Our Second World book three: Personal Truth

Chapter 11: Nephinae

"Now that everyone's here, there's something I'd like to talk about."

About an hour after breakfast, Riniya used her magic to tell everyone to meet in the living room for an important announcement. I had a feeling I already knew what it was, but I stayed quiet.

"I've decided to change our mission objective, but I want everyone to be in agreement before I do," Haren paused and looked to Riniya," would you like to explain the details?"

"Yes, of course," Riniya nodded and cleared her throat," there is an ability familiars have called 'Tier Break'. It's conditions are different for everyone, but it allows a familiar to achieve stronger powers and abilities. That boosted power carries to the familiars Master, making them stronger as well."

"Our new goal would be for the six of us to achieve a Tier Break with our familiars," Haren added," if all of you are ok with that..."

"I'm fine with that," August said.

"Me too," Sylviana agreed.

Elviya nodded," it seems like a more realistic goal. In my opinion, anyway."

"What about you, Nephinae?" Haren turned to me.

"I—uh..."

"Nephi's already done it," Riniya said.

"I figured it was something like that," Haren sighed, ignoring the shocked expressions of the others," so, you're in agreement, then?"

"Yes. I am." I nodded.

"Alright. I'll let Silver know what we decided, and we'll start training tomorrow." Haren stood up and the others scattered around the house.

I went up to my room and sat at my desk for a while. The window in my room had an excellent view of the garden, and I enjoyed admiring it. After a while, I stood up.

"Luna, Emiko, want to go for a walk?" I asked, looking to the foxes laying at my feet.

Both of them jumped up, tails wagging," do we?!"

"I'll take that as a yes," I giggled.

Leading them downstairs, I ran into Elviya in the living room. I let her know where I was going and continued outside.

The air was warm, and a slight breeze swept through the trees. With no real destination in mind, I started walking away from the house. Luna and Emiko took the chance to run and stretch their legs. I decided to explore a bit of the forest.

I hadn't walked very far in, but the trees seemed much thicker, and it got dark. I whirled around to find that the tree line I had been so careful to keep within sight, was gone. A normal person probably would've panicked, or at the very least gotten worried, but I felt strangely calm. It was like something was edging me forward, and I found myself walking deeper into the trees. A strange feeling pulling me along.

I thought to turn back a number of times, but each time I felt a stronger urge to continue forward. It was almost like my feet moved on their own. Deep down, I felt like I knew where I was going. I don't know how long I walked for, but eventually I noticed a light ahead of me. I started walking faster. Faster. Faster. Faster. Soon I was running. Faster. Faster. Faster.

My flying feet and burning legs carried me swiftly through the forest. When I passed the line of trees, I stopped. Now I was standing in front of a large wall of rocks and dirt.

One large waterfall flowed down the center of the wall, with two smaller ones on either side of it. All three of them collected in a deep pool at the base of the wall. In contrast to the blue darkness of everything else around me, the falls and pool of water seemed to glow with an unnatural light.