*The Lust Potion Incident*

Antonia's voice came through the wooden, sounding slightly distracted. "It's open. Come in."

Cassia pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Antonia's room was a study in organized chaos, much like the girl herself. Her desk was covered in alchemical equipment, glass beakers, copper tubing, a small spirit lamp still burning with a low blue flame-and in the center of it all stood Antonia herself, dressed in a simple linen tunic, her dark curly hair pulled back in a messy knot, her electric green eyes focused intently on the bubbling concoction before her.

"Cassia!" Antonia's face lit up with a smile that made something warm flutter in Cassia's chest. "Perfect timing. I'm just finishing up a project for my alchemy class. Give me two minutes and I'm all yours."

Cassia closed the door behind her and leaned against it, watching as Antonia carefully added a pinch of something that looked like crushed gemstones to the bubbling mixture. The liquid inside the beaker shifted color, from deep violet to a shimmering pink.

"What are you making?" Cassia asked, pushing off from the door and moving closer.

Antonia grinned, the expression sharp and delighted. "A lust potion."

Cassia blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"A lust potion," Antonia repeated, as if that explained everything. She picked up a glass stirring rod and began to swirl the pink liquid slowly. "My assignment was to brew a potion that induces heightened sexual arousal upon contact with the skin. The student who achieves the highest potency wins a prize."

She glanced up at Cassia, and there was a gleam in her eye that Cassia was learning to recognize. "I may have gone slightly overboard."

"Overboard how?"

Antonia's grin widened. "The standard recipe calls for a potion roughly equivalent in potency to a single dose of futa cum." She gestured to the beaker with a flourish. "Mine is approximately three times as potent as futa cum. Maybe more. I lost count of the succubus extract somewhere around the fourth addition."

Cassia stared at the shimmering pink liquid. "Why?"

"Because I want to win of course." Antonia picked up a small glass vial and held it up to the light.

She began carefully decanting the liquid from the beaker into the vial, her movements precise and practiced. "I'm calling it Laeta’s Libido. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

Cassia shook her head. "You're not going to sell these lust potions to our classmates, are you?"

Cassia could only imagine what the likes of someone like Mira would do with a lust potion in her possession.

"Of course not. I’m not an idiot. Besides, it wouldn't cost effective." Antonia sealed the vial with a cork and held it up, admiring the way the pink liquid caught the light.

"There. Done. Now I just need to let it cool and-" Antonia’s eyes went wide, interrupting her as her foot caught on her floor chest.

Cassia saw it happen in what felt like slow motion, Antonia stumbling, her arm flailing, the vial flying from her hand in a perfect arc that seemed to hang in the air for an impossibly long moment. The pink liquid spilled out in a glittering cascade, and then-

Splash.

All over Cassia.

The liquid was warm against her skin, soaking through her tunic, dripping down her arms, splattering across her face. She stood frozen for a moment, blinking, as the lust potion seeped into the fabric of her clothes and spread across her olive skin in shimmering rivulets.

"Oh fuck," Antonia said.