Kazue’s stomach was knotted in a bination of nervousness aement as she walked away from her dungeon self for the first time since her reination. She wao visit Riverbridge and Ekuince, and to visit the Azeria between. She wao go see the o, and then e bae briefly before traveling through the elven kingdom.

  From there, she and Morikoing to decide whether to head east to the Alliaions and visit their dungeon, or head south and cross the pins of the nomadic tribes to visit the southern dungeon. And the idea of being a delver instead of the one running a dungeon sounded fun.

  But she was going to miss Mordecai. Kazue wasn’t going to even be able to enjoy the mental unication that Moriko got to enjoy. And Moriko got to enjoy it with both Mordecai and Kazue’s other self. Mordecai seemed to treat the whole two-selves thing so casually, but it was very o her.

  On top of all that, Kazue felt weaker than her avatar had before. A little bit of that hysical, but most of it was in magical ability. Mordecai had described it correctly; it almost felt like she was having to relearn how to walk after having been able to run. And he’d dohat repeatedly aany avatars, though he had also said that the relearning process was less arduous the more experienced one was at creating a new ied avatar.

  At least she wasn’t going alone. She had her wife at her side. And that was a lot of fort. They walked silently for a bit, but the st of the dungeon was just barely out of sight when Kazue stopped for a moment to hug Moriko tightly. “I am gd you are with me for this. I don’t know how Mordecai did it without this kind of support whearted.”

  Kazue ehe feeling of Moriko running her fihrough her hair, even though the half-elf was gently ughing at her. “Oh love, you get used to heading out on your own, I was traveling by myself when I met the two of you after all. But I agree that it is muicer to travel with friends, and now I have such a cute little bed-warmer to keep me pany.”

  The redhead s the description and pulled back from the embrace so she could stick her to at Moriko. “Bed warmer, is it? You better be careful, you never know just where you will suddenly find ice.”

  Moriko ughed and then kissed her warmly. That extra e in the back of Kazue’s head wasn’t there, but she could feel the love and care in her wife’s embrace. That would be enough.

  There was still a e in her head however. She could tell exactly how far away and in what dire her ‘true body’ was. This body and her mind within were autonomous, but she was teically aension of the ‘real’ Kazue. Thankfully she’d gotten through most of her being weirded out by the thought back at the dungeon.

  That reminded her, she should try her medie. As Mordecai had mentiohis body wasly the same as her previous avatar, and they hadn’t had the ce to have any lorials with her not in the dungeon’s territory. So after she and Moriko had started walking again, Kazue broke out the leather roll her mother had given her and broke one of the leaves in half to chew on. This would give her more to talk to Moriko’s parents about before they finalized a formu for her to take with her.

  But even with that stimulus to keep her brain’s buzzing down, it didn’t take long for the reality of the walk to settle in. “Hmm. I’ve taken long walks in the woods before, but that’s sort of a loop. And they aren’t a full day of walkiher. This is going to take a while. Maybe we should have rented some horses from the traders?”

  Moriko looked amused. “Ahem fed after your father’s carava? You guys could have taken care of that, true, but then they would have been in your territory. And I am pretty certain you wouldn’t have been able to resist inviting them to be inhabitants. And then you would have felt guilty about asking them to be riding animals for your trip, because they’d feel a strong loyalty to you. And we’d have to pay for them instead of renting, sihey wouldn’t be returning to their previous masters. No, walking was the only option.” Now she leered as she looked Kazue over, “Besides, I’d rather have my favorite little fox foot-sore and uo escape, instead of saddle-sore.”

  “Er, eep?” Kazue giggled. “Okay, fair enough. I’ll just have to submit myself to your tender mercies tonight. But I don’t really know what to do with myself for a long walk like this.”

  She got a shrug from the monk in response. “We talk if we have something to say, but a lot of it is just letting your mind wander while you keep going. Keep your head up though, you want to see what is in front of you, and look around for anything iing. Most of the time it will simply be to keep from being too bored, but it’s also a good habit to keep up in case you are somepce more dangerous. Though as I attest, not even Kuic is perfectly safe.”

  “Um, I guess.” Kazue did her best to try and enjoy the walk with Moriko, but she still felt a building amount of restlessness. So she did her best to practice her magic while they walked. Fox fire she had to be careful with, as she didn’t want to start any actual fires of course, but her minor spells didn’t hold that particur danger.

  Casting a brief shielding spell on Moriko or herself was det practice, but not very much fun. Using her dream on spell? That was much more fun. Being able to attack a falling leaf with a sword that wasn’t really there, but heless cut the leaf in half, was quite fun. When she’d learo cast this spell she’d been hoping it would cut only what she wao cut, letting it pass through other things harmlessly, but it wasirely that cool. But acc to Mordecai it was cool enough to cut ethereal and incorporeal things like ghosts, so she’d take that! Kazue hadn’t had a ce to test that out yet, so she was taking his word for it.

  It was also fun to tease Moriko with bobbing, weaving lights that merged into one bigger light, then split into four smaller lights again. The half-elf did her best to pretend to be stoid ighe antics of the hyperactive kitsune, but the ers of her lips were slightly upturned.

  She also found herself eating a lot again. Kazue had fotten how much she used to snack, and looking ba it, her snag habits were probably half the reason her mother had so many fruit trees and bushes. Thankfully, trading fresh meals for dried meat was one of the things Mordecai had done, so she was able to sna that as well as fruit that had been prrown in their dungeon instead of just created. The seeds were going to be gifted to Moriko’s parents, so she was careful to save them. Most of the fruits that they had brought were uo the dungeon.

  And dried meat was all well and good, but fresh meat was better. “Moriko, you cook up small game?” She asked as she eyed an oak tree from whi a had retly been tossed at her.

  “What? Oh! No! I refuse to and cook squirrels if we aren’t starving. Leave them alone, sider it training for dodging attacks. And I don’t want to deal with ing anything if we don’t have to.” Moriko answered, chiding her a touch.

  Kazue pouted, then stuck her to at the squirrels, who chittered angrily at her. She made them scamper away by casting her little light spell at them and having the lights chase them harmlessly.

  Moriko shook her head. “I thought you like all the cute fuzzy things.”

  “Well, yeah, but squirrels are evil, and these ones aren’t my friends.” She gri Moriko. “I am not certain that I would have actually do, but I have to admit it was tempting. I…” Kazue paused and tilted her head in thought. “Huh. I think these past couple of months have made me worry less about just being me. But now I don’t have a sed brain sort of double-cheg everything I think of saying. Or doing. Er,” She scratched at her ear, “I think I’m going to be even more impulsive than you have seen, or at least have seen in a while. Um, I hope you don’t mind.” She was suddenly feeling shy and uain again.

  “Don’t worry love,” Moriko said with a smile that warmed Kazue’s heart and eased her tension. “I think it’s cute to see you ag a bit more like how you were whe you. And I thought you were beautiful and adorable whe, even if I did think you were young because of your height.” Kazue wrinkled her the reminder, but Moriko tinued on. “Though it will be iing to see how much you squirm and fidget tonight. And I bet your skin will look beautiful iarlight.”

  Kazue felt her skin turning red right down to her toes as she blushed. “Moriko! But, um, there’s dirt and ground and stuff.” She didly mind the idea of being outside, but she wasn’t sure she wao do it on the grouher.

  “That’s what bedrolls and bs are for love.” Moriko responded with a purr. “And this is going to be the first night that I will have you all for myself, unequivocally. I’m not going to let this pass by without a really good reason. Oh, and if you are too squirmy, I do have rope packed away. I am sure I could find good use for it.”

  Kazue was having trouble fog walking at this point, she was feeling lightheaded from all the blood rushing to her skin. “You’re awful.” She was being teased, leaving her flustered, but it wasn’t like how she’d felt being teased in her previous life. She was fident in the love behind the words and wanted what was being promised. The uainty and fear was gone.

  Though she was having a bit of a problem g with having to wait. It wasn’t even lunchtime!

  Moriko chuckled, though irely at Kazue as it turned out. “Mordecai offers his sympathies, but he sounds more amused than anything. Your ight be jealous. Your other self is still very much you. And you have quite ehe married life.”

  “Now you are making my head hurt thinking about that again,” Kazue grumbled as her mind ulled away from more enjoyable thoughts. They’d been tinuing to walk during this versation, but her e to her dungeon-self hadn’t ged. She was still equally aware of the dire and distao her core. She’d just been trying to ighat awareness. “And I am jealous that you get to talk with Mordecai.”

  “Mmm, well, if it helps you dictate a letter for him for me to pass on, and I ‘read’ his ‘letters’ back to you. And I do that for your core as well.”

  Kazue chewed oail thoughtfully for a moment before she realized what she was doing. Breaking that habit again was going to be a pain. “Sendiers to myself sounds weird. But it might be a good idea. Let me think on it.”

  Moriko grinned. “Your core said almost the same thing. e on, we have a lot more walking to do. You dictate a letter during lunch if you want.”

  Zagaroth