Well you've no longer got an arguement to have

You stand and roll your shoulders fashioning your wings as you do. The beacon isn't that far away and you still have a significant portion of your magical reserve untapped. You suck in a breath to take off when you are are stopped by a voice.

"Excuse me Master Christopher?" The voice is from Delilah, one of the young maids. She was a little older than you and you'd had a few chats with her over the years.

"Hey Delilah how can I help?" You don't dispel your wings since you are still going to be using them shortly.

"Um Miss Summer asked me to give you this." She offer you a bowl of bread. "She and your father, ah."

"I don't need the details." You wave your hand but walk over to Delilah and grab some bread. The flight had meant you'd missed lunch and were a little peckish.

"R-right." Delilah held the bowl a bit closer for you and blushed. "Are you going for a flight?" Her eyes wondered your wings.

"Yeah, actually," you looked back at the forest and were somewhat relieved that the beacon was still there, "how long has that been there?"

"Since you left. Your dad sent me to check it out. I could show you there is you want?" She was giving you the same shy smile she always did whenever she offered to show you something. She'd always been so pensive around you and it had only gotten worse as you grew up. The thing she wanted to show you always ended up being underwhelming.

"I'll make my own way," you said around a mouthful of bread, "won't be long." You brushed your hands on your shift to dislodge the crumbs and face the forest again.

"Oh." She sounded really sad and you felt bad when something clicked.

You turned back to face her and looked harder. The slight blush she always had around you, the eyes not quite meeting yours. "But we could go for a walk."

"Ok." She instantly brightened up and put the basket on the ground while you dispelled your wings. She must be one of those missed opportunities Clare went on about. As she started walked with you beside her you felt a sense of discomfort, she was a member of your dad's staff and you'd always maintained a professional relationship with them. The sudden knowledge that she into you didn't get rid of that discomfort.

As the two of you started walking into the forest she started talking about how the estate has been in the last two weeks. Beside your dad's mopping around there has been some incidents. Apparently there have been two applicants to the houses staff, Summer turned away both of them but they stuck around asking to see your father. Delilah said one of them tried to sneak into the house but didn't get far. That sounded more than a little suspicious, but hearing it you weren't surprised. Sending someone to check in on where you grew up is a pretty obvious decision for Anastasia's mother, assuming it was her who sent the pair to snoop around.

As you walked deeper into the forest and the sun faded you threw out a light to float between you and Delilah. She smiled and leaned against you setting off a few alarm bells of awkwardness. She'd done the same thing for year and you'd always put it down to her being lazy and not wanting to put much effort into walking when she could have you do it for you. Now all you could think about was how her arm reached around your back and hugged you close.

There was rustling in the under growth as some hare scurried away from your passing. You felt a slight pang of guilty, over your childhood you'd terrorized the animals in this forest while you experimented with your power. Considering how many trees you'd taken out you had no doubt more than a few birds had lost their homes.

Delilah started looking around for more signs of life pointing them out to you as you walked. You tried to pay attention to what she was pointing at but her pointing was jostling her chest against you and it was hard to not pay attention to that. You remembered all the times she'd done the exact same thing on your previous walks. Clare was right you were offensively oblivious until very recently.

Delilah tripped and pressed against you. The hand not on your back reaching around to pressed against your stomach. "You ok?"

"Mmm, fine thank you sir." She cooed, her hand staying against your stomach. "Have you gotten stronger?" Her hand lowered slightly and you coughed awkwardly. She pulled her hand back and you saw a look of frustration. The look you had seen a lot of and always put down to how unimpressed you had been by the things she'd carried you off to see. "It's not much further." She pulled her arm a bit higher on your back.

You did your best to focus on the walking and the forest around you and not the freshly realised sexual being hugging you. It was harder than you thought, in more than one way, to do that. Your discomfort at the impropriety of sleeping with a member of your family's staff member. A fact slightly undercut by your father currently doing just that.

The mental image of your father and Delilah having sex swiftly entered your mind and made a few things softer. "How much further?" You asked trying not look too far over at her and get the view down her top she was trying to give you.

"Almost there." She whispered into your ear. Because you were below the tree line you couldn't see the beacon. At the start of the walk you could make the beacon out from between the canopy but this deep in the forest there was no seeing through it.

"Is it in a cave?" You asked when you brook the tree line and looked up at the rock wall. It was mostly granite around here but you'd stumbled onto a few small marble deposits. The rock face here was just granite.

"This way." Delilah pulled away from you and hurried to the left. You followed after her at a slightly jog. She looked around to see you chasing her and giggled. It wasn't that long before she darted at the rock face and disappeared. Nearing it you saw a crack in the cliff. You'd never seen this cave before but there were a few lava tubes turned cave systems in the area. You'd never explored that deep into them before, not having much of an interest in getting either lost or stuck. Blowing your way out with magic might work but you didn't want to run the risk of bring a cliff down on top of yourself.

"Delilah?" She didn't have a light of her own so you as you walked inside you sent yours ahead of yourself.

"Put the light out." Her voice echoed off the walls and after some considering you obeyed. It was dark. The only light was from the cave mouth and you didn't get a good enough look to know where to do. "Follow my voice." It was still an echo but you could hear it's origin. You held up your hands and started walking. As you moved your eyes adjusted. You relaxed them to look for magic but there was nothing obvious. "Not much further."

You turned a corner and there was a dull light. Her voice came from there and as you approached the light grew brighter. "Delilah?" You couldn't see her or her shadow in the light spilling into the cave.

"Close your eyes." She sounded close, just around the next corner. You did that and waiting.

You felt something soft and warm graze your hand for a moment. "Delilah?" You hoped this wasn't some elaborate trap when you felt fingers interlace with yours.

"Keep them closed." She whispered into your ear. "Just around the corner." She walked you forwards and turned you. "Now open your eyes."

When you did you had to blink a few times. It was glaringly bright and when your eyes adjusted you were looking at quite a site. It was a cavern, the light coming from crystals embedded in the walls and ceiling. In the centre was a pool of water with steam rising from it. Around it's edges was colour, small plants with little grey flowers with flecks of gold scattered around the tips. You walked into the room a bit more and the clear water came more into view. You could see the bottom and the little fissures that the water bubble up from.

"There was an tremor after you left. You dad joked it was the forest being anger you didn't say goodbye to it." She's joking but after having met an elf you take it a bit seriously. She walked over to the waters edge and sat down. "The water is warm and you dad said it's just a spring." She ran her hand over the waters surface creating little ripples. "The magic here isn't enough to be a well but," she waved at the grey and gold flowers, "they have your family's colours."

You looked at the flowers again. The grey and gold had been common around your house and your formal dress had been grey with gold threading but you never put much thought into it. You'd coloured your dragon like that because well it had been the common colour scheme is all.

You walked a little further into the room and Delilah stood up. She was facing away from you and looked over her shoulder. "The waters lovely. Want to join me?" She pulled off her clothes and covered her chest with her arm. She smiled at you and bit her lip.

Well this is more forward than she has every been that is for sure. However, she is still a member of staff and you still feel, awkward at the idea of doing anything with her. Beside checking out this cavern is something you should do. The beacon was above the tree line not below it and while there is magic here it isn't really on the scale of what you saw. There must be something more in here.