"Hard to believe there's basically just one month left till summer break," I commented before taking another bite of my burger.

Melissa agreed, then looked at Amber and asked "Not just summer break for you, it'll be graduation right? It's your second year of a two-year program."

It was lunchtime on Friday and the three of us were in the college cafeteria as usual. Amber was back to her usual small shy blushy five-foot-zero self. She was dressed more like me today, in a pair of leggings and an oversized tunic top with her huge hoodie draped over the back of her chair. She was all cute smol bean energy. Except instead of shy blushy grins she actually looked a little sad.

"Yeah," she sighed. "I guess."

I frowned, "What's wrong Amber?"

She shrugged, "I think I'll miss this? Like up till I met you, before I got my magic transition, I didn't really enjoy college. Or anything else I suppose. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great, if you know what I mean?"

She lowered her voice when she mentioned magic, and the rest of us kept quieter too. We were off to one side of the room and I didn't see anyone around us, but it was always best to be careful talking about that sort of thing in public.

"I get it," Melissa said softly. "When you're dealing with that dysphoria it can taint everything. Like living with depression, your baseline is lower. There's still some happy moments but they're not as nice as they could be, and everything can be sort of dull and grey. It can seem like the difference between just existing, and actually living."

Amber agreed, "Yeah. And since February everything's been better. A lot better. Hanging out with you two, getting reunited with Susan, getting a magic transition. Changing jobs to work at the store, even the thing at the cottage last month? Ok there were some unexpected surprises, but I got used to that and now I kind of like it?"

She sighed again, "It just sort of feels like college is suddenly perfect and fun, right at the end when I'm about to graduate and move on. Meanwhile you two both have another year to go."

I suggested, "So why not sign up for another year?"

Our cute brunette girlfriend blinked, then frowned, then smiled. "Yeah. I could sign up again and take another year."

"Susan has another full year left at university too," Melissa pointed out. "If you take a one-year course next year, or even just pick some classes you like, then all four of us will graduate at the same time."

I grinned, "Oh, that sounds like it'd be kind of cool. All four of us can stay students another year, then we can all graduate together."

"Yeah," Amber agreed. She took a bite of her sandwich but she looked happy and thoughtful as she munched on it.

I ate some more of my burger, and Melissa finished the last of her pizza slice.

We were all nearly finished lunch when I felt Lily wake up. She'd been in a deep sleep since doing the ritual last night, which was almost fourteen hours ago. It was a little longer than the other two times we got energy out of Verothilas, but I figured she cleared twice as many of those runes last night so it made sense it took her longer to recover.

I told my girlfriends, "I need a few minutes. Lily just woke up and I want to check in on her."

Melissa and Amber both nodded, then I relaxed in my chair and let my eyes unfocus as I pulled back inside.

"Hi Lily!" I greeted her with a smile and a hug.

She was sitting on the big leather sofa in her apartment, and she still looked sort of tired but she was smiling. I sat down right next to her as usual.

"Hello Mara. I trust last night went well for you and your girlfriends?"

I nodded, "Yeah. Near as we can tell none of them got any of that energy. Me neither. Though I figure you'd be able to tell better than any of us? And the tattoo looks good! You cleared six more runes last night!"

Lily smiled, "Six was probably a little too many in one go, but I'm happy to say the experiment was a success. And you're right, I can tell neither Melissa or Amber absorbed any additional demonic energy last night, so I'm sure Susan didn't either. I'll know for sure when we see her this evening. And you didn't get any more either Mara."

"So what happens next?" I asked her. "Like you could be done in two months, right?"

Her smile shifted to that sort of subdued patient smile she got when I was being over-enthusiastic. "Perhaps Mara. I only just woke up so maybe give me a few hours, or even a day or two, before you start asking me when we'll do it again."

I rolled my eyes but grinned "Ok Lily. I'll try not to push too hard. Is everything else ok? Like you said six was too many, are you ok? You slept longer than last time."

"I'm fine Mara, thank you for asking. I know you and your girlfriends need to get back to class soon, so why don't you return to them?"

"Ok Lily," I gave her another hug then got to my feet, and a moment later I was back in the body in the cafeteria.

Amber spoke up first, "How is she? Everything ok?"

"Was last night's experiment a success?" Melissa asked.

I smiled, "She's fine. A bit tired maybe but she said everything's ok. And yeah, she said it all went well. But we should probably leave the rest of that conversation till we're at home, right?"

Melissa agreed then got to her feet as she suggested, "Good idea Mara. It's also about time we should probably get to our next class? Amber, you're not working tonight right? You could come back to our place, the four of us can have dinner together then maybe Lily can fill all of us in at once on the whole thing."

"Right," Amber nodded. "Good idea. And yeah I'm off tonight, but working both tomorrow and Sunday."

I got up as well, and the three of us headed out of the cafeteria together before we parted ways. Amber went to her next class while me and Melissa headed to our drama class.

• • • • •

The four of us were relaxing in the living-room, all sort of cuddling together on the sectional while we waited for dinner to arrive. We were all drinking vodka coolers, and I was just wrapping up telling my girlfriends what Lily told me when I saw her at lunch.

"So the bottom line is six runes was maybe a bit much to do all at once, and as usual she's not ready yet to make plans for next time? But maybe in a couple days she'll be ready to figure out when we'll do it again."

Sue checked an app on her phone and commented, "Next new moon is June twenty-first. So maybe the night before, June twentieth would be the next opportunity? That's a Saturday night, we could make it a bit of a party or something."

After a moment she added, "And I'm pretty sure Friday the nineteenth is the last day of classes, for all four of us? Definitely a good weekend to celebrate."

"Mara just said Lily's not ready to make plans," Melissa pointed out. "So it might be a bit premature to start, y'know, making plans?"

Susan shrugged, "Lily said the same exact thing last month at the cottage. Then she decided to do the second test at the very next new moon last night. Anyways I'm not saying we should count on it, just pointing out when the next new moon is so we might be ready for it."

Melissa smiled, "Ok, good point. I'll make a note on my phone and make sure I take care of business on the Thursday or Friday, so that Saturday's open."

Amber had a gulp of her cooler then asked, "Do you think we'll get a chance to have more of that energy next time? Since Lily didn't let us have any last night?"

I was a little surprised our cute shy blushy girlfriend seemed so eager to get another dose of demonic magic, and from the raised eyebrows on their faces I figured Melissa and Susan were both surprised too. And for maybe the first time ever, I kind of wished my demonic intuition thing worked on my girlfriends. I was curious what Amber was thinking, or why she seemed so interested in that.

"Yeah I guess?" I told her. "I'm pretty sure that was the point of last night, or at least part of it? Lily can control how the energy comes out of that brooch, and she made the offer back at the cottage. You'll probably have to talk to her to confirm it, but I figure next time she's ready to do it she'll be able to send some of it your way. If you want."

Melissa was curious enough to ask, "You're already looking for more of that energy, Amber? It's only been a month since the cottage."

Amber blushed and cringed slightly as she acted embarrassed, but she nodded "Yeah, I think I'd like more. I like how things turned out after the cottage."

"Even though you got smaller?" I asked with a bit of a grin. "What if more of that energy makes you shrink even smaller next time?"

She was still blushing and cringing but she added a grin and responded, "I won't get smaller again. Lily explained why that happened, remember? I could get smaller right now if I wanted, but I don't want to."

"What's better for you now that you're half-succubus?" Susan asked. "What makes you want more of that energy?"

The cute blushy brunette shrugged, "It's sort of like Lily said at the cottage I guess? And I'm sure it's different for me than it is for you and Melissa. But I've noticed stuff, like when I do the enchantments at the store? I have more control over them now. It's kind of intuitive but it feels like I can almost fine-tune them? I'm pretty sure I can make them stronger or weaker anyways."

"That makes sense," Sue commented thoughtfully. "Like since the cottage, me and Melissa have figured out how to control how much energy we take from our customers. It stands to reason that you'd be able to control the way your enchantments work, since that's the mechanism that gets you the energy."

"It sounds kind of cool," I commented as I thought about what Sue and Amber said. "Have you noticed any other differences Amber? Like can you feel the energy coming in?"

She got a thoughtful look on her face as she considered for a few moments. Finally she nodded "Yeah, I think so? It's subtle, but now and then I feel something."

There was a break in the conversation when the food arrived, and we got dishes and cutlery and stuff out. Susan ordered from that fusion place again, so we had an assortment of sushi as well as some cooked dishes that me and Melissa liked.

Once we all settled back in the living-room again to eat, Amber commented "After what we talked about at lunch today, I've been thinking more about taking another year of college? I'm leaning towards more creative writing classes. That's my minor, and I've been enjoying it. Maybe not a full program, like maybe I won't try and get another diploma but just take more classes so I can keep going to college next year, till the three of you all graduate as well."

She added, "I'm going to look into that over the next few days, and I also want to talk to my manager at work? I was thinking it would be cool if I could get more hours. Like over the summer for sure, then in September depending what I figure out with college, maybe I could be going to classes three days a week and working three days or something?"

"Sounds good," Melissa said. "I know you're doing that job because of your deal with Lily, but it sounds like you enjoy it too?"

Once again our cute blushy girlfriend blushed. She was grinning though as she nodded, "Yeah I really do. I know it's weird, or I assume it's weird, for the ace girl to like working at a sex-toy shop? But it's a nice environment, it's interesting, and I kind of like helping the customers find the products that suit them best."

Sue pointed out, "Some of that might be due to you being part-succubus, you know? I'm not saying it is, and I'm not saying that you wouldn't enjoy it if you weren't involved with Lily? I'm just saying it's possible."

"Maybe?" Amber shrugged. "I'm not going to worry about that. All I know is it's a lot nicer than standing over a deep fat fryer for six hours, and when I get home from a shift I don't have to spend thirty minutes shampooing the grease out of my hair. Plus my manager's a lot nicer, same with the rest of the staff."

She popped a sushi roll into her mouth then mumbled something that sounded a lot like, "Plus I get a thirty-percent employee discount on everything in the store."

Sue and Melissa and me all giggled a little while Amber blushed. She was still grinning though as she munched on her sushi.

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