We rushed into the lift in a hurry, and even the short time it took to get to the surface was too long for my fear and pain addled mind. Grace was unconscious for the whole ride up, and she stayed that way as we rushed out of the entrance and towards the mountains in an attempt to put distance behind us.

Her face was pale, and her skin looked clammy with sweat, but aside from those things and the odd glow around her, I couldn’t see any injuries. Of course, she had her pack and armour on, so it was difficult to tell through that.

Magically speaking, she was almost blinding to look at. The tank had been almost three yards in diameter, but now all of that magic was compressed into the much smaller container that was my friend. It did not look happy to be there either, small arcs of what looked like magical plasma were flowing out of her at random, only to get pulled back in again a moment later. It almost looked like her skin was the surface of a star.

It only occurred to me after we’d made the jump to my grove that bringing her here could cause problems, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. The roiling magic within her seemed to noticeably calm as we arrived in the soft grass before my tree. It was night now, both outside and inside my grove, so the way up the ramp was slow as we tried not to lose our footing and fall off the edge. Yet another thing I needed to change.

“What do we do with her?” Adam asked, his expression worried as we all arrived in the entry hall. “And what do we do about Ryn’s shoulder?”

“I’ll be fine,” I groaned, glancing down at my broken shoulder.

The moment we’d entered my grove I’d felt myself beginning to heal, as though the plant half of my body was pulling the human half back together second by second.

“How? You broke your arm!” he exclaimed, looking equal parts exasperated and worried for me.

“My grove is healing me,” I explained with shallow, pained breaths as things happened within me that were obviously meant to be good, but my god did they hurt. I could feel the bones being pulled back into alignment, while torn and bruised muscle was stitched back together.

“That’s a huge relief,” Troy sighed, watching Grace float in midair. “The question remains, what do we do with her?”

“I’m going to take her back up to our room. I’ll have the buns bring two of those big couches up to use as a bed for her,” I told them, and for once I didn’t allow argument. “Sorry, but I’m going to be the one to look after her. This is a magic thing. Plus, I’m the one who did this.”

“Fair. You’re the one who’s most experienced with magic by a significant margin,” Troy nodded, rolling his shoulders wearily. “In that case, please keep us posted, and don’t hesitate to call out if there’s problems. Grace is a good woman and it would suck if she… well, you know all that.”

The other two nodded, and Adam came up to place a huge hand on my small, feminine shoulder, the uninjured one. “I know the boss man said it, but if you need anything, any help at all, let me know and I’ll come running alright?”

“Thanks Adam,” I said, giving him a weak smile through my pain.

Kit just gave an awkward wave and hurried off up the stairs towards the baths. Alone, I walked into the storage with a floating Grace in tow, only to find the buns already hard at work in there. They were maneuvering one of the couches back towards the door, and the sight was amusing enough that it eased my anxious worry over my friend, if only slightly.

“Can you all get those up the stairs?” I asked the buns dubiously. “And clean them, then push them together?”

One of the buns stopped, the cream one that had been one of my first tenders. The little critter stood up straight, saluted proudly, flopped an ear, and then got back to work.

I couldn’t help it, I gave a giggle of relief as a huge smile briefly flitted across my lips. Point taken little friend, you’d see it done.They were damned good buns. I’d have to see about getting some banana trees and carrots growing for them. A little known fact about bunnies amongst the wider population was that they loved bananas and apples, as well as the usual carrots. I was willing to bet they’d already been eating the apples I planted.

With the bed situation handled by my amazing buns, I trudged my way up the stairs with Grace. My destination was a bath, and I was all kinds of conflicted about the impending wash. I’d need to wash her too, but I didn’t want to infringe on her privacy.

It was going to be difficult. I just had to not think about her soft, pale skin or her artfully shaped and moderately sized chest. Shit, my friend was unconscious and injured by unknown magic and I was thinking about her boobs. What a great friend I was, not. Still, she was absolutely covered in sweat and travel dust now and I needed to get it off her.

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I got her into the bathroom, then closed my eyes and activated my mage sight. I could see enough of her to begin taking off her armour and clothing while not being able to properly see her naked. Instead, I saw an approximation of her, a sort of smoothed out bubble-like version due to her natural magical defenses extending slightly out from her skin.

Using my telekinesis for this was like trying to undress someone in the dark with a pair of big chopsticks, but eventually I was able to get her undressed. Taking a lot of care, I placed her gently in the bath, making sure to hold her upright while she soaked.

I should have expected a reaction, given what I knew about how water and magic interacted, but I didn’t really consider it. So when her magic reached out into the bath and did the magic equivalent of electrifying it, I was mildly surprised for a moment, then shook my head at my own short sightedness. My worry for her was causing me to make mistakes.

I opened my eyes a little to stare at the water that was alight with subtle flickers of rainbow light, then proceeded to make a movement that was probably very stupid, but I needed to know. I touched the water. Rather than being exploded backwards like Troy had been though, my magical organs began to voraciously drink it in. Not only did it drink the stuff in, but it also felt absolutely incredible, and before I could help myself I let out a long, low moan of pleasure. Holy shit.

Yanking my hand back with a squeak, I blurted a surprised, “Fuck!”

My muscles twitched all over, my breathing was stuttering and shallow, and my heart was a wild drumbeat. Most embarrassing of all was the way I was feeling internally, specifically between my legs. I twitched and pulsed with my heartbeat down there, and I could feel myself growing wet with the arousal. What had that magic just done to me?

I stared down at the stuff as it swirled within me, my body eating it up like it was plasma directly from the sun. I could already see it churning the stuff up into growth magic at a ratio that was terrifyingly efficient. Well, that solved some of my problems at least, at the expense of… apparently, turning me on like a damned light switch.

I decided against hopping into the bath with Grace though, because regardless of sexual arousal magic, it would also just be very weird. So I closed my eyes and used my telekinesis to gently scrub at the areas I was comfortable scrubbing.

It was strange, the way her magical defenses seemed to bow inward to the exact point of her skin and no more, allowing my scrubbing to work. Once my task was done, I took her out and dried her as best I could with a floating towel, a furious blush burning my face the whole damn time.

There wasn’t even anyone watching, but I just felt so damned weird about the whole thing, especially considering the… new effect that Grace had on me. Wait, who was I kidding? She’d already had that effect on me, it was just amplified now.

I couldn’t get her clothed fast enough for my burning face, and my eyes were starting to hurt the way I had them scrunched up tight. Then I was carrying her up to our room, finding that the buns had done very well with their duties.

The alien couches had been pushed together in a way that created a large enclosed space where we could sleep without rolling out anywhere. I laid Grace down carefully onto the makeshift bed, covered her with her blankets and then rushed off to get my own bath done.

Even when I got back the bath was still charged with energy, and on a hunch I decided to work on the tree blueprints quickly. I added sinks to the bathrooms using separate water supplies, grip to the front ramp, along with flowers up and down the sides for lighting.

Adding the revised designs to the tree, I slipped into the bath and watched as my body began to throw the excess growth energy I was generating at it. The changes would take a day or so, but it was faster than throwing my normal reserves at the project. Meanwhile, I just had to endure this unending lust that coursed through me.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I lied to myself as warm pleasure pulsed within me. I wasn’t going to be uh, going places with it, but damn was it a lot to deal with.

Once my bath was done and I’d calmed down a little, I walked back up to the room and stared down at Grace and the bed. Did I have the guts to lay down next to her, knowing what I did about the energy she was giving off? A thought occurred to me as I took in my friend’s sleeping form. What if by siphoning off the magic she was now obviously generating, I helped her a little? She’d seemed to still and stop sweating when we entered the grove...

I decided to test it, laying down carefully next to her, then placing a hand on her arm. Immediately my body was gorging itself on the stuff, tingling pleasure bursting through my veins in a torrent. I shuddered and pulled my hand back, cutting the flow off. I’d never be able to sleep if I had to deal with that… sensation.

I switched to my plant skin instead, bringing the flora side of my nature to the fore, then tried again. The pleasure was far lessened now, just a gentle hum of warmth, and I could see the rate of absorption had increased astronomically. Growth energy was pouring off me in waves as my reserves filled and then burst their tops. Alright, this might work.

Tentatively, apprehensively, I shifted to press myself against her side, embarrassment and shame coming writhing to the forefront of my mind. I shouldn’t be cuddling up to her like this while she couldn’t say no.

Except, as soon as I made wider contact with her, two things happened. First, the rate I was generating growth energy rose higher still, and second… she stirred. It wasn’t much, but her eyes fluttered open for a second as if half asleep, and she wrapped her arms around me, pulling me closer. My heart exploded into wonder in that moment, her strong arms around me causing a million tiny starbursts of happiness within me.

“You feel so nice and cold,” she whispered, burying her face in my hair.

“Grace? You’re okay?” I asked quickly, relief washing over me too. She was conscious! She might be okay!

Her only reply however, was to let out a long, chainsaw impression of a snore. Alright, clearly I was helping then! All I had to do was fall asleep while my heart thundered in my chest and wild affection ran rampant through my mind.

She felt so wonderful against me, so soft and warm, even without the constant flow of magic coming off of her. I decided not to over analyse what was happening and just enjoy it, enjoy the feeling of being held in her arms. I’d never been held so affectionately like this before, and before long I was crying soft, happy tears.