Uncertain Magic 6: Uncertain Resolve

by Nuit du Loup

Cassius stood relaxed in the parlor of his Capital City mansion, sipping occasionally from a crystal glass filled with his favorite, potent liquor. It's smoky essence and subtle flavors were one of the many ways he liked to enjoy his evenings. Everything about this personal space was for his enjoyment alone. There was only one, supremely comfortable armchair where he could prop his feet up in leisure, a cabinet made of carved cherry filled with treasure in beverage form, thick carpeting and the latest music cylinder player, which now filled the comfortable chamber with the voices of a choir from back home where his true estates sprawled over many acres of land.

If he wished anything, all he must do is press his finger on the camouflaged button atop the statuette on his side-table and a bell would sound in the servant area of the house. The maid on duty would appear and grant whatever it was he wanted at the moment. Each was beautiful in some way so that he could slake his lusts with them as well, since they had been told upon their hire, what would be expected of them. A couple of those women were quite talented in the sensual arts and didn't fight him at all, making for enjoyable rides of an evening. Unfortunately he could not avail himself of his well-earned luxuries at the moment.

He made quite the picture, staring out the large bay window where one of many late-summer thunderstorms was rumbling its displeasure at the world. Dressed as he was, in pressed slacks, a dark coat, cravat, and a travel cloak, he looked like he was ready for a journey out in that foul weather. The truth was far worse. He was in fact waiting on the man he called Master with his rage buried as deep as he could. Thus, his appearance was almost comical, in a tragic sense of the word.

What he had thought of as a mutually beneficial power relationship with an insane man who worked happily outside the normal bounds of the world, was rapidly spinning out of control. "That damned, filthy demon of a man," he growled, letting a little of his anger slip free when his eyes once again scanned across the newspaper laying discarded on the wide windowsill before him. "Twenty-seven new attacks and other incidents all across Iskaran controlled territory in the past three days, and he says nothing to me about them. I'm supposed to be his local control and he's letting those things of his run loose everywhere!"

It was an extreme deviation from the original plan. The first and easiest step had been the creation of outside pressure. The Vampire Empire's rapid disintegration into warring states and power hungry lords had been the perfect gift in that regard. By the time they managed to get things straightened out, the Sovereign's personal intelligence types, meaning his spies of course, estimated there would be a significant reduction in the Imperial population. Then, while all the fear and the best military forces were focused on the border for security, he and the Master would lop off the head, literally if necessary, of the Iskaran snake. Only the central government and certain military bases would be destroyed so that all the nation's many constituent parts would flail free.

Then he would be unrestricted to assume direct control over whatever territories he felt he could under his own power. Not all of the islands though. He had no desire to invite some of the lowest sort into his private kingdom. The rest of the multitudes of islands were free then to find their own new way. Competition and uncertainty in supply between the many new, little nations would drive up costs and he would be there to profit from it all. This was exactly why he was so angry at the moment.

The Master was letting his monstrous playthings run completely amok. They were damaging assets he desired as well as further stirring the great beast Iskar could become if sufficiently aroused. Already the call had gone out that all military leaves were being cancelled and recruitment was up almost one-hundred and forty-three percent in the last month and a half. The always insufficiently damned Council had unanimously approved budget reallocations to move the country onto a war footing and to fund the expansion of the regular military forces far beyond anything they had ever been in modern memory. In a few days the Council would be meeting in closed session with the representatives from dominant business leaders to discuss the rapid production of war materiel.

With Iskar already proud of its martial traditions, all of this would be immensely popular and the associated industries in the know were already retooling. Arms production was way up, and an increased workforce was dropping the launch times at shipyards of both air and sea types to unheard of speeds. All of it was simply because the Master couldn't hold the leash of his pets. The only bright spot was that he still had local control of the operation here in the Capital. His own plans were tantalizingly close to fruition and he would do almost anything to make them succeed.

"Yes! What is it?!" he called when a soft knock sounded at the parlor door. He knew what the servant would be saying, but that wasn't important. Appearances were.

Liza, a wonderfully plump and rounded woman he had hired as a maid six months ago opened the door and stepped in with a friendly smile and a uniform that intentionally showed off her assets. She was one of the ones that enjoyed his carnal playtimes, and willingly gave herself to him at the least demand for it. He suspected she had reasons for it, but he hardly cared. "A package has arrived for you, m'Lord," she said politely, offering him a box just small enough to only need one hand, but awkward enough in weight that he used both to take it. "Will you be desiring anything else, sir?"

He ignored the poor grammar of the sentence and thought about it. Liza saw his consideration and simply unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse and let her lacy bra-clad breasts fall out. He was devilishly tempted and he felt himself begin to harden, but he had a task ahead of himself. "Not right now," he answered, pleased at her disappointment. "But when I am finished, I will want you later. Wait in my chambers when your shift is ended."

"Of course!" she agreed, and left in a happy humor. She would wait all night, naked as they day she was born simply because he wanted it. It was exactly the way he liked his servants; eager to please and a pleasure to look upon. When everything was as it should be, he would consider finding a new woman to bear him a real son; which would work once the Master's promised treatment for his infertility was completed. He would raise the boy to know the way things should be and to help build upon the new kingdom that he, the great father, would found. Cassie could be forgotten as the disappointment she was.

Cassius set the box down on a table near one wall and after sliding out a pair of holding tabs, he opened the lid. Within lay the object he had been told to wait for, and had only seen once before. It appeared to be a collection of tubes, cables and other assorted mechanical gizmos he couldn't identify surrounding a glass sphere like a bird's nest of metal. The sphere glowed with an eerie, milky-white light. From his neck he withdrew a strangely shaped key and inserted it into a keyhole hidden in the device's tangle. Then he clenched his jaw and gave the key a sharp turn.

The response was a soft hum of a motor, and a slight increase in the globe's luminescence. Sighing in relief that it was functioning as described, he closed the lid of the box, pressed his call button and strode out of the room. "Summon my car!" he ordered to the first maid to respond, which he was pleased to see had been very fast. By the time he made it through corridors of polished wood floors and expensive paintings, and then a foyer lit brightly by a high chandelier, his personal car had already pulled in front of wide double doors to the outside.

His valet with an umbrella ready, allowed as little rain as humanly possible to touch him, and escorted him to the waiting vehicle, which purred with the sound of fastidious maintenance on its expensive, magic and alcohol hybrid engine. His driver was already in on his real plans, and knew what was needed so all he had to do was sit on the soft, leather seat and watch the wet city roll by. He could have had any number of magical conveniences to replace things like umbrellas and valets, but he liked having real people serve him. Magic was a tool at best, and a crutch to the weak. He was not weak.

Despite the thunderstorm pouring down outside, the city's nightlife was as enthusiastic as usual. Iskarans living in the Capital knew the capriciousness of the weather during this time of year, and didn't let it slow them down. It was why he had invested in a few bars and entertainment establishments over a decade ago. They raked in a steady profit, and the dips were usually predictable. The region around his local mansion held the high-class eateries and clubs, where the kids of the rich blew their money and their parents dined in splendor. His driver took them away from all that and inland.

After roughly half an hour of city scenery, they curved around several massive hills until they turned onto a road that boldly tunneled straight through one. Along with martial pride, Iskarans everywhere loved grand public works projects, even when they were half-insane like this one. The tunnel was famous because it was four kilometers long, necessitating an inordinate amount of ventilation and maintenance, and had murals painted along the walls at intervals. At this time of night traffic was sparse, so no one noticed when they stopped in front of a painting of fox-hunting foreign gentry.

"How long sir?" the driver rumbled, when he got out with the box. Its inner glow was bright enough to leak out.

"Unknown" he responded unhappily. "Drive through after three hours, and then every hour after that until I return."

Setting the box down gently, he then withdrew the key again from his pocket. A column of white light shot straight up and out of the box, tearing the blocking material away. It was eerily silent, that light powered by a stolen human spark, but he stepped forward anyways and shoved the hand containing the key into the light. At once the world around him went just as white as that shaft, as if he'd fallen into it. Then his ears popped annoyingly and he was once again standing on solid ground.

The silence was replaced by animal chatter and other natural sounds so loud he almost flinched, but he held himself still and blinked his eyes clear. He stood in a small, moldering square of anciently old stone covered in moss and lichen, surrounded by a jungle so thick he couldn't see more than a meter into it. A blackened spell array was blasted into the stones beneath him, and he could feel heat through his boots. He stepped off and towards the only exit, a stone-paved path that almost resembled the tunnel he had just departed via a translocation spell; a spell that would normally be impossible without that sacrifice of a soul.

The air was incredibly humid, which was irritating, so he yanked open his coat and bared his honed chest to a sun that was the wrong color for being so high in the sky. It was tinged with red, with flared tendrils arcing wildly across a sky that was much too dark for mid-day, and far too close to the ground for his liking. A smell, like the decay of everything he had ever smelled before, was oppressive enough that he pulled out a handkerchief from a pocket and held it to his nose. The benefit was more psychological than actual, but he kept it in place. Everything felt wrong here, and he wanted to be gone as soon as possible.

After a short distance through his Master's private refuge, a place he had never wanted to visit, he paused when he saw something white jumbled up in the vines clinging to a tree near the path. His curiosity brought him closer, but he soon wished he'd squashed the notion. The white things were the larger bones of a mostly intact humanoid skeleton. An adult by the size and hanging in such a way that suggested it had been done when alive. The discovery forced him to notice all the loose, brown rocks all over the ground, and even on the path were more bones, except these were all stained brown by very old blood.

There were the bones of hundreds, and maybe thousands of beings lying about, going back deep into the oppressive jungle, scattered like seed. As he made his way further down the path, more and more dead things hung from trees or stone obelisks carved in a manner he didn't recognize from any people he'd learned of. Much of the carvings looked strangely like spell arrays though, and that was not a comforting thought. Stains and other old evidence of violence on a tremendous scale tainted everything as if the weather hadn't been permitted to scour it clean. Finally he found one of the Master's creatures waiting for him in the middle of the path. It was one of the creepy puppet-master types.

"The Master sends me to welcome," the thing rasped through a jaw that was permanently in something like a grin, but was probably a defect in its making. It bent forward, unnaturally long limbs exaggerated in such a pose, into the parody of a bow. One of its fingers had been replaced with a mechanical analogue and didn't move the same as the others. The Master liked to tinker with his creations, and it seemed this one had gotten off light. Some of the bigger ones had all sorts of things stuck into them.

"Lead on," he ordered and strode behind the creature. It added a new decay smell to the already pungent atmosphere. He'd learned enough about these disgusting things to know this particular smell meant it was going to shed its skin soon, which it had an eighty percent chance of surviving. The process was painful and left it very open to infections. It was in his opinion, a flawed product, but mentioning that to the Master only welcomed a rant on the subject.

They walked for what felt like a kilometer or more, until the path ended, upon which he felt a renewal of his rage. What they came out to was an open bowl shaped region large enough to hold a large town or smallish city with a jarring collection of bone strewn ruins, semi-modern buildings which also looked strangely aged, and many large masses of creatures going about errands; all butting up against a filthy looking coast with toxic colored water lapping limply against it. A large number of the creatures were of types he'd never seen. Almost right in front of them, a group of the little beastly ones were chivvying along a massive hexapedal thing that dwarfed an elephant and had what looked like sigil carved steel spikes jutting from it instead of tusks.

"Why did I arrive so far from my destination," he demanded of his guide.

"I am not told such a thing," the puppet master rasped, sounding put out.

Continuing down what had once been a road at some point in the distant past, he saw many signs of the Master's insanity. The creatures apparently had to fend for themselves and he had little desire to find out what some of them were eating. All over the ruined town were a collection of building-sized statues of questionable taste. They were all of the same kind of form; a massive humanoid on hands and knees and with a second pair of eyes above the first on an ovular head that was too tall and bare. Each had a different facial expression, from elated to despairing. Two had wings jutting up from their backs, but only one of those was depicted with feathers, the other was more bat-like.

He was thankful when they arrived at a large structure that sprawled out over an impressive area like a spreading fungus, but appeared far too old to look the way it did. This was because it looked to him like a modern industrial lab facility left to age and ruin for a century or two. It was guarded by a pair of collector-type behemoths, who watched him approach with open menace in their big eyes. He knew they were only the visible defense, since they were not exactly quick thinking. Nearby would be more clever creatures, waiting for an alarm to be roared by these beasts.

Inside they walked a corridor left unclean for years, with natural detritus all over the place, mixed in with man-made materials. Leaves sat rotting where they'd blown in ages ago; long enough that there was a smear of dirt on the cracked floor tiles. Doors that weren't missing hung limply or lay rusting. There was a bustle of servant creatures, some pushing carts or carrying coils of cable. A little thing with an extra eye almost ran right into him while carrying a glass flask that contained a liquid that made his eyes burn when it passed.

"Ah! My dear old friend!" the Master exclaimed happily when he rounded a corner in front of them with a flamboyant flailing of his skinny arms. Today he was dressed in overalls meant for a larger man, stained with something blue on the knees, and a surprisingly clean shirt. His feet were bare, revealing different numbers of extra toes on each foot. The creatures moved around their Master in the same way water flowed around a boulder in a stream. "So glad you made it to my humble little home safely!"

"Safely?" he asked in displeasure, stepping aside briefly to allow a cart carrying a pressure tank with a multitude of warning labels emblazoned on its side to pass by. He only recognized a few of the symbols, but those alone were enough to tell him he wanted nothing to do with that cargo. No doubt it was something obtained from the illicit supply channels he'd set up to supply the Master with all manner of things.

"Yes! Some of my little toys broke out of their prison last night, naughty things, and have been eating other things they really shouldn't," the Master said and then clicked his tongue in disapproval. "It is of no matter. Come! You wanted to discuss plans, and so do I; for I have something fun for you to play with!"

Cassius followed the Master through a seemingly random series of turns and halls, past things caged in rooms or other rooms making unknowable mechanical noises. Until they entered what was clearly a working laboratory. It contained a number of computer interfaces on desks and other devices that were all connected to a series of cylindrical tanks mounted at angles along a wall and down the center. Another wall was entirely made of glass, which gave an underwater view into some sort of huge water tank; or would have if it wasn't so murky. A pair of creatures, tall ones wearing some sort of eyewear, were puttering about, checking on the tanks and machines.

The last wall almost stopped him cold. Encased in glass and pinned like a butterfly against the concrete wall by foot-long silver spikes with odd designs etched on them was a large humanoid creature. It was long dead and obviously preserved with great care, but that wasn't the shocking thing. That was caused by the fact that it looked exactly like the humanoids portrayed by the clearly ancient statues outside. This thing had not been dead for that long, and its face was captured in an expression of darkest rage.

"Another of your pets?" he asked, using distaste to mask his inner disquiet. That thing was twice the size of a human, and strangely alien. It felt wrong somehow, in a way that spoke to the animal part of his human brain.

"Oh no, not at all!" the Master laughed and waved proudly at the huge dead creature. "When I decided that I needed to steal this island for my own uses, it's 'god' objected to the theft; so I slew him and all of his worshipers; but not before the secrets of this god were mine. I'm proud of the fellow though, he was resilient enough to last for years before death took it. Sure it raged and screamed, but in the end I was the victor and it gave me the secret that lay in the power of stolen souls, and how to rip holes into the fabric of the multiverse and travel through them on a very limited scale. That same knowledge let me steal this island truly, from the whole world in fact. I ripped it from the bones of the earth and made a small universe of my own."

Cassius shuddered, wondering what this 'god' had really been, and how his Master had stolen its secrets. He was not religious, but it was coming to light in his mind that his Master may have perpetrated a crime that could have terrible repercussions if what he suspected now was true. "Where are we?"

The Master grinned with that disgusting grin. "In a pocket dimension, a private universe of my own design, held together by a technique this so-called god taught me. I created this wonderful realm using the kindly sacrifice of six thousand human souls, and the soul of this one supposed god! I ripped this land away from the planet and made my own small world here. As achievements go, I see it as my first great success!"

Another chill rand through his marrow as memory of a decades-old tragedy surfaced. "Cernao," he whispered in awe, despite the terrible show of power it represented. "Everyone thought a dormant volcano erupted explosively, despite the lack of debris, and destroyed that remote island and all of its inhabitants. Except it was you all along. You tore a hole in the planet itself?!"

"Exactly!" the Master boasted happily, now wandering back towards the metal tanks. They were in varying states of cleanliness, but clearly important to the Master. "Too bad I can't repeat the feat just yet. No more 'gods' have shown up to let me consume them and pick through their fascinating brains. That, and people have this stupid resistance to being sacrificed on my alter of genius! But I have something fun for you that I have been tinkering with for some time, that was also born from the data left behind by this first fallen foe. You yourself gave me the key, breakthrough biological material I needed."

"New creatures of some kind?" he asked distastefully. Inside he was thankful and intrigued. His Master had just told him that all the knowledge he'd gained to create these monstrosities and jump through space with translocation magic thought impossible, had not been his own invention. He had stolen and reverse engineered it. It was a vulnerability he would have to remember for later. His Master was still a genius, but not nearly at the level he had thought before.

"A breakthrough!" the Master repeated happily, striding over to the tanks with open pride back on his face. "Thanks to all the numerous blood samples from those girl mages you turned to our cause, I have finally created something that can use magic on its own, without having to carry around stored energy. Not creatively and only with pre-programmed spells so far, but they can use magic Cassius! These are only the first set, a rushed test batch, but I will make them into my generals one day, after I work some of the inevitable problems out. I think I'll have them lead my other fun creations on to a war the world has never seen before. They will lead the new soldiers I've been creating and lay waste to our enemies. It will be so much fun!"

"And you want me to field test them?" he asked, already knowing the answer. It was an easy enough task...or at least on the surface it should be.

"Only one for now, since the others are still in the maturation phase of development, but yes," the Master agreed eagerly, rubbing the steel exterior of the nearest tank. "I already lost one set because of problems with the womb tanks, but I have one that took to the accelerated growth treatments well, and will be ready soon."

"Why do you need me? Aren't you running tests on your own?" he asked, trying to restrain his anger.

"Are you talking about the dispersed collection teams?" the Master laughed dismissively. "I needed more raw materials for my war beasts, and lots more souls for power. It's hard work, I hope you realize, to try and build a flying creature without the use of lift engines in its body and even then there is a lot of wastefulness. Make them too dense and they can't fly at all, or make them too light and they die too fast. It's been quite a quandary."

"You could have warned me that you needed these things. I have procurement routes already set-up for our needs," he said, not giving in just yet. "I'm just about ready to kill the heir, and I don't need additional complications to my plans."

"Heh, I almost forgot about that part," the Master chuckled and stroked his bare chin in an idle fashion. "It's really too bad that only you, the Soverign, and myself, know that the Sovereign is on death's door from old age. No one thinks that old lizard really can die, and they are all comforted by an heir that will be around for another millennium or two. They feel safe that their head of government is sane and stable and always will be. Yet before the next year is done, their Sovereign will breath his last, just like his progeny, and the world will be our playground!"

"Yes, which is why I'd like to be informed when the plan needs to be changed or adjusted!"

"Oh you worry far too much, friend Cassius," the Master chuckled again and put a possessive hand back on the nearest tank. "But don't fret, because I will grant your request and tell you about the newest little addition to the plan that I've only recently come up with! It is something that simply must be done though, and should prove entertaining."

"What change?" he asked, with a growing sense of dread.

The Master's smile changed to a rictus of pure madness, which was always a terrible sign. "I've waited far too long to really punish that damnable Academy for what they did to me. I want to give the world a little preview of what is to come and they can have the star role. First, I want to send my new little creation against the Academy's newest point of pride, that interfering girl with the interesting magic. Then I want to light that place on fire!"

Cassius's stomach clenched. "But that will let everyone know that this truly is a war, far too soon. The Council will further speed up military preparations and it will cost a lot more to achieve our goals. They might even increase protection on the heir so that my plans to kill him won't work."

"I don't care, Cassius," the Master said in a dangerous hiss. Insanity looked out through those eyes at him, and he shivered despite all his self-control. "I am tired of waiting and playing around here, hiding and holding in my hate. I want to see that stupid dragon and his stupid country dead. I am going to stick a knife into that Academy that Iskar is so proud of and watch them bleed. You will make it happen for me. It is why you exist."

It was all said in such a calm and deliberate tone that Cassius knew he would die right here if he argued a jot more. There was no give in the Master in this. "I will make it happen," he said slowly, since it was the only correct answer. His mind however spun with all the ways it was certain to go wrong and how he might make it work. In the glass, underwater window, something massive moved up against the pane and an eye larger than his head looked right at him.

"Give me a month," he finally got out, hoping that was fast enough. "I need to be able to kill the heir on the same night. It would be fitting, would it not?"

He saw the change in countenance that said some measure of normalcy had returned to the Master, and he felt a single breath of relief. The demonic man smiled once again. "That would be wonderful, Cassius. So please return to the world and make my wish so, without any unwarranted delay. I want to enjoy this."

He would not say he fled that place, for Cassius Silanus the Greater ran from nothing. Yet when he finally made it back to his mansion alive and with his wits still intact, he was in no mood to play with his pretty maids. Instead he went back to his study, found a full bottle of Cladean brandy, and drank it straight without a glass. Then he sat in his comfortable chair and passed out.

*******

"Hey Sarah, can I borrow your bottle of shampoo? Mine ran out."

Sarah pulled her face out of her shower's stream and wiped her eyes clear; pulling her brain out of the familiar, troubled rut it had just been going down. Turning to her left she smiled in a friendly fashion at the girl in the stall neighboring her own, hiding her worries in that private place inside her until she was back with Cassie. The shower rooms in the dorm had an entire bank of little stalls along one entire wall, with benches, sinks and the other usual bathroom equipment everywhere else. Privacy was an illusion; since the walls of each shower stall only went up part way and you didn't have to be particularly tall to see over them. Sarah was gifted with a tall stature, so she always had a full view whenever she wanted to peek.

"What was that, Kallie?" she asked, now that she didn't have water pummeling her ears and thoughts of her troubled friend fogging her ability to think. Raising a hand, she ran it up and back through her hair, feeling the new and strange tingle when her fingers rubbed over the back of her skull. It was a habit she really should stop before it turned into some kind of weird habit.

"Can I borrow some shampoo?" Kallie asked again, blushing with cheeks that had been plump well over a month ago when they had all started training. She had been one of the few girls in the group that had needed a little slimming down, and now was starting to look really good. They were all burning off any excess pudginess, and developing muscles some had never given thought to before. Kallie was now headed for the kind of physique used in pin-up calendars and bikini models.

"Sure, I can help you out. Lean back against the wall for me," Sarah replied, grinning as she plucked the needed bottle off the shelf in her own cubical. The other girls in the dorm were getting used to having her around, and were wonderfully friendly as long as her dear Kat wasn't around to make them nervous. A very short time ago, when she had first come to this Academy, she would have been overjoyed at the opportunities to enjoy herself with a gorgeous girl like this one, and yet now it felt like something more substantial was missing from that kind of playing around, and she knew exactly what it was.

"Kay!" Kallie turned around, briefly showing a pink, rounded backside, and leaned back as instructed.

Sarah popped open the shampoo and poured a dribble right into Kallie's golden-blond hair. That was an unusual color in Iskar, if it was natural. With deft hands, she worked up a good lather and gently massaged the scalp beneath, smiling in satisfaction when she heard a small groan of thanks from the other girl. When she was finished, she exacted a brief bit of payment by reaching down and giving Kallie's ample breasts a good feel, which earned her another moan. Kallie was the only girl in their enrollment group with a chest close to her own size, and Sarah was a girl that could appreciate the female body in its many forms. Unfortunately all she really wanted was the attention of two particular girls these days, so this felt more like keeping up appearances than would have been the case not too long ago.

"All done, lass" she said cheerily, giving a parting squeeze to a firm nipple. It was too bad really; Kallie was a nice girl and one of those that had freely shown an interest in her playful flirting. The only girls she could think about though were her dearest Cassie, and her poor, troubled Kat. Both of whom made her stir in a way that she had never believed she could. Not even when her adult family members had all warned her that she might come to feel this way one day. She had planned on having fun, fooling around with a variety of lovers and creating a harem to make all her old friends and family jealous. It had been a stupid fantasy apparently, and just as childish as she'd been told all along. All she wanted were two girls, which admittedly was a low number for her race, to love her as she did them. "Go ahead and rinse out."

Kallie bounced forward into her own spray and began rinsing out the shampoo. Sarah watched unabashedly, since she could still enjoy beauty even if her heart was already owned by others. She had always preferred females to males, even when her first sexual stirrings began as a child of eight. Her mother had let her enjoy a couple of males that she had liked well enough, but it had always been the women and other girls that really got her worked up. That wasn't unusual for her people, but it was more normal to have a mix of both genders.

As always of late, her thoughts drifted right back to her closest friends with whom she was hopelessly in love with, even as she watched one of her naked classmates show off under a shower, and felt that familiar warmth of desire begin to waken between her long, toned legs. Those notions carried her through the remainder of her morning shower and then she stepped out of the cubical into a smallish crowd of other naked and half-dressed girls she hardly noticed, which anyone close to her would have known was a sign of stress. She chatted and made idle small talk with the others, while her mind really focused on the same thing it had for weeks now; how to get Kat out of her strange funk and back into the arms of her and Cassie where she really belonged. When she was dry enough, she tossed her used towel into the designated bin with a desultory gesture and headed back to her room as bare to the world as she usually was when she was at home.

It didn't feel like much of a home compared to where she had grown up, except it was the place where one of the girls she loved lived with her. She passed classmates in the hall and most just smiled at her, no longer flustered by her casual nudity. A few even flirted openly or looked on with appreciation. At room 303, she tapped her finger on the little brass plate by the door as always and heard the lock pop. Then she opened the door and felt a new, warm feeling rush through her body and a smile spread across her face, because this was why she felt this was home.

Cassie, also freshly showered, lay back against the headboard of their mutual bed, the curtains on their window opened wide to let in the morning sunlight, with a book open in one hand that she propped on her knee. Her small, delicate lips moved unconsciously as she read something interesting. She was dressed in what Cassie called, 'relaxing clothes,' which meant a sleeveless shirt and a tiny pair of cotton shorts that had ridden up teasingly to reveal a pair of pretty legs. Sarah loved touching those strong legs and making Cassie laugh and blush. Tilting her head slightly Sarah read the title of the book: Combat Telekinetics: with offensive and defensive applications.

"You really are taking Kat's suggestion seriously then?" she asked, making her way to the end of the bed where she knelt on the soft carpet with her legs wide so that she could rest her chin on crossed arms spread over the bed's cushioned surface. The room was very small compared to the one Kat lived in, but she and Cassie had come to find it cozy. Cassie still kept most of her clothes and other stuff back in her own assigned room, so they had plenty of space to simply live, study and love each other.

Then she smelled what was in the air. It was a lot like what she would smell right before a big thunderstorm rolled across the hilly grasslands back home. Almost automatically she felt herself getting wetter in response and her nipples hardened, and she licked her lips with a twinge of desire. "Kat was here?" she continued in surprise. Kat frightened some of the other girls thanks to some strange rumors floating around and it wasn't often she paid them a visit. She carried an almost charged aura about her that put them off.

"You always know when she's around, or has been," Cassie smiled at her warmly. Sarah loved how that smile made her feel and she wished more than anything to share moments like this with Kat. She wanted it so badly that her heart ached in the evening when the nighttime quiet settled upon her. "But yeah, she was the one who gave me this book. It's from her own library that she has in her room and she thinks it's what I'm looking for. I think she's right, because it's really interesting. It's really detailed and written for someone almost exactly like me, by someone with similar problems with applying the right mental imagery to magic. How do you always know Kat's been around anyways?"

"I told you before, she has a very distinctive smell," Sarah sighed, disappointed she had missed Kat's visit. Just like the late summer storms they had been battered by for over a month now, Kat was like a dangerous mass of energy that could enter their lives and depart just as quickly. Nevertheless, she always felt a little down when Kat left them. She felt a foot tap on her head, drawing her back out of the mental cubbyhole, and looked up into brilliant green eyes that looked back at her with love. By all the nonexistent gods, Cassie was beautiful!

"You're not allowed to mope about Kat if I can't," Cassie insisted, setting her book aside and carefully marking her place with a little piece of paper. "Eep!"

Cass squawked prettily and fell back when Sarah captured both of her small, very feminine feet, slipped up to grip her behind the knees and yanked firmly towards her. Sarah slid her lover and friend closer until she was right on the edge of the bed. Rather than fight it, Cassie propped herself up on her arms to see what Sarah wanted to do, and moaned happily when Sarah lifted her shirt up enough to place her face against that toned belly and run her fingers up Cassie's back. "I'm not moping," she complained and placed a playful kiss on a tiny navel. Cassie giggled delightedly and her abdominal muscles twitched. Sarah loved that sound, and repeated the action to hear it once more.

"Are too," Cassie argued back, reaching down with one hand to run it through Sarah's still-damp hair until she touched one of the spots of the back of her skull and Sarah shivered again. "What was that? Did I yank your hair?"

"Not at all, love," Sarah sighed, knowing she may as well tell Cassie about it now. "Those are just my horns starting to grow in. In a few months the buds will be visible, but it takes years, maybe decades, for them to grow all the way out. They're really sensitive and it feels good when you touch the budding spots. It means, for a succubus, that we are starting the second stage of our adolescence. Don't be surprised if I'm a little friskier than usual over the next couple weeks, because it also comes with another round of hormonal changes."

She emphasized the words by moving her left hand to the inside of Cassie's thigh where she slid it slowly inward to entice the girl a little. Unimpeded, she delved through the leg of the shorts and discovered as she already knew, that Cass hadn't worn any panties and her cutely small slit was already damp. She also began placing more kisses around Cassie's firm stomach, occasionally hard enough to leave a little red spot for a couple seconds. Cass always smelled and tasted so wonderful that Sarah could spend literally hours just on an oral appreciation of her body. One day she dreamed, she would have Kat and Cassie together, and do that for both of them.

"You're...pretty frisky as you call it, already," Cassie mumbled and arched her back when a shiver of pleasure passed through her, still playing in Sarah's hair; deliberately rubbing at the two sensitive spots where her horns would soon grow from. Sarah very much enjoyed the sensation and began rubbing herself a little against the bed's side. The sheets felt good against her sensitive places. "Why else would I spend so much of my time with no fucking clothes on?"

"There you go with that potty mouth again, but you're very right about me being easily worked up. I've been feeling it for many weeks already," Sarah chuckled and half-climbed Cassie to shove the shirt up and get at more tender places. Cassie simply grunted in playful annoyance and removed the interfering garment, then moved her hand back on Sarah's head. Sarah captured one tiny, pink nipple and gently licked around it with her tongue, whilst shoving her other had fully inside the shorts. "I'll let you keep these shorts on. How's that?"

"Silly," Cassie giggled, even as her skin began to flush from her growing arousal. Cass was one of those girls who simply could not hide what they were feeling, especially when it came to sex. Sarah loved watching her react to different touches. It was always a little different and an experience worth remembering. After their first awkward night together, Cassie had let Sarah explore her petite body, and together they were developing an appreciation for each other that was delicious in so many ways.

Sarah's fingers traced up and down pussy lips she knew wouldn't look out of place on a girl much younger than Cassie. Her lover was a little self-conscious of her late-bloomer body, but Sarah treasured every inch of her. She loved the soft, barely-there downy hair on a plump vulva that was barely visible unless you were so close you almost had your face buried between Cassie's athletic legs. With whole-hand strokes, she caressed her lover to work her up, as she had learned Cass liked when she was relaxed like she was now. She switched nipples to get the other one just as hard as the first.

"I'm gonna get my shorts wet again," Cassie complained half-heartedly with a sigh of contentment. Her hips were starting a slow roll with Sarah's strokes as her pussy heated up and her arousal burned a little hotter. Whenever they did the laundry together, Cassie spent most it blushing because all of her stuff smelled strongly of sex and sweat. A few of the other girls had discovered this by accident and had asked the kinds of questions Cassie was too shy to answer. Sarah had also noticed the small smiles of happiness Cassie tried not to show to them as well.

"Such a tragedy, my dear and love," Sarah laughed, and softly pinched a nipple between her lips for a second to draw a gasp of pleasure, then went back to using her tongue to play with it. Her own pussy was pretty wet too, but she wanted to focus on Cassie. "Just means you will have to take them off afterwards."

"Always getting me naked," Cassie giggled again.

"Always," Sarah agreed happily, and moved up quickly to claim Cassie's small lips. As soon as Cassie was eagerly kissing her back, she plunged a finger unexpectedly inside the hot, soaked, and extremely tight depths of her lover. She held it still just long enough for Cassie's eyes to widen, and began a steadily increasing pace of motion. Carefully avoiding the sensitive clit for now, she kept it up until Cassie's hips started a desperate thrusting as she tried to achieve some kind of release. Only then did she focus her thumb on that little gem.

"Oh!" was all Cassie managed before the orgasm robbed her of speech. Her body went tight for a moment as if gathering itself, and then she trembled and her pussy clenched tighter on the invading finger. Sarah slowly brought Cassie back down from the climax, and felt that wonderful, magical feeling every succubus felt when they brought a lover to their peak and tasted some of their essence. Her body would be storing a tiny sample of Cass's lifestream to be used later if she desired to try bearing a child, as well as storing a bit of the special magical energy that all succubae used as part of their natural abilities..

Very soon, within a couple weeks probably, she would enter estrus for the very first time, when she could choose to try and induce her body into pregnancy if it had enough collected lifestream material from her lovers. Since she and Cass had only been lovers for a month and some days, she doubted it would be successful even if she wanted to try. She hadn't absorbed enough from Cassie to combine with her own and begin the reproduction process. Even then, it was an extreme task, no matter how much Cassie loved her, for one sexual partner by themselves to even trigger the process. It was one of the many reasons a succubus normally had a harem of lovers; one of the others was for the variety of lifestreams to gift to a new child.

As she watched Cassie breathe deeply to calm back down a little, she smiled at the thought of baring a child in the far future that would carry the lifestreams of both Cassie and Kat. It would be a beautiful child of course, with the three of them providing the Life Gift. Cassie saw her smile and matched it with a knowing one, which only widened when Sarah lifted her hand and slowly began to lick the back of it, leaving her personal scent marker. Only a lover like Cassie earned that from a succubus. Not casual sex partners, but the permanent, closest people to the girl's heart.

When she finished, Sarah climbed fully up onto the bed and curled herself up against Cassie's sweaty form and just kissed her for a few minutes, enjoying the simple pleasure it offered. Their tongues slid and played, and Sarah rubbed herself against Cassie's cotton covered hip, working herself closer to that tantalizing peak. The sensation of the cloth on her sensitive bits was interesting, but it changed quickly as her wetness soaked in, but was still very pleasant.

"Aren't you –Ah!- going to explain what this second adolescence is?" Cassie groaned out, when Sarah shifted and licked at her ears and neck.

"It's when I can start having babies if I want to," Sarah teased, pressing her breasts into Cassie's arm to stimulate her own nipples. Cassie got the hint and reached over with the other hand to play with them with a wide smile.

"I think we are a bit young to start thinking about kids," Cassie laughed, but Sarah noticed the pleased expression she wore. Cassie liked the idea of them having children someday in the far future. That was very good news, because she like all succubae, relished the thought of bearing children and she wanted to be a happy momma someday.

It was hard to explain the basics of Succubus reproduction biology while humping her lover and fondling the girl constantly, but she managed somehow. By the end she had her hand back inside Cassie now very wet shorts and her own pussy rubbing against a nicely rounded ass. They were both breathing deeply, lost in each other.

"Again?" Cassie asked; her voice a little wispy from the effort of grinding herself alternately into Sarah's hand and pussy. Sarah grinned at the eager smile on her girl's face. Cass was no longer shy when they were alone, when they could freely enjoy being together. "I want you to finish with me this time. Okay?"

"Again and Again," Sarah replied enthusiastically, rubbing her hard nipples against Cassie's smooth, sweaty back. It was so supple and sexy to the touch, and she liked how Cass' would try and press herself harder against her large breasts.

This time she could be less subtle with Cassie and so she focused much more on her little clit, strumming it with changing rhythms. As she did this, she increased the speed of her own hips and felt the shorts begin to slide down until her clit was pressed against hot, bare skin. "Gonna cum Cassie," she warned breathlessly, feeling that familiar tightening of muscles.

The only response was a sharp grunt, and another series of spasms on her fingers, followed by a stream of delicious wetness as Cassie peaked again. This time the pulse of magic set her off as well, and Sarah felt herself shudder as the orgasm blessed her with a wonderful moment of mindless pleasure and connection to a girl she loved. They kept moving, drawing it out as long as possible, until with a shared sigh they lay still.

Sarah breathed deeply, enjoying the smells around her, and the sensation of soft, dark curls against her face. Cassie settled tranquilly in her arms and made quiet, happy little sounds. After a few minutes, she felt her mind drifting, thinking of what would make this even better. She knew Cassie must have been thinking of it too, because she went silent for a few minutes before speaking again.

"You're thinking about Kat again," Cassie said, sounding like she was still enjoying the moment. "I was too." They could afford to be this kind of lazy today. At long last they were being given a free day with no classes so that everyone could rest, relax, and study for the next couple months of solid training. It was why they had so much time to just lay about having sex during the day in the first place.

That was the thing. After that almost magical time when it was the three of them together with rain pouring down their heated bodies, and their hearts open for the first time to each other, it always felt like something was missing. In some way neither of them understood, Kat made them feel complete. They loved each other deeply, and neither of them regretted a moment of their lovemaking and time together, but they both knew that having Kat here with them would make it a hundred times better.

"Did our lovely Kat say where she was going after she dropped that book off?" she asked, flopping onto her back. She still felt hot and aroused, but it was the kinda nice feeling she often got after sex. It always felt really good when she brought Cassie off and gave her lover pleasure, even if she didn't. Not that Cassie was selfish at all. Dear Cass could be quite eager, and she enjoyed every second of her attentions.

"The usual places," Cassie replied, curling up against her side where she cupped one of Sarah's large breasts and began caressing it casually. Cass really had a thing for a girl's breasts, and very much liked touching hers. Sarah had no objections to being felt up and it was always really good, so they were both winners. "It's always been a toss-up between one of the training rooms or her little hideaway that Ajax gave her in the Pit; which we still haven't been allowed to see, by the way. I think she said it was the workroom though, since she tried to tell me about whatever it is she builds in there. A lot of that technical stuff goes right over my head like she's speaking another language."

Ever since the night of what could have been the most wonderful of unions, and then ended in Kat running after a crying Eva, their friend had been strange and aloof. Sometimes, like in class or when they spent time together, Kat seemed herself, and even looked at her and Cass with the same warm love and sexual heat they had seen that night. At other times she was restless and holed herself way, training herself hard or tinkering with the magical machines Kat liked so much.

The instructors had noticed quickly and their frowning gazes often settled on their friend whenever Kat wasn't looking. In class, Kat was a genius, a prodigy with magic that their instructors would normally love to nurture and allow to grow. Alone Kat hid away and did the gods-only-knew what. She had also started to radiate an aura of raw power in much the way the fully trained mages sometimes did, except it always felt like a storm was about to break when she was in a room. This made the other girls nervous. Wallova looked ready to chew Kat a new orifice most days, and Sarah could see the worry on the woman's face. This all stemmed from Eva's sudden desertion of her duties as a mentor.

Kat was never smiling in the morning these days when they all met up for breakfast. Even later on, when she was enjoying herself with Sarah, Cassie and Reshik, a single sighting of Eva was enough to kill the mood. Kat would go quiet and shut down as if a million thoughts were boiling inside her beautiful head. This meant of course, that Eva was a main part of the problem of getting Kat to calm down and act rationally. It was something she had been starring in the face for days and she always retreated from the one idea that kept popping into her head.

Sarah wasn't scared of Eva, not exactly anyways, but she had no idea how to deal with this in any other way. Except she had to do it if she wanted to be able to love Kat in the way they all wanted to. The idea was a real solution, but she had no idea if it could possibly work out. Sighing deeply, she pulled Cassie into a tighter embrace to make herself feel a little better.

"Would you trust me, if I thought I had an idea on what to do?" she asked. She played with some of Cassie's dark curls with a finger. She loved pretty hair on a girl and Cassie's was fun and bouncy. At night she often ran her fingers through it when they lay in bed trying to sleep.

"Of course I do," Cassie said, turning to look right at her with those green eyes. "I trust you, Kat and Reshik more than anyone else; but you especially."

"Yeah but this might affect you, me and Kat especially," she replied in turn, and bit the bullet. "I want to find Eva today, and then pin her down long enough so that you and I can have a serious talk with her. We need to make some kind of peace with her, my dear Cassie, and there might be a way. The problem is that it will mean we will have to play nice with her."

"Holy flaming crap on a stick!" Cassie's eyes widened in realization. Cassie was always quick-minded when she didn't deliberately blind herself to something she didn't like. "Shit Sarah! You do realize this is Eva we are talking about, right? She was even scarier than Kat back when she was happy, and she always seems so hard and cold. You've seen how she used to act around Kat too; it's why you never liked her. She's freaky like nobody else."

"I'm not saying it would be easy, love," Sarah explained patiently. "In the short term it might help us all reconcile things before Kat kills herself purely by exhaustion from that training she is always doing. We aren't the only ones in love with Kat and we need to make friendly with Eva, because she is hurting too. Like it or not, we were a part of breaking that girl's heart, so we should be the ones to help put her back together. If we can mend this and try to get on friendlier terms with her, we can try and come to a solution we can all enjoy."

"I just don't know," Cassie mumbled, visibly thinking it over. Then her face settled into an expression of resolve and she nodded slowly. "I love Kat, Sarah, the same way I do you. For the two of you, I'll give Eva a chance and be brave about it. Where you going to do it today?"

Sarah nodded firmly. "I need to do it before I come up with any more excuses not to talk this out like civilized people. You saw the way Eva looked at Kat that night, she has the same kinds of feelings that we have and it's probably been a lot harder since she's by herself. We just need to bridge the gap somehow and deal with it all for Kat's sake, and maybe Eva's too from what I hear. And on the plus side of the deal, Eva's also fairly attractive on her own. For all we know, she might actually be fun to be with once you get past all that bluster and rakish bravado."

Cassie sighed and cuddled against Sarah's chest. "This is not how I envisioned my life when I came here. First I make some real friends, which was amazing all on its own. Then I wanted to get into Kat's pants, while you wanted into both of ours. I'm then attacked by horrible monsters with my friends, and I let one girl, you, take me into her bed where we then plot to get the other friend we have both fallen in love with to join us and end up in some huge mess with the jealous lover of that friend. My life would have been easier with my first plan of flunking out and joining the regular navy."

"It's just a bit of drama," Sarah laughed and drew them both upright. If they were going to hunt Eva down, they needed to get started. "Life is like that sometimes, and from what my family has said in the past, the best loves are adventures. At least we'll have interesting stories to tell our future children."

Cassie's eyes turned huge again, and her lips turned up a little in and amused smirk. "Children huh?" she asked again in a pleased voice. "I never really thought that would be possible for me, unless my father forced me into a marriage. Though I do hope you plan to wait a while before we have them. It says right there in that rulebook we were given, that the military frowns upon unplanned pregnancies. It's gonna have to wait awhile."

"In the future, dear heart," Sarah laughed delightedly in agreement. "In the future."

******

"...and this plugs into a type-46a socket," Kat mumbled to herself, as she carefully inserted a module into the dimensional folding component of the device she was currently working on. The component was a small metal box just a bit bigger than the hand holding it, with a number a status lights, currently dark, inset down one side. Carefully, she let go with the tweezers she held in her other hand, satisfied that the small module had seated correctly. Then she set them aside in the large, folding box of borrowed tools on the floor beside her in the slot designated for the tweezers.

Setting the component down, she leaned back onto her hands and arched her spine to stretch out a little, trying to work some of the tension a month of banishment to a cot by Eva had worn into her back muscles. The room she sat in was one of innumerable workrooms available for use in The Pit. Unlike the simulator rooms, this one was several stories above ground, so along the ceiling of one wall was a line of window that stretched out horizontally from wall to wall. Sunlight added to the already generous lighting of the room, making it feel like a very comfortable place to work.

The room held a number of work tables, cabinets of tools, parts bins, more tools on racks or support hooks, and a bank of large lockers that cadets like herself could store their projects in. The floor was bare concrete for safety reasons and the walls were exposed blocks except where utility lines ran. Above her, a strong ventilator system kept all the workrooms safe from fumes and had certain features to combat any fire that needed to be controlled. This small space was her sanctuary away from the rest of her shipwreck of a life.

Thanks to Eva, whom she tried very hard not to think about when outside of her dorm room because it just made her depressed, Ajax had given approval to use this room and prove to him she was interested in working with and learning about magical technology. It had taken a week of helping him with little projects of his and a willingness to sign up for some chore work a couple times to earn the privilege of using this room and an authorization to draw on supplies up to a certain value and security clearance. She had made a number of things that Ajax found useful for demonstration purposes, and was granted an increase in the kinds of supplies and parts she could use during her own time.

Reaching out with her right hand, she flicked a finger. One of the many reference volumes floating open in a rough hemisphere around her with pages turned to the information she had needed sometime earlier, shivered and flicked to the next page which contained a diagram she wanted. The device she was working on, and its two identical cousins sitting on the floor around her, were the most complicated she had yet endeavored to make. Building a device that folded space and hid parts of itself in a dimensional wrinkle was a very recent invention, so it was a bit exciting to make one with her own hands.

She'd had the idea almost as soon as she'd been given access to the reference books and saw what kinds of devices were possible. Magical machines had been one of her first exposures to magic, and remained one of her most loved hobbies. Now that she could get credit and praise for building and tinkering, it was one of the only bright spots she had in her life and letting her imagination run while in this fertile ground had yielded amazing results.

These weren't the first such devices she had prepared though. Her first two independent projects of this nature were gifts she intended to give her closest friends, once she got up the nerve to give them out. The giving would be the hardest part since she could barely look at them without feeling all hot and aroused, with intruding thoughts of wonderful kisses in the rain. That would then be followed by a bout of guilt and a longing for a certain white-haired girl that she missed. Both gifts sat on the table nearest to her, set out on pieces of scrap cloth.

First was a pair of bracelets that looked to be made of copper, but were really made of an alloy she had found in the parts catalogue computer. Ajax had been skeptical about that project but they had turned out really well, and then even he had conceded that the idea was good. Carved into the bracelets was a repeating magical array that formed into a fractal design, and functioned as a self-contained spell form that operated much like an electrical or magical circuit. A mage that was busy fighting with a weapon in a battle would be able to raise a strong shield or barrier, depending on which bracelet was used, without being distracted. She meant them for Cassie, for whom she felt very protective of, and cared for a great deal.

The reason for Ajax's skepticism for such an obvious device, was that most mages wouldn't need such a thing. Their own power was usually sufficient to make the defensive bracelets redundant. Cases like Cassie though were an exception, and Kat's creations would allow her friend to use her magic more economically.

The other was more obtuse and looking at it, no one was likely to divine its purpose. It looked like a long rod with little attachments on the outside, and a strange, circular socket on one end. That opening would fit onto the pommel of Sarah's sword, and give her friend a weapon more suited to her style. It wasn't as complicated as the bracelets, and built from existing schematics in the reference books, but it would be enough. Sarah was brilliant on her own, and wouldn't need her meddling too much.

She was interfering she knew, but her friends were now the single most important things in her life. With Eva punching a hole into her heart on a daily basis, she felt more and more for Sarah and Cassie, and guiltily felt happier when they were around. She missed them all terribly when they were apart, yet she felt ashamed of herself and kept spiraling in self-doubt about the events that had led to that night in the rain. So in the end she kept hiding in here or in an immersion chamber, working on ways to protect the girls she loved more than she had ever been able to admit.

On the plus side of life, Ajax loved her work. The bracelet devices had earned her a commendation from him and a lecture that had been incredibly enlightening on just what a Valkyrie or Crow became when they graduated. Mages that went through the two programs were not meant to be soldiers, but warriors in the old style. They fought together of course, but rarely in an identical way. Each was meant to be unique and strengthen the whole. These warriors could submit requests for all kinds of weapons and equipment from Armory Specialists in the Pit as long as they showed results or need. The mages with the best results in battle or otherwise had the largest allowances for requisitions. Her commendation would go into her dossier towards her professional reputation.

Another good thing was that it had unexpectedly earned her a small bit of money in her student bank account. Since Ajax had liked her design, he entered it into the requisition database so that any mage that liked the idea could ask for one themselves, and an Armory Specialist would build it for him or her, using her instructions. The bonus money was for contributing to the betterment of the Iskaran military. It was a bit like a patent license, except she only got paid once. The other device was less innovative and earned her nothing, but she like it anyway.

When she found the part of the diagram she wanted, she selected an array scriber from her toolbox and picked up one of two halves of a sphere, each filled with a number of components already, with obvious connections in the middle. Carefully, she incised a magical array around a small piece of crystal held tightly in a coil of copper wire. The sigils and circles had to be as precise as she could make it by hand, with drawing tools to make the circles true. When that was done she held the device up for inspection.

<Connection array and supply components are all to specifications,> her Glass said into her mind at the unasked question. It had gotten a lot better at anticipating her and was quite helpful.

"So we can try booting it and the others up then?" she asked.

<I compute a 96% probability of success, with almost all failure possibilities lying in component faults, not construction itself. Such faults will be found upon integration.>

"Great!" she grinned. Carefully, she brought the two halves of the sphere together, just a bit bigger than her own head, and gave the twist that would seat the connections together. Catches clicked onto place and a green standby light glowed on one side. Then she attached the four curved 'petals' as she called them, equidistantly around the sphere on their designed points, mostly hiding the sphere now except for the front. There a bluish circle of artificial sapphire sat like a lens. The 'petals' were on motorized pivots in the closed position.

Picking up the box component from just a moment before, she closed its hinged lid with a tight snap, and then put in several screws to hold it closed. Next she took a bundle of cords with a connector at either end, and plugged one end into a socket in the box, and a red indicator glowed to life. Inside, the temporary power source began to wake up. The other end of the cables was plugged into the back of the sphere part, which was a tricky maneuver with the petals closed. A red indicator glowed there as well. After a long minute, a ping came from both parts of the device and the indicators changed to green simultaneously.

<Power-up successful,> her Glass declared.

This made Kat smile in pride as she set the finished device next to its other two brethren on the floor a few paces away. Then she stepped back, put the floating books on a table, and cleared her thoughts. Taking a deep breath she tapped into her magic and began constructing a large array. The glowing lines, circles, symbols and other parts spread across the floor like wildfire. Some even appeared on the walls and ceiling. The three completed machines occupied the center with glowing lines of magic touching on a couple of places.

"Begin integration procedure," she ordered her Glass. At once she felt the program she had made with help from Ajax run and power drained from her. Not even close to a lot, but enough that she noticed.

The boxy component of each machine began to turn translucent and then in a flash, folded into a pocket of space that was technically located inside the spheres thanks to the folding entanglement process. If weighed, that sphere would have the mass of both parts. With a sharp pop, all three cables disengaged and fell limply to the floor, and the spheres shot straight up into the air as one and the petals opened smoothly to reveal the shimmering array patterns on their inner sides. A glow grew beneath the sapphires.

<Beginning integration protocols...connection with Vectors is successful. All components test as fully functional with no noticeable degradation. Waste heat is within acceptable tolerances, and the temperature control system is operating normally. User connection will be established in 3...2...1...Now!>

Kat felt or heard a strange sensation inside her mind that was a bit like a click or ping. Then, as she'd designed, she started to become aware of an extension of herself; multiple new extensions actually. Very carefully she 'flexed' one of the new connections. "Whoa!" she ducked as the Vector she'd reached for turned and zipped through the air, almost clipping her head before jerking to a halt. "That's going to take some getting used to."

<As I advised in the beginning of this project; constructing one Vector at a time would have been better for learning to control them.> her Glass reminded her, almost sounding like a chiding mother. Sometimes she wondered just how intelligent it was, but every time she asked Ajax, he insisted it wasn't self-aware.

"I have plenty of time to work on it," Kat replied, since she had the whole day off of classes like everyone else. Her only other plans had been an extended spellwork session later on in a simulator and then maybe dinner with her friends if they weren't busy with something else. The thought of what they might be busy with made her blush and get a little wet. Maybe they would let her...No...She wouldn't think of that temptation. Not yet anyways; at least not while she still felt so torn inside between opposing choices.

"I'm not supposed to be the blushing one!" she complained grumpily to no one at all. Aloud chime sounded and she looked up at the communication window that blinked opened in the middle of the room. Ajax looked out of it at her. Today he was in one of his more human-sized mechanical bodies, but it had an extra set of arms. Why did one end in what looked like a tuning fork? "Morning Sir," she said respectfully. She liked Ajax, and wanted to keep on his good side.

"Morning, Cadet Genaria," Ajax giggled in response, and then his voice dropped to the deep rumble. "I see you finished that little idea you had."

"Only just now sir," she replied, smiling knowingly. Ajax had been pestering her all week, wanting news. He loved new gadgets and machines, and her Vectors were a very new application of multiple technologies, one of which she'd had to beg to be allowed to use. She had no doubts after all the attacks recently that every room in the Pit was bugged to the hells and gone, so he already knew the answer to his observation. Her Glass was also a spy in some ways. "They integrated perfectly with my Glass as I hoped, with no malfunctions detected. Now I just need to work on controlling them, which is the fun part."

"It's not a system most people would be able to use at all," he said for what had to be the tenth time. He was annoyed that her system design wouldn't be able to be used in general deployment with regular combat mages in the military or Guard forces unless they were fairly strong magically. The design could be adapted for each person, if they were willing to be trained for it. Kat had been training herself as she built them, using the simulators. It also required a willingness to allow machines to become an extension of her mind, like growing extra limbs. Some people would freak out when their brain started giving them totally new signals from an artificial construct.

"You have thousands of smart people here," she reminded him with a grin. "Someone is bound to come up with things to add or make it more accessible. Let some tech wizard at them, and who knows what they will turn out."

"Very true, I –," Ajax cut off and tilted his robotic head in a considering posture, and then turned back to her. Another ping sounded in the room and Kat raised an eyebrow. "I am passing a communication request through the shields and filters," he said in answer to her silent question. "I am not the Communications Officer on duty, but the request was for me specifically, to find you and transfer a call from an old friend of mine. You'll understand in a moment." His window snapped closed, and another opened immediately in its place.

Kat felt her heart lurch in excitement as she saw the older woman in the window, and a familiar feeling of hero worship burbled up inside her. "Captain Kyshin?" she asked a bit stupidly, staring into the face of the beautiful woman that had changed her life.

"I am glad you remember me," Kyshin chuckled, her voice a deep purr, and in an accent Kat knew all too well from Eva. It sent a shiver straight down her spine. Kyshin wore the dress uniform this time and she carried it off very well. The black coat, with crimson trim made her look dangerously professional. Her white hair had a pair of short plaits at the temples and was just long enough to tease down her shoulders. In the background was a window looking out on a busy costal road. "How are you, Katarina?"

"Uh...Fine I suppose," she mumbled and felt her face heat. Taking a deep breath she forced herself not to sound like a brainless idiot in front of the person that had saved her life in more ways than one. "I usually go by Kat, especially among friends."

"Well, Kat, I'm glad you can think of me as a friend," Kyshin replied, her smile growing. Again, Kat saw a strange resemblance to Eva in the older woman in that expression. She knew that kind of smile well. It was the same one Eva used when she had something a bit naughty in mind that she usually ended up enjoying, after protesting the whole time of course. Kyshin leaned forward a little, as if to get a better look at Kat, propped her elbows on an unseen surface below the window, and then rested her chin in one hand in a considering pose.

"You see, I have a reason for contacting you," Kyshin went on. "I've been meaning to touch base with you for a while now, to see if you like life here at the Academy. You're the first girl I've chosen to be a mage, so I've worried about if you were happy with it. I feel a kind of responsibility, if that makes sense to you. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of disturbances lately and I've been running all over the place, so I've been far too distracted to give you a proper call."

"That's alright," Kat said quickly, smiling back at the woman. She felt more than a little pleased at the sentiment being shared. It wasn't often that people actually worried about her. "I've loved it here and I've learned a lot already. The classes are interesting and are rarely boring. Ajax has even let me play with his toy box."

"I know," Kyshin said wryly with a grin. "He's mentioned that to me in his usual humble manner. Ajax and I used to be classmates long ago, and we've stayed in touch. But it's you I want to talk about, Kat. Would you be willing to have a late lunch with me today so that we can have a comfortable chat? Since I know they gave everyone a free holiday."

Kat didn't even have to think about it. "Of course!" she answered immediately. "Just tell me where."

"It's my favorite place to stop at when I'm in town," Kyshin chuckled, tapping something out of view. "I'll send the location to your Glass."

A few seconds later, her Glass chimed and she tapped on the little globe icon that appeared. The familiar map program opened and quickly designated a place almost on the far side of the Academic District, right on the water and less than a mile from the causeway to the City. She'd never been by that area before, but she'd heard enough to know it had all the trendy shops and eateries that catered to the students and faculty. A time was also listed next to the location marker.

"Got it," she replied.

"Excellent," Kyshin nodded. "I'll see you there.

The window vanished, leaving her alone once again, feeling momentarily stunned. Then she looked down at herself and realized she hadn't showered yet today, and she had machine grease staining the fingers on her left hand. She also smelled like the workroom she'd been in for hours and of sweat. "Not good!" she said to no one; not caring that she was talking to herself. Quickly, she determined that the hour and a half she had to get to the lunch meeting should be enough to get cleaned up and presentable, and then stood.

Faster then she had ever done it before, she packed away all the tools and parts she was using back into her assigned locker, swept and mopped the floor of any detritus she may have left, and departed the room. Her Vectors she stored as she had planned, inside pocket spaces tied to her person, and she made sure the door was locked behind her. When she saw the security panel give the okay, she turned and walked quickly down the corridor, dodging others as needed.

The Pit was always busy no matter what time of day it was, so there were handy directions and traffic flow guides in place to insure everyone could get where they needed to be efficiently. This meant marked walking lanes and center guide lanes for carts, hand-trucks, flatbeds and other means of transporting whatever people were working with. She knew the way to the exit she wanted almost by heart now, and nodded quick greetings to familiar faces she saw almost every time she came here. On the ground level she got lucky and bummed a ride on a supply truck that took her to the East gateway. There she went through the comprehensive security inspection with the others.

After thanking the guys who'd given her a lift out, she crossed the street and mingled with a host of other people in uniforms, work clothes and a multitude of other work attire along a side walk. It was a normal workday for most people, so her way back was crowded until she got deeper into the Mage School District. Catching a bus, now that she had started to figure out how the transit system worked, she made good time back to her dorm. Once inside, she barely noticed when she passed other pairs and received the disapproving looks she'd been getting ever since she and Eva had come back crying.

She knew why she got those looks. As far as they were concerned, she and Eva were acting like children and they needed to get their act together. The longer things remained strained, the more the other mentors and their girls would turn away from them. Even the few friends she'd made here wouldn't speak to her, and she'd been told straight out that she was unwelcome in the training rooms until she made up with Eva. Some had even muttered, when they knew she could hear, whether she should be part of the mentor program anymore, or had even deserved the honor to begin with.

In her room, where she was relieved to find Eva gone, she transferred her armor into her storage space and quickly threw on a pair of shorts and a tank-top for modesty's-sake. Then she grabbed her shower kit, and quickly went down and found that a few others were already getting cleaned up. Ignoring them, she claimed an empty stall and began washing. Luckily, it didn't take very long to get the grime of hard work cleaned off, and she was done fast enough that she got a lot of surprised and curious looks from the other girls in the showers; not that she even noticed.

Instead she rushed back to her room, still drying herself along the way. She also ignored the clean floor of the dorm, and her cot folded up against the wall for the day. Ever since their fight, if that was what it could be called, Eva had stopped making messes. Kat found it depressing that she missed cleaning up after Eva, but she couldn't help it. A part of her wanted to see parts of uniforms and sexy underwear strewn about like a hurricane had blown through the room just so she could have that much interaction with one of the girls that made her heart ache.

Conscious of time passing, she flung open the closet and took out her dress uniform. There hadn't been many occasions as yet to wear it, but she had modeled it once for Eva when her mentor had insisted strongly that she do so for her. She'd been proud when she saw the approving, excited smile on Eva's lips. Eva was not the kind of person to quibble or give false praise, so it had all been genuine appreciation. Not even Sarah and Cassie had seen her in it yet, so it was one of the special moments they had together. Now Captain Kyshin would be the first to see her wear it out in public.

It took a bit to work out how to put the uniform on and make it look just right. It was far fiddlier than her armor, and she wanted this lunch to go right in every way it could. What she really wanted was for Kyshin to see her and know she had made the right choice in picking her. There was no way to know what kinds of expectations the mature and powerful mage would have, but she wanted to meet them and feel worthy. She was still brushing out her long, purple hair so it would look good while tied back, when the door opened and she stiffened instinctually with a racing heart.

"Where are you headed, dressed like that," Eva asked, her voice a soft burr and without her normal fiery manner. Actually...she sounded worried. Not once since that night had Eva called her 'Kitten' and she missed it so much that she found herself adding it in her head to the places Eva would have used it before. It was kind of pathetic if she thought about it, but she wanted the old Eva back.

"I have to meet someone important for lunch," she answered, trying for a cheerful tone. Inside, she flinched when she saw Eva's eyes widen in panic. She had no idea what Eva was worried about, but it was not the response she wanted, so she hurried to clarify things. "The woman who sponsored me to get into the Academy wants to meet and ask how I'm doing. She says she feels responsible and wants to check on me."

"Oh," it was one word, but she saw relief on Eva's face and the hint of a smile. Relief was good, right? A smile would be very good.

"It might take most of the afternoon, but I'll be back before dinnertime."

"That's good," Eva replied, still watching her closely. Kat ached all over for Eva to touch her like she always did; never asking or apologizing, and certainly never afraid to get intimate and get her riled up, which had always made her angry even though it felt good. She missed the strong forcefulness, which was so strange when she also liked being in the strong role with Sarah and Cassie. It was a personal dichotomy that she had never been willing to examine very closely before because it was confusing.

"I was just about get lunch myself...So I'll see you later," Eva continued after an awkward pause.

Almost as if she was retreating from an enemy, Eva turned and vanished smoothly back out the door. Kat had no idea what her mentor had come into the room for in the first place, but that couldn't be a good sign. It wasn't how she wanted things to be; it was so wrong for Eva to look defeated and depressed. She wanted to run out there and say...something. But the problem with this whole situation was that she didn't know how she wanted things. It was what had been biting at her for the last month.

******

Stepping out of the campus commuter bus, its engines rumbling powerfully to add a background to the louder thrum of passing traffic and chatting people, Kat had to momentarily shield her eyes from the bright sun. Her eyes had acclimated to the dimmer interior of the bus on the short trip along the route that had started near the dorms. Around her, the busy commercial district that hugged the southern coast of the Academy Island was like a hive of bees with innumerable members going in a million directions at once. Hundreds of people just within her sight were walking, conversing and going about different tasks to reach their own goals.

She paused off to one side of a brick-paved walkway bisected by planter islands of trees and shrubbery in dark mulch. The crowd flowed on by her in a stream of many races and ethnicities from all across the vast Iskaran nation, with some giving her smiles when they saw her uniform. She was not the only cadet mage about, since it was a free day, but there were some full Mages around too; on duty or just out and about like everyone else. These adult Mages looked powerful and impressive in their impeccable capes and customized armor emblazoned with insignia denoting rank and unit assignments. Some even had visible magical devices affixed to their persons. One Crow with Colonel's tags on his lapel gave a friendly wave as he passed by, and his smile grew when she gave the respectful nod and fist-to-heart casual salute that was considered polite when out in public. Had he sought her attention, the full salute would have been appropriate instead. Military etiquette was not her favorite class, but she had paid attention just the same.

Checking her map, Kat oriented herself to the street she was on. It ran straight down to the visible coastal road she needed, just over a shallow downhill kilometer away. After putting her Glass away she set off and melded into the rest of the pedestrians, just going with the flow. Street traffic was busier here too, but there wasn't any sense of urgency about it, just business as usual. It made her feel like she was part of something larger, and just another resident of the Academy, even though she was at least a decade younger than a lot of the other people around her.

She knew she was close to the coast by the stronger scent of salt and surf, as well as the louder crash and susurration of waves. When she finally reached it, she almost stopped still in admiration of the view. The strait between the island and the Capital city was a brilliant blue in the noonday sun, and hosted a multitude of sea birds that filled the air with raucous cries. The city itself gleamed like a jewel attended by a cloud of other shiny objects. Ocean vessels teamed and Skyships flew by gracefully, all serving the metropolis before her. It all looked so very alive.

Like many others, she crossed to the sidewalk paralleling the water on the other side of the busy street, which had a concrete barrier and a painted steel railing on that side for the safety of both pedestrians and vehicles. Below, the waves came in a steady procession, breaking on the concrete erosion barriers placed there by city civil engineers. She had missed the sound of the sea, which she had heard almost every day back on Corbado since her school had been near the coast, so it was kinda nice with the constant breeze teasing her face and hair.

The walk from there to the restaurant was so pleasant she barely noticed the couple of blocks distance she traveled. Other people, students of the Academy, staff, instructors and tourists enjoyed it with her. The road curved, rose and fell in contour to the shape of the shore, and made her glad of all the running she had been doing lately. When her Glass pinged her to say that she was close to her destination, she crossed back over to the side with all the shops and other businesses.

Kat knew the restaurant when she came to it. Caravaggio's, as it was called, was quite large and sat prominently between a pair of small streets. Two stories tall, white and with a very airy and open theme, it impressed her as classy. It even had a lush garden out in front to either side of the entry walkway. People entered it slowly, usually as couples, with wide smiles and laughter. Kat squashed any nervousness that remained and strode up that path of tightly fitted bricks, letting the garden smells fill her nose.

"How may I help you?" asked the Host, almost as soon as she was inside the double set of doors, all made of frosted glass. He was a tall man, with swarthy skin, a prominent nose, and hair artificially colored a wine-red; wearing perfectly creased black pants, a white shirt and a silk vest. The foyer kept with the open theme, letting her look into the establishment, but there was a magical barrier keeping noise from propagating

"I'm here to meet someone, a Captain Kyshin," she replied, dredging up all the polite niceties she could remember her parents pestering her with as a kid.

He gave her a pleased smile, and obviously noted her uniform with an approving nod. That must mean she passed muster at least. "Of course," he replied, holding an inviting hand out toward the way he wanted her to follow. "Right this way."

The same magical sound dampening technology was present throughout the restaurant, but it was surprisingly subtle. The sounds of wind blowing in and waves crashing were still perfectly normal, and yet any conversations in the private booths or alcoves were completely smothered. Kat was impressed, both by the attention to privacy, and the comfortable atmosphere. Waiters glided around with covered dishes, and delicious smells tempted her hungry belly. It made her wish the Host would walk just a little faster.

Up a set of wide stairs, they came upon a large, open room where a string quartet was playing a festive piece for the dinners sitting in the tables around the perimeter. Through big archways in the wall, she could see the balconies she'd observed from outside. The host aimed right for one of those on the front side of the building. When she passed through the sound baffle, she felt a brief tingle on her skin, but her entire attention was on the woman seated at a table made of clear glass and black anodized steel.

"Ah, Kat!" Kyshin enthused when she heard them enter and turned towards them. She too was dressed very nicely. Like Eva, her pale skin and snow-white hair stood in stark contrast to the black and crimson uniform, but she looked inspiring. Kyshin stood in welcome, and Kat felt that warm feeling inside, the one that she knew fueled her hero-worship of the older woman. It felt good to be appreciated by someone she genuinely looked up to.

"Your lunch companion," the host said in acknowledgment, and then moved off to one side. "A waiter will approach promptly to take your orders, but until then, please enjoy the afternoon view." With that he turned smartly on his heels and vanished.

Kat knew she was staring when she heard Kyshin's throaty chuckle. "I take it you've never been to a restaurant like this one?"

"No, my parents always said I wasn't grown up or mature enough not to embarrass them at the nicer places back home," Kat answered, speaking nothing but the truth to Kyshin. "My brother was always the one they took to interesting places and introduced to people."

"I see," Kyshin gestured towards the empty chair opposite her. "Have a seat; I've been looking forward to this all day."

Kat complied, and found the seat very comfortable. Their balcony overlooked the costal street, and provided an enviable view of the strait and City beyond. The wind picked up a little, teasing their hair. She sat silent for a long minute as Kyshin resumed her own seat and just looked at Kat with a knowing smile. It was the kind of smile that hid all kinds of clever knowledge that might be shared.

Kat felt strange. In one sense, she was perfectly comfortable being with this woman. She was someone she'd looked up to ever since Kyshin rescued her on Corbado, a kind of hero and the perfect example of womanhood all rolled into one; and yet, Kyshin was undeniably beautiful, in a strong and dangerous way that was tantalizingly similar to her Eva. The shape of the face was much the same, with strong cheekbones, thin eyebrows that arched, and a widow's peak under a snowy brow; matching a body that was just as well-endowed.

She was thrown off those confusing notions by a deep laugh from Kyshin. "Did I do something weird?" she asked worriedly.

"Not at all," Kyshin grinned wickedly. "I'm just amused because you're sitting there trying to figure it out, and it's not quite clicking."

After a second of consternation, Kat's agile mind caught something that she hadn't considered until now and felt her own eyebrows creep upwards. "Eva?" she asked softly, intending it for herself but Kyshin heard.

"I do look a lot like her, aged a decade or so, right?" Kyshin laughed and lounged back in her seat, perfectly comfortable. When she saw Kat's confusion, she gave the answer she wanted to know. "Yes. I am related to her. In fact, I'm her mother's twin sister, which is why we resemble each other so closely. My full name is Kyshin Drae, which you'll have noticed is the same surname as Eva's."

"Her aunt?!" Kat replied, and then reddened when she realized how stupid that sounded. It implied so much. "So...that's why...?"

"You ended up with her as your mentor?" Kyshin said, filling in what Kat had been unwilling to add. Kyshin nodded. "I had to pull some strings and beg favors, but that is exactly why she is your mentor, dear Kat. I had hoped that the two of you would do very well together. You two seemed like such a perfect match that I couldn't help myself."

Unexpectedly, Kat felt a pang of guilt; that she had let down the woman she had looked up to. When the waiter came out onto the balcony to ask their beverage choices, she automatically said, "Corbado tea, with two lemon wedges." Kyshin though, ordered food for both of them. Kat was content to let her, since she had no idea what kinds of food the place served.

"You seem troubled," Kyshin noted when the man had gone.

"I haven't exactly been doing so well with your niece," Kat admitted, waiting for the disappointment to hit. "It's actually going really badly at the moment."

Instead, Kyshin gave her a motherly smile. "I know."

******

Eva sat in an uncomfortable, desultory silence and picked at what should have been a delicious plate of roast beef and seasoned grilled vegetables. Normally, the smell alone would have had her chowing down, but her appetite had been absent of late. She'd come to the Dining Hall after the lunch rush, so she had most of the top floor to herself, which suited her dour mood. Happily chatting people just didn't fit the atmosphere she wanted to wallow in at the moment.

"That was so stupid!" she finally groaned out, and dropped her hand to the table with a rattling thunk. Specifically, she was bemoaning her most recent exchange with Kat. It had not been her most eloquent moment.

Seeing Kat in her dress uniform, looking so mouth wateringly gorgeous, had been like a punch in the belly. The surge of worry, and that wave of jealousy that she hated so much, it had almost been too much for her to handle. What she had really wanted to do, instead of stand there like a damn stupid lump, was to tackle Kat to the floor and make her explain herself, and then strip her naked so she could feel all of Kat against her once again. This worrying was making her sick, and she hadn't been sleeping well at all without Kat in the bed beside her. It was as if a part of her own soul was missing when she was alone at night.

"There you are!"

Surprised, and angry about the shout, Eva popped her head up from the tabletop she'd been contemplating and felt her mouth go dry. There, just walking away from the stairs, was Sarah and that Cassie girl. Sarah was staring at her with a frown of utter determination and fire in her ruby eyes. The other girl looked half-frightened and half ready to back Sarah up, depending on how her nerves held up. Eva knew she intimidated the skinny young girl, and had never taken any pride in that, but at the moment she wasn't feeling in the mood to be nice. These were the last two people she could possibly have wanted to see, except maybe her mother, but that was a whole other problem.

"What do you two want?" she replied brusquely, not bothering to try for politeness. Inside though, he felt a moment of worry. She was well aware that Sarah disliked her, and considered her competition for Kat. It made no sense that Sarah would be here, confronting her, when she and Cassie had already won Kat's affections. Was Sarah so cruel that she felt a need to rub salt in her emotional wounds? It didn't seem like something the girl would do.

Sarah sat directly across from her without asking for permission, making sure the table was between them. Cassie hesitated, but at an encouraging smile from Sarah, slid a chair over and sat next to her lover. Only then did Sarah look at her directly, and it was with a grim sort of smile that hinted at something Eva couldn't identify. It spoke of confidence and strangely enough, a sympathetic kindness she wasn't expecting.

"You and I need to have a friendly chat, Eva," Sarah began, giving her a warm smile. "It's one we probably should have had a long while ago. However, it occurs to me that we are both stubborn women who happen to love the same girl, and that can make things hard and lead to the foolish choices we have both made. Not to mention Cassie here who also cares for Kat a great deal, but she's too nice to be confrontational about it."

Eva stiffened, but something made her want to listen to what Sarah had to say. That they all cared for...loved...Kat was obvious and it would do no one any good to deny that. It made her a little angry, sure, but belligerence and poor reactions were the cause of her current crisis. So she made herself relax, took a deep breath, and pushed her untouched food out of the way. If Sarah was here to be nice, she could do the same. "Go on."

Sarah nodded, and seemed to relax a little as well, as if she had been expecting a confrontation. Then Sarah's smile changed, almost gently, and the girl gave a rueful laugh with a shake of her head. Even doing that, Eva had to admit the Succubus was gorgeous in many ways.

"Eva, first of all, neither Cassie nor I had any intention of hurting you." She waved away Eva's attempt to interrupt when she felt that angry stab in her heart again. "I will admit that we went about things in a way that was probably...antagonistic. We knew Kat was confused by her feelings for you, and the conflicting feelings she has for us, and we were not very nice about our actions. When Kat was vulnerable and mentally tired of being pulled about, we took advantage and made a move. That in the end has caused us all grief; most of all to you and Kat. We don't like how things are and we want to fix it; we don't want anyone to keep feeling the pain they are now. So we need to be able to talk to you to do that. I don't hate you Eva, and neither does Cassie, but my actions haven't reflected that, and I am here to say I regret it. Will you talk to us?"

For a long couple of minutes, Eva didn't quite know how to react or feel. She hadn't expected admittance of guilt, or for Sarah and Cassie to make a conciliatory move. It made her really think on what she thought of the two girls. Both were beautiful in their own ways, with Sarah being blessed with all the natural charms a succubus possessed, and Cassie was undeniably cute and perky.

In reality, all she really knew about either girl came from conversations with Kat or from observations of training videos. Her direct interactions with the pair had mostly been kept to meal times or momentary brushes between classes when she'd caved into her constant desire to see Kat and touch her. Sarah she knew was a year older than Cassie, and kept her past hidden for the most part. Cassie was the daughter of a prominent member of the Government and the more athletically gifted. Both were intelligent, but Sarah was extremely observant according to Kat, and noticed things others might not. That was all she knew of them, since she had resented that they had met and known her Kitten first.

A chance to fix things though...and have Kat back as well... was too big a chance to give up. It was a light of hope. "What kind of fix?" she asked, already feeling some of her normal fire back in her voice. If it was possible to have Kat back at her side, she would do it and be thankful; even if it was Sarah providing the opportunity.

That thought made her pause. It was the wrong way to be thinking of the other girls, considering the attempt at peace they were making. It was churlish to automatically think the worst of them, and it only let the poison of her jealousy seep into her thoughts. So she instead she took a deep breath, calmed her whirling thoughts as best she could, and waited for Sarah's response.

"Heh, it's good to see the normal Eva peeking back out again," Sarah said, giving her a knowing smile. She and Cassie shared a long, telling glance that carried something important and unspoken. Sarah only turned back to her when Cassie gave a firm nod, with an odd kind of grin. Eva could see what Kat and Sarah liked about the younger girl, she had an endearing quality that was hard to dislike. "Well, the thing is, our fix might only be a temporary, short-term patch on the problem, but it would also smooth things out as long as Kat also cooperates. In fact, it might be enjoyable if we can act like adults instead of the hormonal teenagers we all are. The best result would be a long, and rewarding relationship for all four of us. I would greatly prefer the last bit, but I'm a bit selfish." Sarah smiled proudly.

Eva felt a flare of her usual gruffness. "Will you just tell me already!" She'd never been good with teasing. Impatience was a sin she tried hard to curtail, but after all the stress of the last month, it was a bit much to ask for.

Sarah's grin grew wider, and oddly, even Cassie seemed to be amused by the demand. Sarah leaned forward as if she was going to confide a secret, but her smile was still there. It was almost conspiratorial. Eva found her heart beating a little faster in anticipation. "How much do you know about Succubae?"

"Not much; just the normal general knowledge stuff."

Again that smile. It was almost proud, and definitely too knowing.

"Then let me tell you," and Sarah did, smiling the entire time.

******

...so now she barely even speaks to me and it's driving me crazy!" Kat huffed, as angry and riled up as she had ever felt before. Once she had started on the story of everything that had happened since she had arrived at the Academy, at Kyshin's gentle prodding, it had come flooding out. She was not used to having an older, understand female person to confide in and Kyshin was an amazing listener, always asking just the right questions to keep her moving along. It was strangely comforting to be able to just spill her guts without hiding anything or giving lame excuses.

"It sounds to me, like you, Eva, and those other girls of yours have done a right job of sticking your foot in it," Kyshin said with a sigh and a sip at her glass of wine.

The remains of their lunch were scattered about the table, since the telling of her story had taken the whole meal. It had come in courses, a new experience for her, and had tasted wonderful. So much so that it had seemed sacrilegious to spoil it with a depressing tale of her mistakes. Kyshin though had been undeterred, and goaded her along until it had all come out.

"I know!" Kat said, wanting to shout it.

"Do you know why I chose you to come here to the Academy and learn?" Kyshin asked.

"To partner with Eva?" she asked with disappointment heavy in her voice.

"Hardly just for that!" Kyshin laughed and waved away the idea. "No. I chose you because when I saw you standing there, ready to fight to the death with a bunch of raider punks, I saw a lot of myself; a scary amount in fact."

"You?"

"Hey, I was young at one time!" Kyshin protested, amused. "But what I saw was a pretty young woman that could have been me at your age. That excitement that you feel when you fight, Kat, that thrill when you are killing enemies and the satisfaction of defeating foes is the same thing that burns inside me. I saw it in your eyes, and it gave me the shivers. When I first discovered that little attribute of my personality, I was more than a little disturbed because it didn't happen until I was well out of the Academy and in my first battle. If it hadn't been for my partner, I wouldn't be the woman sitting here now, thank all the gods."

"In you Kat, I saw a girl with the same killer instincts, the ability to take lives and revel in battle. You were obviously smart to have made even that crude copy of my spell after seeing it once, and I knew that great intelligence combined with the ability to enjoy killing could be a dangerous combination. That bracelet came out of my pocket before I hardly knew I was doing it, because I wanted to see what you might become here, and see you use your abilities for something good. I want to see that potential grow into something amazing, which you already are from what Wallova and Ajax tell me, but you're still just at the cusp of things. I almost feel honored to be the one to find you and send you down the right path."

"Only a short time later after I left you, after I had already told the Academy that I had sponsored a girl, did I think of my troubled niece. Eva, as you have noticed, suffers from a distinct and often off putting personality that has gotten her into trouble since she was a little kid. No one would meet her head on the way they should have, until her ungrateful mother took my advice and let me enroll her into the Academy, where she has done well, with a few bumps along the way."

"She may not look it, Kat, but Eva is a tremendously lonely girl and has been for a long time as far as I have been able to tell. I am her only friend or confidant; the only person she can talk to and even then she is less than open. She hides her shyness behind a wall of anger, gruffness and fighting prowess, keeping the world at bay. She's scared of other people."

"So like I just said, a short time after I'd given you that bracelet, I thought that you'd be exactly the kind of girl Eva would be interested in. I'm sorry if this sounds manipulative, but I'm the only person Eva has confided her interests and longings with; and since you obviously found me attractive, I hoped that maybe you might prefer women and Eva would have a chance. She needed someone special in her life, and you just seemed like the perfect match for her, and I hoped the two of you could develop something real."

Kat felt like her cheeks must be on fire. "Well, like I told you, I do prefer women, though I didn't really realize that until certain things made sense. Eva is astonishing and she's made me feel things I never have before. I had no idea what I wanted, but she was always there, making my life exciting in some way or another."

"You found that scary?" Kyshin asked gently.

"Yeah!" Kat agreed. "Or at least I think so. Every time she made a move, it felt good, and I liked it, but a part of me also pushed back against her. I guess I resented her having so much control over me. I didn't want to just let go in that way."

Kyshin nodded slowly. "Let me make a wild guess here. When you realized what I had given you, and learned consequently that you liked female company, you probably daydreamed and fantasized about all sorts of things. You came up with fantasy lovers and girlfriends; futures nebulous and vague enough that you could lay back in bed and hope something incredible would happen."

"Of course I did," Kat laughed, remembering that long stretch of waiting after receiving the bracelet.

"Yes, and when you came here you had all sorts of plans and ideas in your head of the kind of life you wanted to make for yourself," Kyshin matched her smile. "I'd guess that back home you were a loner too, like Eva. You spent most of your time in control of your own activities and plans? Only a few friends maybe?"

"No one was interested in the same things as me," she replied defensively and then felt stupid for it. "Well, I did climb all over that island by myself, and spent more time tinkering or exploring than spending time with other kids. The only people my age I hung out with were a few cousins, but they had different interests and eventually left me on my own too. I've always been able to keep myself busy and amused, so I never thought that I missed it."

"Right," Kyshin smiled, as if something was making sense to her. "So when you ran face first into Eva, who has just as strong a personality as you do, you lashed out defensively to protect your way of life. She's intrusive and about as subtle as a sledgehammer; and I'm sure she didn't fit at all with the type of girl you'd fantasized about. "

"Not at all," Kat grinned, and then cocked her head thoughtfully. "Actually, I thought of girls a little like my friend Cassie. Not necessarily a rich princess with a sword, but close. The cute and quiet type I suppose. I dreamed about having a nice girl I could hold and do things with, and maybe nerdy enough to be fun to talk to."

"So you saw yourself in the protective role," Kyshin agreed knowingly. "And Eva certainly doesn't need any protecting. She's stronger than you, knows more than you, and takes care of you without asking for your permission to do so, which breaks the self-image you've had of yourself, the idea of self-reliant loner. You didn't like seeing the role you imagined for yourself being flipped around the other way, and you certainly didn't like that you enjoyed Eva's care."

"Yeah," Kat agreed, it made a lot of sense actually. "But since she's started acting weird, I miss all that crazy stuff about her. When she doesn't pin me down on the bed or wrestle to get on top and grin at me, I miss that too. I even started looking forward to all the little treats and snacks she was always bringing me, and when she showed up out of nowhere just to see me, it made me feel good. It kinda made me happy to see how much she enjoyed doing those things for me, even though it was frustrating too for the reasons you said. Does that make me a jerk for pushing her away all the time?"

"I'd say it makes you sound like a confused teenage girl that is discovering her own personal sexuality," Kyshin laughed wryly. "I've made plenty of mistakes, and I've spent plenty of time apologizing. My partner could tell you some fun stories about when we were young and rowdy, but then I'd have to make her regret it. That's not an excuse for being rude, but you're doing something millions of other girls have done before. You just need to own up to it."

"But what about Cassie and Sarah?" Kat asked plaintively, still feeling torn. "It's not the same as with Eva, but I don't love them any less than I do her. Both girls are amazing, and they make me happy just by being around. I can still remember exactly how it felt when they kissed me, and it was almost like a magical power surge in my head. Eva, Cassie, and Sarah; when any one of them isn't around, I miss them terribly. It feels like an ache I can't touch. But when Cassie sits close just to touch me, I'm happy; it's the same when Sarah flirts or strokes my legs with her tail. They're special."

Kat felt a surge of anger at the world. "I'm only fourteen years old! I don't want to have to choose between the people I love! Why do I have to pick one or the other?! Why do I have to make any of them suffer?"

"Kat, the stream of life rarely flows smoothly, as an old proverb of my people says," Kyshin sighed. "But you are right in that you're still young and can afford to make some small mistakes and learn from them. I can't predict outcomes for you, because your life can't be the same as mine. All I can do is give the best advice I can and arm you with the knowledge I've learned." Kyshin sat up a little straighter and looked her in the eyes. "What do you really want to do? And I mean right now, before you can cast any doubts on it."

"Well. I want to find Eva, shove her to the ground, kiss her to within an inch of her life, then slap her, cry for an hour against her chest until I feel better, and then tell her something I hadn't thought of until just now!" Kat replied instantly, feeling amused and angry at the same time, which was odd. "I'd tell Sarah and Cassie too."

"What is this great idea?" Kyshin asked, sounding interested.

"I'll tell them that for the time being I don't feel like belonging exclusively to anyone. I love the three of them equally, if in different ways. So unless then can deal with me belonging to all of them, then no one can have me and they won't be anything more than friends for a while. There's plenty of time down the road for my feelings to solidify in one way or the other, but for now I love all three girls. If I can share, so can they."

"One way or another though, I need to have a good talk with Eva. I really want to give something between us a chance, because she is amazing, even when she's being infuriating. She needs to understand what Sarah and Cassie really mean to me, and that it doesn't make me feel any less love for her. It's selfish, but it's what I want."

"Sharing you?" Kyshin sounded surprised, and a little dubious. "I find it interesting enough having a relationship with one woman. Three sounds like a lot of work and potential grief. Would your two friends even agree to this, even if Eva somehow accepts it?"

"Sarah probably would, but she's a Succubus, and would probably be happy as long as she gets to be with me. Cassie I'm not sure on. But I just don't want to choose right now, so it's going to be all or nothing."

"And if they all choose nothing, rather than sharing you?" Kyshin asked in that tone adults always seem to use when they want to make sure you understand something.

"I'll quit the mentor program the next day, and we'll all just be friends," Kat shrugged, even though there was a nervous tightness in her belly at just the thought. "I won't be living with anyone. As much as I know that would hurt Eva more in the short run, she wouldn't have me around every day to torture her about it. She'd have to deal with her own choice, the same as I will. Then I'll have my own dorm room where I can cry and move on."

"Must you go to the extremes about this?" Kyshin sighed.

"I didn't say I was just going to spring the question on all of them!" Kat replied quickly. "I'd explain everything, especially to Eva since I do want to be able to love her. I want to be able experience and feel her craziness every day if I can."

"Then I suppose all I can really do is wish you good-luck and hope for the best," Kyshin said with a long sigh. "Like I said, I can give advice but the choices are all yours. But, I hope you'll be willing to keep in touch with me from now on, because I do like you, Kat, and I want you to do well."

Realizing their lunch was finally coming to an end, Kat said "of course!"

"Good!"

When Kyshin made to raise a hand to summon the waiter for the check, they both heard steady footsteps exit the sound screening. "That was—," whatever Kyshin had been about to say, it cut off with a furious scowl when they had both turned toward the approaching person. "How are you still alive?!" Kyshin hissed, her eyes blazing with a deep, nurtured rage.

"Ah-ah!" said the strange man who stopped a couple long paces from their table. He was dressed anachronistically in loose, khaki riding pants that tucked into high, polished boots and a matching shirt and riding jacket. The smell of blood wafted ahead of the man, and Kat felt goose bumps race over her body. She also felt a jolt of excitement from the blood smell, and her heart started beating a bit faster in the anticipation of violence. It was truly scary how much she liked that feeling, even when she was confronted with a creepy stranger. The man turned his inhuman eyes, which had cat-slit pupils and were the color of old, stale urine, onto her for just a moment. He licked his lips slowly with a tongue that was too round, like a tentacle. "You really shouldn't jump to such rash opinions about people, my old friend."

"Don't give me that smarmy bullshit," Kyshin retorted, coming to her feet. "Ajax and a dozen other witnesses saw your lab implode on itself and then burn for almost four days. How in all the hells are you standing here, you...you..."

"Slimy murdering weasel?" the man finished smoothly, making a note in the air with a long-nailed finger. His skin was unnaturally pale, as if he had never seen the sun. The way he held his body was subtly wrong somehow, as if madness had twisted his whole physical self. "Come now Kyshin Drae, we're old friends, you and I. Why all the anger and fuss, when all I wanted was to give you a friendly hello?"

"We found all the bodies under your lab!" Kyshin roared. Kat felt magical power gathering in the air and realizing this could get messy, she began to do the same. If it came to a fight, she didn't want to get caught unprepared. Since she didn't know what would happen, she mentally readied herself to raise a shield.

"Useful resources all, I assure you!" the man argued, smiling unctuously. He turned his oily gaze back to Kat, and she felt a sudden desire to smash this man like a roach. Disgust tried to sour her expensive meal. This thing was no longer a man, whatever his shape. "I also came here to meet this young woman," he continued, eyeing her curiously.

"What do you want with me?" Kat asked carefully.

"Merely to thank you for participating unexpectedly in my experiments," he grinned, showing yellow teeth. There were too many, and they were all the wrong shapes for any humanoid race she knew of. "I thought it would be polite to say that your former services are no longer required. I have moved on to the next wonderful development!"

Kat felt a surge of her own anger now when the only connection that made sense clicked hard inside her head. She wanted to kill him...and she was terrified by how badly she wanted to do it. "Those things were yours?!"

"A few of my tools," he agreed proudly. "Now I must move on to bigger and better things. But don't worry! You'll still get to participate! My new toys are so much better than those old things. I've fixed the flaws and added new features too, which I'm sure everyone will enjoy!"

"Like hell!" Kyshin thrust out a hand and a tiny point of light was born over her palm. Kat felt the vibration of raw magical power in her bones. "I'll destroy you here and now!"

"I'm afraid not!" the man laughed, reached into his jacket pocket and pressed something that clicked. Instantly, a translucent sphere appeared around him, even cutting down into the floor of the balcony. He gave them a twiddling wave of his fingers. "Please enjoy the party when it starts! I've spent a while preparing the entertainment, and I'd hate to see it go to waste."

With a loud pop, he was simply gone. The bubble just winked away, taking everything inside with it, including a small divot from the floor. Kyshin dismissed her spell with a disgusted clench of that hand, and then turned to her. "Sorry Kat, that our lunch was ruined. But I need to report this immediately and activate the unit I'm attached to. As I'm sure you noticed things just got interesting in a bad way."

"You knew that man?" It wasn't really a question, but she was still hyped up and ready to fight something.

"Oh yeah, unfortunately," Kyshin grunted and ran a hand through her snowy hair. "He was some sort of special student when Ajax and I were here at the Academy; almost twenty years ago. His name as I knew it then, is Zhasper Phinion, though he had a hundred aliases and used them as casually as loose change, so who knows what his real name and origin might be. As you noticed, he's not human, or of any race we know of, and as insane as a rabid wolverine. The really bad stuff was later on though, when we were all close to graduating."

Kyshin licked her lips, clearly remembering things she'd rather not. "He was going to be ejected for performing inhumane experiments in the biolabs that existed before the Pit was finished being built, but he went to ground and we were all roused to find him. It was also suspected that a number of disappearances and strange crimes were his doing. Ajax's group found clues to his new, hidden lab but the rundown building it was within imploded violently and then burned hot enough to slag the metal sheeting from the roof. We all thought gratefully that he was dead."

"But he's not," Kat nodded.

"And apparently responsible for Iskar's recent troubles if his taunting was true," Kyhsin agreed with a frustrated sound. "I've already reported via Glass, but I really need to get back to my unit. You need to get to your dorm and follow whatever orders end up coming down."

"Alright," she said, knowing to trust Kyshin's instructions.

Kyshin gave her a warm smile. "Stay safe Kat and good luck with Eva and the girls. Things might get interesting, so keep the ones you love close."

She was a little bothered that Kyshin paid for both their meals, but the woman just laughed and wouldn't even let her see how much it had cost. Once they were back out on the sidewalk, Kyshin surprised her with a long, sisterly kind of hug before they parted ways.

In the end, Kat felt far more confident about talking with Eva, Cassie and Sarah, and coming to some kind of agreement. Now all she had to do was carry through with it; which was the fun part. Hopefully things stayed sane long enough for her to apologize and talk with her girls. She wanted to them about the strange man too.

It was sure to be interesting.

******

Deep in thought about what she needed to say, and more importantly, how to say it, to Eva, Cassie and Sarah, Kat paid little attention to her surroundings on the way back uphill to the bus stop. She also kept in mind the exchange with the strange man who it turned out was the mastermind behind all the attacks Iskar had been suffering. That was kind of a huge deal and she wondered why the guy had needed to stop by and basically say 'it was me all along!' The only thing missing was some maniacal laughter or a little dramatic music. Maybe that was what made him insane?

The deepening afternoon sun was a little hot now, but it still felt good. Stopping in the shade of a decorative tree in one of the island planters, she watched idly as a dark limousine rolled to a stop next to the curb a short distance in front of her, right in front of a clothes shop. She recognized it as one of those fashionable brands her cousins and other young female relations insisted they had to buy from. If you had some money; that was the kind of establishment you started at. She smirked at that because she'd never been inside one of those stores because her mother said she was too hard on clothes.

The door of the shop opened and Kat perked up a little. This was because two large men exited; both carrying bright pink bags with distinctively girlish logos on them. Both wore something official looking, like a suit except they left their coats open to reveal obvious handguns in holsters. One was very tall, and human, but the other was simply massive, dark skinned, completely bald, and had dark tattooed snake scales on every exposed inch of him. A Hebi snake worshiper then; the strange sect that thought the reptiles were the true embodiments of the gods. It was said some of them had weird magical abilities like Reshik's people did.

Then a young girl exited with another human bodyguard. She was perhaps ten years old or so, but startlingly pretty. Golden tanned skin and long hair a green so dark it was like that of a fir tree; an interesting color, but it suited the young girl. Dark sunglasses hid the eyes, but from the way the men all obeyed her, she had either importance or a commanding personality for one so young. Strangely, the material of the girl's black dress seemed similar to the stuff her armor was made of.

Screeching tires pierced the air behind her, and she began to turn towards whatever was happening. <Threat assessment!> her Glass almost shouted into her head. Before she realized what was happening, she was enveloped in light as her uniform was quickly and forcibly removed and replaced in an instant with her armor, showing her naked body to everyone for a breath. Then something slammed into her left shoulder like a hammer, the one facing the screeching vehicle, and she fell hard to the brick sidewalk as screams of panic sounded around her.

"Fuck!" she swore, her shoulder throbbed in pain. She was drowned out by a fusillade of gunfire hitting the planter she lay behind. The girl! Kat ignored her stiffening arm and shoved up enough to look down the street. All four people were ducked behind the limo, and all three men had large handguns out and were firing from cover with the roars of large-caliber weapons. Something metallic, like a pair of blades, popped up from the roof of the car and a dome shaped magical barrier took shape over everything.

Glad the girl was safe; Kat took a peek over the planter during a lull in the gunfire. From an alley on the opposite side of the street between two law offices, poured a whole bunch of the soulless people she had fought before. All carried guns and seemed to be searching for something. People were scattering in all directions from the large truck and trailer that had apparently just smashed into a car down the road in the direction she'd come from. That must have been the where the sound of screeching tires had come from,

Whoopf!

The trailer's side exploded open in a hail of metal and plywood fragments, some scything down innocent, fleeing people. Kat felt her battle lust rising, along with a sense of rage that felt foreign, but it was wrong to just cut people down like that. When the dust cleared, huge shapes emerged. Covered in coarse fur but standing upright like men, they were a bizarre mix of canine, feline and human. These monsters, with wolf-like snouts and cat-like eyes and teeth, including mountain saber tusks, stood like soldiers. One of the new arrivals looked different though, possibly human. It...She looked strangely short and female, but was wearing some sort of cobbled together armor and a full combat helmet that hid her face.

The beast soldiers didn't have a uniform, but a jumbled assortment of gear decked them out. The new monsters all carried oversized military rifles; some with a large tube slung underneath the barrel, and were firing at the fleeing civilians with a ruthless expenditure of amunition. The masked female moved forward, stood in a commanding stance, and barked several things in a language Kat couldn't understand but the monster soldiers certainly did.

Kat could hear more gunfire further away in many directions. Was this a large-scale attack? Was that why that man had taunted her and Kyshin? Were they at war now and this was the opening fight?

What she needed to do was not repeat the same mistake she had made last time. <Send an emergency alert to the nearest Guard station, and whatever Mages are around!> she ordered her Glass mentally. <And unsafe my sword!>

<At once,> Her Glass affirmed. Something down the street a ways roared in anger, and Kat recognized the sound of a behemoth Collector. Her Glass dismissed her worry at once. <Interference attempt was unsuccessful. Message has been sent and acknowledged by Guard Command...Warning! Warning! A wide-scale state of emergency is now in effect for anyone hearing this message. Martial law is now in effect for all of the Academy Island and the Capital and civilians are to seek defensive shelter immediately. All military assets in the vicinity of hostile intrusions are to engage the enemy as necessary and obey local commanders when they arrive on scene or aide in the evacuation of civilians to safer areas. Troop deployment is already in progress; expect a rapidly changing combat environment. Remember Iskar and be strong! End of warning...>

<Guard Command requests a signal of your location, as the interference attempt is impairing that function temporarily.>

"My location," Kat laughed, still crouched behind the planter. Something scrabbled up the building across the street to the roof, saw her and gave a howl of success. It pointed at her with its too-long arm and finger. One of the Puppet-Master-types? After the last incident, all mage students had been issued basic information on the different types, as far as the government knew of anyway, so they'd know what to look out for. "May as well get on with calling for help," she muttered, knowing she was soon to be under attack in a more coordinated fashion.

Summoning magic from within herself, she spun up her own barrier. It was a curved wall protecting her from the street-ward direction, but was left open otherwise. She might be in for a long fight and she didn't want to waste energy. Safe for the moment, she stood and thought about what kind of signal she might give. Then she grinned, and let her battle lust free. It felt really good.

She gathered power until little sparks of electricity leapt from all over and around her body, to the walls of the planter, the ground, the air, and everywhere. She didn't bother to control or rein it in. Putting on a show for the enemy was part of what she intended. Spell circles spun up around her and bloomed into a large, complicated array that she built and formed as she went; a new spell for a new task, using references her Glass was shoving into her head as fast as she demanded them. She ignored the bullets hitting her barrier and the drain on her magic they caused. They were negligible so far.

Instead she raised both hands above her head and without even thinking about it, brought out her new Vectors as extensions of her mind. They pointed up as well in a triangular formation around her, and she used them to help build and support the second array she formed in the air. Power crackled as it obeyed her command and made the air feel heavy with anticipation. Under her armor, her nipples hardened and excitement boiled in her blood for what was to come. The last part of the spell to form was two tiny barriers over her ears.

"Yee-ahhh!" she screamed with effort as the power she had commanded forth suddenly rushed through her body, sizzling through every nerve, and into the spell with an audible pop. She dropped the first protective barrier at the same time she reinforced the ones generated by her armor. Then she grinned and fired the spell through a series of sigil containment rings floating directly over her head like the barrel of a gun.

A pillar of blindingly bright light blasted up into the sky like the fist of an angry god; un-aimed and uncontrolled except that it had been pointed up. The untamed energy produced the loudest clap of thunder anyone at all near the event had ever heard and the first concussive blast of suddenly superheated air slammed outward and into Kat's surroundings, including the enemy since most of the civilians had already fled for their lives.

Glass shattered and decorative plants shook violently in an expanding ring that traveled far too fast for Kat to see for more than an instant. The defensive barrier over the limo rippled as it easily deflected the spell effects directed its way, just as she had hoped it would. Then the second blast erupted from the second array of the spell, and a hurricane force eruption of air aimed directly at the enemy troops howled in elemental fury. It was the power of air wielded like a hammer.

Pebbles, branches, one of the small trees, and even an abandoned bicycle were picked up and hurled through the air as dangerous projectiles. Some of the crawly bad guys, which she hadn't noticed were sneaking around the cars, were actually light enough that they too were thrown bodily into walls with the popping cracks of bones breaking. Most of the rest cowered and shouted in pained outrage as they ran for cover. The only disappointment came from the monster soldiers and their humanoid partner. Instead of standing out in the open like the other creatures, they had actually taken shelter behind groups of empty cars and only one or two received a noticeable injury. Probably from broken glass ripped out of those cars.

Sirens began to fill the air in multiple directions and the feel of mages working strong magic announced the response from the Guard. Kat smiled, and then breathed in the scent of smoke and the coppery smell of the hot bricks around her that had absorbed the wasted, excess energy from the spell. Her hand closed on the hilt of her sword, which had appeared there at an instinctual-level command to her Glass. The device was already working with her on her next move, an unconscious partner in her lethal intent.

Eva and Kyshin had both been right. She wasn't frightened as she knew she should be at being alone in the face of so many enemies that wanted to kill her. This was her place, her natural environment. It was her hunting ground. They were the intruders into her territory. If her talents were for the destruction of such creatures and those that would threaten the ones she loved, she would let them loose. Annihilation with a purpose was perhaps, a good thing.

Predatory exhilaration filled her every nerve and her mouth was salivating a little. She would protect that cute little girl hiding with her bodyguards under a barrier, and hold out until help came to relieve her, no matter what. This was her domain for now, and she would kill the monsters that encroached upon it. That was what her battle lust was for; not for murder and unthinking slaughter, but the removal of things like these monsters. She could be death, but with conviction and honor.

When this was all over she would return to the arms of the girls she loved and she would say what needed to be said. All she needed to do was win and go there victorious. That shouldn't be too hard really. She was only outnumbered by at least a hundred to one. It was a challenge, but one she might enjoy.

That was why even in the midst of abandoned cars, fleeing people, and killer freakish monsters with guns, she was grinning.