Not long after the confrontation with the CEO and her Security, a young looking guy in a militia uniform tentatively approached me. The faculty council wanted to talk. Understandable really, considering what I’d just done. I just wish I hadn’t had to do it.

“I’m coming with you,” Grace told both myself and the apprehensive security guy.

“Thank you,” I smiled gratefully, enjoying her protectiveness over me.

“Oh, okay,” the security guy said, glancing between the two of us. “They’re at the gate, by the way.”

Grace and I followed him across the field, past the wounded blue guys on the ground. We got a lot of different looks from their number as we went past. Fear and anger were there, followed by hopelessness and even confusion. Sucks to be them I guess, but I couldn’t find it within me to feel an ounce of pity.

The fields outside Avonside had been trampled by the security people, crops that had just begun to show green shoots above the soil were now snapped and broken. Fucking morons, they were lucky I had arrived, because now Avonside would be relying on my grove to make up the deficit in food.

“Hey dude,” I asked, calling to our escort. “How much did they just trample?”

Faltering in his step for a moment, he turned back to look at me nervously. “Uh, dunno…”

“Well, thanks anyway,” I said absently, looking around at the carnage. The inklings of an idea were forming. A way to make sure everyone knew I wasn’t just a butcher of shitty people.

There were a few more of the council at the gate than there had been at the meeting, and the ones that were new looked mighty pissed off. Dr Richards the mall santa looked worried, while his wife Dr Leslie had a carefully hidden sparkle in her eye. Dr Ross the political science guy was definitely the most apprehensive of the five we’d met, while Dr Ruthven the economics dude was staring at the trampled fields in dismay.

Dr Wilcott was pensive as she obviously ignored a short frumpy looking woman who was trying to get all angry and in her face. Unfortunately for her, the stern woman of law had a pretty intense height advantage and it was not working.

“Hey there Dr Wilcott,” I called as we approached, giving her a slight smile and a friendly wave.

“Ryn, I see you are getting into—“ she began, only to get interrupted as the shorter woman barged forward towards me.

Her tirade began instantly and in full force. “You! Who gave you the right to dictate demands like that? You’re a newcomer, a… a… ringworl—“ Her barrage of angry words stopped rather abruptly when she met my shield with her nose, the dull thump of the soft appendage like a punchline at the end of a joke.

“Sorry, you cut off for a second, what were you saying?” Grace asked in a cocky, amused drawl.

For my part, I just stared cooly into her anger filled eyes, projecting an ice I didn’t feel but very much needed to right now. I needed to be calm and collected, but most of all, I needed to be both strong and non-threatening.

“You… you…” she stammered, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes as she glared at us. “You just barge in here and… attack people, making proclamations…”

“Fixing your problems?” I offered with both eyebrows raised.

“Fixing what problems? All I see is more mess, the defenses of the campus halved and our crops trampled!” she exclaimed, gesticulating wildly.

Aha, perfect. Raising both hands with a flourish, I reached out to the mangled, broken and dying plants across the field and pulsed growth energy into as many as I could manage. The energy drain was an order of magnitude more immense than what this would have taken in the grove, but I was able to cover a fair number of the plants.

Reacting with gentle speed, they began to repair themselves and worm their way up out of the ground. Draining almost all my power reserves, I took them beyond the stage of growth they had been at before, urging them up until they were bursting with life.

With a field now ripe for harvest behind me, I placed a hand still sparking with green growth energy on my hip. “That’s one down. You gotta give me some time lady, I’ve only been here for a few hours and most of that time has been dealing with that sorry group of thugs.”

From behind the irate woman, Dr Wilcott gave an amused snort. “Dr Lewis, I suggest you cease antagonising the highly powerful woman with unknown powers.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Grace said from beside me, snaking an arm around my waist. “Seriously, she’s been holding back. I hope you realise that.”

“Yeah…” I grimaced, glancing awkwardly back at the mutilated security forces. When I turned back to the gathered faculty council members, I gave them my best innocent look. “Okay… I’m just a student alright? I was another one of those kids you used to teach. I have no aspirations of power or whatever, I just want to make out with my girlfriend while not having to worry about everyone dying or getting hurt or abused or whatever.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“And yet here you are hurting and abusing people,” Dr Lewis growled, spreading a hand to encompass the battlefield behind us.

“I’m not going to get into a stupid ethics debate with you,” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration. “They were shit people doing shit things, and since I have the power to stop them, I did so. Look, I’m here to help people with my magic, but I’m not going to help people who I think don’t deserve it. You can deal with that however you want. Have a good day with your petty power struggles or whatever, I’m going to go and do actual work by getting your visitors settled down.”

With that, I turned and left them standing there, suddenly deeply tired and uninterested in playing their bullshit games. If I allowed myself to fall into my own ego for a second, I knew that I was on a whole other level from them. I had the power to single handedly crush a small army with my mind, and they had… what, employment contracts from another world and a few hundred barely trained college kids?

Argument broke out behind us as we left the council behind, making for the obrec where they were figuring themselves out. Whatever, they could fight it out I guess.

Everyone from the obrec caravan, as well as Jenna from the militia were ready and waiting when we arrived, but I spoke first, “Is your ranger okay?”

“Claih had some sort of potion to help her, she’ll be fine in a week. It was close though, those weapons are not to be underestimated,” Mer replied gravely, giving the now retreating security people a glare.

Ah crap, I’d have to sort out supplies for them. Sending them out there with nothing but their guns was just as much of a death sentence as killing them. They’d never find enough food to feed the whole group when the area had already been picked clean by Avonside foragers.

“Alright… that’s good,” I sighed with relief. “Now we just need to figure out where to house you all.”

“For now, that council has told us to make camp around the side of the campus, over towards the river. They don’t have room to spare at the moment inside… unfortunately,” Troy explained with a grimace. “The obrec brought tents, thank the gods, but the weather around here can get pretty chilly, not to mention windy.”

I almost said something about being sorry that I’d dragged them all the way here to live in tents, when I realised I had experience in building structures. I’d have to do something far more simple than my tree…

“I think I have an idea, let’s go see the area,” I told him after a few moments of thought.

“I figured you would,” he grinned, then turned to the obrec. “Alright, looks like we might be able to get you all some accommodation after all! Let’s get moving!”

“Hold on, Troy, can you show me where… nevermind.” He’d already wandered off to shout orders at people he wasn’t even in command of.

“I can show you where it is,” Jenna supplied with a sympathetic smile.

Gesturing with a wave of my hand, I asked, “Please? I think I have an idea for getting them properly housed, but I’d like to start things before they get all underfoot.”

The area they had designated for the obrec to camp out was on the long downward slope to the nearby river. A path had already been trodden into the grass, leading down to where a dam was in construction.

Well, I guess I could just shove the building I was planning to make on that dirt track they had made? It would probably end up being a road anyway.

“The council won’t be too mad if I grow an inn here, right?” I asked Jenna casually, glancing past her for a moment to grin at Grace. She knew what was up.

“Grow a… what?” the militiawoman asked, staring at me with wide eyes.

I couldn’t help myself, I gave her a wink and stepped past her to grab Grace by the shoulders. “I’m going to top up, is that okay?”

“Oh geez, alright,” she laughed nervously. “Jenna… buckle up, I guess.”

“Love you,” I murmured, right before I planted my lips on hers.

Grace’s reaction was quick, her power opening to me like a blooming flower. The strength of the torrent surprised us both, and I heard one or both of us gasp as the pleasure rocked through our connection.

Unbidden, vines grew out from the both of us, intertwining until we were not just in a human embrace, but one of plant and flower. The process was quicker this time, and far more potent. I’d grown as a mage since the last time we did this, and it showed in the depth of power that I could take in.

The kiss was wonderful too, slow and caring, easing away the stress and anxiety of the last day. Goodness, I loved my Grace. I was safe in her arms, safe from the challenges of the world for a few moments while we shared our affection for each other with twisting tendril and questing tongues.

When we parted, it was with a burst of magenta flower petals that swirled around me in a whirlwind dance. Only, they weren’t simple petals, but an excess manifestation of the power I’d just been given by my lover.

“That was real fuckin’ gay,” Jenna commented with wide eyes. “I don’t mean that in a bad way! It was just… you know… us straights make out and you get a hard dick rubbing against your leg. None of this flower petal stuff.”

“Magical gay kisses,” Grace hummed happily, eyes sparkling with mirth as they found mine. “I love it.”

“I might need another top up before this is done, seems like there’s an exponential price to pay on growing shit out here in the mundane realm,” I told her with a warning that was only slightly ruined by the giddy grin I felt twitching at my lips.

“I’ll be here,” she laughed, and motioned for me to get to work.

So I did, summoning a multitude of different places for the work. I didn’t go in with any designs in mind this time, I wasn’t tailoring plants for specific purposes, I just needed them to grow the way I wanted them to.

My plan was simple, a log common hall, but where the logs were living trees and the floor was intertwined and flattened roots. I began with the walls, each tree starting out as a small green shoot before it quickly sprang up until they were all three storeys tall. With that done, I curved them all gently inwards until they touched, allowing them to tangle at the apex so as to keep the rain out.

From there, I did the same thing inside and on the horizontal plane, branches reaching out to form floors and stairs. I created rooms of various sides on the second and third floors, with a central hallway on each to connect it all.

My final touch was to grow roots out across the ground, forming a flattened carpet of the things to keep the obrec’s hooves out of the dirt. I did leave a central area without a floor to allow a fire pit to be dug if they wanted one. They’d have to make doors and windows themselves, but I’m sure they could manage. It was a roof at least.

When I came back down from my magical thought process, I found I had gained an audience. The obrec had arrived, and along with many avonsiders, they were all staring at me, wonder or apprehension in their eyes. I winced at the fear on their faces, but then I found resolve kindle in my heart. I’d turn that fear into happiness, they’d see. Avonside would be paradise by the time I was done with it.