Sarakiel leaned against the fencepost she used that morning.

“Come on, we’re not even close to the halfway point!” The witch shouted from the fields. Sunlight bathed the cavern in a natural glow, making it impossible to believe they were still leagues underground.

Ashara wore some rough overalls over a basic shirt while her familiar wore an ill-fitting bedsheet modified to somewhat fit like a shawl. A modified pillowcase barely fit around her hips and butt as bottoms. They failed to do anything as work clothes, however.

Drenched in the sweat of a hard day’s work, the succubus had never felt more exhausted since awakening. “Yeah… I definitely can’t do manual labor anymore…” The bed sheets were soaked, almost making her want to strip down then and there. No one was going to notice.

Hopping over the fence, the witch adjusted her straw hat. It was for more of an aesthetic purpose, the light did not bring the heat genuine sunlight had. “Tuckered out already?” The witch’s visage crept into a wide grin, “You miss your old bod, Sarak… Saraj…?”

“Sarakiel.” The succubus flatly corrected.

“Right. That.” Ashara leaned her tilling hoe against the fence post opposite and produced a rag she wiped her forehead with, “What made you pick that name?”

The former holy knight blushed. In truth, it was the name of one of the greatest knights in the previous kingdom’s history. Altalour was a fairly young kingdom, a rebel takeover of an ancient power that declined to just a quarter of the continent they resided, but the former kingdom of Sopra was one of myth and a history of conquest. One that the current king wished to return to. “It’s a mix of two of my old dog’s names.”

The girl leaned in close, a look of heavy suspicion was etched on her face before cracking, letting loose a wild cackle, “Psshh! Seriously? The familiar of the greatest witch Ashara Dulanares is named after a dog? I could’ve just made you into one then!”

A dog’s life would have been ideal for the old Samuel. Much better than becoming two of the things he knew the least: monsters and women.

“But seriously…” The witch’s expression solidified, “I’m glad you’re picking this up fairly well. It must be hard leaving behind everything you know for a life you don’t understand anything at all yet…” Her expression appeared distant.

But only for a moment. “Hey! Why don’t I start teaching you some magic?”

Sara gulped. “A-are you sure?” Magic always seemed so foreign to her in her old life. The language was obtuse, she never grasped what magic circles were even used for, and it seemed those who used it never really let loose as much as her more martial platoons did. All she knew was what it was like to be under the effects of it.

“Of course! Your hands can barely hold anything, much less a sword! Besides, you were practically bred to be incredibly mana capable!”

Questions formed in Sara’s mind before she was suddenly pulled by the wrist back to the house.

“Come on! You’re going to love it!”

- - - -

The succubus raised her hands before her. Having to learn to work around her two new massive obstructions on her chest, Sarakiel still could not help but blush every time she saw them, even underneath her makeshift clothing. Repeating the words she still did not fully comprehend, she completed the incantation.

After a few seconds, she threw her arms down in defeat, “See? I still don’t get it.” Sara was kind of relieved that at least something stayed the same between her two lives.

Lazily sucking on a hard candy, the witch flipped over in midair, somewhere the succubus was supposed to be if the spell worked properly. “Huh. Yeah, that’s kinda weird.” The girl let herself hover around the living room like a loose balloon as she became lost in thought.

Sitting down on the bed, the succubus caught a glimpse of the full body mirror again. As usual, it dominated her attention, each look revealing something either interesting or unusual about this form. But each time always left her a bit flustered. Taking advantage of the witch’s ramblings, she quickly wadded up her bedsheet and threw it on the mirror, covering it.

“I mean, you’re, like, super mana compatible, so maybe you’re just…”

“But what does that mean?” Sara asked bluntly.

With a smirk, the witch grinned, usually foreboding of a diatribe. “I’m glad you asked! See, all creatures have the ability to manipulate mana, some are just-”

The succubus raised her hand, “But what is mana?” Samuel before had never cared for the fancy word mages threw around, back then he always had an answer through violence. For all their self-importance, they were somehow even easier to slice through with a sword than anyone else.

“Geez, that far back, huh? The witch rubbed her neck. “Okay, from the top then.”

“Mana is one of the fundamental aspects of the world around us. Everything is tied together in its form through mana.” She tugged at one of the straps on her overalls, “This cotton has its form because it is plant fibers that is shaped by mana, but manipulated by air mana and thus has a higher compatibility with it. The cotton is then weaved and manufactured by hand into this shape, much similar to how mana would do it.”

Sarakiel’s head tilted to one side, “So you’re saying that much similar to refining cotton into a specific shape is something we replicated from mana shaping stuff into things we see naturally?”

“To keep it brief, yeah. We could wax poetic for another few thousand years about what dictates something’s final shape we see and the routes it took to get there. Just know that there are four basic types that were pretty easily discovered a long time ago: fire, water, earth and air.”

“And everything is just a mix of those four?” Sara almost felt this was too easy to understand.

“Right. So, here.” Ashara held out her hand before her. With barely a show of strain across her face, a rock suddenly formed in the palm of her hand out of thin air, “Because of all the rocks around us, it residually came off as earth mana, allowing me to reshape it back into a form. Obviously I picked a rock because that’s the easiest since it was a part of a rock not too long ago, but yeah. Again, lifetimes have been spent delving deeper into this system and we still don’t know everything behind it. But if you can just manipulate two of those four, you’ll be off to the races!”

Sara smiled. For one of the witch’s monologues and lessons, this was one of the shortest. However, there was one more thing she needed to know, “So when you say I was made for mana compatibility, what do you mean?” She intentionally avoided the word ‘bred’, definitely something she was not comfortable thinking about.

“A good question!” The witch corrected herself upright, “So, you’re a succubus, right? A demonic being super good at taking mana and the lifeforce from living things parasitically?” She waited until Sara nodded before continuing, “Right. So, since they have basically shifted their whole biology around this fact, they obviously need mana for some purpose or another. And taking it from another creature is super hard to do, but terribly effective. High risk, high reward. But why go through all the effort? Easy, they want mana to manipulate their form.”

The witch ran her fingers manically through her hair under her hat, “But now it’s cyclical, right? They get mana so they can appear more like a creature to get more mana. Where does it start? What is the purpose? But I finally got it!” The finger she jutted out almost hit Sara in the nose, “It’s because that’s the way it is!”

It took a second for Sarakiel to follow. “Wait. So they just take mana because they need mana to take mana?”

The young girl floated lazily upside-down, “You’re supposed to say ‘we’ since you’re one of them now. But regardless, that’s exactly it.”

Sara was confused again.

“Let me put it this way: why do we grow food?”

The answer seemed obvious, “So we can eat?”

“But the reason why we eat is to work. And what do we work doing? Growing food!”

The succubus was obviously not satisfied with that answer, “I mean, we do other things too, right? Not everyone spends every waking moment every day eating and growing food…”

“Yeah, but I don’t see you eating pre-packaged cum someone else milked.”

The bluntness hit her over the head like a sack of flour, causing her eyes to shoot wide, “Right. Yeah.”

“I think the issue is…” Ashara floated down to Sara’s stomach. Placing her pale hand on the tanned body of the other woman, it felt warm to the touch. Almost too warm. “I think you just need more mana. I probably should’ve done this sooner anyways to establish you as my familiar officially, but oh well.”

The heat coming from the hand was uncomfortable. The worst part was that it sat right on her lower stomach, spreading to other places, causing the succubus to moan ever so slightly.

“Just another minute…” The witch muttered under breath while concentrating. Strange runic symbols appeared on Sara’s dark skin. Unnaturally pink, much like that of an exotic fruit, a complex crest formed right over where her womb should have been. “... and done!”

Just as quickly as it started, the heat subsided and Ashara pulled her hand away. What was left was a complex tattoo with sweeping lines of various thickness. The center had a negative space forming a heart as the lines on the sides almost made it look like it had bat wings.

“What in the twelve hells did you do to me now?!” The succubus exploded, pushing past her huge breasts to see the brand. It felt strange. Even though the witch’s hand was no longer there, her touch remained along with some residual heat from the ordeal.

“I already told you, I made you my familiar.” The witch turned over to the mirror, saw the sheet and threw it off in a huff, before bringing it closer, “See? It even has my signature in it!”

Sara saw it, alright. That, and the mess that was forming just underneath it, darkening the makeshift pillowcase bottoms. “Damned witch…” She muttered.

“Now try the spell!” The witch resumed her lackadaisical 3D meandering.

With a herculean effort, she tore her gaze from the mirror and resumed the stance. Messing up a few times on the chant before finally getting it right, Sara opened her eyes to see the floor. With a jolt, she braced for impact before the slow realization set in: she was floating above it too. “Ohh wow!”

The witch’s cackle broke her joy, “Holy moley, you are top heavy! You just lifted off the ground and went ploop!” Her hand demonstrated the motion, going from matching her wrist at 0 degrees and immediately shot to a 90 degree angle at the wrist.

“Sh-shut up!” Sarakiel tried to right herself upwards in the air, flailing to do so, “I! I didn’t ask to look like this!” She hit one of her tits against the bed frame, causing a surge of pain, crumpling her over, “Ow! You- you were the one who did this… to… me!”

When the witch’s laughter finally subsided, she wiped the tears off of her face. “But yay!” She daintily clapped her hands together, “Now we have a connection! You can use a portion of my pool of mana and anything you gain will be split to me! A classic familiar’s contract!”

Sarakiel looked young now, but years of experience in her old life dictated that such a loosely defined deal would most certainly favor the contractee. A lesson she had learned time and time again.

“Oh, but one more thing, my top-heavy friend,” The witch joined her now official familiar upside down, “You’re not just any kind of succubus…”

---

World notes: Mana

Mana is a fundamental force that defines an object or entity's existence.

To understand this further, one typically uses a coastline example to understand the Density of Mana.
Firstly, there is the rock surface forming the seabed or base of the coast. Since rock is the densest element, it resides on the bottom due to having the most mass.
Second comes the water above it. Water is far more mutable than the previous element, but still has quite the amount of sheer density.
Third is air which shifts in density the closer to the waterfront it is. This is because the two are fairly permeable and can mix well. Naturally, the higher one goes above the waters of the coast the thinner the air is, it's particles placing the air molecules further and further apart.
Lastly, fire represents the heat element that overlays the entire example. The cold earth on the bottom lacks heat, thus lacks fire mana (until a certain depth, of course) while the the model has an increasing spectrum of heat throughout ending at the top right before hitting what is called The Barrier.

Creatures and objects thought of most closely affected by their element are actually the most resistant to it. Think of it this way, throwing fire on fire would not do anything to the initial blaze. But throwing dirt, water, or blasting it with air would make it go out.

Everything that has been observed has a thin barrier around it composed of elemental mana particles. Over time, through various means, some particles shed off of the object and float with various buoyancies (depending on it's density) through the air or water. Specialized humans and other magical creatures are able to manipulate and 'manufacture' objects or entities with these elemental particles.

Scholars and mages have devoted lifetimes to understanding the interplay and higher order of mana and it's effects.