34: The Tour

Dinner was quick, warming up travel food didn’t really take long and wasn’t much more appetising that way. I needed to create some food related plants as soon as possible. Coming back to the grove in the future after a day of travelling and picking some fruit to eat along with the hard tack and dried meat would be amazing.

We made sure to put the fire out, then approached the huge ramp that ran up the top of a root. There weren’t any railings as such, but the actual smooth wood of the path was carved about a foot into the root, giving us clear guides. I realised that I had made a mistake as we walked up the path towards the open front door. This was going to become one hell of a water slide when it rained. I’d need to fix that when the next storm rolled around though. I certainly didn’t have enough growth magic within me to fix it manually and the reserves down in the aquifer were almost drained.

The big entryway itself would need to have a gate made for it eventually, but for now it stood open. Stepping across the threshold, we found ourselves in the vast entry hall and the initial impression of the place had a slow self satisfied smile pulling at my lips. Oh my gosh, it was gorgeous. The floors were the creamy colour of fir wood, organically smooth as though it had been polished for decades. The outer walls where they could be seen were bark, while any that didn’t edge with the outside were the same light colour as the floor.

The staircase railings were wrapped and twisted vines, delicate light giving flowers providing a dull glow from the supports. The walls were littered with them too where they sprouted almost at random. The effect was like a night full of little flower shaped fireflies that lit the room with a muted orange-yellow glow. It was like we’d stepped into a fairy tale elven hall or something.

“This is… wow,” Grace mumbled from beside me.

I turned to her with a grin. “Isn’t it?”

“How far up does it go? How many floors?” Adam asked in wonder, his voice echoing as he walked into the middle of the room and looked around.

“So far there’s twenty or so, but until I figure out a lift or something, I don’t think we’ll be going up too far,” I smiled, pointing to the spiral staircase that began above us. “That’s the only way up or down right now.”

“Right, the old sky scraper problem,” Kit nodded thoughtfully. “We really need to get you some books in magic. Damn, I’m so jealous about the whole magic thing.”

“I’ll be able to turn others into mages one day,” I said, glancing a grin at Grace. “We’ll work on that part.”

“Future mages aside, how did you set everything up? How many baths, bedrooms etcetera?” Troy asked, a grin on even his face. I enjoyed getting full, genuine emotions out of the stoic man.

“Three baths and bathrooms, then all the other floors are empty. I have some reserve energy that I’ve saved to use in creating interior walls as needed. I figured we’d see how much space we had and how much people needed, then create some bedrooms and stuff,” I shrugged, then pointed to the staircase. “Should we go and see?”

“Lead on, lady of the house,” he said with a gesture forwards.

I did so, taking them up the huge central staircase. It was magical really, and not in the literal sense. Sure, I was walking up a staircase I had created in my mind and willed into existence with wild and barely tamed powers, but it was also all mine and that made it so much more magical to me. It was all one hundred percent mine and no one could try to claim otherwise without brute force magical attack. I had a home, a place of safety, and it was beautiful.

We moved up into the large, circular balcony and living room area and I stopped briefly to explain my plans for it. I saw people lounging in the warm sun, reading a book or working on some portable craft. Hell, even typing on laptops or whatever. I wanted a sort of calm cafe vibe with it, plenty of tables and comfy armchairs and sofas, that kind of thing.

Then it was time to go up the stairs. The first floor was a bathroom and toilet that would service the areas below as well as two floors above, so we headed in and I showed them around. The single bathroom stalls were especially dim, and we didn’t have toilet paper. I’d forgotten sinks too… damn, I’d have to make a list or something. We’d have to wash our hands in the bath canal after it had left the bath itself.

The bathroom itself was… well, mood-lit is the term I think. The firefly flowers dotted the walls and roof, and I already had ideas to add a few variations on the colour when I had time to experiment. Grace didn’t care about any of that though, because when she dipped her hand into the warm, clean water of the bath she gave an audible moan that had the insides of my thighs tingling.

“I know you promised to make me a real bath Ryn, but this is amazing,” she told me with a funny looking expression on her face. It was like her eyes were drinking me or something, the way she was staring.

“I did hope you’d like it,” I smiled, feeling a little shy all of a sudden.

“Before you run off to claim one of the upstairs baths for yourself, let’s sort out bedroom arrangements. I think that if we have the chance, each of us would like some privacy. We’ve been in each other’s company for nearly a month and a half now and after that skirmish yesterday I think we could do with some rest,” Troy said, moving us forward. I think he might have been a little tired and just wanted us to get a move on.

With a round of nods from everyone, I ushered them all back into the stairwell and up to where I figured I wanted the bedrooms. The empty floors were really just that, a huge space about one hundred feet in diameter.

“So uh, I guess for now we can use this floor for bedrooms?” I said, motioning around. “I can make the interior walls however we need them. We won’t have doors or anything though, I think we’ll need to get them made later on.”

“Alright,” Troy nodded, his expression thoughtful. “Until we have doors then, I think it might be good for yourself and Grace to have a floor for yourselves? If that’s alright, this is your domain after all.”

Glancing over at the other girl in the party to see what she thought, I saw her nodding enthusiastically. “Yes, definitely a good idea,” she said quickly.

“Alright, uh, I’m thinking maybe a central hang out area and then have the rooms running off like spokes on a wheel,” I told them.

They all agreed, and so I took hold of the residual growth energy around us in the tree and changed the blueprints to match what I wanted. The floor was enormous at around ninety feet across, so all the rooms would be rather large, even giving a huge amount of space to the central common room. I created new light giving flowers in each of the rooms and then since I didn’t actually need to be up there for it to work, I did the floor above us in the same way for Grace and I.

“Alright, done!” I said as the walls were finishing their own construction. I’d designed the walls to be very insulating and heavily soundproof, in case that was needed by anyone. It might help keep things private even with the empty holes where the doors should be.

“Damn, this is… it feels a little like cheating,” Kit murmured in appreciation. “Not that it actually is, but if you could replicate this back at Avonside… a lot of our problems would be solved.”

Troy barked out a surprised laugh and turned to look at Kit, “Damn, I didn’t even think of that. Why didn’t that cross my mind? It seems so obvious now. We’d need more than just Ryn as far as mages go, but it could solve some future problems we’re bound to run into.”

“Strategy talk tomorrow, sleep now,” Grace groaned, already moving back towards the stairwell. “Coming Ryn?”

“Goodnight girls,” Adam laughed, waving as I followed my impatient friend.

There was a round of goodnights from the rest of them as we followed the spiral stair up to our own floor, which had already finished its transformation.

“So uh, we take separate rooms?” Grace asked, staring around the expansive space. Damn, it needed furniture.

“I… guess so,” I said quietly, doing my best to hide my disappointment. I liked sleeping in the same room as her now. It made me feel safe.

“Alright, I guess it’s goodnight to you too?” she said with an odd expression, not quite meeting my eyes.

“Yeah… I guess so,” I smiled awkwardly, but I didn’t make a move towards any of the rooms.

We stood there for what felt like minutes, but was probably only seconds. What was going on? Why was this so awkward?

Abruptly, Grace took a few quick steps towards me, pulling me into a brief hug. Then she was off towards one of the rooms, disappearing inside. I was deeply confused now, my poor heart struggling to beat back the emotions that threatened it.

I made my way towards the room next to Grace’s and dumped my pack by the door. Time to try and sleep I guess.

****

“Hello everyone, sorry for all this confusion. I’m happy to say that the University doesn’t appear to be in any… immediate danger,” said the old man from admin, his cheerful tone raising the hair on the back of my neck. “We all ask that you be patient while the staff try to get an understanding of the situation we find ourselves in. What I can tell you right now is that we are running on backup power generators situated within the university grounds. We are not receiving power from the outside world.”

“Yeah and what world is that?” Duncan yelled over the heads of the gym that was packed full of university staff and students.

The old administrator opened his mouth to speak, but rather than words, a sudden, deadly beam of red energy lanced out, slicing Duncan in two at the waist. I stared in horror as the two halves of my friend’s body slid away from each other, charred innards slopping out onto the floor. People were screaming now, struggling to get up and out of the gym, an enormous steel one bursting impossibly from within the old administrator.

Bray was cut down next, stray fire from the shoulder mounted auto cannons tearing him into chunks even after he’d already died to the first bolts. Watching the raw meat of his body twitch with the shots sent me dry heaving as my confused mind tried to process what was happening.

People were dying everywhere around us in brutal ways as the walls came tumbling down, more steel ones climbing over the rubble to claim us all for the grasping hands of death. It was just like the battle outside the village, people screaming, crying, dying. Nowhere was safe this time, there was no cocky mage to save us, only more particle beams lancing through the air, motes of dust sparkling along their length as they were incinerated.

“Hey, Ryn!” Grace said, from next to me, looking worried but far less worried than she should have been. “Ryn, it’s okay. It’s okay. I have you, it’s okay. You’re safe.”

The words of Grace in the Avonside gym became the words of Grace in my dimly lit room, and I stared at one of the glowing flowers on the ceiling above me for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on. I blinked, sleep grinding in the corners of my eyes. Where were the steel ones? They’d been killing everyone!

“It’s okay Ryn, just a nightmare. You’re safe,” Grace repeated, her voice gentle and soothing.

“Nightmare?” I asked groggily, trying to take stock of where I was.

Grace was kneeling next to where I’d put my blankets, leaning awkwardly over me to stroke her fingers through my hair. My back hurt from the wooden floor and I’d worked up a cold sweat as I had the… nightmare. It had just been a nightmare, not real. Bray and Duncan would still be alive. I let out an unsteady, desperate breath. They had to be.

“Yeah, you were crying out and whimpering, I could hear you from my room,” she murmured with another gentle caress of my hair.

“Need you,” I mumbled, my voice heavy with sleep and my arm reaching up to clutch at her baggy shirt. “Safe with Grace. Please stay.”

Grace’s voice was surprised as she said, “Oh, uh… let me go and get my blankets then?”

“Okay,” I sighed tiredly, letting go of her shirt. Grace padded quietly out the room and I lay back against the smooth, hard floor.

I just needed her. She made me feel safe with her presence, the subtle smell of her on the air when she was around, the gentle way she was always looking out for me. The not so gentle ways she was looking out for me too, ready to get physical with people who might hurt me. Bray had been a little like that too, but where Bray had been slightly selfish, Grace was nothing but wholesome to my eyes.

“Ryn… um, where do you want me?” she asked hesitantly from the doorway.

I made a flailing motion in the general direction of right next to me and she nodded, walking over to set herself up. I was probably crossing a few lines here, but when she lay down I shuffled up next to her, our arms and legs touching along their lengths.

“Oh, hello,” she said with a gasp.

“Goodnight,” I whispered, sleep already claiming me again as the presence of my best friend signaled to my subconscious mind that everything was okay. I couldn’t tell for sure, but right before I fell asleep, I swear Grace put her arm around me.