I took the hint and moved over, giving her some room, and we sat in silence for a moment while I thought. Oracle seemed content just to sit, and I noticed my mana hadn’t dipped that much when she assumed her full size, so I asked her about it.
“I’m bonded to you, but I also have a link to the Tower still. As you’re the formal master of the Tower now, I can access the mana it draws in."
"I just slipped a little aside for my transformation and maintaining my form at this size, that’s all. Do you like it?” She regarded me with a throaty little chuckle, raising one eyebrow, and I swallowed hard as I looked her over, my eyes roaming downwards from her perfect features…to her other perfect features…
“Oh god, yes…” I whispered, and she smiled, leaning in for a kiss. It seemed to go on forever, and yet ended far too soon. When we finally broke apart, it wasn’t long before our lips met again. Her breath tasted of strawberries, a small fuzzy part of my mind noted as we kissed again, mouths opening and tongues reaching out, our arms going around each other…
“Jax! Ye in there, laddie?” a voice shouted through the sealed crystal doorway, muffled, but still clearly Oren, and I groaned as we broke apart. I saw Oracle forcibly push down a look of irritation and disappointment as we both stood a little regretfully, the buttons of her top undone and hair all tousled. I didn’t remember undoing any buttons, I thought, then blinked as my brain reengaged when I heard Oren’s voice again.
“Jax! Can ye hear me, laddie? Seneschal, are ye sure ‘e be here?” I couldn’t hear anything from Seneschal, but I certainly could hear some growled swearing under Oracle’s breath as she began to mutter about what she was going to do to him for interrupting.
I coughed and turned back to the door, both glad and extremely regretful that we’d been interrupted. Glad, because I really needed to sort my head out about Oracle, and I didn’t want to feel like I was taking advantage of her. This whole aspect of having her bonded to me was a bit weird, after all.
The other side of it was… hell, I was a guy, and she was insanely hot and really, really up for it. The little head did NOT want to hear it from the big head that she wasn’t to be played with.
I concentrated and commanded the Tower to open the door, watching as Oren jumped and backed away as the crystal doorway dissolved into mist. He paused at finding both myself and Oracle inside, then stomped through the entrance, gazing about the large, lushly appointed room.
It had mostly survived the decimation of time, being as well sealed as it had been. Not even air had moved inside, and the natural entropy of centuries had been held at bay, which meant that, aside from the soft furnishings being a bit weird and hard, the rest of the room looked as it had when the Tower had been completed. Its walls were still covered in tapestries, the furniture was still far and away better than anything we’d found in the rest of the Tower.
What really got his attention, though, were the hundreds of memory stones and Spellbooks. He stared transfixed around the chamber and completely missed the first things I said to him.
“OREN!” I shouted, making him jump in shock and finally focus in on me again.
“Ah! I’m sorry Jax, I jus’… I mean, I didna expect…” He gestured around; his hands visibly trembling. I shook my head and put one hand on his shoulder.
“Well, I’ve good news and bad with all this, my friend. First of all, airships didn’t exist then, not like they are today, so there are no memories that’ll help you with that."
"On the other side, though, when the time comes, if we can find something that’s appropriate to you, I’ll give you a stone. Or a spell if that’s your preference. You and Cai both will have earned it ten times over by the time we have the Tower fixed up.”
“Thank ye, laddie, I mean it,” he whispered, shaking his head as he gawked around again. “I jus’ never...”
“I know,” I said simply. As annoyed as I was with the way things were—I’d had hopes for a Tower full of experts—I also realized just how goddamn lucky I’d been. I could have been stuck in the middle of nowhere with a collapsed tower, after all, or dead. Or underwater, for all I knew.
“Come on, then, mate; what did you want?” I asked, heading for the door, and dragging him along with me as he tried to look everywhere in the Hall.
“Ah… oh yeah, wit’ th’ engineers an’ shipyard types all sworn in, th’ ship do be lookin’ okay now. The main thing tha’ was wrong wit’ her was the engines bein’ fucked. The lad’s replaced two wit’ spares and did some magic wit’ the others, so she’s ready t’ fly again. Won’t be great, but she’ll get us to Decin an’ back, safe enough.”
“And to the village?” I asked, and he nodded quickly.
“Aye, we can reach th’ village. I been told where it be, but even wit’ the engines replaced, it’d still be a full two days there and back.” I swore under my breath at that, thinking about timescales, and what we could and couldn’t afford.
“Okay, how long to get to Himnel from here?” I asked, guiding Oren for the stairs with me even as I ‘felt’ Oracle close the door behind us.
She buzzed past us, her wings blurring as she disappeared around the bend and out of sight.
“Well, it depends, laddie.
