4.20 – Easing In

“Inflame or mute internal statuses,” Maddy said thoughtfully. “I wonder how broad that is.”

Like Zoey had with Sabina, she’d revealed her newest skill with the tutor best suited to help her with it. Beyond the ability needing to be divulged, so that she could learn to use it, Zoey didn’t see a point to the stringent secrecy that was the standard for this world. Maybe if she trusted Maddy less, but this bubbly, friendly girl? Even if Zoey’s skill had been a lot more specific, and worth keeping the details hidden, she would’ve shared it.

“I’d figure anything in that domain,” Zoey said. “Any emotion, either dulled or amplified. But my class’s related ones, probably most effective.”

Arousal, she politely didn’t specify. Maddy glanced at her and blushed, picking up the implication, but brushing past it. While she seemed to be growing slightly more at-ease with inappropriate topics, she still turned pink at mentions of Zoey’s class.

“Emotions are a safe bet,” Maddy said. “How about sensations? Is ‘pain’ an internal status? Speaking from a combat utility perspective, flaring up a monster’s wounds could be debilitating.”

“True,” Zoey said. “I’d test it on myself, but we’d have to create a spell for each application, right?”

“Sure, but it shouldn’t be that hard. Not simple ones. We can take existing spell designs and tweak them.”

“For you, it wouldn’t be hard,” Zoey amusedly pointed out. “I don’t have the slightest idea how to do that.”

While she’d been making strides in the practical side of spellcasting, the theoretical side, she remained clueless about. Maddy had painted the process in broad strokes, but it was more or less the same as painting quantum physics, or some equally absurd topic, in broad strokes. Nuance fell to the wayside, and actually implementing the things Maddy so casually mentioned? Zoey obviously couldn’t.

Maybe with a dedicated upbring by a powerful mage, like Maddy had received, Zoey would be able to manage something, but she obviously didn’t have that. And even if she had that sort of background, even still, she might not be able to. Maddy was clearly a brilliant woman, for all she stumbled over her words and was sometimes distractible. A prodigy in her own right, in the same way as Rosalie or Delta.

“Well, I’ll put something together for you, then,” Maddy said. “It shouldn’t take long, and we can bill it under ‘tutoring’. Even if spell design would normally cost mountains.”

It was said with a joking tone, but Zoey frowned. “I probably can’t afford it now, but I might be able to, later. Keep track of it?”

“Oh, no, I don’t care. It’s no problem.” Maddy blushed. “I’m already starting to feel bad for charging you for even this.” She waved around to indicate ‘lessons’.

“Why? It sounds like your time is valuable.”

“Well, sure, but we’re friends, now. Er … that is, if, you … you know, think so too.”

“Of course I do,” Zoey said. “But that doesn’t mean you should be wasting hours of your day training me for free, every day. And this spell design stuff, now. Keep track of how much you’d charge someone else, and when I can, I’ll pay you back. Please?”

“That’s really not necessary.”

“Please?” Zoey repeated. She really would feel better about things. Her time spent in this new world had felt like a drain on other people’s generosity. Rosalie’s, primarily, but Delta’s and Sabina’s too, and now Maddy.

“Okay,” Maddy said hesitantly. “But I’ll be giving you the friend discount, and you can’t convince me out of that.”

Zoey would’ve tried, but she could tell insisting further would be pointless.

“I can probably have a simple prototype drawn up pretty quick,” Maddy said. “Go ahead and run through our drills, and I’ll start sketching?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Zoey went about her routine, practicing with the few ice spells she knew. To the side, Maddy sat on the bench, scribbling in her notebook while conferring with various textbooks. Zoey watched out of the corner of her eye, curious, but mostly kept focused on learning to wrangle her ice element. While this newest branch of magic would be useful, so was her original, especially in a more direct offensive sense. Though inflaming ‘internal statuses’ was sure to have plenty of uses, it couldn’t kill a monster by itself. It was, from her assumptions, a support branch of magic.

Casting spells in a steady string, Zoey found her reserves dwindling in no time. While her class allowed more potent abilities because of her mana-replacement resource, Lust, she also ran out much quicker than a normal mage would. Doubly true because of how unpracticed she was. Better mages could make more efficient use of their skills, but Zoey was, while not a stark beginner anymore, still very much a novice.

A half-hour later, she plopped down, tired, next to Maddy, who spared a smile for her, then studiously returned to her notebook. Zoey leaned over with a “can I see?”, which Maddy allowed, placing her notebook on her lap for Zoey to peek, but continuing to focus on her sketching.

A spell diagram was taking shape on the page. Zoey, obviously, couldn’t read it, not in any meaningful capacity, but she appreciated the design for what it was: tight-packed, drawn with deft pencil strokes, and a clear competence behind the forming spell. Not many mages could do this easily, Zoey intuited. Invent new spells nearly from scratch, on a whim.

Zoey watched for a bit, staying quiet, not wanting to interrupt Maddy’s efforts. She was clearly focused on the endeavor, having to flip between pages of textbooks—which featured similar designs, which Maddy was stealing from, and adapting to Zoey’s purpose—and constantly erasing or making small adjustments.

“That ought to do it,” Maddy said, satisfied. She closed the books to her side, then held out her notebook, admiring the final result. Or, the initial draft—Maddy seemed to have implied there’d be some experimentation involved. “Time to test it.”

Zoey twitched in realization. “Ah … I should’ve gone and recharged while you were working. I’m all out.”

Maddy paused. However many times they’d been through this, Zoey’s reminders that Zoey needed to ‘restock’—or rather, the reminder how—drew a blush from the blue-haired girl.

And, this time even more than usual, Maddy starting fidgeting. Zoey stood to head for the bathroom—unfortunately, the most private accommodations she could manage—but Maddy cleared her throat, then said:

“You can, um. Do it here, if you want.”

Zoey turned, slowly, to look at her.

“I-I’m just saying,” Maddy squeaked, glancing away. “All the … running back and forth, it’s too much of a hassle. Wastes time. How about you just take care of it? This is a private room.”

Zoey sorted through her reaction as quickly as she could. Maddy, more than Delta and even Rosalie had been, needed to be handled carefully when it came to the lewder aspects of her class. Zoey couldn’t afford to be awkward; she needed to handle things smoothly, as to not scare Maddy away. To set her at ease.

And this was an invitation. Not of anything serious, but still an offer for Zoey to masturbate—well, not really masturbate, but kind of—in front of her. Which wasn’t a chaste thing by any measure.

“If you don’t mind,” Zoey said carefully.

Maddy shrugged. She wasn’t good at feigning nonchalance, and her fidgeting gave her away, if the bright blush hadn’t already. “Only if you don’t mind, either. Like I said, it’s just a hassle, isn’t it?”

“A bit,” Zoey admitted. She sat back down on the bench attached to the training room’s wall. “But your comfort matters a lot more, obviously.”

“Well,” Maddy tittered, “I’m glad to hear that, but it’s not that big of a deal.” Maddy chuckled, again, a bit forced. She was giving away pretty clearly that, to her, it was a big deal. She didn’t go around offering just any girl to masturbate in front of her. “And I’m kind of curious, too,” she admitted. “You clearly have a way to … recharge … but you mentioned it has to be with a bonded target. And you don’t meet up with Rosalie or Delta, do you?”

Zoey hadn’t ever explained the teleporting panties to Maddy. And for all her blushing, she did seem genuinely curious about the how from an academic sense.

Except, today’s use of the panties was different from usual. It had been Delta’s request, actually.

“I have an item,” Zoey said. “That makes distance not so big of a deal. Want to see?”

“Sure?” Maddy’s wide-eyes suggested she had an idea of what she was in for, if not the details.

Zoey briefly wondered whether she should show the item off in its current state. She hadn’t received permission to go parading it around. But it was Delta, and Zoey was close to certain she wouldn’t mind. Would hit Zoey over the head for not taking the opportunity, even.

Zoey withdrew the linking plate from her inventory. Not the portal panties. She wasn’t the one wearing them, today.

She held the silver disc out for Maddy to see.

There, sitting in Zoey’s palm, was Delta’s pussy.

“It simplifies the logistics,” Zoey laughed, scooting closer to Maddy, so their shoulders bumped together. “Delta insisted. Usually I wear the other end, and when I get hard, it signals they need to take care of me.”

Maddy gaped at the silver plate, where Delta’s cute pussy lips protruded. Her head had turned away, as if instinctively trying to look somewhere else—to be polite—but her eyes had stayed locked to Delta. “Delta? That’s her?”

Zoey pressed two fingers between soft lips, rubbing them around. Maddy’s eyes widened further, and she actually did look away, this time—then forced her gaze back, as if embarrassed that she’d done so.

“In the flesh,” Zoey teased. “Can’t you recognize her?”

By the way Maddy’s face had gone from pink to deep red, Zoey could tell she was pushing it. Slow and steady would be important with Maddy.

She pulled the linking plate away, then scooted a few inches to give Maddy a second to cool off. Steam practically radiated from her, even just from shoulder contact and the lewd display of Delta’s pussy.

Zoey said, “But you don’t mind, then? You’re sure? If I handle it here? It might get loud.”

“I said it was fine, didn’t I?” Maddy’s volume—louder than she’d intended—made herself jump. She really was on edge. In a good way? The bright-red blushing and stammering wasn’t indicating she wanted to leave, just that was was mortified. She yanked her notebook up to her face, blocking her face. “I’ll just keep working. Don’t mind me.”

Well, she’d been given permission. And for all Maddy’s lack of composure, Zoey would have to be blind not to see that she wanted Zoey to make a spectacle of this.

A spectacle. Zoey intended to provide one. A good starting point for easing Maddy into the debacle of upcoming shards, should that day hopefully come.