Shard

  Dawn awoke to Niphru nudging her with his nose, only then realizing she hadn’t bothered to set the arm st night. A quick check showed it should be somewhat early, though she preferred to get up sooner. Due to this, she set the arm for a bit earlier tomorrow before she could fet again and proceeded to get out of bed.

  Siniphru woke her up, she asked if he was hungry, and, at his nod, brought him into the kit. Fortunately, when she opehe pantry she spotted some dry food, and was able to make some pe. Havien their meal, Dawn decided it was well past time to get ed up, as she was still pretty grimey from her travel, and Niphru still had some blood matting his fur.

  Unfortunately, she had fotten to ask where the bathtub was yesterday, and she didn’t see any other doors besides the ones Morris expined already. After poking around for a while, she didn’t find any clear signs of it, so she simply went out and used the shower outside, finding it a nice ge that it didn’t need manual filling, instead drawing water from somewhere wheurhe knobs. After a bit of fiddling around, she found a fortable temperature and was able to scrub both of them .

  Oddly, the water flowed much more slowly than normal showers, and after a moment seemed almost gooey, stig to itself far more than normal. This did make it a bit easier to , but the reason for this was much more obvious when she finished, finding that she didn’t have a towel due to her haste. Instead of having to find one while drippihe water slowly slid off as a few rge masses, ponderously draining away. Fortunately, when it lost tact with the draiher direct or i, it started ag like proper water, so she could wring her hair out for the most part.

  Since she remembered notig some towels in the bedroom, for some reason, and due to Morris saying this area was empty, she just left the door open and rushed back with a towel. Thanks to the water draining how it did, she found she was leaving far less of a mess than she had inally feared.

  Eventually, she had both Niphru and her hair mostly dry. She suddenly stopped in shock, however, due to having no clothing. She had been in a rush, sure, but her clothes were in her cart… Which she had left at the gate in the fusioerday! After a moment, she shook her head, doubly gd that no one else was around.

  Heading bato the main utility area, she tossed the towel into the drying bin before beginning to scrub her clothes in the nearby basin. Adding them to the bin, she did a pointless double-check, then closed it. Momentarily it began humming and she felt a small breeze ing from it. Intrigued by the process, she decided to stay and try to figure it out. Under a mier, it popped open after an intense sug sound from behind it, though she hadn’t the slightest clue how it worked. Gd to have her clothes dry so quickly, Dawn immediately got dressed auro her living area.

  As she entered, she switched the door to restricted mode, then folded aurhe towel. Unfortunately, she had nothing to do, as she had no books to fill the shelves, so she sat at the table with Niphru, petting him as she pyed around with a few small balls of fire with her other hand.

  Some time ter, she heard a chime from the door before Morris entered. “Ah, getting some practi? Always a good idea, in my opinion. Sorry about taking so long to get here, there was a bit of an issue with an apprentice,” he remarked.

  “Morris, I fot my cart yesterday, we see if it is still there before we go?” queried Dawn in a rush as she dispersed her fmes.

  With a slight chuckle, he replied, “That won’t be necessary, I figured something like that might happen, so I had someoo pick it up yesterday, they were just waiting for the ruckus to stop, which is why you didn’t see them. If you are willing, I give temporary access for them to open your door so they bring your things while we are out.”

  Dawn sighed in relief, as everything except her staff and what she was wearing were still there. For the same reason, she did not worry too much about ating into her quarters, and gave her approval. In response, Morris produced a small crystalline disk from his robe and held it to the door for a moment before returning it to a pocket.

  “Oh, also, I had fotten to ask about the bath you mentioned, and I couldn’t find it when I got up,” Dawn said.

  “Oh, that is quite amusing. You see, you were actually oh, odd as it may sound. You lift the base of the bed to fold it up, and the bathtub is below it, you just have to fold up the cover, which also serves to prevent spshes from reag the carpet,” he stated before querying, “Should we get going to see if we figure out what is wrong with Niphru?”

  Dawn quickly nodded and scooped Niphru up into a quick hug before turning to follow Morris back out of the spire. Along the way, he handed off the crystal disk to ane with a nod. Outside, there were still two lines of people cyg through to be drained, but she focused more on the surroundings. The grassy wn was crossed by several smaller paths, and there were clear seams in some pces. Additionally, there were half a dozen recessed tuhat she could see, each with someoanding a fair distance away and watg it.

  Fortunately, as they left, it appeared there were nowhere near as many people yesterday, though it was still quite unnerving for her, even if it wasn’t quite panidug. After aful walk, they came upon an expanse of greenery with a path leading into the side of a hill. “This,” Morris procimed, “is the Temple of The Green. They are not the most popur with those in power, but they do their best to help everyohey , uhe Church of flict—or as the elders call them, the Crimson Way.”

  Seeing Dawn’s questioning expression, he tinued, “Uhe Church of flict, these people are not unified in their path, following multiple differeies rather than sharing one. They call the overall colle ‘The Green’ as most of them are reted to life and nature. Hopefully they help Niphru.”

  They proceeded along the path, Dawn looking around at the flora as they passed. Ohey ehe hill, it opened up into a more cssic building, indig that the mound was artificial, likely to allow pnts to more easily grow over the structure, she assumed. As they tinued inside, a young man in a grey robe approached them, at least until he notiiphru.

  As the man shouted, pulled out a knife, and backed away, the otion he made attracted the attention of an entleman. Uedly, this man simply waved at the younger fellow, sending him sprawling across the floor, revealing himself as ane. He snorted in annoya the man he had toppled, and then turard Niphru with a curious gaze.

  “This is certainly not a on sight here. urpose do you have fing a fox here? An oddly docile one, for that matter,” he spoke as he calmly approached them.

  “He is an Awakened, actually, and the first known naturally- one acc to Morris. Unfortunately he was crippled when he saved my life. Our healer at the vilge said he thought it might be a spiritual issue; do you think you could help Niphru?” Dawn responded, looking down at Niphru with a smile as she scratched behind his ears.

  The man nodded, and began to examine Niphru as he reached them. “Hmm… Quite odd, I must say. He should be dead, I’ve never seen anything living that doesn’t have a soul,” he remarked, rubbing his , not notig the look of horror on Dawn’s face as he leaned in closer.

  A moment ter, just as Dawn opened her mouth, he excimed, “Oh, wait a moment, that is an idea!” and rushed out of the room.

  Dehe ce to question the man, she iuro Morris, asking with a weak voice, “He does have a soul still, right? He is alive, and I’m not crazy, right?”

  Morris shrugged and gave her an apologetic look, stating, “Well, I don’t know much about souls, but he certainly seems alive to me. Let us go and see what he got so excited about.”

  Mutely, Dawn nodded and followed Morris as he led her through a few halls until they reached what looked like a bunker, a massive metal door hanging open before them. Though Dawn was mystified by the level of security, Morris seemed to accept it as normal, tinuing through into what was revealed to be a small library. Off to the side, they spotted the gentleman rapidly flipping through a book and muttering to himself.

  Not wanting to disturb him too much, the two of them sat down at the table in the middle of the room, versing with hushed voices. Morris expined, “Libraries like this one are… exceptionally disced, to put it nicely, by the Church of flibsp; The tents of these books are some of the secrets I mentioned before. This is not our world, nor were we taken from our world. But knowledge remains, to a degree. We have lost a great deal, but we have also gained quite a bit.”

  Quickly pig up on the idea, Dawn asked, “Is that why Monti said there were tiny things that could si and kill? I’ve heard of ways to see smaller things, but never heard of anyone seeing whatever those are.”

  Hearing this question, Morris smiled and nodded before replying, “Indeed, acc to the first Archmage’s journal, there used to be people with incredible knowledge of how living things worked, to the point they could even use ko heal people, even without magibsp; Unfortunately, evehat was a lost art, but there were less skilled individuals who recorded what they knew or thought they remembered. The things iion are referred to as ‘germs’ in the books, and apparently they are everywhere, in tless different forms. Supposedly, we ’t even survive without some of them, experiments have shown this is at least likely, and are the reason healers are required to be so careful with sanitizing things. Too much is bad, too little is bad, some areas are bad, I don’t uand it myself, but I’ve heard people recite ‘Wash wounds, sterilize sutures, cs, igernals’ several times.”

  As he eaking, the man seemed to find what he was looking for. After a moment of reading, he joihem, asking Dawn, “Are there any special items you know of that might be ected to Niphru? I was right, there was a legend of fox spirits that had their power bound to objects they had to keep safe.”

  Immediately, Dawn thought of the mana stohat Niphru had been carrying around, and she removed it from the pouch she had been keeping it in, showing it to the man. Almost instantly, the man perked up, exg, “How iing! This has faint traces of a soul, and now that I’m looking for it, I sense a e to him too! Hmm… I think I have the perfect idea for a test. Mister Senseless o be punished f to attack a guest, so we try to siphon a small amount of strength from his soul into this and see if that helps.”

  While she wanted Niphru to recover, Dawn was unfortable about the idea of messing with someone’s soul, and inquired if that would harm the man. Hearing the reply that it would just temporarily weaken and exhaust the man, she cautiously approved the idea, and he quickly led them to another room.

  After getting them settled, with Niphru’s magic stoting inside a fog array, the older man requested they wait a few moments aed. Meanwhile, Dawn had an idea due to being told Niphru had no soul, but had a lio an object that did. She had formed a link with him before he created the stone, and was uo reform it after, but perhaps she had been doing it wrong?

  Following through with this train of thought, Dawn attempted to reform the bond, not with Niphru, but with the stone instead. Immediately, she felt a feeble respohough she could barely maintain the e. At the same time, Niphru’s tail twitched, and she could feel faint echoes of happihrough the tenuous link.

  She did have to admit that she felt kind of stupid for hinking of the idea before, but it retty unusual, after all. Wanting to avoid repeating herself, she waited for the other man to return before saying anything, instead hugging Niphru and hoping this would help.

  A few moments ter, the man who had pulled a knife on them earlier was dragged in by another young man and woman following the entleman. After releasing him, they stayed he door as the mage grabbed the man he had called ‘Mister Senseless’ and closed his eyes in tration. Seds ter, the man colpsed bonelessly to the ground, unscious.

  “What a fool… Fighting just makes it worse, I suppose he will need more than just a week or so to recover. Let us see if this works now,” the older fellow muttered before fog on Niphru’s mana stone.

  After several seds, Daw Niphru shift in her arms and gasped in happy shobsp; She was disappoihat he only moved once, and started questioning herself whewo others stepped forward and volunteered to share their strength in exge for her visiting again aing them meet Niphru iure. With such easy ditions, Dawn immediately accepted, and bowed to them in thanks.

  Repeating the process from before, both of them were siphoned as well, sagging as they o Dawn before staggering out of the room. Oher hand, Niphru perked up signifitly, and even properly wagged his tail as his legs twitched! Overe with happiness, Dawn broke down g as she hugged him tightly.

  A moment ter, she realized the boween them was stable again, though it was still signifitly weaker than before. Looking up, she saw the man smiling at the two of them. Seeing her no longer focused on Niphru, he excimed, “I am gd it worked, I wasn’t certain at first. I tell he isn’t fully recovered, s him ba the future please. And make sure to thank the youngsters who helped, they willingly gave up three times what this waste did,” nudging the colpsed man with his foot before bending over to lift him up and leaving the room.