“Okay, Lily, we should go over your abilities so I can think of new plans for next time we go to the dungeon.”

  Lounging in the hot spring bath they had spent time in last Weyami, Anika finally had the brain power to think about the past week and their future. She pulled up her own character sheet to review her new abilities upon reaching level 10.

  Her new ability to create water and light made it much easier for her to use her manipulation abilities. She hadn’t spent much time worrying about her light manipulation, but now she would have to practice more. Ray of Light allowed her to confuse monsters, which she felt would come in very handy. Control spells always helped when things went wrong in a fight. Water spray worked similar to Philip’s Dirt Discs, just with streams of water rather than earthen frisbees. She could attack at range using the spell, or just create water and attack with her big orbs like she had on the zanide’s next to the lake. Anika could finally feel more useful in a fight, not being limited to close range, low damage abilities, and she felt much more motivation to practice now.

  After killing over 100 of the zanide lizards on Degomi, Anika had insisted they go back to the dungeon yesterday rather than spend time on the obstacle course. She’d expected more resistance from Leka, but she had agreed quickly, even getting Vok’s permission for Anika to skip archery practice so they could spend the full day in the dungeon. With level 10 granting her the ability to Create Water from nothing, Anika assumed Leka was equally eager for Anika to gain the skill and begin practicing.

  They’d managed to find and kill two Packmothers, clearing out all the wolves in the dungeon, and then looping back down to the far end of the river to kill some higher level zanide. Anika had become increasingly skilled at crushing the six-legged lizards with her water attacks throughout their battles over the past two days. Now that she had the ability to create water, she not only had an actual ranged attack spell to cast, but she could also pummel monsters with her water attacks regardless of their proximity to a body of water. Now she could start putting points into Potency and feel like they actually had an impact.

  Lily performed a quick roll in the hot water before climbing up onto the stone edge of the pool so they could talk, shaking herself briefly before turning her attention to Anika.

  “I got a new spell to keep me safer! I can make a shield! It decreases the damage I take. With my scarf and my shield I won’t be as afraid in the dungeon!”

  “That’s awesome! I know you want to do more in the dungeon and against smaller monsters you can be a lot safer. I don’t know if the shield will protect you much against some of the big ones, like the Packmother.” Anika felt relief at knowing Lily had gained another protection ability. Her tiny form could get easily trampled, chomped, swallowed, or all manner of trauma from some of the large creatures they had battled and Anika worried for her safety.

  “I don’t want to go anywhere near the Packmother! She was big and scary. But she was not so scary when she couldn’t see! She can’t bite me if she can’t find me.”

  Anika laughed and reached over to give Lily a scratch on the head. “True, after killing two more of those yesterday, I think we’ve just about mastered the best way to kill them. Blinding monsters and letting Philip stab them to death for the win!”

  “I am better with the sand now, but I still can’t do as much as Philip since he has Earth magic. But level 10 gives me more control and lets me create new things too!” Lily flopped onto her belly, stretching out and relaxing into Anika’s scritches.

  Anika took the hint and continued petting the adorable pile of melted capybara beside her. “So did you get any other spells or just the shield?”

  “Oh! Yes! It says I can make a better capybara pet! It will be like me and be bonded to you too!”

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  “Is this an improvement on your polymorph? That seems pretty powerful.” Anika pondered the implications of having better capybara minions than they already had.

  “Noooo, those are the same but I can do six of them now that I am level 10! This is a new spell! It says it is permanent!” Lily rolled over onto her back, encouraging Anika to massage under her chin and rub her belly.

  “Wait, you can make a permanent capybara? Another you? And it says it will be bonded to me too? Like you are Anima bonded to me? I think you better read me the whole spell description, because that seems way overpowered.” Anika scooted over to the side of the pool, swapping hands to continue petting Lily.

  “Yup! It says I pick something my level or lower and it makes it a clone and it says it ‘retains some features’ like its magic affinity. And then it has all my boons and bonds and bonds to me too! And then it says it is permanent and I get to make another one later!”

  Anika shook her head, processing the spell description as relayed through Lily. She wished the capybara could follow instructions slightly better, but that might get better as she got older. That said, being able to make some kind of weird capybara hybrid as a ‘clone’ had some potential.

  “I wonder what features it will retain… Will it be mostly capybara or mostly whatever monster you pick?” Having a larger creature with them could be really helpful in the dungeons and offer some protections for Lily. On the other hand, if the new creature bonded to Anika as well, a larger creature would need to stay out with Epona in the stables. Maybe a smaller monster would be better? But that wouldn’t be very useful unless they had magic like Lily did, and most of the monsters in the area didn’t have a lot of magic. Would it get some of Lily’s magical abilities? Would it gain additional abilities as part of the transformation? Anika had so many questions that she knew would not get answered until they actually used the spell.

  “I hope it is another capybara like me!” Lily jumped up from where she had been lounging under Anika’s scritches and jumped excitedly. “Then I can have a friend to play with all the time like I played with Philip and the capybaras in the dungeon when we killed the zanide for the first time! And I hope it can talk like me too! Those capybaras were boring and I want a friend to talk to.”

  “Hey, I thought I was your friend to talk to?” Anika managed to fake sounding affronted, though she felt amused by the desires of her companion.

  Lily immediately rushed over to Anika to head butt her with her adorable capybara nose. “Yes! You are my best friend! But I want more friends! Don’t be mad at me!” Lily’s voice strained and rushed more than usual as she tried to mollify Anika.

  Anika laughed, “Don’t worry, I’m not mad at you. You can have as many friends as you want. You know you don’t have to stay with me all the time - you could go off on your own around the temple and find other friends to play with. And this week you can go down to the village if you want. I’m sure Philip wants to go again too.” Inwardly, Anika shuddered at the chaos the two of them would reap upon the village again, but if she could convince Epona or Leka to supervise the pair, she could spend some time focused on her magic this week.

  “Ooo! Yes I want to go play with Philip in the village again! That was fun last week! I will have so much fun!” Lily excitedly dove into the water, no longer able to contain herself when water bubbled tantalizingly right next to her. She executed a few excited rolls and somersaults in the water.

  Anika splashed playfully at Lily, “You’re silly. Of course you can do all that. Meanwhile, I will try to think of a good creature to use your new spell on. We need to pick something that will help us in the long run, so…would it be okay if I pick the creature? But I’ll try my best to also pick something fun for you to play with.”

  “Oh! Yes! You’re the best!” Lily managed to say as she came up for air before enthusiastically zooming around the pool.

  Anika rolled her eyes at Lily’s antics and attention span and returned to pondering the implication of this new ability. If they lost Philip to go level with Panu, they would benefit from some kind of large, tanky creature. Of course, losing Epona and her combination of Air magic and blunt force trauma also impacted their ability to damage monsters significantly. Both Epona and Philip functioned as front line fighters, so finding a creature that could take damage and survive had to be a priority.

  Maybe one of the zanide? They had strong resistance to piercing and slashing attacks, and a lot of the monsters attacked with claws and teeth. Of course, anything large enough to bite would also potentially inflict blunt damage, a significant weakness of the zanide. Wolves could make a good front line fighter, but they didn’t have any resistance to other animal attacks.

  She’d read about quite a few other monsters in the dungeons they had visited so far, but they hadn’t fought deep enough in the dungeon to reach them. The first dungeon with the squirrels and lidoks also had monsters like birds, bears, and a critter that sounded suspiciously similar to the rabbit of Caerbannog from Monty Python. She’d rather avoid that one.

  Tonight she’d have to go back to the library and check the books again to determine the best creature. They only had the two dungeons to pick from, as most of the other dungeons in the area didn’t have mobs level 10 and below. While they could wait until Lily leveled again, it seemed prudent to add her new creature to their arsenal as quickly as possible. Everything contributed to killing more monsters faster so they could level quickly. Despite all the time they had spent and the hundreds of monsters they had killed, Philip hadn’t gained another level in all their time together. That meant they needed every trick they could get to level fast enough to be useful and, if they were lucky, catch up to the others.

  —----

  Morigan sat in the armchair that had become practically part of her in the 15 days since arriving on this wretched planet. She leaned against one arm rest, ruminating on her kidnapping. Every day they sent Aether mages to talk to her. She didn’t need them messing with her emotions! She had every right to be angry! She had a home, a family, and servants to take care of her every whim!

  But a tiny part of her felt… something. Something… different Something that wasn’t anger. Sadness? She definitely felt that. But the sadness felt like more than just being away from home, stolen away to a new land. She had never experienced this kind of sadness before. She couldn’t quite place it.

  She didn’t want to waste away in this tiny room, trapped in this only passably comfortable chair with whatever food they left by her door. She didn’t let them come into her space. She didn’t have a choice in coming here but she had a choice in who entered her space! If they wanted to talk to her they could wait at the door. A Princess didn’t move on command! Except her father’s command.

  She cringed thinking about her father. She had to admit, he would likely express significant irritation at her continued refusal to leave the room. She’d only attended that stupid meeting a few days ago in order to express her rage to that horrible Nilendi. She had just wasted her time. Nilendi didn’t care.

  She’d even ignored the messages when the supposed god of Air had messaged her. They said the gods had chosen them, so it was his fault that the ritual brought Morigan here. Maybe she should have raged at him instead. Would that have gotten her a different answer than the terrible priests gave her?

  If they had taken Brigid, she wouldn’t scream and pout in her room. She would charge into the adventure. That terrible tiny part of her whispered insidiously in her mind, causing her to fly into a rage again, and she thrust herself up from the chair, angrily pacing around the room. Brigid! Perfect Brigid! Planets away and she still couldn’t escape the incessant inferiority complex brought on by the smallest thought of her perfect sister. The crown jewel of the family. The next in line for the throne.

  Morigan thrust her hand out and wind whipped by her, smashing into the wall. The sudden gale caused her breakfast tray to clatter loudly to the ground from where it sat on the small table near the arm chair. She ruthlessly directed her winds at the platter, warping and denting the metal tray as she brought the full wrath of her Air down on it. In her mind, the faces of Nilendi and Brigid reflected on the battered platter’s surface.