Me and Melissa dropped Susan off at her place on Sunday, but she was back at our apartment Monday night after class. We didn't mind of course, but it sort of made me feel bad for her. She was so happy to have a family or whatever, she wanted to spend as much time with us as possible.

Sue couldn't come over Tuesday, she was out for the night on 'business'. Apparently she didn't want to call it a date, and she didn't like calling the person she was going out with her date either. So she called it an appointment, or a liaison, or a hook-up. And she referred to the guy the same way. He was her fling or her hook-up or whatever.

That was completely the opposite of how Melissa did things, at least for the first five months. She claimed to be going out on dates, she said she was being social, she was having fun but not looking for a steady partner.

Although that seemed to change over the past couple weeks. Since Melissa told me about her contract she'd pretty much dropped all the pretence. She still called them dates, but there was no pretending it was anything other than her hooking up with random guys for no-commitment sex.

Another thing I noticed about my best friend was she'd lightened up a bit since Susan joined our 'team'. The hangups and guilt and stuff that she was carrying seemed to fade over the last week or two.

I couldn't help wonder if that had something to do with her sort of showing Susan the ropes and teaching her all the tips and tricks and stuff Melissa figured out for herself. Like maybe sharing that with Susan helped Melissa put it into perspective for herself. Though it was also possible Susan had some insights or perspectives of her own, that helped my best friend lose some of her anxieties about the whole thing.

However it happened, I was happy. I was glad Melissa seemed to be feeling better about things, and I was really happy she let me call her my girlfriend. Same with Susan. And the two of them even referred to each other as girlfriends.

It also crossed my mind that I should probably try and get more involved and aware of my girlfriends' supernatural responsibilities and stuff. I didn't like to pry, and I figured if they didn't want to discuss it they could just say that. But if they did want to talk about it, I wanted them to know I was there for them.

So as me and Melissa settled down on the sofa for a dinner of chicken nuggets, I asked her "How do you figure Susan's handling her situation? I mean, the part-succubus stuff?"

"Tonight's only her second time out," Melissa pointed out. "But I think she'll be ok? She was really nervous about the first time last week, but as you know me and her have been talking. I've been telling her everything I figured out, so hopefully she won't make the same mistakes I did."

That worried me, "Uh, what sort of mistakes? You don't have to tell me if you don't want."

Melissa munched on another nug then gave me a smile, "It's ok Mara. I was keeping all this secret from you before, but it's out in the open now."

After a sip of cola she explained, "I put off going out with guys because I was kind of afraid of the idea? Like I said, I was never attracted to men before. So at first I just tried to go out with people I'd want to be with, and that meant just dating girls. Over the summer before we moved I kind of burned through all the available lesbians and bi girls in the area. Then as soon as we got here I did the same. I didn't start hooking up with guys until I'd run out of other options."

She sighed, "I guess I was sort of lying to myself, thinking somehow I could have a relationship with someone even though I knew it was impossible. And when I had to switch to going out with guys, it just felt even harder. Like you could tell I didn't even like some of them. Talking with Susan though, it sort of clarified stuff in my mind? And that's some of the advice I gave her. Don't look at hookups as relationship material. Don't even think of them as potential friends. Because we can't do that, we can't start dating any of them on a regular basis. So rather than trying to find people we'd want to date, people we'd feel compatible with, it's best to just find people who're available and looking for a fun night. And there's loads of horny guys who fit that description."

I ate slowly as I listened to her. What she was saying made sense, but I worried about one thing. "Is it unpleasant, or uncomfortable or whatever? Like I don't know, do you hate having to go out with guys all the time?"

She smiled and shook her head, "Not at all. I still pick what guys I want to sleep with. Though I could probably screw anyone and be ok with it? The point is I'm not looking for a personality match, or a lover or a friend. I'm looking for someone young and reasonably healthy, who I think will be fun in bed. Like the sex is still good, I get off on it as much as they do."

She added, "I was making it harder on myself at first because I was treating it like 'real dating'. Now I'm looking at it for what it is? One night stands with people I may never see or speak to again. I make that clear to them too right? It's just about the sex. And that's what Susan's trying to do as well. She was nervous last week because she'd never done anything like that before, and she's not used to being so forward and casual about it. It gets easier though, with practice and experience."

It took another minute or two for all that to sink in, then I nodded "Ok Melissa. Thanks for explaining it. I'm sorry it was so hard for you at first, and I wish I'd known so I could have helped somehow. But I'm glad you've figured it out, and I'm glad you and Susan are able to help each other with this stuff."

"Thanks Mara," she replied with a smile. "I'm sorry I kept it secret from you for so long. I should have known you'd understand. And I should have known you'd want to help."

After dinner I did the dishes and tidied up while Melissa went into her bedroom and got to work on something on her computer. We didn't actually have much going on at college now, it was only three more days till the winter break and most of our assignments involved going out and taking pictures rather than studying books or cramming for tests or whatever.

I was thinking of setting up my camera and lights and doing a nude picture shoot when Melissa shouted, "Mara! Come check this out!"

She sounded excited rather than upset, and I hurried into her room to see what was going on.

Melissa had her nerd glasses on, and she pointed at her computer screen and announced, "I think I've got it! Look!"

She had a square of random letters up on her screen, it didn't spell anything or mean anything to me. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be seeing, until Melissa tapped a key and the image shifted. Now Verothilas's name glyph was overlaid ontop of the letters, and my heart skipped a beat.

"Holy shit!" I gasped as I stared at it. "Are you serious? Is this her magic square thingy?"

"I think so," Melissa replied with a nervous smile. "I think this is it."

I had a wide grin on my face as I asked, "How'd you find it? How'd you figure it out?"

In retrospect I shouldn't have asked that. Or maybe Melissa should have just said "It's complicated."

Instead she launched into a long detailed lecture that seemed to cover the entire history of the British Isles, starting from the stone age. I tried not to let it show as my eyes glazed over. Not that I was rude or whatever, and honestly it was great listening to her as she babbled excitedly about her research and how she followed clues and made discoveries and whatever. But yeah, most of it was way over my head.

Eventually she got back to the present as she concluded her talk with "And pow, it all came together after dinner tonight! I was able to crack the code and convert those numbers into letters! That filled the square perfectly, and her glyph fits too! See, it hits all ten letters in Verothilas, plus two more."

She took a deep breath and stated, "Assuming I haven't made any mistakes, our enemy's name is spelled 'K O R A H V I L T E U S'. The two missing letters were K and U, those aren't in Verothilas."

Suddenly I was in the back seat and Lily was driving. "It is guaranteed that there will be one or more duplicated letters. This won't be her complete true name, but it's close."

I wanted to say something, but stuck in the limbo of the 'back seat' I couldn't respond. I decided to try something new, and I did that 'step back' thing. I was happy to find it worked, I pulled myself out of the back seat and into Lily's apartment, where I could talk and stuff.

"Lily," I asked, "What happens when we figure out her true name?"

She was still staring over Melissa's shoulder at the screen, but she asked "What do you mean Mara?"

I clarified, "I mean will you kill her? Will her name let you kill her? Once we have the name what do we do with it?"

Melissa turned to look at us, though she could only hear Lily's side of the conversation.

Lily replied, "With her true name, we can entrap her and destroy her. Or we could bind her and imprison her within an inanimate object, like I was."

"What's the best option?" Melissa asked.

Lily was quiet for a few moments as she seemed to be thinking it over. Finally she replied, "The best option for me would be to destroy her. That would be my first choice. But it would... Let's say it wouldn't be safe for the three of you, for complicated magical reasons. Trapping her in an object wouldn't be as effective, and there would be the possibility of her escaping some time in the future. But it would carry fewer risks for you three."

After another long pause she decided, "I think imprisonment will be our goal. It's not my first choice, but it's the safest option. However, we can't do anything until we know her true name."

I took a deep breath then said "I know what it is. I think."

Lily asked "What? How?"

Melissa looked frustrated at missing half of what was obviously an important conversation. Lily was focused inward on me though and didn't notice. She actually pulled back inside with me while we were still standing beside my best friend's desk.

Our eyes were still open and we didn't fall down or anything, but now there was nobody 'driving' so we just stood there sort of blank and empty.

Lily looked at me and asked "Tell me what you know, Mara."

"So the clue was Solitare," I replied. "The missing letter I? I think she went with that word because there's two I's in her true name, but she dropped one because Verothilas only has one I. So misspelling solitaire was like a red herring or whatever."

She stared down at me and asked "What do you think her true name is?"

I gulped then answered, "Korahviliteus."

Lily's eyes widened and a smile formed on her lips. She looked triumphant, "That's it! I can feel it! There's power in names and that name has Verothilas all over it!"

She turned toward the window and stepped out again into the body. Melissa was acting worried as she stared at us, and she sort of jumped when our body suddenly came back to life.

"We have to make plans," Lily announced. "We can do this on Saturday! It's the winter solstice, the darkest night of the year. The moon is waning too, Saturday is only a few nights away from the new moon so it's the dark time of the month. This is perfect!"

Lily was pacing with excitement now as she continued, "We'll have to talk with Susan, we can do this in her basement. It's private, there's enough space and it's not cluttered with furniture. We only have four days to prepare, but we can do this!"

"Uh, do what exactly?" Melissa asked. She seemed a little nervous at how Lily was acting.

Lily smiled, "We're going to create a summoning and containment circle in Susan's basement. We'll summon Verothilas to us and catch her in the circle. Then we're going to imprison her, as I was imprisoned a millennia ago. Melissa, Mara, you've both done excellent work! I'll put together a list of everything we'll need, and rely on Susan and yourselves to make the preparations for Saturday."

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