Magery

Concordium Chapter 36

Magery Chapter 2

Sebastian

I had a room to myself, but my bed was still a twin, so Ethan had slept in my arms all night. He woke up when my watch started vibrating since it was closer to his face than mine. "What time is it?" he asked, sleepily. "It's still dark outside."

"Sorry, Ethan," I said. "My business starts early."

I'd wanted to call him jailbait, but I didn't think he would find it funny. Neither did I really. My body wanted him, but I was going to wait until his birthday, even if it killed me. He stretched and yawned, and I wanted to climb back into that bed with him, but I had a lot to get done before the security meeting Professor Thorne was calling at 11:00 a.m.

I tousled his hair and said, "If you can sleep with a light on, go back to sleep while I get ready, then we'll figure out a plan for today."

He rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. The sheet pulled back exposing his slender but muscular legs. I turned all the lights off except for a dim lamp on the chest of drawers, then I grabbed my toiletry bag and rushed into the restroom. It was still steamy. Someone, probably Nico, since he didn't sleep much, had just showered. With a wave of my wand and a quick incantation, I cleaned the mirror. I decided to use magic to shave and clean my teeth, since I wanted to save time for a leisurely shower. I ran my tongue over my teeth and nodded to myself. One of the most readily noticeable things about wearing the Serapis amulet is that it prevents harmful bacteria, including those that caused bad breath or sour body odor.

I turned the shower to a gentle warm spray and washed quickly. Then I sat back on the built-in seat on the back wall and stroked my hard cock. I closed my eyes and visions of Ethan in his briefs popped into my mind. I let my mind wander back to the carriage ride through Central Park yesterday. I was kissing the boy and running my hand over his body through his clothes. That much had happened in reality. But then my imagination took over and I lifted his muscle shirt off his slender chest and threw it out of the carriage. I saw his tiny hard nipples and I licked them, hearing the boy moan on my lap. Then I bit them gently and his moans turned to groans of pleasure.

While I was devouring his little nipples, I undid his shorts and slid my hand into the back, rubbing his little hole through the threadbare briefs he was wearing. "Please fuck me, Sebastian," he cried.

I turned him sideways on my lap and pulled his shorts off. I threw them out of the carriage, and I heard a cheer. We'd stopped and a crowd was gathered around, peering into the carriage to see me making out with this beautiful boy. "Do it, Sebastian!" the crowd yelled. "That boy's begging to get fucked. Take his cherry!"

I agreed that no boy this pretty should remain a virgin. I ran a finger down the signa tempestuosa that curled around his nipples and down toward his navel. They ran inside his briefs. I let my fingers play over his small erection tenting the worn material of his briefs. "Please fuck me now, Sebastian!" he cried. "I want you to make me a man."

I ripped the briefs off his slender body and threw them to the shouting crowd. I could hear them yelling their encouragement. Ethan's small cock was rock hard and throbbing. It was surrounded by a neatly tamed bush of golden curls. When I tickled his scrotum, he squealed in pleasure. I could feel his small and sensitive balls in the silky-smooth sack.

It was a fantasy, so it didn't have to make sense. I was naked and Ethan was running his small hands over my cock, and I could barely hold back. I turned him around so that he was leaning over the back of the driver's seat. I parted his buttocks and beheld his hairless boy hole. I imagined that it was tight and pink, a perfect rosebud waiting for my attention. I dove in and licked it softly with my teasing tongue. "That feels so good, Sebastian," he cried. "Get me ready and take me roughly. Don't be gentle with me. I want to feel you ruining my hole!"

I tongued his ass until he relaxed and opened for me. Then I turned him around so that he could straddle my naked legs. I pulled him down on my cock and saw his eyes open wide. His mouth made a beautiful little `O' of pleasure. He wanted it rough, so I pulled him down on me in one motion until I was buried in the silky smoothness of his love tunnel. He was crying and shouting "Yes! Fuck me harder!" at the top of his lungs.

I fucked him until I shot deep inside him. His own little cock was spilling its seed on both of us. His hair was standing on end and lightning was flashing in the sky. With a final stroke, I went over the edge and spewed cum all over the shower. I was breathing hard, and my heart was pounding in my chest. I cleaned myself up and then got out of the shower, dried off and put on my robe.

Ethan was still sleeping when I came back into the room. I got dressed without waking him and finished my preparations for the day. Then I sat down on the side of the bed and put my hand on his bare shoulder. He woke, rolled over, and looked up at me. I bent down and kissed his pouty lips.

"Good morning," he said, with a smile. The sky was light outside the window now. "I like waking up like this."

I kissed him again. "Like this?" I asked, "or like this." I smacked his butt, not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to show him I meant it. "I'm a really harsh taskmaster, you know. If you sleep in my bed, I'll make you get up early, even if I must spank your butt to do it."

He sat up. "Does this mean I can sleep in your bed?" he asked with a grin. "Last night was perfect. Usually I don't sleep well, but there were no bad dreams. I could hear your heart beating, even in my sleep."

I'd only been teasing him, but he was so earnest that it moved me. Did I want him in my bed at night? Of course, I did. But how could I hold back and stay true to my promise to wait until he was an adult before fucking him? In the end, my decision was probably driven by selfishness. I wanted to wait; I was going to wait; but I didn't want someone else to snap him up before then.

"Let's see how it works out," I said. "We'll try it and see, but I wasn't joking about being a harsh taskmaster. I'm worried about someone your age being in college without supervision. I'm going to watch over you, and you're going to follow my instructions. Can you accept those conditions?"

"Yes," he said, wrapping his arms around my neck. "Yes, sir! I think I need that. I've been a mess this year so far. I haven't done any homework. I'm behind in everything. I've spent the whole week hiding from werewolves. And I didn't know who they were, so I've basically been hiding from everyone."

I couldn't let him move in with me. There was too much important business that I had to conduct that he couldn't be privy to. But I could let him sleep here with me. Micah was always in his friends' room, so Ethan's room would just have to sit empty.

"So, let's get you dressed and plan your day over breakfast," I said.

**********

After we ate, I sat him down in his room with Micah Blume. "You boys are both behind in your studies," I said. "You need to stay here and finish your homework from last week. It's a three-day weekend, so I expect you to get at least a third done this morning."

"Yes, sir," Ethan said.

But Micah cleared his throat and said hesitantly, "Sir, I'm eighteen years old and an adult. I can arrange my own schedule."

He didn't seem sure of himself, like he was trying on the persona of an independent adult. His schoolwork was almost as much of a mess as Ethan's. I pulled out a letter and began to read it.

Mr. Trent,

I'm sorry to bother you and I understand that you are very busy this year, but my son Micah Blume hasn't yet reached the level of maturity necessary to be successful in college without supervision. Is there some way we can arrange for you to look after him and make sure that he completes the work on time and studies for his tests? I am prepared to deposit his weekly allowance in your account so that you can withhold his money unless he is caught up in his classes. Perhaps the threat of penury will be enough to control his own self-destructive impulses.

"Do I need to read more, Micah, or is this enough?" I asked. "The letter goes on to list how you came close to failing at the Academy, and she has offered me a stipend for assuming responsibility."

Micah seemed shocked. His darkly handsome face fell, and he looked like a little boy who'd been caught misbehaving. "Did you accept her offer?" he asked in turn.

"Yes, I did," I said, "I felt like I had to. I have no desire to treat you like a child. If you show me that you can handle yourself, I won't have to interfere much. But we will make a study and homework schedule and you will stick to it. I want you to work with Ethan, but you can bring Cameron and Oliver in to work with you as well."

"Yes, sir," Micah replied. "I can handle it. Thank you, I guess. Not everyone would be so relaxed about it once given that kind of power."

There was something in the boy's eyes, a hunger. They were glazed and dilated, like he was enjoying the idea of being under my control. I shifted my vision so that I could see his aura. As I suspected, he was nearly 100% gay. Meanwhile, Ethan was about 75%. But while the strands showing sexuality in Ethan's aura showed a surface layer of submissiveness, the kind that usually fades a little with maturity, Micah's submissiveness was deeply rooted in the core of his aura, much like Kieran's. Ethan would likely grow into a mildly submissive gay man as an adult, while Micah would likely need a man to take charge of his life. Clarissa would say that it wasn't my business, but I knew that I would be looking for a good dominant match for him, otherwise he'd find someone who would take advantage of him.

The most surprising thing about seeing the two boys next to each other was the difference in their numina reservoirs. Micah's was on the low range of average. He'd make a competent mage, but not an outstanding one, no matter how hard he worked. Ethan, on the other hand, had deep reserves, almost as deep as my own, about the same as Jason. Of course, none of us came close to Alonzo's, not even Professor Thorne, Clarissa, and me put together. I would love to get that boy next to my grandmother and see how they compared. She was the most powerful mage I knew.

"Good," I said, breaking my reverie. "Don't let anyone in the room unless you know who it is."

Then I hung a small mirror on the door and activated it for the boys. "Touch it with a wand and it will let you see who is on the other side," I said. "Ethan, it should work with your fingertip. Your air spirit makes you a rogue mage and you should be able to work the mirror without an implement."

I made them both show me that they could use it, then made Ethan promise to wait for me before going to lunch. "Don't leave the room, Ethan," I said, "unless you're with Micah. And Micah, I'm warning you that there may be versipelles lupini watching him."

I could see Micah's eyes grow large. For whatever reason, the boy was terrified of werewolves. "It will be fine," he said. "If we go out, it'll be all four of us."

He gave Ethan a hug and said, "If there are werewolves after you, stay with us. We might not be able to fight them off, but they'll be afraid one of us will get a message out, so they shouldn't attack us in the first place."

I kissed Ethan again before leaving. I was keeping Ethan secure from the versipelles by leaving him here to spend time with Micah. I’d seen the way both Drew and Simon looked at the boy and he was safer with us mages. It wasn’t like Drew was a predator, but he did like pretty young things. He never got serious about them. He’d play around, but he always went back to Dawn. Simon, on the other hand, had become very intense lately and from what Oscar had told me he was a little obsessed with Ethan.

 

Micah

At first I was angry when Sebastian roped me into babysitting the new boy, but then I saw how cute he was. My fantasies ran more toward rougher guys, but I could still get into cute twinks. Everyone thought Cameron, Oliver and I were a throuple. And they weren’t completely wrong. It was all just kissing, mutual masturbation and the occasional blowjob. We were more like friends with benefits. And sometimes we included a fourth… so this might actually be perfect.

Back at the Academy, we had Aaron Mizrahi. Cameron and I had been roommates, and so had Oliver and Aaron. But Aaron hadn’t followed us to Severan. He’d stayed back in Sagacia, the hidden magical town where the Academy was located, to complete advanced work in magical theory. Like most of his family he knew little about the mundane world and didn’t care to learn.

Here at Severan, Oliver and Cameron were sharing. For a while I was with Darren, the sexy “bear” we called Daddy Werewolf, and now I was here in a room by myself. I’d been alone for a few days and then, yesterday, Sebastian had moved Ethan in. Of course, he hadn’t stayed here last night; he’d been with Drew.

Of course, I really wanted to share a room with Cameron. I loved Oliver. He was one of my closest friends, but Cameron was the one I’d fantasized about. I couldn’t count the number of times Cameron had teased me:

“If you keep flashing that butt, I'll have to spank it.”

“One of these days I’m not going to be able to hold back. I’m going to throw you on the bed and fuck that cute butt of yours.”

“Mm-mm-mm. I can’t believe I haven’t tapped that bubble butt yet.”

“You are going to make someone a fine wife one day, Micah. I just hope it’s me!”

He’d always laughed and smacked my butt. And I’d always replied with something to let him know I would like it. But, for whatever reason, he never followed through. So, I assumed that wasn’t part of his nature and that I would need to let this infatuation play its course while I searched for someone who could meet my needs. It was times like this that I missed Remy, an older student at the academy who had first introduced me to my submissive side, although he always took things that bit too far. Cameron was taller and stronger than Oliver or I, with a more solid build. Everyone called us the twink trio, but honestly Cameron was only twink by association. If he would just grab me, throw me down on the bed and take what he wanted, I’d be in twink heaven. As it was, he always left me frustrated. He’d get me horny and then… nothing.

I should have known my mother would try to control me like this. She'd always found a way to keep me under her thumb, even when I was five hundred miles away. She’d always done the same thing to Dad; only my sisters and one of my brothers were able to avoid her micromanaging. And it had seemed to me that Jonathon had only escaped from mother's clutches to fall under his twin brother David's control.

At least she'd found a sexy guy to watch over me this time instead of an old woman like Mrs. Penrose. She’d been the office manager at the Academy and Mother had asked her to keep an eye on me. She’d watched me like a hawk and had written authority to punish me when I misbehaved or failed to live up to expectations.

When Sebastian put me under his thumb, like he just had, I got hard. I liked the idea of being under the control of another man, a stronger man. Of course, Sebastian had been watching Ethan, not me. I had to admit that I was a little jealous, but then I thought maybe we can both service him one night. He worked hard for us, and he deserved it.

It was just a fantasy, but it was a good one. Of course, Sebastian wasn’t aggressive and domineering enough for me, despite his position. He and Clarrissa were essentially in charge of all us mages here on campus, but neither of them acted like it. They acted more like an older brother or sister than a parent, boss or disciplinarian.

We weren’t working on homework for long before Cameron and Oliver came over. Oliver had enchanted his key to open all our doors, so they just walked in. Ethan was at his desk, and I was at mine. Oliver said “Salve magimice. How are you doing today?”

I replied, “I’m doing my homework. My materfamilas sicced Sebastian on me, and gave him control over my allowance, so now I have to pass all my classes with Bs!”

Oliver said, “In my house we call a B an F.”

Cameron shook his head and said, “Not everyone is a genius, Oliver.”

Then Cameron wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed my cheek. “You can earn a B in every class, Micah. You just need to have confidence in yourself.”

I let myself lean back against him and inhale his scent. Cameron always smelled of clean sweat and… maybe old leather. It wasn’t cologne. It was just him. Whatever it was, it never failed to excite me. I really wanted him to swing the chair around, grab me by the shoulders and kiss me like he meant it. But he didn’t. He turned the chair slowly so that I was facing Ethan. “Is this your new roommate?”

I rubbed my cheek on Cameron’s arm and said, “Cameron, Oliver, this is Ethan. He’s a maginovellus. Ethan, these are my two best friends, Oliver and Cameron.”

Cameron kissed the top of my head while I was speaking.

Oliver saw the look of confusion on Ethan’s face and said, “Maginovellus equals Magus novellus, a mage with no mage ancestors, a newblood mage in English.”

Then he walked over and extended his hand. He could be overly formal at times, especially when dealing with new people. “I’m pleased to meet you. What are you studying?”

Ethan shook Oliver’s hand enthusiastically. He showed him the cover of the book and said, “Biology. I have Professor Mayer.”

Oliver said, “Hey, so do we, but I haven’t seen you in class.”

Ethan replied, “I’m in her other introductory bio class, but the professor says that we’ll be doing the same exact material because she doesn’t have the time or the inclination to prepare different material!”

We all laughed because we’d heard the same exact words a couple of times already. Apparently, the other professor who taught introductory biology was on a sabbatical and Professor Mayer had to teach three classes this semester. To say that she wasn’t happy would be an understatement.

Oliver said, “You’ll have to join our study group.”

Ethan seemed excited. He was smiling broadly. “That sounds great! And if you all are mages, you can help me with my Latin. Sebastian told me that I was going to have to learn to speak it as well as read it.”

We carried on talking for a little while and got to know Ethan. And he became really friendly once he realized we were happy to have him join our group. He was full of questions about the magical world, and we were more than willing to explain it to him. The conversation became more subdued when the subject of versipelles came up.

Ethan said, “I’ve met some who were nice: Simon, Drew, Xav. But to tell you the truth, as a whole, they terrify me. I’ve seen werewolves kill. They killed my dad, and I think they killed my uncle.”

Cameron said, "Don't worry. We'll protect you from the werewolves. We aren't afraid of them, except for Micah; he's terrified of werewolves, won't go near them."

I said, “Shut up! I’m not terrified. I’m… sensibly precautious.”

Oliver shook his head. "Don’t believe him. He’s terrified of lupipelles. Except for the Daddy Werewolf. Micah gets hard every time the big bad Daddy Werewolf growls at him."

Not for the first time, I wished that Oliver had a filter between his mind and his mouth. I didn't like to talk about my former roommate Darren. I had no idea how to process my feelings about him. He wasn't handsome like Sebastian or Jason. Of course, I'd never talked to Jason, but I'd seen him, and I spent a lot of time masturbating while thinking about him. Who wouldn’t? He was pure hotness personified. And he was so dominant. He controlled everything Kieran did, from what clothes he wore to what he ate. And I’d seen the way he held him on his lap in the Student Union or even out on the quad during lunch. I’d never seen him do much magic, not even back at the Academy, but everyone said he was powerful mage, and he’d scored expertus in alchemy. Rumor had it that he could have been awarded expertissimus except that the official preceptors never awarded a certificate that high right out of school.

Why couldn’t I find someone like that? Why couldn’t Cameron be like that? I would give anything to have Cameron be that kind of man for me. He was still leaning over the back of my chair with his arms around me.

Darren scared me, but everything about him made me horny. He looked like a man, and he smelled like a man. And when he growled, I didn't just get hard; I literally soaked my underpants in precum. I would have thrown myself at him in a moment, except that I didn't want to catch the disease. I didn't want to be a werewolf. I'd been so relieved when Sebastian had moved me out of his room.

Ethan sighed and said, "Drew wasn't scary. He was a perfect gentleman, and he never even threatened me. He could have bitten me any time Thursday night, and he didn't."

"You slept with the head werewolf?" Oliver asked. "Did he have a cock like a human, or like a wolf? Did he change while you were doing it?"

Ethan was flustered. "I didn't sleep with him. Well, I did sleep with him, but that's all I did. I woke up screaming and he held me all night and didn't try anything."

Cameron said, "Leave it, Oliver. Don't freak him out with all the questions."

Oliver shrugged and sat back down. "I was just wondering what it was like to get fucked by a werewolf. Micah didn't follow through with Darren, so I just wanted to ask someone else who might know."

I wondered if Oliver had a particular werewolf he was interested in. He’d been bringing the subject up a lot. Come to think of it, he was the one who always seemed serious about me hooking up with Darren. Cameron had picked up on it to tease me because he knew that I was simultaneously attracted to Darren’s intense maleness and repulsed by his wolfiness.

Cameron said, "It's not like Ethan makes a habit of sleeping with werewolves."

Then he turned back to Ethan, swiveling my chair as he did. “Or do you? What other werewolves have you been sleeping with? Please tell me it was Darren, or that redhead Conor.” He patted my cheek gently and said, “Micah thinks he’s sexy and he seems nice enough not to bite anyone.”

Merlin’s Wand, I thought. I’d said Conor was handsome once. He was, but I’d said it mainly so I could wax on about how sexy I thought redheads were without just coming out and telling Cameron how good looking I thought he was!

Cameron was laughing now. “Oh, oh, oh, was it the guy who howls at the moon? He's got a sexy beard."

Cameron was a bit of a jock, and sometimes his teasing could be intimidating. I hoped he wasn’t making Ethan uncomfortable. I glanced over and saw that my new roommate was blushing, but he was also smiling.

Ethan laughed and wagged both eyebrows. "It was Simon. We didn't sleep together but he... um... sucked my dick."

The guys went crazy over this news. Cameron exclaimed, "Dude, you are awesome! You got one of the werewolves to suck your dick."

Oliver seemed impressed. "Simon's an alpha. You got your dick sucked by an alpha wolf!"

Ethan shrugged and said, "Don't get jealous. The werewolves seem really horny from what I’ve seen and heard. You’re a cute guy, Oliver. Play your cards right and you’ll get one of your own."

 

Sebastian

It took some doing, and Jason wasn't pleased about delaying his lover's getaway weekend with Kieran, but I convinced him that we needed him at the council meeting. I'd advocated for his presence with Professor Thorne, and she'd agreed. His credentials as an alchemist really were indispensable. Sometimes alchemy could do things that spellcraft couldn't. He had ways of indirectly attacking people who were protected by lotions made with moly. Finally, I pointed out that he was taking Erik and Alonzo on his trip and that Alonzo wouldn't finish with his mage training until just before 11:00 anyway.

To make sure he got to the meeting, I picked him up at his room and walked with him. He was one of the most doggedly apolitical mages I'd ever met. His father, his mother and his aunt played the political game in the Conclave; it was just him. Even his siblings knew how to play the game, but Jason tried to stay above it all.

"We're going to need you on this one, Jason," I said as we approached the history building. "This is going to get more dangerous before it's done. Think of Kieran and Erik. They're vulnerable and have no way to fight back."

"Don't underestimate Erik," Jason replied. "He's naturally tough. Did you know that he was a boxing champ back in high school? And did you know that his natural toughness has been permanently enhanced by that curse of Alonzo's?"

"No, I didn't," I said. "How do you know?"

"What kind of alchemist would I be if I didn't regularly check my clients for magical effects before giving them potions?" he asked. "He's big, but he's even stronger than he looks. And he's faster than he was. And I no longer give him a treatment to ward off disease. According to my tests, he doesn't need it. I think he heals faster, too."

I was impressed. "And that's the aftereffects of the curse?" I asked. "Are you sure?"

Jason thought for a moment then breathed a heavy sigh. "Have Marvin verify it," he said. "He's a healer. He should be able to tell the cause. I can just tell the effects. I put a bug in his ear about learning some weapon skills. He'll make a good Defensor for the school. You should tell Professor Thorne to put him on the payroll. He'll help anyway, but he should be on retainer for when he's needed. It's only fair."

I shook my head. "I don't think I can swing that," I said. "She's tight with money and the Conclave hasn't given us the budget we need. A good Defensor would be worth at least $40,000 a year."

He said, "Let me talk to my mother. If I can convince her to donate money for the position, can you make sure Erik gets it. He won't let me pay for trips and dinners and such without sharing the expenses, and he's going to blow through all his savings quickly. And... I can't be sure... it's too faint for me to read it with certainty, but I think I've seen indications of a hint of donum arcanum in him. It may have been aroused by the curse."

Another thing for my agenda. I'd have to go over his aura with a fine-tooth comb looking for irregularities or changes. And Jason was right. I needed to work with Marvin to be sure. If Erik had even a glimmer of an arcanum, he would need to be tested and sworn to the Conclave and the Concordium. Would Jason's mother donate enough to cover a salary for Erik? I knew they had money, so that wasn't a problem. But it made me jealous. My grandmother had more money than the Lees, but I would never be able to convince her to donate that kind of sum. And just so my friend could have an income. She’d probably tell me to pay for it myself. She’d seemed annoyed when I turned eighteen and gained a monthly stipend from the family trust. I no longer had to beg for money like a good boy. She’d be even more annoyed when I turned twenty-five and gained control over my share.

We were meeting in the conference room for the history department staff. Nico caught up with us on the way. He looked angry. “Couldn’t we have found a more convenient time to meet? Elijah has my slave and now I have to travel to his house to collect him. He says that he’s not available to receive me until noon. So now he’s getting an extra six hours for nothing.”

I couldn’t smile or Nico would know that I was mocking him, but he was ridiculous when he felt he was being cheated. And Elijah was no better. He was making things difficult for Nico just because he could. He really enjoyed trying to break Nico’s calm demeanor, and he’d developed a talent for it.

I was the only non-fae who could get away with touching Nico casually, so I put a friendly hand on his arm. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t get everyone together before dawn, but humans need their sleep, even mages.”

He frowned and said, “Your people are weak. You spend too much time in an unconscious state.”

That was what he did. When he got frustrated, he often pointed out how weak we humans were. And that was one of the reasons Elijah liked to frustrate him. I smiled and said, “Besides, we can’t possibly face down the hunters without fae support. Help us, Nico, you’re our only hope. We can’t do it without you.”

Nico had begun to smile as well. He knew what I was doing. He probably knew from the beginning, but he enjoyed the verbal game anyway. “Of course, you can’t. It’s my curse to be forever saving you from your own troubles. Don’t apologize. It’s my fault. I’m the one who foolishly promised to look out for you.”

When we got there, Professor Thorne was sitting at the head of the table, with Clarissa at her left. She motioned for me to take the seat at the end, opposite her. It was clear that she was trying to control both ends of the table, a psychological power play, but Nico saw her gesture before me. He smiled at her and took the seat. I went to sit on the professor's right with Jason to my right.

When Drew showed up, he brought a large group with him. I was surprised to see Zeno was there. He'd missed the beginning of the school year and he wouldn't be able to start graduate work this semester, not after he missed a whole week, plus all the orientations for the grad students. Someone else had already been chosen to do his TA work. He was in the communications department like me. We were both studying public relations, so I knew all about the kerfuffle when his sister brought word he wouldn't be there on time. He was lucky that I'd saved his butt from losing his stipend for the first semester.

Professor Kamulchek was the head of the communications program. Last year she’d witnessed a group of undergraduate mages performing an unsanctioned ritual in one of the classrooms after hours. They hadn’t checked to make sure the building was completely empty, so they didn’t know that she was still in her office, filling out paperwork for some internships with Ohio’s Congressional delegation. The students were trying to bestow human level intelligence on Sir Meowsalot, an old tabby cat who had taken to slipping inside the Student Union and laying claim to student lunches, meowing loudly until he was given a share.

The students should have known better. Professor Kamulchek had been drawn to the chanting, and I had felt the changing of the numina flow all the way from Baylor Hall. She got there before I did. Luckily for the students, they didn’t lose control over the magic. The cat wasn’t possessed by a wandering spirit or demon. There was no explosion of energy to engulf the room and set everyone on fire. And professor Kamulchek hadn’t gone into crisis when she was forced to see beyond the Velamen Arcanum. It could lead to complete withdrawal from the world, attempted suicide, or much worse. I had seen this happen, most recently when Erik Rucker went into crisis. After he’d been accidentally cursed by Alonzo, he’d become traumatized when he could no longer ignore the fact that he’d grown eleven inches in height. He’d almost withdrawn completely, but I secured a dangerous alchemical treatment from Jason to hold the breakdown at bay until I could talk him through his crisis.

It turned out that she was one of the few mundanes who could see the real world and not go insane. The issue arose when she was unwilling to swear to the Concordium, which meant that she could reveal the secret. She claimed that she was an honorable person, and her word could be trusted. But, because I had a higher certification in enchantment than either Professor Thorne or Dean Montrose, I had to take care of the problem.

I felt super guilty when they sent me to bind her will. I could have used the same binding I later used on Mr. Blackwell, but she had never shown any interest in me and I wasn’t about to attempt a seduction and bind her with sex. That would have been a whole different level of creepy, for both of us. Instead, I had to choose a different seal for the spell. So long as she didn’t refrain from coffee for a whole month, she’d remain enthralled. And the way she drank coffee, there was no chance of that happening. In fact, I was considering switching her to decaf to keep her from developing stomach trouble…

Of course, all her protestations about her honor and integrity were smoke and mirrors. When I bound her will to mine, I ordered her never to share information on the magical world with mundanes and to do her best to protect the secret of magic and the secrets of the conclave. Essentially, I used a mental binding to make her do what she would have sworn to do under the oath.

That’s when she showed me the folder on her computer. It had all the records she’d compiled on mages and other magical beings on campus after she broke through the velamen arcanum. She’d given her word, but she’d been planning on reporting what she’d seen earlier. Apparently, her cousin worked for the NSA in Washington, and she thought it was her patriotic duty to inform the government.  My guilt over binding her was alleviated, and I made sure to give her several more specific instructions. I hoped these actions would make it unnecessary for the custodes to take more severe action against her. When it came to mundanes, they preferred quick and efficient solutions and that could have been fatal for her.

The students were all brought up on disciplinary charges, but Dean Montrose had been so impressed with their work that he chose to keep it out of the hands of the custodes. He set them to strengthen all the magical wards and make magical repairs across campus. They had very little free time for the last two months of their senior year.

As for Sir Meowsalot, he still lived in Dean Montrose’s house. WIth his newfound power of speech and understanding, he’d learned how to read and to play chess. Of course, we swore him to both the Conclave and the Concordium.

That was a long way to go to explain why I had enough control over Professor Wilma Kamulchek to convince her to allow Zeno to delay his start of class until next semester, and to keep his stipend intact. He’d have to wait until next semester to collect it, but he’d still get it.

Dawn and Meghan sat between Jason and Nico, while Zeno, Drew and Xav took the places between Clarissa and Nico. Zeno looked good, as always, with his dark hair and Mediterranean features. He'd supported himself as an undergraduate by dancing at the Blue Room and I had slipped more than my fair share of bills into his thong. I knew that he and Dawn were brother and sister, and I had no idea what the exact relationship was between the siblings and Drew, only that Drew seemed to be boyfriend to both Zeno and Dawn. And Xav was... Xav. He sat quietly in his cutoff jeans shorts and tee shirt and managed to radiate as much power as Dr. Thorne. I wasn't as familiar with Meghan, but I'd heard she was an excellent fighter, and I knew she was one of the female alphas in the Severan Pack. Her aura seemed powerful and a little dangerous.

The tension in the room was palpable, and it was Professor Thorne who broke it. She stood up and tapped her wand and chanted, "In nominibus numinum magnorum quattuor partum orbis mundi, cambra scuto arcano defendatur; invoco genios terrae; invoco genios aquae; invoco genios ignis; invoco genios aeris."

As she invoked the guardian spirits of the elements, candles flared to life in the corners of the room and the space seemed enclosed, separated from the mundane world. I watched the faces of the others in the room. The mages all recognized a simple warding ritual. The versipelles all looked to Xav and seemed reassured by his nod. Nico sat stoically. I knew that he respected the power of the spirit talker almost as much as the versipelles did.

"Now that we have been properly warded," Professor Thorne said, "let us make introductions. I am Sybil Thorne, and as some of you know, I am the representative of the Conclave here in Severan, not an official Dirigent, just holding down the position until the Conclave chooses someone. My right and left hands are Sebastian Trent and Clarissa Spencer. I have asked Jason Lee to join us as the only alchemist in town who is fully licensed and accredited, and Domenic Chase who may be able to provide a fey perspective on the issues at hand."

Then she gestured at Drew who stood and began to speak in his less formal style. "I'm Andrew Janowski, better known as Drew, and I'm the leader of the pack here in Severan. Sitting with me are Xavier Janowski, the spirit talker of our pack, and Zeno Schiller who holds responsibility for the members of the pack who live in town. Across from me sit Dawn Schiller, the leader of the females of the pack and Meghan Connelly, who is responsible for pack security."

"Thank you," Professor Thorne said. "I have called this meeting so that we can share information about the threat that seems to be hanging over us all. I hope that we can work together to provide a united front against this and other threats that may arise. I would like to hold regular meetings of this committee, either weekly or biweekly so that we can continue to coordinate our actions and provide safety for all our people."

Then everyone took turns sharing information. I made a mental summary of the incidents that had prompted this meeting, most of which I already knew. A group of hunters had gone to great effort to ambush the Severan Pack during their sacred hunt of the blood moon. They'd come onto campus, and they'd abducted a mundane student, Simon, to use as bait to lure the versipelles into a trap. That group of hunters had been well-prepared, but none of them had escaped. The pack had seen to that.

Jason spoke about the second incident. “A man who wasn’t even a student here at Severan lay in wait for my luantong Kieran in the common area of the Psychology and Sociology building. He must have planned his attack ahead of time because he’d rearranged the flowerpots to give him some privacy. I do not wish to go into detail about the ways in which he violated my luantong but suffice it to say that I ensured he was suitably punished.”

Drew leaned forward and asked, “Are you sure that the man wasn’t some pervert who decided to force himself on Kieran? He is, as you are aware, very handsome.”

Jason collected himself and then spoke again. “Kieran is the sun, the moon, and the stars. It’s my honor that he has chosen to give himself to me, but no one would have risked what I did to him just for the thrill of touching him.”

Dawn leaned forward to speak. “Okay. I have to know. I’ve heard rumors, but…?”

Jason replied. “I used a powder that combined the effects of a blinding powder and a glossal engorgement.”

Clarissa actually cracked a smile at that. She said, “Interestingly enough, no one was able to reverse the effect. I tried the Disiunctio Maior, and Professor Thorne tried the Reductio ad Initionem.”

Jason replied calmly, “I used a fractional distillation of moly arcanum to make it more difficult to remove. When I use alchemy to punish a transgressor, I have no desire to see my good work undone.”

Drew interrupted again. He was laughing and shaking his head at Jason’s intensity. “But how do we know he was more than he seemed?”

I stood up and said, “As Jason said, the man wasn’t in our records at tall. Neither did he have a record with the police. In fact, officer Camilla Lester, one of ours, couldn’t find a police record of any kind. We had to turn him over to the police, but then a few hours later he was picked up by agents who presented identification from the FBI. Since she was suspicious, officer Lester checked his record again. Suddenly he had a list of charges ranging from petty theft to transporting drugs across the state boundary.”

Everyone seemed satisfied that the incident was more than it seemed. I was still disturbed by the whole affair. I was convinced that he had been used as a stalking horse to draw out mages and see what we could do.

Jason was speaking again, so I turned my attention to him. “Later, Kieran was lured out of Baylor Hall and taken off campus where he was subjected to harassment by a local minister. One attack on my luantong could have been a fluke.”

He had to be talking about the assault on Kieran by Kyle. That couldn’t have been related, but Jason was obsessed when it came to Kieran. He continued. “The second attack could have been a coincidence, but three attacks made a pattern. And this final attack found my luantong in church while armed men with night vision equipment and X22:18 tattoos surrounded the building. They too were waiting to see who came to rescue him.”

Zeno asked, “Why do you think your boy has become the center of this attention?”

Jason shrugged and said, “We may not know until we catch one of them and are able to question them in an official capacity.”

Suddenly, everything clicked into place. I stood up and nodded for Jason to sit down. “Kieran has been seen in close company with Darren, one of the alpha wolves, Jason, a mage, and Kyle, a close associate of Domenic Chase, our local elf. He’s connected to all the major supernatural groups in one way or another.”

That’s when Nico stood up and said, “I was attacked in the dorms by assassins who knew how to defeat me. If it hadn’t been for the courage of a young werewolf named Benjy, I could have been killed.”

Zeno was the last to share. He told how he had been following a trail of destroyed werewolf safehouses and redoubts, with few survivors in each. His last stop had been Middlebourne, West Virginia, where he'd found a handful of survivors and brought them back to Severan. He confessed that the inside information the hunters had access to had made him suspect mage involvement at first, but then he'd tasted vampire blood in the system of one of the hunters he'd killed.

This last incident got everyone talking over one another. The werewolves and the vampires had been fighting a brutal battle for decades here in North America. The werewolf packs had been allied with the Conclave of Mages for most of the history of the United States. The alliance had been based on the animosity both groups felt for the vampires. Powerful mages led commando raids deep into territory controlled by the Blood Courts and they used werewolves to supply the physical power to back-up their magic.

All that changed in the year 2000 when the Conclave discovered a cancer growing in their midst. It came out that a conspiracy of mages had been brewing for decades. They were planning to allow a strange entity from beyond to manifest in our world, bringing madness and death on a large scale. The ultimate aims of the conspiracy were either unknown or kept under wraps by the conclave, but it was rumored to have something to do with an ancient prophecy involving “a new ordering of the ages”, whatever that really meant.

Most people assumed that the conspirators planned to use the ensuing chaos to gain control over the conclave and then the rest of the magical world. Among the traitors were some of the most well-known mage supremacists, versipellis haters and reactionary families in the nation. During the Uprising and the following Suppression, as the prosecution was called, we lost some of our most ancient families completely. The Fifty Families, the closest thing we mages had to an aristocracy, was reduced to thirty-seven. Mages being mages, they were still called… The Fifty Families.

This conspiracy was known as the Millenium Uprising. And it had shaken our society to its core. In order to focus on rooting out the last remnants of the conspiracy, the Conclave had signed a treaty with the Blood Courts. The versipelles declined to join with us, preferring to continue their attempts to wipe out every vampire nest they could find.

There weren’t enough custodes to hunt down both vampires and the conspirators. The treaty allowed the conclave to concentrate on the conspiracy first. There was actual peace for the first time ever, and it had served its purpose. There hadn’t been a sign of the Millenium Conspirators for almost twenty years.

It shamed me to say that we mages hadn’t consulted with our werewolf allies before making peace with the vampires. We’d just expected them to follow our lead like the good lap dogs we ultimately saw them as. They’d never been as organized as we were and they were left exposed, especially those who refused to stop attacking the vampires. While mage society began to rebuild rapidly, with the constant fear of vampire attacks diminished, the packs had been suffering attacks since then. The Blood Courts denied responsibility, but we all knew the truth. I feared that we were headed toward an all-out war. Again.

The presence of some of the hunters with X22:18 tattoos, working closely with other agents hopped up on vampire blood, made those of us in the know think that the Blood Courts could be preparing some new assault, whether covert or open, against both of their traditional rivals. Truth was that no one trusted the vampires, and the vampires didn’t really trust us, regardless of the treaty. Several times a year, there would be an article in the Arcane Observer, the largest mage newspaper in the USA, claiming that the treaty was bound to fail. I read an editorial just last month urging the Conclave to take a more aggressive stance because it was so much easier for the vampires to build up their numbers than it was for us.

After discussing the issues, everyone agreed to work on solutions to the problem and to coordinate their efforts. It was agreed that the full committee would meet every other weekend, but that a smaller committee would meet twice a week.

As we were leaving, I cornered Jason. "The professor is going to want you on the committee," I said. "If you want to avoid the semi-weekly meetings, you're going to have to be willing to take direction from me."

"I don't have time to meet twice a week," he said. "I'm going to be producing a lot of alchemical weapons. I have Kieran to protect, as well as Erik and Alonzo. And I hate politics, so I have no choice except to trust you, but I won't fall in line with any decision that leaves my own people exposed."

"I get it, Jason," I replied. "I'll try to find you some space where you can work more efficiently. We're not really set up for this yet. But if they're protected by moly unguents, we're going to need weapons that can get past that."

"And this is why alchemy is more powerful than spellcraft in most battles," he said. "I'll need some assistants who can follow an alchemical formulation exactly. Any graduate of the academy who earned a certificate in alchemy after my aunt took over the position should be good. Older mages who earned an expertus certification should also work."

I just smiled and told him that I'd do what I could. The arrogant prick had just implied that anyone who'd studied under Magister Stern, the old alchemy master, was likely to be incompetent unless they'd earned the highest certification. The thing that really pissed me off was that he was more or less correct. The addition of Ms. Miranda DiCanzio (the aunt in question) to the staff changed the alchemical instruction at the Academy in numerous ways, making the certification equivalent to a professional degree. Most mages were in favor because the new program trained mages to enter the field upon graduation instead of following a lengthy post-graduate apprenticeship, but there were some who viewed the more practical focus as if it were turning the Academy into a technical school instead of an institute for theory and practice. Of course, those who studied under Magistra DiCanzio had a greater theoretical knowledge in addition to the practical, hands-on approach.

When I'd started, all we were doing was making alchemical soaps and basic candle crafting. I was one of the few students who’d finished my studies under the old alchemy master who’d earned an expertus certification. And it hadn’t been easy. While Magister Stern was undoubtedly brilliant, he just wasn’t a very good teacher. He taught us easy stuff and spent the rest of his time trying to develop new elixirs.

Most students had squeaked by with dignus certification, or even a practicalis. And I probably would have as well if it weren’t for my stubborn persistence, many very late nights and a collection of the complete Formularia Aemiliana of Minerva Aemialiana, thanks to my family’s extensive personal library. In mundane terms, I’d earned an A. Most had earned a C or a D.

Healers were the most likely to hold a high certification in alchemy, and they were all going to be busy with other matters. Help would have to come from the younger mages. I’d have to check their certifications.

I went back to my room and put my stuff away. It was time for me to make sure that Ethan got some lunch. I pulled out my Tabulum Arcanum. It looked like a leatherbound Royal octavo journal, ten inches by six and a half inches. Inside was a series of pages. In the front was all the personal information that I cared to share with the magical community. I kept it minimal, unlike some other mages who used one. No one needed to know my favorite authors, musicians, or to see a list of my friends.

I loved the Tabulum Arcanum and it was worth the somewhat outrageous cost charged by the Manos Company. Mine would even allow me to send the magical equivalent of a video message and could be used like a Speculum Arcanum to communicate with other mages. These devices were just two examples of how the magical world benefited from the engineering genius of the mundane world. Whenever mundanes invented something that made life easier in ways that the magical community hadn’t thought of, some enterprising mage would figure out how to make a magical equivalent. It’s how an old, but undistinguished, family like the Manos’s could become wealthy and influential overnight. Taken together, the Tabulam and the Speculum allowed mages to stay in touch, like with the magical version of a computer and a cellphone.

Mages were inherently conservative, and it was difficult to get them to embrace something new unless it seemed comfortably familiar to something they already loved. It was why the Tabulum Arcanum looked like a book, right down to pages that flipped. But aside from the front page which had the index and a list of notifications, the pages could be moved around. They were more like tabs in an internet browser. If you touched the stylus to your messages, the pages flipped to the message page. If you touched the calendar, it flipped to the calendar page. It was convenient because it allowed you to work on one page without affecting another. Of course, there were rumors that a new model was being developed that would look very much like a tablet computer and function the same way. That would appeal to some of the younger crowd, especially the maginovelli.

I used the wand shaped stylus attached to the book to choose the calendar, and the pages flipped to the relevant section. When I touched today's date, the page flipped to another calendar with an hourly view. I used the wand to rearrange the scheduled events so that I would have some time to spend with the boy.

Then I went back to the front page and noticed that I had some new conversations. I went to those pages and read the messages. My mother had sent me a message saying she was sorry she hadn't seen me yesterday when I was at the house, and that she hoped to be introduced to the handsome blond boy I'd brought with me. That was her normal way of reminding me that we hadn't seen each other in a while.

I had some short comments from friends, checking up on me and inviting me to some events that I wouldn't have time for, given that I was working and most of them were enjoying gap years that I knew would stretch into indefinite indolence. Many of them were wealthy and lazy. One of my female friends was dating a Russian mage and spent a lot of time talking about him. One of my male friends had spent a sex-filled weekend with an extraordinarily handsome prince from the UAE. Like me he usually preferred mundane partners. He included some graphic pictures, porn really. Judging from the look in the prince's eyes he was either stoned or charmed.

I shook my head and reminded myself that I was glad my parents expected me and my siblings to do something with our lives. Many of my Academy friends lacked ambition for anything other than the hedonism money and magical power could bring. Sometimes I almost understood why the hunters targeted us.

Ethan's door was locked, like I'd asked, so I knocked. I threw an invisibility glamor around myself to see if he would follow instructions. He did not. He tentatively opened the door and looked around. There was no one in the hallway, so I waved my wand and chanted captatur teniis homines irruptabilibus!

Four translucent ribbons flew out of my wand. Only Oliver reacted quickly enough to block the spell. The other three were bound head to toe and could barely move. I pointed my wand at Oliver and chanted mea tuum animum volentia superet!

Now under my control, Oliver turned his wand to point at the other boys. I came in and shut the door. "Textilis arcana dissolveatur," I said, and all the spells ended, including the glamor that had shielded me from their sight. "If I were an enemy, boys, you would all be in major trouble right now," I said. "When I say not to open the door unless you know who's there, I wasn't joking around. We have hunters on the prowl, and you need to follow some basic precautions. Good work with the warding spell, Oliver, but you should have followed up with the dissolutio spell, like I did, or maybe something that would affect the area in front of the door. You must have seen that was the origination point for the binding spell I used."

Oliver looked at me like I'd just kicked his puppy. I guessed he didn't like to be chastised. "Hunters don't have mages with them," he said sullenly.

I shrugged and said, "Until that one time that they do. What if they're working with vampires?"

"Hunters hate vampires too!" he said. "They'd never work for vampires."

"Unless they were dominated or blood-bound," I replied.

It was Oliver who jumped to the right conclusion. His face lit up with deeper understanding. He was probably the smartest of the twink trio, in addition to being the most socially clueless.

"Are you telling us that the hunters are working with vampires now?" he asked.

I put my wand away and said, "I don't know right now, but I do know that I'd feel terrible if anything happened to any of you because I'd failed to teach you properly. This isn't the Academy; Severan College is not hidden from mundane sight in a warded location. You're interacting with the real world here, and there are dangers you must be aware of."

They seemed mollified, but then Oliver piped up. "Not everyone knows a spell to see through doors. Do you have any more of those scrying mirrors?"

"Not yet," I said. "I'll speak to Professor Thorne about getting some. Now who's up for lunch?"

I hadn't planned on taking all of them, but I felt they needed it. They’d been working hard all morning and they were ready to eat. I'd take them to Pappy's Pizza. They had subs and sandwiches as well as pizza. I knew that Oliver was a vegetarian and Micah wasn't supposed to eat pork. I wondered when I'd become Dad to all of them. Last year's freshmen hadn't seemed this young.

Ethan sat in the passenger seat and the twink trio sat in the back. They didn't seem to mind being squeezed together. It wasn’t a tight squeeze for the three of them back there, and they were extremely close friends. Once we got to Pappy's, I took their orders and sent them to the video games. One thing young mages couldn’t seem to get enough of was video games, especially if they came from an old-fashioned family that didn't have much modern technology at home. And their seven years at the Academy would have been video game free in any event. There was no electricity or wifi anywhere in the town of Sagacia. Mundanes had never been allowed in the town, so it had missed modern conveniences, such as electricity. It was in a magically shielded valley, deep in the Appalachians, so there was no wifi either. Without modern technology, everything was powered by magic. They looked and acted so much like kids that I worried about the possibility of any of them getting hurt this year. I wondered if Drew felt the same about his own younger pack members. Some of them were as innocent as these boys.

Lunch was good except that I'd planned to sit at a booth and flirt with Ethan while we ate. I loved the way he blushed when I put my hands on his legs in public. This wasn't the lunch date I had hoped for, but it was the lunch date I had. Seeing Ethan run around with the twink trio made me feel like a dirty old man even though I was only 24. There was a pair of bearded guys watching the boys a little too closely for my comfort, but I didn't think they were hunters; they looked more like chicken hawks to me. I kept an eye on them until lunch arrived. Everyone had sandwiches except for Oliver who had a small cheese pizza.

During lunch Micah got a strange expression on his face and whispered, "I just received a sending from my Uncle Mordecai. He wants me to come and visit him at his house here in town. I need to give him an answer."

"I don't know a Mordecai Blume," I said. "Are you sure it was from him?"

"He's my mom's brother," the boy said. "His name is Mordecai Adler, and..."

"The Mordecai Adler, the custos who brought down Robardin Corbeau during the Millennium Uprising?" I said, visibly impressed. "He's your uncle?"

"Yes, sir," Micah said, with some pride. "Mom probably asked him to check up on me too." He didn't seem excited about the last statement.

"Tell him that I'll drive you," I said.

I was a little giddy myself. I'd had a crush on Mordecai Adler when I was a kid. I was only two years old during the Millennium Uprising, but Mordecai – Mr. Adler, as I'd known him – was a frequent guest at grandmother's house. I thought he was so handsome, with his square jaw, light brown skin, and broad shoulders. He looked every inch the hero that he was. Sometimes he would hold me on his lap and tell stories about the uprising. Details of the fearsome aberrations the conspirators had summoned from someplace beyond the nine worlds easily scared my younger self. He said they were used to help protect their strongholds after their leader had been defeated. I remembered how Uncle Mordecai was convinced they’d become even more dangerous once they’d lost the war and they were holed up to regroup.

My dad was also a custos, but he hadn't been in Tyanaport to help quell the coup. That was the center of the Millenium Uprising, and from all accounts it was a strange place. It wasn’t a magical city, but it did have a surprising number of pact mages, those who drew their power not from study or inborn talent, but from the oaths they made to powerful archfae, demons, devils, or other magical beings. Instead of conspirators, he'd been hunting vampires in the five boroughs of New York. Mages and vampires both had members who didn’t believe in the treaty. New York was mage territory, and the vampires dwelling there were accustomed to disregarding the Blood Courts and following their own plans. At least the treaty had effectively cut off their support from down south.

Uncle Mordecai had stopped holding me on his lap once I turned eleven. Looking back, that was too bad since that was when I would have started appreciating it.

After lunch we all stopped by Mr. Adler's house. He'd purchased a nice house on Cooper Street, one of the old houses built for past college presidents. It was a three-story house made of red brick with an octagonal turret on the front. I parked in the drive, in front of the garage, and we all got out of the car. Mr. Adler opened his own door, so he didn't have servants yet. I was standing in front with Micah. Ethan was standing behind me with his hand in my back pocket, making me wonder if he'd ever seen any prison movies.

"Micah," he said, then he held out his hand and added, "Sebastian Trent, haven't you grown up? Come in boys, all of you."

We followed him into a living room with very little furniture in it. He must not have moved in completely yet. "I'm hoping to catch up with my nephew this afternoon, but I am pleased to meet all of you, and to see you again, Sebastian," he said.

We chatted for a little while before I could ask the question that was most on my mind. "So, what brings you to Severan, Mr. Adler," I asked. "If you're buying a house, you must be planning on staying for a while."

"I am," he replied. "I decided to come here after Sybil Thorne's first report on the troubles in these parts. I believe you were the one who wrote the section about the hunters trying to kill the Severan Pack?"

"Yes, sir," I said. "That issue was taken care of by the pack."

"I'm not questioning your conclusions, son," he said. "Let’s just say that my suspicions were raised last week when I read it, and when I chatted with Sybil last night, she told me of some of the other incidents. I convinced the magistrate in charge of the custodes that we needed a permanent presence here in Serveran. As you may know, I enjoy a mundane post with the FBI as well as my position in the Custodia. The Bureau has reassigned me as an analyst for now, so I left a simulacrum of myself to cover my tasks in the office. No one will know the difference since the doppelganger cannot perform magic. Do you know the Simulatio Maxima Optimaque spell?"

I shook my head. “Sorry, sir, that’s a very advanced spell and magical creation is my grandmother’s specialty.”

He patted my shoulder. “You should learn it. It comes in handy when you need to be in more than one place at a time.”

I said, "It's a relief to have someone like you in town, sir. Are you planning on keeping an eye on Micah while you're here as well?"

He laughed with a deep resonant sound that made me feel weak in the stomach. "Don't worry about that, son. Rachel promised you a stipend and you'll get it. I don't have time to watch over his schooling with everything else I've got to do. I'm just here to reconnect with my nephew, and to lend a helping hand if you need me to act as parens in loco parentis for Micah here. That's right boy, you may be eighteen now, but your mother wants me to spank your butt if Sebastian says you're slacking off."

Micah visibly blanched; Cameron giggled; and Oliver muttered under his breath, "Spanking isn't a punishment for Micah."

We chatted for a bit more, then we took our leave. I’d been a little insulted by Mordecai’s implication that I needed the money. I doubted that Conclavia Blume could afford to pay me enough cash compared to the stipend I was already receiving from the family trust. It wasn’t her money I wanted. It was her favor. I made up my mind right then to keep all the money she gave me and give it to Micah when he graduated as a gift.

Mr. Adler insisted that Micah stay with him tonight, that he'd take him back to school before classes on Monday. The most intriguing thing that came up was Mr. Adler implying that Severan was getting big enough to have its own hermetic lodge. That meant that the Conclave had definite plans for the town. Reading between the lines, I got the impression that he was looking for more property to buy so there would be some available "just in case some more mages decided to move in". It sounded to me like this was a plan, not a contingency. Maybe I’d buy myself a house.

 

Micah

Uncle Mordecai always made me feel weak and small. It wasn't just that he was a big man, with a powerful build. It was his personality. It always threatened to overwhelm me. All my siblings said that I was his favorite because he spent a lot of time holding me on his lap when he was over at the house. But I knew that he held Jonathon on his lap sometimes too. When they'd turned eleven, Uncle Mordecai had David sit next to him on the couch and Jonathon, his twin brother, on David’s lap. I'd always thought that was funny since the boys were identical twins. And it wasn’t until David began acting like Uncle Mordecai that I really noticed how attractive he was.

Once Sebastian, Ethan, Cameron, and Oliver had left, Uncle Mordecai sat down on the divan. I was standing there nervously looking around, until he slapped his leg and said, "Come on, Micah, come sit with me."

There was room to sit next to him, but he pulled me down onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me. "Merlin's staff, boy," he said, lifting my chin up so that he could look into my eyes. "You're a pretty thing, skinny but not bony. You look a lot like your dad, you know."

He often made comments like that about my dad. Sometimes, when he thought no one was looking, he'd play around and pinch my dad's butt like he did mine, making him jump. I did look like my dad in our facial features, stature and build, but Dad’s skin was fair, and his hair was such a light brown that it was almost blond. He even had light eyes, a pale green. My dark olive skin tone was almost exactly halfway between my dad’s and my mother’s much darker skin.

In the magical world, we didn’t have racial prejudice. All our bigotry was directed toward mundanes and versipelles. But outside of the magical world, our mages of African heritage, Jews and Gentiles alike, families such as the Adlers, the Moras, the Carters, the Jacksons, the Fontaines and so many others had to face mundane bigotry. Like most mage families, we were Hermetic Unitarians, but we kept a lot of Jewish cultural traditions. It was why we didn’t eat pork.

Uncle Mordecai turned my face with his hand so he could see my profile. Then he turned it back to face him. "My son Remy says that you're a submissive little gay boy," he said. "Is that true?"

"No sir!" I said, thinking that he would think worse of me if he knew the truth.

Uncle Mordecai squeezed my hard dick through my pants. "Dragonshit," he replied. "Your hard little prick says it all. You're more like your father than I knew. I saw the signs when you were little, but I wanted to hear you admit it to me."

Uncle Mordecai stood me up in front of him and held my hips in his strong grip. A chill ran through my body. I had an urge to drop to my knees and confess to him all my most submissive fantasies.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I could feel him opening the waistband of my shorts while we spoke. "My dad's not submissive, and he's not gay. He's married to my mom, and they have five children."

My pants came open and Uncle Mordecai pulled them down over my hips and let them fall to the ground. He flicked my hard cock through my briefs. I was regretting wearing those briefs. They were cut high on the leg and the pouch was small in the front.

"Do you know what a chastity ring is?" he asked, ignoring my statement.

I shook my head. "No, sir." I hadn't heard of one exactly, but I could guess. I had access to the internet after all and it sounded like what I'd heard called a chastity cage.

"It's a magic ring that fits around the base of your cock," he said, pulling my briefs down and revealing my bouncing boner. He wrapped his fingers around the base and closed them, encircling my cock completely. "When it's on, it can only be removed by the person who put it on, and it keeps you from cumming. Some of them keep you from getting hard at all."

My cock twitched a little and he smiled. "I see you like the idea. Your dad has worn one since he started the Academy. He was a submissive little sixth grade boy and I was a sophomore. I locked him up before the end of September. To the best of my knowledge, he's only been unlocked five times since then."

I did the math in my head. I had four older siblings. It was like Uncle Mordecai could read my mind. "That's right boy. Five times he's been allowed to get an erection, and he sired five children. Each time with my dick up his ass."

Uncle Mordecai was still holding my cock with one hand and stroking my hole with the other. I had no idea what to think. This was the strangest thing that had ever happened to me. In my wildest imagination, I’d never dreamed of a situation like this. I wanted him to stop, but I also wanted him to go on. My body wanted the latter, but my mind was wishing that it was Cameron who had taken control of me like this, who was marking his claim without even bothering to ask first.

His deep voice resonated in my ears. "I've been telling my sister for years that you were a submissive like your father. She agreed that you probably were. It was obvious to anyone who knew what to look for. You and Jonathon. In many ways, you two were more like twins than him and David.”

I didn’t say anything. My arousal was growing minute by minute. He held my cock tight, but it was his other hand, the one rubbing my hole, that was making my breath turn ragged and catch in my throat.

“I told her that I wouldn't take you unless you begged me for it. Of course, she told me to keep my hands off, that it was creepy and wrong to touch my nephew like this. What do you think? Do you want me to stop?”

I was so excited I wanted to scream. I could cum any minute now. “No! Or… yes. I don’t know. Isn’t it creepy and wrong?”

He laughed. “The fact that it’s creepy and wrong is what makes it so exciting.”

He let go of me and smiled. “I’m going to stop now. I won’t touch you anymore unless you beg me to do it. But your cousin Remy may not be so nice. He's had his eye on you since you first came to the Academy. I know that he's done everything but fuck you. And you should know that he's going to be here soon. He's going to keep records for me in an official capacity, so he'll be working here in Severan."

I didn't know what to say. This was a total surprise to me. I never dreamed I'd be standing naked from the waist down in my uncle's house with him holding my dick and stroking my butt and I never dreamed that I’d be getting an offer like this. My relationship with Remy was… intense and frightening. He’d taken control of me and he’d… he hadn’t given me any choice.

Uncle Mordecai stood up and pulled my shirt off, leaving me naked except for my Serapis medallion. He sat back down and pulled me onto his lap. "You don't have to answer right now. This is an important decision for you, and you can't jump into it without considering the ramifications."

"Thank you, sir. I am submissive. I know that. I let Remy dominate me for five years at the Academy, but I have friends now and we... you know... we mess around, and I'm not sure I want to give that up."

He asked, "Do you mean Sebastian? No, that little blond boy is Sebastian's. I could see that clearly enough. Do you mean the little twink and the redheaded twink who were with you? Can you tell me that either of them can give you what you need?"

I thought about all the times I'd sucked Cameron and Oliver's cocks, and they'd sucked mine. We’d had two years at the Academy after Remy left. And we’d been together this first week of school. It wasn’t what I wanted. What I wanted was to be sitting naked on Cameron’s lap. But it was still something I wanted.

Oliver had talked about fucking me in his usual logical way. It didn’t sound like it would be romantic. He was so fixated on the proper techniques and reading everything he could get his hands on. But Oliver talked everything to death before he ever tried anything new. And Cameron flirted with me so often that I kept expecting him to take me in his arms and just do it. Something was holding him back. I’d even considered calling him over to my room and meeting him at the door naked. I would jump into his arms and just say “Fuck me, Cameron!” But I couldn’t do that. I was submissive. I wanted… no, I needed him to make the decision.

And then there was Remy. I had no doubt that he was going to fuck me if I accepted his offer. I kept expecting him to do it back at the Academy, but he’d said that he preferred to wait until I was older. It wasn’t like him to restrain himself, so I suspected it was his father who made him wait.

"I don’t know, sir," I admitted, "But I also want to be able to cum. Are you telling me that my dad never gets to cum?"

Uncle Mordecai chuckled. "I told Vicky that I was going to tell you everything, so I will. Your father wears a ring that allows him to cum but prevents him from getting an erection without an order from his ringmaster. When he begged me to put it on him, he gave up control to me completely. From that point on, I have decided when he will cum.”

I exhaled slowly. “And why did he marry my mother?”

He smiled. “Because I told him to, of course. My sister and I had shared him in the past. She wanted to have children and she wanted a husband who wouldn’t bother her when she wanted to be left alone.

"So, Dad is really yours? What about Aunt Myrtle and my mom?" I asked, more confused than ever.

"Surely you understand that your mother prefers women, and so does my wife Myrtle," he explained. "It's too bad that they aren't in love with one another. The symmetry would be perfect. But it worked out anyway. Everything worked out perfectly for us until your mother was named the Dirigent of Mobile. She took your father away from me. Man, how we argued. She had him and I didn’t. She didn’t want him sexually and I did. She wanted him to take care of the kids, the house, the admin of it all, and I couldn’t argue with that because I loved you all so much. I had no choice but to make time in my schedule to travel to Alabama. You must have noticed that I was there at least once a week."

"Okay," I said. "Then Dad is your boyfriend, even though he's married to mom. And mom and Aunt Myrtle both have girlfriends, but they're not girlfriends to each other."

He kissed me, just a brush of his lips against mine, more than was proper between an uncle and his nephew, but less than a man would give his boy. "Yes, boy. You're almost right. By magical contract, your father is mine, not your mother’s. When he graduated from the Academy, he became my property. That was his choice. He voluntarily became mine, but he did sign a contract that has no validity whatsoever in the mundane world. Even the mage courts won't enforce it, but the contract itself is a magical oath in written form. It’s a spell that’s sealed by the signatures of the parties involved. That kind of contract has power in the magical world."

"And you want me to be your slave?" I asked.

He said, "If you want to give in to your submissive side, you will need to ask a master to take your contract. Are you prepared to see what I mean?"

I nodded yes, wondering what he was going to do to me. But he didn't touch me. He sat me down on the divan next to him and called out, "Vicky, come here."

My father, Victor, came into the room, crawling on his hands and knees. He was completely naked except for a body harness with a sheath that held his wand. I'd never seen my father naked before, but he still looked good for a man in his forties. He had a full head of hair, but he had no hair anywhere else on his body. And he had more muscles than I thought he would, with not an ounce of fat to be seen anywhere. When he'd crawled in front of the divan, he spread his legs and held his back straight, putting his arms behind his head. He kept his eyes cast downward. I noticed his cock for the first time. It was small, probably smaller than mine, although mine was average size for a guy my height. It was hairless as the rest of his body, and it was limp. He had a metal ring around it.

Uncle Mordecai commanded in his gravelly voice. "Look up at us, Vicky."

My father raised his eyes. At first, I thought it was shame I saw on his face, but I quickly realized that it was fear. He was afraid of my reaction, afraid that I would be disgusted or reject him.

I knelt and put my arms around him. I'd grown to equal him in height last year. "It's okay, Dad. I love you and it doesn't matter to me."

Uncle Mordecai waved a hand in my father’s direction. "You may speak to your son, Vicky, like we discussed ahead of time. I'll leave you two alone for a while."

"Thank you, Master," my dad said, then he turned to me.

"And thank you, Son, for being so understanding even though this must have come as a shock to you. I always suspected you were like me, just like Jonathon. I wanted to reach out to you and tell you that it was okay if you were submissive like me, but I was forbidden to speak of it. I was worried about what your brother David would do. Once he turned fifteen, Uncle Mordecai had left him in charge of me when he was away. He sometimes teased me that he was going to take you as his slave, just like he did his twin Jonathon."

He looked me in the eye and he whispered, “David, Jonathan and almost everyone else I’ve ever met in my life is kinder than your cousin Remy.”

I said, "It was Remy who claimed me in school, Dad. I don't even remember saying yes. I just remember him telling me what to do and me doing it. It scared me, but I loved it, at least I loved it some of the time."

I kept remembering the other times, the times when he hit me or called me names. One time, he’d given me five swats with a paddle for every question I missed on an arcane history quiz covering the formation of the American Conclave back in colonial days. I scored a 64 and he gave me one hundred and eighty swats, sixty a night for three nights running.

Dad said, "It was the same with me. Only there was an added kink. Master Mordecai came to my parents. He gave them money for me, and my parents said yes. He bought me. It wasn't legal and it wasn't real in the same sense as the magical contract I signed, but it seemed real at the time."

I was a little shocked. “Your parents sold you to Uncle Mordecai?”

He smiled and shook his head. “They made me swear under oath that it was what I really wanted.”

I whispered, "Should I do it, Dad? I really want to submit to someone, but I’m not sure that it’s Remy I want. And I'm not sure about this slavery thing. What if I change my mind?"

Dad breathed deeply and said, "My contract requires my Master to ask me each year whether I want to renew. Every year I choose to remain his slave for another year, without fail. I've never thought about saying no."

"And you never get to cum or have an erection?" I asked. I was both embarrassed and excited to talk to my dad about such intimate details of his life.

Dad blushed. "My ring allows me to cum, but I don't get erections. You can cum with enough stimulation even when you don't get hard. I barely remember my last erection. It was the night you were conceived, eighteen years ago. I don't really miss it. Master Mordecai's cock is more than enough for me. If you do choose to become a slave, then Master Remy's cock had better be enough for you. Except for that one time each year, you won't have a choice, and then the choice is to stop being your master's slave or to continue. You don't get to pick and choose like slavery is an a la carte menu."

Uncle Mordecai came back into the room and my dad crawled over to him and kissed his feet. My uncle then told him to kneel, and Dad assumed the same position he had before, with his knees spread and his back straight, hands behind his neck.

"I have good news for you, Vicky," Uncle Mordecai said, gently stroking his cheek. "Your wife has agreed that it's time. Your children are all settled, and she doesn't need you to keep house for her anymore. She will be divorcing you and you will be living with me, like a slave should."

Dad was almost bouncing on his heels with excitement. He clasped his hands in front of him and kowtowed three times at Mordecai's feet. "You may speak, Vicky," my uncle said.

"I thank you, Master, for accomplishing this change," he said. "I've dreamed of this day since the first day you ordered me to move in with your sister. I've done my best to be a diligent slave to her, but it's not really the same."

"I am pleased that you're happy with the decision of your superiors, Vicky," he said. "And Remy will be able to join us tonight, so we will be a happy family. Think carefully, Micah. Tonight can be a night with a father, his son, his nephew, and his master. Or tonight can be a night with a father and his son, and their two slaves."

"I thought you said that it was a big decision and that I should think about it before making it?" I replied.

"Exactly," he said. "When Remy gets here, you can be wearing clothes and greet him as your cousin, or you can be naked and greet him on your knees, holding this cock ring in your teeth and greet him as your master. But the decision will only be for one week. Next Saturday, you will be able to make the same request for the rest of the month, then for two months, and so on. Once you've finished a year, and only then, will you be allowed to agree for an annual period. What will you do?"

 

Sebastian

I liked all the twinks I'd been babysitting today, but it was good to have some time alone with Ethan. He'd finished his homework sprawled across my bed while I finished my reports and wrote up a request for more door mirrors. They weren't very expensive in the grand scheme of things. If the budget wouldn't stretch that far, I'd order them myself for all the mages who couldn't see through a door. I tried not to be judgmental, but it wasn't that difficult a spell.

Then I watched Ethan for a while. He was concentrating on his work and didn't notice me staring at his butt. I thought about a simple spell to see through the cloth but decided that would be cheating since I was making him wait for sex with me. Besides, his little butt was round enough to show through the fabric. It was flexing while he was thinking about his math, and my mind was turning to dirty thoughts. These little twinks had no idea the effect they had on men.

A gentle chime sounded in my head. It was the message I'd been waiting for. When I sent my message, I marked it high priority, so my Tabulum notified me when I got a response. It was from Marvin. We have another injury right now, but Bruno can handle it. If you want me to examine the lightning boy I can go to his room.

I sent a message back saying: He's in my room. Come here to examine him.

I went over and sat on the bed, putting a hand on the delicious butt I'd been fantasizing about. Ethan looked over his shoulder at me and asked what I wanted. He was subconsciously batting his eyelashes. He looked expectant, like he was anticipating a request for sex. I probably shouldn't have touched his ass like that.

I replied, "Our mage healer is coming to look at your storm marks. He's going to need to examine you naked. Do you want me to stay or to go?"

He thought for a moment, then said, "I want you to stay. I'll probably embarrass myself and I don't want to do it in front of a stranger without some emotional support."

"Why do you think you'll embarrass yourself?" I asked, rubbing his butt.

He whispered, "I have an erection. I'm hard a lot, even if I... you know... masturbate."

He was blushing now. "We all get erections, Ethan. It's normal for guys. In fact, I have one right now."

He could see it since it was obvious from where I was sitting. He reached out his hand and asked, "Can I touch it?"

I grabbed his wrist. "I'm not going to have sex with you until your birthday."

He rolled over and I could see how obvious his erection was. For a small penis it was pressing hard against the cloth. I was saved from a long discussion by a knock at the door. Touching my glasses, I looked through the door and saw that it was Marvin. I pointed my wand and said, "Aperiatur porta."

The door swung open, and Marvin walked in. He addressed Ethan. "Hello, I'm Marvin Oswald, and you are?"

Ethan sat up and said, "I'm Ethan Lowry."

"I'm going to have to ask Sebastian to step out into the hallway while I examine you, because I need you to get undressed," he said.

Ethan shook his head. "I can't control myself sometimes and I want Sebastian here while you're examining me."

Marvin looked at me and said, "This is kind of irregular. What does he mean by not being able to control himself?"

"He gave Drew a shock when he touched him. Ethan says that my presence makes him calmer." I didn’t want to tell him that Ethan was embarrassed by his erection, and he needed me for emotional support.

Marvin gave us a shrug. "Your choice, Ethan. If you don't mind Sebastian seeing you naked, then I'll follow your wishes."

Ethan nodded and then stood up and took his clothes off. He had a rip in his underwear, where the band was separating from the shorts. I doubted he had money, so I was going to have to speak to him about his financial situation. If he needed help, I could offer to give him some money, or maybe I could repair his with magic. I would love to see him in something sexier than tighty whities. He was so small that I had to wonder if they made sexy briefs in such a small size. If I took him to Sub Rosa Subligaria in the Nexus, maybe he would decide to get some on his own.

Marvin said, "Shorts too, Ethan. I need to see you, ‘wand out’."

Ethan giggled nervously at that because his penis was hard and dripping when he pulled his tattered briefs off. Marvin added, "It's nothing I haven't seen before, although it is a very pretty virgula."

Marvin began to trace the silvery marks with his finger, following the lines where they curled and intertwined. They looked especially bright near his penis and Marvin jerked his finger back from Ethan's flesh with a start when a small electrical discharge snapped. Then he turned Ethan around and noted the same brightness and crackling of electricity in the small of his back, running down into the crevice between his muscly little cheeks. He pulled them apart and raised his eyebrows. I looked to see what he'd noticed, and I saw the marks were almost glowing, just like they were around his testicles on the front.

Marvin walked around so he could look Ethan in the eyes. "Let me guess. You were a virgin, and you had no marks at all. Then you had sex, the lines appeared, and you started giving off electrical shocks."

"Yes, sir," Ethan said, blushing a little.

Marvin traced the marks, “These lines run along the channels that carry magical energy through your body. These same channels carry sexual energy. When you were a virgin and your powers hadn't manifested, the channel flowed unobstructed, but just in a trickle. Let me guess again. You didn't start with something small, like a slow sensual massage. You jumped right in there and did something big, forcing the channels open in one thrust."

"Another boy gave me a blowjob," Ethan admitted.

"I can see from the intensity of the energy that's blocked in here," his fingers touched the groin area, "that you liked this boy, but didn't love him."

Ethan pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, then he nodded.

Marvin thought about it for a minute then said, "Okay, you caused a blockage in your energy channels and it's only getting worse. You've probably had an erection all morning, feeling like you were going to shock anyone who touched you."

Ethan cried, "I masturbated, but it didn't go down. It just hurt a little when I came."

"That makes sense. Unless you're a total narcissist, making love to yourself isn't going to help. You need someone you like, maybe even love, to help you break these blockages before they get worse."

I interrupted, "He's only seventeen. Are you saying that someone needs to fuck the boy to make him stop hurting?"

Marvin exclaimed, "Damn, Sebastian, have you ever heard of foreplay? Jumping right into anal sex could hurt Ethan and his partner. He needs someone, a person who feels the same way about him that he feels about them, to work up to that over the next few days – weeks would be better. Start off with masturbation and heavy petting, slowly work up to frot and then, maybe, oral. There are a lot of steps before you get to oral. Or anal."

He reached over and patted Ethan's head. "Sorry to be so crude, but I'm prescribing that you have sexual release with another person a couple times a week – daily would be better – until the blockages are cleared. Do you have someone who can do it for you?"

Ethan looked over at me and gave me an impish smile. "I think so.”

"We've got this handled, Marvin. Thank you," I said.

I was afraid that Marvin was going to make crude remarks about the difference in age between Ethan and myself. Nothing he could say could be worse than the thoughts I’d already had along those same lines. For some reason, Ethan seemed to have his mind set on me. When he'd first come into my room, he'd been leaning on Drew, but he'd quickly shifted his attention. And I was damn glad of it. I kept remembering his naked body dancing around the fire with Xav. I kept thinking about him sitting next to me in the carriage in the park.

"Good," Marvin said, seemingly missing the sexual tension in the room. More likely, he was ignoring it because of his professionalism. "And don't start any magical training until these blockages are clear enough. I'll need to check every day. Once the channels are flowing smoothly, he needs to release magical energy every day through spellwork, preferably beginning very slowly and simply. Similar to how we will be dealing with his sexual release. Don’t worry, Ethan, we'll get everything working right in no time."

Marvin called me out into the hallway while Ethan got dressed. He’d been coolly professional inside, but now he seemed a little angry, like he suspected that I was responsible for taking advantage of this boy and messing up his energy channels. "Are you the one who gave him a blowjob and got this ball rolling?"

I looked around and saw that the hallway was mostly empty, but I decided to do a privacy spell anyway. It wouldn't stop people from seeing us, or even hearing us, but it would make them pay no attention to us or anything we said.

"Not me," I said. "I like him a lot. It's too soon to call it love, but I'm more distracted by him than I have been by anyone in a long time."

It was more than a distraction. I think I was falling for him. I realized that, of course, the distraction was exacerbated because he was a mage. I'd avoided relationships with mages for years. When I was a teenager, I'd attracted a lot of older guys and they'd mainly wanted to have sex and then go back to their normal lovers, the ones they had things in common with. I'd been so enamored with all the attention that I'd allowed them to use me; I'd even been flattered by it. And then I'd met a guy who was closer to my age, but still older. He'd performed all of the tired, shallow, romantic things that any inexperienced, doe-eyed boy needed to make them feel adored, and I fell hard; then he left and never returned my calls. Since then, I'd stuck with mundanes because there was a level of separation that allowed me to stay detached. Ethan was the first mage to get past that barrier.

"Good," Marvin said, trying to keep his professional demeanor. It was clear from the expression in his eyes that he found this whole situation amusing, his previous irritation having melted away. "He's fixated on you. It's in his eyes every time he looks at you. Whoever did it was probably trying to be nice, but he fucked it up bad. Good sex is an exchange of sexual energy. The boy who sucked his cock didn't get his cock sucked in return. There was no exchange of sexual energy. It's part of why he's become blocked. Start slow, maybe with some mutual masturbation and serious kissing. Do you need me to write it down for you?"

I shook my head. "No, Marvin. I think I can figure it out. By the way, I've been trying to be mature and wait until his birthday. He turns eighteen on September 30th. You're not making it easy for me to remain responsible."

He clapped me on the shoulder. "You're under a healer's orders, Sebastian. Sex that boy up good, but it might be best if you did wait to take his butt cherry. You can do it in a couple of weeks, but it wouldn't hurt to wait the full three and a half. Until then, get to know him a little. Let his sexuality grow with your relationship. Guys are too quick to go for the booty. There are a lot of other fun things to explore on the way to the butthole."

 

Micah

I thought about my options while I was helping my dad fix dinner. I was going to try giving myself to Remy for one week. That would give me the time to make an informed decision. I was scared of the idea of being a slave. Wasn’t there another way I could submit to a man? Kieran seemed happy with Jason, and, at least from all appearances, they were boyfriends. Jason seemed to dote on Kieran, and Kieran was his obedient boy. The whole dorm saw it. I just wished Cameron would get the right idea.

We were making steaks for the masters and chicken breast for us. They would have baked potatoes and roasted broccoli. We would have salad. "It's important for a slave to always keep himself thin and appealing for his master," Dad said. "If you choose to give yourself to Master Remy, I'll be able to help train you."

We were going to grill the meat once Remy arrived, and we didn't have long to wait. We heard his voice in the other room with his father. I wanted to run in to greet him, but Dad stopped me. "We wait until they call us, or they come into the room," he said. "Do you remember the position?"

"Yeah, I do," I said.

I made sure that the strange "ring" Uncle Mordecai had given me was handy. Then we heard their voices coming into the kitchen. Dad and I sank to our knees and spread them wide, our penises on display, my hard penis and Dad's fully flaccid penis. We locked our hands behind our heads, straightened our backs and cast our eyes downward.

"And here they are, Remy," Uncle Mordecai said with his deep voice. "My slave bitch and the boy who might be yours."

They both snapped their fingers and pointed to the ground at their feet. We crawled forward, Dad and I, and kissed the feet of our men. Remy had removed his shoes and was wearing slippers. I kissed them three times, like I had seen Dad do to his master.

"What's that in your hand, boy?" Remy said. His voice had grown almost as deep as his father's.

I rose to the kneeling position and extended my hands, with the strange ring on it. It looked like three rings welded together to make a triangle with circular openings on each of the three sides. He took it from my hand and said, "What is this?"

"It's a cock ring, Master," I said.

He used his foot to tap my balls hard, causing a bolt of pain to shoot up my spine. I cried out a little, but I didn't break the position.

"It's your manhood," he said. "tell me what you are offering me and remember that I'm not your master yet. I'm Sir until I decide you're worthy to be my slave," he commanded.

"I'm offering you my manhood, Sir," I said.

"And you understand that I will control every aspect of your life," he said. "I will determine if you ever have an orgasm, or even an erection. I will control your every waking moment, and I will control your sleep."

"Yes, Sir," I said.

"Let my father's slave make dinner and follow me," he commanded.

He hadn't told me to stand, so I crawled after him into the living room. Then he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "Look at this and follow along with me as we review it."

I hadn't been allowed to raise my eyes to see him until now. He took my breath away. He'd grown taller in the last two years. I was five foot seven, but Remy had grown to six foot two, an inch taller than his father. His face had matured and now it held none of the boyish softness I remembered from the Academy. And he'd grown broad through the shoulders. Now he wore a very short, but very dark beard that framed his full lips and made him look masculine and powerful.

We read through the contract clause by clause. And I agreed to each one. Afterward he required me to summarize the points from memory.

"I will belong to you, Sir, and anything I own will belong to you. I will follow every order without complaint or hesitation. I surrender all control over my body, my magic, and my social life to you. This contract shall be magically enforceable for the duration, and this contract shall expire at the end of next weekend, 8 days from today. The limits are that my body cannot be altered in a permanent way, and I cannot be ordered to do anything with a woman."

"Good," he said. "If you sign this contract and place your fingerprint next to it in blood, it shall be valid."

I looked at the contract, hesitated only for a minute and then signed it. I pricked my thumb with the silver penknife, smeared the blood around it and pressed it on the paper. I could feel the magic take hold. For the next week, I belonged to Remy.

"Now I am going to give you some gifts, slave. Stand up," he said.

I stood and he took the ring in one hand and held his want in the other. He chanted a spell and jabbed my cock with his wand. I immediately went flaccid. Then he worked the ring over my cock. One ring went around the base of my cock behind my balls; my balls went through another; then the last went over my cock in front of my balls. My master touched it, and it shrank until it was snug.

"No erections for you now, slave," he said. "I want you to think about this fact. If you are my slave, you may never have another erection. The only reason for you to have one is if I choose to breed you like my father did with his slave. Since you put a restriction in your contract that prevents me from breeding you to a woman, there is no purpose to your erection."

"Yes, Master," I replied.

The enormity of what I was doing sank into me and I was both terrified and excited. My cock couldn't get hard, but my heart was pounding, and my skin felt like it was on fire. I had fantasized about submission for so long and now it was finally happening. Maybe I did crave slavery. The idea of being completely subservient to another man made my heart race. I was getting caught up in the moment, swept away by the raw reality of the moment.  If I were allowed to make the choice for good now instead of later, I would probably have accepted immediately.

Then he took a leather collar and wrapped it around my neck. With a flick of a wand, the ends of the leather collar joined together, and the collar shrank until it fit snug on my neck. The collar had small rings along the outside. Then he put ankle and wrist cuffs on me in the same way.

"You will always wear these symbols of your servitude and they will always be kept visible. If anyone asks you, you will tell them that you are a slave," he said.

"Yes, Master," I replied.

I helped my dad finish the dinner and then we served the masters. We stood ready like waiters to fill their wine cups and to fetch anything they needed. And when they had finished, we served them brandy in the living room, while we ate our dinner quickly in the kitchen and then cleaned up. We used magic, so it didn’t take long. Dad knew an amazing number of spells for cleaning. Neither of us were fast spellcasters. He was more competent than I was, which wasn’t a surprise given his years of experience, but we both took a lot longer than Oliver, for example. If that boy were here, he'd clean everything with a couple of sweeps of his wand and some well-turned phrases. Still, it only took us a quarter hour.

After we’d finished the cleanup, we crawled into the living room and knelt next to the masters. I copied my father’s position to the best of my ability, back straight, knees spread, hands behind the neck, with my ringed cock sitting completely flaccid. The masters watched music videos on the television and discussed the relative hotness of the musicians while we sat silently at their feet. We remained in that position for an indeterminate period of time. Since I was staring at my master’s feet on the floor in front of him, I had no access to a clock.

Then Master Mordecai snapped his fingers and calmly ordered, “Massage my feet, slave.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my father remove his master’s slippers and begin massaging his feet. Suddenly my master’s foot lashed out and kicked me in the chest, knocking me over onto my ass. He laughed, “Get up, slave and massage my feet.”

I didn’t know why Master Remy hadn’t just ordered me to do what he wanted. He was still laughing as I scrambled to the kneeling position and took hold of his foot. I pulled the slipper off and ran my fingers between the metatarsals. His strong foot was long and wide, and it was warm in my hands. I worked it with my fingers until it seemed to get less tight.

Master Remy pushed his foot forward and rubbed his toes across my lips. When I parted them, he pushed his big toe inside my mouth. I sucked the whole toe into my mouth and rubbed its rough skin with my tongue. There was a hint of a sour taste, not enough to make me recoil, but more than enough to notice. I sucked each toe in turn.

Then I moved to his other foot and repeated the process. While I was rubbing his foot, he used the toes on the foot I’d just finished worshiping to grab my flaccid cock and pinch it. I cried out, “OUCH! That hurt!”

A disturbing smile spread across Master Remy’s face. “Keep your mouth shut unless I choose to put a cock or a foot in it. You will kneel there and take whatever I choose to give you without complaint. Do you understand me, slave?”

I nodded and said, “Yes, Master.”

Master Mordecai calmly admonished him. “There’s no need for unnecessary cruelty.”

Master Remy pushed me backward with his foot again. Then he stood up and faced his father. “We’re going to my room now.”

I’d just gotten back to my knees, and Master Remy kicked me in the thigh. “Crawl up the stairs, slave, and keep your damned legs spread.”

I did my best to comply with his order, but it was hard to go up the stairs that way. Master Remy followed beyond me, smacking my balls lightly with his foot. When I crawled through the doorframe into his room, he kicked my nuts hard enough to send my sprawling.

I cried out in pain, tears streaming down my face, but Master Remy gave no sign that he heard or cared. He slammed the door and cried out loudly, “Merlin’s fucking bent and gnarled old staff! He has no fucking right getting in my business!”

He kicked me again. “You are my slave, and I will treat you the way a slave should be treated. I know what you need. I’ve been planning on taking possession of you for years and he’s not going to ruin it, like he always ruins… he needs to keep himself out of my business.”

At that moment, I was afraid of Master Remy. It wasn’t the first time. He’d beaten me badly after Oliver had defeated him in a duel back in school. He’d claimed that it was my fault that Oliver had joined the dueling club in the first place. The truth was that Oliver had set out to “teach him a lesson”, but he wouldn’t tell me why. I always had the impression that it was more personal than that. It had been bad for a month. Really bad, so bad that I didn’t want to think about it. But it lasted until the curse Oliver had put on Remy ended. He’d peed his pants for the entire month.

Master Remy took a deep breath and turned his head to clear out the kinks out of his neck. Then he spoke more calmly. “Come and undress me, slave.”

I crawled over to him and looked up questioningly. Then I remembered what my father had done earlier. I bowed and pressed my face to his feet three times, leaving it there after the third bow. Master waited for a few seconds and then said, “Good form, slave. You may speak.”

I knelt upright and asked, “How can I remove your clothes while crawling, master?”

He smiled down at me. “Pretty, but stupid. That’s why I’m so attracted to you. Let me clarify the rules. You will remain on your knees in the house unless you are ordered to rise, or you are given a task that requires you to rise. That means that you need to rise now so that you can undress me.”

I rose to my feet and began to take his clothing off. I knew the Vestamenta Deponere spell, but I assumed that I was supposed to do it manually. As I removed each article of clothing, I placed it in the hamper. Soon Master Remy’s body was revealed in all his powerful nakedness. He was more solidly built than his father, not only broader through the shoulders but with more muscle on his frame. It looked like he worked out a lot.

He sat down on the bed and spread his legs. His six-inch cock was erect and dripping. He snapped his fingers again and pointed to his cock. “Fella me catamites. Te irrumabo.”

I crawled over and took hold of his cock. Although our family was ethnically Jewish, circumcision couldn’t survive the first healing spell. So, we all underwent the procedure as infants, but most chose not to repeat the process once they’d been healed. I peeled back his foreskin and kissed the head. This was the part of serving Master Remy that I’d enjoyed in my freshman and sophomore years, kneeling in front of him naked and sucking him gently. That was the fella part of his command.

Even after two years, I knew how Master Remy liked his cock sucked. I paid attention to the sensitive head and teased him gently. He moaned and ran his fingers through my hair. “Me fellas bene! Optime cinaede eres.”

He’d told me that I sucked cock well, that I was an excellent faggot. I mumbled back, “Gratias tibi domine.”

Then Remy stood up and the irrumabo part of his statement began as he grabbed my head and began to piston his cock in and out of my mouth, slamming brutally into my throat with each thrust. It was exciting to be taken this way. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to belong to Master Remy. Maybe I could help him to become more mellow.

He thrust deep into my throat and held my head tight to his groin. “Exhauri nuces meos! Cremum bibe! VENIO, CINAEDE! VENIO!”

His cock exploded in my mouth, and he sprayed his load down my throat. He held me there until he finished. Then he pulled out and patted my face roughly. “You’re pretty good, and with some training you’ll be a world class cocksucker!”

We spent the next few hours in his room. He lay on the bed and exchanged messages with his friends on his Tabulum Arcanum, while I worshiped his body. Whenever he got hard, he snapped his fingers, and I would take him in my mouth and suck his cock again.

He told me he was waiting until Sunday to fuck me because he wanted to do it in front of some guests. I had sucked his cock many times in the Academy, but tonight was different. Looking at a cock, smelling a cock or better yet tasting a cock, always made me hard, but the ring I was wearing prevented me from getting an erection. My cock remained flaccid and soft, but the feelings in my testicles, perineum and ass were still there. I felt the excitement, just not in my cock. I spent the night in a strange state of non-erect arousal that still excited me.

Master Remy wrapped his arms around me and held me tight to his chest. I felt safe and protected when I was enclosed within his muscular embrace. I knew that he loved me, although he had never said it. While I'd been swallowing his massive cock, he'd told me I was his most valuable possession. I suspected that was as close as my master could come to saying the words.

 

Sebastian

After dinner and a shower, Ethan lay on my bed, naked, with his fair, slender body stretched out. I lay next to him; my thicker body seeming decidedly hairy next to his. I had a decent covering of hair on my legs and chest, although nothing particularly hirsute, but I kept my pubic region tamed and trimmed.

I was kissing the boy, and he was responding in his own sweet and gentle way, opening his mouth to accept my tongue and my saliva. I was lying sideways, with my torso raised by my left elbow, so I could touch him in all his sensitive places. I had put a small amount of massage oil onto the fingers of my right hand, and I was gently rubbing his hard little nipples, eliciting small moans of pleasure. He seemed unsure what to do with his own hands, and he was running his right hand through my chest hair, while his left was under my upraised torso. His hands were trembling.

"Are you afraid, golden boy?" I asked, now rubbing my fingers around his navel.

"No, sir," he said. "I'm shaking because I can't believe that I'm lying here next to a man like you. I've touched boys, but never a man, and I've never done anything like what we're doing now. And I’d never gone beyond a quick handjob, not until… well the other day.”

I knew that he was trying to avoid mentioning Simon. Was he trying to spare my feelings? I said, “It’s okay to say his name. I won’t get jealous. Was Simon your first real sexual experience?”

He nodded and then ran his hand down my arm. “But it didn’t mean anything. I really want to do it with you.”

Those words were even more exciting to me than touching his naked body. I whispered, “I want to do it with you, too, but you heard Marvin. We’re supposed to take it slowly.”

I kissed him then bit his lip gently. "Do you like it when I touch your nipples and your navel?" I asked. "Do you like it when I kiss your lips?"

"Oh god yes!" he moaned. "You're tickling my belly button, but it's so slow that it feels great, and I love to run my hands through your chest hair. And your hairy legs feel so good rubbing against my own. I don't have much body hair, but yours is amazing. My God! The feeling of it against my skin is... I can't say what it is, but I don't want it to stop."

I teased his torso for several more minutes, and my kisses moved from his lips to his neck, ears, and throat. His skin was getting hot and occasionally I felt a shock.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I can't help it."

"Shh," I said. "Don't worry about hurting me. Marvin told me to use protection, so I warded myself against electricity tonight. Your little sparks aren't hurting me at all. It feels like sexy tickling."

I let my hand slide down to the sensitive skin between his genitals and his upper leg. I teased the skin there and his little penis started jumping around. I continued to stroke this sensitive skin for a while, and then moved my hand to his scrotum. It was naturally hairless and silky smooth. He gasped when I took his testicles in my hand and began to massage them gently. The sparks became more intense.

"I want to touch you, sir," he moaned.

I kissed him and then lay back. "You can touch me but don't go for the penis. Do what I'm doing and explore other parts of my body. We'll get to the penis later, trust me," I said, touching his nose with my finger and leaving a bit of oil on the tip.

Ethan got into it. He ran his fingers lightly over my chest and nipples. He slid his hand down the trail of light brown hair that connected my chest to my groin. He grabbed my scrotum, a little less gentle than I had held his, but he was still learning. He seemed fascinated with the hair on my body. His fingers kept twirling in the hair on my pecs and my upper thighs.

My own cock had grown to its full seven inches, and the head was peeking out of the foreskin. He touched it tentatively and looked into my eyes with a hunger I hadn't seen there before, but it was a hunger mixed with blue eyed innocence. It was like his eyes were pleading with me to go further.

I smiled back at him and said, "Let's try it this way."

I scooted back so that I was sitting up, with my head and shoulders resting against the wall. Then I positioned him so that he was straddling my legs, just a few inches below my cock. Seeing his penis next to mine made me shudder with guilty pleasure. Mine was two inches longer and much thicker.

"Hold out your hands," I said. And he lifted his cupped hands in front of me. I pumped a generous amount of lube into his hands. I'd used a small spell to warm it, so it wasn't cold anymore.

Then I pumped some into my own. "Now we can explore each other's penises, Golden Boy," I said. "But it's not a race. Go slow and listen to me. You can't cum until I do. You must hold it."

He bit his bottom lip in the same way Alonzo did that drove me mad with lust. He was the perfect mixture of sex and innocence, hesitant and unsure what he wanted to do, his fingers trembling but eager.

"I'll try, sir," he whined a little.

"It's not a disaster if you can't, Ethan. It’s not like I’ll spank you for it, or even be disappointed. But if you can hold it until I tell you to cum, your orgasm will be much better than if you don't. That's all. I'm not trying to be your master, or to dominate you in any way. I want to be your lover, and your mentor."

He smiled at that last sentence. "I want you to be my lover, But I'm still young. I may need you to... um... discipline me sometime."

Merlin's wand was this innocent boy telling me that he wanted me to spank him. My cock jumped at the thought. So long as it was just sex play, I could get into it. Bondage, domination, none of that stuff interested me.

"We'll get to your beautiful and delicious ass later," I said.

"How do you know it's delicious, sir?" he asked coquettishly.

"Because nothing that looks that fine could taste bad," I replied. I still had massage oil on my hand. I wrapped it around his penis, and he squealed in pleasure.

I like to think the sound that I made when he grabbed my cock was a little more manly than his had been, more of a macho groan. I showed him how to move his hands slowly, sensually, applying just the right amount of pressure. I let my thumb rub across the spongy head of his circumcised penis. He cried out loud and a tear came to his eyes.

"Am I hurting you, Golden Boy?" I asked.

"No sir! I'm crying because nothing ever felt this good before," he replied.

Neither of us lasted long. I could feel the cum filling my shaft as he stroked me, and his knees were quivering from trying to hold back an orgasm. "Cum now, beautiful boy," I said. "Cum for me."

And we both erupted in orgasm at the same time. As our seed sprayed all over our bodies, arcs of lightning shot out from Ethan and played against the walls and the ceiling of the room. In the afterglow, we lay in each other's arms, and we made out. I used a wipe to clean us up this time, then we fell asleep.

---

You can read each story in The Concordium Cycle independently, or you can follow the author's preferred reading order that will blend the stories together. The next chapter in the author's preferred reading order is Elf Master 7.

Special Thanks to my editor [email protected].