Ivan awoke with a start. He sat up in bed and his hands immediately rose to shelter his head. It was a vain attempt as the pain taken as some kind of threat was coming from within his skull. Yet all the same he clung to himself and eventually rolled over to wrap himself in pillows and blankets once more to hide away from the stabbing light of the morning sun.
He recoiled from himself in the depths of his blankets as a sensation of blood covered hands was recalled to his memory. Rising slightly in the blankets, he opened his eyes and stared at his hands. They were both as clean as they had come out of the bath last night.
He remembered where he was then . Suther's Ford. It was a little town near a collection of streams that eventually became the river heading south into the sea. Taking a canoe from here and riding the currents would be an excellent way to reach River Run if he so desired that. He had come here with Myrn and Davian, both new friends, and allies for the moment.
Ivan rose further trying to sort his memory. His limbs were filled with a stinging, burning sensation. His eyes ached. The sun was too bright. He swatted at his face thinking for a moment he had sat up in a cobweb that had come free of the Inn's walls or maybe a new design made by a spider in the night. The inn was cheap, but not terrible and he hadn't been overly impressed by the room. The blankets and pillows were clean however and the same could be said for the dining area and the food prepared. It was a decent place, a building first made cheaply that had been passed on down the family, but ultimately was in its last years of service before ultimately needing to be torn down and rebuilt by the now moderately successful family who cared for it.
Ivan looked away from the morning light peeking in from under the window curtains. He tried to look up and around for what had disturbed his head space, but the area above the bed was clean and tidy. The plaster was only flaking near the corners and no spider web caught the morning light.
He felt the tugs again, and his head ached a little with it. His mind paired the tugs with sounds coming from the rooms beside him. Myrn and Davin were both rising, washing, and getting their things together. He couldn't feel their movements through the tethers as well as he could hear them, but he felt their moods embracing the day to come. Excitement, a little wonder, curiosity, and some more mundane fresh morning thoughts as they fought off the remaining fingers of sleep.
Ivan raised his hand into the air before him.
“Inspect Person.” He muttered into the empty air of his room.
Inspect Person. No Target Found. Inspecting Self.
Ivan of the Ivory Red Skin Tribe, Son of Nathaniel, Male
Jobs: Thief Level 5, Amateur Assassin Level 2, Knight Level 10, Fighter Level 10, Warrior Level 5, Squire Level 5, Gardner Level 5, Occult Ritualist Level 3, Hedge Doctor Level 6
Ivan scrubbed his eyes, noticing the increase to his Occult Ritualist job. And then doubled back. Something in his head stung and he read the scroll once more.
Inspect Person. No Target Found. Inspecting Self.
Ivan, Son of Nathaniel, Male
He blinked and read it one more time. This time he had noticed Amateur Assassin had increased. Ivan scrolled through and found his change log to make sure he hadn't missed anything else. It denoted something that must have happened to him last night. He blinked, and stared at his hand for a moment. The burning tingle ran through his limbs still, and his mind was recovering something. A memory of the night before surfaced as though coming out of a pool of warm blood.
He stared at his hand, and brought up the other to behold in front of his eyes. His clean hands...he stared and remembered. He felt the connection to Penelope somewhere deep inside him now, and felt her resting somewhere within the deeper shadows of Shroud, just outside the bounds of the area where he could store things, and inevitably– undoubtedly, bring people.
The two he had brought in last night had been terrified. He had dragged them both into the dark realm of the Shroud and killed them for no more than Penelope had begged him to do it. The innocent young couple had likely never harmed anyone. They likely were about as far as they could be from being justified victims of Ivan's rage and quest for revenge, but he felt nothing. He knew they were innocent, but at the same time he could feel contempt that they would...that they would what? Dare to be free to fall in love? -And something else. He felt…
He clenched his fists and analyzed the sensations running through his body. The burning sting remained, but it was strange. It felt...good. And when he reflected on what he had done, when he set aside the other strange feelings about that night he felt...satisfied.
A cold dark thought formed as though made of the echo of his own voice.
'Why should they enjoy their love when mine was stolen from me?'
He heard the thought and knew it was his own. For a moment...for a moment he had thought perhaps Penelope had done something to him, but he knew this thought was his own. Some part of him wanted to let his rage wash over anyone who got in his way, and he knew by what he had remembered that Penelope's efforts through suggestion had been slight and likely involuntary at best.
Something surged in him, pulsing, and the stinging sensation rose in his chest and arms, and then finally down into his legs with each beat of his heart.
“I'm sorry Ivan.” Penelope whispered. “That didn't happen how I had wanted it to. The Binding of Desire is a succubus's ritual of binding. I meant to use only Rituals of Shadow and Blood with you, but you...” She went on, her voice breaking into soft and uncertain tones.
Instead of continuing she let him feel something of herself, leaving her mind and emotions unguarded. It was a great way to lie to people with high insight if one was good at it, and what little he had learned of it was mostly to keep himself out of trouble even while under the insightful gaze of his adoptive mother. Not to mention the Goddess herself, but she always saw through him; as one would expect.
Penelope showed him the shame she felt for giving into her instincts in that way, carefully limiting all else so Ivan might have a chance to understand her sincerity. The weight of her guilt wasn't the crushing despair Ivan knew for failing Tanya, but it told of the damage to her pride letting herself go away from her plans, and especially endangering them, had done.
“I gave in. I'm sorry.” Ivan whispered back. He couldn't remember the nightmare that had woken him, but he knew Penelope had tried to comfort him. He often remembered her touch on his troubled dreams when he woke. It was always some suggestion or another, but it drew him away from the deeper pain of the nightmare. In a way it helped him rest. In the end she was just trying to help him, wasn't she?
“It's my fault Ivan.” Penelope insisted. “There's little point in discussing which of us is the elder and which of us holds responsibility. I am even to be your guide and I almost failed in that last night. The watchman nearly caught us in the act, but you were able to shoulder my mistake. I'm sorry.”
Ivan touched his head, his brain ached whenever he used mana. Even inspecting himself, something the Scribe job with its lowly mana pool could do dozens of times per hour, hurt his head like someone had stabbed his brain with a hot needle. His thoughts fought through the pain of hundreds of little stabbing hot tacks to draw on the new information contained within the spell school of Demonology 1.
“You're a powerful demonic spirit, inhabiting a body that can only contain a part of your power.” Ivan replied with a soft grunt of pain. “You're probably having difficulties controlling and behaving in your demonic body since it's less of a puppet and more of a temporary flesh suit filled with as much of your essence as you can fit in it right?”
Penelope was silent for a while. Ivan still couldn't sense where she was hidden within the Shroud. He had the sudden feeling that she was good enough at hiding herself that even within a realm connected to his soul she could camouflage herself.
“That means what you are now is pretty much a childish version of yourself. Indulgent, impatient, and eager to follow its instincts.” Ivan continued.
Penelope stepped forward from the shadows within the Shroud. Ivan blinked and crossed his fingers in a steeple as his senses poured over the changes in her form. The change was startling.
Penelope abashedly covered her breasts with one hand, the other glided over top the exposed strip of bare flesh between her legs. She was taller, her chosen horns, shadowy antlers this time, larger and swooping things. Her body was more muscular. Her frame and cloven goat feet were larger in scale. Her claws were about an inch long from the tips of her fingers and as sharp as any natural predators. Her tail had grown from a goat's hand length stub to a short, thin, and furred prehensile whip tipped with a long fluffy knot at the end. The knot seemed to be the retracted form of some kind of tail meant for flight seeing as it had little fingers that would stretch and spread. Which made sense as the largest change to her form by far was the meter wide bat-like wings sprouting from either hip.
She was still pale and lovely as ever where her skin showed, but now instead of some shadowy fae creature lost in some dark forest she seemed a proper demon, and more specifically, a succubus in truth. Her body was full and tempting with all sorts of new and luscious curves. Her mouth in her heart shaped face seemed to beg to be kissed, but at least her eyes were the same and the silken fur that covered even less of her body now than before.
Her amber iris stretched wide with her lack of focus on anything within the shadowy dimension of the Shroud. At least until she came out of the Shroud with the slightest suggestion of his will.
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Penelope was nearly as tall as he was now, and still she hunched down and shielded herself with her wings. She even changed her horns again as she came free of the deep shadows. Now they were thick curling rams horns guarding the sides of her face like an insects mandibles. Her feet were silent on the wooden floorboards of the cheaply built in.
Ivan touched her chin, and then her lips and mouth with one hand. With the other he guided her hands away from covering her form. Meanwhile her eyes narrowed to a nearly human circular with the small exception that they were still black all the way around inside or out of the amber iris.
“You're even more beautiful than before.” Ivan said, indulging some part of his mind that knew this 'standard' shape of her was something created through both her own personal image of herself, and the limits of his own power. It came with the same deep feeling of satisfaction he felt over killing the two innocents, even if some part of his mind recoiled from the very idea of what he had done. It didn’t seem an unfair trade now that he could see and touch her new form anyway.
Penelope's shyness faded and she came into his personal space with the familiarity of a lover. Ivan knew somehow she would turn him away if he tried anything, but she wasn't going to stop him from appreciating the new form granted to her by their combined efforts. Her wings moved, twitching in a manner like small clawed hands in soft leather blankets, as he ran his fingers down her sides and to her hips, and to the new muscle that allowed the wings to move.
“Can you fly now?” Ivan asked.
“I could probably glide.” Penelope answered with a great deal of uncertainty. “Even that might take some getting used to with how these things are positioned.”
Ivan nodded.
Penelope's gaze darted up to his eyes, and she blushed. The soft pink of its color spread down her neck and to her arms. Her form seemed filled with new and potent vitality. Her flawless pale skin was even more silken to the touch than it had been before. She was flawless, soft, and perfect as always, but there was something more about her skin that begged to be touched and adored.
“How strong are you now?” Ivan asked, and he looked to his conjured scroll, still active from when he had summoned it before.
A brief chant and inspection showed Penelope the same as always at a first glance, but with the addition of the Binding of Desire. Occult Ritualist level 3, and that binding ritual seemed to have granted them both a largely expanded mana pool, and something else. He found the skill in his standard breakdown and willed it to show more detail, his hands never leaving Penelope's new soft curves as he read and waited for her to answer.
Occult Ritualist Level 3
Job Perks:
Occult Familiarity, Perk: Gained at level 1. Occult creatures will recognize you as one of their own, sometimes even without a proper inspection or even while your status is hidden. This Perk grants a small bonus to use of Occult Items making them more efficient in use, and more effective in application.
Pupil of the Occult, Perk: Gained at level 2. Your commitment to the Dark Arts has increased the chance of you manifesting skills and magic originating from Occult Spell Schools, Creatures, and Arts. This also increased the chances of you obtaining the magical knowledge of whole Occult Spell Schools when advancing a sufficiently sophisticated Occult Job.
Occult Specialty, Perk: Gained at Level 3. To be dedicated is to have a goal in mind. You have come this far by practicing and enacting a similar set of rituals and as such you've gained the right to knowledge to aid you on your way. This Perk grants access to one Spell School based upon the specific nature of the Occult practices you have been following.
Additional information: This Perk has granted the Demonology Spell School to you as a passive skill. You may now actively use mana and practice any form of meditation to learn more about anything contained within Grade 1 of the Demonology Spell School. This skill is bound to the Occult Ritualist Job and will not allow you to cast spells contained within Demonology Spell School until you have manifested an appropriate Job or Magic Spark.
Attribute Perks: Occult Ritualist provides a minor rate of increase to Wisdom, Mental Fortitude, Insight, and Perception with each level it gains. Occult Ritualist provides an increasing addition of mana to the Job owners mana pool with each level. Occult Ritualist provides a moderate increase of the Intelligence attribute with each level.
“I can cast much more magic now. My Vitality and Endurance have increased the most, but everything else is much higher too, especially my strength and charisma.” Penelope summarized for him, she was still blushing, and tried to say more, but he stopped her by simply moving his hand over his skin.
Ivan looked her up and down while seeking with his mind. He ignored the sting of using mana as much as with his will as he simply used the pleasant sensations that spread through him just by touching Penelope to override the pain. She was breathing harder than she needed to under his caress and she seemed hardly able to resist his gentle and innocent petting.
He found the answer within the basics lessons of Demonology 1. She was a kind of demon highly reliant on something called Summoned Familiarity. Succubus, and their male counterparts, the Incubus, Masked Demons, and a good number of other demons were all a type of spirit called Incarnations of Emotion. Demonic Sirens were Incarnations of Loss, and certain demonic slimes were similarly Incarnations of Gluttony and Sloth. Imps were Incarnations of Greed. Incarnations of Hate had many forms including Fiends of all kinds, to Hell Hounds, and on to massive creatures like Demonic Charbydus, and other demon leviathans.
All types of these incarnations when summoned and bound to their conjurers gained great power and benefits from raising their Summoned Familiarity. That could be done by simply getting to know the demonic spirit, repeated summonings, offerings, and the addition of more permanent binding rituals. There seemed to be other summoned demons and otherwise that didn't benefit at all from increasing this tertiary Attribute, but it seemed that most demons as Ivan knew them did. He glanced at his scroll and saw Penelope's summoned familiarity attribute, according to his inspection of her willing being they had a high familiarity.
And that just made him think of how glad he was to have Penelope. A malevolent little stream of pride rushed through him as ran his hands over her soft, vulnerable, and silken skin of her arms and shoulders. Her hair was longer too now, but that like her horns could be changed with ease.
Her new shape was so pleasing he found himself thinking of ways he might praise her for it. She was certainly the best option he could have wished for. She was wise, and so very, very beautiful. The ways he might praise her seemed to be things she might just let him do too. Many of them didn't involve words at all, and he almost forgot where he was or what he was meant to be doing as he considered them.
He shook himself from those thoughts, and Penelope took the chance to fully shield herself with her wings. Losing the sight of her naked body seemed to help clear his mind more, but it hadn't exactly been as before. There was no intoxication, just a little excitement, and a feeling of confidence that rose as she gave into every little touch a little more.
No—not that...It wasn't…
Ivan struggled. His head ached. His body still felt like someone had poured boiling water through his veins.
“What was I doing...just now?” Ivan asked.
“You were charming me.” Penelope answered softly. “It's dangerously difficult for me to chance resisting you right now, but it would be even worse if you dragged Myrn or one of the serving girls in here and had them. You're not ready.”
“Ready for what?” Ivan asked. “I thought you wanted me to change. You've told me to take Myrn, and other girls before. I kept ignoring what you really meant, but you mean doing things like last night don't you?”
“Yes.” Penelope whispered. “Except more, and less. Last night you gave me service, and offered me tribute after retrieving a sacrifice. Before then taking Myrn or some other girl would have simply pushed you to where you are now. If you take one of them now you'll kill them before you understand what you're doing. It will change you, but in this state you'd lose yourself. You would be like an animal and I don't want that.”
Ivan stared at her for a moment, taking in her words, and using some little more to check what information his instincts suggested might lay within Demonology to support what she was saying. It stung, but her words held true. Though where he found the information was in a warning about being turned into a demon's puppet through its corruption and inability to resist their 'constant' attempts to blind them to the changes that corruption brought. It specifically mentioned Succubus and Incubus being dangerous as they had a natural 'charm' like magic effect that could bypass and lower the Mental Fortitude Attribute.
Ivan shook his head at the conflicting information even if it proved his point. He looked to Penelope about to ask when he saw her stricken face. She grimaced and turned her face and eyes from him. He thought again about exactly what she had said, and through his headache, he recalled the words exactly.
He took hold of her chin and turned her face toward him.
Her eyes burned with rage for a moment before they went wide as he came close. He kissed her softly on the forehead and then raised the Shroud with one arm casting it over her. She remained for a little time with the shadow of the billowing Shroud, and after a moment she was clinging to him with her new wing limbs and her arms both.
“You don't want a mindless lust puppet at the end of this?” Ivan asked, his voice a cold and bare whisper like a blade.
“Our contract...” Penelope began diplomatically.
Ivan nodded, cutting her off, and brushed her cheek with his free hand. The other he put over her shoulder and used to draw her even closer to him. Her shoulders were stiff for just a moment, but then she went soft and she let out a shuddering breath.
“No...” Penelope whispered, her voice weary with honesty. “I want you to feel tempted, I want you to ignore it, and then I want you to do it anyway with a clear head and mind.”
She whispered as though the words hurt her, though what little of her face he could see showed that she was smiling, and by the tears, crying as well. They had this conversation before Ivan realized, but instead of addressing it he only nodded as she let him feel her desperate shame once again. It was the only thing she could do right then to ask for mercy. So in the end, seeking not to ignite that shame into bitter anger toward him he gave her said mercy.
Without another word or sound she slipped into the Shroud.
Ivan tried to center himself as he felt Penelope settle into the shadowy realm within him. His hands still felt as though they were dripping in blood, his limbs burned, his head ached; especially near the front of his head on the left side, and least of all he wasn't exactly excited to put his feet back in his worn out old boots.
He needed new gear. His sword was fine, and likely would be for a thousand years or more without something more magical set against it than the weather and time. He had run the rest of what little gear he saved ragged with his blind struggling, and the almost senseless journey Penelope had barely prevented from becoming a descent into madness. He reflected on that, flexing his hands, and feeling the sting with each movement as he did. His mind buzzed with thoughts enough to push through the aching, but he didn't linger on them any longer. He needed to get moving and fit in with Myrn and Davian.
He collected his boots and washed his face. He had no real pack or baggage any more, but did in fact have a good deal of supply within the Shroud. Already he could sense them, and the shelves that had appeared though they were false to the true image of the garden graveyard that was now his abandoned home. He could probably change the image within the Shroud now if he wanted, but he decided not to waste time trying. There would be time for that later, and besides, it was a good reminder to keep him focused.
He was making his way downstairs when he met Myrn coming back up. She blushed upon seeing him, but smiled warmly.
“I was just coming to double check you were still here. Good. For a moment we thought you had run off on us or something.”
Ivan smiled at her, but shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
“I slept in a little late. All that walking and talking yesterday must have worn me out. That or the good company gave me a little more peace of which to rest my mind.” He said softly.
Myrn's smile faltered a little, but warmly. She didn't know exactly what to say, and Ivan found himself reacting quickly.
Heat filled his cheeks, and he mirrored her flush of embarrassment.
Myrn picked up on the reaction instantly, and his light show of emotion through her Insight, and she acted quickly to take the bait.
“No, no Ivan—I understand.” She blinked as he gave her a friendly, but sharp look when she used his real name.
Her eyes went wide.
“Isaac. I mean. But I totally understand. My parents remember? I still don't know how they're doing or if they're even okay.”
Ivan nodded and was about to say more when Myrn reached out with an inquisitive hand to touch his face.
“Sorry...it's just...” She mumbled as she looked into his eyes.
Ivan blinked a few times, and then came down a few steps to stand with her on the same stair. It put them close, but other than withdrawing her hand she seemed comfortable. She was even looking eagerly into his eyes now that they were standing on level.
“I haven't contracted pink eye or something have I?” Ivan asked, turning his head a little side to side to aid her inspection of him.
“Do you...feel funny at all today? Maybe even a little achy?” Myrn asked.
Ivan raised his eyebrows.
“A little, but it's probably just fatigue.” Ivan answered honestly.
“Are you sure? There's not any sort of strange tingling going on with your hands or your skin, or maybe a strange headache?” She asked, her eyes almost gleaming with held back excitement, though they still shone with care as she questioned him.
“Actually...” Ivan muttered, and before he could say more Myrn was clasping him in a tight hug.
The soft impact of her body against his own hit him like a rush of some kind of drug or powerful medicine. He had to fight to clear his mind, and keep both it and his body from expending any mana or even moving at all. In a moment he had the reins to his thoughts back in hand.
'Mindless lust puppet no kidding!' He thought dryly.
“I knew it! I knew it right away! You've been struggling a little, but now you're well fed and on the mend. You're pushing new boundaries too so it makes sense that way too!” Myrn said excitedly as she drew away from him. Her hands remained on his shoulders, but she was practically bouncing on her toes.
“What do you mean?” Ivan asked gently, genuinely confused as to what she meant.
“Your eyes changed. Between last night and now. They've gone a little purple instead of just blue. It's not much of a change, but I can see it, and if I focus I think I just feel the first little bits of the power coming to you!”
Ivan blinked, lacking understanding, but Myrn's expression lit up all the same.
“Come on, we've got some breakfast coming. We can talk about it down there.” She insisted with both the eagerness of her words and with her hands as she took hold of him and dragged him along.