The harsh waters are fading, becoming replaced with reality.

I am once again being summoned.

Oh, thank goodness, If I was being summoned that meant she was still alive, Vaelor had failed.

Or she was being attacked right now, what if I was being summoned to defend her from those guards?

How could I kill them? No wait, I don’t need to kill them I just need to protect her, she’s all that matters.

I can’t use sand to obscure their vision, maybe blood?

If I rip into a corpse I should be able to get some blood and organs I can use to blind them with.

But why’s it taking so long?

The waters are disappearing and I am being reborn into a creature of physicality, yet it’s so slow.

I was summoned so quickly that I didn’t even have time to properly think before I was a part of reality back when the camp was raided.

So that means she must be safe, I’m worrying over nothing, right?

Nevertheless, as the loving waters at last completely disappear and I am wrenched into the mortal realm, I prepare myself for the worse.

The moment I can see, I scan left and right, trying to spot any threats.

Finding no immediate danger I turn around, scanning my rear, yet again there is no monstrous Rover summons, nor unnaturally skilled elites.

What I do see is smoke, it’s a few hundred yards away but judging by the sheer scale there had to be at least a dozen fires.

I can’t see what's causing it since me and my creator are right below a sand dune, just like during my first summoning.

Before I can start considering if this is smoke from a campfire, or perhaps even burning tents, my creator speaks, through our link of course

“Calm down Phaeraxion, calm down, you’re okay. There’s no danger around that could possibly threaten you. It’s alright”

Threaten me? It wasn’t myself I was concerned about. Feeling my concern through the link she hurriedly reassures me.

“Nor anything that can threaten me, we’re safe. I’m sorry about what happened to you, we’re safe now. I didn’t summon you because I needed you, I summoned you because I wanted to.”

She says something else but it’s too incoherent for me to understand, all I get from it is just a feeling of safety.

So there's nobody around us, at least not that I nor my creator can see.

Not needed, wanted, what did she want?

Urging my curiosity through the link I try to speak to her but she just looks at me in confusion, my words likely so incomplete she can’t even understand what I’m asking.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Thankfully the curiosity seems to make her figure out what it is I want and she responds. “The stars, I want you to see the stars.”

Stars? What are stars? her answer just left me feeling even more confused.

“Look up.” Is all she says when I try to voice my curiosity once again.

And so I do, gazing up at the cloudless sky.

It’s like the ocean, a dark void filled with countless lights but unlike the ocean, it doesn’t give off that hateful type of love.

If anything it gives me a sense of calmness and regret.

It’s calming that I have such an open world to explore, but it also makes me regretful that I don’t have any wings, I wonder how high I could fly if I did?

Maybe I could actually make proper memories devoid of violence or warfare of my own rather than instead of having to rely on my creators.

Maybe I could even give them to her?

“The stars are those white things you can see Phaeraxion, the very large one isn’t a star though it’s a moon.”

Ah, so those lights were stars.

I’m pretty confident that the lights I see in the ocean are other souls, so does that mean that the stars are alive?

It makes me feel a little incompetent but I once again shove my curiosity into our link, I don’t try forming any words this time since I can’t make proper ones yet, just pure curiosity.

“The moon’s like a big star I think? I don’t quite know to be honest, I had to leave the campus once the illumination campaign began, sorry.”

Embarrassment and a slight tinge of sadness flows through our link alongside her words.

It’s strange, I can feel that she’s sad and embarrassed but I myself don’t properly understand these emotions.

The closest I’ve come to feeling sad was when I was worried that she was in danger or being attacked, that was more panic than anything else though.

Hesitantly I try to send feelings of comfort over, I don’t quite understand her feelings but I don’t like them.

I want her to be safe and happy, not in danger or feeling negative.

What was the point of my existence if I couldn’t keep my summoner protected?

“Thanks Phaeraxion, I don’t quite get what you want to know about but um, the illumination campaign was basically a counter offense against a series of Rover attacks where they heavily utilised fire. So naturally hydromancers got conscripted to fight against this, geomancers two but to a lesser extent. A umm, campus is just a place where people go to learn things from people who already know them. As for the moon being a big star, well I’m not too sure about that but I think it’s true.”

She says some other stuff as well but it’s just too difficult to properly understand, at least I got the main stuff I think?

All these answers but not one of them is related to my question, I wonder if I would be able to go to this campus to learn how to communicate properly.

That would make this whole thing so much easier, or was it just a matter of cohesiveness?

I’m kind of blindly shoving my emotions through the link, maybe I need to condense them down more?

But sadly it looks like I won’t have the time to try.

She’s taken her time to summon me very carefully but she hasn’t put much power into my summoning.

My body is already starting to dissipate, this is a good thing of course, it means that she shouldn’t suffer any real repercussions from this.

Carefully, more slowly this time, I push an emotion I was extensively familiar with through our link, caution.

I want her to quickly get back to safety, she was far away from her allies and I was beginning to fade, if she was attacked…

She reacts quickly, scanning her surroundings while waving her hands around in gentle idyllic motions.

As I fall clumsily to the ground, she realises that what I'm trying to tell her is to simply be safe

The sands are beginning to become translucent and I am moulting my physical form, yet I still hear her just before I’m gone.

“Goodbye Phaeraxion, I’m Coralet”

As is often the case there are other words mixed in there, stuff like formal introduction and first chance but they’re messy and I can already feel the ocean caressing me.