Chapter 3: A rook with two Rooks
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Yay third chapter! This one's short and sweet. Kinda. "Sweet" is debatable. I hope you guys like it!
Since this is posted in Sci-fi/Fantasy, I'm going to have a content warning for people that might not like this.
Content Warning: Reluctance
Comments and criticisms are always welcome.
CCG
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"I've got a surprise for you today," Mark declared out of the blue.
Amanda frowned and turned her head in question. "Mmm?" She was curious.
"First, let me ask you a question."
Amanda bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and nodded. "Ok?"
"So how much has that... Miss Villa, was it? Your teacher at the Society? How much has she taught you?"
"Just simple... things. Push. Flash," she breathed deeply again, shaking her head. "The two boys there, she didn't... she didn't want to teach them dangerous spells."
Mark pulled back. "Really? She's teaching them... no, teaching you, cantrips. Nothing more... Nothing more..." he searched for the words, unsuccessfully. Despite his act, he didn't really want to think about this. "interesting?"
"Mmm!" She pouted. She didn't really want to think either.
"No? Nothing?" He leaned downwards to kiss her neck.
"Uh-uh," she moaned softly. "Nothing."
"Well this should be good then, maybe," Mark resumed, pushing his length back into her slick sheath.
Amanda whimpered appreciatively as her arms quaked under her. This felt so dirty. So hot. She moaned as Mark roughly grabbed her hair, twisting her head to the side and kissed her parted mouth. She collapsed onto her elbows. She was so close.
"You're going to come aren't you." Mark hissed into her ear. It was a statement rather than a question.
"Yes, Mark. Make me come. Make me come again," She panted.
With a growl, Mark pulled out her arms from under her and twisted them roughly behind her back pushing her face and breasts into the bed. "You're mine."
"Yes. Yours. Take me! Ah!" She shivered with delight at her helplessness. Having already been brought to her peak twice earlier, she had no strength to fight the rapidly rising pleasure building inside her. With a sharp moan, she was sent over the edge, her body shaking as her pussy tightened around her lover's cock. Despite being so lost in the moment, she heard Mark's loud gasp, feeling him thrust into her one last time as he released himself into her willing body. The corners of her mouth turned upwards to form a small, proud, self-satisfied smile.
Mark released her arms and collapsed onto the bed next to her, panting for breath. Too tired to do much else, Amanda turned on her side and leaned backwards until she felt his chest against her back. It was a very comfortable position for both of them. She closed her eyes.
It only felt like a few seconds or at most a minute had passed before she felt Mark suddenly sit up in the bed. "Shit! We're going to be late." With that, he was out of the bed and putting on his shirt.
Amanda sat up as well and rubbed her eyes. "Huh? Late for what?"
Mark turned his head with a quizzical smile on his face. "Don't you remember what I said earlier? Or were you too busy coming?" He laughed as he tried to unsuccessfully dodge a flying pillow. "Hey! Be nice! I said that I had a surprise for you!"
Amanda rolled her eyes and looked around the room, finding her underwear lying along a trail of clothes leading in from the door. She quickly put on her black laced panties and shift. She had to follow the trail of clothes downstairs, playfully fighting with Mark along the way as he tried to gather his things before she found her green dress. It took another minute of kissing and giggling before they made their way out the front door.
As they climbed into the back of a hired carriage, Mark playfully and lecherously smiled at her.
"Yes?"
"You look hot. Freshly fucked hot," He leaned in to whisper in her ear and took a deep breath. "And you smell of sex."
Amanda giggled. "So do you! So what's my surprise that we're going to be late for?"
Mark leaned back with a content smile. "We're meeting a friend. I'm buying her lunch in exchange for a favor I want from her and we can ask her if she knows someone who can better train you at the Society."
"Oh! That'd be wonderful!" She thought for a moment. "I should probably not show up looking and smelling like this then."
He waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, it'd be funny to see her reaction. My friend Chris does this to her occasionally and it's great. Now I can try!"
"Mmm... let's not. You can but I'd rather like to leave a good first impression with your friend," Amanda said as she began to construct a spell with her hands, mumbling the words under her breath. A moment later, with a shake of her head, her hair that had previously looked just a tiny bit unkempt became docile, looking as if it was just brushed. The sheen of sweat on her skin disappeared as well, and a light lavender scent permeated the inside of the carriage. She looked and smelled as she had just stepped out of a bath.
"Aww, alright. Do me too, then."
Amanda narrowed her eyes and smiled. "No. You can look and smell like sex. I think I like you this way."
He laughed. "I'm going to get you for that."
"I look forward to it," She grinned.
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Mari looked at her pocket watch. It was ten-past already. Mark is usually more punctual about this. She idly played with the salt and pepper shakers, levitating them with magic and making them do a little dance.
"Yes... yes... this is a fertile land and we will thrive," The salt shaker nodded towards the pepper mill. "We will rule over this land, and call it: This Land."
Suddenly, the pepper mill turned towards the salt shaker. "I think we should call it: Your Grave!"
The salt shaker jumped. "Ah! Curse you and your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" It squeaked out as a glass of water suddenly appeared over it, about to pour its deadly contents over the hapless salt shaker.
Mark coughed. "Hmm. Interesting predicament Mr. Salt has got himself into over there."
With an embarrassed squeak, Mari swung around and jumped up from her chair. "Mark!"
"Hi!" He gave her a warm hug. "Mari, meet Amanda. Amanda, this is Mari. She's an old friend of mine. Known her since we were like 9 or something."
Amanda smiled and greeted her with a hug as well. "Hello Mari. Your hair... very unique." She pointed out. She also quietly took note of how pretty the human girl was. An unwelcomed mental image of Mari and Mark appeared in her head but she immediately shook it off.
"Hello!" Mari looked up at her bangs to remind herself. "Oh yeah, the purple matched my robes," She offered as explanation.
Sitting down across from the purple haired sorceress, Mark snatched the still floating cup from above the table. "You got better at this. When did you stop dropping them like a klutz?" He teased.
She narrowed her eyes in a threatening manner but her smile remained on her face. "Chris got me that one time. I wouldn't make that mistake again."
"Damn," he laughed. "Sorry about being late. We got caught up with something," He shared a smile with Amanda sitting next to him.
"Mmhmm. I'm sure you did," Mari rolled her eyes, finally settling them on the elf girl on the other side of the table. She was quite pretty but looked suspiciously innocent. Most elves, having centuries of experience under their belt, don't have that shy smile that played at the corner of her lips and her eyes. Mark usually avoided being with elves for that very reason. They would catch on to his odd behaviors too fast, determine that he's hiding something, then after his unwillingness to come clean, dump him. This one, though...
"So how have you been?" Mark interrupted her thoughts.
They chit chatted as they ordered and waited for their food to arrive, talking about what he had missed in the last four months, much of which he already gathered from speaking with his brothers right after he got back. The conversation eventually segued to Amanda's daily activities: her martial training with Captain Banks and her nightly lessons with Ms. Villa.
"She's not going to teach you anything," Mari declared as soon as Amanda mentioned the name. "The boys she's tutoring are Albeus Long's nephews. He's the Head Sorcerer of the Conjuration school. His sister, the boys' mother, specifically told Brook Villa not to teach them anything that might lead them to seriously hurt themselves. Although to be honest, other than being kinda sheltered and immature, I think the boys are pretty talented and would make pretty good students if they actually applied through the society properly."
Amanda cocked her head to a side. "Huh. That makes sense now. But the boys, I just thought they were kinda disruptive and annoying."
"Yeah, I'm sure they are. They're kids. Allan, the older brother is like... what, 13? 14? I don't remember. Alex, the younger one, is like 12 or something. If you're bored out of your mind in that class, I'm pretty sure it's even worse for them."
"I've never thought about it like that," she blinked.
"Don't worry about it," Mari smiled. "Unlike you, I've seen them outside that class. They're not always brats."
"Well, this does bring up something that I wanted to ask you about," Mark began. "Do you know anyone else who can train Amanda in some actual combat magic? Or, I mean, something more useful than little cantrips."
"Hey! Don't knock cantrips! I make great salt and pepper plays with them," she laughed as she snatched the pepper mill out of the air in front of her. "But yeah, I understand what you're saying." She thought for a moment, grabbing the salt shaker as well, putting them both back down on the table. "Why are you so interested in combat magic anyways? Until you can start constructing them without having to think about it, until it becomes second nature to you, it's not exactly practical for self defense. Your sword lesson with Captain Banks and whatever Mark can teach you will probably be better suited for that."
Amanda shrugged. "I just really want to learn. I mean, I don't think I'll be participating in any wars as a Combat Wizard but if someone is shooting a firebolt at me, I want to be able to shoot one right back, instead of cowering behind somebody."
"I think you'll be pretty safe here in the city. No one's really going to do much combat magic before the Society Enforcers comes down on their asses."
"Well, something like that has happened before," Amanda shared a look with Mark. "Not here, but it's happened. I was lucky that I had help, but I don't really want to depend on others if I can help it."
Mari did not miss that exchange between the couple but shook off her curiosity when the waiter arrived with their food.
"So before we eat, where's my puzzle?" Mari grinned, stretching out her open palm.
"Ok, ok, here you go," Mark laughed as he produced a small grey pouch and placed it in her hand. "Though it's not as much of a puzzle as I just want to ask you where this came from. If it's any help, Magus Keith said he wasn't sure exactly where it was from but that it wasn't from the drow."
"Magus Keith... Vincent Keith? He was with you the whole time? I thought he vanished himself or something," Mari laughed, "I should've guessed that was the case when both of you disappeared at about the same time and no one knew where he had gone off to.
"Huh. Actually, that makes so much sense now! He came back like a week and a half ago, about when Andrew said you'd be back... how did I not make that connection sooner..." Her voice lost its amused tone as she pulled out the black leather collar, still attached with seven of the runes. She frowned. "Where did you find this?" She looked back up at Mark. The elf girl next to him scowled, clearly uncomfortable at the sight of this collar.
Mark took Amanda's hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "You know I can't tell you that. I just want to ask you if you know who could've made this."
