Danica Pt. 06

Danica watched Celes work, and found she actually liked the way the ring piercing her hood looked. She flipped it with her finger as Celes put down the second ring from her lips.

Celes reached for the hood ring and Danica said, "Wait," flipping the ring again with her finger.

"Ye want to keep that one?" Celes asked. "It is pretty, though 'twould look better if'n it had a stone. Ye want to keep it?"

Danica thought for a moment. It was indeed pretty, and it would serve as a reminder to her -- a reminder of the revenge she owed Zoraster and the pair who had tortured her. "Yes, I think I'll keep it," she answered.

"Well, lemme loosen it up in yer skin then. That way ye can remove it if'n ye wish sometime," Celes said and tugged the ring. She rotated it back and forth a few times to ensure it was loose from where it had fused to the skin, and then told Danica to wash.

Danica stood up and dressed, Celes telling a story of a man she had encountered on a task while Danica was away. The man was once a powerful wizard, though his mind had slipped away from age of late. The people of the city loved the old man, because he used his magic for much good, and had done so for as long as most of them could remember.

The old man still used his magic to aid the local people when he was coherent, but more often used his Art to play harmless and amusing little pranks. He made the sound of gas expelling pop into being when people sat down, caused flowers he wore to squirt water, scared the stray dogs in the area with images of huge cats chasing them, and other little tricks.

Danica laughed and the mood lightened as Celes told her the story of the man's antics. He also spent a great deal of time flirting with every woman in the town. He was lighthearted, funny, and even Celes admitted that she had warmed up to the old man. She had found reasons to spend a lot of time with him when she could.

Celes then told Danica that some things had arrived for her. Danica brightened and followed Celes to her lab to examine everything. The woodworking tools were in three plain wooden cases. Danica had asked for every type of tool the man had ever made, in three different sizes. The rack for the kiln was there, and Danica was pleased to find it connected perfectly. The wood she had requested was in neatly wrapped cords, the smaller pieces wrapped in cloth.

Celes told Danica she would leave her to her work, because she could see Danica's fingers ached to craft. She left and went to her own chambers. Danica selected a piece of wood about eight inches long, about three inches wide, and about the same thickness. She fastened it to the table with one of the clamps from her new tools.

Danica then experimented with the adze, quickly finding a feel for the tool and shaving the block down into a roughly cylindrical shape. Danica fell into her work completely.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

It was mid afternoon two days later when Danica finally sat back with a sigh of weariness to examine what she had made. After a few false starts, and tossing aside several half-done pieces, she managed to combine what she knew with what she discovered as she worked with the tools. She cast the proper spells during her work on the latest piece, because she could feel almost immediately that this attempt was going to succeed.

She had shaped a gorgeous and realistic cock, about six inches long and an inch or so around, curving upward and slightly to the right. It had veins just like the real thing, Danica having taken great pains to work the wood with the tiniest tools and draw out a lot of detail. She had sanded it with fine grain to perfect smoothness. The wood she had purchased proved well selected, and the surface of the toy was as smooth as glass.

The wooden cock was hollow on the butt end and throughout the shaft, right up to the tip. At the end of the shaft, it swelled out larger and was somewhat cupped, the upper part reaching farther than the lower. On the inside, there was a ridge just past the cup, broken in two places by small slots. At the top of the cup, there was a raised knob that had a small tapered slot in it. On the outside, small holes perforated two more ridges about a quarter of an inch apart.

Danica was satisfied with what she had made. It was beautiful, and she was certain it would serve her purposes perfectly. She wanted badly to continue on, crafting the other pieces that she would need, but her eyes and fingers ached from the detailed work. Combining that with the stress of spell casting left Danica exhausted. The rest would have to wait.

She was thirsty, but not yet ready to get up from her chair. She turned and gestured toward the water pitcher, casting a spell of telekinesis. The pitcher and glass hovered across the main room and into her lab to sit gently on the table.

Danica poured the water and drank, then thought about the spell she had cast. The Psi had told her she had a strong affinity for telekinesis. On a whim, she concentrated her magic on the water, and caused a stream to rise up out of the pitcher to fill her glass again.

Danica longed to try to enact the effect without magic, but she knew Zoraster observed her every move. There was nowhere she could go to test her powers that Zoraster wouldn't notice she had not cast the proper spells before utilizing the telekinetic force. She could let her control over the spell lapse and try to use her mind powers, but that was dangerous too.

The thought of testing the hidden powers of her mind also reminded her of another freedom Zoraster had granted her, which she had not yet utilized. Zoraster had granted her permission to use a place here that would allow her to practice and hone powerful spells without causing destruction. She decided to learn more about this as something to pass the time and give her mind a break from her work.

Danica made her way to the man who granted her permission to enter the city. He nodded when Danica inquired, and gave her directions to the room where she could test her Art. He informed her that the ring that granted passage to the Scrying Pool would also allow her access to the Spell Engine, now that Zoraster had granted her the freedom.

She followed the directions to the room and went inside. She found an elderly man seated there, quite obviously a wizard from his dress and demeanor. The room was small, barely leaving room to pass in front of the desk where the man sat. The only other feature of the room was a door covered in many runes, directly across from where she entered.

"You have come to test your magic in the safety of the Spell Engine?" the old man asked.

She nodded, and the man acknowledged her nod with a grunt. "Know this -- once inside, any art will be absorbed by the Engine. It works quickly, but you must still use caution when casting particularly powerful spells. The final discipline of the Inferno spell would still have time to consume you before the Spell Engine could devour its power. Once I shut the door behind you, it cannot be opened from the outside for an hour, for safety's sake. You will be left to your own devices once inside, because none will know if you require assistance unless you open the door. You should stay no more than an hour. A bell will ring when the hour has passed. If you wish to leave earlier, simply open the door and come out. Do you understand?"

Danica nodded her understanding and the man said, "Whenever you are ready, you may enter the Spell Engine."

She opened the door and went inside. Inside steep stairs descended into a large room, much longer than it was wide. The walls were completely unadorned and appeared to be made of almost unworked stone. At the other end of the room, she could see an aura of magic that looked much like a spinning water wheel, the type mills used to power large grinding stones.

Danica cleared her mind and cast a lightning bolt at the spinning nimbus of magic across the room. The bolt leapt from her outstretched hand with a crackle, and the wheel sucked it up like a sponge. The strange magical wheel glowed brighter as it consumed the power of the spell.

Next, she turned and cast another bolt, this one toward the wall on the side instead of directly at the Spell Engine. The bolt turned toward the faintly glowing wheel of magic almost as soon as it left her fingertips.

Danica relaxed again and prepared to cast one of the few spells she had mastered, but never tested. The Inferno spells were simply too dangerous to cast for testing purposes, due to the vast area they engulfed. The keeper outside had used the final form of the spell as an example of a spell not to cast; but Danica felt safe casting the weakest, though still powerful, version of the spell. It protected the caster from its fury anyway, and the Spell Engine should absorb its power.

Danica fell into the casting and felt the tremendous power of the spell surge from her as flames engulfed the room. The Spell Engine consumed the flames and the magical shield the spell generated almost immediately, but Danica stood in awe of the tremendous intensity of the spell's flames. This was the weakest of the Inferno spells, and it was a conflagration the likes of which Danica had never imagined.

She was surprised to notice that the spell only left her feeling slightly weak. She had cast two lightning bolts, one of which used to make her feel weak in the knees when she cast it, and followed it with the powerful Inferno spell. Her powers were growing stronger.

She still did not feel confident enough to attempt the second, more powerful version of the Inferno spell, however. Another day, she thought.

Danica thought of something, and concentrated to activate the magic of the ring of invisibility on her finger. She felt the tickling fingers of the magic running over her, but she didn't vanish from sight. The surge in the glow of the Spell Engine let her know it absorbed the magic of items as well.

Danica thought for a moment, and then pulled her knife from its hidden sheath beneath her clothes. She winced as she pricked her fingertip with the knife, and then put it away. She waited, but did not feel the cold of the amulet spring into being to heal the wound. The Spell Engine absorbed the magic of Zoraster's vile device as well.

The Spell Engine's power was absolute. No Art or magical item would work in this room without its power surging into the Spell Engine. This aroused Danica's curiosity, and she tried to think of other things to test. The runes on the outside of the door gave Danica an idea.

Danica was far from adept at Rune Magic. It was an ancient art, and rarely used in the modern world. It was no less powerful than the common form of magic, most of the knowledge of it had been simply lost to the ages when the quicker form of modern spell casting emerged. Danica's sister had learned the Rune Magic under the tutelage of the great Wizard Darkniciad, who had spent much time researching and re-discovering it. Devan had proved to be as adept a student at the Rune Magic as in the Art. Danica's found she had little skill with the runes, as she expected when comparing herself to her sister.

She had only mastered one Rune, one of light, abandoning the difficult study after that. She had chosen to devote her studies to the Art rather than splitting her attention between multiple disciplines of Magic.

Danica carefully traced the one rune she had learned in the air with her finger and spoke its name. The rune came to life and glowed with radiance equivalent to that a torch would generate.

The Spell Engine didn't absorb the rune. Danica directed and manipulated it normally, even going so far as to direct the rune to hover right next to the Engine.

Danica dismissed the rune, confident it was unaffected by the power of the Engine. She then slipped into the second sight to experiment with something else, yet another discipline of magic her sister had learned under Darkniciad's tutelage.

Spell Weaving was a relatively new form of magic. An associate of Darkniciad's had only recently discovered it. The technique directly manipulated the weave of magic always present throughout the world. It could bring magic into being, and could manipulate the effects of spells already cast. Danica concentrated on the motes of magic she could barely detect even in her intense concentration. She managed to manipulate them and bring into being a globe of light from the raw power of magic.

The small ball flared into brilliance for only a fraction of a second, and then the Spell Engine sucked it up.

Danica could see the weave of magic comprising the Spell Engine when she concentrated on the aspect of the second sight that the Spell Weaving discipline was based on. She let her concentration lapse and wiped the sweat from her brow.

The Spell Engine could absorb the power of spells formed through Spell Weaving, but had no effect on the manipulations preceding the release of the spell's power.

Danica decided there was little chance Zoraster could spy on her here. The room would absorbed any sort of scrying magic easily. The amulet she wore could not absorb her feelings here either. This was her opportunity to test the more visible aspects of the mental disciplines the Psi claimed she possessed.

Danica pulled one of her non-magical rings from her finger. She then sat down on the floor and placed the ring in front of her. Danica closed her eyes and centered her mind as she had learned to do when experimenting with hearing people's thoughts.

After a few minutes, Danica entered the state of calm mental clarity she had experienced before. When she felt the feeling sweep through her, she opened her eyes and looked at the ring. She concentrated on it intently, concentrating her will and trying to move it.

Sweat beaded up on Danica's forehead as she concentrated on the ring. She felt something inside her mind open, and heard a dull roar from within her mind, sounding somewhat like a strong wind blowing against a building. Then her eyes opened wide and her concentration broke as the ring quivered.

Danica wiped her brow and looked away for a moment to rest her eyes before looking back down at the ring. She could almost immediately hear the dull roar as she concentrated. The ring quivered, and Danica willed the force to manipulate the object as she would with a spell of telekinesis.

The ring rolled up onto its side. Danica concentrated again and made the ring spin on its edge. She found that with each manipulation, the process was easier. She needed only to concentrate for a moment and turn her will to what she wanted to do. She heard the roar for a moment in her mind, and then the ring would spin, hop, rise up, and hover -- whatever she wished.

Danica concentrated hard, willing the ring to bend. The roar inside her mind grew louder and the ring slowly warped, bending nearly double under the pressure of her mind.

Danica caused the ring to hover in front of her. She found it took little thought to maintain the object in this position, even easier than when she used the telekinetic magic she had used for years. She concentrated her will on the ring, listening to the dull roar in her mind as she built her will on the ring. She could see it quivering as she concentrated.

Danica then released her gathered will in a rush. The sound in her head grew to a deafening burst, and the ring sailed across the room at great speed to ping off the wall and roll to the floor.

Walking over to where the ring lay, she saw a mark on the wall where the ring had struck. She had propelled the light silver ring with enough force to scar stone. Danica used her newfound powers to make the ring rise up to her and return to its natural shape. A bell sounded just as she put the ring back on her finger.

Danica walked back to the door and exited. The old man nodded to her as she passed, but said not a word. Danica returned to her chambers with a wide smile as she contemplated her newfound powers.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Danica began the work of carving the next piece of her new magical creation the next day. She finished shaving the piece down to size and hollowing it out by mid afternoon. She decided to take a break from her work and made her way to the Spell Engine again.

She had brought along some objects to test her mental powers, and worked to hone her telekinetic skills to even greater potency. She found it easier to manipulate objects with these powers every time she tried. She even managed to start a candle burning with the power of her mind, though this took great effort and made her weak in the knees when she finally succeeded.

Danica returned to her rooms to find Celes waiting. She was distraught, having just returned from a task for Zoraster, and in need of comfort and distraction.

Celes explained Zoraster had sent her to disrupt the business of a mageware shop that was counteracting some plan of his in the area. She had managed to arouse suspicion amongst many customers through careful work, convincing them the man sold defective and deceptive items. She had crept in under cover of darkness to switch jars of spell components, magic items, and other things for ineffective or different items.

While on one of these nighttime forays, she encountered the master of the shop. He had deduced what was going on and lay in wait for her. The man had attacked, and Celes had no choice but to put up a defense.

She had escaped, but not without cost. Her physical injuries easily healed, but the emotional pain remained.

"I burned him badly I fear," Celes said with a sigh. "I thought only to use the Flame Flail spell to give me time to escape, but he must have been exhausted from our battle. The Flail slipped through his defenses like a knife through butter and sent him screaming to the street where our fight had taken us."

Danica hugged the woman. She knew Celes was extremely distraught because the woman had abandoned her put-upon accent and spoke normally. Danica held her for a long time, as Celes fought to keep from crying.

Danica tried to take Celes' mind off things, taking her into the lab and showing her the progress on the new magical toy. The conversation turned to Celes' idea about something she wanted to create. As Celes explained, Danica concentrated with her second sight, trying to see the illusion of how Celes really looked before Zoraster had cast his accursed wish upon her.

While she listened, she caught glimpses, and then longer looks at the image of the beautiful, sensual, sexy young woman that Celes truly was. As she concentrated, she found it easier to hold onto the illusion in her second sight. Danica felt wetness building between her legs as she watched the image of the lithe, sexy woman.

Danica excused herself once, supposedly to go to the chamber pot, but in reality to take a small dose of the hallucinogenic drug that enhanced the senses. She was disappointed to discover that it actually made it more difficult for her to see the illusion. It did however, open wide her mind and her mental powers.

...she's staring right through me, Celes thought, with a mental sigh. How I wish you could look on me as I truly am, to look and find yourself as hungry for me as I am for you. To share our touch, to taste each other, and rise to our heights under gentle caress...

Danica had to concentrate her will to break the contact with Celes' mind. Celes noticed the strange look on Danica's face and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm just suddenly not feeling very well," Danica responded.

"Do you need anything?"

Danica told her, "I'll likely be fine if I lay down for a while."

Celes excused herself with a sympathetic pat on Danica's shoulder, and went back to her room.

Danica did lie down, right after taking a dose of the antidote to the drug. It counteracted the drug for the most part, but she still felt the burning needs of her body intensely. She pulled out her toy and used it to reach a thundering orgasm, fantasizing about being with Celes as she should be.