What We Do to Survive

As we moved into the final weeks of the semester, I was glad I no longer had as much of a reason to go out into the city because there was no way I could have devoted an entire evening to visiting Lea. Even with her staying just a few minutes walk away from my dormitory I was finding it difficult to spend more than half an hour or so with her at a time. It had already been most of a week and I hadn’t even had a chance to renew the lessons I’d begun with her before she’d been attacked.

There was just so much to do. Constantly. Endlessly. The board I used to keep track of to-does had doubled in size seemingly overnight and no matter how much work I did each day it never seemed to get any less full.

Despite how busy I was, I found that I was somehow better off than many of my other classmates. All of Avalon was suddenly plunged into a forced calm as even the most aggressive and spell-happy students found that they had more important things to do than fight. When violence did erupt it was particularly fast and brutal as short tempers flared and were banked just as quickly.

Even Brenda, typically ready to spend every waking moment hanging off my arm and rubbing her face into my chest, was suddenly much more attentive in class and hadn’t pestered me about spending time with her all week.

Everyone, even the first-years, knew how important the end of the term could be. Even ignoring that failing a class tended to end with your body rendered down into alchemical ingredients, doing well could be the difference between making it to graduation and dying an ignoble death.

There were a number of benefits associated with doing well during the term. The first was off course the various rewards that the academy gave to those who did particularly well. The best scorer in every class received Avalon points equal to the average year level of their classmates. For first years that didn’t mean very much, but five or six points was enough to buy priceless reagents, enchanted items, and books that were nearly impossible to acquire by any other means.

Similarly, the top few students in every year would be allocated additional one-on-one meetings with professors, access to exclusive classes and Academy resources, and many other rewards that varied from year to year.

Finally, doing well was a sure-fire way to draw the attention of the faculty. Not only did that make it more likely that you would find a good mentor to work with after your fourth year, but I had no doubts that Professor Williams would have been much less accommodating this term if I hadn’t impressed her with my performance in the previous class I took with her.

Of my five classes, the two I was most concerned with were Practical Alchemy and Lectures in Mana Theory. Professor Shrike’s exam was well known and never really changed. He gave a two-hour written exam that was nearly identical to his weekly homework assignments, then asked each student to demonstrate a number of spells discussed in class. I knew for a fact that I could cast each and every spell he might ask for and I was confident in my theoretical understanding of the material as well.

Similarly, I didn’t expect any issues with Professor Yana’s exam for Advanced Body Alteration 1. I had successfully formed my shifter’s body about half way through the term and had already practiced the very basic body alterations she required to pass, along with most of the more ‘advanced’ techniques we had discussed in class. There was also going to be a written exam, but Professor Yana’s tests were always open-note and I had taken very thorough notes. That didn’t mean I wasn’t studying for it, but I wasn’t worried about doing poorly.

Despite the name it really was more of an introductory course than anything else. The goal of the class was mostly to give students a foundation for learning body alteration rather than actually teaching anything particularly useful. Sure I could now grow myself a fur coat, turn my nails into claws, or make cosmetic alterations to my physical features, but none of that was nearly as complicated as I would have expected before I took the class.

Advanced Enhancement Rituals, despite taking up a lot of my time right now, was also not a huge source of concern. As Professor Williams had predicted, we’d finished designing the ritual during our session and now I simply had to practice it until I had it down. Over the past few days I had spent nearly half of my time outside of classes on doing just that and I was starting to feel pretty good about it. I would run through it two or three more times tonight and be ready to go through with it during class tomorrow.

That left me with the two classes I wasn’t nearly as sure about. The final exam for Practical Alchemy was scheduled for a week from today and Professor Meadows had given us basically zero information about it. We’d simply been instructed to block out four hours and to meet at training ground nine at the designated time.

I had no idea what sort of task or demonstration she had decided to bring out for our exam this year. Professor Meadows’ exams were always complicated, dangerous, insane, or some combination of the three. From what I’d heard from other students, my class’s exam last year had been rather tame by her standards, and three of my less prepared classmates had died during it.

Each of us had received a tray of small, opaque containers containing small samples of various substances. To pass, you had to transmute the provided chunks of slate into at least half of the hidden materials. The trick was that several of the materials reacted explosively with air, water, or each other, so you had to be very choosy about which of them you attempted to recreate.

I’d ended up only doing two more transmutations than was required of me, not willing to risk working with any of the samples who’s properties I couldn’t fully identify. That had still gotten me into the top five students in the class, but this year I was hoping to do a little better than that.

I wasn’t sure what exactly she was going to do this year, but I was absolutely working myself to the bone going over every single thing we had covered in that class this year. If she had so much as mentioned it once I was going to know the subject inside and out. That was going to take a lot of work, but hopefully it would be enough.

The exam for Lectures in Mana Theory was much less mysterious but no less stressful because of it. It wasn’t even really a final exam. Rather, we had to write a well researched and reasoned paper about one or more of the topics discussed during the semester and then present it to the rest of the class during our final session next Friday. In addition to the paper, you had to be prepared to back up your conclusions with practical demonstrations of the techniques involved.

In this case, I wasn’t so much worried about my ability to complete the assigned task, I’d been working on my writing and presentation on and off for the entire semester and it would be done with time to spare, but rather about how well I would stack up against my classmates. The average year level in that class was six, and as an advanced lecture class, the rewards for the best performers would be double what they would normally be.

Thus, doing well was a priceless opportunity to acquire an entire twelve Avalon points. Even if I didn’t get the highest score, which I found rather likely given the gulf in knowledge and power between myself and my classmates, the top half of the class would still gain benefits that far outstripped anything any of my other classes could offer me.

I’d already decided what topic I would be presenting on, my self-created shield was the only thing I really had impressive enough to stand a chance against whatever everyone else would be discussing, and now I was spending every free moment editing my paper, polishing my usage, and preparing for the presentation itself.

It was all starting to get a little overwhelming. I was used to working long hours and spending every waking moment trying to better myself, but something about the constant stress and need for perfection was really getting to me. That was why towards the end of the day on Wednesday, I grabbed three heaping plates of food from the cafeteria and made my way down to Miranda’s room to meet her and a waiting Lea.

I had just finished my second to last practice session for my ritual the next day. I wished I could do more but each attempt consumed nearly my entire mana pool so I needed to give myself time to rest between attempts. I was absolutely exhausted from a long day filled with writing, studying, spell practice, and a mind-numbing three hour long exam prep session led by a fiercely scowling Professor Shrike.

All I really wanted to do right now was curl up in bed, maybe with my darling Rea spooned up against my chest, and take a long nap. Well, that or drink a dozen more shots of elven milk, fuck my cows, and then go to bed properly, but that was the spike of energy from my evening drink talking.

I had taken it slightly early to help my mana regenerate faster and was starting to regret that decision. Drinking something so magically charged without enough of my own mana rushing through my body to balance things out had, in hindsight, not been a great idea. Still, I was pretty sure it was going to be fine. Stimulating mana regeneration was one of the many uses of elven milk that made it such a prized subject among mages.

I would happily spend an hour with Lea and Miranda, then an hour taking care of some last-minute homework assignments, and then use the diagram I’d drawn out on the floor of my dorm to attempt the ritual charging one last time before I went to bed. As long as I didn’t waste any time I should be able to get plenty of sleep before I had to wake up for Advanced Body Alteration in the morning.

Balancing the tray I was carrying on an invisible disk of force, I reached out to open the door to Miranda’s room. A moment later, I was very glad I hadn’t been holding the tray in my arms because it probably would have gone flying as I stumbled backwards, the door slamming shut a moment later.

I paused, took a deep breath, then reached up to rub my eyes with my hands. I… probably should have seen that coming.

With a soft sigh, I opened the door again and stepped inside before anyone came to investigate the noise. Miranda and Lea hadn’t moved from where they were lying together on the bed. Miranda raised her head and looked over towards me, a bashful smile on her face. Lea didn’t move, in fact I wasn’t sure she’d even noticed I had arrived. Between Miranda’s toned thighs clamped over her ears and the muffled, enthusiastic moans coming from her mouth, I wasn’t quite sure she’d have heard an entire stampede of rhinos charging into the room.

Miranda mouthed something that looked like ‘should I stop’ and I felt something like a question echo down our bond. I sighed again, then shook my head. This wasn’t quite what I’d been expecting, but Lea seemed to be having a good time and I was confident that Miranda wouldn’t dare feed on my darling friend.

Miranda nodded sharply, flashed me a thumbs up, and dove back in with renewed enthusiasm. Judging from the increased pitch of Lea’s… various noises, I had to assume she was doing a good job.

Doing my best not to disturb either of them, I set the plates down on Miranda’s desk and cast a simple warming spell over them to ensure they didn’t get too cold. I wasn’t particularly hungry and could wait for them to finish.

Maybe it was a good thing I’d brought an extra plate. Initially it had mostly been as a cover, I knew Miranda didn’t need anything but Lea didn’t know that her current roommate was anything other than a mundane human and I saw no reason to change that. Now, I expected that Lea would be rather ravenous. If the state of Miranda’s bed sheets was anything to go off of, they’d been at it for a while.

I grabbed Miranda’s copy of our Practical Alchemy textbook, kicked my feet up on the edge of her desk, and flipped to where I’d left off during my most recent reread. There was no reason to waste time that could be used for studying.

Occasionally I would glance over to where my friend and pet were entertaining one another. I didn’t approve of Miranda wasting her time like this, she had just as many exams coming up as I did after all, but at least it was for a good cause. From what she’d told me, Lea was starting to get increasingly stir-crazy from spending all of her time, much of it all alone, in such an enclosed space.

I hadn’t noticed it myself, but I absolutely trusted Miranda’s judgment more than my own on such an issue. I had considered a number of solutions, but none of them had felt particularly appropriate. Drugging my friend with hallucinogenic potions would have felt wrong, as would putting her into an enchanted sleep or under a stasis spell. If eating out and getting eaten out by my loyal succubus would keep Lea from doing something stupid I was more than glad to leave the two of them to it.

They were really going at it, too. Lea’s nails were leaving long red lines all across Miranda’s back and behind and Miranda’s face had been absolutely covered in Lea’s arousal. They were quite a sight, pale bodies twined together on top of rumpled white sheets.

I’d never given it much thought but the two girls looked rather similar, something only accentuated further by their current closeness. Perhaps Miranda’s figure was slightly fuller than Lea’s, and her hair was a tad more silver-white than Lea’s pale blonde, but other than that they could have been sisters.

I didn’t bother looking up when Lea’s voice rose up in another shriek of ecstasy. “Yesyesyeysyesyesyesyesyessssss!” she cried out for the third time since I’d sat down. This time however, something was slightly different. The bed creaked and sheets shifted quietly as one of them changed positions. Then Lea let out a strangled gasp and a loud thump rang out through the room as both of them toppled off the bed. “Orion!”

I finished the last few lines of the current paragraph, noted down my page, and set the book aside before turning to look at where the two of them were sprawled across the bare stone floor. “Yes?” I asked mildly, “dinner is here if you are about done.”

Lea tried to say something but it came out rather garbled. Miranda’s leg, which was resting directly on top of her throat, probably had something to do with that. After a few moments of struggle, Miranda moved her leg and she finally pushed herself up into a sitting position, only to open and close her mouth several times without saying anything.

“Yes?” I asked again.

“Orion!” she said again, voice unusually high pitched. “I… we… it isn’t what it looks like?”

“I could go again if you’re not in too much of a hurry!” Miranda interjected eagerly before I could muster a response. “I have a double-ended dildo I’ve never had someone to try with?”

Lea turned her head slowly towards Miranda, eyes wide and a bright red blush coloring her cheeks. Miranda smiled widely from where she still lay on the ground and thrust her hips up towards Lea’s face.

“Eeeep!”