"You're fine right?" Thariel turned to Sylka in concern. Kobolds were nocturnal so she was doing her species' equivalent of doing an all nighter yesterday, and she still wanted to walk straight back to Thariel's house despite this.

  "I am," Sylka nodded in reassurance, "opposite of how I look, I am quite durable. Do not worry about me, I have gotten ample rest."

  "No you haven't," Thariel frowned. Did Sylka just lie to her? And it was an uncharacteristically bad lie too.

  Was the ck of sleep causing the Kobold to forget that Thariel was with her for the st few days as they prepared for the war? And that she saw Sylka get little- if at all, - sleep throughout?

  "... Yes, I haven't." Sylka admitted before repeating her previous reassurances. "But I am fine, you don't have to worry about me."

  "Tell me if you need to sleep anyway, we'll stop walking then so you can rest." Thariel offered, "or if that feels to inefficient for you, I'll carry you back home,"

  "That would be inconvenient for you," Sylka retorted with a bashful tone.

  "I don't mind." Thariel bit back. She was already putting the Kobold through so much, the least she could do is offer her help when Sylka wants to sleep.

  "I do," the Kobold's reply left Thariel no room to argue any further and in the following silence, they passed through the forest and out of the treeline.

  She felt that the walk back to her home had been shorter than when she first set off. Thariel wasn't compining though, the sooner she gets back, the better.

  "Well, here we are," she turned to Sylka to see her reaction, but got nothing other than a tired look. Thariel ughed to disperse the building tension in her gut, "well, it's not much but it's home, there's no one here but us... And my mother."

  "I thought you lived with your brood."

  Is that what Sylka was thinking about? No wonder she didn't say anything, she was probably scared she'll get attacked by a pureblood for saying something they didn't like.

  "No, nothing like that," Thariel shook her head, "the brood leaves me alone most of the time,"

  Or all of the time. She hasn't met a single member and has only ever gotten a single thing from them so far. Her interactions with the vampires next door was next to nothing really.

  Thariel turned away from Sylka and met her mother's eyes, Clyra stood by the door suddenly, "that's my mom," she introduced, "don't try to get on her bad side okay?"

  "Of course, I'll make sure to be respectful," Sylka's nod felt a little off- or maybe that was just Thariel's panicked mind looking for anything to focus on but the upcoming conversation she'll have with her mother.

  "I brought someone," Thariel started off with what she thought was the most problematic thing but unlike what she expected, her mother just nodded at Sylka once before then facing her.

  "How's your soul?" Clyra asked first off.

  "I'm standing in the sun," Thariel grinned, she took off her hood and let the rays of sunlight touch her skin. Nothing happened. "I got what I need, and also a few other things,"

  "I can see that," Clyra looked her daughter up and down, "where did you get them?" She looked at Sylka suspiciously, "I didn't know there was a Kobold tribe out there that made high quality clothes,"

  The compliment was good for what it was- also, Sylka was looking very tired wasn't she? They should settle down as soon as possible, - but no one currently alive could make the things she's wearing no matter how much they trained.

  "I didn't get these from Kobolds, and they're a long story so can we just put this aside for now? I really want to sleep." Thariel used an exhausted tone.

  Honestly though, she didn't feel tired, if at all exhausted, she was doing all of this for Sylka. Still, a small time for herself right now would be good for her mental health.

  "Okay," Clyra stepped aside, her eyes looked over Sylka, "the Kobold can stay in your shed, nothing dangerous is in there right?"

  "No?" Thariel frowned, was there something dangerous inside the shed? She's sure there isn't anything in there.

  "Be careful in there," she warned Sylka regardless, "you can sleep on the cot I used to sleep on when I worked te nights, just unroll it."

  "Thank you," Sylka replied followed by a stifled yawn. "See you,"

  Thariel watched Sylka go and when she turned away to head to her room, she came face to face with her mother. Clyra looked neutral, her face didn't say anything much in terms of what she was thinking at the moment.

  "I'm tired, so please let me go." Thariel whined, "I seriously don't have the energy for whatever this is,"

  Reluctantly, her mother relented, but only for a moment. "Where did you find the shrine?"

  "We'll talk about this ter okay?" Thariel repeated, she was not getting dragged to a series of questions right now. After actually stepping inside the house, exhaustion took her and she wants nothing but to sleep.

  "Okay,"

  And that was the final exchange between the two of them before Thariel was allowed to go up and rest for the day. After changing to a more comfortable set of clothing, Thariel y in her bed, staring at the ceiling, head empty.

  She didn't want to sleep, it seems.

  What did she want to do?

  Daydream- that was Thariel's conclusion as her mind went into a present yet inactive state. What she saw with her eyes became the background and her thoughts moved to the forefront of her focus.

  She had ideas on where to go next. Problem is, most of them are problematic.

  All either involved the viliness or the war currently going on in the frontier, or both, with most will have her join the Tenlor heiress and fight back against the invading army. That or she does it alone. Which she didn't like.

  The problems, Thariel realized after a while, are more of a personal one than anything external. She didn't want to kill and the thought of doing it felt wrong.

  It was a moral dilemma. Thariel snapped back into focus for a brief moment and thought that she really needed to get used to the kind of ethics the people in this world had. No one here minded killing, it was normal.

  People still mourned, sure, but they quickly moved on after only a small amount of time and guilt was more of a fleeting sense than a constant nagging gnawing at the sides of everyone's head. People faced their problems head on too. Especially physical ones.

  She wasn't like that, the society she grew up in wasn't like that. It didn't encourage it, in fact, it actively did everything to convince people that killing is bad.

  The world she came from was more peaceful, forgiving. Her upbringing was very peaceful so calling her soft or some other thing to describe a person who hasn't seen the "real world" wouldn't be farfetched because of this.

  She overheard some of the Kobolds talking about how she, a half-blood vampire, considers them bumpkins due to them being primitives but if anything, it was her who was the bumpkin here.

  She's literally in a world with morals so far from what she's used to that it might as well be alien to her.

  A world that felt so familiar until she needed to personally do the things her avatars did behind a computer screen.

  She's dealt with hordes simir to the one she fought st night, but that was in the game and a series of 5 man teams before a big boss was nothing special when they're nothing more than pixels.

  She didn't see the goblins get killed by her arrows yesterday but she did pass them by when the Kobolds moved towards the cave the goblins lived in.

  She was disgusted at first, naturally. But after a bit, she just became hungry and that reminded her of what the kind of creature she became is. That felt more disturbing in retrospect than realizing she needed to kill.

  Nightmares about dead bodies would have been so much better than the existential dread she's feeling right now...