Niphru awoke the next morning, still tired from yesterday’s work. While it didn’t sound like much, keeping a fire going for that long took a lot of energy, even if he could use his foxfire to help. Remembering that they were supposed to meet up with Lisryn to practice working together, he felt even worse. Instead of being able to rest, he’d have to spend even more time using magic…
Actually, on that thought, there was the mention of the sewers being too full yesterday, so maybe not? That idea improved his mood once again, and he slowly stood up and left the bed, seeing that Dawn had already awoken as well.
In the central room, he found her sitting in one of the chairs, relaxing with what appeared to be a fantasy book. As he approached, she looked up and remarked, “You’ve been asleep for quite a while. I take it you didn’t try to pace yourself yesterday?”
In response, he shook his head and replied, “I completely forgot and just did the best I could until I was exhausted. I really should have, though.”
Dawn nodded as she beckoned for him to join her while putting her book down. Niphru happily jumped up onto her lap and relaxed as she began petting him, speaking again, “You are lucky; I ran into Morris while I was getting more food earlier. Apparently, the sewers are too heavily flooded for us to go there for several days, so we can rest until our trip to the wilderness. Unfortunately, that means we won’t be able to practice with Lisryn before we leave.”
Hearing this, his tail began to thrash about as he welcomed the news that he could just rest. Before he could get too comfortable, however, Dawn continued, “That said, we should still meet up and at least discuss things in the time we have. This way, we won’t be totally unprepared to work together. And your input is important for that, since you know best what we might encounter, after all.”
Feeling down for a moment, he shook his head and reminded himself that discussing things didn’t take much energy. While he did still have to use magic to speak, it was mostly natural by now. Furthermore, even if he didn’t understand how, it didn’t seem to take any significant focus, nor did it appear to use any mana. With this in mind, he responded, “I guess that isn’t too bad. Did you have breakfast already?”
Dawn smiled and stated, “I had a little bit to eat, but I can have some more with you. Any requests for food?”
After jumping off her lap, Niphru shook his head and replied, “Maybe something with meat? I can’t think of anything specific I want.”
Nodding, she headed into the kitchen and began rummaging through the cupboards, pulling out various tools. “How about sausage and eggs?” she inquired.
Hearing her idea set his tail wagging again while he exclaimed, “That sounds perfect! Maybe scrambled eggs? I can do that easily enough now.”
Dawn set down two skillets and headed to the enchanted cabinet the food was stored in. As she pulled out the sausage, Niphru spun up some force magic and grabbed some eggs. Dawn remarked, “Certainly, and thank you for grabbing the eggs, I always worry I might drop them.”
A short while later, after finishing their meal, the two headed out, finding most of the group already gathered nearby. After being waved to come join them, they joined the discussion, finding that the others had come to the same conclusion they had. Currently, there wasn’t much to discuss, as Lisryn was not present, but they could at least come up with some ideas.
Considering that the leader of the Church of Conflict had a fair amount of talent with most of the common forms of magic, she could fit into most roles. Her specialization in air magic meant she would always have a medium to work with, avoiding the problem that earth and water mages occasionally had.
Sometime later, around noon, Lisryn finally arrived, apologizing for being so late. According to her, she had several important things to do for the Church of Conflict before she was free to leave. After hearing that they weren’t going to do a trial run through the sewers, she heaved a sigh of relief, knowing she hadn’t delayed them.
After hearing of their ideas, she responded, “I can fit in with a lot of different places in the group, as you thought, but I suppose we will have to adapt on the fly. Fortunately, before this began, I was a simple guard back at my village, so I have plenty of experience working in a team. It should be relatively easy for me to fit into a supporting role.”
With this, the others in the group nodded and began describing their own roles. Due to already knowing, Niphru didn’t pay much attention until it was his turn, at which point he stated, “I know about the wilds a fair bit since I lived in them until moving in with Dawn. After that, I regularly explored the wilderness to help the village. So I will be sharing what we are likely to run into, as well as acting as a scout.”
Following this statement, Lisryn nodded and remarked, “That is good; I never really left the village much, so I only know what attacked us and how we dealt with it.”
Niphru nodded in response and resumed speaking, “For combat, I focus on fire, fire, fire, and more fire. It is by far what I am best at, especially considering that I have these flames I can control in addition to casting magic through them. I haven’t had much time to try using my force magic for anything but utility around here. I can, however, use my flames to heal, as well as use healing magic, so if there are injuries, I can help there after combat.”
Turning to Dawn, he nodded and sent a quick request to her, leading her to speak up, “We also have a strong bond, and can share senses, though it is a bit disorienting still, and can talk to each other without speaking. Similar to him, I focus mostly on fire magic, and can heal as well. I am also improving in other forms of magic, though still not as good as the others here. I am fairly skilled with light magic as well, but that isn’t as useful for combat as fire is.”
Lisryn nodded at this before describing, “With my air magic, I might be able to work on disrupting any ranged attacks, though it isn’t the strongest at attacking. I can also dampen the sound we make and prevent our scent from traveling, which should help, I hope. And as you might have guessed, I will have a guardian who can step in if things get too bad. Technically, two.”
At the questioning look the others gave her, she explained, “We already discussed it a bit; they can’t protect me all the time individually, so two is the least they are comfortable sending. And after some discussion, we agreed that they will step in if it looks like anyone might die, but will otherwise not interfere during combat. They can heal afterward as well, but will prefer to allow the group to handle itself.”
Satisfied with this explanation, the group moved on to discussing various situations that may come up, as well as how they would likely react. A few hours later, after agreeing to meet again tomorrow, they split up again to handle other tasks for the day.
I don't understand why this chapter is called Failed Trial? If it's referring to the sewers, then it should be Canceled Trial, as said trial never took place, and thus no one could have failed it.
It was indeed referring to the sewers. The trip failed to happen was my thinking. I suppose either could work depending on how you look at it.