My heart still raced but I had calmed down enough to think things through before jumping into them. Vivi was hurt and my feelings right now did not matter. All that mattered was fixing her up.

“I’m gonna help you, okay? Just stay calm!” I sent, “I will not let you die!”

“I can’t move” was her answer.

Right, that made sense. She probably was in too much pain. Maybe her spine was broken from the attack as well.

“I can’t heal. It will take too long to figure something out from the Thaumonomicon. The dwarves should be able to help but I don’t want to leave you here.”

It would be far too risky to leave her alone in the middle of a feast for scavengers.

“My den” Vivi sent, “bring me there.”

Right. That should help.

“I have [Node Guardian]. I will get better when I’m close. It’s safe.”

That sounded like a Skill. An interesting one at that.

“Does the node heal you?” I asked.

Vivi shook her head, wincing in pain.

“The mana helps. It does not heal. I will heal on my own.”

I knew that was not the case. She had such a bad wound, it would never be fully healed by time. And if she was not able to move properly she would be troubled to hunt. I had no choice but to help her. And if I could not find a way to heal her, I would have to stay and hunt for my friend. It was my fault she got hurt. I had pushed for this fight. There was no way I would dodge that responsibility.

First, though, I had to get Vivi to safety. I formed a set of four shadow tendrils and carefully guided them underneath her body. It was a bit difficult to lift, but she was not too much heavier than the Thaumonomicon and I had gotten quite a bit of Intelligence since then. I could at least carefully hover her a few centimetres above the ground.

The water posed a bigger problem. Or so I thought when Vivi told me to drop her into the lake. I made sure it was deep enough so she would not hit the ground immediately and with some hesitation finally lowered her into the water. As her body touched the liquid, it gripped her and moved the ocelot deeper into the lake towards the entry to her home. I made sure to follow, luckily still in my metal and shadow form. My senses picked up how Vivi guided the water around me almost as I did with my shadows. She had less control and power, but with the higher density, it was sufficient to move her slowly. Once we reached the trapped tunnel she pulled on the mana to disable the spikes and we went through. The only problem arose once we arrived at the entrance. Vivi could not make the water go past the magical trap she had set for it and as such was unable to move into the den. Of course, I helped her out.

As I laid her down on her bed, careful to place her in a resting position, she pulled on the connection and sent me a feeling of gratefulness. Along with it came the words “Don’t blame yourself. I was careless.”

I could not meet her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I will find a way to fix you.”

She answered with an exasperated notion of thanks and laid down, falling asleep in moments.

She must have been very exhausted. I decided to leave my books with her, in case she wanted to read when she woke up and hunted a few snacks which I brought in with my storage Skill. That taken care of, I could finally start looking for a way to heal her. Though, did I really need to go to the dwarves? I could just take care of Vivi while researching magic to heal with the Thaumonomicon, right?

At that moment, Vivi woke up and let out a quiet yawn.

“You still here?” she asked “Thought you want to get help.”

“Maybe I can find magic to heal in the Thaumonomicon…” I trailed off.

Vivi glared at me.

“I looked. I found nothing. Too difficult to understand.”

“Show me” I demanded.

She flipped open the tome with a paw and the pages turned to an entry I was familiar with. Infusion crafting. I shifted to read for myself and followed the rabbit hole for a few minutes, mostly skimming through the text. There was an aspect of healing, but it required a magical item that could heal, like a potion for example. Creating such was not easy from what it stated but more importantly, there was nothing on the detailed process in the Thaumonomicon. Brewing did not seem to be part of thaumaturgy. It was only a combination of materials, some magical, to make a special drink with certain effects. The most common of which was alcohol. Of course. Even more of a problem, thaumaturgy would use such items in an infusion process requiring the use of a proper altar to make something that could heal even better. There were consumables with great effects, accessories that passively healed one as long as powered by vis and even wand foci that could use the stored energy to create localized and specialized healing. In short, too much I could not do was required. I had to find help in the dwarven town.

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“Okay. I’m gonna go. I hope I can find help quickly.”

Vivi attempted a nod but sent a feeling of affirmation instead when her body shifted.

“Good luck.”

“Thank you” I answered. It was time to go. I made sure Vivi could reach the food I had brought and placed her close enough to the entrance so she could reach the water there to drink. I was maybe fussing a bit but I did not know how long I would have to leave her here.

“Reactivate the traps when I’m out. I don’t know how long I will be gone.”

Vivi just rolled her eyes before closing them. I decided to rush out before she fell asleep and as soon as I had passed the tunnel, I felt the magic reactivate the trap. Good. Now it was time to meet the dwarves. Hopefully, they had brewers that could make healing potions.

It was still early in the day, the fight and panic thereafter had taken far less time than how it felt to me. At least that gave me a good chance to approach the town when people were awake. I had to bring my supersensory matrix as well and fumbled for a moment before figuring out a good way to carry it along. I had formed a scarf out of darkness that held onto the matrix right in front of my chest. It almost looked like an amulet with a tenebrous and much too wide string. It would do, for now.

I took to the air and eyed the town not too far from here. Surely they would not shoot me on sight, right? I was taking a significant risk here. Their ranged weapons could hit me from significantly farther than where I needed to be to establish a connection with the supersensory matrix. I had to go above and try to get between the buildings before the guards could land a hit. From there, I hoped to find someone that could help me.

Finding my resolve, I started the short journey. The town was maybe two kilometres away from the pond, the lake only slightly closer with the river going between almost drawing a part circle around the wall. The guards were not looking on edge so I had that going for me. The sky though was sunny and clear. I had no clouds to hide in. But I did have the sun. Yes, that might work. I drew a line around the town and approached it from where the sun was just a few degrees above the hills. Coming from there would properly hide my approach.

The guards never reacted to me and I dropped between the buildings in a desolate alley. It was just wide enough for me to fly through it and nobody was moving through any time soon. Or so I thought when suddenly someone called out from behind me.

“Oi, what?”

The voice was rough but decidedly female. Like a classy jazz singer that smoked too much. I turned my head and looked at a dwarven woman frozen in her steps. She was wearing simple but sturdy leather clothes and carrying a bundle of processed animal skins in her arms.

“A magic beast? Ah, what is going on? How did you get into the town?”

She spoke clear Ordugh and her long and fluffy ears were flicking back and forth. There were no decorations on them, rather they looked a little filthy. When she noticed me looking at them, the ears flattened on top of her head and her face turned red.

“Ah, by the guardians, don’t stare at my naked ears like that. I can’t help my work gets them dirty.”

She shook her head and calmed down a moment later.

“What am I doing?”

Then, as she took a closer look at me, her eyes suddenly widened.

“You… is that… metal? Are you a Guardian?” She had taken half a step back and shifted sideways, revealing a knife hanging from her hip.

Finally, I regained my bearing. This was all just too confusing. She was not screaming in panic or running for her life and now she seemed to be almost reverent. I activated the supersensory matrix and connected to her.

“Hello” I sent.

The dwarf looked torn between running for her life and fainting.

“I am Fio. If you mean [Node Guardian] then I am not one.”

I gave her a nod along my greetings.

Slowly, my words seemed to sink into her brain. Then she tried to speak again, her words quiet and stammering.

“Y-y-you.. Aahh.. are you wi.. with th-the… orks?”

I shook my head, only then remembering my back was still facing her. As I turned around, she sank to the ground, her back sliding along the wall.

“P-please don’t k-kill me.”

She was in full panic mode by now, her knees and hands shaking.

I tilted my head.

“I won’t hurt you. I need a healing potion. Do you know where I can get one?” I reassured her and asked the important question.

The dwarf took several deep breaths her wide eyes staring at me. Slowly she calmed down, her ears standing up slightly once again. It took several minutes of me standing there calmly and making no threatening movement for her to fully sink in on herself and take a deep breath. She had her eyes closed and was mumbling to herself but not quiet enough to escape my superb hearing.

“What is wrong with today?”

Finally, she looked at me again. I gave her a nod and sent along a feeling of reassurance and friendliness but also urgency. I wanted to get this over and done with. I wanted to get Vivi fixed up as soon as I could.

“Right” she started speaking again “If you aren’t a Guardian, then you need to register with the guards. All sapients need to be identified when entering town.”

“I did not know. Can I get a healing potion if I let them [Identify] me?” I asked.

The woman nodded.

“Then, please show me to the nearest guards.”

This could go wrong but I had a feeling she was honest with me about there being a system in place for sapient animals to live with people. At least in the dwarven towns.

She shook her head. I was confused for a moment until she turned to speak once again.

“I need to get my dionan first, can you wait here for me? Nobody should come here at this time of day.”

I nodded. Whatever this dionan was, it seemed important to her. “I can wait.”

She nodded as well and collected herself with another deep breath. As she walked away, she mumbled to herself.

“I really hope this bird stays there.”