Wave swiftly gathered Tom up into a fierce hug. "You're alive! I thought she took you away for a moment there, to serve her, you know, like some kind of after-life thing? I didn't know." Her hooves began to explore over his chest and sides. "You look alright. Do you feel alright?"

“I… it felt like she crushed everything out of me that I had, and then kept squeezing. It’s… the single, worst feeling I’ve ever felt in my life,” he muttered, hugging her back and closing his eyes. “Just… what did she do to me, Wave?” he questioned rather fearfully. slowly flexing his legs, getting used to the changed musculature. Glancing towards Eric, Tom raised a brow at his remark, shaking his head. “I… doubt it, physically anyways. It’s like I was a sponge, and she wanted every last molecule of life out of me.”

Eric shrugged, trying to push through the lightheadedness. "That sounds painful... I wonder if that's what it felt like felt like for Poppy. Regardless, I expect better from your goddess than the shadows."

Wave sat up with a delicate frown. "She didn't do anything bad, I don't think? If you don't feel bad, then it's alright, and how can you compare her to shadows anyway? She doesn't get happy when people are scared of her." She leveled a hoof at Tom. "She got a new priest to talk about her! So you know about her now? Like magic, right?"

Tom kept his arms wrapped around her, slowly working on sitting up the best he could as the pain started to fade. “Um, I don’t think so, Wave,” he muttered, closing his eyes and seeing if she’d popped any knowledge into his brain while doing her best to kill him. After a few moments, he opened his eyes once more and shook his head. “Nope, not a clue. Just that I really shouldn’t have asked to talk to your gods, and that’s about it. I have no clue what being a priest is supposed to entail.” Pausing, he looked around, finally noticing a rather obvious detail. “Where’d all the water go?”

Eric pointed at Tom. "In there, somehow. Probably somehow metabolized into some measure of water based power. At a guess anyways."

Wave considered it with a slow clapping of her hooves. Clop. Clop. Clop. "Oh! Yes! Like Eric said. Guarding is what I do, it's a part of me. Priest'ing is what you do, it's a part of you. You just have to relax and, you know, do it. Stop thinking about doing it and just do it, and I bet it'll come to you."

"Or if that fails, you could try praying for a tutorial," Eric suggested, amused as he started to recover himself.

Blinking a few times, Tom looked completely and utterly confused. “I’m totally lost right now,” he muttered. Finally, some things started to kick back in, such as his modesty that had been long abandoned. Hastily, he gently moved Wave to the side and covered himself, blushing heavily, wishing that Shining would return with clothes. Speaking of, he looked at the fins that ran from just above his hooves to about midway up his leg and groaned. “And I think I’m done wearing pants now, too. They look so weird...”

Wave would not be dissuaded so easily. She was brushed aside for a moment but moved quickly back in and started inspecting Tom's form curiously. "You're more like a pony now." She reached out a hoof to brush against those fins. "A pony that's made for the water. When we're done, um, she said Baltimare? What is Baltimare?"

“It’s a city, but where it is? No clue. We’ll be here at least until Cadance returns though.” Tom looked over to Eric, surrendering a leg to Wave’s idle curiosity, knowing that she wouldn’t be dissuaded. “So, Eric… enjoyed watching a goddess make me her bitch?” he weakly joked, sighing.

Eric looked embarrassed. "It was quite... illuminating. Hmm... So, we've got a paladin, a cleric and wizard. Now we just need a rogue to round out the party?" he asked Tom.

Tom weakly chuckled, nodding. “You can have her when she rolls around. Just saying that now,” he joked right back, sighing as he closed his eyes and let his mind drift on the whole priesthood bit.

Wave pointed a hoof directly at Tom. "I was being serious. Just try it, once. Let all the tension go and try to act like you've always been a priest. Act more, um, think less. I don't overthink it when I'm cursing dragons to death by gold burial."

Eric nodded in agreement. “You really should try it. Something… modest in scale for the moment,” he said as he conjured and opened a diet coke. “Maybe try filling up the tub again? Or at least a little bit.”

Cracking his eyes open, Tom nodded. “Fine, I’ll give something a try… and refill the tub, I’m sure you’d enjoy some more time soaking, and I guess I’m sorta tied to the water rather intimately now myself.” Scooting over, he turned both faucets on, running a hand through his hair. “Well… not sure what I’ll be trying to do, but gonna just let my thoughts go and do what seems right, I guess is the best way to put it.” Closing his eyes, Tom did just that.

The water poured smoothly over the hands as Tom tried to focus on it. The water was already filling the tub, and willing it to do so felt like a waste. The water gathered a little closer to Tom, starting to pool around him specifically as if to get him wet first.

Wave clopped her hooves. "See? It's working I think! Now stop doing that, I want the water too."

Eric smirked. “I was thinking more like, conjuring water to fill it, but that’s at least enough to show you have some power,” he said before starting in on his beverage.

Tom opened his eyes, surprised that something had actually happened. “Huh… that’s weird,” he watched the water sort of just, fall away, leveling the tub back out. “I’m curious, too… Wave, do you think you could prick one of my fingers with a tooth? Not much, but just enough to make it bleed.”

Wave flashed her teeth, sharp as they were. "I don't want to hurt you." Having said that, she went right in and chomped his shoulder, which was not a finger at all. The marks she made stung, and bled the same bright cyan that had filled his body before.

“Would you, umm… mind doing the same to me, Wave? If that’s not going to turn it into some weird siren marriage thing,” Eric said with a wink.

“Owch! There’s a difference between pricking my finger to check that yes, my blood did change, and chomping down on my shoulder,” Tom complained, rubbing his shoulder as he got some of the cyan liquid on his finger. “Eric, what, think you might be changed from the shadow magic?” he asked before giving the blood on his finger a quick taste and smell. The blood tasted mostly normal as blood went, if a little off in some small indescribable way.

Wave smiled at Eric. "I only bite to eat, or because I love. Which is it? I've bitten in self defense before, but you're not much of a threat." She looked across to Tom, then to Eric again. "Before I go further, I want an answer. You two keep acting like we're splitting up at every moment, but I thought we were together, like a herd. Are we a family or not?"

“I, umm. I hadn’t realized you thought of me that way as well. Or am I misinterpreting? I don’t… aside from going back to Earth, I don’t think I could bear to be parted for long. Maybe if I had someone else, that’d be one thing, but I’m not someone who can cope without friends. So just… what, exactly, are you proposing Wave?” Eric managed.

Tom rubbed his shoulder as he looked between Wave and Eric. “I see, I’ll have to keep that in mind then, dear,” he replied before addressing the bigger thing. “As for the, herd? Family? I mean, Eric has his family back home, and he hasn’t given up on reuniting with them yet. We, me and you, are married, Wave. Friends? Certainly. Unless you mean something else by that? I’ll admit to be pretty confused now,” he finished, rotating the shoulder that’d been bitten a bit.

It likely didn't help that Wave was just as confused. She leaned against the side of the tub. "You've been with us just as long… Are you going to go to wherever 'home' is, or be happy with what you have, with us?" She smiled gently, keeping her teeth in. "We're not that bad, are we?"

“No, you’re not bad at all,” Eric began, looking down at his hands, and the conjured empty bottle he held. “I… Tom? I know, you don’t know her but… do you think my wife would even accept me back, as I am now? These stupid eyes… I can’t really go back, can I? And… I hate myself for even thinking this, but I don’t really want to. I really do want to just cut off my past and be a new person, freshly minted upon my arrival here.”

“Honestly, I’m not all that sure. The eyes would be a major issue, and not just talking your wife, either. Cadance might be able to help you and all, remember that, but me…” Tom lifted a finned leg and then washed away a bit of that blue blood. “I’m not going anywhere, but I also didn’t have the same ties you did. Honestly, being human? Not much point to it here for me anymore, given all that’s happened. If you want to be family with us, then… why not?” Tom shrugged. “Ultimately, it’s up to you though. I don’t really have any experience to back anything up here, so…”

Wave suddenly perked with a new thought. "Oh! Tom, Eric. I mean, are you going to be jealous? Is this a human thing? One to one?" She put a hoof behind her head. "Then again, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance are one to one? Maybe ponies are doing it that way too now?" She sank into the water a little. "I might be messing all this up."

“Yes, we humans generally go one to one. And jealousy is one of the major reasons… not sure about ponies though. Anyways, if we’re going to do this… I need to ask both of you, honestly. What would you feel if I decided to keep the shadow magic? I’m still torn on it. Especially… knowing I’ll have something here to protect. I don’t… want to be powerless again,” Eric said. “But it’d be far better than being alone, or being a burden to you.”

Tom sighed, slowly making his way to the edge of the tub as well. “Wave, like Eric said, humans are a one to one thing. I’m sure one guy wouldn’t mind having two or more women, but one woman to two guys? That’d be weird looking at it from a romantical sense.” Turning to Eric, Tom shrugged. “I think it’s bad news, but if Cadance can remove the negative influence it’s having on you, and leave you in complete control of it, then? It’s a tool and can be used. Just like how I’m a the bitch of a bitch goddess, I apparently still have some power I can use to my own ends, sorta,” he remarked, shrugging with a strangled chuckle. “No offense meant, of course, Wave,” he hastily added on.

Wave frowned at Tom's words sharply. "Why is it alright for a stallion to have a bunch of mares, but not OK for a mare to have some stallions? That's hardly fair at all. Forget that. I'm just as worthy as any male." She crossed her hooves with a little huff before the current topic of shadows came up. "You don't have to scare people. I'm a guardian, I'll guard you just as well."

Next Chapter: 24 - Emerging from the Dark Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 15 Minutes