Creatures of the Umbral Plain [Multiple TFs]

Story by TwoHeadedTigress on SoFurry

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A couple ambitious students look to increase their mana though unconventional means.

Spent about five days on this little project writing on and off, and what do you know, it's what eventually inspired me to write Through Hell. If you like this, definitely go check it out as well.


Woman to Succubus Man to Anthro Dragon Woman to Naga

Sneaking into the summoning chambers was no easy task, which is precisely why the group hadn't even attempted it. Instead of opting to bring a demon into the world the safe and studied way, the three of them had carved out a summoning circle in the sand roughly two miles out from the hidden school.

But that was okay--they knew what they were doing. Hopefully.

Raina was the one who'd spearheaded the idea, dragging the couple out into the cold desert night to help in her misguided little mission. Not that it absolved them of guilt of course; the two of them were out helping her commit a crime of the highest order--and in an unsafe manner at that.

"Okay," Marlin said quietly, going over the notes the three of them had made. "We've triple checked the lines, all good, have the pronunciation of the chant down, created a second safety crash circle that will break the summoning if the main circle does fail, and lined the space in between with iron nails."

"The circle in the summoning chambers has five layers of redundancy," Lana said in an irritated tone.

"Each more complicated than the last," Raina agreed, not looking up from her own copy of the notes. "But we don't have that kind of time, and the iron would probably be enough to discourage it from pressing out if the first circle does break. Easier just to leave the realm."

Lana gave her an incredulous look. "Raina, it's a demon. Don't underestimate their vindictiveness."

Raina looked troubled, the first time since she'd proposed this little project.

"We've added in special causes to the runes for this particular beast," Marlin said, his voice completely neutral. "The people who fuck up these summonings do so because they try to apply a general circle to a breacher, or bring in a necromancer in a forest full of dead things."

"Stupid mistakes," Raina agreed. "And they've never been formally trained."

Marlin gave her a reproachful look. "We aren't done yet," he said quietly. "Don't get cocky."

Raina grew tight lipped again. "You're right. Probably for the best."

The three of them then each put a totem in one of the three small circles in the main summoning ring.

"Well," Lana said quietly, "I suppose it's time we start."

The three students gripped their power, siphoning magic out of the spiritual realm and channeling it into the summoning ring. None of them could put much power forward, in fact the three of them all mustered below average strength. It was their reason for doing this. They needed a deal. They needed a boost, some sort of power to get them back on equal footing with the others.

"Sypherial," Raina said, her voice completely clear. "dlrowrevo eht ni ecneserp ruoy dnamed ew!"

Her pronunciation was perfect, causing the rings to glow and emit a powerful ethereal pulse. Down in the umbral plains, a demon was ripped from his place and sucked into a portal in a none to comfortable way.

Moments later he materialized.

To the three students, it looked like smoke in midair, with a pair of glowing red eyes suspended in the haze. The eyes looked around slowly, taking in their environment, wisps of smoke circling around the summoning ring pressing against the boundary, as though searching for a way out.

Sypherial already knew there wasn't one of course. It was the first thing he did when dropped into the physical realm--emit a powerful yet invisible push against the lines of the summoning circle. The magic held like it was holy steel itself, well crafted enough that the students magical strength was a total non-factor. This was a well crafted summoning ring.

"I'm not used to illegal summonings," a whisper finally said from the smoke. "It's almost...refreshing."

"You are bound to us!" Lana said, her voice shaking slightly from fear. None of the students truly knew if they were safe or not.

The smoke lashed at her, crashing into the barrier and revealing the spherical nature of the invisible boundary the summoning ring had created. Lana flinched at the action, but didn't move her feet, staying firmly within her own portion of the summoning ring.

"Unfortunately," the voice hissed. "So tell me what you want and banish me you fools! Before you make a mistake!"

Marlin cocked his head at that statement. It did suit the notes on Sypherial's personality. He didn't like the physical realm at all, and would rather do a quick job to leave it as quickly as he could. Unlike most demons, his desire to torment was subdued. Sypherial was lazy.

"You will infuse the three totems with the essence of lesser demons," Raina said clearly from her summoning ring. "And upon us taking the totems and siphoning their power, granting us the ability to tap their level of strength."

The eyes looked at her warily. While bound to them, Sypherial was compelled to obey, and there weren't very many loopholes to exploit in that request. She was asking for a simple reverse possession--to make them warlocks. And the process there was incredibly straight forwards, there was only one way for the demon to so this, and no way to screw them over in the process. Or mostly at least. A lesser demon was indeed a formal category, but unbeknownst to the students conducting the summoning, there were different types. They had simply just heard of the incubus and succubus.

The totems started to glow as Sypherial reached into the umbral plains and ripped apart a couple lesser creatures, stripping their essence and bringing it into the overworld. In the middle of this invisible, grizzly process, he spoke to the three young adults in front of him.

"You do realize the cost of this." It wasn't a question, but a confirmation.

Lana spoke and the other two nodded. "The ability to change into the lesser demon's form."

A satisfied hiss came from the smoke. "You've done your research, and you're ambitious to gather power this way." Sypherial paused. "I respect that. You deserve this power."

As the glow of the totems faded the eyes settled on Raina.

"Is the request complete? Answer honestly with only yes or no." Her question was clear and void of any loopholes.

"Yes," Sypherial hissed back.

Her gaze never broke with his. "Then you are to descend back into the umbral plain within the next five seconds." Another command, and no potential for misinterpretation.

The three students felt Sypherials power fade then vanish, disappearing from the overworld as quickly as it came. They all waited for a moment until Marlin nodded to the girls, and they all released their hold on the circle.

"That went..." Lana paused, "perfectly."

Marlin looked at the three totems sitting in the sand. "Let's double check that these work before getting too excited."

Raina stepped forwards and cautiously picked up the totem she'd placed there. It was hot to the touch and brimming with magic.

Letting out a deep breath, she looked at the other two and took the leap. "Alright, I hope this doesn't kill me."

She opened her soul to the power bound in the small metal trinket and drew its magic into her, absorbing the essence of the freshly slaughtered demon. The shock to the system was staggering, something akin to jumping into ice cold water. The energy, aimless and desperate to lock onto something was upon her in an instant, causing her whole body to briefly spasm before immediately regaining control of herself.

Marlin and Lana looked at her warily, waiting for her to say something.

"Well?" Marlin finally asked, his tone demanding and nervous.

Raina took a moment to answer. "It's... definitely there," she finally said. "It's like my magic was a spark before, and now there's also a separate smoldering fire."

Cautiously, she reached inward and grabbed the flame, actively drawing its strength. Upon doing so, Raina felt she could either push that fire into her magic, or out of her spirit and into her body itself, inducing a transformation into the creature she'd gained her power from. The shape changing was the trademark ability of the warlocks after all.

Holding her hand up, Raina cast a simple fire spell, pushing the demonic magic into it. What should have been a candleflame burning a half foot above her hand was instead bright like a torch. Upon seeing this all three of their expressions lit up.

"Oh, it definitely worked," Raina breathed.

Marlin and Lana immediately took their totems as well, drawing the power into them and each suffering that shock to their system, Marlin stumbling and falling over from it.

By the time the two of them had recovered from it, Raina was already drawing lines of light in the air, making the wind swirl around herself and making her totem zip around with expert precision. Things that used to give her trouble were now effortless with this newfound well of power.

"And some of those pricks in our class have this power naturally!" Marlin exclaimed, now making his totem zip around telekinetically as well. The power didn't just grant him brute force, but also gave them control over the smaller things, because it no longer took all their strength, much like a knight could wield a sword with more grace than a child.

"This is actually so unfair," Lana agreed, throwing force strikes down into the empty desert. "No wonder Talon did so well! It's not talent! It's just. Bloody. Luck!" She punctuated each word with a particularly strong force strike into the sand about thirty feet away, kicking it high into the air.

Their faces all lit with delight from the flame and lights Raina had made, the three of them all made eye contact and knew what came next.

"Do you want to know?" Marlin asked quietly.

Lana gave a sigh of resolve. "We need to know. If I go crazy, stop me."

Forcing the demonic magic out of her soul and into her flesh, Lana immediately began to change. The taller girl, lean but not particularly curvy, immediately had a change in body structure. In moments Lana's hips had widened, bum rounded, legs slightly thickened and breasts swelled out. She went from average to completely gorgeous by every standard in a matter of seconds. Marlin, watching his girlfriend transform into a supermodel, audibly gasped.

But it wasn't over.

The changes were quick and gave none of them much time to react, Lana's skin turning bright red, her hair jet black, small horns growing from the top of her head, and a spaded tail snaking out from behind her, totaling about four feet long. Eyes glowing with magic, the young woman-turned-succubus regarded her two friends warily.

"No shift in my mind that I can tell," she said quietly, hoping to set them at ease. "Or trace of the old demon."

Marlin looked at her from head to toe, trying to make up his mind on what he thought of the situation. Even wearing the pain cloths, she was, he could hardly take his eyes off her. The stories didn't do the succubi justice. "Do you have any of their uh...powers?"

Lana didn't move for a moment. The succubi were infamous for sleeping with men and stripping away a portion of their soul, causing them to slowly go insane in the weeks following the encounter.

"I can see the souls inside you now," she said finally. "But to touch them, I'd have to expose my own."

Raina nodded. "Which is why they don't make attempts at mages. Too much risk of retaliation."

Lana held out her hand and tried to cast the flame spell Raina had earlier. Instead of burning like a torch, it was the candle flame the three of them were all too familiar with. She furrowed her brow, momentarily confused.

"All the demons power is in your body currently," Marlin said, seeing her thought process and remembering what he'd read on warlocks a few weeks earlier. "Only it's natural magic will be powerful when you're using its form."

"Well then that's only whatever this is and the soul leaching..."

As Lana spoke she tapped her body's natural magic and cast the spell without really knowing what it would do. Before she was even done the sentence, there were two very different visible reactions from the other two. Raina looked freaked out and panicked, and Marlin looked hypnotized.

"Stop that!" Raina hissed, squeezing her eyes shut and looking away. "Jesus Christ Lana, never do that around me again!"

Scared, Lana released the magic and took a step back. "What happened?"

Marlin, immediately over it once she released the magic had wide eyes and was rubbing his temples. "Lust," he said flatly. "That was just the most turned on I've been in my entire life. I probably still am."

Raina shot Lana a dirty look. "Me too. And I don't swing that way at all. It's weird."

Lana and Marlin made eye contact, unspoken agreement between the two of them for later. But having had enough of it, Lana released the magic and pulled it back into her spirit. Her body reverted as quickly as it had transformed, hair and skin tone normalizing, her frame losing its extreme curves, and the tail pulling itself back up into her body. Standing before them was a completely normal Lana once again.

She glanced to her boyfriend and gave him a knowing smirk. "Okay, let's see how hard an incubus is on my psyche then."

Marlin rolled his eyes but seized the magic none the less, pushing it into his physical self. Just like Lana, the changes started immediately, but they weren't the same. He yelped and released the magic, causing the transformation to freeze, leaving him almost entirely human except for his arms which were covered in bright red scales. Both the girls jumped as well, though more in reaction to him than the changes.

Raina was the first to notice what scared him and immediately made the connection. "I guess it grabbed different kinds of demons for us," she said, taking his arm and examine the scales with the air of a doctor. "I'm willing to bet these are..." she paused, as though nervous to utter the words. "Draconic."

Marlin looked at the scales incredulously. "They can't be. Dragons are major demons."

"Not the dragonborn," Raina said.

Marlin let out a deep breath and pulled his arm from Raina's grip. The dragonborn weren't often mentioned in texts, typically a non-issue for people in the overworld and at mostly a cult symbol. "Guess we may as well see," he sighed, pressing the magic back into him and resuming the transformation.

Raina's guess had been correct. Thick red scales spread across his body almost instantly, his hair pulling into his scalp and an assortment of small horns growing in to replace it. He was fortunate to feel his feet begin the first of many changes to his skeletal structure, and was able to halt the transformation again before they burst out of his leather boots.

Raina looked at him curious. "Is that all?"

Marlin shook his head--still completely human in shape at the moment, though he didn't expect it to remain that way. "No. My feet are starting to press against my boots. I don't want to find out which will break first."

Raina nodded slowly and Lana watched him with a wary expression, ready to use her force blasts again on short notice.

"Do the dragonborn have wings?" Lana asked suddenly, right before Marlin was about to push more magic into his body again.

The three of them shared a quick glance, and while Marlin didn't immediately answer, he did pull his shirt off. "That could have been bad," he muttered in a low voice, pulling the back of his pants down slightly to make way for the inevitable tail.

Bare chested and covered in scales, Marlin resumed his transformation once more. His tail grew in first and like everything else so far, incredibly quickly. It was curiously silent how such a large limb--one nearly as thick as his leg and even longer than them--was able to just appear entirely inaudibly. Had the two girls not been watching Marlin undergo these changes, they would have never known at all.

It was the same for his wings. Two arm-like appendages sprouted soundlessly from his shoulder blades and grew a series of joints similar to that of a bat--or exactly like a dragon. The membrane filled it in shortly afterwards, as bright of red in color as his scales and surprisingly elastic. As his wings grew in folded, there wasn't much loose flesh but when he spread them out wide, the membrane easily stretched to fill in their twenty-foot span.

Marlin, so fascinated and overwhelmed with three new limbs he didn't notice the subtler changes to his body. His jaw restructured slightly to a half muzzle that wasn't quite as extreme as a dragons, and the tongue resting inside his mouth lengthened. Unlike a dragon, his hands remained entirely human--not growing claws--and the stance in which he stood shifted slightly as his feet became more paw like. His general body structure was larger as well. Some men could be muscular but not exactly look large--Marlin was now the opposite. His frame broadened and muscle grew in to fit it. Probably fifty pounds of it total in lean mass alone.

Complete with pointed ears and bright red eyes, in just a twenty-some second span, Marlin looked just like the dragonborn.

But as regal as he looked, Marlin felt like he was about to fall over.

"I'm so off balance," he muttered, leaning forwards even more to try and compensate for the tail behind him and the wings on his back. "This is actually horrible." His voice hadn't changed much from his human form either, perhaps just a bit deeper but otherwise still obviously him.

Raina was staring at the wings, and secretly hoping she wasn't going to get the same form as Marlin. She was absolutely terrified of heights.

Lana, on the other hand, was jealous. "You'll get used to it really quickly," she said, relaxing when he seemed just like his old self. "But it would probably be easier if you pulled them closer into your body...?" She trailed off in a more questioning tone in case he couldn't actually fold them any tighter.

Her guess however was correct, and when he pulled his wings in and shifted his center of gravity forwards, Marlin nearly fell and stumbled to regain his footing. Looking sheepish, he glanced back at his girlfriend and gave her a look of appreciation.

Lana then considered his form curiously. "Can you breathe fire?" she asked, "No! by The Angel's Light Marlin! Not at me!" Marlin had been looking at her when she asked, and opened his mouth ever so slightly, making her jump back out of reflex.

"I was just breathing in though my mouth!" Marlin cried as Raina cackled with laughter. "I'm not an idiot!"

Lana shook her head and let out a frustrated sigh. "Just scared me, that's all."

Looking away from the two girls, Marlin tried to figure out how to breath fire. It wasn't hard, though unlike Lana's power as a succubus, his had more of a physical switch. It was kind of like peeing, not so much a limb you could move but a pressure that one could apply, and when he drew, flame came forth. Marlin was able to breath a jet of flame almost thirty feet, burning incredibly bright and giving off an immense amount of heat.

The fire was so hot it actually made Raina and Lana--whom weren't particularly close to the jet of fire--take a step back. Marlin however, now in the body of a dragonborn, was completely unaffected by the heat, though did realize what elicited such a sudden reaction from the girls and immediately pinched the flame off.

"That was really hot," Lana said, looking at him with wide eyes. "Though..."

In moments she had transformed back into a succubus again, eyes and skin red, proportions ridiculously attractive, and a thin tail sprouting from behind her. "Breath fire again," she ordered. "I wonder if I'm immune like you when I'm like this."

Marlin, curious as well, and perhaps more inclined to listen to her out of virtue of beauty, breathed a small flame about three feet long. Lana brought her hand closer and closer to the fire until her hand was directly inside it, the flames licking over her skin without harm.

"Raina, this fire is hot right?"

Raina didn't even need to move and just nodded. "I can feel it from here. You can't?"

Marlin, out of breath in his lungs, stopped exhaling the orange-white flame and Lana adopted a funny expression. "I mean, I can, but it's different. It's a new feeling, it's hot, but doesn't hurt."

Raina gave her a skeptical expression. "That fire was goddamned hot. I could feet the heat all the way over here."

Marlin frowned and huffed out some smoke, just to see if he could. "See what you change into, and you can feel it for yourself."

"That almost smells like pine smoke," Lana said curiously. "Odd."

Sniffing the air as well, Marlin had to agree. "Yeah. Huh. Anyways." The now demonic looking couple looked to Raina, who now slightly intimidated by their inhuman stares, started her change as well.

The first thing to happen was her trousers fell down. Raina yelped to try and catch them, but it was too late and she toppled over too. In her confusion she didn't actively stop the changes, so by the time Marlin and Lana made it over her, there were no legs to put the trousers back on. In their place, a powerful snake tail was growing in.

"Oh, by The Angels Light," Raina breathed, "this feels weird."

Marlin had thought he'd seen big snakes before, but nothing even came close to what Raina was becoming. The serpents body was as thick as her hips, and it just kept growing and growing! Just ten seconds into her transformation it was already six feet long, and over the next half minute or so must had reached nearly thirty feet total. Simply put, the serpents body that replaced Raina's legs was massive.

"God," she groaned, "this ith sso sstrangth!" The last couple words blended in her mouth as her tongue changed shape. Marlins had grown out and become somewhat reptilian, but hers had straight up become forked. "Aahhh, wha tha..."

She was almost speaking like she bit of a lisp. Lana crouched down beside the naga with a concerned look, while Marlin was more interested in her tail.

"You okay?"

Raina nodded. "Something happened to my thongue." She stuck it out, the whole thing about a foot long, splitting into two forks about two thirds down its length.

Lana chuckled. "Okay, that's the problem."

Raina pulled the member back inside her mouth. "That was weird," she said, seeming to pick up on how to speak with it quickly. "I could... taste the air!"

"I'm more interested in the rest of the damned snake," Marlin said casually, looking at her scales about ten feet down her body. "Not to mention your hair is bright red now."

"Her eyes too," Lana added. "Just like yours."

"Yours are a cute green though," Marlin shot back. "Ugh, by Light. We look like monsters."

The girls rolled their eyes, Raina's rather shocking change temporarily forgotten. "Demons, actually," Lana remarked.

Marlin gave his girlfriend a sassy sneer. "Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm just... a bit uncomfortable with it, you know?"

Raina's gaze fell on the giant serpent that was now her legs. "Gonna have to agree with Marlin here. This is really strange. You just got turned into an evil magic hooker. It's a bit more extreme for the two of us."

Lana hugged her arms around herself, a little self-conscious of her newfound appearance for a moment. "I suppose."

Marlin walked over to where Raina was sitting and offered a hand. "Try and get up?"

The naga nodded accepting his hand and bracing herself when he pulled her upright. She seemed unsteady for a moment and swayed back and forth like a tree in the wind, far enough that a normal person would have fallen over if it wasn't for her enormous bulk anchoring her to the ground.

"This is actually... stable," Raina said, after orienting herself. "Weirdly so."

She leaned backwards as though doing the limbo, except just kept lowering herself until she was in a laying position--and then was able to swing herself upright without using her hands at all. Upon doing so she grinned at the other two.

"I think I really like this actually," she said, enthusiasm growing with each passing moment. Then she tried to move forwards and instead kind of wriggled. Then at the thought of being immobile, the spark faded a bit. "Uhm..."

"Try coiling yourself up," Marlin said immediately, gesturing to her massive body trailing over the sand. Lana looked at him curiously, wondering why he was telling Raina what to do but didn't bother to say anything. Marlin had a knack for working through any problem and solving it methodically.

Raina, suddenly worried again and ready to accept any advice, did exactly as he said and coiled herself up.

The dragonborn then took a couple steps back from her and gestured to his feet. "Now try and push the front of your body forwards with the back portion."

Marlin had expected her to plow forwards inelegantly, but without realizing, Raina traced a winding trail through the sand and slithered just like a snake would. Seeing this, he immediately took a few steps back. "Is your tongue still bothering you?"

The question was an intentional misdirection, hoping for her to not think about the movement she was doing for just a moment, until she was completely stretched out and slithering without any coil left in her body. It worked. As she kept moving she flicked it out for a moment and thought, taking in the tastes in the air before realizing what Marlin had done.

"Holy shit..." Raina breathed, stopping in her motion and turning around to see her tail almost entirely stretched out behind her, then looked back to Marlin. "How did...?"

Marlin and Lana were grinning at each other. "Just how I approach life, that's all. When you coiled up you slithered a portion of your body underneath you, so I figured you just needed a nudge to do so unconsciously."

Raina shook her head like she couldn't believe it, then experimented slithering in circles for a bit. The motion came naturally, a seemingly fluid series to pushes and pulls along her serpentine half, causing it to glide smoothing over the sand with very little sound. Satisfied she was figuring it out, Marlin turned to his own body.

"This might be a bit more difficult," he sighed, glancing at Lana.

Her eyes fell on his new wings as she followed his thought process. "Start by flying low," she cautioned. "You don't want to realize you don't know how to land once you're a half a mile in the sky.

Marlin nodded and steadied himself, spreading his wings to their massive span and carefully beating them a few times, sending gusts of air over the sand. Raina, picking up on what he was going to try and do, stopped moving herself and watched. Perhaps she could use telekinesis to catch him in a worse case scenario, though she was no means an expert at it.

The dragonborn took a couple steps in a hurried pace and awkwardly beat his wings downwards once, lifting his feet a couple inches off the ground. It wasn't much, but it was enough to throw him off balance when he landed and tripped, stumbling in the sand before he caught himself. Strangely enough, he recovered with a second instinctive beat of his wings, lifting his falling torso and giving him enough time to get his feet underneath him again.

Marlin stopped and took a moment to gather his wits, his heart racing. To feel his feet lift off like that, the way his wings caught the air--it was exhilarating and oddly terrifying at the same time. Some short ways away, Raina gently grabbed Lana's tail and pulled her in, tugging the succubus backwards and getting a dirty look for it. The look lasted until Lana bumped into the makeshift seat Raina had created with her tail and Lana essentially fell into it, the Naga's serpentine half rising up from the ground to the perfect sitting height.

"Well that's neat," Lana said, "its no strain on you, is it?"

Raina smirked. "I kind of wanted to see, but it isn't. This lower half is ridiculously strong, I can hardly tell your sitting on me." As if to prove her point, she momentarily raised Lana's seat five feet in the air like she was a toy, an effortless task on a weightless woman. "But let's see how he fares."

Marlin was collecting himself again, this time trying to beat his wings standing still. Keeping his legs straight and wanting his wings to do all the work, he gave them a single, powerful beat. The blast of air kicked up sand all around him and sent Marlin almost five feet into the air before he fell back down to the ground again. The girls watched as he stood there for a moment, deep in concentration, and tried again. The second time it was two beats, the first bringing him up that five feet once again, and the second doubling that height. When he fell to the ground that second time, he landed a bit heavy, but was otherwise unhurt.

The third attempt was when he started to figure it out. The first beat brought him up above the ground, but then the following beats of his wings--and surprisingly fast beats at that--were less forceful and allowed him to hover, or at least bob up and down a couple feet. High up in the air it would look like perfect hovering. After doing that for a bit and getting the rhythm down, he let himself fall back down from his position of about ten feet above the ground and caught himself with a powerful beat of his wings just before he hit the ground. Marlin touched down like he'd just stepped down from a three-foot step, not ten feet up in the air.

Upon touching down Lana jumped up from her seat on Raina and clapped for him in excitement, and did a kind of bounce with her human half that emulated a jump, already starting to find a natural flow with her body.

"That looked so cool!" Lana squealed, running up to him. Seeing her boyfriend hover in the air for a good twenty seconds had been surreal--and that was a high bar for the evening. She rushed up and hugged him which he sheepishly accepted, then took a couple steps back and urged him to try again.

"Can you go forwards now?"

Marlin took a deep breath and prepared himself once again. Adding the forward element made flying feel much more dangerous--suddenly there was speed involved if he messed things up. So his approach was iterative and thought out. He started by hovering again and slowly starting to drift forwards, then practiced reversing the direction and bringing himself to a stop. Each time he went a little faster--though no more than running speed--before slowing to a stop and stabilizing himself again. It wasn't easy; there was a lot of things to keep track of when he was hovering though it could probably be chalked up to the sensory overload of trying something new.

After a few more minutes of careful practice he landed near the girls, touching down lightly and exactly where he planned--a nice demonstration of his newly learned control.

"This is really tiring," he huffed, chest rising and falling as he crouched down to catch his breath. "Kind of like a hard run."

Lana cocked her head at him. "Well that's shitty if you can only fly for ten minutes at a time or so."

Raina frowned. "Do you think all flying will be that hard, or just the hovering?"

The dragonborn nodded without looking up, taking a few more deep breaths. "Do we have water? Yeah, it's the hovering that's hard. When I was starting to go faster like that I don't need to beat my wings nearly as much." He accepted the small waterskin Lana fetched from her pack and took a deep drink from it. "Holding them in place for a glide will be much easier, this hovering crap is kind of like a hard run versus standing up."

"Kind of what I thought," Raina nodded thoughtfully. "Uhm..." She trailed off, unsure how to bring the topic up at first. "I think I have a magic like Lana does as well..." she finally said, breaking a drawn-out silence as Marlin started to recover. His body--all their bodies in fact--were now in great shape, so it wasn't going to take long.

Raina's proclamation drew the attention of the other two immediately.

"Do you know what Naga's are known for?" Lana asked, glancing between the two of them.

Marlin shook his head, taking another drink from the waterskin. "I don't remember us once covering it in any of the classes I've taken."

"They cover so little about demonics," Raina agreed. "And, I mean, I can feel the magic right there, but I've no idea what it does so I don't want to use it..."

"Well, we should find out," Lana said, tapping Marlin on the shoulder as she backed away, gesturing for him to do the same. "Give it a try for split second, then back it off. Let's see if we can figure it out."

Raina didn't look happy about that and stared at the ground, concentrating. After a couple moments passed nothing happened the couple shared a tentative look before Marlin spoke up.

"Anything?"

Raina glanced up at them. "I flared it for a moment. You didn't feel anything?"

The two of them shook their heads, then immediately succumbed to Raina's power when she switched it on again.

"Anything now?" Raina paused, waiting for the two of them to answer, however it became apparent very quickly they were not going to. She immediately killed the magic and rushed towards them, the other two flinching as the power faded.

"What happened?!" She asked immediately, helping steady Lana who looked dizzy.

"Hypnosis," Marlin groaned, "that was definitely hypnosis. Ungodly strong hypnosis." He shook his head as though to clear it and frowned. "But the moment you released the magic it immediately faded."

Lana nodded in agreement, seeming to have recovered as well. "Your eyes started glowing and the moment I looked at them directly I just went dumb. Completely hypnotized."

Raina opened her mouth and closed it, choosing not to speak instead, though the other two easily caught her train of thought.

"Yeah, you can experiment," Marlin sighed. "It's better to know than to not."

Lana turned her back to Raina. "I'd rather not be a part of that," she said cautiously. "Just in case."

Raina nodded immediately. "Of course. Of course."

Marlin wasn't looking directly at the naga either. "Okay, turn it on again, and I won't look at your eyes immediately. Let's see what happens."

The naga obliged, her eyes starting to visibly glow in Marlin's peripheral vision, though he was careful not to glance her way quite yet.

"I can feel the magic," he said slowly. "But it isn't grabbing me. But it is definitely there, like a pressure. Can you feel it Lana?"

"Not one bit," she answered.

"It's definitely because I can see her eyes in my peripherals," Marlin said, turning away. "Yep. Can't see you now Raina, and it's gone."

"Face me now?" she asked, her voice carrying a musical tone in it.

Both Marlin and Lana flinched. "Oh yup. Definity felt that," Lana said immediately.

"I almost listened out of reflex," Marlin added. "And now I've got this compulsion to turn. You too Lana?"

"My voice is infused with magic too?" As she spoke, both Marlin and Lana relaxed further. Raina's voice was soothing, coercing them to listen to her, making them relax.

"It definitely is," Marlin said. "I'm going to turn and look at you now and see how fast it takes me. How much magic are you putting into the spell?"

Riana frowned at the back of their heads. "A quarter? If that."

Lana gritted her teeth. "That's really potent then."

"Very," Marlin agreed, turning.

Once he glanced at Raina's eyes, he was gone, just staring at her lazily, unmoving.

Raina didn't turn off the magic, but was nervous to say something. "Marlin, you okay?"

"Mhmm," he sounded calm, relaxed, and in no hurry at all.

"Raise your right hand," she ordered.

Marlin did so without question, holding it above his head. To his left, Lana's right hand also twitched.

"Turn away from me," she said immediately, and once again he followed her instructions without question.

"Are you still under it?" she asked.

"...yeahhhh," was his lazy response, completely unconcerned.

Raina released the magic and the difference was instantly noticeable. Marlin went tense for a brief moment then relaxed a bit, then resisted an impulse to look at her, like it was dangerous to do so.

"I had no control," Marlin said, his voice wavering a bit. "That's frightening."

"I'm going to try one last thing," Raina said slowly, "and that's it. I won't ever use it on you again." She obviously knew how troubling it was to lose control of oneself and didn't want to force that upon them anymore--but at the moment, her curiosity took precedence. "Whatever you do, don't look at me until the magic is out of my voice again."

Once the two of them nodded, Raina dialed it up as strong as she could.

"Marlin," Raina said, the sound of her own voice surprising her, "raise your right hand."

Raina's voice was beyond beautiful. It was like a musical chord, layered upon itself to create a beautiful, pure sound. It was like there were ten of her speaking, but all so perfectly in sync there was only one person's voice, resonating across multiple notes.

Against is own will, Marlin raised his hand. He actively resisted, but he didn't have the will power to stop himself. It was a compulsion he couldn't stop like a sudden itch he was unprepared for, and deep down, he didn't want to stop himself. The moment he did so, Raina stopped the magic.

The three of them stood there in silence for a moment.

"I'll never do that again," Raina finally said.

Her two friend finally glanced back at her with pursed lips.

"Please don't," Marlin said quietly. "That was actually frightening."

"It is a power from hell," Lana said through gritted teeth. "Kind of obvious isn't it? We each hold the power of one of the many sins. Raina's Domination, I'm Lust, and you're Fury."

Raina stopped to think about it. "That actually makes a lot of sense."

Marlin made a face. "Does that mean we're more predisposed to those inclinations now?"

The girls looked at each other nervously but didn't want to answer.

"We need to look that up," Lana finally said. "I honestly don't know but if that's the case..."

Raina shook her head. "I kind of doubt it. They're always prattling on about how the warlocks are dangerous because there's no way to detect them if they don't tap the magic. Seems like a personality trait being intensified would be a clue they'd teach us if that were the case."

Marlin breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't like not being in control of his emotions, anger included. Silence hung between them for a moment, eventually ending when Marlin unfolded his wings again. "I'm going to practice flying a bit more before we head back. We probably should within the hour."

Lana nodded in agreement. It was the dead of night and that would be the best time to sneak back into the dorms--not that they were prohibited from leaving, but it was for the best if nobody knew. "Alright, once you're actually able to fly a distance and back we'll head back."

Marlin nodded and spread his wings, this time he started walking forwards and beating them like he had in his very first try. Ready for the lift this time, it worked. His body lifted smoothly off the ground, legs and tail falling in behind him and head able to look forwards despite his belly facing the ground--perhaps because his neck was slightly longer and more flexible now.

Their moods dulled a bit, Lana still gave him a little cheer as he started to fly forwards, quickly accelerating over the sands to a frightening speed. This close to the ground, it almost made Marlin panic. Fortunately, he managed to keep it together. Keeping the rhythm of his wings and the balance in his core, Marlin found himself able to bank both left and right with subtle natural motions and ascend or descend with equal ease.

Roaring with exhilaration, a jet of fire shot from his mouth and lit the night sky for a moment, outlining his figure in red light for all to see for miles. Rising higher and higher into the sky, Marlin took in the surroundings. Once he was this high up, it was amazing to see just how small everything became. Lana and Raina were but dots on the ground, and the school looked nothing more than a toy in the distance. All of the sudden, flight was intoxicating. Marlin could do this all night.

So he did circles, twists, dives and spins, learning the limits of his body high in the air. At one point he even folded his wings and went into freefall, catching himself from it by going into a diving position and slowly spreading his wings before pulling up. Just minutes ago, he had trouble hovering, now, he felt like a being born of the skies. Eventually, he started to do circles and descend back towards the girls. He hadn't really considered it, but landing was going to be tricky.

However, he was able to flip himself into an upright position as he approached them and beat his wings several times to slow his speed, eventually coming to a stop midair about ten feet above them and dropping towards the ground. He caught himself a moment before touchdown, then finally landed with more grace than he deserved for his first real flight.

Both Raina and Lana were wide eyed.

"That was incredible," Lana murmured softly.

Marlin had a full grin on his face, unable to contain himself after such an exhilarating experience.

"I don't even care my body doesn't have much natural magic like the two of you. This is more than worth it."

Raina's look was one of awe and fear. "I was so worried you were going to lose control."

"It felt like I was going to a few times," Marlin admitted, looking a bit sheepish beneath the glee, "but up that high I had so much time to recover. And it comes naturally to me, kind of like slithering does to you."

"A bit more complicated than slithering," Raina grunted.

Nothing she said could wipe the smile off his face. "Let's get back before somebody notices," Marlin finally said, searching for his shirt and starting to reverse the transformation. In moments, he was human again, hair back and scales gone, completely impossible to tell he'd even been a dragonborn.

The girls shared a look of agreement and returned themselves human as well, Marlin politely looking the other way as Raina put her pants on after her legs replaced the massive snake tail.

"I'm going to need to wear skirts more often," Raina sighed. "Pants are such a hassle with this tail."

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do besides just pull my shirt off," Marlin sighed. "There isn't much clothing I know of that have wing slots in them. And that would be a dead giveaway anyways."

"Yeah, don't cut holes in your cloths," Lana said, sarcasm leaking into her voice.

The three of them shared a chuckle, thoroughly satisfied with the nights results and headed back to the school. The wrinkle in their plan didn't make itself apparent until they were nearly at the doors to the dorms, when a figure stepped out from around the corner, looking directly at them.

None of the three students recognized who it was, but they definitely knew what. Glowing robes of pure white and a hood that had nothing but darkness below it marked the person as a paladin--and a powerful one at that.

All the students froze immediately.

Marlin, always fastest on his feet in these kinds of situations, quickly spoke in a low voice to the girls. "We need to approach him. Best case we get away with it. Worst case, exorcism. But if we run we may die."

Raina made a noise in agreement and the three of them pressed forwards, approaching the paladin nervously like any star struck student would. The figure watched as they drew near, his face shrouded and unreadable, and body language giving away nothing.

"We aren't supposed to be out, are we?" Lana asked once in earshot.

The voice that came from under the hood was deep, enhanced and unrecognizable in his holy form. This was one of their teachers, but they had no way of knowing which one. And he was laughing at them.

"I hope you realize the weight you've put on your shoulders."

When neither of them spoke, the paladin circled them, a faint glowing white smoke trailing off his robes.

"We've had a couple students do as you've done," he said, voice deep and rich, laced with the power of an archangel. "And none have been faulted for it. We don't punish the acquisition of power." He paused, letting the statement sink in. "Just the abuse of it."

With that statement a pair of white eyes flashed briefly below the cowl, before vanishing into the pitch black again. "So instead represent the virtues that stand up to the sins that have empowered you. Be calm and rational, never resorting to violence in anger," he said, his invisible gaze fixed on Marlin, before switching to Lana. "Don't succumb to lust and sleep with every man willing. Instead, cultivate your relationships on a deeper level."

Then his eyes became visible for another moment, settling on Raina with arguably the most dangerous of the powers. "Never assert your control over others by force. Inspire them instead, and become a leader."

None of them took their eyes off the paladin.

"How did you find out?" Marlin finally asked.

The paladin chuckled. "Sypherial told me of course."

Raina's eyes bulged. "What?!"

His laugh was deep and rich, and perhaps laced with a bit of mirth.

"I don't blame you for seeking out power to keep up," he finally said, not bothering to elaborate on that particular revelation any further. "The three of you certainly needed it. We've had great warlocks through history, the source of the strength unknown to the masses. After all, ambition isn't a sin."

The paladin eyed them all warily, his face almost tangible in the magical darkness that shrouded it.

"But do not let it be your undoing."