The Citadel of Sorcery

[Aiden]

The Citadel of Sorcery

The streets leading to the shop had been snow-filled and majestic. The buildings in this part of the district appeared as though they had been carved out of a glacier, white walls each blending almost seamlessly into the others adjacent to them. At the center, from whence all of the thoroughfares being constantly shoveled by glowing figures of mana and metal originated, was a towering palace of ice. They could see even at this distance how it served as an anchor for a multitude of powerful protective barriers subtly laid over the entire district. It was, all too clearly, the source of this supernatural winter that covered everything.

And yet everything was clean, and peaceful, and there were people in winter outfits moving about chatting and window shopping. Here and there a being assembled of wind and lightning would rush across the sky, set on some unknown task.

The shops themselves consisted of a multitude of magical storefronts from across the rest of the district. It was common practice for members of all the different magical orders to congregate in the sections with direct access to the walls, where most commerce took place with the outside world. The Witching Hour was no different. It displayed outfits in many modern styles for women, but the interest was in the details: clothes floating in place in the proper shape without mannequins, adjusting slowly to the sizes of the viewer to give them an idea of what it would look like on them before they even tried it on.

Designs that clung to the body perfectly despite the laws of physics.

And so on.

[Aiden]

Edelgard

The forsaken looked on carefully, but the exchange made a question float up to Edelgard's lips that had been lost in the spectacle and occasional silences of their visit.

"With so much magic active, is there no danger?" She asked, eyes darting to Christina. "This Citadel. Denser energy, denser pollution. Even if you store it for use..."

Expectations couldn't be trusted in this world called the Nexus. Her veil tainting had not slowed Sakura's spells in the slightest. But maybe it was a matter of her tools, like these gems, and no one here was deaf to what pervaded the space around them. It was a testament to how heavy it was that her companion felt ill. Greater mystic energy made spells more powerful, easier, but it was supposed to be a boon to even the weakest casters.

It was nothing to Edelgard, despite the sting in her eyes. Her people had made it through whole in a place where the air had crossed the line into poison.

Christina Verde

Sakura could feel the mana of the world around them seep into the emptiness left behind in the absence of all the prana she'd expended thanks to Christina's generosity. It felt strange, like her awareness of her place in the Nexus was trying to expand in her mind. It was only a brief sensation, followed by warmth.

Christina glanced at Edelgard, blinking from her question. Then she shrugged, and smiled. "As long as you can learn to use it, you adjust over time. You come out stronger for it in the end, and you know how to handle stronger spells with less exhaustion too. It does get stronger as you get closer to the center..."

She pat Sakura on the shoulder. "Feel better?"

[SINIB]

Sakura

"Mmm. Yea. Thanks." Sakura answered, her mind still in a fog. She began thinking about if she could use sapphire to alliviate the problem.

[SINIB]

Amanda

Smack.

Amanda playfully slapped Eru rear, savoring just how doughy it was now that the Elf was tense.  "Aww, you make such cute faces when you don't get what you want, but trust me. By the time I'm through with you, you'll be on your knees begging me to do it."

Her body was so damn squishy and soft tho, it wasn't fair. "You're gonna look amazing, the hottest girl in the whole city..... Are all Elves built like you?" Ah she found it.

The Witching Hour.

A fashion store that carried everything a young lady of their stature could possibly need. It was good she brought her credit card, cause most of the things in there cost more than the average person earned in a month.

Eruraviel

Amanda could feel her hand sink into Eru's perfect ass as she smacked it, a hint of the muscle underneath the layers of fat. She looked at Amanda with bemusement.

"What? I always get what I want, so I don't know what you're talking about. You're going to be my toy for the rest of the day."

She smacked Amanda's rear back. "I may be perfect amoung elves, but we generally are more voluptuous than human females."

And then, she saw the building, and her heart skipped a beat. The casual use of magic, the way it fitted it to her! She could see it tightening around her breasts, her cock, showing her how wonderful she'd look in the clothes.

Seeming to forget their bet, she pulled Amanda inside with an insistant force.

"Come on! This place is great!"

[YOLF]

Edelgard

She laid a firm hand on Sakura's back, supporting her with a wordless sound.

[Bern]

Amanda

"Who's the one with the collar? Little miss elf~"

She held her ground against Eru's insistent tugging of her arm, preventing the princess from rushing into the impressive store. "Come to think of it, that store's pretty garbage, and I wanna really see you crawl..."

With a determined tug of her superior reinforced strength, she pulled Eru allong with her, away from fancy clothes store.

"You won't even recoginize yourself once we're done ufufufu....."

[SINIB]

Eruraviel

"Collars are a high class fasion accessory!" Eru protested vehemently, running her fingers along the smooth leather. She pulled back against Amanda, but Amanda was stronger! Damnit, she really wanted to go into that store...

"Wait, noooo, I wanted to go shoppppingggg." She sounded defeated and sorrowful as despair filled her life. Those pretty clothes, noooo...

[Aiden]

The Citadel of Sorcery

Hardly anybody gave Amanda or Eruraviel more than a second look. That, mainly, was due to the elf's abundantly desirable assets and their shamelessly open play with one another. Evidently this behavior with the tugging of collars and the declaration of somebody being somebody else's pet was also natural here. The guards didn't even bother looking to see if Eruraviel needed help!

And why should they?

------------------------------

Christina Verde

Then Christina reached out and pat Sakura on the shoulder, smiling. "Come on, once we get inside the tower you should feel better. The wards suck up so much mana that the stuff in the air won't bother a mage like you."

She grabbed onto Sakura's hand, and started pulling her along.

And, along they went for a time along the weathered path until they reached it:



The Lapis Spire. A misnomer, to be sure, for it did not look like lapis in any way shape or form. But to those who could see the flow of mana it was a different story - a magnificent aura of azure light enshrouded the ancient stone, firm and shameless in its power.

Christina's face lit up as they reached it, and she almost let Sakura run right into her chest as she stopped and turned to catch her reaction. "Well, here it is! The home of the Lapidarian Society!"

[Bern]

Amanda

"No can do, ufufufu...." She kept dragging Eru in spite of her despairing cry, as if such a ridiculous act would stop her, no not when she was finally getting what she wanted at last.

"Shut up priness, you've already admitted defeat, so that's make you all mine~"

[SINIB]

Sakura

Sakura smiled politely, but wasn't particularly impressed. "It's amazing." It truly was amazing, but it wasn't-well, she was expecting a bit more, after seeing how immense and grandiose the mana crystal was. This wasn't as impressive as some parts of the clocktower that she'd seen.

"Mmm, shall we go inside?"

[YOLF]

Edelgard

The blue enveloping the tower was brighter than the unclouded sky she had seen in the land that was once their own, where their empire stood before even their name was forsaken. It made Edelgard's stomach twist in a familiar way, like many things here.

Sakura and Christina's words didn't register fully before the warrior was allowing herself in, walking without a twitch of recognition on her face.

[SINIB]

Amanda

"No can do, ufufufu...." She kept dragging Eru in spite of her despairing cry, as if such a ridiculous act would stop her, no not when she was finally getting what she wanted at last.

"Shut up priness, you've already admitted defeat, so that's make you all mine~"

Eruraviel

"Juuuust because you have decent clothes doesn't mean that you've won, Lady Harrington~" Eru continued on in the exact same tone of voice, grasping at the ever shrinking clothing store. Her ears twitched in longing.

"You have failed to impress me enough, so that makes you mine!"

Amanda could feel Eru's shadow creaping up her leg, tickling her behind the knees.

[Aiden]

The Winter Principality

The guards, and the shoppers, were watching the two sorceress' back and forth from a safe distance. They were all trying of course not to draw attention to the fact that they were watching, and hoping for some sort of action to take place despite the early winter chill hanging over the snow-covered streets. But nobody thought to try to stop them, not yet anyway.

---------------------------

The Lapis Spire

12:30 PM

Christina seemed only to smile mysteriously at Sakura's subdued reaction to the tower's visual display, and it grew into an outright grin as Edelgard attempted to walk right up to and into the place. Despite its size and importance the Lapis Spire seemed utterly unguarded save for its wards, and so nothing appeared to try to stop the forsaken woman from entering.

Then she crossed the doorless threshold, and rather than an opening to the stone interior Edelgard found herself... somewhere else. Somewhere dark, and cold, and familiar - the Imaginary Abyss which Sakura had shown her before. And the next thing she knew, she was turned around and walking right back out the way she came.

The redheaded magus who led them there started to giggle.

[YOLF]

Edelgard

She halted mid-step already out of the threshold, like she'd walked out instead of in. The hold on her spear tightened. Disgraceful. She hadn't even looked at the threshold, assuming the mage woman's invitation made her moving forward fine.

"Rude," Edelgard clicked her teeth, cheeks puffing slightly.

[Bern]

Amanda

"Oh hush, and stop fooling around or I'll have to discipline you Eru sweetie~" Eru made the cutest faces when she got snubbed, it was just way to delicous to resist, which brought her to current idea. The elf had agreed to try anything on, so she was gonna squeeze as much as possible out of that.

""We're going somewhere much better, Where we're going they have authentic maid uniforms, I'v always wanted my own cute little elf maid, who does my bidding. And you're gonna looook juuuust perfect in it, Uwaaah, I can't wait to see how you make it pop out."