Chapter 3

The following new character appears in the next two chapters:

Kurt

Celeste's former friend, 5'-7'' tall, 135 pounds, 16 years old, brown hair, gray eyes

Celeste's Tale:

When the Mistress left, I finished my school work before resuming my Magic studies for the day. The book that I was currently working on was a very dry and unexciting text dealing with ancient spells and lore. It was not something that I was really interested in. Consequently, after a short time, my attention waned, and I closed the book to look for something more interesting to do.

As I looked around the considerable area inside the Defensive Shell, there weren't a lot of interesting things to see. There was the garden where we grew vegetables and also the herbal garden where the Master grew the various herbs and other plants to make the teas, salves, and potions that she brewed. I was NOT an O'Connell and these held little interest for me. I'd always wondered how the O'Connells could spend so much of their time studying and working on their gardens and fields. They even still printed books on Magic, but not in the volume that they had previously. They never seemed to have much in the way of parties or other enjoyable pastimes.

True, they celebrated a number of holidays and birthdays in addition to still holding services on Sundays and other holidays, but all they seemed to do was work and study. They did enjoy a lot of sex, but they did so behind wards and silence spells, so as not to disturb others.

That was all very well for them, but I missed my friends from school and the parties and other good times that we had enjoyed before I came to study Magic with the Master. I had enjoyed the time spent in the O'Connell Realm with the younger people there and the sex that we had engaged in, but they were all gone now to another Reality, and it was only the Master and me remaining in this Reality. She seemed to be distracted a lot lately, and yesterday there had been the visitors and then the attacks this morning, before she left to see some people in the capital.

I shied in reluctance, and had determined to return to my studies when there was a knocking sound from the Defensive Shell. I was startled at first, but then determined to find out what it could be. Could it be another attack? Perhaps one launched in stealth? Still, the previous two had failed, so why would they launch another one?

While the Defensive Shell was silvered and polarized to those on the outside, we could see out of it if somewhat dimly. I started checking the perimeter to see what had made the noise and where it was coming from.

It only required a short time to locate the source of the noise, and to my surprise I discovered that there was someone outside the shell, and that someone was striking it with a piece of metal. It appeared to be a young man, and more importantly, I recognized him on moving closer! It appeared to be Kurt, a boy I'd known in school before leaving for my Magic studies with the O'Connells. How in the world could he be here now? How could he have traced me here, as I had gone to the O'Connell Realm initially, and had only moved here in the last few months? I hurried over to where he was laboriously beating on the Shell.

"Kurt, what are you doing here?" I demanded, as I approached him on the other side of the shell.

"Celeste, is that you? I can't see you, sweetie," he shouted, and lowered the piece of metal that he was using to beat on the shell.

"Of course, it's me. Who were you expecting?" I asked before adding, "How did you find me?"

"You know me. I've always been good at finding things, it's a talent I have," he replied, but hadn't answered my question.

"I can't see you," he said next. "All I can see is a reflection of myself. Can you make this thing transparent so I can see you?" he asked.

"No, the Master, Mistress O'Connell, cast the Defensive Shell this morning after we were attacked, and she warded it and silvered it. I don't know the spell to remove the silvering," I told him.

"What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" I asked next.

"I might ask the same question of you," he replied, not answering mine.

"We came here a few months ago to study. It's very peaceful and quiet here ... at least it was until yesterday."

"Yes, on the way here, I passed several vehicles that had crashed and burned. There wasn't a lot left of them. That's where I got this metal bar," he told me holding it up.

"Can you have Mistress O'Connell remove this thing?' he asked next, as he tapped the shell with a knuckle.

"She left some time ago to meet with people in the capital. I don't know when she'll be back, but she left the shell up in case the Army tried something else,"I told him.

"Can I come inside then?" he asked with a smile.

"No, I can't do that, the Mistress wouldn't approve of that," I told him.

"She doesn't have to know, besides it's only me, and you know me. Look around, there isn't anyone else within miles, we could have a little fun. The O'Connells are rumored to be great lovers, and you can show me what you've learned," Kurt told me with one of those shy smiles of his.

"Yes, the O'Connells are very caring and ... and," I started.

"So you could show me what you've learned from them," he said again interrupting me. He certainly seemed to want to know what I had learned.

"Yes, I would like that, but I don't know the spell to allow you to to pass through the shell and its wards," I told him, and he seemed very upset on hearing that.

"Surely there must be some way for us to get together for a while. I've come all of this way just to see you," he told me with honey dripping from his lips and a pained expression on his face.

"Could you come out here?" he asked after a few seconds. "There is all of this tall grass, and we could have some fun then you could go back inside and no one would know," he told me next, still with that smile of his. I thought about it for a time, and decided that it would probably be all right. Like he had said, there wasn't anyone else around, and I was lonesome. A little sex would make me feel better even if it was with someone with small equipment and not the large equipment that the O'Connell boys had.

"All right," I finally agreed. "I'll come out there if the spell that I know will work," I told him before calling up as much Magic as I could and starting the spell. I knew the spell for moving through the O'Connell's wards, but had used it only a few times on my own. It was very specific, and the Master had crafted it just for me. It wouldn't work for others as it was attuned to my body alone.