Page 79

We were lucky our room from the previous night wasn't taken yet. We were quick to rebook it and shuffle into our room once again.

All of us immediately started stripping down to our sleep wear, mostly just underwear for all of us other than Mimi. As soon as Bella had finished undressing Mimi had glued herself to Bella's side, hugging her tightly.

"What's wrong Mimi?" Bella gently asked.

"That lady hurt you... and I couldn't do anything. I didn't know how to help, I couldn't keep you safe..."

Bella wrapped her arms around Mimi and hugged her back. "It's okay Mimi, it was something no one could have protected me from. Nor would I want them to. She did hurt me... but I think it was something I needed to hear. You did fine, you protected me and I'm still here."

"Y-you're still hurt though..." she said quietly.

Bella's closed her eyes and took a breath. "I am still hurting. But you're already helping me more than you know. Everyone is." She briefly looked at each of us before looking back down at Mimi. "But right now I'm exhausted, let's get some sleep." She kissed Mimi on the top of her head like I often did to her.

Morrigan looked hesitant, like she wanted to join us in our bed but after that scene it would be hard to pull Mimi away from Bella right now. Bella fell asleep the instant she laid down. Mimi cuddled up to her from behind and an empty space was left next to her for me. I stepped over to Morrigan and kissed her on the cheek. She blushed and smiled from the chaste kiss.

"Thank you for caring about her as much as you do. I know there are only so many ways for all of us to cuddle together but I promise I'll make it up to you later."

She nodded. "I want to get closer with everyone but I know things are a bit more complicated than normal right now. This relationship is already more than I could have asked for so I don't mind being patient."

"Thanks Morrigan. I'll talk to you in the morn- er, whenever we all wake up." I looked over at Torien who looked rather awkward. "Sleep well Torien."

She smiled. "You too."

I slid into bed next to Bella and wrapped my arm around her. She sighed and nuzzled me in her sleep. I passed out rather quickly myself.

***

It was dark by the time I woke up and I felt so sore. Only Morrigan had woken up before me. She was looking out of the mostly closed wooden shutters, it seemed the sun was already starting to go down.

I sat down in the chair next to hers and she smiled at me. "Did you get enough rest?" she asked in a quiet voice.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm still pretty sore from all the exercise last night though. How about you? Did you get enough rest?"

"Yeah, I think I had it the easiest. It was hardest for me in the beginning before the fire. Once the fire was roaring it wasn't too hard to repurpose the mana in the air."

"Hmm... makes sense I suppose. Is that how it works? Fire in the area creates more fire mana?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, well... mostly. It's not always a one to one thing but generally if there's a lot of something around there's a lot of matching mana around too."

"What about things like light, dark, and terra magic? There's usually a lot of that around."

"Not everything puts off mana. That's why I said it's not one to one. Fire and water magic tends to follow fire and water pretty closely and it's pretty much everywhere. Just because there's light doesn't mean there's lots of light magic around."

I scratched the base of my horn in thought. "What about when I cast a light spell. Does that create more light magic you could control?"

"Generally no but it kind of depends. Light magic doesn't usually follow light the same way fire magic follows fire. I don't really know what the difference is but it behaves differently. Theoretically a spell could transform mana in the area to the kind of mana cast, intentionally or unintentionally, but it would have to be pretty powerful magic and not something I have heard about light magic doing before. The other thing is that most mages transform their own mana into whatever magic they need and cut off the flow of magic when they're done with it. It's only briefly attuned to light magic before it's converted into a spell. It's pretty difficult to wrestle control of someone's magic away from them mid cast... difficult but not impossible. Anyway, since I don't really cast magic that way I have to grab whatever's available, usually fire and water are the most common but it's not hard to convert water to ice or push fire into being more intense."

"Mimi said the Staff of Manaflow we gave you could be used to store a mana type and let you convert nearby mana to it. Have you had a chance to use it yet?"

Morrigan pursed her lips. "With everything going on lately I haven't had a chance to really set it up with something that would be helpful. Fire, water, and to some extent ice are already everywhere. Perhaps if we could find some terra magic that would be the most helpful since it would probably give me a lot more options and utility."

"I could use a terra ritual, would you be able to pull the mana from something like that?" I asked.

She leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling in thought. "Hmm... Well, usually rituals spill off a lot of their elemental mana, that's why they tend to have terrible efficiency. I could try to siphon off the terra magic to charge my staff but it might be time consuming and both of us would have to basically keep our respective spells going the entire time until I have enough to attune the staff."

"So doable but not exactly easy or fun."

"Pretty much. It might be worth it for terra magic though... Not that it's impossible to find a pocket of terra magic as we're going along."

"Why isn't there terra magic, like everywhere?"

"Hm? Oh in the case of terra and nature magic it actually is everywhere. The problem is that there is so much ground that the terra magic is thinly distributed over most of the area. The upside is that it's good for things like that water source searching magic Bella used that one time. It can connect mana across large distances which can let you get unique effects. The downside is that it's only concentrated enough for me to actually use in certain places. If I had access to terra magic all the time, I would be able to do things like build structures like any other terra mage. Though that depends on how fast I can actually change the nearby mana using the staff."

"Could you use the the earth mana your staff converts to better grab hold of the mana in the ground?" I asked.

She tilted her head in thought, it was cute. "I'm not sure, it's worth a try because the potential benefits would be huge. It would take a lot of experimentation though. I've trained in using terra magic before but it was in an area already rich with terra magic. It's certainly not my strong suit."

"Makes sense."

The two of us leaned back in our chairs and sat there quietly for a while. Before a thought came to me. "Morrigan, do you like tea?"

"Tea? I haven't really had it much. It's too much of a luxury to give most slaves. But I have had it before."

"Do you like it?"

She shrugged. "It's alright I guess. I was mostly taught how to brew it. So other than having examples of the taste I haven't really had much. Why?"

"Mmm... there's something about sitting and relaxing while everyone else is sleeping that makes me want to drink some coffee or tea."

"Coffee?"

"It's a drink made from ground roasted beans that has a lot of caffeine... That's the stuff in some teas that wakes you up and makes you more alert."

She smiled wryly. "I can see why that might be nice right now."

Torien sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes before looking around. Rather than actually get up she instead laid back down and curled up under her covers.

"Looks like your sister could use some caffeine herself." I said with a smile.

Morrigan laughed and paused for a moment. "Thanks for talking with me about magic. Or... well... I guess what we talked about could be considered strategy for our adventures but... it makes me happy that you're interested. Torien doesn't even humor me anymore." she said with a sigh.

I smiled. "Don't worry, I find magic very fascinating. Magic is so baked into everything here. The people, the jobs, even the ground." I said with a laugh. "It makes things that seem mundane and boring, new and interesting. I appreciate you answering my questions and being patient with the holes in my knowledge about things that are so basic to everyone else."

Morrigan smiled. "I'm glad you think that but what we were talking about isn't exactly basic." She looked through the shutters again at the people walking on the street. "Most people don't care to know why things work, just that they do. Your curiosity about how everything fits together is rather refreshing. It makes me even more excited to explore the world's mysteries with you."

She got up and eased herself onto my lap facing me. It was much more forward than I was used to but the moment felt right. She leaned her head against my shoulder and ran her right hand up along my side, tickling me slightly. She looked up at my face before leaning in and giving me a gentle kiss on my cheek. I wrapped one arm around her lower back and cradled the back of her head with my other one. She blushed as I leaned forward and kissed her on her lips.

This was a different kind of passion. A slow relaxed one instead of the hot burning kind. I felt comfortable around her, relaxed, enticed. I kept kissing her, exploring her mouth with my tongue. Her curious hands started to explore my body, I was still wearing my comfortable sleeping clothes so it didn't take long before I felt her fingers running through the soft fur on my back.

I broke the kiss and she leaned back to stare down at me in the warm glow of the evening lanterns hanging from the windows outside. Morrigan looked stunning to me in that moment. I ran my hands up her smooth skin and under her shirt before gently settling on her breasts. When my thumbs stroked over her hard nipples she shuddered under my touch. I grinned up at her and she looked down with a breathless expression.

I glanced around the room to find everyone else still fast asleep. Morrigan let out a quiet 'eep' sound when my free hand slipped under her butt and I lifted her up as I stood. Sometimes it was really noticeable how much difference my now 70 strength made when compared to my strength before.

Still holding her I leaned in and gave her a quick peck before glancing towards the bathroom. "Would you like to join me for a quick bath?"

Morrigan's face was a mixture of excitement, embarrassment and arousal as I held her, looking over her beautiful face. She meekly nodded before quickly adding, "Yes please."

I smiled, kissed her again, and quietly carried her into the bathroom with me.