To dispel any notions to the contrary: I am not, was not, have never been and will never be a morning person. Not that morning was even the correct way to put it. The first eight hours of the day, when most people woke up and society began to turn its wheels, were simply when I typically ran into my issues. The most accurate way to formulate things would be that I wasn’t a ‘waking up’ person.

There were people who could just open their eyes and be awake. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it a few times in person, when I spent nights in camps or crashed at a friend's place. Those people needed to stretch and they were good to go. When my mind peeled out of the soft embrace of sleep, I usually suffered a prolonged state of grogginess. I had always been a vivid and often lucid dreamer, which didn’t make things easier.

Being thrown out of a fantastic, if illogical, realm into the confines of a body with low blood pressure was a dazing moment in its own right. Once my active mind managed to slog its way back to the surface, I could start the battle to open my ledden eyes, look for the alarm clock, and lift the blanket. That had been the procedure in the old bed and the new one was no different.

Originating from the laptop I had bought yesterday came the tune that had roused me from my slumber. A classical little melody, that played on repeat and grew in volume the longer it was ignored, was blasting at me with trumpets and drums. Yawning, I rolled over, purposefully wrapping the blanket closer around me in the process. My almost limp hand slammed down on the laptop, feeling around in an attempt to find the spacebar. I only found smooth plastic. The sound continued.

‘Damn you, me,’ I cursed my yesterday’s self for closing the laptop and denying me easy access to the snooze function. In order to end the loud noise, I had to open the laptop or remove the Ashod from its socket in the side. Neither were tasks I could fulfill while remaining in my near-sleep state.

I rolled around on the bed, pulled the blanket over my head and tried desperately to just fall back asleep. The quality of everything around was superb. The sheets were smooth, making friction burn from certain activities a non-issue, and the mattress was of a foam that was both soft and firm at the same time. Pillows and blankets were not only warming and comfortable, but they also had a good amount of breathability. Especially in the current, warm summer weather, that was greatly appreciated. All of it was of the high quality one could expect a reputable institution like Welldark to provide to high-performing students.

There was one thing about it I didn’t like, however. Besides the swelling music, which wasn’t an issue with the room itself. The very same reason why I took this bedroom bothered me at the moment: it was way too large. It was only my third day on Welldark, so it couldn’t be helped. Assembling a harem to make use of the entire size of the mattress wasn’t something that would happen quickly.

‘Esther…’ I thought and realized why that alarm was blaring into my ear. My will finally managed to overcome my desire to keep laying in bed and I sat up. I was still blinking the sleep from my eyes when the screen blinded me temporarily. After a couple of seconds, I got used to the light and finally disabled the alarm. Then I opened the browser. ‘Surfing on a larger screen is just so much nicer.’

I opened one of my bookmarks and was greeted with a friendly voice, belonging to an attractive female in a cropped top and yoga pants. Her smile and athletic body did serve to make my morning wood announce itself in all its hardness. I ignored it. My vivid dreams were expectantly often of the sexy kind, but the video before me didn’t exist to take care of the resulting urge.

Well, it did take care of it, but only in the sense that it was difficult to maintain a hard-on while doing my stretches. The attractive female was a yoga instructor and guided the people watching through a routine that got the body warmed up for the day. I knew the entire thing by heart, since I had been doing it every morning for several years now. It wasn’t all that exhausting and got the sinews loosened. Despite my familiarity with the exercise, I liked hearing her voice and she was some nice eye candy to remind myself what kind of reward I promised myself from maintaining my body. Good health was nice, yes, but my primary motivation was that I thought it arrogant to demand a highly attractive, fit female if I wasn’t at least a fit male. A reward in life was given according to the work put into acquiring it. When everything went right, anyway.

After the stretches, I was awake enough that I craved my morning dose of caffeine. I started to retrieve my Ashod from the laptop. Opening a lid at the right side revealed the minimized magical phone. With a firm push, I triggered a mechanical grip, which loosened with a little ‘click’. The Ashod was pushed out far enough for me to grab it. Once I had it pulled out, I put on a simple white shirt and comfortable blue jeans and left my room. Yawning, I trotted to the kitchen.

There was a water boiler around, which wasn’t quite as convenient as a coffee machine, but it was enough. Slowly blinking, I watched the water go from still to bubbling and then filled a cup with instant powder and the hot liquid. I wasn’t picky about the taste of my coffee. Black, with milk, sugar, stale, fresh, it all suited me fine, as long as it was strong. Frankly speaking, it didn’t even have to be coffee. I was a caffeine addict and had been for about three years. Likely, that wasn’t helping with my previously present awakening issues.

I drank the coffee as quickly as the cooling water allowed me to. Once the drug pumped through my system, I was ready for the hygienic necessities of the morning. Brushing my teeth after coffee may have been an odd order, but it was the only way I could function sometimes.

The bathroom showed signs of recent use. Not a whole lot of them, Esther cleaned up after herself. The glass walls of the shower cabin had been dried, the black and brown tiles were clean and even the sink seemed completely untouched. The fresh smell of citrus and cherry was all I needed to clue me in, however. It was a delightful smell to be surrounded by when stepping into the shower myself. I allowed myself the little fantasy that we might take the showers together in the not-so-far-off future.

After all of that I went back into the kitchen and rolled my neck. ‘Here goes nothing,’ I thought, committing myself to the gamble. The fridge opened and the ingredients of yesterday lay stacked before me. I reached in and began my work.

Finding none in the kitchen, I created a tray with my Artefact and loaded onto it numerous things. A salad of leafy greens, small tomatoes and balsamic, slightly toasted bread, numerous toppings, fried bacon, scrambled eggs, milk and breakfast cereals. I made what needed to be made and arranged everything in a neat set up. The end result was heavy, but nothing that a healthy young man with basic knowledge of gravity magic couldn’t lift.

After making it light enough that I could hold it with one hand, I wandered to Esther’s door and then knocked twice. ‘I sure hope I’m right about this,’ I thought, too far in to pull out now. The quiet of the wait was unbearable. Just like yesterday, she didn’t answer immediately. I arrived half an hour later today, delayed by all the preparations.

Esther seemed all the more furious when she opened the door.

Eyes like liquid sulphur stared at me, the pupils thinned to a point where they were basically just black lines. Her hair was orderly done this morning, but I only really caught that because it framed the face that I was so carefully watching. I wasn’t enticed, at least not as much as usual, I was waiting for her reaction.

“What do you-?” Her tone was sharp, while her voice was velvety and her accent seductive as always. A blade sheathed in silk, the unwrapping of it only stopping when she saw the tray that I brought between me and her. It had more protective power than any shield in the world, at that moment.

“I am going to eat breakfast up on the tower,” I said everything gently and clearly, not wanting to set her off when I seemed to have properly calmed her, “care to join me?” I raised the tray a little higher, hoping the smell of bacon would do more than words ever could. As for the choice of location, I didn’t want to barge into her room and it conveniently lay on the way to the tower. She did like the view, which could only enhance my chances of leaving a positive impression.

With a simple nod, Esther showed her agreement. My theory confirmed, I relaxed and looked over the rest of her body, as we made our way to the tower. Her choice of clothes was its own reward.

Esther was wearing sportswear. A light grey top and black yoga pants with white lines running down the side stuck tightly to her curves. It barely showed more skin than her uniform, only her arms were uncovered by the short sleeves, but the way the breast and bossom were elevated by the snug fit was better than any fantasy I had this morning. Tall and curvy in all the right places, Esther could have started a model career at the drop of her hat. Speaking of the tricorne, she was currently not wearing it, leaving her black hair completely visible. Combed backwards, it was held in a low-bound ponytail by the typical white ribbon.

Through a miracle, I followed her up the stairs without tripping. I could sing the praises of her bubble butt a million years. At the top, I put the tray down and grabbed the plates. Decisively, I placed them in front of two seats right next to each other. Esther clearly didn’t care where she had to sit. By the time I pulled my chair back, she was already spreading butter on a piece of bread.

She took the time to spread the butter orderly, the cheese she put on top was placed for minimal overlap between slices, and she didn’t give up her straight posture for a moment, even when she brought the meal to her mouth. Despite all of that discipline, the way she moved had something urgent and ravenous about it. A clear desire to indulge in the food. Her full, red lips parted, revealing pearl-white teeth with canines slightly sharper than the average. Bite for graceful bite, she claimed her breakfast.

‘Man, even the way she eats is sexy.’ I caught myself watching her a bit too much, while she devoured strips of bacon. She somehow managed to stay clear of all of the drops of liquid fat. Only some spread on her lips, elevating the colour to glistening ruby.

I forced myself to eat my own breakfast, a simple bowl of cereal, and guided my mind to a slightly different topic. It was still about her, as the infatuated mind dictated. Specifically, I wondered what species she was. Amber eyes, slit pupils and fangs, that didn’t limit the category a whole lot. She could have been a half-breed catgirl, a humanoid basilisk, some sort of shapeshifter, a vampire or a myriad of other things.

‘Well, I won’t learn anything about her if I just stare and wonder,’ I thought, before fishing a piece of bacon off the greasy plate. The salty taste was especially nice after the comparatively bland cereal. “You’re being a lot nicer this morning,” I said afterwards. “I mean, no words are definitely better than the harsh treatment I got yesterday.”

“You are attempting to shame me,” she gave me a warning glare with eyes that shifted just the slightest bit towards a bile yellow. “Do not.”

“Okay,” I replied quickly and in earnest. It was a dirty tactic in the first place, but keeping someone interested wasn’t the easiest task. “It is true though, you are being a lot nicer,” I switched to a teasing tone. “Does this have something to do with it?” I dangled a slice of salami in front of her face for a few seconds, then wolfed it down myself.

“I am irritable when famished, yes,” Esther responded in the resulting pause. With knife in hand, she gestured over the quarter-finished buffet. I had relentlessly overprepared. “Had I known revealing this would result in breakfast brought to me, I would not have withheld this information.”

“Always happy to help,” I grinned and bowed a little where I sat. “Whatever you are willing to talk to me about, I’ll listen and help to the best of my abilities.”

“I believe you,” Esther simply answered and resumed cleaning up what she had loaded on her plate. After the hill of food had nearly been depleted, the miraculous happened: the lady of my desires started a topic of her own volition. “Do you realize what I find oddest about you?”

“I could propose numerous things, my lady,” I started to blabber. “My wits, my charm, my fittingly dashing looks, you seem to be taking a liking to all of these things - if I may be so daring to analyse your reactions to me in the short days we have known each other. Of course I’m also self-aggrandizing in a bold fashion. Perhaps it is my straightforward nature? It seems what perturbs you the most.”

“Close, good Karitas,” she turned towards me, entirely focused on how I would react to her words. “You are not the first person, particularly not the first man, to try and socialize with me. Seldomly did I care about such advances and never have they continued for any notable stretch of time. Yet, you advance at a pace beyond my imagination.” I nodded and waited to see if she had more to say. She did. “I won’t pretend I dislike it. Neither will I lie. I always preferred to be on my own, but you intrigue me. The way you push me is… entertaining?” she shook her head. “The correct word escapes me at this time. Regardless, you retain my interest.” With her fork, she lifted a slice of salami herself and dangled it in front of my face. “Largely due to your ability to read me like this.”

“Does it irritate you?” I wondered with a slight smile on my lips.

“A slight bit,” she conceded and moved the slice close to my mouth. I know when I was given a gift, however small, and gleefully accepted it by pulling it off the fork with my teeth. “I admire it, primarily. I will not regurgitate your compliments, but I do agree that you are an outstanding person, in multiple aspects. Further, I resolved that there is only one way to answer your unexpected moves, good Karitas.” She leaned over to me. I wondered if she might want to whisper something in my ear, but she got too close even for that. Pleasing tingles spread all over my body when I felt the soft, velvety touch of her lips on my cheek. I blushed, purely out of simple joy. “Your advances make me discover things about myself. I enjoy that. However, you will have to be patient for me to find all the answers I seek.”

“I willingly signed up for that,” I said with a giant grin on my face. “Does this mean I have your agreement to court you, my lady?”

“You may continue as you have. If you reveal to be less than you seem,” Esther orderly put down her fork and knife, “then I'll be thoroughly disappointed.”

______________________________________________________________________

A while later, we were back down in the kitchen. Esther had offered to carry the tray back down, since I had done everything else, but I insisted that it was my task. When it came to putting the remains back into the fridge, she didn’t even ask if she could help, she just did it. Similarly for the dishes. Once we were done, I grabbed the container of instant powder from one of the drawers, “Coffee?” I asked.

“Tea,” she responded, pointing into the drawer and at a box of tea bags that she must have left in there. I grabbed a single bag and placed it in a porcelain cup, while she filled the water boiler. “I must inform you that you and your friends have an atrocious sense of order.”

“What order?” I cheekily replied.

“Exactly.” The water boiler’s switch went ‘clack’ when Esther pressed it. “Your acquisitions are randomly distributed across the kitchen. The sole limiting factor is whether there is room or not.”

“Guilty as charged,” I conceded and shrugged. Cleaning up after myself was a sensible obligation, but I had never thought much about the arrangement of things in my kitchen. The disapproval radiating from Esther forced me to reconsider. “Alright, how would you like things to be ordered?”

I came to minorly regret that question, as she actually gave me a long and detailed explanation of where things should be, by what characteristics they should be grouped, which shelf in the refrigerator should belong to which person, and a whole slew of other things. The regret came purely from the length of the rant and was overpowered by all the advantages. I was figuratively bombarded by her sexy voice and her showing such interest in the state of the kitchen had to mean she wanted to be comfortable in it long-term. Being the chosen ear for a rant also pointed to the complete breaking of the ice. It had been paper thin before, thanks to the mutual interest, but the smell of bacon often did what boob fondling could not. Love went through the stomach, as they said. It was a fallacy to believe that only applied to one sex.

She also made a vast number of good points. That should have mattered more, but my priorities were more aligned with her than the practicality of my kitchen. In order to keep the mood light, I responded to her stream of commanding advice by making a joke here and there. Sometimes she laughed, most of the time she responded seriously. It was just some friendly banter, if she had been annoyed with my jests, she would have just told me. I understood that much about her.

We rearranged the kitchen together, which did take us about fifteen minutes in total. The end result was visually pleasing and practically more accessible. “This does look much better,” I told her. “You would make for a great Queen.” I wasn’t talking about the standard monarch.

Esther crossed her arms, seeming unconvinced by such a statement, “As I informed you earlier, my social skills are limited. Putting me in the overseeing role of an Anomalia may end in unsightly scenes.”

“Nonsense, I’m certain the girls that I add to my harem would get along splendidly,” I suggested and winked at her. “I have two good eyes for people.”

“No, he doesn’t!” The sudden shout interrupted our time spent alone. Arlethia marched into the kitchen, stretching and yawning as she went. The shirt she was wearing was two sizes too big in length, but wide enough around the bust to confine the entirety of her huge breasts. I wondered if they were bigger than Esther’s. They certainly looked to be, but that could have easily been because Arlethia was quite a bit shorter. Along the shirt, she also wore tight yoga pants. Put together, she looked both sexy and cute.

I didn’t look at Arlethia as a potential partner, so those thoughts were more observations than interest. “He has an absolutely terrible eye for people,” Arlethia declared and grabbed the coffee container. “Seriously, no talent in picking out acquaintances.”

“As you’re currently demonstrating by stealing from me,” I grumbled, watching the shortstack demoness throw three spoons of the powder into a cup. “Regardless of the mistake that befriending you may have been, she would make a splendid Queen.”

“You just want her to be your Queen,” Arlethia pointed out.

“And who would blame me?”

“Good point - Counter point: you are a babbling, philosophical annoyance.”

“You shalt know, my dearest frenemy, that my philosophy is one of my greatest strengths. If you know only for certain that which you think to be useful in regular life, you will be left stranded when you are taken from your zone of comfort. Delivered into uncomfortable circumstances, your mind will struggle to keep up, your lack of curiosity becoming your downfall. I, for one, know of many secrets in this world, many of which may not serve me at this very moment, but which may serve me at a juncture in space and time at which the most irregular of wisdom is required.”

“Wow,” Arlethe poured hot water into her cup. “That’s the most pretentious way I’ve ever heard someone say: ‘I know a bunch of useless shit’.”

“You forgot the ‘that may save my life one day’ part.”

Esther’s reaction to our little back and forth was to take her tea and make her way back to her room. I would have been fine to let her go without a word, after such a successful morning, some alone time was warranted. “Karitas?” she addressed me after she was out of the kitchen.

“Yes?”

“I will be using the pool in roughly thirty minutes. You are invited to join me,” she said with a soft smile playing around her lips. Then she resumed her walk and sipped her tea.

“Yes!” I exclaimed enthusiastically, cleared my throat, and then added, “I mean, I’ll make time.”

There was an amused silence that was only interrupted when we heard the sound of Esther’s door falling close. “You are so satan-damned horny,” Arlethia giggled, clearly entertained by my behaviour. “So, what made the overpowered time-lady a cranky bitch yesterday?”

“She was hungry,” I gave the short and factual answer.

“Huh, so ya were right. Good for you,” Arlethia had understood my hunch when I had bought all of the ingredients yesterday. “Hungry girls can be pretty cray-cray. Not usually that cray-cray, but pretty cray-cray regardless.”

“Dear Father in heaven,” I groaned, causing Arlethia to jump as if I had just poked her with an ice cube, “I do hate that saying… cray-cray… what’s wrong with crazy? It’s not even quicker to say.”

“Yeah, sure get offended by some colloquial bullshit but invoke the presence of the celestial douche with a demoness around that’s fine,” Arlethia complained and sipped on her coffee. “Anyway, what’s the situation? I want all the juicy details, gimme!” I did owe her for yesterday, so I told her about all of the newest developments. “So, let me summarize: not only are you clearly attracted to each other on a physical basis, you seem to hit off on characters as well. A: you’re a lucky bastard. B: why aren’t you together yet?”

“It’s been three days since we met,” I reminded her in a dry tone. I considered a third coffee and decided against it. Only because I would have had to boil water again, to be perfectly honest.

“And? Love knows no time, my dude,” the succubus told me.

“Love also knows no mercy,” I retorted. “It’s a thing that often starts fickle and can tear whole worlds apart when not cultivated carefully. That Esther and I decide to actually know each other first is a decision we have to make.” I sighed and scratched the back of my head. “Although I wished I could get a bit more physical with her already. As you correctly turned out, I am one horny beast… where is Willt by the way?”

“Sleeping,” the succubus wiggled her bum a bit, spade tipped tail waving behind her, as she continued to down the boiling hot coffee. “Unlike you, he has someone who gets physical with him.”

“Unlike me, he is also a limp guy,” I said both as a jest and to defend my honour. “He should work out more. Having no stamina to perform in the morning doesn’t sound sustainable for the future of our lifestyle.”

“Well, ya know, I kept him occupied but he went back to sleep, ya know?” Arlethia gave me a devilish grin.

“Then how are you here right and now and well-reste-… Ah. Right. Succubus. Semen demon. Got it,” I realized my mistake rather quickly and looked down on her almost empty cup. “What do you even need caffeine for then?”

“I like my milk with coffee,” sex fiend purred.

“Fair enough, I guess,” the details of a succubus needs weren’t completely clear to me. One would think my own past experiences with having had, if short, relationships with some would have cleared things up, but no. Perhaps I had never really asked either. “Just don’t fuck his sleep schedule too hard.” Arlethet giggled at my formulation. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to change into swimwear.”

“No promises,” the redskinned demoness said. “Also, come by our room later. We should do the whole schedule planning.”

“Sure thing. In two hours sound good?”

“Nah, push it back to noon. We’re heading to the city again,” she licked her dark red, full lips. “After I help Willt with morning business.”

“Yeah, yeah, just lord your relationship over me,” I playfully complained while walking away. “Later.”

___________________________________________________________________________

Esther was already in the pool, by the time I arrived. I had spent the entirety of the waiting time wondering how exactly she would look in her swimsuit. I had seen her buy it, so I knew the variety already, but seeing a loose article of clothing didn’t compare to the way it would stretch around her body.

I was not disappointed.

“There you are,” Esther greeted me, standing in the shallow end of the pool. Her swimsuit covered the entirety of her torso, hiding even the majority of her shoulders and the entirety of her back. Despite this, I was treated to a slight bit of cleavage. The size of her breasts stubbornly stretched the material at the front. It wasn’t a suggestive gap by any measure, at least not by design. Only the fact that her body was that sexy made the fundamentally conservative swimsuit indecent. “Wait a moment.”

The wet neoprene glistened in the summer sun, as she moved towards the nearest ladder. Every movement was a delicious jiggle. The swimsuit fit her so perfectly, it looked painted on. Yet it didn’t have the same holding power as a bra and so her chest was all I could stare at. Until she turned her back to me and started climbing the metal steps of the latter, that was.

Her chest may have been completely hidden, but the same could not be said for her ass. The firm twin mounds of her bubble butt were halfway exposed, with more coming into view as the swimsuit dug in during her way out of the pool. Her bare legs were almost as sensuous as the curve of her figure. Long, with thighs that were thick from muscle and just the right degree of fat to prevent them from being overly toned. As a man of culture, I wished to be squished between them, while keeping my tongue occupied in certain ways.

She turned towards me and my eyes got stuck on her midriff. It was as close to naked as was possible with non-transparent clothes on. With every movement, I saw the subtle shifting of her muscles. She was athletic in all the pleasing ways. The flat stomach, her arms and her legs, they all showed that she took her sport seriously.

This was all I could have hoped to see and more.

“Catch,” Esther suddenly shouted and tossed something at me. I was only halfway done ogling. Well, no, I would never be truly done ogling. She had such an enticing form, lean, curvy, soft and thick in all the right places. Regardless, I had to react to the projectile coming at me.

Esther hadn’t launched it at me in the slow arch usually employed to get something to a friend. Instead, she had chucked it at me like a professional baseball player. The projectile was accelerated at something above a hundred kilometres per hour. That it didn’t go any faster was more due to its shape than a lack of strength on Esther’s part.

I raised my right hand in front of my chest and caught the object effortlessly. Sure, the impact dug into my hand, but it was nothing an Astral Body and superhuman strength couldn’t handle. I looked down and quickly identified the object to be a simple stopwatch. “Why would you even own this?” I wondered out loud. “An Ashod can keep track just as well as this.”

“I prefer to keep my devices separate and specialized,” Esther explained, while fixing her ponytail. She had replaced the usual white string with a more water resilient scrunchie. Once she was sure everything was in order, she pointed at one of the jumping platforms. “Are you willing to compete, Karitas?”

I looked over the pool. By its dimensions, it worked well for a competitive exercise. At twenty-five metres long, it was the shortest of the officially used pools, but it wasn’t like that was the only irregularity. The shallow end of the pool, albeit still over one-and-a-half-metres deep, didn’t allow for deep diving. Not that a private challenge required things being up to code.

“I am game,” I responded, but didn’t move a step from where I was standing - a few steps behind the starting platforms. “How do we play?”

“50 metres. We compare how long we take to arrive back at the point of origin,” the time-bending lady of my desires responded, taking the two steps up the little podium. Her entire body was displayed for me to salivate over. She turned her upper body to look at me, giving me a view of her magnificent chest and ass at the same time. “You will not be able to properly discern when I touch the wall from there.”

“I know, I’ll be taking my place in a second,” I responded fixated on her ass. Between boob and butt, my answer was both. Certain situations elevated one over the other, temporarily. “However, as it strikes me, my lady of clockwork, is that me standing here upon the start of this race will grant me a sight I’m unable to repeat until you agree to be mine and mine alone in this ravaged world.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You are hiding things in these extrapolated sentences of yours. It bothers me, albeit only mildly,” she pointed out.

“What I want to say often takes winding paths as my mouth catches up with my brain. Sometimes that makes what I say bloated, sometimes I use exactly as many words as are required,” I retorted, still refusing to move. To tease her a little bit, and because it was the truth, I added, “Whatever greater truths you think evade you, I’m certain they will one day be revealed to you - for better or for worse.”

Esther turned completely, raising one of her elegantly swung eyebrows. “Would you explain yourself if I asked?”

I realized that the teasing had perhaps gone a little bit too far. Now I had to earnestly think for a second if she could handle what I could reveal to her. ‘Welldark exists to reveal things at a safe pace,’ I thought and therefore shook my head, “No, sorry.”

“What if it were for a bet?” she asked, gesturing fluidly towards the still body of water behind her. “Whoever swims faster may ask of the other a single thing, deed or truth, would that make you willing to talk?”

“No,” I responded immediately. “Perhaps you already know IT, but then you wouldn’t need to ask. It’s not on me to unveil things pertaining to the Dimensional Truth. Such things can be damaging, as you should know.”

“A lake’s depth can be quite deceptive,” she suddenly quoted what I had said when she had moved into the mansion. “Light breaks on the surface and even if the upper layers might be translucent, the bed might be hidden in a muddy cloud. It’s unwise to make guesses about depth while only swimming on the surface.” She stopped for a moment. “I wondered how much that esoteric statement truly applied to you, good Karitas. It may be that the knowledge of many Nightmares dwells in you.”

The way she said that made it clear that she knew things. Not as much as me, but more than young people of the Dimensional Truth should.

“Enough on the dangers of knowing - a simple competition for sport, then,” Esther announced and averted her gaze. She bent forwards into the jumping position, her ass spreading and spilling out of her swimsuit. A heart shaped work of art that I would have wanted to do a vast variety of things too.

“We can still bet something less important or more touchy!” I hastily suggested. Betting for favours was all fine with me, only the particular subject had caused me to immediately deny the offer.

“Aside from knowledge, you cannot promise me a thing I could not have whenever I chose to,” Esther declared, holding her position. It was an acute observation. In this current dance of romance we were having, I was the chasing participant. All physical things she could want from me, she could get the moment she decided to. That was the power I gave her over me, by declaring so openly what I wanted. “Tell me when to start.”

With a sigh, I resigned to this being, most likely, just another ogling session. ‘Why did I have to fall for a woman with a brain bigger than a walnut and a working set of standards?’ I complained to myself, thinking of girls I had known that had been a lot easier to court into the sheets. Which had also all been rather short-lived and insufferably shallow relationships. ‘Kinda answered my own question there,’ I added, then did as was asked. “Alright.” I said, burning the picture of her pushed out ass into my memory. “Ready! Set! GO!”

Esther leapt off of the platform and dove under the clear surface in wonderful form. The initial momentum carried her forwards for quite a bit, then she broke through the surface and smoothly transitioned into a crawl effortlessly upon reaching the surface. Within less than a dozen seconds, she had reached the other side of the pool.

Pushing herself off the opposite wall, she once more covered a good amount of distance underwater. All of them were basic things for competitive swimming, but impressively executed regardless.

“Eighteen seconds,” I remarked when she was back, sparing myself the decimals. “Well, done.”

Esther grabbed the nearby ladder and came out of the pool. “Not my best time,” she stated in neither a boastful nor annoyed fashion. Just a fact she wanted to share, evidently, but easily misinterpreted for her lack of clear tone. “It will suffice for this competition. Your turn.”

As I handed over the stopwatch, my eyes got stuck on the way the water dripped from her hair. Its natural wildness was mostly tamed while soaked, but a couple of strands remained rebellious enough to stick out. One such laid across her face. A dew slowly formed at the tip and then fell part her lips and into her cleavage. I had to stop myself there.

“Alright,” I said and rolled my shoulders to warm them up and keep the blood from gathering in places that would have increased water resistance. I didn’t want to doom myself before even getting into the pool. I walked to the platform, took the two steps up and bent down into position. The slightly slanted podium was the ideal jump-off point. It wasn’t all that helpful when it came to balance, however.

Which was my excuse for failing to hold my ground when I felt a sudden sting on my left asscheek. I tilted forwards, spanked by a considerably powerful woman, and took a graceless dive. Semi-cold water enveloped me. For a moment, I flailed around, confused where up and down was. Once I got that sorted, I pushed myself off the tiled pool floor and burst through the surface. I had to free my eyes of my white hair, as I turned around and shouted. “What was that about?!”

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Esther showed me an expression I hadn’t seen on her yet. A mischievous little smile, almost devilish in its balance between mockery and cuteness. The giggle that preceded her answer was almost enough to forgive her. “Your continued gazes are flattering, but an act of revenge seemed in order.”

I hadn’t taken her for the type. Hell, I still didn’t think she was the type. The way she stood there and just watched for my reaction indicated inexperience with situations like the one she had just caused. As she had told I was making her discover new sides of herself, I shouldn’t have been fully surprised. Regardless of that, this called for payback.

“Revenge…” I grumbled, overexaggerating my rage, and closed my eyes. “I will give you revenge…” Astral Capacity poured out of my soul and into the world. I needed to think with crystal clarity, mark a certain spot and concentrate on it. When I opened my eyes again, I was right behind Esther. She was already in the process of turning around, but the element of surprise was on my side. I tackled her. Both arms wrapped around her waist, I took both of us over the edge of the pool and falling back down into the water.

What followed was a playfight taking place mostly underwater, with the occasional break through the surface to snap for fresh air. Limbs were grabbed, kicks exchanged, and grapples broken, as we competed over who ended up in the dominant position. The answer, in this case, was me. With two moves that were more luck and instinct than proper planning, I managed to grab both of her wrists and push her against the wall. Keeping her armscrossed and pinned, I had her before me in all her beauty.

In the chaos, she had lost her scrunchy, her wet hair now open and sticking to all of her gorgeous head. The strand across her face had been joined by a few more, unifying into a streak of black. I really had to wonder how long it must have taken her every morning to take this naturally discordant, wavy and chaotic sea and transform it into something that looked actually orderly. Left alone, it clearly would have settled in a style opposite of her character.

Breathing heavily from the exhaustion and the recent lack of oxygen, we looked at each other. There was very little space between us. I felt her breasts brush against my chest with every controlled expansion of her lungs. Her legs were parted around mine, albeit only in the sense that she was standing with her feet parallel to mine.

My eyes darted down for a moment, to her parted lips, the sensuous red enticing me. “Yet again, you caught me,” the movements of her mouth were as sultry as the voice they formed, tilting her head a little bit as if she could find an answer to a question if she looked from a different angle. “What would you like to do most, right now?”

“Same answer as the last few times, even if I can only say it honestly right now.” I relaxed my grip on her. “Make you mine.” I let go and we got a little distance between us. The conversation simply stopped there, so I slipped into a more humorous topic, “Look, if you want to touch my butt, I want to be recompensated at an interest rate of-“

“You teleported,” Esther interjected, more curious about my powers.

“Yes, you already saw I can do that,” I retorted, finding that to be a rather dull thing to talk about. Teleporting was by far the least interesting part of my powers. However, her piercing gaze made it clear she thought otherwise. “It’s really not that interesting. I stand here, then I stand elsewhere. It's not even that much faster than running. Plus, closing my eyes in the middle of combat is risky.”

“Perhaps you should not shut your eyes then, Karitas?” she asked in a tone so serious that I couldn’t possibly look at it as a joke.

“If it was that easy…,” I responded slowly. Too slow, I realized, when she tilted her head just a little further. “What makes you think it's possible?”

“The time you spend with closed eyes seems voluntary. Admittedly, I know little about the different working of body-bound Artefacts,” she dropped the topic there, apparently unwilling to make further statements about things she had little education on. She briefly dove under the surface and retrieved her scrunchie. “Let us continue with our competition.”

‘Well, we’re certainly reading each other…’ I thought, wondering how long I could keep secrets from someone who was watching me as much as I was watching her. Willt and Arlethia were great friends and didn’t try to pry into my personal matters, even if they caught something off about me sometimes. Esther was inspecting me for relationship fitness. The degree to which I would be laid bare could hardly be compared.

“Alright,” I agreed to her proposition, knowing when to take my way out of a topic. We left the poll, I got to go second, and then I positioned myself on the starting platform again. This time, I was allowed to compete without any sudden interruptions.

While swimming wasn’t really my strong suit, I knew proper form. The motions I followed were the same as Esther’s, although our exact execution varied. I had more raw strength to put into the matter, where she was more agile. Regardless of whether or not we were going beyond the average capacities of humans (themselves a balanced species), as humanoids the genders still imposed some limitations on the basis of body structure. This did give me a practical edge, since I didn’t have sizable floaters attached to my chest.

Regardless, in this competition, I came out as the loser. “Eighteen point six-seven seconds,” Esther told me. Even though I had skipped them earlier, I remembered that her decimals put her about half a second faster than me. It was inevitable that I lost to her at some point, so I took it in stride.

“Alright, let’s relax a bit,” I suggested.

Which we then did. To some degree. As exercising people, we used the opportunity to swim a couple of lanes, challenging ourselves until our bodies were strained to a comfortable degree. Once we were done, we played around and talked in the shallow end of the pool until Willt and Arlethia passed us by. They didn’t stay to talk, just waved and shouted their goodbyes while they headed for the frontgate.

I, for my part, got out at that point. As much as I enjoyed the water and her presence, I was starting to feel wrinkly. I wasn’t in a hurry to actually leave the premises though and sat down on the edge of the pool. Esther, with water up to her shoulders, used that time to engage in another part of her training routine.

It was almost like a dance, slow movements that she went through so calmly, they barely interrupted the serenity of the water’s surface. I had never seen that kind of stretching exercise before. It utilized numerous poses similar to other martial arts and exercises, an unavoidable circumstance when remaining within the realms of the humanoid form, but the combination and accents were different. I noticed a bunch of odd pauses throughout it, however.

One repeated thing I saw was her bringing the palms of her hands together. While pressing them against one another, she brought them down to her hips, where they parted. Open palms pointing forwards, she raised them to her sides. At the height of her waist, the entire movement stopped for several seconds. Then it resumed, with no discernable reasons.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was wrong with it. In some ways, this exercise (and many other poses) felt incomplete. It clearly wasn’t there by mistake, the gaps were too uniform to be any sort of unwanted addition. Rather, I got the impression that she hadn’t been taught the entire thing, or that something else was making her stop the momentum.

‘Something spiritual?’ I wondered, pulling the flat little piece of conjoined stones that was my Ashod, out of a pocket in the belt of my swimming trunks. Every piece of clothing available around here, as well as other places that were built with the Dimensional Truth in mind, had some way to keep an Ashod around. Even if others couldn’t unlock them (without a massive hassle anyway), having them stolen, or just plain losing them, would be a giant inconvenience. Pairing that with a resistance to all elements and people simply kept their Ashods around at all times.

By pulling the blue stones apart, I created the magical touch screen and stopped once it was the wanted length. I scrolled through a couple of news articles. There was little to read up on about. As expansive as the multiverse was, most of the worlds were isolated from each other. Information could be exchanged thanks to people who traversed the dimensions and hooked them up to the greater internet. Goods and services were difficult to get around. The result was that the interdimensional net was separated into a bunch of pockets that overlapped here and there, sometimes interacting but otherwise keeping to people they could actually interact with. The most diverse groups were those with hobbies based solely on digital goods. Ashods were pretty universal, so games and programs were developed for them that could be a common topic. Gardening was a hard topic to talk about if everything about the plants between worlds could be wildly different.

Gamers were also somewhat separated from each other though. There was such a thing as a ‘multiverse proximity factor’ which was a fancy way to describe that some worlds of this dimension of existence, being the three dimensional one, were closer to other ones. What this effectively translated to was lag that could barely even be compared to what people experienced between continents on the same world. Voice chat was a far off dream for people on two different worlds. Most things were kept to texts and, because of the delay, those texts resembled letter exchanges more than chatrooms.

Regardless of all of these issues and the distance between where I was and the places I read about, I liked to keep up with a few developments. Interplanetary empires, the progression of hero stories (modern and from ancient times), developments in magical tech, discoveries of new races that aligned with my beauty standards, such things were of interest to me.

While I read all of that, I occasionally glanced over to Esther. Her exercise continued to intrigue me. Not only because I liked seeing her sexy body stretch, but because I hoped for it to give me a few revelations. If not about her, then perhaps about a way to optimize my own workout routine. As someone who was both lazy and enthused about having a healthy, attractive body, finding the most efficient way to stay fit was in my interest.

I noticed a previously unused movement in her exercise. The back of her hands pressed together, she raised them above her head. They distanced slightly, she tensed all of her upper body as if she was gripping something and kept the muscles strained while bringing her hands down.

It reminded me a bit of the semi-ritualistic martial arts practices by the armies of Hell during ceremonies. Theirs had their hands travel to the sides, along twisting motions of the wrists. It was meant to symbolize the forsaking of holiness by shattering the halo. I had seen it once live during a school trip, which had been the only thing worthwhile about it.

Esther’s motion went down to her head, where she stopped, still keeping her muscles tense, for several seconds. Then she relaxed and resumed the otherwise calm motions of the exercise. I still couldn’t guess what those pauses were about.

Since I could only guess at the purpose of that peculiar motion and the rest of her workout had a lot of overlap with other semi-ritualistic exercises like yoga and taichi, I decided that reading more into it was either hope or useless. If there was something to be realized here, I didn’t yet have enough puzzle pieces to see it. Instead, I looked into being productive and opened the AppDark’s schedule page.

Right now, it was completely empty. I was just looking at it for the breakdown of the blocks. In Welldark, each lesson took up to two hours, with a thirty-minute break between each of them. How one filled out their schedule was up to themselves, from the amount of classes to when one took them. Only a few were truly mandatory. Which ones, Derilea had broken down on the first day: 3 semesters of Interdimensional Conduct, 2 of Battlefield Training and 1 in Anomalia Bond. The last one had to be taken within the first year as well.

As was displayed, classes were spread out throughout the entire day. Welldark was well-staffed and pretty liberal when it came to working hours. It wasn’t a university that prepared people for a regular job, after all. Those who finished their education here would take specialized jobs all across the multiverse. Concentrated on the spot as we currently were, it seemed like there was a lot of us, but once the thousands attending the university dispersed into the trillions of people out there, things would change rather fast. Self-discipline was the theme of this place. I appreciated the chance to sleep in until ten and compensate for it later in the evening.

The system didn’t go far enough for, nor supported actively, the nocturnal races, given that the truly darkest hours of the day didn’t have any allowed lesson slots on the timetable. I found that somewhat ironic, given the name of the university. There were many cosmic universities that catered to the specific needs of vampires and such, however, so it wasn’t as if they were left out hanging just because Welldark decided it wanted to have an artificial sun.

“Are you bothered by something, good Karitas?” Esther’s voice caused me to look up from the blank schedule. Her head was lightly turned in my direction, but otherwise she continued in her movements. I had kept quiet out of respect. Needlessly, as that exercise evidently wasn’t something spiritual. She continued to talk to me in the usual way. “Your silence appears so unusual to me.”

“I didn’t want to interrupt,” I said, happy to have her miss my voice in some capacity. Since we were already talking, I decided to stop guessing and just get an answer from the source. Her back was turned to me, while I put out the question, “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s that exercise? It seems a bit choppy, as if parts are missing.”

Most of her body froze for a second, only her back twisting away from me. A couple of seconds passed, then I heard her release her breath. The exercise continued a moment later. “I do not mind the question, but I will not supply an answer,” she retorted finally, leaving me wondering about more things than I had beforehand. Digging deeper seemed unwise, though, so I turned my mind to changing the topic. “An inquiry of my own, instead,” she said before I could think of anything, “what are you currently using your Ashod for?”

Her curiosity was the perfect lead into the topic I had wanted to discuss with her since yesterday. “Looking at my university schedule,” I waved with the Ashod. The distance was too large for her to make out the details, but the state and shape of it should have been visible. Those amber eyes could not have been anything but sharp.

I was busy losing myself in their gorgeous depths. Esther noticed the most dominating fact about my schedule. “It is empty.”

“Yeah…” I responded slowly, my mind struggling to think of more than the colour of her slit eyes. Love did make men stupid, there was no doubt about it. As much as I liked being afflicted with that particular kind of stupidity, I had an important question to ask. “Did you already pick your lessons?”

“A few,” she responded, ending her workout with one final stretch. Her large breasts rose seductively as she made herself as long as possible. Fluidly, she transitioned into walking towards me. She grabbed the edge of the pool right and climbed out. I was enticed by the soft jiggle of her breasts, started by her sitting down next to me and continued as she fixed up her ponytail. She reached towards her cleavage and I could feel my blood rushing downstairs. The perverted hope was that she would suddenly jank down her swimsuit and free those puppies. In reality, she just pulled her Ashod out of its hoister along the rim of her cleavage.

Her juicy tits settled, her slender fingers activated her Ashod, and her glistening wet, squishy thighs sparkled in the sunlight as she leaned towards me. That gave me the opportunity to look deeper into her cleavage than before.

It was a set of motions so mundane and yet so attractive, a woman half as beautiful would have given me an erection. With the gorgeous, raven-haired lady, only a hand-width away from me, I was left breathless. Even my base instincts understood that I had to court her to get closer to her, however, and to court her I had to read her schedule.

“You have most of this figured out already, huh?” I asked, looking over it in an attempt to find anything that interested me. “I assume the minuses are for the slots you don’t want to use for anything?” It was the only conceivable reason that I could see for why they were in some brackets but not in others.

“That is correct,” she stated and pulled her Ashod back. “Although you are mistaken in the scope of my schedule. I have only filled out about half of it.”

“Okay, sure, but if you fill everything, you’ll be out and about for like 10 to 16 hours a day,” I gave food for thought. Esther slightly tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. I wasn’t sure if she was wondering what the issue was or mocking me for even seeing one. “Well, lady of my interest, I must declare that I would be greatly saddened if you were to fully load your schedule. A total lack of free time would greatly limit our chances to interact and I wouldn’t want your boundless beauty to be ruined by a lack of sleep.”

“I had planned to leave time unclaimed for exercise, relaxation and learning, Karitas, you need not worry on my behalf,” she answered.

“I was worrying on MY behalf, how am I going to flirt with you if I never catch you?” I returned smoothly and gave her my most honest smile. “I suppose we could diminish that worry by sharing a few classes. Does that sound good to you?”

It was a question purely for form. It would have taken a moron or a very confused individual to not realize that she wanted me to ask. Why else would she show me her schedule in the first place? Why would she keep holding it in front of my face?

She answered with a simple nod and I analysed the list on a day by day basis.

“Well, I don’t see anything on Monday that interests me…” I mumbled my thoughts out loud.

Being next to her for all of my waking moments was a base and very stupid wish. The quickest way to kill enthusiasm in a relationship was to force myself to attend things I didn’t care about whatsoever. Especially when it came to things like university lessons. For two hours, I would sit next to her, mostly expected to be silent, probably feel miserable and come out of the lesson in a bad mood. A recipe for disastrous behaviour on my part.

Love was war and as the Art of War stated: one had to know oneself and the enemy to assure victory in every battle.

“Not even the Enchantment Theory class?” Esther’s sensuous voice carried in it a hint of surprise. “Imbuing your creations with magical power and attributes, I assumed that to be of high interest, given your Artefact’s ability.”

“I can see where you’re coming from, but you’re working from an incorrect assumption,” I told her and created a little ball in my hand just to have something to show while I talked. “These can’t hold enchantments.” I tossed the ball upwards and made it disappear when it was back in my palm.

It was an easy misunderstanding to have. Artefacts could universally hold enchantments and did so in a special way. Where weapons and items were usually enchanted permanently and with a source of regular mana replenishment in mind, Artefact enchantments were entirely temporary. In return, it was very easy and power efficient to enchant Artefacts, especially for their wielder. Given that enchanting was already one of the cheapest kinds of magic around, that made certain enchantments a good way to get a leg up on the opposition. They traded this efficiency for the drawbacks of being restricted in the shapes they could take and their predictability. A weapon basked in fire was a clear warning sign that it was hot.

“My creations aren’t part of my Artefact, they are created by it. They are Astral Capacity taken physical form. I can only manipulate their physical attributes during creation. That aside, I’m a person with gravity potential.” I dragged my foot through the surface of the water and watched the ripples spread. “Gravity enchantments are pretty mediocre in combat. They would serve me best if I became an engineer for heavy machinery and that just doesn’t sound interesting to me.”

What enchantments a person could weave largely depended on their natural affinity with elements of magic. Learning things outside of that scope was possible, but a task for someone who dedicated their life to that craft.

My alignment, predictably, gave me the ability to shave or add percentage points of the gravitational pull enchanted items experienced. Something that only really came out as important once it was used on parts of heavy machinery or used on the really high end of the skill spectrum, where that effect could spread in an area around the item.

Making things heavier or lighter in combat was only really useful if it could be done on the fly. Having a weapon so light that it could easily be swung around was useful in a way, but the force of the impact was massively diminished if there was no weight to it. The other way around, having a weapon that was heavy enough to shatter anything when it hit was useless if it was too cumbersome to wield it.

Applying gravity magic through regular, active spells served me much better. By being in contact with things or people, I could temporarily in or decrease the effect gravity had on them. That was every bit the combat effectiveness I wanted. I could, theoretically, work on crafting a pair of gauntlets that did that automatically on every punch, but the amount of work I had to put into that just wouldn’t be worth it. I would have to recharge them all the time as well.

“I understand,” Esther said, her velvety voice caressing my eardrums. “You have a very peculiar Artefact.”

“Yup,” I nonchalantly responded and continued down the list. “Not big on learning about systems, so Governance History is out for me and Ripples of Abraham strikes me as something about religion.”

“It is only in a minor way,” she responded. “In the largest part it is a series of lessons about the races finding their origin in the god of Earth.”

“Still not for me,” I shook my head. “Me and the divine are not on speaking terms.”

Esther gave me a long look, her slit pupils searching for something in my eyes, just as I wondered why she chose these two lessons to take. Our little game of trying to learn about one another without asking uncomfortable questions continued.

“Astral Cultivation is a class I should take as well though,” I continued, nodding towards her (current) first class on Tuesday. Who knew if that would change or not. “And I don’t have anything else going on at that time.”

“An unnecessary qualifier,” Esther stated in a mildly amused tone. “Your schedule is completely blank.”

“Hey, maybe I got a job while you were asleep or something, you don’t know!” I declared in faux-outrage and her amusement turned into a chuckle. “Anyway, I’ll be taking that, thank you,” I continued and quickly pressed a few buttons to write myself in. I was doing this after her, but still before most other students bothered. A number at the bottom of the class’ site showed how many seats were taken and how many available. I was the fourth, in total, joining that class.

It was, perhaps, a bit hasty of me to just write myself in already. Not because I had doubt about wanting to spend time with Esther or that this and the other classes I was going to pick would be bad for me, but because of my friends. Writing the classes down in a note somewhere and double-checking it later with Willt and Arlethia would have been the better ‘friend’ thing to do. I was certain they would forgive me if I focused on the lady of my interest, however. There would be plenty more classes to pick from after I was done here.

‘Interdimensional Conduct…,’ I read out in my mind as I went further on the schedule. That was one of our mandatory classes, as was the Battlefield Training she had taken directly afterwards. Getting both of them done on the same day sounded wise. I went ahead and joined those two classes as well.

Obviously, I couldn’t do anything with her current sole Wednesday class. I had no affinity for lightning magic and even if I had been interested in trying to learn it, the advanced class wouldn’t have been the place to start with that. She had nothing picked for Thursday, which let me go directly to Friday.

There was the third of the mandatory classes: Anomalia Bond. It was smart, even ignoring the university mandated time frame, to get that class done as soon as possible. The Anomalia was foundational to the lifestyle of Dimensional Travellers. It was the framework of the social fabric, provided boosts in power and (most important to me) incentivized harem building. Friday afternoon was a perfectly reasonable time, so I shared that class with her as well.

I heard a tiny, relieved sigh when I confirmed that choice. Had she been hoping for me to take that class in particular? ‘I guess it is something where you might need a partner,’ I thought, but didn’t comment. There was enough to talk about without poking at any perceived insecurities.

The Duelling Class was another thing I had no interest in. Not because I had an aversion to fighting classes, I would be taking at least one more of those, but because of the strict rules associated with duels. What I wanted were classes in brawling or those that taught me new techniques to use in the future. I wanted to prepare myself for an unforgiving reality, not honour culture.

Saturday was as empty as Thursday, so this was the end of me having things I could potentially share with her. At least with what we had currently chosen.

“Would you mind if I came by your room this evening?” I asked when we had put our Ashods away. Her eyes wandered down to the visible bulge in my trunks, my dick still noticeably erect. A disapproving glint showed in her gaze and I quickly moved to clarify. “Willt, Arlethia and I will be picking our classes later today, so I thought we could see if you liked anything I have an interest in. You could also join us, if you prefer that.”

Esther averted her eyes from my dick, which was a relief for once, and stayed in thoughtful silence for a couple of seconds. That she was considering the proposal was in and of itself progress. The answer that remained was the expected one, however, “You may approach my compartments after dinner.”

Completely worked for me. The only thing I was sad about was that our time at the pool came to an end. We had no more justification to remain there aside from lazing around and Esther just wasn’t the type. After we changed back to our regular clothes inside our rooms, we convened in the kitchen for a couple of minutes. Then she headed out. I offered to tag along, but she stated she wanted some time alone. That worked for me, so I stayed behind in the mansion.

I idled most of the day away in a mixture of movies, video games, workout and checking out other courses that might pique my own interest. Gravity magic was the only course I joined then and there, taking a lesson that took place during the very last time slot of Monday. Everything else I noted down in my mind to bring up later.

For no reason other than my own laziness, I wanted to try and keep at least one day completely free. One day without lectures a week just wasn’t enough for me. Since Sunday was off by design, Saturday was the logical candidate. It could turn out that another day was more easily cleared. I would have to talk that through with Will and Arlethia, and then double-check it with Esther.

When the clock struck the agreed upon hour, I left my room and made my way to the third floor of the mansion. It took me several minutes to get there, making me feel the size of my granted home in all of its straight, undecorated and beautiful corridors. The deep purple framed the ebonwood door. I raised my hand and knocked once. The polished silver handle was pushed down quickly, Willt opened the door and invited me inside with the eagerness of the waiting.

“Come on in, sit down, chew our ears off,” the warlock said.

“So,” I announced as I threw myself on the chair that Willt offered me. “Could we arrange it in a way that we take nothing on Saturday? Because off days are nice.”

“Count me in,” Willt agreed, while moving to the large bed, standing in the far-right corner of the room. A split in the middle indicated that this had been two beds originally, but the frames were designed in such a way that they could be joined. There was a large window above the headrest, two more like it were equally distributed at the right-side wall. All the way to the left was a nice balcony door.

Like everything else in the mansion, the furniture around was luxurious but lacked character. My friends hadn’t yet properly stowed away all their things and the bags with clothes were just laying near the bed. In a corner they had a couch, two armchairs and a low table. That was where I was at the moment.

Once at the bed, Willt laid down next to his succubus girlfriend. Arlethia’s red skin harmonized surprisingly well with the chocolate brown bedsheets. I couldn’t really see what she was doing, since she was laying on her chest, but I assumed she was on her Ashod.

“You know I can look up your skirt, right?” I asked, jokingly, when she failed to give me an answer to my initial question.

“Dude,” she raised her head, rolling her yellow eyes, “do you seriously think I give a single fuck that you see my panties? It’s neither the first time, nor will it be the last.”

“Ah yes, the first time, class trip of year one,” I thought almost four years back. “We were so young.”

Arlethia sighed and turned on her back. As she was rather short, she didn’t even fill half of the length of the bed. Although that made her look overall smaller, her proximity to the lanky warlock also made her ass look even wider. Definite shortstack, no doubt about it.

“You could be a tad more thankful; you know?” I asked in an obviously joking manner. “I gave you all this. Imagine you would have to live separated in a home of lesser quality, would that not be the bane of your time?”

“You also hid that you already had an Artefact, so you’re an objectively terrible friend,” Arlethia shot back.

“I, for one, am actually thankful,” Willt said, ever the most straightforward person among us, even if he talked less. “Anyway, I guess you already picked a few things with the new girl you want to chase?”

“It’s more than chase its…” I stopped, trying to find the right word. In an effort to win time, or express it otherwise, I made a few desperate gestures.

“Oh – my – unholy - Lord,” Arlethia’s upper body shot up from the bed when she noticed my incomplete sentence. “The high, mighty and philosophizing Karitas is at a loss for words. Behold, everyone!” She pointed at me with a wide grin on her lips. “The end of needless extrapolation!”

“The end, truly, what is the end?” I let my wordiness run free in counter. “Is the end something you can define into existence, brood of crimson fire? No, the end is well and truly then when there is no continuation ever to be expected. Some ends may be temporary, but this one is not even such. No, this is not an end, it's merely a gap in my way to express myself. Anyway,” I went back to talking normally, “It's just something that… beats in me and wants to be fulfilled. I enjoy chasing her, but more than that, I want to reach the end of the chase - I want to reach her.” I shrugged. “Do we really need to reiterate that I am in love?”

“Yes, because it’s easy to make fun of you this way,” Arlethia giggled. Her tail flapped gleefully on the bed. Further jokes were held back, at least for the moment, instead she swung around her Ashod. “Wanna get started on this whole schedule thing now?”

Willt put a hand on her thigh and squeezed, “We were waiting for you.”

“Well, waiting done,” I took control and then quickly informed them as to what I had taken already. They agreed pretty quickly to take the same class on Interdimensional Conduct and Anomalia bond. For Battlefield Training, it seemed they had another part of the week in mind. Same for Astral Cultivation which was, albeit not a mandatory class, something basically everyone took.

Since the other courses I had written myself in for weren’t something they could or should enter, I let them figure out a few of their personal courses. Willt eventually suggested something out loud. “They have a course called Dimensional Heroes,” the young warlock informed everyone in the room.

Arlethia made a quick “Bleh,” sound, followed by a few actual words. “Who cares about heroes?”

“I do,” I answered quickly and checked the available time slots for that class. “It’s what I want to be once I get done here.”

“And here I thought you had grown out of that phase by now.”

“Well, what do you want to do once you’re done here?” I inquired. “Just stay somewhere forever, not utilizing your ability to travel dimensions at all?”

“I’ll get a nice job on some secure world as a high level advisor in magical matters and have very nice vacations,” Arlethia waved off. “Or whatever else I want. Be a hero though? Seems kinda childish.”

“The hero gets the girls at the end of the story,” I retorted with a grin. “Least I can do with being powerful is help some people who aren’t. Especially if their hearts are in the right place. Although I’m not quite altruistic enough to be one of those proper fantasy heroes, who just helps everyone no matter how well it serves them.” I scrolled down the last of available times. “How does Friday evening sound, Willt?”

“Works for me,” my friend replied and we both put it in, Arlethia remained disinterested.

“Uh, uh!” she flicked her fingers a few times to get everyone’s attention. “Friday, 11 to 13, Sexual Skill, Basics, who is coming with me?” Her eyes flew expectantly from me, to her boyfriend, and back.

A part of me wondered what Arlethia hoped to learn in that seminar. As a succubus, fucking was as natural to her as barking was to a dog. Whatever would be said in it would just be putting things into words she likely instinctively knew already. Which had its own value, I admit. Probably her nature just made her want to learn more about the subject whenever she could.

Most of me just shared her enthusiasm.

“Fuck yeah!” I agreed quickly walking over to give her a high five. The clapping of our hands reverberated while the warlock cleared his throat.

“Yeah, I am not going there…” he said in the tone of the tortured shy guy.

‘They are 1 for 1 in sharing me so far,’ I joked to myself as I fell back into the chair. Leaning on the armrest, I found two other suggestions. “Any of you want to come with me to Advanced Unarmed Combat or Weapon Training?” I asked.

Arlethia’s beautiful face turned wrinkly as she made a bit of a grimace, “I would be in for Unarmed Combat Basics, but not Advanced… stop staring at me so smugly! Yes, you are better than me, happy?!”

“Always,” I stretched the word, really rubbing it in. “Guess I’ll fit those classes in later.”

“Arlethia, want to take Summoning with me?” Willt asked.

“Or let you get summoning experiences with some opportunistic whore?” Arlethia hissed. Her tail wrapped possessively around Willt’s hand on her thigh. A gesture that I still found adorable. “Yeah, count me in.”

“Well, count me out,” I reminded them that I was there. “I’m not suddenly going down the warlock route in life.”

“Not going there to meet a hot succubus girl?” the red-skinned short and stacked sex demon asked. “You know they’re going to pile on there. Being able to be summoned is pretty useful. Let’s you get to all sorts of places.”

Demons were one of the few sapient species that could be summoned. For those demons that did not know the Dimensional Truth, they could only be called to a select few worlds that had multidimensional proximity to where they were. If they did know the Dimensional Truth, they could be called to just about everywhere. In either case, the demon must know the art of being summoned, be willing to be conjured to somewhere and have their true name shared with the warlock or witch doing the ritual. Being summoned was the quickest way to travel, guaranteed a way back to the place of origin, and usually came with some tokens of thanks from the summoner. A lot of succubi were happy to be called for sexual services, with the only condition being that they were allowed to suck someone dry.

I knew that much and it still didn’t interest me.

“I will meet enough succubi in the Sexual Skills class,” I reckoned, since I couldn’t see how that wouldn’t be popular with that thirsty crowd. “Interdimensional Etiquette, either of you interested?” they shook their heads and I put it on the list of things to figure out later as well.

“Alchemy,” Willt suggested, having both me and Arlethia humming. The useful thing about alchemy was its range of applications. With enough preparations and the right ingredients, there was a pretty vast amount of things that could be achieved. Drawbacks being that it needed enough preparations and the right ingredients. In other words, time and money. A lot of time and a lot of money, for the really good concoctions.

I remained interested. “Sure, I’m in,” I said. Arlethia was not. Willt suggested to do it Monday morning. “Way too early!” I refused.

“Maybe,” Willt suggested with a smile, “having something that forces you to get out early will fix your inability to get up in the morning.”

“Because that worked through three years of school,” I replied with deep sarcasm echoing in my voice. “Every morning takes a piece of me and I shall not sacrifice more than I have to to this ridiculous need to awaken before my body wills me to. Begone with your terrible suggestions, friend of mine, and let’s take the one in the block after. 8:30 is a semi-acceptable time to be somewhere.”

There was a stretch of silence afterwards as we went on to see what we wanted in addition and what fit well with what he had already slotted in. “Different kind of alchemy, I want to do cooking,” Arlethia said, both me and Willt looking entirely disinterested. “What? Karitas, don’t you think you need to step up your game? For your lady’s breakfast?”

I hesitated and looked up from my Ashod, making a thoughtful face. “You do have a point,” I mumbled. My cooking skills were still rather specialized to my own taste. Learning a few recipes more that I could follow would be quite helpful. That aside, cooking was also something that sharpened precision movements, so it had a practical application. “Fine, count me in, what day, what time?”

“Wednesday, 13:30, sound good?”

“Sure,” I confirmed and continued exploring the courses on offer. “… Mhm, I do kind of want to take an engineering class…” I still had no interest to get into that industry itself. However, knowing a bunch of mechanical solutions to things as well as training my instincts in regards to things like structural integrity, weight and applied physics were likely going to work well with my Artefact powers.

“I would be with you on that,” Willt announced and we agreed on a spot on Wednesday, right before the cooking class. My schedule was looking a bit patchy at this point. Aside from lunchbreaks, I would have preferred it if my classes were largely connected back to back so I could knock them out in a row, get home and stay there. Didn’t all work out with the times from the classes though. Shame, but what could I do?

I looked for something I could put on Monday, going for one class in the morning and one in the evening felt off. “Aesthetic Arts sounds nice,” I said. It seemed to be a class all about making things that looked beautiful, with a lot of teaser images about depictions of the female form, which intrigued me immediately. Also, creative thinking was an exceedingly worthwhile thing for me to train. It played into both my perverted and practical interests. Arlethia was with me for the former reason.

Last thing I slotted into Monday was Musical Class. Just struck me as something that would be useful for a lot of courtship things in the future, although I had no idea yet about what instrument to pick up. If it wasn’t my cup of tea, I could always get out. Nobody else was interested.

We didn’t find any more classes that I and them shared interest in. Between the two of them, they unearthed several more classes though. When this circumstance became extremely apparent, and when Arlethia started to give me glances of the ‘I’d like alone time with my man’ variety, I took my leave. Rather than return to my own room afterwards, I directly went to Esther’s. There was no reason to take a break now and I missed her voice anyhow.

I knocked on her door and the sounds behind already told me that I was in safe territory. No rushed stomping, just measured strides. Then the door opened softly and the gorgeous, raven-haired lady invited me in with a wide hand gesture. No words were exchanged, as I entered her room for the first time.

Two cups were on the round table in her room. Between them stood an interesting little construct, a can atop a metal cage, a candle burning underneath, keeping the contents heated. The room smelled of lavender tea and incense. Keeping in the heat of the day, the room had a cosy warmth to it. Still silent, Esther gestured towards the can with questioning intent. I nodded and she poured both of us a cup of the tea.

Finally, I broke the silence, “Very considerate of you,” I thanked and blew a little bit of steam off the liquid. It had already cooled to an almost drinkable degree, but would still need a few moments. Moments I used to quickly show her what other classes I took. “Anything you want to join me in?” I asked afterwards

“The same question I direct at you,” Esther returned as she quietly stared at my Ashod. I had given it to her for easier reference. Whenever she landed at a certain part of the screen, her eyes and pupils narrowed visibly, the amber becoming just a little bit closer to bright yellow. She looked conflicted between self-control and anger. “Any changes in your earlier interests in my classes?”

I hesitated, wondering why she looked so annoyed and if I was about to set her off again. The answer needed to be given, as silent would irk her guaranteed. “No. After reading through the description again, Dueling Class might be something for me, but we put something else in that timeslot.”

Her answer was total silence. No nod, not even a simple “I see”, just nothing. It was a different kind of silence than the cozy one I had entered when walking into the room. I didn’t like it.

I was considering how I would react if she exploded here again. Would I just take it or would I argue back? I already knew that I wasn’t going to be a whipped servant boy or an outlet for her uncontrolled anger. That was why her silence made me nervous. I didn’t like the possibilities it created.

Esther closed her eyes, let out a long breath, then reached for her cup of tea. By the time she had put it back down, her eyes were open again and her expression calm. Whatever issue there had been, she had apparently resolved it internally. Which was not entirely relieving, to be honest, because I could only GUESS it was resolved. I loved women, but there were things about them that were highly annoying. One such thing was that they could bring up things that seemed done and dusted for three eternities, as if they had happened yesterday, and I should have known it was still an issue the entire time. A sweeping generalization, yes, and a recounting of my personal experience.

“I will share the Sexual Skills class with you,” she suddenly announced and placed my Ashod on the table to write herself into the class immediately.

I blinked a couple of times, then smirked widely. Surprise was overpowered by anticipation in a matter of seconds. This was a development I could only perceive as positive. Talking about sex for two hours was bound to get her worked up to at least some degree. Additionally, she may learn several things there without ever touching a man, leaving me with a virgin who had a clue what she was doing. As a man with many simple tastes, this was exactly what I wanted.

All around, I felt like I was winning in this situation.

Whether that would be true or not was a question for future Karitas.