NT veRse - Curses

Hannah hung her head out the window of the carriage to stare down one of the many rolling hills at the view of her town sitting on the steep, rocky coast of Cheshire. A medium-sized collection of homes built in a loose circle with a cobble road running through the center and stacked stone walls surrounding most of the old, purpose built houses. To see it from above gave the impression of somewhere lost to time, with fresh peat and other moss stacked and layered over the wooden roofs. Big, woolly things roamed freely on either side of the road with proud hounds tending their herds. Less than a mile or so off was the towns namesake, the Black Cliffs that surrounded Cheshire on most sides. Down the cliffs some way sat the City State of Orr and the great bridge connecting Cheshire's Black Cliffs to theirs. The carriage passed through the developed town of Cheshiridge on the way to Blackliff. A hopeful picture of what the future held for the backwater. She hated how 'small' her hometown was compared to the sprawling city that held the Academy within it, or... Over it. There was only one thing really that kept her coming back each year.

The wagon slowed to a halt at the center of town. Hannah stepped out while the pilot of it pulled her trunk from the top. She watched him for a few moments, then glanced out at the town itself, pouting subtly at the fact that no one had come to greet her or even look. Then, as if on cue, the moment she thought that the one reason came running from around a nearby waist-high wall.

"Hannah!" He shouted.

She smiled widely and waved. "Paul! You came to greet me."

"Of course." He remarked, as if it was obvious. He opened his arms and began stepping closer.

"Huh?" She briefly panicked before opening her own arms wide. She was not expecting this.

"Paul, I-" He walked past her and closed his arms around the large trunk that the pilot of the wagon was bringing down. Hannah closed her arms and blushed deeply as he groaned and carefully lowered it to the ground.

"What's in this thing?"

"Just... School stuff."

"Got it! So I should be gentle."

"I wish you would say that to me." She muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" He looked at her.

"Nothing!" Paul was about the same height as Hannah. Both were of average height for Humans. Paul had a charming head of short blonde hair that stood out in the town. On his face were light freckles and she loved that his eyes were a muted green color. She had always believed he looked like royalty, in a sense and treated him like it; in her heart, at least. Paul was oblivious and she did not believe he had any reason not to be. He lived a simple life of tending to animals. Hannah was an average girl by most accounts. She had brown hair, a lithe figure, unimpressive curves. She had hoped that the Academy would be a way to stand out among her peers and she was right, except in the case of Paul.

"Paul, did you miss me?"

"Of course." He offered earnestly.

"You are my best-" Hannah gasped and instinctively drew from her new arsenal.

Paul opened his mouth but the dreaded word never left his lips because it couldn't. He blinked and felt his throat. She realized what she did after the fact performed the complicated process of dispelling even the simplest curse placed on him. He looked at her.

"What was that."

"The word friend does not follow the word 'best' when you're speaking to a girl, Paul..."

He chuckled. "Is that some new city things."

Hannah glanced away shyly and nodded. "Yes."

"Then instead you can be my 'Best Girl.'" Hannah's face glowed. She covered her mouth and her nose and stared at him hard. The worst part was, she was positive he had no idea what he said with such a cheerful expression. He walked up and placed a hand over her forehead.

"Are you okay? Did you get sick along the way?"

"No.. I think I went crazy." She muttered.

"Haha, that's not good." Paul hefted her trunk up in both arms and began straining to carry it.

"Well, let's get this stuff put away so you don't have to on your own."

"Thanks..." She crossed her arms and followed close behind.

'I don't want to do anything without his permission.' She resolved.

'But he's probably too dim to really understand what I'll ask. Maybe that's fine?' She groans.

'Ughhh, is this mentality why I was sorted into Lauda?' She knew the answer.

"How long are you here for?"

"About a week and a half." She moped.

"That's great. But I wish you could be here with us longer."

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. 'Then occasionally he'll say something like that as if he knows. This guy... I totally want to jump his bones but does he even see me like that? Guys are supposed to be more obvious than this. Isn't he also a virgin? He should want to have sex with anything that moves, right? Unless...'

"Paul do you... Hang out with any other girls?" She asked. There were not many options, but still.

"Nope. You're basically the only one." He responded obliviously.

"Okay." That was at least something.

He brought her and her things back to her small three room hovel. It was the standard size for buildings within Blackliff. It used to house her parents and her, but they were gone and there was no one other than her to upkeep the three small rooms and the things inside. She entered to a dark, lonesome interior with dust coating most of the surfaces and a leak that had taken over one of the corners in the kitchen. She suddenly felt a wash of sadness roll over her as it all come back. With dread she stepped in and looked around.

"Oh shoot!" Paul cursed.

"This can't stand. Who knows how long that leak's been there."

"So what?" She sulks.

"You know it's bad luck." He looks to her with a worried expression.

"Besides... I didn't know this place was so bad. What to do..."

"W-will you stay with me!" She asked quickly.

He looked up at the roof leak in thought. "For the week and a half? I could help fix the place up. Sure!"

"Yes!" Hannah cheered.

"Know any of that magic to make it easier, by chance?"

She avoided his gaze as she said. "W-well... I could think of a few things but my studies were mostly around, uh... Affecting people."

"Affecting people how?"

"O-oh you know. Making them... Better in some ways while worse in others. Always a bit of a trade off."

"Sounds exhausting."

"Not really." She offered nervously.

"I more or less just cast something and forget... It's an aspect of the school of magic I learned from. All it needs is a bit from the person I cast it on."

"Sign me up!" Paul said eagerly.

She wiped a bit of saliva from her lips. "Okay! Y-yeah, just give me some time to prepare."

"As much as you need. I'll get your stuff."

"N-no no. I'll take this with me. Just uh..." She looks around.

"See what you can do while I take some time in my room." Hannah retreated into her room and pulled her tome and many reagents she had smuggled out from the forest.

"Wasn't expecting him to 'agree...'" She muttered, looking over her tome.

"Makes it way easier to curse a willing target, but it also... Makes me guiltier that he's acting so nice." She rubbed her eyes.

"Was he always this nice?" She thought back and gave a quick nod.

"Yep."

She tried to study to find one that would be innocuous enough to not do any real damage while also accomplishing her goals. Attention centered on one little spell.

'Lust.' Her eyes glided across the page.

'The Subject has their mental resilience tested by nagging thoughts of sex with the closest and most available target of their attraction. Noteworthy is the fact that these thoughts are not impossible to resist, however so long as the curse is active it will consistently build until a breaking point is eventually reached, at which point they will only be able to act to fulfill their desires. Nothing else. Hoho...' Her face became very hot.

'This is a bit... Horny. Who makes this stuff?' She continues reading.

'For the target of attraction being a male, the required reagent is an application of semen. For attraction to females-' She gulped.

'Feminine lubricant? That means...' Her legs quivered and thighs opened. She was jarred up from her seat by a knock at the door to her room.

"Yes!"

Paul's voice. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Thank you." She lied.

'Feminine lubricant...' Hannah reached down between her legs. Thinking about Paul, it did not take much for her to collect some on her finger.

'So embarrassing.' Once she had it she leaned back in her desk chair and stood up. She walked out into the Kitchen where Paul was working and hid her dirtied hand behind her back as she walked over to the cabinet.

"Are you thirsty?"

He looked up from what he was doing. "Sure!"

Hannah took a glass from the cabinet below the stored, sealed bottles of wine. She poured a big glass for Paul and stirred it with her finger. She focused her Aura into the liquid and combined the fluid from herself to form a catalyst for the spell that she was casting; the Aura she used would be expended, for a while, to weave the initial instance of the Curse, but then from the point in which it latched on to someone it would be powered by their own will. Even one without Aura could power a curse placed on them with just their life-force. Those that couldn't and had not cured themselves would be extinguished before the curse was. Hannah did not intend to let that happen; she could dispel curses. The girl jumped as he appeared beside her.

"Trying to get me drunk?" He asked jovially, taking the cup.

"Uhm..." She avoided his gaze.

"Or..." He winked, lifting the glass towards his lips.

"Maybe you're trying to cast a spell on me?"

Hannah was surprised by the accusation. She knew it was a joke by the way he was looking at her. Still, she felt bad deceiving him.

"That one. Yeah. Casting a spell on you." She was ready to come clean.

Paul looked at her curiously. There was just a moment of silence, then he shrugged and winked at her. "I'm sure it's a good spell." With that he gulped down wine and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of the hand holding the glass.

"Good stuff!"

"I don't really drink so it's been sitting here aging since my parents..."

He rested a hand on her. "It's fine. No need to remember that stuff."

Hannah felt herself becoming emotional. She smiled weakly. "Thanks, Paul. You're a good friend. You- " She wondered how strong the initial effect was. While staring up at him with a sultry gaze her lips parted just slightly before she said.

"You could be an even better..." She trailed off, but the implication was there.

Paul's cheeks reddened. It could have been from the liquor but she could swear he had become a little bashful for the first time.

'Join the club...' She thought.

"Better what?" He asked. She was surprised because it was usually the type of thing that he would have brushed past. More than that, he looked interested.

"Better... L-" She covered her mouth.

'I was about to say lover... Really?' She calmed herself and fixed her sentence.

"Better husband?"

His lips curled up into a smile. He took a n unfamiliar step towards her. "Who's?"

"Anyone's." Hannah claimed. She did not fully intend to, but she realized that with her own anxiousness it was her turn to be the oblivious one. He stopped closing the distance and looked a little hot as he glanced away from her. He clasped his hand in front of his lap, rubbing it with his thumb.

"I see." He looked both disappointed and confused as he had to pull himself away from her and back to what he was doing.

"Something wrong?"

"Strong liquor." He observed.

She chuckled awkwardly. "Y-yeah." She exhaled deeply.

'I still want to wait for him to make the move. It's the man's duty, after all... Damn Paul.' She watched him for a few moments then took a small sip of wine. It was bitter and sour and left an unpleasant taste in her mouth.

'Blech...' She knew it wouldn't affect her, anyway. The reagent was for an attraction to women and she definitely had an attraction to men.

"I'm going to go unpack some more things. Are you okay if I leave you out here for a while."

He kept his head down and responded without looking back at her. "Yeah! Yeah. No problem. I'll be out here."

Hannah walked out and stopped at the door. She looked back at him in the corner over her shoulder. "If you need 'anything' you can just 'come' in any time you want..." She offered. He stopped what he was doing and seemed to freeze all together for a few seconds before he started moving again.

"Sure. Thanks Hannah. I will."

She retreated inside and closed the door behind her. "Is it working? The atmosphere is different." She remarked to herself.

"It said it was going to ramp-" She heard a knock at her bedroom door.

"Up?" She turned and opened it to see Paul standing in it. He angled himself inside before she could react. Not that she wanted to, but it made it so that she could not close the door on him. He was breathing heavily and slightly hunched over.

"H-hey... That wine was something else, huh?"

"Y-yeah?" Hannah stepped back and sat down on the side of her bed. That seemed to be all of the go ahead that Paul needed to enter and close the door behind him.

"I feel weird... Did you do something to it?" He asked. It was a surprisingly astute observation for him to notice that it was no normal liquor.

"Well-"

"You did, right?" He stepped away from the door and stood in front of her with a pained expression. She could see immediately that his cock was straining within his pants.

Hannah gave in, partially out of guilt and partially because she was never intending to be fully untruthful, anyway. She thought he liked her and she liked him, so it would be fin.

"I did... It was-"

He nodded, interrupting again. With one hand he pulled at a button on his pants while he said. "So... Since you drugged me, and you wanted this, basically anything I do to you is okay at this point, right?"

"Eh?" Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Paul?"

As she looked up, his button was finally pulled and his engorged member flopped free to slap down onto her face over her cheek and right eye. Before she could do anything else he wove his hands into her pretty brown hair, then down her cheek and around her chin before caressing back up to her hair where he took he grip. Paul slid his cock back slowly, then pressed it forward against her lips. She reached up and held it in her hands to keep him from fully thrusting inside so that she could still speak.

"Paul! I'm sorry... I- I can dispel the curse if this is making you do something you don't want to do..."

He paused and placed his face in his free palm, rubbing it down from his eyes. "Hannah..."

"Yes paul?" She stared up at him attentively.

"If you take this from me now I'll never do anything with you. I promise." He warned. She stared at him. His eyes seemed brighter, almost and his cock was throbbing on her lips. She parted them and sucked his cock between them. In response he began to stroke her hair. He curled over her as he received her gentle sucking and continued to explain.

"I never better... I don't know what you did but it feels great. I feel great and all I want to do is cum in your mouth and that's not so bad, since you did this to me, right?"

'Well...' Her tongue stroked the under side of his cock as it passed between her tight lips. She could not exactly respond. She felt him twitch and cum in her mouth. He pulled back and roped over her lips, too. All before she could finish that thought.

"Dammit! Damn... I'm so pent up!"

She gulped, closing her eyes tightly as she forced his thick seed down. "Th-that's fine, Paul. But this doesn't seem like it's working the way I thought. Let me check..." As Paul was recovering she scampered over to her tome and checked for any hint. After reading and re-reading the passage there was nothing. Then another thought occurred to her. She shivered at the thought.

'Just as the body has a capacity for enhancements to improve one's abilities, there is also a capacity for things like curses. Typically drawn at the Core's Memory. If one is places on them at that point then the last one-' She gulped, feeling Paul's arm around her from behind. He kissed down on her neck. She shuddered and felt like she might be in heaven, but that nagging idea still permeated her thoughts.

"We're going again... I want to fuck you this time. You aren't doing anything, right? We can just do it over and over again?"

"Uh, Paul. I kinda want to figure this out for you so-"

"Sorry." He relented. She relaxed and smiled, then felt his arms tighten around her, a hand moved to her perky breast.

"I just don't think that's going to work... Maybe tomorrow once I feel like I've gotten it out of my system. Alright?"