This publication is an ongoing continuation of the story by Reuxin called "Suhara of Curses". It picks up immediately after the events of the last chapter of Reuxin's story, and uses their world and characters, along with some world building I've done. Please read the original publication before you read this one otherwise you won't know what is going on!

Thank you for reading! Enjoy :D

Chapter 49 - A New Beginning

Suhara woke up slowly, drifting upon a warm breeze of fading dreams in her ever-so-cozy bed. As she began to reach full consciousness, the violet eyed girl realized that everything was too quiet, and the air outside her blankets was freezing cold. Her sleep-befuddled mind eventually wondered where the sounds of the morning were. Shouldn’t Desyi be noisily practicing her temperature genre spells and smashing ice all about, and wasn’t Frey normally humming -cute- in the shower? Tricks always slept later than Suhara, yet she didn’t hear the short girl’s snoring.

In fact, now that she thought of it, she didn’t even hear the noise of the Lyceum students from above floors as they went about their daily routines. Worried, Suhara sat up quickly in a state of slight panic, and her violet eyes opened.

“Surprise!”, three voices shouted to a very bewildered Suhara. She blinked once, twice. Around her were arrayed her three roommates and best friends: Frey, Desyi, and Tricks. Desyi immediately burst out in giggles while Tricks just grinned and opened her palm for a cascade of red-and-yellow light.

“You guys! Everything was so quiet, I couldn’t hear any of the usual morning noise and I thought something was wrong!”, Suhara complained while glaring around at the circle of roommates with their mussed up hair and nightclothes. She couldn’t stay mad long, though, and broke down, showering the girls in her soprano laugh.

Frey, standing at the end of her bed, looked Suhara over, smiling furtively at the cute sleepy black-haired girl, then gave her metal wand a wave and sat criss-cross on the end of Suhara’s bed. Immediately the showers, trampling feet, and other Lyceum ambient noises rushed back. In her purple nightclothes, Desyi promptly jumped onto Suhara’s bedside, bouncing up and down while Tricks formed an air seat.

“There.”, the tall Ace mage said. “I had used the same selective hearing spell from the time we went to Couran city so that you wouldn’t hear anything. It was actually pretty cute seeing your face scrunch up in worry like that.”, she laughed.

Desyi piped in from her perch on the left. “And I made the air chilly around your bed, just for the extra effect!”

Suhara, relieved that everything was as it should be, but still confused, brushed the messy black hair away from her face. She gave a yawn, then smiled while furrowing her eyes, and asked the question.

“Buuut, what is this all about?”

In response, the three other girls just laughed, Frey and Desyi jumped off Suhara’s bed and Tricks her air seat, then went to sit around their customary pillow circle, where they all looked back expectantly at Suhara. The lights were still dimmed in the room, and each of the girls wore their nightclothes, so Suhara gave an inward shrug and slipped from her bed, not worrying about dressing in her robes. But she gave a shiver as the skin not covered by her small nightclothes was exposed to Desyi’s chilled air.

Desyi, seeing this, gave a start and uncrossed her arms from her legs, saying, “Ohh! Sorry about that, Suhara!” and quickly heated the room with a temperature- and concentration- genre spell that also washed them all in a warm yellow glow.

The young curse magician glanced at her new wand, forged by the girls as a present to her, but left it for the moment along with her various artifacts. She quickly crossed the distance between them and plopped down onto her pillow, then looked around at her friends, happy just to be there with them, all alive and well. True, her breasts always jiggled uncomfortably, her hair was awful to tame in the morning, and the empty space between her legs still felt strange. But at that moment she realized that the friends she had made since being turned into a girl more than made up for those inconveniences.

And for the first time since Theema’s invasion, Suhara was truly content.

Chapter 50 - Aftermath

It had been only two weeks since the day Theema had invaded Vanasia. Suhara hadn’t woken up until just last week, and by that time the Lyceum had been rebuilt and everything was back in order. Already, everyone was praising the Lyceum mages for saving the world.

Too many had died, however. There had been memorials for the fallen, and tales told of the heroism of that day. Luckily, Frey and Tricks had been able to track down Desyi in her vampire form, and with the help of Norman and Deledy were able to reverse her vampirism.

Suhara still blamed herself for everything that had happened, and her friends had found her a few times crying to herself. However, Desyi’s return from death had overjoyed the other girl, and she was encouraged by the fact that no one seemed to hold her to any blame. Her roommates did all they could to make her feel like she was loved, and already everything was returning to the way it had been before. After all, all Suhara wanted was to learn magic, possibly find a way to reverse her transformation, and fall in lov-

Tricks broke the moment in her usual forward way. “What are you staring around at us like that for?”

Suhara blushed, looking down at her hands, and started to say something, then stopped. Tricks, sensing that she had somehow embarrassed the violet-eyed girl, quickly said, “Oh, don’t worry about it, Suhara! I’m sorry I made you embarrassed.”

Frey and Desyi watched this exchange from opposite sides of the pillow circle with amusement written all over their faces, but concealed their expressions as Suhara glanced back up.

“No, it’s fine, Tricks. Actually...I was just thinking...how lucky I am to have amazing friends like you all in my life. When Theema attacked our world, you guys never stopped trying to protect me from her. And Desyi, you actually got turned into a vampire because of me! I guess I’m trying to say that...I really love you guys.”

Her voice petered out towards the end of her sentence, and she was blushing fiercely, yet she continued to look at her friends, and her gaze rested on Frey. Grinning, the Ace stared back at those innocent violet eyes. She then nodded once to Tricks and once Desyi, responding, “Suhara, you may be a grown up basic class mage who helped defeat an evil goddess, but you’ll always be my little novi. And I know I speak for Tricks and Desyi when I say that we’ll always be by your side. No matter what deity tries to kill you next time.”

“That’s right!” Declared Tricks. Desyi gave a sharp nod, acting all serious, then broke the semi-awkward moment with her giggles. All four girls joined in the merriment. When they had calmed down, Frey got right to the business of explaining the importance of that day, but not before Desyi had her fun.

“You Beradinians totally are too emotional about some things, huh?” Desyi made a show of casually checking her nails while Suhara tried to sputter some answer back.

“Haha, I’m just kidding, Suhara! I just like to tease you.” The other girl promptly stuck out her tongue in mock disgust.

Frey played the part of scolding Desyi, then she looked her former-novi in the eyes, saying in her best teaching-voice, “Today is a special day because it’s the 300th anniversary of the creation of the Lyceum. Coincidentally, it also marks the triumph of our world against the 7th demonic invasion. Because of this-”

“-We have the day off, and we can have one day this week to go on any excursion we want!”, Tricks’ excited voice interrupted as she leaned in, almost falling off her pillow.

The girls then explained that they had made an executive decision to visit Noira Mines, which was located about forty clicks to west under the Noira Territory mountain range. According to Desyi, who had been one time to watch forgers use temperature-genre magic in shaping the mined metals, there was a beautiful city in the center of the mountain, and caverns all around to explore. They were supposed to go in five days, which was normally the day of Sellwall’s specialty class, but Frey had already gotten permission for her and Suhara to miss that day. Besides, classes weren’t supposed to begin in earnest until next week, due to the events of the past weeks.

“Trust me, Suhara, it’ll be so much fun!”, Desyi insisted. Suhara replied to Desyi, “I can’t wait!”

Then Frey, quiet until now, spoke: “I also have some news to share with you guys.”

The girls all turned to Frey, excitedly asking what it was.

The older Ace girl uncrossed her legs, stretched forward, then said, “Every year after the anniversary of the Lyceum creation, the school holds a competition to determine the strongest Ace student. In a battle-royale scenario, the top three Ace class students duel and the winner becomes that year’s Head Ace. And the best part is that I’ve qualified and decided to enter the duel, which is the day after tomorrow!”

The three other girls gaped in amazement at Frey, then all jumped off their pillows and tackled Frey with hugs.

“Wow Frey! You’re gonna kick everyone’s ass!” Tricks’ muffled voice came enthusiastically from Frey’s robe.

Suhara had meant to hug Frey from the side, but tripped over Desyi’s pillow as they had rushed to Frey. She flailed her arms and fell right on top of Frey, accidentally brushing their breasts into each other. Suhara blushed, while Frey looked back at her with amusement. They stayed in that position until Tricks’ voice muffled voice was heard again.

“Owww gerroff me, you’re heavy!”

After that fun start to the day, the girls all gathered up their pillows and began their daily morning rituals. Frey and Desyi went first to shower while Suhara went back to her nightstand and put on her hairpin and necklace artifacts; she always slept with Rales’ bracelet, mostly because she forgot it was on, and she never took off Frey’s anklet.

A few minutes later while Tricks was showing Suhara a cool new concentration spell, someone knocked on their door. Puzzled, the young curse magician grabbed her wand and walked over to open the door.

Before she got to the door, Tricks, checking her hair with a light-mirror spell, saw that Suhara was still wearing her revealing nightie. She turned around in alarm, grabbing a robe from her bed.

“Suhara! Quick, throw this on!” As Suhara turned around, Tricks threw the pale red robe to the startled girl, who blushed for the third time that morning as she caught the robe and looked down at herself, registering what she’d been about to do.

The violet eyed girl grinned ruefully back at Tricks before mouthing a quick thank-you, securing the robe over her petite body, and answering the door.

Rales stood in the doorway, dressed in pale green research clothes. His hair sparkled in the light from the corridor, and he wore a big smile on his face as exclaimed, “Suhara, it’s so good to see you! Especially since last time we almost all died.” Grinning ruefully, he looked into the room, spotting Tricks, who didn’t know who he was and was standing with her wand raised.

Suhara gave Rales a quick hug and invited him inside. She walked back to Tricks, saying, “This is Rales, Tricks. He took me on that research trip a few weeks ago to the castle where Theema originally appeared. He also gave me my teleporting bracelet.”

Tricks relaxed, then bounced forward to meet him.

“So, you must be Tricks, one of the school’s finest concentration-genre magicians!” Rales said. He stuck out his hand to shake.

Tricks took it and, ever so modest, replied brightly, “That’s me, nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you from Suhara. She said you gave her lots of cool artifacts.” She beamed at him.

After a moment of silence, the violet eyed girl turned hesitantly to Rales, confused as to why he was there this morning.

“Um Rales, it’s good to see you and all, but what exactly-”.

She was interrupted by the sound of a door opening from the bathroom. Desyi and Frey walked out of the bathroom wrapped in thick towels, followed by a billowing cloud of steam. Rales had looked over in reflex along with Suhara and Tricks, but hastily averted his eyes from the half-naked mages. Desyi saw their visitor and looked thrilled about something.

“Hey Rales, give me one moment then I’ll confirm the thing with you.” She then dried her hair and Frey’s with a heating spell and crossed the floor to her wardrobe while Frey did the same.

“Don’t peek, Rales!” came Desyi’s voice from their right. Rales hurriedly closed his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking extremely uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Suhara and Tricks didn’t know that Desyi knew Rales and were both feeling a little confused. They looked at each other, then shrugged. The black-haired girl smirked inwardly, then took a moment to glance over at Frey, naked and half-hidden behind her wardrobe. Luckily for her, girls looking at other naked girls wasn’t a big deal at all. Tricks had walked over to the ajar door and closed it, giving them some measure of privacy.

Both mages emerged shortly, dressed for the day in their Lyceum robes. Frey had chosen a deep gold color that was cut in the style of her caravan. It went well with her gold-flecked eyes and metal wand. Desyi wore a light pink robe that accentuated her pretty face. Both girls’ faces were still flushed from the heat of the showers.

They crossed the short distance of the room and Desyi greeted Rales. “All right, Rales, you can look now.”

The Lyceum researcher opened his eyes and looked down at the four girls fanned out in front of him. He couldn’t help but give them all a small smile. After all, it was not every day he had company such as these lovely girls! He shook himself and asked Desyi what he had come for.

“Desyi, are you and your roommates still ready to go into the Lyceum catacombs today after breakfast?”

The three other girls rotated around to look accusingly at Desyi, who gave a nervous laugh: “About that. I meant to tell you guys but it was a secret!”

Chapter 51 - Descent

The four young mages and their researcher guide were crowded into a small room deep in the basements of the Lyceum. As they had descended below the school, Rales had explained that the school had been built upon the ruins of an ancient warlock stronghold that had been imbued with magical power. Because the foundations were so magically strong, they lent the school great protection from all sorts of enemies, be they ghosts -though not on the roof, apparently-, angels, devils, or even greater attackers.

After Rales’ unexpected appearance that morning, the girls had rounded on Desyi, wanting to know exactly what she had set up with him. She had explained, quite bravely since her roommates had her cornered, that she’d sought out Rales and asked him if he knew anything interesting about the Lyceum, because she was doing a class project on magical history. The catacombs under the school were open for student exploration trips and she’d figured that it might be good practice for their trip to Noira mines. In the end the other girls warmed up to the idea, but Suhara was a little disappointed that she wouldn’t have time to practice magic that day.

Suhara and Tricks had taken their showers while the two other girls used Frey’s intangibility blessing to go to the dining hall and pick up breakfast. Unfortunately, they’d forgotten that they couldn’t pick up food while the blessing was on, so they had a laugh about that and returned to their dorm by the main staircase.

Most of the school had still been asleep. The two mages had only seen a couple sleepy-eyed students stumbling downstairs for their breakfast. After everyone had eaten and dressed, all four girls had met Rales at the main atrium, outside the robe shop, and had begun their adventure.

“Hurry up and open the door, Rales, I’m being squished!” Desyi unpiously complained.

“All right, all right, give me a second. I have to activate the runes in the right sequence or the door won’t open.”

A loud creak split the air and a musty smell rushed into the room from the newly opened doorway. The five spilled forward into the dark opening.

“How about some light?”, Tricks muttered, casting an orb of pale white luminecsense above them. Rales nodded his approval, then turned to his small group of adventurers. Frey and Desyi were wearing the same robes from earlier, Tricks had donned a tan battle robe, and Suhara wore robes of deep violet, cut just above her knees.

“Okay, so there are some rules that you’ll have to follow when we’re down here so that we’ll be safe. I take students down here periodically, so I know that it’s completely harmless if we take proper care.”

Frey laughed, “You shouldn’t have said that. Now shorty will have to break all your rules.” Everyone chuckled at the jibe, and Tricks gave Frey a light punch on the shoulder. Everyone turned back to Rales.

“The first rule: touch nothing other than what I say you may touch. This one is very important! The second rule is just as important: follow me, and do not stray away from our group. This place is actually pretty big and you can easily get lost. Worse, items like Suhara’s bracelet are nullified by the enchantments in the foundation stones. It’s actually pretty amazing.” Rales got a dreamy look in his eyes then snapped out of it. “Anyway, if you just stick to those rules, we’ll have a blast!”

The group gave a hearty cheer, then started off down the descending tunnel. As they walked further into the depths of the earth, each person could distinctly hear the door closing behind them.

The tunnel was wrought of dark grey stone, but was smooth, as though it had been made with magic. Suhara wondered what would happen if she switched on her Winter Sight, which was a remnant from her time as Theema’s priestess, and when she did she was not disappointed. There were thousands upon thousands of miniscule glowing rune carved into both sides of the cylindrical tunnel. She made a gasping noise and Rales, knowing about her ability, assumed correctly what she was awed about.

“I’m guessing you’re using your priestess ability, Suhara?” Rales glanced back from his position in the front to get Suhara’s confirmation. Her roommates also knew about her ability, so there was no need to elaborate.

“Yeah, I just activated it right now and I can see thousands of runes cut into the tunnel. They’re actually very pretty.” Suhara sighed with wonder as she continued to gaze at the beautiful walls.

Rales grimaced darkly. “They may be beautiful, but those runes are ancient warlock hexes. Very powerful, very dangerous. They’re supposed to keep anyone from boring into the tunnel side. Those hexes, if activated, would strip your magic from your body, adding it to the foundations. Since every living creature requires magic to survive, it would be a slow and painful death.”

The group huddled a little closer. “That sounds not good.” Suhara muttered, shutting off her Winter Sight. Since she lost her connection to Theema and the goddess was banished back in Light’s Cowardice, Suhara had lost her stolen immortality, vampire, and fifth dimension abilities. So she could die just like the others in the group now.

Rales continued. “Actually, since this place can be very dangerous if not given the proper caution, most researcher apprentices complete training down here under the Lyceum. While students above are learning magic, we learn the art of rune-reading, lock-breaking, and...well, adventuring!” The girls directed a steady flow of questions at Rales, and he seemed happy to answer them as they continued their descent.

Everyone’s breath began to frost in the air, and Frey decided at this point that it was getting too cold for her taste, so she cast a master blessing spell that cloaked the young adventurers in warmth.

“Ooh good one, Frey! I was just about to cast an ambient warming spell, but this is way cooler.”

The tall girl smiled at Desyi, whose face was shadowy in the wan light. “I’ve been wanting to try that spell out, there’s just never any need to use it really.”

The conversation died away as the floor leveled out and the group reached the true entrance to the ruins. In front of them the tunnel mouth yawned wide, exposing a massive black chamber. Tricks’ light penetrated only fifty feet into the gloom, yet they still saw hulking columns rising into the inky blackness above, and various rubble scattered across the stone-and-onyx floor.

“It’s a good thing Helanna isn’t here, she’d be clinging to my arm the whole time.” Tricks said slowly, mouth open in awe. The girls to her right and left nodded slowly, awestruck. They each tightened their grip on their weapons; Suhara had her new wand in her left hand, and the other girls had their various weapons out as well.

Rales theatrically turned around, Tricks’ orb lighting up his face against the darkness behind him. His eyes sparkled with excitement as he looked the girls in the eyes, brave in his element. “Welcome”, he said, “to the ruins of the Anhuin Warlock’s greatest stronghold.”

Chapter 52 - Adventure Under the Lyceum

The group of explorers had moved out into the chamber, which Rales explained was the Great Hall of the stronghold. After walking for nearly five minutes, Rales paused beside a column and gestured the girls to sit on some of the nearby rubble. He covertly stole a glance at Suhara as she took a seat, forgetting for a moment to cross her legs. She didn’t notice anything, but Desyi caught his eye and gave him a look. Needless to say, he looked appropriately ashamed.

Slightly flustered, Rales cleared his throat and gestured around at the ruins their orb’s circle of light exposed. “Time for a little bit of a history lesson, then we can look at some preserved artifacts.” Suhara’s interest was piqued, and she leaned forward eagerly, but the other girls had more experience with artifacts and were more reserved. Still, they gave their attention to Rales.

“You all know that today is the 300th anniversary of the Lyceum’s conception. The idea was born after the great mages of the age quelled the 7th demonic invasion. Most people don’t know that the demons who attacked our world targeted this Warlock stronghold, and succeeded in destroying it and wiping out the Anhuin Warlocks.” The girl’s eyes grew wide.

“These Warlocks were amazingly adept at magic, but a demonic deity broke this world’s barriers and aided the lesser demons against the Warlocks.” He gestured at Frey. “In same way your blessing gives us protection against the cold down here, this deity’s aura countered the magics embedded in the stronghold’s foundations and gave greater power to these lesser demons, effectively upgrading each a strength level.” Frey and the other girls nodded, understanding exactly what had happened, then Suhara, remembering her teachings about spirits from the other dimensions, interrupted.

Gesturing absently with her wand, she asked, “But wouldn’t that lower the time they could spend in our dimension?” Tricks and Desyi nodded happily at Suhara, and Frey leaned over and patted her on the head. “That’s my little novi! Good job, Suhara.” The violet-eyed girl beamed at her roommates.

“Good point Suhara.” Rales said. “We’ll make a researcher out of you yet.” The young curse magician basked in the praise. “Normally, that would be the case, but this deity was able to wield strong dimensional-genre magic, and as long as he was lending the lesser demons his aura, they could stay indefinately.” The girls frowned, imagining such a scenario.

“However, he weakened himself considerably while using this aura. As the Warlocks were on the verge of annihilation, the two ArchWarlocks assaulted the deity, using a combination of all magic genres to banish him from our world. But the strain from the spells was too much for their mortal bodies, and they perished. The remaining lesser demons succeeded in killing most of the other Warlocks, but one escaped and told his tale to the would-be founders of the Lyceum. Also, when the deity had been banished, the magic of the foundations reactivated, trapping hundreds of spirits in this very place.”

Tricks shifted from her position on a broken rock. “Soooo, there are still evil spirits trapped down here today?” She looked excited by the prospect of a fight, but her face fell as Rales shook his head and explained that most had been exterminated by the Lyceum founders.

Frey, looking thoughtful, suggested, “Well, I suppose it wouldn’t have been good if these evil spirits had broken free of their bonds and attacked the Lyceum from below.” Tricks disagreed.

“No, it would have been so cool! Imagine: The battle for the Lyceum.” Her excited voice echoed throughout the dark chamber, bouncing back distorted and deep. Desyi rolled her eyes as Tricks dreamily imagined the glory. The others just laughed.

“Ok, that’s enough history for today! We’re just going to walk to the banquet table and check out some ancient Warlock artifacts before heading back. To be honest, it won’t be super exciting compared to what happened a few weeks ago, but it’ll still be fun to see.” Rales stood up, dusted his clothes off, and gestured for the others to do the same before striding forward into the gloom, tripping slightly over a stray rock. The girls sniggered before following the young researcher.

Eventually they came upon a raised dais upon which was set an enormous stone table. Rales warned them once again against touching anything, then they all climbed up together. Tricks formed two more yellow orbs and shot them the length of the table, so that they hovered at either end. Easily seventy feet long and ten wide, her lights sparkled darkly off the black onyx of the table, and illuminated a pile of swords, shields, pieces of armor, and dining pieces.

Tricks started forward and had reached out a hand to pick up a dusty crystal goblet but Rales’ exclamation made her turn. She struck a funny figure to her friends, her hand oustretched with mouth open, one foot lifted behind her for balance and her head turned back. Rales was not amused. “What?” She demanded.

With a ferocity not fitting his character, he said, “Remember when I said not to touch anything?! These artifacts are cursed with the same spells as the hexes in the tunnel! I don’t think you want to die for your curiosity, do you?” He softened his tone. “I’m sorry, this is my fault. I should have explained how zealously ancient Warlocks guarded their possessions.” Tricks looked appropriately abashed, retracting her arm and walking the few steps back to the group. “No, it was my fault. It won’t happen again.”

Frey opened her mouth to say something, then seemed to think that Tricks had been scolded enough. Desyi broke the silence. “Okay! Well, nothing bad happened, so let’s take a closer look.” With Rales in the lead, the adventurers approached the table together.