess that is true,” Niphru replied as she shook her head before continuing, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to get some sleep. We’ll have plenty of time to talk tomorrow, won’t we?”

  Hearing this, Dawn nodded even as Amilya yawned and responded, “That does sound like a good idea. I was in bed before you two arrived. Do you need to unload anything, or can that wait?”

  “No, it can wait; let’s all just get some sleep,” Dawn answered, even as Niphru stood up and shifted back into a fox, this time his natural size, resulting in Amilya becoming shocked once again.

  At the sight of the now-huge Niphru, Amilya simply shook her head, said “Tomorrow…” and headed to her bedroom.

  With a shared ugh, Dawn and Niphru headed to their own room to rest for the night as well.