A Charmed Life
Disclaimer: I left out a few tags due to the fact that they may be spoilers. It does contain gay sex.
A Charmed Life
by lykanthrope
It was the witching hour, nothing so crude as midnight of course. Anyone can be a witch at midnight under a full moon. It was past 3 am and he had been awoken by a hand on his shoulder, shaking him urgently. His eyes opened to an unfamiliar ceiling and the usual questions of "Who am I?" "Where am I?" "Am I wearing clothes?" filled his head and were promptly banished. A finger pressed against his lips and words were whispered into his ear barely above the threshold of hearing, the voice one of a distant memory his sleep addled brain could not yet recollect.
"I want to tell you a secret." The silhouette etched in the full moonlight whispered again, "You'll be mine forever."
Maven smiled from the depth of his heart, the words flowed from his soul to his maw, "I love you."
He was hushed and told to go back to sleep. He felt the embers of love warm him as he drifted into a slumber. In his hazy recollection, he wasn't sure he could remember how this all began.
For Maven it started when the Duke of his small town offered his prized daughter to Maven if he could go from being a potions apprentice to a fully fledged potions master. If he could become an alchemist and put their town on the map, he'd have a chance at nobility and move away from that desolate little mountain town.
The cougar quickly found out he was not even exceptional for a potions apprentice, novice didn't even begin to describe it. Maven worked hard though, the thought of the tawny lioness pressed against his fur helped keep him awake the late nights down in the Hall of Study.
It was there that everything started for Maven. It was the second full moon that he was staying at the Academy for the Arts in the city of A'Tawl. Maven was tempted to try a complex alchemy spell under the moonlight, when all the mages powers were amplified. He decided instead, he needed to study for his herbalism class. Last week, he tried to extract an essence of life, but it somehow had rot into ichors of death. The cougar would never forget that pungent odor.
It was the witching hour that he heard a guttural scream resonating through the hall. Maven was pretty sure he was the only one in the hall, although sometimes there was a black fox that came in late at night, usually before midnight.
Maven tried to follow the sound, it was on the opposite side of the hall by the large pane windows. Twitching on the floor was a youngish cheetah, probably eighteen in age. He convulsed, his mouth gurgling from pain. He collapsed in an excruciating position, his death rattle lingering in the air between him and Maven.
A door flew open and a tall stocky lion stepped through, his mane perfectly trimmed and kept. Maven had seen him plenty of times before, and this time like the other times there were two people following him. Kris.
Their eyes met briefly as a mangy wolf blinked into the room. Principal Rowan. He looked around, mostly blinking back and forth around the room. Other teachers began to file into the room. As the wolf examined the scene he paused momentarily. "Death hex," he said poignantly.
"Witchery is a serious charge, Principal," one of the teachers chimed in, "Are you certain?"
Another teacher looked around nervously, "But the city's warlocks are out of town on a hunt, Principal. We would have to wait until they get back."
"Student Warlocks," the wolf said, as he still examined the body. He closed the eyes, and summoned two pennies to place over them.
Everyone looked at Kris, Maven wasn't sure what they were looking at.
"Sir, our alchemist is dead," Kris said flatly, looking at the twisted body on the floor. Maven wasn't entirely sure the expression that the lion wore. Perhaps sadness? Maybe disappointment?
"Ah, yes. Always travel in fours."
"Chad was our best, with his psychometry, nobody could replace him."
"Hmm," the principal shifted his weight from one foot paw to the next, his black tail moved lethargically back and forth, "No. No replacement for Chad. Maven, instead."
Everyone looked at each other, and then to quiet cougar holding his herbalism book in his paws. Maven wasn't entirely sure what was happening, or even understood why his name was said.
"Ugh, Principal," one of Kris' followers interjected, "Isn't it proper procedure to have the lead warlock select the replacement?"
"Yes." The wolf nodded. Nobody was certain as to whether or not the wolf had fully heard the question. "Maven will be the new alchemist."
Maven was about to interrupt the Principal when he explained, "Maven is new, see things from different perspective." The wolf frowned a bit, "He is also failing most of his classes and needs some extra credit."
Kris looked put off by that bit of knowledge, "You're making me tutor a novice?"
"Teaching is good." The wolf vanished into the moonlit night.
The teachers had all left, grumbling about the Principal being psychotic. Leaving Maven alone with Kris and his two followers. Maven thought for a moment. Being a Student Warlock may be even more favorable when he graduated and his wife to be would fall madly for a warlock.
"Are these the other student warlocks?" Maven asked.
Kris smiled with heavy condescension. "No, they're applicants trying out for the warlock reserves."
"Applicants?" Maven asked.
The smile never left as Kris explained, "It's unusual for anyone to just be appointed to warlock, you have to try out, and be talented."
"You can train me for that though, right?"
Kris chuckled, sweeping his paw through his mane. "I won't be, Brahm will find you after class tomorrow, and he'll train you."
Kris and his two applicants turned and left from the hall. Maven was alone, him and the smell of death.
***
Brahm was a very big tiger, he was muscular and built like a cottage. "I'm Brahm," he introduced himself extended his paw, "I'm an enchanter. You're the new alchemist?"
Maven nodded, accepting the paw, hoping that the tiger wouldn't crush with a mere squeeze.
"So what do you know about witches?"
"They're bad." Maven knew there was more to it than that, his words had escaped him into the huge chest in front of him. With the advent of magery, the primordial magics of witchery became illegal. Their techniques centered around the darker parts of the heart. Pain, jealousy, lust, greed and hate were staples to making their magic work.
"And warlocks?"
Maven knew a little of what warlocks did, when he was a kid, a group of three warlocks came through his town looking for a witch who had seduced a powerful noble and kidnapped his illegitimate son.
"That's fine, most warlocks keep their secrets even after they've been sent to the grave. Warlocks use their magics to strip away the magics of a witch, and if they can't, they can put a very strong seal to keep them from using it. That gives them time to," he interrupted himself, "Let's just say that it's better to seal a witch's magic before confronting them about their witchery.
"Most of them don't go entirely too quietly." The tiger frowned slightly.
Brahm did his best to try and tutor Maven in alchemy, but a lot of it just went over Maven's head. Even after Brahm had gone back to his dorm, Maven stayed in Hall of Study. He was studying his herbalism book when he saw the same black fox wandering around in the hall. They briefly made eye contact and the fox left. Maven noticed the fox had stood near the place where Chad had died.
The cougar closed his book, and stuffed it into his bag of holding and walked toward the exit of the hall. As he opened the door to leave, he was confronted by a bobcat similar to his age. Maven recognized the bobcat, it was one of the guys following around Kris all the time.
"You're lucky," the bobcat said, "besides Chad, you're the youngest to become a student warlock. Most of us have to wait in the reserves until one of the four graduate, or leave in a different permanent fashion."
"I," Maven wasn't sure what to say to that, "Thanks?"
"Yea, well good luck filling in Chad's shoes. He was top of his class, even without his psychometry, he was talented. Very talented." The bobcat left. Maven was once again alone in the Hall of Study, with the slight smell of death that hung in the air.
***
"Oh that's Chase," Brahma said during the tutoring session, "He was really hoping to take a spot on the student warlocks since both Kris and I are graduating this year."
"Do you know any black foxes at this school?"
"Leif? Leif's cool, he's the last of our warlocks, joined right before Chad. I guess he hasn't been feeling too well, been pretty moody the since beginning of summer. I think his betrothed broke it off or something, I don't know."
"So the witch has to be someone at this school right?"
"Yea, the school is slightly phased from the rest of the world. So you have to be attending in order to be here. I mean, do you remember how you even got here?"
"Of course I," Maven thought for a minute, he remembered coming down from the mountain by train, and riding the horseless carriage from the station up to the school. He couldn't recall any of the details of his trip. It seems hazy at best.
"You can't, they have enchanters specifically to erase parts of your memory."
"So can you do that?" Maven asked in awe.
"No, not yet. My exit course will probably be dealing with that. There's lots of money out there to wash someone's bad memories away."
After Brahm had left, Maven went hunting to look for potion recipes that called for ichors of death. It was already too late to try to extract more essence of life. If he was able to turn it into something useful, perhaps he might still be able to get a decent enough grade for the project.
As he figured, there really wasn't much use you could get out of the ichors of death. Well, at least a potion that wouldn't harm somebody. Well into the witching hour, he discovered something that would not only help his grade but also help find out who the witch is. A Truth Elixir.
***
"You only want to put a little of death into the mix, put too much and they will say anything you want to hear." It was the first time Kris had spoken to Maven since the night of Chad's death.
The potion fumed a bit and went from a dark black from the void into a clear liquid.
"So how do you intend to get our witch to drink this?"
"Won't need to." Maven said proudly.
"Oh?" The lion leaned back in his chair, his evening robe loosened a little revealing the thick fur growing on his chest.
"It came to me in a dream last night. I could transmute the vial of Truth Elixir into a candle. Then all I have to do is light it and people present will be forced to tell the truth."
"That's very clever. I see Brahm's tutoring isn't half bad." The lion gently stroked his mane. "Have anyone in mind?"
They were alone, so Maven didn't feel the need to guard his thoughts that Chase might have done it. "I'd like to ask Chase where he was when it happened."
"Ugh, Chase was with me that night," Kris said, an eyebrow slightly raised, "you saw that, but feel free to ask him."
"Leif maybe?" Maven said, grasping for strings.
"Our spell breaker?" Kris was a little more perplexed.
"Yes?" Maven tried to force a smile.
"You can ask him," Kris thought for a moment, "If, of course, you can catch him when he doesn't have any magic wards. He'll know if you're using magic."
***
"No," Brahm agreed during their lunch, "I suppose a potion isn't technically a spell."
"That's perfect then. I think we can skip the tutoring tonight, I have something to set up."
"That's fine, I wanted to try working out a seduction spell," the tiger said, unabashed.
The candle was in Maven's pocket. Until then he didn't realize that you can still smell the truth elixir in its candle form. It stood to reason that that was why people were calling him stupid (more than usual anyway, even the teachers).
"Isn't that witchery?"
"Yes. There's a fine line between warlocks and witches, both have to understand their enemy, otherwise they will be unprepared for when they do battle. You see, they write it out of history that warlocks have to use witch magic in order to hunt them down."
"Oh."
"Perhaps I can show after a nice pillow biting session."
"I'm not that into guys," Maven smiled not wanting to hurt the burly tiger's feelings.
"Seduction spells make people see past genders. But no worries." Brahm sat up and left.
The candle worked too well.
***
Maven lit the candle in the Hall of Study a bit before midnight. Brahm had left without knowing what he had said, as though it were a sidelong comment spoken in a dream. It made Maven wonder if there was anything he had said to anyone else while carrying the candle around.
Leif had wandered into the Hall of Study as he normally did.
"Leif." Maven called out, "Hey, I had a question for you."
"And I don't want to give you an answer."
"Oh, come on, one warlock to the next?"
"I can't help but wonder why the Principal would find it so amusing to put you into the position of a warlock."
"Where were you when Chad died?" Maven blurted out.
"Why are you asking me?"
"Because I want to know if you killed Chad and if you're a witch." Maven realized that this had all just back fired. The truth elixir didn't prevent people from avoiding a question if they were strong in wit.
"I see, does Kris think I killed my former lover?"
"He didn't say he did. He was your former lover?"
"Since we were kids. Then he left me to be with someone else."
"Then you killed him for breaking up with you?"
"Are you using some sort of air-based truth serum?"
"It's a truth elixir." Maven quickly realized, "I'm really bad at this whole investigating stuff, are you going to kill me because I know you're a witch?"
"I'm leaving and I'm going to be keeping an eye on you. Maybe more."
***
Kris and Brahm looked at each other. "I suppose we could seal away his magic until we can get it all squared away."
Brahm voiced his concern, "We need four to cast it, and it's already difficult without Leif, but it'll be even harder since all we have is Maven."
Maven checked his pockets to see if he still had the candle on him, he didn't.
"We have the moon as our advantage tonight," Kris mentioned, "We can set up some runes as well to help compensate. It will have to be a ritual spell."
"What's a ritual spell?" Maven didn't want to ask but it outweighed the fact that he had to do it, and was better off knowing how to do it than conceal his pride. He double checked his pocket for that blasted candle.
Ritual spells were hard, and Brahm spent the majority of the day teaching Maven how to concentrate on the spell.
"You're going to be at your weakest during a ritual spell, because you have to let go of everything. Your own personal thoughts, for the will of the lead caster. No doubts, no qualms, just submit everything to the spell at hand."
"I have doubts."
"Set them aside."
"What if I'm wrong about Leif?"
"Well, without his powers, he won't have a choice but to answer our questions, and we can cast a truth spell on him directly."
"That makes me feel a little bit better."
***
"We really have to do this naked?" Maven asked. He felt really embarrassed. Kris and Brahm were much larger than Maven, and he felt inadequate. He couldn't help but stare, he really hadn't seen the parts of other guys before. Maven's mother raised him by her lonesome and there were so few father figures for him.
"You're supposed to be concentrating," Brahm advised.
It was hard to. Maven kept thinking they were going to gawk at his bits and chastise him for being smaller than them. His embarrassment only seemed to fuel the fire to his growing erection. Even amidst the breezy abandoned tower exposed to the night sky, bathed in a cold moonlight.
Maven was finally able to muster the will to shut his eyes and concentrate on the words of the Sealing Spell. It seemed to go on forever, but he didn't want his mind to travel onto whether or not the other two would notice his hard on.
A wave of energy passed through him, leaving exhaustion in its wake, Maven nearly buckled at the knees.
"There, it's done," Kris announced, his mane drenched with sweat, the musk from the two guys filling his nostrils. "Now to summon a summoner."
"Huh?"
"We're bringing him to us. Now that he's powerless."
It was easier for the second ritual spell to know what to do, but it drained him even quicker when the spell was complete. Maven had to sit down to catch his breath.
"What's going on?" Leif said as he blinked into existence.
"We summoned you here," Kris said, as he paced around Leif. Kris' stamina after a ritual spell was hardly even tarnished.
"You-you sealed my magic?"
"Of course, you'll get it back in due time."
Maven rested up against the wall, he felt like he just swam across an ocean. He still mustered the energy to speak, "We want to know why you killed Chad."
"He didn't," Kris said.
"What? Who did?" Maven asked.
"Chad did," the lion responded with a relaxed demeanor.
"He, what? Wait, why?"
"At the end of the year last year, I put Chad under a seduction spell, a pretty permanent one too. I thought Brahm had fully wiped his memories, but his psychometry can't be purged."
"Brahm, you said you couldn't--" Maven felt insulted.
"Oh he can, he forgets occasionally, when I tell him he needs to erase those parts of his own memory."
"Why?"
"Why?" Kris chuckled as he repeated the question, "Because he's under the same spell that Chad was. But unlike Chad, Chad could remember things by a mere touch of an object. Brahm doesn't know what it was like before he fell in love with me. That's all he's ever had."
"You!" Leif lunged at the lion but was suddenly held still by ethereal chains.
"How could you possibly forget that I'm the fastest spell slinger anyone's ever seen?" He grinned, "Back to my story, see Chad was able to get the fragmented memories of his love for you, but it directly conflicted with the spell I put him under. So I'm pretty sure that's what lead to him killing himself. See, I figured he was sneaking around teaching himself the death hex, as he probably knew it was the only way to break my spell. He wasn't a spell caster, so he had to do it under the moonlight."
"What exactly did you stand to gain from him?" Leif spit out.
"Well, use your imagination. If the best students from the Academy of the Arts were all madly in love with me, the world would be my oyster."
"I'd find a way to break your spell."
"I'm pretty sure you won't," a flash of purple lightning shot from Kris' paw, striking at Leif's heart. Brahm simply ran his paw over Leif's head. "I have you mind and heart."
The chains melted away and Leif fell to his knees, "Do you love me?" Kris asked.
"With all my heart."
"You'll be one of the best summoners to the King one of these days, you'll do me proud."
"Thank you sir."
Kris turned to Maven. Maven was awestruck. There was nothing he could possibly do. It was starting to sink in as to his role in all of this. Without his faith in Kris the spell probably couldn't have been done with Kris and Brahm alone.
"W-what do you want with me? You have who you w-wanted," Maven stammered.
"It wouldn't hurt to have more," the lion smirked, "Besides, you'll get married to a nice duchess out in the middle of nowhere, and you'll be a very powerful mage."
"M-mage?"
"See, there was a reason you were accepted to this school. I did a little homework. There was once a very powerful sorceress in a noble court. She had an affair with the mage-prince and they had a bastard child. She was forced to flee and he was forced to say that he was seduced. They knew their child would be very talented in the ways of magic, so they'd have him be accepted to a fine institution to learn the ways of magic."
"B-but, I'm terrible at magic."
"Your mother probably sealed your magic so that the both of you could go undetected by warlocks who were hunting a witch and bastard mage child."
"Shouldn't the seal have worn off by now?"
"I believed it's tuned in to your virginity," a smile grew across the lion's face.
"My what?"
"She probably figured you'd have been as charming as your father, and planned on you breaking your cherry before you left for the academy."
"Oh."
Maven felt the lightning pierce his heart. He found himself drowning in a sea of darkness and he didn't know which way it was to the surface, but as he slowly succumbed to the waters, it warmed him and filled his lungs with something that wasn't water. It lift him up and it made him smile. Maven's eyes opened and the smile Kris bore filled his stomach with butterflies.
"Do you love me?"
"Yes." Maven wanted Kris to tell him how much he loved him back, but he sat on the edge of his seat while Kris stepped forward to where Maven knelt.
"Show me," the lion said, his prick even while flaccid was a glorious thing.
Maven opened his mouth and wrapped it around Kris' cock, savoring the taste of his musk. The cougar felt the heat of the shaft as it throbbed to life. Maven could taste the salty goodness as pre began to dribble into his maw. He tongued the glans as more of his sacred pre-cum spilled forth.
"Brahm, would you kindly break the seal?"
Maven felt his tail pulled away from his body exposing his tailhole, warm spittle landed on his taint. A solid hot fleshy cylinder pressed up against the moisture as it slide the warm liquid towards his quivering hole. He was guided down onto his handpaws as the thick cock slathered the saliva across his puckered sphincter.
It wasn't going to fit, Maven thought in a brief flash of reality, but he wanted Kris to be happy with him, and was willing to do anything to show his worth.
"If you bite down when he sticks it in you, I'm going to be displeased." A firm hand gripped the back of Maven's skull and slowly pressed the cougar's maw further into the lion's crotch. He struggled to fight his gag reflex. As his body convulsed to the intruder in his throat another one poured itself into his rear end. He felt the head of it pop in first, and it only seemed to get wider as it drove in deeper into his swelteringly hot cavity.
Maven groaned as the two thick cocks started to work him from both sides.
"Do you like that?" Kris asked.
"Yes, sir," Maven tried to respond, but with a dick in your mouth, you only speak in vowels.
"You're taking it pretty well for a virgin," Kris started to pump his hips, thrusting into Maven's mouth, splashing more of his pre-cum against the back of his throat. "Brahm, would you kindly fill him with your sperm so that Leif can have a turn?"
The tiger thrusted harder and faster. Maven could feel his insides being jostled by the big throbbing prick pressed deep within striking at his prostate without remorse. He could hear Brahm grunt, his innards became slick with juices of the muscled tiger's staff. Brahm held it there while he unloaded several more torrents of semen deep within Maven's guts.
The girthy tiger pulled out with an audible pop. As Maven continued to try to pleasure his true-love's member, the black fox repositioned himself to take over where Brahm had left off. Leif wasn't any thicker than the tiger, and with his insides coated in a lubricating layer of cum, the fox didn't have any difficulties bringing Maven to full hilt on the first plunge.
As the fox brought himself to full speed, each thrust forced gobs of pre-cum out of Maven's painfully erect cock. Strands of it dripping off his belly and his shaft. Each stroke of the fox's prick against his quivering insides shot lightning through Maven's body. He rode down on the length, he felt his breath shorten. He felt himself taking leaps and bounds toward his climax.
He groaned, feeling Kris' prick vibrate a little while it was still lodged in his mouth. He could suck no longer. He felt waves of heat pass through him as he broke past the edge of his orgasm with reckless abandon. He could feel his entire body clamp down on the fox's forceful throbbing cock as he shot his seed against his stomach, the floor, and the space in between.
Leif worked furiously at unleashing his own flurry of sperm into the pulsating spunk laden canal. Each pump filled the young cougar, displacing Brahm's sperm which now dribbled down Maven's taint and down his aching balls. The fox pulled out of Maven, leaving the hot soup of DNA barely contained by the walls of weakened sphincter.
The lion freed his wet member from Maven's maw, he leisurely stroked the thick majestic cock. As the cream hit the surface, Maven opened his mouth to accept the salty sweet ambrosia as a gift until him, the geyser of hot spunk slathered his tongue and his mouth, it dribbled from his nose and splashed haphazardly across his face. He swallowed what he could.
The other two took up positions around Maven to lick off Kris' seed from Maven's face and Kris' still firm prick, careful to not let a sacred drop go to waste.
As Maven took in the moment of silence in his afterglow, he could feel a thrum about the air. Was this the mana that everyone was talking about? Maybe Kris was right, maybe he did have actual magic powers, in the back of his mind he thought, well of course he's right, he's always right.
He felt a brush of someone's paw against his head and felt sleep overwhelm him. As his consciousness flickered out, he heard a faint whisper, "Do you love me?"
There was no hesitation in Maven's answer. Yes.