College Magic Cycle

Magery Chapter 8

Introduction

I welcome feedback from readers, in fact I thrive on it. It's really the only payment authors on NIFTY receive for their efforts. If you enjoy the story please take a moment to drop me an email and let me know. Comments from my readers drive my creativity.

This cycle includes four storylines. The stories intertwine. They are listed in the College Magic Cycle folder in the suggested reading order.

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You can contact me at pseudonominius@gmail.com.

Author's Notes

·        If you want to be informed of new stories, send me an email, and ask to be put on the notification list. I'll send a notification. Everyone will be on the bcc line so your email address will not show to other members. Google sometimes blocks messages from this notification list. I don't know why. The google group listed below is the more stable option for getting notifications.

·        I have created a google group for people who want to get more information about my stories in that format. Only I can view the member list, so data should be secure. If a reader sends a question my way, I will post the answer to that group after removing any information about the reader. It's a good way to get more background information if you want. https://groups.google.com/g/pseudominius-stories

·        My editor is Robbear (robbear78@gmail.com). He not only edited this story but provided a lot of insight and suggestions that made the story better.

My Stories

·        College Magic (authoritarian and sf/fantasy)

·        Jack and the Giant (sf/fantasy)

·        Sacred Submissives (authoritarian and sf/fantasy)

·        Bellus Cinaedus (authoritarian and historical)

·        Guardian Angel (authoritarian and sf/fantasy)

·        Nivean and the Dvergar (authoritarian)

·        Small Town Slave Boys (authoritarian)

·        Desert Heat (beginnings)

·        Eros in Arcadia (Sf/fantasy)

·        Constituent Services (Encounters)

·        The Dancing Princes

Magery Chapter 8

Third Sunday in September

Sebastian

We'd gathered late yesterday so we could begin the ritual by midnight. Each participant needed some time for purification and meditation, and we had to review the structure of the ritual to make sure we each knew our own part. It wasn't terribly complex, but Professor Thorne had managed to tighten the ritual to a mere seven hours instead of the normal twelve.

The ritual chamber lay in the vast sub-basement of Severan Hall. A spiral staircase connected the two subterranean rooms. There were five octagonal chambers with walls 9 yards in length, a central chamber surrounded by four others. One was an entry hall where the spiral staircase opened, and the others were a meeting room, an arcane library, and the ritual chamber itself. Smaller square rooms, nestled between the octagons contained the stair, the arcane circle, a latrine and a vestiarium.

While we were gathering, I called Elijah and Jason together. Both of them were essential to my plans for Cameron and Micah. I turned to Jason and asked, "Do you know anything about voluntary slave contracts between mages?"

He shrugged and said, "I've heard of them, but they seem a sign of weakness to me. If a man is really dominant, he doesn't need a magically binding contract to force his lover to submit. Submission should be voluntary. It should come from the heart and the soul, not from a spell. Only a weak man needs magic to make himself seem like he's strong."

"I'm glad you feel that way. I was on the fence myself before Elijah here set me straight. I need your help, Jason, so I'm going to let you in on a secret. Elijah, you know part of this secret but not all, and I think you deserve to know given that you could be caught up in my actions."

Both of them gave me a look that made it clear I'd caught their attention, so I said, "Conclavia Esther Blume has asked me to help her separate her youngest son, Micah, from Remuel Adler. She's concerned that he's making a terrible mistake in giving himself to Remy. He's abusive and... well, the Conclavia isn't sure that Micah isn't being pressured to accept a role as Remy's slave. Micah is young, probably too young to make a decision like that. It's a mission I've gladly accepted. Elijah has been demonstrating a stable dominant-submissive relationship that is full of love instead of cruelty, so that Micah can learn that there are other ways to get what he wants."

Elijah broke in. "Cameron and Micah are very sweet young men. Micah is definitely a submissive and Cameron is learning to be dominant enough to satisfy him. I'm convinced that the two of them have been halfway in love with each other since middle school, but they were both too afraid to admit it to the other. I took them to dinner at Flanagan's in the Nexus last night and they seemed very happy together. I'll be keeping them until dinner at Ibis House this evening. Then it's back to you, Sebastian."

"And that's where you come in, Jason," I explained. "I'd appreciate it if you could spend some time with the two of them this week and maybe next weekend. Not just you, of course, I want them to see you and Kieran together, and Erik and Alonzo together. Two more examples of dominance and submission that they can model."

"I know enough about Remuel Adler that I understand her concern. He was two years ahead of me at the Academy. Given my own tastes, at least the way I understood them at the time, he was attracted to me. Not that he assumed I would submit to him, but that he and I were the same. I was a sophomore, and he was a senior, so he tried to mentor me. Some of his words and attitudes sickened me, and I saw some of my own behaviors mirrored in him, but much darker," Jason said.

Elijah nodded and gave Jason a crooked smile. "So, you decided he wasn't the mentor for you."

Jason shook his head. "On the contrary, I learned a great deal from him. My own behavior was out of line. My treatment of Lazlo had been... shameful. I learned what not to do and modified my behavior. When Lazlo graduated that year, we were on better terms. I'd confessed my failures to my Uncle Kamon, and he agreed to counsel Lazlo and me separately. I learned a lot, and I like to think that I'm better for it."

Then he looked at me. "What about you and Ethan? I think he could learn a lot from the two of you."

"I plan to spend some time with them as well, but Ethan and I aren't really into that dynamic. He's a little naïve and unsure of himself, but he'll be more assertive when he gets more experience."

With that settled, we chose to go over the ritual again. We had refrained from eating and were drinking only water. Everyone took the time to change clothes so that we were wearing only natural clothing from plant fibers. For reasons not completely understood, but verified over centuries of study and experimentation, magical energy flowed more smoothly when leather, wool and other animal based materials were avoided. It made little difference when casting spells normally, but ritual work dealt with significantly greater numina flows. The risk of failure or backlash became proportionally greater. The vestiarium was full of linen and cotton robes just for that purpose. There were also special wands to use as implements. After each ritual they were purified and restored to a cleansed state so that no residual energy would be left in them to contaminate the next ritual.

From my perspective, everything seemed to go well. We started by creating a magical ward around us. The floor had an arcane circle 30 yards in diameter inscribed in the floor. All the participants gathered inside the circle. Professor Thorne walked the circle with a fresh torch of juniper wood, chanting invocations to Hecate, goddess of the crossroads and patroness of magic. Jason followed as caduceator, holding a wand sized caduceus, and completing the spell with invocations to Hermes.

Once the circle was completed, four of us invoked the guardians of the four quarters. I'd been chosen as Guardian of the South, and I held a long thin wand of yew. I invoked the element of fire. Clarissa was Guardian of the West. She held a silver cup and invoked the power of water. Elijah was the guardian of the East, and he held a sword to invoke the power of air. And our elderly Dean, Cornelius Montrose, was the Guardian of the North. He held a heavy pentacle and invoked the chthonic powers of Earth.

We felt the energy surrounding and protecting us. The ritual chamber itself had heavy silk banners hung on each of the eight walls, with arcane sigils of protection brocaded on every panel with specially enchanted yarn. While silk could inhibit the flow of magical energy when worn in a ritual, it was a great insulator, helping to contain the numina flow if the ritual collapsed. Aside from these shimmering magical wards, and the softly glowing crystal in the ceiling, the room was bare. Its austerity was meant to aid the free flow of magical energy. And Professor Thorne's ritual took full advantage of the greater than normal flow of numina in the region, so magical backlash would always be a possibility, but every participant was certified and experienced.

I could feel the power build. A new pattern formed in the energy that swirled around us. A pattern that insisted Kieran had never been a six-foot-tall jock, that he had reached his full height of five foot four inches just before his eighteenth birthday. The same with his slender build. The pattern became solid, a complex multidimensional knotwork that flowed through the three visual spatial dimensions and also through a fourth dimension that represented time. Then the might of the assembled mages, amplified by the power of the ritual, forced this newly formed pattern onto the greater structure, commonly known as reality. Shaping the material world to match our pattern took longer than crafting the new pattern in the first place, but no one faltered and, despite one incident where an unexplained loss of power threatened the structure, we held firm. Suddenly, like a rime across the surface of a lake suddenly turning to solid ice, the new pattern spread outward and crystalized so that all of reality held the same shape.

Afterward, we all retired to the central chamber where small tables had been set up. A longer table held an array of pastries, muffins and scones and a samovar with strong black tea and a pot full of coffee sat nearby. Everything had been supplied by the Old Time Bakery down on Founder's Square. It was the only mage owned bakery this side of Columbus. Lucius and Aelius Faxon, the adult sons of the owners, had delivered them and stood ready to serve. It was customary for the mage requesting the ritual to provide much needed nourishment for the hungry participants. It was called a refectionarium. Jason had left the details to me, so I decided to throw the business to one of our local mage establishments.

While most of the energy necessary to warp reality came from the natural flow of numina, the participants used their own energy to shape that power. I'd never participated in a ritual this powerful before, but the last time I'd done ritual work I'd eaten like a horse for days afterward. I'd met some of the ritualists who worked for the Conclave, doing whatever sort of top secret things they weren't allowed to tell us about, and all of them were thin. A mage's body could convert calories into personal numina reserves, but that meant a caloric intake that any body builder would gawk at.

I chose a cheese scone and a cup of milky tea. I wasn't overly fond of sweets. Jason joined me. He had an unfrosted carrot muffin and a black tea with lemon. He avoided sweets more than I did. I was staying on to help Clarissa tidy and cleanse after this little gathering had ended, and I'd come to understand Jason well enough to know that he was sticking around until the crowd dispersed. He didn't like people to watch him casting spells. My cousin Morgana taught at the Academy, and she'd told me that Jason was a very competent mage, but he was careful and methodical. He never made mistakes, but he took more time than many of his peers. That was probably because of his alchemical training. One mistake there and things could get out of hand very quickly.

Jason gestured toward the long table. "Clarissa seems rather friendly towards the tall fellow with the auburn hair."

I glanced over and saw that she was indeed flirting with Lucius Faxon. "Are you surprised? Clarissa is a woman and Lucius is a fine looking man in his own way."

Jason shrugged. "I'm getting sentimental. I keep noticing love around me. I never bothered with it before."

"And you're missing Kieran? It's been only one night."

Jason smiled at me and said, "You're a vates expertissimus. Look at my aura and tell me what you see."

I gave him a wry look. "That's vates exaltus, I'll have you know. I took the test after I left the Academy."

He raised his cup and said, "Tibi gratulor!."

I stroked my ring and muttered, "Lumina Coronaria mihi exoriantur."

Jason's aura manifested before my eyes. It showed his power, his almost overwhelming stress, and his fatigue. And I immediately saw what he was talking about. Around the middle of his torso, there was a complex knot of energy that trailed off into the aether. And tied up within it was another thread that also seemed to trail off. A lesser vates would have missed it.

"Tantric entanglement," I said. "You were on the verge last time I examined your aura, but this is complete. Undoing it would be a major task and probably be beyond anyone but a very skilled mind mage."

"I don't want it to be undone," he insisted. "I like being tied to Kieran in this way. It... restrains some of my less laudable instincts. And it may be necessary for the future I envision for us."

I raised my cup and said, "So, you're seeking the sacred union of red and white."

"Are you guessing?"

I laughed. "Do serious alchemists ever seek anything else? I wish you luck in your quest. It's like looking for the holy grail. The seeking is more important than the finding."

Jason nodded. "I always forget that you did earn a certification in alchemy. Alchemistes expertus, if I'm not mistaken? But the grail quest is just a misunderstanding of the alchemical quest. The grail is really an alchemical cauldron."

All specialists were parochial. I had to take him down a peg. "And the alchemical cauldron is really the cauldron of the goddess, the same cauldron used by Medea to restore youth, so... the ancient Trivianites were right after all."

I was just teasing. Jason started laughing too. The Ancient Order of Trivia was still around, but it was mostly a social club for female mages. They did a lot of charity work and held book clubs that men were not allowed to attend, kind of a female alternative to the Order of Mithras. Of course they claimed that their organization was older, and for all I knew they were right. Trivia was the ancient Roman name for the goddess of the crossroads, Hecate to the Greeks.

"In all seriousness, Jason, we all think it's cute the way Kieran hangs on you all the time, but don't you think you should encourage some independence in him? If you're this discomfited being away from him, he must be a mess spending the night alone."

Jason heaved a heavy sigh. "Sadly, you're not wrong. Although, he isn't actually alone. I put him in bed with Alonzo and Erik and he was still close to a meltdown. He's finished his physical becoming, but psychologically he's still working on it. I'm consulting with Uncle Kamon as to what I can do to help him. He's a mind mage and a psychologist. And I'm following his plan. He's been seeing Kieran when needed, but I'm going to send him at least once a week for now."

"So, your Uncle Kamon is advising you on what to do for Kieran's issues... And who are you talking to about the stress this is putting on you? You're a young man who's still trying to find himself, bo matter how confident you are in the journey you've made so far.."

He shook his head. "I don't need a therapist. I'm fine."

"I wasn't talking about a therapist. I was talking about a friend. I'm here if you feel comfortable talking to me, but if not you should talk to Erik. You need someone you can share your thoughts and fears with. When I looked at your aura, I saw that you are carrying a lot of stress. I'm impressed that you're dealing with it as well as you appear to be, but no one should have to do it alone. That's what friends are for."

He looked skeptical. "I mean it, Jason. You're too intelligent to let it all pile on your shoulders like this."

I had to admit to myself that I was pleased to have been able to give Jason some advice. That was part of my role as both RA and as consiliarius collegialis to the mage students. However, I let him change the subject to other things. It wouldn't do any good to push him farther and I could see that he was considering my words. In about half an hour, the crowd had dispersed. Jason said his farewells and went to the Circle Chamber. I walked up to the long table where Clarissa was still chatting with Lucius.

I hated to interrupt, but I did. "Do you need help with purifying the ritual magicalia?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm going to have the trainees do it. They need to learn how, and this is a golden opportunity."

"Fine," I said. Then I turned to Aelius and pointed out some pastries. "I'll take a bear claw and a Bismarck if you can box them for me. And a cup of milky tea, extra sweet, if you have a to-go cup."

He gave me a smile. "I know this isn't for you because you don't like things that are too sweet. Is it for that new eramenos I've heard about?"

I wondered how many people were talking about me and Ethan. I decided not to care about gossip. "They are. Ethan has a sweet tooth, and he's young enough that he can eat all the sugar he wants."

Clarissa chimed in. "Or you could pay for a reality warping ritual like Jason did to keep him skinny like a teenager all his life."

I gave her a quizzical look. "I'll admit that I'm not as good at composing rituals as you are so please explain that to me."

"It was there, in the third interstice of the fourth curve intertwined with the resonance line that shaped his height. Didn't you get a good look at the pattern?"

I shook my head. "I'm afraid that most magical patterns look like so many glowing cords to me unless I can examine them closely. Did you tell Professor Thorne?"

"She said Jason had requested it and that she saw no harm in it." Clarissa switched to an extraordinarily good impression of the professor. "Most boys like Kieran would kill for a spell to keep their boyish figures, but how many of them have a boyfriend wealthy enough to pay for it?"

Aelius had gathered the pastries and coffee close together on a large square of paper. He'd also added a second cup of milky tea and two more savory scones. He'd inscribed the cups with mine and Ethan's names when I wasn't looking. He waved his wand about in an intricate pattern and intoned, "Cibus et Bibendum in chartam transpinguntur."

The pastries, the scones, and the two cups of tea were limned in a silvery light and then suddenly they were gone and their image was painted on the paper. Aelius folded it carefully and handed it to me. "It's on the house, my treat actually. Just unfold it properly and use the encantum dimittere spell to restore it, fresh and hot."

"Thank you," I said.

His fingers brushed my hand as he handed me the paper, which was now the size of a business card, and I saw his cheeks flush. "Think nothing of it. Just remember that my spell doesn't last more than a month, so you'll have a mess if you don't eat it before the time runs out."

Aelius was a nice guy and he'd been flirting with me since I first came to Severan. He was fourteen at the time, and I still thought of him as that gangly teen. I felt guilty since I'd told him that he was too young for me, and now I was with someone three years younger than him, but the heart worked in mysterious ways.

I used the arcane circle to translocate back to my room. It was still early, and Ethan was snuggled up around my pillow. I set the paper with the picture of our food on the table. Then I lay down next to Ethan and arranged myself comfortably on his pillow. The spell I was going to use wasn't recommended for daily use, but it was fine for one day.

I quietly intoned, "Altissimo in somno tenear unam horam quasi octo."

As I finished incanting the spell, my eyes immediately began to close and I fell into a deep sleep. Anyone observing from outside would have sworn that I was in a coma, and they would have been unable to wake me. Luckily for me, Ethan liked his sleep, which made most mornings a struggle to get him up and going. But today I was going to take full advantage of this clinophile (or sleepaholic) to make sure I was fully restored from the ritual. My eyes snapped open and awakened before he did. A glance at the clock told me that exactly one hour had passed, exactly as the spell was designed, but I was fully rested.

I rolled over on my side to get a good look at my boyfriend. I had to pull his golden hair aside to see his face. He was like an angel in his sleep. Well, he would be if angels drooled in their sleep. He was beginning to stir, so I kissed him gently on the cheek to wake him.

He yawned and opened his eyes. "Good morning. You're back... and you're wide awake. Didn't you stay up all night?"

I turned his head and kissed his lips. "I did, and, before exam week, I'll show you the spell I used to get myself rested so quickly."

That perked him up. Ethan was fascinated with magic and eager to learn new spells. The one I'd used was fairly simple, but if it were miscast it would have the reverse effect. Instead of one hour taking the place of eight, eight hours would take the place of one. I knew a girl who'd done it back at the Academy and no one could wake her up for sixty-four hours. She slept through the certamen magicum and had to apply to take her exams over the summer.

I got out of bed and held my hand out. "Nunc ientemus."

Ethan jumped up and tried to interpret the phrase, "Now we are eating breakfast?"

"Close. Let's have breakfast now. Your Latin is getting better."

He gave me a smile and said, "let me get dressed for breakfast." He jabbed his wand at the clothes he'd left lying in a pile on the floor. "Induo vestimenta!"

He had a habit of jerking his wand instead of moving it gracefully. And he yelled his spells instead of speaking them calmly and deliberately. He was almost eighteen, but he was a beginner when it came to magic. I was impressed with how much he had mastered in a couple of weeks. Still, I had to suppress a laugh when his clothes sped across the room and knocked him back onto the bed.

I held out a hand and said, "Good job. You get better every day."

He beamed with pride and took my hand. I led him over to the table. He'd left a mess, like he often did, so I waved my wand and said, "Emundetur mensa."

Everything flew off the table. Books found their correct place on the shelf; Ethan's laptop flew over to the shelf with the charging unit and plugged itself in. Spiral notebooks closed and flew into his backpack; three empty soda cans flew over into the recycling bin and a sparkling shimmer played across the tabletop, leaving a clean and polished surface in its wake.

I took out the paper I'd gotten from Aelius Faxon. I unfolded it and laid it flat on the table. I tapped it with the wand and said, "Encantum dimittatur."

It wasn't really a spell. This was the most commonly used verbal key for both enabling and breaking a spell lock. Most merchants used it to lock spells of this kind, ensuring the safety of their goods. In an instant, the picture of the food transformed into the real thing. "The donut and the Danish are yours, Ethan. The cheese scones are mine."

We chatted during breakfast, Ethan practicing his Latin where he could. Thea for "tea", pasteria for pastry, mensa for table, deliciosus for "delicious", etc.

Switching to English, he said, "I can't wait for my `surprise' next weekend."

He knew that I was planning to take his virginity next weekend, but he didn't know the whole surprise; the trip I had planned for us, the sights I would show him. I used a spell to put everything away again and then held out my hand to him. "You're going to have to wait for your surprise, but I want us to do something fun today. We're both done with homework and the Greeks are holding a big party in the ballroom at the Student Union."

Ethan shook his head. "I have too many new things going on this year to join a fraternity."

"Yeah, but they don't know that."

"Are you a member of one of the fraternities?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, but I'm a member of the Sigma Eta Tau society."

"I've never heard of it."

I leaned in and whispered, "Sodalitas Hermae Trismegisti. You're a member, too, but you can't tell anyone about it."

"The... um... society of Hermes Trismegistus," he said.

"Correct. We can't let anyone know because we don't allow mundanes to make lists of who's in the club. But I know a lot of Greeks here at Severan. Some mages like to join, but I prefer to play hard to get. The real question is, `do you want to go dance with me?', or do you have something else to do?"

"I don't know how to dance," he admitted shyly.

I laughed. "Neither do most of the others. You'll be with me, and everything will be fine."

He shrugged. "Fine. Take me to the party and teach me how to dance, but you can't let me make a fool of myself."

"I promise," I said.

Then Ethan practiced his magic for a couple of hours. It was very distracting, but Clarissa had canceled her tutoring sessions this morning and he needed to practice, but with some on-hand supervision. I had to finish writing my weekly report for Conclavia Esther Blume. I spelled out all the things I had arranged for Micah, explaining clearly to his mother that I was showing him options that didn't involve Remy Adler.

When noon rolled around, we headed over to the ballroom. This event at the Student Union was the beginning of a week-long recruitment event that ended on Saturday night. On this first day, all six Greek letter societies joined forces to entice students into Greek life. During the week, each society would hold events every day. By the end of the week, students who want to join one of the fraternities or sororities would have to submit their applications.

The ballroom could be divided into three smaller rooms. Today, there was food in the Maple Ballroom, informational materials in the Sycamore Ballroom, and a DJ in the Buckeye Ballroom. Everyone was shepherded into the Sycamore Room first so I led Ethan around and to the three fraternity tables and watched them try to get him interested. Then we had some lunch provided by local businesses, pizzas from Pappy Jack's Pizza, sandwiches, potato salad and coleslaw from Millie's, hand pies from Newbury's Country Kitchen, and pastries from the Old Time Bakery.

Ethan

Sebastian and I were just finishing our lunch. I had a beef and mushroom hand pie and he had spinach, mushroom and cheese. I was both dreading and looking forward to going to the dance room next door, but Sebastian grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and opened the hard case he kept it in. Inside the top cover, there was a mirror and I could see a shimmering light playing over it. I'd seen Sebastian use this before. The mirror was a magical sensor and the color meant that he was receiving a call. It was kind of cool the way that one case has a cellphone on one side and the magical equivalent on the other.

He touched the mirror with his ring. "I've got to take this. I don't think it will be too long."

He put a twenty dollar bill on the table and said, "Get yourself one of those homemade ice cream cups from Newbury's. Get me a ginger peach while you're at it."

I took the money and walked back over to the Newbury tables. The ice cream line was long. I was trying to choose between strawberry and mint chocolate when the guy behind me leaned over my shoulder and said, "You look like a strawberry guy to me."

I turned around and saw a guy who was taller than Sebastian. His brown hair was cut short, and he was clean shaven. He looked fit. His Sigma Chi polo shirt was tight across his broad chest. He held out his hand and said, "Gary Mohr. I saw you come by our table, but you didn't stick around long enough to say hello."

I took his hand. "Ethan Lowry. Um... I'm not really interested... I mean I'm not sure, that is... I'm not sure about joining a fraternity."

"You should think about it. We can help you out a lot, here at school, when you graduate." He moved his hand to my shoulder and squeezed it gently, letting his thumb rub against my jaw. "We can mentor you, teach you things you may not know."

It was exciting having this big jock hit on me. I felt guilty, but I wanted him to keep talking. I looked up at him and said, "There's a lot I don't know, that's for sure."

It was my turn to order, so I stepped up and ordered a strawberry and a ginger peach ice cream. I felt Gary's hand brush against my butt and my dick got hard. When I turned around, he was right in my face. He didn't move to let me pass. He just ordered over my shoulder.

"You should ditch the nerdy professor and let me show the advantages of being my little brother," he said.

When he tried to put his arm around me, I slipped past him and smiled. "That nerdy professor is my boyfriend, but it was really nice to meet you."

I saw Sebastian looking in my direction. He'd come back into the room, apparently done with his magic phone call, and he was walking in my direction. I rushed over and said, "Your change is in my pocket. My hands are full, so you'll have to get it out yourself."

"Well, I can't let you keep my change," he said. Then he wrapped one arm around my waist and thrust his hand into my front right pocket. He pulled out the ten dollar bill I'd stuck in there and brushed my erection with his fingers while he did it. I felt so sexy when Sebastian touched me like that, especially in public where everyone could see. It was like he was telling the whole world, back off. This boy is mine.

We walked outside onto the balcony to eat our ice cream. It was really good, but my mind was on Sebastian because of what that guy had doen. How much did he see. "Do I have competition, Puer Auree?" he asked.

I shook my head, "Minime_!_ Not a chance. Did you get jealous?"

He pulled me close and pressed his thigh against my crotch, sending a chill up my spine. "Insanely. Should I curse that guy so he can't get it up and harass vulnerable little boys anymore?"

"No," I said, "but it feels good that you're offering."

We finished our ice cream and went into the room with the DJ. I hadn't been joking; I had no idea how to dance without making a fool of myself. But the room was dark, punctuated with flashing lights. Sebastian took hold of my hips and pulled me close to him.

"I'm not a great dancer either, but we're not on a stage putting on a show. Dancing isn't about looking good, it's about having fun," he said. Then he pulled me tighter against him and pressed his thigh against my crotch again. "And it's about the feeling of your lover's hands on your body."

"You're going to make me cum," I whispered.

One of Sebastian's hands slid down to rest on my butt. He put his lips near my ear and whispered back, "Good. If you do, I'll use a spell to clean you up so no one will know. The secret to dancing is that it's a lot like having sex with your clothes on. That's why sourpusses always want to ban it. We pretend it's just harmless fun and that it doesn't mean anything, but it does."

As Sebastian leant down and we locked lips, he pressed me close to him as we began moving together. His tongue explored my mouth, and his right hand rubbed my butt. I could feel his erection pressing against my abdomen and his thigh pressing purposefully against my own. I was breathing hard when the song ended and the lights came up a little.

I was flushed with excitement and my heart was racing. Sebastian asked, "Are you having fun?"

I nodded enthusiastically. "Virga Merlonis! Ita vero!" I said. And Sebastian smiled indulgently at me. I was copying him and his exclamations. I'd noticed that male mages often used the phrase virga Merlonis. It literally meant "Merlin's staff", but I'd learned that virga meant "cock" as often as "staff". Female mages didn't say it, but I once heard Clarissa mumble Triviae mammillae which meant "The Goddess's tits!"

The next song started, and it was a little faster. I followed Sebastian's lead as he set up a routine where we held hands and stepped back as far as we could, then returned close enough to touch. First we came together with his right thigh pressing against my cock, then his left. The last step was for us to come together with our crotches touching. He kissed me on that step. Then we did it again.

By the time the dance ended, my cock was throbbing in my pants. We stopped to get a drink and I had to adjust myself as secretly as possible. We went into the lobby and picked up some bottled water. It was Butternut Spring brand, and it was bottled near the resort that lay half an hour north of Severan. I wondered if that was where Sebastian was going to take me next weekend for my birthday.

Two older students, about Sebastian's age, joined us for a drink. The female student was my height with deep brown skin and rounded features. She had black hair that hung in tight curls down to her shoulders. The guy she was with was just a tad taller than Sebastian and had light brown hair and green eyes. He looked thin but fit.

The woman introduced herself. "I've heard about you Ethan. You're the tempestiad." She saw the puzzled look on my face and said, "Storm Child. My name is Viviane Lamont, but everyone calls me Viv. And this handsome guy next to me is Dezi Devereaux. You should get to know him because you could end up on his floor one year here at the school. He's the other male RA for our dorm."

Sebastian cleared his throat and said, "I don't think so. Ethan's with me."

She raised an eyebrow and said, "It's like that, then, is it? You should still know Dezi on sight because sometimes Sebastian isn't around on the weekend, and you can always go see Dezi for your school needs."

Dezi chimed in, "Next weekend for instance, Sebastian's going to..."

Sebastian interrupted him. "... somewhere secret and Ethan is going with me."

"Damn, you two are serious then? Ethan, you're going to love it," Dezi said. "I've never been there, but I've heard about it. My parents go a lot, but they don't share the wealth with me the way Sebastian's parents do..."

Sebastian had to interrupt again, "... and that's all we're saying about next weekend as, again, it is a surprise."

Now I was curious. Wherever Sebastian was taking me, Dezi seemed jealous. We talked a little bit more while we finished our water and then Sebastian pulled me back onto the dance floor. Dezi and Viv joined us. They danced close to us for the rest of the event.

It didn't take long before my dick grew hard again. We did the same two kinds of dances we had done earlier and then Sebastian showed me another. He stood behind me and wrapped his arms around me, one around my chest and the other around my waist. He grinded his crotch against my butt and I wished that I weren't wearing pants. I could feel him pressing against me. He was more daring this time. His left hand went up under my shirt and rubbed my chest, exposing my midriff in the process. His right hand slid down to massage my erection though the cloth of my jeans.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Dezi and Viv dancing the same way, but his hands didn't go under her dress and she pushed his right hand up when it went too low. Still, she looked over at Sebastian and I and gave us a wink.

I was sweating and my heart was pounding in my ears. It felt like my skin was alive. Sparks played along my storm sigils. I tensed, but Sebastian whispered, "Don't worry about it. Most of the mundanes wouldn't notice a few minor magical sparks thanks to the velamen, but just in case, I mumbled a spell of obfuscation a moment ago. They won't see anything they can't explain."

His hand pressed harder against my erection and he nibbled at my neck. "Do it. Cum for me, right here on the dance floor. Let go. You know you want to."

He bit my neck gently and then licked my ear. His cock pressed against my butt again and his right hand outlined my erection and then squeezed it gently.

"I'm cumming, Sebastian!" I whimpered, grabbed his left hand, and pulled it to my mouth to cover my cries. My dick tightened and then released. My load shot into my underwear and sparks ran along my sigils.

And then I felt an electrical discharge from my root chakra. It was loud enough to make a popping noise and the smell of ozone arose around us. It was like I had ejaculated into my pants and had ejaculated lightning from my rear sending a bolt of energy directly to his cock.

"Pedica me! Veeeenio_!"_ he cried quietly as he squeezed me tight.

We stood there on the dance floor, the oblivious mundanes completely unaware of what had just happened. Dezi and Viv had noticed, though. They got on either side of us and walked over to a darkened corner and shielded us while Sebastian cast a cleaning spell.

Micah

I woke up hard and ready to go. I was lying half on Cameron's strong chest, with one arm across his torso, gripping his arm, and one leg wrapped around his. My hardon was pressing urgently against him. I moved my hand from his arm and slid it down his chest. The light covering of hair felt manly under my fingers. I knew that Cameron had done something. He had the muscle bulk and tone of someone who'd worked out to reach his peak condition, not the overly muscled physique of a bodybuilder, but the physique of a soccer, tennis, or baseball player in his prime.

Even without the enhancement, he'd been bigger than Oliver or me. He'd been considered one of the twink trio by association more than anything else. The three of us knew about that nickname. I thought Darren had given it to us. If so, that made sense. Even now Cameron probably looked like a twink to a big daddy bear (wolf?) like Darren.

I took hold of Cameron's dick and stroked it to full rigidity. It was on the large side of average, just as mine was on the smaller side of average. And like me, he was uncircumcised. My family was ethnically Jewish, and we kept a lot of the traditions, but healing spells had a tendency to reverse things like circumcision. Piercings would also heal if the hole were empty when the spell were cast.

Cameron woke up just when I had moved down to his crotch and was preparing to take the head of his cock into my mouth. He put his hands on my head and said, "That's a fine way to wake up in the morning."

"Anything for my man," I said. Then I swallowed half his cock and started sucking hard.

"Mm. Have I ever told you how good you are at that?"

"Nyaah eeeley," I mumbled around his cock. I knew I could take all of Cameron's dick down my throat, but I also knew that he really liked tongue action on the head and the sensitive skin normally covered by his foreskin.

He propped himself up the pillows so he could watch me suck his cock. He put his hands behind his neck, stretching his pecs and abs. Suddenly he asked, "Did you say that I'm your man?"

"Mm-hm," I mumbled as I ran my tongue roughly across the tip of his penis.

Cameron lay back down and took a deep breath. "I hope you mean it, Micah. I've been practicing my spellcasting in case I had to fight Remy for you. You do know that I would, don't you? And if I lost, I'd just keep on training and keep on coming back until eventually I beat him. That's how much I love you, Micah."

His breath was growing shallow, and his scrotum was tightening in my hand. I applied a very gentle pressure, just how I knew he liked it. We'd been friends with benefits for years at the Academy but we'd never gone beyond handjobs and blowjobs until this year, and Cameron hadn't found his more dominant side back then so it was much less exciting for me. I alternated between teasing the head of his cock and swallowing it down my throat.

Cameron grabbed my hair and held me tight, my lips buried in his pubic hair. "Irruma me bene! Veniam! Veeeenio!"

His cock swelled and then he filled my mouth with his seed. I swallowed it greedily, sucking until I got the very last drop. Then I crawled up next to him and wrapped my arms around him. I rubbed my cheek against his chest.

Cameron ran his fingers through my hair. "You never answered me clearly enough for me to be sure. Did you say that I'm your man?"

I looked up at him and replied, "I have been happier with you this weekend than I ever have been and I want nothing more than for you to be my man... but somehow I can't believe that it's real."

Cameron stroked my hair. "It's real if you want it to be real. When we were back at the academy, I often dreamed of us being together like this, waking up together. I'm prepared to go to Sebastian and demand that he put us in the same room so we can wake up together every morning."

"I want that! To wake up with you each day. When we were in the Academy, I think I was always waiting for you to make a move. And, because he made every move, Remy was exciting. He was so strong and commanding. He just acted like we were going to be together, and I accepted it. I never questioned it. I never considered what I wanted, just what I could offer someone who could fulfill my fantasy..."

Cameron pulled me up to sit next to him. He kissed me and ran his hand down my side. "Then I'm going to take the lead. I want you to be my boyfriend. I want us to be together exclusively."

"So do I, but... Cameron, I'm afraid of what Remy will do. He's violent when he gets angry. I saw him... he attacked my dad, and you know my dad. He's a good guy, but he could never defend himself against Remy, and I worry about what he's going to do to you."

Cameron smiled at me and brushed an unruly lock out of my eyes. "You said that you wanted a man who takes charge, so I'm taking charge now. I'm ordering you not to worry about Remuel Adler. I will take care of it."

I wanted to argue, but I caught myself and bit my lip. Cameron kissed me again and said, "Being with you makes me stronger. It's given me confidence I didn't have before. I've been learning to cast spells faster instead of being overcautious. I know that I'm not in Remuel's league yet, but I'm going to work with Oliver. You know that he's faster than Remy and he knows how to prepare spells and leave them hanging to be used with a single word. And Elijah seems willing to help me out as well – and I'm going to ask Clarissa and Sebastian if someone can give lessons to those of us who are already certified."

I climbed on top of Cameron and sat on his abdomen. "Then yes. I want the same thing."

Cameron rolled over so that I was beneath him. "And since you want a real man, and I am the man in this relationship, that means I get to do what I want. And I want to suck your cock. Don't worry. I will suck it in a very manly fashion."

I couldn't help but laugh at him. He was mocking my desire to submit, but he was being light about it. I didn't feel a hint of the sneering condescension I'd become used to from Remy. He was laughing with me, not at me.

He kissed my neck and then kissed his way down to my dick. He wasn't really taking his time. He knew what he wanted, and he was heading straight for it, like a hound hunting its prey. I was still hard when Cameron took my erection gently and licked up and down the shaft. He spent a minute or so kissing the head, then he peeled back my foreskin and swallowed my cock. He had some experience sucking dick, since we'd been playing around since the end of seventh grade, but this more forceful side of Cameron was breathing a deeper kind of confidence in his abilities.

Cameron sucked hard; the sides of his cheeks were brushing against my cock and his tongue was massaging the underside of the shaft. He'd grown a lot more aggressive, which was fuelling my own sexual energies in new and surprising ways. He pulled off just long enough to grab his wand and mutter, "rosula ungitur et sphintria laxatur." Then he began rubbing my now oily hole with his finger while he swallowed my cock again.

His finger teasing my sphintria felt amazing. His newfound interest in that part of my body was more than welcome. It was like my butt was vying with my cock to be the center of my attention. Each stroke sent a thrill running up my spine only to come crashing back down to amplify the pleasure his mouth was giving my virga. His spell had already relaxed my hole, so he was able to slide his finger inside with no real resistance. He'd done that spell on the fly, while distracted by sucking my cock. He had indeed gained more confidence.

Sucking Cameron's cock had made me so horny that I was ready to cum at any moment. My balls were already tight in their sack and the head of my cock was tingling like crazy. When his fingers found my prostate, I cried out, "Venio nunc! Venio."

My seed flooded his mouth, and Cameron never stopped sucking, making me wriggle and squirm from the increased sensitivity. He swallowed it down and teased my cock until he got the last drop. Then he moved up and sat next to me on the bed. He kissed my lips and said, "You taste great, Micah."

"Mm. So do you," I replied. "It felt so good while you were sucking my dick. Remy never sucked me at all."

Cameron smiled and said, "Just remember; Real Men Suck Dick!"

We made out for a little while before we had to get up and get dressed. I'd promised Kendal that I would help him get everything ready for an athletes' barbecue at noon.

Cameron

My heart was pounding in my chest. Cameron had agreed to be my boyfriend. It's what I'd always wanted. I wasn't sure I knew how to be the type of boyfriend he wanted, but I was determined to learn. My own parents had a marriage of equals, so I had no model in my head for how to take charge and make all the decisions. I went into this relationship thinking it was something that I wouldn't enjoy, but something I would have to learn to accept if I wanted Micah. The more I took charge and the more Micah let me, the more exciting it was. This behavior felt more like a crusty caveman than a modern metrosexual, but... I kind of liked it.

I threw on a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans. Micah did the same, and then we went to find some food. We checked in with Elijah on our way down, but he was still asleep. We'd forgotten he'd been at that ritual all night. I'd heard it had something to do with Kieran Morgan, but I didn't know much about him except that he was a very short, very cute redhead who roomed with Jason Lee. Tristan was busily chopping vegetables and Kendal was simmering barbecue sauce on the stovetop.

I went in and poured myself a cup of coffee and looked in the refrigerator for something to eat. But when Kendal saw Micah, he pulled his sauce off the heat and said, "Oh no! I don't think so. Your man came in here to get his own coffee and you've come down here looking like a slob."

He looked over at me and said, "Go sit down and relax. Micah will fetch your breakfast once I get him into something decent."

He took hold of Micah's arm and marched him back up the stairs. I sat down next to Tristan and said, "He's tougher than I first thought."

Tristan, like me, was able to come down dressed sloppily. He gave me a smile. "People think he's the most submissive in our relationship, but Kendal really runs this house. Elijah and I just do what we're told most of the time. And poor Micah. Kendal has decided that he's another fancy boy like him. He's going to take a few minutes to get him ready for you, but you'll be happy with the results."

I looked over at him and said, "You've been so quiet since I got here. What changed? Usually, it's Elijah or Kendal who's talking."

He didn't bother to stop cutting celery, but he did glance my way and shrugged. "Kendal decides what happens inside the house and Elijah decides what we do as a throuple. I hardly get a chance to talk except when people ask me about my eBooks."

"Well, I loved them, of course, and I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment, but what else do you like to do?"

"I like running, but Elijah says I have to do it at the track on campus because there are people watching for mages in town. I like soccer, but I'm not good enough to play on the team, so I mostly just watch it. And don't get me wrong, I like doing all the sous chef work for Kendal when there's a party. I'm actually a pretty good cook. I sometimes stir fry something for us. I make great adobo, Filipino style, not Mexican."

I finished my coffee and asked, "Can I help get things ready?"

Tristan shook his head. "Nope. Kendal has definite ideas about how things work. He and Micah are in one category. It's their job to prepare things for the men; that would be you and Elijah. As for me? I'm somewhere in the middle. Sometimes I'm one of the men, and sometimes I'm one of the boys. It's better not to argue with him."

"At least let me clean up the dirty dishes," I said.

Tristan laughed. "Then do it quickly, before they get back down."

I jumped up and pulled out my wand. Without overthinking or hesitating I incanted "Patellae poculaeque ollaeque emundantur!" Other than needing to quickly dismiss the spell before it could destroy Kendal's sauce, it worked wonderfully. All the dirty dishes in the room were cleaned.

I was just putting them away when Kendal came back. He had Micah with him, and I was duly impressed. In just a short time, he'd brushed out Micah's hair and bound it with some silver hair combs. He'd also dressed him in a pair of dark blue silky shorts, a low cut pink muscle shirt with a diaphanous shirt that wasn't buttoned, but was tied at the bottom. The shorts had a low waist and the shirt a high hem, so I could see his flat midriff. The shirt was a muted canary yellow and it contrasted nicely with his dark olive skin tone. His only adornments were the rose-gold titanium necklace I'd bought him and his Serapis medallion.

Kendal put his sauce back on the heat and began stirring, while Micah led me back over to the table and asked, "Can I fix you some eggs or something?"

I asked him to make me some toast and eggs over easy. I sat next to Tristan and watched Micah work. I felt guilty sitting around and letting Micah wait on me, but I knew that he got pleasure from this arrangement and I couldn't deny that I could get used to it. It did not suck to be the man in the kind of relationship Micah wanted. I just needed to talk to someone who could tell me what I was supposed to be doing. It couldn't be all take and no give or I would be no better than Remuel Adler.

Oliver

I woke up to Lalo tonguing my hole. I was worried about not being clean down there, but then I remembered that Lalo's sense of smell and taste was stronger than mine and he would have known if there was a problem. He was holding my cheeks apart and running his tongue along my crack. He paused long enough to thrust his tongue inside during each pass.

"That feels so good, Lalo. It's like you're... um... fucking me with your tongue. It's like my sphintria has become the center of my entire existence."

"And a delicious little s... s'frintia it is," he said.

I wasn't going to tutor him in Modern Mage Latin. What did he need it for anyway? My mom said that mages used it mostly to exclude newbloods (mages with no mage ancestry) and non-mages. Dad, although a newblood himself, believed that it was an important unifying element in mage culture that allowed mages from around the world to communicate freely. I always thought it funny that Dad was more conservative on social issues like that than mom, even though she was born into one of the fifty families.

Lalo crawled up next to me and wrapped his arms around me. "I thought about waking you up by follando tu culo, but I was worried about consent. Of course, I went ahead and comi tu culo instead."

I knew comi was "ate" and of course I knew that culo meant "butt". I didn't know follando, but from the context, I guessed that it meant "fuck". I took a chance and said, "If you decide to wake me up with a good fuck, I'll forgive you. And I don't think I'll ever say no to you eating my butt."

Lalo kissed my nose and gently cupped my chin. "Even if you weren't so cute, I think I'd want you just for your big brain. Do you want me to fuck you again this morning, or do you want us to blow each other, or... do you want to fuck me? What do you want to do?"

I ran a hand between his pecs. He was slightly built, but he had some definition. "I think I may still be a little sore this morning and I want to ask Marvin about it. And I want to do you right after you do me next time. So, why don't we suck each other off this morning? I know what I'm doing when it comes to sucking a dick."

We kissed for a while first. I didn't know which was more exciting for me, feeling Lalo's hands on my skin, or the feeling of his body beneath my own touch. When both of us were fully erect, I pulled back and asked, "How do you want to do this? Side by side or take turns?"

"Side by side, I think. You stay here; I'll flip." Then Lalo turned so he was facing my dick and I was facing his.

I took hold of his cock and pressed it against my lips. "I love everything about your penis, Lalo. I love how it looks. I love how your foreskin is long enough that it covers the whole head, even when you're hard. I love the smell and I love how it tastes."

He was holding mine in his hand. He kissed the head and said, "I love how your foreskin is a little shorter. I can just barely see the head sticking out, like it's peeking at me."

He licked the head. "And I love how that little drop of precum forms right at the lips."

I peeled back his foreskin and licked the sensitive head, sending a shiver through his body. He kissed the head of my penis and said, "I wasn't sure how you would feel about the taste since I fucked you last night, so I got up and cleaned up before waking you."

"Next time let me try it before you wash it," I said.

Then I swallowed the head of his cock and began rubbing it with my tongue. Lalo's warm, wet mouth wrapped around the head of my cock in turn. I groaned a little while I sucked. I hadn't been joking. Sucking Lalo's cock – even just licking his skin – tasted so good to me. All us mages had a perpetually clean smell. Seldom could you even smell our sweat. It was because we all wore medallions that protected us from disease, and body odor was caused by disease. Lalo smelled more... wild, untamed, natural. That scent, and the accompanying taste, went straight to the pleasure centers of my brain and made me want him even more.

I tried to concentrate on the clues Lalo's body was sending me, but I was distracted by the pleasurable feelings in my own. It began with a tickling sensation in the head of my cock. Lalo was using one hand to gently roll my balls around inside my scrotum, so he could tell that I was getting close to erupting. He picked up speed and pressed against my shaft more forcefully with his tongue. My breathing was growing so shallow and fast that I was almost choking on Lalo's cock. I could tell that he wasn't as close as I was, but that he wasn't too far behind me either.

And then my cock throbbed in his mouth. It swelled a little and then tightened, sending a massive shot right into his mouth. Feeling the orgasm surging through me made me suck on him so hard that it seemed I might rip his cock out by the roots. And as the second shot, and the third, and... by the fourth and the fifth, whilst it was nowhere near as powerful, the waves of pleasure shooting through me continued, and I responded to each spurt by sucking on Lalo's cock harder and harder.

Lalo kept my softening cock in his mouth while I increased the suction and pressure on his. I pulled gently on his scrotum with one hand and used the other to rub his butt, so sexy with its light covering of hair. When my finger slipped into his crack, he moaned a little in anticipation. I stroked him there gently and he groaned. When I touched his hole, it quivered, like it was trying to kiss my fingertips. I'd thought of Lalo as more masculine than me, more of a top, but I'd forgotten that he'd been fucked more times than my once. He pushed back on my finger so that the tip slid inside. It dawned on me that he'd prepared himself just in case I wanted to get inside him this morning. He was already slippery. I pushed my finger farther inside him and felt around until I found the firm lump of his prostate. I stroked it gently while I sucked. And I was rewarded with his orgasm. He came in six shots, and I swallowed it, taking only a few moments to swirl it around on my tongue and enjoy it. His ass was clamping hard on my finger, letting me know how much it enjoyed the attention.

Micah

Many people would think I was weird, but I now knew that I wasn't alone. I'd never dreamed of a life of slavery my dad seemed to enjoy and like Remy wanted for me. But I had dreamed of finding a man and taking care of him. And now I'd met Kendal and he did the things for Elijah and Tristan that I dreamed of doing for my man. I wanted to be a... a male wife? Was that even a thing? But it seemed to be Kendal's role with Elijah...

Kendal had a lot to teach me. And that was an eye-opening experience. My mother was a member of the Liberal party in the Conclave and she'd impressed upon me that mundanes weren't lesser beings compared to mages and that they had value, just a different kind of value from us. I'd never imagined that I could learn important things from a mundane. But Kendal knew a lot of recipes, a lot about keeping house and a lot about clothes. Knowing I would be able to duplicate his barbecue sauce with a spell once I saw what was in it, had a chance to taste it and analyzed it with a spell made me feel bad for him.

I looked over at Kendal who was busily making homemade mayonnaise for his potato salad. He was explaining what he was doing. "Homemade mayonnaise is so much better, Micah. Pure egg yolks and olive oil make a much richer base for the dressing than that bottled stuff."

He'd carefully chopped cornichons, celery, and shallots to put in the salad. And he'd squeezed fresh lemon juice and grated fresh garlic for his mayonnaise. I knew that he put this much effort into his cooking and housekeeping because it was his contribution. He never said it, but I suspected he felt like it made him the equal of the mages.

I couldn't do it. If I copied his recipe with magic, I'd be showing him up and making his efforts seem like nothing. I think I was starting to understand the point of doing things the mundane way... "What can I do to help now?"

"The potatoes should be shocked now, so remove them from the ice bath and let them drain. Then, if you don't mind, you can squeeze forty lemons. We have a lot of guests coming over and that means a lot of freshly squeezed lemon juice."

He saw the look on my face and laughed. "Use your wand if you want. And if it saves you some time, slice the strawberries that way too. I want to make some strawberry shortcake."

I breathed a sigh of relief and started on my tasks. "Can I ask you a favor, Kendal?"

"Sure. Just ask."

I left the colander hovering over the sink and turned to face him. "I want to be like you. I mean... I'm not Samantha Stevens and I'm not going to give up magic to take care of my man, but I want to learn all the things you can teach me about cooking and... all that stuff."

Kendal jumped up and threw his arms around me. "I thought I was being too pushy. And with your having Elijah and Sebastian working to help you, I didn't think I could offer anything that mattered."

He was smaller than me and I was surprised by how good he felt in my arms. I squeezed him tight and said, "I'd be lucky to learn the things you know, but I can't promise not to take magic shortcuts once I learn how to do it."

"Oh, do whatever you want with it once I teach you the hard way to do things. I'd probably use magic too if I could. But if what Elijah told me is true, you'll be better with the magic version once you learn the skills necessary."

He wasn't wrong. My mother had once explained to me while we were visiting the Met in New York that a painter who was a magician would be a better painter than someone who just learned to whip up a painting with magic - unless he studied under a magic painter who taught him that technique from the beginning. It had never dawned on me that the same would apply to cooking. And Kendal sure looked like an artist to me.

"I'm looking forward to learning from you," I said.

The afternoon went well. Kendal did most of the work, but I helped as much as I could. Tristan had helped cut some vegetables and stuff this morning, but while Kendal and I did the hard work in the kitchen, he and Cameron were using magic to arrange tables in the back yard and to split wood for the grill.

The guests were several athletes from Severan college. A collection of students from the soccer team, the football team, the swimming team, and the basketball team was there. Most of the athletes who showed up at Elijah's affairs were really open and tolerant. Silvan Reynard and Seth Gray were there, two fellow mages on the soccer team, but the werewolves didn't show. Most of the attendees were guys. It wasn't that Elijah didn't invite the girls, but Elijah's opposite number as tutor for the female athletes, Rebecca Carmichael, had begun organizing her own get-togethers. She was a mundane graduate student who also lived off campus.

Kendal and I went upstairs and changed clothes again before everyone started arriving. I still let him put me in a dress, no matter how much he insisted I'd look good it still felt odd, but he had a knack for making me sexy enough. Some of the guys made catcalls when I came into the room, but I suspected it was mostly good natured fun. Most mages were at least a little bisexual, but the mundane players were mostly straight. Although Elijah was making considerable effort to get Terrence Green, our star basketball player, to spend some time with Noah Whitby, one of our mundane football players. Noah was wide through the shoulders and even taller than Elijah, but he still looked short next to Terrence.

Cameron introduced me to everyone as his boyfriend, and when I brought him a plate of grilled chicken, potato salad, roasted corn, and vegetables, he pulled me onto his lap and we shared the plate. This was even better than the date in the nexus. It was more casual and authentic. Everyone just accepted me for who I was.

Our party broke up around three in the afternoon. We cleaned up and took a nap before heading to Ibis House. We were so full that we weren't going to eat much at dinner, but it was the big mage mixer and we wanted to meet everyone.

Oliver

Seeing Lalo meant that I was going to become a lot more physically active than I was used to. My plans usually involved a lot of study, like this afternoon I had planned on staying in and reading the newest book by Dorabella Novak called Arithmamagica Transformare Encanta Numeris (Arithmetic Magic, Changing Spells by the Numbers). We had a few hours before we could head to my cousin Leo's house for dinner, so Lalo wanted to go outside and toss the frisbee around. It was tough because I was very excited about Novak's latest release. She was a newblood like my dad, but was considered the greatest modern expert on metamagic, the art of modifying spells. She could modify them while she was casting them, and I wanted to be just like her. Luckily I had managed to find a few spare minutes to at least get started on it.

I put the book down and went out to the quad with Lalo. A lot of scholars were outside, enjoying the last couple of weeks of September. The air was already growing a little brisk, but most of the students were still wearing shorts. I didn't like to wear them because I thought my legs were too skinny. Lalo, on the other hand, looked really hot in his shorts. His light cinnamon skin contrasted with the brilliant white of the shorts, and I could see his shapely thighs and calves. He was thin, but covered in lithe muscles.

It was more fun than I'd anticipated. Lalo was good at sending the frisbee right at me so I could catch it, and he was fast and could usually grab it when I flung it haphazardly. Things got even better when Hugh Kent, Lalo's roommate, and his girlfriend Vicky Garcia joined us. It didn't even occur to me that I was outnumbered three to one by versipelles. The ratio grew to six to one when Conor Tighe and his roommate Keven McNeil joined us as well. I was the worst player, but the others seemed to accept me.

It wasn't until we were going in to get changed that the day took a turn for the worse. The first thing that went wrong happened when Lalo and I were taking a shortcut around the back of the Student Union. We cut through the parking lot and immediately knew there was trouble when we went between the dumpsters and the back wall of the campus bookstore where there were no windows. A surly looking guy squeezed right after us. He was thin with dark hair. He was hairier than any guy I'd ever seen up close. Just as we cleared the row of dumpsters, a taller, more solidly built guy with brown hair and suntanned skin grabbed Lalo and flung him down onto the grass.

The skinny dark-haired guy grabbed my wand from its holster and held it out of my reach. "Not so fast, blondie," he smirked.

Lalo tried to get up, but the bigger guy had planted a foot on his chest. Lalo later told me that the skinnier guy with the pale skin and hairy legs was Edgar Krause and the other guy was Gordon Cooper. They were two versipelles who always seemed to cause trouble.

Gordon ground his foot into Lalo's chest. "What made you decide to bring shame on the whole pack by turning bitch for a mage? Did he promise to put a leash on you and make you his pet."

Lalo was trying to move Gordon's foot, but he wasn't making much headway. He didn't whine or make excuses. He snarled, "You've got me confused for yourself. I'm not the one who rolls over like a little bitch when his favorite beta howls. Everyone knows who you are."

Edgar took a sniff of my neck. I wanted to smack him with my malleus magicus spell that I always kept prepared, but I was still a little afraid of starting trouble between the pack and the mages. I hesitated and Edgar announced, "He's marked this one, Gordy. Maybe he found a little gamma mage and he's brought him to share."

"Is that it, Lalo? Did you bring us a little tribute, so we'll leave you alone? Hugh isn't here to protect you now," Gordon said.

Lalo spun around and tried to wrap his legs around Gordon's leg to pull him off balance. At the same time, I reached for my Serapis medallion. Mine had been prepared to double as an arcane implement because my dad didn't believe in being unprepared. But Edgar grabbed my wrist and shouted, "Not so fast, Owl-Eyes!"

I'd had enough. I hit him with the full force of the malleus magicus spell and he went flying straight back into the dumpster and lay dazed on the ground. Meanwhile, Lalo had changed form and was biting Gordon's ankle, which made Gordon change form. I was biased, but I felt that Lalo's thin black haired wolf was much more attractive than his stockier brown haired opponent.

While the two of them were rolling around biting each other on the ground, I grabbed my wand from Edgar's limp grasp. I didn't care anymore. I waved my wand in a wide circle with flourishes in the exact right spot, and I chanted, "Tibi incontinentia nullo fine. Meias valde et perpetuo."

Edgar recovered his wits just in time to feel himself pissing his pants. It didn't take all the fight out of him, though. I'd wanted to get involved in the fight between Gordon and Lalo, but I had to dodge aside from Edgar. The look on his face when he realized that he couldn't stop pissing was worth the trouble I was likely to get into.

Edgar grabbed me and wrestled me to the ground. I'd expended the malleus magicus and it took too long to prepare that spell for me to do it while we were fighting. I couldn't see how well Lalo was doing and it made me nervous. But I couldn't give my full attention to the fight. We were in a secluded corner. That's why the two versipelles had chosen it, but anyone could walk by and see what we were doing.

I cast a circle of obfuscation around us. "Velamen augeatur; sensus mundani deverteantur intra decem gradus."

The veil thickened within ten yards so that any mundane observer's senses would be turned aside. And if their eyes and ears didn't want to register it, their brain wouldn't think of walking within the area. Now I wasn't afraid of violating our most important law and revealing magic to the mundane world.

Edgar twisted my wand out of my hand and bent my wrist backward. I'd given him a warning. He chose not to take it. I grabbed my Serapis medallion with my other hand and chanted a different spell. "Mille novaculis acribus secere!"

A cloud of tiny razors swarmed over Edgar, striking him in places where his flesh wasn't covered by my own. He screamed and rolled off me. He should have punched me in the face instead. That swarm of razors followed him wherever he rolled. I allowed them to vanish only as he ran out of the area.

Lalo was not coming out well. He was physically tougher than me but Gordon was bigger than him. I didn't know if I would make things worse by getting involved. The fact was that I wasn't afraid of any of the versipelles, not if I had the opportunity to face them alone. I was standing in indecision. I'd retrieved my wand and I was twisting it in my hands. I was just about to unleash a spell of crippling weakness when Darren stormed into the circle I'd drawn. Edgar was with him.

Darren looked around with a scowl on his face. Gordon and Lalo stopped fighting, changed back into their human form and got to their feet. Darren let go of Edgar's arm and stared at me. Then he started laughing. "So this is the brutal mage who attacked you? Go ahead, Oliver. Tell me what you did."

"Lalo and I were walking back to the dorm when these two jumped us."

Lalo broke in, "Gordon attacked me and Edgar, but Oliver didn't get involved in my fight. He just defended himself against Edgar."

He glared at Edgar. "Is that right, Edgar? Because that is not what you told me."

Edgar was stammering. Gordon sighed, "It was just a little hazing."

"Is that right, Lalo? Was it just a little hazing?" Darren asked.

Lalo nodded, but his jaw was tense like he was angry. His lip was split, and his eye was starting to swell. Darren let out a little growl that sent a shiver down my spine and made my bowels feel loose. "Wrong! It was hazing when you decided to give Lalo a little hassle. That's normal dominance play among betas, but as soon as you attacked this mage, you escalated things."

He turned to me and asked, "How long will this little warding spell last?"

I shrugged. "It'll wear out a minute or so after I stop concentrating on it."

"Keep it up until I text Lalo and say it's okay," he said. Then he wrinkled his nose and asked, "How long will Edgar be pissing himself."

I put my wand away and replied, "A month."

"Can you end it earlier?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, brushing grass and dirt off my clothes.

Darren laughed. "Will you end it early?"

I sighed and shook my head. "No. I won't. Edgar attacked me unprovoked. He's going to have to buy himself some adult diapers for the next month and count his blessings."

Darren gave me a half smile and asked, "What blessings?"

He knew what my answer was going to be before I even opened my mouth. I could tell from his smile. He spent a lot more time around mages than most versipelles.

I stared Edgar in the face and said, "I pulled my punches. It was a lot more difficult to give you an inconvenient curse than it would have been to melt the flesh off your bones."

Darren clapped a hand on Edgar's shoulder. "You picked a fight with a mage because he was smaller than you and you thought he wasn't a threat. And then you lied to me."

Lalo came over and put his arm around me. He whispered, "I'm sorry."

I let my head rest on his shoulder. "It's okay."

Darren told us to go get cleaned up and have fun. We tended our wounds and changed clothes before heading out. I had to live dangerously and brave Lalo's driving again. In just a few miles, he'd ignored three stop signs and barely avoided a collision with customers pulling out of the Kroger parking lot. When he pulled into the driveway at Leo's house, I was able to breathe easily.

Leo met us at the door and hugged me tight. He held his hand out to Lalo, but he pulled him into an embrace as well. He said, "I am so glad you guys came over today. Amalthea is looking forward to seeing you."

Lalo had only met Leo once and neither of us had met Amalthea. I knew that she was a distant cousin of mine, but that was it. My mother was a Da Silva, and all the fifty families were related at some point on the family tree. Leo's mother was my mother's sister. And my cousin Valerio Da Silva's father was mine and Leo's mothers' brother. And Valerio's mother was the sister of Amalthea's mother. In order to avoid too much inbreeding, all of us who are related to the fifty families (and that included almost all the Oldbloods) were recorded in what mother disparagingly referred to as the stud books.

Amalthea was waiting for us inside. She was the same height as Leo, and Leo was an inch or two taller than Lalo, so she was tall for a woman. She was dressed casually in blue jeans and a silky green blouse. She came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Welcome, Oliver. I'm pleased to meet you. I think we're third cousins, but I'm not sure."

"Pleased to meet you too," I replied.

Then she surprised me by kissing Lalo's cheek as well. "And welcome, Lalo. Mucho gusto. Un novio de mi primo siempre es Bienvenido in nuestra casa."

I didn't know what she said, but Lalo seemed pleased. He responded, "Mucho gusto. Gracias."

She seemed friendly today. Given what Leo had said yesterday, I'd expected her to be more aloof. She hadn't even flinched when she hugged Lalo. I did notice the mass of slender bracelets made of silver at her wrist. Lalo may have thought them purely decorative, but my guess was that she had prepared so she could augment her spells with silver if it came down to a fight.

"What happened to you two?" Leo demanded.

"We... um... got into a fight. There were two guys and they jumped us," I replied.

Amalthea crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared. "And did you let anyone know?"

Lalo said, "I kind of got my butt kicked, but Oli here hit his guy with some sort of... excuse me for being rude, but it was a pee-pants curse."

Leo's eyes flew open wide. He said, "Please tell me they were mages or... versipelles?"

I nodded and replied, "They were versipelles who didn't like to see us dating."

Amalthea was about to say something, but Leo gave her a look and said, "Well, some intolerant people are like that. Luckily, we're all enlightened enough to not care."

Amalthea pursed her lips and started examining my bruises. "You weren't bitten, were you?"

"No. I wasn't. They wouldn't..."

Lalo interrupted me. "... they were hazing me, and it got out of hand."

Leo snapped his fingers and exclaimed, "So you did curse Remy Adler on purpose! I knew it! You used the same curse today."

Amalthea gave him a questioning look and then remembered the incident. She and Leo had been seniors that year at the Academy when I took down Remy at the dueling club. He'd been a junior and I was a freshman.

"How long will it last?" Leo asked.

I waved it off with my hand. "Just the standard spell lock. It will wear off in a month or he can meet the special conditions."

"And what special conditions are those?" He seemed genuinely curious.

I shook my head. "That's my secret. Just say that he can't meet it without my help."

"Will they seek revenge?" Amalthea asked.

Lalo shook his head. "They may jump me again, but they won't come near Oli. When I left Darren was about to let them have it. He's the alpha in charge of the guys on campus. They won't cross him once he's disciplined them."

Leo and Amalthea showed us around. They lived in a cute two-story house with three upstairs bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen. There was a bathroom downstairs for guests and another upstairs for them. It was decorated in a fashion that could generously be described as eclectic. There was a Danish style futon couch and a recliner in the living room, along with two simple desks and two comfortable looking desk chairs.

Before dinner, we played a few hands of rummy while we got to know one another. Leo treated Lalo like a long-lost cousin and even Amalthea seemed friendly on the surface. When it came time to eat, they admitted that neither of them was a great cook, so they unwrapped some take-out from Gianelli's, a famous mage-owned restaurant in Chicago. They unfolded the paper with the images on it and used the dimittere encantatum incantation to transmute it into the real thing. We had cheese lasagna, vegetarian antipasto, and lemon cake. It was delicious.

After dinner, we played Saltabunda while we talked some more. Amalthea was an expert at crafting non-alcoholic drinks. We sampled a wide variety, which she served in cocktail glasses. My favorite was a combination of orange and carrot juice with ginger. Lalo preferred the one with tomato juice, garum and lemon. After the game we went outside and sat in the hot tub. Leo had a spell that filtered out the light pollution so we could see everything clearly.

"It only filters the excess light immediately over our yard, so no mundanes will notice the effect," he assured us.

It was a completely unproductive evening, so I expected to hate it, but, for once, I enjoyed doing nothing. It was a new experience for me. When it got late, we retired to the guest room and had a repeat of this morning. Then we fell asleep in each other's arms.

Sebastian

I'd seen that jock from the Sigma Chi trying to pick up my boyfriend, but I couldn't blame him. Ethan made it clear to him that we were a couple. That made me feel good because the jock was seriously hot. Around 3:30, I grabbed Ethan and a couple of other boys who'd never been to Ibis House before and took them to Severan House so we could use the arcane circle in the basement to translocate.

At one point I saw Alan Somers, the newblood who'd been sworn to the Conclave along with Alonzo and Kieran, talking earnestly with a young man I didn't recognize in a strangely archaic outfit. He was wearing a vest and an open waistcoat, and he had a broad knotted bow tie at his throat. I ushered the students quickly through the hidden door to the sub-basement and when I looked back the strangely dressed man was gone.

Alan was the last man to come through. As we were walking down the spiral stairs, I asked him, "Who were you talking to?"

He seemed puzzled. "He said that his name was Alexander Tremblay and that he had to find Professor Severan. Do we have a professor Severan?"

"Not at the moment," I said.

I took them down to the arcane circle and cast a group translocation spell. "Hinc evanescamus illuc appareamus, portati per limitibus umbrosis de hoc circlo ad illo circlo sine mora!" And we vanished from the sub-basement of Severan House only to reappear in a blink of an eye in the backyard of Ibis House.

A couple of the Academy trained mages I'd brought along took their time to learn the specific magical feel of the circle. This was important when learning translocation for future use. Neither Ethan nor Alan knew the spell, so they had no reason to stick around. I took them inside the house and began introducing them to the residents.

This was a big night. The staff of Ibis House had prepared an amazing amount of food. They had brisket, roast turkey, a spicy lentil stew, potatoes, broccoli in cheese sauce, asparagus wrapped in bacon, stir fried green beans and mushrooms, saffron rice, macaroni and cheese, and... the list went on.

There was a welcome speech from Felicia Gladstone, the Matron of Ibis House, letting the mages know that they were always welcome, but other than that, it was dinner and getting to know one another. Even a large house that had been enchanted to be bigger on the inside than the outside was crowded with the number of us in the various common rooms.

We'd finally managed to bring almost all the mages in the student body together in one place and we took the opportunity to build our community. This was the real strength of the mage population. We had numbers on our side, around 38,000 scattered in small clusters across the USA. At that moment, I didn't care about the Hunters organizing in town. If they'd somehow managed to get past the defenses built into Ibis House over the generations, we would have destroyed them utterly with the power we had available to us.

College Magic Cycle Characters

Mages

·        Aelius Faxon. A 20-year-old mage who lives in Severan. He's a baker-mage at the Old Time Bakery, owned by his parents. He has sable hair that he wears short and a scruffy beard. He's six feet tall and seems very fit for a baker. He went to Sagacia Academy but not to college. He does take one class per semester, paid for from his own pocket, mainly so he can be considered a student and have access to university facilities like the gym. He's officially a non-degree seeking student through the Severan College Extension program.

·        Alan Somers. A freshman and newly discovered mage who took his oath to the Concordium with Alonzo and Kieran.

·        Amalthea Stern. A 25-year-old mage researcher who lives in the town of Severan. She is doing research on the effects of the numina flux zone on mundanes living in the area. Her theory is that the NFZ causes a higher percentage of babies in the area to be born with mage talent, tus increasing the potential number of New Blood Mages. She's attractive, with light skin, dark gray eyes, and dark blond hair. She is a member of the Stern family (one of the 50 families). Her partner and fiancé is Leo Wu.

·        Cameron Campbell. Formerly one of the twink trio along with Micah Blum and Oliver Rankin, he is now considered a twunk. He is five ten and weighs 165 pounds. He's lean but muscular and is a member of the Severan College soccer team. He has bright red hair, fair skin and a lot of dark freckles. He is the boyfriend of Micah Blume.

·        Carl Faxon. A 50-year-old mage who lives in Severan. He's a baker-mage and the owner of the Old Time Bakery. He's five foot ten inches tall, broad shouldered with a thick middle. His red hair is turning gray, as is his bushy beard.

·        Clarissa Spencer. RA for the supernatural girls in the dorm. She works for Professor Sybil Thorne, the local representative of the Conclave.

·        Cornelius Montrose. The 70-year-old Dean of Severan College. He is a wise and experienced mage from one of the fifty families. He doesn't get involved in Conclave politics, leaving that sort of thing to Professor Sybil Thorne.

·        Desmond Devereaux. A 23-year-old 1st year graduate student in history. He's the fifth floor RA in Baylor Hall. He's dating Viviane Lamont, the fourth floor RA. He's a competent mage, but less good at casting spells quickly. He's six-foot one inch tall and has light brown hair, green eyes and fair skin. He's not athletic but still looks fit.

·        Kamon Zhang. Jason's maternal uncle, a mage and psychologist who is helping Kieran to come to terms with his trauma, and his true nature.

·        Elijah Jackson. A 24-year-old graduate student who went to the Academy with Sebastian and Nico. He's a graduate student in the history program and he mentors struggling African American students and he tutors student athletes. He is 74 inches tall and weighs 275 pounds of mostly muscle. He's built like a massive rectangle. His skin is dark brown, almost black and he wears his hair in long dreadlocks. He's a powerful transmuter mage. He understands mechanics and electronics better than any of the other mages except for Erik Rucker. He has become friends with Kyle. He has two live in boyfriends, Kendal and Tristan.

·        Ethan Lowry. A 17-year-old boy from Long Island. He stands 67 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. He has golden blond hair, blue eyes and always has a golden tan. In this story he was working with the hunters. His mother is a sylph (an air spirit) and his own spirit is half human and half ventus (a name for male air spirits). He holds a donum arcanum (magical gift) and is being trained as a mage. He's an orphan who was raised by his uncle, ow also deceased. He is now Sebastian Trent's boyfriend.

·        Felicia Gladstone. A 38-year-old mage who manages Ibis House. She's also an assistant principal at the local high school. She has a nine-year-old daughter Selena who attends the local K-8 school.

·        Jason Lee. A 19-year-old (about 6 months older than Kieran) Chinese American college freshman with golden brown skin, brown almond shaped eyes and collar length black hair. He is already an accomplished alchemist. He is a dominant, looking for a submissive boy. He finds what he's looking for in Kieran Morgan. He takes charge of Kieran and begins training him as a submissive. He gives Kieran alchemical elixirs that change his body, and he uses psychology to lead him to embrace his innate submissiveness. He has allowed himself to fall into tantric entanglement with Kieran, bringing them even closer. He believes that Kieran is his complement, the other half of his soul. Jason and Kieran are the suitemates of Alonzo and Erik.

·        Kieran Finley Morgan. An 18-year-old boy with pale skin, golden-red hair, and green eyes. At the beginning of the story, he is deeply closeted (he is unaware that said closet had glass doors everyone could see through) and stands at 72 inches and 180 pounds of muscle. He was a high school athlete who was on the diving team, the swim team, and the track team. Jason took charge of him shortly after they moved into the dorm and began training him to let his inner submissive out. Jason gives him alchemical elixirs that are changing him physically. He sometimes struggles with the idea that he's losing himself inside Jason, but he can't go long without his lover's touch. Kieran is somewhat naive. During the story he loses height, mass, and penis size. Jason says that he's not doing it, but Kieran is sure that he is. After being raped by Kyle Mason, he suffers psychological trauma and only his relationship with Jason gives stability to his life. He and Jason are suitemates with Alonzo and Erik. He has an artistic soul. Jason has decided that Kieran will change majors to Art. Kieran is a foundling mind mage with powers of telepathy and clairsentience.

·        Leo Wu. A 21-year-old mage who lives in the town of Severan. He's been tasked by the Conclave to conduce an accurate census of the inhabitants, paying special attention to the number of mages, untrained people with mage talent, and other supernaturals. His work provides data for the study his partner and fiancée Amalthea Stern is conducting. He is maternal cousins with Oliver Rankin (their mothers are sisters). He is of average height and build, with attractive Eurasian features. (His father is a Wu, and his mother is a Da Silva). His skin tone is light olive (a gift from the Da Silva) family and his hair is dark brown and wavy. His eyes are light brown (amber) and he wears a well-trimmed goatee and moustache. He was three years behind Sebastian at the Academy, a year ahead of Remuel Adler and two years ahead of Oliver and the other freshman mages.

·        Lucius Faxon. A 23-year-old mage who lives in Severan. He's a baker-mage at the Old Time Bakery, owned by his parents. He and Clarissa Spencer spend a lot of time together. He's five foot eleven inches tall with a stocky, but not fat frame. He has auburn hair, moustache, and beard. He never went to college, but his parents did manage to send him to Sagacia Academy.

·        Micah Blum. An 18-year-old mage boy who rooms with Darren. He used to spend most of his time with his two friends Oliver and Cameron. They were in a polyamorous relationship. Micah is a little afraid of Darren because he's afraid of werewolves. Once he was in an abusive relationship with his older cousin Remuel Adler, but now Micah has chosen Cameron Campbell as his boyfriend.

·        Oliver Rankin. A freshman mage (18 years old), one of the twink trio along with Micah Blum and Cameron Campbell. He describes himself as a rude, arrogant (because he is smarter than everyone around him) and unable to quickly read social cues. He's befriended Kyle Mason and works with him in science lab.

·        Remy (Remuel) Adler. Micah's 20-year-old cousin, a low-ranking member of the custodes who lives with his father Mordecai and keeps his official records. He was Micah's lover at the Academy and has recently taken Micah as his slave.

·        Sebastian Trent. A 24-year-old graduate student. He's the RA for his floor and he helps Professor Thorne to wrangle the mage and supernatural scholars on campus. His female counterpart is Clarissa Spencer. Sebastian is 70 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. He has light brown hair and brown eyes. He was a little overwhelmed with the fallout from Alonzo's spell and Kieran's rape, so he allowed Domenic the leeway he needed to enslave Kyle. Now there's nothing he can do about it. Sebastian is bisexual but prefers men. He has older men on campus who blow him in exchange for favors. He seems to have a lot of influence on campus for a grad student. He is dating Ethan Lowry but feels guilty about the age difference.

·        Sybil Thorne. Kieran's history professor. She's also the overseer for the magician's Conclave here on campus. Her two assistants are Sebastian Trent and Clarissa Spencer.

·        Tristan Navarro. A 21-year-old senior seeking a degree in English Literature. He's filipino with medium beige skin, black hair, and dark eyes. He stands 66 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. He likes short shorts and tight tee shirts. He's Elijah Jackson's lover and lives with him and Kendal. He calls Elijah daddy and Kendal brother. He has written two volumes in a series of mm romance novels about mages called Wands of Love and he intends to keep writing. He kept his own name and keeps his own finances, but he's no less devoted to Elijah than Kendal is.

·        Warren Cheng. A Chinese American psychology grade student and friend of Jason. His family is originally from Hong Kong, but they live in Los Angeles like Jason's family. His specialty is magical noetics, but he has a strong talent for illusions as well. He is the TA in Jason's Psychology course, and he lives in town at Ibis House.

Mundanes (or Unknown)

·        Kendal Jackson. A 23-year-old college dropout. He's five foot three inches tall and weighs about 115 pounds. He has pale blond hair, heterochromatic eyes (one blue and one green), and extremely fair skin. He lives with Elijah Jackson and is one of his lovers. He hated college and dropped out. He stays home and keeps house for Elijah Jackson. He likes to wear women's clothing but identifies as a boy. He changed his last name and signed power of attorney to make Elijah control over his affairs. He's very submissive. He calls Elijah daddy and Tristan brother.

·        Terrence Green. A basketball player for the school. A 21-year-old junior, standing six foot eight inches tall, with deep bronze skin color and brown eyes. He has full lips and rounded features. He wears his black hair in very short, kinky curls.

Skinchangers, Werewolves

·        Darren Groves (Alpha). A 21-year-old college junior from Montana. A heavy-set man with shoulder length brown hair, a short beard, and brown eyes. He's powerfully built under his extra pounds. He's of average appearance. He stands 70 inches tall and weighs 220 pounds. He's Drew's right hand man. In a fit of lust, he groped Kieran in the laundry room. Who knows what would have happened if Drew hadn't broken it up? Despite this, Darren is a good guy. He's become a kind of avuncular figure for Kieran as one of his protectors on campus.

·        Gordan Cooper (Beta). A sophomore werewolf and a friend of Adrian Stringer. Edgar Krause's roommate.

·        Hugh Kent (Beta). A 19-year-old college freshman. Lalo's roommate.

·        Lalo Arenas (Beta). A cute and thin latino freshman, with a wiry build. Lalo is short for Eduardo. He has light olive skin tone, jade green eyes, and brown hair. He is friends with the mage Oliver Rankin (they share a literature class), and now the two of them are dating.

Places

·        Baylor Hall. A dorm building at Severan College which is used to house the mages and lupipelles (werewolves) on campus. The third floor is use by male supernaturals and the fourth by female supernaturals. The muripelles (wererats) refuse to use this dorm and they stay elsewhere on campus. The dorm has a dining hall on the first floor.

·        Ibis House. A large house in town that is used by the mages as off-campus residence. It's shielded by the velamen arcanum and mundanes tend to ignore it. It's been modified by magic over the decades and has a lot of magical features and defenses. There's a magic circle to make translocation spells easier to use. It's owned and operated by the Ibis Foundation, a mage NGO that maintains Ibis House facilities near mundane universities in many towns.

·        Newbury's Country Kitchen. A diner owned by Esther Newbury, a widow whose daughter Molly helps in the restaurant. She's a member of PFLAG because of her son Bobby who experienced violence in town before moving to Columbus. The restaurant has mostly traditional American dishes, but they can accommodate vegetarians and other special diets.

·        Numina Flux Zone (NFZ). This area of southeastern Ohio is a weak spot between the worlds. Magic rituals are easier to perform here, and a higher-than-average number of people born in the region have mage talent, although most of them are never identified or trained. The realms of faerie, umbra, outland, spirit, underworld, astral, dream, and light are easily accessed from this zone. Other realms may or may not be easier to reach from here than from elsewhere. A similar, but smaller zone surrounds the Sagacia Academy and the Ossuarium in the Bayou of Louisiana.

·        Severan College. A fictional private college in fictional Severan Ohio. It was founded by the mage Aurelius Severan, originally to provide mundane college degrees to young mages. To accomplish this goal, mundane professors needed to be hired. Over time, the magical nature of the school became hidden behind a layer of mundane scholars and professors. The college sits near dead center of the numina flux zone that marks a weak spot between the worlds.

·        Severan House. The oldest building on campus, it was originally the home of Aurelius Severan, the mage who founded the college. Severan House contains offices, a museum, and several mage-only facilities, including a magic circle in the basement to make translocation spells more accurate. Students living at Ibis House and mages visiting from other towns and states use this circle to arrive in Severan.