“Mara… Mom… No, you can’t die…” My eyes slowly opened as I finished my mumbling, whatever dream I was having quickly vanished from my mind. It was almost funny to say, but I had been through so many nightmares they were just like normal dreams to me at that point. Well, at least, sick as I was.

Water trickled out of a small rag, puttering into a basin before I felt it rest on my forehead, cooling me down. “Come on now, if I died who would be here to take care of you? Besides, I’m not sure what I was fighting in this dream of yours, but you know, I could probably take it in real life.”

I chuckled softly. “Yeah? What about your leg?” I muttered, rolling over to my side. My sweat-soaked hair fell past my face as I pulled my arm up grabbing the edge of my blanket and pulling it tighter over my shoulder. “Don’t worry, if another demon shows up I’ll protect you.” I continued, trying my best to grin and stretch my achy joints, Hardly moving as my voice cracked with another groan.

“Even sick you’re as snarky as ever…” She rolled her eyes, any worry on her face being replaced with a warm smile almost instantly.

“Mom… Do you think… Is it possible to win a war without losing people”

She paused for a moment and then began crushing herbs into a powder, mixing them into my tea like sugar. “Well… People have won battles without casualties before, and wars are made up of many battles, so if you just win all of them like that, then yes. I think it’s possible… Theoretically speaking. But, it’s never been done as of yet.”

I sighed. “Yeah… Theoretically…” ‘That’s like asking if you can win a game of chess without losing even a single pawn…’ I groaned again as if whining that it hurt, moving my hand to my face and gently rubbing it before resting my fingers over my eyes to block out the light. ‘Although, I have TECHNICALLY done that before too, playing against my dad…’

She let out a soft sigh, moving my hair behind my ear and out of my eyes. “If you keep growing at this pace, I’m sure you’ll find a way to at least get close, should you ever have to.”

“Did I really start growing again?” I slowly opened my palm towards my face, examining it.

She cleared her throat. “Well… You know, I mean like, getting stronger, not actually getting bigger…”

I let out another sigh, followed by another groan. Feeling completely miserable and wanting nothing more than to just fall back asleep until it was all over. With how overheated I was though, I doubted I’d be able to.

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The fever was jumbling my brain, making me unable to hold a consistent train of thought. “Mom… Thanks for being here… And… I forgive you ok… So you don’t get to die now…” I muttered. “So no more fighting monsters with a broken leg ok… And no more fighting demons you can’t beat on your own…”

She closed her eyes, for a moment. “I guess I’ve been pretty reckless recently too huh… Ok. I’ll be safer.” She casually stretched out her arms. “I’ll start training again too, that way even if I do have to be reckless, it won't be dangerous, sound good?”

I closed my eyes, too tired to point out her own contradiction. I wouldn’t say I was falling asleep, more like I was just too tired and physically worn down to open them again. “Sounds good Mom…” I lost track of time, but sometime after that my fever broke and I fell asleep again for real.

The next time I woke up my fever was gone. My body still felt heavy, but it wasn’t that bad. In total I was only sick for about a day and a half, a new record recovery time. The severity was a bit concerning… But I decided to try and look on the bright side. From what I understand illnesses weren’t the same there as on earth, so it was really hard to say what “normal” was, especially given how everyone around me was probably an outlier.

After a day of recovery, things seemed pretty normal… But… Like… Actually normal, not normal for me.

Every day I would shoot my bow with Airsidh. Have fun practicing and talking about different fighting techniques with Lu, go on easy runs with my mom, go on a ride with Fritz, and wrap it all up with a hot bath. A list of things that honestly speaking would have individually wiped me out in my past life, but with the way my body was trained, it felt like I was stressing it so little that the extra movement helped me recover faster if anything.

Before I knew it over a weak had passed, and then another. My bones healed properly and my organs held up as well, despite all the needless worrying I did over my appendix, whatever, and wherever that even is. The aches and swelling in my body vanished and even without using my magic I was starting to easily surpass my old scores on whatever physical tests I felt like taking out of curiosity. I still wasn’t anywhere near my siblings though… Unless I wanted to show off and surpass even them, but using magic that strongly put a serious strain on my body.

The only thing that didn’t feel better than new was my eyes. They got a little bit better, good enough for me to read again, although it still hurt. I could focus them properly and it didn’t affect my accuracy, within 50 yards or so at least, but compared to how they were before it was beyond disappointing. It was like I went from a 4k monitor back to playing on an old one that didn’t even use HDMI, and had the funny-looking cable with the screw thingys. All the colors were muted, instead of being vibrant and beautiful. It was all just…

Well, anyway. My father had run off somewhere with barely a goodbye letter, and Bhaltair left for the academy early. I still hadn’t seen him since the time that we fought. In the end, it was probably their absence, that made me start to feel like I had a real family again. If not for that I probably would have taken the hit to my vision a lot harder. Especially since, for one reason or another, I hadn’t seen or heard from Agis or Rafi since I slayed the demon.

It wasn’t all happy of course. My mom would still randomly decide to take a bath with me, and my brother still got on my nerves sometimes, but it felt silly to ever think about those things as even bad, much less worth complaining about. I started to think that if things stayed like that I could leave that castle and… I could really call that place my home, somewhere I wouldn’t mind going back to, instead of somewhere to escape from.

It still wasn’t over though. Sure I liked to think things had been settled, but No matter how much I let myself relax, a part of me felt like I wouldn’t be at ease until I was heading out. And of course, even then, I would just start to become anxious about what would happen once I arrived at the academy. Sometimes it made my stomach turn. Besides, I couldn’t shake a feeling that my father was going to show up out of the blue at the last second to tell me I had to cut off a finger to gain ultimate power or something ridiculous…

‘Well, even if that does happen I’m sure I’ll be fine somehow.’