Hannah hung her head out the window of the carriage to stare down one of the many rolling hills at the view of her town sitting on the steep, rocky coast of Cheshire. A medium-sized collection of homes built in a loose circle with a cobble road running through the center and stacked stone walls surrounding most of the old, purpose built houses. To see it from above gave the impression of somewhere lost to time, with fresh peat and other moss stacked and layered over the wooden roofs. Big, woolly things roamed freely on either side of the road with proud hounds tending their herds. Less than a mile or so off was the towns namesake, the Black Cliffs that surrounded Cheshire on most sides. Down the cliffs some way sat the City State of Orr and the great bridge connecting Cheshire's Black Cliffs to theirs. The carriage passed through the developed town of Cheshiridge on the way to Blackliff. A hopeful picture of what the future held for the backwater. She hated how 'small' her hometown was compared to the sprawling city that held the Academy within it, or... Over it. There was only one thing really that kept her coming back each year.
The wagon slowed to a halt at the center of town. Hannah stepped out while the pilot of it pulled her trunk from the top. She watched him for a few moments, then glanced out at the town itself, pouting subtly at the fact that no one had come to greet her or even look. Then, as if on cue, the moment she thought that the one reason came running from around a nearby waist-high wall.
"Hannah!" He shouted.
She smiled widely and waved. "Paul! You came to greet me."
"Of course." He remarked, as if it was obvious. He opened his arms and began stepping closer.
"Huh?" She briefly panicked before opening her own arms wide. She was not expecting this.
"Paul, I-" He walked past her and closed his arms around the large trunk that the pilot of the wagon was bringing down. Hannah closed her arms and blushed deeply as he groaned and carefully lowered it to the ground.
"What's in this thing?"
"Just... School stuff."
"Got it! So I should be gentle."
"I wish you would say that to me." She muttered under her breath.
"What was that?" He looked at her.
"Nothing!" Paul was about the same height as Hannah. Both were of average height for Humans. Paul had a charming head of short blonde hair that stood out in the town. On his face were light freckles and she loved that his eyes were a muted green color. She had always believed he looked like royalty, in a sense and treated him like it; in her heart, at least. Paul was oblivious and she did not believe he had any reason not to be. He lived a simple life of tending to animals. Hannah was an average girl by most accounts. She had brown hair, a lithe figure, unimpressive curves. She had hoped that the Academy would be a way to stand out among her peers and she was right, except in the case of Paul.
"Paul, did you miss me?"
"Of course." He offered earnestly.
"You are my best-" Hannah gasped and instinctively drew from her new arsenal.
Paul opened his mouth but the dreaded word never left his lips because it couldn't. He blinked and felt his throat. She realized what she did after the fact performed the complicated process of dispelling even the simplest curse placed on him. He looked at her.
"What was that."
"The word friend does not follow the word 'best' when you're speaking to a girl, Paul..."
He chuckled. "Is that some new city things."
Hannah glanced away shyly and nodded. "Yes."
"Then instead you can be my 'Best Girl.'" Hannah's face glowed. She covered her mouth and her nose and stared at him hard. The worst part was, she was positive he had no idea what he said with such a cheerful expression. He walked up and placed a hand over her forehead.
"Are you okay? Did you get sick along the way?"
"No.. I think I went crazy." She muttered.
"Haha, that's not good." Paul hefted her trunk up in both arms and began straining to carry it.
"Well, let's get this stuff put away so you don't have to on your own."
"Thanks..." She crossed her arms and followed close behind.
'I don't want to do anything without his permission.' She resolved.
'But he's probably too dim to really understand what I'll ask. Maybe that's fine?' She groans.
'Ughhh, is this mentality why I was sorted into Lauda?' She knew the answer.
"How long are you here for?"
"About a week and a half." She moped.
"That's great. But I wish you could be here with us longer."
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. 'Then occasionally he'll say something like that as if he knows. This guy... I totally want to jump his bones but does he even see me like that? Guys are supposed to be more obvious than this. Isn't he also a virgin? He should want to have sex with anything that moves, right? Unless...'
"Paul do you... Hang out with any other girls?" She asked. There were not many options, but still.
"Nope. You're basically the only one." He responded obliviously.
"Okay." That was at least something.
He brought her and her things back to her small three room hovel. It was the standard size for buildings within Blackliff. It used to house her parents and her, but they were gone and there was no one other than her to upkeep the three small rooms and the things inside. She entered to a dark, lonesome interior with dust coating most of the surfaces and a leak that had taken over one of the corners in the kitchen. She suddenly felt a wash of sadness roll over her as it all come back. With dread she stepped in and looked around.
"Oh shoot!" Paul cursed.
"This can't stand. Who knows how long that leak's been there."
"So what?" She sulks.
"You know it's bad luck." He looks to her with a worried expression.
"Besides... I didn't know this place was so bad. What to do..."
"W-will you stay with me!" She asked quickly.
He looked up at the roof leak in thought. "For the week and a half? I could help fix the place up. Sure!"
"Yes!" Hannah cheered.
"Know any of that magic to make it easier, by chance?"
She avoided his gaze as she said. "W-well... I could think of a few things but my studies were mostly around, uh... Affecting people."
"Affecting people how?"
"O-oh you know. Making them... Better in some ways while worse in others. Always a bit of a trade off."
"Sounds exhausting."
"Not really." She offered nervously.
"I more or less just cast something and forget... It's an aspect of the school of magic I learned from. All it needs is a bit from the person I cast it on."
"Sign me up!" Paul said eagerly.
She wiped a bit of saliva from her lips. "Okay! Y-yeah, just give me some time to prepare."
"As much as you need. I'll get your stuff."
"N-no no. I'll take this with me. Just uh..." She looks around.
"See what you can do while I take some time in my room." Hannah retreated into her room and pulled her tome and many reagents she had smuggled out from the forest.
"Wasn't expecting him to 'agree...'" She muttered, looking over her tome.
"Makes it way easier to curse a willing target, but it also... Makes me guiltier that he's acting so nice." She rubbed her eyes.
"Was he always this nice?" She thought back and gave a quick nod.
"Yep."
She tried to study to find one that would be innocuous enough to not do any real damage while also accomplishing her goals. Attention centered on one little spell.
'Lust.' Her eyes glided across the page.
'The Subject has their mental resilience tested by nagging thoughts of sex with the closest and most available target of their attraction. Noteworthy is the fact that these thoughts are not impossible to resist, however so long as the curse is active it will consistently build until a breaking point is eventually reached, at which point they will only be able to act to fulfill their desires. Nothing else. Hoho...' Her face became very hot.
'This is a bit... Horny. Who makes this stuff?' She continues reading.
