When I wake up I find a sleeping Lin snuggled in between Nala and I, but at least she is dressed. However, I have no idea how she managed to get there without waking me up. I don't fully trust her yet, so I should have woken up as soon as she moved near me.

At least I don't think I trust her that much, but maybe that has changed. Now that we are on the ship, she doesn't really have much choice but to stay with me. Besides, some of the things she said yesterday still have me somewhat confused.

Just as I am about to get up, I realize there is an extra weight on top of my head. I look around without moving and quickly spot that the baby phoenix isn't in the fire. Probably because the coals have all burnt away, I will have to ask the elves to bring more.

The egg is still there, but the lack of fire shouldn't cause any problems for it. With as much as I have been feeding it, it should start to show signs of hatching soon. When I slowly raise my head I hear a soft chirp and then the baby phoenix leans over to look me in the eye.

I carefully reach up and gently pet it, but as I move I end up waking up the others. Since everyone is awake anyway I stop trying to be quiet and just get up. I ask one of the guards outside to fetch more coal from the crafters and once it arrives I restart the fire.

After I feed it some magical fire the baby phoenix returns to the fire and goes to sleep. It is sleeping a lot, but I am not too worried, it was starved by the humans for who knows how long. As a baby it needs lots of food and sleep, but it should be able to recover.

After all, it is the legendary phoenix, it should be able to recover from anything. I need to figure out if it is going to let me adopt it, if so I need to give it a name. I should also figure out its gender, but I don't know how to tell a bird's gender.

"Lin, do you know how to tell what the phoenix's gender is?"

Lin says "As far as the legends say, all the phoenix are female."

"Really? Then how do they reproduce?"

Lin says "According to the legend, they don't. There are as many now as there were at the beginning."

"Then how is this one a baby?"

Lin says "It must have been reborn right before it was captured."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense. So how come you were sleeping instead of meditating?"

Lin says "I achieved what you told me to and didn't know what to do next. Besides, I couldn't resist such a fuzzy and comfortable bed!"

"So, you managed to see your mana pool? How did it look to you?"

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Lin says "Yes, I did. Several times. It looks kind of chaotic, with different mana types spread out."

"That's right. Did you also see all the black flecks floating around?"

Lin says "Yes, why?"

"Here, take my hand. I am going to show you my mana pool."

As I hold out my paw Lin places both her hands on it and starts rubbing my fur. Ignoring that, I enter my meditation room and then pull Lin's consciousness inside. Then I lead her mind into my body to take a look at my mana pool before returning her to her own body.

Lin says "It is all pure mana, no elements at all! How did you do that?"

"By filtering my mana and converting all the elemental mana into pure mana. I will teach you how to do that later. First you need to remove all the black flecks. Those are impurities that have built up, probably due to the spells you have used."

Lin says "So my goal is to have a mana pool like yours?"

"Yes. The way I manipulate mana only works on pure mana. Before we can see if you can learn my ways of casting spells, you need to purify your mana."

Lin says "Alright. Let's get started!"

I spend the next half hour explaining to Lin how to remove the impurities from her mana. It isn't all that hard, it just takes a lot of time and focus to remove the impurities one by one. With how dedicated Lin is, I expect her to remove them all in a day or two at most.

Once I am done explaining, Lin moves off to the side to sit down and meditate. I can tell from the motion of the ship that we are still anchored and haven't moved yet. We are probably still waiting for Brightfire and her group to return to the ship.

Knowing her, she is dragging things out as long as possible so that she can fight more. She should show up sometime today and we will set sail once she does. For now there is nothing important that I need to do, so it is time to face the music, so I open a soulscape.

"Seronia, Krenocia, I invite you to my soulscape!"

They don't show up immediately, but that is not too surprising, they are probably busy. While I wait for them, I go over what I need to ask them so I don't forget. Unfortunately, all that I can think of before they arrive is the praying thing and the food pouch.

Seronia says "Ash, so you are finally ready to face us?"

Krenocia says "He probably needs help with something, otherwise he would keep hiding."

"I haven't been hiding. I was in the human cities and was worried about being caught. I wasn't sure if praying near the churches of another pantheon would be detected."

Seronia says "It could be detected, yes, but only if a god happened to be looking at the city at the time. That isn't very likely though."

Krenocia says "With Ash's luck, an entire pantheon would be having a meeting right as he prayed!"

"So I did the right thing?"

Seronia says "I guess so."

"If the local pantheons found out about the two of you would it be bad?"

Krenocia says "Yes, it would. They can't attack us directly, but they could send their followers to our lands. Once they did that they could then attack and kill us."

Seronia says "That's unlikely though, they are too busy to care about us."

"What about the guy who was corrupting your priests? I think his name was Holos or something?"

Krenocia says "That was just a single god and he was acting alone. He was probably trying to increase his power to fight someone else in his pantheon."

"Doesn't him knowing the location of the peninsula spell trouble for you two?"

Krenocia says "It could if he spread the word. That hasn't happened yet so don't worry about it. When the war with the demons happens word will spread anyway."

"Hopefully by then the pantheons will be busy dealing with the maker."

Seronia says "Maybe, but we can't count on it. Anyway, that is our problem not yours."

Krenocia says "Yes, enough about us. Why don't you tell us what you have been up to?"