Alice watched as the sun passed the 12th arc. She sighed.
Another leg of walking, simply wasted. Because my fool of a brother couldn't dodge a simple spell. A spell I had warned him about for
days!
There was nothing for it. The damage was done, and the spell would last a whole month, getting stronger and stronger before weakening out. Unless there was a High Mage to help her, there was no way to reverse the effect and Felt would just have to bear it.
Of course, "bearing" was an understatement.
She heard heavy moans to her right from the trees. Moans of relief. A relief that would only last a few hours before bugging him again. The creature that had attacked them, a Skall, could only be stopped using a Lust spell. It would drive itself insane and literally start mating with anything it could find, and eventually succumb, either from its wounds by "mating" or simple starvation. One had to cast it from a distance. But even that wasn't enough to stop stupid, young Felt from sneaking behind the creature, and getting blasted with the spell's radial effect. He was lucky that she particularly lacked skills in ranged magics. While the spell was strong enough for the Skall to go in a frenzy, a human would be mildly effected for a week or so, and then grow much more lusty for 2 weeks, peaking at the end of the 3rd and finally retreating in the last week. He had to "relieve" himself every hour now. And it wasn't even the end of the first week. They were losing their precious time, and couldn't afford any slowness, but Felt would only get more and more lustful, and they would have to find a way to move quicker despite that. At this rate, they were stopping for 10 minutes every hour. That would be enough time for the Conquistadors to catch up if they were following her.
She had underestimated her own skills.
Alice looked around her and realized the sun was already near sitting, and the third member of their group, Em had pitched their tent, and got a fire going. She hated how she could waste hours just sitting down and thinking. It was apparently a habit shared by most mages, though she could think of no particular reason why.
I'm still thinking
, she thought irritably and jumped off her horse.
Em sauntered next to her, watching Felt sit near the fire and make himself comfortable, despite their glares.
"What do we do?", he asked quietly. Em understood some magical theory, and knew that there was no answer she could provide. They would have to march on, simply pretending Felt was afflicted with a malady.
One that would grow uncontrollable in just a week.
"Help him from tonight," she said. "There's really nothing we can do except that."
She knew Em flushed, but didn't care. She *had* to control Felt. Otherwise they would get overrun by the Conquistadors. The spell might effect even Em, but probably not as strongly.
