As Thera slowly opened her eyes, all she could think about was how much she didn’t want to get up. A heat wave had just come to stonewall, with at least another week of it expected, and she was already covered in sweat from it. At least when she was asleep it could be ignored, but the sounds of voices chattering above her that only she could hear made returning to her rest impossible.

“Why would anyone care for the clouds? The particular structure of one of the iron deposits in this land is unique in all of the area. One simply can’t help but want to learn more of it.”

“Your rocks are meaningless. A different voice rebuked. “The air currents pushing a single solitary cloud through the vast expanse of the sky are far more remarkable. What value is there in knowing of the processes that left a rock somewhere a millennia ago compared to understanding the chain of events that altered the fate of that puff of vapour? The water spirits can at least appreciate the beauty of such things with us.”

There were about a dozen spirits of the earth and air affinities flying above her, engaging in a heated yet friendly conversation of matters that pulled their own interest in ways that could never attract hers and was a big part of the reason that she awoke when she did, a fact that quickly caught the attention of those around her as one of the earth spirits floated up to her to address why they were all there above her.

“Greetings Earthkin, we’ve come to beg your assistance,” It said politely enough, an event that had become all the more common since she’d helped the water spirit by the ocean. As word spread among their kind that she was able to help them instantly speed the recovery of their mana after the act or reproduction, waking to many of them floating above her like that had become an almost weekly occurrence, surprising considering that she’d thought spirit reproduction was a far rarer act, but then when they were coming from all over the world to her perhaps it shouldn’t have been such.

In fact, it had been significantly less common before, but given that word among them travelled fast and that they knew the coming danger more than any other race due to almost all of the spirits currently on the world being survivors of their homeworld’s invasion, when rumours began to spread among them that Thera was able to help, many decided to take the risk of weakening themselves to help try and secure the future of their kind.

She was blissfully unaware though, and after counting how many were before her and comparing it to her mana she held out her hand, letting them drift to her one by one as she transferred it over to them. The earth spirits were the easiest to deal with, experiencing no mana loss from the transfer made the process quick and simple. It was for the air spirits things got more costly, the mana loss from transferring it to a spirit she didn’t share an affinity with making the act of providing it to six she didn’t share an affinity with take five times the amount and leaving her with less than half her mana left, something she’d never had to experience until these requests had started coming in.

Well, at least things just got a little easier for next time. She thought to herself before she began speaking to them all once she finished. “Alright, all done. If you could spread the word that I’ll need at least a week before I can do anything like this again then that would be helpful.”

Though the fact that she was using so much of her mana now helped to increase both her total level, as well as her regeneration rates in a way they never had before, it would still be a few days before she would be back to full, especially since she still needed to help at the clinic on top of practicing her earth magic in her own time.

Well, maybe I can put earth magic training on hold for now. She couldn’t help but think as she wiped some sweat from her brow. I just want to hide from the sun.

With their requests fulfilled the spirits left, giving their thanks and promising that none would bother her for the next few days, leaving her to finally get up to shower.

Even if she hadn’t seen the appeal when Ben first made it, it became significantly more apparent during any extreme of temperature. Having hot water at her fingertips during a cold season was a blessing, and in the heatwave they were currently experiencing, feeling the cold water flow down her was all the better. She couldn’t help but want to spend the day in there, thinking as she did that she might have been too hasty during the time when she’d told Ben not to do something crazy like try to build an indoor pool, but she had things to do that couldn’t be put off, so with a feeling of regret she got out, off to meet Sonya in the kitchen before facing the day.

She found her sitting at the table, enjoying breakfast as she waited, but more surprising was the fact that Ben was still there preparing food. She was used to him being gone by the time she was up and felt a small, cheerful smile touch her lips as she saw his back working at the counter.

It was something that she’d found happening more and more ever since they’d returned from the guild quest, the things he’d said at the time passing through her head again and again.

You’re more important to me than that.

It wouldn’t feel like home if you weren’t there.

Even when she found herself annoyed or worried for him, those words never went away when she saw him, always threatening to leave her beaming for all to see. Even the small smile she didn’t bother suppressing was easily picked up on by her aunt as she smiled back at her.

“Morning Thera, don’t you seem to be in an excellent mood so early?”

“Um, I got another level to my spirit empowering so I guess it has me pretty happy,” She explained. It wasn’t exactly a lie, she was happy about it, it just wasn’t the full truth either.

“That’s awesome,” Ben told her as she took a seat, placing a cold fruit salad in front of her. “I guess some more woke you up?”

“Yeah, but as long as it’s only once a week it’s not so bad. Anyway, why are you still here? Don’t you usually leave earlier than this?”

“I’ve got strict orders from Falk not to turn on the forge until the heatwave’s over so I’m mostly going to help with cleaning and customers. Not much point in getting there early if I can’t do anything. It did give me time to make you guys lunch though so grab that when you leave.”

“Having you around really does spoil us Ben,” Her aunt said with a happy sigh. “I’m not sure how we’ll manage if you decide to open your own shop in another town.”

“Ha, well you don’t need to worry about that any time soon. Anyway, I should start heading off now though, I’ll see you both later.”

He gave them a wave as he left, leaving them to finish their meal before going on their own way. They were expecting a busy day at the clinic after all, they needed to do their best for it.

Being in the clinic was the highlight of the day, if only for one simple fact. Given that they were already in an environment filled with the sick and injured and that spaces were already filling up with those suffering heat stroke and other weather-related ailments, the clinic head had arranged for a mage of the air and water affinities to be present to help cool the entire building down, something everyone present was immensely grateful for and made Thera work all the harder as she listened to her aunt while she was being trained.

“Alright Thera, since you’re dealing with a person with a strong avian heritage you can’t simply increase their sweat response to help them cool down, try to stimulate vasodilation to help drive blood to the surface of their skin to expel some heat.”

She did as her aunt explained, applying her life magic to the patient before her before moving on to the next and so on, feeling the day pass as she slowly learned what to look for when treating different people suffering the effects of the weather, learning what to look for in each one based on their individual body structures.

While there were plenty of spells that might help regardless of race, they would always be more effective by knowing more about the individual they were being applied to, and in a town like theirs, where most people were mixed breeds of different species, that wasn’t always the easiest to figure out. It took questions and observation, but the efforts had plenty of payoff for both the patients and her as well.

“Alright, you’re doing excellent,” Her aunt encouraged her. “But why don’t we take a break for now? I could use some lunch.”

She was happy to agree and they made their way to a table in the back where two others already sat, a dragonewt by the name of Drari who acted as the clinic head, as well as his daughter Aso, who he’d managed to convince to learn some light magic from him to help ease the staffing issue facing the clinic. Being a mixed race of dragonewt and harpy, she had a unique appearance as her feathers lacked the muted browns that her maternal race had, instead taking the shifting blues and greens and golds that made up her father’s scales, giving her a bright appearance that sparkled in the light.

Of everyone they could have run into, Thera was probably happiest it was them. Aso was nice enough, being only a couple years younger than her made her easy to talk to, and she’d been fond of Drari since she first came to stonewall, the older dragonewt not caring about her charm and letting her work at the clinic doing some cleaning while not paying mind to any rumours about her from the guild during her problems with Roan.

They happily chatted as they ate, Thera carefully slipping the food Ben had prepared under her hood to avoid any unfortunate accidents while Aso spoke to her about her work as an adventurer. It was clear the other girl had an interest in it, and now that it was known that she was one of the town's three rank three adventurers she was pelted with questions that she was happy to answer.

Reaching rank three was as high as the average adventurer could ever dare to dream of getting to since the higher ranks required an awakened skill, but even that was beyond many of them with the majority ending in rank five or four. It was perfectly respectable to get that far and would let you make a good living for any that did, but breaking into the third rank was a recognition of skill and did wonders for her reputation. There were still plenty of people who looked to her with suspicion and distrust, more and more were looking to her with awe, especially as others spread the word of the part she played during the guild quest.

The barrage of questions was only broken by Drari cutting in with a question of his own. “Are you sure you wouldn’t be interested in joining the clinic full time though Thera? I have no complaints about your skills and you have to admit, the safety and stability of the income you’d get would be a big plus.”

It was an offer he was putting out more and more frequently as he was feeling the struggle of keeping the clinic staffed, but one she declined yet again. “Maybe one day, but for now I have goals I want to work toward as an adventurer. Besides, it’s fun and it gives me something to do with Ben that doesn’t involve beating him at any game we play together.”

“Mmh, you should introduce me to your boyfriend sometime,” Aso told her. “With how often you talk about him you’ve got me curious, especially since he’s also a third rank.”

“Wait wait wait, he’s not my boyfriend! He’s my friend!” She quickly yelled.

“Really? Dad was saying otherwise though.”

She cast a quick look at Drari who raised his hands in his defense. “Hey, don’t look at me, I heard it from your aunt.”

“Aunty!”

“I only said I thought something might have happened,” Sonya told her with a laugh. “You’ve been smiling every time you’ve seen him ever since you got back, can you blame me for being curious?”

“Yes, yes I can.”

“Wait, I want to hear more!” Aso cut in. “What happened? Did he do some sort of romantic gesture? Oh, did you guys kiss? I want details!”

Um, does what he said count as a romantic gesture? We definitely didn’t kiss during the quest but I guess I did kiss his cheek before but that was really just a spur of the moment thing, it doesn't mean anything.

As she felt herself begin to blush under her hood she ignored the question and decided to excuse herself. She only had a little longer at her shift at the clinic so she wanted to get as much done as she could, she certainly wasn’t just running away from the questions being thrown her way.