Cassie chose to address the room as the Witches packed up the seeds to prevent them from getting damaged over lunch before they could be seeded.


    Each of the seeds was precious to them until they could grow the first batch and get fresh recements from their own gardens, and they didn''t know how much Wolfe had to trade to get them so they might be expensive as well.


    Once everyone had food in front of them, Wolfe decided to start with the important questions.


    "So, should I make the list of skilled trades that we need here, or is someone else already on it?"


    Cookughed. "If we let you do it, you will find nothing but girls to bring back. A few skilled tradesmen might be what this ce needs. You know, to keep the witches from getting toofortable with casual nudity and bad behaviour. A couple more hunky guys around, and they will behave much better."


    She was clearly talking about someone in specific, but Wolfe really didn''t have a problem with their casual semi-nudity, and they seemed to be quite well-behaved when he was around, so he hadn''t seen the rest.


    "It is called skinny dipping. You could have joined us." One of the other witches informed her in a smug tone.


    "What''s this? Cook, of all people, is self-conscious about her body. You should ask Cassie if Wolfe can help you with that." Someone teased.


    That could be either a very interesting or very unnerving experience with the change in their bond since they could feel not only the emotions of each other constantly, though muted now that they had a while to work on control, but they could also feel the contact with the other when they were close together.


    They would have to test the extent of that because E would not be happy if anyone suggested that she sleep in another bed. Come to think of it, neither would Stephanie. But the sensation of petting the Familiar Cat shouldn''t be anywhere near as intimate as sleeping next to or with E.


    "I will take care of the recruitment. I am good at picking the right people for the job." Colonel Ming offered.


    "And I will help her. I spend a lot of time topside, so I know most of the regr scouts. They will be the ones finding new talent for us." Priya agreed.


    "Then we have the problem solved. I will be reading for the rest of the day, trying to learn new spells from thebat magic book that Kira brought. Speaking of which, where is she?" Wolfe asked.


    "Right here. I have been teaching the children all day. They''re so adorable, and they''re learning magic so quickly. I think they''ve got a bright future ahead of them." The three-tailed Kitsune called from the other side of the room.


    She had disguised herself as a regr witch with the darkerplexion and hair of the Sylvan Coven, and Wolfe hadpletely failed to notice her disguise magic when she passed by to sit down.


    After lunch, everyone split off as they had nned in the morning, and Cassie followed Wolfe back to the bedroom to watch him study. She brought along a book of spells, but somehow Wolfe suspected that studying was thest thing on her mind.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>


    His suspicion was confirmed the moment that he sat down in thefortable chair, and she climbed directly into hisp with her book.


    She looked up at him when Wolfe smirked at her and thumped him on the chest. "What? It''s like I''ve got an empty spot inside when we''re not touching. It''s slowly fading, but I''m morefortable here than even over on the bed. Just read, you pervert."


    That turned out to be remarkably easy. Now that she wasn''t doing anything but reading, Cassie''s presence wasn''t a distraction, and she made a good rest for his book. It was like she belonged right where she was.


    That was definitely a side effect of the bond, and there wasn''t much that Wolfe could do about it, but once it settled down, it should be back to mostly normal again, though perhaps a bit more cuddly than the Familiar Bond had been.


    Wolfe didn''t even notice when she fell asleep, he was too engrossed in what he had found in thebat magic book.


    Abat monk of some sort had written the text, and the spells were mostly intended to be either applied to a weapon or your own limbs. They weren''t the big shy arrays that would destroyrge areas but precision attacks to target a specific point.


    There were even details of the focusing modifications to make Arrays apply only to the de of a sword so that you could have a full-power Lightning Array but with an effective range of contact only.


    If that was applied to the des that the Witches were using inbat, it would be insanely deadly. The Lightning Array was dozens of times more powerful than the regr [Lightning] spell.


    The level of intricacy for the application of arrays to a confined area made them much harder to craft than a regr array, even before the space considerations of trying to draw them on the weapon itself were taken into consideration, but eventually, Wolfe decided that it was time to try actually drawing one on the [Whiteboard] spell, where he could tell if he had it correct.


    The flow of mana woke Cassie up right away, and she blinked her bleary eyes at the whiteboard, then looked down at the book she had dropped on the floor when she fell asleep.


    Wolfe could sense just how hard she was trying not to apologize for falling asleep in the middle of the day because she knew what the response would be, so he just gently stroked her back while she leaned over to get her book and start reading again.


    "What is that you are trying to create anyhow? I can feel the trickle of mana as you draw on the board, but I don''t recognize the spell you''re drawing." She asked curiously.


    "It''s a [Lightning Storm Array] concentrated to be inscribed on the de of a sword or simrly shaped weapon. It''s from the book that Kira gave me, and I picked it because I''m already familiar with the basic form of the Array. Trying something totally new seemed too daunting for a first try."


    Cassie nodded and closed her book to watch him work. It looked like he was almost done, and then they could try the spell out on an actual item tomorrow.


    She had ns for the rest of the evening, and they didn''t involve leaving the bedroom.