Chapter 7 - Training of the Blade (Emily)

 

[ - Content Warnings: None yet suggested - ]

 

We decided to move into one of the many, many rooms at Nightshade Tavern. Apparently only about twenty percent of the tavern existed on the physical plane. It was connected seamlessly to the ‘pocket dimension’ parts of the tavern via a number of inward-facing stairways and corridors. 

 

Amelia and I would now live in a pocket dimension anchored to a relatively small tavern in a small town in a small kingdom in the middle of the continent. A far cry from our luxury apartment in the small capital of the small kingdom, but I found I actually preferred our modest pastel green-walled bedroom to what we’d had before.

 

Our first day waking up in our new room was wild. Getting to rediscover our adorable new body only strengthened our belief that the Goddess was good and that we were still excited to serve her. Katherine met up with us on the way to the cafeteria-like room for breakfast, as she was our guide around this massive place, and we chatted all the way through the food line till we sat down at a secluded table in the back corner of the room. I learned that she was in a similar relationship with Angela as we were with Lillian, and that she was another trans girl like us. She didn’t talk about who she was before Hekate gave her her current body, and I didn’t ask. I decided it didn’t really matter, Nightshade Tavern seemed to be a place of new beginnings for both of us. 

 

Katherine talked about her devotion to Hekate, and the way Angela had taught her to channel Hekate’s magic through it. It was interesting, hearing magic described in detail. Before I’d never had much interest in learning magic, except where it came to spells that could change one’s gender. Now I was surrounded by clerics of all sorts, all channeling this same Goddess. And I would soon join their ranks.

 

By the time there was a lull in the conversation, we’d eaten all our eggs, toast and bacon, and were starting to pack up. 

 

Our next destination would be wherever Lillian currently was. And to figure that out, we needed to use the spell that came with the contract we signed yesterday. I’d read all about it of course, it was a locating spell that would guide us to Lillian and vice versa. The only problem was, I’d never cast any magic before. 

 

Somehow signing the contract had... added the knowledge of how to cast this particular spell to my mind. I technically knew what I had to do, but I didn't really believe I could do it. 

 

You don’t have to do it alone, Amelia said.

 

I felt her thoughts join with mine, and together we worked the spell. First we pictured Lillian in our mind, drew in a deep breath, and whispered the latin phrase, “ostende mihi.” Then we closed our eyes and focused as the magic provided us with a sixth sense. It was like a subconscious undercurrent of feeling that tugged at our awareness, guiding us towards the one we were bonded with.

 

Thanks, I said to Amelia.

 

No problem, she replied.

 

“Nice,” Katherine said, “Are you off to find her, then?”

 

I smiled at her, wondering how she could tell that we'd cast the spell. “Yes, we need to begin our training,” I said.

 

Katherine grinned widely. “Good luck with that, cutie pies.”

 

Once we’d walked out of the large dining room, we followed the tug in the back of our mind towards our ‘Mistress’. As we walked, I realized there was more nuance to this ‘locating’ spell. We weren’t just being pulled in a direction, we could tell far away she was and whether or not she was moving quickly, too. I could almost picture her surroundings if I concentrated really hard.

 

Okay, Amelia said, this is weird but also really cool.

 

We navigated through the corridors of the inner pocket-dimension part of the tavern. The ceiling was higher in here, and there were more things to look at on the walls. Pieces of art, sculptures, and tapestries were scattered seemingly haphazardly throughout the hallways.

 

We could hear a dull thudding sound that got louder as we grew closer to our destination. We at last pushed through a set of wooden double doors to find Lillian letting loose a flurry of attacks with the swords she held in either hand. She was a whirlwind of steel and purple flesh, hacking away at moving wooden dummies and dodging arrows fired from ghostly phantom archers on the second floor balcony above.

 

“Aha! You’ve arrived,” Lillian said. She smoothly decapitated two more vaguely-humanoid wooden sculptures, then leapt out of the way of incoming arrows and dashed back towards the entrance of the room. She arrived to stand a few meters away from us, breathing only a little harder than normal.

 

Lillian snapped her fingers, and I felt a light pressure tingle over my skin from the magic she just used to unsummon the ghostly archers.

 

“Holy shit, that was amazing!” I blurted out.

 

The succubus smiled slightly, but didn’t respond to my admission. 

 

“The war’s getting real bad for the people the Order’s supposed to be protecting,” she began in a serious, somber voice, “I need more agents in the field, so you need to be trained. I’m the only one in the vicinity who can train you in the arts you wish to learn, and it just so happens that you are amenable to my specific style of magic -- sex magic. But training you means I’m no longer in the field, and that can’t go on for long. Time is of the essence for us. Does that make sense?”

 

My ears had folded back during her explanation, I couldn’t really tell if we were in trouble or not.

 

“Yes ma’am, that makes sense,” I replied.

 

She smiled satisfiedly. “Good. I wanted to make that clear. Normally, I wouldn’t skip straight to the submission stuff, we wouldn’t sign a contract whilst barely knowing each other. But slipping into submission to Hekate is a powerful way to access her magic, and you’ll need that kind of power to do the things you’ll need to do in the field. Additionally, if we practice together and find we have the chemistry to do rituals with each other while in the field, we’ll be able to access even more powerful magic together.”

 

I blinked, taking all that in. “Okay,” I said, “Thank you for agreeing to teach us.”

 

Well that was a lot, Amelia commented.

 

Yeah, no kidding, I replied.

 

The succubus before us sheathed her swords at either hip, then bowed to us slightly. “All of that to say, I care about you, and I wish we could have gotten to know each other more organically.”

 

"So, we're not in trouble?" I asked uncertainly.

 

Lillian looked confused. "No! Of course not, you're doing fantastic for how rapidly your world has turned on its head."

 

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you, then. And we’re not unhappy with the way things are going,” I said, “We wish there wasn’t a war on of course, but we’re genuinely excited to be learning under you. We’d never used magic before today, and we’re eager to try more with it.”

 

Lillian smiled. “Good. We’ll be teaching you magic alongside martial skills. Today, for instance, it’s time for you to show me what you can do with a blade.”

 

She gestured to her left, and we turned to see a sword rack against the stone-brick wall. It was basically a hollowed-out wooden block that now had about a hundred swords stabbed into it.

 

I grinned inside and outside, eagerly walking towards the rack. 

 

Oh yay, your favorite past time, Amelia said with a roll of her internal eyes.

 

You’re damn right it is! I retorted. I loved sword fighting!

 

“Choose whatever suits you best, then I’ll have you show me what you got,” LIllian called after us.

 

My eyes alighted on a paired short sword and dagger, and I made a beeline straight for them. The weight of the sword is familiar in my left hand, and the dagger fits snugly in my right hand’s grip. I quickly sheathe them again and work on strapping them both to my waist. When I’m finished, I turn to find Lillian watching me with interest. 

 

“Not a very standard set of arms,” she commented with a raised eyebrow. 

 

“They’re what I know best,” I explained, “I didn’t exactly have standard army training on the path to becoming a spy for the kingdom.”

 

“Very well,” she acquiesced, “come on over here and let’s begin.”

 

I took my place on the right side of the circle of cleared space in the middle of the room. Lillian faced off across from us. 

 

Let’s do this! Amelia said, clearly affected by my own enthusiasm. 

 

Hell yeah, I said, we’ve got this.

 

I drew my weapons, watching the light glint off my tutor’s own twin swords. Then there’s a loud snap! and Lillian stalked towards us. We mirrored her, approaching cautiously. 

 

“Defend yourself,” she said simply. And then she was on us like a lightning bolt. I only just managed to parry away her wicked fast series of attacks. 

 

"Not bad," she said with a smile. My short sword was crossed with her lead sword, my dagger held back her second blade on the other side.

 

“Not bad yourself, teacher,” I said with a grin, “I’ve been studying the blade since I was a boy.”

 

I giggled at how strange that sounded, coming out in my new adorably soft voice. Then I disengaged from my tutor and leapt backwards. 

 

“Again!” Lillian demanded, and again we clashed in the middle of the room. 

 

This went on for several hours, and by the end of it I was absolutely exhausted. On the plus side, my body was so much more flexible and agile now! But the change in my height threw me way off my game. I could still defend myself just fine, that was mostly reflexes, but going on the offensive was far more difficult. I basically had to learn a whole new style of swordplay. 

 

Luckily Lillian was an excellent swordswoman herself, and she was literally here to help me learn this stuff. I found that I really enjoyed drilling with her, and our banter in between and during fights was full of both positive encouragement and a decent amount of innuendo.

 

Eventually we thoroughly exhausted ourselves, and let Lillian know as much. She called a halt to our training and bid us to go freshen up, then come find her in an hour or so. Apparently there was some sort of stream-bath we could wash ourselves in, Lillian gave us a few simple directions and bid us good bye.

 

The two of you fighting is super fucking hot, Amelia remarked as we walked out of the stone-brick-walled training room and back into the wooden-panneled halls of the Tavern.

 

Aw thanks, I replied sweetly. 

 

It’s the truth! she affirmed.

 

With that settled, we began the trek towards the 'wash room'.