GPCiMW Chapter 12 (Patreon)

I was feeling hungry and somewhat pent up by the time I made it to the cafeteria. Instead of finding a table, I did what I’d seen a few of the older students doing in the last few days and grabbed a tray from where they were half-hidden under the table holding spare cutlery.

The tray quickly joined my new Coven Management textbook in Daphne’s arms and I loaded two plates with food and poured myself a mug of a sweet drink that tasted somewhere between iced tea and sprite. It was called faerie tea and was a very popular drink among wizards in the Americas after being popularized by our High Lord in the early seventeen hundreds.

I’d never had any before coming to Aglakok––it was brewed using dried faerie wings and I didn’t exactly have access to those living in the mundane world––but ever since I’d tried it for the first time I’d immediately understood the hype. The stuff was absolutely delicious, more energizing than coffee or regular tea, and had an impressive number of health benefits to boot.

With my lunch secured, I headed up to my room. As usual Grace was waiting for me on her knees near the door and I ruffled her hair as I kicked off my shoes, then used her ponytail as a handle to pull her along with me as I walked over to my desk and sat down.

Daphne cleared a space on the desk and put the tray down in front of me. I waved in the general direction of the coven room. “Go eat, Daphne, then grab the uniforms and come back out,” I ordered. “Grace, have you eaten?”

She nodded. “Yes master.”

“Good.” I gestured under the desk, “Let's see if you’ve gotten any better.”

She didn’t need any more instructions. I dug into my food as Grace quickly crawled around my chair and got to work at my pants. The redhead worked quickly, needing only a few short moments to unbuckle my belt and fish my cock out.

She gave my rapidly hardening shaft several long licks, the view of Grace still wearing most of her ponywitch uniform doing just as much to get me going as her ministrations. While Daphne certainly wore it better, the uniform did Grace’s lithe figure a lot of favors. The corset really emphasized her narrow waist, the black straps on her pale skin drew the eye to her breasts, and her fiery red hair looked fantastic in a high ponytail.

“We don’t have all day,” I chided, taking a bite from the wrap I’d grabbed off a serving tray. I frowned. Too much sauce and yet somehow still drier than I’d like. I pushed the wrap aside and ate another bite of curry and rice. Much better.

Grace gave my shaft one final lick, her tongue trailing from the very base of my shaft to the tip, and planted a sloppy kiss on the head, moaning softly as she licked up several droplets of precum. Then she smoothly took the first three inches of my cock in her mouth, using her hand to slowly pump and stroke the bottom half of my cock as her tongue moved languidly along my cockhead.

I closed my eyes, just savoring the sensation of Grace’s soft hands and hot mouth on my shaft. Then I realized that the view was really half the show and opened them again. Grace looked completely focused, like an artist putting the final touches on their masterpiece. I imagined that if her mouth wasn’t otherwise occupied, she’d have just the very tip of her tongue sticking out from between her bright red lips.

I laughed at the mental image and grabbed my faerie tea. Leaning back in my seat, I slowly sipped at the sweet, bubbly drink. Now this was the life. Good food, lots of magic to learn, and a sexy witch hard at work on her knees.

I honestly still couldn’t believe my luck at Grace just falling into my lap like this. Having a second witch so early into the year was a huge leg up on my entire class, an advantage that not even members of ancient, wealthy Houses could match. Aglakok, like all the other well-regarded schools for wizards, had very strict rules on how and when wizards could bond new coven members from outside the academy if they wanted to continue attending. It was a rule established centuries ago by High Lord Haruki, one of his many initiatives to reduce the growing class among the wizards of his time.

If I was able to place well in each month’s competition, it wouldn’t be until next summer when everyone was permitted to bond one additional coven member that my classmates would be able to catch up to me. That was a huge if––no matter how well I prepared, I couldn’t really guarantee a win every month––but I would do my absolute best to make the most of my current advantage.

Well, I wasn’t really sure that it was luck. I still wasn’t sure exactly what Daphne’s gift could show her, but I very clearly remembered the way she’d nudged me towards a specific empty seat. Had she Seen something? It certainly seemed likely.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about relying on an ability I knew so little about, but I had already decided to put my trust in my first witch. I didn’t think she’d steered me wrong yet and it wasn’t like she could really do much against me after I’d bound her into my coven. The magic of the ancient compact was powerful and insidious; Daphne could no more act against me than she could stop the tides or bite her own eye.

At that moment Daphne walked into the room carrying a small heap of black leather and rubber. I beckoned her over and she deposited the uniforms on the corner of my desk before kneeling down beside my chair.

She waited for a moment to see if I would say anything, then leaned her head against my arm. “I hope that class wasn’t too inspiring,” she said softly.

I smiled and offered her a forkful of my curry which she eagerly accepted, thoroughly licking every drop off my fork and slowly savoring the morsel. “I think we both know that you have nothing to worry about. You’re far too sexy just the way you are for me to mark you up.” I paused for a moment, gently brushing a strand of her silver hair behind her ear. “Maybe when we get to one of the later units…”

Daphne laughed weakly, then yelped as I pinched one of her puffy nipples between my fingers. “Severin!” she protested.

“I don’t know, you heard what Kazuma said.” Setting my fork down, I used both hands to smush Daphne’s breasts together. “One nice big ring…”

Daphne pouted at me. “I don’t think my tits are big enough to pull it off. Haimi’s are barely big enough as is and she has like, three entire cup sizes on me.”

“Hmm, maybe not,” I hummed noncommittally. “But perhaps two little rings, maybe with some purple crystals to match your eyes…”

Daphne froze for a moment, then sighed heavily.

“Daphne?” I asked worriedly.

“It’s…it’s nothing. You don’t need to worry about it yet. Not for another month and a half.”

It clearly wasn’t nothing. Daphne suddenly looked utterly exhausted and there was a dark shadow behind her sparkling eyes.

“Daphne?” I asked again.

“Not today, please?”

I was going to say something, but at that moment Grace decided to finally take me all the way down her throat and did something absolutely amazing with her tongue, her hands gently massaging my balls. My voice caught in my throat and I nodded instead.

We would be having a serious conversation soon. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but this weekend. I wouldn’t push too hard, but it was obvious that there were a lot of things bothering Daphne. I wouldn’t make her tell me about whatever secret she was still trying to hide, but I was certain that at least some of what was eating at her was something I could help her with. I was her wizard. Her coven lord. Daphne’s life and wellbeing was my responsibility to do with as I pleased, and I wanted my first, precious witch to be happy.

For now though, I had other things I’d rather focus on. I idly grabbed my discarded wrap and handed it to Daphne. She looked slightly surprised, but hungrily attacked the wrap anyway. She all but moaned with every bite, a dreamy smile quickly replacing her frown. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but real food seemed like an easy way to make Daphne happy so I could work with that for now.

Reaching down, I slowly stroked my thumb down Grace’s cheek. She pushed back into my touch and looked up at me, her eyes shining with earnest passion and devotion. Yes, for now I’d much rather focus on what this cute witch was doing, not on whatever was eating at Daphne.

Around four-forty-five I headed down to my second class of the day. Daphne was hobbling a little as she followed after me and I made a mental note to end her training slightly earlier next time so she could have a few extra minutes to recover before we had to go somewhere. Fifteen minutes was plenty of time to get her cleaned up and fed, but not long enough for her to stretch her legs and rest.

Well, she’d have plenty of rest while I was in class. This wasn’t one of the courses my dad had taken back when he was at Aglakok––half the reason I had signed up for it––but from what I’d seen most classes just had your accompanying witch tucked away somewhere out of the way. Daphne could take a nice three-hour nap while I learned.

Unlike the other classes I’d had so far, Dueling for First Years didn’t have a specific classroom assigned to it. Instead, the class was taking place outside in one of the many training grounds scattered around Aglakok’s extensive campus.

I exited the student tower through a camouflaged door that led out into the sprawling garden that surrounded much of Aglakok’s main building. A pair of beastkin wearing leather gloves in addition to their Aglakok collars were hard at work trimming a row of rose bushes. They looked up when I stepped outside and bowed briefly, then returned to their work.

Following my dad’s memories, I cut diagonally down a stone path that wound through the gardens and emerged just a few hundred feet away from the training field I was heading too. If I hadn’t known about the shortcut through the gardens it would have taken nearly twice as long to get there.

I made it with a few minutes to spare before five o’clock. There were already a half-dozen other first years standing together in a loose cluster and I could see two more distant figures hurrying towards us down the main road.

I moved over to join them, nodding in greeting as I approached the cluster. “Hello there. Here for dueling?”

“I’d hope so,” one of the other wizards joked. He was short, but very muscular, with the early beginnings of a wispy beard growing on his chin. “No idea why else I woulda trudged all the way out here. Good thing we have a full hour between classes; took me nearly that long to find this place.”

A few of the others laughed at that. “I’ll say,” one of them chimed in, “those maps they gave us are so useless.”

“There’s a difference between not to scale and a twenty minute hike,” another first year groused.

I smiled and didn’t say anything. I had barely even looked at the map we’d been given on our first day. I wouldn’t say I knew Aglakok’s grounds particularly well, but years spent exploring my dad’s memories of this place put me a step ahead of my fellow first years.

The two students I’d seen hurrying towards us arrived slightly out of breath but just in time. They were both still breathing heavily when suddenly a man fell from the sky above us and crashed into the field beside us like a meteor.

We all whirled to look at him and he slowly straightened, rising up and up until he towered over all of us. The man must have been at least seven feet tall, probably taller, and he was build like a Mr. Olympia competitor. He barely seemed to fit into his Aglakok uniform, his robe straining to contain his massive shoulders and his white shirt half unbuttoned for a very different reason than Delflora’s had been. I’d thought Professor DeGroot was massive, but I’d been wrong. This guy dwarfed Professor DeGroot the way Professor DeGroot dwarfed me.

I blinked in shock, not quite sure what exactly I was seeing. My mind wandered slightly as I simply stared at what was likely my Professor for First Year Dueling and for a moment I wondered why a Professor would arrive for class without any of his coven members. Then I noticed the tiny female figure clinging to the collar of his shirt, eight translucent wings fluttering behind her and a ring-sized collar clasped around her tiny neck.

Huh. I knew faeries were supposedly very stretchy, but either my professor’s size was seriously compensating for something or their abilities were even more impressive than I’d expected. She was less than a foot tall and couldn’t possibly weigh more than a pound or two, while he was a literal giant. They certainly made an interesting pair.

I caught myself before my mind could go off on any more tangents and bowed politely. “Good afternoon Professor Minnett.”

The man grinned, showing off a row of thumb-sized pearly-white teeth. “Good afternoon to you too!” he boomed, his voice rolling like thunder in the silent training ground. If not for all the sound-canceling wards scattered around the Academy, I bet they would have heard him all the way back in the great hall. “Well, I see nine of you so that should be everyone. A bit unfortunate to have an odd number right from the get-go but I’m sure at least one of you lot will drop my class so I think we’ll be alright.” He stared each of us directly in the eyes one by one, then his grin widened. “Well, worst comes to worst, I’m sure I can find an assistant from one of my other classes.”

He loudly cracked his neck one way and then the other, each pop sounding like a gunshot. “Well, you’re all still here so let’s get started. As your classmate already inferred, I’m Professor Minnett, but you can just call me Chuck. Even after all these years it feels weird to be called by my last name. Minnett was always my dad, you know?” He gently plucked the faerie hiding behind his neck out of the air and held her up by the collar. It looked rather comical since the finger on each side of her neck was about the same size as her head. “This is Pinky, one of my fuckmeats. She knows more about dueling than most professionals so if she says something to you, I expect you to listen. You can call her Professor Pinky if you’d like, most of my older students do.” He gently shook Pinky. “Say hi to the new students, kitten.”

“Hi everyone,” she squeaked, waving rapidly with both arms. Professor Min––Chuck let go and she instantly darted back into her spot, only the very tips of her wings peeking out from behind his neck.

Chuck laughed. “She’s a little shy around new people. Don’t you worry, she’ll be darting around yelling corrections soon enough. Anyway, I guess we better get started. We’re burning daylight.”

Chuck pointed his hand off to the side and his huge fingers nimbly flashed through a series of arcane hand gestures. A white-rimmed portal opened up beside him and a heavy wooden chest dropped out of it onto the hard-packed earth.

“Now, y’all are brand new fresh first years, which means that you don’t know any spells that matter. It's pretty hard to duel without any spells, so that's the first thing I need to teach you.” He made another hand gesture and the chest opened up, revealing two baskets of carved wooden rods and a second basket filled with gold beaded bracelets.

“Do any of you know what these are?” he asked curiously.

Several of my classmates were shaking their heads so I raised my hand.

“Yes, Mr…”

“Severin Victus, sir. Those are spell aids and shielding bracelets.”

“Right and right, good eye young man. We’ll be using these bracelets later in the year, but for now let’s focus on the spell aids. As the name suggests, they’re aids that help with spells, pretty simple. More importantly, they’re one of the fastest ways for a mage to pick up a new spell. Even newbies like all of you should be able to manage it after a few hours of work.”

One of my classmates who I thought I recognized from Essential Principles of Spellcasting called out, “Wait, if something like this exists, why did everyone say that learning new spells is super hard?”

Chuck frowned. “In the future, I’d prefer to avoid being interrupted like that. Just raise your hand and I’ll call on you when I can. Still, it is a good question. Does anyone know the answer?”

I once again raised my hand and Chuck smiled as he pointed at me. “Yes, Severin?”

“Well for one, they only work for really simple spells. It's impossible to learn something like that portal you just opened using a spell aid. Secondly they’re really hard and expensive to make. You need to use special materials and they wear out pretty quickly. Finally, it takes a lot of practice to then use the spell without the spell aid in your hand, and modifying the spell is also really hard.”

“That about covers it, good. You ever used a spell aid before?”

I shook my head. Dad had used one once for a class during his third year, but that was about it. They were pretty rare and I was very surprised to see so many used for a first year class.

“Well then, you’re about to! Everyone come and grab a rod from each basket. The darker ones are a basic force shield spell while the lighter ones are my own take on a standard magic missile. Carved these ones all up myself so they’re yours to keep if you don’t burn them out learning. I’m gonna show you how to use them once, then you’ve got the rest of class to try it for yourself. If you come back next week without both spells down, you’re out of the class. Understood?”