Suddenly A Succubus

Chapter 62.1

February 19th.Eight days until the full moon.

The sprawling, labyrinthian corridors beneath Lysander Hall once again sat still and quiet. Several weeks earlier, the presence of four magical wolves from another plane had instilled the central chamber with life and whimsy. As massive and powerful as they were, the pack had been content to alternate between long naps, running around the impressively large chamber, and ripping their various gifted toys to shreds. Some of the more resilient toys remained, of course; long, thick, colorful ropes that had once served as tools of tug-of-war, hardened chew toys made to resemble bones, and a few comically large tennis balls.

Nick ran his fingers over the thin, coarse fur of one ball in particular before chucking it across the room. It impacted the wall, squeaked loudly as the impact compressed it, then quickly rebounded off the floor before returning to his grasp. He took a step back, then threw it again with even more force. Once again, it bounced off the floor and into his hands.

Another step back, another throw, another retrieval.

He was shocked at the quality and durability of this tennis ball. It bore dozens of thick teeth marks from the wolves that had previously chased it around the chamber, sure, but it also retained a surprising amount of speed and force as it bounced off the wall in front of him.

Squeak, bounce, catch.

One step back.

Squeak, bounce, catch.

Another step back.

Each step brought him closer and closer to the opposite wall, but he wasn’t sure which would happen first; running out of room, or losing his temper. Memories of the last week flashed through his head, and he couldn’t stop himself from overanalyzing every single moment.

Squeak, bounce, catch.

Squeak, bounce, catch.

Squeak, bounce, catch.

Gentle footsteps broke his concentration, preventing his memories from overwhelming him while also stopping him from reaching the opposite side of the chamber. Looking up, Nick saw Imani staring back with a sympathetic look on her face.

“Let me guess,” Nick started, “it’s hard to concentrate with all this racket?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have phrased it that way myself, but… yeah, a little bit.”

With a heavy sigh, Nick tossed the ball to the ground. “I can stop. It would probably take a marathon or two to actually tire me out, anyways.” As he passed Imani, she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder before the two of them rejoined Tessa in a nearby room.

“How bad has it gotten?” Tessa asked as they sat down.

“My hair is growing faster, as are my nails, and they’re also far more durable now. My muscle memory is completely shot, and every time I open a door or try to pick something up, I have to be careful not to overdo it. Every time the sun sets, I get this… itch. A desire to just do anything and everything, but no matter what I try, I can’t seem to tire myself out.” He slouched against the wall, leaning against Tessa’s shoulder as he tried to force himself to relax. “The sun set twenty minutes ago, and tonight the moon is exactly half full. I can feel its energy, its magic, singing to me like some kind of twisted lullaby, and I know it’s only going to get worse.”

“There’s still a week left, Nick,” Imani said. “For all we know, Amara and Vee might return with the cure tomorrow!”

“God, I hope so,” Nick muttered.

Tessa pushed herself higher and kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry the tennis ball wasn’t enough. Do you want to grab the rope next and play tug-of-war?” she asked, failing to hide her devious smirk.

They locked eyes, then Nick kissed Tessa and she sat down again. “I know you’re trying to lighten the mood, but… I really don’t like that comparison.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll cut it out,” Tessa said with a dramatic, if somewhat endearing, huff.

“It doesn’t help that I can smell them now.”

“The wolves?” Imani asked.

Nick nodded. “Their scent is all over the place, and as much as I hate admitting it, I can even tell the smells apart. If we hadn’t cleaned up all of their, um, droppings, I’m sure being here would be an absolute nightmare.”

“You know we could do this somewhere else, right?” Tessa said. “We have that classroom under Whitmore Hall.”

“No, this is the safest place to do all this magic stuff.” Nick looked at all the notes scattered on the floor, then up at the chair in the corner. “Actually, is there anything I can do to help?”

“No offense, Nick, but you don’t know the first thing about magic runes.”

“Well, maybe you can walk me through the basics!” Nick grabbed Tessa’s notebook and started flipping through it. Despite full knowledge that he was essentially asking for a crash course in quantum physics, the idea seemed extraordinarily appealing. “I… look, I know it’s not really my place, but I need something to keep myself distracted. Working out was always my outlet, a way to relieve stress and burn off energy, but now I hate it. This body, it’s not mine. It’s being twisted and warped into something I don’t recognize. If I go to the gym, I either push myself as hard as I can and risk outing myself as a lycanthrope, or I hold back to sell the illusion and get nothing from the experience.”

Tessa’s hand found his, the two interlacing their fingers before Tessa placed her head on his shoulder. “I guess it’s easy to forget how important all your sports and working out are. If it helps keep you busy, then sure, I’ll walk you through some of the basics. You can’t complain if it’s too boring, though!”

Nick chuckled as he kissed Tessa’s head. “I’m not you, Tess. Some of us happen to enjoy school.”

Scoffing with mock offense, Tessa punched Nick’s arm. “Ass.” They leaned in to kiss one more time, then her tattoos lit up and she pulled his backpack closer. “Here, grab a blank notebook and something to write with. There’s a lot to go over.”

Minutes later, with notebook and pencil in hand, Nick turned his attention to Tessa as she started speaking.

“Okay, so, before we get into any specifics, you need to understand the broad strokes,” she said. “So, from the beginning: all planes have magic inherent to their existence, and are thus shaped by the properties of that energy. Magic from The Wilds is chaotic, impulsive, and whimsical. Magic from Purgatory is entropy incarnate. Magic from Earth is intensely malleable and communicative, but also incredibly weak.”

“I thought Earth didn’t have magic at all, huh,” Nick said as he scribbled in his notebook.

“No, but that’s an easy assumption to make,” Tessa clarified. “Magic that’s native to Earth has a much easier time reaching out to other planes, bridging gaps, and forming connections when none previously existed. If it were more potent, we might be able to do some cool stuff with it, but that’s simply not the case. Now, in addition to magic from our plane being so thin, humans are also inherently nonmagical. This doesn’t mean we’re resistant to magic, it just means we can’t create it for ourselves the way other creatures—like angels or demons—can.”

She continued. “In order to work around this, witches connect with the inherent magic of Earth and use it to start conversations with other planes of existence. We find ways to borrow the native magic of those planes, then we bring it back here and manipulate it how we see fit. Control, however, doesn’t come freely. No matter what kind of magic we want to harness, we need a way to tell that magic what to do.”

At this point, Tessa’s tattoos lit up and several dog toys scattered throughout the room floated off the ground. “Magic is not a physical construct, therefore we cannot control it with physical means. I’ve mentioned before that all witches start their education by receiving a set of basic telekinesis runes, and this happens for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it gives them practice with controlling magic. In order to activate the runes and express control over their abilities, they must demonstrate a thorough understanding of how the runic language works. Secondly, if a witch desires to further their education and receive additional tattoos, telekinesis is required in order to shape whatever magic they decide to pursue.”

Nick nodded along slowly as he scribbled, and Tessa paused for a moment to let him finish. After reviewing his notes, he said, “So, Palesa Tsopnang had control over plants. According to what you’ve just said, this is possible because she has both a way to summon those plants directly, but also the telekinesis to control them?”

Tessa smiled. “That’s right! Her control over plants comes from a connection to The Wilds, but if she didn’t have any telekinesis, she wouldn’t be able to shape the magic or control what she created. At best, she’d be able to infuse Wilds magic into an area and then hope it did something helpful. This actually happened occasionally throughout history; we have stories of ancient druids that held the power to bless crops, sense imbalance in nature, or intuit the desires of animals. These were simple expressions of a connection to The Wilds, but without telekinetic runes to help shape what they wanted.”

With a flick of her wrist, Tessa moved all the floating dog toys to circle around Nick’s head. “Now, back to what I was saying earlier. All witches start with telekinesis, but Earth’s magic is incapable of supporting that magic. So, where do we get our telekinetic power?”

“Um…” Nick tried to think back to previous conversations with Tessa, but nothing came to mind.

After grabbing a sip of her coffee, Tessa continued. “Sorry, that was a rhetorical question, but I was thirsty. Telekinesis comes from the Astral Plane, a world where mental energy and physical energy are one and the same. By establishing a connection, we’re able to convert our own mental energy into tangible, literal control over our surroundings. This is why using magic tires me out if I overdo it; exactly as if you pushed yourself too hard at the gym.”

“I seem to remember you having a pretty nasty headache after you found Amara in that basement,” Nick said.

Tessa scowled at the mention of Brandon. “I was pissed, and I wanted to hurt Brandon for capturing Amara. However, while I was technically able to throw him across the room, it wasn’t a very wise decision on my part.”

“You threw someone across a room?” Imani asked, a disapproving look on her face. “With those runes?”

“He trapped Amara in a circle of blood and was trying to force her into servitude! That fucker deserved it, and I’m glad he got ripped to pieces by reapers!”

Nick grabbed Tessa’s bouncing leg and gently squeezed. “No need to dwell on that, Tess.”

“Right, right, sorry,” she muttered. “Anyways, telekinesis runes. I’ve briefly gone over how they work, and where we get that magic from, so now it’s time to get a bit more complicated. See, in order for us to activate our tattoos and use our magic, we need to understand every single part of the conversation, so to speak. When I float things around the room, I’m not just saying ‘Hey, Astral Plane, gimme some juice,’ I’m specifically choosing which runes to activate, as well as the order.”

After grabbing another drink, Tessa turned around so that all her tattoos were facing Nick. As he looked them over, he noticed that not all of them were activated, despite the various items currently floating around the room.

“So, let’s look at my runes. In order to activate telekinesis, I first need to engage the tattoos that start the conversation, followed by runes that essentially act as coordinates. I tell Earth’s magic to reach out to the Astral Plane, and once the connection is formed, I can start pushing my own thoughts and desires through that connection. The magic from the Astral Plane then converts that mental energy into real, usable force, and then I’m able to conjure telekinetic abilities. Now, if I wanted to connect to a plane with more multifaceted magic, like The Wilds, I would need extra runes to clarify what I’m specifically looking to do. Palesa’s magic, for example, lets her breathe life into the plants around her, but another witch might use a connection to The Wilds to toss harmful magic at someone who wronged them. Many of our current stereotypes about witches—potions, blighted crops, karmic curses—often originate from ancient witches that formed connections with The Wilds, or sometimes creatures that live there.”

“Creatures?” Nick asked.

“It’s possible to gain magic not from a plane, but directly from a creature. I’m not going to explain this, because it’s fairly complicated, but all you need to know is that it’s a terrible idea and you should never do it.” She spoke with such adamance that Nick was happy to drop the subject entirely. Instead, he simply gestured for her to continue.

“Okay, so, in a nutshell, that’s a super basic rundown of how we pull magic from other planes. Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed that not all of my tattoos are engaged when I activate telekinesis. The rest of my tattoos, just like modern witches across the world, represent a suite of basic connections that allow me to detect, understand, and manipulate Earth’s magic. I can see the magical leylines that crisscross the globe, detect their fluctuations, and track down where they might be happening. I can also activate my magic to try and search for magical runes that might have been created by other witches. This is how I found the circle under Lysander Hall; I was able to detect the illusion by making contact with the magic itself.”

“I seem to recall you saying that this has a pretty limited range,” Nick said.

“It does. Generally speaking, this kind of detection requires me to touch the magic in question with a bit of loose magic, almost like I’m dragging around a live wire and seeing if anything sparks. Some witches purposely amplify this connection and give themselves the ability to detect magic from further away, but that’s not in the basic suite of tattoos.”

After turning a page, Nick continued writing. “You can also manipulate existing runes, right?”

“That’s another feature of the standard runes we all get,” Tessa said. “I can create and manipulate runes by instilling marks I make with a bit of Earth’s magic. This is how I was able to alter the circles around campus, but also how I was able to enchant that knife we used against Brandon.”

Nick cocked his head as he pieced together something that didn’t seem to make sense. “Wait, so, if the tattoos allow you to create runes, how did Brandon and the cult make all their stuff? And, Imani, why do Scribes specifically avoid giving themselves magic?”

The toys floating around the room settled down to the floor as Tessa’s tattoos faded. “All good questions! While the full answer is a bit complex, the best way to look at things is that using magic to create runes is only one way of creating effective magic. The runes the cult used, for example, were applied by carving them into everyone’s skin. Gruesome, yes, but blood can be a powerful conduit for magic. if you’re trying to draw power from Hell. It’s a bit mysterious, but to our knowledge, all magic born from demons requires a cost. Most famously, demons want souls, but it’s possible to channel that energy with other sacrifices, hence where all the stereotypes come from. Even Amara’s magic, as unique as it is, still functions by the constant supply of arousal.”

As Tessa grabbed her coffee, Imani cleared her throat to speak up. “As for why I don’t have tattoos, it’s mostly a matter of purity. Tessa mentioned blood a moment ago, that it’s a powerful conduit, but realistically all materials have the possibility to resonate with magic from other planes. When we give witches tattoos, we want them to be perfectly crafted for each individual person. If I had my own tattoos, and inscribed the tattoos with magic that was originally channeled through myself, there are trace elements of my influence that might remain. Instead, we use specialized equipment and ink to make the connection as strong as possible, while also innate to the tattoos themselves. The reason I asked for ingredients from The Wilds is specifically for this reason; if I had access to the raw materials, I could easily craft my own ink and start giving Tessa more tattoos. This idea actually holds true for all the circles across campus, too. As best we can tell, they were crafted with intensely powerful materials, which is likely why they’re so strong and how they lasted as long as they did.”

The conversation continued for the next hour, and it wasn’t long before Tessa and Imani began showing Nick specific runes to explain their function. They did their best to detail how the runic language worked, how the proximity of runes played a role in their function, and how a number of symbols were capable of serving different functions so long as the witch bearing them understood the underlying theory. The more he learned, the more he respected all the work Tessa had put into altering circles over the last few months.

In time, his wrist began to cramp, and he politely asked for a pause to his impromptu curriculum. Instead, as he closed his notebook and ran his hands through his uncomfortably shaggy hair, he turned his attention to Tessa’s current project. “So, since the alterations to The Wilds circle are all finished, what’s all this about?” he asked, gesturing to the chair in the corner of the room.

With a wide smile, Tessa flipped to a different page in her own notebook and fell into Nick’s lap. “This is exciting, you’re going to love it! So, the other day, I was hanging out with Chloé, and we got to talking about her abilities and stuff. I still don’t fully understand how she sees the world, or how she exists in her current form, but talking with her gave me some really exciting ideas about the intersection of our plane with Purgatory. Anyways, I got to thinking, what if we explored that? So, together with Imani, we’re trying to…”

Cuddled up with Nick, Tessa happily explained the goals for her current project. Not only was it an amazing idea, but it also gave Nick another way to distract himself from the reality of his situation. While his body still hummed with excitement underneath the might of the waxing moon, he found strength enough to power through the night without incident.