As she ehe house, Amilya looked up from where she was focused on a pile of mana stones. Seeing the scorched state of her clothes, Amilya shouted, “What in the world were you doing, haven’t you been burned enough?! You didn’t get buroo badly, I hope, since you are walking fine… What happened?”

  Sighing, Dawn walked over to the table and turned one of the chairs to face her mother before sitting down. After settling Niphru in her p, she began, “I was just pying around with my magid showing off for my friends, but I felt much more ected to the fire and had a feeling it wouldn’t hurt me, so I tested it.”

  Before her mother could object, she held out her hand as she summoned a small fme, the it running up her arm, watg again in fasation as it flowed over her skin like water. As it reached her clothing, she pulled it away to prevent damaging them even more.

  Amilya jumped up and started towards her as she began, only to drop bato her seat with her mouth open as she saas unharmed. After a few failed attempts she mao speak, “Dawn, what you just showed me is something incredibly rare. Only the most talented of mages ever mao gain enough trol over their spells to be able to exclude themselves from the effects. You shouldn’t let a those you trust most know that you do so.”

  She shook her head for a moment as Dawn stared at her in surprise, then tinued, “I have no idea how you are so in tuh fire, none of our family have been even mildly talented with it feions… Regardless, I will do what I to make sure no oions this, sihe children don’t know how important it is that this stays secret. You trust Morris, but I don’t know who else you in the capital.”

  As she stopped speaking for a moment, Dawn took the opportunity to interject, “Is it really that unother? It feels so simple and easy, like I posing the fme before.”

  Amilya chuckled before answering, “Of course it is, you are apparently deeply in tuh the fme. Even I am nowhere hat level of affinity with my light magic, despite specializing in it and w with it for decades. When I was studying in the capital, there were only three people known to have that level of trol, and two of them were blessed by the gods.”

  This time, it was Dawn who gaped in surprise. While she hadn’t seen it firsthand, she had heard that the towns had many hundreds of people, sometimes hundreds of hundreds, which she thought she remembered being called thousands. And the capital apparently had so many people you couldn’t t them, being several times rger than all the vilges and towns bined.

  Seeing Dawn’s rea, Amilya nodded before switg topid tinuing, “Anyway, now that we have discussed your ued skill, what I had wao tell you was that I talked with some of the vilgers and mao get you a tent, some preserved food, and a small cart to carry everything. You should be able to leave shortly, though we will all miss you while yone.”

  Upon finishing her speech, Amilya got up and headed for the kit, motioning for Dawn to join her. Dawn picked up Niphru from her p before she stood up, then turned around and put him ba the chair, making sure he was fortable before following her mother into the other room.

  As she ehe room, she saw Amilya popping the mana stone from the stove with one hand and grabbing a pan with the other. Amilya looked up and remarked, “Since yoing to be on your own for a while, we o make sure you cook with your fire rather than just burn with it. Or do you want to have to rely on having a pre-charged mana stone?”

  Watg her mrin knowingly, Dawn replied, “Of course not, I’m sure I trol myself well enough to cook! It ’t be that hard, right?”

  Amilya simply tinued smiling as she put the pan oove. As Dawn took her pce, she headed to the icebox to remove some vegetables, then passed them over to her daughter. As Dawn put the vegetables into the pan, Amilya remarked, “To start off with something easy, all you have to do for these is warm them up. Not enough heat, and they won’t thaw out. Too much, and they will burn, but it isn’t terribly plex. Give it a try.”

  Dawn nodded before fog on the pan, creating a small fme near her hand and moving it to the stove just below the pan. After a moment, steam started rising from the ter of the pan, and Amilya mentioned, “You should probably stir them a bit, or the ter will burn while the outside will not heat up.”

  “Oh, that makes sense. I wonder…” Dawn replied, then split her fme into six smaller ones, spreading them out into a hexagon as she grabbed the wooden spoon from the ter and began stirring.

  “Good thinking, spreading out the heat helps a lot with cooking, but is difficult normally as it would require multiple mana stones w together. Being able to trol fire is helpful there. Also you could slightly raise the heat without any problems as long as you are stirring it regurly,” Amilya stated.

  Dawn listened but decided to keep the heat where it was, sihe vegetables were all steaming now, and instead scooped up one of them to test if it was done or not. Watg from the side, Amilya nodded, as her advice was intended for the start, and raising the heat then would have burhe food.

  After finding the vegetables were warmed quite nicely, Dawn looked to her mother, asking if she should sider them finished or not. Receiving an affirmative response, she let her fmes die out and put the pan aside. As she did so, Amilya turo the side, pulling a rge pot out of the et she was standing in front of, then taking it to the water spout to fill it up.

  As she waited for it to fill halfway, Amilya expined, “The easiest thing to do is to cook soup, which I expect will be the best way to use the preserved food that has been prepared. After all, dried food is rather tough to eat, and makes you thirsty anyway, so why not turn it into soup? For this, you just o heat a bunch of water up until it bubbles, toss in some food, then reduce the heat a sit for a while.”

  At this point the pot was about halfway full, so she shut off the water spout and put the pot onto the stove where the pan had been before. She then stepped back to give Dawn room before tinuing, “I am not sure if you mahis, as it takes quite a while, but it is worth testing. Personally, I roughly halve the heat o starts bubbling, and stir it regurly. But since you spread out the heat better, you might be able to get by with less stirring.”

  “I’ll try it how you do it, Mom, I doubt stirring it more than it needs would hurt, right?” Dawn replied, and receiving a nod, begaing up her fmes beh the pot. As the water began boiling a few moments ter, Amilya grabbed some jerky and more vegetables to toss into the soup. Following the earlier instrus, Dawn reduced the power of her fmes, tinuing to watch carefully until her mother chuckled at her.

  “You don’t o watch it quite that closely, just maintain the heat and occasionally che it. It will take quite a while to finish, so feel free to have some of the vegetables you heated up while we wait,” Amilya told her.

  As she was eating, she found she had uionally increased the heat of the fmes, and weakehem again. Shortly after, she found they were too weak, and fixed that too. Each time, her mother nodded in approval at her having caught and fixed her own mistake. Eventually, she found it too difficult to tinue keeping the fmes going, however, ahem go out. “That is really difficult to maintain, is that enough?” she questioned.

  Amilya responded by grabbing the spoon aing the soup, then replying, “It isn’t terribly good, but it also isn’t burned, or cold, so it is acceptable. You also won’t be making as mu the road, so it should be easier.”

  Afterwards, Amilya used the pot to fill three bowls up, taking two to the table as Dawn brought the third. While Dawn fed Niphru, Amilya ate her soup, and waited for her daughter to finish her own. “There is just one more thing to go over today, and that is setting up the tent, as I am sure you don’t want to be sleeping outside,” Amilya said as Dawn finished her meal.

  Shaking her head, Dawn replied, “No, that doesn’t sound very fortable at all. Hopefully it isn’t too difficult.”

  “You should leave Niphru here, we will be back shortly, he will be fine here,” Amilya said. Nodding to her, Dawn picked up Niphru and took him into her room, settling him on the bed and making sure he was fortable before she returo her mother.

  Amilya then led her outside to the northern gate where they stopped beside a small cart resting under a small roofed area. Digging through the supplies piled upon it, Amilya eventually pulled out a rge bundle.

  Setting it down on the ground and unrolling it revealed several thin wooden rods, which she put to the side. After making sure Daatg, she began slotting them together and weaving them through loops attached to the fabric, slowly causing it to take form. Once she finished, she pointed out where it could be staked to the ground, pointing out a handful of bone spikes still sitting on the cart. She then took the tent back apart, returning the wooden rods to the middle of the bundle as she rolled it back up.

  “Now give it a try,” she said to Dawn as she stepped aside.

  Quite a while ter, after signifit help from her mother, she finally mao both set up and take dowent twi a row without corre, and they repced the tent on the cart before returning home.

  “Good job, Dawn, I’m sure you will be fine now. Using the cart is really easy, so we cover that right before you leave,” Amilya told her daughter.

  “Thanks, Mom, I hope it is as easy as you expebsp; I’ll be careful too,” Dawn replied before they split up to head to bed.

  Upoering her bedroom, she found Niphru was already asleep, and was careful not to make too muoise as she ged. She then carefully slipped into bed, trying not to shift it too much to avoid awakening him.