Mu awoke, bleary-eyed as she usually was every morning. She tried to take a swig from her nearby waterskin to quench her thirst, but was severely disappointed to find it empty. Right, she kept putting off filling it since she’d need to ask for that grumpy lady's help to do so, and she hadn’t lucked out in finding a water source before they had stopped for the night.

  Meh.

  She cycled her most recent spirit’s concept throughout her body, the feeling of spring rejuvenating the resources it had spent. It wasn’t as refreshing as a nice drink of water, but it got the job done.

  She still didn’t quite know why that woman had such a stick up her arse when it came to her. Was carelessness in the pursuit of knowledge really such a crime?

  A sigh spread through the small tent.

  … Who was she trying to kid.

  The image of her apprentice almost dying after that harmonization attempt catastrophically failed was burned into her mind. Her screams of pain and mangled arm still cropped up in her darker dreams. The metaphysical eye warping the back of the child’s hand staring accusingly at her, and declaring the whole incident as her fault.

  She hadn’t really been taking this whole thing seriously enough, she had mostly been viewing the child as an oddity to be studied.

  Not a seed to be nurtured.

  The child’s guardians had every right to be upset with her for not taking proper precautions while training her apprentice.

  He Who Lines His Nest With Knowledge sent a pulse from his place by her core. Reminding her that it seemed like such a simple experiment at the time, and wouldn’t it have been fascinating if it had worked? The implications of what that child could’ve accomplished, had it worked without issues, were astronomical.

  Think of the knowledge that could’ve been gained, had she not failed!

  Mu shook her head.

  “Not now, Huey. Let me mope in peace, don’t need your delusions of grandeur when I just woke up.”

  She rose from her bedding and sought out sustenance from the rest of their small camp.

  One benefit of being in a group with multiple binders of wood spirits was that, when in a forest at least, they were never without a source of food. Which was a blessing as the last of their prepared rations ran out right at the end of their little trek through the mountain range. Though from her understanding the children weren’t informed of how precarious their food situation truly was, up to that point.

  Various foragables were easy to find and remove the potential toxins of with some simply clever applications of wood qi. She had even made it part of a training game for her apprentice to try and find the myriad edibles in the woods as they went. The girl’s sensory range was truly a marvel.

  Today it seemed that the grumpy dark haired woman was cooking their morning meal.

  Fantastic…

  She mumbled a greeting as she accepted her bowl of roasted mushrooms cooked in a wildberry sauce, an odd combination to the wanderer’s palette, but tasty the last time she tried it. It was honestly nice to have someone supplying her with a hot meal. Normally she just subsisted on her tea, some light snacks in her bag, and springly energies when she wasn’t in civilisation.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Which was often.

  Oh.

  She should likely start doing better about the supply situation now that she had to worry about an apprentice. Another change in the ways she was used to living her life.

  The other option was to hope the girl would learn a similar method with her wood spirit. The main issue being she couldn’t think of a safe way to test it.

  Bah, into the back of her mind that idea went for her to ruminate on further.

  After finishing her meal she left the dirty bowl with the boy currently on dishwashing duty, the chatty one that wasn’t one of Beardy’s brats.

  She returned to her tent and grabbed her kettle and a sachet of her tea, bringing it back to the grumpy woman with as contrite an expression as she could muster.

  Which just made Grumpy give her a nonplussed look.

  “If you want some water, just ask. There’s no need to look like a beggar asking for my last coin.”

  Perhaps she overdid it with the contrite expression.

  “If you can spare some I’d much appreciate it.” Mu muttered, eyes downcast. She didn’t have enough energy this early to try and sass her. Especially when she was holding her morning tea hostage.

  The dark haired woman snorted, but ceased her current task, and started drawing some water from the air.

  Mu was unsure on the specifics of the technique, but most water binders were able to do it if they possessed even a modicum of skill.

  Which made them quite convenient traveling companions.

  A small river of water attuned qi began circling her, steadily growing larger as real water began gathering in its currents. Until it grew large enough that the woman began directing the current into the kettle filling it up fully. Then the qi within dissipated, leaving it about three quarters full, which was impressively efficient as far as Mu was concerned.

  “Thank ye kindly.” She doffed her currently nonexistent hat, and hooked her kettle over the communal fire. Taking a seat on the ground nearby as she waited for it to boil. Staring and fiddling with her sachet of tea all the while.

  She really needed to find the time to grow more of the stuff. She kept a small branch from her tea bush on her for just such a reason, but they’d needed to get moving fairly quickly and she didn’t think moving this group would take as long as it had.

  Mu was also running low on the medicinal herbs she used for her pipe, but she estimated that they should be able to make it to Darabaile before that particular issue came to a head. It was less of a priority than it had previously been, since she’d bound Restoration of Spring she didn’t need it to combat the rot of her spirit beast rampaging inside of her, but at this point she’d grown used to the fragrant smoke being a part of her life.

  Thinking of her most recent spirit reminded her of something.

  “Do you know where the girlie is?” She asked the girl’s nearby aunt.

  “Why?” The grumpy woman asked back with narrowed eyes.

  Mu shrugged. “Just remembered I’d promised to let her meet my last spirit, but I never got ‘round to it. Figured now would be the perfect time.”

  Plus it would give her something to do while the kettle boiled.

  She continued to give the wanderer a measured glance until she nodded towards one of the tents. “She was playing with her brother, last I checked.”

  Mu dusted off her hands as she got up and walked to the nearby tent. Hearing a muffled voice that coalesced into a young teen reading a story to his sister as she grew closer to its source.

  “... and with that one move, Pyrrha did defeat that dastardly devil, cementing her top spot in the tournament, and freeing her from her obligation to marry her foul-tempered fiancee.”

  She heard her apprentice cheer at the resolution to the story, even though Mu was certain she’d seen the girl reading a scroll with the same tale in it a few days ago.

  “Yet that is not the end of flame-haired Pyrrha’s story, merely the beginning…”

  Mu listened to the two children enjoying their time together for a few moments before going back to her spot and pouring herself some hot water into her battered mug, tossing the sachet of tea into it.

  Her apprentice had few days left with her family, who was she to interrupt them.