She might not have taken the rejection well

At least that is how it smells when you open her door. The guard outside very carefully avoids looking at you as you walked inside and they quickly close the door behind you. "You can leave it - Oh Christopher." Gabrielle is sitting at her desk making some notes, a tray of mostly eaten breakfast is on the ground beside her.

She jumps up from her chair and smooths out the top she was wearing as a dress. Her hair is more matted than usual, she has ink stains on her fingers and smudges on her face, and that the more she smooths the more stains you see on her make shift dress, not all of which are ink. Her aura is looking about a unkempt as she is, no sadness that you can see just a heaviness pressing her down.

"Hey Gabrielle. You ok?" You ask looking at the notes she'd been making.

"Yes fine, just working on the notes I took from the Church of Nurtures holy book." She noticed you looking at her dress and she looked down, seemingly only now noticing the stains on it. "Ahem, have you recovered?" She asked pulling the hem down which pulled the neck line down to expose most of her upper chest.

"Yes, all back to normal." You said as you checked out her chest for a moment. When she looked up she held your eyes for a second then looked a bit sad. "What have you learned?"

Pulling in deep breath that puffed up her chest she sat back down and started going through her notes. Her progress on aura sharing had been short lived. She was worried about trying it herself in case what happened to you happened to her. You weren't sure it would happen if she just tried out with one person at a time but you can hardly fault her for being worried.

Her progress with the rest of the book had been a lot more successful. Most of the rituals were about altering someone physically but narrowly, "This one for instance." She flipped through her notes until she reached a page with a lot more scribbling on it. "This ritual I believe will shrink a woman's chest, 'Come our Mother, relieve your daughter of the burdens which her children no longer need, grant her reprieve and take her weight in love for you.' While this one I think grows a chest. 'Mother we beseech you to gift your love to your daughter so needing of it. Her nourishing milk has dried while her children still hunger. Fill her chest with kindness and warmth so we may welcome your newest daughter into our family.' Saying it aloud doesn't do anything." Gabrielle tugged at her top again pulling more of her chest out in the open. The slight pinkness of the top of he nipple peaking out.

"So, while returning aura the magic can be directed to one part instead of a general restoration." You assume this what she is getting at. It's something you'd considered but having her agree without you telling her that is your belief is a relief. "Is there anything specific about restoring a limb?"

"No." Gabrielle shakes her head then stretches threaten to pull the top over the nipples that started to harden. "Either a full restoration of a limb is beyond the scope of what is considered possible for normal people to accomplish, or." She doesn't go on but moves through another page making you think she was looking for more notes.

You leaned over her to look as well and got a stronger whiff of her lack of bathing. Man you forgot how people actually smelled when they aren't bathing every day. "Or?" You asked leaning away from her. You know restoring a missing limb is something you can do but that doesn't mean the average person has that kinda juice.

She looks up at you and bites her lip. "In my world I was a priestess."

"I remember you telling me." She hadn't really gone into details about her religion which is understandable. She didn't know she'd died in her last world because it had been so sudden waking up in a new reality and later meeting both a Goddess and someone from a third reality must have shaken some personal beliefs.

"Well, the church knew how to summon lightening but didn't write in our holy books." She was fidgeting uncomfortable. "Because they said if they did no one would believe it was a gift, just that is was another part magic."

"Ah, why include the details of restoring a limb when it can be used to reinforce belief as a rare intervention by the Mother of All." You wonder how Gabrielle coped with her religion possibly falling apart. Maybe that is why she another reason why she is so unkempt, losing a part of herself that is so foundational must have changed how she viewed a lot of things.

She nodded. "It goes along with another theory of mine. The number of people involved matters. From what you told me about healing the soldiers one on one wasn't an issue but once you scaled up it didn't just change how it affected them but also you." She tugged her top back up a little making her chest jiggle as she did so. "I think that for normal people the numbers mean there is more magic to work with when changing someone's body, it's why every ritual in the book was a public matter, no private prayers or rituals."

"And between the two of us we have significantly more magic to work with. Your theory is that when you try absorbing and returning my aura it could have a similar impact on you as the mass sharing had on me."

"Only far more severe. My theory isn't just the amount of magic but the number of nonself-consciousnesses in play. Sort of averaging out the changes that should be made."

"When I inspected all the restored limbs none of them were different from the one that remained. A few missing freckles or other marks."

"Did you give any strength tests?"

"No, why?"

"Because you're limbs are is much stronger than theirs."

You thought about it for a moment. Based on what you'd already said it made sense to be something to watch out for. "You think that if you restored my hand that hand would be smaller or weaker than it should be, nothing that training shouldn't be able to fix."

"Can you be sure of that? Or could it be that it will affect every part of you because our magic is so much stronger. Or maybe it'll rebound because you are stronger and change me. There is too much we don't know to start experimenting on you or anyone else. I need to know more about the rituals. The church meets each weekend doesn't it. I should go to one to talk with the Priestess, ask her for more information."

"I'm sure it would be fine to try once." You suddenly felt like your restored hand was further away than you'd thought it was.

"Not until I know more." She stood up and grabbed her book. "Take me there now." She looked up at your face, you hadn't backed away as she stood so her chest was pressing against yours. You felt two nubs forming as she looked up into your eyes. "O-or we could s-stay here for, for a bit." She was breathing heavier than she had been and bit her lips. "You, um, smell nice."

That was a sentiment you cannot share. As cute as she is being this close forced a lot of her smell up your nose in one movement. You don't want to say she smelled bad enough for your eyes to water but you think your sinuses are both suddenly very clear and clogged. You had to step back from her. "When's the last time you left the room?" You asked, breathing through your mouth.

Gabrielle blinked at you and pulled her top up to try and subtly sniff it. From the mortified look on her face you think you can guess what she is both thinking and feeling. "N-not for a bit." She backed up to her bed unable to look up at you. "I'll have a bath."

"It's fine, um, I can come by tomorrow." You moved towards the door feeling like staying here was going to make her feel worse. "Oh and Aurora asked if you can join me at the academy, I'll be going over some of the technology from my previous life and she thought you might have some things to add."

"Yep, sure, tomorrow." She waved at you as she turned bent down to dig around her trunk, rapidly checking over the limited options of clothing she had. You had to take a moment to stare as her doing that pulled the bottom of her top over her ass. She is remarkably skinny which did mean she had a bit of boney butt, but it also meant that her bending very openly displayed everything else in the area.

You left the room trying to not think about how her butt winked at you in embarrassment, or at least that is how it felt. Closing the door behind you looked at the guard. "She'll get having a bath now if you can help arrange it."

"Happily." The sheer relief in the guard at those words made you feel for her. Leaving Gabrielle and heading towards the palace front you thought about where to next since the wedding shopping was over. Should probably return Mary's seal now before it burns a hole through your pocket. Can't believe it's still in there after meeting Lady Demise, though it was her daughter that gave it to Clare. Also Ana is being punished down there and you're sure she'd appreciate you dropping by and flirting with Mary in front of her.

With a bit of a smirk you leave the palace and are surprised there isn't a carriage waiting for you. You decide to walk instead of fly, not like flight is a secret at this point but you also kinda want to get something else to eat in the city. All that tension during lunch had limited your food intake.