Remember...

Chapter 7: Mirrors

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Finally, this chapter is done. Yay. (Sorry for the delay =S)

Hope all of you still enjoy reading this!

Content Warning: Consensual non-consent, bondage.

Comments and feedback always appreciated (in addition, editors...).

CCG

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The sound of gentle raindrops falling against the window was rather calming, Mark decided. Although he could sense the light of day through his eyelids, he didn't want to wake up just yet. He stayed unmoving, listening.

Minutes, or so it seemed, passed before Mark noticed the movement next to him, followed by a shadow over his face. Slowly, he opened his eyes.

Amanda smiled down at him. She leaned on her elbow, balanced gingerly as to not fall on him.

"Good morning," he said.

"It's almost noon," she corrected him.

"Eh. I'm not wrong. It's still morning," he shrugged as he brought an arm around the naked elf and gave her a nudge. Amanda squealed in delight as she lost her precarious balance and fell on top of him.

"How long have you been staring at me?" He asked as he held her. The sensation of her skin touching his calmed him.

"Only a little while."

"I never thought you'd be the type to watch people sleep," he smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Creepy."

"I'm just happy to see you," she smiled, ignoring his teasing.

Mark gave her a gentle squeeze. "Me too."

They laid there in silence, enjoying each other's warmth. Mark realized that he must have drifted off again at some point, because the next thing he felt was a soft hand reaching down below his waist.

"Mmm?" He mumbled.

"You're poking me," she said as she took his shaft into her hand.

"Well, that's not my fault. It's the morning," he laughed and rubbed his eyes.

"Who says I'm complaining?" Her hand stroked him as she looked back with mischief in her eyes.

Mark blinked as his brain registered what Amanda had said. It took only a moment before he smiled again and rolled on top of her, with his face inches from hers. "No, not complaining. Quite the opposite, in fact," he acknowledged with a smirk as he removed her hand from his member.

"Oh?" she breathed as she tilted her head back, bringing her lips closer to his. "Really?"

Without answering, Mark kissed her offered lips. It was only a quick peck, really, but he left a trail of kisses along her jaw and down her neck, nibbling along the way. He kissed each of her breasts, drawing out soft sighs of pleasure, then continued down her belly until he reached the apex of her legs.

"Wait," she gasped even as she raised her hips to meet his lips. Her hands reached down to her lover's head, but did not push him away.

"Yes?" he looked up with a raised eyebrow, meeting her gaze. Making a show of extending his tongue, Mark licked along the length of her sex. "Mm. You're so ready."

Amanda threw her head back and shuddered, a small whimper escaping from her lips. "Wait, Mark," she moaned, trying to keep her voice quiet. "I think... Falalie will know."

"I think she'll approve," Mark grinned as he began to lick in earnest.

Amanda flirted with the thought of protesting, but her lover's talents dissuaded her from vocalizing any of those thoughts. Instead, she rewarded him with happy gasps and mewls of appreciation. As her breathing quickened to shallow pants, she mustered every last bit of her will and strength to pull Mark up and kissed him with carnal hunger.

"Don't..." she pleaded between kisses and moans, "Don't tease me anymore. I want you."

Mark grinned, surprised by her boldness. He felt her legs wrap around his waist, pulling him in. Mark was more than happy to comply.

They relished in the first moments of intimacy as their bodies joined. Amanda panted in shallow breaths, her eyelids fluttering. She looked up at her lover, taking pleasure in the way he split her flesh. His confident yet warm smile and the look of control in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine. It was as if he knew exactly what her body wanted even if she herself could not voice them.

"Mark," Amanda gasped as he entered her fully, a wanton moan threatening to escape from her parted lips. As if reading her mind, Mark's lips descended upon hers, swallowing her passionate cry.

"If your voice were any louder, the whole house would know," He teased, his hands brushed her breast and neck.

She bit her lip and looked away in embarrassment; but as her lover's hand gently guided her head to face him again, she recovered her composure and looked up with narrowed eyes. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

Mark laughed, but said nothing. Instead, he started to move his hips, drawing out from Amanda the vocalizations that he so desired.

Soon, as their bodies settled to a common rhythm, Amanda breathed deeply and let the blissful tingling wash over her in waves. She felt Mark's hands roam about her body, caressing, grasping, overwhelming her senses. In return, she willed herself to overcome whatever bits of modesty she still felt, and did what she could to reciprocate. Her hips were already almost beyond her conscious control, but her hands grasped at her lover's back and shoulders, offering wordless encouragements.

While she indulged in her lover's attentions, Amanda caught a look of amusement flash across Mark's face. His hand ran along one of her arms until he held her wrist, securing it above her head. Biting her lips, Amanda closed her eyes and reveled in this helplessness as she weakly struggled, testing the limits of her freedom. But as quickly as it had come, it was once again gone when Mark opted instead to hold her hand, fingers intertwined. It was a different feeling, but Amanda was soon distracted by other pleasures.

-+-+-+-+-+

"Good afternoon, my lady, Mr. Raven," Vin greeted the couple on the stairway. She carried a silver tray, on which was a bowl of soup, and some rye bread. "Would you like some lunch?"

"That'd be great," Amanda nodded. "Is this for Ellisa?"

"Yes, she had just woken up a little while ago herself, and had asked for something light."

"How is she? Can i see her?" Amanda asked, her hands clenching at the sides of her dress.

"Of course, my lady," Vin smiled. "I think she would like that."

"I'll be right outside," Mark said as he took Amanda's hand into his. "I'm not sure if she'd want to see me right now."

A small frown formed at the corner of her mouth, but she nodded without protest.

As Amanda opened the door to Ellisa's room, she saw that Ella was already there, sitting by the bed. Ellisa herself still laid in bed, speaking in quiet whispers to her companion.

"Hey Ellisa," Amanda said, her voice cracking.

"My lady!" Ellisa greeted her with a smile as she pushed herself up to a sitting position on the bed. "I had not expected-"

"Don't get up," she said, crossing the room in hurried steps to be by her guardian's side. "How... how are you?" Her breathing quickened.

"I'm fine, my lady. I'm just glad that you're safe."

"Are you hurt? Did Celes check up on you yet?" Amanda's hands balled into fists. "She could heal you."

"Both Celes and Fal have examined me already, and there were no serious injuries."

"But I saw them hurt you," she said, her voice rising. Her body shook as she crossed her arms under her chest. "I wanted to help-"

"It's ok, my lady. It wasn't as bad as it looked. Most of the bruises have already faded, see?" Ellisa took Amanda's hand as she presented one of her arms. "Please, don't think of it anymore. It's behind us. You are safe. You have no idea how much of a relief this is to me."

"But-"

"My lady, it is my duty to protect you," Ellisa said as she brought Amanda closer to her, a gentle smile on her face. "I will do anything towards that purpose. And now you are safe. I am safe. Everything is ok, so please don't worry yourself over this, over me, ok?"

Amanda scowled as she looked down, but finally nodded. "Thank you, Ellisa," she said with a small smile, and embraced her guardian.

"You're always welcome, my lady," Ellisa hugged back.

"My lady," a voice calling from the doorway roused Amanda from Ellisa's arms. It was Celistra. "Falalie has asked to speak to you in private down in the garden."

Amanda blinked. "Oh. Sure. What about?"

"The trip back to Luminare. We may need to re-schedule that."

"Oh! Ok," she said as she turned back to Ellisa, who gave her her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Go, my lady. I'll still be here when you finish your conversation with Falalie."

With a small smile, Amanda stood up and followed Celistra.

"Can you give me a minute, Mark? I'll try to be quick," She said as she passed by him outside of Ellisa's room.

Mark, for his part, only nodded as he watched her descend the stairs. He listened to the pitter-patter of her footsteps towards the rear garden, and the click of the door as it closed behind her. At this moment, Vin emerged from Ellisa's room. Her smiled seemed genuine and friendly, he decided.

"Mr. Raven, if you don't mind, Ellisa would like to speak to you for a moment."

"Sure," Mark shrugged, and stepped in.

Ellisa still looked as relaxed as she was when talking to Amanda, but her eyes betrayed a sense of alertness.

"Hello Ellisa."

"Hello Mr. Raven. I noticed you watching our conversation from the doorway earlier. You could have come in, you know."

"Please, it's just Mark. I'm sorry for intruding. I just thought maybe you didn't want to see me, but I guess I was mistaken."

"On the contrary, Mark, I do wish to speak to you. But first, I want you to know how thankful I am to you for rescuing my lady and me," Ellisa smiled a little, but her expression otherwise did not change. "You've done us - all of us here in this household - a greater service than you can imagine."

"You're welcome, but I would have done this even if Falalie did not ask me."

"Of course. While I still disagree with Falalie regarding the propriety of your relationship with our lady, I don't doubt the sincerity of your feelings for her. My objections stems from the fact that our lady's father does not want this for her, and more importantly, I do not fully trust you."

"I'd be disappointed if you did."

Ellisa chuckled. "That being said, your familiarity with Captain Banks suggests that you are at least trustworthy to her. Our lady wouldn't tell us of how she managed to obtain the captain as her trainer, but I suspect that was your doing as well."

"Money can buy many things," Mark said. "Everyone has a price."

"Oh I don't doubt that, Mark. But I've seen you in action, and I doubt that your familiarity with Captain Banks was fostered through monetary means."

Mark remained silent, impassive.

"The reason I'm telling you this is because while I still don't know who you are, I believe that my lady will be happier and safer with you around than without. But make no mistake: if you would spend time with her, then I, along with everyone in this household, would seek out your identity." Ellisa said with a confident smile.

"I see," Mark said, his hands suddenly feeling uncomfortably clammy.

+-+-+-+-+-

"Yes, just like that, Alex. Make sure you construct the spell termination just as neatly as the rest of it." Mari nodded to her student as she guided her student with her own weaves of magic. "Aaaand... There you go! Now release it."

The young man bit his lip in concentration as he gingerly released the flows. The results of his labors became evident as the chinchilla before him began to float. "Finally," He breathed. "That took a while."

"Good job. Now try it without my help this time," the magenta-haired sorceress patted him on the back as she approached a different student. "Clare, you don't need a dozen fuzzy balloons. Put them back down."

Mari's entry level transmutation course had an almost perfect attendance, despite the class's awkward post-dinner schedule. Part of the reason for that was because the class was a general prerequisite for most other higher level classes at the Society. But there was another reason, which was that this year, unlike all previous years, the class's instructor was none other than the Lord Magus's daughter. And whether the rumors were true or not, most did not want to risk their academic careers by doing poorly in Mari Izer's class.

The hour long class passed by all too soon. As her students filed out of the room, Mari looked upon the legion of furry critters that still floated in the air. The airborne chinchillas looked back at her with expectant eyes. Mari sighed.

"Hello fuzz-butt," she muttered to a white chinchilla as she lowered her into her hands. The fuzzy rodent squeaked happily before leaping into her cage for a dust bath.

Mari walked around the room, dispelled the

float

spell from each of the chinchillas, and returned them to their cages. As Mari opened up the last cage, she heard a knock at the door. "Mari?" Inquired a familiar voice.

"Hey! Amanda! What are you doing here?" She greeted her visitor with a smile as she promptly forgot about the last floating rodent. Despite being rescued only days ago, the elf girl looked cheerful. She wore a loose sleeveless white blouse and a grey pleated skirt. Knee high black stockings and a pair of flat ankle boots completed her reserved style. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Amanda smiled. "I've been resting at home the last few days and answering a bunch of questions for the city guards that came to my house. I finally got Ellisa to agree to let me come out again. I've been so bored."

"Ellisa was your guardian who was with you when we found you, right? How is she now?"

"She's fine, I guess," Amanda shrugged with downcast eyes. "She says she's ok, and only rested for a day before getting right back to the stuff she usually does. I can't read her that well, and she's pretty good at hiding her emotions from me when she wants to."

"I see. I'm sure she'll be ok. Don't be so hard on yourself for it," Mari rested a hand on the elf girl's shoulder. "Anyways, what brings you here tonight?"

"I'm here to ask you about tutoring me? I mean, if you're busy, maybe we can just plan it today, and work out the actual days later?"

"No, no! This is fine! It's Thursday, isn't it? I did say Tuesdays and Thursdays are good. By the way, how did you know I was here?"

"Mark told me earlier, and I asked some of the students out there," she pointed towards the hallway.

"What? How did Mark... nevermind," she shook her head, and turned back to the remaining floating rodent. "Of course he would know."

"Why do you have all these chinchillas here?" Amanda asked as she looked over Mari's shoulder. "Do you guys breed them or something?"

"Eh, something like that," she shrugged. As she lowered the last chinchilla into her hands, he stared at her with disapproval. Or, at least the chinchilla version of disapproval with whatever emotions their little black eyes can convey. But Mari felt it. The white ball of fur barked and nipped her thumb before hopping into his cage. "We used to have an entry level organic replication course here. There was an accident in that class a few months ago, and that's no longer offered, but we did get a bunch of organic specimen to practice other spells on."

Looking up into Amanda's disapproving gaze, Mari quickly shook her head to explain herself. "Nonono, Amanda, nothing that would hurt them, I swear! Just stuff like levitation in this class, and in some classes for the younger students, changing the color of their fur and stuff like that. Of course we always change them back to normal at the end."

"Alright," Amanda nodded with relief. "I guess that's ok."

"Anyways, let's go find an empty practice arena so I can start teaching you some stuff!" Mari said as she lead Amanda out into the hallway. Two elven women stood outside.

"Good evening, Sorceress," said a familiar looking face.

It took a moment for Mari's memories to catch up. "Hi! Falalie, right? You came to me last week to find Mark."

"Yes, I'm glad you remember me," she smiled.

"Hello, I am Celistra," the other elf said, holding out her hand. "Thank you for bringing lady Amanda back to us. I think we've met the other night, but unfortunately I was taking care of Ellisa at the time, and did not make proper introductions."

"Hi, I'm Mari," she took her hand. "And you don't need to thank me. I was just helping a friend."

"Mr. Raven requested your aid?"

"Huh? Mark? Oh yeah, I was helping him, sure, but I meant Amanda."

Amanda beamed. "Thank you anyways!" she said as she hugged her from behind.

"You're welcome, then," Mari laughed. "Let's find an arena, ok?" She said as she led the way down the hall. The three elves followed close behind.

"Sorceress," Falalie said, "I heard the students refer to you as Miss Izer earlier."

"Yeah? That's my last name."

"Would you happen to be related to Lord Magus Nigel Izer?"

"He's my father."

The two elven women shared a look.

"Wait," Amanda said as she reached out and held Mari's shoulder. "Your father is the Lord Magus?"

"Yeah. Not as great as it sounds," Mari said, shrugging.

"You're THE Mari Izer? I've known about your talents since I was in Luminare!" Amanda gawked. "I've been taught magic based on your patterns! Oh goddess! I can't believe I have you as my teacher!"

Mari smiled self-consciously, "Don't mention it. I'm still a student here at the Society too."

"Wow. I have Mari Izer as my teacher," Amanda breathed. A sudden thought brought a small frown to her face. "Wait, how did you meet Mark? He said you two were old friends, but it doesn't seem that your social circles would overlap much, if at all."

"Yeah, I met him a long time ago," she smiled, recalling the memory. "I was like 8 or 9 years old at the time, and I think I got mad at my father for some reason, so I ran off, and jumped right into the Jita markets. After I ran and hid from my father and the people that were looking for me, I realized that I was lost, and was too tired to jump back. That's when I ran into Mark and two of his friends. They were friendly, and I remember one of them buying me a lump of gooey butter cake. They kept me company and played with me until their guardians came to fetch them, and then took me home as well. I've been friends with them ever since."

"Aww, that's cute!"

"Heh. Back then, his friends and I, we used to hang out a lot more often. But then I started my formal magic training, and they had their own stuff to do, and we kinda saw each other less and less. Now I just see him or his friends maybe once or twice a month at most, unless they're looking for me for something."

"Oh. That sucks," Amanda pouted.

"Nah, it's alright. I still get to see them sometimes, and they are still some of my best friends. Anyways, this arena looks unused," Mari said as she peeked inside the large chamber. "Let's teach you some magic."

Amanda followed Mari into the spacious arena, while Falalie and Celistra stood outside the doors. Once they were far enough in, Mari pulled Amanda close. She whispered to her in a hushed tone. "So have you and Mark talked about... uh..."

"Um. Ropes and such?" Amanda blushed. "Yeah, we've talked about it, and I'm ok with it, though it's not like we've actually done anything with it yet. He's been fairly... gentle, since I got back."

Mari nodded. "Alright, I guess that's good enough to start. I'll teach you some ice magic today. You can both defend and attack with it, so it's pretty useful. Now, I saw what you did to the warehouse door that day, so I know you can do a pretty powerful spell. But, this isn't just a simple push. Combat spells can potentially be much more powerful, so be careful with how much energy you imbue it with. And because you can imbue it with more energy, you have to be more careful with how fast you cast them in succession, or you'll run the risk of exhausting yourself quickly. You elves generally have better stamina, but it's still something you should watch out for.