This is my first solid story effort in a long time. I hope you enjoy and feel free to leave comments letting me know if you liked it and want more. Thank you and please enjoy!
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The night hung dark and silent over the sleepy village of Whitebridge. It was a black evening, the stars blanketed overhead by a thick canopy of clouds. A darkness broken only for a moment by the full moon hanging overhead. Before it was swallowed again by the clouds it shone down on a length of the King's Road, lighting up the slow lazy river and white marble of the bridge that gave the town it's name, the various wooden buildings that made up the town, and at the far end standing atop the only significant hill for miles it shone on a tall stone tower. The door of the tower opened just as darkness settled across the sleepy lands once more, a cloaked figure stepping out with lantern in hand.
Sparks flew from the tips of the strangers fingers, lighting the lantern and bathing them and the area around them with the light of a small flicking flame. Keeping the lantern high as they walked towards the village, the light revealed its owner to be a pale young woman. Her clear blue eyes were set on the nearby outskirts of the town, a stern expression on her face. Valla used to live in this town herself before she was apprenticed to her master Alpheric, Master Sorcerer and resident of Whitebridge's tower, and now she was determined to see that master back at home where he belonged.
She did not know what had happened to her master lately. Alpheric had sensed she could use magic when healing various villagers after a sickness had swept through the town, and both parties had been delighted to begin her training. He had been a charming and informative teacher, and her a willing and enchanted student. Those charms became more over time though, smiles and compliments became small touches and exclamations of her beautiful black hair and other various physical features. With Alpheric being a handsome man himself she did not resist his advances, and one night, almost a month ago, after a bit too much wine she allowed him into her bed chambers.
After that long sweet night where he took her maidenhood though, things started to change. His sweet words and charming looks, turned into hollow repeated phrases and halfhearted smiles. He had begun spending less time teaching her about magic, and more and more time at the local inn. At first she had worried that perhaps she was to blame for this behavior. Perhaps she did not please him, or maybe she had said something wrong. The more she attempted to get closer to him though, the faster he seemed to slip away, until this night when he had promised to teach her an important lesson yet failed to return from town yet again. This was the last straw, and she was determined to drag him back to the tower and have a good talk with her wayward master.
She shook herself out of her musings as she passed by the first few buildings of the village. Most of the homes she passed were dark and silent, the dutiful craftsman of Whitebridge long since asleep to face another busy day. She could hear her destination moments before it came into view. Whitebridge Inn was the only such building in the village, and also the only place one could buy a drink, so it not only collected the various travelers off of the King's Road, but also the more rowdier of the villagers.
At the moment things were on the calmer side and the air was filled with various loud conversations and laughter as she stepped into the light cast off by the open doors. She was about to enter, until the scene before her stopped her dead in her tracks.
Valla, pulled the cowl of her cloak lower and shifted to the side of the doors, trying to go unnoticed as she peered in. At the largest of the tables her master sat with his back turned to her entertaining a crowd of villagers, his multicolored silk robes shimmering in the light of the inn's hearth. Sitting on his lap though, was a rather plump and giggling serving girl. As he talked to his companions Valla watched as Alpheric reached down and squeeze a handful of the girl's rear, only for her to smile and whisper something in his ear. Seething anger burned through Valla and she tore herself away from the scene before she burst the whole inn into flames!
She ran her way back to the tower, fighting the impulse to scream or break a tree in two with the force of her magic. Tears stung her face as she made her way back to the tower, the last place she wanted to be, but the place were all her possessions and future was supposed to be. She flung open the door to the tower running to the stairs in the receiving area of the first floor, ignoring the audience room of the second, and only stopping at the third, her refuge the tower's library.
She tossed her cloak into a nearby chair and paced back and forth furiously, her plain gray apprentice robes billowing behind her.
What have I done to deserve this?
She thought to herself,
has he always been like this and I just chose to ignore it? Did he ever even care for me?
She could not think past her fury. She had given him her heart and expected him to feel the same. She would not just be another conquest for him to cast aside, she wanted to hurt him so badly, but she couldn't. There had to be some way to get even with the man who had made such a fool of her. She stopped her pacing and smiled grimly. There was a way, and if he wanted to have sex with everything that walked, she would grant him that request.
Valla made her way to the back of the library, to the section dedicated to advanced and powerful magic. Her master had told her not to study from these books as she was yet unskilled enough for the spells within, and she had obeyed. That did not mean that she did not peak inside at their contents though.
She reached the shelf that she was seeking and pulled from it a black leather tome, the leather itself exotic and glossy black as if it was just dipped in oil. She flipped open the tome and browsed its pages. Most of which was filled with a language that reading alone made her want to cringe and her flesh tingle, Demonic. If he wanted to fuck something, she would see how he enjoyed spending a night with a succubus!
Finding the page she needed, she began reading as she made her way to the wide open space in the middle of the room that her master used to train her in minor non lethal spells. The spell itself seemed simple enough, just a summoning circle with demonic symbols instead of the usual summoning glyphs, and as long as the caster was stronger than the creature, then they were under the summoner's full control.
She grabbed a piece of charcoal from a nearby table and went to work creating the circle. A part of her told Valla that this was wrong and a bad idea, but it was a small part overwhelmed by her anger. She sat back after completing the circle and nodded in satisfaction. She took the tome in her hands, and finding the beginning of the incantation, began the summoning in sloppy Demonic.
The circle and the symbols around it begin to glow and pulse with a sickly green as she started chanting. Keeping her eyes away from the distraction, she was almost halfway done with the spell when she realized that in her hast she had smudged part of the spell with her charcoal stained fingers and the following glyphs were illegible. Unable to stop now, squinted and said the next set of phrases aloud, too late though she noticed a mistake she made in the pronunciation, and before she could correct herself the room burst in a flash of fire.
Falling back on her rear and hissing in pain, it took her a few moments before the glare cleared from her eyes to find a tall figure standing where the summoning circle once was. Standing on the blasted patch of floor was a man, or at least he looked like a man at first glance. The creature had wavy jet black hair that fell to his broad naked shoulders. His skin was the tone of copper and even gave of a metallic glint where the light hit it, and it glinted many places as most of his muscular form was bare save for a leather loincloth made of the same black material as the summoning tome. All this barely registered with Valla as it was his eyes that held her gaze. Yellow eyes that glowed as if they were their own set of bonfires.
The creature did not seem pleased in the least to be called to this place, his face set in a frown as he took a step from the ruined circle. "Who dares summon the great Xeric, Prime Incubus of the Upper Hells?" the demon asked, and despite the displeasure in his deep rumbling voice, something stirred deep within Valla, a confusing attraction.
"I did not mean to summon you," she managed to say, her words feeling like lead as she struggled to speak under that gaze. "I was trying to summon a succubus."
Xeric sneered down at the small woman, "So you wished to enslave one of my sisters?" He made a gesture with his hand and Valla felt her limbs grow stiff and immobile. Smiling down at the helpless mage he paced around her at his leisure, clucking his tongue mentally at her slime frame and small breasts. She was not really his type, but being summoned always made him hunger for a meal of energy, so she would do.
Valla struggled against the spell that bound her. She had summoned something much more powerful than she intended and apparently had no sway over this monster. She had to break free, or did she want to? She shook her head mentally at the stray thought, why would she want to stay here? Yes he was handsome, but he would more than likely kill her. Handsome? Why would she call him that?
Logical thought became harder as he paced her. He gave off a strange smell, first it was the smell of rain, then of fresh hay, all scents she liked assaulting her over and over, making her head swim. He sighed as he stopped his pacing to stand in front of her and said, "Yes I suppose you will have to do." She would have shivered if she was capable of moving.
