I decided to redesign the tree slightly using a little of the growth energy I had laying around, as the residence floors were a little too roomy and were proving hard to heat with the enormous central room being an almost cavernous space. That didn’t even count the bathroom and toilet floors, which were using a whole lot of space for not a lot of utility. It was pretty evident that I was not an architect.
Thus, I’d shrunk the common rooms considerably and moved the bathing and toilet areas up with them. Each floor now had two bath and shower combos, plus four toilet cubicles. All in all it was a much better use of a seventy foot diameter space. What on earth had I been thinking originally?
[https://i.imgur.com/nHX3cwH.png]
Life was not all interior design though. The local magical practitioners found me at the end of the fifth day after another successful day of sourcing materials for Avonside and my grove, as well as having the doors installed finally. They approached with a large number of their hangers on, all of which bore stoic, slightly anxious expressions.
The street we were on began to empty of random passers by almost immediately as they saw the impending confrontation, until it was just us and the other mages standing there, staring at each other. At my side I had Grace, while Troy, Kit, Mer and Otho had all moved out in front of us. Had we really shaken things up enough to warrant this kind of response? Surely not, right?
One at the front, an obrec man with wild, metallic green hair and fur stepped forward. He wore a strange formal garment that was almost like he was wearing tails. Except, instead of the big padded shoulders that most suits had, this one had sort of weird droopy spikes made of fabric. It looked vaguely like some sort of wild anime idea of what a suit would look like if it were combined with a clown outfit. Sure, the colours were all muted blacks and golds, with green accents to match his mage colouration… but damn.
“Greetings,” he began in the anve language, a stern but reverent expression on his face. “I am Carac Batrmaul, mage and chancellor of the Millowhall Association for the Practice of the Magical Arts.”
He was looking right at me as he spoke, ignoring everyone else, so I sort of shyly stepped forward and gave him an awkward wave. “Hiya, uh… I’m Ryn… of um, of Avonside.”
“And the woman in charge of everything magical within the Order of Eleos ,” Troy interjected, once I’d finished. Oh no, he was talking me up.
“Ah… yes,” the man nodded, looking somewhat taken aback. “In any case, the Millowhall Association for the Practice of the Magical Arts would like to humbly request a meeting with the esteemed Ryn of Avonside.”
“Uh, sure… I guess,” I said, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the whole situation. Why was the dude being so… polite? I thought mages were meant to be dickheads? I mean sure he sounded like he had a stick lodged firmly up his ass, but he wasn’t being mean or anything.
“If it would suit you then, we would like to offer the Soaring Rest Inn as a neutral venue with which to conduct this meeting, what time would suit you and your retinue?” he asked, continuing in that weird tone he kept using. The one that was both arrogant and subservient at the same time.
I just shrugged. “So long as it isn’t the middle of the night or anything, I don’t mind.”
One of his eyes twitched for a moment before he took in a deep breath to say, “Midday then? Does that suit you, my lady?”
Oh no… did he have a fedora I couldn’t see? Wait no, this was a medieval setting and I was sort of like a noble, so it actually made sense in this context. Still, it made me cringe pretty hard.
“Yeah, sounds good,” I smiled instead. This was such a fucking weird conversation. I was just a girl from 21st century Earth, but it felt like I was talking to someone’s butler from the 1800’s, making arrangement for tea with the lady of his house or something.
“It is done then,” he nodded sombrely. “With your leave, we will go to retire for the night and make preparations.”
“Uh, sure,” I waved. “See you tomorrow then.”
As a group they bowed, so I did the same, which seemed to confuse them further. Then they turned around and sort of hurried off in a big clump. If they wanted to appear all impressive and stuff, they might want to get out onto the parade ground for a week or so, work on their turns, because like… that was a shambles.
Grace and I exchanged a look as they left that said something like, Oh my goodness, that was weird and awkward and uncomfortable.
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Then she blew out a sigh that was all, Damn, I’m glad that’s over now though, can we get out of here and back to the grove?
My reply was a weary smile that said, Yeah, no arguments here.
“Well, there goes our evening,” Troy sighed, rubbing at his eyes. “I guess dinner will have to be a strategy meeting now. Otho, Mer, can I interest you in coming back to help us figure out what to do with that lot tomorrow?”
“Our pleasure,” Otho smiled, glancing at his sister for confirmation, who gave a nod.
Decision made, we wandered back down to the inn on the bridge and all piled into the room we were renting there. The patrons had gotten used to us by now, and I saw a few who even gave me hesitant smiles. Was the local population starting to like me? This whole semi-public figure thing was so confusing.
When we hopped back over into my grove, we headed on up to use the baths before dinner. Since I’d freed up a lot of floors, I’d added in a few more residential ones. This meant more baths, which I offered to our two obrec friends, and after they laid eyes on them, they accepted the offer eagerly.
Once we’d all had our nice luxurious baths, we convened down in the common room around one of the new tables with a roast. Adam could cook apparently, and not just passably either. He was secretly some sort of food genius. I swear he’d lied about being a terrible cook at one point too… sneaky dick. I also briefly wondered if the obrec would like food prepared in our style, but they seemed to love it.
That raised all sorts of questions about why our two races were so damned similar. We could eat the same food, looked almost exactly the same from a cosmic evolution standpoint or whatever… hell, even abstract concepts like emotions transferred fairly well between our cultures. When I had like, literally any free time, I wanted to pursue that line of questioning. There had to be something more going on.
“So what are this lot like, the ones we’re meant to be meeting tomorrow?” I asked as our plates emptied.
“Harmless, mostly,” Mer said after she finished chewing. Another cultural similarity, not speaking with a full mouth. “They are a little petty, they like to pretend they are important, but like you saw today… well they’re small fry on the regional scale. You’ve already show yourself to outclass their entire coven of mages.”
“Wait, really?” Grace blurted, giving me a look.
The obrec siblings shared a look before Otho leaned forward eagerly. “It’s true, isn’t it?” he asked. “Avonside is a new arrival to the ring. It’s obvious to anyone native here that Ryn is an incredibly powerful mage. No one can even question it considering the amount or raw plant matter she’s been pumping into the local economy.”
Everyone in our party looked to Troy to answer, who sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, gently placing his cutlery down on his plate. “Yes, we are new here.”
“That explains a whole lot,” Otho said, giving Grace and me a look. “Anves aren’t known for their charitable attitude towards love between human women, for one thing.”
“Wait, what?” Kit asked, staring at us with an open mouth. Had he really not realised?
“Ah…” the obrec man cringed. “...Sorry.”
I turned to see Grace was bright red, her eyes downcast and hands clenched tight. Nuh uh, she was not going to feel self conscious or embarrassed about this. I wasn’t going to let this solidify that notion in her silly, pretty head.
Gently taking hold of her chin, I pulled her head up until her eyes up met mine. The look I sent her was heavy, projecting as much confidence as I could scrounge up from every corner of who I was. Then I kissed her, long and slow, in front of everyone. Her lips tasted of the dinner we’d just eaten, but rather than being sorta gross as I’d expected, it was kinda hot instead.
Sensation was burning up and down my skin in waves, amplified for some reason by the way everyone was watching us. Why did the other’s eyes on us have me feeling… excited? Oh no, had I just discovered something? Regardless, I was breathless when I pulled away, breathless and incredibly turned on. That wasn’t part of the plan! I just wanted to show I wasn’t ashamed of loving her and she shouldn’t be either.
At least it looked like it had worked, her previous expression was gone, that was for sure. Instead, she was gawking at me with a huge, stunned grin on her face, a full blush lighting her face, reaching all the way down to the hint of cleavage I could see down her shirt.
“Sorry everyone,” I said, my voice husky with the feelings of affection and attraction that were surging within me. “She uh, looked upset.”
“I’m sure,” Adam drawled, amusement dancing within his grin. Big, lovable jerk.
“I guess… um… that… okay,” Kit said, his cheeks also red and his eyes firmly planted on his plate.
Poor Kit. He seemed really innocent. Even more innocent than I was. Not that I felt particularly innocent anymore… you could only be edged so many times before you were uh, changed a little.
“It’s okay, Kit,” Mer said, giving him a wink. “You’ll get there, don’t you worry. Maybe sooner, rather than later...”
That had Kit gaping at her openly, which looked kinda comical. There was that famous obrec flirtatiousness at work.
“Good to know, for sure,” Troy said, drawing attention back to Grace and I with a smile and a nod. “You’re good together.”
Otho was still cringing with worry though, as well as ignoring his sister. “I’m sorry.”
“No problem,” I said placatingly.
“If you say so,” he sighed, still looking like he was beating himself up inside. Damn it, why were obrec so confusing? I’d said no problem!
“No, seriously,” I pushed. “There’s nothing wrong, everything is okay.”
“Agreed,” Troy nodded, giving us both a reassuring glance. “Us Avonsiders do not discriminate against any combination of genders in love. At least, most of us, there are still idiots within our people too.”
“There always are,” Mer agreed with an expression that said she wished she could like, suplex every single one or something.
“Anyway, back to those mages from today,” our fearless leader said, diverting us back to the main topic.
Right, we had shit to plan. Too bad my mind and the warmth in my stomach had my thoughts planted firmly in a different grove.