I sat in my dorm room, staring down at my tokens which were all spread out on desk in front of me. My laptop was currently playing an old episode of Battlestar Galactica in the background, but I barely paid attention to it as I was lost in my thoughts.

About half of my tokens were rocks, ones which I’d started polishing to make them look nicer. However, I had begun moving away from rocks as my preferred form of token and was instead focusing more on tokens I could carry with me more easily.

The bracelet with plastic beads that I’d used to beat Kaellie in the duel had been quite useful, even if it was ugly. I’d begun using that one as an ankle bracelet that no one would be able to see, but which would keep some useful tokens on me in case of an emergency. For the most part, I had each bead filled with spells that might help me escape if Gregor’s people should catch me again. I figured that if I was captured and they searched me for tokens, they wouldn’t think to check for a store of them hidden around my ankle.

I had a second bracelet made of bead tokens as well, one that I’d put together myself. Each bead was a cream colored ceramic piece that actually looked pretty nice. As a result, it looked like a pretty decent piece of jewelry but it contained a dozen spells.

Unfortunately, any time I activated one of the tokens in it, the bead would crumble and vanish, but that was why I’d bought a bunch of spare beads. I could replace the used ones with new tokens. Or as I was considering, I could even make a second one for my other wrist.

I felt rather proud as I ran my hands over the bead bracelet, but not nearly as proud as when I looked at the pendant necklace. I was a very nice looking pendant with silver wire wrapped around a green crystal. It was also a reusable token that I’d actually made last night.

Aunt June had a lot of experience with flashy magics, but as I’d recently learned, her real specialty was in making reusable tokens. Most sorcerers knew how to make reusable tokens but weren’t very good at it. The ones that they made had to be large and bulky in order to withstand the process. When I’d talked to Amylia about it, she’d reluctantly admitted that aunt June was even better at making reusable tokens than she was, and was able to make them smaller and more compact than most sorcerers.

Aunt June had spent the last few days teaching me how to make reusable tokens, something that they normally didn’t teach at the Academy until your second year. And with her help and guidance, I was able to make the pendant, the first reusable token I’ve ever made.

“I can’t believe I did it,” I said, grinning proudly as I picked up the necklace and put it on around my neck. It currently contained a copy of the clothing conjuring spell. I’d replaced the spell in Vera with one that would be a little more useful for actually fighting.

“Most sorcerers can’t make reusable tokens that are smaller than a bulky medallion,” aunt June had told me proudly. “The fact that you were able to make a pendant of this size…even with my help…is a VERY good sign.”

I was still grinning as I picked up my new ceramic bead bracelet and put it around my wrist. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to turn that into reusable tokens. Aunt June had said that I could turn the entire bracelet into a reusable token that could hold a single spell, much the way she did with Vera, but that I couldn’t do this with the individual beads because they were too small for even her skills.

“I guess I’ll just have to make do with having a small arsenal of normal tokens,” I mused to myself.

Once I had the bracelets around my wrist and ankle, as well as the pouch of stones at my waist, I stood up and looked myself over. I was currently in my enhanced form and was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a Dalek on the front…a villain from the Doctor Who series.

Then I hesitated a moment before sitting back down and putting on just a little makeup. Eve, Sylvie, and Kimberly had been teaching me how to use the stuff and I’d been practicing on my own. I was trying to get into the habit of using it a bit more often. After all, I was a girl now and I wanted to look my best.

“Maybe I should wear something nicer,” I mused uncertainly, glancing down at my shirt. Then I shook my head. “I’m only going to see aunt June…not Todd.”

When I was finished making sure that my makeup looked decent without being too heavy, I reached out and picked up one of the tokens that was still sitting on my desk. This polished stone contained a spell that nearly every sorceress at the Academy had a copy of. Some of them even made extra money by casting it on some of the girls who weren’t sorceresses. Technically, it was a curse, but it was so useful that no one thought of it as such.

I took a deep breath and said, “Engage.”

The stone crumbled in my hand and I felt a faint tingling for a few seconds, but that was it. All this spell did was make it so that I couldn’t get pregnant for the next month. Of course, I was still having my period, but not for much longer. And I’d been thinking more and more about losing my virginity as a human, especially since I’d enjoyed sex so much as a succubus. If I ever actually got up the nerve with Todd, I wanted to at least be ready.

A minute later, I left my room to go meet aunt June at the hall of doors. I had a bit of practice with her, and then afterwards, I’d be doing some more of the homework that Amylia had assigned.

I had been busy helping Amylia with her project, yet I still had no real idea of what it did. So far, all I’d been doing was helping form rituals to build up extra magic for her, which was a real pain. I’d spend several hours building the ritual and storing up energy, only to get a faction of that energy back when it was time to use it. It was like putting a dollar into a piggy bank and only getting a quarter out when you opened it. It was no wonder that most people didn’t bother too much with rituals.

Working with Amylia had been a bit frustrating, but it was very rewarding as well. It was nice that she trusted me to help with this and I was learning a lot of new things. Every day, Amylia gave me more homework and things to study, making it almost feel as though I now had a second sponsor.

I was just leaving the dorms when I heard Monica call out, “Hey Erin…” I paused and turned to see her coming towards me with a grim look on her face.

“Hey,” I greeted her, feeling just a little awkward. After all, she was still friends with Teressa and Kaellie.

“I just thought you should know,” Monica told me, looking a little self-conscious as well. “Teressa is planning something for the costume party tomorrow night. I’m not sure what, but I know she plans to try embarrassing you…”

I blinked in surprise at that. Then I nodded and said, “Thanks for the warning.”

“You didn’t hear it from me,” Monica said with a faint smile before leaving.

I stared after Monica for a moment and then shook my head. I still couldn’t figure out if she was on my side or Teressa’s. But then again, I was beginning to suspect that Monica wasn’t even sure of that herself anymore

A short time later, aunt June and I were in the study, going over one of the spells she wanted to teach me. Over the last few days, we’d been working on the reusable tokens so much that we hadn’t really been able to work on any of the other spells she’d wanted to teach me.

“This is a great one to escape with,” aunt June told me with a proud gleam in her eyes. With that, she held up one of her business card tokens and said, “Abra kadabra.”

There was a burst of smoke and aunt June was completely gone. I gasped in surprise, though I had seen her do that trick on stage during her performances before. A couple seconds later, she just reappeared on the other side of the room.

“Technically, this was two smaller spells that I combined together,” aunt June explained. “A smoke spell and an extremely short term invisibility spell. When you are able to combine the patterns of two spells and merge the effects, you can get some pretty interesting uses.”

I just nodded at that as I absently tugged on my bra strap. “Sorry, I’m having a hard time focusing right now,” I apologized to aunt June. “I’m just kind of uncomfortable.”

“I would have thought you’d have gotten used to wearing bras by now,” she said with a look of faint amusement.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I kind of have. I don’t really think about it much anymore but lately they’ve been feeling too tight. I think they’re getting shrunk in the wash.”

Aunt June gave me a look of greater amusement and asked, “Is that only in your current form or in your other one.”

“I don’t really wear a bra in succubus form,” I responded, knowing that she meant my normal form. Then I told her, “Yeah… They’re getting tight in my normal form too.”

“You’re a teenage girl,” aunt June pointed out with a chuckle. “You’re still developing…”

“Oh,” I responded in realization, feeling embarrassed at having missed the obvious on my own.

“You still have a few years of growing left to do,” aunt June reminded me with a grin.

“More growing?” I gasped, looking down at myself. I certainly wouldn’t mind developing a bit more in my normal form, but my enhanced form was already pretty well developed.

“You know that I did some magical examinations on you,” aunt June said carefully. I nodded at that, remembering that she’d put me through a lot of different tests to determine just how much I’d changed and how likely I was to turn back into a boy. “Well, she said carefully, “those examinations gave me a pretty good idea of how much you still had to develop. I just didn’t want to scare you any more than you already were…”

“What do you mean?” I asked nervously.

“Well,” aunt June said carefully. “It’s a good thing that your current form has grown on you so much, because within a couple years, your normal form will look like this one.”

I blinked that, actually feeling excited by the idea. “Really?”

Aunt June nodded at that. “And your current form,” she continued with a faint smirk. “Well, your current form should look a lot more like the human parts of your succubus form.” She held her hands out in front of her chest to show what she meant. I just stared at her with my mouth open.

“You mean I’m gonna look like some kind of stripper?” I blurted out.

“Only in your enhanced form,” aunt June agreed. “And your succubus form, of course. But you’ll have a few years to slowly get used to the idea.”

“Frak,” I muttered, closing my eyes and trying to imagine what it would be like having that kind of figure as a human woman. At least the guys would probably like it.

“Don’t worry,” aunt June assured me. “I’m sure everything will work out fine. After all, you won’t have to use your talent if you don’t want to.”

“I guess,” I said carefully, looking down at myself and sighing. “I guess I’ll need to buy some more clothes soon.”

“That’s the spirit,” aunt June exclaimed with a grin. “We’ll go on a shopping trip in a couple days and see if we can get you some bras that fit a little better.” She hesitated a moment before adding, “Just make sure you keep the ones for your enhanced form, because sooner or later you’ll be able to use them again.”

I nodded at that and responded, “Okay.”

“Good,” aunt June told me with a grin. “Now try to focus. We still have some work to do.”