“So um, yeah,” I said with a silly grin on my face, gesturing with a limp hand at the piles of crap in the storage room. “That’s all the stuff I have.”

“You say that like you somehow don’t have enough or something,” Bray squeaked, eyes blown wide like a little boy confronted with a room full of lego sets. “Do you have any tools?”

“Uh, yeah… in that crate over there,” I nodded, pointing to the box in question. Dang, I really hadn’t realised how much stuff I was buying until just now. Giving Bray a tour of all the materials we had on hand had really driven home the magnitude of what we’d acquired.

He wandered over and lifted the lid, peering inside. “Damn, you just… piled all that in there, huh?”

“We tried to keep it all safe but… it’s hard when you have a lot of stuff and not much space to put it,” I said sheepishly, feeling bad for all the little tools. They hadn’t even gotten padding, but I guess they were flying economy so they just had to deal with it.

He gave a grunt as he leaned into the crate, picking up a hammer and big chunky chisel. Tools in hand, he wandered back over to the stack of iron ingots and placed the chisel down point first on the corner of one. “Can I?” he asked, turning to me with puppy dog eyes.

“I’m not entirely sure what you’re doing, but go ahead, I guess,” I shrugged. The stuff was for him anyway, I didn’t really mind what happened to it once I gave it to him and his metalworker friends.

“Chipping off a piece so I can get a look at it,” he told me in a mumble as he readied the hammer. Now that I was looking, I noticed he’d gained a bunch of muscle. Guess he needed it for working metal without adequate power for the fancier tools. Maybe we could get Claih to make some magically powered versions, or even convert the ones we had already. I filed the thought away for later.

The hammer came down with a ringing crack, and a piece of metal pinged off to bounce across the ground. Bray followed it, picking it up and examining it with intense interest. Then he was muttering about carbon content and crystalline structure and I was completely lost.

“Will you be okay down here?” I asked as he went back to the tool crate to rummage again. “I’m going to head up and see how the others are doing.”

“Yeah, yeah…” he said absently, frowning as he picked up a tool I didn’t recognise.

“If you need help with something, just ask one of the buns,” I said, waving and walking backwards in the direction of the stairs.

“Wait, ask a… a bun?” he blinked in surprise, halting in his ransacking of the tool box.

“Yeah uh, oh, here’s one now,” I said as a charcoal grey bun hopped down the stairs to stand next to me. “Hey there,” I cooed, reaching down to gently pat it. “You’re Smoke, right?”

The bun nodded, then turned to Bray and waved. Dang, the things were displaying more and more intelligence by the day.

To Bray, I said, “Bray, meet Smoke, your new assistant! Ask… um, them? Whatever you need.”

“Right… uh, hello Smoke, nice to meet you,” Bray said with a bemused smile. To both of our surprise, the little bun gave my friend the “sup” nod.

“You’re already best buds! See you both later!” I laughed, rushing back up the stairs before Bray could wrangle me into explaining the buns.

We’d gone down to the lowest basement level that I had created a while back for storage, with the others going up to use the baths. I’d run up and have a quick shower, then join everyone. Was I nervous about what everyone thought? No, of course not. Definitely not.

Geez, I wasn’t even convincing in my thoughts. Truth was, I was scared that my mundane friends would start to think of me differently now that I had powerful magic or whatever. Like seriously, I’d be terrified of me if I were Bray or Melody or whatever.

On my way up the tree, a quick glance revealed Adam and Duncan catching up in the guy’s dorm, and I gave them a quick wave before I continued.

I found Grace, Kit, Melody and Kelsey all hanging out in the girl’s common room. They were all sprawled out in one of the couch nooks we’d set up. A little square of couches with a coffee table in the middle. Moving on autopilot, I wandered over to Grace and flopped into her lap like a lazy bun. So much for showering I guess. I’d do that in a second, I needed my girlfriend time. Recharging my cuddle batteries.

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“We need lifts,” I grumbled as I laid my head down on her shoulder, cuddling in close and closing my eyes for a moment. She felt so strong and safe. I always knew I could go to her and she would hold me while I felt small.

“Uh, Ryn,” Grace murmured, her tone that of a warning. At the same time on the couch opposite, Melody gave an excited gasp while Kelsey exclaimed, “Whoa, hold on!”

Oh. Darn.

I opened my eyes and lifted my head, first looking at the two other girls, then back up at my girlfriend. I opened and closed my mouth a few times, unable to figure out what to say, and seeing that, Grace gave a groan.

With a sheepish shrug at Melody and Kelsey, she fought to hide a happy little grin. “Yeah… we um, got together.”

“That’s so cute,” Melody whispered, like she was trying not to startle a tiny bird.

Kelsey turned and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek. “You’re cute too,” she smiled, then turned back to us, expression turning inquisitive. “Is it okay if we ask how long, how did it happen?”

“Don’t know about Grace, but it started for me the night we got dragged to this ring,” I replied with a tinge of embarrassment. “I thought she was so damn cool, and we were building a really great friendship. Obviously I uh… wasn’t to her tastes at that point, so… yeah. I just kinda resigned myself to quietly crushing on her.”

“Wait, really,” Grace asked, wrapping her arms around me. I glanced up at her and nodded, feeling silly and a little small. “That’s so precious,” she sighed happily, leaning in to give me a little kiss. “I remember thinking you were pretty great. I didn’t really consider you an option though, like you said.”

My embarrassment was replaced with a grin that might have been accused of being cocky. “Fast forward a few months and I took off my scarf and you saw my new face.”

“Ah… yeah,” she laughed, her cheeks gaining a dusting of pink. “Jeez, I’ve grown a little used to it by now, but damn… you really are beautiful Ryn.”

“Thank you,” I preened, wiggling happily in her lap for emphasis.

“Oh no, her ego grows,” my girlfriend said with another laugh. “You’re also a massive fucking brat, so don’t get too excited.”

“This just gets better and better,” Melody beamed, cuddling up closer to Kelsey. “I bet they have amazing sex.”

That had Grace choking and sputtering, and me feeling like my cheeks could cook an egg. Off on the side couch, silent until now, Kit murmured, “If the volume is anything to go by, I’d say yes.”

“Hey!” I exclaimed as my cheeks became flame elementals. “I fixed the wall’s sound problem alright! No one can hear anything now!”

“Very interesting,” Melody smiled, giving Kelsey a pointed look, which had the more mellow girl glancing up at the ceiling for a moment as she joined the blushing squad.

“I mean, you’re both welcome to stay here,” I said tentatively. “My plan is to let any of our friends stay in here. It’s safe, no one can hurt you and it’s got everything you’d ever need.”

“Except internet,” Melody commented with a wry grin.

I opened my mouth to agree, when something occurred to me. There had to be a way to send some sort of magical signal out. If I could have a converter hidden in Avonside that temporarily converted electrical signals into magical ones, I could send it to my grove and convert it back.

“Hey Kit, have you seen anything in the books about sending magical signals between realms?” I asked, turning to the small girl curled up on the third couch. She’d gotten a blanket from somewhere since the conversation had started and was now firmly wrapped in it, her little head poking out the top.

“Yeah, actually,” Kit said after a moment’s thought. “Some guy like fifty years ago did some research on it. It was part of what Esra has been working on. They got simple signals through, but since they were looking at trying to teleport from a grove to a specific point on the ring, they only regarded it as a first step.”

“We’d need to find an electrical engineer to help us, but I’m sure we could hook something up,” I said with growing excitement. That was where my interests really lay, with my magic and my plants. Unfortunately, I had to deal with keeping the real world from falling apart.

“I’ll start researching and asking Esra for help!” Kit exclaimed, a smile lighting her little face. “I can design a spell plant for us!”

Melody slowly put up a hand, having watched the back and forth with growing confusion and excitement. “Are you… saying what I think you’re saying?”

“That we might be able to get a connection to the Avonside internet, such as it is?” Kit asked, face split by a grin. “Because yeah, I think we can do it.”

“This place is heaven,” the excitable Melody sighed happily, leaning back into the couch. “I can live out all my wildest cottagecore fantasies.”

“You’re never going to get her to leave,” Kelsey laughed, giving me a look. “I hope you realise what you’ve done.”

I shrugged. “This place needs a little more living in, you know? Sometimes it’s just the buns here and they get lonely.”

“Oh no, you want me to pet and cuddle your big fluffy bunnies too, that sounds like real work!” Melody giggled, sort of jumping on Kelsey and wrapping her arms around her girlfriend’s neck.

“Babe, in all seriousness… I think it is actually a good idea for you to hang out in here,” Kelsey said cautiously, trying to read her girlfriend’s face as she spoke.

“How come, did that bastard come back?” Grace asked, her tone matching my own. I was a force to be reckoned with now, I wouldn’t hesitate to literally rip Melody’s stalker limb from limb.

Kelsey shook her head and grimaced. “We found out that when him and his mates fled Avonside, they didn’t actually end up dying. One of the more reluctant members came back, he said they had been found by some crazy religious group on the other side of the mountains. Now they’re all playing at holy crusader.”

“Jesus,” I groaned. “I know the ones you’re talking about. Man, this world is so fucked.”

“That’s why the order exists though, right?” Grace asked, pulling me tighter against her. “We’re going to fuck everyone up and force it to be a good place whether they like it or not.”

“Step one, dumpster some cops,” Kit murmured, which prompted the room to lose all of it’s serious air as we laughed. Kit was funny when she surprised us with her little quips.

She was right though. In a few hours we’d have to go back out and help deal with whatever situation the obrec caravan had gotten itself into, as well as figure out housing for them and… shit there was a lot to do.