One Weird Succubus

Local terminals

Sophie didn’t knew if she should cover her body or stare at Amelia, she was more bewildered than embarrassed at what had happened…

“How?!” so she pushed what, very, little embarrassment she had away, and tried to get answers

Observing how Amelia touched her chin with a finger, before waving at a bookshelf and making it, plus the ones behind it, silently slid away and reveal her Palace on the distance

“Follow me” she started walking next to Amelia, but the brunette touched her arm after a few steps-

“Ah?!” and with just one more step, they were already in front of the landmark, with the bookshelves behind her already in their proper places

“Let’s go back to the basics of magic for a moment” a white board appeared next to them, making Sophie unable to ask other questions for a moment “This is a visual representation of what I meant when I was guiding you with your first change” a sphere appeared in the board with a circle around it “Remember what I said before?”

“Yes…?” she looked at the drawing frowning a bit… because now that she was looking at a flat representation of what Amelia said, it reminded her a bit of an eye… “The circle is my personality… you called it… ego…?” it was a bit weird, but she shook her head and continued “The empty space is where my mana resides, my inner sea, and the sphere is the core of my soul, where my memories are truly stored”

She still remembered the warning about using too much mana: if that happened, the spell would consume memories in order to trigger, and losing them like that, deleted them from the brain too, without possibility of recovery. Sophie had wondered how that would interact with bio-circuits, but decided that it still was something she did not wanted to test

“Correct” Amelia pointed back to the board and a series of diagonal colored lines, plus another sphere, appeared next to the first drawing “Just like a soul, the multiverse works in layers that can interact in different ways with each other” she pointed at the second line (Green) “This is not a detailed map, but let’s assume that this is the layer where this planet and your body are. Now, when a human dies, their soul needs to go to the core of the multiverse” she gestured to the new sphere “To go there, the soul goes through a layer described as Mist”

She pointed to the fourth line that was of a Silver color that almost got lost on top of the whiteboard

“Every Material Layer in the multiverse is connected to the core by means of this layer, and separated from each other by the True Void” she pointed to the first one (Black), and another green line appeared on the left of it “Between the material world and the mist” (Dark gray) “We find the thin Astral Layer. Your new ability interacted with it by sending your mind to it”

The drawing of a soul shifted, with the circle of the soul stretching on a small section, that almost split from the soul. This section became a bubble that remained connected to the soul by a thin tether, as it moved towards the gray line

“What did you saw there?”

Sophie frowned for a moment…

“Just houses. I was in Silvermist, just dancing outside home…” because, now that she remembered it, its appearance was a little too simple after hearing the explanation of the place and how she got there “This looked more solid tho…” she glanced at her Palace with curiosity

“Interesting” Amelia held her hands in front of her skirt “The Astral Layer is, usually, only accessible in magic-capable worlds through dreams, or, when a soul becomes stuck in it while crossing the mist, it’s odd that this mana-less world already has constructs in it, instead of just a chaotic Astral mass. We shall test this ability later, it could be useful, but difficult, to make your own constructs in there” Sophie pointed at her Palace with a thumb while raising an eyebrow “Similar, but your Palace is inside your mind, given shape by your mana-”

Amelia suddenly went silent, almost as if she hesitated while a finger touched her chin for a moment… and that moment stretched…

“This is odd for multiple reasons, not only by the fact that your Palace is mirrored in the Astral Layer. A structure in the Astral Layer cannot remain in a static location inside it, plus, your Palace wasn't created with the amount of mana required to be the cause those buildings appeared there” she remained in that posture while talking “The layer also lacks the structures that our Creator called Heaven or Hell, so, no outside deity should be involved in these circumstances. There is still a chance that the Primal Soul is involved with this, but we have no easy way of testing that”

“Maybe it’s due to the Ark…?” Sophie offered, figuring out that the girl in front of her was completely confused even if her voice didn’t show it “I saw it around… Selene’s house…? My Palace’s reflection?” she hesitated “Sorry, I didn’t tried to open the door, I just walked around to touch the…” she looked up and pointed to the rainbow mist in the distance “That”

She looked up too, but soon was meeting her eyes again, distracting Sophie from the bookshelf that suddenly slid next to them and Amelia turned to it

“The section involving this layer is incomplete due to the fragmentation” it wasn't hard to see why she said that, the bookshelf had fewer, very thin, books than the rest, and what seemed to be just long pages rolled into themselves tied by a string “And while it’s unlikely that the Ark is involved, I will do a small check as soon as I’m able, I also shall make an effort to analyze in detail what it’s stored in the Ark about this layer, and have some answers for tomorrow’s training”

“Why did you said unlikely?” Amelia blinked at her, giving her the idea that she was the one completely confused now

“Because the only way of detecting the Ark is by a mortals’ eyes. Our Creator made the Ark so it couldn’t be detected in any other way”

Sophie tilted her head in actual confusion and worry, because she felt that Amelia might get angry at what she was about to say…

“But the Ark broke…”

Amelia blinked again, while her voice remained emotionless as she spoke again

“You are correct. As I said before, I will make sure to confirm if the Ark is visible or not, before reading the Astral section if possible. For now, I’m going to wake you up” she gestured at Sophie’s naked body “You changed to this form while in the Astral Layer”

This information made Sophie feel panic and in a blink she was laying on the inflatable mattress, with a hand moving to her head, feeling her tail curling tightly around her right leg just as her fingers curled around a horn

‘Why…?!’ and how her panties were pushed uncomfortably to the side by her tail, as she sat on bed ‘How am I supposed to keep this a secret, if this keeps happening?!’ Amelia had no answers to that question…

Luckily, she had recovered enough mana to change back, and she was informed that her Palace had helped her to use less mana, while changing in that opportunity

/////

Sophie couldn’t go to sleep immediately, and Anastasia crying a few minutes later made her take even longer to finally go back to sleep after helping. This time with Amelia monitoring her to be alert if she subconsciously attempted another trip to the Astral Layer

But nothing else happened involving Sophie’s magic that night, which made Amelia finally process what the succubus said

The Ark broke…

Such a simple thing to say

And yet it was devastating…

Amelia was just an interface, of a fragment, of the Ark. This was knowledge that she was always aware of, none of it was a surprise… but now as she was doing her best to observe Sophie, and the space around the local star. Every other of the nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety eight process she was capable of, was frozen by…

She didn’t had a soul. Not yet. But even so, she was stunned, overwhelmed… at a loss for words… the knowledge inside the Ark hinted that a fitting reaction for what had happened, was: hating what she was feeling, among other things. That observation was stored to be analyzed in the future

With a blink, every frozen process was refocused and activated once more, and she noticed that she had a finger pressing against her chin the whole time she was stunned…

Another thing to analyze later as she took a more relaxed pose, with her hands in front of her skirt

“A complete analysis of the Ark, will necessitate a considerable amount mana or of consumed knowledge. Shifting priorities of rituals, Up, by two levels. Next session shall still be the creation of structures inside the Palace” she focused on the bookshelf in front of her

All that knowledge was available to the interface, she didn’t needed to read it. With just a question from Sophie, she could link directly to the ‘Book’ with the answer, and said it verbatim…

She blinked

The Ark broke…

And Amelia picked one of the scrolls, assigning some of the inactive processes to other objectives, like the observation of the Astral Layer, which she had ignored before due to the world being magic-less

“Considering how such a basic thing escaped my awareness, perhaps a reassessment of my capabilities is required” she started to read the contents of the bookshelf of her own will…

Not noticing that she had started to talk to herself at all

/////

The ‘Day’ started with a bit of an annoyance, the tire of a passing car exploded right in front of the house, that, and the screaming of the annoyed driver and copilot, woke everyone in the street a fair amount of time before sunrise, specially Anastasia. Sophie had tried to help calming her, but before she managed to fully calm her down, the baby got hungry anyway, so she had to wake Theresa again while Selene found cute that Anastasia rubbed her face against Sophie’s bosom

That Sophie was able to distinguish the difference between the baby’s cries, and had little trouble with diapers, was met with humor by the others, to the point where Antonia suggested that if Sophie started to lactate, she could let Theresa go back to be a sleepyhead…

Sophie was a bit nervous after that joke, mostly due to the mother’s reaction to it… but what Amelia had said to her, wasn't completely gone from her mind, so she had other reasons to not laugh at that joke… still, after that point the day got better

Just a few hours later, Polly had finished modifying enough clothes to Sophie’s measurements (With her height being the more difficult issue to work around, due to winter’s approach), leaving her with a modest selection of clothes to wear, and from where to choose how to go to the library with Selene before lunch. She ended picking a pair of comfortable denim trousers, a white top that snugged her torso quite nicely, a denim jacket due to the autumnal weather, and what Antonia called combat boots, that Polly got delivered there, because she didn’t needed to weaponize her height by wearing heels…

Amelia and Sophie didn’t understood why Polly added ‘Yet’ to the end of that sentence… but they agreed with Antonia once she mentioned that the boots were useful considering the cobblestone roads and the forest…

“Wouldn’t be faster to just buy clothes for men?” the, exaggerated, gasp the seamstress gave to the nurse was answer enough

“How dare you…?!” but Polly still spoke her mind, using Sophie as a model to point at all the feminine details and curves, that just couldn’t be shown with clothes made for squares, at how her femininity shone from under the clothes

While the succubus…

‘Yes~!’ was getting free euphoria by hearing all that, posing while looking at the mirror, her clothes, and her cute, custom fitted, underwear, made her feel attractive ‘I look great~!’ no matter how she looked at the mirror, nothing felt off, not even when she introduced her hands inside the deep pockets of her pants, while standing on a leg

That whim just managed to show off her shapely legs

“A satisfied costumer~” and, once the seamstress stopped ranting about how good Sophie looked, she made sure to thank Polly “It’s always lovely to work with bigger sizes~”

“Your fetish is showing…” Antonia deadpanned and got a huff in return

“I’m not just talking about boobs, and you have never complained about any bra, shirt, or pair of pants, I have made for you…” the nurse had to concede the point with a hum, before Polly started to gesture around “Besides! All women deserve good clothes that support and fits them! It’s my holy duty to make sure no one suffers any kind of pain, regardless of size!”

“Now you are talking about boobs…”

Sophie gave the giggling Selene a curious glance while the other two bickered for a bit more, but she just kept laughing and soon, the two of them started to walk towards the library with the awake pair getting ready to make lunch while the mom slept

“What’s a fetish?” and when Selene calmed down on route, Sophie asked that after making sure that not many people were around, just in case her question-

“Antonia…” made her groan that name while blushing

/////

They arrived to the library quickly, both blushing, but for different reasons. One was due to the explanation she had just given, while the other was wondering a few things about herself…

‘Awawawa!!!’ and with no idea of where that kind of thoughts came from…

Luckily, for the adult…

“Lily!” Selene recognized and waved to the young blonde before she entered the library “Alexis!”

Who waved back together with the shorter girl next to her. Before the two of them flinched upon recognizing the tall beauty as Sophie

“Hi~!” the succubus found herself in a problem while excitedly greeting them… both of them looked beautiful… and the idea of getting both of them naked right there, became firmly stuck in her mind. A small part of her mind wondered why she was thinking like that, when she was calm with K and Logarithm the day before…

But that thought was the answer in itself, she had been so confused because the girl wasn't Lisha. That Sophie assumed that if she had been the one there, she might had the same kind of thoughts towards the two of them…

Because Lisha wouldn't be getting ready to flee away from her, like Logarithm did…

The nearby pair of girls that she was attracted to, were wearing a, mostly, gray uniform, with comfortable looking shoes, a knee-length skirt, and a white shirt with a gray blazer above it. The blazer was open for both of them and had a symbol on the left side of the chest, interestingly, the shirts had many names written in them with colored markers, making Sophie jealous of the names that were right on top of their breasts-

‘Awawawa!!!’ she barely managed to look away, while blushing at the irrational feeling, before she became completely unable to tear her eyes from their chests- ‘Awawawa!!! Stop!!!’

“Ke-!” Lily shook her head, interrupting what she was about to say, snapping Alexis from her blushing trance “K was right…! She… looks different…” Sophie risked a glance at her confused expression and smiled at her

“Hi Lily” before greeting them again with a more subdued tone, doing the same with the smaller girl “Hi Alexis” having to look away quickly because the urge to touch both of them (In any way), was intensifying

Selene found her expression a bit amusing, but before she stopped giggling the twin-tailed girl was speaking again

“She is not wearing makeup…?” her words making the succubus get stared even more by the three of them…

“…?” who could only blush while looking between them

“I didn’t noticed…” until Selene whispered with disbelief “I just thought that Polly, or…” she covered her face with her palm, after thinking for a moment “That Polly was the one that gave her some makeup with her new clothes…”

“What is that…?” she latched to that topic quickly in order to not become overwhelmed by her own lust and the remaining jealousy

“Something that I’m not sure you need to learn about…?” she was looking intently at her face…

But Selene’s answer made her feel a bit… weird… because in the off chance it was related to something women used, or an activity they did, Sophie wanted to try it…

“We c-can teach her…?” Alexis said, sounding more than a question towards Lily than a statement, and once Sophie beamed at her in happiness she turned into the same color of a tomato, her hands clenching around the single strap of the backpack she had

“Sounds good~” Selene quickly took that comment as a change of topic “She is going to need friends outside of the family~ please take good care of her~”

The horny part of Sophie’s mind wanted to ask what activities were covered in the ‘Taking good care’ comment

“M-mom asked the same…” but Lily also pushed past the topic and turned to Alexis “We should return your book…?”

“We are getting inside too~” and Selene moved closer while guiding Sophie gently with a gesture “Help me teach her about the library?” she joined both of her hands under her chin “Please~”

“S-sure!” Sophie took note of how her forearms interacted with her breasts, because an embarrassed Lily adverted her gaze from them, and Alexis blushed in a lovely way while she stared… she couldn’t help but want to elicit the same kind of reaction from both of them…

‘Uh…?’ but for some reason, while walking behind the three of them, she was distracted by the fact that she wasn't getting jealous from Selene’s action, in comparison to the “Kelly” written in a large area of their chests, it was as if the woman had talked about the weather, even with the blush she caused to the girls she wanted to get close with…

Once inside, the two brunettes moved to a counter with two persons, one of them being the oldest woman that Sophie had seen so far, while the other was contemporary with Selene. The woman was taking the chance to make the copies that Calypso suggested them to get, while Alexis gave a book to the oldest librarian and got into a conversation with her

“This is a library, a place where you can find all kind of books…” leaving the blonde to explain things to the succubus “What…?” but she glared at her once she noticed how she was looking at her boobs

“Ah! Sorry… I just saw the names and…” and she had just noticed that the quadruplets, Alexis and Kelly were the ones that covered the whole area of her chest… making her jealousy lessen a bit, because there was just a name that she didn’t knew, and the rest of the names were respectfully away from there…

It was a good thing that her jealousy diminished, once she realized that none of those names were of a random guy… if she had seen one anywhere…

“Oh… you don’t know…?” but her dark thoughts vanished once she realized that staring, was a bad thing to do, so she met Lily’s green eyes with confusion plain in her own, making the blonde sigh tiredly “It’s a thing in this country, every graduation the girls write their names on each others shirts, wishing each other luck in their future, and to make sure they remember each other, if they find themselves in a situation where they need help”

“Can I do it too?!” her excitement was obvious, making Lily blush with her intensity “I’m here to help!”

As an answer she groaned, and after a few seconds of glaring without any heat at her, she sighed and pulled out a marker from her own backpack that ended on the floor, giving the marker to her before removing the blazer

“Not sure of where, or, if there is space for it…” there were a lot of names in the buttoned shirt

“Here…” but none of them were in the folded collar, so she wrote it there, resisting the urge to touch the soft skin of her neck. Unconsciously, Sophie wrote in the only way she had ever seen her name being written… she considered adding the skull that was her symbol, but there were a lot of hearts and flowers drawn on the shirt, so she decided against it…

It was a symbol to represent her personal feelings of rebellion, and her fighting back at the Shitheads… the shirt was supposed to represent a happy moment, not a reminder of…

“M-me too!” once Alexis saw them, she quickly finished her conversation, before getting close to them

Sophie smiled at her and once she was done with Lily, who wore her blazer again. She bent to do the same for the smaller girl, feeling her heart beating faster at the short distance between their blushing faces, without noticing the view of her cleavage she was giving to the blushing Alexis, nor how Lily also got a good view of her shapely body from the side… she only saw that for her, the quadruplets, Kelly and Lily were the ones that wrote there

But even if both humans were very distracted by the sweet smelling beauty

“That’s…?” both looked as if a bucket of cold water got dropped on them, by how she had written her name, even if only Lily managed to ask about it “That’s how your name is written…?”

“Hmm?”

S0-PH13

“Ah…” the succubus blinked in surprise, finally realizing what she had done… even if she wasn't completely sure of why she wrote it like that on the local language “It’s… it’s the name of a star, I saw it when I managed to get information out of a terminal… and I liked it, so I pronounce it like ‘Sophie’ but this is how I have seen it written…” both of them looked… pained, by her admission “I’m sorry…” and she didn’t liked what she saw

And she realized that she tainted the memories in the shirts anyway…

“It’s not your fault…” Lily said quickly, a small glare on her eyes, before she got a piece of paper from her backpack and with the returned marker, she wrote how her name was supposed to be written and nearly shoved it to Sophie’s face “Here, remember it. Otherwise, when you go get your papers, you will get stuck with a weird looking name, and people will ask about it…”

Alexis and her could only smile at the blonde with pure happiness, making her blush and look away with a scowl, noticing first how Selene got closer to them with a smile

“Something happened…” to Sophie it seemed that what she said wasn't a question… but Lily answered by showing how she had written her name, her smile losing a bit of strength until Sophie showed her the paper on her hands. Then her smile recovered and after a question, she got the same explanation about where she had seen her name “Oh… is that the only one you saw?”

“No, I also saw 4M-EL14 which I read as ‘Amelia’ and was the name of a prettier star, but as a name I like Sophie best”

[Good to know]

At that information Alexis looked at a specific side of the library, before looking at the tallest one in the place

“Y-you like space then…?”

“No…” the short girl’s shoulder dropped at that answer, but… “It’s scary!” the terrifying memory after they left the local star behind, and into the void

, replayed in Sophie’s mind, making her shiver before she managed to shook her head, making the three of them worry… “Pretty, but scary…” she got another full body shiver, trying to remember how the planet looked from space, in order to calm down

“How do you know all that…?” before Lily glared at her… a hint of fear shimmering behind her eyes

“Because I was supposed to work there…” she met her eyes before looking at Selene “The AM part of how I was called, means ‘Asteroid miner…’ I don’t know about the rest, but of that, I’m… sure…?”

All of them looked at her like she just transformed by accident but, a not so subtle, finger-combing of her hair confirmed that her horns were hidden and the skin of her hands was still pale. None of the brunettes noticed it anyway, they were too busy moving their stares at Lily, who was covering her mouth with a hand, as her eyes were filled with fear…

Sophie could only determinate that…

‘I’m making them suffer… again…’ and looked away, not really feeling like talking anymore…

Lily groaned and closed her eyes

“I’ll tell mom…” before rubbing them, sounding very tired

“Please do…” Selene got closer to Sophie “Can you tell me how you learned that?”

The girl just looked away, already believing that she should just pretend that her past got forgotten or…

“Is that a terminal…?” but she noticed a familiar looking device, none of the girls stopped her when she moved to one of the fat screens on top of a long desk near a wall, they just followed her. Sophie didn’t confused it with a TV, because it had a keyboard just in front of it, and a small thing with a cable and two buttons next to the keyboard

A small push on the unknown thing made the dark screen come to life, revealing the image of a forest. It was too crowded with trees and other plants, to be the forest near them, and while she found it pretty…

“It is a terminal!” she was more happy about that, even if she didn’t knew what the icons on the screen meant “I found the information about stars in a terminal…” they looked confused…

‘That… wasn't a normal thing to say…?’ making her worry, again

“Computers, we call these things computers” Lily said rubbing her forehead and meeting Selene’s eyes

The woman just smiled looking a bit tired, as her shoulders dropped a bit, but before she could say something, the oldest person in the library walked to the them, using a cane to steady herself, and gave a slip of paper to Alexis

“Here is the location of the book… you might need a ladder” the white haired woman looked at Sophie for a moment “Or ask your friend” and said that before walking back to the counter where she was before

“Thanks!” Alexis said just as she started to move. Reading what the paper said, made her shoulders slump “C-can you help me…?” blushing as she looked at Sophie, some embarrassment plain in her face

“Yes…!”

“Then~” Selene said looking at the blonde “Can you help me with a small thing? I need to wait for the copies”

Lily hesitated for a moment while looking between Alexis and Sophie, but she nodded and the short girl guided the succubus along the building

Sophie took the time to compare the place to the Ark, soon seeing that there was little point in doing that. The library was an open area with many bookshelves taller than her, but she could easily reach the tallest shelve in them. It also had a mezzanine acting as a second floor, it didn’t had as many bookshelves, but it had more comfortable couches than the tables on the first floor

They remained in the first floor, following the instructions to a place under the mezzanine that seemed to be a hidden area… until Sophie noticed a camera

‘Not a good place to kiss, or to touch-?!’ luckily she noticed the direction her mind was going, and shook her head to go back at following the girl… that she wanted to get naked and wet-

“W-what are we looking for…?” she tried to distract herself from that mental image, in any way that she could “Magic?” aware that her voice was nervous, and her heart felt a bit warm…

Specially when the cute girl near to her, pouted cutely at her, before blushing and looking away

“Y-yes… it’s a book that is referenced in the one I had with me the other day” to Sophie, she looked ready to speak about magic for hours… but something was holding her back “Y-you… might call it silly, but I… r-really like the topic…”

“Why would I call it that? I like it too…! Mostly…” she got a curious, and hopeful, look from the girl, her eyes widening a bit “I don’t like the drawbacks…” making her explain herself to the cutie she wanted to lock lips wi-

“Which ones…?!” who suddenly had a laser-like focus in her eyes

“Like…” part of her wondered why Amelia wasn't saying anything… “Using a spell with too little mana eats your memories”

Alexis flinched, her mouth opening in a gasp that sounded far too loud while inside the quiet place

“First time I heard of that…!” seeing her expression full of awe, made Sophie felt good about saying that warning to her

‘If I live long enough, that will turn into the truth, right?’

[Yes. Can you ask about the book she had when you two met?]

She was about to do that, but saw how Alexis started to look inside her backpack, just to stop with a groan, and decided to let the girl talk

“I left my book back at home…”

“It’s not a library book?” Sophie asked, and with just a glance Alexis could see that she really meant what she said

“N-no… I found it years ago while walking on the forest, I reported it to the police and left a note with my number in the place where I found it, but no one ever called about it, so…” she looked so confused about that “I just don’t know why someone would left it there, it’s such a wealth of knowledge that…” Alexis looked lost for a moment looking at the bookshelves and the paper on her hands

Hearing that word, gave her an idea of why Amelia wanted to know about the book

“Can I read it?” and Sophie got a flash of lustful inspiration, copying Selene’s gesture from before: hands under her chin while her forearms squeezed her breasts, pushing them a bit forwards towards the girl “Please~♥?” unable to kept her words lust-free

Lust that the girl returned many times over as her eyes focused on her twins while her whole face, ears and neck turned crimson

“Y-y-y-y-y-y-yes…!” until she managed to answer a bit too loud, making her cover her face with both hands and muffling an embarrassed groan

It took her a few minutes to recover…

‘Show me more~♥’ and Sophie loved every second the girl was lusting for her, licking her lips at the sweet taste Alexis’ lust was giving her

[Your smile is a bit too wide] even with Amelia making sure she didn’t pressed her too much at that moment

‘Soon~’ but she definitively was going to repeat that in the future

/////

The book Alexis was looking for, was indeed on top of a bookshelf, not out of Sophie’s reach, but that side of the library had no ladders nearby. Meaning that the brunette was very grateful to her

She still was blushing up a storm, but that didn’t stopped Alexis from talking about the contents that were supposed to be inside that book. Mostly about dreams, and how those interacted with the world

When they got back to the other two, Lily looked (Glared) at Sophie with confusion caused by Alexis’ blush, but smiled faintly once they were close enough to hear the magic related things she was telling the taller girl

“Sophie~” but Selene pulled their attention to her, waving a folder with a lot of papers in them “Come here to show you how these computers work” just as Lily had suggested in the time they had been by themselves

Alexis looked a bit disheartened by that

“Alexis, you are better than me with computers…” Lily noticed, and aiming a glare away from them, she said that “Please…?”

The smaller girl looked at her friend with an odd expression on her face, but she nodded and soon she was explaining things to the succubus

Because it was a public available thing, it had many functions and programs disabled or limited (Like access to the Net), but Sophie picked up the knowledge of how to use it, fast enough… even if she had troubles adjusting to the ‘Mouse’ and preferred to just use the keyboard, much to the other’s surprise. Alexis had just finished telling her about how to be safe on the Net, when one of the files on the library’s database that she had been looking through, caught her attention

-Programming in Tarmac, by blackwing226-

“What’s that?” it only had twenty-two pages but it had over four thousand positive votes

“Tarmac is…” Alexis frowned at her side while looking at the screen “Something related to phones…?” she pulled her own phone form a pocket in her skirt, and after a few seconds she got her answer “Yes, you use it to make programs to use in phones”

It, like many other files, had a ‘Print’ button next to it

“Can I have it?” so, Sophie asked to Selene, who had been listening to the ‘Class’ with interest, while pointing at the button

“Sure?” she hummed “But you don’t have a phone yet…”

Lily cleared her throat at that moment, making everyone look at her

“Mom said…” getting a bit flustered while looking away from them “That after what happened in the police station… she might get one of those for Sophie as part of the compensation for the stress”

“Oh… but…” Sophie was a bit… torn by that, the idea that she was being a bother, reflecting in her expression and voice

“Mom isn't the one that will buy it!” and the blonde noticed, getting shushed by the librarians at her sudden volume “Sorry!” even if there wasn't anyone else there at that moment “What I meant. Is that as punishment, the money should be used on the victims of-”

“V-victims?!”

Alexis’ shout was shushed too, making her apologize, but quickly looked between the three women nearby

“Sorry…” Lily covered her face with her hand and a sigh “Poor choice of words…” Selene hummed before she talked next

“Basically: a policeman got crazy angry, then Sophie punched him in the crotch” the eyes of the girls widened at that detail… “Then he tried to pull out his gun while he was getting arrested…” but not as much as that detail made them gasp “Oh, he also was a racist towards his boss too”

The gasps made the librarians look at them, but in the following silence they returned to what they were doing behind their desk

“Mom didn’t told me any of that…” Lily looked concerned, glancing at the silent Sophie, who was looking between them in confusion, due to the alien idea of her being compensated for something

“And Calypso never told me anything from an active case, while we were roommates” Selene offered with a shrug

Lily opened her mouth to said something, but after a moment she closed her mouth with a huff and a nod, whispering that what she said made sense for lawyers…

After a moment of looking at her mumbling, Selene looked back at the screen and returned to the topic, telling Sophie to press the button, and she quickly went to the librarians once the computer told them to do that

Leaving the teens to stay there, unable to continue their explanations because the system became frozen until any printing was over. The screen only said that this was happening was due to ‘Previously unforeseen circumstances causing an incident before’

“No more classes then?” the silence wasn't too bad, but the fact that they didn’t had anything to do pushed Sophie to speak, hoping that she wasn't going to hurt the girls this time…

“Only because we are third years…” the blond looked at the succubus as she tilted her head in confusion, and sighed “Right… small children just have classes until the beginning/middle of autumn, after they get a bit older they do have classes almost until winter, up to the time they become third years. On our last year, we only need to keep going until winter if we are going to a university and need the time for extra classes, or to do that optional year-long project…” she shivered when mentioning that thing

“But we aren't going to study a career that requires going to a university, so we are going to a learning home, and the requirements for one are not as heavy” Alexis finished the explanation “I’m going to learn about cooking and computers” smiling with that last bit

“Writing and cooking…” Lily suddenly glared at Sophie “Ah… that’s why you are here, right?” making her friend get confused

It took Sophie a moment to understand what she meant, remembering the conversation with Selene the previous day. The conversation had been displaced by her trip to the Astral Layer

“Ah. Maybe…? Selene said that it might be good for me to go to…”

““New Horn?”” both of them said during her confusion

“Yes!” making her smile “Maybe I should learn about terminals and cooking too?”

“Computers…” Lily grumbled

“Sorry~” Sophie winked at the blonde, making both humans blush a bit “W-why do you need to learn about writing? You already wrote my name?” suddenly becoming very aware of the lust that came from both of them, echoing with her own…

But her latest question made both of them flinch in confusion, dispelling that feeling

“Writing stories…” Sophie just smiled in confusion again, making Lily groan “I want to write books, so, I need to learn…” seeing that the beauty still didn’t understood what she was talking about, she and Alexis looked at each other with… absolutely no idea of what to do…

“Ah!” until Alexis realized something “What books have you read?!” once Sophie answered with only the biology book, the brunette nodded “Be right back!”

And moved fast to the deeps of the library…

“What happened?” for enough time to let Selene come back with a small stack of papers, and for her to get an explanation about Sophie not knowing what was involved in writing books

“Found them!” until Alexis came back carrying three fairly big books with an exited expression on her face

“Oh~” making Lily smile in appreciation of the choice of fantasy books

/////

Oddly, Sophie wasn't able to make a library card at the time with the temporal papers she had, because the system needed an ID number, so, once they were leaving, it was Selene the one that had to make one of those to take the suggested books home, keeping them there for a while until they were able to go outside

““Thanks~”” still, both her and Sophie were very grateful to the two girls for being there “Sorry for keeping you two here during lunch”

Sophie started to get guilty at that idea

“We were the ones that choose to stay” but Lily noticed and shut down that with a glare before looking away

“Tell me what you think of the books later!” Alexis said

“You don’t have to read all of them today…” with Lily adding afterwards, a sigh escaped her lips while Alexis blushed cutely and pressed her fingertips together, nearly making the succubus carry her home-

“S-still~ I have to return them soon, right?” she barely restrained that desire…

“I’m the one that technically has to do that~ but I can ask for extra time if you need it…” Selene giggled while looking at the three of them, but Sophie wasn't sure of the why… “How about you two come to visit tomorrow~? That way you can see baby Anastasia too” but she became hopeful while looking at the two girls

Alexis’ shoulders dropped immediately, and Lily frowned soon enough. Making her hope last very little time…

“I can on Judgment afternoon…?” the blonde looked at her friend with a question in her eyes

“I can’t… until Fortune” she sighed “I’m going to help in the farms with my mom…” and looked extremely tired at the mere idea of what she was going to do, while Selene nodded in understanding

“Do you need help?” and Sophie jumped at the opportunity

But the cutie just blushed and giggled nervously, leaving Selene as the one to explain while Lily shook her head

“It’s a local part-time job, they call the people living here in the middle of the summer, to see who is going to be able to help. So they already have the list of the people who said yes, and of those to call as backup”

Sophie didn’t had much time to be disappointed, her stomach growled making her blush, and soon all of them were saying their goodbyes and walking in two directions

/////

With the two girls talking about Sophie as they went

“What kind of perfume do you think she uses…?” the blushing Alexis asked, making Lily shiver a little, at the memory of the provocative sweet smell… and surprised that the slightly older girl was talking about that

“N-no idea…” hoping that the way her body reacted to the smell wasn't too obvious… “I won’t be surprised if she says that…” what she was about to say made her bit her lip for a moment “Forget it… a human can’t just smell like that…”

“But why wouldn't Selene use the same one…?” unaware that her friend was having similar lower issues…

Nor being capable of thinking clearly on a logical answer to that question

That damned wink, and the warm look she got afterwards, kept repeating in the back of her mind, making her wish that she had a change of clothes with her, to take a cold shower in Alexis house, before going back home…

‘Ugh…’ needing to wait while her body was… like that… felt incredibly frustrating…

/////

While the succubus sighed after walking in silence for a few meters

“You like them~” barely noticing the tone Selene’s voice had

“Yes…?” and her answer made the woman giggle

“I didn’t meant it in a ‘They are good friends’ way. I was talking of you wanting to kiss both of them~”

Sophie blushed, holding the books a bit tighter to her chest while looking away…

“Am I that obvious…?” but seeing little point in denying that, or, in admitting that she wanted to do more than just kissing

“No~ I was just looking for that kind of thing~ we might need to get you some perfume too~” she giggled a bit before taking a deep breath, becoming serious about the topic “It’s… uncommon to be on a relationship with more than one person at the same time… and I do mean one where everyone involved, is aware of everyone else in the relationship, either accepting their shared relationship, or, having feelings for some, or all, the others too. Doing that behind someone’s back is considered cheating in your partner”

The seriousness in her tone made her nod to show that she understood what Selene was saying. She also took a moment to imagine both Alexis and Lily kissing each other, and she liked the idea

‘Awawawa!!!’ she liked it a lot…

“H-how… how do I… get in a relationship with four others…?” but she wanted more

And the startled laugh of the woman made her smile for a moment

“K and…?!” before her eyes widened “Oh…” and stopped walking

Sophie also stopped, confused by how… sad, Selene looked while covering her mouth

“By the Twenty-Two… that’s… difficult” she took a deep breath, frowning with uncertainty “You…” before shaking her head and resuming with their walk home “Before you listen to me, you need to know that the only serious relationship I had, and by which I mean: that I really saw as a possible, long lasting relationship. Failed pretty much due to my fault, so I’m not the best with this kind of things…”

“How…?” that information shocked her, she already had the woman as a role model in her mind, and the idea of her not being good at relationships was… honestly, ridiculous…

“A… critical failure with communication…” the pain at the memory became very obvious “It happened during a painful moment in my life, but instead of… talking. I just…” she looked away, biting her lip “It still hurts, so…” she shook her head again, before looking at her eyes “First, be kind and respectful and be sure to talk about things. You must get to know them and show how you truly are, finding interests in common helps with that. If you are afraid of initiating, then you might want try hinting that you like girls… but very often that’s just received as being friendly…”

Her sigh was a torturous one…

“Don't ask…” and quickly said that before continuing “So you might want to be direct at times. Dating is complicated so don’t be afraid of asking any of us for advice when planning dates…” Selene realized that Sophie’s expression meant that she had no idea what she meant by ‘Dates’ “We are going to watch a few movies once we are back… but most of those are about what to not do… still, there might be some… then again, there are very few with only girls involved…” she whispered that last bit before looking up…

Another head shake, followed by a sigh, made both stop

“Is this how being a mom feels…?” Selene whined “I had no time to prepare for this!”

“S-sorry…?” part of her couldn’t help but feel happy at the idea of Selene acting like she was her daughter, but the rest of her was worried by how agitated she was getting

“Don't be!” she groaned

Amelia asked a question at that moment

“Second…?” so Sophie directed that question to Selene, who looked confused “You said ‘First’ so…”

“Oh! Sorry, no. Those were different advise each…” her shoulders dropped “All jumbled together… ugh” she resumed walking with Sophie following her “I can’t do this alone, let’s eat and then I’ll have all of us get involved with this”

She nodded, trying to think about why Selene became like that…

“What do you mean by the twenty-two?” and trying to think of ways to distract her… but judging by the alarmed stared that she received, that might have been the wrong topic to do that

“You don’t know about religion…? The Twenty-Two gods…?” after she shook her head Selene just blinked “W-well… that’s odd coming from Barus… then again, I’m not particularly devout… hmm…” after a moment of silence the succubus got a brief summary about the religions of the world

/////

“There are no deities in this world, other than the Primal Soul. Still, I don’t suggest that you reveal this information to the people of the world, some humans become very sensitive about that topic. Even after our Creator killed their gods in front of them, for the crimes those deities committed”

And Selene’s summary had helped Amelia to understand what had happened with the Astral Layer, while adding an… odd… anecdote of the past

“The fact that there are this many active religions in this magic-less world, plus its developed Astral Layer, gives me the next hypothesis: the Primal Soul is funneling the energies produced by the faith of the humans, into the Astral Layer”

“Is that… a bad thing?” the rest of the day with her family had been a fun one, the movies that Antonia had picked were more on the fun side, than being informative ones (She still got a few examples about what to not do), mostly because those movies ended soon after the first kiss of the couple and didn’t show much about the actual dating part, often skipping to a ‘Marriage ceremony’ “And why pour it there…?” whatever that meant…

But her family (After being confused by her request to see their rooms, which they let her do) made sure to give her plenty of examples, much to Selene’s obvious relief

“It’s not a bad thing, nor it can damage the world or the people. Some magic-less worlds have their Primal Souls taking those energies upon themselves to accomplish their objectives, while others use that faith to create one, or two, deities to do them” Theresa hadn't mentioned the sperm donor, but she had many experiences with both genders, and many friends that share those stories with her “Regrettably, at this point in time I’m unable to determinate why this is happening. Very few things in the available information of the Ark, are close to the circumstances here”

Antonia was similar, but her experiences were fewer, and mostly limited to nurses and doctors she had worked with, including things she had seen them do (Scandalous things, according to her). During the conversation the reason she was currently in leave was said: because she was actively trying to have a baby… she had been unsuccessful so far, but she hadn't lost faith in her attempts

“Ah… by the way, what are those objectives…?” Polly was (Unsurprisingly) only interested in women, but she hadn't meet ‘The one’ so her advise would have been completely sexual in nature, and while tempting, everyone else had said that she could ask for advise with that, after her first time

And that the biology book she had, already gave very good advise, so she should enjoy her first time when it happened naturally, without trying to rush it’s arrival

“Keeping the planet habitable, and to ensure that life last for as long as possible”

“Oh…” with the topic about dating done for the moment, she had managed to read five chapters of the first book in the saga after dinner, before Amelia suggested to train and reminded her that Selene said to not be awake reading until too late

Sophie looked at the new, nearly empty, bookshelf near her Palace. To her surprise, the moment they were alone in the studio, Amelia had suggested devouring the stack of paper, in order to add that programming knowledge to the Ark. She hadn't suggested something like that before, because the other books belonged to others and even if the biology book might not be needed by Lily anymore, she didn’t wanted to create a possible problem in the future by its destruction

Still, the book was mostly in said bookshelf next to the Tarmac information. Sophie had read it for long enough, for Amelia to copy it the slow way

“Training then?” the stack of papers had turned into dust and sucked into the Ark, the moment she removed the bandage, barely remembering to wrap it again after the shock went away

“If you are ready, I would like to start with the creation of structures inside your Palace” Sophie nodded at Amelia and she started the explanation “Now that your Palace exists and it’s complete, you can fully differentiate it from its counterpart. Creating structures is one of the ways of doing this with the use of magic, the process is very similar to what you did while linking your Palace to your inner sea, just, instead of making a route along the place, you will focus your intent and mix it with memories related to it”

“Plus my mana…?”

Amelia nodded pointing at the whiteboard that slid close to them, before spinning to the empty backside

“You must use your mana during the whole visualization as you go along the process, while making sure to not run out of mana, so, today we are going to start with something simple” three boxes were drawn one above the other and a circle around all of them “A time measuring structure, is your objective” she pointed to the circle “And its components are going to be, focused memories of where you used one, or, where one of these was useful, or, times were you weren't on time to do something” the three boxes connected to become a rectangle, the rectangle and the circle then shrunk until it became a dot

“That’s all…?” so far it sounded… its own brand of complicated, when compared to a route

“You also need to place it in an appropriate location” she gestured to the window of the studio “The place where you sleep sounds like an appropriate place”

Sophie then looked at the dot and after asking to her, Amelia returned it to be the boxes with the circle again

“I see… more or less what I need to do… but why a clock?” then she looked back at the brunette “Why not something that helps with… memory or…” she shrugged and gasped before pointing at the Palace “Another thing that exercises my mana?”

“I want you to make those too” Amelia nodded and gestured to the drawing “This just feels easier to accomplish for a first attempt considering how much mana you have, and taking into account what you have told me about your previous world” Sophie frowned… “I’m assuming that they used time against you, so you must have this kind of memories readily available-”

Amelia suddenly stopped while looking at Sophie

“Yes… they did…” she was angry “Please, don’t call that place ‘My’ world…” but not at the interface, the succubus was finally understanding why that idea, made her insides twist “That place just used me for as long as it could, ready to get rid of me since the moment I was created…” she tried to let go of that hatred, of that pain… “I never belonged there…”

But knowing that they were going to become a threat to her home…

“Understood, I shall name that place as ‘Extraction Point’ from now on”

“Nah…” Sophie snorted, managing to distract herself with that “Sound too good for that place… ‘Wasteland’?” Amelia blinked at the suggestion

“Considering the appearance of where we met, that name is fitting” she gestured to the whiteboard “You were going to do something with the drawing?”

“I just wanted to see the split boxes to think better…” she chuckled a bit and focused in the first one for just a moment “Wait, here, or, inside?” she pointed at her Palace

“Either works”

With that done, she went back to focusing in the first box taking deep breaths. Sophie remembered the constant existence of the clock in her upgrades, always there on a corner of her vision, always present no matter what she was doing, unable to be disabled or hidden even with her hacking. The only moment that she was able to fully ignore it was the day her body died… in fact, since the moment her EMP trap activated, if her memories were correct

She joined her hands in front of her, willing her mana and those memories to be between them, as she thought about the Basic functions she wanted the clock to have, it also needed to be Simple, nothing more than Timekeeping, Alarms, Timers, and Reminders. Closing her eyes at a minuscule headache that was starting to form, she got inspired and made the first part be just like the drawing: a box, but hers was missing a side

“Well done” now there was a table in front of her “Place it on top, but you must remain connected to it as you go”

Doing just that, and seeing a small and fragile tendril connect the box to her hand, Sophie’s focus, as her hands joined together again, was in the components that were going to be inside the box

She choose a memory of the time she worked doing deliveries, like Amelia said, the Asshole that gave her orders believed himself to be a Shithead, and always used time against all of them, but she had a trick: the elevators required that she connected to them in order to take her credits away, she could easily enter them, remove a panel from the ceiling and climb the shaft while carrying her cargo, there were no problems with it, as long as she remembered to replace the panel on the way out

Climbing was faster than taking the stairs, in every floor in nearly all buildings, there was a sensor that gave a warning to everyone that didn’t belonged to that floor. She needed to close from three, to five, screens at a time inside her mind, while specifying what floor was her objective in each of them, without moving. If anyone dared to ignore those, then the police was given the opportunity to hunt them…

And those warnings appeared every single floor…

But with the time her trick helped to save, she could rest from running, and climbing, everywhere, and wait to finish the delivery with around thirty seconds remaining… just to have another delivery be assigned to her, and since none of them could carry more than one item at the time, she had to run back to the central for the item, before running back to deliver it (Very often to the exact same building she was before)

That memory mixed with many others from that, and other jobs, until she quit those after getting access to a terminal in each and adding to those, a backdoor for her hacking. On her hands now she had many circuits, cables and power sources, which she connected and placed carefully inside the box

“Almost there” Amelia encouraged her, and she closed her eyes for the next memory…

It was one filled with restlessness, and need, of loading screens that slowly ticked forward, of timers for a download to finish, of the amount of time that she had, before having to leave a place to not raise suspicions, of how far away a prison was from her current location. Of how much time she had to escape…

Amelia didn’t said anything once the silver plate, of the same size of the missing side of the box, was on her hands, it had many small screens and quite a lot of buttons. It was easy to connect to a few of components and it clicked in place once she shut it

“Remember that these structures can be remade if needed, none are indestructible. Now, place it in the most fitting place of your Palace”

Sophie nodded, and carried the surprisingly heavy box inside, where the weight increased and…

‘Uh…?’ for a moment, that metal door felt warm… but leaning against it dispelled that sensation… ‘What…?’ leaving her confused, but she quickly shook her head and kept moving, until she was up the stairs, soon entering the mess that was her room and stopped…

“Next to my bed…?” something made sense about that, and she placed it on the floor

SLAM!!!

“Ah?!”

The clock forcibly slipped from her fingers and slammed hard against the wood, with a sudden increase in weight, and all the screens turning on at that moment…

With one starting to count the seconds that passed…

“Good…?” she focused on that screen and saw that it said Ark next to it. Another one said World, but that one remained showing zeros, she almost started to make alarms and timers… but she decided to just go back to Amelia for the moment, and ask about the weight of the structure

“It’s due to your memories, negative ones weight more heavily in the mind often eclipsing good ones, specially when active” what she said made sense… “Which is why I reminded you about the structures being replaceable” but she couldn’t help but feel momentarily annoyed by it

“All right, what should I make next?”

Amelia gestured to the whiteboard again, erasing the drawing and replacing it with a list of things. Sophie noticed one called ‘Memory Booster’ but Amelia started talking

“These are the structures that I believe are going to be useful, but since you used about half your mana for your first one, let’s practice something called Lucid Dreaming for the rest of out time today. This is something that should help to explore, and use, the Astral Layer to-”

She interrupted herself with a blink

“Someone is leaving the house”

“What?!” making Sophie worry immediately

“Someone arrived to the front of the house a few minutes ago. These events may be related?”

“Wake me up!”

It was quite late when she started her training, and the process of making the structure took a lot of time, in which the time of the Ark was moving at the same speed than the outside’s

Since it was the first occasion this happened, she never thought about she overreacting about a minor thing… specially due to her memories of policemen raiding people in the middle of the night…

“Ugh…!” she could only groan and blink the sleep out of her eyes as she stood up from the mattress and slowly moved to a window, trying to ignore the headache that followed her outside the Ark, as she peeked from behind the curtain. Blinking quickly to focus on the man that was waiting outside with an annoyed expression on his face

And on Theresa wearing a coat over her pajamas glaring at him with crossed arms, carrying a plastic thing on one hand

“Oh crap” she was alone

Feeling a rock dropping in her stomach she walked as fast as she could while being silent and entered Theresa’s room without making a sound

“Mmm…” and finding little Anastasia starting to wiggle in her crib, not afraid, or hungry, yet, just confused

“Hi sweetie~” Sophie whispered and got Anastasia’s focus on her

“Uhh!” demanding to be carried

“Sure~ let’s go see what mommy is doing~” she softly carried her, easily making sure to hold her head like Theresa and Antonia had drilled into her mind, and gave her soft pats on the back while walking back to the studio and to the window…

Sophie sighed once she peeked and saw both of them gesturing aggressively at each other… they maintained a quiet volume, but the wrath coming from both of them was obvious at that distance… even without being a succubus…

And the wounded pride coming out of him, made very easy to hate him instantly…

‘Ugh… this is the donor…’ she didn’t felt the need for a confirmation…

[There might be a way of creating a spell, that allows confirming that kind of things]

‘Or I can ask her~’ she chuckled at that thought, making faces and little noises to keep Anastasia smiling and giggling in her arms

Feeling happy with every little sound she was making, at how the little girl was practicing with moving her body-

“Eh…” but she pouted “Ehh!”

“Aww~ what happened-?” a shiver ran through her spine… at her next whimper “Oh…”

Anastasia got hungry… and her mom was too busy, and angry, with whisper-shouting at the idiot in front of her…

“Oh…!” and the baby was rubbing her face against the boobs in front of her…