Evren’s hands moved fast and urgent, his thick fingers pressing into the firm muscles of Veronica's upper thighs. His face was flushed. A combination of filthy excitement and fear of getting caught. The noises she was making told him that he was having a huge effect on her. But she was being too loud, which had alerted everyone in the area, as well. The senior casters were watching secretly from afar. Some freshman classmates were openly staring. It was only a matter of time until a magister came to investigate the disturbance.
He knew he couldn’t keep doing this for much longer.
She seems to be on the edge of… something. So, he continued to ‘massage’ her while his head swiveled left and right watching for magisters. What was happening with her?
“Are you almost done?…” he pleaded, shifting his body so he was leaning over her long slouched form.
His hands had moved up from her leg, and were now massaging the warm flesh around her secret place. His thumb slipped under her panties, where he felt it become entangled in a sparse patch of hair. The hair was coarse and moist, but not in a bad way, and Evren rubbed her in delicate circles, enjoying the forbidden feeling that came with his actions.
A rich feminine musk hit his nose. That smell, of all things, brought the reality of the moment crashing down upon him. His hands never stopped moving, but his brain was stunned at the realization.
He was having sex with Veronica!
Wait. Was it still sex if he wasn’t using his dick? Evren admittedly was ignorant in these matters. Other than seeing his younger sisters naked in the bathtub, he had never seen female genitalia. His dad had never talked to him about what it was like having sex. If he was losing his virginity right here, he wanted to be fully aware of what was going on.
Evren’s train of thought was suddenly interrupted by Veronica. She was twitching in pain. Her body was spasming out of control.
“Uh.. Uhhnnn… UUNNGH!”
Her hips suddenly froze, quivering, then with a rising crescendo of groans, she pumped her pelvis against his hands. Her eyes full of emotion were locked on him. He couldn’t tell if she was angry or excited, but he had never seen a girl make this kind of face before.
Evren held his hand there, still kneading her wet and squishy spot while her hips thrust against his hands a dozen more times. Until finally she collapsed. Only then did she break eye contact.
“Aaahn… that was soooo good.”
“What is happening here?”
The brisk authoritative tone made Evren’s heart skip a beat. His head snapped up, only to find that Magister Marcel was standing in front of them. A disapproving look on his face.
“This kind of behavior is completely inappropriate at the Nexus!”
“...”
Evren’s mind raced, but his mouth froze. How was he going to explain this? It had all started so innocently.
“Look at your bodies… and that smell. You should both be ashamed of yourselves!”
“We’re very sorry, Magister Marcel,” Veronica said sweetly.
Somehow she had recovered instantly. Sitting up straight, she became the image of the perfectly repentant student. Her master act was only detracted by a few signs of their dirty act. Her skirt, forced open by his hand, still hung open in the front, her chest, half-exposed, was beaded with sweat. But her eyes were steady and her smile was so charming, it was as if she were taking a trip to the temple.
The magister looked doubtful, but Veronica's radiant smile seemed to sway him. Even in this reversed world, it seemed that Veronica could bend any man to her will with that smile.
“Twelve minutes have already passed. I’ll be back again shortly. Practice every spell before then! And you…”
He turned to Evren. There was a hint of sympathy and frustration in his voice.
“When you cast skin-to-skin, it is normal to touch only her arms, shoulders, or waist. Stay away from her legs. Understand?”
Evren was mortified. Magister Marcel knew exactly what had happened. He’d probably seen the whole thing, but for some reason, he was letting Evren off easy. He was still waiting for a reply, so Evren, unable to speak, nodded profusely, and kept nodding until the magister departed, whisking away in a swirl of robes. It felt like his face was ready to ignite.
He looked over at her. She was watching him with an enigmatic look on her face.
"Did we just... do it?"
"Do what," she asked breathlessly, "Sex?"
"...yeah."
"No, you sweet dummy," she said laughing, still panting from the exertion. "You just made me orgasm. It's not the same thing as sex!"
She was just laughing at him now, and that made him feel even worse.
“We cannot do that ever again…” he stated, slouching down on the bench. His humiliation settled over him like a cloak.
“Oh, don’t say that!” Veronica protested. “That was the best thing that’s ever happened to me…”
She leaned in close until her arm was pressed against his. Their skin stuck together with their combined sweat and stickiness. Her breath was hot and it tickled his ear when she spoke to him nice and close.
“Besides, it looks like you were enjoying yourself, too.”
She gestured downward with her chin. The bulge in his pants was bigger than ever. A brief silence swelled between them, before Evren replied.
“No.”
“Oh, come on!” she said loudly, flustered. “Partner with me again tomorrow. I’m hot. You’re hot. We’re a perfect pair.”
There was something reassuring about hearing Veronica call herself ‘hot.’ She was definitely the same girl he knew and avoided. But calling him ‘hot’ as well? Evren felt his temperature rising.
“I’ve never had a boy touch me like you just did…” she said teasingly.
“I’ve never touched a girl like that…”
He was enjoying the feel of her leaning into him more and more, and the memory of her sexy moans would stay with him all day. Then she blew on his ear and he realized he was slipping into her trap once again.
She laughed playfully as he shoved her away.
She’d just embarrassed him in front of the whole class! And not only was she happy about it, she wanted to do it again the next day! He would not give her the satisfaction.
“Just cast the spells, Veronica.”
“Fine,” she said, bumping shoulders with him in a friendly manner. “But if I cast all 10 spells, no fizzles, then you’ve got to choose me again tomorrow!”
“No. Cast your ‘candle’ spell.”
Veronica fixed him with a sour look. She wasn’t going to give up so easily, but after a moment she settled in and focused. She tossed her head, clearing the short blond waves from blocking her vision. The fingers on her left hand came together in a tight bunch.
“Lumen.”
The air above her hand rippled, and a small flame leapt into existence. She looked over at him with a self-satisfied smirk.
“Not bad,” Evren discerned.
Her voice was crisp and Evren admired the strength of her words issuing forth. She was definitely a strong caster when it came to verbal spells. But her fingerwork was sloppy, perhaps because of the bindings. Paper-thin separation between each finger was the key.
“I’m just getting started. Give me something to fix.”
Evren smiled back. Without a word, he picked the vase up off the desk and cracked it on the corner of the desk like an egg. It took a few tries, but finally a large crack appeared, running like a spiderweb from top to bottom of the fine porcelain vase.
“Here,” he said, placing it on the desk between her hands.
Veronica frowned, and for the first time she seemed to understand the challenge of this activity. ‘Fix’ was a basic spell, but it included a complex hand gesture that included tracing the object’s breakage and circling her hands around it.
“Can you hold it up off the table?” she asked.
He did as she asked, then watched as her fingers traced the complex crack over the vase’s rounded surface. Her fingers were long and quick, but the bindings made her actions clumsy, and the spell fizzled multiple times.
“Move it around in front of my fingers.”
Evren did everything she asked, but still it fizzled. Five minutes passed and Veronica looked exhausted. She pounded the desk in frustration.
“Ugh… let’s move to the next spell… What do we have that needs cleaning?”
“...”
“Hey, show me your hand. The one you touched me with.”
Evren held his hand in front of her face, and she leaned in and sniffed it.
“Wow, my scent is soaked into your skin,” she said with a mischievous grin, “Let me clean it off for you.”
Evren’s curiosity got the better of him, and he couldn’t resist checking for himself. Holding his index finger to his nose, he could smell the strong feminine musk of her body. He breathed it in, twice, before holding it before her hands.
Veronica looked rattled by what he’d done. She was sitting up in her seat. Her eyes wide with surprise.
“Were you just enjoying the smell of me on your fingers?”
“...”
He couldn’t say a word, but he gave her the slightest nod. That was a mistake.
“WHAAAAT…” she lowered her voice and asked in a hoarse whisper, “You really are a woman-lover, aren’t you?”
“...”
“You are! By the Gods, I can’t believe this! You actually get turned on by girls' bodies… Smell it again!”
“No,” he declared. His face was turning red once again. He thrust the hand in front of hers. “Just… clean it off please.”
“Are you sure? Don’t you want to go home with my stickiness on you?”
“No.”
“Fine,” she said happily, starting the motions of the spell. “But if you change your mind… you can taste my pussy anytime.”
Evren groaned in embarrassment. Veronica was successfully driving him crazy.
Her fingers moved adroitly. A series of small circles independent of each other. She’d obviously put work into learning this spell. But the resulting ‘clean’ was a cool poof of dry air that only partially cleaned his sticky finger.
Veronica slumped over, defeated. Her forehead hit the desk noisily and she cursed.
“Fuck!… I used all my mana on ‘fix.’ I need a minute to recharge…”
It’s all right, we have time,” Evren said soothingly. His heart went out to her and her broken-hearted tone of voice. “Let me help you recharge. I know how to cast Mana Conduit.”
Veronica’s head rotated. She was still slumped over, cheek pressed to the wooden surface with her eyes gazing up at him.
“Mana Conduit? The mana lending spell? I heard that’s a hard to learn spell. How did you get it?”
“My mana pool is deep enough, my tutor said that it would’ve been a waste for me not to learn it.”
“Wow,” she responded. Cheering up a bit, she actually sounded impressed. “You’re like… the best warder in the whole class. And you love women? Will you marry me?”
“No. Definitely not,” he answered, lighter this time. He was starting to get accustomed to Veronica’s brand of humor. “Just relax, this won’t hurt at all.”
Evren held a hand in her direction. Mana Conduit didn’t require any hand movements, but it needed a target. All the magic happened within his mind and body, which is what made the spell so hard to learn.
He touched the warm reserve of mana that sat placid in his abdomen. Then he pulled it upward and directed it out, unaltered and formless. An invisible gush of fluid energy, leaking out of his fingers. A flow of power that moved as slow as molasses out of him and into her.
“I can feel it. Your mana… it’s coming into me.”
Her voice was reverent. Sharing mana was an intimate experience. It was like sharing a water bottle or feeding someone with your hands… The caster’s taste was still on the mana.
“Mmmm… Do it skin-to-skin.”
“We just need to be close, not touching.”
Extended concentration was opening the conduit up wider, and as it did more of Evren’s mana was able to flow through.
“C’mon! Put your hands on me. I want to feel your touch as you fill me up.”
“You’re making it sound weird.”
Veronica was alert once more. She turned her body in his direction as far as she could, accepting his flow like it was a gentle sun shining down on her.
“Please,” she asked, making a cute sulky face. She arched her beautifully formed torso and her breasts bulged even tighter against the fabric of her shirt. Not for the first time, he noted that she wasn’t wearing a bra.
Evren’s resistance melted in front of her feminine charms.
“Alright, I will! Just don’t move and don’t make any loud noises.”
“I won’t,” she exclaimed, her wide grin returning to her face. She closed her eyes and straightened her body, waiting expectantly.
Evren moved his hands so they were hovering over her mana pool. The soft stretch of flesh that was centered on her belly button. That was the only place that made sense for a skin-to-skin mana transfer. Plus, he really wanted to feel that smooth flat stomach firsthand.
Closing his fingers together, he lined up his thumbs so they would rest against her center. The flow of mana was growing stronger, the closer he got to her. He knew she must be nearly full by now.
‘Five seconds of contact and then I’ll stop,’ he thought to himself.
The jolt that came with first contact caught him off guard. Never before had he felt such a connection with another caster! Veronica ‘oooed’ at the feel of his hands against her abdomen, but she didn’t shout or move away. She just silently accepted the deluge of energy that he fed her.
And what a flow it was! His vast mana pool was pumping into her at an extraordinary rate. He knew she had started off very low, but how deep was her mana pool anyway? How much could she handle?
The thought occurred to him too late, because the warning signs were already there. In two seconds flat of this extreme charging, she was quivering with energy. Her skin was heating up and her stomach muscles tensed beneath his hands.
“Veylor, it’s too much!”
He cut the Mana Conduit, but it was already too late. She had been filled beyond her capacity, and the extra mana was boiling up her insides. Veronica had Mana Strain!