《Raven Eyes - A truly magical Adventure》


 Part 1 - {Alice} - [Rewrite]

    Raven Eyes ¨C Part 1


    In some obscure book from my mother''s collection, I had once read the phrase: ¡°True happiness is found at the end of a leash.¡± Like most people I may have found it funny, but never really thought of it again. That was until one specific day. The day I was finally about to attend the Royal Academy of Witchcraft. My goal, as with so many other magically gifted young women, had been to learn proper control over my errant magic and, of course, to become a powerful and independent witch! Well, suffice to say life has a funny way about doing things sometimes. Even if I hadn¡¯t known it back then, I certainly would come to find my future, just very much not in the way I had expected. For it was also on that day that I found my very own leash, at the hands of the person who would forever change my life and I hers in turn...


    One Fateful Monday Morning...


    Beep! Beep! Beep!


    ¡°Ugh, just five more minutes...¡± I mumbled from beneath my pile of blankets. Without opening my eyes I turned back around intend on simply ignoring the horrific device that so cruelly had decided to wake me. After all, it was way too early to get up in the first place; I was one hundred percent certain of it! And yet despite my most wise intentions, it seemed as if my clock had other ideas about my schedule.


    BeepBeepBeep!


    ¡°Shut it...¡± I growled towards the infernal noise. ¡°Stupid piece of scrap... My greatness needs her rest!¡± Not even bothering to look up I smashed my hand on the snooze button and fell back into the soft embrace of sleep.


    BEEPBEEPBEEP!


    ¡°AAH!¡± Startled by the sudden intrusion on my nap-time I jerked up and instinctively raised my hands in defence, only for me to hear ¨C barely a split second later ¨C a loud crash. Still trying to shake of the sleepy haze, I blinked a few times against the bright light coming in from the window, before finally realizing just what had happened. Though when I did, my face blanched in horror, yet another broken alarm clock! Several splinters of plastic stuck out from the thick padded walls of my room, making it pretty clear what had just happened.


    ¡°Uhaah...¡± A long sigh escaped me upon seeing the latest victim of my Magic. ¡°Mom is def going to kill me. Better make any evidence disappear!¡±


    Stumbling out of my pile of blankets and pillows with as much of my - rather lacking - grace as I could muster, I gingerly stepped over to the impact site. Weary of any sharp fragments on the ground I inspected the remnants of my overly dutiful clock. And remnants truly were all that remained; looking closer I let out an appreciative whistle at the destruction my wrath had caused this time. While the last few alarm clocks hadn''t lived much longer than number twenty-two, they had at least stayed in one piece. This one though I had straight up shredded. Most of the clock wasn''t actually on the ground but stuck in the wall like shrapnel.


    ¡°Well...¡± I let out an appreciative whistle. ¡°I should see it positive, I actually found a new Spell! Dismantling-Magic!¡± I mentally filed it based on its possible power right between ¡°Crushing-Magic¡± and ¡°Oh, Gods! Why is everything on fire!?-Magic¡±. The last one courtesy of my aunt at my fourteenth birthday; ever since then I had never seen open flames around me again. I always wondered why... Making the best out of a questionable situation I began carefully pulling out all of the shards and dropped them in my slightly banged up garbage bin.


    A couple minutes later I was finally done but as I didn¡¯t really have time to mend the rips I just hoped that my mother wasn¡¯t going to follow me to the academy to rip of my head for this newest vandalism of mine. With a lightly distressed chuckle I made my way over towards my adjacent bathroom. Or at least I had planned so, but instead when I stepped forward I heard a crunch and a moment later felt a sharp pain shooting up my leg. Some amount of screaming, cursing, flailing around on one foot and more screaming later I actually managed to make it to my bath. The bloody foot prints on the ground I simply masterfully ignored. Instead I focussed on the important part of this morning namely making myself look presentable. Looking up from my hastily bandaged foot and into the ¨C as with so many of my possessions ¨C slightly cracked mirror I was confronted with a view that hadn¡¯t really changed all that much in the last few years.


    Before me in the reflection stood a somewhat tallish girl, with midnight black hair, equally dark eyes and a seemingly permanently grim expression. While my face could generously be defined as pretty, my skinny body and sickly pale skin had earned me the nickname of ¡°Wraith¡± during high-school. Much to my chagrin, even several years now after puberty not all that much had changed. I was still very skinny ¨C but at least now with greater muscle definition ¨C and my meagre breasts were small enough to vanish under anything but the tightest of clothing. The only thing that had truly grown was my butt; for some arbitrary reason it, together with my hips, had decided to take up all the growth the rest of my body was so sadly lacking. If there was one thing going for it, then that I never needed a seat cushion, because I always carried mine around with me.


    I shook my long black tresses with a low sigh and went back to freshening myself up. A bit of moisturiser and light make-up later all that was left was styling my hair. But as if the day hadn¡¯t begun badly enough already, my mood went entirely down the drain when I noticed several large black feathers stuck in my curls. Of course ¨C because how else could it be ¨C my body had to decide on one of the most important days of my life that now was the time to moult.


    Ah, yes moulting... people shouldn¡¯t have to deal with that right? Well, sadly or fortunately, while I may have been a truly shitty witch, I had another talent going for me. I was a Shifter; a Witch born with the innate ability to assume the form of a spiritual animal guide. In my case it was a bird, a terrifyingly large raven with a wing span of over three meter. And while normally a Shifter only assumed the perceived shape of an animal and their forms were more incorporeal than real, I was what was called a True-born Shifter, when I transformed I did so flesh, blood and bone. Meaning I had to deal with all the down sides that came with being part carrion feasting bird. I was drawn to high places, hated the heat, liked my meat more raw than rare and of course in regular intervals my bird body moulted, getting rid of old feathers and replacing them with new ones. So very fun...


    Now while that alone was annoying in and of itself, the actual problem with being a True-born Shifter was the fact that when transforming my clothing did not transform with me. This had left me with a rather open view towards public nudity. After all, when you regularly find yourself naked on top of some crowded building because you have the unfortunate habit of ¡°Sleep-flying¡±, you really start to not give a shit anymore about who sees your naked bits. Thankfully I had actually managed to find a way to work around that particular problem. The solution being almost two months of trying to figure out spacial magic only for me to end up with an arcane-storage the total impressive volume of. . . a small watermelon.


    This in turn had influenced my clothing habit rather drastically. Finding out that I could change to and fro without exposing my naked bubble butt to the entire world, had consequentially changed some of my views on what was acceptable clothing in public. Or too say it in other words my clothing in the last few years had become ever shorter and tighter. This was partially because I had the bad habit of trashing my storage space with snacks, but more likely was the fact that something in me was just drawn to such outfits. Tube-tops tight and see trough enough for my nipples to greet the world, I mean it was technically decent. Micro-skirts so short one would expect them more on some dumb bimbo than a respectable witch? At least I had the butt to pull ¡®em of! And so my wardrobe had slowly changed from angsty teenage hoodies to something my Mother lovingly revered to as ¡°absolutely slutty¡±. Now I was going to argue against that point but my recent adventures into latex and tight leather, had only underlined her point. Making me all the more unlikely to argue with my Mother in fear of her just throwing away all of my clothing.


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    ¡°Well, at least she won¡¯t be able to nag me about my choice of dress once I¡¯m at the academy. Then again we are supposed to wear our uniforms there...¡± My brows furred in thought. ¡°Hmm, I might have to clear the snacks out my storage after all, or I¡¯ll just cut down the uniform to fit my requirements. Questions over questions and no answers in sight...¡±


    Still wondering about what I should do, I absentmindedly removed the pillowcase I had used to bandage up my foot and threw it into the hamper. The wound had completely stopped bleeding by now and soon enough I would not even have a scar left. Something strange happened when I looked at the wound slowly knitting itself back together. A scene I couldn¡¯t really recall flashed before my eyes, a birthday party with other kids around me and my own broken arm. A bone was sticking out of flesh and a couple of little girls were screaming. A single twist and my bone had snapped right back into position, meanwhile all the kids around me were running away in horror. And yet there was one girl... standing right in front of me unfazed by it all... laughing?


    ¡°That¡¯s strange...¡± My frown deepened when I tried to recall just when this had happened. ¡°I don¡¯t think I ever had a birthday party like that? Like what the hells?¡±


    Cleaning the rest of the blood off of my foot, I shook my head in confusion, this wasn¡¯t the first time I had forgotten about stuff but you¡¯d think I would remember something like this. I looked at my arm trying to find any sign of it ever having been broken but it wasn¡¯t like there would be any scars anyway. My frown didn¡¯t lessen even as I walked out of the bathroom. Just what was that strange memory? It¡¯s not that was upset about forgetting the injury, when you had to deal with as much magic around you as I did on a regular basis wounds coming and going was the least of your problem, what did irk me was the fact that I was one hundred percent certain that I didn¡¯t have any friends growing up; so who were those girls in my memory? Especially that one blond girl who had laughed at me... Banishing the thoughts to the back of my mind I focused on something far more important: Food!


    ¡°Mom!?¡± I yelled out as I rushed down the stairs. ¡°What¡¯s for breakfast? I¡¯m like super hungry!¡±


    Despite yelling at my loudest I didn¡¯t get an answer; which was more than just a little strange! Normally my mother would have screamed right back at me. I was just about to yell a second time when I heard my mother¡¯s voice coming from the shop area of our little house. Things became even more mysterious when I realized that she was talking to someone on the phone. My mother talking to other people, so early and on the phone, she was way too introverted for that! A little evil smile stole its way onto my face as I quickly changed my approach and crept closer.


    ¡°... just Alice. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, I know. I signed the fucking contract!¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°Of course... And I promise you I¡¯ll have it ready by the time you leave.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course I¡¯m worried but it should be enough for a few months. Sorry I need to hang up, until later.¡±


    The peep of the phone was all the warning I got before my Mother whirled around to look at me.


    ¡°You really think you are stealthy enough to sneak up on me, Alice?¡±


    ¡°Uhm...¡± I froze on the spot unsure what to respond. ¡°Like... yeah, I guess?¡±


    ¡°Ha!¡± My mother¡¯s grin could only loosely be described as happy, like most of my family it rather came off as creepy. ¡°I had far more terrifying things sneak up on me than my bird brained daughter! And none ever caught me off guard!¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡± I yelled right back. ¡°I am not bird brained!¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Her smile was downright mocking now. ¡°Then tell me what time is it?¡±


    ¡°Like... 7:00 ish?¡± Why was she being so confusingly cryptic again?


    ¡°Mhmmm... I bet it is. By the way, I made you breakfast, eggs and bacon, undercooked and disgusting... just the way you like it.¡±


    ¡°Thanks?¡± I was still confused as to why she had wanted to know the time, but food was more important, so I quickly followed her into the kitchen to scarf down my well deserved breakfast. ¡°So Mom, like uhm... who were you talking to? Sounded important?¡± I looked up at her as questioning as I could in-between shoving food in my mouth.


    ¡°Huh?¡± She looked me critically for a second before relaxing her expression again. ¡°Oh you know, just some bank stuff, gotta go and meet them soon and you should get ready to get going yourself young lady!¡±


    ¡°Huh... Probably should look up the time then.¡± Still somewhat tired I yawned and looked towards the kitchen clock. It was 7:30 am. Why too early, the train wasn¡¯t leaving until 8:15am, so I still had enough time. Maybe I should just take another nap? Yet before my body could carry out its glorious plan, my mind did a double take. 7:30 am and the bus took almost half an hour to drive through the entire city. It would arrive around 8:05 at the train station. My eyes blinked open in sudden realisation of my predicament; I had less than ten minutes to reach the bus stop!


    ¡°Told you to look up the time, didn¡¯t I?¡± My mother¡¯s evil smirk was not helping!


    Not even bothering to clean the dishes I stormed back up to my room. Both my too large shirt and lacy panties went flying of my body in record time. Spraying my body up and down with deodorant had to be enough to mask any smell of sweat. One quick glance in the mirror told me that my hair was already a mess again, but right now I couldn¡¯t care less. Ripping open my closet I tried finding all the parts of my new uniform.


    ¡°Panties~ panties~ ... a thong will do! Dark black tights... ah, nope not here, okay fishnets than!¡± At least I had been smart enough to put out the skirt, blazer and over coat the night before. Throwing them on and racing down stairs I had to waste more precious time trying to find the black flats that were supposed to go with the uniform. Thankfully before I could truly panic I remembered that I packed them in my luggage, just very deep down. This left me with picking one of the pairs I wasn¡¯t going to take with me.


    ¡°High-heels... sneakers... Yeah none these are decent and I have to run, sneakers it is!¡± Quickly popping my head into the kitchen I saw my mother rummaging through the drawers. ¡°Imma go now, bye Mom!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t break your neck, Idiot!¡± She barely turned around to yell after me. ¡°Love you!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah love you too!¡± I had already left again and ran back into the floor. ¡°Bye!¡±


    A few seconds and a pair or red sneakers later I had grabbed my small suitcase smashed the front door close and was racing at breakneck speed down the sidewalk. But it was as if reality was playing a cruel joke on me today. I hadn''t even passed around the first corner, when I almost collided with a small dark skinned man.


    ¡°Hells!¡± I had just enough time to yank my trolley out of the way before it impacted with its target.


    ¡°Oh, my! That was certainly close young lady!¡± The man before me pushed a pair of thick glasses back on the bridge of his nose and eyed me sternly.


    ¡°I''m sorry, Mister Fenoru. I''m in quite a hurry!¡± I was now looking towards the closest traffic lights in the hopes of having a good reason to leave the old man.


    ¡°Hm? Do we know each other?¡± He looked at me even more closely and finally it seemed to click. ¡°Ah! The young Miss Dutrar! I almost hadn''t recognized you, dressed up all nice and proper! I have to say you already look far more like an aspiring Witch should. Definitely better than the curious pieces of fabric you usually wear around town!¡± Finally as he nodded his head in what I guessed he saw as a wise manner the light turned from red to green.


    ¡°Sorry Mister Fenoru can''t stay to chat! I gotta dash!¡±


    Crossing the street and artfully dodging at least two more old people and a man with not one but three kids following him like a bunch of ducklings I had almost made it. Looking to my immediate left I could see one of the automated city-busses driving by me. If I wasn''t entirely stupid that was the bus I had to take! I could still make it! Not even bothering to watch for oncoming cars I vaulted over the chain link fence separating the sidewalk from the street. I was almost half-way over the crossroads when a sudden bright light and honking to my right made me startle out of my run. Eyes wide in horror I stared in to the headlights of an oncoming black limousine, a limousine that was rushing straight towards me!

 Part 2 – Gilded Cage {Ithelyn} [Rewrite]

    ¡°Ah~. Fuck. Ohhh fuck. Oh, yes!¡± My fingers clenched around the smooth plastic of the toy as I sped up my self-gratification with increasingly shaky movement. The vendor hadn¡¯t lied; the custom made toys from Rashar were certainly more effective than the crude imitations you could buy here in the kingdom.


    ¡°Oh hells... Oh, ohhh, mpfh!¡± I clenched my teeth to suppress a happy little scream. I was almost there, not even a minute after I had started! Gods above, the people from the Burning Sands really did understand magic better than us!


    ¡°So close~! So tight, ah, I love you, Mistress!¡± The moment had almost come, I simply couldn¡¯t hold back any longer!


    ¡°Miss Ithelyn!¡± A loud scream ripped me out of my hazy fantasy and back into reality.


    ¡°For fucks sake.¡± I cursed as my almost reached climax faded away even quicker than it had come.


    ¡°Miss Ithelyn!?¡±


    Before I could even object, the doors to my bedroom were thrown wide open and all I could do was try and quickly throw the blankets back over me in an attempt to hide just what I had been doing till now. Perhaps if it looked like I was still sleeping she would just leave?


    ¡°By the gods! Child this is the third wake-up call! Your mother and siblings wish dearly for you to join them at breakfast today, so get out of bed already!¡±


    Instead of responding I simply turned around and ignored the maid, as well as the hot burning shame that was creepy up my face. I hadn¡¯t bothered learning the maid¡¯s name; after all I would be rid of her soon enough. And yet, despite her insignificance, right now I truly wished I knew her name it just so that I could curse her for barging into my room like that! Just what was wrong with people!? Seven in the morning was not a time to wake me, ever! At least she would, like all personal assigned to me, soon have to realize that her attempts to make me adhere to their plans were futile, pointless and incredibly awkward for all people involved!


    I mean come on, I truly hadn¡¯t asked to be born into this family and I hadn¡¯t ever expressed any desire to partake in high society, so couldn¡¯t they just finally forget about trying to get me to act like a proper noble!? Gods above, my only desire was to be left alone with my books, my magic and my... toys, how was this so hard to understand?


    ¡°Oh my!¡± The maid clearly had not picked up on what my silence meant and instead came even closer. ¡°I was told that you were lacking in decorum but this? Why is the night gown I laid out for you yesterday on the ground! What are you even wearing under those blankets young lady?¡±


    ¡°Ah great, it seems this one is a particular nasty specimen, the matron archetype. Shall I make her quit already? No, I should at the very least give her a chance.¡±


    Not even bothering to rise from my fortress of fluff, I crawled out just enough so that my head was visible.


    ¡°Leave. Now.¡±


    ¡°In the name of the gods! Mistress Dawnstar herself told me that you are to get out of bed right now and it was made very clear that you are not to refuse her instructions! Now get out of the bed already and let me dress you child!¡±


    Before I could even warn the elderly woman she had already approached the bed and was pulling away the blankets. It all happened so quickly that I didn¡¯t have any time to cover myself or even turn around, though it would have barely made much of a difference considering just what I was wearing. At first I was so shocked that I couldn¡¯t do much more than just stare at her in horror. She in turn did the same, only she wasn¡¯t staring at my face like I was at hers. No, she was instead staring at the bondage gear on and around me and the pretty large, hot pink, buzzing fleshlight wrapped around my penis! ¡°Why!? Oh, hells, why!? This is so embarrassing, why do they all have to be so... Like that!? What the fuck do I do now? Bitch act? Bitch act!¡±


    Seizing the initiative I slowly pulled the fleshlight off of its resting place, and deliberately without breaking eye contact turned it off, put it to the side and sat up. Still under the very confused and stunned gaze of the maid I stood up to my full height. A feat that was only accentuated by the tall fetish ballet boots I had, so very wisely, locked onto my feet. The woman, still basically paralysed, had no other option but to raise her head just to be able to meet my gaze. Yet what she found there was neither explanation nor even embarrassment, but simply cold, hard ¨C and completely faked ¨C fury. I addressed the crone in the haughtiest tone I could possibly muster.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t give you permission to enter and you threw open my doors anyway. I told you to leave and you failed to follow that simple instruction. And now I, not only, have to wake up to you exposing me to your lecherous gaze but you have the deviant disposition to keep staring at an almost naked woman less then half your age without immediately apologising!¡±


    One of my eyelids began twitching, to really sell the whole furious, angry bitch angle.


    ¡°Am I to take this as a sign for you simply not being intelligent enough to do your job or do I have to consider you an utter imbecile and pervert, leaving me no other choice but to remove you myself, by force? Now do think quickly, for if you fail to comply again I might just have to set Hugin upon you.¡±


    The woman¡¯s eyes quickly drifted off of my face and over to the large spirit raven glaring at her from his perch. And just like I had practiced with Hugin, upon hearing his name he cawed menacingly and flapped his wings a few times as if he was about to lift off. And just as I had hoped her only reaction to this was becoming as red as a ripe tomato and running out of my room. I waited a few seconds to make sure she had truly left before walking over to close the door again. Well, walk was a bit generous, considering that the ballet boots and chain connecting my ankles left me little more able than to hobble over. Once it was closed though I let out a long sigh and slump down against it. Just why did I have to be born into a family that was so... small minded?


    It had been around my seventeenth birthday when I had discovered my more deviant interests. I had already known that I was pan since my early teenage years but one day, mostly on a whim I had looked through the adult section of a local store. To say that some specific books and magazines had caught my attention would be an understatement. Almost my entire allowance that month and my birthday money had gone to buying all kinds of ¡°reference materials¡±. Thanks to my even then impressive library of books and tomes, the few more hadn¡¯t even raised any suspicion. Sadly my luck had only lasted for a few months as one of the maids thought it prudent to dust my private reading room without actually getting my permission to do so.


    The following outrage had been impressive to say the least. While I had been tending to my needs in the only way that still got my rocks off, my mother had blown out the lock on my door, charged in and started screaming like a woman possessed. Her first action after that had been properly beating my ass red which, much to my continued embarrassment, had send me right over the edge and straight into an orgasm. Something that my mother, despite the confusion of the moment, had not failed to notice; probably because of the large wet stain on her knee. Of course, after seeing her child being nothing more than a deviant pervert she had then taken to burning all the books, magazines and gear I had collected in the last few weeks. Well, my reaction to this had been to turn her very expensive and very well tended to witches garden into nothing but ash and dust.


    Since then the relationship between my mother and I had been ever more frosty than before. My talent as a witch and the power of my father¡¯s Psion heritage had made me too valuable to be throw on the streets, but my interests were also too deviant to allow me around ¡®proper¡¯ society. To be fair, this had suited me just fine. I never had liked the balls, and soir¨¦es and all the other high society gatherings one had to go through thanks to being born into this family. Being left to my own devices had also given me the freedom to further explore the world of bondage and submission and after about a year I had come to a decision. Selfbondage was fun and all but honestly not what I ultimately strived for. No, I desired a partner!


    Of course being both from a noble family and having properly pissed off my mother, had severely limited the amount of any actual human contact I could have. So, I had tried online dating, but that had stopped pretty soon, when I realized that my face was just a bit too prominent. After the third date had turned out to be a paparazzi, I had quickly deleted all proof of me ever visiting those sites. Of course my mother had found out any way and completely cut off my allowance. I, in turn, had gotten a new haircut and started working in a local bookshop under a fake identity. Thankfully the older woman running the shop had been very kind and done her best to keep my identity hidden. Additionally the undercut, flannel shirts and ripped jeans had done their part to stop me from looking like a pretty little lady. To be honest those months had probably been the most comfortable of my entire life. Nobody acted like I was special and the flirting attempts from both male and female customers had made me feel a lot more normal than being confined in the giant ass family estate.


    Aside from Hugin I guess the store lady had been my first ever real friend. Then those days had become even better when I had spotted her. The girl in question had been what I could only describe as my first real crush. The reason I had noticed her in the first place hadn¡¯t even been her looks but the fact, that she too was a witch. What had surprised me was how strangely the mana behaved around her, it was almost like it was drawn to her but didn¡¯t know where to go and there was certainly far too much for her to ever control. And her soul... never before had I seen something like it; a small and weak thing but more steady than any other.


    Her soul had basically been stagnating and to make things even more mysterious it had been wrapped in more spellwork than should ever have been possible. I had been so lost in staring at the odd display before me that I hadn¡¯t even noticed her approaching the counter. Only when she had spoken up, had I realized that she was right in front me. And of course when I had looked up and seen how scantily clad she was all I could do was blush and stutter like the inexperienced virgin that I was. I admit I had panicked, I had been lost and hadn¡¯t known how to react, but that still didn¡¯t excuse what I had done next...


    ¡°Oh, Hugin! I didn¡¯t even get her name and I have no idea if I will ever see her again... and even if I do, won¡¯t I just look like a massive dick? Do you think she, uhm, knows what I did? She shouldn¡¯t, right? It was just a passing enchantment after all!¡±


    Like so often Hugin only looked at me and cawed disapprovingly. ¡°Though I cannot fault your interests, you should not have cast a spell on her. If she finds out about her missing memories it is unlikely that she is going to willingly become your servant.¡±


    ¡°Hugin! I don¡¯t want her as a servant! I panicked because I have a crush on her!¡±


    His sinister cawing laughter didn¡¯t really make me feel better about my actions. ¡°Of course Mistress, it is as you say.¡±


    Honestly I was beginning to doubt Hugin¡¯s knowledge in the acts of love and courtship. Who else but me would rely on a death spirit to pour their heart out to!? Then again it wasn¡¯t like I could go to my mother with this! She would probably burst a blood vessel if she ever found out that I was not only a ¡°Deviant Pervert¡± but also a ¡°Queer Whore¡±, her words not mine by the way. After all she was still upset about the fact that I had long ago stopped being her ¡°Precious Boy¡±. Sighing in frustration I started to slowly strip out of my bondage gear and went about make myself at least somewhat presentable. If my mother was expecting me downstairs it was better not to let her wait. Though I was actually a bit surprised that she was even requesting my presence at breakfast, something like that hadn¡¯t happened since she had found out about my... interests. It was more than a little suspicion but hiding in my room wouldn¡¯t make the problem go away. And if she was indeed trying something nasty, well... she had just replanted her garden...


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    On my way over to the bath my gaze fell upon the hideous nightgown the maid had thought I should wear. Feeling a little nasty this morning, I picked it up and focused on the piece of cloth. In less than a second the ugly thing caught fire and under the excited cawing of Hugin it burned to ash. Seriously, that damned bird was probably a bigger pyromaniac than myself! I shook my head at his little happy dance and just motioned at the ashes. Hugin immediately jumped down from his porch and began rolling around in them while I went on my way. The bath attached to my room was just as ostentatious as the rest of the Dawnstar manor, large, open and decked out in more marble and gold inlays than any sane person could ever possibly conceive off. The mirror alone could probably feed a family for months!


    Though I had to admit it did give me a rather flattering view of myself. Then again perhaps that was simply owned to the fact of my ¡°Superior Breeding¡± as my dread mother called it. A slender and athletic build with generous curves, which somehow managed to accent my masculine endowment rather than clash with it. All wrapped in near flawless skin with not a single dimple or hair to be found. My face was certainly beautiful if more haughty than I would have liked. And of course just like my mother I had the same silvery hair as all Dawnstars, which stood in stark contrast to my honey brown skin and vibrant green eyes. My exotic, oriental appearance was one of the few gifts I still had to remember my father by and the only one my mother couldn¡¯t take from me.


    I felt bile rising up in my throat as I thought about my father. The day his video messages had stopped coming my mother had stopped talking about him. I had been barely fourteen when I had last seen him, and I still didn¡¯t know if they had ever loved each other. My mother was a celestial witch from an ancient line of heroes and saints and my father had come from the Old Blood of the Burning Sands, mystical blood mages and devious sorcerers. To make matters worse he had also been one of the despised Dark Witches, someone who had bound them self to a powerful demon to gain more power. Their lines had been polar opposites and enemies since times memorial and all my childhood there hadn¡¯t been a single day where they had shown any kind of affection for each other. A marriage purely for political purposes my mother had said, my father simply had gotten that sad and heartbroken look whenever I had asked him.


    Whatever their relationship had once been, it hadn¡¯t mattered much to my mother in the end. Not even a month after my father¡¯s disappearance a new man, from another prestigious line of mages, had taken the place besides my mother and with him had come two children from another marriage; graciously accepted into the Dawnstar name, if not by blood then by association. By now my mother had birthed him another two, one twelve and the other eleven. Though to me their age mattered as little as their existence, I had no love for my step brother and sister or for my half-siblings. For all I cared they could go rot in the hells if that meant I could see my father again.


    Already angry again I put on whatever clothes I could find and stashed my bondage gear in a securely locked compartment, before going down stairs to see what my horrid mother wanted. On the way to the dining room I made a small detour to the kitchen where one of the guards was currently eating a sandwich. The man¡¯s name was Geralt, a big burly man in his forties and he was one of the few people in the house staff who it was actually pleasant to be around. When he saw me come down in a baggy hoodie and hot pants he immediately started grinning.


    ¡°Well, look who obviously wasn¡¯t dressed by her new maid! So already got rid of another one?¡±


    ¡°I sure hope so. Move to the side I want the OJ.¡±


    ¡°Nah, first you tell me how you did it.¡±


    ¡°Ass. Fine, she caught me masturbating. Now move!¡±


    ¡°Ah, the classic. Fully geared up too?¡±


    ¡°Yup. Talk to you later, the dread witch mother wants me to attend to her morning ritual of eating, drinking tea and planning horrid fates for her only legitimate daughter!¡±


    ¡°Well don¡¯t let me stop you,¡± He laughed. ¡°It will certainly make for a good show!¡±


    ¡°Awww,¡± I drawled. ¡°I hate you too, you big softy.¡±


    I took a swig of the juice carton and walked away from his laughter, towards where I could hear the rest of the household. I refrained from calling them family because a family was supposed to be caring and supporting, not toxic and vile. And true to their nature I found my mother and the rest of my stepfather¡¯s brood sitting around the table. The first thing that stood out was how my stepsiblings, Angelica and Finus, were both trying to hide a nasty smile. So the older siblings already knew what is going on. Which meant it couldn¡¯t be pleasant but not so much of a surprise that the younger ones had been told of it. I shrugged; nothing they could do would matter to me. Instead, before I addressed them I made a show of my lack of decorum by emptying the entire orange juice in one go right in front of them. Not acting like a noble always got them so wonderfully cross.


    ¡°So, Mother. I¡¯m not even three month back from the Orient and you already want to talk, impressive! So what is it that you wished to tell me?¡±


    ¡°Hmph,¡± Her beautiful face, which was almost a perfect mirror of my own, scrunched up in disgust. ¡°I see my eldest is as lacking in manners as always. No real surprise there.¡±


    Before she could go on Angelica interrupted with a grating voice more fitting for a hag than a noble¡¯s daughter. ¡°Mother dearest, let us not drag this out more than it needs to be. Someone like her is certainly not worth your time. I have some great news too you know, I...¡±


    I flipped her bird before she could even continue. ¡°Fuck you too, tiny hag, now shut up before I do things I might actually regret!¡±


    ¡°Ithelyn!¡± My mother yelled at me with the exact same manner of faked furry that I had earlier used on the maid. ¡°Behave yourself or I will punish you! Do not think you are too old to be given the cane.¡±


    The evil twinkle in her eyes made me shiver in disgust, though I still folded, after all I knew better than to truly enrage her. ¡°Yes, mother. I apologize for my rudeness. It won¡¯t happen again.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± I could almost hear the mouthed ¡°Boy¡± she had added afterwards and had to clench my jaws just so I didn¡¯t let out a nasty retort.


    ¡°Now then, I called you down here to let you know that from today on you will once more attend the Royal Academy of Witchcraft. I¡¯ve had enough of your behaviour and so I will pray to the gods that the professors there can finally teach you some manners. Your lessons start in two days, and I want you out of my house this very morning. Understood, Ithelyn?¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± I blinked in confusion. ¡°I had expected something a lot worse like getting sent to the armed forces or the Inquisition. But a free ticket to get away from this place? Hells, yes!¡±


    ¡°Indeed, Daughter.¡± The word dripped with venomous intend. ¡°You are certainly lucky that I am so lenient. Now, this is all, you are dismissed. Get out of my sight, Ithelyn.¡±


    Basking in the spiteful glares of everyone in the room, I walked out with a happy skip in my step. It was time for me to pack up! Despite the fact that my mother seemed to have intended for her decision to be a punishment, I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the most recent development. It was actually possible that my life was finally going to get better, seeing as being shipped off to boarding school also meant that I would be rid of ¡°Bitch Witch and the Barely Magical Brats¡±. Taking two steps at a time I rushed up the stairs to my room. After all I still had to pack my bags... and do another thing. My jaws tightened again as I thought about a certain problem.


    Apparently having sensed my agitation Hugin flapped through the air before landing on my shoulder. ¡°Ca-Caaaaww!¡±


    ¡°Your affliction is not something to take lightly, Mistress. It would be wise to...¡±


    ¡°Fine!¡± I interrupted him. ¡°Fine, you¡¯re right. It will be worse if I don¡¯t check regularly. Still... I am not looking forward to the day when it becomes a real problem.¡±


    With a sigh I walked towards my bathroom and made sure to lock the door behind me. Turning on the mirror lights I began checking the usual places; eyelids, gums, teeth, fingernails, if the books were correct then it would show there first. Thankfully I didn¡¯t spot anything, no bleeding, no discolouration and no pain. Relief washed over me as I took out a small bottle of medical eye drops. I had paid a lot of money for the recipe to a local Dark-Witches shop; at least that had also included them keeping it secret. I put one drop in each eye as I had been doing every day for the last three months. Sometimes the bite wound on my shoulder still hurt but I had no symptoms and I was certainly older than twenty-five the age at which infection normally stopped occurring, so the preventive medication should be enough.


    ¡°There! I checked Hugin, happy now? I¡¯m not going to become an angry bloodthirsty monster anytime soon. Yay. Now stop worrying you stupid bird!¡±


    ¡°Caawww!¡±


    ¡°Ouch! Stop pecking my head!¡±


    ¡°Your leniency will be the death of you child and I have need of you yet! Get. A. Cure!¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, fine! I¡¯m going to look for a cure once at the Academy... can¡¯t be that hard.¡±


    ¡°Caw...¡± His eyes seemed to pity me.


    Ignoring his rude behaviour, like the powerful independent Witch that I was, I shooed Hugin off my shoulder and put on the clothes one of the maids had put out. While a school uniform wasn¡¯t my favourite look it could be quite fun in its own way. After having dressed ¡°appropriately¡± for the academy I began packing in earnest. The first and most important things were still my alchemical kit and ingredients satchel. Wrapping them in a bunch of stray t-shirts and dresses was about all I could do to keep them safe in the short time. It wasn¡¯t the best of ideas but it would do for now. After that I basically threw everything I owned ¨C including my bondage gear, I wasn¡¯t going to leave that here ¨C into as many bags as I could possibly find. Three large suitcases, two smaller duffle bags and about half an hour later I was finally finished, or at least almost. With a sad smile on my face I approached the lone picture frame on my window still.


    ¡°Hey, Dad. Hope you would be proud of me... despite all my failings. I... still love you.¡± I didn¡¯t care what my mother and other people said; I knew he was still alive and I was going to find him. The Orient had been a bust, I hadn¡¯t even been able to find my extended family, but I simply couldn¡¯t stop now. The scar on my shoulder itched as if reacting to my emotions. It didn¡¯t matter how much I had to sacrifice, I would never stop searching. Even if it was going to take decades, I knew he was out there somewhere; if not in this world then in another.


    Before the feelings could overwhelm me I grabbed the frame and tugged it into my handbag; there it was saver than in the bags, I didn¡¯t know who would handle them after all. And I still didn¡¯t trust my mother not to throw away what little I had left of him. Trying my best to calm down and put on a nonchalant facade, I grabbed what bags I could carry and went down the stairs, only to immediately run into one of my hated stepsiblings.


    ¡°Angelica.¡± I deadpanned.


    ¡°Freak.¡± She retorted with an, admittedly, impressive snarl.


    ¡°Seriously now? That is what you came up with? Weak.¡±


    ¡°Ha! Coming from you that means less than nothing! After all you are so pathetic that Mother doesn¡¯t even want to put up with you anymore.¡±


    ¡°So? Not like care for her approval. Just leave me be.¡± Pushing her aside I made my way down the stairs, or at least that had been the plan. Before I could reach the bottom something fluffy jumped before my feet, making me almost lose my balance.


    ¡°What the hells!? Angelica! Try and keep your shitty familiar under control! I could have broken my frickin neck!¡±


    The grass coloured weasel had already climbed back up to her shoulders and both of them were now looking at me with disdain.


    ¡°Yes, it would be most unfortunate if you broke your neck. After all, who would be left to suck all the dicks in town?¡±


    I stopped still in my tracks. ¡®She fucking didn¡¯t, did she? That disgusting, stupid, fucking rat face!¡¯


    I was livid when I turned to face her! How dare she say such things to my face? Before I could throw my luggage at her I managed to unclench my fingers and set it down. Step after step I walked back up the stairs to face her, even one step below her I was still taller. With teeth pressed together so hard that it hurt, I addressed Karen.


    ¡°Would you care to repeat that?¡±


    Something in my expression made her cocky smile waver, but she had already gone too far to take her words back.


    ¡°O-Oh, I don¡¯t know, maybe I said that you like to suck men¡¯s cocks?¡±


    Quicker than even I had expected of myself, my hand shot forward and clasped around her throat. Her eyes widened in panic and I could feel her fingers scratching at my hand but all that seemed so far away. My gaze was fixated on a singular drop of blood pooling around my thumbnail. Had I scratched her? I honestly couldn¡¯t tell. But where ever it came from it was... alluring, the very thing that carried magic through our bodies. What a waste for it to drop to the ground. I removed my hand from her, barely registering that she scrambled away from me. Slowly I brought the drop to my lips, licking it, tasting it, savouring it; I twirled my tongue around my fingers, just to make sure I had gotten every last trace of the delectable treat of them. This had been... divine! How Could something taste so incredibly, I simply needed... MORE. Then suddenly a sharp pain in my left eye ripped me out of the trance. My stepsister was on the ground before me, looking utterly bewildered. I looked towards her and smiled, my lips pulling back to show far more teeth than I should have been able to.


    ¡°Goodbye Karen, hopefully we won¡¯t have to see each other ever again.¡±


    ¡°You... You fucking freak! Lunatic! Monster! I¡¯ll tell Mother about this and she¡¯ll put you in an asylum!¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± I grabbed my luggage from the ground and left without turning around again. ¡°I am sure she will try."


    I was barely out of the door when all the bravado left me. Just what had I been thinking?! What had I been doing!? I had licked another person¡¯s blood off of my fingers like some kind of fucked up demon or - the thought made me shiver - or something far worse. Almost as an afterthought I remembered the pain in my left eye. With numb fingers I wiped away an errand tear, only to startle when they came back blood red.


    ¡°What the...¡± As quickly as I could I took out my phone and looked at my reflection. There I saw not only Hugin''s worried look from my shoulder, but also a single blood shot eye.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± My teeth clenched in horror. ¡°This isn¡¯t good. No... no, wait, I¡¯m okay. I took my medicine, I am too old, it has to be something else.¡± Slowly my jaw relaxed and I got my breathing under control. ¡°Okay, fuck this. I am going to figure out what is going on when I¡¯m at the academy and I¡¯m certainly not staying to find out what else might go wrong today.¡±


    Grabbing my bags I quickly made my way to the car in the front court. Whatever I was coming down with, being around my mother wasn¡¯t going to help. It was far better ¨C and easier ¨C to choose the flight forwards. ¡®Goodbye dread Witch, and creepy old manor. A new life awaits, perhaps even one where I get to meet some cute witches! I certainly wouldn¡¯t mind hitting on some...''

 Part 3 - {Alice} - [Rewrite]

    Raven Eyes ¨C Part 2 ¨C Crashc(o)urse {Alice}


    For the first time in my life, it felt as if time was flowing slow enough to stop. One moment I was staring at the car barrelling towards me like a deer in the literal headlights and the next my gaze was drawn to its back seat where a young woman was comically slowly raising an eyebrow above her stylish sunglasses. Unlike the two burly men in the front of the car, there wasn''t even the slightest indication of neither shock nor panic on her face. No, she was entirely composed; with her long silver hair and that flawless honey tan, she looked the perfect picture of aristocratic beauty. It didn¡¯t even seem like I was staring at a person, but just the cold, emotionless statue of one; my soon to be demise was only a mid morning distraction, barely worthy of her attention. Perhaps it was because of that lack of surprise that in turn all of my attention was focused on her. Not the car, not the drivers and certainly not a way to escape my demise, it was all¡­ her. It irked me how such a beautifully plucked eyebrow could be made to rise up into such a picture perfect arch. That she even dared to be so composed and in control, while I was so scared and utterly out of my depths. Her entire existence seemed to be taunting me, as if just by sitting there and looking so annoyingly perfect she was saying: "So, what now? Go on, impress me, little commoner!"


    Another long, drawn-out honk ripped me out of my spite-fueled reverie in an instant and right back to the reality of the situation. Despite the driver slamming the breaks, the car was already less than a meter from caressing my shinbones. If I didn''t act now, this was going to be it; my story of becoming a great and powerful witch would be over before it had even begun. Even I, with my enhanced regeneration, couldn¡¯t easily bounce back from a car crash. Instead of receiving a diploma, I would be strapped to a hospital bed recovering from full-body fractures. I¡¯d be witch-pancake! Or perhaps if worse came to be¡­ road kill.


    ¡®No¡­ no, I can not let it end here; I still have so much to accomplish!¡¯ But no matter how scared I was, no matter how I begged and pleaded, my magic, as well as my body, refused my command. In my mind I screamed at my body to do something, anything really. But I didn¡¯t move, because subconsciously I had already accepted that there was nothing I could do; instead my gaze moved once more to the back seat of the car.


    My eyes locked on to the rich girl and hers onto mine, and I could have sworn that she was¡­ smiling? Her lips moved, and though I couldn''t hear her words, I could feel them affect me right down to the very core of my being. Whatever it was that she had said, I instinctively knew it to be vile and repulsive, anathema to my very existence; my soul felt as if stung by a dozen of nettles. Something buried deep inside, something that should have been long forgotten, stirred once more. This thing in me strained against the invisible shackles that bound it and it was pissed! Burns. Hurts. Hate!


    As sudden as a gust of wind, the familiar feeling of magic welled up in me. Though what flowed through me in this moment was different from anything I could have willingly conjured. Wild arcane power ripped through me in a maelstrom of half-forgotten memories and buried emotions. Wind beneath my wings. Bones cracking under my claws. The sweet taste of death on my tongue. A thing, that was me but also not me, looked at my body and was not impressed. Drawing as much magic as my frail soul could possibly hold, it set to rework my body to survive whatever was thrown at me. Muscles hardened and reactions sharpened, nerves were rerouted and redundant organs were removed. And then, instead of being frozen in fear and shock, the thing simply... acted. Physiological limitations, pain, gravity? The thing cared little for any of that, right now it was going to make me come out unbroken and there was that, no more questions necessary. My breathing slowed to a stop, my eyes narrowed and without my say so, a sick toothy smile crept across my face. Can''t crush what you can¡¯t catch!


    The car no longer rushed towards me, but seemed to be driving through molasses so slow had it become to my eyes. As if it was the most natural of things my foot lifted up and stomped down on the still moving hood, catapulting me forwards and upward. My stupid squishy foot slipped due to the inertia carrying the car forward but that was okay. Luggage. Garbage. Heavy. Useless. I let go of my suitcase, sending it flying towards the sidewalk. Putting my soft pathetic hands on the top of the car, I bend my arms, arched my back and pushed against the black roof with more power my than lithe body should have ever possessed; Not only doing a perfect jump roll over a moving car but somehow even acing the landing after. Unharmed. Fight, Flight? Behind me, the car came to a screeching hold. I turned around and glared at the laughable metal box. They had tried to hurt me! Naughty driver. Stupid humans. Rip off their hea...


    ¡°Wait, what?¡± All of a sudden the magic and adrenaline flowing through me crashed simultaneously; all that was left behind was confusion, a massive headache and a cramping gut.


    ¡°What the hells was I just thinking? What the fuck am I doing on the street? Lords... not again!¡±


    I grabbed at my head as the familiar pain bloomed behind my skull. Apparently I¡¯d fallen victim to ¡°The Whispers¡± again; usually they were just annoying, if sometimes disturbingly helpful, auditory hallucinations in the back of my mind, but sometimes I had these... blackouts. My doctor said they were likely caused by drawing on too much magic, which was a fine thing for her to say as I never remembered what I¡¯d been doing beforehand that had caused them! Sadly, I knew for a fact that neither the headache nor the cloudy feeling in my mind would to recede anytime soon. Where my memories should have been was just white noise, and I was left trying to piece together what had happened.


    ¡°So, first things first, how did I ended up here? And where, by Hecate, is my damn luggage!?


    Before I could answer any of the questions currently floating through my mind, my attention was drawn to the expensive black car behind me. The door on the front passenger¡¯s side opened up and a terrifyingly tall man in a black suit stepped outside. He looked around for a second in front of the car almost as if searching for something when finally his eyes fell on me. Immediately his facial expression went from worried to pissed. Maybe he just didn''t like women with black hair?


    ¡°You!¡± He yelled at my while walking closer.


    ¡°Who?¡± I turned around in the hopes of having missed someone behind me. Yeah¡­ there was no-one else. Well, there was a car with a terrified-looking woman inside and several onlookers on the sidewalk so maybe he meant one of them? Sadly my hopes were crushed when a meaty hand fell on my shoulder.


    ¡°You!¡± This time his voice was laced with anger.


    ¡°Me?¡± I pointed at my face with a finger.


    ¡°Of course I fucking mean you! Who else could I be talking too!?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ shit, I dunno? I for sure have never seen you before, so why would I assume you were talking to me? Far more likely that you''re yelling at somebody else!¡±


    ¡°Never seen ¡­¡± He face palmed. With the way he was looking at me seemed almost as if he thought I had a few screws loose. Rude. "Are you fucking with me, little girl? We looked each other into the eyes not even a minute ago!"


    ¡°Okay¡­ if you say so. Can I go from the street now? I need to find my suitcase; I must have lost it somewhere.¡± I looked around, still a bit lost but perked up when I saw my electric blue suitcase lie on the other side of the street. I was just about to walk towards when once more a strong hand seized me by my arm.


    ¡°Just where the heck do you think you are going? First, you run in front of the Lady''s car and jump over it like some damn monkey, and now you just want to run away without even an apology!?"


    ¡°What the hells, dude!? Let go of me!¡± Much to my surprise, he did as I asked quicker even than I had expected. The only problem was that he now no longer looked at me with anger or frustration, but straight up disgust.


    ¡°What did you just say, scum?¡±


    ¡°Nothing? Wait, do you mean the swear? So what, it isn''t forbidden to mention the hells or swear on them!¡±


    ¡°Just because demon lover scum like you are allowed to practice your craft doesn''t make it right! I have half a mind to teach you little shit a lesson¡­¡±


    Now it was on me to facepalm. You may remember that my family owned a caf¨¦? Yeah, that was only half of the buisness, in addition to the caf¨¦; we also acted as a shop for a specific clientele. In our case, it was mostly witches that specialized in forming contracts with demons and drawing power from the seven hells. We offered ingredients, literature, summoning rooms and even magical assistance for those interested. My family had been in this business for hundreds of generations. Even throughout the dark ages, the Dutrar clan had stood strong against anyone trying to rob them of their freedom and heritage. As my grandmother was with two-hundred and eleven a bit too old to do a lot of the work, my mother together with her sister and sometimes my cousins ran most of the store.


    And now came the problem with being a so-called "dark-witch", we were generally not that¡­ well received by the public. While it was an entirely legal craft and there was even a state-funded culture-grand for keeping the tradition alive, a lot of people tended to think a bit negatively of it. Most of the time it wasn''t really all that much of a problem; normal people might be reserved about the topic, but usually, curiosity overshadowed animosity. Well, only most of the time, for there were a selected few people that viewed our mere existence as heresy. These hardliners could be found all across society but most of them came from old aristocratic families or people who worked for them. Just like the delightful man in front of me, apparently.


    I could have tried to convince the man that his viewpoint was offensive. I could have told him about how it is a risky but strictly controlled craft. I even could have made the point that conversations with individuals from a place with such a rich and diverse culture could lead to impressive steps forward in the fields of science, engineering and philosophy. Or I could have just plain told him that due to my volatile magic I had never before summoned a demon and therefore technically wasn''t a dark-witch. I could have done all that, easily even, but I had a bus to catch and so I did something radically different.


    ¡°Well, screw your bigoted ass!¡± I yelled at the man three times my weight and flipped him the bird.


    Suffice to say, he wasn''t all that pleased. It didn¡¯t take two seconds of pause for him to charge after me while I was running towards my suitcase. He was surprisingly fast for a man of his size, and I couldn¡¯t help but pride myself for wearing sneakers over flats or high heels today. I had honestly thought my luck would run out this time but much to my surprise a single word changed the entire situation.


    ¡°Stop.¡±


    She - and it was obviously a woman - hadn''t even yelled but simply raised her voice just loud enough for us to hear. Yet the effect was undeniable. In a split second both the tall guy and I stopped dead in our tracks and looked towards the car. I also learned something else about myself at that moment. Maybe it was due to a lack of a male authority figure growing up or because I was so drilled on obeying my mother and aunt that I was kind of primed for it, but either way, I apparently was a sucker for commanding female voices.


    And damn me if she hadn''t exactly that. While she sounded about the same age as me, there was a self-confident certainty to the way she spoke, that made more than clear she was expecting to be obeyed and nothing else. It must have had more of an effect on me than I thought because I couldn''t even tell how long I had been standing there waiting for her to speak again. A small part of my mind yelled at me to grab my luggage and run after the bus, but that was quickly silenced by the rest of my brain in favour of what she would say next.


    ¡°Leave her be John. She isn¡¯t worth it and we are already late. Gerald, start the car again, we¡¯re leaving.¡±


    The so-called John didn''t seem to like the way things were going but still, he complied... after spitting on the ground in front of me. What a charming fellow, oh how I hoped I would never have to see him again. I just jinxed it didn''t I? Still, I was kinda disappointed by how mellow this whole situation ended up becoming. I mean, yes, I was about to get floored by a guy with at least a hundred kilos on me but still, him just getting called off like that? It kinda made me feel a bit unimportant. Then again it was basically the story of my life. Alice Dutrar the one Witch in the entire world that can''t use her magic and is additionally ¡°Not worth¡± getting beaten up by fascists. I sheepishly watched the car drive off without so much an explanation as to what had just happened. So in the end I just shrugged and made my way over to my luggage. I was just about to walk towards the bus stop when I stopped in my track.


    For a moment I wasn''t sure anymore if I should cry or just start laughing. My whole running here and even apparently getting almost driven over by a car didn''t matter anymore because the damn bus had just left the fucking station! First day of my first semester at the Royal Academy of Witchcraft: Officially the worst day of my life...


    ¡°Why!? WHY!? WHY!!!!¡± Despite myself I simply collapsed right there on the sidewalk.


    I didn''t even react when some people came closer. There was no reason for me to care; I had already fucked up after all. The bus was gone; I wouldn''t make it in time for the train. And because I wasn''t on the train I could say goodbye to my application for the Academy. Because for some archaic reason they operated under the logic: ¡°You came too late? Well, too bad, just apply next year.¡± This meant that right now I could just as well go home and take a nap. I was already about to get up and walk back home, when a hand lightly seized my shoulder.


    ¡°Ah!¡± I whirled around, a bit scared that I was going to be beaten up after all, but instead of ¡°big, tall bodyguard guy¡± I looked up at a young police officer with short brown hair.


    ¡°Miss?¡± Instead of angry he actually seemed concerned.


    ¡°Sorry. I thought you were someone else.¡±


    ¡°Oh, okay, that is fine. I just have to ask you a few questions.¡± He tipped his hat in a friendly gesture to some of the bystanders, who in turn realizing that they were staring walked on.


    Considering he had actually cared for my comfort and I had nothing better to do, I decided to humour him. ¡°Sure, not like I have to get anywhere in a hurry anymore.¡±


    ¡°Really? But with the luggage I had thought¡­¡±


    ¡°Ha! No, I already missed the bus, so ask away officer man!¡± The look he gave me was actually kinda pathetic, as if I was a confused and lost child. I grit my teeth but kept my mouth shut, I didn¡¯t need to mouth of to a police officer today.


    ¡°Well,¡± He began while scratching his head. ¡°If you say so. So, the questions I have are related to a supposed hit and run that you have been involved in? Now according to the reports I got you ran into the streets about five minutes ago and were about to collide with an oncoming car, correct?¡± His voice sounded a bit unsure as if he didn¡¯t quite believe his own words.


    I could only shrug in turn; I actually had no clue as to what had happened either. ¡°Kinda? I guess?¡±


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Wait, so you aren''t sure if you were hit or if ran into the street?¡±


    ¡°Both, maybe, yes... no?¡±


    ¡°Hold on, you are telling me that you don''t know what happened, while I have other people telling me that you flew over a car!? But looking at you, it is more than obvious that you didn''t run into a car because you aren''t even wounded! Now, can you please tell me what am I supposed to believe here?¡±


    ¡°Wait, repeat that again!¡± Maybe he actually had a good idea there?


    ¡°What am I supposed to believe?¡±


    ¡°No, no! The first thing!¡±


    ¡°Uhm, people said you flew over a car?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that''s it! How could I have been so stupid? I can still make it!¡± I grasped my head in frustration, how had I not thought about this before? I simply had to fly!


    ¡°Wait, what now?¡± The policeman seemed to be even more lost now than before, but I artfully ignored him.


    Instead of answering any further questions I dropped my suitcase on the ground, opened it up and then started stripping out of my clothes. When my overcoat went off flying into my luggage the young officer looked on in confusion. But when I began removing both my skirt and shirt he went into full on panic mode. He tried to, at the same time, avert his gaze, stop me from taking off even more clothing and stop others from gazing upon my almost naked figure. Honestly if I hadn''t been in such a hurry, I probably would have found his attention sweet, but as things stood right now I couldn''t care less. Once I was down to my underwear and fishnets I quickly grabbed a simple black tube top and put it on.


    ¡°Lady, by the gods! Why did you do that!?¡± Even if all my naughty bits were now covered he was still not looking into my direction.


    I had to use this distraction! Before he could fully turn around I quickly closed the suit case and began running off. ¡°Sorry, officer, I''m in a hurry!¡±


    ¡°He- Hey! Hold on! I said hold! Stop right now!¡±


    I could barely stop myself from laughing and screamed back: ¡°Nope!¡±


    With this I threw my little suit case into the air and jumped. No matter how often I had done it by now, it was always the greatest feeling in the world, as if a weight was falling off my body and soul. I could feel the magic washing over me like a wave as my body stretched and contorted and took on another form. In less than a second the boring human Alice Dutrar was gone and in its place a large majestic raven snatched my electric blue suitcase out of the air and lifted off.


    ¡°Cawwww!¡±


    I screamed my delight out into the world as my wings beat against the wind. On the ground the policeman looked on both confused and worried as I soared ever higher. The feeling of the air rushing over my wings was something incomparable to anything other people could possibly experience. Despite the fresh morning the sun on my black feathers was enough to provide me comfort. Thanks to my large frame and impressive wingspan I had no problems lifting my light luggage in to the air. I guessed it must have looked weird from the ground to see a bird as large as a condor carry a suitcase away but I cared little. For now I simply relished in the freedom my body granted me.


    At times it almost felt as if this form was closer to the true me than my human one could ever be. In some underlying primal way it just felt right to have feathers, wings and claws. Some days I felt more as if the human me was just a mask I used to hide who I really was. And yet at the same time deep in me I knew that my raven form wasn''t the true me either. Once I had asked my mother if other Shifters felt the same way, she had just laughed and said it was puberty messing with my brain. I had never told her that even now years after, the feeling persisted. A melancholic caw escaped me in a weird bird version of a sigh. It didn''t help thinking about this and so I focused on flying to the train station.


    For several minutes I just flew, occasionally flapping my wings and watching the city rush by beneath me. While I hadn''t been able to find the black car again, I did see the traitorous bus a small way off. Sadly I didn''t have enough time or else I would have left a present on its front shield. A cackling caw escaped my beak as I recalled what I had done a year ago to an ex-boyfriend of mine. Let''s just say crows are vindictive jerks and I had a habit of styling myself as their queen. Even now I could spy several of them tailing me, which was both cute and at times a bit creepy. While their open affection was really adorable, there had been situations in which particularly adventurous males had tried courting me. And honestly no matter how much I liked being a bird; I really had no interest in¡­ well, mating with one. While the creepy implications of it were off-putting enough I was more scared of it actually working. I had heard rumours of it being a lot more possible than one would want and even worse rumours of Shifters losing themselves entirely to their animal side. A shiver ran down my spine and quite literally ruffled my feathers. I understood having needs and desires but that? No thank you! I mean, hells, most humans weren¡¯t even worth having kids with!


    Instead one should just do it like my family had done for decades: find a man of a good bloodline, seduce him and have him fuck you pregnant, then proceed to dumb his ass and never see him again. As far as I knew, all of my relatives had been conceived that way. So technically that made my mother and aunt only half sisters but, eh, for the Dutrar only the maternal line mattered. The men themselves should consider themselves lucky we didn¡¯t sacrifice them afterwards anymore! Though despite being proud of my heritage, part of me had always wondered what my father had been like. He would have to have great magical potential for me to be born a conduit. ¡®So, I guess Mom was really good at seducing men from very powerful bloodlines¡­ which by the way just, eww, eww, eww! Damn you brain, now I have to think about poop again just to get that disturbing image out of my head.¡¯


    I was so immersed in my own thoughts that I didn''t even notice when all of a sudden the train station appeared right in front of me. Startled out of my thoughts I had barely enough time to dodge the droves of people and by the hells there were a lot of people. But the joke was on them, hahaha! For I as a magnificent, beautiful creature of the sky wasn''t bound by the confines of the ground. All I had to do was find the correct platform and fly over! After scouting the grounds for a bit I had it, platform six! ¡®Ha, the train is still there! Down we go!¡¯


    ¡°Holy shit! That''s a big ass bird!¡±


    ¡®Wait, what? Where, I wanna see it too!¡¯ The second I realised that the bird in question was probably me, it was already too late. Excitedly looking around instead of straight ahead, there was no way to stop, lift up or prevent in any way what was going to happen. Because in the very next moment I felt the side of my face, well beak in this case, collide with something that was both squishy and surprisingly hard. Like the bird brain I was I had not run but flown straight into another person. The shock was big enough for me that I changed to my human form almost out of reflex. And so I shot through the air like a cannonball made from lose feathers, luggage and half naked girl. Flying face first into a person I could have lived with, that I shot even further and crashed straight into the train, severely damaged my pride, but the fact that my suit case also crash into my face knocked the wind right out of me.


    ¡°Ouch. Fucking hells who puts trains in the way of flying by witches?¡±


    ¡°Holy shit, are you okay?¡± An eerily recognizable voice called out. ¡°Wait... It¡¯s YOU!¡±


    It took me a bit to recover from my fall but when I did look up; it was in to a familiar face wearing an expression I could for the love of it not pin down. I cocked my head to the side, hoping that a different angle would give me more insight but I would''ve bet all that did was make me look like an even bigger bird brain. Still, even if the face before me was confusing me, it was still exotic and beautiful and¡­ bleeding. Well that wasn¡¯t good, though her expression still troubled me more, her eyes looked pretty worried from behind her sunglasses, but her lips seemed to be pulled into a condescending smirk? Was she... angry? Worried? In need of the loo? Before I could even come up with a snarky response the girl - woman? Lady? - approached me with a surprisingly confident stride.


    ¡°Now, isn''t this a surprise.¡± The tan, silver haired beauty sneered and put her hands on her hips in a pose that seemed a little too smooth to not have been practiced beforehand; especially on heels that high. ¡°First you run in front of my car and almost cause me to be late, and now you have the audacity to crash into me like a simpleton on a backwater country fair. I do hope that you have an explanation for both these situations or do I have to simply consider you exceptionally stupid?¡±


    My half formed reply got stuck in my throat when I laid eyes on the imposing black raven sitting on the woman''s shoulder. In a moment''s notice my face went through a myriad of expressions. Shock, glee, childish curiosity but all that quickly changed to disgust and repulsion when my hand got closer and I felt what it really was. This was no fucking bird; it wasn''t even an imp that looked like a bird. No, this was a spirit and if I knew one thing, than that spirits hated me and I them by extension in return. But even worse was the feeling of magic it gave off, it felt dead, cold and stagnating, an entropy spirit. In an instant my disposition to her changed from confused but curious to hostile.


    ¡°What the actual fuck, Lady!? You annoy me for crashing into you while carry that thing around with you?¡± At that she actually raised an eyebrow ¨C again with that? - like I had just asked the silliest question she could imagine.


    ¡°Oh, you mean Hugin right here? What about him? He is just the best isn''t he?¡± I had not expected that response or her happy dumb smile.


    ¡°What?¡± I was pretty sure now that this girl was a little coo-coo. ¡°I mean sure, for a spirit, but I meant more the fact that those are gods damned illegal!¡±


    Apparently I had said something funny, because she just... started laughing! I was standing right in the middle of a busy station platform and was getting laughed at by a haughty bitch with supermodel body and a face straight from a make-up commercial. And to make matters worse it was kind of getting to me, though not in any way that was even slightly appropriate. Imagining what it would feel like to put her in her place, went right up against imagining what it would feel for her to step on me. While I was still fighting my own body''s conflicting messages she must have stepped even closer because all of a sudden I felt a cool hand on my cheek.


    ¡°Oh my, you do seem a bit confused, don''t you? Well, let me explain, while we''re at it. It is true that in most cases the bonding with an entropy spirit is against the law, but what you may not know is, that I am a Dawnstar and therefore rules only apply so much to me.¡± She shook her hand from side to side in a gesture to show what exactly she meant by that. ¡°Now, you on the other hand should worry about something else entirely, and that is about the fact, that while owning Hugin may technically be illegal, so too would it be for an unbound demon to run through the city, correct?¡±


    I wasn''t even sure on how I should answer that! For once I was actually befuddled enough to draw a complete blank. An emptiness the whispers in my mind were only to happy to try and fill, somethign I could really do without right now. Not only had I apparently managed to piss off some crazy witch with an entropy spirit, but now she also belonged to the most powerful witches family of all times. And to top it all off she asked me legal questions completely irrelevant to the situation, while insidious voice were trying to get my attention. Thankfully my incredibly vast intellect came to help me out.


    ¡°Huh?¡± ¡®Damn it brain! You fucked it up! And you, whispers, shut up already I need to think!¡¯


    ¡°Hmm, maybe I was mistaken after all?¡± She squinted at me as if searching for something I couldn''t see and made me even more uncomfortable. ¡°But I thought... then again... hmmm... It¡¯s normal again?¡±


    ¡°So, can I go now?¡± Seeing as she was utterly absorbed in staring at my barely existing chest, it was probably time to leave. But it seemed as if my vis-a-vis had different ideas.


    ¡°Go? Hahaha, uhm, no! After all, you not only got dirt on my clothes but also cut my face. Therefore a small punishment is in order don''t you think so too?¡±


    ¡°Sure, I guess so?¡± I couldn''t help but wonder about what such a person might consider a ¡°small punishment¡±. I was certainly intrigued and she was looking more than excited enough for it to affect me too.


    My rising blush must have been clearly visible, for the woman, whose name I still didn''t know, awkwardly petted me on the head and told me to follow her. Considering that the height differences, and her impressive high heels, made her almost two heads taller this must have either looked condescending or - and I''d bet my money it was meant that way - like she was petting a cute little animal! I honestly couldn''t say what would have been worse right now. Considering half the fucking station was watching us with interest, neither notion was anything I wanted to entertain.


    Not wanting to prolong whatever the other people might think this looked like; I grabbed my suitcase and sheepishly followed behind her. The girl I still only knew as ¡°Some Dawnstar Witch¡± kept walking all the way to the back of the train and only stopped when we had reached the absolutely last cabin on the train. The whole way she hadn''t said a thing, not to make small talk or even mentioned my choice of clothing or the fact that I didn''t have a familiar. Instead she had just strutted down the hall in those ridiculous heels with a balance I could only envy. Only when she finally sat down, with more grace than I would ever have, she actually looked at me again. And to my surprise her expression had changed into an actually sincere smile. I couldn''t help but awkwardly smile back at her, which was until I heard her next words.


    ¡°Very well then, ass naked and lay across my lap.¡±


    ¡°You want me to do what now?¡± I stared at the tall beauty before me in surprise.


    ¡°Well, I thought it was a better idea than slapping you in the face!¡± For a second her face fell as she stumbled over her own words. ¡°Shit, forget that! Ah, you have been quite the bad girl today, haven''t you? And bad girls need to get punished!¡±


    ¡®Huh, not quite what I had expected there...¡¯ I cocked my head in confusion and looked her over again; had I missed something? All the while the voices in the back of my head were screaming at me to listen, and it was gettig harder and harder to ignore them. After I stared at the other girl for another few seconds without getting any smarter, I finally sighed and gave in; sometimes they did have some useful things to say after all. The whispers, insidious things that they were, quickly cut through the fake veneer around the other witch. The look they gave me beneath her so carefully constructed facade, was eye opening to say the least. Soon a new picture of Ithelyn began to form in my mind; the other witch was clearly not as commanding or even slightly as in control of the situation as she had been acting. In fact, now that I knew were to look, she seemed to be mostly nervous, excited and¡­ fearful? The way how she constantly tried to fix her skirt reminded me of a puppy that had finally gotten a treat after perfectly nailing a trick. Had she... tried this act before? I could barely hide the grin that had already started creeping onto my face. Before my eyes, the character she had tried to portray broke into pieces and behind it I saw a witch not much older than me with far too much anxiety and quite the awkward smile.


    ¡°So. Okay¡­¡± She began, scratching her head. ¡°Not going to lie, I''m a little creeped out by the whole ¡°Staring at me like I''m a juicy piece of meat¡± thing. Maybe I should have started with introducing myself? So, uhm, my name is Ithelyn! Uhm, hi? Sorry about the, well, ¡°Mythic Bitch¡± thing I did. When I get nervous I have that, uhm, weird habit of becoming kinda¡­ an asshole? But I really didn¡¯t want to scare you away! And...¡±


    Before she could talk herself even deeper into a hole made from social anxiety, I placed a reassuring hand on her knee. And like a charm, she calmed down in an almost immediately. I could actually see her eyes grow wide in surprise behind her sunglasses.


    ¡°Hi, Lyn.¡± I smiled. ¡°I am Alice and I¡¯m happy to meet you.¡±


    ¡°Uhm, me too! Well, not like that! I¡¯m happy to meet you, not me! Hells, I sound like an idiot.¡±


    Hearing this I couldn¡¯t help but be surprised in turn; I hadn¡¯t expected someone of her birth to use such a phrase. Especially not after the run in with her bodyguard. I mean considering that she seemed to be from the fucking Dawnstar family and her familiar was a Spirit and not a demon, she should have normally cursed to the heavens.


    ¡®There''s a story there it seems¡­ an angle perhaps. Shut up whispers!¡¯


    ¡°So, uhm, Alice.¡± She had clearly missed my own internal debate. ¡°I guess I should apologise for attempting to spank you... I really don¡¯t usually do that with other people. I mean not like I do much of... anything with other people...¡± Her fingers played with the rim of her glasses as if she wanted to take them off but something stopped her. Just a second later her embarrassed smile returned. This time I really did grin, for part of me had actually been really looking forward to this more... hands on development.


    ¡°You know Lyn¡­¡± I drawled, dragging out every word as much as I could. ¡°Perhaps I wouldn¡¯t mind getting my ass spanked if someone like you did it?¡±


    I could have sworn that her eyes lit up in pure adoration as soon as the words had left my mouth. And as if to underline her own pent up arousal that before adorable and awkward smile of hers, changed into a wicked and deeply sexual grin.


    ¡°Huh, I... hells... okay! Let¡¯s do this!¡±


    ¡°Fuck yeah,¡± I chuckled and placed myself over her spread legs ¡°Go on, rich girl. Hit me!¡±


    I was already bracing for the impact when instead of a satisfying slap I got a meek mewl from above me.


    ¡°Are you, like, okay there?¡± I twisted around to look at her and saw that instead of that breathtakingly gorgeous smile from before she was just awkwardly biting her own lips. ¡°You are aware that spanking usually involves the movement of your hand? Like, in a slapping motion... on my butt?¡±


    ¡°Yes, uhm, no?¡± I frowned and was about to get up when another mewl from her made me reconsider. ¡°Hnng! Gods, Alice could you please not move so much!¡±


    ¡°Well, I wouldn¡¯t have to if you had actually gone through with it!¡± I grinned at her. ¡°And here I thought you were all big and in charge but now I wonder if you wouldn¡¯t rather have it the other way around?¡±


    ¡°No it¡¯s not...¡± Lyn¡¯s breathing came forceful as she bit her lip even harder. ¡°It¡¯s not that! I... I... Oh shit! I¡¯m so sorry!¡±


    Another teasing retort got stuck in my throat when I felt something suspiciously wet, warm and surprisingly hard poke me in my crotch.


    ¡°What the...¡± Surprised by the sudden, and rather unexpected, sensation I dropped off of Lyn¡¯s knees and onto the floor. ¡°Okay, I certainly didn¡¯t expect that!¡±


    ¡°Wait!¡± Lyn was desperately trying to hide the offending bulge with her hands but there definitely was no hiding that kind of tool!


    ¡°I mean, just wow.¡± I stared at the interloper in fascination as it grew bigger and bigger, my mind torn between awe and concern. ¡°I mean I have seen my share of... equipment in my years but this is... this is like porn sized!¡±


    Almost without my input my hands were drawn towards the frankly humongous tent that was being pitched in Ithelyn¡¯s skirt. The pleated fabric barely holding on even as a distinct wet stop formed in the middle of it. Of everything that could have happened today I certainly didn¡¯t expect to be confronted by the most massive fucking meat-stick I had ever seen; especially not attached to someone as breath taking as the Dawnstar heir! It was only when my hands had almost seized control of the jaw dropping popsicle before me when I was ripped out of the stupor by the cabin door crashing open.


    ¡°HEYOOooooohhhh.... what the heck did I just walk in on!?¡±

 Part – 1 – Sleepy Mornings {Alice} [OLD]

    Raven Eyes ¨C Part 1


    In some obscure book from my mother''s collection, I had once read the phrase: ¡°True happiness is found at the end of a leash.¡± Like most people, I may have found it funny, but never really thought of it again. That was until one specific day. The day I was going to visit the Royal Academy of Witchcraft for the first time. My goal as with so many others like me was to learn the control over my budding magic and become a powerful and independent witch! Well... I certainly would find my future, just not in the way I had expected. For it was also on that day that I found my very own leash, at the hands of the person who would change my life and I hers in turn...


    ¡°Beep! Beep! Beep!¡±


    ¡°Ugh, just five more minutes...¡± Without opening my eyes I turned back around to get some more sleep. It was way too early to get up, I was sure of it! Sadly it seemed as if my clock had other ideas about my schedule.


    ¡°BeepBeepBeep!¡±


    ¡°Shut it... stupid piece of scrap... Meh.¡± Not even bothering to look up I smashed my hand on the snooze button and fell back into the soft embrace of sleep.


    ¡°BEEP BEEP BEEP!¡±


    ¡°AAH!¡± Startled by the sudden intrusion on my nap-time I jerked up and instinctively raised my hands in defense, only for me to hear ¨C not even a split second later ¨C a loud crash. Still confused I blinked a few times before finally looking up. When I did though, my sight fell on yet another broken alarm clock and several splinters of plastic sticking out of the thick padded walls of my room.


    ¡°Uhaah... Mom is going to kill me. Better make any evidence disappear!¡±


    Stumbling out of my pile of blankets and pillows with as much of my rather lacking grace as I could, I hopped over to the impact site. Weary of any sharp fragments on the ground I inspected the remnants of my overly dutiful clock. And remnants truly were all that remained; looking closer I let out an appreciative whistle at the destruction my wrath had caused this time. While the last few alarm clocks hadn''t lived much longer than number twenty-two, they had at least stayed in one piece. This one though I had straight-up shredded. Most of the clock wasn''t actually on the ground but stuck in the wall like shrapnel.


    ¡°Well, I should see it positive, I actually found a new Spell! Dismantling-Magic!¡± I mentally filed it based on its possible power right between ¡°Crushing-Magic¡± and ¡°Oh, Gods! Why is everything on fire!?-Magic¡±. The least one courtesy of my aunt on my fourteenth birthday; since then I hadn''t seen open flames around me ever again. I always wondered why... Making the best of a questionable situation I began carefully pulling out all of the shards and dropped them in my slightly damaged garbage bin.


    A few minutes later I was finally done but I knew I didn¡¯t really have time to mend the rips so I just hoped that my mother wasn¡¯t going to follow me to the academy to rip off my head for this latest case of vandalism. With a light if somewhat panicked chuckle, I made my way over towards my adjacent bathroom. Or at least I had planned so, but instead, when I stepped forward I heard a crunch and a moment later felt a sharp pain shooting up my leg.


    Some amount of screaming, cursing and silent weeping later I actually managed to make it to my bath. The bloody footprints on the ground I simply masterfully ignored. Instead, I focussed on the important part of this morning namely making myself look presentable. Looking up from my hastily bandaged foot and into the ¨C as with so many of my possessions ¨C cracked mirror I was confronted with a view that hadn¡¯t really changed all that much in the last few years.


    Before me in the reflection stood a 1.75-meter tall girl, with midnight black hair, equally dark eyes, and a seemingly permanently grim expression. While my face could generously be defined as pretty, my skinny body and sickly pale skin had earned me the nickname of ¡°Wraith¡± during high-school. Much to my chagrin, even several years now after puberty not all that much had changed. I was still very skinny ¨C but at least now with greater muscle definition ¨C and my B-Cup breasts were small enough to almost vanish under anything but the tightest of clothing. The only thing that had truly grown was my butt; for some arbitrary reason it together with my hips had decided to take over all the growth the rest of my body was so sadly lacking. If there was one thing going for it, than that I never needed a seat cushion, because I always carried mine around with me.


    I shook my long black tresses with a low sigh and went back to freshen myself up. A bit of moisturizer and light make-up later all that was left was styling my hair. But as if the day hadn¡¯t begun shitty enough already, my mood went entirely down the drain when I noticed several large black feathers stuck in my curls. Of course ¨C because how else could it be ¨C my body had to decide on one of the most important days of my life that now was the time to molt.


    Ah, yes molting... people shouldn¡¯t have to deal with that right? Fortunately or unfortunatly, while I may have been a truly shitty witch, I had another talent: I was an animagus. More specificly a greater animagus, which meant that I could transform into an animal at will. In my case, it was a bird, a terrifyingly large raven with a wingspan of over three meters. And while normal animagi only assumed the perceived shape of an animal and their forms were more incorporeal than real, when I transformed I did so with my flesh, blood, and bone. Meaning I had to deal with all the downsides that came with being part carrion feasting bird. I was drawn to high places, hated the heat, liked my meat more raw than rare and of course in regular intervals my bird body molted, getting rid of old feathers and replacing them with new ones. So fun... not!


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Now the actual problem with this was the fact that when transforming ¨C which, because it was part of who I was, I did rather often ¨C my clothing didn¡¯t transform with me. This had left me with a rather open view towards public nudity. I mean when you regularly find yourself naked on top of some crowded building because you have the unfortunate habit of ¡°Sleep-flying¡±, you really start to not give a shit anymore about who sees your fun bits. Thankfully I had actually managed to find a way to work around that particular problem. The solution being, almost two months of trying to figure out spatial magic only for me to end up with an arcane-storage the impressive total volume of... a small watermelon.


    This, in turn, had influenced my clothing habit rather drastically. Finding out that I could change to and fro without exposing my naked bubble butt to the entire world, had changed some of my views on what was acceptable clothing in public. Or to say it in other words, my clothing in the last few years had become ever shorter and tighter. This was partially because I had the bad habit of trashing my storage space with snacks, but more likely was the fact that something in me was just drawn to such outfits. Tube-tops tight and see through enough for my nipples to greet the world, I mean why not? Micro-skirts one would expect more on some dumb bimbo than a respectable witch? At least I had the butt for it! And so my wardrobe had slowly changed from angsty teenage hoodies to something my mother lovingly revered to as ¡°total slutwear¡±. Now I was going to argue against that point but my recent adventures into latex and tight leather, made me quickly shut up any protests in fear of her just throwing away all of my clothing.


    ¡°Well, at least she won¡¯t be able to nag me about my choice of dress once I¡¯m at the academy. Then again we are supposed to wear our uniforms there... Hmm, I might have to clear out my storage after all, or I¡¯ll just cut down the uniform to fit my requirements. Questions over questions and no answers in sight...¡±


    Still thinking about what would be the best ¨C and most comfortable way to go ¨C I went downstairs to greet my mother but was rather surprised when I didn¡¯t meet her. Instead, all that I saw was a note on the tiny kitchen table. Fixing myself a quick breakfast of toast, an egg and several slices of raw bacon, my eyes wandered down to what was written on the note.


    ¡°Alice!


    If you''re reading this you probably overslept again!


    Sadly I had to get up early because the twerps from the bank need to talk my ear off about the loan on our caf¨¦, so I won¡¯t be able to drive you. I put your luggage next to the door and there should be enough money on your bus-card to get you to the train station.


    DON¡¯T MISS THE BUS!!!


    Love you little idiot, Mom. <3¡±


    ¡°Huh... Probably should look up the time then.¡± Still somewhat tired I yawned and looked towards the kitchen clock. It was 7:30 am. Way too early, the train wasn¡¯t leaving until 8:15 am, so I still had enough time. Maybe I should just take another nap? Yet before my body could carry out its glorious plan, my mind did a double-take. 7:30 am and the bus took almost half an hour to drive through the entire city. It would arrive at around 8:05 at the train station. My eyes blinked open in sudden realization of my predicament; I had less than ten minutes to reach the bus stop!


    Not even bothering to clean the dishes I stormed back up to my room. Both my too-large shirt and lacy panties went flying off my body in record time. Spraying my body up and down with deodorant should mask any stray smell of sweat. One quick glance in the mirror told me that my hair was already a mess again, but right now I couldn¡¯t care less. Ripping open my closet I tried finding all the parts of my new uniform.


    ¡°Panties~ panties~ ... a thong will do! Dark black tights... ah, nope not here, okay fishnets than!¡± At least I had been smart enough to put out the skirt, blazer, and overcoat the night before. Throwing them on and racing downstairs I had to waste more precious time trying to find the black flats that were supposed to go with the uniform. Before I could truly panic I remembered that I packed them in my luggage, just very deep down. This left me with picking one of the pairs I wasn¡¯t going to take with me.


    ¡°High-heels... sneakers... Yeah none these are decent and I have to run, sneakers it is!¡±


    A few seconds and a pair of red sneakers later I had grabbed my small suitcase, smashed the front door shut and was racing at breakneck speed down the sidewalk. It was as if reality was playing a cruel joke on me today. I hadn''t even passed around the first corner when I almost collided with a small dark-skinned man.


    ¡°Holy!¡± I had just enough time to yank my trolley out of the way before it impacted with its target.


    ¡°Oh, my! That was certainly a close call young lady!¡± The man before me pushed a pair of thick glasses back on the bridge of his nose and eyed me sternly.


    ¡°I''m sorry, Mister Fenoru. I''m in quite a hurry!¡± I was now looking towards the closest traffic lights in the hopes of having a good reason to leave the old man.


    ¡°Hm? Do we know each other?¡± He looked at me even more closely and finally it seemed to click. ¡°Ah! The young Miss Dutrar! I almost hadn''t recognized you, dressed up all nice and proper! I have to say you already look far more like an aspiring Witch should. Definitely better than the curious pieces of fabric you usually wear around town!¡± Finally, as he nodded his head in what I guessed he saw as a wise manner the light turned from red to green.


    ¡°Sorry, Mister Fenoru can''t stay to talk! I gotta dash!¡±


    After crossing the street and artfully dodging at least two more old people and a man with a trio kids following him like a bunch of ducks I had almost made it. Looking to my immediate left I could see one of the automated city-busses driving by me. If I wasn''t entirely stupid that was the bus I had to take! I could still make it! Not even bothering to watch for oncoming cars I vaulted over the chain-link fence separating the sidewalk from the street. I was almost half-way over the crossroads when a sudden bright light and honking to my right startled me out of my run. With big eyes, I stared into the headlights of at a black limousine rushing towards me!

 Part 2 – Crashc(o)urse – (1/2) {Alice} [OLD]

    Raven Eyes ¨C Part 2 ¨C Crashc(o)urse


    For the first time in my life, it felt almost as if time was flowing slow enough to stop. In one moment I was staring at the car like a deer in the literal headlights and in the next, my gaze was drawn to its back seat where a young woman was comically slowly raising an eyebrow. There wasn''t even the slightest bit of shock or panic on her face, like the men in the front seats displayed.


    No, she was entirely composed, the perfect picture of aristocratic beauty. It was like I wasn''t even staring at a person but a cold emotionless statue. Despite the situation, my entire attention was on her. Her so perfectly plucked eyebrow rising up, almost as if she was taunting me: "So, what now? Go on impress me!"


    Another long, drawn-out honk brought me back to my actual predicament almost instantly. Despite the driver slamming the breaks, the car was by now already less than a meter from my position. If I didn''t act now, this was going to be it; my story of becoming a great Witch would be over before it had even begun. Instead of receiving a diploma I would be strapped to a hospital bed recovering from full-body fractures.


    I¡¯d be Witch-pancake! Or better yet, road kill!!! No¡­ no, I could let it end here I had still so much to accomplish! But no matter how scared I was, my magic, as well as my body, refused my command. I internally screamed at my body to do something, anything really.


    My eyes again locked on to the rich girl in the car and I could swear she was smiling. Her mouth moved I couldn''t hear her but for some reason, I could feel her words affecting me. What happened next I wasn''t entirely sure? I could feel something hit me, not my body but the core of my very being. It was vile and repulsive as if my soul was stung by a dozen of nettles. Something buried inside me strained against whatever had affected me. Burns. Hurts. Hate!


    And with this, the familiar feeling of magic suddenly welled up in me, but this time it was different. The arcane power flowing through me flared up in a maelstrom of half-forgotten and buried emotions and feelings. Wind beneath my wings. Bones cracking under my claws. The sweet taste of death on my tongue. In less than a split second, it had already reworked my body to survive whatever was thrown at me. Instead of being frozen in fear and shock, my body simply acted.


    Physical body limitations, pain, gravity? My magic cared little for any of that, right now it was going to make me come out alive and there was that, no more questions necessary. My breath slowed, my eyes narrowed and without me wanting to, a sick toothy smile crept across my face. Can''t touch. Can''t Catch!


    The car no longer rushed towards me, but seemed to almost drive through molasses so slow had it become to my eyes. As if it was the most natural of things my foot lifted up and stomped down on the still moving hood, catapulting me forwards and upward. My stupid squishy foot slipped due to the inertia carrying the car forward but that was okay. Luggage. Garbage. Heavy. Useless. I let go of my suitcase, sending it flying towards the sidewalk.


    Putting my soft pathetic hands on the top of the car, I bend my arms, arched my back and pushed against the black roof with more power my lithe body should have. Not only doing a perfect jump roll over a moving car but somehow even acing the landing. Unharmed. Fight, Flight?


    Behind me, the car came to a screeching hold. I turned around and glared at the laughable metal box. I had tried to hurt me! Naughty driver. Stupid humans. Poop on their hea...


    Wait, what? All of a sudden the magic and adrenaline flowing through me crashed simultaneously; all that was left behind was confusion and a massive headache. Just what had I been thinking right now? I grabbed at my head out of reflex but neither the pain nor the white fog in my mind wanted to recede.


    Somehow I couldn''t remember even a single thought from just a second ago. Looking down it dawned on me that I was standing right in the middle of the street. How had I ended up here? And where by Hecate was my damn luggage!?


    Before I could answer any of the questions currently floating through my mind, my attention was drawn back to the car behind me. The door on the front passenger¡¯s side opened up and a terrifyingly tall man in a black suit stepped outside. He looked around for a second almost as if searching for something before his eyes fell on me. Immediately his facial expression went from worried to pissed. Maybe he didn''t like women with black hair?


    ¡°You!¡± He yelled at my while walking closer.


    ¡°Who?¡± I turned around in the hopes of having missed someone behind me. Yeah¡­ there was no-one else. Well, there was a car with a scared-looking woman inside and several onlookers on the sidewalk so maybe he meant one of them? Sadly my hopes were crushed when a meaty hand fell on my shoulder.


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    ¡°You!¡± This time his voice was laced with anger.


    ¡°Me?¡± I pointed at my face with a finger.


    ¡°Of course I fucking mean you! Who else could I be talking too!?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ Uhm, I dunno? I for sure have never seen you before, so why would I assume you were talking to me? Far more likely that you''re yelling at somebody else!¡±


    ¡°Never seen ¡­¡± He facepalmed, actually, the way he was looking at me seemed almost as if he thought I had a screw loose. "Are you fucking with me, little girl? We looked each other into the eyes just a moment ago!"


    ¡°Okay¡­ if you say so. Can I go from the street now? I need to find my suitcase; I must have lost it somewhere.¡± I looked around a bit lost but perked up when I saw my electric blue suitcase lie on the other side of the street. I was just about to walk off when a strong hand seized me by my arm.


    ¡°Just where the heck do you think you are going? First, you run in front of the Lady''s car and jump over it like some damn monkey, and now you just want to run away without even an apology!?"


    ¡°By the hells man!? Let go of me!¡± Much to my surprise, he did as I asked quicker even than I had expected. The only problem was that he no longer looked at me with anger or frustration, but straight up disgust.


    ¡°What did you just say, scum?¡±


    ¡°Huh!? Nothing? Wait do you mean my swear? So what, it isn''t forbidden to mention the hells or swear on them!¡±


    ¡°Just because demon lover scum like you are allowed to practice your craft doesn''t make it right! I have half a mind to teach you little shit a lesson¡­¡±


    Now it was on me to facepalm. You may remember that my family owned a caf¨¦? Yeah, that was only half of it, in addition to the caf¨¦; we also acted as a shop for a specific clientele. In our case, it was mostly witches that specialized in forming contracts with demons and drawing power from the seven hells. We offered ingredients, literature, summoning rooms and even magical assistance for those interested.


    My family had been in this business for hundreds of generations. Even throughout the dark ages, the Dutrar clan had stood strong against anyone trying to rob them of their freedom and heritage. As my grandmother was with two- hundred and eleven a bit too old to do a lot of the work, my mother together with her sister and sometimes my cousins ran most of the store.


    And now came the problem with being a so-called "dark-witch", we were generally not that¡­ well received in public. While it was an entirely legal craft and there was even a state-funded culture-grand for keeping the tradition alive, a lot of people tended to think a bit negatively of it. Most of the time it wasn''t really all that much of a problem; normal people might be reserved about the topic, but usually, curiosity overshadowed animosity. Well, only most of the time, for there were a selected few people that viewed our mere existence as heresy. These hardliners could be found all across society but the most came from old aristocratic families or people who worked for them. Just like the delightful man in front of me, apparently.


    I could have tried to convince the man that his viewpoint was offensive. I could have told him about how it is a risky but strictly controlled craft. I even could have made the point that conversation with individuals from a place with such a rich and diverse culture could potentially lead to impressive steps forward in the fields of science, engineering and philosophy.


    Or I could have just plain told him that due to my volatile magic I had never before summoned a demon and therefore technically wasn''t a dark-witch. I could have done all that, easily even, but I had a bus to catch and so I did something radically different. I flipped him the bird. Get it? It''s funny cause I too can be a bird? Sorry ¡®bout that¡­


    Yeah, thinking about it now I realize just how brain dead stupid that idea was. Suffice to say, he wasn''t all that pleased. Especially when in addition to letting my temper free reign, I threw the words: ¡°Screw you, racist ass!¡± at him. Guess what, he liked that even less. At that moment I was already running towards my suitcase and he was hot on my heels. Score for wearing sneakers over flats or high heels right there. I had thought my luck would run out this time but much to my surprise a single word changed the entire situation.


    ¡°Stop.¡±


    She - and it was obviously a woman - hadn''t even yelled but simply said the words just loud enough for us to hear. Yet the effect was undeniable. In a split second both the tall guy and I stopped dead in our tracks and looked towards the car. I also learned something else about myself at that moment. Maybe it was due to a lack of a male authority figure growing up or because I was so drilled on obeying my mother and aunt that I was kind of primed for it, but either way, I apparently was a sucker for commanding women voices.


    And damn me if she hadn''t exactly that. While she sounded not much younger or older than me, there was a self-confident certainty to the way she spoke, that made more than clear she was expecting to be obeyed and nothing else. It must have had more of an effect on me than I thought because I couldn''t even tell how long I had been standing there waiting for her to speak again. A small part of my mind yelled at me to grab my luggage and run after the bus, but that was quickly silenced by the rest of my brain in favour of what she would say next.


    ¡°Leave her be John. She isn¡¯t worth it and we are already late.¡±


    The so-called John didn''t seem to like the way things were going but still, he complied... after spitting on the ground in front of me. What a charming fellow, oh how I hoped I would never have to see him again. I just jinxed it didn''t I? Still, I was kinda disappointed by how mellow this whole situation ended up becoming. I mean, yes I was about to get floored by a guy with at least 50 kilos on me but still, him just getting called off like that? It kinda made me feel a bit unimportant.


    Then again it was basically the story of my life. Alice Dutrar the one Witch in the entire world that can''t use her magic and is additionally "Not worth" getting beaten up by fascists. As I watched the back car drive off I made my way over to my luggage and was just about to walk towards the bus stop when I looked up.


    I this moment I wasn''t sure anymore if I should cry or just start laughing. My whole running here and even getting almost driven over by a car didn''t matter anymore because the damn bus had already left. First day of my first semester at the Royal Academy of Witchcraft: Officially the worst day of my life...


    ...


    ... till now.

 Part 2 – Crashc(o)urse – (2/2) {Alice}[OLD]

    Part 2


    ¡°Why!? WHY!? WHY!!!!¡± Despite myself, I simply collapsed right there on the street.


    I didn''t even react when some people came closer. There was no reason for me to care, I had already fucked up after all. The bus was gone, I wouldn''t make it in time for the train. And because I wasn''t on the train I could say goodbye to my application for the Academy. For some archaic reason they operated under the logic: ¡°You came too late? Well, too bad, just apply next year.¡± This meant that right now I could just as well go home and take a nap. I was already about to get up and walk back when a hand lightly seized my shoulder.


    ¡°Ah!¡± I whirled around, a bit scared that I was going to be beaten up after all, but instead of ¡°big tall bodyguard guy¡± I looked at a young police officer with short brown hair.


    ¡°Miss?¡± Instead of angry he actually seemed concerned.


    ¡°Sorry! I thought you were someone else.¡±


    ¡°Oh, okay, that is fine. I just have to ask you a few questions.¡± He tipped his hat in a friendly gesture to some of the bystanders, who in turn realizing that they were staring walked on.


    Considering he had actually cared for my comfort and I had nothing better to do I humoured him. ¡°Sure, not like I have to get anywhere in a hurry anymore.¡±


    ¡°Really? But with the luggage, I had thought¡­¡±


    ¡°Ha! No, I already missed the bus so ask away officer.¡± The look he gave me was actually kinda sad as if I was a lost child.


    ¡°Well, if you say so. So, the questions I had are related to a supposed hit and run that you have been involved in? Now according to the reports I got you ran into the streets about five minutes ago and were about to collide with an oncoming car, correct?¡± His voice sounded a bit unsure as if he wasn''t quite believing his own words.


    I could only shrug in turn, I actually had no clue as to what had happened either. ¡°Kinda? I guess?¡±


    ¡°Wait, so you aren''t sure if you were hit or if ran into the street?¡±


    ¡°Both, maybe?¡±


    ¡°Hold on, you are telling me that you don''t know what happened, while I have other people telling me that a woman flew over a car!? But looking at you, it is more than obvious that you didn''t run into a car because you aren''t even wounded! Now, can you please tell me what am I supposed to believe here?¡±


    ¡°Wait, repeat that again!¡± Maybe he actually had a good idea there?


    ¡°What am I supposed to believe?¡±


    ¡°No, no! The first thing!¡±


    ¡°Uhm, people said you flew over a car?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that''s it! How could I have been so stupid? I can still make it!¡± I grasped my head in frustration, how had I not thought about this before? I simply had to fly!


    ¡°Wait, what now?¡± The policeman seemed to be even more lost now than before, but I artfully ignored him.


    Instead of answering any further questions I dropped my suitcase on the ground, opened it up and then started stripping out of my clothes. When my overcoat went off flying into my luggage the young man looked on confused. But when I began removing both my skirt and shirt he went into full-on panic mode. He tried to, at the same time, avert his gaze, stop me from taking off even more clothing and stop others from gazing upon my almost naked figure. Honestly hadn''t I been in such a hurry, I probably would have found his attention sweet, but as things stood right now, I couldn''t care less. Once I was down to my underwear and fishnets I quickly grabbed a simple black tube bra and put it on.


    ¡°Lady, by the gods! Why did you do that!?¡± Even if all my naughty bits were now covered he was still not looking into my direction.


    I had to use this distraction! Before he could fully turn around I quickly closed the suitcase and began running off. ¡°Sorry, officer I''m in a hurry!¡±


    ¡°He- Hey! Hold on! I said hold!¡±


    I could barely stop myself from laughing and screamed back: ¡°Nope!¡±


    With this, I threw my little suitcase into the air and jumped. No matter how often I had done it by now, it was always one of the greatest feelings, as if a weight was falling off my body and soul. I could feel my magic washing over me like a wave as my body stretched and contorted and took on another form. In less than a second, the boring human Alice Dutrar was gone and in her place, a large majestic black bird snatched my electric blue suitcase out of the air and lifted off.


    ¡°Cawwww!¡±


    I screamed my delight out into the world as my wings beat against the wind. On the ground, the policeman looked on both confused and worried as I soared ever higher. The feeling of the air rushing over my wings was something incomparable to anything other people could possibly experience. Despite the fresh morning the sun on my black feathers was enough to provide me comfort. Thanks to my large frame and impressive wingspan I had no problems lifting my light luggage into the air. I guessed it must have looked weird from the ground to see a bird as large as I was carrying a suitcase away but I cared little. For now, I simply relished in the freedom my body granted me.


    At times it almost felt as if this form was closer to the true me than my human one could ever be. In some underlying primal way, it just felt right to have feathers, wings, and claws. Some days I felt more as if the human me was just a mask I used to hide who I really was. And yet at the same time deep in me, I knew that my raven form wasn''t the true me either. Once I had asked my mother if other animagi felt the same way, she had just laughed and said it was puberty messing with my brain. I had never told her that even now years after, the feeling persisted. A melancholic caw escaped me in a weird bird version of a sigh. It didn''t help thinking about this and so I focused on flying to the train station.


    For several minutes I just flew, occasionally flapping my wings and watching the city rush by beneath me. While I hadn''t been able to find the black car again, I did see the traitorous bus a small way off. Sadly I didn''t have enough time or else I would have left a present on its front shield. A cackling caw escaped my beak as I recalled what I had done a year ago to an ex-boyfriend of mine. Let''s just say crows are vindictive jerks and I had a habit of styling myself as their queen.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Even now I could spy several of them tailing me, which was both cute and at times a bit creepy. While their open affection was really adorable, there had been situations in which particularly adventurous males had tried courting me. And honestly no matter how much I liked being a bird; I really had no interest in¡­ well, mating with one. While the weirdness of it was offsetting enough I was more scared of it actually working. I had recently read a newspaper article of a rather deviant animagus doing the deed with their pet instead of their husband and ending up with a litter of pups. The woman was not only fired from her job but admitted to a mental health hospital. A recent update to her situation featured her spending most of the time as a large wolf, enjoying walkies and playing with her ¡°children¡±. I shuddered a bit as I thought about how insane some people were.


    If one wanted children that was fine, alright? But doing it with a mere animal was just so¡­ unclean; it was more than that really. My very core felt repulsion had what that woman had done, it was such a pathetic act. Instead one should just do it as my family had done for decades: find a man, seduce him and have him fuck you pregnant. As far as I knew, both my mother and aunt had been conceived that way, which technically only made them half-sisters but, meh. Considering that had also been the way my cousins and myself were made I couldn''t really judge my grandmother. Though part of me had always wondered what my father had been like. He would have to be a great witch himself for me to be born a conduit. So, I guess my mom was really good at seducing guys¡­ which by the way just, eww, eww, eww! Damn you brain, now I have to think about poop again just to get that disturbing image out of my head.


    I was so immersed in my own thoughts that I didn''t even notice when all of a sudden the train station was right in front of me. And by the hells, there were a lot of people. But the joke is on them, hahaha! I as a magnificent, beautiful creature of the sky wasn''t bound by the confines of the ground. All I had to do was find the correct platform and fly over! After scouting the grounds for a bit I had it, platform six! Ha, the train was still there! Down we go!


    ¡°Holy shit! That''s a big ass bird!¡± Wait, what? Where I wanna see it too!


    The second I realised that the bird in question was probably me, it was already too late. Excitedly looking around instead of straight ahead, there was no way to stop, lift up or prevent in any way what was going to happen. Because in the very next moment I felt the side of my face, well beak, in this case, collide with something that was both squishy and surprisingly hard. Like the bird brain I was I had not run but flown straight into another person. The shock was big enough for me that I changed to my human form almost out of reflex. And so I shot through the air like a cannonball made from lose feathers, luggage and half-naked girl.


    It took me a bit too recover from my fall but when I did look up it was into a face wearing an expression I could for the love of it not pin down. I cocked my head to the side, hoping that a different angle would give me more insight but I would''ve bet all I did was make me look like an even bigger bird brain. Still, even if the face before me was confusing, it was young and pretty and female and¡­ bleeding. Oops? If I had to try and decipher it, her eyes were kinda glaring daggers at me but her lips seemed to be pulled into a condescending smirk. Honestly, that was the second time today someone looked at me like I was a bit of an idiot, what the hells!? Before I could even come up with a snarky response the girl - woman? - already approached me with a confident stride.


    ¡°Now, isn''t this a surprise?¡± By the seven hells and all the demons in them, I knew that voice. And that face actually! There was no doubt that she was the woman from earlier¡­


    ¡°First you run in front of my car and almost cause my driver to be late, and now you have the audacity to crash into me like a simpleton on a backwater country fair. I do hope that you have an explanation for both these situations or do I have to simply consider you exceptionally stupid?¡±


    My half-formed reply got stuck in my throat when I laid eyes on the imposing black raven sitting on the woman''s shoulder. In a moment''s notice, my face went through a myriad of expressions. Shock, glee, childish curiosity but all that quickly changed to disgust and repulsion when my hand got closer and I felt what it really was. This was no fucking bird, it wasn''t even an imp that looked like a bird. No, this was a spirit and if I knew one thing then that spirits hated me and I hated them in return. But even worse was the feeling of magic it gave off, it felt dead, cold and stagnating, an entropy spirit. In an instant, my disposition to her changed from confused but curious to hostile.


    ¡°What the fuck, woman!? You annoy me for running into you while carrying that thing around with you?¡± At that, she actually raised an eyebrow - why the hells can everyone do that but me? - like I had just asked the silliest question ever.


    ¡°Oh, you mean Hugin right here? What about him? He is incredibly cute isn''t he?¡±


    ¡°What? I mean sure, for a spirit, but I meant more the fact that those are fricking illegal!¡±


    Apparently I had said something funny because she laughed. We stood right in the middle of a busy station platform and I was getting laughed at by a haughty bitch with supermodel body and a face straight from a portrait. So, why was I getting so turned on by that thought!? Oh hells, nope! No, I do not have a humiliation fetish so you do not get to be turned on. Bad vagina, bad! While I was still fighting my own body''s urges she must have stepped even closer because all of a sudden I felt a cool hand on my cheek.


    ¡°Oh my, you do seem a bit confused, don''t you? Well, let me explain, while we''re at it. It is true that in most cases the bonding with an entropy spirit is against the law, but what you may not know is, that I am from the Dawstar family and therefore rules only apply so much to me.¡± She shook her hand from side to side in a gesture to show what exactly she meant by that. ¡°Now, you, on the other hand, should worry about something else, and that is about the fact while owning Hugin may technically be illegal so too would it be for an unbound demon to run through the city, correct?¡±


    I wasn''t even sure about how I should answer that! For once I was literally shaking in my boots. Not only had I apparently managed to piss off some crazy witch with an entropy spirit, but now she also belonged to the most powerful witches family of all times. And to top it all of, she asked me legal questions completely irrelevant to the situation. Thankfully my incredibly vast intellect came to help me out.


    ¡°Huh?¡± Damn it brain! You fucked it up!


    ¡°Hmm, maybe I was mistaken after all?¡± She squinted at me as if searching for something I couldn''t see and made me even more uncomfortable.


    ¡°So, can I go now?¡± Maybe flight and not fight was the better alternative? Sadly it seemed as if my vis-a-vis had different ideas.


    ¡°Go? Hahaha, no. As you can see you not only got dirt on my clothes but cut my face. Therefore a small punishment is in order don''t you think so too?¡±


    ¡°Uhm, I guess so?¡± I couldn''t help and shift nervously at what such a person might consider a ¡°small punishment¡±. And by the hells why was I so wet!?


    My shameful blush must have been clearly visible, for the woman, whose name I still didn''t know, actually patted me on the head and told me to follow her. Considering that the height differences and her impressive high heels made her almost a head taller this must have either looked condescending or - and I''d bet my money it was meant that way - like she was petting a cute little animal. I honestly couldn''t say what I would have been more comfortable with right now. In addition, the many people that were still watching us with interest made this whole affair incredibly awkward.


    Not wanting to prolong whatever other people might think this looked like, I grabbed my suitcase and sheepishly followed behind her. She only stopped when we had reached an empty cabin on the train. The whole way she hadn''t said a thing not even mentioned my choice of clothing or the fact that I didn''t have a familiar but when she finally sat down her expression changed into an actually sincere smile. I couldn''t help but awkwardly smile back at her, which was until I heard her next words.


    ¡°Very well then, ass naked and lay across my lap.¡±


    ¡°What!?¡±

 Part 3 – Gilded Cage {Ithelyn}[OLD]

    Part 3 ¨C Gilded Cage {Ithelyn}


    ¡°Miss Ithelyn!¡±


    ¡®Ugh, why can¡¯t these people just leave me alone? All I want is to not be constantly surrounded by dozens of people, is that so much to ask?¡¯


    ¡°Miss Ithelyn!¡± The door to my bedroom was thrown open and I quickly did my best to still look like I was sleeping. ¡°By the gods! Child, this is the third wake-up call! Your mother wishes for you to join the family at breakfast today, so get out of bed already!¡±


    Instead of responding I simply turned around and ignored the maid. I hadn¡¯t even bothered learning her name, I would be rid of her soon enough anyway. Like all with any personal assigned to me she too would have to realize that her attempts were futile. I hadn¡¯t asked to be born into this family and so they could just as well forget me ever acting like a proper noble! Honestly, my only desire was to be left alone with my books and toys, how was this so hard to understand?


    ¡°Oh my! I was told that you were lacking in decorum but this? Why is the nightgown I laid out for you yesterday on the ground! What are you even wearing under those blankets, young lady?¡±


    ¡®Ah, it seems this one is a particularly nasty specimen, the matron archetype. Shall I make her quit already? No, I should at the very least give her a chance.¡¯ Not even bothering to rise from my fortress of fluff I crawled out just enough that my head was visible.


    ¡°Leave. Now.¡±


    ¡°In the name of the gods! I was sent specifically by Mistress Dawnstar and it was made very clear that you were not to refuse her instructions. Now get out of the bed already and let me dress you, child!¡±


    Before I could even warn the elderly woman she had already approached the bed and was pulling away the blankets from me. For the first few seconds, I was so shocked by her insensitive behaviour that I just stared at her unbelieving. She, in turn, did the same, only she wasn¡¯t staring at my face like I was. No, she was instead staring at the bondage gear I was dressed in and the pink buzzing vibrator buried in my snatch. ¡®Ah, wow. This one caught me pretty quickly. Oh well, guess I will have to put on the bitch act again.¡¯


    Seizing the initiative I pulled the vibrator out from me, turned it off, and still under the confused and shocked gaze of the maid I stood up to my full height. The woman instinctively looked up to be able to meet my gaze. But there she found no explanation but simply cold hard ¨C and completely faked ¨C fury. I made one of my eyelids twitch to really sell the angry angle and addressed the crone in the haughtiest tone I could possibly muster.


    ¡°I told you to leave and you failed to follow that simple instruction. And now I not only have to wake up to you exposing me to your gaze but you have the deviant disposition to stare at an almost naked woman less than half your age without immediately apologizing. Am I to take this as a sign for you not being able to do your job and you leaving now so that I can dress properly? Of course, if you fail to comply again I might just have to set Hugin upon you.¡±


    Like I had practiced with Hugin, upon hearing his name he cawed menacingly and flapped his wings a few times as if he was about to lift off. Just as I had hoped her only reaction to this was becoming as red as a ripe tomato and running out of my room. I waited a few seconds to make sure she had truly left before walking over to close the door again. Well, the walk was a bit much considering that the ballet boots and chain connecting my ankles left me little more choice than to hobble over. Once it was closed though I let out a long sigh and slump down against it. Just why did I have to be born into a family that was so... small-minded?


    If I remembered correctly it had been around my eighteenth birthday when I had discovered my more deviant interests. I had already known that I was attracted to women but on a whim, I had looked through the adult section of a local store. To say that some specific books and magazines had caught my attention would be an understatement. Almost my entire allowance that month had gone to buying all kinds of reference materials. Thanks to my even then impressive collection of books and tomes, the few more hadn¡¯t even raised suspicion. Sadly my luck had only lasted for a few months as one of the maids thought it important to dust my private reading room without actually getting my permission to do so.


    The following outrage had been impressive, to say the least. While I had been tending to my needs in the only way that still got my rocks off, my mother had blown out the lock on my door, charged in and started screaming like a woman possessed. Her first action after that had been properly beating my ass red, which actually had made me come in the confusion of the moment. Seeing her daughter as nothing more than a deviant pervert she had taken to burning all books, magazines, and material I had bought in the last few months. Well, my reaction to this had been to burn her witch''s garden to the ground.


    Since then the relationship between my mother and I had been rather... frosty. My talent as a witch and the fact that I had been born with magic sight made me too valuable to throw on the streets, but my interests were also too deviant to allow me around ¡®proper¡¯ society. To be fair, this had suited me just fine. I never had liked the balls and other high society meetings one had to go through after being born in this family. Being left alone had also given me the freedom to further explore the world of BDSM and after about a year I had come to a decision. Selfbondage was fun but honestly not what I ultimately strived for. No, I wanted my own sub!


    Of course, being both from a noble family and having properly pissed off my mother had severely limited the amount of my actual human contact. I had tried online dating, but that had stopped pretty soon when I realized that my face was just a bit too prominent. After the third date had turned out to be a paparazzi, I had quickly deleted all proof of me ever visiting those sites. Obviously, my mother had found out anyway and completely cut off my allowance.


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    I, in turn, had gotten a new haircut and started working in a local bookshop under a fake name. Thankfully the older woman running the shop had been very kind and done her best to keep my identity hidden. Additionally, the undercut, flannel shirts, and ripped jeans had done their part to stop me from looking like a pretty little lady. To be honest, those months had been the most comfortable of my entire life. Nobody acted like I was special and the flirting attempts from both male and female customers had made me feel a lot more normal than ever before.


    Aside from Hugin, I guess the store lady had been my first ever real friend. Then these days had become even better when I had spotted her. The girl in question had been what I could only describe as my first crush. The first reason I had noticed her hadn¡¯t even been her looks but the fact, that she too was a witch. What had surprised me was how chaotic the mana flowed through her channels, it was almost like it didn¡¯t know where to go and there was just too much for her to logically hold. I had been so lost in staring at the odd display before me that I hadn¡¯t even noticed her approaching the counter. Only when she had spoken up I had realized that she was right in front of me. And to make it worse once I had looked up and seen how scantily clad she was all I could do was blush like the virgin I was!


    ¡°Oh, Hugin! I didn¡¯t even get her name and I have no idea if I will ever see her again... and even if I do, won¡¯t I just look like a massive dork?¡±


    Like so often Hugin only looked at me and cawed. Honestly, I was beginning to doubt his knowledge in the acts of love and courtship. But who else but I would rely on a spirit to pour their heart out. It wasn¡¯t like I could go to my mother with this! She would probably burst a blood vessel if she ever found out that I was not only a ¡®deviant pervert¡¯ but also a ¡®lesbian whore¡¯, her words not mine by the way.


    Sighing in frustration I started to strip out of my gear and make myself somewhat presentable. If my mother was expecting me downstairs it was better not to let her wait. Though I was actually a bit surprised that she was even requesting my presence at breakfast, that hadn¡¯t happened since she had found out about my interests. It was more than a little suspicion but hiding in my room wouldn¡¯t make the problem go away. And if she was indeed trying something nasty, well... she had just rebuild her garden, hehehe~.


    On my way over to the bath, my gaze fell upon the hideous nightgown the maid had thought I should wear. Feeling a little nasty this morning, I picked it up and focused on the piece of cloth. In less than a second, the ugly thing caught fire and under the excited cawing of Hugin, it burned to ash. Seriously I think that damned bird was a bigger pyromaniac than myself! I shook my head at his little happy dance and just motioned at the ashes. Hugin immediately jumped down from his porch and began rolling around in them while I went on my way.


    In the bath, I couldn¡¯t help but give myself a look over. Not to be vain but I was honestly very proud of my body, it was the one thing my mother hadn¡¯t fucked up. Not only was I tall but well proportioned too! With almost 1,80 meters, long legs, and a generous D-Cup I had basically top model measurements. It made finding clothes a bitch but I couldn¡¯t deny that I was rather striking! The model image was only reinforced by my stern face with its clear green eyes and the shoulder-length silver hair. The current undercut I had going gave me a bit of a wild side making me look rather fierce. Overall I was pretty happy with my looks.


    Adding a bit of moisturizer and mascara I was ready for this day. If necessary I would kick both it and my mother in the ass! ¡®Okay, who am I actually kidding? I never had the spine to stand up to my mother like a proper adult. Even burning down her garden I did in secret. What has to happen that I finally take the same step my father did and leave this gilded prison?¡¯


    I felt bile rising up in my throat as I thought about my father. The day his video messages had stopped coming my mother had stopped talking about him. I had been eight years old when I had last seen him. I still didn¡¯t know if they had ever loved each other. My mother was a celestial witch and my father had been one of the rather despised warlocks, someone who had bound themself to a powerful demon to gain their magic. They were like polar opposites and all my childhood there hadn¡¯t been a single day where they had shown any kind of affection for each other.


    Not even a month after my father¡¯s disappearance a new man had taken the place beside my mother and with him had come two children. By now my mother had birthed him another two, one twelve and the other eleven. Though to me their age mattered as little as their existence, I had no love for my step-brother and sister or for my half-siblings. For all I cared they could go to the hells if that meant I could see my father again.


    I put on some clothes and stashed my bondage gear in a securely locked compartment before going downstairs to see what my mother wanted. On the way to the dining room made a detour to the kitchen where one of the guards was currently eating a sandwich. The man¡¯s name was Geralt and he was the only one of the staff that was actually nice to be around. When he saw me come down in a baggy hoodie and hot pants he immediately started grinning.


    ¡°Well, look who obviously wasn¡¯t dressed by her new maid! So already got rid of another one?¡±


    ¡°I sure hope so. Move to the side I want the OJ.¡±


    ¡°Nah, first you tell me how you did it.¡±


    ¡°Ass. Fine, she caught me masturbating. Now move!¡±


    ¡°Ah, the classic. Fully geared up too?¡±


    ¡°Yup. Talk to you later, the dread witch mother wants something.¡±


    I took a swig of the juice carton and walked towards where I could hear the rest of the household. I refrained from calling them family because a family was supposed to be caring and supporting not toxic and vile. And true to their nature, I found my mother and the rest of my stepfather¡¯s brood sitting around the table. ¡®Ah, Karen and Finus are trying to hide a nasty smile. So the older siblings already know what is going on. Can¡¯t be anything pleasant if they are so happy.¡¯ Before I even addressed them I made a show of my lack of decorum by emptying the entire orange juice in one go, right in front of them. Not acting like a noble always got them so wonderfully cross.


    ¡°So? Mother, what is it that you wished to tell me?¡±


    ¡°Hmph, I see my eldest is as lacking in manners as always. No real surprise there. Anyway, I called you down to let you know that from today on you will be attending the Royal Academy of Witchcraft. I had enough of your behaviour and so I hope that the professors there can teach you some manners. That is all you are dismissed, Ithelyn.¡±


    ¡°Huh, I had expected something worse. But a free ticket to get away from this place? Hells, yes!¡±


    Basking in the spiteful glares of everyone in the room, I walked out with a happy skip in my step. It was time for me to pack up!

 Part 4 – Fatefull meeting {Ithelyn/Alice}[OLD]

    Chapter 4


    Despite that my mother seemed to have intended for her decision to be a punishment, I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the most recent development. Quite possibly my life was finally going to get better, seeing as being shipped of to boarding school also meant that I would be rid of that bitch and the brats. Taking two steps at a time I rushed up the stairs to my room. After all I still had to pack my bags... and do another thing. My jaw tightened as I thought about a certain problem.


    Apparently having sensed my agitation Hugin flapped through the air before landing on my shoulder. ¡°Ca-Caaaaww!¡±


    ¡°Fine, you¡¯re right. It will be worse if I don¡¯t check regularly. Still... I am not looking forward to the day when it does break out.¡±


    With a sigh I walked towards my bathroom and made sure to lock the door behind me. Turning on the mirror lights I began checking the usual places; eyelids, gums, teeth, fingernails, if the books were correct then it would show there first. Thankfully I didn¡¯t spot anything, no bleeding, no discolouration and no pain. Relief washed over me as I took out a small bottle of medical eye drops. I had paid a lot of money for the recipe to a local Dark-Witches shop; at least that had also included them keeping it secret. I put one drop in each eye as I had been doing every day for the last two years. Sometimes the bite wound on my shoulder still itched but as I had no symptoms the preventive medication should be enough.


    ¡°There! I checked Hugin, happy now? I¡¯m not going to become an angry bloodthirsty monster anytime soon. Yay. Now stop worrying you stupid bird!¡±


    ¡°Caawww!¡±


    ¡°Ouch! Stop pecking my head!¡±


    ¡°Caww! Caw!¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, fine! I¡¯m going to look for a cure once at the Academy... can¡¯t be that hard.¡±


    ¡°Caw...¡± His eyes seemed to pity me.


    Ignoring his rude behaviour, like the powerful independent Witch that I was, I shooed Hugin off my shoulder and put on the clothes one of the maids had put out. While a school uniform wasn¡¯t my favourite outfit it could be quite kinky in its own way. After having dressed ¡°appropriately¡± for the academy I began packing in earnest. The first and most important things were still my alchemical kit and ingredients satchel. Wrapping them in a bunch of stray t-shirts and dresses was about all I could do to keep them safe in the short time. It wasn¡¯t the best of ideas but it would do for now. After that I basically threw everything I owned ¨C including my bondage gear, I wasn¡¯t going to leave that here ¨C into as many bags as I could possibly find. Three large suitcases, two smaller duffle bags and about half an hour later I was finally finished, or at least almost. With a sad smile on my face I approached the lone picture frame on my window still.


    ¡°Hey, Dad. Hope you would be proud of me... despite all my failings. I... still love you.¡± I didn¡¯t care what my mother and other people said; I knew he was still alive and I was going to find. The scar on my shoulder itched as if reacting to my emotions. It didn¡¯t matter how much I had to sacrifice, I would never stop searching. Even if it was going to take decades, I knew he was out there somewhere; if not in this world than in another.


    Before the feelings could overwhelm me I grabbed the frame and tugged it into my handbag; there it was saver than in the bags, I didn¡¯t know who would handle them after all. I still didn¡¯t trust my mother not to throw away what little I had left of him. Trying my best to calm down and put on a nonchalant facade, I grabbed what bags I could carry and went down the stairs, only to immediately run into one of my hated stepsiblings.


    ¡°Karen.¡±


    ¡°Failure.¡±


    ¡°Seriously now? That is what you came up with? Weak.¡±


    ¡°Ha! Coming from you that means less than nothing! After all you are so pathetic that Mother doesn¡¯t even want to put up with you anymore.¡±


    ¡°So? Not like care for her approval. Just leave me be.¡± Pushing her aside I made my way down the stairs, or at least that had been the plan. Before I could reach the bottom something fluffy jumped before my feet, making me almost lose my balance.


    ¡°What the hells!? Karen! Try and keep your shitty familiar under control! I could have broken my frickin neck!¡±


    Her weasel had already climbed up to her shoulders and both of them were now looking at me with disdain.


    ¡°Yes, it would be most unfortunate you broke your neck. After all, who would be left to suck all the dicks in town?¡±


    I stopped still in my tracks. ¡®She fucking didn¡¯t, did she now? That disgusting, stupid, fucking rat face!¡¯ I was livid when I turned to face her! How dare she say such things to my face? Before I could throw my luggage at her I managed to unclench my fingers and set it down. Step after step I walked back up the stairs to face her, even one step below her I was still taller. With teeth pressed together so hard that it hurt, I addressed Karen.


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    ¡°Would you care to repeat that?¡±


    Something in my expression made her cocky smile waver, but she had already gone too far to take her words back.


    ¡°O-Oh, I don¡¯t know, maybe I said that you like to suck men¡¯s cocks?¡±


    Quicker than even I had expected of myself, my hand shot forward and clasped around her throat. Her eyes widened in panic and I could feel her fingers scratching at my hand but all that seemed so far away. My gaze was fixated on a singular drop of blood pooling around my thumbnail. Had I scratched her? I honestly couldn¡¯t tell. But where ever it came from it was... alluring, the very thing that carried magic through our bodies. What a waste for it to drop to the ground. I removed my hand from her, barely registering that she scrambled away from me. Slowly I brought the drop to my lips, licking it, tasting it, savouring it. A sudden sharp pain in my left eye ripped me out of the trance. My stepsister was on the ground before me, looking utterly bewildered. I looked towards her and smiled.


    ¡°Goodbye Karen, hopefully we won¡¯t have to see each other ever again.¡±


    ¡°Yo-You freak! Lunatic! Monster! I¡¯ll tell Mother about this and she put you in an asylum!¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± I grabbed my luggage from the ground without turning again. ¡°I am sure she will try.¡±


    Yet as soon as I was out of the door all the bravado left me. Just what had i been thinking?! I licked off another person¡¯s blood like some kind of fucked up demon or... worse. Almost with an after thought I remembered the pain in my left eye. With numb fingers I wiped away my tears, only to startle when they came back blood red. ¡®What the...¡¯ As quickly as I could I took out my phone and looked at my reflection. There I saw not only Hugin''s worried look from my shoulder, but also a single blood shot eye.


    ¡°Fuck. This isn¡¯t good. Okay I¡¯m not staying to find out what else might go wrong today.¡±


    Grabbing my bags I quickly made way for the car in the front court. What ever I was coming down with, being around my mother wasn¡¯t going to help. It was far better ¨C and easier ¨C to choose the flight forwards. ¡®Goodbye dread Witch, and creepy old manor. A new life awaits, perhaps even one where I get to meet cute girls!¡¯ I certainly wouldn¡¯t mind hitting on some...


    Alice


    ¡°You want me to do what?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but stare at the tall beauty before me in surprise.


    ¡°Well, uhm, I thought it was a better idea than slapping you in the face! Oh! I mean: You¡¯ve been quite the bad girl today. And bad girls get punished!¡± ¡®Huh, not quite what I had expected there...¡¯


    Slowly but surely it dawned on me that the other Witch was not actually quite as commanding as she had been acting. In fact, now that I was looking closer at her, she seemed rather nervous. Though the way how she constantly tried to fix her skirt was really adorable. Before I could hide it, a grin had already stolen it¡¯s way onto my face. Seeing this, what ever facade she had build up started to crumble and behind it I began to see a Witch not much older than me with quite the awkward smile.


    ¡°So. Yeah...¡± She began, scratching her head. ¡°Maybe I should have started with introducing myself? So, uhm, my name is Ithelyn! Uhm, hi? Sorry about the whole, well, Dom thing. When I get nervous I always become really bitchy. But I really didn¡¯t want to scare you away! And...¡±


    Before she could talk herself even deeper into a hole made from social anxiety, I placed a reassuring hand on her knee. Like a charm she calmed down in an instant, though I could actually see her eyes grow wide behind her sunglasses.


    ¡°Hi, Lyn. I am Alice and I¡¯m happy to meet you.¡±


    ¡°Me too! Well, not like that! I¡¯m happy to meet you not me! Hells, I sound like an idiot.¡±


    Hearing this I couldn¡¯t help but be surprised; I hadn¡¯t expected someone of her birth to use such a phrase. I mean considering that she seemed to be from a rather rich family and her familiar was a Spirit and not a demon, she should have normally cursed to the heavens.


    ¡°So, uhm, Alice. I guess I should apologise for attempting to spank you... I really don¡¯t usually do that with other people. I mean not like I do much of... anything with other people...¡± Her fingers played with the rim of her glasses as if she wanted to take them off but something stopped her. Just a second later her embarrassed smile returned.


    This time I couldn¡¯t help but blush too, for part of me had actually been really looking forward to this more... hands on development. ¡°You know Lyn... perhaps I wouldn¡¯t mind getting my ass spanked if someone like you did... it?¡±


    I could have sworn that her eyes lit up in pure adoration as soon as the words had left my mouth. From one second to the next the adorable awkward smile of hers, changed into a wicked and deeply sexual grin. As if a switch had been flicked everything about her changed. Gone was the embarrassed young woman and instead before me stood a self assured sexuality oozing female predator. Her lips formed words I could barely understand but their meaning send a shiver down my spine. One foot in front of the other the short distance between us seemed to grow endless as she stalked forward. And in a sudden flash of movement long fingernails, almost like claws ensnared my cheeks.


    I swallowed nervously as her fingers caressed my soft skin. My breathing became faster as she began prodding my composure for any weakness. In this moment there was nothing left between us but the raw and carnal sexual tension. I instinctively bit my lip when all of a sudden her hot breath caressed the tip of my ear. Her lips were so close to me I could have sworn to be able to feel their touch upon my skin. And then she spoke with a voice like smoke and seductive promises.


    ¡°You have been a very bad girl, my dear. And bad girls have to be punished!¡±


    As sudden as the tension had been build, as soon it was shattered into a million pieces, like a mirror made from crystal glass, when a surprisingly strong hand seized my throat. Before confusion could even overwhelm my burning lust, Ithelyn had already spread me over her lap with a swiftness that spoke of both unbridled passion and quite a lot of skill. Lying across her legs I could feel the surprising toughness of her thighs. Unlike my body that was squishy and soft, hers was like a tendon pulled taught, always ready to snap in a moments notice. A shiver, part lust and part fear, went through my frame knowing that all that was about to punish me. But before the that I once more heard that ¨C Oh so sexy ¨C voice.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see if I can make you sing, bird girl. Brace~!¡±

 Part 5 – Friends and Strangeness {Alice/Ithelyn}[OLD]

    {Alice}


    I smiled wryly as I pulled my skirt back up. Just as Ithelyn had said she had indeed punished me. And much to my surprise not all that gentle... well, at least at first. Her slaps towards my deviant buttocks has been much more forceful and fierce than I would have expected from a sheltered rich girl. There was an astonishing amount of power hidden inside her slim frame. Though it wasn¡¯t quite as surprising to me now, as I was snuggled up to her well toned abs.


    Despite all the force of her hits there was something endearingly sweet about this woman ¨C I couldn¡¯t bring it over me to call her a girl; not only had she caressed my bum after every hit as if looking for any damage but she had also asked about how I was feeling and if I wanted to go on after every second or third slap. This was... surprising to me. Any boyfriend I had been together with before had either immediately chickened out at the thought of hitting me or had taken it way too far.


    And yet for Ithelyn both the idea of the more kinky aspects of ¡°courtship¡± as well as actually doing those things came as natural as breathing. Her approach to it was a lot more controlled and gentle than I had experienced before. Where I, most of the time, felt like unbridled chaos and passion she was as stable as a rock. Her every movement was controlled and measured. There was something undeniably erotic about this side of hers, as was about the more innocent one I had glimpsed before. My new friend was still caressing my hair when she suddenly spoke up.


    ¡°You are very calm, a lot calmer than before in fact. Did you... like it?¡± Looking up I could see a flushed face and a nervous grin. My heart skipped a beat when noticed light freckles under her eyes and on her nose, that was incredibly cute!


    ¡°Mhmmm, I liked it. In fact I liked it a lot. If you want, we could always go a few more... in-depth ways of getting to know each other...¡± It took a several blinks for my teasing to actually register in her mind though when it did she instantly blushed a bright red. I couldn¡¯t help but laugh; while she had great control she also seemed to have next to no experience at all.


    ¡°You my dear.¡± She spoke up and seized my chin. ¡°You are both a horrible tease and an utter brat. Bad bird!¡±


    Before I could worm out of her grasp she had already started with flicking my nose and forehead as quickly as she possibly could. Bring up a barely token resistance, I meekly protested her treatment through gasps and giggles. It was of no use! No matter how I twisted and turned, my sensitive skin was never safe from her oh so wicked nails. ¡®Wait a frickin minute... How is she poking me in five places at the same time!?¡¯ Laughing and gasping for air I tried fending of her hands at the front only for three other hands to poke me in my sides!


    ¡°Fin! Stop! S''il vous pla?t! By the hells no more, I give up! How did you even do that? There were like half a dozen hands!¡±


    Much to my chagrin it seemed that Lyn did not think I had received enough punishment yet. In fact, with a haughty villainous laugh she resumed her dastardly actions. One by one my defences fell to her continued assault upon the sacred fortress that was my body! Surely every last one of the gates and bastions would have fallen and succumbed to their new devious overlady. Yet in that last moment salvation came, in the form of a very confused girl opening the door too our compartment.


    ¡°Oh. Uhhhh! I am not sure I even want to know what is going on here...or do I?¡±


    The girl in question looked to be smaller than me yet with a rather stocky and sturdy build. In fact she looked tough enough to easily take on my ¡°evil¡± captor. Her skin was dark and sun kissed and her hair was matted and sweaty. With her rough hands, burns scars and smudges every where she looked as if she had stepped straight out of a mechanics shop. The only reason why I knew she must have been a witch was because she was wearing the same outfit as Ithelyn and me... well more only Lyn, I was still mostly naked. Thinking quickly I called out to this only salvation of mine. After all who else would safe a cute endangered maid but a knightess in a wrinkled school uniform!?


    ¡°No! Dear saviour, do not go!¡± I poured all my theatrical energy into the heartfelt plea. ¡°See, this evil Witch has caught me! And now she is using her vile powers to tickle me oh so fiercely!¡±


    ¡°An evil Witch you say?¡± The newcomer now fully opened the sliding door and stepped in. ¡°Obviously there is only one thing I can do... have at thee vile fiend! Face the wrath of Patty and her trusty sidekick Cookie!¡±


    With a surprisingly fluid and apparently well trained flourish she brandished a weird looking rod. It must have been some sort of sign because as soon as she had done so a small fuzzy blue ape jumped onto her head. Using some of her dark locks to hold on, it let go a terrifying war cry.


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    ¡°Squeeeee!¡±


    ¡°...¡± While Ithelyn¡¯s face was entitrely blank, I on the other hand, noticed something entirely more important than possible rehearsed choreography, specifically the girl¡¯s familiar. If my eyes weren¡¯t fooling me I knew that spirit...


    ¡°By all the hells in existence!¡± I screamed out loud. ¡°Is that a Zapey from Spiritmons!? That is so meta! I love the series! I have basically all the games! Wait a second... here look!¡±


    Before either Ithelyn or our new friend could react I had already ripped open my travelling bag in the search of one of my greatest treasures. Apparently I had hit gold with my question. As soon as Patty had laid an eye on my floofy friend she immediately scooted right up to me, much to Ithelyn¡¯s and my surprise.


    ¡°Shit! Girl! Is that a limited edition Scarow-plushie? How did you even get your hands on one?¡±


    This actually got an embarrassed smile out of me. ¡°Uhm... my mother got it for me. I know, I know... but she likes to insist that she has connections.¡±


    ¡°Come on! That is so cool! I wish my uncle had that kind of pull... I meant I was so happy when I summoned cookie! She actually looked like I had wished!¡±


    ¡°Seems like you got your wish after all. Wait! Want to see my team collection? I think I put- Ithelyn! Shit, are you alright? You¡¯re bleeding!¡±


    {Ithelyn}


    The world around me blurred in a haze of red and white. I had been fine the entire time, but as soon as the other girl had come in... I could barely remember what had happened. She had entered the cabin and from one second to the next my mind had gone blank. I could feel her still... feel her magic inside her chest pulsing with every breath she took. She was so close... I just had to reach out and take it. I just had to...


    ¡°Ithelyn! Talk to me!¡±


    ¡®That voice... Alice... she is still here? Need to... go... thirsty.¡¯ Staggering up to my feet seemed almost impossible but I had to. As my vision cleared I saw both of them just staring at me. If I stayed in this cramped little room I was going to go insane! ¡®The scent what is this... I can smell the other girl so clearly. So fresh. So crisp. So precious... So...NO!¡¯


    ¡°I¡¯m... I¡¯m okay. Just have to... freshen up.¡±


    My words sounded stale as they left my mouth. Hugin was right, I was just lying to myself. And yet despite it all I kept the same false smile I had for two years now. Of course I was okay, of course I was FINE. Somebody of my... standing couldn¡¯t possible show weakness, couldn¡¯t ask for help. I just needed some time, right?


    ¡°Sorry Alice... I... need some time.¡±


    ¡°Lyn! You are bleeding! Sure, we just met but that doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t care about you!¡±


    ¡°So what?¡± My brows furrowed. ¡°We barely know each other!¡± ¡®NO! Shut it me! Why...¡¯ ¡°Just... stay with your new friend! Fudge... my head, yeah I¡¯m out.¡±


    I didn¡¯t even bother with waiting for an answer. The pounding in my head was getting stronger. Every second I was in this room, the smell was only getting stronger. I barley registered ripping open the door; something gave under my grip I couldn¡¯t care less. I just needed to get out of that room! Somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear someone call out for me. But like much of everything right now it was swallowed up by my sensory overload.


    I had thought leaving that savoury treat behind in that cabin was going to the edge of, but out here it was even worse. Irritated my gaze twitched a cross the doors I passed by; every one of them filled with a similar glow, a similar meal. Never before had my magical sight acted up like this. Sure I had always been able to see magic in people... but never before smell it... taste it... feel it pulsate. My tongue darted over dry chapped lips. The idea of even a single taste seemed so appealing. But no, I couldn¡¯t... not when I was so close to finding a solution. I could feel Hugin¡¯s claws dig into my shoulder but his worried crows only spurred on darker more sinister thoughts. Somehow despite it all managed to make it into a nearby bath stall. By now I could feel the blood flow freely down my face. Two of the little glows where in here... nobody would notice. ¡®Shit! Get a hold of yourself Ithelyn. You are better than this, you ARE in control!¡¯


    ¡°Holy shit girl! What by the gods happened to you?¡± One of the morsels dared to talk.


    ¡°LEaVe!¡± My voice came out hoarse and decidedly inhuman, I had put enough power into my voice that a mundane human would have shat themselves.


    ¡°Fuck! Kathy let¡¯s just go! She is creeping me out!¡±


    My nostrils flared as the two squeezed their way past me. They smelled like blood, peaches and ozone. A sharp pain in my gums made me groan; half in pain and half in pleasure. Like getting out of a pair of way too tight pants, some of the pressure on my mind lifted together with something I couldn¡¯t put my finger on. I hadn¡¯t had a seizure this bad since the initial infection; whatever was going on it wasn¡¯t good. Trying to calm my worried mind, I wiped the blood out of my eyes and looked in the mirror. Instead, I managed to confirm my greatest fear. Bloodshot red-ringed eyes, taut muscles, a clenched jaw and two fangs piercing my lower lip.


    ¡°No, no, no! Where is my purse? HUGIN! My medicine, NOW!¡±


    With a terrified croak, his weight left my shoulder and I just managed to unlock the stall door for him. It should have been an easy day, leave home, take your medicine, don¡¯t use too much magic, find a cure at the academy. I had always been so careful with my dosage, barely had I been able to still call myself a witch! Where had it all go wrong?! When? Then suddenly it became clear to me. I knew what had messed up my schedule, or rather I knew who. I had only ever cast one large spell today and it had been to save that stupid girls life too! When the word left my mouth it was with both equal parts adoration and spite.


    ¡°Alice...¡±

 Part 6 – Lies and Truth[OLD]

    Part 6 ¨C Lies and Truth


    {Alice}


    I couldn¡¯t help but be worried about Ithelyn. Her behaviour just now had been nothing like before. In the last half-an-hour, she had been awkward but cool, then suddenly her nose had started bleeding like crazy and she had just sat there, staring at Patty. She hadn''t even noticed the train leaving the station and getting up to speed. And if that hadn¡¯t been concerning enough, when I had called out to her, her head had literally snapped towards me. By all the demons in the hells, I could have sworn to hear her bones crack.


    ¡°Sorry about this, Patty.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s... okay.¡± Despite her smile, her voice was shaking and her brows furrowed.


    ¡°Hey, how about you just stay here and I¡¯ll go see what¡¯s up with my friend, kay?¡± I barely had to try to fake a happy smile, working in customer service had paid off it seemed.


    With a little wave and a friendly nod, I went to leave the cabin only to take a step back in surprise. The door hadn¡¯t closed after Ithelyn had left, in fact, I wasn¡¯t even sure it still could. The wood around the grip had splintered and the entire door was rammed into the sliding mechanism. ¡®Okay. Correction, now this... THIS is concerning. I knew she was fit but this is abnormally strong. I am not sure I should wish to be on the other end of that... it¡¯s better that I find her as soon as possible.¡¯


    Hurrying along I began checking the other cabins one by one. At first, it seemed that nobody had seen Lyn. In fact, some of the students looked at me a bit funny when I described her look. As if it was my fault that she was way too striking to be allowed in public! I was almost slipping into a daydream about Ithelyn¡¯s amazing abs when I noticed two girls chatting with each other in a low voice.


    ¡°By the gods, that lady was so creepy! All the blood and that familiar honestly...¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and she looked way older than us too! Who becomes a student at that age?¡±


    ¡°Right? Hey, Sal... is it just me or is that woman over there staring at us?¡±


    ¡°Mean the slutty Goth? Totally is!¡±


    I had heard enough, those two were little more than teenagers with too much magical talent. There was absolutely no need to listen to their gossip. But at the very least I now knew that Ithelyn had passed them by. I was just about to go back to my search when a surprised scream got my attention. Something large and black was hectically fluttering down the corridor at breakneck speed.


    ¡°Hugin!?¡±


    I had barely managed to speak his name out loud when I could already feel claws digging into my shoulder. Immediately he started hopping and cawing around. He even flapped his wings right in my face, as if to get my attention.


    ¡°Ah! Hugin! Stop! I can understand you! It¡¯s fine! Just tell me where she is!¡±


    ¡°Caww! Caw! CAAAW!¡±


    ¡°What do you mean? Why can¡¯t we go to her now?¡±


    ¡°Caw!¡±


    ¡°Medicine? Where?¡±


    ¡°Caw Caw Caw caaaw!¡±


    ¡°Pearl coloured purse got it! Let¡¯s hurry up!¡±


    With Hugin still clawing at my flesh and his panicked voice in my ear. I rushed down the hallway back to our cabin. I barely noticed the pain of claws tearing into my skin as Hugin''s panic became close to infective. His yellow eyes were darting around erratically, staring spitefully at anyone that was in our way. If something had Lyn''s spirit so worked up it truly had to be something bad. Especially for a spirit to come this close to me.


    When we crashed through the open entrance to our cabin another girl was sitting next to Patty. With everything going on right now I had no time to focus or even care about the new arrival. Out of the corner of my eye, I got a short glance at white-blond braided hair as well as two spirits glaring daggers at me; it mattered little. Like a whirlwind, I went through the compartment not stopping or even looking until we had found Ithelyn¡¯s purse. With little more, than a panicked ¡°Bye!¡±, I continued my mad dash back to where Hugin had come from.


    ¡°Ithelyn!¡± Banging on the stall door while catching my breath I did my best to get her attention. ¡°Lyn! We- We have your purse! Hugin and I, we brought it! Please open up!¡±


    For a while there was nothing but silence then her rough voice called out to me.


    ¡°Alice... is that you? Why did Hugin bring you... weird I can barely feel you... despite all your power. Wait... you said you brought it... my purse?¡±


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Yeah! We have it right here!¡±


    ¡°Good... put it before the stall door and turn around, please. I do not wish for you to see me like this.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯m not squeamish about blood and stuff!¡±


    ¡°Alice... I said. Turn. AROUND!¡±


    I barely managed to stop a squeal from escaping my lips, as I turned my ass around as quickly as possible. Somehow, despite the fact that she had yelled at me, I couldn¡¯t help but smile. Hugin''s grip on my shoulder finally loosened and I let out a relieved sigh when I heard the stall door open behind me and quickly close again. With Lyn moving around behind me and I was just about to turn around when I suddenly felt a soft feathered head brush against my cheek.


    ¡°Cawww...¡±


    ¡°I think... I think I do too, Hugin. Let¡¯s both do our best alright?¡±


    ¡°Caw!¡±


    Several minutes went by in which I could hear Ithelyn¡¯s troubled breathing slowly calm down. Whatever had been going on at least she wasn¡¯t panicking anymore. Hopefully, the medicine had actually worked. My heart almost jumped out of my chest, hearing her voice right behind me.


    ¡°Well, the two of you became fast friends... unlikely ones too.¡±


    ¡°Ah! Lyn! Hells! You startled me!¡±


    ¡°Ahehe... sorry about that.¡± As she brushed through her hair with one hand I noticed the side cut she had going on. It was a good look on her. Though despite this, for a second, just before her hair fell back down I could have sworn that her ears were... pointy?


    ¡°Hey, gotta say I like your side cut!¡±


    ¡°You do?¡± Lyn seemed way too happy about this little statement.


    ¡°Yeah! It goes amazing with your ears! Where did you get it done?¡±


    ¡°My... ears?¡±


    ¡°Uh... yeah! They are pointy, it¡¯s really cool!¡±


    ¡°Oh! That... haha, right! Uhm, yeah I got it done two years back. On a trip to the orient. Don¡¯t even remember where anymore! Must have been half-drunk.¡±


    ¡®That was awkward... why does it seem like she is hiding something? Oh well, everyone has secrets. Not my business to dig em up!¡¯ Giving her a happy smile I lifted on to my toes so that Hugin had an easier time getting back up to her. And in the process gave her a little peck on the cheek.


    ¡°There you go, wouldn¡¯t want you to keep you from your Familiar.¡±


    ¡°Hey, thanks I- Holy- Hugin! You totally messed up her shoulder! Oh, shit, Alice, I am so sorry! Hugin usually doesn¡¯t do stuff like this!¡±


    Only now I bothered to look at my shoulder. Long bloody claw mark stretched all the way around. There was a lot of blood, but despite it being a seriously deep wound it barely hurt. They never really did... I had broken my arm once and only noticed when another kid had started crying about the fact that they could see my bone.


    ¡°Oh, this is fine! I¡¯ll be good as new in a few hours. Wounds always healed quickly for me... the doctors think it has something to do with me being a conduit. Nobody really knew so my family and I stopped bothering about it.¡±


    I gave her a half-hearted-shrug after all the wound from this morning had already healed over. Something simple as a few scratches didn¡¯t really bother me. It was almost inhuman how wounds only ever truly hurt when I realized that they were there. And even then it wasn¡¯t really how people told me it should be. They told me it was okay to scream if I was in pain. But it was more of a trained on behaviour for me than anything else. I screamed when I got hurt because people had told me to do so. But in reality, I didn¡¯t actually care, injuries no matter how severe, they always seemed like a hassle maybe but never much more. At times I tended to feel less and less human, humans didn¡¯t just walk off broken bones like it was nothing, they didn¡¯t found themselves naked out on a highway with their face buried in still warm roadkill.


    ¡°...lice. Alice?¡±


    ¡°Sorry, what?¡±


    ¡°That was a thousand-yard stare alright. Is everything alright, Alice?¡±


    ¡°Yeah... Yeah, I¡¯m fine, just something on my mind. Anyway, how are you? I mean, you bled from your eyes, something like that isn¡¯t normal.¡± Upon this Ithelyn pointedly raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°Says the girl, who just casually shrugged of getting her shoulder mauled by a raven. Alice, please believe me. I am fine. And that is thanks to you and Hugin.¡± The warm smile she gave me was enough persuasion that I stopped myself from prying deeper. ¡°How about, we just go back. I am pretty sure that whatever poor instructors they assigned to watch over the train don¡¯t like us hanging out in the bathrooms.¡±


    Almost as if on time with her prediction, the speaker crackled to life. ¡°Attention all students of Section B, we will soon start with taking your attendance. Anyone who isn¡¯t in their cabin with their on-person luggage will be considered missing and be given penalty assignments!¡±


    ¡°Yikes, they take it really serious with proper conduct around here, don¡¯t they?¡± I could help but role my eyes. I had heard this school was one of the stricter ones but this, certainly on another level. Thankfully Lyn seemed to share my sentiment on the matter.


    ¡°Yeah... kinda what I expected. It¡¯s most certainly why my Mother sends me here; so that I learn proper etiquette.¡± With a lopsided smirk, she held open the door for me.


    ¡°Really? The Ithelyn Dawnstar needs to be taught manners? By the hells what did you do to piss off your old Lady? Pee in her garden?¡±


    ¡°Ha! She wishes; I burned it down actually!¡±


    ¡°No you didn¡¯t! The entire thing?¡± My eyes bulged out unbelieving, a Witch¡¯s garden could be a really expensive investment!


    ¡°Yep, an entire Witch¡¯s Garden burned down to even the last crop. You should have seen some of the colours the flames had. Best thing I ever did.¡± Lyn¡¯s smile at this was truly devious if a bit sexy... okay very sexy.


    ¡°I can imagine...¡± Focusing my attention back on what she had said and not how she had said it, I had to wonder. ¡°Seriously though... now I gotta know why you did it. It obviously wasn¡¯t an accident, was it?¡±


    ¡°Oh, by the hells no it wasn¡¯t. She burned a bunch of my favourite magazines and made me watch. There was no way I was going to just take that!¡±


    ¡°Magazines you say? Dirty one?¡±


    My cheeky inquiry was sadly interrupted when an older woman in ostentatious, flowy robes spotted us.


    ¡°You there! You were supposed to return to your cabin already! Names!¡±


    ¡°The hell?¡± What was that cloth wrapped dough ball thinking? ¡°We were literally just on our way there!¡±


    ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t you talk to me like that, girl!¡± Her face instantly gained a few shades of red.


    I was already about to give her a scathing reply when a soft nudge in my side stopped me.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright Alice. Think about it. Penalty work... together.¡±


    I could basically feel the devilish smile on her lips; just maybe this year wouldn¡¯t be bad after all. Especially with a friend as wayward as Ithelyn. With a happy giggle, I took Lyn¡¯s offered arm and together we made our way back to our cabin.


    If only I had known back then just how quickly good turned to bad and bad to worse...

 Part 7 - Fate[OLD]

    {Ithelyn}


    Walking back together I couldn¡¯t help but wonder. What if Alice had caught onto my lie? If she had figured out what was wrong with me, would she keep it to herself or would she... ¡®No. I shouldn¡¯t think like that. Alice has only shown me kindness till now... even despite my many flaws. If she had figured it she would want to talk about it. I doubt she would just sell me out... at least I hope so.¡¯ A glance over to her, I only saw a happy girl making silly faces to the back of the teacher.


    While I certainly didn¡¯t mind having to do penalty work together with Alice, in truth it had mostly been a way of distracting her. Because even now I could feel the teachers magic waft of her like the smell of freshly baked bread. A quick, probing lick over my canines told me all I needed to know.


    Considering what had happened earlier this morning and now with the small fangs I had grown, I was almost sure that I had gotten infected with a sanguine variant of the virus. What I didn¡¯t understand was why my medicine had stopped working. Sure, I had started feeling weirdly ever since I had brewed the newest batch but the recipe itself was solid.


    After all I had paid decent amounts of money just for the information of a possible cure alone. The Witch itself, a certain Lena Dutrar hadn¡¯t even wanted money. Instead she had asked for some of my blood and a lock of hair... ¡®Wait a fricking minute... Dutrar... Didn¡¯t Alice just give that exact last name to the teacher!?¡¯ I could barely hold in my surprise now that I had realized the connection. No wonder that I had thought for Alice''s aura to remind me of a demon¡¯s. It was probably stained just like her relative¡¯s had been.


    And yet with hers it was so much more pronounced. The way it fluctuated and sparked, I would have thought for my new found hunger to be attracted to her. But despite her power her essence felt almost stale, unripe, as if there was but a sliver of a soul. My eyes grew wide in shock not because of what this said about her but what it said about me.


    It had already begun... If it was Essence that I was hungering for then that meant my soul was already breaking down. Gods be damned, if I didn¡¯t find a cure I would be forced to change just so that I could survive!


    ¡°Shit!¡±


    ¡°Ithelyn? Everything alright?¡± Alice looked at me with a quite spooked expression.


    ¡°Sure! Yeah! Why wouldn¡¯t it be?¡± In less than a split second my smile was back.


    ¡°Okay... so if you dent walls when everything is going fine... then what do you do when angry?¡±


    ¡°Huh, what do you mean?¡±


    Instead of answering me Alice just pointed to the wooden panelling right next to me. A rough chuckle escaped me when I noticed the severe dent in one of the boards. I had barely realised that I had lashed out in my frustration. And just as one would expect just now that I was actually looking at it the pain set in. My hand hurt as if I had grabbed right into a cactus, which wasn¡¯t surprising considering the half a dozen or so splinters in it.


    A sharp inhale of air accompanied another, this time much louder: ¡°Shit!¡±


    ¡°Lyn!¡±


    ¡°I''m fine... I¡¯m fine. Gosh! Damn this hurts! Alice... I... I¡¯m not good with blood.¡± I hadn¡¯t been able to stomach the sight ever since I had almost bleed out in a dusty, old Mediterranean dig site. ¡°Could you tell me how bad it is? Please?¡±


    ¡°Lyn.¡± The mirth in her voice was barely hidden. ¡°Could you please hold that expression for a bit?¡±


    Before I could stop her, a sudden flash already startled me. ¡®Fudge! Ah, tits! This hurts even worse than my hand!¡¯ I was still reeling from the sudden blindness, not understanding what had happened, when I felt two soft hands gently touch my face. She held me protectively and gave me a soft kiss on the forehead.


    ¡°I knew it... Lyn, you are seriously hurting aren¡¯t you?¡± Slowly my vision returned and could see Alice''s concerned expression. ¡°You can feel your skin itch under the sun, no? Bright lights pains your eyes and your hearing seems more sensitive than normal. I saw your teeth... how far along are you? Discoloration of gums? Black spots on your nails?¡±


    ¡°How do you...¡± I held in for a moment. ¡°How do you know all that? How did you even figure it out? Nobody ever noticed...¡±


    ¡°I... I didn¡¯t know but I suspected something when I heard your name. My mother, she had told me about a client of hers. Weird looks, weird name and an even weirder problem. That was you wasn¡¯t it? Ithelyn Dawnstar, that is certainly not a common name.¡±


    ¡°No, no... I bet it isn¡¯t.¡± The pain in both my eyes and my hand had finally numbed enough for me to think straight. Looking into her eyes I saw no fear within Alice; no hatred or contempt either. In fact she seemed genuinely concerned about me.


    ¡°So... what will you do now? Are you... going to tell anyone about my... condition?¡± My fingers clenched tightly in frustration, despite the pain.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°No?¡± I couldn¡¯t believe my own ears. ¡°Are you serious!?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Yes, I am. Why wouldn¡¯t I be?¡± Alice¡¯s mouth twitched into a smirk. ¡°Well, there is one condition...¡±


    ¡°A condition?¡±


    ¡°Of course! After all this means that I am letting a potentially dangerous infected run around without telling anybody about it.¡±


    ¡° Okay... I get it.¡± ¡®I should have expected to be blackmailed with this. Just not from her, she seemed so nice.¡¯


    ¡°Go on, tell me your price, Alice.¡± I wasn¡¯t even upset about it I was just... sad.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Hmmmm... well first of all I want you to pay for all my ice cream from now on.¡± She put her fingers on her chin as if thinking really hard about it.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡±


    ¡°I also demand at least four hugs every day. And a good morning kiss!¡±


    ¡°Uhm...¡±


    ¡°Right! Obviously cuddles and the generous sharing of blankets. I also want pillows, like all the pillows, enough to build a nest or fortress!¡±


    ¡°Huh...¡± By now I was entirely lost, what was going on here?


    ¡°In other words, I wish for... how do posh people say it again? Right, I wish for you to court me!¡±


    ¡°You...¡± I blinked a few times in surprise. ¡°You want a relationship... with me!?¡±


    ¡°Of course, you silly!¡±


    ¡°That... uhm... woah... holy... ahhhhh!¡± Overwhelmed by my feelings I just rushed straight at her and embraced her in a big hug. I couldn¡¯t believe my own luck. I had been having a crush on this girl before I even knew her name! And she just... she literally just asked me out! ¡®By all the hells and all the gods. I no longer care for being sick, just the idea of having an actually real relationship... I could almost cry! I have been waiting for this day for years! Oh my, oh my, oh my! She... she is really okay with me!? Wait! What do I do with all my BDSM equipment... what if she isn¡¯t into that? What if she thinks I am weird!? And my sickness... I could infect her, no? Was this really a good idea? What if she dislikes the scar? What if...¡¯


    ¡°...lyn. Ithelyn! Air! I need air to breathe you know?¡±


    ¡°Oh Gods! I am so sorry!¡± I immediately put Alice back down and checked her over. Except for her messed up clothes and the shoulder she seemed fine. ¡°I didn¡¯t hurt you, did I? I am so sorry! I mean, I did notice myself inexplicably growing stronger the last few weeks but I really don¡¯t want to cause you any harm!¡±


    ¡°Lyn. I¡¯m fine. If I was actually hurt I would tell you. And besides, I¡¯m the kinda gal that can casually walk of broken bones. You need a bit more than a little squeeze to injure me.¡± Upon saying this, Alice threw a playful jab towards my midriff. ¡°So if you ever wanna spar, I¡¯m your girl! Gotta freshen up on my skills anyway. Might as well do it with some who can actually dish out a good punch.¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± I was taken aback by this. ¡°Are you telling me you did martial arts!?¡±


    ¡°Yup. For a good five years a so. Got really in to kickboxing.¡± She certainly hadn¡¯t struck me as a fighter. But looking at her now I could see the outlines if well defined muscles beneath her pale skin. Sure they weren¡¯t as pronounced as my own, but I also had an edge on most people... with the whole MAV thing going on. While I was still imagining her in tight fitting sport gear she went on.


    ¡°But yeah, I had to stop when I dangerously injured a fellow trainee. Volatile magic is apparently no good in fair matches. I got a permanent ban out of it too. Oh, hey look at that our cabin is still open!¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± I sheepishly looked at my new friend. ¡°Sorry, I was a bit lost in thoughts.¡±


    ¡°Mhm... I can imagine; the way you were staring at my ass I bet that they were some nice thoughts.¡±


    ¡°He- Hey! How dare you; you damned tease!¡±


    Before I could punish her for the insolence, she had already disappeared into the cabin with an impish smile.


    . . . . .


    {Alice}


    ¡°So! Now that we¡¯re all together, I guess we could start with introducing each other. If my dear Lyn would finally fix the door that is. How is it going?¡±


    ¡°Shush! I almost got it... Patty would you? Yeah, that way... just need to. Ah!!!¡± A sudden crash and surprised scream later, the sliding door was finally back where it belonged.


    Though I had to admit the new bump on Lyn¡¯s forehead looked rather entertaining. Though despite all of it I couldn¡¯t help but feel as if her Spirit hat been constantly watching me. Less of a Raven and of a hawk that one. Sure, Hugin was surprisingly cordial for a spirit but I had to wonder what was on his mind, to not immediately freak upon seeing me. After all the other two spirits were still glowering at me as if I had insulted their parents... not that I really knew if spirits had parents.


    ¡°Okay, so imma begin!¡± Clapping on my thighs I got up and went down into a totally unnecessary curtsey. ¡°The name as the three of you have already noticed is Alice Dutrar. And I am enrolled for the basic and advanced magical education classes. I am twenty-one years old and have never held a job for more than a few months! Oh! I¡¯m also a greater animagus from birth.¡±


    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll go next.¡± Patty said with a shrug, though I could see that something was still eating at her. ¡°I¡¯m Patty Ria Tanner. Am twenty-three and I¡¯m a mechanic by trade; I was studying engineering before I bloomed into my powers. I guess that is all...ah, right, just like Alice I am also here for basic and advanced magics.¡±


    She looked at Lyn for a while but that one was busy staring out of the window. Apparently unsure as to how to talk to her, Patty turned her gaze to the other student with us. The slip of a girl hadn¡¯t said anything ever since the two of us had come back. Instead she had only stared at Lyn and me as if she was looking at ghosts. When she finally did speak up her voice was calm and quite, it almost reminded me of an icy lake.


    ¡°I am called Freya. There is little to nothing interesting about me... yet you...¡± This time she directly addressed me. ¡°You smell of carrion and foul magic. You attract trouble.¡± With this she went back to the book she had been reading, not even bothering to look at any of us.


    ¡°Ooooo...kay. That was... ominous.¡± Despite the entirely ruined atmosphere I leaned over to Ithelyn. ¡°Wanna tell us about yourself?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± When she looked towards me I could have sworn to see a little blood trickle down her lower lip. ¡°Sorry Alice. I was a bit absent minded. But yeah, I can talk about myself.¡±


    Wiping away the suspiciously red drool, Ithelyn sat up straight and gave us a perfectly lovely and absolutely faked smile.


    ¡°I, as you have probably already figured out, am Ithelyn. My interests are deeply rooted in witchcraft, summoning and general occultisms. As an avid student of the field I am written in for the advanced courses as well as the archaeology courses. My dream is to step into my father¡¯s footsteps and research ancient rites and forgotten magic. And I think... yeah, that¡¯s all about me! I truly hope that we will get along!¡±


    My frown deepened when I saw her entire frame fall in on itself as soon as she stopped talking. I didn¡¯t doubt the honesty of her words, but it was clear to me that she had other things on her mind. In fact her entire body language was extremely defensive. So much so, that I wondered how long she had been suppressing her sickness.


    Some who got infected with MAV never showed any signs of the affliction and in others in only broke out long after their youth. In those above thirty it usually manifested like so many other STDs. A treatable disease that had the mild side effect of attacking their Essence. Only in those still young were the consequences truly damaging. Not only did it aggressively destroy their Essence but it also twisted them into often bloodthirsty hunters out for prey, be it solely to feed or to restore their lost Essence by ripping it from other beings.


    There were many different expressions of the disease with the most common being the so called ¡°Ghoul-strain¡±. Afflicted usually ended up turning into flesh devouring, crazed beasts in less than a month. The changes always affected mind and body. In the end there was often nothing else to do but put them out of their misery.


    But what my mother had told me about an afflicted girl looking to suppress her symptoms, her description was spot on. The only problem being that this had been almost two years ago. If this was truly what Lyn had gone through... then her soul was in shambles. It was no wonder she had been acting strange.


    No soul wished to degenerate... by stopping the transformation that accompanied her infection, she was actively killing herself. ¡®And... I do not wish for her to die... I... I must fallen for her. Otherwise I can not explain just why I desire to save her. Maybe there is such a thing as fate? No matter. I already know what I must do.¡¯


    In this moment on the train we both rode to our future I made a decision that, unbeknownst to me, would interfere with things that had been set in motion millennia ago. I didn¡¯t know back than how much I would change... but I would get the first hints soon enough.

 Part 8 - Ill signs[OLD]

    Raven eyes


    Part 8 ¨C


    {Alice}


    I was running. I didn¡¯t know where or why specifically but I knew that I had to flee. And yet my steps were unsure and my breathing came ragged; more gasps than anything else. Stones and thorns ripped into my feet. My body was sluggish, it felt wrong... almost more like a suit of false skin that I had squeezed myself into, than my own flesh and blood.


    The worst was that my pursuers were always right there, just on my heels, never closing in, never relenting. I could hear their cries on the wind. Their laughter continuously mocked me. They mocked my weakness, my lacking endurance, my faulty looks, even my sorry excuse for a soul. It seemed that every part of me irked them in some way.


    I couldn¡¯t lose them, couldn¡¯t escape their words in this pathetic body of mine. They knew it, they knew my pain, my fear and my failures. If only I could be as they were. If only I could be strong and resilient... if only my soul and beauty could shine equally bright.


    But they knew just like I did that I would never grow to be like them. Since birth I had been the runt of the clutch. I was the ugly little bird that couldn¡¯t do anything. I couldn¡¯t do anything. I stumbled when I ran and I fell when I wanted to fly. Never had I grown strong, beautiful and terrifying like my sisters had. Even those born after me... even they were better of than me. I was only the ugly little chick, damned eternally to crawl along the ground living of scraps and refuse.


    I could hear the sound of wind and wings behind me. The shrill screams of my sisters. Almost their claws were upon me. This time they would get me, this time they would rip me apart for the sole purpose of their amusement. ¡®No! I can not fail here! I will not fail!¡¯


    Suddenly, power washed over me. It rippled the air like waves do an angry ocean. The sweet scent of death and carrion, of treachery and betrayal, the cold bitter truth that everything will die and we will be there to feast on the remains. A sick toothy smile crept across my face, my sisters weren¡¯t hunting me. They were chasing me, pushing me to something I could rip apart, something that I could easily devour piece by piece.


    Finally my feet found proper grip. No longer were the rocks digging into my soft flesh, instead my claws used every crevice, every out cropping to push me higher into the air. My wings beat against the air, finding purchase on even the smallest of currents. I could already see my pray before me. A little blue thing. It was pathetic and weak but it would nourish me. My claws stretched towards it, soon... not long anymore and I would feast on entrails, flesh and bones and pure delicious power.


    Then all of a sudden, a face large as the night sky. It was terrible but beautiful. Blood red eyes and a golden halo... it was as if a fight went on inside this being but despite it all, her voice was powerful and strong. She looked at me with an expression some where between pity and fondness.


    ¡°Alice.¡±


    I knew that name, it... it was my name!


    ¡°Alice! Stop, this isn¡¯t you!¡±


    ¡®No! Yes! I am more than this! I am not just a part of the flock! I am my own I am strong and beautiful! Ithelyn!¡¯


    When I finally woke my entire body hurt. A soft breeze on my skin told me that I was naked but worse than that was that I had no idea of what had happened. I couldn¡¯t move, my body was restricted by chains that weren¡¯t chains. It was dark but I could see the bars of a cage around me. A dark cloth was thrown over it and from outside muffled voices reached my ears.


    ¡°... she is dangerous! We can¡¯t have somebody as liable as her in our school!¡±


    ¡°Oh shut your trap, Mc Dorsal. If it was up to you only the nobles would visit this school.¡±


    ¡°While I don¡¯t necessarily agree with Miss Sagan but she is right. Letting her remain untrained and alone in the world would be far worse than having her at our school.¡±


    ¡°Exactly! We already know that she is a conduit, she shouldn¡¯t be held liable for being the outlet for ancient magic! Instead we should at least make the effort to teach her control! And if she is as powerful as it seems, she will make a good asset.¡±


    ¡°Sir Haster! You¡¯re not insinuating to use a girl as a weapon are you!?¡±


    ¡°Professor, I would never. I am simply saying that there is a lot of wasted potential in the girl. Even now I can feel her eat away at my bindings. Ha! Will you look at that she is finally awake.¡±


    When the tarp was ripped away, I had to shield my eyes from the sudden brightness, though with the chains binding me I could barely even manage that. Before me were four people, two men in their forties and two women. One looked to be barely thirty while the other seemed to have already long passed her prime. I was more than thankful to my frequent streaking escapades or else the looks upon my naked body would have been very embarrassing.


    ¡°Haster... you have two seconds to stop staring or else I will have my familiar rip of a finger or two.¡± The younger woman stepped before me in an obviously protective gesture.


    ¡°Fine Teril, fine, not that I was going to say anything. Just throw the girl a shirt already!¡±


    An oversized school shirt later, I was sheepishly standing in the creepy basement, no longer chained but still in the ominous cage. Before I could even ask what was going on a sudden commotion in front of the door drew all our attention.


    ¡°Step. ASIDE!¡±


    ¡°Miss Dawnstar, please! Your friend is unharmed and only being kept for her own safety! Please calm down!¡±


    ¡°I will not repeat it again! Step aside or I will kick that fucking door in!¡±


    I was already about to lift a finger and try and tell the other teachers to intervene when all of them took a step away from the door.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.¡°Miss Dawnstar! I beg of you! Ahhhhh!¡±


    A single loud crash was all the warning we got before the locked door was kicked in and slammed with full force against the adjacent brick wall. In the opening stood no other than a very pissed off and surprisingly roughed up Ithelyn.


    ¡°Now! Where is-¡± With a loud creak the door slowly bend out of its hinges and fell to the ground in a nasty dust cloud. For a good minute or so nobody said anything but we only watched as Lyn coughed out her lungs. Then as if nothing had happened she brushed away her stray hair and stepped into the room.


    ¡°My friend please. Now.¡±


    Surprisingly the first to speak up was the old woman from before.


    ¡°You have grown Ithelyn, perhaps not in wisdom but certainly in temper and in power.¡± For a second she just looked at Lyn before continuing. ¡°Did you try the meditation exercises I taught you?¡±


    ¡°Professor Delaney.¡± This time one of the two men spoke up, he was arguably the better looking of the two. ¡°Would you please focus on the situation at hand? You will have enough time to chat with your old ward later.¡±


    ¡°Ah! Certainly Sir Haster, right... right! If you would wait just a second Lyn sweetie. So, Miss Dutrar... huh an old name. Are you in full possession of your mental faculties and or do you no longer feel the desire to attack other witches or their familiars?¡±


    ¡°I... think so?¡± I was more confused than ever before. Sure, I had done some idiotic stuff before, while sleep walking but it had never gotten me into a guarded cell before.


    ¡°Good!¡± The woman I suspected to be Teril called out. ¡°Then we can finally get it over with this stupid farce! I want to go back to the opening ceremony and we already have a summoning teacher who can get her a familiar.¡± Without another word she snapped her fingers and the cage opened up.


    Under the awkward stare of everyone involved I gingerly stepped out of the thing and over to Ithelyn. Who in turn only glared at the assembled mages in spite. The people were lucky she still wore her sunglasses or else one would have to fear for her gaze to be pure poison. Thankfully the weird stand off between the five seemed over now and one by one they filed out of the room. Which gave me a chance to turn around to my girlfriend.


    ¡°What was all of that just now?¡±


    ¡°So you do not remember anything?¡±


    ¡°I mean... no? I fell asleep on the train and next thing I know I am in this creepy basement.¡±


    ¡°Huh... do you often just fall asleep?¡±


    ¡°It was an eight hour ride! How could I be awake for that long!?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s walk, Alice. I will explain everything.¡±


    Outside, right next to the entrance and now door-less door an entertaining sight caught my eye. Hugin had made himself comfortable on the head of an unconscious security guard. Sadly my mirth was only of short duration, as all of a sudden Ithelyn seized me by the arm and walked me off into a darkened hallway.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but be concerned.


    ¡°You truly don¡¯t know what happened? You don¡¯t remember what you did?¡±


    ¡°N- No?¡± What was she talking about?


    ¡°Alice... you well... I didn¡¯t tell any of the teachers but gods and hells be damned you tried to eat a familiar!¡±


    ¡°What?¡± ¡®No, that couldn¡¯t be. I would remember if I had done something so... hare brained. Who in their right mind would ever try eating a spirit... no... that...¡¯


    ¡°Alice! Listen to me!¡±


    ¡°I AM! It just doesn¡¯t make any sense! Just tell me what happened!¡±


    ¡°It''s alright, Alice. Nobody but the girls in our cabin know. The teacher only know that your magic went wild.¡± She tried to sooth me but I couldn¡¯t get my head around it.


    ¡°No! Tell me what happened! I have a right to know! It¡¯s still my body!¡±


    ¡°I... I know Alice. I¡¯m sorry it¡¯s just... you won¡¯t like the truth.¡± Her eyes pitied me, oh how I despite people¡¯s pitty.


    ¡°I can handle it, Ithelyn. Tell me!¡±


    ¡°Fudge... where do I even start. Okay, so. You fell asleep on the train which you still remember but after an hour or two you began twitching and shaking. We tried waking you but nothing we did worked! Then all of a sudden a ripple went over your body. Your skin was like water, never before have I seen it. And you just shrank... one moment you were you and in the next there was this terrifying raven creature. I knew it had to be you but the thing looked more demon than animal! And suddenly it, or well you, opened your eyes. There were three of them... then all hell broke loose. You launched your self at Patty¡¯s familiar in a swirl of claws and feathers.¡±


    ¡°I... I didn¡¯t kill her did I... the spirit I mean?¡±


    ¡°No. Thankfully I managed to grab onto you and hold you close. Gotta say you put up one hell of a fight.¡± With a nervous grin she pointed at her own injuries.


    ¡°How did I end up in the cage? And what happens now? Sorry Lyn... I¡¯m just this never happened before. I knew spirits didn¡¯t like me... but to attack them.¡±


    ¡°As I said... the teacher don¡¯t know, they just caught you after the commotion had attracted attention and well... I might have make the other two swear a blood oath....¡±


    ¡°You did what!?¡± I could barely believe my own ears, blood magic was strictly forbidden in school grounds!


    ¡°Well, we were technically still on the train and all three of us swore the pact. It actually was Freya''s idea too. I just ran with it as I already knew a spell. But uhm, yeah they want to talk with you later too.¡±


    ¡°And... what happens now?¡± I still couldn¡¯t believe it, a blood oath... that was already dangerously close to the practices of the Circle of Hecate. Those had not been witches that society had looked upon fondly. But before I could lose my self in thought about what this might mean in the long run, Lyn said something I could believe even less.


    ¡°Well now... the teachers want you to bind yourself to a familiar, in the hope that it might stabilise your magic.¡±


    ¡°They want to do what!?¡±

 Part 9 - Strange Revelation [OLD]

    Part 8 ¨C


    {Alice}


    ¡°Okay, so let¡¯s go over this again? I am a dangerously unstable Witch with next to no control over my own powers... and the first idea these teachers have is to have me try my hand at a fricking summoning ritual!?¡±


    ¡°I never said it was a good idea...¡± Ithelyn shrugged with her shoulders before placing a hand gently on my back. ¡°But the teachers are rather certain to be able to handle anything you could possibly call forth from behind the veil.¡±


    ¡°Yeah... I¡¯m not sure about that. Whenever I try my hand at magic people get hurt, usually me. But no matter... Say... uhm, where can I get changed... or find my luggage?¡±


    ¡°Come, I¡¯ll bring you to my room. The other¡¯s are busy with getting shown around. They were.... surprisingly caring about you. Didn¡¯t even want to bother with the welcoming speech, to be fair Patty was also quite spooked. But I am sure that all will be okay once we talk with them. Let¡¯s go.¡±


    I was more than happy to follow behind, when Lyn let me up a rounded stairway and away from the dreary cellar. We went higher and higher for at least a minute or two before something suddenly came to my mind.


    ¡°Say... Lyn.¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°Those teachers seemed to know you rather well. One called you by your name and the others didn¡¯t even flinch when you kicked in a door. You... aren¡¯t like actual royalty or something... right?¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha! No.¡± All of a sudden she embraced me from behind and buried her face in the curve of my neck. ¡°Don¡¯t you worry, Alice. I¡¯m a nobody... I just have a family name with money and power behind it but all of that is out of reach for me. I am the cast off, withered fruit of a sick branch. There is no fianc¨¦e or any kind of title waiting in my future. Nothing to keep us from each other... no, I am forgotten and free, just the way I like it.¡±


    While she seemed earnest there was still something about it all that was bothering me. ¡°But... you kicked in a door!? Shouldn¡¯t the teachers want to punish you for that?¡±


    ¡°Ohhhh... that, I mean sure they want to punish me, but they learned long ago that Ithelyn Dawnstar can¡¯t be stopped! If I want to go somewhere, then I will, the costs be damned!¡±


    ¡°I... take it you went to this school before?¡±


    ¡°Yeah my entire teenage years, and by the hells I did sooooo much detention. At some point the teachers just have up. Because everyone around me will soon notice the futility of trying to teach me manners or etiquette.¡±


    ¡°The rebellious teenage Ithelyn...¡± I dryly remarked. ¡°I can already see it before my eyes...¡± With a deadpan stare back to her I skipped up the last few steps.


    ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t you mock me! I bet you weren¡¯t any better as a child! Go on, tell me about the escapades of your youth!¡±


    ¡°Uhm...¡± I nervously scratched the back of my head while I looked at the different tapestries on the wall. ¡° Would you believe me if I said there weren¡¯t really any... and could we leave it at that? Sorry, Lyn.¡± I threw her an apologetic smile. ¡°Being a conduit from birth doesn¡¯t exactly make for the most entertaining of childhoods. On one hand you have a lot of visits to doctors and specialists and on the other hand everyone around you is afraid of you... or if they aren¡¯t afraid they see you as good target for bullying... neither is all that... nice.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay, Alice.¡± Two strong arms wrapped around me in a tight hug. ¡°You don¡¯t have to go on. I¡¯m here for you. By the way... this might sound weird but did anyone ever tell you that you surprisingly beautiful to look at?¡±


    ¡°I am... beautiful to look at?¡± I had to blush when I thought about the implications. ¡°Haha... Lyn! That is such a gay thing to say!¡±


    ¡°Is it?¡± Somehow despite the intimacy of the moment she seemed absent minded. ¡°It¡¯s just... Your soul... it is so weird in comparison to other¡¯s... so small yet it attracts so much magic. It¡¯s by all accounts a little thing but it never wavers, never seems to fear extinction. Rather than a living being¡¯s soul... it seems almost stagnant, stuck in time ... so different from all the other... morsels... like a wonderful seed just waiting to be groomed...¡±


    ¡°Lyn... you are starting to be creepy. Can we just go to your room?¡±


    ¡°Ah... yes, sorry about that. I didn¡¯t want to make you uncomfortable. Sometimes I get lost in thought...¡±


    ¡°Yeah... I could see that.¡±


    For the rest of the way there was an uncomfortable silence between Lyn and me. She seemed to want to say something but every time someone passed us by she faltered in on herself. Despite her at times brash and almost haughty behaviour it seemed that she was rather shy beneath all the bravado. I wanted to help her, wanted to tell her that she was an amazing person but even now I couldn¡¯t bring myself to say it.


    I had more than a crush on her that much I was sure of. In fact it would be accurate to say that I fell head over heels for this strange girl. Maybe it was just that what had attracted me in the first place? Figuring Ithelyn out beneath all the weird opposites that she displayed, was... entertaining. She was like a beautiful puzzle that I could slowly come to understand but at the same time, there were darker voices in my mind.


    Since I was little I had never truly been alone in my head. Little whispers and hushed words told me of things I shouldn¡¯t know. They told me if lies people would tell before they even left their mouths. And the worst of it... they told me how to make people hurt. What things to say to make the pain worse... what secrets to let slip to bring them to the edge of despair.


    For years I had tried my best at drowning them out. Focused my mind on stifling the parts whispering of treason and betrayal. But since waking up they had steadily grown louder. Only short look at a person seemed to be enough... the more troubled they were the easier the words slipped into my mind. And the ones coming from Ithelyn were by far the loudest.


    ¡®Guilt... he never returned... was it her fault? Hunger... oh, such a deep gnawing hunger... She never loved her... poor little girl... Hunger... pain... it eats away at her... bit by bit she slips away... No! Stop! I don¡¯t want to hear any of this! Get out of my head!¡¯ Thick droplets of sweat ran down my back. It didn¡¯t even matter if I looked away from Lyn, any other person we met was another target for the voices.


    ¡®Cheats on his wife... the shame... Still remembers that one time... she saw her sister in the bath... touched herself that night... Fear... what if they know... he sees the blood every night... Hatred... those filthy commoners... she too wishes to be free... Gods... please. Make it stop. Why is it that I have to hear this!?¡¯ Heavy tears started dripping down my cheeks.


    I knew that the people were looking at me, I knew from their looks that they felt something to be wrong. All my life I had to endure those damned stares, the fear, the hatred... the certainty that something was wrong with me, that I didn¡¯t belong in this world. As if I was a nasty cut in this world, something that pretended to belong here but deep down the people knew. The more magically sensitive they were the worse their reactions usually got. Sometimes it was just pity but more than often enough it was hostility. Soon even Lyn would feel it, the certainty that something about me was wrong. ¡®I should run now, bring distance between me and this entire school... the staff around here they are so exposed to magic they will know... and then all the others and even Ithelyn will know... that I am nothing but a... Concern... she worries about her... wants to protect... Honesty...¡¯


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.¡°Alice... hush, I¡¯m here don¡¯t worry.¡± I didn¡¯t remember Lyn approaching but with the simple gesture of putting her arms around me it was as if a dam was broken. Not caring about others I buried my face in her chest and started bawling until my eyes were red and puffy. Only then I finally managed to calm down a bit. With no more tears remaining to cry, bit by bit my fear was replaced with cold, numb emptiness. But just as I threatened to slip into the dark hole that was the deepest reaches of my soul, warm words laced with sympathy and affection pulled me back up.


    ¡°I am here for you Alice. I promise you this despite what happens, despite having only known you for a day... I will do everything in my power to be there for you. When ever you need support, you need to talk or you just need a hug... don¡¯t hesitate to ask me. You are literally my first ever friend and the hells can break open before I will just let you go.¡±


    When I looked up her face showed only kindness and concern for me.


    ¡°Ithelyn... I... thank you... and I know, I asked of you to be my girlfriend but I don¡¯t want to force you or anything. There is... many things I didn¡¯t tell you. Some of them are a lot more troubling than others. We should... talk about us and what we really mean to each other and about who we are.¡±


    ¡°Can we... talk in my room? It might be more comfortable than out here in the hallways. It¡¯s not far now... please? I, uhm, I had your thing brought there too, I¡¯m sorry if I was too hasty with that...¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay Lyn. You were trying to do good, that still counts. Let¡¯s go.¡±


    The next few minutes of walking out of one building and into the next, were wrapped in silence. It wasn¡¯t the kind of silence in which you are certain of a beloved person¡¯s closeness and enjoyed the moment together. No, this was a pronounced, heavy silence; the silence of two people who had many things to say to each other but no idea on how to start the conversation. The awkwardness continued on even after we had stepped into Ithelyn¡¯s room.


    It was by all accounts a lot more beautifully furnished than the other rooms I had seen on the Academy¡¯s website. And most certainly a lot better and bigger than the little crap hole that I had rented. What surprised me the most were the clear signs of use and personal things all around. It was as if Ithelyn had lived in here for years and barely left, then again that couldn¡¯t be, right? My certainty was shattered when she almost casually so took out two cups and filled them with already brewed hot chocolate.


    ¡°So... how long ago was it that you left the Academy again?¡±


    ¡°The Academy... hmm.. a couple years. But I frequently visited for a few weeks at times. Either for study purposes or well personal reasons.¡±


    ¡°Huh. I guess that explains why it is so... homely in here.¡± With a sad smile she gave me one of the cups, which Hugin immediately used as an excuse to hop on to my shoulder instead of hers. ¡°Thanks.¡±


    ¡°Alice... I should come clean about some things.¡± She said before sitting next to me on the sofa. ¡°We... We haven¡¯t spoken today for the first time.¡±


    ¡°We haven¡¯t?¡± I certainly hadn¡¯t expected this development!


    ¡°No... I have been having a crush on you for months...¡±


    ¡°What but... that makes no sense! I would have remembered you! I... what... how?¡± I had to take a long sip to calm my self and immediately grimaced because of the heat.


    ¡°I told you about how I burned down my mother¡¯s garden... well, not soon after I took a job in a book shop... and I came across you one day.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m confused...¡± What she was saying didn¡¯t make sense. ¡°I remember wanting to going to the store, I bought books on the creation of pocket spaces... but I would have remembered you. Now that I think about it I can barely remember ever going there... I just suddenly... I should have remembered going there!¡±


    ¡°No... you wouldn¡¯t have. I... gods... I feel so shitty admitting it but I was scared and I¡¯m not good with people, so I, uhm, used a charm on you... to make you forget my face. I never expected it to work so well!¡±


    ¡°You... you charmed me!? You... why!? You made me forget get hours of my life! Why would you...¡± I was almost about to scream in her face maybe punch her but Hugin''s weight on my shoulder made me held in for now.


    ¡°No! Please, you must believe me I didn¡¯t want for any of that to happen! Something interfered with my spell!¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Yes! There was already a charm on you, something powerful and old! My spell must have activated it... I... please believe I never wanted to hurt you.¡±


    The voices told me that she was truly sincere, yet there was something else. something a lot more important, that bothered me. ¡°You said your spell triggered something... something that was already on me?¡±


    ¡°You... aren¡¯t angry?¡±


    ¡°Of course I am! But no matter now! The other thing! Tell me about it!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure...¡± Suddenly she Ithelyn seemed lost in thought. ¡°Like I said, it was powerful and old magic... but it was not something that had been placed recently. The spell work was fraying at the edges, unravelling almost... Alice... I know it did some shitty things but if I could touch you I might be able to tell what it was that I felt that day.¡±


    ¡°Fine. Just because you want to help. But don¡¯t think that I will let this whole charm thing slide!¡±


    With a gentle smile Lyn slowly approached me, and from one moment to the next the air around her changed. Powerful magic exuded of her, her already pale hair seemed to shine with an eerie light all by itself. Her fingers danced across my frame leaving trickles of shivers in their wake. And when she spoke, her voice was laced with power.


    ¡°This is... unordinary. The spell on you is frayed but of an most unusual make... a tapestry of spell work spans your body not for a single purpose but many. Wait what is this... by the gods... how is your soul still intact? The spell it... was designed not only to be powered by your own magic but to disperse it entirely. There are elements that influence the mind... or used to influence it. The spell is breaking... it¡¯s fading even if I am not sure why. Something damaged it beyond repair but it¡¯s purpose is clear to me now. Alice, somebody wanted to make sure that you would never be able to properly use magic... and to reach that goal, they crippled both your memory and your soul.¡±

 Part 10 - Deal with the devil [OLD]

    Part 10


    {Alice}


    ¡°That stupid, lying, old hag! I should have known! All the cryptic bullshit and veiled hints... hells! That fucking, dried out, stinky, dumb bitch of a turd!¡±


    ¡°Woah! Alice! Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°You!¡± I whipped around to Ithelyn with fury in my eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t you think you are through just like that! That you found the spell work on me doesn¡¯t free you from my wrath! You charmed me and I swear to the hells that this is going to have repercussions! Seriously¡­ first my damned grandmother and then even you! It¡¯s not like I am a punchingbag to try out all your weird magic shit! Especially not stuff that makes me forget minutes or even hours of my life!¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help but grind my teeth in anger when I saw Ithelyn open her mouth as if to speak. What more could she want now? Hadn¡¯t it already been enough that she had the gall to charm me? Did she really have to dare interrupt me while I was ranting? There was something dark, hidden deep in my mind; it clawed at me now, digging just beneath the surface. I knew that soon I had to simply reach out, it was calling for me, hidden behind the last remnants of the spell. What ever my family had tried to hide in me, it was growing ever more prevalent. A soft touch on my cheek brought me back to the here and now.


    ¡°I¡­ I am sorry for what I did. I know you might hate me now, but¡±


    Before she could continue, I harshly interrupted her. ¡°What!? Want to perchance charm me again, just so you can try this whole conversation over? Or better yet! Just charm me into being your obedient fuck puppy!?¡±


    ¡°Alice!¡± Suddenly Lyn grabbed me by the shoulders, her grip was stronger than I had expected. ¡°Stop it! I know I fucked up, alright? I know what I did was a shit move¡­ but I really ¨C and I mean I REALLY ¨C want to make right by you!¡±


    ¡°You¡­ You do?¡± I felt the voices scratching at my thoughts, begging to be let in. ¡®I shouldn¡¯t listen to them, they have proven to be poison and deceit before. And yet¡­ I need to know! Guilt¡­ shame¡­ sorrow¡­ a way to solve it all¡­ such a powerful spell¡­ what could go wrong? Well that was¡­ surprisingly un-helpful.¡¯


    ¡°So... you really want to help me?¡± I asked, more out of uncertainty than anything else.


    ¡°Yes! I do!¡± Lyn¡¯s face lit up in something between adoration and childish excitement . ¡°I¡­ have a theory. The spell used on you¡­ it isn¡¯t anchored to the physical plane¡­ there are no tattoos or markings on you¡­ it¡¯s written directly onto your soul. This means it is instable, fickle so to say. Enough power might just overwhelm it completely.¡±


    ¡°Wait you mean¡­ we could break the spell?¡±


    ¡°We can try¡­ the teacher already want you to summon a familiar. If Hugin and I support you with that the raw power of the ritual might be enough to break what last wards on you are still working. And it will also teach me how that spell was kept in place in the first place.¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­ what do you mean with that?¡±


    ¡°Uhm...¡± Lyn looked at me almost unbelieving. ¡°Are you serious?¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡± I gave her an annoyed look. ¡°I didn¡¯t spend my entire life studying magic like someone else here.¡± Hugin let out an amused sounding caw, much to Lyn¡¯s befuddlement. I was getting along with that bird better and better, which was honestly surprising considering the he was a spirit. To be fair Hugin was the first entropy spirit I had ever met, maybe all of them were so¡­ nice? Just to be certain I gave him a little scratch beneath the beak. I knew from experience how good that felt.


    ¡°Okay.¡± Ithelyn continued, having apparently overcome her confusion. ¡°Ignoring the obvious conspiracy of the two bird brains against my person, you do know the basics of soul manipulation, right?¡±


    ¡°No¡­.? I mean, why would I? I barely managed to get accepted into the academy.¡±


    ¡°Ugh.¡± It was a wonder that Lyn didn¡¯t immediately face palm at this. ¡°Fine! So basically a soul constantly degenerates over time. But because it usually recovers more Essence from the natural surrounding magic than it loses, it is growing and ever changing, instead of fizzling out. Got it so far?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°I am after all not a retard.¡±


    ¡°Sure¡­ wait a sec, is Hugin laughing at me?! Gods damn it Hugin! Why must you betray me!? Never mind, the two of your are disturbingly similar you know that?¡±


    ¡°No idea what you might be on about.¡± Hugin and I cocked our heads to the side with a smile. ¡°But please keep going. It is immensely fascinating.¡±


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Yep, I¡¯m going to have nightmares from this. Anyhow, as I was saying, a soul constantly changes throughout time. Because of that spells written on your Essence are always of only temporary quality.¡±


    ¡°But... the spell on mine has been there for years.¡±


    ¡°Exactly! I mean I can see your soul and it might be small ¨C tiny even, if I¡¯m honest ¨C but it never degrades! It is constantly the same no matter how much time passes. You understand what that means?¡±


    ¡°That... I am a freak?¡±


    ¡°No! Well, yes.... never mind, shut up and listen. Any spell you were to place on your soul would stay there until removed or the magic decays on it¡¯s own. The potential is... terrifying to say the least.¡±


    ¡°So... I¡¯m a potentially powerful freak, got it.¡±


    ¡°Really now?¡±


    The look she gave me was more than telling enough of her frustration. Apparently joking about magic was a wonderful way of getting Lyn cross. Something I was certainly going to keep in mind if she ever annoyed me again. Though what she had said was a lot more concerning to me than she seemed to realise. If my soul was truly so different from everyone else¡¯s, what did that mean about me, about who or maybe even what I was? At that time I didn¡¯t know if I really had wanted to know the answer to the question. But with so many things life tends to choose for you.


    . . . . .


    ¡°Say, Alice... are you sure that is the outfit you want to wear?¡±


    ¡°Why, don¡¯t you like it?¡± I twirled around making the tips of my dress swirl around me in a circle of lace and engraved metal.


    ¡°Uhm... no, I mean, yes, I like it! You look very... mature. It¡¯s just... why wouldn¡¯t you just wear your school uniform? I mean the teachers will be there and your dress is very... risqu¨¦!¡±


    ¡°Lyn, I am just going to assume that you don¡¯t know better... this is a genuine hand sown witches garment! The Dutrar Clan has worn dresses like this since the first summoning ritual. Every Dutrar girl gets one to their sixteenth birthday, usually made by the head witch of their coven. This one was and still is a treasured gift from... the person, whose ass I will kick as soon as I see her again! Now than shall we?¡±


    ¡°O- Okay!¡±


    ¡®Hmmm... Ithelyn is surprisingly meek when it comes to new or stressful situations. I guess I will have to fix that a bit; can¡¯t have my mistress be all scared and insecure after all. Gotta say I did like the haughty Lyn that comes out when ever she gets too cornered. Very bossy, very dom...¡¯


    I was still daydreaming about Lyn''s potential and following behind her with my mind somewhere entirely else, when something out of the ordinary happened. Despite my ¨C obviously ¨C superior grace and reflexes I barely had time to react when I, all of a sudden, impacted something soft and bouncy.


    ¡°Holly hells! What the-...¡±


    Before me stood a young woman about my age with the - by far - most burgeoning assets I had ever seen. Those things had to be at least the size of my head if not more! The blouse containing the mammoth sized mammaries in front of me was seriously straining at the seams and I almost feared for the buttons to just jump of on their own. Both impressed and intimidated I took a careful step back to take in the rest of the boobs- I mean lady!


    Surprisingly where I had expected a bombshell bimbo to be the owner of those weapon grade breasts, the actual person attached to that overly large chest was less striking. In fact the description mousey and kind of grimy fit a lot better. Not only was she wearing huge glasses and a muffler that covered most of her face, but what hair stuck out from beneath her beanie was unkempt and greasy.


    While I would have liked to not judge her solely based on her choice of dress, I wasn¡¯t that kind of good hearted person. Too much of both her appearance and her body language reminded me of the teenage me, a time I never wanted to go back to. Actually I would have rather forgot about it entirely and so I only gave her an apologetic shrug and continued on my way. Yet what I hadn¡¯t expected was for her to meekly call out to me.


    ¡°Are- Are you go- going to the su- summoning room too?¡± While her cadence was all over the place, her voice itself was ¨C and I loathed saying so ¨C surprisingly melodic. Compared to my own, which usually sounded like shrill screeching, hers was a lot more fitting for a pretty girl. Why was it that she had such a beautiful voice and I had to make do with such a shitty one? By the hells, if I tried to sing it usually sounded like something more akin to a bird cawing instead of anything people actually wanted to listen to.


    As the jealousy burned its way through my system, something from deep within me whispered in my mind. Only this time it wasn¡¯t the usual treacherous voices revealing secrets I shouldn¡¯t know but something far more spiteful and envious. It told me how I could just take her voice; make it mine as soon as I had her soul in my hands. And the rest of it ... not the imprints but the essences itself i could feed to my lover. It was a tempting thought... why wasn¡¯t I already doing it? Why should I care about a human-


    ¡°NO! Shut up! Argh!¡± In panic I clawed into my scalp. What was wrong with me? All these voices, these thoughts... They were mine but they didn¡¯t feel like it! It was as if I was slowly becoming someone... something else!


    ¡°Alice! Are you alright? She didn¡¯t do anything, did she?¡± Lyn didn¡¯t waste any time and immediately bound to my side; it was almost cute how she glowered at the other girl.


    ¡°No, no. She didn¡¯t do anything. I just... have a bit of a headache.¡± I smiled at her reassuringly, though my jaws were still clenched. ¡°Nothing for you to worry about.¡±


    Turning back to the student that I had just run into, my perfect customer service smile returned, it never twitched and it never wavered. ¡°Sorry about the confusion. I¡¯m Alice by the way, and this lovely Lady is called Ithelyn.¡±


    Almost half a minute went by in which she only awkwardly stared at the two of us before she finally answered.


    ¡°I- I¡¯m Dia. So-Sorry about yelling...¡±


    ¡°No.¡± I said, while painfully burying my nails in the flesh of my palm. ¡°I am sorry for being... not very courteous. You merely asked for directions and I, I... never mind. Now Lyn and I were indeed going to the summoning hall.¡±


    ¡°Say...¡± I stopped and smiled despite the pain. ¡°Why don¡¯t you come with us? I am sure Lyn wouldn¡¯t mind, right?¡±


    ¡°Ah, uhm, not really?¡±


    ¡°Very good! Now than, Ithelyn, Dia, let¡¯s go shall we?¡±


    I happily skipped ahead; all the while the darkness in my mind threatened to drown out everything. A faint trail of surprisingly dark blood drops was all that showed my true state of mind, not that anyone could see them in the dark corridors mind you.

 Part 11 -Promise[OLD]

    {Ithelyn}


    Now that I had a little more time to think, it became ever clearer to me that something was decidedly wrong with Alice. If I was being honest, then I wasn¡¯t even sure anymore if Alice was entirely human. Never before had I seen a person with a soul just like hers. Even the souls of spirit and changelings were slave to the whims of time. Every soul changed and twisted throughout the years. And without enough nourishment eventually every soul died.


    At least this was how it should go... normally. From what I had seen of Alice, it seemed as if she was trying to defy every thing I knew about the norms of magic. Not only was she a very troubled person, much of her personality was also apparently build out of erratic spitefulness and hostile jealousy. But despite what the literature said about that topic, her soul wasn¡¯t at all turbulent. In fact it would have been more accurate to say that her soul was overly stable.


    Normally when a person was guided by erratic thoughts and self doubt this should have to be mirrored in the way their soul was behaving. A calm and collected person had a steady and constant soul while someone struggling with their feelings and emotions tended to have one that was unstable and volatile. And the worst part of it, the weaker a soul got the more likely a person was to commit suicide.


    Now in Alice on the other hand, I could see none of this! Instead her soul was entirely stagnant, as if the spell placed upon it had halted the conversion of mana to Essence completely. The only problem with this was that I knew it couldn¡¯t be true. Her soul was so small, like a grape compared to a melon... if the spell denied it any and all regeneration it should have faded and ultimately splintered a long time ago.


    I could have continued wondering about Alice¡¯s particularities for hours on if a stranger hadn¡¯t interrupted us. Out of the corner of my eyes I had seen her come from a crossing hallway. At first I hadn¡¯t thought much about it but then that filthy harlot had dared to run straight into Alice! Clenching my teeth was all I could do to keep my self from snarling at the cow. I would have wondered about my sudden possessive behaviour had not something else attracted my attention.


    At first I had chalked it up to a random quirk of Alice¡¯s body odour, but ever since this morning my sense of smell seemed to have grown stronger. I had already figured out a little bit about my condition that might help me along the way. Most people I had met smelled mostly the same, with their scent being more flavorful the more magically attuned their souls seemed to be. And here was the problem with the girl before me.


    Her scent ¨C no matter how good it might have been ¨C was almost completely covered by another smell. I had only noticed something like that with two people today. The one being Alice herself, who smelled nothing like other people but instead had a sweet, heavy air around her, somewhat reminiscent of death and decay. Maybe grave flowers? I wasn¡¯t quite sure yet... The other oddity had been the white haired girl in the train today, Freya was her name, if I remembered correctly. With her it had been different, she still smelled like the others but with an earthy undertone... almost like wet dog really.


    Now this girl though... her I had disliked right from the beginning. Not only was she a literal sexbomb but she also entirely failed to show of her body in the way it deserved! If Alice had that kind of body, she wouldn¡¯t leave out a single second showing it off to the world. This girl though... not only was she wearing clothes that from their smell hadn¡¯t been washed in weeks, she also reeked of sex. I could barely breath because of the scent of pheromones and ejeculate that clung to her.


    It actually took me a while to realise that she didn¡¯t smell of sex because she had just been fondling her pleasure muffin. Instead her scent seemed to be of the same origin as Alice¡¯s. I could almost swear that it was their souls that produced the peculiar smells. Yet when I tried to take another sniff to confirm my suspicions, something far more concerning caught my attention. It smelled of blood and freshly spilled blood at that. I had no idea how I could tell the difference, but I did know where it came from.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    {Alice}


    My mind was more agitated than ever before. I wasn¡¯t sure if had to do with the spell-work on my soul breaking down or something else but the voices were louder than they had been in years. Sure, I had been dealing with them all my life, so long in fact that they had just turned into white noise; just another part of life on most days. Well, today was most certainly not most days!


    Not only had they literally begun speaking to me, but they seemingly managed to somehow pick thoughts and secrets right from another person¡¯s mind! And that ¨C I was very much certain ¨C was not normal modus operandi for a witch; especially not a shitty and incompetent one like me. But even if I wanted to ignore them, it didn¡¯t make them any less real. Not even the pain from my palms managed to distract me from their insistent whispers anymore. They were literally all surrounding, where ever I turned, where ever I looked, the treacherous voices were there too. I truly, TRULY hoped that getting a familiar would make the voices stop. Well... the voices and the other things.


    I always had been a moody child sure, but I rarely had been violent. Now though? Now I wanted to scream and claw at anything that stood in my way. No matter if friend, for or just an object in my way, my mind was starting to see everything as an enemy. Just now I had to stop myself from kicking away a garbagebin just because it stood a few centimetres in my way. I could have obviously just walked around it but the very act of walking alone managed to make me inexplicably irritated.


    And then there was the shit going on with my body fucking body! At first it had been a simple annoyance but now it irked the hells out of me. It didn¡¯t make sense, but I HATED it; I literally hated my own body! Everytime I looked down, I just wanted to puke; I wanted to take the first knife I could find and start chopping. Maybe if I cut off all that disgusted me I would feel normal again? My skin no longer felt like it was really my own. Instead I felt as if some freak had shoved my body into some sort of perverted human suit and sown it shut. It took all of my mental control not to scream out and rip into my flesh. Thankfully Ithelyn had called out to me just before I got another bad idea.


    ¡°Alice... your hurting yourself. Your hands, I can smell the blood. I know you aren¡¯t bothered by pain, but please...¡± She seemed genuinely worried about my well being and not a second later the voices told it to be true... and also way too much more!


    ¡°Argh! Shut up in there!¡±


    ¡°Wha-.¡± Ithelyn looked at me in confusion.


    But before she could continue, I immediately interrupted her. ¡°Not you Lyn! It¡¯s these damned voices in my head!¡±


    ¡°Voi...ces?¡± She didn¡¯t seem entirely convinced.


    ¡°Yessss! VOICES! Ah... that came out a lot harsher than planned.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but sigh. Next to the wall I could see Dia creep away from the two of us. ¡°Hells be damned. No matter, Lyn, let¡¯s just go do that stupid ritual. I... I¡¯ll tell you about it later, about... everything.¡±


    ¡°Alice! Wait up!¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    I already wanted to let out a snarky comment, but Lyn managed to cut that off right from the start, when she took my hands in to hers.


    ¡°Alice. I understand that we only recently met. I don¡¯t expect you to just trust me like this, especially after what I have done. But I am speaking nothing but the truth when I tell you that I have fallen for you. Not only that! I want to make right by you. I want to be there for you no matter what happens, simply because of the idiotic fact that I... I love you! I have know idea if there is such a thing as fate or premonition but hells, I really fucking adore you. So... yeah, what ever you have on your heart, I¡¯ll listen to it!¡±


    ¡°I... I...¡± The words never managed to leave my mouth.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. Today is obviously hard for you. You were right, let¡¯s just go do this stupid ritual!¡±


    Leading me by the hand she skipped ahead and all I could do to was follow behind. And because of her I managed to leave all the monstrous thoughts and dark deeds I had contemplated right here in the dark hallway that had spawned them. I hoped that they would stay right there never to be seen again but as with so many things, wishes are dangerous things. They tended to go wrong more often than not.

 Part 12 – Something ends, something beginns.[OLD]

    {Alice}


    ¡°Well done, Mister Crawford; that is a perfectly adequate familiar Bond. Your Spirit seems healthy and properly manifested... though it does seem a little shy. Maybe next time try and not scream at the spirit to appear and instead just ask it to.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Miss Dobbs.¡± The guy in question answered without the least bit of sincerity.


    ¡°Now, next up... ah will you look at that! Dia! Would you please come forward?¡±


    ¡°Oh, uhm, do I have to?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Dia. Every student is required to have a Familiar, no excuses. Now get to it will you? We will not have this discussion again!¡±


    ¡°But!¡±


    ¡°NO Buts, Dia! Go to the circle and summon! I don¡¯t even care what you summon, just summon anything and take the first thing that answers.¡± Miss Dobbs pinched the bridge of her nose; apparently they really did have that discussion before... more than once probably.


    ¡°Okay...¡±


    ¡°Good! Now follow my instructions!¡±


    I zoned out for a bit as the teacher was repeating the summoning instruction for the fourth time now. Even before this I could have recalled them from mind. After all, when you spend years preparing for your own familiar ritual that knowledge didn¡¯t just get lost. No, instead it kept sitting in your mind taunting you with never being able to use it.


    Considering that you needed a proper chiselled circle to actually it my chances of doing it on my own had been slim. While we did have some in the shop, my mother and aunt had never let me near them without supervision, making it borderline impossible to sneak in and quickly summon an imp or quasit. But right now the worst thing was watching that fool Dia work.


    I didn¡¯t need voices in my head to notice her incompetence. When she wasn¡¯t messing up all the words of both the ethereal and the infernal language, she was pronouncingthen entirely wrong. After another five minutes she still hadn¡¯t even made a connection to the in between. The thing inside of me was urging me to put an end to it all. I should just take the athame from my pocket and slit the whores throat. With all that sweet life blood of hers it would certainly be enough to let my...


    ¡°Let my what?¡± I whispered to my self in confusion. ¡°What was I thinking about?¡±


    ¡°Miss Dutrar.¡± I was most perplexed when the teacher suddenly called out to me.


    ¡°Yes?¡± What was going on?


    ¡°You seem to be very interested in the summoning circle. Would you perhaps like to suggest a solution to Miss Dobbs here?¡±


    ¡°Huh? I... I was just...¡± Only now I noticed the cold steel that my hand was clutching.


    ¡°I am waiting.¡±


    ¡°Ah, uhm, yes! I... could...¡± The blade was heavy in my pocket. And my thought became ever darker. Forcefully I pulled the knife out and set it down right next to Dia. ¡°I have an athame that Dia can use. After all she is a Taint Blood so, she could just summon an imp or something similar weak.¡±


    ¡°That is actually a rather good idea, Miss Dutrar. Though I have to ask, how did you know she was a changeling and what possessed you to use an infernal swear word?¡±


    ¡°I... ah... I don¡¯t have the slightest clue.¡±


    ¡°I see. Maybe take a seat until Dia is done. Your looking rather pale and confused.¡±


    ¡°Yeah... I think that would be nice...¡±


    The world felt like clouds as I staggered towards one of the cushioned stools in the room. Today was a strange day; for some reason I kept having blackouts or episodes of absence. ¡®How did I known that Dia is a Brud Krew, a tainted Blood... a changeling, how humans call the little bastards. Holy Hellhounds! There it was again! I keep thinking weird things! Just why do I feel such a disdain towards Dia? She never did anything to me or Lyn... and yet, I just want to crush her like the bug she is. Gods be damned, again!?¡¯ My mental crisis would have probably continued forever onwards if Ithelyn¡¯s voice hadn¡¯t ripped me out of my thoughts .


    ¡°Alice? The circle is ready for you... do you want my help getting up? You look a little shaky.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Lyn. I feel a bit... shaky. Maybe I¡¯m just feeling a bit under the weather.¡±


    ¡°Sure... after this you are going straight to bed, understood?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Mistress~.¡± I chuckled.


    It turned out that getting Ithelyn¡¯s help was actually needed. My legs felt as if made from jello and each step itself was like trying to learn walking all over. Though much worse than wobbly legs, were the weird hallucinations that kept plaguing me. When I looked down I could have sworn to see my skin ripple like water but once I blinked the illusion was gone. It must have been one, because not one of the other people around me seemed to notice anything. Then why did they feel so damned real, if they truly were nothing but that? I shook my head in confusion, whatever weird phenomenon I was coming down with was clearly messing with my mind. And I couldn¡¯t have that right now. Slapping my cheeks I made sure to be as awake as possible before stepping up to the sigles on the ground


    ¡°Good.¡± The teacher looked down her black rimmed glasses to asses me. ¡°You still look like crap but there is no fixing that now. Are you ready to proceed?¡±


    ¡°I am, let¡¯s get this over with.¡±


    ¡°Very well, please follow my instructions.¡±


    Before she could even start I already interrupted her.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Excuse me? Did you just say, No!?¡±


    ¡°I did; I am a Dutrar Witch. The women of my family have been Witches long before most even knew of the practice. I will do it in their way or not at all.¡±


    ¡°I see, that is highly unusual, you know?¡± She pushed her glasses down to look above them, obviously condescending me.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± I replied snarky. ¡°But you¡¯re going to let me do it anyway because you can¡¯t afford having me running around unbound, can you?¡±


    ¡°Hmph. Fine!¡± With an audible crack she slapped her book close. ¡°But don¡¯t expect any assistance, young lady! Speaking of things... Dia, may the gods damn you, put clothing on that whore of an Imp of yours! UGH!¡±


    ¡°Sorry Mom, she just won¡¯t listen to me!¡±


    ¡°Damn you child! I told you to call me Miss Dobbs!¡±


    With a sigh I tried drowning out all the back ground noise which was easier said than done, considering the voices in my own head. The ritual itself was going to be prepared the way it had been down since ages past. Well, almost at least. I didn¡¯t have one of the ceremonial masks one would usually wear. But I wasn¡¯t about to summon anything powerful, so it shouldn¡¯t be an issue. Ignoring that small scuffle I could hear break out behind I began.


    First where seven red candles for the inner circles and fourteen black ones for the outer circle. The red ones where used to attract the summon, normal bee wax and animal blood was all you needed to make them. And while they were referred to as red candles they were actually more of a gross reddish brown. Now the black ones, they were special. Not only were they cast out of a wax won from the tallow of humans but the wick itself was twirled from the hair of several witches.


    Their production was somewhat illegal now and they stank horribly when lit. But my grandma was a traditional woman, in her own words, there was no protection more effective than the sacrifice of a human. The fact that she insisted that everyone of her offspring used them in summoning rituals didn¡¯t help. Sadly I actually had to steal mine from under her nose. She had also always insisted that I never be let to touch a summoning rune.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Well the old broad had it coming! First she cast a spell on my damn soul, and now the shitty thing was driving me insane! But I wouldn¡¯t have to stay under her iron grip for much longer, I would soon be free. One by one I started lighting the candles. The red ones first to slow tread the needle through the veil. Then the black ones to stabilise and build protection. Oddly I didn¡¯t find the black candles to stink as much today. They were certainly intense, but the smell somehow reminded me of home. I felt a weird nostalgia about a place I couldn¡¯t name nor imagine. Pushing that thought aside I continued with my task.


    Holding my athame firmly but not to strong I raised it in front of me.


    ¡°Spirits if the Veil! Hear my call and feel my power. I seek no harm and I seek no peril. I will pass your realm unbothered and quickly. Let this thread pass and you may feed on some of Magic. Fail our bargain and let it be like poison to your forms!¡±


    There was an almost barely noticeable decrease in the resistance to my spells passing and I knew they had retreated... or run of to call bigger friends. It mattered not as soon as the bridge was made they would not be able to touch it. The miasma was to dangerous to them. The moment was close now. For the first time I would communicate with the demon realm. I could almost feel the sweat drip down my palms and forehead. Then with a decisive movement the blade went down. A short, sharp pain was all that I could feel before the blood gushed out of my under arm.


    My eyes widened in panick; I immediately knew I had messed up. There was too much blood coming from my wound! It shouldn¡¯t have been possible but I could see drops being literally launched from my wound onto the circle. Some of the drops hit a candle and it immediately sizzled and extinguished, emitting a sickly purple smoke. The weather that I had sought to weave was no longer aimlessly drifting, instead I could feel it being pulled towards a goal. It didn¡¯t matter if I had messed up or not, I needed to continue closing the portal now could easily kill me!


    ¡°Masters of quite and shadow I ask of you! Step forward if you wish to heed my call! A service for a price, as the old treaty says, chosen by both the witch and the demon! A mutual contract, a binding seal!¡±


    Suddenly the teather jumped from where it had been to another place. I could feel it dig deeper and deeper. I was no longer skimming the upper levels of the hells. This was something strong and terrifying! I wanted to call out to the teacher, have her forcefully close the portal but my voice was no longer my own. Another one was speaking through me, the thing that was inside of me and the thing that was dragging me towards it. My mouth opened and it spoke. I wanted to cry both tears of joy and horror. I knew that voice, I remembered it singing lullabies for me!


    ¡°Dutrar!!! Your scent is unmistakable! Which one of you was a stupid little girl? Which one of you did not hide their identity behind your silly masks!? Let me have a taste, Doll...¡±


    There wasn¡¯t even a point in resisting anymore, what ever had taken control of me was far stronger than anything I had met or even heard of before. My hand lifted on it¡¯s own and with my eyes almost bulging out of my head I had to watch as it came down. This time I regained control of my body though only partially and only to scream in agony. Under my unmoving eyes the knife cut through skin, sinews and muscle right until my pinky was no longer attached. And then almost casually so my hand threw the cut off digit into the forming vortex.


    ¡°Mhmmm... delightful... hmm. What is this? You aren¡¯t her? You aren¡¯t my lovely little deceiver. But that taste.. that power... that soul... can it be?¡±


    The voice was silent for a second then suddenly my vocal cords screamed with double the intensity.


    ¡°It is you! My lost little birdy! My cute little floof! My bundle of endless terror and happiness! My STOLEN YOUNG! Oh, such joy! Wait for mommy dear will you? This will take but a second... and finally you will be home...¡±


    Suddenly without warning, I could feel the presence leave my body and was finally able to take back control. I didn¡¯t bother with checking my mutilated hand, because I had to close this portal, I NEEDED to close this fucking portal! The thing was trying to get through it on its own and it was making it sound like nothing but a morning stroll! It had to be a higher demon, maybe even a high official. If that thing was getting through no one in this room could stop it!


    Now entirely in panic mode I took a look around the room. Several of the students had already passed out from the raw Magic bleeding into our reality, clear signs of the tether going out of control! ¡®Fuck! None of this should be! What happened? Where did I go wrong?¡¯ My thoughts were interrupted by Ithelyn screaming at me from the outside of the circle. The forming portal was so loud now that I could barely hear her.


    ¡°Alice! You have to stop the summoning! If that thing gets through we are all fucked!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll try!¡± I began franticly trying to cut off the connection between me and the portal but my mind couldn¡¯t grasp the strings. Every time I tried, they slipped right past as if something in me was actively preventing it. I needed help!


    ¡°Lyn!¡± I called out over the noise and screaming. ¡°I can¡¯t close the portal! You have to shut it down from outside! Where is the teacher?!¡±


    ¡°Fucking hells, Alice! You can die if I snuff out so much of your magic!¡±


    ¡°I know!¡± I already had accepted that it was dangerous, but I would not die today! ¡°Don¡¯t think about me! Get Miss Dobbs and tear it down!¡±


    ¡°Fuck. Fine!¡± My body was barely able to move with the Magic shackling me to the portal. So all I could to was keep trying, no matter how futile it was. Then shit turned from bad to worse when Ithelyn told me the grave news.


    ¡°I can¡¯t find her! Hold on a second, I can see her outside the room! She took Dia and most the students out! Oh gods... NO!¡±


    ¡°What is it!?¡±


    ¡°The bitch is setting up a barrier with Null-Runes She is trying to collapse this entire space in on us!¡±


    ¡°Tell her to stop! There are still students in here!¡± The air around us was growing thick and cloying with a red vapour. Miasma? No that couldn¡¯t be... right?


    ¡°I don¡¯t think she cares! And what is this weird red mist?¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter right now! Fucking do something to stop her!¡± The feeling of the tether was changing, as if something old and dead was clawing its way up towards me!


    ¡°Wait! I don¡¯t have to kill her if we collapse the portal and use the remaining energy we might be able to explode the barrier towards the outside instead of in on us!¡±


    ¡°Then get to it!¡± I had trouble concentrating on what Lyn was saying. The feeling of dread and death was so close now I could almost taste it! Whoever was about to greet us it wouldn¡¯t take long. I could barely hear Ithelyn yell out that she loved me before the magical field around me was starting to waver. Whatever she was doing, it seemed to work more and more Magic was sapped from both the portal and my own body. Looking down on my hands still trying to cut the bridge between realms, I could see my skin flake. All colours were draining from me like a newspaper in the rain. A small sad smile cracked my lips; well, in for a penny, in for a pound. I slowly released the little control I had on my magic. If there was nothing to feed the portal then it would have to...


    ¡°No.¡±


    My eyes grew wide in panic, and as if in slow motion my gaze wandered towards Ithelyn. Something shot out of the portal and hit her right in the stomach! Like a puppet whose string was cut she collapsed to the ground. Before my eyes a dark red spot was forming on her clothes and slowly seeped into the carpet below her. I was frozen in shock. What should I do? What could I even do? The answer came not from me but from someone I had entirely forgotten.


    Hugin the proud Spirit that he was took one look at his fallen Mistress and turned towards me. What happened next I couldn¡¯t fathom and only barely describe. His form twisted and turned until nothing was left but a black formless shape. Then as if on a command I hadn¡¯t seen he rushed towards me. More things flew out of the portal, but he barely managed to avoid them all. Instead he or whatever was left of his being hit me straight in the chest. After that my mind cut out.


    ¡°. .¡±


    ¡°. . .¡±


    ¡°. . . .¡±


    ¡°. . . . .¡±


    ¡°Alice.¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t be able to answer me; you¡¯re too young and inexperienced to understand what is going on.¡±


    ¡°First up, Ithelyn isn¡¯t dead, at least not yet. If her stepsister hadn¡¯t exchanged her alchemical ingredients a few week ago thing would be different. But by now her transformation has progressed so far that a little blood loss won¡¯t kill her, that is, if you feed her as soon as you wake up.¡±


    ¡°Now, to the important things. I wish for you to absorb my being into yours. I know what you are thinking but it is the only way. It will allow us to close that portal and... it will allow me to stay by my dear Lyn¡¯s side forever more.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re wondering what I am talking about, I understand that. I... I wasn¡¯t always just a familiar. I was powerful once, terrible too. At my prime I did thing to both people and other spirits that I am not proud of.¡±


    ¡°The beings in charge of the spirit realm... eventually they caught up with me. It would have been my death, if a young little girl hadn¡¯t called me to her side. That was ten years ago. My contract with Ithelyn is running out. A return to the spirit world would mean my certain death. She doesn¡¯t know. Lyn has already made plans to release me and then summon me again. This will not work.¡±


    ¡°Therefore you are my only chance. If you absorb me you will gain in power, you will become who you always where meant to be, who you truly are on the inside. The voices you hear are that of your soul yearning for the touch of its creator. The demon that is trying to get to you, she will rip you away from this world and from Ithelyn.¡±


    ¡°Now I won¡¯t lie to you. Merging with me will make you powerful, but it will also change you, change us. At first there will still be a separation between our memories and wants but over time this will fade. You will no longer be able to tell the difference between me or you and neither will I. I am ready to accept this fate.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t answer me and I am sorry for that. But I will never again leave Ithelyn. I am sorry Alice... and goodbye.¡±


    I screamed internally as Hugin¡¯s essence wrapped itself around my soul. I was burning and freezing at the same time. A flood of memories overcame me, memories that were decidedly not mine. Armies eradicated in a single night, children slaughtered and Spirits devoured all for the ultimate price. Regret. Sorrow. Self-hatred. Love. The feeling of being loved back and finally having found a truer purpose in life. My affection for Ithelyn grew by ten times that day. I could no longer but see her as a benevolent Goddess that had saved me. My mind cracked------


    We had to save her. When we opened our eyes there was a feeling we had never before experienced power and love of such intensity that our lips split into a sick grin. The portal was still open. As it was right now we couldn¡¯t get to Ithelyn. We savored the name on our tongue.


    ¡°Ithelyn~.... We like this. We love her. You will not take us from her.¡±


    ¡°NO! By the hells you damned fiend what have you done to my daughter! Corrupted her with your vile essence! This will not stand! I am coming for you and I will take you back, Ali¡¯cedesra!¡±


    ¡°Good bye, Mother.¡±


    We raised the athame to our neck and while giving her the most deserved middle finger in history, we cut our throat. Blood gushed out and with our final moments of consciousness, we said the ancient words.


    ¡°Release. Banish. Seal.¡±

 Part 13[OLD]

    Act 2


    Part 1 ¨C A New Dawn, A New Self


    We awoke in a place I didn¡¯t recognised; sunlight shone in from the windows, painting the room in a painfully bright hue. White walls, white floors, white curtains and white beds¡­ ¡®Are we in a hospital? But¡­ how did we get here?¡¯ I wondered in my head. ¡®I¡¯m not sure.¡¯ Another splinter of my ¨C or was it our? ¨C mind replied, just as confused as myself.


    ¡®Who¡­ who are you? Who are we? Are you me or am I me? Are we one or two? How do I not know?¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯m¡­ not sure.¡¯ The other me seemed troubled. ¡®There are two names in our memories.. but not one seems to fit¡­¡¯


    ¡®What about the third? The one that is not from our memories but still rings true?¡¯


    ¡®Ali¡¯ce Desra¡­ is that who we are?¡¯


    ¡®I¡­ guess?¡¯


    ¡®Let us be that then!¡¯


    ¡®Agreed!¡¯


    Happy about having a name I relaxed a bit. As long as we knew who we were everything was fine. Slowly unsure about this situation we just looked around the room more. There were many curtains in here¡­ two to our sides and more which we could just make out further away. I would have liked to look at them closer but our body seemed to be¡­ restrained?


    ¡®Why do you think we are bound to this bed?¡¯


    ¡®Who knows? Maybe that is common here? Hmmm¡­¡¯ Other me sounded contemplative.


    ¡®But our memories don¡¯t have a lot of moments with us being restrained. Well, there is that one¡­¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but blush. ¡®But that seems to be different from now!¡¯


    ¡®Yeah¡­¡¯ Good to know that other me was just as embarrassed about that memory as me, at least I think she was.


    ¡®Let¡¯s just call for help!¡¯ I exclaimed.


    ¡®Okay! Perhaps Lyn will come!¡¯


    We opened our mouth to speak but all that came out was a weak wheezing caw. We tried again for a few times but the result was always the same.


    ¡®I think our throat is broken¡­¡¯


    ¡®That is fine, we don¡¯t need it.¡¯


    ¡®You think so?¡¯


    ¡®Of course silly! We don¡¯t need words for Ithelyn to understand us!¡¯


    ¡®But I really want to get these things off!¡¯


    ¡®Fine¡­¡¯Other me didn¡¯t really seem to care about it.


    ¡°Craw! Raw, CAW!¡± We sounded just like a bird! A very sick and beaten bird¡­ it was a bit sad really but there was nothing either of me could do about it, so we didn¡¯t bother and just kept calling out! A minute or two went by before we finally heard somebody approaching.


    ¡°By the gods! What is going on here! Who is making this infernal noise!?¡±


    A woman in white clothes walked by and we immediately cawed again! We also tried waving but, well¡­ our arms were still restrained. Something must have spoked the woman because has soon as she saw us, she paled and ran of, screaming at the top of her lungs!


    ¡°Doctor! Doctor! The girl! The conduit girl! She- She is awake!¡±


    ¡°Craw?¡±


    ¡®Where is she going? I just wanted her to undo my bindings!¡¯


    ¡®Maybe she saw a ghost or something scary?¡¯


    ¡®Oh¡­ ye that would be scary¡­¡¯


    We had to wait another minute until she finally came back, this time with an older looking man in tow. He didn¡¯t seem quite as terrified as the woman though, in fact he seemed almost relieved. His smile seemed like a heavy weight had fallen of his soul. And when we looked at him something strange happened, we could hear his voice but his mouth wasn¡¯t moving!


    :Thank the gods! I wasn¡¯t sure she would make it! Little Lyn can finally stop worrying¡­:


    Then suddenly he talked again but this time his mouth was moving¡­ humans were starting to confuse me.


    ¡°Miss Dutrar! You are finally awake! My name is Doctor Shapur. Can you tell me how you feel?¡±


    ¡°Caw¡­¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ this is strange. It seems the damage to your vocal cords is more severe than expected. Okay, let¡¯s try it this way, I¡¯ll as you some questions and you just have to nod or shake your head, alright?¡±


    We nodded.


    ¡°Very good!¡± He smiled in relive. ¡°Now do you remember your name?¡±


    Another nod.


    ¡°Okay, that is good! Do you remember what happened before you fell unconscious?¡±


    We shook our head.


    ¡°I see¡­ this is troubling. Perhabs your memories will return later. Suffice to say, you were in an incident and got exposed too high levels of miasma. There will be differences to how you remember your body and it may be be hard to adjust at first. But know that demonic corruption is not a death sentence and as long as you distance your self from further sources of miasma it shouldn¡¯t get any worse. Nurse would you¡­¡± He turned towards the woman and she gave him a large hand mirror. ¡°Now Miss Dutrar, I always think it best for my patients to confront their new self as early as possible. Please remember, that his doesn¡¯t make you any less human, yes?¡±


    I cawed once more in agreement and the nice doctor handed the mirror over to us. We just looked at him in confusion; how were we supposed to pick that up while being restrained?


    ¡°Oh! I am terribly sorry, Miss Dutrar! Leslie, would you please remove the young woman¡¯s shackles?¡±


    ¡°But¡­ Doctor, I was specifically instructed to not free her until the board had decided if she is a threat!¡±


    ¡°So? I am your boss and I¡¯m telling you to take them off! She is a friend of Lyn! I know that doesn¡¯t mean anything to you but that girl is like a daughter to many of us here. So unshackle her already!¡±


    ¡®He said her name again! Our happy word!¡¯


    ¡®I wonder how she is doing? Ithelyn is the only thing that we should care about¡­¡¯


    ¡®Yeah! I really want to meet her! I love her!¡¯


    ¡°Doctor please¡­¡±


    ¡°For the Gods¡¯ sake! She is a young innocent woman that is smiling at us! What horrible things could she possibly do!?¡±


    ¡°If you say so¡­ I still don¡¯t trust her¡­¡± :Those damn creepy eyes¡­ so unnerving¡­:


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.Despite her words she still bend down to remove the restraints, we gave her a happy caw in thanks. But despite the bindings being gone, sitting up was hard; our legs wouldn¡¯t move no matter how hard either of us tried. So we had to get into a sitting position using only our arms, sadly our nails got caught in the bedding and it got ripped apart in the process. We were really embarrassed about that but the doctor said it was okay and gently helped us sit on the bedside. I really wanted to thank him and so I put all of my effort into speaking, other me didn¡¯t see the need though¡­ which mad it really hard.


    ¡°Thawnk! Crou!¡± The words didn¡¯t sound right coming from our mouth¡­ but I didn¡¯t know what I had done wrong.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay, Alice.¡± The doctor sounded sad. ¡°You lost a lot of blood¡­ and with the effect of the Miasma and your¡­ well, it is wonderful to see that your giving your best!¡± Once more he turned towards the nurse. ¡°Leslie, would you be so kind to go and get a demonology teacher? I think she was trying to speak Infernal.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ okay, Doctor. I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± :I just hope she doesn¡¯t trash around again¡­ those claws are vicious¡­:


    ¡°Craws?¡± I exclaimed in surprise. Looking down I could see what she meant. On the inner three fingers of each hand we had grown long black claws, which explained why sitting up had ripped the bed sheets. I was just about to touch them when the doctor stopped me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Alice. If they upset you we can easily trim them down to a more manageable size. Just¡­ don¡¯t try to rip them off, okay? They are a part of you just like your eyes and hair, so it would hurt if you tried to remove them. You understand, right?¡±


    I nodded again even though I was a bit confused. Why would I want to remove them? Even if I would have wanted that other me was really against it. So I guess she would have stopped me¡­


    I was starting not to like the other me; she was trying to tell me what to do and how to react¡­ as I I was nothing but her puppet.


    ¡®You shouldn¡¯t think like that. I am part of you. I am only here to protect you.¡¯


    ¡®You say that but all you care about is Lyn! You don¡¯t care about me at all!¡¯


    ¡®I¡­ I¡¯m sorry. I will leave you alone for now¡­¡¯


    Suddenly my mind felt a lot clearer than before, as if a veil had been lifted I saw the reality with different eye. My memories slowly began to filter back into a semblance of order¡­ still many things I still wasn¡¯t sure about. Confused I looked around the room and than back at the doctor. I pointed at him with one claw and then back at myself.


    ¡°Cra- Ali- Alice?¡±


    ¡°Yes! Yes, you¡¯re Alice. Your name is Alice Dutrar!¡±


    I shook my head before pointing at myself again.


    ¡°Ali¡¯ce Desra. Not Alice. Not Dutrar.¡± Speaking was still difficult and painful but with the other me gone it was easier to form full sentences.


    ¡°Oh¡­¡± The doctor looked at me unsure. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Alice, I¡­ don¡¯t speak Infernal. Do you remember how to speak English?¡±


    I could only look at him in confusion, why would I need to know any other language? After all I could understand every human just fine no matter what they spoke. What should I care for if they didn¡¯t understand me?


    ¡°English? No? Nothing?¡±


    I shook my head, this time a little annoyed.


    ¡°Dumb human. Learn Infernal. I¡¯m Ali¡¯ce Desra. Not Alice Dutrar. Never was.¡±


    ¡°Uhm¡­ so there is something about your name that upsets you? Did I get that right? I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ll go look for the teacher. I¡¯ll leave the mirror with you so you can look at your face¡­ just please don¡¯t get upset, okay?¡±


    I watched in silence as the Doctor ran off. The mirror he had left was actually rather pretty, silver and very shiny. ¡®I guess it wouldn¡¯t hurt to look into it? Not like I know what I am actually supposed to look like anyway. Not with most of my memories in a jumble¡­¡¯


    Giving my self a look over in the mirror I wasn¡¯t actually sure why the doctor was worried I was going to freak out. There weren¡¯t any heavy scars or burns or anything really out of the ordinary. Just a normal face with normal features. Sure it wasn¡¯t like a humans but that was about to be expected. All in all I was totally fine with my looks.


    Two pointy ears hid behind a few feathers that framed my face and three yellow eyes were looking critically at the sight of my sharp teeth. After I was sure that I wasn¡¯t going to find anything weird about myself, I made a little rift in space and slipped the mirror into it. I was happy to see that what little power I had seemed to be working fine. Sure the nurse had called me a conduit, but that was so silly. After all everyone knew that using magic was almost impossible for demons!


    I was already wondering as to where the doctor had disappeared to for so long when the door to the infirmary crashed open. There wasn¡¯t even time to get up or ask what was going on, before a tall woman stormed towards me and quite literally tackled me onto the bed.


    ¡°By the Gods! Alice! I thought I had lost you! I am so happy that you are awake!¡±


    I remember her¡­ fractals of her came up again and again in my mind¡­ but with the other me pushed away and the false me gone I wasn¡¯t sure how to react. I wasn¡¯t Alice anymore¡­ nor was the shard left of Ithelyn¡¯s familiar still Hugin. I¡­ we weren¡¯t either of those two¡­ no, I was Ali¡¯ce Desra¡­ I was a demon. And there was on sure way to stay fed in this world¡­ a way to nourish my soul. I smiled at the woman before me.


    ¡°Hello Ithelyn¡­ my name is Ali¡¯ce Desra, a Grimspawn ¡­ do you wish to make contract?

 Part 14 - A new Dawn?[OLD]

    Part 14 ¨C A new dawn?


    {Ithelyn}


    ¡°What- What do you mean!?¡± I could only stare at Alice in confusion. ¡°What is that even supposed to mean?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s simple, really.¡± Alice -or whoever this was - said with a sweet smile. ¡°Your familiar has been destroyed; their essence has become mine but still I will starve if I remain in this world and therefore I wish to enter a contract with you.¡±


    The smile, however beautiful it was, never reached her eyes¡­ ¡®Her eyes¡­ by the gods¡­¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but stare at the three baleful yellow things. There was no trace of the bright-eyed girl from a few days ago. Her gaze was piercing and analytic, I could almost feel the latent cruelty they exuded. Where had the Alice I knew gone? It was as if, over the course of the last few days, all kindness had been sucked from her and replaced by cold uncaring spite.


    ¡°We- You-¡± I began unsure how to word this. ¡°This isn¡¯t what I wanted! I wanted us to be friends and perhaps even a bit more, but this? I¡¯m not even sure what this is!¡±


    ¡°Ithelyn, my dear sweet Ithelyn.¡± The being in my friend''s guise said while coming closer. ¡°I know what you truly want. Not a friend, not even a girlfriend. No. You want a slave, someone that is adores you, loves you¡­ worships you~.¡±


    ¡°Wha- NO! That isn¡¯t¡­¡± My face flushed at the thought of it. ¡°That is just a character I play when I am embarrassed!¡±


    ¡°Hahaha~,¡± There was nothing kind about her laugh, it was mean, almost hurtful even. ¡°We both know that isn¡¯t true. You are what you are... and especially what you are becoming. I can smell it on you. You¡¯re infected but oh, there is power in you. Mingling and mixing with the curse¡­ But, oh well, I doubt you care. After all, you¡¯re a kind and nice person that would never be intrigued by violence and pain.¡±


    Her words were spiteful and cruel but at the same time, they sparked something in me. Why should I be a nice person? If she was right I was already changing far beyond what could be fixed¡­ perhaps it was time to embrace this side of me instead of keeping it locked away.


    A sudden cold touch on my cheek made me recoil. This thing wearing Alice was looking at me with a decidedly different expression.


    ¡°Ithelyn¡­¡± Shocked I had to realize that she sounded just like before the incident.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you want me anymore? I am still your dear, sweet Alice¡­ I could always be here for you.¡± For a second her appearance changed back to the girl I had fallen for.


    ¡°And on the inside, I will always be your devoted slave¡­ I am willing to do that for you. Hide my true self in the deepest reaches of my soul¡­ Give you back the awkward, cute girlfriend that you wanted. With no trace of my true existence. All that it takes is a contract¡­ and you can play with dumb, little Alice¡­¡±


    ¡°I- No- But-¡­ By the Gods and all the Hells, Alice if you are truly still in there I am sorry for doing this.¡±


    If this was the only way to get my friend back then so be it.


    ¡°You have a deal¡­ demon.¡±


    . . . . .


    {Alice}


    ¡°By the hells¡­ my head!¡± I could barely stomach the nausea when I woke up. Confused I looked around the room. I was in a hospital and Lyn was sitting next to me? ¡°Lyn? What¡¯s going on? Fudge¡­ how did I get here? Why am I¡­


    Before my thoughts could get any more jumbled up, Lyn interrupted me.


    ¡°Alice, it¡¯s alright. How are you feeling?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ uhm¡­ yes, I am Alice¡­ I think. Mostly a bit confused? Where am I and how did I get here?¡± My gaze wandered around the room before falling on to my own body. My eye grew wide in confusion and fear. ¡°And what the Flying Fuck happened to my legs!?¡±


    Utterly horrified I looked at the strange and twisted things in place of where my lower legs used to be. I wasn¡¯t even sure how to describe this shit! It was as if someone had taken a sick ostrich and sawed off it¡¯s legs to put in place of mine!


    ¡°This- This can¡¯t be real! This is a joke! Yes! Just some weird prank!¡±


    ¡°Alice!¡±


    ¡°No, no, no!¡± I was already about to scratch the scaly covering off of my shins when I instead notice the claws that had replaced my finger nails. ¡°What the¡­ No! This literally can¡¯t be happening!¡±


    ¡°Alice, it¡¯s alright!¡± Ithelyn strong hands grabbed me by the shoulders. ¡°Calm down. Being a changeling isn¡¯t the end of the world you know? Everything is going to be fine!¡±


    I just looked at her in disbelieve, did she really not understand the kind of mess I was in now?


    ¡°Nothing is going to be fine, Lyn! You don¡¯t understand!¡±


    ¡°I do Alice, and I am here for you.¡±


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°No, you do not! A Dutrar can not become a changeling! Ever! It is literally supposed to be impossible!¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­¡± She looked at me unsure.


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°Ugh! Of course, nobody would know!¡± I sighed, finally being able to calm down a bit. ¡°My ancestors made a pact with a powerful Demon¡­ a very powerful one.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound good¡­¡±


    ¡°It really isn¡¯t. The pact was sealed in a time when my family was hunted and in desperate need of power. No true-born Dutrar was ever going to have to deal with the ill effects of Miasma exposure. But in turn, once a witch''s time on this world was over she would immediately fall and join the demon in the hells, as his servants, and as his¡­ concubines.¡±


    ¡°That is¡­ truly fucked up!¡± Despite her words, the way she licked her lips made me shiver. ¡°How come nobody knows about this?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ I always guessed that some people would probably know but somehow it never spilled to the populous. Perhaps it has something to do with the original deal? Contracts that run for so many generations tend to become strange and twisted.¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± Lyn suddenly called out. ¡°You¡¯re saying Demon contracts can change over time?¡±


    ¡°Eh, kind of? Not in the way you probably think. Anyway, I think that is not very important right now! Considering that I am apparently a changeling even though that should be impossible!¡±


    ¡°Sorry.¡± Lyn smiled at me. "You''re right, I was just thinking about something¡­¡±


    What could she possibly be thinking about in such a situation? I had the feeling that she was only half listening to what I was saying and instead was looking for something else the entire time¡­ My concern quickly grew when she next spoke.


    ¡°Say, Alice.¡± She began while studying my face. ¡°Do you feel¡­ any different then before the accident?¡±


    I could only look at her in disbelieve.


    ¡°Well, duh! I can¡¯t feel my gods¡¯ damned legs! And I have a horrible head ache! Not to mention that my field of vision is all kinds of wrong! Of course I feel different, I¡¯m a fucking freak!¡±


    Gripped by frustration I tried pushing myself off the bed only for Ithelyn to immediately push me back into the pillows.


    ¡°What are you doing? I need to get up!¡± I tried shrugging her off, but it was like trying to move a mountain. Just how much did she work out!?


    ¡°Please, Alice. Stop struggling. I am really trying to keep myself constrained, and right now you are making that incredibly difficult!¡±


    I watched in both horror and fascination as her iris turned a deep scarlet shade of red and her jaws clenched so tightly that I could hear her muscles protest. Almost immediately I froze up, like a deer caught in the headlights. I had seen this reaction before, not in person but in a reference book of my mother¡¯s collection. It had been about a horrible sickness called Strigaria, but which was colloquially known under the moniker ¡°Witches Blood Curse¡±.


    ¡°You were that customer... the hooded woman I saw conversing with my mother a month ago, that was you?¡±


    ¡°I...¡± Ithelyn seemed taken aback but her steel like grip didn¡¯t loosen. Instead something seemed to cross her mind, something like recognition and her face became hard, the red of her iris spreading out over the entire eye. Still she pressed me into the pillows, her hot breath tickling my exposed skin.


    ¡°Indeed. Just like I had not realised who you were until you told me your name. And now I have to wonder, so many strange and unlikely meetings since then... the book shop, the car, the train, the fact that we go to the same school now... had your creator not shown up like that...¡±


    Lyn¡¯s hands clenched around my wrists like shackles but I barely noticed, too focused was I on her face that came ever closer to mine. Slowly she put her lips to my ear and whispered.


    ¡°Tell me the truth, how long has this been going on? Were you send to spy on me? Is Alice even real, or is it all just an elaborate charade to you, demon?!¡±


    I was confused, what, by the hells, was she talking about? But before I could come up with an answer, I was thrown for another loop when my mouth started speaking on its own.


    ¡°Nobody ordered me to spy on you. And yes, I am Alice and Alice is me, she is part of the whole that makes me. The only one I have ever served is you, my Mistress.¡±


    Lyn stared at me and I could only stare back, the confusion on both our faces quite evident. As the red of her eyes retreated a faint smile crossed her lips.


    ¡°Thank the Gods... I was so worried!¡±


    She leaned even closer this time I was sure it was to kiss me. Her soft lips barely touched mine before I rammed my head full force into her nose!


    ¡°Fuck you!¡±


    I used the shock of the moment to wrench free my hand and immediately punched her in the solar plexus.


    ¡°Screw you, Lyn!¡± I screamed her way, already crawling towards the door.


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have fucking done that! You¡¯re such a fucking Bitch! Twenty-one years I managed to avoid this shit, and now you show up and you actually fucking bind me! Fuck you, fuck you, Fuck You!¡±


    I didn¡¯t even bother to look back, if she truly wanted me to return there wasn¡¯t actually anything that I could do. After being halfway towards the door I was so angry that I gave up on crawling entirely. With a frustrated caw I shifted into my bird form... only to immediately fall to the ground twitching in pain. Tiny needles seemed to be lancing through my flesh, never before had I actually felt pain like this. The agony was so bad that my body expanded right back to my humanoid form. Still shaking and twitching I curled up into a ball, desperately waiting for this horror to be over. Tears streamed down my face and an occasional pathetic caw accompanied my sobbing. Why was this happening to me? How could my life become even worse than before? Ithelyn must have come closer at some point because I could feel a light touch on my back; almost instantly my anger came back.


    ¡°Don¡¯t fucking touch me!¡± Despite still being shaken by the ordeal I whipped around to glare at her, yet my anger didn¡¯t hold up for long.


    ¡°I¡¯m... sorry.¡± Lyn¡¯s expression was like that of a beaten puppy. ¡°I didn¡¯t want any of this to happen but it was the only way to get you back! I- She- We made a pact so that I could still be friends with you, despite your... condition. Please you have to trust me!¡±


    ¡°What condition?¡± I looked at her inquisitive. ¡°Tell me, or you or I will leave.¡±


    ¡°I... I shouldn¡¯t tell you, it was supposed to be nothing to worry about...¡± She was actually fidgeting in place, clearly adverse to talking.


    ¡°Ithelyn Dawnstar.¡± I fixed her with my most upset glare. ¡°Tell me right now, or I swear to Hecate, bound to you or not, you will never see me again!¡±


    ¡°Alice... I just don¡¯t know how to make you believe me!¡±


    ¡°Give it a fucking try, will you?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re... well, you¡¯re not a Witch. You never were, you¡¯re just a soul starved Demon born into this world forced to take a human form.¡± Everything about her body language seemed pained but genuine, she truly believed what she was saying.


    ¡°Ha... hahahaha!¡± I fell to the ground laughing at the top of my lungs. ¡°Oh hells... you know, this actually explains a whole lot. I mean how could I not connect the dots before? I¡¯m a demon pretending to be Witch! Of course!¡±


    The unhinged smile on my face froze as I sat up and looked at Lyn with a deadpan expression.


    ¡°You are joking... right?!¡±

 Chapter 15 – Sweet Lies[OLD]

    Chapter ¨C 15 ¨C Sweet Lies


    {Alice}


    Demons, infernal beings spawned from the never-ending Hells. A barren and chaotic dimension''s desperate desire for order and life, or so it was said. Since ancient times, long before humans had ever spoken their first words before they had so much as set foot on earth¡¯s surface, the demons had come up with the tongue of flowing sands. The infernal language was ever-changing and twisting; impossible to speak or even understand for those untouched by the Hells. Only those whose souls contained a seed of miasma could learn the tongue, all others had to fall back on magical tools. Of course, being a Dutrar, I had always been fluent in infernal, ever since my early childhood in fact. The only problem was that now I couldn¡¯t stop speaking it!


    Somehow I had been speaking it ever since I had woken up without even noticing. And while I still knew how English worked and how to speak it, I just couldn¡¯t! No matter what I said it always came out in Infernal.


    ¡°Poop! Ah, nope, still infernal. Hmmm¡­ Diddley widdley tiddle bits!¡± I frowned at my own reflection. ¡°How the hells was even that in infernal? For fucks sake, what I am saying doesn¡¯t even match the way my mouth moves! I must come across like a badly dubbed anime villain¡­ and I have the looks of one that too.¡±


    From the mirror three yellow eyes looked back at me, the one on my forehead looked especially displeased. Obviously being me, my first course of action had been poking the damnable thing. That had been rewarded with it actually glaring back at me through the mirror! And flipping it the bird had only resulted in my own hand slapping me. Since then it had been staring at me like a particularly displeased Imp. Though I could have sworn it looked almost happy about my language problems.


    ¡°You win this time demon me¡­ but I was here first so don¡¯t get any funny ideas!¡±


    My reflection actually had the gall to roll her eyes¡­ well, eyeball. Apparently, that was the only part of my body this other me had full control over, which suited me just fine. There was no way I was going to give up my life and body to some upstart demon baby.


    ¡°Wait¡­ doesn¡¯t that make me a demon baby too? But no, I¡¯m the human part, or am I the spirit part? Ugh! This is way too confusing. And my two sets of memories aren¡¯t really helping at either, hells¡­ I really did some terrible things. Anygay! As long as we just agree on being Alice, and you keep still, we¡¯ll be just fine. Roll your eye if you understand!¡±


    I smirked at the glaring eyeball, now that I was prepared she couldn¡¯t hijack my body anymore and I was fully in control. Good thing too cause I needed all my focus just so I didn¡¯t slip.


    Slowly and carefully I lowered myself down from the basin and back to the floor. There was no way I¡¯d try and drop onto the wheelchair, that thing looked way too rickety. Getting in the wheelchair itself was surprisingly easy though. Sure, I couldn¡¯t move my legs anymore but I was rather fit and slim, lifting my body with just my arms was one of the easiest things for me. And yet, I was weak still compared to Lyn. Despite not looking like it she was much, much stronger than me. It was scary to think of what her affliction was doing to her. I had never seen a fully transformed infected, but my mother had described them to me as fearsome, terrible beings that stalked the night hunting for common folk and witches alike.


    And to make matters worse there was no telling as to which kind of strain Lyn was carrying. If it was truly Strigaria then there were several forms the sickness could take. Even if it was named after the mythical Striga, I had never read of any real-life sightings of those beings. Most people infected turned into Ghouls, lesser vampires ¨C if they were lucky ¨C or in the worst case a Warg. Easily two-meter tall wolfish monstrosities that could transform back into humans only during the full moon. My cousins used to joke about them and call them ¡°shitty reverse werewolves¡± back when I was younger. Though they also regularly called me a tiny vicious demon so maybe they knew more than I gave them credit for.


    ¡°Alas, they are off traipsing through some monster den or whatever, so I don¡¯t see me questioning them anytime soon. And I am stuck here¡­ in a wheelchair¡­ being a horrible fusion of girl, spirit, and demon or some shit¡­ bound to a soon to go crazy but also very hot, rich girl. By the Hells, my life is a mess. Shows me once more to not be so hasty with everything, especially relationships. And it¡¯s not like I am going to learn any better this time around. Right, me?¡±


    My third eye just rolled in annoyance again. Well, at least one of us was seriously done with my love life. Now if only that part of me wasn¡¯t a demonic splinter that was trying to take over my life! I was certain that neither of us would be fast friends so I didn¡¯t feel all that bad about covering up the eye with bandages. Or at least I had wanted to do so, it all got a lot more complicated once I realized how annoying my new finger claws were. After barely a minute of cursing and frustrated squawking I gave up under the mirthful gaze of my demonic passenger.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think I am done just yet, Demon! I will triumph! Lyn! Ithelyn! Get your backstabbing, cursed, magical ass in here! I need help.¡±


    Instead of her coming inside, I was surprised when I heard a commotion from outside. Even after rolling closer on my, oh so nifty, wheelchair I couldn¡¯t really make out what was said. To make matters worse I had no idea how to open the door while stuck in this delightful rolling torture device! If it had opened away from me I would have just rolled into it but this stupid door opened towards me!


    ¡°This is going to get boring really fast but eh, fuck it¡­¡± Channeling my ever-growing frustration, I let out a mighty scream! ¡°Open the Gods'' damned fucking door!¡±


    Almost immediately the door swung open and crashed right into both of my deformed feet. I looked at the person before me with all three of my eyes showing the same displeasure.


    ¡°You just crushed my feet.¡±


    The girl was fully covered up with a beanie, sunglasses, and a hygienic mask, looking quite like some sort of hobo. First, she stared at my face, then my wheelchair, and finally my feet, what was visible of her face growing paler by the second.


    ¡°Oh gowsh! I¡¯m swo sowwy pwease dwon¡¯t hwuwt mweee!¡±


    If my eye could have bulged out of my head they surely would have upon hearing her abomination of a voice. I didn¡¯t even care that she could understand me, the fact that she had a lisp like a damn baby was overshadowing everything.


    ¡°What is wrong with your¡­ voice?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m swowwy! I dwon¡¯t want tow spweak like this!¡±


    ¡°Then how about you stop?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t! I¡¯m twying but mwy mwouth is all swollen!¡±


    ¡°So why are you annoying me with that? And where did Lyn go off too? Anygay, I¡¯m just gonna go and find her so if you could step aside¡­¡±


    ¡°Noooow! Wait! You have tow helpw mwe!¡±


    ¡°And why would I?¡± By now I was getting seriously annoyed, what the Hells did the girl think I could do about her situation?


    ¡°Cause you mwade the wiwt that caused so mwuch mwiasmwa tow bwe weleased!¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but purse my lips in discontent. ¡°I did that¡­ yeah. Admittedly, not my most glorious moment. So you got a seed now or¡­ wait no. Your aura¡­ you¡¯re that tainted blood with the big tits. Got an older seed, right? Gonna turn into a Lust-spawn? Is that it?¡±


    The girl looked at me quite distraught but soon enough gave a faint, sad nod. Looking at her for a little while longer I noticed something curious. While she was obviously very meek and insecure, she also seemed to possess impressive mental defenses. I could barely hear so much as a distorted whisper of her thoughts. And the longer I stared at her the less I could make out until at some point trying to overcome come her mental fortress had me actually hurting.


    ¡°Pwease dwon¡¯t twy tow get intow mwy mwind.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I can see why. That¡¯s one hell of an impressive defense. Now You still haven¡¯t told me what exactly I am supposed to help you with? On a wild guess, I would say you want to stop turning into a demon?¡±


    ¡°Yeah!¡±


    ¡°Well, fuck, that¡¯s gonna be hard¡­¡±


    ¡°Can ywu dwo it?¡±


    ¡°Uhm¡­¡± I was just about to scratch my head before I remebered the nasty claws on my hands. ¡°So, you can see how very fucked I am but, if I asked Ithelyn for help¡­ perhaps it might be possible. There are rituals, old rituals mind you, my clan used before¡­ well before what isn¡¯t important. But yes, technically I should be able to help you. But keep in mind tha- AH!¡±


    I couldn¡¯t even finish the sentence before she literally tackled me to the ground, wheelchair and all.


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    ¡°Thwank ywou! Thwank ywu sow mwuch!¡±


    ¡°UGH! I literally understood nothing of that! Now get off of me!¡±


    I didn¡¯t bother waiting, instead, I just pushed her right off me. Which only served to make me more upset as I got to feel just how much I was missing compared to her.


    ¡°SWOWWY! Dwo ywo need helpw?¡±


    ¡°No!¡± I leaned away from her. ¡°I definitely do not want your help. Just go away, I¡¯ll find you when I have time!¡±


    ¡°Ohw, okay.¡±


    Crestfallen and looking quite like a beaten puppy she slunk out off the bathroom. I did feel a little bad about mouthing off like that, but she had literally knocked me out of my stupid wheelchair. Which I now had to get back into, all on my own¡­ and the door had fallen close again.


    ¡°Oh, I hate today.¡±


    . . . . .


    {Ithelyn}


    I had actually tried stopping it, the smoking that was. But with all the recent stuff going on it provided at least a little bit of relief. And I was starting to doubt that smoking would really kill me by now. Not with how many other things were gunning for my life.


    ¡°Hah¡­ blessed Strawberry flavored nicotine, only you can truly satisfy me. Even when there is just way too much going on.¡±


    My fingers gently traced the rim of the letter in my hands; it felt strangely heavy for simple paper, though perhaps it was the wax seal? The symbol of a rising sun set in orange wax. I had actually thought to never see it again, not after my time in the middle east.


    ¡°They must know, right Hugin?¡± My fingers stopped in their tracks. ¡°Oh¡­ right. You¡¯re gone. Just like, Dad.¡±


    ¡°Not quite actually!¡±


    I spun around in shock only to see Alice grimace at me.


    ¡°Come on, I¡¯m not that creepy, just medium creepy at most. You have apparently never seen a quasit. Now that will haunt your dreams, ugly little bastards.¡±


    ¡°Alice.¡± I quietly muttered.


    She rolled up to the balcony I was standing on and fixed me with a deadpan stare.


    ¡°Ithelyn.¡±


    ¡°Uhm, hey?¡± Now I was never gonna tell her, but her third eye really was creepy.


    ¡°So, you¡¯re probably thinking. Oh no, what ever could have the crippled bird girl meant!?¡±


    ¡°Eh.¡± Apparently, her snark had only intensified over the last few days. ¡°No?¡±


    ¡°I figured you would, so to clear up the confusion in that smooth brain of yours, Hugin isn¡¯t really gone in the sense that you are probably thinking. In fact, you are so terribly lucky cause you get to keep me around forever.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I was far too baffled to form any kind of eloquent response. Not only was she still talking in infernal, which I could only barely understand thanks to my implant, but her third eye was looking up and down my body as if checking me out!


    ¡°Ah, I see. You really are confused. Well, should have studied demonology like me! So bare bones explanation, Hugin is only so far dead as he no longer exists in the form of a spirit. But he does very much exist now in the form of a marginally beautiful and crippled woman!¡±


    ¡°Okay, not gonna lie. I am still very much confused. Also, your third eye is staring at me like I was a piece of meat!¡±


    ¡°Ithelyn, ignore that thing in my forehead and listen to me, I will make it as simple as possible. Hugin is me and I am Hugin. Got it?¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­ are saying you are not Alice?¡± I sneakily used the distraction to slip the letter into my back pocket. ¡°Cause you¡¯re demon side said your name was Ali¡¯ce Desra?¡±


    This time all three of her eyes focused on my face and I could feel the change in her more than I could see it.


    ¡°Correct, Mistress. But our soul is an amalgamation of different biengs. Hugin, Alice, and the demonic base instincts are all parts of us. We are Hugin, and we are Alice but first of all, we are Ali¡¯ce Desra. Over time every part will cease to be separate and we will become whole and¡­¡±


    Her eye suddenly refocused and went back to acting independently of one another.


    ¡°Please don¡¯t use that name, Lyn. It feels like ants crawling over my mind. Very much unpleasant!¡±


    ¡°Sorry, Alice. I guess I didn¡¯t think.¡±


    Trying to act casually I took another drag of my cigarette but by now it had already burned down. Still, it no matter how I turned and twisted her words, I couldn''t make sense of them. While I didn¡¯t think she was lying to me it was all quite strange. If demons could just absorb spirits like that, what happened if the spirit was more powerful than the demon? Would the demon be destroyed or would the spirit turn into a demon?


    ¡°Both really.¡±


    ¡°AH!¡± Once more I spun around, shocked by the sudden intrusion on my mind. ¡°What the fuck was that? Hugin?¡±


    ¡°Ah, cool. So I sound more like Hugin than Alice in your mind?¡±


    I looked back down at Alice who had her eyes closed but gave me a short smile.


    ¡°Yeah, actually! You sound almost exactly like him! Though much more feminine I guess.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ Guess that is what my voice will deviate towards once I am fully transformed, I wonder what this will mean for my body.¡±


    ¡°How are you doing that? I didn¡¯t know you were a Psion!¡±


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not. But you ARE my Mistress. And a certain mental connection is a given between Witch and Familar. Demon familiars aren¡¯t any different there. Also, I can read your thoughts quite easily now, so maybe try and raise up some defenses.¡±


    She could read what now!? No, there was no way that I was letting anyone in my head even if it was Alice or Hugin or whatever!


    ¡°Ma¡­ ...ot ..a¡­ ...ong!¡± Alice''s eyes opened up only to give me a death stare. ¡°Guess we need to train that a bit more. By the way, what¡¯s up with the letter you are so worried about?¡±


    ¡°How did you¡­¡± I shook my head in disbelief. ¡°Right, read my mind. Gods, you really are just like Hugin.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, oh fuck it.¡± Before I could react Alice disappeared in a flurry of feathers and clothes. In the next second, a giant raven with three eyes flew up to my shoulder and sat down. ¡°Craw!¡±


    ¡°Much better! At least in this form my legs still work.¡±


    ¡°So¡­¡± I began wearily eyeing her sharp beak and claws. ¡°You aren¡¯t going mental and try to eat my eyeballs or anything, right?¡±


    ¡°Did I ever? Wait¡­ ye, back when we first met?¡±


    ¡°Not gonna lie, it is a bit scary how much you sound like Hugin.¡±


    ¡°Well, if you get a hold of one of my sisters you can call her Munin. Weirdo.¡±


    ¡°Sisters? I didn¡¯t know there were more of you!¡±


    ¡°Hahaha~! Not on this side at least. Now that the spell on my soul is broken my thoughts are starting to get clearer. Giving it a bit of thought I figured out who or rather what I am. And if I am correct then my mother, well my real mother must be Grimaldra Shan¡¯desra the Lady of Decay.¡±


    ¡°You know an awful lot all of a sudden.¡± Packing up her wheelchair I started walking back into the school. ¡°Where is all that knowledge coming from?¡±


    ¡°From my head, silly. But no, seriously now, I¡¯m just making a hypothesis. Black feathers and three eyes could be a bunch of demons, but that presence we felt during the ritual¡­ wait! You changed the subject! Tell me about the letter first!¡±


    ¡°Yep, you definitely are Hugin.¡± Trying to be as quiet as possible I opened the door to the hallways. ¡°Good nobody there, let¡¯s hurry back to my room! Anyway, that letter is literally just a bunch of bad news. Probably my Mother trying to get back at me or something nothing that can really get to us while we are at school. Don¡¯t worry about it!¡±


    ¡°Sure, that is always what people say about stuff that is not going to come and bite them back in the as- WAIT! Somebody is coming down the hallway.¡±


    ¡°Ah, piss. Do you feel strong enough to channel magic?¡±


    ¡°No idea! I never tried!¡±


    ¡°Oh well, no time like the present! May the shadows of noctis conceal me!¡±


    My eyes widened when I heard my own voice, I had just spoken infernal! But I didn¡¯t have time to contemplate what had happened, not a few seconds later a group of students rushed down the hallway.


    ¡°Did you hear? Apparently, the Dutrar witch woke up today!¡±


    ¡°No way!?¡±


    ¡°Oh, she is not gonna want to stay around the school much longer, not after what happened.¡±


    ¡°Can you imagine? Three students and a teacher tainted with Seeds!¡±


    Almost immediately I could feel sharp claws digging into the flesh of my shoulder. Alice was staring at me with a look that even in bird form oozed displeasure. I cursed myself for not having told her about the¡­ rest of the incident. To be fair I had been a bit distracted at the time with her being all demonic and shit!


    ¡°Oh, but we WILL talk about this! How could you just forget to mention this?! Infecting people with a seed against their will is a serious crime! Even if I just did it by accident! They will never let me off the hook! And if they find out that I am a demon I am even more fucked! Do you have any idea how many rights a demon has? NONE! And how many do you think a criminal demon has!? LESS THAN NONE!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, okay!?¡± I yelled at Alice as soon as the group was out of earshot. ¡°I know how bad it is! I have been under scrutiny ever since I got out of the hospital myself. But we don¡¯t need to worry, from what I gathered they are going to lay the blame on Dia¡¯s mother! She should have never allowed you to summon a demonic familiar in the first place. And after that, she tried the shit with the null runes which even if it had worked would have killed us and the two students that had still been in the room. So please get your claws out of my shoulder?¡±


    The pain as she lifted off was pretty bad but not as bad as the fact that she rather hopped along the ground than keep sitting on my shoulder. Alice didn¡¯t even try and talk to me all the way back to the room. And once were inside she turned back into her human form and lounged on the bed glaring daggers at me.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry okay?¡± Smelling at my clothes I realized that I had no idea when I had last showered. ¡°None of this went as I thought it would. Please don¡¯t hate me, okay?¡±


    I really was sorry, I had never intended for any of this to go as bad as it had. But this didn¡¯t seem to matter to Alice, her only response was an annoyed snort before she started making a mess of the blankets. With an aggrieved sigh, I took off my clothes and headed for the bathroom. Not a minute later I was treated to the blessed warmth of my bathtub, perhaps I should just forget everything and take a nap? Alice could probably take care of herself and I really didn¡¯t want to bother thinking about all the annoying things anymore. And yet to my great horror, a sudden ear-piercing screech from the bedroom shattered all my hopes. Barely clutching a towel to my chest I rushed out of the bathroom to see what was going on.


    ¡°Oh no¡­¡±


    Alice was sitting on my bed holding the letter in her shaking hands; seeing me come in she quickly scrabbled away from me towards the furthest corner of the room.


    ¡°Alice! Please you have to believe me, this is not what you think! Just put down the letter and let me explain!¡±


    Alice apparently wanted none of that, instead, she frantically tried to throw anything she could get her hands on at me.


    ¡°Alice, please!¡±


    ¡°Please!?¡± A book sailed barely past my temple and I had to take a step back. ¡°You lied to me! You fucking bitch! You backstabbing disgusting stupid fucking whore!¡±


    ¡°I was only trying to protect you!¡± Hells, why was she so good at aiming!?


    ¡°Protect me!? The only one I need protection from is you!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to hurt you!¡±


    ¡°Hurt me!?¡± Alice''s hand stopped mid-throw. ¡°You were born to hurt me! You¡¯re the fucking Sun Scion!!!¡±

 Part - 16 (1/2)[OLD]

    {Alice}


    I looked at the thing before me in horror. I had been angry at Ithelyn before but now I was utterly terrified. How could she, have tricked me so? I should have been able to feel who or rather what she was. The thought that something like her could walk around unnoticed like that shocked me more than finding out that I was a demon. At least demons came into existence naturally and had actual, real emotions, shitty emotions maybe but they were true emotions. If a demon was happy, they were happy, if a demon was angry they were definitely angry.


    This thing before me though, I knew for a fact that it couldn¡¯t have emotions! And yet, it still hurt to see her cry like that. It shouldn¡¯t have hurt, knowing what she was, but it still did. Up until now all about Ithelyn had seemed so real and human; even knowing what she was hadn¡¯t changed that. In fact Hugin¡¯s memories in my head were very clear about her being human and nothing else. Which simply couldn¡¯t be true!


    ¡°Alice¡± The thing spoke. ¡°Please trust me! None of this is what you think...¡±


    Looking at her dejected expression I wanted to believe that her words were the truth but I forced myself not to. She was the Sun Scion, at most her body was but a well animated marionette. It was best to run away as quickly as I could but first I needed to find some way to knock her out. That trophy over there looked pretty heavy, if only I could reach it.


    ¡°Alice... stop looking at my ballet trophy like that! It is rather dear to me so please don¡¯t break it! No! Alice!¡±


    Ignoring her warning and desperate plea I rushed forward as quickly as my mangled body allowed for. I barely managed to make it off of the bed, when a thundering voice echoed in my head.


    ?STOP!¡°


    My body froze up immediately. Like a salt statue I was sitting there while my mind was abuzz with thoughts.


    ¡°I was ordered to stop! Of course I would stop, I need to stop when told to. My Mistress¡¯ orders are shackles and laws and wonderful commandments! And yet I despise this, I am not allowed to despise this but I still do. I don¡¯t want to be controlled but I do! What is going on here!? NO! I want this!¡±


    As suddenly as this horrible limbo of hate and want had come, it also vanished again. In one moment I was still frozen and in the next I slumped to the ground in a graceless pile of limbs and self pity. My breaths came short and painful as if a heavy weight had been crushing my chest. Slowly and apprehensively I turned towards the origin of this newest of mental horrors.


    Ithelyn was standing there still clutching on to the fluffy pink bath-towel, from the look in her eyes she was almost as horrified as I was. Then again it could have all been an act. The Sun Scion wasn¡¯t supposed to be a human, but Hells if she really was the Vessel for the monster I had heard about, then how the fuck did she manage to get tainted with the Striga blood?


    ¡°Alice¡­¡± Lyn began before stopping herself. ¡°No, I am sorry but I wanna do this correctly. Not this fake thing we have been playing for the last few days. I... this will probably hurt us both so badly but you were right hiding everything from you is not going to work.¡±


    ¡°Ithelyn¡­ please.¡± I had a horrible gut feeling about what she was about to do, and I really, really didn¡¯t like it!


    ¡°No, you want the truth so here is the whole fucking thing!¡±


    I tried crawling towards her, desperate to stop her from doing what I had no idea what it was, but it was far too late.


    ¡°Ali¡¯ce Desra! REMEMBER!¡±


    I cried I out as all of a sudden memories and thoughts my own and yet not my own assaulted my mind. It was as if my self was suddenly becoming aware of being but a drop inside an ocean. Everything suddenly became so much clearer as memories played back in my mind different than I rememberer them to be.


    I could feel the soft comfort of my egg as my human body was growing in it, sleeping safe and sound until the day that it was strong enough to house me.


    I struggled to get out of the shell, angry and upset about my soft and weak human body. But looking at my mothers was enough to calm me down.


    I had tried flying out of the window only to end up crushed on the forest floor. My mom was horrified but my demon mother was only looking on slighty annoyed. They had an argument after that.


    They were fighting for two days now, in her anger Mom had ripped the glittering band from her neck and thrown it at my Mother. Later that night Mom had run out of the hut with me. I could hear my Mother scream in anger but Mom didn¡¯t look back.


    An old lady was holding me and chanting some strange words, my thought were starting to grow heavy and weird. Afterwards a bunch of women were celebrating my birthday and Mom was crying in another woman¡¯s shoulder.


    My sixth birthday, and nobody had come but my family. The other kids were afraid of me. Everyone was calling me a demon child, I didn¡¯t know what that meant. Mom said that I was something called a changeling and that I didn¡¯t need to worry, she would always take care of me.


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    Green flames and screaming, nobody had come again! I was so sick of all these fucking humans! Why was I still stuck in this feeble pathetic body? Why wasn¡¯t I with my sisters? Grandma approached me with a grim expression and suddenly I was terrified. I didn¡¯t want to forget again!


    He was sitting before me naked and exposed. It had been so very had to drag him all the way to the woods but finally I had found my Mom¡¯s old hut! His screams were so pleasurable when I sank my teeth into his twitching flesh! Best boyfriend ever!


    I was staring off into nothing again, my thoughts were always so hazy. I should rip out that nagging woman¡¯s eyes and eat them in front of her! Why was I here again? Oh, I was being throw out of the building, did this mean I needed a new job?


    Magic was hard! But I had finally done it! I was so happy to show my Mom the pocket space I had created but she only looked at me with sadness. I guess making a portal to the hells was bad? Why did everyone always patronize me?


    I couldn¡¯t help but stare at the woman before me, she was beautiful like a statute carved out of marble. Her skin was perfect, her hair looked so soft, her eyes were like bright green pools that I could lose myself in. I needed to be with her! But she only said: Forget.


    Lyn was really cute when she pretended to be a good person. Perhaps it wouldn¡¯t suck too much to be her familiar? And being the slave of someone like her was going to drive both my mothers insane! Yes, this was the perfect plan!


    With a shock I came back to myself. I looked up at Ithelyn, red tears were running down her cheek. For but a moment our eyes met and I feared to lose myself again. Then without warning the air around her shattered.


    ¡°Ali¡¯ce Desra! Behold your Mistress! Behold the scion of the fucking sun!¡±


    Ithelyn¡¯s hair and facial features seemed to melt and drip to the floor until only her ears and her beautiful lips were left on an otherwise smooth and terrifying head. Her body shuddered as four bloody wings ripped their way out of her back. A dozen eyes were staring at me; half of them were dark red, black tears falling from them like rain. The shattered remains of a glowing halo swirled around her faceless head. There was no expression and yet our connection allowed me to feel just how much pain this was causing her.


    ¡°Is this what you wanted?¡± Lyn¡¯s voice was weak and hollow, a far cry from the thundering echo it had been before. ¡°Here you have your stupid Sun Scion, a pathetic farce! I failed at being an Angel and I failed at being a human so now it¡¯s about time I fail at being a thrice cursed Striga too!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m sorry Ithelyn.¡± My demonic tongue seemed almost blasphemous in front of her now. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to hurt you!¡±


    The words came out of me with out thinking, I didn¡¯t know if it was the familiar contract or my real feelings but I knew it to be true. I had never wanted to hurt her like this! What had I done?


    {Ithelyn}


    With a weak sigh I dismissed my wings and halo. I was happy enough that there wasn¡¯t a mirror inside the room. I had no desire to look at myself, my ¡°real¡± self that was. The perfectly crafted homunculus I inhabited had long ago started to feel more like my self than the angelic form. Of course this had come with more than enough heart break on it¡¯s own.


    Lady Dawnstar had always despised me for what I was, even if I yearned for her love she had only ever seen me as the thing made from her daughter¡¯s sacrifice. Unlike Mister Dawnstar who had embraced me as his daughter after I had fled from the Sun Cult. He had taught me all about life and magic after my angelic memories had faded away and only his daughter¡¯s had remained.


    Having only Ithelyn¡¯s child hood memories to go on, it had almost broken me to see and feel Mother¡¯s rejection of me. I had never wanted to be bound to this world or this body but she had always treated me like it was all my fault. In her eyes I was a disgrace and a monster. And perhaps in a way I was¡­ after all I had stolen the real Ithelyn¡¯s identity, grown up to become a useless pervert and even managed to sully her sacrifice by getting infected with the blood curse.


    I could feel the blood flow from my eyes in a sick mockery of tears but I didn¡¯t care enough to wipe them away. All I wanted was to cry myself to sleep and forget about today. Every time the fucking Cultists managed to find me it was the same thing again and again. I truly wished someone would just get rid of them all, so that they could never again remind me of my past.


    ¡°Lyn¡­¡± I jerked back in surprise when I heard Alice say my name.


    I would have expected her to run away after what I had done. Confronting her with her own past was such a dick move¡­ I didn¡¯t know what she had seen but I could feel that it troubled her. Some kind of Angel I was alright, a fucking asshole more like.


    A sudden slap to my face brought me back to reality.


    ¡°I fucking hate you for what you just did, thanks to your little mental break it is going to take way too much effort for me to go back to being just Alice! But for fucks sake I can¡¯t stand to see you cry. So uhm¡­ I¡¯m sorry for bringing this up and blowing up on you.¡±


    In a sudden and very undemonic display of concern, Alice or who ever she was right now, leaned in and hugged me.


    ¡°If you ever wanna tell me the whole story, Alice will¡­ no, I will listen.¡±


    ¡°Thank you¡­ Allie.¡±


    ¡°I guess I can live with that nick name.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what you get for always calling me Lyn.¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡±


    Both of us started to managed to get out a weak chuckle at this. At least all that hadn¡¯t changed, truly we were a pair of idiots.


    Sadly our short moment of bonding was ripped apart by a sudden knocking on the door.


    ¡°Miss Dawnstar, we know you have Miss Dutrar with you, the Headmistress dearly wishes to speak with the both of you¡­ right now if you please.¡±