12 - New Apprentice

Posted on Mon Apr 22nd, 2024 @ 3:30am by Dungeon Master Sue Donym
Edited on on Tue Apr 23rd, 2024 @ 6:26pm

1,772 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Chapter 4 - Apprentice
Location: Aurelia's New Home
Timeline: 2090

The first set of clothes arrived just as Ember was getting out of the shower so Becca helped her get dressed in the generic looking dark grey dress and underclothes that she had ordered for the young woman. Thankfully, it fit relatively well, considering it was mass produced and not tailored to her in any way. Stretch fabrics were a blessing in so many ways.

Meanwhile, Aurelia was on the comms with Elena, confirming some things with her. “Yeah I can see why it was abandoned. If there are any demons like that on Earth... Heck, if there are any kids like her, they’re likely still alive on Earth...”

The woman in red on the screen just shook her head in astonishment. “That is a horrifying thought. Gato, I’ll be honest with you. I have seen some cray-cray shit in my day, but since meeting you, nothing compares to the cray-cray shit that’s been happening. What’s next? Werewolves? Vampires? Zombies?”

“Who knows? Maybe something stranger?” Aurelia just shrugged. Nothing was outside the strange in her book. “As for Ember, Becca says her voice print matches and I can confirm that she’s indeed at least partially human. Demons don’t have physical bodies, after all. Can you do something about her ID?”

“Yeah, just send us her new biometrics when you can and I’ll make sure it’s taken care of. I’ll have to work some numbers on the budget to fit her in as your apprentice though. He may have said we can have whatever we wanted, but apparently there are limits to that.”

“I had a feeling. Better the demon you know than one you summon, right?” The sorceress chuckled softly at the old saying from her old world.

“If you say so. Just please try to get that job for the council done soon? I know you’ve been trying to learn a lot before doing it, but...” Elena gave her a pleading look in the hopes of getting her point across.

“Yeah, I get it. There’s a big party coming up soon, isn’t there? I’ll have them all done by the end of next week. I promise.”

Elena’s eyes widened as Becca and Ember moved into range of the camera’s sensor and she caught sight of the pale skinned, black haired demon. “Ay dios mio...” she muttered under her breath.

“You have a lot of other work to take care of. I should let you get back to it. Take care, Elena! I’ll catch up with you later!” Without another word, Aurelia reached over and hit the call end button, cutting off whatever the lady in red was about to say.

“Well, the report to the cartel is in. How do you feel? Cleaner at least?” Aurelia affixed Ember with a meaningful gaze, reaching out and taking the younger woman’s hands in her own.

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t exactly feel human, but I’m not sure there’s really much helping that.” Ember looked around the room sheepishly, not really sure what to do. “So... as your apprentice... What am I supposed to do?”

“Well, for one, you’ve been exposed to a lot of magical energies. That means that in theory, you can use them, given enough training, time, and practice. Two, you likely have physiological changes that would be classified as magic in this world. But for now, I’m going to give you something I whipped up while you were in the shower.”

The red headed woman reached into her pocket and pulled out the amethyst necklace and held it out in front of her. She then turned Ember towards one of the larger wall mirrors in the study. When the younger woman looked away, tears forming in her pitch black eyes, Aurelia spoke softly. “Magic can be harsh. It can do a lot of harm. But it can also help. This is just a glamor charm, but I hope it helps a bit.” As she spoke, she looped the chain around Ember’s neck and clasped it together.

The reaction was almost instantaneous. Her eyes inverted and returned to white scleras and normal golden brown irises, her hair smoothed out to her old dirty blond, her horns receded into her head and all but faded to look like hair buns or similar, and her figure - the charm did it’s best to work with it. She wasn’t nearly as curvy, but it couldn’t make her look as slim as she once was. She was probably a third of the way from where she used to be. Still rather curvy, but not ludicrously so.

The point was that to everyone else, she looked human. Gasping in surprise, she put both hands over her mouth, her eyes wide in shock. “I look... Like me...” Turning around, she threw her arms around Aurelia in a tight hug, this time crying happy tears . “Thank you. Thank you so very much.”

“You are very welcome. LIke I said though, it’s not perfect and it’s not absolute so be careful, ok?” Aurelia couldn’t help but be happy as well. After all, it wasn’t every day she helped someone like this.

Just then, the door chime sounded, interrupting them. “Ah, that must be more of the clothes we ordered. Becca...” Aurellia was going to ask Becca to answer the door, but the android was already on her way back with Ryder in tow.

The tall, muscular man was carrying a trio of boxes, all with the SavMart logo on them. “These came in for you and they looked heavy so I didn’t want you to stress over it. Where would you like them?”

“That’s right! You need to pick out a room! Come on then, there’s an empty one next to mine. Let’s see what you think of it.” With a face splitting smile, Aurelia took Ember’s hand and led her down the main hall of the large apartment, pointing out rooms as she did so. “All the rooms on that side are workshops of some sort. That one is my room. Down there is a closet that Becca claimed as her own. She insisted that it’s all she needed.” With a tight lipped grin, she shook her head. She obviously wanted to give Becca a larger room, but had been thwarted at every turn.

“And this is the room next to mine.” With a practiced flourish, she opened the door to the large room. There was already a queen size bed, a wardrobe, a couch, a desk, and the normal wall mounted furniture adorning the room. “I had expected someone else to stay here, but that sadly did not happen. Hence, it’s already furnished. If you want it, it’s all yours.”

“Are you kidding? Yes, Of course I’ll take it. This is bigger than the room we shared at the orphanage. This is luxury.” Ember just stood there in the middle of her new room stunned for a moment.

Aurelia chucked softly and stepped back into the hall to talk with Becca about budgeting furnishings while Ryder came in behind Ember and set the boxes down on the desk.

“So you’re the mystery lady that everyone downstairs is talking about. It’s good to know that Miss Luna is taking care of you. She’s a good woman, you know. She helped me and quite a few other people.” Ryder couldn’t help but give her that friendly grin of his. “Do you need any help unpacking?”

Ember almost felt like she was in a daze as she turned to take in Ryder once more. This was her room. She had her own room for the first time, ever. This man was in her room. What was his name again? Ryder? He had on a security uniform like at the front desk. He was a friend of Miss Luna, wasn’t he?

There was something deep inside of her that she had been able to push down and ignore but now it was gnawing at her with an insistence that she was finding increasingly more difficult to set aside. It felt like a cold fire was filling her belly and trying to consume her and it made her fingers and toes ache fiercely. Her teeth seemed to fill with a similar pain - like a need for something she couldn’t identify.

“Hey, are you ok? You look a bit more pale than usual.” Ryder may have spoken normally to everyone else, but to her he sounded like he was underwater. Or maybe she was. As she focussed on him, she could see his tight, rippling pectoral muscles under his uniform as he reached towards her. She could feel the pumping of his blood through the veins in his immaculately toned bicep that looked as big around as her waist. She could feel herself being drawn closer to him and she could only think about how delicious he looked at that moment. She had to have a bite of that succulent man meat right now.

Without realizing she was doing it, Ember had broken the glamor hiding her demonic form and wrapped herself around Ryder, who was far too stunned by the sudden transformation to do anything about it. After all, it wasn’t every day that a beautiful young lady turns into a literally smoking hot demon in your arms.

But Ember was too busy with her own needs to care right now. She parted her black lips to reveal several needle sharp teeth just before sinking them into the intoxicatingly built man she’d locked eyes onto and drank deeply, his taste filling her senses, causing her to moan in ecstasy. She had no idea that anything could taste this good. Could feel this good. After a few moments, she released her bite and breathed heavily, slowly coming to her senses and her glamor charm able to once again cover up her true form.

“Fascinating,” Aurelia mumbled as she took notes on a pad While Becca patched Ryder up. “Demonic Vampirism. That was unexpected.”

Ryder, for the most part, looked unphased, if a bit bloodied. “That actually didn’t feel bad. Was that supposed to feel bad? I mean I’ve been bitten before and it hurt a lot but this didn’t. Is that normal? I wouldn't mind it happening again.”

The young woman once more looked defeated and like she was going to cry.

 

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