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

Chapter 6 – Baths and Brassieres

Once we got past the idea of walking through a solid glass mirror, the bath area was a massive collection of individual caves, and the carved pools of steaming water did look inviting. Everything was illuminated by a soft amber light that came from four-inch circles etched in the ceiling and walls. I had seen too much that couldn’t be explained by science to worry about the how and whys within the Iron Mountain. All of the academy was actually deep underground, but the masterful work of the original builders made the place seem quite a bit more cozy than a number of office buildings I had visited, and they had windows.

The bathing caves were much more raw, with bare, uncut rock along many walls. But the pools themselves had rounded edges and polished bottoms that looked as smooth as any fiberglass job I had ever seen topside. We also seemed to have run of the place. Either there weren’t any upper-class students making use of the baths, or we were the only ones who had figured out the mirror illusion. I somehow doubted that.

One thing that caused me to raise an eyebrow were the decorations. At certain points around most of the pools, were detailed carvings of figures laid into the walls. They seemed to be used the same way we used a border of wallpaper around the top of a room as an accent, only the subject matter of these carvings would probably only be found in a bordello.

I caught Candice eyeing the art as well.

“Pretty damn erotic, if you ask me,” she said, taking a closer look at a row of art set about halfway up the wall of one room. The inset work went all the way around the perimeter of the steamy room, and was composed of figures, human and Fae, in various sexual positions. The carving was amazingly detailed, and I found myself a bit shocked by the graphic display. I was also getting just a wee bit horny. It had been a while since my last boyfriend, and even then, sex was something that I was terribly inexperienced with. It didn’t help that I now had roommates and it was difficult to even resort to manual stimulation without them knowing.

Candice pointed out how the hot water entered the pool from a slightly raised hole in one wall and exited out a similar hole at the other side, basically keeping the water clean and fresh. I wasn’t really paying attention. I was staring at the wisps of steam slowly rising from the clear water when I made a decision. Reaching for the bottom of my t-shirt, I lifted the garment up over my head and tossed it with my towel to a bench-like shelf that circled the pool.

“Um, I guess this means we’re going swimming…” said Candice, who followed suit a few moments later. I ditched the rest of my clothes and poked my foot into the dark stone bath. It was just the right temperature for soaking. Letting my body drop into the water as well, I sighed, feeling the tension of the day easing out of my muscles in seconds. The water itself had a slightly fragrant scent to it, like jasmine or honeysuckle, and was quite soft from the minerals in the caves. I had a brief moment of panic when I couldn’t find the floor of the pool, but it turned out to be chin deep at the center only, which was where I was standing. The rest of the four by four meter bath was randomly leveled with seats and other flat spaces, some as shallow as a foot.

“Oh, god that feels great…” sighed Candice settling into the water herself. “Don’t let me fall asleep, okay?”

“Could you?” I asked, surprised.

“Oh yeah. No problem,” she replied, leaning back and floating. The braids of her hair stretched out like alien tentacles in the gentle current of the slowly moving water, and her large breasts looked almost like stepping-stones as they flattened and floated buoyantly. I couldn’t help but notice that her nipples were about like my own… hard to the point of pain. It seemed that Candice was just as aroused by the decorations as I was.

“You know,” she said, softly, as she floated. “I could get used to this. I mean, I wasn’t so hot on the dorms when we first got here, but if I can have a bath like this every night, I might just find it tolerable.”

I agreed, and dropped below the surface to let my hair soak a bit. We spent half an hour relaxing in the warm water, and I even got up the nerve to shampoo my hair. There’s nothing quite like rinsing clean your lid in fresh spring water. I happily dunked and washed until I was starting to feel somewhat waterlogged, so I took one more breath and spent nearly a minute at the bottom of the pool meditating. When I came back up, Candice was staring out into a passage.

“What’s wrong,” I asked immediately.

She waited a moment then spoke in a whisper. “Listen…”

I did, and after a few seconds, I heard what she did. It was a very soft moaning or possibly grunting, and given the fact that we were alone in a strange, dimly lit cave, I suddenly found I had goosebumps covering my shoulders.

“What is that?” I asked quietly.

Candice started to get out of the pool. “I don’t know, but I know an adventure when I hear one. Let’s go.”

“Are you serious?” I stepped out of the bath and wrapped my towel around my naked body. Candice had done the same. I thought about quickly pulling on my clothes, but the place was steamy with heat. I also didn’t relish the idea of climbing back into my smelly garments, when fresh ones were five minutes away. Leaving our soap and discarded clothing, we tip-toed out of our own pool area and into the connecting passage. We passed several other pools as we slowly tracked the source of the sound, and had to backtrack more than once when we were fooled by the echoing within the caves. Finally, the volume and clarity of the noises picked up dramatically just as we were approaching another bathing room. Without the echo, I suddenly recognized what I was hearing, and I think Candice did too because her face was abruptly beet red.

“Oh…” I whispered, stopping in my tracks.

Candice peered around the corner into the room and I saw her mouth drop open. A moment later, she was motioning me to come over and look.

Maybe I’m a voyeur, or maybe I was just incredibly horny right about then, but I snuck over and crouched down so that I too could peer around the edge of the doorway.

Now, I’m a pretty liberated girl. Sex wasn’t something that frightened me, and I had enough experience not to be too shocked by things like romantic scenes in movies, or a topless bar. But seeing actors pretend to have sex while sitting in a darkened theater, and actually viewing a couple go at it live, are two very different animals, especially if they are unaware that they are being watched. These two wouldn’t have noticed us had we just walked straight into the room and waved.

The girl was seated in her lover’s lap with her back mostly to us. Her boyfriend was chest deep in the pool, and was rhythmically drawing her hips forward and back with obvious results. Both of them were completely caught up in their slowly mounting pleasure, and were making all the grunts and moans that had attracted us in the first place. I crouched there, still dripping, my face flushed with a soft throbbing rush of blood. And that’s not all that was throbbing…

I glanced up at Candice and saw her snicker when she caught my eye. I also noticed that her nipples were clear bumps in the towel around her. I’m sure mine were just as visible, but it hardly mattered. We watched the couple shamelessly for another few minutes, and only broke away after the woman started gasping loudly and arched her whole body back as she had an orgasm that looked like it would knock her unconscious. We could still hear her echoing cries as we giggled and scurried back to our clothes and then our dorm room.

“Oh man, that was great!” Exclaimed Candice as she threw on her nightgown and flopped on her bed.

I sighed, more frustrated than ever. “Yeah, but now how am I supposed to concentrate in our Sexual Arts class? Damn, some girls have all the luck…”

She giggled. “I guess she did look pretty lucky… So why don’t you sneak Douglas into those caves some night?”

I was so surprised by her comment that I rolled to my side and stared at her from my own bed with my mouth wide.

“Oh, come on, Miranda! You can’t have possibly missed the way he paws over you…” She must have seen the blank look on my face. “Oh my god, you have missed it. Well, shit girl, I have a news-flash for you. That rather nice looking boy seriously wants your bod.”

“Come on, Candice. Sure, he likes me, but as a friend, not a lover.”

“Yeah? Well you just be sure to pay attention to the way he looks at you the next time we all get together. Even with these distractors,” she said, holding her breasts through the gown, “it’s you that gets his eye.”

I sighed and rolled to my back as I tried to remember what she was talking about and found that I couldn’t. I kept getting sidetracked by images of the couple in the pool. It was pretty easy to see myself sitting on Douglas’ lap in that water, and I groaned in frustration. It was going to be a very long semester unless I broke through my social isolation issues and got myself a date.

It didn’t help that over the next week, the students finally loosened up and started dressing in ways that Rachael had warned us about. It was one thing to see your Sexual Arts teacher in the buff, but it was quite another to have your head snap around in disbelief as a student walks by topless. Most of the faeries we saw started wearing less and less, until it was almost odd to find one with more than a loose wrap around her waist.

“In the Fae, nudity is the rule, not the exception,” explained Rachael one afternoon, while she sat on the edge of her desk without a single article of clothing to hide her form. “You need get used to it, and I highly encourage those brave enough to even join in as you seem comfortable.”

“Are you saying we should come to class naked?” asked a nervous-looking girl in a pink sweater.

“Not at all,” answered the nymph. “But you should feel comfortable enough with skin that you can strip down when it becomes appropriate. As a rule, never wear more than your host… Current host excepted,” she added, smiling.

“Oh, stars,” moaned Douglas leaning back into his chair. “As if all the flesh in this class isn’t distracting enough…” Rachael stood and walked over before him. I could see him swallow nervously as she looked down at him while she assumed the classic female pose.

“Why is that, Mr. McBride? Are you not distracted by the clothed females in this room?”

I saw him pause, and then glance briefly in my direction without making eye contact. “Uh, well sure. I guess so.”

“Don’t guess,” she replied seriously. “It’s very important to know when you are being influenced or aroused. Awareness of one’s self makes it possible to become confident in one’s self and to defend against possible hostile charms. I will tell you a secret,” she continued to the whole class. “A fully clothed woman is far more erotic than one entirely nude. Why is that… Candice?” She turned on her heels to face the girl.

Of our foursome, Candice seemed to be the least bothered by the increase in skin around the halls, so it was no surprise to me that she didn’t seem flustered by the directed question. She simply paused for a moment, considering her words.

“Because a female without clothing leaves nothing to the imagination,” she answered calmly.

Her answer seemed to please the nymph, who nodded and continued. “In the Fae, clothing can conceal anything from weapons to charms, even marks of power. It is generally considered dangerous to put your trust in a Fae entity with anything to hide. But in the human world, concealment is mystery, and mystery is erotic. Garments are designed to expose, while still leaving enough hidden to uphold the mystery… of delights just out of view. The trick for you all, will be learning how to meld the two worlds. Speaking of hostile charms, let us begin by reviewing the spell needed to protect yourself from the gaze of a Nymph. Would anyone care to give it a try?… Shawn, excellent…”

As soon as the Nymph had turned us loose on a new project which involved a unique form of visible charm, two girls on the couch directly behind the one Candice and I were seated on started whispering and giggling. When they noticed we were listening, they spoke just loud enough to be sure to be heard, and with an artificial air of seriousness.

“Miss Mellons sure doesn’t leave much to the imagination,” said one girl, intentionally mispronouncing Candice’s last name.

“Oh, you mean the Swiss-Miss Cocoa girl? Hey, at least she always has a shelf for her glasses.” The pair continued to tease Candice in this way until I saw that my friend was staring down into her lap instead of working on her project. I felt a heat of anger wash up from my belly, and before I realized what I was doing, I stood up and faced the two girls behind us.

“Póg mo thoin ar bhéilín meala gcreime!” I blurted out at them, my face a bristling red. A moment later I heard a checked guffaw from the center of the room behind me. Rachael had heard my insult and reacted instantly, the two girls, however, were completely clueless and sat there looking as though I was out of my mind. The red-faced anger I felt was quickly turning to embarrassment.

“What did you just say to me?” asked the thinner of the two girls, squinting. I remembered her name to be Shaina.

Professor Rachael intercepted me. “Oh, yes, Miranda. I do think you should share that one with the whole class.”

I stayed calm, but not by much. The professor didn’t sound angry, though I knew she didn’t always express her emotions the same way humans did, so there was a building nervousness in my stomach. I decided that if I was going to get in trouble for defending my friend, then I should go all-out, as it were.

Straightening up, I said, “It means, ‘Kiss my ass, you honey-mouthed infectious disease!” At that point, the entire class burst out laughing. The entire class save for the two girls, that is. When things had quieted down, Shaina turned to the smiling nymph.

“Are you going to do nothing about this insult!?”

The professor became serious after a second and leaned forward. “I certainly am… Miranda, it’s not ‘mo thoin’, it’s ‘ma thoin’…”

She was unable to finish however when the class went ballistic all over again. I knew I had better watch my back when those two were around after that. Later, I talked to Candice while we worked on our projects together.

“I can’t believe you let those two get to you like that.”

She frowned. “I know. It’s just that I’ve been teased about this body of mine for so long that I automatically fall apart.”

“You have power, Candice, especially here. We’ve only been at the academy a little over a week, and people are saying you’re one of the best spellcrafters they’ve seen yet. You could run circles around those two magically.”

“But that’s just it, Miranda. I’m afraid to use what I’ve learned because I don’t trust myself. What if I did something that hurt one of them, or worse. I have the power, but I don’t trust my control yet.”

I thought about this, and didn’t have an immediate response. It sounded a bit too much like my own life.

“Where in the world did you get that insult,” asked Candice. “What was that, Gaelic?”

I blushed. “Yeah… Just something I picked up in the halls,” I half lied. I really had picked it up in the halls, and at meals, but how was I supposed to tell her that it was almost the whole language I had picked up while listening to the staff. In a way, I knew that my brains would eventually get me into as much trouble as her breasts. The difference was that I could keep my brain hidden. As if karma was mocking me, my trouble started later that same class.

Our project involved experimenting with a special type of charm that was actually visible to the normal human eye. After having been given what amounted to a pre-compiled version of the charm, we were able to draw symbols and two-dimensional glyphs on our own skin to create various actions and sensations. It was pretty cool, and fifteen minutes after we started, most of the class was giggling and covered from head to toe in faintly glowing blue lines. The problem began when I couldn’t get a certain configuration of lines and symbols to do what I wanted them to, so I absent-mindedly decompiled the original charm to see how it worked. Once I understood its basic construction, I made my own version of the charm and set to work drawing on myself again. The new lines were much stronger than the old ones, and after a few failed attempts, I was finally able to put together my problem configuration.

I had managed to get the web of lines I had drawn around my hand to create a ‘float’ field of sorts and was sitting on the floor, happily hovering one of my books about a foot over my palm when I noticed that the class had gone deathly quiet. I looked up and saw that Candice was staring at me with her mouth open. So was Michelle. Douglas and the rest of the room looked on with expressions ranging from mild surprise to fearful awe. Rachael was standing at my left shoulder.

“Miss Summers,” she said with a furrowed brow. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“I… I couldn’t get my configuration to work, so… so…”

She cut me off. “So you just decided to reconfigure the charm yourself. Do you have any idea of the dangers involved with this form of magic? You could have done serious damage to yourself and the others in this class.” She sighed, obviously unsure how to deal with the situation.

Rachael looked up at her students, and I saw Shaina and company smirking with glee at my embarrassment. “The rest of you should go on to your next class. You’re late.” I realized that I had totally lost track of time.

Most of the students filed out, but Douglas, Michelle and Candice stopped by the exit and waited. When Rachael saw them, she sighed again and asked Douglas to close the door, leaving the five of us alone.

I spoke first. “Professor, I didn’t adjust the charm’s configuration…”

“No, you didn’t,” she replied, surprising me. “You rewrote the charm itself and then re-executed it.”

I was stunned. She had known, yet she deliberately told the group otherwise. “Why did you lecture me on charm safety in front of the whole class,” I asked, getting angry for the second time that hour. “I was perfectly safe the whole time. That spell was mine, and I had complete control over it.”

“Yes,” she said tersely. “And what would have happened if I explained to the class that you were doing something that you shouldn’t have been able to do until at least your fourth semester here, hmm?”

I was visibly taken aback. She went on.

“Let me tell you what would have happened. It would have created a permanent barrier between you and the other students. Your abilities would have made you an outcast, and I doubt that anyone save for your three friends here would ever have talked to you again except in silent ridicule or hatred for making them look inferior.”

“But I didn’t do anything to them!” I was nearly in tears.

“It doesn’t matter. Your very presence would remind them that they are second rate compared to you, and in their eyes, that’s unforgivable.”

“Stop it!” Cried Michelle, stepping forward. Her hands were balled into fists and I had the distinct impression that if it came down to it, she would have tried to stand her ground against the Fae woman. Rachael gave her a single unchallenging look and then turned back to me.

“You know I’m right, Miranda. So instead of exposing you, I let them think that you were fallible. I lied to them so that they would only ridicule you as any other student here, and not as someone who could possibly upset the balance of power within the Fae…”

When I looked to the nymph, who was crouched next to me, I saw only seriousness and compassion in her grey eyes. Her words rattled around in my brain, and in the background, I heard Michelle say, “I knew it…”

A deep sorrow came over me, and tears formed in the corners of my eyes. “But I don’t want to be that important! I just want to be like everyone else!” The emotions finally broke through, and I covered my face with my hands, sobbing.

The professor was silent for a minute, as were the other three, letting me have my moment. When I was reasonably composed again, Rachael placed a hand on my shoulder.

“You are going to have to face this sooner or later, Miranda. I’ve bought you some time. That’s all. Eventually, who you are is going to catch up with how other people see you. For the record, I was serious when I said that you should not be able to work visible spells yet. I’m not sure what it means, but as your mentor, I urge you to practice and build that ability in private. Keep it to yourself and use it with caution. Once you let others know you have the ability to write with the Hand of Power, there will be no going back. Do you understand?”

I nodded and sighed. My life had taken yet another path of added complexity.

“I’ll prepare an advanced selection of course study to help you with this new ability of yours, and I encourage your friends here to keep their mouths shut.” She captured each student’s eyes momentarily before giving me a smile. “It’s going to be alright, Miranda. You’ll see. Having strong magic at your disposal is sobering, but it can also be a hell of a lot of fun.”

At the time, I thought the nymph was out of her Fae mind, but two days later, Candice and I discovered that having advanced magic really did open a lot of possibilities. We were lounging around after our class with Professor Brightly, and generally trying to do nothing, or at the very least goof-off a bit. The mysterious place known simply as “The Market” was all the buzz, and we were trying to schedule a time to join the rest of the adventurous students and make a day of it. The problem was, our “free” days were always filled with some other form of extra-curricular activity. For the coming week, it was combat training.

“So are you going to accept Michelle’s request to be her combat Lèir?” She was staring down at the polish she was carefully applying to her toenails as she sat on her bed in her nightgown. I sighed and leaned back against the wall, in my own bed.

“I think so,” I commented, not sounding very sure of myself. “To be honest, the whole idea of magical combat scares the hell out of me.”

“All the more reason to jump in head first,” said Candice without looking up. “Dramia told me that the combat matches are for more than just friendly recreation. She hinted that the reason magical and non-magical combat is mandatory at the academy is that Unseelie forces are taking an active interest in what’s going on here now.”

I shivered just a bit at the mention of the other Fae court.

“So maybe somebody like Michelle is good to have around as a friend,” she added. “She certainly has advanced well.”

Candice was right. The tall redhead had advanced through her chosen course path with all the ease of breathing, and was already almost a full semester ahead of any other first-year in her standings. The only thing that seemed to be holding the girl back was her difficulties in the more general arts. She was barely managing history, and Mathematics was kicking her ass. If she wasn’t able to improve, the mandatory class might actually end up defeating her in the games before she even had a chance to compete. Even though the games were set up in such a way that the students rarely got hurt beyond bruises and scratches, it still made the bottom of my stomach feel like I had eaten bad oatmeal. I tried a different tact to change the subject.

“So how about you,” I asked. “You’re halfway to your guild entrance exams already. Anyone tapping your shoulder for a possible pairing?” I knew for a fact that a half dozen students had indeed come to her about it, including one boy who looked like he was carved right out of greek mythology. Not that being a male in the games was any advantage. The winners of the coveted Dòrn Lèir Cup for the last four semesters had all been females. The male competitors, teamed or otherwise, hadn’t even placed.

The girl smiled. “A few,” she answered coyly. “But I’m waiting just a bit longer to see what else shows up.”

“Uh huh,” I replied sarcastically. “As long as what shows up has black hair, a cute ass, and a last name of ‘Hems’…”

Candice raised her head sharply at the mention of the fellow Sexual Arts student. Being one of only four males in the class, I was perhaps jealous that he and Candice were becoming a bit more than “study partners” lately.

From the look on her face, I knew that I had hit the nail in the head. “That’s what I thought,” I replied, bringing up my MOS to check the ‘homework’ that Rachael had given me. Professor Brightly, and even a third entity, whose name I was not aware of, had added to and expanded the new tasks I was to attempt until I was beginning to think that I should just tell them to make it a new class altogether. It was certainly taking up every free minute I had, to be sure. Candice was blushing, and smiling.

“Okay… Just because he and I are… interested… in each other, doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t make a great partner in the combat games.”

I smiled over at her. “Or a great partner in other sorts of games too…”

The girl coughed at my brazen insinuation, but did not refute it, I noticed. Then she sighed and drooped her shoulders.

“Who am I kidding,” she said with exasperation. “Can you see me jumping around the arena? I’d have to bind my breasts to my chest just to keep them from knocking myself out. Shawn isn’t going to want me as a serious partner.”

Something occurred to me, and I jumped on it.

“You need to place in the games in order to get into the Troggeyder guild, don’t you?”

Her face looked suddenly stricken. “Miranda, what am I going to do?! Have you ever seen me in Combat Training? I’m like a wounded cow!”

“Don’t they have sports bras to deal with that sort of problem?” I was trying to look genuinely sorry for the girl, and in a way I was. My own chest was reasonably curvy, but not so much that it got in the way or anything. Candice on the other hand was cursed (or blessed, depending) with breasts that would make doing advanced moves like somersaults and twirls into painful and unpredictable lessons in futility.

“I’ve tried,” she moaned. “What I need is something that can hold these monsters back, and not cut off my air circulation at the same time.” She looked up from her toenails and saw that I was carefully drawing a web of lines around my hand for one of my homework problems.

With a smirk, she said, “maybe you could just draw one on with your Hand of Power.”

It took a second for her words to sink in, but when they did, I was so startled that I totally lost concentration and the softly glowing lines of light around my limb fell away to nothing. “That’s a brilliant idea!” I exclaimed, staring at her.

“What? Are you serious?”

I hopped off my bed and came over to join her on the edge of hers. “Hell yes! Candice, it’s a perfect use for all this high-end crap that they have me learning. I’m sick to death of making useless constructs to appease my professors. A magical brassiere is just the ticket to give my brain a chance to unwind a bit. Come on, what do you say?” I gave her my best puppy-dog look.

She looked at me and swallowed. “Will it hurt?”

Ten minutes later, we were sitting on her bed, giggling like third-graders.

“You have to hold still!” I admonished her as I tried again to draw a set of glowing symbols on her bare chest as she held her hands over her head. It was a bit embarrassing at first, but once I realized that it didn’t seem to bother her, I found it quite exciting to work on something so practical, and didn’t mind the fact that I was basically doing semi-arousing things to a member of the same sex. I couldn’t help but be arousing. I mean, after all, I was lightly caressing her from her nipples all the way around to the center of her back. By our third attempt, I was beginning to think that I was going to have to sedate the girl first.

“I’m trying, I’m trying!” she laughed at me.

Finally, I was able to lock down a first draft of our combined efforts, and stepped back to get a better look.

“Now why was it again that you didn’t try this on yourself first,” asked the girl, grinning.

I took a few notes on changes I would make in the next version, and crossed my arms. “Because, ‘A’… There’s no way for me to see what I’m doing if I use myself as the model, and, ‘B’… I don’t have half the pair of knockers that you do.”

She laughed, then looked down at herself, the strange web of lines shifting and adjusting with even the slightest movement of her body within. “So how does this thing work? It occurs to me that it might not be so fashionable unless you wore it with some pretty heavy clothing.”

I saw that she was talking about the fact that the glowing lines would show through all but the most opaque outfits. Not too hot for a bra. I made another notation.

“Not a problem. The lines don’t actually have to be visible. At least not after it’s completed. Okay, what I want you to do is take your finger and pretend to draw a small triangle on your sternum, point up.”

Candice did so, and almost at once a strange look came over her face. “Whoa! Something’s different!”

“Yup,” I nodded. “The spell is now in a change mode. Go ahead and adjust your, um, shape… until it suits you.”

With only a moment of hesitation, the girl reached her hands over the large mounds of her bosom and gently kneaded them into various forms of cleavage. Whatever position she pushed the flesh, it stayed that way, as if it were pliable clay. “Oh, this is so cool! It’s like a wonderbra, without the bra!”

I chuckled, and took a few more notes. “Pretty neat, yes? But the best part is still coming. Got a shape you like?”

She nodded happily and pushed her chest forward. “This one will have Shawn drooling. Only… What if somebody bonks me with an elbow or something?”

I was waiting for this, and smiled. “No problem. Take your finger, and draw another triangle, point down this time.” I waited while she did so, and then my grin deepened as I watched her expression go from playful glee to confused awe.

“Oh my god…” she muttered, leaning back a bit. “What just happened?”

“It’s now ‘set’, and as far as form goes, will react much the same way a normal bra would. If you get bumped, you’ll just return to the set shape. But I made this thing with you in mind, remember? Mass inertia was a factor, so… I removed the mass. No more counterweights.”

“Holy shit! This is awesome!” Candice was leaning back and forth and twisting sharply from side to side. It was quite a sight, the way her breasts kept their shape regardless of how she moved, and I beamed with pride at my creation. My partner in crime couldn’t be happier. She was nearly in tears as she bounced up and down on her bed, watching her own chest. “How long does the effect last?” she asked, suddenly stopping and catching my eyes with seriousness.

“Well…” I replied, my eyebrows raising. “The charm should be semi-permanent, in that it won’t fade until you dispel it. But I wouldn’t keep it on more than twenty-four hours, or your body might start to get confused. It will disappear the moment you cancel it, but now that I know how to do it, making another one should be a lot easier. By the way, you can end the spell by drawing three circles on your sternum.”

“Oh! Not yet, please?!”

I laughed. “Okay, okay… But I want to do one more version with some of these changes put in. Looking at you like that has made me realize that we need another control. Zeroing-out all mass at your chest just doesn’t look… real. We have to put in SOME bounce or it looks like your mammaries are made of papier-mâché.”

“I just wish it was easier to execute,” commented Candice. She was still staring down at herself with glee. “I mean, you’re going to get tired of doodling on my tits, because I’m going to want this puppy on ALL the time!”

“Hmmm… I think I might have a solution for that too,” I answered, scratching my chin.

We were up so late that we almost missed our first class the next morning. Michelle had to literally shake us awake, and then personally hand us each a cup of coffee before she felt certain that we wouldn’t just tip over and fall back to sleep. Once I had some caffeine in my blood, I felt just about able to face the day. I was also brimming over with the satisfaction of having produced my very first practical and permanent enchantment. I let Candice take the inconspicuous leather-strung bobble with her, since I couldn’t really make use of it the way she could, but I knew it wouldn’t be hard to make another should I want to.

Once we had a way to adjust the mass, removing the lines and fine-tuning the design was a piece of cake. The last task was to cast the spell into permanency, and some recent study I had been doing in my Enchantments class helped tremendously in that regard. We picked the simple blue stone on a string because it was handy, and wouldn’t be missed if I made a mistake and had to destroy the thing. But it all worked out on the first try, and Candice couldn’t have been happier. Now all she had to do was slip it over her head to set the charm in motion, and at night, slip it off again. It was easier than a real bra. The best part, she said, was that it didn’t even leave strap marks.

I had no idea how important this was to her until Sexual Arts class a day later. I came in and greeted Douglas and Michelle as I usually did, taking my seat with them at the front of the room. I formally accepted Michelle’s offer to partner with her in the games, and she let out a loud whoop.

“Yes! We are so going to kick-ass! I can’t wait to show you some of the advanced stuff they have me doing now. They’re even considering sending me with a couple of fourths to study with… with…” The girl was staring over my shoulder, her eyes growing wide.

My eyes went wide as well when I turned around. Just walking into the room was Candice. She was wearing a brown, ankle-length skirt with black trim and a thin black belt. She had on simple sandals, but both her big toes were adorned with rings. Her hair was still in pony-tails, but they were wrapped around her head like a crown, and then held at the back by a pair of ornate sticks. Beyond that, the only other things she had on were a number of bracelets and the small blue bauble necklace. In short, she was topless.

About half of the class gasped, and the other half whistled and cheered. Candice grinned with confidence and took her seat with us.

“Yo, girl, nice duds!” exclaimed Michelle. Douglas was at a loss for words, which might have been a first, and I was simply shaking my head and smiling so hard my cheeks hurt. The best part about it all was that Candice really did look stunning, and not just in an erotic way. I could tell that she had spent a while in front of our pretend mirror applying just the right amount of rouge to all the right places. I caught Shawn eyeing her appreciatively just as Rachael came into the room from the back entrance.

“Well now,” she said, nodding to Candice. “I was wondering who among you would be the first to show some courage, and it seems I have my answer.” The nymph took a moment to fully examine the girl’s work, then smiled. “You are both brave and talented, Candice. Well done.” I noticed that she was taking an extra look at the girl’s chest, and I started to sweat. Surely she would see the magic and understand where it had come from? A quick sidelong glance in my direction confirmed that she had, and I breathed again.

Well done, indeed,” she repeated. “See me after, Candice, so we may discuss it further. And as a reward for your courage, I would like to give you this silver coin,” which she produced out of thin air. It was quite a trick considering the fact that she was stark naked. “Its value in the human world is marginal, however, you may find that it can be exchanged much more favorably at The Market, should your courage extend so far.” She tossed the dull coin to Candice, who snagged it out of the air and bowed slightly. Behind her, I could see that Shaina and Berla where steaming. Not only were Candice’s mammary assets proving how beautiful she really was, but she was being rewarded for flaunting them.