The night had been long, and they were finally back home. It also meant it was finally time for Ember to hear what Merida had to say, as she kept silent during their travel and concentrated on the wounded the rest of the time. And so they both sat on opposite sides of the couch after Ember "gave a hand" to help the doll climb it.
"So comfy. I never get tired of this feeling." Merida said out loud, falling flat on her back, facking a face of contentment.
To Ember, the couch was too small to allow her to move comfortably, and so she preferred the bed. A long time ago, she had favored the carpet before the fireplace, but without hands and Merida's weakness for fire, it had remained unlit since her late owner's death.
'I understand your charade among humans, but can you stop pretending? The couch did not sink in the slightest under your weight.'
Ember gave her a mean eye before she sat up.
"Not my fault that everything is so hard." Merida mumbled before pouting: "You could have indulged me at least a little. And I did not lie about it. This couch is the 'softest' thing I experienced so far."
Ember rolled her eyes as she knew for a fact that Merida loved to sit and lay down out of the blue to test new materials.
'You will find something, eventually,' Ember tried to cheer the living puppet up.
"See?" Merida pointed at her with a smirk. "You just pretended and said a white lie to my face, and no harm done. You should try it some more, just in case we encounter a skillful telepath."
So far, no one had been able to tell Ember was anything but an average dog before Merida told them so. And at Great Falls, only the policemen were in the know. And they both planned to keep it that way. But now, about 5% of the population had mind magic, and they were bound to encounter a "skillful telepath" sooner or later, as Merida kept reminding Ember.
"But back to business," Merida joined her hand and facked another smile. "I have good and bad news. Which one do you want first?"
It was uncharacteristic of Merida to beat around the bush, and Ember tilted her head, confused.
'It's okay. Whatever it is, please get over it already. I went through torture. I can handle bad news.'
"You asked for it ~" Merida gathered her courage before spilling the beans. "Bad news first:"
And yet, she kept quiet for a few more seconds before saying it.
"You are ankles deep into trouble. You got the attention of very powerful and twisted ascendants: Greedy people perceive you as a potential threat or stepping stone, and those will try nipping you in the bud. Petty people that took offense of you faring better in the challenge than they did and willing to put you back in your place."
'Please tell me something I don't know already!' Ember grew impatient and lashed out.
"I'm getting to it!" Merida admonished her before she kept explaining. "What I'm talking about are Elder-tier Archimages and Immortals. They can kill you a hundred times with a single spell. That's not a power you can possibly comprehend as you are now. You would be dead before you see it coming. For that reason, your only chance is to hurry and learn how to hide from them, so they cannot find you."
So it was THAT bad.
"You know I'm not a fox, don't you? I'm a house dog. Burrowing isn't my thing, you know?" Ember retorted.
To which Merida started laughing and could not stop.
"That was a good one." She wiped non-existent tears under her buttons eyes. "I'm speaking of magical methods, like passive and active stealth, concealment, and phasing. Starting with scrambling your mind magic signature, at least until you can tier up once again and hopefully learn to manipulate Ether."
Ember winced. She had yet to tier up once, and Merida was already talking about the next one. And not just anyone: they were talking about the same magic that brought the Air Elemental who killed her late owner to this world. Ether magic manipulates all the weirdest intangible things she did not even want to think about: dimensions, gravity, energy, light, sound, and more. The very idea that those things could be manipulated made Ember uncomfortable.
She needed a distraction: 'Okay... what about the good news?'
"Well... you also got the attention of a Primordial, and that, in itself, is no small thing. It speaks highly of your potential. And what you could achieve if you put your mind to it."
Ember felt Merida start nagging, but the doll was not quite down yet.
"Especially your mind and dream magic as you beat three tests of the most infamous ascendant challenge. We speak about a one in ten billion kinds of talent." She explained.
But Ember could not get her mind around it, and Merida got mad:
"I'm the system assistant of one-of-a-kind talent, and I can't make up my mind if it's a fucking curse or a blessing! One time you are a freaking supergenius workaholic freak, I can't possibly catch up with. And the next, you are such an airhead slacker I want to kick you in the butt so hard! I just told you that you have the potential to be the most powerful canine alive in the world. Can you please try to be decent for once and show any appropriate reaction? Or at least fake it?"
Ember already had a hard time getting her mind around the fact she was technically not a dog anymore. So was it really such a big deal she had what it took to become even more of a freak after she had been singled out from her peers already? Why in the hell would she want more power if she had no pack to share it with?
"You know what?" Merida exclaimed in utter disbelief. "Never mind. Don't try thinking too hard; you might get a headache. I'm going to sulk in my corner, so don't mind me."
And so the doll hopped off the couch and went outside, in the blind spot of the house she had claimed for when she needed some "me time," as Merida used to say. Ember did not see the point but agreed to leave her some space as it was obviously a crazy sapient thing.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Why in hell would anyone want to be alone if they had any choice about it? That was yet another thing Ember could not understand.
★☆★
After that, Merida and Ember had fallen into a new well-oiled routine. They would do their healing circuit every night, then come home early. And Merida would guilt trip Ember into acknowledging how she felt in the Labyrinths while meditating so she could use that feeling to reconnect with her dream magic, on a conscious level this time around.
But it was torture for Ember, and so far, she had not made any progress despite her best efforts.
She had a very basic understanding that her expectations had shifted the nightmares to meet her needs. But trying to replicate something she had no idea she had been doing was kind of hard. She could remember wondering about the rule of the challenge and trying to figure out things as she went. She also remembered wondering if she could do this and that, and most of the time, it turned out to be true, meaning she had somehow influenced the nightmares to make it happen.
But now, there was no challenge anymore, no piece of any puzzle she needed to figure out, and she wasn't even dreaming. And it was hard to either recall those memories or try to think hypothetically to trigger it once more. Plus, her mind magic was distracting her and giving her puppy eyes after answering her call and realizing it wasn't the magic she was trying to invoke.
At some point, she even gave it a try, thinking that maybe her mind magic would know better and guide her toward the dream magic she was trying to find, but it proved to be a fool's errand. Her magic was not able to track another type of magic within her based on flimsy feelings she had a hard time conveying.
She even tried to drift to sleep while meditating, keeping a constant awareness of her magic. But even that did not work. She could not reproduce that strange phenomenon of staying conscious while dreaming, and her mind always wandered off.
And Merida already told her she did not know how to help this time. So she was all on her own.
She had been trying to five days straight before going to sleep but did not feel like she had made any progress as, so far, she had only found dozens of different things that didn't work.
In the end, similar circumstances leading to similar effects; Ember decided to combine all the things that worked and pray that it work. So she asked Merida for plants that might help while being a lot less toxic this time. And she decided that her innate talent, and more specifically, the sleep improvement features of her talent, would have to be enough to compensate.
Merida approved the plan and contributed by asking humans for sedatives with minor psychoactive effects: things that would help her sleep and might help her experience lucid dreams but no actual visions. Side effects on humans were mild and only happened after prolonged consumption. So this time, they had hope that Ember should be in the clear.
As for Ember, she was just relieved that no mushrooms had been involved this time and that Merida's preparation, while not appetizing, did not smell bad at all. Truth be told, she trusted her nose more than Merida, and finding out that both gave her the "All Clear," unlike last time, she felt instantly better. It might not work, but it might also not hurt.
"Since the effect is already so mild, you should take it on an empty stomach this time." Merida advised her, "Humans are using those to fight off nightmares. And one of those is said to have been used in the past for divining purposes through dreams. So you should have a really good night. Try not to enjoy yourself too much and stay on track."
Ember nodded. Though she could see the appeal of sweet dreams, she would rather be done with awakening her dream magic as soon as possible. Merida told her that it was an incredibly niche magic that little to no one used, so most magic users avoided it for more beneficial alternatives. But at least it would strengthen Ember's magical a whole. Plus, she felt better about dream magic than she felt about ether-based magic. Nightmares were scary but probably never killed anyone.
And so she emptied the bowl once again without much enthusiasm and went to sleep while keeping her meditative state focused on her innate talent. It was intended to improve the restorative effects of sleep, so she supposed her ability had a bit of dream and chi-based healing magic involved. And so, she tried to focus solely on that one aspect of her innate talent, isolating the calming and healing effects for later to concentrate exclusively on its sleep effect.
And indeed, she fell asleep without even realizing it. Her meditative state was interrupted by tempting dreams of games, hunts, and delicious meals before the fireplace. But she resisted and resumed meditating while dreaming, and found it surprisingly hard but still manageable. It was something weird. Being asleep, there was no shutting down the sensation that came to distract her, as they were already part of her and demanding to be acknowledged.
But yet, it was so very new having such a clear head while dreaming and realizing that she indeed had the choice not to chase after the tempting squirrels, digging in the imaginary food, and respond to her late owner's call, waiting to play Frisbee with her. Without knowing it, Ember had just been enlightened about the profound meaning of self-control.
And just like her previous experience, Soothing Presence grew stronger over and over again within the dream, each time deepening her understanding of her innate talent. But this time, it did not try to take over. Instead, it gave her a thorough demonstration of what her innate talent could do for her and everyone sleeping around her. And she finally realized how much it had already done all along without her realizing it.
The cold floor of her cage, her late owner shifting and talking in her sleep, the noisy and chilly night wind coming from the broken window, or her own uncontrolled body movements frightening to wake her up in the middle of the night... her innate talent had sheltered her from all those. It made her feel like she had been sleeping in optimal conditions when really, she wasn't.
She also now realized the actual benefits of rest and how that natural healing which had little to do with magic, helped her be at the top of her game, every day. Magic did help a bit, giving a hand here and there. But most of its effect was to shelter that natural healing from external perturbation, restoring body, mind, and magic equally.
Its calming, dampening, and pacifying effects were for control. Its resting effect was for support and self-sustaining. For so long, Ember had thought that it should have been its calming effect that would help her owner get past her chronic sadness. But she had been wrong. Only the resting improvement effect could have helped, and only if her owner had been willing to heal.
That is when Soothing Presence pointed out the still bleeding wound in her heart that she had failed to acknowledge.
Yes, revenge did not help one bit. It gave her a rest knowing no one else would suffer the same. But it did not heal anything. Cause the wound was already there when her owner had been alive. That utter feeling of helplessness combined with the fear of losing her. A fear that came true and truly devastated her.
And Soothing Presence wanted her to heal. She was now feeling ready to acknowledge the wound, face her feelings and do something about it. But what?
That's when she felt dream magic respond to her call and answer her question:
She saw herself pulling her cart through the wilderness, searching and rescuing the wounded, providing them life magic support until a proper healer could take it from her. She had to use her power to save, support, and heal people. Simple as that.
She wasn't a watch dog or a war dog.
She was born to take care of an extended pack, ensure none would be left alone or endangered within the pack, and save those who had left the pack anyway.
She was a herding dog. And all kinds of animals could be part of her herd. Not to be eaten but protected. But humans and dogs should be pack, and the pack's interests should always prevail.
It was the missing part of her dreams, the missing part of her imaginary pack.
She was a herding dog. Hunting animals and eating them raw was not her thing. No matter how wrong, livestock farming and cooking was the human hunting strategy, and she was born as a part of that strategy.
And the system recognized humans as a potential mutualist species for it.
She was a herding dog. But she had no one yet to protect.