Despite the joy of the new outfits and the fun of teasing Moriko, Kazue was feeling quite nervous. Sure, Mordecai had given her all the instrus, which wasn’t a lot different than her normal avatar in many ways, but some part of her was still worried that she was going to mess this up. But there was nothing for it except to try, and her spouses were waiting for her, so she started by recalling her avatar.

  From the vantage of just her core, she now examihe structure of her avatar’s pattern, scrutinizing it in close detail. Now she could see where it was fwed. The physical structures had imitated her inal body, had produced the same chemicals, and had been funally almost identical. But not quite. Instead of many little ters of physical code st the information in individual tiions that funed on their own, the shape of the flesh had been formed from the one copy of information her core had. Her core had beeing everything, making the physical flesh react the way it was supposed to.

  Kazue knew what real life was like now, having been involved so deeply in ref it time and time again. So she took that code and copied it, then checked it against the information she had about her parents, and made sure that everything lined up. She’d never had the ce to examine her own body, so she could only guess that this information had been a gift from Mericume, and she sent a prayer of thanks to the goddess before she turned her attention back to the task at hand.

  The anic creatures they’d evolved before had all e from somewhere. Re-spawning them was a matter of recreating what already was. But a truly funal body, its matter structed from mana but entirely self-sustaining after the work was done, made from scratch … well, that was harder. Especially si was still going to be aension of herself. She had to keep that e in pce, or she’d be creating a mindless e.

  Thankfully there seemed to be guidance for that already built into their core. So she began building a new avatar pattern, much like the old pattern but dht. With that tempte to guide her, it didn’t take long to actually plete, but that ease also made her nervous, and she spent twice as long double-cheg the new body as she had spent creating the details of its pattern. When she could find nothing wrong, or at least nothing incorrect, Kazue focused on p mana into the actual maion of this new body.

  This inate avatar was an incredible iment of mana. Not only was she verting mana to a form of matter that could not be readily recalled, she was tying part of her curreo this other self. This wasn’t just a sed brain, this was a more indepe brain. Still hers, but not so immediately herself.

  When Kazue’s avatar opened her eyes, she wobbled for a moment as she tried to adjust to this new perspective. Moriko and Mordecai grabbed her hands to help steady her, and she held on to them as she relearned how to use her own body all ain. Nothing was being automated or assisted by the core, and this time she had this sort of g in the flow of informatioweewo selves. It was rather discerting.

  When she recovered enough to pay attention to her surroundings and herself, Kazue suddenly realized she was naked. Of course she was naked, she’d known that was going to happen, but an irrational wave of embarrassment flushed through her and she curled her tail up between her legs and hugged it close to her chest to cover herself. “I, uh, oh, this is stupid, why am I being like this?” She couldn’t help but whine.

  Moriko looked fused and worried. “Kazue? Are you alright? Is this normal?” That st was directed at Mordecai, who was gently amused instead.

  “I did say she was going to be more like whe her.” He said to Moriko. “It’s not a plete reset, but some of her advantages in g with the limitations of flesh and for learning magic so fast are gone. But that is still our Kazue.”

  “This is so undignified.” Kazue’s crumbled.

  “This is not fair.” Her avatar said at almost the same moment.

  Then the dissonance grew for a moment as her two minds took a moment to synize. Her avatar looked nauseous from the effect. “Oh, that’s going to take some getting used to.”

  Moriko guided her to sit down on the bed, and Kazue gratefully followed her lead.

  “Hmm, I think it will help if you aren’t looking at the same location twice,” Mordecai said. “Your core should focus on the rest of the dungeon, and anywhere your avatar is not. It will be easier once you start traveling, though it will also take another adjustment when your minds and memories are more separated.”

  Kazue grimaced at the remihere were a lot of things she was going to have to get used to. Her internal avatar had been a struagic. Her inated avatar was fully biological. She was going to actually have to eat instead of just being able to eat to enjoy it. Ai other oo. Things she hadn’t had to worry about for the past few months.

  But she could feel her core’s attention had gone elsewhere, which was a relief. Then she realized that she was chewing oail which she was still using to cover herself up. She hadn’t chewed oail for months! She dismissed the thought with annoyand sighed. “Well, I guess this is a good time to try on my new clothing.”

  “You should wait a moment,” Mordecai said. “There is a detail we should take care of before we fet. You’ll want a protective tattoo.” Kazue looked at him bnkly, and he grinned. “I mean, unless you are pnning on not sharing a bed with me while you are here.” Now she felt heat flushing across her cheeks again. Right. That part of biology had to be dealt with too. Hmm.

  “But your avatar isn’t running on proper biology either. You shouldn’t be able to have kids at all right now.” She said with a slight frown.

  “True, that should be the case. But dungeons are very magic rich pces, and uhe right circumstances, even a fully spiritual entity father a child. Why take ces? Now, I have the skills and knowledge, it’s not a plicated ented tattoo, but the visible pattern have some variations. So the question is, do you two want to match, and if you want to match, do you want to have a copy of Moriko’s tattoo, or do you two want a new design? I remove Moriko’s current one, if you both want that to happen.”

  In the end, they settled on a new design, which Kazue drew out for Mordecai to copy. The tattoo had to be small enough to sit snugly just ihe hip, while also veying a powerful amount of symbolic value. So Kazue settled on a rainbow opal framed by a wreath of rue and pennyroyal in the shape of a heart: the many colors of opal to protect the bearer from all disease; golden rue and vender-purple pennyroyal bihe dungeon’s colors in two herbs known for interrupting pregnancy; and of course, the heart shape, to tie them together.

  Getting the tattoo was an iing experience. Birth trol tattoos weren’t on in the Azeria , the low fertility rate led to every single pregnancy being celebrated by the unity, so she’d never really thought about getting one.

  Moriko was first, as her old one o be removed. Mordecai dispelled the magic, then used a variation of a minor healing spell that targeted the pigment. It also gave Kazue a ce to see the process. And to see Moriko’s response, which caught Kazue off guard. She hadn’t been expeg her wife to have that sort of response.

  Mordecai was amused at the half-elf. “Pain-induced euphoria, uhe hands of your husband.” He ents as he used his shadow to hold her down while he fihe work. “I imagine you’ve always leaoward being a little heated after getting the tattoo, but I think I am going to make you wait. And watch.”

  Kazue was torween nervousness and anticipation. Which put her in the right frame of mind to be just as responsive as Moriko to Mordecai’s ministrations, the very act of submitting herself to having pain inflicted creating a euphoric rush that bined with the intimacy ter other feelings, that her husband then helped thhly relieve.

  She awoke sometime ter to find herself tangled in the bed sheets with Moriko. After enjoying the snuggling warmth, Kazue reached out to tact Mordecai. And in her mind was only silence, from both of them. She panicked for a moment before she remembered what was going on.

  Their bond was through their soul. Her soul was in her core. This body was a vessel for her mind, and the eaintained by spiritual energy, but that left this version of herself without access to the soul-bond unication. This was going to suck. Which meant she was going to have to depend on Moriko to unicate with Mordecai for her.

  Theomach growled painfully. Right, real flesh and blood body. And she hade. As she got out of bed, Kazue reflexively tried to summon a few ptes of food, and was reminded of another limitation. It was really her core that could do things like that, she had just been able to use her avatar’s mind for part of the process. Without the tighter unication, her inate avatar didn’t have direct access. She sighed at the inveniehen called out, “Mordecai, could you e here and have some food with us? I ’t make my own.” And she not only couldn’t directly unicate with her rabbit friends, she would want to be washed up and dressed first anyway. Calling out like that got Moriko to finally stir awake as well.

  “I’m sorry love,” Mordecai said as he maed his avatar o her, “I should have thought to have something ready.” He’d also jured an oversized fluffy robe that was slightly warmed for her. Kazue gratefully ed herself into it as she settled down at the table, waiting as Mordecai jured a robe for Moriko as well.

  She could have asked her own core to jure them food, but that felt weird to have to ask out loud for, and it was disorienting to get ggy information about the same space. She couldn’t even directly unicate with her other self, she just kind of got updates on what her core knew/remembered. And from what Mordecai had told her previously, even that was going to go away once she wasn’t in the dungeon’s territory. The only thing the e would directly give then would be dire and distao the dungeon, and a vague sense of what her core-self was feeling.

  Kazue tried to put all of those thoughts out of her mind and focus on enjoying her meal with her husband and wife instead. The few days were going to be speing ready for travel. Summer Solstice she was leaving to her core, they both knew how to set everything up faroth’s holiday.

  Zagaroth