Cobalt's second weekend at the Brimstone Institute of Demonics was even more exhausting than his first. Not only did he struggle to keep on top of his paperwork, but the student populace seemed have lost what little respect for him they had; pushing him in the dormitory hallways, jeering at him in the courtyards, and throwing balls of paper at his head whenever they thought he wasn't looking. He tried to keep a brave face, but inside, he could feel his confidence crumbling. Clearly word of what happened in the canteen had spread like a wildfire, and there was no doubt that Whitney's 'friends' had massively blown the rumours out of proportion. As for the Nymph herself, she had returned to her parents' house for the weekend, so he had no clue as to how she was doing. He could only hope she was taking the time away to rediscover herself.
Eventually, Monday finally crawled around, kickstarting the Incubus' third week as a teacher. Though aching all over from another night hunched over his coffee-table-turned-office, Cobalt did his best to put on a brave façade. He had spoken to a few of his colleagues, and they had all given him the same advice; never show weakness to your students, for they were like beasts in that regard.
Unlocking his homeroom door, Cobalt was surprised to find that Quinn was already there, sitting on the teacher's desk.
"H- How did you get in here?!" he exclaimed, dropping his satchel.
"Windows weren't locked," the Imp replied simply, flicking peanuts into her mouth.
"This is the second floor!"
"Yeah, and?"
Sighing, Cobalt shook his head and rubbed his eyes, internally deciding that he was far too tired to question her motives. Gesturing for his student to stop sitting on his desk, he slumped into his chair and pulled out the student register. He tried to focus on organising the coming day, but a peanut bounced off his forehead, scattering his thoughts once more.
"So, what went on with Whitters?" Quinn queried.
"We, um... We had a chat, regarding her behaviour, and I believe she has taken my advice to heart. Hopefully..."
Quinn nodded and picked at something between her teeth with one of her teacher's pens.
"Huh. I heard the last guy who gave her a tongue-lashing like you did got sacked. Damn near the whole bloody dorm was betting one when the headmistress kicks you out."
As the the colour drained from the Incubus' face and his whole body froze up, the Imp got to her feet and strode towards the classroom door.
"I got a tenner riding on you lasting the week, so I got your back. Sorta," she quipped with a cackle.
Before Cobalt could form a reply, she frowned and glanced down at her watch.
"Bollocks, need to go wake Lottie. Mark me present, yeah? I'll be back by first period!"
He didn't react even as she slammed the door shut behind her. He just sat there, staring blankly at the pages in front of him. Again and again, Cobalt silently cursed himself for stepping out of line when he shouldn't have. Morals bedamned; it wasn't worth losing his job over.
The Incubus jolted as the door opened, but he relaxed upon recognising who had entered.
"Ah, good morning Jelli," Cobalt stammered, doing his best to wipe the panicked look off his face.
"G- Guten... um... y- yeah..." came the Glutton's shaky reply, her eyes glued to the floor as she stepped over to her desk.
His brow furrowed. Even Jelli was giving him the cold shoulder...?
"Jelli, are you alright?" he asked, leaning forward.
She mumbled into her pencilcase, but once he repeated the question, Jelli nervously clutched her braids and looked him in the eye.
"I- It's Whitney... I- I never really knew her that well, but... um... wh- what did you do to her...?"
"What...?"
But she just shook her head, blushed profusely and sat down. Bit by bit, the rest of Class 2-F trickled into the classroom. Some were talking amongst themselves whilst others simply scrolled through their phones, but none would make eye contact with their teacher. Only Karazelle deigned to look at him when she arrived, and all she did was offer him a shrug before sitting down.
The painful sensation in his stomach only grew worse as the minutes ticked by. Slowly, Cobalt called role, feeling a lump form in his throat as he made to call Whitney Brode's name. But he had barely even formed the first syllable when a voice screeched from the door.
"SORRY I'M LATE, SIR!"
He knew in an instant that it was her. Looking up, Cobalt's tongue was once again stilled by what he saw.
Blue.
A bright, electric blue to be precise.
Whitney Brode - true to her word - had completely changed herself, and Cobalt could see in her eyes that she was better for it. Well, in her eye, to be precise, as she had brushed her fringe across the left side of her face. Though she still wore a few accessories here and there, her pointed ears were free of her weighty earrings, causing them to point outwards. Her hair was the most drastic change of all, as Whitney had gone and dyed it an incredibly loud shade of blue.
So this what everybody had been alluding to.
"M- Miss Brode, you're cutting it fine this morning," Cobalt stuttered, tearing his gaze away.
"Oh yeah, I overslept cuz I had an appointment last night," she responded, completely oblivious to the boggle-eyed stares of those who used to buzz around her like flies.
"An appointment? For what?"
"This!"
She stuck out her tongue proudly, revealing the metal stud pierced through it. Cobalt's eyes opened wide. Clearly Whitney was a completely different person beneath the façade she once wore. As he watched her collapse into her seat and immediately pull out her phone, the Incubus couldn't help but smile a little. No, he did a good thing. He was sure of it now. Seeing a smile like that on her face... it made it worth it.
His gaze slowly panned across the back of the classroom, before honing in on a rather conspicuous empty seat.
"No Izzbelle today, huh...?"
With a sigh, he marked the loudmouthed Oni absent and shut the class register. A new week had begun, and there was no sense in pondering what she was up to. If anything, his classes were likely to go smoother...
------
If there was one thing Cobalt Atticus Trayer seemed to excel at these days, it was being amazingly, spectacularly wrong.
His classes didn't go smoothly. Not at all.
Second period was Science with the first years, wherein one of the experiment groups decided that their time was better spent building an improvised explosive out of chemicals snuck from the supply room. Had Cobalt caught on to their scheme a minute later, the entire third floor may have gone up in flames. After that was Language with the third years, and while the risk of immolation wasn't as immediate, the experience was just as mentally draining. Halfway through a lesson on the usage of prefixes when speaking Tongues, a Succubus and a Golem got into a heated argument, which rapidly escalated into a brawl. Forced to separate the two, Cobalt wound up on the receiving end of more than a few slaps and scratches.
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By the end of the day, he was a weary mess, and he had only the cold, papery embrace of his core class' uncorrected assignments waiting for him back in his room. Sluggishly, he unlocked his room door and stumbled inside, only to crash into the individual who was already waiting for him. They both fell down upon the couch, but as Cobalt tried to extricate himself from the arms of the intruder, he heard a soft giggle.
"Oh sugar, here I have you right were I want you, and there's something more important to be done," sighed the sultry voice of Karazelle as a loving hand caressed one of his horns.
Crying out with shock, the Incubus staggered back onto his unchanged futon.
"K- Karazelle, what are you doing in here?!" he demanded, jabbing an accusing finger at her.
She rolled her eyes and crossed her legs.
"Okay, I guess there's no time to fool around..."
Leaning forward, the Succubus clasped her hands and fixed Cobalt with a serious stare.
"It's Izzbelle, sugar," she stated simply.
He raised an eyebrow at her words, but Karazelle's eyes glinted with worry.
"What's the matter?"
"She hadn't left her room all weekend, and when she didn't show for class, I got concerned. There was weird noises coming for her room, so I asked that Redtile girl to crack the lock, and... it's easier to explain if I show you."
Getting to her feet, Karazelle slid the window open and placed one bare foot upon the sill. Turning, she offered her teacher a hand. He blanched.
"You're not serious..." he breathed, leaning to the side to peer out the window.
It was already dark out, and to make matters worse, it was fixing to be a windy night. She wasn't seriously considering making him cross a forty year old support beam five stories off the ground, was she?
"Come on, sugar; you're the only one I can rely on for this!"
"B- But it's s- so high up..."
"You're not scared of heights, are you?"
"U- Um..."
With a sigh, Karazelle stepped down and placed a gentle hand on the side of Cobalt's face. It was warm, almost soothingly so.
"Okay, just hold my hand and shut your eyes. You'll be across before you know it," the Succubus whispered reassuringly.
He clenched his jaw and made to draw back, but something gave the Incubus pause. If Izzbelle truly was in trouble, then as her core teacher, was it not his duty to help her...?
With a wearisome sigh, Cobalt nodded begrudgingly.
"Alright... Lead the way."
Eyes clamped firmly shut, he allowed Karazelle's fingers to lock tightly around his. She tugged hard, forcing him to crawl out through his window and onto the support beam. Though he could not see, Cobalt could feel the chilly wind against the back of his neck and the crunch of rusted metal beneath his feet. With a quick qhisper of encouragement, his intrepid student quickly dragged him across, giving him barely a moment to contemplate the precariousness of his situation before he was sent tumbling through the open window on the other side of the gap. He cried out in pain as he bashed his horns off the floor, much to Karazelle's amusement.
"You can open your eyes now, sugar. Scary part's done with," she laughed.
Lying sprawled on the floor, he took a moment for his rapidly-beating heart to still. For Karazelle to fearlessly cross that beam nearly every night just to harass him... the girl's courage was almost admirable.
Open his eyes, he was dimly surprised to find him lying in what appeared to be a mirrored version of his own dorm room, but upon climbing to his feet and dusting himself down, it became more apparent to the Incubus that he was no longer in the boys' dorms. For one, the room was a lot tidier, and smelled more pleasant thanks to a diffuser that sat upon the chest of drawers. The walls had been plastered with posters, photographs and post-it notes, and the whole place was not illuminated by the bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, but rather by strings of purple LEDs that criss-crossed over his head.
"Kind of ironic, isn't it? I finally lure you into my room, only to lead you straight back out again," Karazelle sighed, stepping over to the door.
Her words stuck with him. That she considered Izzbelle - a rather prickly individual at best - to be important to her...
"Okay, stick close to me so everybody knows you've been invited. Don't want all the girls thinking you're some kind of pervert, do you sugar?" she quipped, gesturing for him to follow her.
And as soon as he begins to see her in a more noble light, she sullies her own image with more lurid jokes. Cobalt was beginning to see a pattern.
As he followed her out into the corridor, the Incubus saw that unlike the room he had just left, the halls of the girls' dorms were almost exactly like the boys, just with different names scrawled on the graffiti-covered walls. He had little time to peer around, though, as Karazelle was swift on her feet, and with the gazes of bystanders burning through him, he was forced to jog in order to keep up. They descended to the third floor, where a fair commotion had been kicked up. A crowd had gathered around one of the doors, clamouring to each other whilst trying to peek inside.
"Oi, oi! Get back! I got a Golem and I'm not afraid to use her!" cried a familiar cockney voice over the din.
Eyes wide, Cobalt followed Karazelle to the front of the dorm room door to see it guarded by a pair of his students. Quinn and Lottie flanked the doorway, doing their best to beat back the encroaching crowd.
"Kara, thank fuck you finally brought him. You'd think these birds been waiting on old Izzy's downfall," the Imp called, gesturing to the gaggle of rubberneckers.
"Karazez! You're back!" Lottie cried joyfully, giving the Succubus a quick hug.
"How is she?" Karazelle asked, patting the Golem's head as she pulled away.
Quinn shrugged and scratched her nose.
"Same as you left her. Jel's panicking up a storm in there, so watch yourself."
Nodding grimly, Karazelle motioned for Cobalt to swiftly follow her into Izzbelle's bedroom.
Whereas Karazelle's dorm smelled like flowers and perfume, the Oni's reeked of sweat and stale alcohol. The floor was a mire of strewn clothing, and every few steps Cobalt wound up stubbing his toe on an errant dumbbell or loose shotput. Over in the kitchenette, the panicked form of Jelli was frantically wetting a cloth in the sink, quietly yammering to herself in German. Upon noticing the pair, she cried out and dropped it on the floor. Tears were dripping down her cheeks.
"M- M- Mr. Trayer, you came!" Jelli stammered, plucking the sopping cloth off the tiles.
"I told you he would, honey. How's she doing?" Karazelle responded, hunkering down by the futon.
Jelli just shook her head, prompting Cobalt to crease his brow and gaze down upon the Oni shivering atop the sweat-soaked bedding.
He was no doctor, but the Incubus could see from a glance that Izzbelle was sick. Her normally-orange skin was a pale peach, and the sweat was pouring off her in rivulets. Heat was radiating off her in waves, and yet she shivered as though she were below zero. Again and again, she would wince in her sleep and murmur something unintelligible.
"I think she's having a fever dream. She's been stuck in here for three days," Karazelle stated, accepting the wet cloth from Jelli.
She squeezed some of the water into Izzbelle's mouth before laying the damp rag across her forehead.
"Karazelle, shouldn't you get someone with actual medical training for this?" Cobalt asked, unsure of what to do.
"What, like your friend down in the infirmary? Remember the last time we were in her care? No, and there's no time for an ambulance either. I read up on this. I think I know what we have to do."
Taking a deep breath, she pointed at Izzbelle's head.
"We gotta wake her up from the inside," the Succubus stated resolutely, her normally-gentle eyes glinting with steely determination.
The colour drained from Cobalt's face.
"Y- You mean a Dream Intrusion?! Karazelle, that's recklessly foolish! Y- You shouldn't even know how to perform one yet!" he cried.
Surprisingly, she just nodded.
"Yeah, I know. The Succubi Applied Demonics course doesn't cover that until third year. Which is why I needed somebody who has already completed his schooling..."
She stared hard at the Incubus, her eyes cutting right into him.
No, he couldn't agree to something like this! While Lust demons could enter somebody's subconscious mind thanks to their master of psychological magic, to do so was exceedingly dangerous for both parties involved. One wrong move, and entire memories could be altered or removed altogether, while the strain such a spell places on the caster's psyche could cause serious damage in it's own right. Not to mention, to perform a Dream Intrusion on a fellow demon without permission was deeply frowned upon in Succubus society.
"Th- The implications of such a thing... Karazelle, if someone finds out I did something like this to a student, I would be ruined!" he argued.
"They won't! Jelli won't say a word, will you?" the Succubus responded, glancing back at her friend.
The Glutton shook her head fervently, before making a swift zipping motion across her lips.
Cobalt raised his shaking hands and swallowed hard. He heard that suffering a nightmare whilst battled a fever was a horrible experience, and it pained him to see Izzbelle go through such a thing. But a Dream Intrusion wasn't a simple solution to such a problem. To actually wrest someone's consciousness free from a nightmare and successfully wake them from the inside certainly would be a monumental task for a professional Succubus psychotherapist, and Cobalt was far from experienced.
Karazelle slipped her hands into his. Like him, she was sweating profusely from the heat radiating off Izzbelle.
"Don't worry. I'm going in with you."
"Wha-?!"
"C'mon, quit fussing already. Izzbelle needs us!"
She... She was right. There was no sense in arguing, not with Izzbelle's health on the line.
Clearing his throat, Cobalt extended his hands and carefully placed his palms on the Oni's forehead, flanking her horn. She was burning up badly, and for a moment he considered pulling away, but that thought was swiftly dashed when he felt the alarming sensation of something soft pressing against his back. With a quick squeeze of his shoulders - for luck, if anything else - Karazelle reached over and threaded her fingers through his.
Taking a deep breath, Cobalt began to chant.
"Izzbelle... Anod ihim suivbo... Snem erirepa... Te imrod...!"
Deep black energy tinged with hints of blue began to circulate around the Incubus' arms, coursing down to his fingers and gently pulsing across Izzbelle's forehead. Behind him, Karazelle made a surprised noise as a lightheaded sensation struck them both. Nervously, her tail coiled tightly around his own. Though he could feel his thoughts already wandering, Cobalt remained focused and opened his eyes wide, blue vapour spewing from his mouth.
"OISURTNI!" he hissed as a high-pitched whine sounded in his ear.
At once, the inky shadows spread rapidly across the two demons, covering them entirely in blue-black darkness. A flash of light lit the room for a brief moment, before the forms of Cobalt and Karazelle seemed to disapate into Izzbelle, leaving naught but a few lingering trails of dark magic.
The disapeared in an instant, leaving the bedroom completely silent, save for the pained murmurings of Izzbelle, and the terrified blubbering of Jelli.
"V- Viel Glück..."