“Hey,” I greeted Karona.

The greyish white skinned succubus’ eyes mustered me. The dark red rose intensely from the black of her sclera. Her pupils dilated slightly, once she stopped at my face. Her lips, of an even darker red, pressed together, until they turned white. The intense frown did not fit her heart-shaped face, framed by crimson.

She crossed her arms. Out of sheer habit, she did it in such a way that she pushed up her decently large breasts, which were only clad in the tight spandex of a workout top. Her bubble butt and shapely thighs were covered only by the yoga equivalent of hotpants. It was a wonder that the flexible fabric didn’t ride up while she shifted her weight back and forth. The whip-like, black tail curved around her, moving in agitated quickness. Both it and her backwards-curved, thin horns showed rose-like thorns for seconds at a time. A visible manifestation of her conflicting emotions.

Finally, Karona let out a long sigh and ran a hand through her red hair. “I’ve made a wager not to talk to you Karitas,” she reminded me.

I did remember that well. After several instances of teasing her, Karona had stepped over the line with the lady of my love. A challenge had been uttered: they would have a fight and the prize was me, essentially. As attractive as fights between women were in my mind, that one had been rather vicious. In the end, Esther had won and Karona had kept her promise to not approach me again.

“Well, I am talking to you, so that certainly clears that issue,” I suggested.

Karona’s crossed arms pressed together a little tighter. “What do you want?” she asked, eyes narrowing. “I won’t join your Anomalia while your ‘lovely’ Esther is your Queen. A girl has a right to keep a grudge, you know?”

“Is that the only reason why you wouldn’t join?” I asked in a suave tone and got a little closer. Karona coquettishly raised an eyebrow. The thorns on her grey horns and tail finally disappeared entirely.

Barely she had opened her mouth when the unpleasant, deep voice of Stiltzkin cut through the room. The warty, ugly, short, troll doll of a man shouted at everyone simultaneously. “Alright you maggots, whoever you stand closest to is the one you’ll be punching today. Yes, Karona, I know you and Karitas got some bullshit going on. Use it to punch each other harder!”

“You’re such a charming fellow.” Karona’s voice dripped in sarcasm. “How’s Teltra?”

“Good!” Stiltzkin, for just one word, sounded happy. Then he was back to aggressive. “Now, punching! Warm-up! No protections. Slow, telegraphed movements!”

“Guess we’re stuck together,” I observed the obvious.

“Yes, I guess – so!” Karona swiped at me at a speed I would not at all classify as clearly telegraphed. Barely, I ducked under and then blocked her flying knee with both hands. “Still quick.”

“Still feisty,” I responded. We hadn’t really sparred in quite some time. I would have tackled her, but that would have certainly gone against the spirit of the warm-up. Instead, I palmed her in the stomach.

Karona’s abs became visible with seductive subtleness when she tensed up to take the impact. She was driven half a step back, then clawed at my arm. I could feel her sharp nails scrape over my skin. I did not enjoy the pain, but neither did I hiss at it.

Those were the only hits either of us landed, before Stilzkin whistled in our direction. “Punch yourselves hard within the boundaries of my instructions, dumbasses!” he told us.

“And it was just getting fun,” Karona whined erotically. She licked her lips, when her tone caused a rather obvious reaction in my pants. She took a basic stance in front of me. I mirrored it and went for a basic shove. “Such a shame you’re settled with a Queen who is so stuck up.”

“Esther is plenty of fun when you get to know her – and when you aren’t constantly trying to fight her,” I defended the lady of my love. “You know she did extend a hand to you. Only condition is that you fix your arrogance, as she put it.”

“I am not arrogant!” Karona threw a hand at me and I effortlessly pushed it aside.

“With all due respect, my delightful succubus of the thorns, I must completely disagree with you on that one. You most certainly have a way of overestimating yourself. If you did not, we would not find ourselves in this situation.”

“…You’ve an interesting way around words,” Karona told me. Did I hear a mild ring of approval in her voice? Was she the one that appreciated my extrapolations? If so, I needed her yesterday. “Whatever, I will not change myself for that harlot.”

“Don’t insult her,” I warned and thrust a slow fist towards her. She pushed it aside without further comment. “So, Teltra?” I asked, wondering what that had been about.

“His daughter,” Karona told me, a carefree smile on her lips. “She caught a fever last week.”

“I see you continue your ‘gossip trading’.” Our spar continued in its leisurely pace. “Anything interesting you want to tell me?”

“Apparently someone has the Headmaster’s attention and is required to withstand his full presence for a minute in order to get the hand of his daughter,” Karona told me. She giggled. It sounded malicious, but I had learned a long time ago that Karona was too occupied with having fun to be a true danger. Simply, it was the intonation that made her sound evil when she was just honest. Some people had a resting bitch face, she had a demon voice. “The poor idiot.”

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“An idiot indeed… Arlethia?”

“Arlethia,” Karona confirmed. Even though contact between me and Karona had been shaky, the two succubi continued to be on friendly terms. “She suggested I meet her King sometime.”

I hesitated and almost got struck in the forehead because of it. Bending over backwards, I narrowly escaped that, only to have a foot kicked away under me. I hit the sport mat, where I remained on my back for one moment to catch my thoughts. ‘Do I care?’ I wondered.

A question also written over Karona’s face, when she bowed over me. Albeit, she seemed more amused by the question, a slight smile across her face. She extended a hand to help me up and I took it.

“And?” I asked, when we were back across each other.

“I haven’t decided yet. A warlock sounds interesting, but he is rather… scrawny. I prefer my men tall and capable of advancing!” She ducked away under an attack. I immediately took one step forwards. She smirked at me, while I toppled her over, using my entire body to assure she went down. With a loud smack, my hand slammed against the smooth surface of the mattress, right next to her head. “Do with that information as you will,” she said. Her irises shifted left to right slightly, continuously changing which of my eyes she was focusing on.

“It would be unfair of me to deny you your prospects,” I hummed, “and yet I find myself incapable of telling myself that I wish for you to remain loyal to a path you wish not to walk.” I got up and extended my hand. Easily, I pulled Karona to her feet. She ‘stumbled’ forwards, as if I had pulled too intensely, and fell against my chest. A long nail scratched sinfully along my jawbone.

“I’ve never been one to care about the visible path,” she whispered and then distanced herself before Stilzkin could get upset with us.

I could still feel her warm breasts squished against me, when I had to dodge her swipe at me. Truly, cuddling with attractive women was so much more enticing a prospect than fighting practice. Then again, I did like them somewhat feisty and Karona was giving me that in spades. She also had given me a lot to think about and I hadn’t even asked what I had sought her out for yet.

The idea that she would end up with Willt did fill me with… an emotion I could not quite place. Disgust was too strong a word, but it was in the same family. It was below that and above the sensation I was struck with when I walked in a room where a single thing was out of place. Like a red tile in a blue-tiled room, for example.

Point was: I did not want that. I was in no place to declare her mine. To insist on adding her to my Anomalia was to pick a fight with Esther. While I was willing to do that in principle, looking at it reasonably Karona was in the wrong. She had been the one who teased Esther, she had been the one to ignore my Queen’s wishes, she had been the one to suggest the wager and now she was the one who refused to apologize. While Esther had been wrong in her initial instinct to monopolize me, given where we were, she had since sorted that out. The ball was firmly in Karona’s court. If she desired to play with us, she would have to pass it back over.

Alas, I desperately wanted to play with her.

“You aren’t going to do anything stupid, are you?” I asked the succubus. What this conversation had revealed was that she was just as little over me as I was over her.

“That’s a secret,” Karona hummed. “Now, were you really just reaching out to me or did you want something?”

I sighed. I wished it was the former, but I had not previously tried to bridge this awkwardness between us. “I do have a question… would you happen to know where I can find Omnius?”

“Mhhmmayyybe,” Karona responded in a stretched-out tone. “Come on, keep my gossip mill running, what do you need him for?”

“I need to make bigger strides if I am to meet Taurus’ challenge before the semester is over, thus I require help from the Master of Magic. He was nice enough to extend his hand before, but I cannot find him anymore.”

“So now you want to beg for his hospitality a second time?” Karona chuckled in that sinister voice of hers. “How greedy. I like it. Rumour has it that the Master of Magic’s office can only be found by following the cosmic lamia around the halls. That is all that I can tell you.” I smiled and she raised an eyebrow. “Do you actually know what that means?”

“I pay very close attention to the artworks around.”

“Alright, enough warm-up, crickets!” Stilzkin growled. “And enough of the flirting! You disgust me! Today you’ll be doing cardio. Yes, punching cardio! All your power and technique is worth fuck all if you can’t keep going after more than a couple of serious swings. Push that superhuman physique of yours to the limit.”

“I’ll keep honouring the wager and stay away from you.” Karona turned and talked over her shoulder. “If you’re going to approach me again, though, what can I do, really?”

I missed my opportunity to present a suave response, too mesmerized by her backside. Just when I had thought maybe I was a tits man after all, her strutting away from me pulled me back into sexual equilibrium. What a fine bottom she had, a pair of round buns that had risen to maximum attractiveness with age. How I wished to knead that dough thoroughly, test if it was just as firm and soft as it looked.

“Karitas! Think about punching, not dicking!” Stilzkin reprimanded me.

“Sorry,” I apologized half-heartedly. I had respect for the teacher. Sure, the bitter drill sergeant routine got repetitive fast, but it also worked. He was dealing with a bunch of students that were skilled at unarmed combat already. Karona and I were the standout in the class, because we were the only two freshmen around.

Everyone thought they were already capable and sometimes a student got a big head. They thought they could put Stilzkin in his place, only to be put on their asses instead. It was amusing whenever it happened. Basically, Stilzkin’s abrasive attitude served to humble people that thought they were masters because they were in the advanced class.

Even as I walked towards my own punching bag, I looked at Karona. When the semester had begun, Karona and I had been only really talking to each other. The freshmen protection rule of Welldark meant that seniors did not approach us (well, mostly her) until they were allowed to suggest they join their Anomalia. Karona had since blurred those lines, by being her intel gathering self.

After giving me another glance, she gave one of the upperclassmen a flirtatious brush over the shoulder in passing. I furrowed my eyebrows, as did the man. We both could sense when someone was being used to elicit jealousy from another guy. We both let it pass without comment. I, because I wasn’t going to yell across the room and he…

Well, I wasn’t a mind reader, but if I had to take a guess he probably owed Karona something. I was not sure if Karona was an accidental information broker that really loved to trade gossip or if she was being humble to downplay her importance. Seven out of ten people I had mentioned her towards had already saved her number in their Ashod. The succubus had her claws everywhere.

Which only made me want her more. The only thing more attractive than a gorgeous woman was a gorgeous, competent woman.

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