“I’ll try to shack up with Glynda”

“I guess I’ll go try to shack up with Glynda; she and her mom live right over the tavern,” decides Xabar.

“And if the Compliance Spell you set on her mother wears off?” Hager asks.

“Then I’ll just have to use my own natural charm,” Xabar responds, confidently.

“Right.... Well, just one word of advice from me, then,” says Hager, as he sees his friend to the door. “You are naturally charming, when you put your mind to it, but staying at a tavern with Glynda? You know what happens when you mix women and ****?”

“You get double the pleasure?”

“With you, it’s double the trouble! Women get you into enough trouble as it is, but when you get around ****, you show some of the most spectacular bad judgment in the history of the world! I’m convinced your last words will be, ‘No, I haven’t had too much to drink, so hold my beer and watch this!’”

“I think that’s a little unfair....” response Xabar.

“And to top it off, you’re a mean drunk,” says Hager. When his friend looks up sharply, he says, “No, I mean it. You’re my best friend, and I’d go through the fire for you, but when you get drunk, you’re a pain in the ass. Now that you can’t rely on your magic to protect yourself, you’d better watch your temper.”

“Tell me one time when I lost my temper due to liquor,” challenged Xabar.

Hager rolls his eyes. “Seriously? Have you forgotten last Saturday night already? What happened when Erik Cläggsen told you to leave his party because you were getting obnoxious?”

“I was not drunk that night,” said Xabar, defiantly. “There is a flu bug going around, and lots of people were throwing up. And that pile of clothes in his closet needed to be washed, anyway.”

“It wasn’t your barfing that almost got the shit beat out of you. It was the words that came out of your mouth when he told you to leave,” Hager reminds him.

“If he doesn’t want people to make comments about his mother, he shouldn’t display her picture publicly.”

“You’re a mean drunk,” Hager reintegrated. “Remember that, and watch yourself!”

After reassuring his friend that he’d be careful and that he would stay in touch, Xabar left Hager’s room and departed Häzadertroth’s Academy, without looking back.

As he walked into town, he pondered Hager’s words. His friend did have a point about something. Xabar had to admit that his default response to stress and difficult situations was always to make himself feel better through sex or liquor — preferably, both. His father and teachers had told him many times that he was a natural talent when it came to wizardry, but he seemed ready to squander that talent by only focusing on those skills that would directly benefit him. The Seduction Spell is prohibited, except in special circumstances and isn’t even taught to wizarding students until their final year. Xabar mastered the skill when he was 15. And Hager had a point about his taste for the pleasures of the flesh; it got him a lot of pleasure, but it also brought him no end of grief

He arrived at the doors of The Sassy Thistle Tavern just in time for the dinner rush. Glynda had her back to him as he entered, organizing tall glasses of drinks on a tray that is on the bar. Xabar crept up behind her and grabbed her ass, whispering, “That tray looks pretty full, so how about I lighten your load by taking one or two tall ones? I’ll trade you for a nice big one later.”

Glynda, who initially stiffened and prepared herself for dealing with yet another drunk sexual harasser, relaxed and smiled at Xabar’s voice. She quickly turned and put her arms around him, planting a quick kiss on his lips.

“Xabar! I didn’t expect you tonight! Shouldn’t you be getting ready for final exams?”

“Trust me, final exams are such a non-issue for me,” responded Xabar. “And I need a favor.”

Glynda’s eyes sparkled naughtily. “Right now? Mother would kill me! Look at how many customers we have! But if you can wait until we close, I might be able to slip away for a few hours...”

“That sounds lovely,” he responds, feeling his cock twitch at the thought. “But what I was wondering is whether I could shack up here for a few days. I’ve run into a bit of a temporary housing issue and need a place to stay.”

“Barmaid!” yells a customer. “Where are our drinks?”

Glynda looks quickly over her shoulder and says, “I’ve got to run. I can ask Mother about you staying. I think that would be wonderful!” Xabar’s cock twitched again at the tone of her voice at that last word. “But I don’t know how she’ll respond. She really seems to like you — she’s never taken to any of my boyfriends the way she has with you, but lately she’s kind of weird — like she’s having second thoughts.... Anyway, have a seat, and I’ll bring you some food when I get a chance.”

With another quick kiss, she turns, grabs her tray and rushes off to demanding customers.

Xabar finds an empty table, sits and drinks down two tall glasses of beer while thinking about Glynda’s words. It’s true that her mom took a liking to him, and perhaps Glynda’s previous boyfriends would have gotten further with her mother if they had slapped her with a Compliance Spell like he had. He didn’t use that spell often, because it is rather involved, and because he rarely had any interest in charming the parents of his sexual conquests. Xabar wasn’t exactly looking for long-term relationships, so his strategy with parents was basically to avoid them.

Glynda was different, though. For one thing, she was practically a nymphomaniac. Xabar thought that was probably her best quality. It certainly wasn’t her brains. Even though he attended the Academy, she never seemed to suspect that he was actually capable of performing magic. When he did the Compliance Spell on her mother, she never suspected anything other than the notion that her mother finally approved of one of her boyfriends. The Compliance Spell came in handy to cause her mother to have no problems at all about her daughter spending so much unsupervised time with him; it also caused her to be oh-so-generous with the tavern’s beer.

It troubled him, however, to hear Glynda say that her mother’s attitude toward him was changing. That meant the spell was wearing off. He had no idea whether it would even still work, and if it did, how much time he had left.

Xabar’s thoughts are interrupted as a fellow his age stumbles and falls against him. “Whoa... sorry about that, Mate,” says the young man, pulling himself up and turning to Xabar. “Must’ve had a drop more than I thought I did!” He looks at Xabar in surprise. “Xabar Greether? Is that you?”

Xabar looks at him and recognizes the young man as Blake Regum, once a fellow student at Häzadertroth’s, he left a couple of years ago, without any explanation. “Hello, Blake. Long time no see,” he responded, evenly.

“Long time indeed! Are you still hanging out with Hager? Last time I saw you, the two of you were being investigated for that explosion in the greenhouse.”

“That was all a misunderstanding,” says Xabar. “They rebuilt it and now have clearly-marked signage to let students know they can’t put a distillery there, due to ventilation, hurting the plants, whiskey fumes, blah, blah, blah.... But what about you? You just up and left with no explanation. What have you been doing?”

Blake smiles and says, “I had another opportunity come along that was too good to pass up.”

At that moment, Xabar sees Glynda’s Mom hurry past him with a try of dirty dishes. She looks busy, but in a reasonably good mood. This might be the perfect time to talk to her and find out how well the spell is holding up.

“Mind if I join you and tell you what I’ve been up to?” asks Blake, motioning to an empty chair. Xabar feels a warmth building inside him as the beer works its way from his empty stomach into his bloodstream. “And where is my food?” he wonders with irritation.