Amazed at the illusionary wall, I walked towards it. Esther and I took a moment to inspect it. Our fingers dragged through the surface. It was less than two centimetres deep. The sensation was akin to dragging one’s fingers through a strong wind. Behind it was just regular air. Together, we stepped through.

We emerged in a charming little room. It was filled with the scent of freshly brewed coffee. It originated from a tiny kitchen station at the opposite wall, where a goblin woman was currently working. She was the striking image of the picture we had just stepped through. Busty, with long, voluminous white hair, and extremely wide hips. She even wore the same outfit, made out of white silk straps that hid barely anything.

Gracefully, the short, stacked lady moved towards the table, carrying a pot of the coffee with her. “There you go,” she said lovingly, as she poured Omnius a fresh cup. She had to stand on a stool to get that done. Once the pot was securely on the table, the Master of Magic rewarded her with head pats.

“Please, take a seat,” he invited us and pointed across the table. I almost felt bad, stepping on the fine rug on my way to the finely fashioned chairs. Esther advanced much faster. A second after her, I sat down.

The goblin placed her immense derriere in Omnius’ lap. The Master of Magic immediately began fondling her boobs, while drinking coffee by means of levitation. I knew I liked that man for good reasons. Without hesitation, his hands slipped under the silk strips. The little lady just lewdly grinned and nuzzled against her King. At least that’s what I had to assume was the relationship at play here.

“I have heard Taurus is giving you his standard mustering,” Omnius said, while bouncing two G-cups in his hands.

I did not stare. Holding my principles certainly helped in situations like these. Also, I had Esther’s thick thigh to knead. There was no need to stare, because I had nothing to envy. “Did Aclysia inform you?”

“It reached me down the grapevine. One of my haremettes is good friends with one of his. You weren’t the first, you won’t be the last. I just thought I’d take this opportunity to extend my aid, of sorts.” Omnius raised a hand, the back of it turned towards me and Esther. Like a leaf in the wind, it swayed left, then right. When he turned it around, a little flask fell down, stopping, dangling from a gold chain. It was filled with a few drops of a dark blue liquid, sparkling with silver dots. “Do you know what this is?”

“Astral Essence.”

“You should not know what it is,” Omnius said, his hand still swaying, moved by invisible tides. “Let’s be real for a second Karitas: you’re not human. I don’t know what you are, but you’re not that.”

“I’m 100% a physical human,” I insisted, almost exclusively jokingly. At least when it came to who was inside the room, the jig was clearly up. I was only talking around it to not reveal anything else.

“Physical,” Esther commented and pinched my arm, shaking it as if the skin would come loose.

“Whatever your origin, however you came to be what you are, know that some of the more… mystically attuned teachers have an eye on you. We do not pry, but we do notice.”

“If you do not pry, what is this about?” I asked. The tiny flask came flying my way in response. In a panicked hurry, I took my hand off of Esther's thigh. With both hands, I caught the tiny projectile. Barely, I managed to keep myself from glaring at the Master of Magic. ‘Do I have to reprimand him in matters of his own field?’

Omnius just smiled, as he went back to two-handing the massive melons of his green-skinned haremette. “I would not trust any regular freshman to dive into the Astral Sea, but I think this isn’t your first trip. This should keep you entertained in classes that would mostly be meditation for you.” He pinched the goblin’s nipples and she loudly moaned. “Do keep it hidden from the other students.”

“I will,” I promised, already putting the chain around my neck.

I could feel a nostalgic touch on my skin, where the tiny container touched me. Like the smell of a parent’s house or the voice of a long-lost friend, yet completely unlike either. I adjusted my collar and made sure the chain was covered by the red-shirt I wore in accordance with the school uniform.

“Since you are here, Esther, I should tell you that you will receive one of these yourself soon,” Omnius told my raven-haired lady.

Adjusting her tricorne, Esther did appear to grasp the importance of what was said. “I will interrogate my Karitas about the significance of this in private,” she stated.

“You do so,” Omnius shrugged, lifting a tantalizing pair of tits in the process. “I’m in the mood for a lot of other things now so… goodbye,” he nodded towards the illusionary wall we had come through.

The signal was obvious. Within five seconds, Esther and I found ourselves on the other side of the painting. We glanced back, to watch it vanish like dissolving food colouring, leaving a depiction of the Scale constellation behind. “I liked the other painting more.”

“You do have a weak spot for… what was the term? Shortstacks?”

“Oh yeah. All the assets in a tiny package, it is glorious,” I responded and put my arm back around her waist. “I do also love tall girls though.”

“I have ample reason to believe you,” Esther hummed.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Karit-ass!”

“Crocko!”

The mountain of muscle and I slammed our palms together. As best as we could, we arm-wrestled mid-air. He clenched his square jaw, and I presented a broad poker-face smile. Our muscles tensed, the pull on both sides bringing us closer together, until we just laughed and slapped each other on the back in half a hug.

We took half a step back. Jacko, or Crocko as I had come to call him, was larger than me, broader than me, had a buzz cut, and was an all-around very masculine guy. He was a showcase of just how many men with impressive physiques were running around.

I rarely gave it much attention, but the guys matched the girls when it came to being above the universe-wide standard. This was, in large part, because of where we were. Not only did an Astral Body help maintain peak shape, but Welldark’s selection process did involve physical fitness. My friend Willt was one of the rare showcases of people that were intellectually able enough to get through despite subpar showings in athletic regards. Most of the men were some variety of trained, whether that meant they were lean like me, a powerhouse like Crocko, or an absolute titan with fair amounts of fat supporting their muscle.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The main reason why I called Jacko Crocko was lazily curved behind the upper half of his legs. A scaled tail, that turned flat towards the tip, with a ridge going along the upper edge. A crocodile tail, the only real sign he was of a different species than human.

Crocko and I had first met when I had asked him to step aside so I could speak to Esther. At the time, I had been more concentrated on patching things up with her, since that had been right after the debacle about my spending habits. In the weeks since, Crocko and I had grown somewhat close. He hadn’t cared that I had removed his chances with Esther and I didn’t mind that he had tried. We both understood that was just what guys did in our respective situations. He hadn’t tried again and I hadn’t meddled in any of his attempts to flirt with the 27 other women in class.

As the only other guy around, and a sociable type like me, we just naturally started talking. Our acquaintance was actually limited to about twenty minutes a week. We hadn’t even exchanged our contact info. It was the kind of basic student relationship where we got along when we saw each other and nothing more. If either of us made the effort to dig out a proper friendship, it would have worked. Neither of us had so far. Maybe neither of us would. If so, we would just wave at each other in hallways in the future. Then we would graduate and think about each other once a decade.

“Any good news lately?” I asked him, as was our ritual.

“Haruka is still tolerating that I haven’t figured the Anomalia stuff out, so I would say so,” Crocko joked. Like Arlethia, he appeared to be a bit of a slowpoke. Most people, by now, had managed to perform the faux-Anomalia binding with the card-crystals they handed out. “Otherwise, nothing much, how about you?”

“Well, you remember how I told you Aclysia had moved in?” It was a rhetorical question. Crocko was my outlet for whatever random stuff I wanted to talk about with people who had a somewhat neutral ear. “Turns out her father has a testing ritual… so now I have to withstand his boosted presence for a whole minute to prove I have the fortitude to protect his daughter.”

“Or else he’s going to throw you out of the academy?” Crocko asked, one eyebrow raised.

“Nothing that dramatic. He just wouldn’t give his blessing, but that essentially just means he won’t be happy about it.”

“That seems pretty lenient.”

“I think it’s perfectly reasonable.”

“It falls in the scope of lenient, not sure if I would take that stance… more of a protective guy myself.”

“I don’t think I really know how I’ll react until I have a daughter. Impossible it is for a man to judge the state of his parental mind, until the hand of his baby clutches his thumb.”

“That’s fair.” Crocko rolled his shoulders. “Well, I’ll let you get back to your girl before she pierces me with her eyes.”

“Her vision is based on movement.”

“Hah!” the crocodile man laughed and we separated. I did indeed go back to Esther, while Crocko went ahead and impressed himself on all the still available ladies around.

Every space had someone that was in command of it, that was just the nature of instinctual hierarchies. When it came to the foyer of the Astral Cultivation room, Crocko was definitely the one in charge. He was friendly with everyone around, even the women he had no chances with. Even my anti-social lady at least gave him a friendly nod when she saw him. Most of his command over the room was entirely earned by his charisma. The rest came from me willingly giving up my own claim to interest and socialization. This was one of the classes I shared with Esther and I’d much rather concentrate on her during this time. There were no other women, from their looks and the limited intel I got through social osmosis, who intrigued me anyway.

In our own time, we transitioned from the cramped foyer into the meditation room. All that had been separating us from it was an unlocked door, made from stained glass. It depicted a large sun over a green field. We left behind our bags and our shoes.

Silence enveloped us. An unnatural silence, swallowing all sounds after a short distance. I could see the mouths of other people in the room moving, but at best I heard a distant whisper. What was said was indiscernible. Even speaking to Esther, who was directly next to me, was like listening to her and my voice in mono. “So, where do we sit today?”

“All that matters is that you are next to me, my Karitas,” Esther responded with such direct sincerity it made my heart flutter. Having a lover high in directness made for some incredibly sweet honesty, even if the banter was not necessarily as entertaining. Trade-offs in everything.

I randomly picked one of the midnight blue mats and we sat down there. The firm material was a nice separation between us and the black marble floor. Just like Taurus’ office, and a few other places in Welldark no doubt, the white veins that ran through the stone all concentrated in the middle of the room, where a soot-filled depression was located. The black spot served to invoke the impression of an eye.

The room itself was circular, with a dome as the ceiling. There were twelve, equally spaced-out windows of stained glass around the room. Each depicted a different celestial body or formation, each had a golden, slanted window sill underneath that had the name of the depicted object engraved in it, each of them was illuminated by the dull sunlight that shone through it.

Obviously, that made no sense whatsoever from a physical perspective. The chamber, with its dark, curved wall, was a circle. It was impossible for sunlight to fall in equally from every direction simultaneously. The location of the chamber was an enigma. There was no circular appendix to the outside of the building where this classroom should have been located. Also, the windows changed every week.

To put it in obvious terms: the Magic Branch of Welldark sure was magical.

“Begin your meditation,” Esther whispered to me. The intimate tone served no other reason than to caress my eardrums. It worked beyond well. Her voice was always like evenly spread honey over warm oven bread and half-melted butter, but those quiet, love-filled whispers… those were like a fragment of divinity was travelling its way down my eardrum, hit my brain, and then spread down my spine as pure joy. Someone this stern should not be allowed to have a voice this soft, feminine and sultry.

Actually, as the benefactor of this unfairness, I would have been a fool to complain.

“It is good manners to wait for the teacher,” I responded, trying my best to match the intimacy of her tone. Compared to hers, my voice was sandpaper on wood. My personal opinion mattered little, only that she inched a little closer and caressed my neck. The rub of her finger against my skin was a dangerous invitation.

“His only addition to this room is oversight and music,” she told me. “Close your eyes, mysterious Karitas.” I followed her instructions. The gentle caress turned into a gentle massage. She shifted around me. Her boobs pressed against my back. A worldly presence fundamentally opposed to the efforts of mediation. “I’m being selfish when I ask this of you,” Esther whispered to me, “but you are the one who I can be selfish with. To Aclysia, I feel a kinship. If she were our first addition, it would ease my uncertainties, manifold as they are.” The message turned into a hug; her arms wrapped under my shoulders.

She said nothing more, but I understood. I had known that she wanted Aclysia in our Anomalia. What I had failed to see was that any delays from my side would increase her uncertainty. Aclysia had taken all the necessary steps to appease my Queen when it came to her jealousy and Esther was preparing herself to reveal her scars. Esther wanted to have Aclysia on lockdown for our first addition, because she was the perfect candidate for the lady of my love to ease into opening up to more future haremettes.

We could have continued as we wanted without applying the actual Anomalia ritual. Ignore the mark of the soul and indulge in physical relations regardless. Even I did not find that to be a satisfying conclusion. In order to give Esther the confidence she needed to handle further expansions of my harem that would follow, this needed to be a success – an emotionally resonant one, optimally.

“Hum a little something for me,” I requested.

To the sweet melody created by Esther’s voice, I let my mind drift away from physical sensation. The presence of her nubile curves turned from distractions into pleasant heat, into nothing at all. Soon the sounds were swallowed by the universal trance I entered into. Like control over my dreams, so too did the ability to lose myself in meditation come naturally to me.