After the events of last night, it had been almost painful to go back to classes today. The first class wasn’t too bad as most of the students hadn’t heard the rumors yet, but by the second class nearly everyone in school seemed to have heard them.

I overheard the whispers about my turning into a demon and eating other students, but there were other stories spread about my being a succubus. The stories seemed to alternate between my being extremely violent or about my being a total slut…sometimes even both at once. Even the students who hadn’t seemed to care about my being a Were one way or another were now giving me nervous looks and avoiding me.

As uncomfortable as it was to deal with all of my classmates whispering behind my back…and sometimes to my face, the worst part was having to face Sylvie and Kimberly. I’d inadvertently scared both of them last night and now they were avoiding me. Neither of them would sit next to me in class or even talk to me. At most, I caught a quick glance my way before they pretended I didn’t exist.

The way my friends were treating me was almost like a dagger through the heart and it was all I could do not to just run back to my dorm room in tears. I even considered the idea of just quitting…leaving the Academy and going home. It was only the fact that this was exactly what Teressa wanted that kept me from doing so. Still, I wanted to at least cry on aunt June’s shoulders. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be coming back for a few more days.

Yesterday, I’d spent the entire day in my enhanced form and had enjoyed it. To my surprise, I’d loved the attention as well as how sexy it made me feel. But now, I was back in my plain form, just hoping that no one would notice me and wishing that I could turn invisible.

Teressa and Kaellie both spent half of each class glaring at me, seeming to have forgotten their fear now that I was no longer in succubus form. In addition to everything else, they now blamed me for Monica packing everything up and leaving the Academy in the middle of the night. Fortunately, neither of them said anything to me directly, though that didn’t stop them from spreading more rumors about me. Whenever I saw them glaring at me, I reminded myself that I’d get a chance at them in the duel circle.

When lunch came, I didn’t go to my usual table. I already knew from the way Sylvie and Kimberly had acted towards me that I wouldn’t be welcomed there anymore. I hadn’t seen Eve or Todd since yesterday, before everything happened, but I feared that I’d get the same reaction. I couldn’t bear to have them both looking at me like that too, especially not Todd.

I settled down for lunch on a bench outside the cafeteria and ate by myself. I missed my friends but tried not to think of that or the fact that they probably wouldn’t ever want to be friends with me again. All because of my other self.

“I never should have listened to dad,” I told myself bitterly. Why had I ever tried accepting my succubus side? Why hadn’t I gone with my first thought and just kept it hidden away forever?

While I was lost in my thoughts, a dark haired boy a little older than me sat down beside me on the bench. I was startled at that but he didn’t say anything at first nor even give me a hostile look.

“I heard about last night,” he finally said. “Are you okay?”

I stared at the boy suspiciously, wondering what he wanted. Then I demanded, “Who are you?”

“I’m Galen,” he responded with a chuckle. “I guess you’ve never seen me like this.” He reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out what looked like a tarot card. I immediately recognized the card as being one of Gayle’s tokens.

“Gayle?” I asked hesitantly.

“Galen when I’m like this,” he told me with a grin. “I can change real quick if it will make you more comfortable.” Before I could tell him that he didn’t have to, he said, “Invoke,” and his token disappeared. There was a cloud of pink flower petals in the air and Galen’s body shimmered, becoming the more familiar form of Gayle. “Much better, I think.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” I told her.

“I really don’t mind being a girl,” she said with an amused look. Then she asked, “Are you really a Were demon?” She didn’t look frightened or disgusted, merely curious.

“I’m a Were succubus,” I admitted, staring at the ground.

Gayle nodded at that, not seeming bothered by the revelation. “So that rumor is partly true then.” She shrugged. “You want to talk about what happened?”

I hesitated a moment and then began to tell her about how I’d found Teressa and her friends messing with my Kimberly and Sylvie. I told her about how things had gotten out of hand and even how I’d lost my temper and changed to try scaring them away. She just listened without judging me, for which I was extremely grateful. It was nice having someone I could actually tell this to.

“That explains the rumors,” Gayle said with a sigh once I was finished. “I know first-hand not to believe everything you hear, but not everyone does. You’ll have to be careful not to scare people in the future if you want them to fade away.”

“I know,” I admitted with a grimace. “I screwed up big time.”

Neither of us said a word for half a minute, then Gayle broke the silence by saying, “I’m guessing the rumor about you and Teressa having a duel is true.”

“Yeah,” I responded with a snort. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m only a level four so can’t even pull out any of the best spells.”

Gayle just chuckled at that. “My sponsor is fond of saying that a sorceress’ power is not measured in the amount of magic she can summon or even the number of spells she knows, but mostly in how well she can use the resources the has.”

“I don’t really know much about the sorcerer’s duels,” I told Gayle. “I’ve watched one of them last week, but that was about it.”

“The rules are simple,” Gayle explained. “You use whatever tokens and talents you have to defeat your opponent. However, you can only use spells that you cast yourself. You win by forcing your opponent out of the circle, forcing them to submit, or just making it so they can’t do anything and the ref declares you the winner.”

I nodded at that, remembering the duel I’d watched before. Both of the people involved had been throwing spells at each other that normally would have been lethal. However, I’d been told that there were safety precautions set up for the duels which actually kept anyone involved from being hurt, regardless of what spells were used.

“Can…can you give me some advice?” I asked hopefully. Gayle was the top duelist in the Academy, so if anyone could help me it would be her.

“Sure,” she answered with a grin, looking happy that I’d asked her. “I knew a few tricks that might help you.”

“I can’t wait until they start teaching me that dueling stuff,” I told her with a weak chuckle.

Gayle grinned at that. “They only teach you the basics here. Since everyone fights differently, you’re expected to figure a lot out yourself…and get help from your sponsor.” She shrugged at that. “Mor…my sponsor says that there are a lot of tricks that most people don’t even remember anymore. Ever since they opened the Academy and standardized how sorcerers are taught, some things have gotten lost. But that’s why we’re required to have sponsors. They can pass down their tricks and fill in some of the holes of what they don’t teach here. Like fighting.”

“I don’t think my aunt knows many fighting tricks,” I said with a sigh. “Dueling was ever her thing. She’s got some really cool tricks for entertaining people though.”

After this, Gayle looked over the stones that I used as tokens. I’d recovered most of them from where they’d been dropped last night, though I was determined to make more of them that would be useful for self-defense.

“Stones aren’t a bad idea,” Gayle told me thoughtfully. “They’re pretty sturdy so your opponent can’t destroy them in the duel to keep you from using them. They are a little bulky though.”

“I have this too,” I said, pointing to Vera which was still firmly wrapped around my wrist.

“Jewelry can be pretty good for tokens,” Gayle said with a grin. “My girlfriend uses a charm bracelet for her tokens. Each charm on it is a different token.”

We discussed my upcoming duel for the rest of lunch, talking about what I could do with my tokens and what kinds of spells I should choose. Gayle assured me that some of the most effective spells in a duel were simple elemental ones.

“And even something like being able to boil water can be surprisingly useful,” she assured me with a faint smirk.

I just nodded at that, knowing that lunch was about over and so was our conversation. “You know,” I joked. “When I’m a su…in my other form, I can sense some kind of magic in that big pond…” I pointed in the direction of the pond and mused, “I wonder if that might be something I can figure out a use for.”

Gayle stared at me with a strange expression for a moment before asking, “You can really sense something in the pond?”

“When I’m a succubus,” I agreed.

“Have you told anyone else about it?” she nearly demanded.

“No,” I responded in surprise. Then I saw the look on her face and exclaimed, “You know what it is, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Gayle answered with a sigh and a shake of her head. “I’m the one who put it there for safekeeping.”

“What?” I gasped in surprise. “So what is it?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she responded with another shake of her head. “To be honest, I’d move it somewhere else, but if you could sense it there you’d be able to sense anywhere else I hid it. Please, just do me a favor and leave it alone. And don’t tell anyone else about this.”

“Okay,” I told her, still a bit uncertain and confused. However, Gayle had been nothing but helpful to me so I was willing to trust her. “I promise I won’t tell anyone else about it.”

“Thank you,” she told me with a smile. “I guess we’d better get going to class. Come see me tonight and I’ll see if I can help you prepare some more.”

As we got up and began to leave, I asked, “But really…what is in the pond?”

Gayle just gave me an amused look and joked, “Excalibur,” as she turned and walked away.