Ember woke up to an entirely new experience as she found herself unable to open her eyes and move a single muscle while being perfectly aware of her surroundings through sounds, smell, and touch. She also felt her innate talent immediately taking over, keeping her calm in the warm embrace of the bedsheets as she realized the only thing responding to her call was her system and its list of pending notifications.

  The first notification was about a lateral upgrade of Ember's meditation card. It was more of a specialization than an actual power-up, as it did not tier up. So she was unsure she wanted to commit to that path and restrain her future options and decided to dismiss the notification for now, so she could take about it with Merida.

  The second notification had been the one she had been expecting. Though she did not know a thing about dream magic yet, she now had access to that. And so she would now be able to combine the two to produce more powerful magic: her very first novice-tier spell!

  The third notification, however, was not something she anticipated. It was the first time she got a system reward, and the apparently, she would be able to choose for herself instead of getting whatever the system thought she had earned. Yet, now was not the time to go shopping either, and she would ask for Merida's advice before committing to anything.

  Instead, she decided to open her main screen, satisfied to acknowledge the four empty slots for spells at the end of it before she noticed yet another upgrade the system had not notified:

  It took Ember quite some time for Ember to pick those changes in the overall unchanged text. The actual soothing effect that gave her innate talent its name had grown more effective at range. And the side effects while asleep had essentially doubled and grown more reliable at range. Those apprentice tier changes felt a bit lackluster compared to the previous upgrade from beginner-tier to novice-tier. But they were also one point with Ember's current understanding of her talent.

  It was doing one thing and one thing only, though it was very thorough and all-encompassing in doing that very thing. And it was now doing so more effectively and reliably while remaining completely passive and free. The only thing she had control over was the effective range of her talent which she could shrink or expand from 5 to 10 meters at will.

  Also, the system did not provide any metric to evaluate the power of her talent aside from its tier, but she could feel the difference anyway. The absolute clarity of her mind since her last tier-up was astonishing. Instead of emotions dampening, it felt like emotions that held her back previously were now empowering her instead.

  The maddening fear of founding herself paralyzed upon waking up? Still there and very much acknowledged. But instead of paralyzing her thoughts as well, it was providing the fuel to keep her focused and on-task in understanding her predicament. And now that she had uncertain that whatever happened to her was not magical in nature nor that there was anything wrong with her body, she concluded that this must be an unfortunate side effect of the plants she had ingested and that the effect should wear off soon.

  And so it did after a few minutes.

  'Merida?' She called out as she jumped down the bed, still feeling a bit clumsy, 'I think we are on the right track with those plants, but the side effects are still very unpleasant. I got paralyzed for almost fifteen minutes upon waking up.'

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  Ember rolled her eyes as Merida missed the point entirely. And so she explained:

  'You could at least try to read the mood better. I just wanted to complain so you would show sympathy.' She sighed, 'Nevermind, I did not just try. I totally nailed it! You are now talking to a wise and mighty novice spellcaster.'

  'Nope, I wanted to talk it out with you face to face.' Ember answered her question looking and sniffing around the empty living room. 'By the way, where the hell are you?'

  'What are you trying to get?' Ember immediately asked cheerfully, wagging her tail, 'Can I help?'

  Ember winced. It was Merida's habit to blame everything on her body. It was always about her being too weak, too small, too light, or too clumsy compared to humans rather than the doll's honest miscalculations. How many times had Ember helped her after Merida buried herself under the most improbable pile of furniture?

  'Are you perhaps stuck somewhere in the forest?'

  'C'mon! Just let me know where you are, and I will help you with those traps,' Ember concluded, to which Merida exclaimed:

  And then, Merida cut the communication and left Ember hanging, expectantly her return.

  ★☆★

  In the end, Ember confirmed her meditation upgrade only a minute after Merida got back home as there was, according to the doll, no demerit in taking it. Since Ember was only using Meditation to improve her magic further, she had no need for other time-consuming meditation skills. Although what convinced Ember had been knowing that those niche skills were actually a sapient thing. If what she had achieved was good enough for any non-sapient, then it was good enough for her too.

  However, their talk about the spell coin and how to use it had been more heated, as Merida refused to give her a clear answer.

  Thanks to her Akashic Trickster specialization, she was able to experiment and learn new spells on her own, so she could hold onto that coin until she had enough to buy an Akashic Manual instead of a Spellbook. But she might also need to buy the occasional Spellbook in a pinch to save her life. And Merida wanted her to keep one of her four spellslot empty so Ember could learn one upgradable Akashic-Chi emergency healing spell through their link.

  Then, Merida already had everything planned out for Ember's future growth: learn 52 spells to upgrade her Akashic Trickster specialization, rush to tier up to Apprentice Spellcasting, and grab as many combined spells as possible. All for the sake of ensuring her safety. But Ember was feeling wrong about it:

  'No.' She finally managed to say.

  "What?" Merida exclaimed.

  'No. I'm not gonna learn 52 spells I'm never gonna use, so I got as powerful as I can be once I tier up again and use that power to hide in a freaking hole.' Ember lashed out, 'I don't want to spend my entire life in fear because of some power I never wanted in the first place. So I don't know what I wanna do, but I will do it my way.'

  "Okay," Merida answered laconically, stunned and falling on her butt and sitting down on the floor. "I went overboard again and pressured you too hard, haven't I?"

  Ember did not say a word and just nodded prudently after giving the doll mea culpa a few seconds to sink in.

  'In my dream, I saw myself becoming a rescue dog.' She finally said out loud, 'That's what my innate talent is about, and that's what I wanna do. I fail to help my late owner, and I want to do something about it now. Not just be your ride and hunker down until I get stronger.'

  "Okay," Merida repeated, lost in thought.

  'Maybe you can come up with some way to optimize the help we could provide together?' She threw a bone at the doll, trying to make her feel better.

  "Yes," Merida said, absent. "Now that you tiered up, you have access to proper spells. We can totally optimize a support build toward search and rescue. It would require a lot more logistics, and it would take significantly longer. And you might still want to learn Ether and Chi magic, although in reverse priority order. And I would have to teach you a different upgradable healing spell to fit the bill, but okay. And you would still have to learn a lot of utility and support spells to make it viable."

  Then she paused before asking:

  "It would be a lot of selfless work for little to no personal gain. And it might also be dangerous and disregard your own safety. You would have to commit 100% if you want to make it. So, are you sure that's what you want?"

  Ember knew where Merida was coming from. Even while growing into her own person, her only urges were to ensure Ember's growth and safety. Because of Ember's wishes, she had reluctantly played hero and then healer. But Merida had zero empathy for anyone but Ember. And even that tiny amount of sympathy the doll showed her was nothing but a twisted sense of self-preservation. So, of course, she didn't understand Ember's last wish. But even so, she still went overboard while planning to grant that wish.

  'Let's make it casual rescuing first, okay?' Ember tempered her partner's drive. 'Sorry I can't meet your expectations, but I just want to feel useful and rescue SOME people, not save the entire world.' She chuckled, picturing what grand plan Merida just planned crashing down.

  "Casual..." Merida repeated, even more lost in her thought. "Sorry, I'm not computing. It sounds nice. But I can't picture self-sabotaging and cutting down efficiency. It just goes against everything I was made for."

  'That’s perfect cause I was born to entertain humans during their free times.' Ember boldly declared, 'Having fun and goofing around was practically half my job description. I need to learn how to get serious, and you need to learn how to let loose. I'm sure we will find a way to make it work. Together!’

  And Merida just stared at her for quite some time before promising:

  "Together."