"Lorissa," Stanton said. "I have arranged for her tuition in a general remedial course and a certificate of combat magery." He gestured to Lorissa. "I understand she needs a tutor for the remedial course, and I will fill that role myself. I've already talked to my general magery professor and they have okayed it." With each extra bit he added paperwork—filled out as required—to the stack before the administrator.
"This all appears in order. Your payment slip is signed and I assume you can assert your own identity Miss Lorissa…?" Looking at the woman beside Stanton, the administrator didn't betray her emotions (or her possession of any proof she could feel them) at all. At the look of surprise, she clucked her tongue softly. "You'll have to make a declaration to the local lord-magistrate and then return with that."
"I can't believe th—" Lorissa started before seeing Stanton's hand come up.
"What else?" Stanton asked.
The administrator reached up and adjusted her glasses. "I am sure I have no idea what—"
"After the identity paperwork, what would be the next thing you send us out for?" Having heard about the way Cassandra got treated whenever she had to submit paperwork, Stanton had hoped this wouldn't happen. "Why?"
"All the required paperwork for admission is required before we can—" The next slip of paper hit the bench before the administrator made her nervous. It was a folded, sealed piece of stationary that she recognized as belonging to the arch-magus dean of the school. Reaching her hand out she began the process of breaking the seal.
"You don't have to open it," Stanton said. "You could simply process the paperwork before you and register Lorissa for her classes."
Hand shaking now, the administrator stared at the folded paper as if it were going to trigger an explosion. "Process…" Reaching instead for the paperwork, she triggered her magical duplicator and then stamped the copies one at a time. Finally, she signed the two admission forms, duplicated those, and slipped them toward Lorissa. All that was left on her bench was that letter from the arch-magus dean of the academe.
Picking up the letter, Stanton slipped it into his jacket's inner pocket. "Thank you for being so helpful." Only when they were outside of the office did Stanton let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that bluff worked."
"You were bluffing? She seemed to think the letter was real." An exciting buzz vibrated through her as she realized she was really going to learn magic.
"It is real. It's also over a year and a half old. The dean sent me a congratulations letter when I was accepted. I didn't open it because he'd handed it to me himself, and I didn't need to read it. Also, I thought it might come in handy as a bluff one day." At Lorissa's shocked expression, he asked, "What's up?"
"You planned to use that letter for a bluff over a year ago?" It was shaking every aspect of her being, so much so that she slipped out a "Nya" too.
"Kat is leaking there, but yes. I did that because I knew that if I needed to make this bluff one day, I'd need the perfect and unadulterated prop. It can't even be a prop—it has to be the real thing here, because she would have known the difference. The rest of it was bluffing and building her a way out of her horrible make-work."
"Yeah, but why? Why all that preparation? Do you have the ability to divine futures?"
"I'm a noble. We're born watching our backs and expecting a double-cross before we can even say the word. Worse, I had two different families vying to teach me, which meant using me as a tool against the other. I had to prove to both that I wouldn't sell their secrets and wouldn't sell them secrets on the other half."
"Stanton!" Cassandra spotted her friend walking from the administration wing of the school beside another woman. At first she felt possessive anger rise, but tapped it down quickly. "Hey, uh, you made it back I take it?"
"Yeah, Lorissa—Wait." Halting in his tracks, Stanton lowered himself to one knee before Cassandra. "Lady Cassandra, I so humbly apologize for being an ass and sending mixed signals w—Are you laughing?"
Trying to stop her giggles, Cassandra waved away Stanton's attempts to grip her hand and hold it to his lips. "Yes. You're infuriating."
Tall, red hair, and a half elf. Lorissa bit her lower lip as she looked over Cassandra. "Stanton, please introduce me to this stunning beauty."
Cassandra froze in her tracks at the description. For a moment she thought to look around for whom Lorissa might be talking about, but the woman was giving Cassandra the same kind of look she'd seen hungry people reserve for an oversize meal. "I—"
"Lorissa, this is Cassandra, a good friend and maybe a bit more. She normally goes by Cass. Cass, this is Lorissa. She kinda-sorta saved me when I got kidnapped by a bunch of bandits on the train." At Cassandra's unbelieving stare, Stanton looked to Lorissa. "She doesn't believe me. We—We got in a bit of a fight that I will admit was my fault. She left for a bit and I—"
"The train got stopped by a terribly handsome brigand and his gang. I fought them off single-handedly," Lorissa said, miming using a rapier. "Even had to use one of my wands." She mimed drawing a wand and firing it. "Of course, he was prettier at the time. Thought I'd found myself the perfect woman to settle down with."
Losing control of her laughter again, Cassandra picked up what Lorissa was putting down; seeing that her Stanton was not the target of Lorissa's attention. It placated her to find out this new woman intruding on their circle wasn't trying to elbow into her attempts at making Stanton into an honest man. Of course, it was about then she realized Lorissa was making those hungry eyes again. "Uh, I guess I should thank you for bringing him home. The academe would be terrible without having—" Stanton was grinning at her in a way that she recognized meant he had her caught about to say something. "Stanton, I went too far and I knew it. I prodded and prodded you, personally, when it's the system I hate. Sorry."
Stanton's mouth fell open when Cassandra spun on her heel and walked away from them. He could move scary-fast, but he wouldn't dare try to touch her now. "Cass, you want to hang out tonight?" he called after her.
A bubbly happiness welled up inside Cassandra. She looked back over her shoulder and saw a smiling Stanton—a Stanton that somehow understood her need to vent on his whole social class—and gave him her own smile. "Meet you at my place?"
"Sure," Stanton said.
As she walked off from the pair, Cassandra felt comfortable in the absolute knowledge that Lorissa wasn't interested in guys—and so Stanton wasn't kinda-not-sorta cheating on her. She grumbled once, a concession to her mercurial draconic emotions, as she rounded the corner. She had to go to her last class of the day and then see what the Evil Pig of Evil had done to her minions. When she'd left, he was so assured that he could make a proper army out of them that he had her believing it—for the five minutes it took her to walk to school.
Cassandra's last class was dragging on, which sounded stupid even in her head and totally not a good pun. It was a required class on magic safety. She totally understood the need for other students to study it, but she was almost immune to her own magic now, so she figured it was a good class to sleep through.
Not that she actually slept. The class always got interesting when the lecturer got to the bits about how simple screw-ups could cause lots of damage. It was interesting to study them as uses of her magic.
A glance at the clock revealed it was five minutes before the lecture would end, and the lecturer started winding things up with a brief recapping when there was a knock on the lecture room door. The knocking person opened it to reveal a City Guard uniformed woman. She marched into the room as if she owned it, giving a nod to the lecturer.
"As some of you may have heard, there's rumors of a beast in Conjur that is attacking indiscriminately."
That made Cassandra fume. She hadn't been indiscriminate, she had only attacked werewolves. Werewolves and that stupid werecat! Werewolves, that stupid werecat, and the City Guard who'd gotten in her way. Werewolves, the stupid werecat, the City Guard who'd gotten in her way, and that noble in the city market. She was fully aware of how stupid that sounded, but it was the point of things. Apart from self defense, she'd only attacked nobles!
"I'm here to tell you that it's not a rumor. The facts are, there is some kind of monster, it seems to be masquerading as a dragon, it is able to shrug off direct magic attacks and seems to be able to make some of its own."
Holding herself in check only through a supreme force of will, Cassandra contemplated the delight of giving up her masquerade, turning into her dragon form, and attacking the annoying guard just to see their surprise. The fantasy was enough to keep her from losing it completely.
"Do not engage with the creature unless you are cornered. If you must, though, one of our experts has recommended using water magic specifically, which would disrupt their ability to use their own preference, which is lightning. Stay safe." With that, the guard turned and left the room—as the bell sounded an end to the school-day.
Cassandra let out a sigh of relief. Standing up, she lifted her notebook and pencils and stowed them inside her robes' hidden pocket. Halfway on her walk home, the sky opened up and it started to pour down with rain. Cassandra worked a quick spell that would zap any raindrops that came near her with enough electricity to vaporize them, and kept walking.
The crackling of the air immediately above her head, though, was nothing compared to what the thunderheads in the sky were doing. The sound of them and the distinctive smell of ozone made Cassandra's tail swish in excitement. Which was when she realized her tail had started growing out and was only barely hidden by her robe.
She couldn't focus on it enough—not with the excitement of the storm boiling in her blood—and with a final sigh ignored it and hurried home faster. The last half a block was very hard not to leave her clothes and form behind and soar into the clouds.
As she reached the front door of her dorms, though, she bit back the urge and stepped out of the storm and into the building. It was easier, once inside, to banish her tail and take back her human form quickly. She vowed to deal with the hole in her underwear as soon as possible and to thank whatever insight drove her to wear a dress rather than pants that day.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Cass!" Stanton was on his feet in an instant when Cassandra walked into the common lounge of the dormitory. "You didn't get caught in that storm, did you?"
Snuffing out her spell, Cassandra rolled her eyes. "There was only a little rain and lightning. One is my element and the other can't survive a little zap. Where's your new friend?" It surprised her to not see Lorissa with Stanton—she had assumed they would have been together.
"She's got stuff to study. I should too, but I don't mind spending some time with the most amazing lightning mage in the city." He was laying it on thick, but Cassandra was someone he was comfortable flirting with. She blushed, sure, but Stanton knew how she would react. "So, want to go somewhere?"
The thing Cassandra wanted to do was grab Stanton, fly high into the sky with him, and show him what it was like to soar through thunderheads on crackling wings. She only realized she'd been caught in a daydream when she heard him clear his throat. "S-Sorry. What?"
Reaching up to his collar, Stanton adjusted it a little. "Am I really so handsome as to steal the very thoughts from your head?"
Groaning, Cassandra couldn't help but laugh at Stanton. "You are the most vain person I know. Come here," she said, reaching out and pulling him to her to hug. It was odd, she realized only a moment after he let himself be gathered up, since she had never initiated this kind of closeness before. He shifted a little in her arms and hugged her back. "I'm sorry about the train. I think this familiar thing might be messing with me a little."
Careful to not press his restrained breasts against Cassandra's body directly, Stanton was happy enough to be hugged by not just a beautiful woman, but one he hoped would be a close friend for most of their lives. "Cass, maybe you should see someone about it? I am hardly the best to talk about a weird familiar bond—you've met Angel—but she hasn't changed who I am inside."
Hugging Stanton a little tighter, Cassandra hated that she'd been forced to lie to him. It was part of who she was now, but she couldn't tell him she was a dragon. It was too big, though, and she needed to get better control. "I'm still me, but I need to work on my control. Remember how we used to joke about magic users who gained traits of their element?"
"I guess I'm lucky you're not a fire mage, then. Lightning I can at least ground out and deflect. I don't know if you flinging fireballs at me would be so easy to deal with." Giving Cassandra one last squeeze, Stanton relaxed his grip and waited for her to do the same. "I'm dreading the next meeting with Mother. She's going to have a queue of girls lined up, I know it."
Slumping against him, Cassandra hadn't realized how much that event—as something definite rather than nebulously in the future—would hit her. "Stanton?"
Finding Cassandra heavier than he would have thought, Stanton nonetheless supported her and used one hand to tilt her chin up so he could look in her eyes. "What's u—" He didn't get any further. Her lips were soft, full, and the urgency she pressed them against his seemed like she was on fire. Without any say in it, he felt his eyelids flutter closed as she seemed to take more charge of things.
When she realized she'd leaned Stanton back and was leaning over him, Cassandra shivered a little—but her draconic side liked being in control. "Sorry," she said, the moment she'd regained her poise and surrendered his lips.
"Cass, you don't ever have to apologize for that. I spent a few days dressed as a woman, remember?" After he said it, Stanton realized he'd left out some of the sentiment because of his more unique angle. Pushing on, he hoped she hadn't noticed. "I won't claim to know how women think or even how other men think, but Cass, I am not so maladjusted that I can't enjoy a moment like that with you."
It stung Cassandra that she could find someone as genuinely nice to be around as Stanton only for him to be not merely noble, but high enough up that ladder as to be impossible to keep for herself. One thing occurred to her, though. She was a dragon. If the system sucked, she just had to change the system—all of the system. No more nobles and peasants. Everyone would be equal—and hers.
New resolve settled itself in Cassandra. She vowed that not a single ounce of her humanity would get between her and her goal of ruling the country. There were obstacles, mostly right now it was Super Lupine Girl and Kat, but she would be merciless in their next fight. She would pound the two until they lay broken before her. "How long can you delay her for?"
"Huh? Mother? Cass, what are you talking about? Please don't do anything rash." Despite telling her to leave well enough alone, a tiny bloom of hope inside Stanton made him bite his lower lip at the very thought of being able to choose who he wanted to marry. She kissed him again—another possessive one—and then broke the kiss. "Cass?"
"I've got an idea, Stanton. I promise I can help."
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Starting at the start of a magic book was boring, but Lorissa only had to look around Stanton's study to see all the books he'd read to realize there were going to be a lot of books in her future. It was an acceptable price to pay for being able to use magic.
She'd forgone the chair, though, since it had an annoyingly solid back that had no room for her tail, and was laying back on the table itself with the book held above her. On her belly was Swiftpaw, but he had earned his place of pride and warmth by dint of being an amazing sword-cat.
The book was talking a lot about breathing and focusing and doing stuff that wasn't magic. She huffed. "Nya, this isn't about magic at all. They must have given me the wrong book."
Almost getting jostled, Swiftpaw opened one eye and looked up Lorissa's tummy but couldn't see her face over the rise of her bust. "What is it about?"
"Breathing. Picturing places in the body and focusing. Nya. It's all—"
"That is magic, but also part of using a sword." Naps, it seemed, were so far out of Swiftpaw's reach that he was worried he might expire from being awake too long. "The way you use a sword now is inefficient. You swing and poke and do a lot of work without hitting."
"That's fencing, nya."
"No. That is a waste. You are a cat. Superb balance, lightning reflexes, and keen eyesight are your greatest traits. Use them—strike only once." Lifting a paw out from underneath him, Swiftpaw examined its underside and started to lick it.
"But they would—"
"Dodge them."
"How could I maneuver—?"
"Use your speed."
Lorissa paused for a moment to gather her thoughts and not ask another stupid question. When she was confident she had it, she asked, "So how do I make sure that one hit does its job?"
"You will learn how to hold a weapon with an edge like mine such that one strike is all you will ever need." Jumping down from Lorissa's tummy, Swiftpaw walked out the door and to Stanton's bedroom. "Closet, we need a bamboo sword and a training dummy." When the closet didn't seem to react, Swiftpaw arched his back and stretched. "But first I might need to use my tray—I guess some shoes would be easier." He took one step toward the closet before he spotted a basket of shinai sitting to one side along with a large, upright target made of crossed pieces of wood.
Understanding that her role for now would be gathering and carrying, Lorissa fetched the basket and the training target, apologized to the closet, and followed Swiftpaw to a room dominated by large padded targets. "Nya, is this where you want them?"
Her answer was for Swiftpaw to jump up and attach himself to her wand—reforming into a long, slender—and deadly—blade. Confused as to how he would be able to explain things now, Lorissa was about to voice her bewilderment when a ghostly blue-black glow appeared beside her. "Ahh!"
Only wearing hakama (a cross between a long skirt and pants), his chest bare, Swiftpaw watched as Lorissa hid behind the training target. "It is I, Swiftpaw Deathbringer, and I will teach you the proper way to use a sword."
Realizing it was her familiar and not an actual ghost, Lorissa perked up and walked closer. He resembled a ghost in that she could see through him, but there was a lot more going on. If there was ever a man (apart from Stanton) that she could call cute, it would definitely be Swiftpaw as he stood. He looked younger than her, she guessed at around eighteen or nineteen, he wore a billowy pair of pants and a pair of odd shoes that seemed to be a flat piece of some kind of wood with slats underneath them. His chest seemed smooth as his cheeks were not—above his neck, Swiftpaw had a cat's head with whiskers and fluffy ears she wanted to rub. Behind him a tail swayed slowly. "Hmmm. Yes. You are definitely cute, nya."
"I am not cute. I am a bringer of ends. A striker from the shadows. I—" Swiftpaw took a step back when Lorissa poked a finger into his chest. "Stop that."
"Why can't I touch you?" Lorissa asked, trying again.
"Because I'm a picture made from your magic. You can't— Stop that!" Glaring at Lorissa, Swiftpaw waited for her to subside before continuing. "Change into your gi and hakama."
Looking at the outfit, the pants matching Swiftpaw's but with a coat-like thing going over them, Lorissa raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to wear my outfit under this."
"No." Swiftpaw was adamant about this. "Wand, dress her as is required."
"Wait, I didn't—!" It was too late for Lorissa. Her wand (now the hilt of her katana) started to glow and she was pulled into the air. Her clothes melted away and a glowing white gi wrapped around her upper body while hakama slipped over her legs and up to her waist. "Wait! Hold it!"
The light faltered for a moment.
"At least give me some modesty here. The first time I get hit, this will fly open and I'll be exposed!"
Flickering a little, the light manifested a seemingly limitless ribbon of pink light that slipped under the gi and started to wrap around Lorissa—completely ignoring her indignant squeal. When it was done, she was plopped back down on the floor as the light faded. She was about to complain about the change, when she realized the wrapping felt like a second skin. "Hey, this isn't bad. Thanks, wand."
His eyes closed, Swiftpaw took two deep and completely unneeded breaths before he continued. "Okay. Put your sword back in its sheath and fetch your shinai. That's the sword made of bamboo."
Finding a sheath for her blade on her hip, Lorissa sheathed it carefully and then fetched the shinai. "Now what?"
"Now I teach you how to end lives," Swiftpaw Deathbringer said, sounding as awesome as ever—at least in his own mind.
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After spending several hours practicing stances, swings, and (what surprised her most) meditation, Lorissa was surprised at how good she felt. She had been working hard, yes, but with her enhanced speed and magic, she moved like the wind itself and was ready for even more. "Okay, what next?"
"Next you stand up and see Stanton. He opened the back door several seconds ago." With that said, Swiftpaw vanished and then erupted from Lorissa's scabbard to land on the floor beside her as a cat again. "You should keep the gi and hakama on. He will appreciate those."
When Lorissa walked into the sitting room, Stanton did a double-take at her. "New outfit?" His eyes lingered on her chest a little, hoping the pink ribbons there would part—but they didn't, no matter how much she moved.
"Told you," Swiftpaw whispered in Lorissa's ear from his place on her shoulder.
"Oh, this? Like it? Swiftpaw said it was required for learning kendo." She gave a little swish of her hips, though the hakama she wore occluded her curves. Stanton did look, though, which only encouraged her to show off more. "How did it go with you girlfriend?"
"She's not my— Okay, she kinda is. Ugh, she's planning something, but Mom will be organizing my future now that she knows." Stanton walked over to the most comfortable of the couch chairs and did his best to sit down angrily—though it was more like a flounce.
"Your mom knows about all"—Lorissa gestured at Stanton—"this?"
"She's a tactical genius who fought her way up through our house and the military with her strength and cunning. I wasn't stupid enough to try to outsmart her. Also, I'd rather have her on my side."
Making sure Swiftpaw had somewhere to settle, Lorissa sat down on the couch and twisted a little to keep her weapon from snagging. "So you give her control of your life?"
"Yeah. Give and take. All life is a negotiation and social conflict is rife—even with family. No," Stanton said, "especially with family."
Sighing, Lorissa narrowed her eyes at Stanton before another idea came to her. "When will you be meeting her again?"
Alarm bells rang in Stanton's head. He knew he'd be better at figuring out what for if only he wasn't getting tired. "Why?"
"Because I need to be introduced to her, if I'm going to be working with you to beat this dragon." Plans would need to be laid. Lorissa would have bet money that Cassandra hadn't bothered to meet his mother and talk to her. Besides, she was interested in him and was perfectly fine with his situation.
A mild panic ran through Stanton as he realized Lorissa was planning things that he was sure he couldn't predict.
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This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.