
The radiant heat of the sun burned in Gordon's veins,
filling him with the strength he needed to push back
the dark tide. Fortunately, the shadows of the gathering
twilight were mostly mundane, with only a touch of the
dark magic that made up the tide filling them today.
If the darkness had been filled with more power, the
circle of tidewalkers around him would have been much
more dangerous. As it was, he was confident in defeating
them all. His golden eyes burned into them, watching for
their inevitable attack.

"Gordon, Gordon, it's me, Ambrose," one of the tidewalkers
said gently, making placating gestures with its hands.

"Lies!" Gordon snarled, his golden hair taking on an incandescent
brilliance as he tapped into his power. "Tidewalker illusions!"

"No illusions here, can't you see my face?" the tidewalker responded
with Ambrose's voice. Shadows slithered over its indistinct form and
the smoky formations at its face seemed to take on the shape of Ambrose's
face for a fraction of a second before once more becoming a dark swirl.

There was no point in listening to them further. Gordon was uniquely well
suited to resist tidewalker magic of all kinds, including their insidious
mental magic, but that didn't mean he was entirely immune. He lifted a
hand towards the pretender and unleashed a spear of solid sunlight. The
tidewalker summoned a whip of black fire to knock the spear off course,
but just as the spear slid past its head, Gordon released the binding
holding the weapon together and it exploded in a dazzling burst. The
tidewalker fell to the ground with disconcertingly human screams.

"Ambrose! No!" One of the other tidewalkers screamed. This one sounded
like Helga Far, the nature magic chair. These must be elite tidewalkers,
they had done their research well.

Black chains erupted from the ground, open manacles reaching for Gordon's
ankles, but he had been fighting tidewalkers since before his balls dropped
and he reacted with the grace and reflexes of a cat. He flipped backwards,
just out of reach of the chains, and, using his wild magic senses, traced
the spell back to the tidewalker who had summoned the chains. He pointed to
it as he twisted in the air and the full glare of the noon sun pounded
down on them, dropping like a hammer blow that brought it gasping to
its knees. He called his liquid golden armor just as he landed, right
in time to be swept off his feet by a torrent of dark water summoned
by another tidewalker. Dark thorns rose up to ensnare him as the water
faded, but they found now purchase on his golden armor. They didn't
burn away instantly as he expected shadow thorns to do, so he had to
expend more power than he wanted to burn through them. With a defiant
roar, he rapidly summoned a barrage of golden knives and flung them
in a cone of destruction at his adversaries. Golden claws formed on
his fingers and he lept at the fallen tidewalker who had dared to
steal Ambrose's voice. Ambrose was like a father to him, for a tidewalker
to steal his voice was an affront that could not go unanswered.

"Gordon! Stop! You're killing him!" The false Helga screamed as his
claws found purchase in the shadowy mass which was the tidewalker's
body. A thorn whip crashed into his chest, cutting through his armor
and punching into the tick muscles of his chest. He felt poison pumping
into him, weakening him, but he burned it away with the
purifying sunlight roaring through his veins. With a snarl, he took hold
of the whip, headless of the way it cut into his palm and jerked the
tidewalker who had summoned it into him, expertly using his wild magic
senses to disrupt its attempt at dispelling the whip. It flew through
the air until it was arrested by a golden spear through the chest.

"Holy shit, he just killed Professor Far!" Someone gasped, but Gordon
just ignored it and returned to his main objective. Shining claws torn
the false Ambrose apart. Gorden kept slashing into the creature long
past the point it stopped moving, ignoring the blows that slammed
into his golden armor. It was only when he realized the dark liquid
dripping from his claws was not black, but a bright red that he stopped.
He blinked. All of a sudden the shadows were gone and the body of the
man below him was as clear as day. The roaring sun receded and he felt
the wild magic madness go with it.

Gordon looked down at his red stained hands with horror, "W-what have
I done. No! Ambrose! Ambrose I'm sorry! Please, someone help me
heal him!" He pushed healing light out of his hands, but there was
nothing to be done for the dead. He turned to see the pale face of
Professor Far as she lay nearly in two pieces from the hole his spear
had made in her torso when he released the binding while it was inside
her. Before he could attempt to heal her, his hands were roughly
bound behind him and no less than six full mages silenced him, binding
his magic. Though he could have burst free of their grip, he made no
move to resist. Turning to them with a desperate look in his eyes he
begged, "please just kill me, why didn't you kill me when you found
me? Why would you let a beast like me live?"

Looking down at him grimly, Professor Xerin, another professor in the
nature magic department shook his head, "we'll let the chancellor decide
what to do with you." They dragged him away, his feet stumbling along
behind him.

=============================================================================

Jasmine lifted her arm for Peeper to land on as the big moon owl soared
down to her. He braked just above the perch and landed facing her. "Strangers
at home. Waiting."

"What were they wearing?" Peeper was very smart for an owl, but still not the
sharpest knife in the drawer. Asking who it was directly would not be useful
unless Peeper knew them, and if he knew them he would already have mentioned
their names.

"Long robes, magic big-sticks," he told her.

"Thanks Peep," she rubbed his beak with a crooked finger affectionately,
"sounds like some university pencil pushers. Wonder what they are doing
all the way out here in the borderlands."

Jasmine turned to look down at the dark shape loping along side her.
"Sin, you better stay out here for a while," she pushed her intent
down the bond she shared with the twilight wolf as she spoke. Twilight
was close enough to shadow that people got pretty suspicious of that
aspect of magic. She didn't need any trouble from the university. Technically,
Jasmine worked for the university, being an assistant game warden for the
department of magical beasts, but she had no real love for them after they
had branded a seal into her back keep her magic caped at the novice level.

Sin chuffed and sent an impression of impatience through their bond, telling
her to get whatever human business she had over with quickly so they could
get back to hunting tidewalker beasts. Jasmine smiled and sent reassurance
though their bond.

With the smaller wolf left behind, Dex surged beneath her. The big direwolf
had been holding back so Sin didn't need to continually use his twilight
teleportation to keep up. They sometimes traveled that way since it was
both fast and a good way to train Sin's magic, but it tired Sin out after
only a few hours so it wasn't good for long haul overland travel. Now, Dex's
speed doubled and they made rapid progress towards Jasmine's gyr.

When she arrived, she was shocked to see Chancellor Persious himself standing
in the middle of a cluster of mages whose robes indicated they were full
professors. Jasmine had been away from the university long enough that she
only recognized Professor Xerin from the nature department and Professor
Nakamara, her boss. "Hello professors, umm, chancellor." She still remembered
the feeling of the hot iron as Chancellor Persious pressed the large brand
into her back. The physical pain had been bad enough, but the feeling of being
cut off from most of her magic had been excruciating. He was a slender man,
appearing in the early days of middle age though he was more than 500 years
old, gray just frosting the hair above his ears, fairly unremarkable in
appearance but for the unmistakable presence he carried with him. He was
one of only two archmages in Hollistar.

"Novice Ley, the university is in a perilous position. Archmage Hill is
not well."

"I though- everyone says..." the Chancellor regarded her with limpid eyes
until she reached the conclusion on her own, "you lied."

"Yes, we lied. We do not have a way to contain the wild madness. When
we found him, we saw him as a temporary solution to the dark tide.
In our arrogance, we thought we could find another way to hold it
back with the time he bought us before he went mad. We never did."

"What has he done? You wouldn't be here if he hadn't done something."

"He killed two department chairs, including Professor Drinfield, the
man who raised him. He is far past the point when the accords demand
he be put down. I know you have your own issues with the accords, as
you may be surprised to hear, do I, but do not doubt that every word
of them was written in blood. The only sensible thing to do is to put
him down like the beast he is becoming."

Jasmine looked back at him, "but you're not going to do the sensible
thing are you? If Gordon Hill dies, who will turn back the next
high tide? Hollistar will be swallowed up and we will become just
one more bit of the fallen lands. It's too late to evacuate. We could
have done it ten years ago when you found him and decided to try to
keep the land instead of save it's people, but now we're trapped."

The chancellor's thin lips twitched, "very astute Ms. Ley. Do you understand
why I'm hear?"

"Umm, you're going to, keep him around, aren't you? You'll keep him locked
up and only let him out at high tides. You're out here because you need to
keep him away from the city? You want me to help you find a place to keep
him?"

He shook his head, "oh, we will be keeping him, but not bound up tight in
a cage. That would be workable for now, but the boy is an archmage and though
he is not yet stronger than me, his power yet waxes and he will be in a few
years. It will not be long before no bonds can hold him. No, that plan ends
the same way our first one did, with more innocent blood on Gordon's hands.
Instead, we will break the accords for a second time. I will remove your seal,
you will give up your attempts at converting your aspect and embrace the
forbidden magic you were born to wield. The only way to keep wild mages under
control is mind magic. We have no specialists in mental magic, no one who has
studied it and mastered it, so someone must learn, and for our best chance
of success, that someone must have an aspect suited to the craft. Our options
consist of you and one other sealed mage, but your aspect is uniquely well
suited for controlling a young man like Gordon."

Jasmine's eyes hardened, "'uniquely well suited'? You're expecting me to fuck
him."

The Chancellor's limped eyes showed now reaction, "Yes Novice Ley, this plan
will make a whore of you and a slave of Archmage Hill. The alternative is
that everyone you have ever known is tourtured then killed or turned into a
tidewalker. This is not pleasant, but it is what must be done. You may not
believe it, but I am truly sorry to be asking this of you."

"And after the dark tide receded and the other mage colleges come to enforce
the accords?" She asked.

"If we survive that far, Novice Ley, you'll be a master of a form of magic
not seen since the dragon wars and in control of a wild archmage at the
height of his powers who has been forged in the crucible of battle for
a century. I expect you will be able to tell them to make an exception,"
for the first time his eyes lost their limpid stare and Jasmine saw a
brief fierce spark in the pallid pools. "Now, take off your shirt and
show me your back, I need to break your chains. You remember the pain
from the last time?"

She nodded as she began undoing the laces of her shirt.

"This will be worse."

Jasmine did her best to communicate that the Chancellor was helping her
to her companions, but that didn't stop Peeper's indignant screeches
from joining in with her screams of pain. Dex held it together the
best of her companions, but Sin got very lucky that Professor Nakamara
recognized him and caged him when he teleported into their midst to
make an ineffectual attempt at hamstringing the Chancellor.

When he finished, Chancellor Persious regarded the snarling twilight
wolf. "You have loyal companions, for all our sake's let's hope you
can control Archmage Hill better than you controlled them today.
Take some time to heal, them come to the university to begin your
training." He strode away and clapped, making the group of professors
disappear.

Jasmine spat in the direction he had walked off in.

==============================================================================

The firelight gleamed off of Jasmine's black hair which tumbled down around
her shoulders in ringlets that had taken Madam Kreese an inordinate amount of
time to arrange, and she looked up at her target though long lashes, her
violet eyes drawing in the young novice's own gaze. She felt ridiculous
in the tight red silk dress that clung to her lithe frame and the makeup
that Madam Kreese had been teaching her how to apply. She was 32 years
old and rode a direwolf as her preferred mode of transportation, yet
she felt like an uncertain teenager again dolled up as she was. She
felt like a pig stuffed into silks, though she knew she didn't look it.
With her succubus aspect unsealed, she looked better than ever. Her
weather roughened skin, which had already been starting to show lines
before her unsealing had turned smooth as fine porcelain. Her compact
body, which had grown muscular to the point of mannishness in her
time patrolling the borderlands with her wolves, had shifted subtly
so that her muscles spoke of feline grace. Her waist had drawn in,
and though her curves were still slight, they were unmistakably
feminine. Any time she caught sight of herself in a reflective
surface, Jasmine was forced to admit that it didn't look like
someone had put lipstick on a roll of old leather even when she
felt in her bones that that is what she ought to look like.

The novice made a divination pun, and she giggled, leaning forward
to present him a better view of the way her corset seemed to make
her small breasts double in size. He did his best to avoid staring,
but Jasmine made it harder for him, reaching out with her magic
and tugging his gaze down. When his eyes found her bosom she could
feel her purchase on his mind grow stronger. She parted her soft
lips and ran her tongue over her front teeth, pulling on him harder
with her magic, doing her best to follow the spellforms she had
reconstructed from the restricted section of the archives with the
help of Professor Farkon. The novice started at her chest for
five seconds, then ten, she could feel she was on the cusp of putting
into a hypnotic trance when he suddenly started and shook himself
free.

"What the hell are you doing to me?" He demanded, ice congealing from
the air around him to form floating crystals that darted towards her.

Jasmine gave up trying to take hold of his mind and directed power to
her muscles, flipping backwards with her enhanced strength. "Professor
Farkon!"

Professor Farkon burst into the room, flicking a pale yellow force whip
that thrashed about seemingly randomly but managed to knock all the
ice crystals aside. "Novice Ryan! Stop at once!"

"She tried to mind control me!" He shouted in outrage.

"Sorry, the Chancellor made me do it! I'm just practicing!" Jasmine
called.

Professor Farkon nodded, "It's just as Novice Ley says. She is engaged
in university sanctioned practice."

"But- but- that's against the accords."

"The accords are gone Novice Ryan. The dark tide took them," the short
professor said primly, "now I'm going to need you to swear on your
soul not to tell anyone about this unless I or Chancellor Persious
releases you from your oath."

"Soul oaths are against the accords," he said numbly.

The small divination chair sighed, "You're really not getting this,
are you? I can assure you that we are only doing this for the safety
and security of the people of Hollistar. I won't spell it out for you,
but I'm sure you can imagine why we're doing this." It wasn't exactly
a secret that Gordon Hill was going mad. He had slaughtered two
department chairs in public. The fact that he had yet to be executed
and had in fact been instrumental in beating back a recent high tide
had everyone on edge.

"You're going to, ah, I suppose I don't have much choice, do I?"

"No, Novice Ryan, you do not." Professor Farkon said, dispelling her
force whip when she saw the fight go out of him.

"I swear on my soul not to tell anyone about what I learned just
now unless Professor Farkon or Chancellor Persious releases me
from the oath." He felt a brief tightness in his chest.

"Sorry, we would have asked your permission if I didn't need an
unaware target," Jasmine said.

"It's fine, I understand you're doing what you have to do to tame
the beast, though I can't help but be a bit embarrassed that the
pretty girl I thought was flirting with me was just doing it to
practice her mind magic. I'll withdraw with what is left of my
dignity."

Jasmine winced and watched him go. As soon as he had left Farkon
turned to her, "what did you do wrong?"

"I got too eager when I almost had him, also, the spellforms were
off, I think we need to tweak them, I was leaking magic and I think
that's what tipped him off."

"Yes, you were leaking, much more than you did when practicing the
spell without a target. We will refine the spellforms, but you need
to work on your control. You're as clumsy as a novice."

Jasmine gritted her teeth but she knew Farkon was right, "I am a
novice though."

"Only because you were sealed. Did you give up on your shaping exercises
out in that gyr of yours?" she tisked in disgust.

"Not much use for shaping when it comes to beast magic," Jasmine
muttered.

"Wrong, beast magic includes an aspect of enhancement, which benefits
from shaping. Slacking off may have been fine when you were a half-wild
outrider, but now the lives of everyone in Hollistar depend on you.
I want you to double how long you're spending practicing with your
shaping spindle."

Jasmine hated the dreadful spindle, but she resigned herself to
doing as Professor Farkon instructed. She really ought to be
grateful to be getting such direct instruction from such a
powerful mage, but that didn't make the professor's abrasive style
any easier to deal with. "Yes Professor."

======================================================================

Jasmine shook her hands to settle herself and picked up the infernal
little glass bauble she had been practicing with for the last two hours.
Sin looked over at her from where he was curled up in front of the fireplace
and chuffed, sending a pulse of amusement through their bond. "Oh yeah,
laugh it up you big lump," Jasmine muttered at the cozy looking twilight
wolf.

