Since more people had taken up residence in my tree tower, we had instituted a more strict common room protocol. Boys weren’t allowed in the girl’s room and girls weren’t allowed in the boys room. That way the boys could have their dumb macho games and tomfoolery, and us girls could have our girl time. It allowed everyone to chill out without the whole gender tension thing.

It also meant that everyone had started hanging out down on the balcony level during the day, so that’s where we were headed. Well, assuming we arrived there before everyone had decided to go to bed. Goodness gracious, we needed an elevator. Well, that and a non-binary floor if we had any enbies join.

Stepping out onto the enclosed balcony of my tree, Grace and I came to a stop, surprised by what we found. Cad, Otho, Troy, and Bray all playing cards and joking around like they’d known each other for years. It looked like Otho and Troy were translating between Cad and Bray, who appeared to not give much of a damn about their language barrier.

“Well, looks like I was worrying over nothing,” I said in Anve, giving Cad a smile as we approached. “They treating you well?”

Cad glanced up at me and smiled happily. He’d taken a bath since we last saw him, and there was a little bowl of nuts and dried fruit next to him that he was snacking on.

“They’re teaching me cards!” he said, motioning to the in progress game of Scum, I think. I could never be sure, card games weren’t really my thing. Also he pronounced the word cards with such a funny accent that I had to smile.

“Well, that’s good,” I replied, pulling a seat up from a nearby table. Grace placed her chair next to mine, close enough that I could lean sideways into her slightly. “Troy, did you talk to Cad about a potential job as a quartermaster and merchant for the order? I figured he’d be a good fit to get us some local knowledge.”

"Plus," Grace said, once I was done. "Otho will need some help."

Otho, a wry smile quirking his lips, nodded, "I may be Stonechaser, but I'm not too familiar with Anve or Aber lands, so he would fill in a lot of my knowledge gaps."

A round of nodding rolled around the table, except in Bray's case. "What are you all talking about?" He asked, bewildered.

"Cad will be joining us as a merchant and quartermaster of sorts," Troy explained in english.

My eyebrows rose when Bray’s reaction was a big smile and a fist pump. “Hell yeah! We need more boys around here.”

Beside me, Grace growled, and I had to place a hand on her arm to still her.

“I-I mean, because I’m… well, look, gender equality goes both ways okay…” he stammered, eyes wide as my girlfriend glared at him. “I'm just saying… stop looking at me like that, you know what I mean!”

Finally, her glare collapsed into laughter. “I’m just messing with you dude, I get it.”

Grace’s eyes were dancing with cheeky amusement as she turned and met my gaze. We’d both turned to each other at the same time, and seeing her like that made my heart do a happy little binky.

I leaned in and kissed her lightly, and pulled back with hopeful ideas about tonight. Which made me remember…

“Hey Troy,” I blurted, pointing my biggest, hardest hitting puppy dog look at him. “I’m going to take the day off tomorrow with Grace, unless there’s anything urgent…”

From behind me, a voice I hadn’t heard in a few days gave a wry chuckle. “Ryn, my dear, until your friends have their translocation rings, you will be getting no breaks.”

“Esra!” I squealed, bolting up out of my chair so fast it began to tip over. Shifting it out of the way with my telekinesis so I could get to her was an instinctual afterthought, and with it gone I jumped at her.

My mage-mother gave a surprised grunt as my arms wrapped around her, and after a few moments, I had to take a step back and stare at her. Something was different.

Trailing an inquisitive gaze over her, I first noticed her sly, curious smile, which proved that there was something different. Then, I kept going, but it was either too subtle for me to pick out, or I was missing something blindingly obvious. Was it her hair? No, that was the same as ever, silver-blue and elegantly controlled by a tight bun. Maybe it was— 

“Oh my god!” I blurted, realising what had changed. “Your skin is… it’s… well you don’t look quite so raisiny now!”

She cringed as if I’d just said her favourite perfume smelled like shit and gently cuffed me with a hand. “Rynadria!” she exclaimed. “I’ll have you know that I have been delving into the secrets of microbiology and genetics, thank you very much. The knowledge of your Avonside University is… astounding. My softer, more youthful skin is the result of this research.”

Hold on, what? I stared at her, really stared at her, flabbergasted as I realised what she was saying. “You… you figured out how to stop and reverse aging?”

“Not quite,” she sighed, rubbing at one of her eyes with a tired smile. “I have discovered how to leverage my hafornsu in such a way as to reverse much of the damage that aging has done. It is, unfortunately, not perfect, and is by no means a true fountain of youth. However, I am rather proud of what I have accomplished in such a short time.”

“Deservedly so,” Troy said from the table, nodding in respect. “You look good.”

Esra froze just as she was about to continue her explanation and stared over my shoulder at him. I turned to watch the exchange and squashed a smile. Troy was just sitting there, cards still in hand, innocently staring over at the older woman he had so effectively derailed.

“Yes, well,” she finally muttered, waving her hand dismissively. “The… intention was to stop this damned body from falling apart around me. Any newly regained youthful beauty is just a side effect.”

“What’s a hafornsu?” Cad asked curiously, seeing as we were speaking in Anve. Next to him, Bray muttered something about needing to get started on learning, “Alien gibberish.”

“A mage has two bodies,” I said, allowing my greenery to show with a gesture at myself. The usual vines and magenta flowers sprouted up in my hair, while my skin turned green and purple. “A human one and a plant-based one. The fancy-shmancy name for the plant one is hafornsu.”

“Fancy-shmancy… what does this word mean?” Esra asked, giving me a suspicious look.

Fighting a shit-guzzling grin, I replied without pause, “It’s another word for a scientific name.”

Annoyingly, Troy came to her rescue with a gentle laugh and a shake of his head. “It is a sort of slang or light hearted insult that can be directed at anything intelligent.”

Damn it Troy! It would have been hilarious if she’d used it in conversation later on.

My mage-mother gave me a sidelong look of annoyance but otherwise continued, “I see… well, regardless, Catherine and I have been using the knowledge of your people to refine and develop many treatments involving drastic restructuring of the human body. So far, we are in preliminary stages, but we have hope. That is also not what I came here to discuss with you all. Rynadria, if we could take a seat?”

The last was said with a gesture to my forgotten chair, and for once I did as I was told, sitting down in the seat like a good girl. My obedience was mostly due to the fact that pointing out the chair had reminded me that Grace was there and ready to snuggle up to.

Taking her hand, I flashed her a little smile and laid my head down on her shoulder. It was funny, people often said that you “grew out of” the whole touchy feely lovey dovey phase, but we definitely hadn’t. If anything, I just wanted to touch her more. Like, how was I meant to just keep my hands to myself when she was so fucking beautiful? Maybe I was just an overly emotional and touch-oriented person? I should ask Grace about it later.

Once Esra was seated, suspiciously close to Troy, I might add, she placed a shoebox sized wooden container on the table. She’d had the thing casually hovering out of sight, using just her mind the whole time. My grumpy mage-mother had a penchant for the dramatic sometimes.

“These,” she said, gesturing to the rough oaken box. “Are the translocation rings you wanted. I have already passed through your new plaza and planted the beacon crystal in place. You have forty to begin with, and I’ll leave the instructions and materials needed to make more with you, Ryn. It’s a tricky spell, so follow the procedure to the letter, please.”

“Oh, nice!” I said, reaching forward to open the box like the impatient gremlin that I was. “Guess I can have that break after all, huh?”

“Indeed,” she replied, rolling her eyes and swatting at my hands. “Did you hear what I said, young lady?”

“A-ah…” I blinked, withdrawing out of range. “Yes… follow the instructions to make more rings, don’t not follow the instructions.”

She gave me another stern look, but nodded, “Precisely. Do make sure you remember that, please?”

Damn, I had a reputation, huh?

“How do we use them?” Troy asked, getting to the point rather than let me keep baiting Esra.

“If you are outside the grove, simply think of the beacon and pull yourself to it within your mind’s eye,” Esra explained. “If you are within, push yourself away. You will feel it when you try. They are designed to be intuitive, I’m sure after a little experimentation you will all grasp the technique.”

“Sounds like what we do,” I noted absently, already wondering what else we could do with the rings. If all fully vetted members of the order were going to have them, it might be good to build more functionality into them.

“Well, thank you very much Esra,” Troy said with a sincere smile. “This will accelerate our schedule considerably. Access to and from the grove has been by far our most frustrating bottleneck.”

“Ah,” my mage-mother began, blinking rapidly. Gosh, was this really happening? Was Esra the all powerful and ancient mage, getting all blushy from Troy’s quiet appreciation? “It’s what I do,” she replied simply, after taking a moment to steady herself. “And, although my own drive to better this gods forsaken ring has sadly decayed, your cause is one I find more than worthy.”

Eyes lighting up with an idea, Troy asked, “Speaking of, if it’s okay with you, could we grab dinner sometime in the next few days? I’d love to pick your brain for details on the political situation nearby, who the major players are, that kind of thing.”

“I… I am sure I will be available,” she replied, still struggling with her rapidly reddening complexion.

“Excellent,” our glorious leader said with what passed for a dashing smile on his face. “Thank you. Oh, and you two,” he continued, directing his gaze at Grace and myself. “You’re free to take a few days off whenever you want. I’m not your boss, after all.”

“Pretty sure you are,” Grace replied with a chuckle. “But thanks, we really needed it.”

“Does that mean we can get back to our card game?” Bray asked, looking a little grumpy. “I mean, assuming the tone you're using is like, oh we’re finishing with business now. Is Anve one of those crazy languages that does tone stuff? God I need to learn like, three… fuck my life.”

“Mood.” Grace agreed with a sigh. “Fucking mood.”

Okay… maybe Catherine and I should figure out how to deal with that problem too. Or something. After our weekend, obviously. That was reserved for cuddling and making love. Oh, and kissing, how could I forget kissing? Gods, I was so excited. Excited and hungry, actually. I wonder what my buns were up to...

QuietValerie

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