I lay there in the messed up sheets as Grace held me, panting as I slowly came down from her latest tender efforts. What time was it even? Did time still exist? I felt like I was in some looney toons skit where the poor talking animal bounced down some stairs, each thump on their way down pausing for comedic effect. Except… instead of comedy, it was pleasure, and instead of being embarrassed, I felt delighted and loved.

"I love you," I whispered, my voice struggling after what it had just been put through.

Grace chuckled, sweet and caring. "I heard. I think your whole grove heard."

"I was enjoying myself," I pouted, although she couldn't see it with my head tucked up under her chin as it was.

"I definitely enjoyed you."

Gosh, she was being so… so… assertive right now. Confident even. I loved it, seeing her like this, any hint of self consciousness evaporated and replaced with raw seduction. The way she’d ridden my thigh a few times as she fingered me to get herself off — holy moly. I wanted to have a turn making her feel good at some point, but right then I was made of jelly and she hadn't asked, so…@@novelbin@@

"My thigh muscles won't stop twitching, and I can feel my, um— it's pulsing," I complained, although I definitely didn't mean it in a negative light. "When you used your tongue, and your fingers were… deep — wow. I liked this body before, but now — that was amazing."

"Oh, true, you didn't grow up with that," she mused, fingers brushing delicately through my hair. "You went through puberty having to make do with those other bits as you experimented. Must be fascinating to see the difference."

Oh no… here comes embarrassment. “I never actually… you know, experimented. I couldn’t bear to touch it much, so yeah — mostly just uncomfortable wet dreams. That was the first waking sexual experience I’ve ever had.”

“Wait… you never masturbated?” she blurted, sounding shocked.

“Well… that’s not entirely true. I tried… once,” I cringed, remembering the terrible mental pain that had caused. “I didn’t get very far. It hurt too much, not physically — but mentally.”

“Oh, my sweet Ryn,” she sighed, her arms pressing tight around me. “I’m admittedly one of those people who’ve never really thought about what it must be like for trans girls like you. I just didn’t have the reason to think about it… I mean I was always supportive, but in a vague, It’s the right thing to do, sense. I’m sorry you had it that hard.”

You and everyone else, Grace. “Most people don’t think about us, or even try to understand us. They might hate us, they might support us… But they don’t ever really make the effort to actually understand us.”

“Doesn’t stop them trying to make laws about you though, does it,” Grace said, her voice edging over into anger. Now that was a topic that never failed to throw me into both despair and anger.

“Yeah,” I sighed. I’d never had to deal with the stigma of being visibly trans, but I’d felt every hateful word spoken about us. I’d felt the blind, kneejerk disgust that people had when the news reported on someone who was trans. That wasn’t even taking into account what it felt like to grow up being forced into the “male” box — when it had felt so gut-wrenchingly wrong.

“At least we don’t have to deal with that anymore,” she murmured, nuzzling into my hair. “We have enough power between us to make our own laws now. It’s a slightly scary thought, but we could basically just bend the entire of Avonside to our will and there isn't jack shit they could do about it.”

“That is a really scary thought. I’m not sure I want to force anyone into anything.” I told her slowly, anxiety swelling. I really didn’t want to be in charge of anything, let alone Avonside. Responsibility was scary and confusing, and I’d probably suck at it.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Although if things are going badly…”

“We’ll step in, for sure,” I sighed, already knowing that at some point, I was going to have to throw my weight around when we got back. Before I left, it had been fairly obvious that some people saw themselves as kings or queens, and that now was their opportunity to turn ego-fantasy into reality.

“Glad we’re on the same page,” she said, giving me a little kiss on the forehead. “We should probably sleep now, though.”

Yeah. I was in heaven — no need to ruin it with dark thoughts. I couldn't ask for more than this. Wrapped up in Grace’s arms like this, no immediate worries and a full stomach. “Fine, we can sleep now.”

I was sure we were going to wake up too late for the meeting with the weird mages association, but to my surprise we actually managed to wake up at the usual time. We definitely needed a bath though, and our sheets needed changing. I was a little grossed out that we slept in that mess, now that the excitement of it all was over, but oh well. A subtle word to my buns and the task was as good as done. I swear Cream had been smirking at me when I asked, though.

I felt like I’d just had the best sleep of my life, so my mood was high. Although, my muscles were heartily disagreeing with that sentiment until I let them soak in the hot bath. In the past I was vaguely aware that sex was a lot of exercise, but no one had warned me that it used all sorts of muscles I didn’t know I even possessed.

After that, it was time to get dressed in my full outfit, coat, scarf and all. I needed to wear the nicest clothing I had, which unfortunately wasn’t much really. It was worn and travel stained by now, which reminded me that I needed to go and get myself a new wardrobe.

“Hey guys,” I smiled, trying my best not to full on skip into the room ahead of Grace. I felt good alright?

“Morning girls,” Troy replied, giving us both a quick smile before he looked down at his food again.

Kit gave us both a shy smile, then looked down again too. He seemed to be sort of down right now, which had me wondering. He always looked sort of subdued, like life wasn’t wholly engaging to him, but today he looked downright depressed. Time for a bun to go cuddle him.

Adam on the other hand, glanced up with a smile that slowly turned into a look of delight as he stared between Grace and I. “What?” I asked, feeling a little self conscious.

“Nothing,” he shrugged, giving a wink to us both. “You just look happy.”

“I am happy,” I grumbled, sitting down at the table. What was he trying to insinuate there anyway?

My eyes fell on the food sitting in the middle, and I tilted my head at him. “You cooked?”

He gave a wry laugh. “Sorta, I had help,” he said, motioning to the buns.

“Wait, the buns helped you cook?” I asked, eyes going wide.

“Yup,” he nodded. “Asked the black one with the fluffy white patch in the middle of its ears if it wanted to help, just as a joke. Then the little dude fucking nodded and suddenly I had a bunch of fuzzy little apprentice chefs around me. If we had pen and paper I swear they would have been taking notes.”

“I had one of your bunnies watching me do my morning exercises too,” Troy remarked, pointing to his emotional support bun. “Then he started copying me.”

“They are smart,” Kit agreed, patting the bun that had found its way to the side of his chair. “Possibly as intelligent as kids or something. I’ve noticed that they are very good learners.”

“Yet another thing I need to look into when I get the time,” I murmured, patting Cream’s head as she hopped up to me. “Yeah, that’s right,” I smiled down, scritching between her ears. “I’m going to teach you people things.”

With a flick of an ear and a tilt of her head, she started nudging at me with her forehead repeatedly while making little sounds. I needed to figure out what all these behaviours meant, then I might actually be able to communicate with my little friends.

After a small breakfast, we left to find the place where we were going to meet up with the Stonechaser twins. Mer, Troy, and of course, Grace would be accompanying me to the meeting with the mages, while the others would be hanging out nearby in case we needed the backup. Once we found the twins it was off towards our meeting with the magic people.

The venue they picked was nice — the outside of the freestanding stone structure had been carved into friezes that depicted various nature scenes. The local version of deer were prancing in meadows, while predators lurking in the shadows. They’d been painted too, or maybe stained with dye was a better word. It was pretty.

The door was made of wood too, without the overuse of metal to keep it cost-effective. It still boggled my mind that wood was more expensive than metal around here. Boy oh boy were they going to love trading with Avonside if we ever got around to like, roads and stuff. That, and figuring out our sovereignty, since technically we were in the Empire of Ghraiga. I didn’t envy whoever got that diplomatic job.

Troy went first, pushing the large wooden double doors open and holding them for the group. The interior of the place was opulent in the obrec style — more carved stone, iron accents, and beautifully crafted wooden furniture. They also had several paintings on the walls, which showed more nature scenes with a few religious ones thrown in every now and then. I think I even recognised one that was meant to be Ollinfer.

They didn’t have a front desk like you’d expect at an Earth restaurant. Instead, a waiter met us at the door, politely asking if we were, “Ryn of Avonside’s party.” When he got a yes, he led us off through a side door and down a wide corridor. Stopping at one of the many doors down its length, he opened it, bowed, and bid us to enter.

The sound of chairs scraping on stone heralded our arrival as the magic society — or whatever their name was — stood up to greet us. The room turned out to be a private dining room, with a window across the far wall, a heavy wooden table in the middle. The dark, stately aesthetic of the room was tied together with several paintings of regal banquets, battles, and landscape paintings of Millowhall. There were even a few curtained nooks that I suspected held servants or hid side passages or something.

“Greetings Lady Ryn, Greetings!” the guy — whose name I couldn’t remember — said with a deep bow. “Thank you so much for gracing us with your presence.”

“Nah, Grace is that one,” I mumbled under my breath, subtly pointing to the girl in question with my chin.

At a volume they could actually hear, I bowed back and replied, “Uh yeah. Thanks for having us.”

Next to me, Grace started making funny breathing sounds, and I glanced over to see her struggling to hold in a laugh. She flicked a glare in my direction as payment for my inappropriately timed joke. I gave her a little smile in return.

“Yes, well… it is not every day we have a mage of your power and skill visit us, especially one whose reputation has only recently… shall we say… surfaced,” he said, tripping over the last part.

As we all got seated, I thought about what to say to that. Did I come out with the fact that I was actually a novice? That seemed like a pretty terrible idea.

“Yeah, a reputation can get you killed these days,” I said sobrely. “With Fennimore hunting anyone he thinks is a threat… well it’s best to keep a low profile. Even the most powerful mage cannot defend their assets against an army of magic wielders forever.”

I didn't point out the part where I was very much not doing a good job at staying under the radar. I mean, throwing resources and money around in Millowhall had been why these folks cared about me in the first place.

“Yes, very true, very true,” he agreed, looking sort of impressed, although I think he was trying to hide it.

Beside him, an obrec woman who didn’t look to be a mage, but was wearing a few pieces of small and obvious magical tech, cleared her throat. “If I may… my name is Claih, and it’s been noticed amongst us that you travel with another mage here…”

She’d indicated Grace, and I smiled at the fact they had noticed her. She was just as important as I was.

“This is Grace. She isn’t a mage as such, but rather a strange hybrid. The origin of her powers is a secret we are not willing to discuss, but what I can say is that she is part warlock and part… something else, something not seen before,” I told them, unable to keep a small, satisfied smile from creeping onto my lips. I was starting to do pretty well at this, if I did say so myself.

“Very interesting,” the leader man murmured, giving Grace a nod. Claih smiled at her as well, her eyes lighting up with academic interest.

“I’m the choir to her conductor,” Grace said quietly in english, giving me a loving look that had my heart doing little flips. Damn she was gorgeous when she was giving me those soulful looks.

“Yes, well, shall we order food before we get to business? The grilled fernbeam is absolutely amazing, if you are unfamiliar with the menu here,” the leader guy said amicably. Wait, Carac was his name!

“Sure, food sounds lovely,” I said with another diplomatic smile. Woo, go me! Ryn of Avonside, the Diplomat! Now if only my heart would stop hammering in my chest whenever it was time for me to say something...