Tales From the Fae – Part V: The Academy of Dana

Chapter 42 – Trips, Traps, and Transformations

Our next match was for later that afternoon. Michelle was calm and actually looked happier than I had seen her in days, which was contrary to what I expected as we waited in the ‘ready room’. Most people, myself included, were getting more and more nervous as the matches weeded out the less experienced. She just smiled when I mentioned it to her.

“What can I say? This is what I was born for, Ran. It’s what I do. As scary as it all is, I’m finally enjoying myself. To be completely honest, so far, it hasn’t been much of a challenge.”

I was surprised, but she was right. And while I wouldn’t really say that our success in the games had been ‘easy’ up to that point, we did seem to be doing pretty well. My thoughts returned to Douglas and the idea that he was using some trick he had found as a help in the games. Why he hadn’t shared the find with the rest of the group was a mystery. We hadn’t specifically agreed to share all knowledge, and I was sure he had his reasons, but it still worried me. ‘Tricks’ were risky, though they had certainly worked pretty well in our favor too. Perhaps the games weren’t just about being strong or skilled, but creative as well. So much of the Fae was about deceit and half-truths. Illusion was as important as reality. I had an idea and grinned.

“Yeah, okay… I know that face,” said Michelle. “Let’s have it.”

When I explained what I wanted to do, Michelle was hesitant. “You’re assuming that they don’t have automated defenses that could kick in and spoil your day. I know one of the girls in this paring pretty well. She’s combat, and a Fifth. She won’t be fooled easily.”

“Then I won’t make it easy. Besides, I plan on being more of a distraction than anything else. I’ll get their attention, and you knock down the front door.”

She shrugged. “Since I haven’t got any better ideas, we’ll give it a try. If you get in close and need to go hand to hand on either of them, try to hit from the right-hand side. They’re both lefties and have a tendency to overplay their strong side.”

I was impressed. “How do you…”

“I’ve watched them practice. Don’t be so surprised, Ran. Like I said, this is what I do.” She was grinning when the orb went amber, accompanied by the resonant note of the gong. I took a deep breath, collected a few spells together to do what I wanted, and then nodded to my partner, who pushed open the door and officially started our match.

I noted, with a little chagrin, that at least the room was lit this time. Our opponents were taking up positions at the other side of the arena, just outside their door, much as we were. And just as we were, they quite surprised to find a complete lack of gravity. I thought back to Grace Leavey as she had first given us a tour of the arena, and her description of a similar situation… and how it had suddenly changed. I was going to mention it to Michelle when she placed her hand on my arm.

“I remember.” She replied before I could speak. “Do your thing, go.” She was tensing up against the wall, preparing to push off across the space, so I stopped goggling at the massive hunks of stone slowly rotating in open space and tripped my own attack.

The idea was simple enough. I was going to play on my strengths, and the lack of gravity actually helped things. First, I cast an illusion that made visual copies of myself randomly spaced in the area around the door, ten of them in fact. Then I triggered a more complicated illusion that faded me out of the picture. It wasn’t quite invisibility, but more like a shield that projected what was behind me. It was good enough to fool the full spectrum, so unless they had some other means of detecting me, I would be nearly impossible to track. Next was the scary part. What I wanted was to fly straight across the arena like an arrow, using another spell to buffer me at the other side so that I stopped suddenly but safely right between the two girls. There was only a four foot gap between them, and the floating rocks made the timing critical. If I miscalculated and clipped one at high speed, I’d reach the far side with a broken arm, or worse.

I was watching the gently rotating stones, hoping that our opponents stayed put until there was a clear path. I knew they were probably considering their options, and were almost certainly setting up defenses of their own, but it couldn’t be helped. My wait wasn’t more than a few seconds, but each one seemed like an eternity as I tracked the trajectories of the massive obstacles quietly rotating around the large room. Finally, I could see there would be a brief clearing and started gathering my “spring”. It would be tight, but I would fit if I really sat on the gas.

<CRACK!>

The air around me shattered as I finally let loose and launched across the arena like a bolt of lightning. I flipped and rolled once I was past the floating stone, so that I whooshed into a soft cocoon of force at the far wall facing back the way I had come. I was now smack between the two females who were each now about three feet away. I slapped my hands out at once, sending out the next part of my attack, and the girl on my right made a soft gasp and was still – very still since I had basically frozen her whole form in a layer of invisible force. It was like dropping a sheet over her which then turned to solid steel, and it worked flawlessly save for the fact that I should have heard two gasps.

There was a hard thud just to side of my head and I involuntarily ducked. The girl was cursing as she prepped a spell to take down the shield that my glyph had thrown up. I, on the other hand, already had my spell ready, and it would have worked too… If I hadn’t found myself suddenly a little distracted. Penelope, apparently, wasn’t the only one who could build traps.

I panicked. I still had very clear memories of my last experience with the magical creations, and when I suddenly couldn’t move my arms and legs, my training took a back seat to fear. Unlike the one in Rachael’s classroom, this beast was completely invisible to me. I could feel the powerful tendrils of force wrapping around my body, but their appearance was left to my imagination. However, I didn’t need to guess what their intentions for me were. Already, only seconds from their initial attack, several thinner tentacles were sliding up under my shirt and down into my pants. It seemed that I launched across the arena and flipped over right into the center of the magical construct, which, unless I did something fast, was going to start diddling me into distraction any moment.

There was a flash to my left as the Fifth who was still free disrupted the force barrier from my glyph. When she saw that I was still standing against the wall with my arms out she stopped and then actually laughed.

“Oh, this is too easy…” she chortled and then began a series of motions which I recognized as an attack sequence. The slick fingers of the trap were curling around my breasts, covering my already hard nipples, and dipping down into my apex while my thighs were slowly drawn apart. The invisible tendrils were buzzing almost electrically as they slid through my folds and curled right into my flower. It was like someone had just slipped a half dozen vibrating dildos into my sex, and I gasped in shock and arousal.

I was still focusing on the girl, or I would have missed it as Michelle hit the Fifth from behind, canceling the spell she was about to cast, and stunning her. She tried to fight back, but it was over in seconds. Three quick cracks left her floating unconscious.

Normally, the match would have been over since both opponents were incapacitated, but for some reason the room stayed unfrozen, which, with the red light would have signaled a victory for us. As the construct continued to work me toward a rapidly approaching orgasm, I suddenly understood. There was still magic at play. If Shell were to be captured by the trap as well, then the match would be a draw.

“BACK! Ughnnn… ummmm… Stay b-back! UGHNN! Ugh, ugh.. AH! TR-TRAP!”

Michelle looked confused for a second, then her eyes went wide. She also blushed to her toes. “What… What do I do!?”

It was getting really hard to concentrate, and I knew that if I came, it would be over. There was no way I’d be able to focus through an unceasing series of orgasms.

“C-C-Counter spell… ughnnn! The one… ummmm… UGH!… that Rachael… UGHHH!… gave us! AHH! AHH! Oh god, UGHHHH! AHH! AHHHH! AHHHH!!!”

A few more smaller tendrils had found my clitoris and it took all of two seconds to push me over the top and into ecstasy. I thrashed and bucked against the suddenly overwhelming pleasure that burst up from my hips, but was lost to the world as my body was ravaged mercilessly and without pause. I never even came down from my first moment before I was screaming into my next orgasm, and then again, and again, and again.

And suddenly, almost painfully, the pleasure was gone. It was as though someone had simply flicked a switch and my phantom lover turned back to vapor, leaving my trembling and twitching body floating weightless. Michelle was at my side almost at once.

“RAN! Ran! Are you okay?! Come on, girl…”

“You did it,” I said weakly, my eyes looking up at her in a dreamy, half lidded state.

She saw that I was alright and let out a deep breath. “Fuck, you had me worried there. I… I couldn’t tell right away if you were screaming in pleasure or pain.”

“Ugnnnn…” I moaned. “Definitely pleasure.”

The room went red.

——–

We were dropping like flies. It certainly wasn’t unexpected, but it still hurt. One by one, our pairings were disappearing from the ranks of the leader board. Some came back to the Great Hall looking dejected, even bruised. Others went straight to the Healer’s Wing. While the injuries were getting more common, I did notice that those that remained had an almost radiant look on their faces, as though nothing could shatter the feeling of accomplishment that they, mere First’s, not even official members of the Fae, had survived to the finals in the arena. By end of day, we had been whittled down to only ten. Other than Michelle and myself, there was our leader Petra and her partner Maria; who had turned out to be a deadly combination of flying and tactical ground skills. I somewhat expected Candice would stick it out somehow, and Shawn had shown to be a powerful combat specialist, though I suspected that he was getting more than a little help from my roommate. Candice was probably the most creative thinker in our group, so I’m sure she was coming up with a few really great surprises for our older classmates. I was more than a little worried to see Douglas and Brian still in the running. I didn’t know what I would do if they ended up in the Healer’s Wing. Somehow, his little secret weapon was keeping the pair around. But perhaps the biggest surprise was Penelope Fairchild and Jenifer Dealt.

I was just as curious as the rest of our group as we listened to how they had crushed a pair of third year girls in their last match. Our Trap Master was getting extremely proficient at laying down her little minions on the fly, and explained that she basically ran around the arena flinging out mines that completely ignored her partner while playing havoc with anyone else. In short, their opponents spent so much time just freeing themselves and watching where they put their feet, that it let Jennifer turn on the heat in the form of a tricky curved attack that she could literally throw around an opponent’s shielding. It was a really advanced maneuver that seemed similar to something we had seen Chris Allarez do in a demonstration against Ananha. It was especially effective because no one expected her to be able to do it.

It was also apparent that our Glyphs were now fully engaged in our matches and helping out in unprecedented ways. Petra described one instance where what she thought was going to be a sure hit by a quick series of incoming bright spell balls was “eaten up” by her glyph.

“Chomp, chomp, chomp!” she illustrated, making munching motions with her hands amid a chorus of laughter. “Boy, were they surprised, but not half as much as I was!”

I smiled, wondering at the little glowing intricacy floating a few feet above her head. They had really evolved nicely during the matches; much more than I could have hoped.

And then I saw something that I would have missed had I not been staring at the construct at that very moment. A tiny ball of light zipped out away from the hovering glyph and streaked across the room to be intercepted by Bridgett Mercy’s counterpart. The other construct seemed to shimmer differently for several seconds, then sent a pinpoint of light streaking back. This was different than the connection that the glyphs seemed to make after each new match. I must have had my mouth open, because Michelle commented next to me.

“Ran?”

“They’re communicating,” I said watching the whole group now. Sure enough, I saw several other glowing pinpoints dash above our heads.

“Your glyphs?”

I nodded slowly.

My partner frowned. “Aren’t they supposed to? To update or something?”

“This isn’t updating. This is like… casual conversation.”

“Huh? You mean like jokes?”

I giggled. “Maybe. Who knows.”

Michelle stared at the air above my head as though trying to see my glyph. She could see her own of course, but none of the others. Even I was having trouble seeing all of them now, as though the spells were no longer my own. Perhaps they had changed so much that they no longer were. Another thing that struck me was that they were not all the same. There were subtle differences between them, as though they had become individualized to those they served.

“Is this a bad thing,” she asked tentatively.

I thought about it. “I suppose it could be a virus or some kind of corruption… but I don’t think so. Even I don’t know enough about their current construction to do something like that, so I don’t see how someone else could.

We were interrupted by another wave of laughter from those nearest Petra, who was walking around imitating a large-mouthed monster, much to the delight of those she attacked. Valerie stood up and pretended to hold some form of mystical cross when the girl came towards her.

“Back foul bane!” she said in mock seriousness. “Back to the hell from whence you came!” Petra feigned sudden pain and crumpled to the ground amid hysterical cries of mirth. The levity was just what out group needed, and I smiled. With the games over for the day, people were finally relaxing. We could worry about the final matches tomorrow. For now, it was time to celebrate our victories and console our losses. Shell and I sat a bit to the side and watched our band of outcasts as they laughed and drank and threw cat calls to the solemn looking and mostly quiet tables below. There were a few responses, but they were quickly stared-down by others and silenced. It was obvious that the other grades were seething with rage at having ANY first-year students in the finals, let alone ten. Tomorrow was sure to be interesting.

“Here’s to us, the Rooftop Club!” Called Maria Gonzales, lifting a glass of some mildly alcoholic beverage. Neither Michelle nor I was interested in getting drunk that night, so we simply raised the cups of juice we were nursing.

“You know,” answered Petra. “We need to call ourselves something more… intimidating. ‘The Rooftop Club’ sounds like a band of children.”

“How about, ‘The Fighting Firsts!’,” replied Christine Appleby.

“Too corny,” said Petra making a face.

“‘Death from Above’?” asked Nina Walker. There were laughs all around and the girl blushed.

“No… Maybe something a little more serious,” continued our leader.

“‘Badb Catha’,” I heard myself say without emotion. Suddenly every single first in our group was looking at me in silence. “It means, ‘battle raven’. Badb was a faerie Principality who many considered to be a ‘goddess of war’. She often entered the field of battle in the disguise of a carrion-crow and befuddled her enemies with powerful magic.” I held my composure, and prayed that no one else noticed that I was slightly shaking. The words weren’t mine.

I felt Michelle’s hand on my arm.

“It’s perfect!” answered Petra almost at once. “What do you think, my friends?”

There was a quick consensus and the girl continued, “Today, we are no longer known as the Rooftop Club. From now on, we are Badb Catha!” She raised her glass to the immediate cheers of those around her.

“You okay, Ran?” asked my combat partner.

I nodded quickly, not wanting to draw attention to myself.

“Was that your gran?” she asked simply.

I turned to meet her eyes and nodded more slowly. I saw her nostrils flair as she let her breath out slowly.

“Impressive,” said Douglas coming to my side a few moments later. “That’s not a generally known tale. I wonder where you picked that up, hmm?”

The last thing I wanted right then was to try and make up a lie, so I tried diversion.

“Take me out of here,” I said to him, my eyes entreating. “Tomorrow is sure to be a whirlwind of stress and pain, so take me tonight and make love to me. Help me forget this whole combat thing for just a little while, please?”

I could tell that he would have preferred to stay a bit longer and revel with the others, but he smiled.

“As the lady wishes,” he replied helping me up. I squeezed Michelle’s hand and then quietly excused myself, saying good night to a few on the way. I suspected that Michelle followed us out. I’m sure she had enough reasons of her own, but I also considered that she wanted to be certain we made it safely to Douglas’ dorm room. If she did escort us, she did it discretely enough that we never saw her, and we arrived without incident. Douglas made good on my request and was gentle and exceedingly patient. He allowed me to sit embraced in his lap, his manhood within me, as we very slowly rocked together. We never spoke, and in the end I think my final cry and shudder of passion surprised him. It certainly surprised me. After, we just rolled over and drifted into a happy slumber, the day, and the future, forgotten.