We recieved our first mission to delve into the abyss three days later. We were to delve to the fifth floor of the known abyss. The paper said our objective was ‘Routine exploration and guard duty during the spice harvest’ but something about it itched that well trained part of me that expected danger and being deceived. I kept those thoughts to myself as we continued through our classes but, with the link Brandi and I had, it wasn’t long before she picked up that I had an issue during our biology class.

The teacher was discussing some kind of small creature that lived in the underground forest of the fifth floor. I tried to pay attention and ignore the holes that Brandi was staring through the side of my head.

She waited until the teacher returned to the board before she made her move and cupped my crotch with a hand. The shock had me turning toward her, but she turned to face the front of the class as her fingers rubbed against my pants.

“What are you doing?” I hissed as I tried to remove her hand without drawing attention, but she was in a dangerous place. Her hand squeezed every time I pulled on her wrist. “Brandi.”

“What?” she asked. She had her chin resting in the palm of her free hand and had a bored look on her face as she watched the teacher write on the board.

“You know what. Knock it off.”

She gave me a sidelong glance and then moved to undo the zipper. I grabbed her hand and stopped her before she made it more than halfway down.

“I’m serious.”

“You don’t seem that serious,” she said.

Annoyed, I let go of her hand and leaned over so that I could slip my hand under her skirt. She gave a short gasp as my fingers found a small wet spot in the fabric of her panties.

She glared at me as her hand slipped through the opening in my pants and grasped my shaft tightly.

“Don’t you come from this,” she whispered in between a shuddering breath. I had pushed her panties aside and found the swollen nub at the top. “Don’t you waste it in your underwear.”

“We’re going to get caught,” I said back to her, but didn’t slow my own movements. Her breathing was high, her lips parted and her brows were up and wrinking her forehead. She looked so vulnerable and I couldn’t have stopped if I wanted to. I wasn’t wrong to worry, though.

We sat in the middle of the classroom at a long table that went the width of the room. There were no student on either side of us for a few seats, but there were ones in front and behind us. I had no doubt that she was being loud enough that one of them would hear. It wouldn’t be hard to figure out what we were up to.

Still, I slipped a finger inside her and she pressed her face against my shoulder as she tried to keep a good rhythm on my dick.

“Why… why did you start this?” I asked while struggling to keep my voice even.

“B-because you looked so concerened. It was a—annoying me.” She pushed up against me and groaned into my shoulder, biting a wrinkle on my jacket.

“You could have asked...”

She pulled back and grinned. “Where’s the fun i-in that? Gods above, your fingers feel nice inside me.”

“You know you started something we can’t really finish, right?”

“Maybe you can’t finish me as I can’t keep myself quiet, but…” she flicked her pen off the edge of the table, shifted back in her chair and pulled my dick out. The chill of the room lasted for only a moment as she bent over and put her mouth around it.

I almost came when her tongue ran across the head and shaft in a pattern that made my entire body feel like jelly. Her blowjob skills had grown in the few weeks we had been doing these things and she quickly picked up on what I liked. I was a goner and she knew it.

My hands were tangled up in her hair as I went off and she groaned around my dick as she tried to swallow the first spurt and those that came after.

“Everyone understand so far?” the teacher asked as she turned around to face the class. She zeroed in on the two of us and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Miss Hasselium? What are you doing?”

Brandi sat up and wiped her chin with the back of her had. She held up the pen she had knocked off the table. “Dropped this and went to get it.”

The teacher gave a disbelieving look and I tried not to give off any cues that I had just came. “Just make sure you copy these down for your notes.”

“Yes ma’am,” Brandi said as she kept her face forward but was still able to push my half erected dick back into my pants. “That’s what I need the pen for.”

“Mhm,” the teacher said and went back to the lesson. The rest of the class went without much going on as I didn’t want to push our luck any further. Brandi, however, wasn’t finished with me as once we were out of the classrom she hooked my elbow and pulled along to a side hallway.

“Okay, you need to spill,” she said as she shoved me against the wall. I gave a concerened look in response and she shook her head. “I mean about what’s got you all in your head.”

“Why? You going to bang me right here if I don’t?”

“No problem here,” she said as she pulled at her tie. I grabbed her hand. “Well?”

“All right. Man, you have no shame.” She smiled and took a step back. “It’s nothing really, just was thinking about the delve tomorrow.”

“That can’t be what you’re so concerened about. It’s just a routine delve, you read the paper. We’re helping with the defense of the spice harvest. Not something that big.”

“Are we just doing that?”

She cocked her head. “I’m not following.”

I shook my head and pushed off the wall. “I don’t know, it’s just a feeling. Probably nothing to worry about.”

She grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back a step. “It is something to worry about. If you got a bad feeling about something you need to come talk to me about it, all right? We’re a team now. Come on, tell me.”

“That thing we overheard… you know, that whole bit about Magnus in the depths.”

“You think we’re going to run into her down there?”

“Not especially,” I said and took her hand as we walked out into the crowded hallways. “I just got this feeling that things aren’t going to go according to plan for us.”

“Do you usually trust these feelings?”

“Never really steered me wrong so far.”

She nodded and I felt her fingers tighten with mine. “Then I’ll trust it too. We’ll have to be careful then, right?”

“Right,” I agreed. She faced foward again, but her eyes were moving across the unseen screen of her WBD and she frowned. “Speaking of telling each other stuff, what’s up?”

“Mhm…” she pouted a little. “Was just an experiment that proved something I thought. Swallowing only seeds one magic.”

I stared at her as I stumbled in my walk. “So that whole thing back there was to test something?”

She looked back in surprise and then shook her head. “W-what? Nooo, of course not.”

“Yeah it was. That whole spiel about wanting to know what was wrong was bunch of crap wasn’t it.”

She grabbed my sleeve and pulled me to her. “Stop being stupid. I can care and conduct experiments at the same time.”

“Sure, you know what would be easier? Looking it up in the library. I asked you to come yesterday and I’m sure they’ve tried everything you can think of and wrote it all down.”

“But where’s the fun in that?” She asked as she placed her hand to her stomach and grinned at me.

“You’re insane.” I walked away from her but she quickly caught up.

“Sure am. That’s what saturates are, remember?”

“Shut up,” I said and shoved her with my shoulder.

“Gods above, bad enough you two do shit in class but you aren’t even done now,” Victor said as he appeared from the crowd with four girls in tow. “You slumies do realize this is a civilized place and not like that shithole you come from, right?”

It took a moment and then I remembed that Victor was in our class. He sat in the far back of the classroom so he shouldn’t have been able to see us. One of his witches might have though and that was enough to concern me.

“Aw, don’t be jealous just because your witches won’t touch you unless they need their magic seeded,” Brandi said and smirked at him. “I’m sure you’ll wear them down in the end.”

“That’s it. I think it’s about time to shut that saturate mouth of yours and show you what a real mage is. I challenge you to a duel. Tomorrow.”

“Eh,” I said and shook my head, doing my best to keep the grin in. “Tomorrow is no good for us.”

“What? You’ve been challenged. I’ll go to the professor right now and you won’t have a choice or you’ll forfeit your mage and witch points,” he said, his voice becoming more and more heated as he spoke. The girls around him were either just as indignant or rolled their eyes with worn out sighs.

“Well, you should go do that and we’ll see if we can work you into our schedule,” I said and pushed my way past them while pulling Brandi behind me.

We disappeared into the crowd and worked our way toward our next class.

“How you think he’s gonna handle it when he finds out we can’t be challenged now?” Brandi asked with a huge grin.

“Really wish I could be there. But we need to keep that kind of stuff to the room. It would be bad if we got caught by someone who could actually do something.”

She waved me off. “Who cares? Everyone here is getting laid and doing stuff. Plus,” she leaned into me as we walked, “watching you try to keep quiet when you come turns me on to no end.”

“Of course I’d get a nympho as my first witch.”

She snorted. “You didn’t really have much choice, so be grateful.”

I glanced behind us as we made the turn down another hall. “I still don’t get how an asshole like him already has four witches.”

Brandi shrugged. “He has a better personality? He’s kind of cute? He’s a relatively powerful mage? Oh, and he’s from a rich family in the upper tier of the city.”

“Didn’t have to be so truthful,” I said and tried to pretend that what she said didn’t hit one of my weak spots. The problem was, she did and it stung.

She swatted my shoulder. “Oh, don’t look so glum. You’re cute and while your personality could use some work, it’s attractive enough. You’re also far more powerful than him, we proved that in the field outside of town. To top it all off, you know how to show a girl a good time in the bedroom.”

“Uh huh,” I said as we entered our next class, Magic Levels. The class explained how to use the points we had gathered from our duels and turn them into upgrades and today would be the first time we could do so.

The room had been cleared leaving an open floor for the class of thirty or so students to stand around a single desk in the middle of the room.

Mr. Rastle, a large, round man with half mood spectacles, stood beside the desk like a proud parent and grinned at everyone while he waited for the group to come together. Being close I could make out a large chunk of crystal sitting on a pedestal on the desk. Beside it laid the same type of copper needle that had been in the tent that now seemed a lifetime ago.

“Welcome class,” he said and beamed at us. “Today is my favorite time of the year. Today I will show you how to spend the points you’ve recieved to upgrade your battle displays.”

The energy of the room changed from the initial boredom to a buzz of interest.

“From here on out you will be able to spend your points on diferent upgrades to you BDs. For witches this means new spell slots which will allow new spells to be attuned to your displays and allow you chant them into being.” The girls in the room excitedly chatted among themselves about what spells they would want to get. Their mages didn’t seem quiet as interested. Brandi cocked a brow in curosity, but said nothing more.

Mr. Rastle rose a hand and the voices quieted. “Yes, yes, it’s a time to be excited. For you mages, upgrading your BDs using mage points allows you to keep better track of the witches in your charge while also granting you a choice of a branch of magic to use for yourself. Please, keep in mind that all branches of magic that a mage has access to are support branches. I don’t want to hear any whining from you lot about it. Your jobs are to keep your witches alive and safe and that’s what these spells will help you do.”

“I’m okay with that,” I said a little louder than a whisper and Brandi chuckled.

“Not like you need it, you already do support magic.” She gestured to her leg where she had been cut. “So, I wonder if you’ll have different options from the others or will it just allow you control it rather than have it happen at random?”

“Maybe. Can you get seeded magic through this sytem? That seems like the most useful thing to do.”

As if he listened to our conversation, Mr. Rastle spoke up. “As to what kind of magic you can unlock, that depends on your points as well as your skill and your mage’s power level. Most seeded magic will be out of your reach for now, but you will learn new seeded magic as you advance in your course studies. You must visit a crystal to activate new seeded magic, but it won’t stop you if you’ve learned one, even if it is fairly advanced. Questions?”

“Yeah, why can’t we just unlock everything at once? Why use these stupid points?” said Victor. He had his witches around him and they all seemed to be pushing him to ask for them. “Just seems pointless when you get down to it.”

Mr. Rastle smiled. “The questions never change year to year. You’re all so quick to want all the power.” He shrugged and paced around the desk. “Anyone remember what can happen to mages if they bond with too many witches?”

“Their magic can consume them,” said a witch from the back of the room.

“Exactly and as such we regulate how many a mage can bond with. The same applies to spells. Each time you add a spell to your BD it uses a little magic to keep the spell in memory and easily accessible. It’s how we can call on them with chants rather than full blown rituals. At the same time, using magic above your current experience can lead to what we call a siphon. It’s the same state that a mage can fall into. The magic used for the spell goes wild and the spell consumers the user’s magic until there is nothing left.”

The more I kept hearing about magic the more it seemed that it was more dangerous than useful. It didn’t seem like any of the others in the room were surprised at this information and it certainlly didn’t deter any of them as Mr. Rastle told the class to get into a line. Brandi and I manged to find a place in the middle of the line and watched the first few students with interest.

Shawn went first. He moved toward the crystal in a slow, almost fearful pace. When he reached it, Mr. Rastle held out the copper needle and instructed him to poke a finger and let the blood drop to the crystal and then watch his MBD.

Shawn nodded and poked his finger and let a droplet of blood splash across the top of the crystal. After a second the blood sizzled and a small blue flame appeared on top. His eyes went distant as he read his screen and then rose his hand to make his choices.

It was as I watched Victor and Jorge go up that I realized that the crystal would show my power level as well in the form of a flame. It would be the same as the tent and I wasn’t sure how the rest would react. I started to consider skipping the whole thing, but there was no way to dodge out unnoticed and I knew Brandi wouldn’t let me. I sighed and steeled myself.