The past two weeks had been rather stressful for Niphru, but he had also had many good things occur, which he was grateful for. First they had mao get to the spire safely, with a bit of trickery. Therip to the Temple of The Green and the healing he received there allowed him to finally move entirely on his own again.

  Admittedly, it took over a week of exercise tain full strength, but he could move! This also let him meet Dawn’s friends without having to be carried around, not that he was too opposed to that. And his bond with Dawn was reformed too, though it had been very unstable until today. Wherengthened bond finally stabilized, he had actually fallen off the table he was using as practice for jumping bad forth from the floor.

  Instead of just a stronger e, like he thought, the stabilized e had a new feature. While thinking of Dawn, he was actually able to both see and hear from her point of view as well as his own! It was, however, quite blurry, but it was enough of a shock to disorient him. Given how the view lurched, he assumed she felt the same.

  “Dawn, I finally talk to you properly again! It is really stra if I focus I even see what you see!” he excimed through their link.

  Surprise flowed ba before Dawn responded, “That is great, I’m gd we both talk to each ain instead of just me talking to you! I’ll be back soon, would you mind if I take you to talk to my friends now that I share what you say?”

  While he liked that idea, Niphru instead replied, “Actually, could we go visit the Church of The Green again? I’d like to meet the two nice people who helped me before, and maybe get a little more help if possible?”

  “That sounds fio me, let me tell my friends I’ll be gone for a while, then I will e get you,” Dawn responded.

  For the several minutes, Niphru tinued running around and jumping, making sure to get some more exercise. Eventually, he heard the door open and ran to greet Dawn, leaping into her outstretched arms right into a hug.

  Dawn smiled and scratched behind his ears as she excitedly excimed, “It seems unbelievable, but apparently Frank isn’t a spy anymore, but instead an ambassador of sorts, and he shared that Awakened are now to be treated as citizens! Apparently their new leader has very different ideas tha, and there were a lot of ges made; she even personally visited the king! Now I won’t have to carry you around and hide you anymore, this is great news!”

  Niphru yipped in aowledgement before replying over their bond, “That is wonderful, I really want to be able to run around and be free again. Not that I want to get away from you, but there isn’t mu in here, and it has been much too long since I could.”

  “I know what you mean, it is somewhat cramped pared to the vilge, isn’t it? Anyways, why couldn’t you talk earlier? I thought the link was stronger and more stable when it was reformed?” Dawn remarked, cog her head to the side as she asked her question.

  “It was stronger, yes, but it wasn’t stable at all, I could barely mao send anything over our link until now!” responded Niphru, before tinuing, “And it is rger here, but more restrictive, I think. Maybe if I could run around outside our room it would feel different.”

  Dawn nodded and replied, “I see, that is odd; it was pletely stable on my end. Anyways, on the subject of running around, let’s get going. With the new w, you walk with me, unless you’d prefer I carry you still.”

  Instead of replying with words, Niphru squirmed out of her arms and ran to the door. Laughing, Dawn followed and opehe door. She smiled and tio head out of the spire as Niphru followed her.

  Ohey reached the bottom, Niphru stopped Dawn before she could open the door, wanting to try to open it himself. After just a few moments, he mao find the correct way to open the magical lock within the wall, allowing the door to slide open.

  His success made Dawn quite happy, as this meant he would be able to enter a the spire on his own, even if he couldn’t get in or out of her dwelling itself. bining that with the new w that Awakened had the same rights as humans, he should be able to explore the city at will.

  With a smile, Dawn excimed, “This is great, you open the door, and sihere aren’t any other doors that need hands, as long as we aren’t in our residence, you explore as much as you want!”

  This caused Niphru to stop in his tracks for a moment in surprise before he replied, “I had not thought of that, thank you, I might do that sometime while you are with your friends.”

  After nodding to him, Dawn tio lead them to the Church of the Green, more fortable with the number of people around after having spent some time adapting.

  Along the way, Niphru spent quite a bit of time looking around at everything around them, having been uo do so before. Ohing that saddened him was that many people hid inside or quickly moved to the other side of the road as far away as they could ohey saw him. Oddly enough, however, they passed a member of the Church of flict, who stopped to say he was happy the new ges meant he could be polite and greet them instead of ign them or interfering with them.

  Otherwise the trip was uful, and upoering the main hall of the Church of the Green, they saw the older man who had helped them before. He quickly looked up at the noise of them approag and smiled before stating, “I’m gd to see you two again, I’m afraid I’ve fotten your names even if I have remembered you. Let me go get Kisu and , they’ve both been hoping you would e back soon.”

  Before they had a ce to respond, the man had already spun around and begun quickly walking towards one of the hallways leading away. With a shrug, Dawn headed to a nearby bench, and Niphru jumped up into her p as she sat down.

  After a few short moments of petting Niphru’s head, the maurned with the two who had helped with the healing attempt before, presumably the Kisu and he had spoken of.

  “Ah, I am gd you showed up again, Farsan here mentioned you had returned. Is your friend doier now?” asked the young woman, looking at Niphru sitting in Dawn’s p.

  In response, Niphru stood a down to the ground before l his head towards the group for a moment. Dawn then remarked, “Well, Niphru isn’t pletely better, but he is far better than before, and I even hear him speak through our bond again! I assume you are Kisu? Thank you all very much for helping us when we were here st time. I was too worried to notice I was impolite then, my name is Dawn, and this is Niphru.”

  “I am gd to hear that, and yes, I am Kisu. I’m sure we would all have been simir if a friend of ours were to be hurt to that degree,” the woman replied with a slight smile and nod of her head.

  Meanwhile, the young man crouched down, looking at Niphru from a closer perspective, remarking, “How odd, having two different colored eyes. Anyways, it is a pleasure to meet you properly this time, Dawn, Niphru. Would you mind staying for a while and sharing your story? Surely it was an iing series of events for the two of you to have met.”

  As Niphru wandered back to Dawn, she stated, “I don’t mind at all, but Niphru was w earlier if he could get a little more help rec. He used to be able to form a fire or illusion at will, which let him talk to other people directly.”

  While she spoke, Niphru mentiohrough their bond, “I think I tell how much I need, it feels like I almost reach it, but not quite. Less than a sixth of the st time I think?”

  Nodding to him, Dawn reyed his words, smiling as the two agreed. walked off to get Farsan to rejoin them, and Kisu led them back to the room they had used before.

  In short order, they had begun the process of transferring small portions of their souls’ power, much more slowly than their previous effort. Just a few moments ter, a blue fme feebly flickered ience around Niphru’s tail, before it quickly vanished.

  While the others were worried at this event, Dawn simply smiled widely before the air seemed to shimmer for a moment. From the distortion in the air, Niphru spoke, “Thank you so very mubsp; This is enough for me, I feel that I ’t do much of what I could before, but all I care about is being able to speak again. You have no idea hh it is not being able to talk once you’ve learned how!”

  Farsan nodded and began to up as Kisu and finished and sat down beside Dawn. Following their discussion earlier, Niphru began speaking of his time in the wilderness, and how he had suddenly begun to think more clearly, the eventual hunting party, and his trickery, which resulted in them giving up on their hunt.

  tinuing on, Dawn spoke about how she had entered Niphru outside the vilge aually earned his trust, leading up to Morris visiting and sg him off. From there, she shuddered for a moment before reting her enter with the giant snake and how Niphru found and saved her, ending with a smile as she mentioned how she had mao take him to their vilge.

  Niphru took over from there, speaking of how he had been ered, awakened his foxfire before fleeing, and then his time ba the wilds. He then spoke of his proper wele to the vilge, letting Dawn take over to speak of the time until the warriors from the Church of flict arrived.

  From here, he spoke of how he had returo the wilds for a time, before he noticed the swarm of mutated ants and rushed back to inform the vilge, regardless of the risk to himself. Once again, Dawn took over, speaking of how the warriors eventually agreed to work together and ignore him being Awakened for the time, then the preparations for the defetle.

  Slowly, Niphru began speaking again, talking about the events of the battle, leading to how he felt as he saw Dawn fall into the ants, and the frantic effort that crippled him but saved her. From there, her of them could really recall much for a while, then Dawn began speaking of their trip to the capital and the ued events along the way. When she fialking about how she had joihe spire nearby, the two looked quite surprised.

  A few moments ter, they collected themselves, the man staying silent, though appearing impressed, as the woman remarked, “That is a rather remarkable story ihank you for sharing it with us. I am sorry to hear you had to gh all that, but at least it appears things are improving for both of you now. Unfortunately, we should get back to our duties, but feel free to visit again iure, both of you.”

  Tired, and rather emotional after remembering and reting the events of the past, Dawn hugged Niphru before saying, “We should go bae a some rest, I think. Do you mind waiting until tomorrow to go explore?”

  Hearing him reply that he was okay with that, Dawn smiled ahe way bato the spire and to their dwelling, settling in to rest for the day.