A View From the Top - Part 1

Part 1

From this office, the entire island could be seen quite easily. At the top of the Academy's central tower, someone could look down upon the mishmash of architectural styles amongst the buildings, the colours of the flowers blooming in the open spaces... and the scurrying movement of student and faculty alike as they went about their daily business.

In some ways, the perspective from up here was enough to inspire a sort of aloof detachment from the progress of life down below, especially given the little detail that the windows themselves only permitted someone to see out - but the darkly robed figure currently taking in the sights hardly needed any sort of help on that score. Not after so many years of practice...

Alright, so she'd gotten into the habit of being occasionally rather supremely arrogant, but it wasn't without cause. When the Old Dominion had collapsed, she'd carved her own little niche out of what the dragons' squabbles had left behind, and ruled it well. Yes, there'd been a certain amount of harshness, the occasional application of tyrannical power and overwhelming magical might - but in those days one couldn't govern simply by being polite. Those who'd tried had seldom managed to live long enough to change their minds, and to be fair the perks that came with the position she'd seized had been more than worth the effort.

Not that it had lasted, of course. Such things never did... But at least she'd managed to take the one who'd ruined it all for her with her - in a manner of speaking - and it wasn't as if it had all been a total loss.

A soft, sibilant hiss broke the silence of the room, and it's sole occupant turned her hooded head from the view to aim her gaze at one of the skulls on the truly massive desk nearby. An amber glow, precisely matching the shade of the eyes regarding it from the hood's depths, shone in the skull's otherwise empty eye-sockets, and bony jaws parted ever so slightly to let an eerie, hollow voice emerge.

"The intrusion you foresaw is beginning, Mistress."

A faintly musical little chuckle emerged from beneath the hood, carrying with it the sense of a soft, indulgent smile. "Do I need to remind you again, Demethius? You, of all people, hardly need call me that."

"Better than some of the alternatives, Lillian," the skull hissed back. "As you should well know by now."

"Ah, my dear enemy, have you not realised yet that I actually rather enjoy your creative vocabulary?"

The sour grunt she got by way of reply sounded distinctly odd, given source, and the smile hidden in the hood's shadows grew a tiny bit wider at the muttered "Should have just killed you."

"Maybe you should, but you didn't. You tried to bind me - and my power - to your will, instead. And we both know how that worked out for you in the end, don't we?"

There was no answer, not that she'd expected one, and she turned back to the window once more. Memories of that time were still a source of... discomfort for her, which was no doubt why Demethius' shade occasionally brought them up, but she'd found enough ways to keep her mind busy since. This place, for example. It would never have occurred to her to create something such as the Academy back in the old days, but after a few centuries of bumming around the world, causing trouble and generally being a pain in the ass to anyone who caught her eye, the capacity for mischief that came with being dead and yet still free to roam the world had... paled.

Not that she hadn't done her damnedest to prove that wasn't possible in her day, though. Thanks to her... antics, it had taken a very long time indeed for "The Witch Queen of Sacremaar" to fade into her proper place in the history books. She didn't mind, though. Her new title felt quite comfortable enough, now she'd had a chance to settle into it.

Another sound made itself known, this time a chime emanating from the crystal orb sat within easy reach of the desk's ornate - and sinfully comfortable - chair. With a tiny sigh, she walked over and laid a hand on the softly glowing sphere, ignoring the fact that the hand in question looked like it belonged to some wizened old crone instead of the youthful woman her voice might have suggested.

"Archdean?" the orb said in a moderately harried tone a moment after her touch signalled it to connect fully to another of it's kind elsewhere. From the sound of the voice, it was one of her secretaries, specifically the one that was in charge of keeping the Academy running smoothly in the face of the little... accidents that sometimes cropped up from time to time.

Like every week or so.

"What is it this time, Marcus? Have we had another demon manifest out of Professor Tegan's Alpetha relics?"

That said, the last one had been quite amusing company, once he'd gotten over the idea that she might decide to eat him. Not that she'd have been tempted anyway - he was far too good a source of insight into the times before he'd been trapped for her to get all that excited about what had happened upon his release. And it wasn't as if the student in question had been all that inclined to complain, either...

"No, Ma'am. Nothing like that. I just thought you should know that the third-year Evocation class has managed to demolish roughly a third of their building."

"Again?" she asked with a genuine note of surprise. It had barely been a month since the repairs on the last of those little incidents had been repaired.

"Again," came the wry response. "On the the bright side, there are no casualties beyond the odd bump and bruise, and the part of the building in question was due for renovation anyway."

"Ah, then it could have been worse. Thank you Marcus."

Lifting her fingertips from the orb, she severed the connection, then raised her hand in front of her, turning it this way and that as she studied it critically. Yes, it was definitely time for her to do something about that...

And doesn't Demethius' message have just the most wonderful timing?

With another smile, this time one far more predatory than friendly, she closed her eyes and concentrated. Responding to her will, Essence coiled itself around her, bathing her robed form in eldritch light for the moments it took for her to finish weaving it how she desired - at which point, she was simply... gone.

---

Not many people ever really came out to this part of the Academy grounds, or at least not many students or faculty. About the only people that ever did spend much time in and around these particular buildings were the maintenance staff, and even then not all that often. It was something of a running joke, though not a particularly funny one, that the whole part of the grounds was an experiment to see just how long it took for the buildings to collapse on their own.

They weren't as abandoned as they seemed most of the time, though. One particular tower was even less unoccupied than usual, and it was the shadows of the main chamber of that tower that suddenly darkened, wrapping themselves tightly around one corner so that there was no chance of anyone seeing anything that might have been there - or anything that appeared there. That wasn't the only way the arrival could be sensed, though, but a simple - for her - precaution took care of that, the Essence signature of Lillian's materialisation inverted so that nobody but herself could perceive it.

When the transition was complete, however, she opened her eyes once more to see that there had been little real need for the level of precautions she'd taken. Noticing her arrival would have required a little more attention to anything around them than the trio that were already present seemed willing to share with their surroundings.

Actually, that wasn't totally accurate. One of the two males, both human, was looking out of the door, keeping an eye on the outside as he pulled it closed. With that done, and apparently satisfied that no prying eyes had seen the group as they'd 'broken' into the tower, he turned toward the others. As he did so, his gaze swept straight across where Lillian was standing, but he gave no sign at all that he'd seen her as he burst out laughing at the sight of his fellow intruders.

For her part, Lillian was a little curious as to how this was all going to play out. There was nothing particularly unusual about the fact that there was only one female in the group, but the logistics of what she was sure was coming would prove interesting to watch. And there was little doubt as to just how this trio were planning to spend their time...

Not with the way the halfling seemed to be trying to devour the mouth of the man she was practically wrapped around.

She looks familiar... What was - oh yes, Vellethe Lighthearth. Quite a competent student, though hardly the most popular. A soft chuckle almost escaped Lillian's lips as she considered what she was looking at. With the other girls, at least. And from the look of it, the one without her attached to him is... She frowned a little, searching her memory. Jaq Telmann, which makes it almost certain that his colleague is his good friend Henk. The two of them are rather inseparable, after all.

The way the tiny female had her legs wrapped around the guy she was kissing had driven the skirts of her dress high up her thighs, leaving her legs bare - but it wasn't her legs that he he was paying attention to. Maybe supporting her - small - weight was part of his excuse, but the way his hands were kneading her ass was something else entirely, and from the satisfied sounds coming out of her, she had no problem at all with what he was doing.

"What," the dark-haired young man near the door – Jaq - said with a chuckle. "You can't even wait for me to get the door closed?"

Breaking away from the kiss she'd been putting a fair amount of energy into, Vellethe unhooked an arm from around Henk's neck and beckoned him over with a grin. Henk, for his part, seemed content to simply catch his breath, which was a problem the halfling didn't seem to be bothered by.

"Quit wasting time," she purred, grabbing the front of Jaq's shirt when he got close enough. Pulling him closer, there was no time wasted at all before she was kissing him with just as much thoroughness as a few moments before.

Leaning back against the wall, Lillian folded her arms and settled in to watch what unfolded in front of her, part of her a little despondent that the show she was no doubt in for was going to have none of the effect it would have once upon a time. Hell, some of her subjects back in the day had made quite the effort to provoke that sort of reaction in her... though admittedly in the hopes of getting something in return. And, to be fair, when they'd succeeded, she'd been content enough to oblige in some small way.

"You sure we're not gonna get in trouble for being in here?" Henk asked after a few seconds, sounding less sure of himself than one might have expected from looking at him. And it was a fair question, really, given that this section of the grounds was more-or-less off-limits to students...

The muffled "Shut up" he got as a reply was too high-pitched to be Jaq, but it seemed to satisfy him regardless. Shifting his hold on Vellethe's rear, he made sure he could support her one handed – whilst the other moved up her diminutive body to cup one small breast. Though, Lillian mused, to be honest they're actually quite big tits for a halfling.

It was a move that was apparently appreciated, judging by the quiet moan Vellethe let out, though most of it was trapped by the lip-lock she had on Jaq. The trio were huddled close together by this point, making it trickier for Lillian to really see what was going on, but she did make out the way one of Jaq's hands started stroking it's way around the breast Henk hadn't already claimed. She also spotted the fact that his other hand was heading somewhere else entirely...

Vellethe broke suddenly away from Jaq's lips with a surprised little squeak, hazel eyes going wide as his hand disappeared under her skirt. She didn't seem to be objecting, by any means, and in fact her mouth curled into a lazy smile as Jaq's hand reappeared again a short while later.

"Why do I get the feeling you planned this all out?" he asked with a grin, and there was a moment or two where both Henk and Lillian herself wondered what he was talking about. It dawned on the watcher first, however, and she was rather unsurprised when she worked it out. Just as she wasn't overly shocked when the halfling took hold of Jaq's wrist and pulled his hand to her lips, tongue flicking out to lick the wetness from his fingers – a wetness that could only have come from one place.

"You complaining?" The challenging tone of her question got both young men shaking their heads in a quick denial, and Vellethe seemed more than satisfied by their rapid reply. After a final nibbling lick of Jaq's fingertips, she released his wrist and waved toward a pile of crates against one of the nearby walls. "Put me down by there."

All too happy to oblige, Henk carried her over and helped her keep her balance as he lowered her to the floor. After a second or two to settled herself on her feet, the halfling looked up at the two humans towering over her and seemed to be considering something. Whatever it was, the decision was made quickly, and she reached over to tug at Henk's belt.

Perhaps a little frustratingly for her, it didn't simply fall open at her touch, but it wasn't exactly a subtle hint as to what she wanted and Henk got to work on undoing it himself. Happy to let him, Vellethe waved a hand in Jaq's direction, and he grinned as he started doing the same with his belt. The halfling seemed in no mood to waste time, and whilst the two humans saw to their own attire, she got to work on her own.

With what Lillian could tell was practised ease, she undid a few buttons here and there before simply hauling her pale grey dress up over her head in a single, fluid move that revealed to all present just how much she wasn't wearing underneath. Though a great deal smaller than many other of the races that populated the world, halflings were anything but undeveloped, and Vellethe's tiny form showed exactly that, with all the right curves in all the right places... and now the dress had been tossed aside, she was covered by nothing but smooth skin and a dusting of auburn hair between her legs.

Henk was the first to get done with his pants, and the results made it abundantly clear that he was more than happy with both what had happened so far and what the sight of the naked young woman in front of him promised was still to come. For her part, Lillian's eyebrows rose somewhat under the hood of her robes when she got a look at what else was now on display.

Ohhhkay... I might have had some trouble with that thing. Is he part horse or something?

The stiff male shaft jutting out from Henk's hips was easily nine inches long, with the girth to match, and Lillian found herself wondering if it was actually safe for what Vellethe's hungry gaze made clear she had in mind. Licking her lips in obvious anticipation, the halfling spared a glance for Jaq when he too shoved his pants down enough to free his arousal, and the sight of that second, equally hard if less outrageously-sized, piece of man meat had her letting out a low, purring laugh of evident satisfaction.

Tearing her gaze away from what the boys were putting on display, Lillian spared a look for how they were actually behaving. Both of them wore similar little grins, and there was no sign at all of any of the jealousy she might have expected to see when a fairly average guy was put next to one that... wasn't. Yet more evidence, she thought, that this was hardly the first time the matter had come up.

Continued in Part 2

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