Kendra rested in bed for a day and a half after reawakening. She was still very weak physically and took some time to eat. Aria and her master watched over her during this time until she was able to walk around a little bit at a time.

“How are you feeling today,” asked Aria. It was mid-morning and Kendra had just woken from her first full night of rest in a while.

“My head still hurts a lot. I can feel my body still in a state of change. It has been working on taking in this new energy while weakened from the hypothermia and other things. I’m not sure when I will be back to a state of normal.”

“It is okay not to. Gaining an affinity is rare and the way you got one was exceptionally so. You can take the time you need to adapt. Don’t worry about it,” said Aria.

“But what happened to the others. If we are back here then I assume that everything went okay. How are the others? How long was I in a deep freeze from the magic?”

“You’ve been in the coma for four almost five weeks now. I brought you back here immediately after I got off the boat. The others are okay from what I could tell, but so much has changed. I had to leave to take care of you and Arthur has left us now. After you fell unconscious Arthur fell to the dragon’s power and the others were injured while I tried to break you free from the ice. Zoe brought in a second golem to finish the fight we started. At this point, Arthur in his broken state was using what magic he could to unthaw you and heal you while the other golem fought. It is smaller than Arthur but much more powerful and faster. It seldom got hit and continued to attack the dragon’s injured points until the thing died. Now that thing was much more of a golem than Arthur ever was. What sentience it might have doesn’t exist. It just listens to commands and has no free will. As soon as it finished off the dragon it froze up and just waited there. Then something changed within Arthur after seeing the other golem. I suspect it had something to do with the fact that Arthur recognized the other as a dungeon. He spoke with Zoe as she came up to the battlefield. She didn’t try to stop him. Like she knew what she had done was wrong but wouldn’t admit it. Zoe just let him leave. By that point, I didn’t really care because we had to rush you and Ronny who also was injured back.”

“So, what is going to happen to Arthur? Are we just going to let him wander the wild areas of the dwarf territory? Are the dwarf’s going to do anything?”

“That is something I don’t know and wasn’t discussed. I assume that as long as Arthur doesn’t cause them any trouble the gnomes and our people in charge will avoid him. As long as the new and improved golem does the job it needs to then they won’t worry about it. The dwarf’s on the other hand might be angry with us about leaving Arthur with them. It all depends on how violent he decided to be and whether they can track him down.”

“Do you think he will be violent?”

“I think he is angry at Zoe first and foremost and maybe Ethan for lying to him actively. If he is confronted with dwarves looking to track him down then he will likely stop them in any way he can.”

Kendra spent the next few days recovering. During the day Aria went out to the mountains again and hunted for food. The news came back from the adventurer’s guild the day after Kendra woke that the two drakes had been found and were dead. Nothing was found about their cause of death that was cause for suspicion. For a few days after though the hunter’s numbers grew in the mountains and what was left of the bodies of the drakes was taken to the city. While some of the drake’s parts had been eaten by other animals and scavengers many useful parts were still on the carcass to be worth salvaging.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As Kendra ate more and moved around her energy grew and her thinning body stopped shrinking. She started helping Aria’s master around her shop and when the few guests that came did arrive she assisted in greeting them and showing them around.

Four days after she awoke she went out with Aria around the markets to shop. Today they were looking for more magical implements that could assist Kendra’s adaption with her dual fire and ice magic. Aria had already started collecting some of the basic spell books that Kendra would require. Kendra had already tried experimenting with creating ice as she would her fire. It came to her relatively quickly, but it was still painful for her because she had not completely adapted to it. There was one thing that did come from the tests though. The ice magic within her could be considered unique. Due to the way she gained the ice magic abilities the ice mana took on aspects from the ice dragon’s mana. Due to her struggle, her power grew greatly. The ice magic was colder and fiercer than regular ice magic. That in turn caused it to be harder to control though.

“What about this charm?” asked Kendra to Aria. She pointed to a bracelet charm behind glass in a market stall. They had passed a few of these on their way through the stalls.

“Mister. Can we have a closer look at that one? Can you tell me more about it?” asked Aria.

The worker nodded at them and opened up the case from his side and brought it out for them to look at. Aria and Kendra got closer.

“This is one of our newer pieces from one of my good friends. It is a wonderful-looking piece of jewelry and comes engraved and runed with a few standard but great enchantments. The ones on this piece are increased focus and clarity, reduced mana usage, and a storage device for mana of water and ice. Does this sound like the item you want to buy today?”

“What do you think?” asked Kendra to Aria, “I like it but if you think something else would suit me then I will get something else.”

“I think it will go nicely with an upgraded stave. Tell me what the price of this item is?”

After some haggling, the two of them left the merchant’s stall and went on towards their next stop. Due to Kendra’s new affinity, her fire stave would not be as efficient a weapon as Kendra wanted. Thus, they began stopping in at magic blacksmith shops looking for someone who could modify her stave.

They began searching a few shops but not many had the magic materials specialty to make the modifications. After a few more shops they were recommended to a higher-end shop that could do what they requested. The two of them shuffled into the shop. The smith was at the front of the shop ironing out ships in an older blade with a grinder.

“Hello, sir. We came on the recommendation of others for a custom project that you might help us with,” said Kendra.

He stopped what he was doing and set the sword down. He stood up and moved to the other wall where he activated the sinks and began cleaning himself up.

“What are looking to have made or done?” he asked.

“I need modifications done on this stave.” She presented it to him, and he looked it over. “I have a dual affinity so I now need a weapon that can support both of them.”

“This is very good dwarven weaponry. I would rather not change it. I would rather buy this from you and get you something new.”

“If that would change the price then maybe we could do that. That assumes that you can provide something of similar quality,” said Aria.

“I can’t say it will be the same as a dwarven weapon, but if you are looking for magical equipment I am one of the best. The price will be a little lower of course. What is the second affinity that you need to have on the stave?” he asked.

“Fire and Ice,” responded Kendra.

“That will be a tricky one, but I will order the materials I need that I don’t have here and make you that new stave in about a week.”

“That is agreeable. What is the price for it?” asked Aria.

Kendra and Aria left the shop a few minutes later with much less gold than before. It had put a dent in the gold that they had received for killing the dragon. After leaving the blacksmith’s shop they returned to their home. Kendra went back to working on her ice magic and reading up on the basic magic manuals. In between reading she also worked on exercising and stretching to stave off the pains of her transformation. Over time it would fade but during this initial period, it would be painful for her. Aria occasionally made up some headache and muscle pain salves, but they only helped so much. When Aria wasn’t helping Kendra out she did her own reviews of mind magic and illusions often with the help of her master.