We decided not to spend the night at Brilda and Foxy’s place. Instead, I took off with Nymph on my head after saying our goodbyes to them in front of the restaurant. My friend was silent on the short way back to her grove. Even though she had some connection to most of the city, that was still the right way to call it, I felt. I now understood a little more why she was so hesitant to leave. It seemed this city was something like a child to her, difficult to let go of. Only that she was the one who had to take the step.

I landed on the meadow in front of her trees and stepped into the greenery. The plants bent out of the way in front of me and closed up again once we had passed. When I reached the centre, Nymph stepped off onto a quickly growing branch and had it carry her to a vine with several purple and orange flowers. I looked at her, trying to glean her feelings but she simply sat still. It took almost half an hour before she looked up at me.

“This was fun”, she decided.

“That’s good”, I said.

“I want to do… more. A little.”

“Tomorrow? Or do you want to take a break?”

“… I do not know yet.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

She nodded.

“You can spend the night here”, she offered.

“Do you want me to take out the node?”

Silence stretched for a moment as she thought about it.

“No. It’s fine. I feel a little peckish, though.”

I clicked my tongue and got out the leftover food from earlier.

“It’s been less than an hour. Weren’t you full?”

“Not quite. I… lacked appetite to be fully sated.”

“Too nervous?”, I teased.

“… Probably.”

“You’re no fun. Here you go.”

“Have some as well. These are great.”

We shared the rest of her fried insects. I saw how she enjoyed the food, devouring several times her own weight. As for myself, they lacked a little in juiciness. The taste was fine but I needed a little more blood to fully enjoy a meal.

After that, I half-expected Nymph to retreat to a secluded place for the night. Instead, she got back on top of my head and stilled. With a sigh, I let her rest and found myself a place up in the branches. While intellectually I knew there was no threat here, it was still more comfortable with some distance to the ground.

The next morning, Nymph was not ready to head out again. Instead, we just spent the day talking about all kinds of things. She was interested in learning some more about thaumaturgy and I realized I needed a new Thaumonomicon. When I asked her if she wanted one for herself, she declined. I was not convinced it would be all that dangerous but the feeling coming through the connection did not leave room for pushing.

All the while, I paid close attention to the [Telepathy] and how it actually worked. I felt like I made some good progress in understanding how the Skill interacted with the world but there was something missing still, as I had not yet unlocked it.

The day after, I decided I needed to spend some time in the city and left the Node in a Jar in its owner’s care. Nymph was not willing to leave again nor did she want me to take her node away.

There were a few things I wanted to do. Namely, finding a smith that might make the trip to the goblins and getting some books for my Thaumonomicon. The latter was easy and I used the salis mundus right then and there. The librarian had given me a pile of damaged ones that were almost as expensive to repair as getting them newly printed. He decided to charge me nothing in exchange for observing the process. I worried for a moment the run-down books would make for a subpar Thaumonomicon but my fears were unfounded. The tome had no issues I could see after checking through some familiar entries.

Finding a smith turned out much more difficult. Serrington was a city of farmers with little representation of the Gurrin Clan. The smiths were actually from the Denka Clan, which were smiths, rather than the miners. Everyone recommended I get a Gurrin if I wanted to start a new mine. They also told me both clans were capable of refining ores with the smiths being much more specialized for their fields. I would have to look elsewhere. Maybe Borsdown had someone that would be willing to make the trip?

I had a good week before I wanted to get back to the goblin village. It was a lot of time without anything immediate taking my attention. In talking with Nymph I had once again started to think about catching up with Stormbringer. There were two or three months until he would pass over again. I could prepare a proper expedition but I had half a mind to simply pause that research until I got much stronger. I decided to think about observing the wyverns a little closer, this time around. [Mingling] might help with that as well. If I could figure out a way to travel with them, I could stay much closer to the dragon and maybe learn more from him. Or I could move between the ravage and the storm, I might be able to stay safe. That depended largely on how close they kept.

I returned to Nymph for the night, staying closer to the edge of her grove. She would likely let me inside but it was late and I was reluctant to wake her up.

In the morning, we decided to move into the city again, this time without the other two sapient animals. Nymph wanted to explore a little more on her own. She started to direct me with telepathic impulses rather than words, keeping the connection to a minimum. I was unable to even send a word through it and only after some time, I realized she wanted to force me to practice the Skill. Thanks to that, we spent most of the day without actual words. I was curious as to why she did not tell me about this plan but trusted her judgement.

As such, there was little by the way of action that happened. I simply carried the mantis through the city, sometimes by air sometimes on foot. I often found her stopping me near small parks or trees. It looked like she was trying to see the places of town she only knew through a general feeling.

By evening, I was run ragged and only wanted to roost on a comfortable branch. Nymph would not let me do be, sadly. She started poking with her mind, trying to distract me but still not letting the connection fully form. I was starting to get a little annoyed and tried my best to close off my mind. Surprisingly, it worked. With only marginal focus, I could block anything she tried to send. Rather than a full mute, it was simply like it slid off my mind. I knew it was still there but it no longer distracted me. I even found myself able to get some proper rest without any issues.

I started into the new day with the expectation of more annoyance. I quickly realized Nymph was still asleep and got myself an early breakfast. When I returned, she was up and about, sitting on top of her Node in a Jar and waiting for me. She did not establish [Telepathy] simply standing there and staring at me. After a few minutes, just as I was about to lose patience, she gestured at me with a scythe, then at her head.

Of course.

She wanted me to work out [Telepathy] on my own. Was it something we had talked about I failed to remember? Did I say something that tipped her off and made her think I could do it in a few days?

Pushing the distracting thoughts away, I focused on the feeling. There was some magic going on with the Skill but I was unclear on how it worked in detail. Even the aspects involved were somewhat mysterious. Obviously, there was mind. There was also something like travel and knowledge but they were… distorted. It felt off, as if not true thaumaturgy. That was something I had been trying to parse in more detail for a few days, now. Since I first paid active attention a few days ago, it was a bit of a mystery to me. How could it be magic and not thaumaturgy? Or was the thaumaturgical theory… wrong? Maybe not wrong. Incomplete might be a better word to use. I knew there were things I could not learn about from the Thaumonomicon without figuring out something else on my own. Why not have truth that I could not even glimpse the basics of? And could I not see the basics, here? I saw the aspects being familiar yet different. There was still a basis of what I learned before.

At that point, Nymph suddenly created a full connection. It was so quick and unexpected, I had no chance to observe any closer.

“Come on, stop overthinking things.”

Just as quickly, I was alone again in my head. I scoffed.

‘Alright, then. You want me to not overthink? I can do that’

I fixed my eyes on Nymph activating the full depth of my magical senses. Then, I dove into my soul and stretched out. Somehow halfway in between us as well as directly in both our souls, I felt a bond form.

The mantis chittered.

“You did it!”, she sent. Through my connection.

“I… did?”

“Yes! Wonderful! You are my fastest student yet, of this Skill. Only three days. That is impressive!”

“Somehow you sound a little… disappointed.”

“I am confident you could have done it immediately if you only stopped thinking for a moment. Let your body and soul figure it out. Your mind is much too small to understand how the world works.”

“Was that why you pushed me like this?”

“Indeed. I could not help but notice how you always looked at things from a thaumaturgical perspective. That is not healthy for you. Live in the real world, a little. You can see it is much better.”

I considered for a moment.

“You may have a point. Thanks.”

“You are welcome.”

“I’m just wondering… How come I don’t have the Skill yet?”

Nymph tilted her head.

“Do not worry. It will come.”

“But I can do it already?”

“So? You could fly before you got a Skill for it, or not?”

“I… never tried… I am the oldest of my siblings. I was pushed out of my nest to learn how to fly the day I got my Skill.”

“I see…”

“Wait. That’s not what this is about. Why do I even need the Skill if I can do it without?”

“That is a question I do not know the answer to”, Nymph said, “Maybe your inquisitive mind can one day find the reason.”

I sighed.

“Fine. I’ll figure it out.”

~ding~ Congratulations! Through repeated and arduous practice you have gained the Skill [Telepathy]!

“Damn it! I wanted to pay more attention to what happens when I got the Skill!”