Devilla
It would seem I had underestimated Lucy. Or her
endurance
, at the very least. Considering how quickly she'd tired out the night before, I'd expected her to want nothing more than a quick tryst in bed to start the day. Instead, I had to bring her to orgasm
three times
before she was satisfied - and she'd
still
seemed rather reluctant to let me go, in the end.
Not that I really minded, per se. It was obvious that she was seriously sex starved. Probably touch starved too, judging by how everyone seemed to treat her. In fact, I likely would have agreed to keep going, if not for the fact that I was rather overdue for a check-in at the tower. As it was, I had little choice but to beg her leave to depart the bed and inn alike, citing business elsewhere.
The details I could give were rather sparse, seeing as how words like 'demon tower' and 'angry maid' would have been a bit too close to the heart of my secrets, but Lucy didn't press me in the slightest. She'd only asked that I meet her back at the inn when I was done. A promise I was more than happy to give.
Thankfully, my trip to and from the tower would be a short one - at least, in theory. All I really needed to do was leave the city, head into the depths of the woods, far away from prying eyes, and pull out my portable teleportation circle. From there, I would focus on the disk, concentrating on the place I'd left its paired mate, and apply my arcane magic to travel instantly to the tower.
At least in theory.
Yes, in
theory.
Because in
reality,
the thrice damned thing wasn't working as it should! Which wasn't to say that it did nothing at all, mind you. Simply that it was doing something it shouldn't - specifically, the moment I fed it arcane energy, I felt it begin to pull hungrily at something
else
inside me: my holy magic.
It hadn't done that in the tower! There, the only requirements for using a teleportation circle was knowing where its mate was kept, and having been to that location at least once before. And yet now, out in the wider world, it was reaching for an entirely new energy source? What precisely did that mean
?
Was it a matter of distance? Did it need more energy than arcane magic could give, past a certain threshold? Or was arcane magic never enough to begin with? Did the tower, perhaps, somehow provide it with holy magic? That would mean that the tower itself had some of that energy at its disposal... A not entirely preposterous idea, considering how long the tower had stood for - I was fairly certain Luci herself had built the damn thing.
I wished I could experiment. No, more than that, I wished I'd paid attention to my lessons to begin with. To think that I might know so little of my own home was rather maddening. It almost made me want to find one of my old teachers and beg them for remedial lessons. If only I had the time.
If only I was actually on speaking terms with the one teacher who'd ever succeeded in making me give a damn.
If only I hadn't promised Abigail that I wouldn't experiment with spacial magic. I was pretty sure that feeding the thing holy magic at random would count against me, there. Which meant I'd be in for another lecture, even if it succeeded. She was surely mad enough at me, already...
With a sigh, I placed the circle down upon the grounds. With luck, I'd be able to use it to get back in a hurry, but for now? I had quite a bit of flying to do.
***
Abigail
"Devilla!"
I don't know what I really expected to feel, when Devilla
finally
came home. Anger at her being so damn late, maybe? Relief that she was okay? Or maybe more like 'relief that she hadn't run away,' considering she was the damn Demon Queen and her getting hurt was practically a non-issue.
Happiness that she was home? That one probably would have been pretty low on the list of possibilities, if I'd made one. Which made me feel a bit weird about the fact that I got hit by all three in equal measure.
Maybe it had something to do with the whole 'I see her as a friend' realization? Though considering how long it took me to
have
said realization, it's pretty easy to see that I suck at the whole 'figuring out my own emotions' thing.
"Where the hell were you?" Of course, friendship or no, I was still feeling pretty pissed at her for disappearing. Seeing Devilla
flinch
when I snapped at her, though... "Are you okay?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Devilla muttered, crossing her arms. Her pout looked kinda cute, to be honest, but that wasn't going to distract me from the bit where she didn't answer the question.
"Maybe because you're generally
not?
Also, it's kinda normal to worry about someone when she doesn't come home for two days, after promising meshe'd try and check-in at night."
"...I thought you'd be mad?" she muttered. Her eyes were pointed towards the floor for some reason.
"I
am.
Also worried. And kinda happy to see you?
Apparently,
I can be all three at once!"
"Anger usually leads to a lot more yelling," Devilla pointed out, finally looking up at me. There was something weird about her gaze, though. Almost... Scared? "You yelled last time."
"Last time I didn't know what the fuck was going on," I pointed out. "And I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to make sure nobody panicked about the missing Demon Queen.
