"You want to grab lunch?" I ask after we get out of the shop. It's not quite noon, but by the time we find a place and get our food, it will be.

"Do you even have to ask?" Apricot chuckles.

"The restaurant that has those cinnamon sweet rolls is just a few blocks up that way." She starts walking down the street before coming up short with a grunt and putting a hand on her abdomen. "Nng, could you bring out your bike?"

"Cramps?" I fill a small cup with healing sap. "Here, I don't know how much good it will do, but it can't hurt."

"Thank you." She downs it without protest. "Oh, that is so much better. I should be good now, the first one is always the worst."

"My sister would be so jealous right now." A sad smile slips onto my face when I think about the last time her hot water bottle sprung a leak. "She'd get them so bad that all she could do was curl up into a ball with her hot water bottle."

"I've had a few days like that." Amelia nods in sympathy before putting her arm around my waist. "Can I see their picture again?"

"Of course." I don't even want to think about what my family is going through right now, but I know they're both strong and will get through it eventually. "I was thinking about hanging it up when we get home. Maybe start a picture wall along the entryway."

"That'd be nice." Apricot hugs me tight from the other side, and I start to feel bad.

She still hasn't told us what happened to get her exiled, but she must be missing her family every bit as much as I am. I don't know what to say, so I just squeeze her back.

After lunch, we head back towards the middle of town to ask Erick's permission to host the enchanters guild.

"Hello Carl, is the Baron available?" I ask the servant at the door.

"Good afternoon sir." He gives us a small bow. "I'm afraid he'll be in a meeting for some time yet, but Reinholt is free if you wish to speak with him."

"Yes, that should work, thank you." I nod back and we follow him through the manor house into a richly appointed office.

"Sorrel, back so soon?" The baron's son gets out of his chair to greet us. "Amelia, Apricot." He nods to each in turn with a smile. "I hope you aren't too upset with my dear cousin."

"Are you kidding?" Apricot scoffs. "I just wish I was there to see it happen."

"Hah." The laugh erupts out of him. "So, what can I do for you."

"I'm sure you're aware of the fight for leadership at the enchanters guild." He nods. "Well, I've decided to side with Rozelle and was hoping we could use the manor for a meeting of the guild. Tomorrow, around noon, if possible."

"I don't see a problem with that." He shrugs. "But, that twinkle in your eye tells me that's not all of it."

"Well, you know that mana node they have in the lobby there?" I hold out my hand with a tiny blue crystal balanced on my fingertip.

"Wait? You made another copy?" Amelia leans in close to get a better look.

"Yeah, why do you think my mana ran out so fast?" I nod and then laugh as Holt finally figures out what I'm holding.

"Is that..."

"Yes." I simply nod. "It turns out that while they aren't plants, they are close enough for me to affect. Rozelle wants to wow the crowd by showing off what her new apprentice can do, but these things take a lot of mana to grow. And, I thought the gardens here would be more suitable than trooping everyone off to my farm."

"Oh, I have to tell father about this." A shit-eating grin appears on Holt's face. "He's in a meeting with Olivar right now. The greasy cretin has been pestering him to interfere with Guild business. Which just isn't going to happen, certainly not for someone who keeps staring at my sister's chest every time he sees her."

"Pfft." I almost choke on my laughter.

"Yeah." He sighs. "Unfortunately he owns one of the most successful shops in town, so we can't just dismiss him. We can't side with Rozelle either, but hosting a meeting for the entire guild. That we can do."

"Thank you." I bow in my chair to the man.

"No, thank you." His eyes are locked on the mana node which has nearly quadrupled in size since we sat down. "You really are a man full of surprises."

"This time was just dumb luck." I shake my head in negation. "I mean, I didn't even think to get a look at a mana node when we were up in Northwood. And, if Ro was in her shop when we stopped by, I likely never would have found out about this." The node on my finger has grown another size by this time.

"Even so." He smiles ruefully. "People have been trying to replicate Greenfield's success since he died. Alright, I won't be able to tell father about this until Olivar leaves, which might take hours. So, I can't ask you to hang around, but I know Aunt Elise wanted to talk to you about learning those healing spells."

"Oh, we had some errands to run, but it's nothing that can't wait for a bit." I say after looking to the girls for their opinion.

"Anything in particular?" He asks. "I can send a servant to fetch it for you."

"We need to find someone to install windows and do some stone stonework for the house." I answer. "Other than that, we were just going to wander around furniture shops looking for inspiration."

"Well, I don't know about windows." He ponders for a short moment. "But, Edsel is your man if you need some stonework done. And, he'll probably know who to talk to about windows too. I'll send a runner to see if he's available."

"Thank you, but you don't need to bother him." I try to turn down his offer.

"Don't be silly." He waves my concern away. "I know he's dying to talk to you more about those bicycle things. This is the perfect opportunity." He goes and calls for a runner before I can stop him.

"So." I turn to the girls. "Feel like chatting with Elise for a bit?"

"Are we still going to stop by my parents later?" Amelia asks.

"Of course." I take her hand in mine. "Hopefully, this won't take more than a couple hours. Maybe you can raid the Baron's library while we're here? If you find something you like, it shouldn't take me too long to make a copy."

"Alright, but I'm still waiting for Frankenstein." She gets a dreamy look on her face while thinking again about all the books stored in my head.

"Help yourselves, please." Holt offers. "Our library may not be the largest, but it does cover a wide range of subjects, and a good half of it is devoted to fictions."

"Well, if you don't mind." Her demure words over-written by the hungry look in her eyes.

"Not at all." He lets out a soft chuckle. "I'll show you where it is and then go tell Aunt Elise that you're is here."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

...

"Ooh, can I copy that map?" It's the first one I've seen since coming here.

"Go ahead." Reinholt nods. "There's several more rolled up in that drawer there, too."

"Thank you." I give him a deep bow and pull out a large sheet of paper and my pigments.

The map on the wall covers this country of Larendath. It's mostly rectangular in shape, bordered on the south and east by the ocean, by tall mountains in the north, and the Janwick River on the west. Riverton sits almost smack dab in the middle of this river.

The southwest corner of the map is just marked as the grasslands, it contains no settlements and only has one road cutting through it. The east is filled with rolling hills and many interconnected settlements. The north is filled with woods and is more sparsely populated.

"That was fast." Holt laughs when he returns with Elise to find that I've copied not only the one on the wall but half of the maps in the drawers as well.

The first one I dug out was a map of the continent. Varecia has six countries, Larendath, Cendassa, Ciranna, Alarath, Asauria, and Elialle. It reminds me somewhat of a stretched out Alaska. Only Canada has been replaced by water, and the Aleutian Peninsula is much larger and curls down to the southeast around an oddly circular gulf.

And, since the whole of the peninsula is marked as the Deadlands. I'm guessing that the gulf didn't used to be a gulf and that the peninsula didn't use to be a peninsula either. The only thing is that Larendath is just to the north of the gulf, and it's not a manaless desert.

"Uh, yeah, I can paint quickly." I say somewhat embarrassed. "I actually would have finished already, but this is my first time getting a look at the lands around here."

"You should read this if you want to learn more." He pulls down a slim volume, simply titled 'Varecia'.

"Thank again." I bow my head to him and take the book. Speaking of books, Amelia has already gathered a large stack of them. Apricot shrank down to sit in her hair and read along.

"Go ahead and finish copying those." Elise says while heading over to a locked cabinet. "It'll take me a moment to get the books we need."

While she's doing that I quickly finish off the rest of the maps. They're just from this continent, though. I really wouldn't mind seeing something of the larger world, but that's just not in the cards for today.

"All done?" Elise beckons me to sit across from her at the other end of the table from Amelia. "Now, healing magic as we perform it is a multi-disciplinary art. You obviously favor nature magic, which is good, but you'll need all the basic elements to be considered a skilled healer."

"Aside from nature magic, I only know storage, cleanse, and a couple of water and fire spells." I say. "But, I've got good mana sensitivity, and have always been able to pick things up quickly."

"Good to hear." She nods and sets a tome titled 'The Healing Arts: Earth Magics' in front of me. "Let's start with earth magic, it's useful for more than just healing broken bones..."

Apricot drifts over once the magic starts flowing. And, with her help, I was able to pick the spells up at a rate that astonished Elise.

"Could we hire you to help train apprentices?" The healer practically begs Apricot after she realized what was happening.

"Nnh, that sounds like work, and we pixies are allergic to work." Apricot scrunches up her nose in the cutest way. "I'm only doing this so that Sorrel doesn't drain himself dry healing people anymore. But... if you had some spare mana stones, I might be persuaded to offer them a few pointers." She starts nibbling on one that we picked up earlier.

"You little glutton." I chuckle and tousle her hair with a finger. "I'm already growing a node and you still want more stones." The node itself has nearly quadrupled in size again. It might have been able to grow more, but most of my focus has been on the magic lesson.

"You can never have too many treats." Her tiny face is filled with an unabashed expression.

"We can pay in mana stones if that's what you want." Elise nods, not caring in the slightest that Apricot is just going to eat them, or that I'm able to grow more.

"How goes the lessons?" Erick's jovial voice calls out from the doorway.

"Better than I could have imagined, thanks to Apricot here." Elise answers, her face filled with pride.

"Don't discount Sorrel too much." The pixie rebuts. "I've known Fae with worse mana sensitivity than him; I only have to give him the odd nudge here and there."

I didn't pick any increases for it when VeeGee let me design my new body, so it must be something innate to being Plantkin, or perhaps me personally. Either way, I'm happy to have it. I'm still going to need a fair bit of practice to internalize these spells, but at least I won't be wasting time walking down false paths.

"Oh, I don't think I'm ever going to discount Sorrel." The baron laughs. "May I see the node?" His eyes shine with interest. "Will you be able to train others to do the same? This could revolutionize enchanting."

"Call Seymour up, and let's find out." I shrug, he's the only other nature mage that I've met. "If anyone has a chance of picking it up, it's him."

"I'll go get him." Holt offers.

"This is probably a good spot to finish our lesson for now." Elise says. "You may know the basic spells, but you need to practice them."

"May I copy these books? And, those for Amelia." I add after the blonde bibliophile clears her throat.

"I was about to give them to you." She laughs. "If it's alright with Erick, you can copy any book you'd like."

"Duplicate the whole library if you want to." He laughs right along with her.

"That might take me a while." I add my own chuckle and start copying the first of the healing books while waiting for Seymour.

"Ah, Sorrel." The gardener says my name. "I take it you have a challenge for me?"

"Mhm." I nod to give myself time to finish the page I'm working on. "What do you know about algae?"

"Pond scum? Not much, I don't do water gardens." I explain to him about algae, and how this pond scum is acting similar to a coral. "So, it's a plant, only not?"

"I'm more surprised that Livingstone is actually an animal, or rather a bunch of tiny ones working together." Reinholt says.

"Well, Seymour." The baron looks at the gardener. "Do you think you can replicate what Sorrel is doing?"

"I can try." When he starts probing the node with his magic I make what I'm doing a little 'noisier' for him. And then, a lot noisier when he just looks confused.

"Close." I nod at his first attempt. "You're still treating it a bit too much like a plant though. Don't focus so much on this part." I send out a pulse of what he did wrong, before correcting it to what he should be doing. "That's better, yeah." I nod again. "It's definitely reacting to you now."

"Can I stop now?" The man winces when his magic slips back to how it was before. "I'm sorry, but it's giving me a headache twisting the magic like that."

"That's fine. Here, this will help with the headache." I hand him a shot of healing sap. "You proved that it's possible, and that's all we needed. Though, I may ask you to demonstrate again tomorrow."

"Have some more of this ready for me, and I'll be glad to." He looks relieved. "Can I get back to the garden now?"

"Yes, and thank you." Erick nods to the man. "How well did he do?" He asks after Seymour leaves.

"I'd say he could brighten up the one at the guild house, but would have trouble making it grow a gem." I reply. "But, he's pretty set in his ways, so it might be better to start with someone younger and train them up."

"Mhm, unfortunately, people with nature magic affinities are somewhat rare." He strokes his chin, deep in thought. "Elise, would you care to give it a shot? It's not your focus, but you at least have some experience from healing."

"Show me how you do it again." She is more flexible than Seymour, but her nature magic is more animal-focused. "Nng. Oh! Oh wow." She exclaims when Apricot steps in to help her. "That is remarkable." And, it seems to do the trick, as the healer manages it on her own the very next try.

"Why didn't you help Seymour?"

"Eh, he got close enough on his own, but I could see that Elise wasn't going to." Short, sweet, and to the point. That's Apricot.

"How's everything going up here?" Edsel asks, stepping into the room.

"Ed." I'd completely forgotten about him. "Oh man, I'm sorry. I got caught up in all this." I gesture to the healing book that I still need to finish copying.

"No worries, I was just chatting with Gran." He waves away my concern. "You know he's still working on that chocolate? Says the grind still isn't fine enough yet."

"Hah." I shake my head after a snort of a laugh escapes. "Have a seat, we're done with the lesson, and I just need to copy some of these books. But, I can do that while we talk. Elise, it's going to suck you dry if you keep pumping mana in like that."

"Hehe." She has a surprisingly girlish laugh. "I guess you're not the only one that gets caught up in things."

"Well, she proved that it works." Erick says with a smile for his cousin. "I'm not sure it'd be worth it for anyone that can't quickly refill their mana like you. I may not be very sensitive, but even I felt how much mana she was pushing into the node."

"Yeah, if she could focus it tightly, that might have gotten her a stone and a half from the one at the guild house."

"Closer to two." Apricot interjects. "But, yeah. She's almost drained now. Not really worth it for not quite two mana stones."

"It might be worth it to the enchanters." I counter. "They could contract people, offer to power level them in a dungeon in exchange for enough mana stones to make it profitable."

"Good idea." Erick nods. "But the nearest open dungeon is in Ciranna, and they tax access to it very heavily. Oh, don't get me wrong all this is more than enough to get people onto Rozelle's side. Especially if her new apprentice offers them a discount on mana stones."

"Though, Olivar is sure to raise a stink." Holt adds with a grin.

"True." Erick strokes his chin. "It's probably not needed, but it would help if you were her apprentice in more than just name."

"Would wowing them with my math work?" I retrieve the primer from storage and flip to a page near the back at random, and take a few seconds to answer the problem on it. "I'm afraid to even crack open that dictionary just yet. Not with all these new healing spells floating around in my head."

"Oh, I can't wait to see Olivar's face when you do that in front of him tomorrow." The baron's son lets out a deep belly laugh.

"Yes, that will be quite the treat." Erick agrees. "Alright, we've got business to take care of. Just leave the books on the table when you're done; Carl gets upset when anyone messes up his shelves."

***