15. The Easiest Emotion
When they got to the gym, Bob was waiting there for them. Chester let them into his office and left them to talk.
“First, let me scan you again,” Bob said gruffly. “Let’s see if you’re any more human now.”
Cara and Fred’s eyes met, flashing embarrassment at each other.
Bob glared at them both as he turned the screen towards them.
“92% other
8% elf”
“What the hell have you two been up to this time? There’s no human left!”
“I could show you…”
“Fuck off, Fred! I do not want to see! Just tell me what happened, with as little graphic detail as possible!”
“Well… I decided to show Cara the softer, gentler side of magic…”
“So you fucked her with magic?”
“Yes… and then her magic answered mine and… I came inside her… and…”
“There’s more?”
Bob was glaring at them both, but Fred was sure there was a flicker of amusement there too. Surely he hadn’t always been a dull, elder, elven immigrant? Bob took a deep breath. The next bit was going to be hard to explain. He hadn’t even talked it through with Cara properly yet.
“Then, something strange happened. Cara couldn’t stop orgasming, so I fucked her again,” as Fred spoke, Bob rolled his eyes so hard that they practically disappeared. “But this time, something really weird happened.”
“Weird?”
“I didn’t come cum.”
“Huh?”
“I came magic.”
Bob paused a moment, stroking his chin. Cara looked between the two of them, fear flickering across her face.
“What type of magic. Describe it.”
“The pleasure crept up from my feet, and then when it exploded out of my cock, Cara glowed with a strange black and purple light which flowed round both of us…”
Saying it made it sound even weirder. On one hand, Fred felt better about voicing quite how odd that experience had been, but on the other, Cara was looking very worried.
“And afterwards?” Bob asked. “Were there any side effects?”
“I couldn’t sleep all night, as if I had too much energy in me.”
Bob looked off into the distance, as if he was trying to remember something, then shook his head.
“I have never heard of anything like that happening before,” he mused. “Then again, if elves fucking humans has ever given humans powers before, they kept it very quiet too!”
“Do you think it could be dangerous?” Cara blurted out.
Bob looked at her and smiled. “Maybe we’ll find out when the two of you do it again, which I don’t doubt you will. Anyway, the main reason I wanted to meet you two today was to get a blood sample from Cara. I have a contact who works in a lab, and maybe they can work out what it going on.”
Bob placed a satisfyingly traditional Gladstone bag on the table, from which he pulled some terrifyingly old-fashioned looking equipment.
“Don’t worry. It’s sterile,” Bob said, busying himself around an alarmed Cara.
In no time he had extracted three glass vials of blood, and had bound a pad of cotton tight around Cara’s arm to stem the resulting flow.
“It’s been about twenty years since I last had to do that!”
“And it shows,” Cara mumbled into Fred’s ear.
“Right! I’ll be off! I should have an answer by the end of tomorrow at the latest. I’ll let Chester know you’re ready.”
Once he had gone, Cara snuggled into Fred’s arm.
“He’s right you know,” she said. “I don’t care what the blood test results say, I still want to have sex with you. Always. Forever.”
As she finished, Chester and Dina walked in.
“Ah, the love birds,” Dina said, smirking, but Fred was sure he could sense more jealousy than amusement. “I hear you two have been having a lot of fun…”
Cara drew back from Fred, and tension crackled in the air.
“Cara… Dina… Dina… Cara…” Chester chortled. “Come to the studio and let’s get started.”
The targets were still in the studio, but Chester had also set up various other pieces of equipment.
“We’re working from the assumption that Cara’s magic is basically the same as yours, Fred,” Chester explained.
“Even if Cara’s human and that’s a stupid thing to do,” added Dina, glowering.
“We can adjust things later, but first we need a starting point, and this seems as good as any,” Chester answered with a good-natured smile.
“To begin with, I won’t be asking you to do any targeting, because that could get messy.
Instead, let’s just start with some focusing, like you focused on the guy in the Tavern’s junk.
Take one of these each.” He passed them each a white object that looked and felt a lot like a punch bag.
They were cylinders of fabric, sealed at each end, and stuffed with something firm, and something heavy enough at the bottom to allow them to be free-standing, minus occasional wobbles.
“They’re phoenix feather protected. Dina, show Cara what that means. ”
Dina locked eyes with Cara, placed her palms of the top of the bag, and sent a flash of flame through the bag, turning it to instant cinders. Cara gasped, her face filled with horror. Dina grinned broadly as the bag began to reappear.
“I can do that again. And again. And again.” Her voice was calm, but her gaze was intimidating.
Fred glanced at Cara. Her horror had turned to disdain, and she sneered back at Dina. His dreams of a threesome were fading fast.
“Now, Fred, talk us through how you would make this bag disintegrate using Elven magic,” Chester said, seemingly blind to the drama playing out before him.
“Because it won’t be the way I do it,” Dina interjected. “I only have to want something for it to happen.”
Dina threw a knowing look at Fred.
“So…” Fred started, turning to Cara. “The easiest emotion to use for destruction, is anger. That’s what I used back in the car park, when I wasn’t even thinking.
When I have more time, I can call on a full range of emotions and then convert them to whatever power I need.
I take the emotions from my mind and soul, then let them come out through my hands, or other parts of my body.
I can fire that power, but there are other ways too. Let me show you.”
Fred drew lust and love, annoyance at Dina and disappointment at the fading chance of fun with the two girls together, let it flow smoothly out of his hands and melted the punch bag down to a small puddle on the ground.
There was a short pause, as the puddle realised that was as far as the destruction was going to go, and the bag reformed.
“Now your turn,” Chester said, smiling and nodding at Cara.
Cara placed her hands on the top of the bag, and wrinkled her forehead in concentration. Nothing happened. Her eyes burned bright, her cheeks turned red. Still nothing. She grunted with effort.
“Careful there, Cara, you don’t want to soil yourself,” Dina scoffed.
An angry, red flame shot right through the bag, turning it to cinders and scorching the ground beneath. Cara turned her hands up to face her and looked at them in astonishment.
“I… I…”
“You harnessed your anger!” Chester finished for her. “That was amazing! Now we know that, somehow, you have some fire power in there, literally!”
Fred flung an arm around Cara and pulled her close for a congratulatory kiss.
“I knew you could do it!” he whispered to her.
“That’s funny, because I didn’t!” Cara whispered back.
The bag reappeared, but the burn mark on the floor remained.
“Never mind,” Chester grinned. “You might make a few more of those before we’ve got you fully trained. I’ve never tried helping a human before…”
“Well, good luck with that,” Dina said. “Let me know if you need me to make her angry again, Fred.”
Dina flounced out of the room, turning back to blow a kiss in Fred’s direction.
“Right!” said Chester. “Now you know what it feels like, time to get used to using it. This time, try stopping before you reach the ground.”
Cara placed her hands on the top of the regenerated bag. A flicker of hatred flashed across her face, and flames started to flicker down the bag too.
“Good start!” Chester said. “Now stop!”
Cara lifted her hands from the bag, but the fire continued to blaze.
“Don’t just remove your hands,” Chester explained. “Draw your intention away too. Let something else fill your mind.”
Cara glanced over at Fred and smirked. The flames came to a sudden stop, followed by the same pause as when it became a puddle, and then the bag rose up again.
Over the next hour, Cara did all sorts to that bag. She burnt it down to various heights, seared a hollow down the middle, and sliced it neatly in two, all demonstrated by Fred and tutored by Chester. Finally Chester had her singe it all over on the outside.
“Time to call it a day! Great work!” Chester announced, as he magicked away the tiny flames that were trying to escape from the bag.
“Can we borrow this bag?” Fred asked. “There’s something I’d like to try at home…”
“Whatever floats your boat, my friend,” Chester said, waggling his eyebrows. “Bob tells me you two have been exceedingly busy.”
Fred laughed weakly. Could Chester read his mind?