Steamy Lesson

Brenda stumbled into the witches’ barrier, the transition between the magicless world and the magical still an odd, somewhat unsettling, sensation.

“Hmm, still getting turbulence, huh?” Estelle asked as she helped steady Brenda. The witch’s soft fingers brushed against the exposed skin of her midriff as she did, causing goosebumps to spread over Brenda’s flesh and sending a jolt of need to her core.

Brenda’s tryst with Kiera had only stoked the flames of her desires, which had gone unsatisfied since Thursday night. She didn’t want to push the bluenette into anything more, especially since she was pining over John and the girls, but the temptation remained, not only for Kiera, but for her son and his little harem. The suddenness of everything, of learning about magic, and John’s dangerous position in this ‘Abyss’ had dampened the shame of lusting after him.

‘I need to do something about all this tension,’ she thought as Estelle pulled away once her feet were steady. ‘Before I do something I regret.’

“Thanks,” she said to the witch, giving her a thankful smile.

“I’d be a lousy host if I let you fall down, especially since I was the one pulling you in.” Estelle laughed, before toying with a loose lock of hair. “I wonder if gaining magic will help with that. I know some late bloomers have issues the first few times before getting used to the reality shifts. Closest thing I can think to compare it to is getting used to being on a boat. So instead of sea legs, we need to work on getting your ‘B’ legs.”

Estelle laughed at her wordplay and Brenda chuckled along with her. The witch’s exuberance was refreshing and she made it all too easy for Brenda to feel at ease.

“Anyway, we’ve got some preliminary stuff to show you,” Estelle said, looping her arm around Brenda’s to pull her along. “Well, I say ‘we’, but Nel’s taking care of some other stuff, so it’s just me and Anita.”

“Anita?” Brenda asked, confused. “I didn’t know you had someone else.”

“Well, she’s not technically a part of the coven,” Estelle answered. “And she’s not actually a person. She’s one of the gnoshrooms. I found her wandering around the other day and she was just so cute I had to show her around. Those little tendrils she can grow are rather helpful and she’s brought me some interesting plants back from Pruzonia. I still need to send some to a botanist we know.”

“So we’re not the only ones getting deliveries from there,” Brenda muttered. “How do you know she’s a girl?”

“Just a hunch.” Estelle shrugged. “She can be rather expressive with the pantomime, so if she had an issue with it, I’m sure she would have let me know.”

She chuckled and whispered conspiratorially, “Want to know how I came up with her name?”

Brenda couldn’t help but lean a bit closer, their breasts squishing together slightly. “Do tell.”

“Well, there’s a type of mushroom called fly amanita. It’s the classic one, red cap, white dots, you know the deal. Well, Anita looks like one so, amanita, Anita. Pretty clever, yeah?”

It was certainly less than Brenda had been expecting, but it still made sense and was a clever bit of wordplay so she nodded.

Estelle led Brenda into the lab and towards a table laden with books. Reading the books was who Brenda assumed was Anita. The large gnoshroom was flipping through the pages with her tendrils, and Brenda wondered how she was actually reading since she didn’t think Anita had eyes.

“We’re back, Anita!” Estelle cheerfully declared, getting the gnoshroom’s attention. She spun around with a hop, giving Brenda the impression that she had a ‘face’, and extended a tendril in an excited wave. The gnoshroom ran to the edge of the table and jumped at Estelle, who caught the flying mushroom in her hands.

“I missed you too,” Estelle said before giggling as Anita gave her face a hug with her tendrils. “I don’t know if you’ve met Brenda yet, but she’s John’s mom and we’re helping her get magic.”

Anita hopped in Estelle’s hands, turning so she was facing Brenda and scrunched in on herself. It took Brenda a moment to realize she was giving her a curtsy. Brenda nodded at her and said, “It’s nice to meet you. I hear you’ve been a great help to Estelle.”

Anita’s cap nodded vigorously then she leapt out of Estelle’s hands and scurried over to a basket of fruit, one that bore very familiar looking apples. Anita picked one up and trotted back towards them, holding her gift up to them.

“Were you the one who gave us those apples yesterday?” Brenda asked as she took the offered fruit.

Anita nodded and Brenda continued, “Thank you. It was a nice present.”

The gnoshroom tittered happily and hopped back to the books, tendrils extending to point at them.

“Yep, we’re working on Project SEB, Anita,” Estelle said, answering the unspoken question.

‘Project SEB?’ Brenda asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nephele likes to have everything nicely labeled and noted,” Estelle explained before grinning. “But she’s not always in charge of what we call our jobs. So I’m calling this Project Spirit Empowering Brenda.”

“It’s a bit on the nose,” Brenda remarked. “And I thought there was a lot more information you and Nephele had to collect before any real work on this began and we were going to go over more basic magic today?”

Estelle slyly smiled at Brenda. “Well, while I was preparing for that, I came across something that could be very useful for us. So I figured it’d be good to get your read on it. It’ll be something done to you in the end, getting your opinion on it right away means we won’t go down a rabbit hole you don’t want to follow.”

“When you put it like that, it makes sense,” Brenda said. “I wouldn’t want you to waste time on something I’d be vehemently against.”

“Well, take this with an open mind,” Estelle said as she made a come hither motion with her hand. One of the books lifted off the table slightly and hovered closer to them, softly landing once by them. “This idea is a bit intimate.”

Estelle opened the book and Brenda quickly understood what Estelle meant by ‘intimate’. Taking up a full page was a sketch of a skinny woman’s nude body, its face featureless and without hair. However, as she looked at it, the slender figure changed, becoming more curvy as its hips and breast grew, along with dark hair in an all too familiar style.

Brenda sharply inhaled as the face gained details and it was her own visage staring back at her, fully exposed. But the sketch wasn’t done as markings not on her flesh began to form. On the stretch of flesh between her belly button and crotch, a series of looping arches, circles and unknown symbols appeared, roughly in the shape of a heart.

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a shock, isn’t it? ” Estelle asked in a soft voice. “Oh, and don’t worry! All I see is the default sketch. Checked with Nephele last night.”

Brenda did her best to ignore the slight bubble of disappointment that welled up at that confession and instead asked in as even a tone as she could, “What exactly am I looking at?”

“Well, guessing you mean that, right?” Estelle pointed to the symbol and Brenda did her best to not think about where she’d like that finger to rather be. “It’s basically an array to store mana. There are other features, like using that mana to power enchantments, but that’s the core of it.”

“I’m surprised it’s so… compact,” Brenda carefully said, trying to keep her breathing steady, especially as Estelle’s breasts pressed into her side.

“Well, that has a lot to do with where it is,” Estelle remarked, oblivious to Brenda’s dilemma. “Since that’s where, you know, babies come from, there’s a really strong connection to the idea of life and growing it. That takes a lot of strain off the array so less is needed. A lot of magic relies on building up on existing ideas. It’s a lot easier to light something on fire that already can burn than it is to just spawn fire. At least for those of us that don’t have innate abilities that bypass that.”

“Like John’s?” Brenda asked, curious on just how her son’s magic compared to others. She knew the girls’ had called some of it bullshit and she took that to mean ‘very out of the ordinary’, but a more professional option and from someone with a less intimate relationship would go a long way in helping her understand just how unique her son was.

“John’s probably a one in a million case,” Estelle said after a moment of thought, one of her fingers tracing a pattern on the desk. “Innate abilities are a spectrum that runs from ‘I can do one type of magic almost instinctively’ to ‘I have something wholly unique that tends to bend or break the conventional rule’. John’s at the top end of that. Manifesting barriers that leave behind actual items would be enough to put him there, but all the other game stuff really gets him to the top, in my opinion.”

“So I probably won’t be getting anything close to what he can do then,” Brenda said.

“Who knows?” Estelle mused. “We’re combining a whole bunch of things to get this to work, one of which is John’s powers, at least in terms of his spirit-manipulating skill. I wouldn’t count on anything reality-breaking, but it’d be a bad idea to completely discount it. Actually, being related to John might increase those odds, but we have no way to really know, so it’s probably best to not count on it happening.”

Looking back to the sketch, Brenda asked, “So, would I be getting this before anything else?”

Estelle nodded. “Yep. It’s the foundation. We can work in a sequence to better bind the spirit to you, and once its mana becomes connected to it, it’ll become the power for the whole thing. After that, we’ll need to make sure everything is flowing correctly. Though…”

Estelle fell silent as she turned to look intently at Brenda. The witch’s green eyes swept over Brenda and the mother swallowed, her heart racing.

“Hmm, you look great,” Estelle said suddenly.

“Um, thank you?” Brenda responded. Between the compliment and Estelle’s closeness, she was afraid she wasn’t going to make it home before needing to take the edge off.

Oblivious to Brenda’s growing arousal, Estelle continued, “Mana has a tendency to extend lifespans and keep people healthy. Which makes senses if you consider mana the very lifeforce of reality. Even a small amount, probably like ten or twenty by John’s numbers, would be enough to extend someone’s youthfulness for like a decade or two.”

“That’s, um, interesting, but what does that have to do with me?” Brenda inquired. “I don’t have any mana.”

“That might not be entirely accurate.” Estelle winked. “Technically, every living thing has a small amount, far too small to sense or for them to use. It’s possible that you’re on the higher end of that range. Still nothing for you to use, but it helps keep you in shape and looking good. And it might make the bonding a bit easier.”

Suddenly, Estelle stepped back from Brenda, much to both her relief and disappointment, as she found herself missing the witch’s gentle warmth. The purple-clad witch sauntered over to a bookcase and began to search through it, sticking her butt out in the process.

‘She’s going to kill me,’ Brenda thought as Estelle shifted, shaking her rear end back and forth in an enticing shimmy, her skirt riding up and revealing the lowest part of her firm butt cheeks. Despite her thoughts, Brenda kept staring, missing that Anita had stepped close to the edge of the table, the gnoshroom seemingly copying her leering.

Brenda couldn’t help but imagine herself getting closer to her butt, grabbing it and pressing her face into her pussy. As she conjured that in her mind, her hands drifted down to her crotch, fingers stroking her aching pussy through her jeans. She could feel the wetness beginning to bleed through the material, and the thought of getting caught sent a taboo thrill through her.

“Aha, found it!” Estelle cheered as she hauled a book up from near the bottom on the shelf, breaking Brenda out of her fantasy. As she turned around, Brenda hastily looked away, forcing her hands to her sides.

“F-found what?” Brenda asked, hoping that Estelle’s excitement over whatever she had found would distract from her heightened breathing. Thankfully for her heart, the witch didn’t seem to notice, instead bounding back to the table and placing the tome next to the first one.

“This is a collection of research notes Nephele’s collected,” Estelle explained as she opened the book and flipped through the pages. “There was one that… Ha, there it is! Basically, it theorized that late bloomers and those who spontaneously developed magic without a history of it in their family may have had parents with higher than normal background mana. Since it’s all but impossible to measure that, it went nowhere, but the researcher did find that the parents of some of their subjects did present as healthier. Not exactly a bullseye, but something.”

“That’s very interesting,” Brenda muttered, lifting up a hand and staring as she moved her fingers about. “So, if this is something on the right track, John has his powers because I’m close to having them?”

“In part, maybe,” Estelle answered in a hesitant voice. “But jumping to conclusions isn’t going to be of any help, and we can’t prove anything so it’s just an empty theory. We should get back to actually giving you the magic primer. I don’t think Nephele would like us to not get anything productive done today.”

As Estelle settled back into place right next to Brenda, the older woman swallowed heavily. It was going to be a very distracting study session.

Brenda hastily made her way back into the house from the backyard, somewhat grateful her exit from the pathway had been less unsteady than earlier travels. It meant Estelle hadn’t needed to hold her up once more, which in her frustrated state may have ended up with either being short with her or slamming her lips into the witch’s.

“How can someone be so obviously teasing?” she lamented softly as she strained to hear or see any sign of anyone being home. Thankfully, the lights in the house were still off and a heavy silence gave her the assurance that she was the first back. Brenda hurriedly made her way to her bedroom, kicking her shoes off the instant she was past the threshold.

With quick fingers, Brenda stripped out of her clothes and freed her hair from its braid, throwing them to the floor without care. She grimaced a bit as she peeled off her panties, stained from her arousal, but she quickly discarded them and practically threw herself onto her bed.

For a moment, she thought back to her night with Kiera, her fingers beginning to probe her aching sex once she had settled onto the plush mattress. Soon, however, the shy blunette morphed in her imagination into a green-eyed tease, someone far more assured in bed. Or at least she presumed.

As the fingers of one hand plunged into her depths, her other hand reached up to pinch one of her nipples, the pleasant sting drawing out a moan. As she toyed with herself, Brenda imagined how Estelle would touch her. In her mind, Estelle was an explorer; skilled hands, lips and tongue venturing all over to find every piece of pleasurable flesh and taking extensive notes on each.

“Hmm, yes, you would find that spot,” Brenda moaned to the imagined witch as she trailed her hand over her sensitive breast, mimicking how she thought Estelle would play with her. She shifted her legs up, pretending the witch was between them, wondering how her hair would feel brushing against her thighs, and how her tongue would press against her folds.

Brenda picked up the movements of her fingers as her fantasy moved on to full-blown cunnilingus. As the real pleasure mixed with imagined ministrations and Brenda’s hands worked her flesh harder, driving her towards that long-building orgasm.

“Yes, you teasing witch,” Brenda hissed as she played with her clit. “You made me so horny by just being so touchy. You don’t know how hard it is, with all the sex going on around now. With how attractive all of the girls are. And with how hot my John’s become. So, make. Me. Cum!”

A sharp tug on her clit and a strong flick of her nipple, along with voicing her desires, pushed her over the edge, her pussy contracting around the fingers still inserted within her. Brenda let out a keening whine as she came, her back arching off the bed before she fell back bonelessly.

For a moment she just stared at the ceiling as she collected her breath. Then she heard her door creak. With a panicked jolt, she shot up, eyes wide, expecting to see someone in the doorway. Instead, she was surprised to see nothing at eye level. Then her eyes drifted down and saw Anita, the gnoshroom peeking into the room, seemingly just looking around.

Brenda fell back, relief replacing panic, and she let out a laugh as a thought crossed her mind.

“You’re a lot like a cat, aren’t you, Anita?” she asked aloud. “Bringing us stuff and wandering in and out. We should put a bell on you.”

Brenda sat up, unconcerned with the gnoshroom seeing her. Even if Anita had human level intellect, the sheer species divide made preserving modesty pointless. But the scare the little dryad gave her did make her very aware of how risky that outpouring of lust had been. And with her libido cooled down for the time being, it would be best to shower off and get ready for everyone’s return.

Before heading off to the bathroom, she eyed Anita. A part of her wanted to issue some rules regarding her exploration, but as she watched the little mushroom peter about, she couldn’t bring herself to do so. She was just too cute. A small warning was all she could muster.

“Try not to break anything, alright?”

A salute of a tendril was Anita’s answer and Brenda had to accept that was the best one she was going to get.