Chapter 39: Chapter 39 – Truth & Lies

Hannah stood in the centre of the same training room that we had quite a romp in several days ago. The young woman took a moment to calm down and gather herself before she sprung into action. Her hands whirled into a flurry of motion as they drew the complex runic array of a 1st level spell in front of her. 

In only a matter of seconds, the spell was complete, and three magical glowing balls of force rocketed from her hands. These magic missiles shot through the air, twisting and turning as they all found their targets. Each one struck a different training dummy and exploded with enough force to knock your average person off their feet, if not break a few bones.

It was rather astounding that Hannah was able to cast this spell so fast when she had no knowledge of its runic array before yesterday. The young woman had chosen elective classes to help her specialise in the more practical applications of the arcane arts, like enchanting, because those fields were the most likely ones where someone with her background would find employment. But ever since I told her about how someone had tried to kill me out front of her apartment, she had decided that she needed to learn some more combat spells in case she needed to defend herself. Before this, the only other combat spell she knew was the mana bolt cantrip, and that wouldn’t have been all that useful on its own in a fight.

That said, I didn’t tell Hannah absolutely everything about what happened. For one, I left out the fact that it was our classmate, Isabel, who had tried to kill me. And for another, I left out that I had kinky sex with my attacker before teaming up with them and killing the one manipulating them into trying to kill me. 

All I really told Hannah about what I got up to yesterday was that I had dealt with the problem and no one would be bothering us for a while. That, of course, was a bit of a lie since Cromwell was the one out there masterminding everything, but I was still unsure of how to deal with him. Not only was his personal power way above my own, but the political power he held as an Archmage was just as overbearing. The fact that he hadn’t sent more skilled enforcers or wardens after me was a blessing, but it just went to show that whatever he was after, it wasn’t something he wanted on the official records.

I always wanted to be as truthful as possible with the ones I loved, and although I was keeping this secret to protect Hannah, lying to the ones I loved was becoming concerningly more frequent. I hadn’t even told Mum the full story of what happened to George. I conveniently left out the part where I was an accomplice to his murder and responsible for disposing of his body. But unlike with how I was lying to my girlfriend, I wasn’t lying to my mother to protect her. No, I just didn’t want Mum to think less of me.

Logically, I knew that my mother would understand what I did. She didn’t have any love for the arcanists of the founding families either, but still, I wasn’t thinking rationally. I was afraid of losing that spark between us, afraid that if I kept down this path, Mum would come to see me as a monster just like she did my father and the rest of the Amonvars before him. After all, I have just as much of their blood in my veins as I do my mother's.

"What did you think, Alek? How did I do?" Hannah beamed a smile as she bounded over to me like a happy little puppy dog looking for praise. 

I snapped out of my thoughts about the lies I'm surrounded by and turned my full attention to the young woman, giving her a smile just as big as hers. "I can see why you’ve earned the top spot in our class year after year. You are truly dedicated to this craft, aren’t you? It would have taken me a couple of weeks to even begin attempting to cast a new spell, yet you have already achieved such mastery of it. Your dedication is truly astounding, darling"

Hearing my unrestrained praise, Hannah instantly found herself getting all shy and blushing. It was no problem for the young woman to have sex with me in front of her brother while wearing sexy lingerie and a butt plug, but this simple acknowledgement of her skills was too much for her, and she turned as red as a tomato. The contradictory nature of these reactions just made it all the more fun to tease and praise her, especially when it was so cute whenever she got all shy and embarrassed.

Eventually, Hannah recovered from her embarrassment, sat next to me, and asked. "Was there anything you wanted to practise casting, Alek? I’ve been hogging all the time for myself, I feel bad that you're just watching and not getting in any training."

"It’s quite alright, darling." I smiled at her as I slid my hand onto her thighs. The way she lightly bit her lip as I said that pet name, showed me that she still hadn’t grown tired of being called that, and of course, I would keep using it until she stopped having such adorable reactions to it. "Watching you do your thing is rather enjoyable all on its own, and not just because of how skilled a spell caster you are."

Hannah’s ever-present smile grew more perverted moments before she leaned in and gave me a kiss. The young woman was becoming more outgoing the more we spent time together. Sure, she could tell me what she wanted and even kissed me on her own during sex, but before it was mostly me initiating the fun in the first place. Now, though, she could do things like this and like leaning into my ear and whispering. "How about I give you more to look at this time?"

That said, Hannah didn’t give me a chance to respond to her, as before I knew it, she was jumping up from the bench I was sitting at and making her way over to where she was casting spells before. However, the young woman didn’t just resume her practice but instead started slowly and teasingly removing her clothes.

Before too long, she was butt naked and had resumed her casting of the spells she had just recently started to learn. Of course, my eyes were fixed on her nudity during all of this. Her body may have been slender and petite, but that didn’t stop what little curves she had from jiggling ever so slightly whenever she made a motion.

As much as I wanted to continue watching her do her thing, Hannah didn’t have an endless bit of mana and her practice had to eventually come to an end. When it did so, she came bounding back over to me, and I couldn’t help but notice the excitement dripping down her thighs. As it turned out, her desire to be watched didn’t just apply to her younger brother, but to her lover as well.

"Alright, that’s enough for one day for me. If I do any more, my mana pool will get dangerously low." She said as she took a seat, but not on the bench. Instead, she took a seat on my lap, wiggling her bare butt into what she was certainly aware was a raging erection under my pants.

My hands wasted no time finding their way around her petite little chest and began playing with her sensitive nipples. Hannah let out a few moans as she ground herself against the hardness in my lap, but after a few seconds of this, she came back to herself and asked me something. "Before we go any further and I get distracted, can I ask you something, Alek?"

A part of me was tempted to be a smart ass and respond with something like, "You just did ask me something," but instead, I just said, "Sure, what is it, darling?"

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Hannah paused, as if taking a few seconds to gather her thoughts or build up her courage, so I stopped playing with her nipples to help in this process. When she did eventually come up with what she wanted to ask me, it wasn’t what I was expecting. "These past couple of days, you haven’t been practising your spells and you haven’t been going to your classes. Is something wrong? Are you giving up your studies?"

"I…" I hesitated, unsure of how much I should tell the young woman.

"I love and trust you, so it’s alright if you can’t tell me. I just want you to know that if there’s something I can help you with, even if all you need is someone to talk to, I’m here for you." Hannah turned and looked deep into my eyes as she said this. The fact that she was completely naked, was completely irrelevant, as my heart beat heavy in my chest.

I loved the young woman wholeheartedly, but a lack of explanation for my behaviour was only making her worry, something that would no doubt grow stronger the longer it went on even if she didn’t think she needed answers. I knew she deserved some answers. The question was just how much information should I give her?

The two of us just sat there silently for a few more minutes while I made up my mind about how much to tell her. Thankfully, Hannah was supportive enough not to rush me or interrupt my process, so when I came to a decision on what to do, I knew I had to tell her everything, everything about my powers at least. If I lied to my mother about the murder, then I sure wouldn’t have told my girlfriend about it.

Still, just openly talking about my new divine status was not a good risk to take. Although the training rooms were covered by a sound ward so that other people's loud spells wouldn’t interrupt anyone else's training, there were still ways around such wards, that would let you listen in on what was happening inside. I wouldn’t even put it past the arcanists who run the school to set up recording devices so they could monitor the students, just in case they were trying to learn forbidden knowledge.

As such, I stood up from the bench and led Hannah to the middle of the training room. Although the young woman was a bit curious as to what I was doing, she just patiently went along with me. Once the two of us were there, I let my divine power flow out of my body. Unlike when I performed miracles like the divine shield or restraining bonds, the strands of divine power I was manipulating this time were so thin that they were barely perceptible.

All that anyone could see of them was a slight shimmer in the air as they wove together, forming an incredibly thin bubble around us. Since it was just Hannah and me in the training room, this miracle didn’t have any noticeable effect, but I knew what it had done. I had created a zone inside the bubble where no sound could escape. Sound could come in freely, it just couldn’t leave.

This miracle I had created was one I worked on developing after everything that happened with George. When I was thinking back on what had happened, it occurred to me that someone could have easily overheard his screams and sobbing. If that had happened, they would have no doubt called the authorities and that day would have ended quite differently. Because of this, I knew I had to be more careful in the future, and after a little bit of practice before lunch today with the help of Allure, I was able to get this miracle down.

Surrounded by the potent energy of my divine power, Hannah was, of course, able to sense it even though she didn’t know what it was. As patient and understanding as the young woman was, her curiosity was always her most prominent trait, and as such, she couldn’t stop herself from asking. "What is this, Alek? Why is your mana so…"

"It’s not mana," I answered as she began to trail off, unable to put a word to what she was feeling.

"Not mana? I don’t understand." She tilted her head at me, even more, confused now.

"It’s a long story and I will tell you everything, but to answer your question, this is not mana, because I’m no longer really an arcanist. I can’t cast spells anymore. Instead, I can perform miracles. What you're sensing is my divine power, the divine power of a demigod."

What followed was an in-depth conversation about what happened in the past few days and an explanation of my family history. To her credit, Hannah was completely understanding, to the point where she had so many questions, some of which Allure had to help me with because I had no idea what the young woman was even asking me. I might have been better at using divine power than I ever was at mana, but apparently, a lot of the technical workings of this power went over my head.

In the end, though, Hannah was now filled in on everything my mother knew, and the young woman had sworn herself to an oath of secrecy. I didn’t ask her to make any such oaths since I trusted her, but she insisted. That said, it was more of an honour thing as, unlike higher-level spell casters who could bind their magic to uphold an oath, we just had our word.

After this confession, Hannah and I once more made use of the training rooms in ways in which their creators never intended them to be used. By the time we were done, the room was even more of a mess than the last time this happened. However, this time we didn’t have a chance to clean up and leave before the staff member doing the last rounds of the night before locking up walked in on us.

Thankfully, it was a fairly young woman who found us and not some grumpy old man. Because of this, the woman was more embarrassed than anything and let us off with a warning as long as we cleaned everything up before we left. As much as I wanted to continue making love to Hannah back at her apartment, her mother and father were home by the time we made it there. Instead, I just kissed her goodnight at the door and made plans to have lunch with her tomorrow at the picnic table on campus, where we had eaten together once before.

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