Ryn of Avonside

We said goodbye to the Stonechasers on the other side of the gatehouse, with the promise that we’d come to them if we needed help. I replied that I’d have a lot of stuff to sell later, but we had business to get to first. Having memorised the inn they were staying at, we headed out in search of our friends. They were undoubtedly in the city, at least according to my tracking spell, so we picked a street that went in their direction and began to walk.

The city was as amazing from the inside as it was from the outside — bustling with obrec, humans and a few other races I’d never seen before. Magic was everywhere too, the gentle smell of it permeating the air like a subtle air-freshener to my mage senses. I was starting to realise that the Anve kingdoms, duchies and princedoms might actually be a backwater in this region, as evidenced by the sheer size of this place compared to any of the other cities we’d been to thus far.

After the scene at the gate, I was on the look out for cultural clues too, and the most obvious was the lack of wood. Wherever it was possible to swap it out for some other material, they had done so. For example, a few doors were wooden, with steel reinforcements, but many appeared to be made of multiple hides glued together, with wicker reinforcement between the layers. The stone that most buildings were carved out of was mostly the same muted grey as the natural stone from around here, but the tile roofing looked like fired terracotta and clay, with some shale thrown in every now and then.

The terrace we found ourselves on was as wide as any normal city street, with vendors hawking their wares on either side as we progressed into the city. They gave the center of the street a wide berth though, due to sporadic guards patrols who make sure the wagon traffic was able to move smoothly.

It was odd, really, because as many differences as I could spot, there were twice as many familiarities. It led me to think that due to their domains’ physical proximity, maybe human and obrec culture had sort of bled together over the years.

We had to cross the chasm to get to where Adam’s ring was, and that meant walking over one of the many huge bridges that spanned it. I’m pretty sure the engineers back at Avonside would have a field day with this whole city, but they’d cream themselves over the bridges. They were some gorgeous examples of that timeless engineering staple.

We found, in the end, that the tracking spell wasn’t pointing across the chasm at all, but rather to an inn that was actually in the bridge. The inn, and many similar buildings along the huge span of stone, only had the common room and stables on the same level as the main thoroughfare. The rest — I was guessing as we approached it — was underneath, built into the structure that we walked on.

“Damn, this place is incredible,” Grace remarked as we approached the inn. “This bridge is bigger than that one back in that other city. The one made by the ring builders.”

“Yeah, not as long though,” I agreed, glancing around before pushing the door open.

A cheeky expression came over her and she gave me a sly smile, “So… it’s shorter but girthier?”

“Please, no dick talk,” I groaned, rolling my eyes. “I just managed to get rid of mine… and I’m not sure I want to see one ever again.”

Suddenly she was all blushes as we stepped inside the building. “What about a strap? I have one back at uni,” she mumbled, causing my eyebrows to rise and my stomach to do little flips. Oh my goodness gracious… that sounded… wow. And she’d use it… on me? I quivered at the thought.

I shook my head slightly to clear it and glanced around the room instead. Along the back wall was a massive window done in a style that would’ve been considered old on earth — diamonds of glass set into a lattice of soft metal, possibly lead. Light filtered through that lattice and into the common room on sparkling dust-filled streamers, bathing everything it a dappled yellow glow.

The tables were all smooth, carved stone, carefully crafted to be structurally sound while still movable if the need required it. Metal was used here too as a way to strengthen sections that had once been weak. The chairs were wooden, although they appeared to have been crafted from wood that had fallen to the forest floor, rather than cut down. The Obrec used so much metal in every aspect of construction, I was starting to think they might have an abundance of the stuff. It boded well for any shopping I might do for materials.

On the far side of the room, beside the large window, sat the hearth. It was a huge stone thing that appeared to be burning coal or some other material — it definitely wasn’t wood. The lengths these people went to protect their forests was incredible.

As for the people in the room, there were all sorts, although most of the patrons were obrec. One couple in the back appeared to be some sort of shorter, more animalistic race. Their bodies were thickly furred, with massive manes tumbling down their backs. They looked for all the world like stubby little humanoid lions with even more fuzz than usual. They were kinda cute, in a menacing, dwarfy sort of way.

Of course, our eyes weren’t really on most of the patrons in the room, but rather the group off to the side, where three guys in black armour sat. Adam was the first to rise, a huge grin dominating his face. “Ryn! Grace!” he exclaimed, rushing over.

He swept me up in a big hug with one arm, Grace in the other. “I fucking knew you’d turn up,” he grinned, before his eyes focused properly on Grace. “Grace… you uh…”

He let us go and stepped back, glancing between us both, but mainly staring at the recently changed girl beside me.

“Long story,” she said self consciously. “Still me, though.”

I moved to place my hand on her back in order to steady her, although it was her emotions that were unsteady, not her body.

“Right,” he nodded, his smile returning. “Come tell us about it?”

“Of course,” I said, giving Grace a reassuring smile.

She gave a nod of thanks back, visibly shook herself and moved forward. My girl was strong, despite her periodic lack of self confidence.

Troy’s grin was warm and relieved as we sat down at their table, while Kit was giving us a tired smile. He looked a little beat up, like he’d had a nasty fall. Probably when they were running away from whoever had found them. We had a lot of catching up to do.

Before that though, I shifted my chair sideways until it was flush with Grace's, then cuddled in against her side a little.

Troy raised his eyebrows. "I see that magic problem still persists."

"Um, no… we fixed that," I replied, feeling self conscious about Grace and I, but also unwilling to extricate myself from her. "It's why she looks different now. She's sorta like me… it's more complicated than that though, but it's sensitive information. The kind we should talk about in my grove, not here."

"Alright," he nodded, still eyeing us both up.

"Do you have your own grove, like Ryn?" Kit asked, expression keen and interested.

Grace shook her head. "Nah. I sort of amplify Ryn's spells instead."

"Oh, that's handy," Adam noted, although his eyes were on the contact between us, a slight smirk on his lips. "You two will need to get close, learn to work together? I imagine?"

"Um, yup," Grace nodded, a blush spreading across her cheeks again.

Adam totally knew there was something between Grace and I. He’d known Eilian and the inn, I think, but the way we’d been acting since then had probably solidified it in his mind. He was thankfully not pointing it out, which was probably more than our budding little relationship could bear.

"How's the situation with your grove?" Troy asked me, mercifully changing the subject.

"We were stuck inside the tree for days because of another storm. It was nuts — trashing the interior before I shored it up," I told them, thinking back on the howling wind and tearing rain. "The wind break worked though, most of it survived."

"Damn good to hear, I'm glad things went okay for you two," he sighed, relieved. "We were worried when we had to make a run for it."

Ah, here it was. I was very interested to hear what had happened to them.

"Why was that anyway?" Grace blurted, leaning forward.

"Some of that Fennimore wank-stain's goons were in town," Adam growled, looking pissed. "The fuckers jumped us and we only just got out."

"Indeed," Troy nodded, taking over the explanation. "Two enemy mages, plus their escorts. They hit us as we were on our way back from selling your goods. Kit got thrown against a building, that's why he's injured."

"But you're okay?" I asked quickly, running my eyes over the quiet guy properly now, looking for any bad injuries.

"Yeah just bruised... like, everywhere," he said with a smile that was half grimace. "The running afterwards didn't help either."

He might be saying that, but I still wanted to gently throw him into one of my baths and maybe try to concoct a plant to help him. He looked like he was in a whole bunch of pain. I mean, he always looked like he was in a little pain, and he definitely gave me uncomfortable in my own skin vibes, but this appeared to be worse than normal.

"The running fucking sucked, even for me, and all I got was blisters," Adam agreed, wincing as he shifted his feet.

"But you got away…" Grace prompted, glancing between then for more. “Shit, I was worried… especially after some… well, stuff.”

I felt kinda bad, I’d had so much else on my mind that I’d kind of relegated them all to the back of my mind. I’d been worried, sure… but Grace had been my priority.

"Yes, evidently we did get away," Troy remarked, a ghostly wisp of amusement in his tone. "We ran for a long while, almost two days of alternating between walking and running. Luckily for us, it turns out that stuck up nobles don't make good long distance runners. They tried, with magic too, then they gave up and sent their goons on ahead after us. We introduced them to our guns and they backed off, too. Tailed us all the way to the damned border though."

"Yup, let's hope they think of us as not their problem anymore," Adam sighed rubbing his face tiredly.

"Doubt it," I said apologetically. "They've almost finished wiping out every mage that poses a threat to their coven, and unfortunately… we kinda shot the leader."

"Ah," he winced. "Shit…"

"That's not something we can deal with now, though," Troy said, bringing us back on track. "Our next move is to rest and see what this city can do for us "

"Oh!" Grace grinned, glancing down at me for a second before she looked back up. “We actually made some friends already. A bunch of obrec from a clan called the Stonechasers."

"Oh yeah!" I said, excited now. "They seemed impressed by our reputation for shooting Fennimore. Said that if we needed anything, we could ask them for help."

"That's great," Troy replied, looking relieved. "You're all really starting to get a hang of this," he noted with a smile.

“Are you saying that we aren’t just stupid college kids anymore?” Adam asked with a laugh.

Troy gave a chuckle and a so-so shake of his hand. “Something like that.”

It almost seemed like he was proud of us, which was pretty cool. I liked the idea that we’d impressed Troy. Hell, I’d kinda impressed myself with how far I’d come since that first day. I was practically a different person than I had been three or four months ago, complete with a new body and name even.

Speaking of bodies, all three of them looked like they could do with a rest, a good, hot bath and some nice food.

“Do you all want to go into my Grove for a rest?” I asked, glancing between each of them. “The bunnies should be finished with the open fire cooking pit thing too, so while you three are resting, Grace and I could see about selling some stuff to buy nicer food.”

“That would be amazing,” Kit groaned, slumping forward slightly. “I’ve been dreaming of the baths in your tree, I swear. Can you, uh, make it so I can turn off the lights, though? I like to bathe in the dark.”

“I added showers to them now,” I said with a sympathetic smile. “But yes, I can find a way to add a light switch, or convert one of the unused ones to be dark.”

“Thank you so much,” he sighed, relaxing slightly. “I miss my dark showers. Troy, can we?”

Gosh, Kit was a strange one. Not that I could talk, since I had hated showering with the lights on too. I had an excuse, though — there weren’t a lot of things that hurt more than seeing yourself nude in a mirror, when you had gender dysphoria and a body that did not line up with your own mind.

Troy sent me a questioning look. “Sure, if Ryn thinks that it’s safe to swap over here.”

I nodded. “Magic is everywhere here in Millowhall, it would just blend in. Plus, these folks aren’t our enemies. Still, I’d say we should rent a room here to put my mark in.”

“It’s a plan then.”