Chapter 13

Aric worked hard while he was at the academy. And while it was grueling work, it was getting him where he needed to be.

He wanted to finish fast to be back in Andrea's arms. He was ready to be married and with all that it entailed. The professors couldn't believe how fast he learned, and he seemed to be ready for any class he could take.

The only exception was the class for Applied Black Magery, that class he refused to take. He didn't like the necromancy involved and flat out refused to take the class or do any of the labs.

The instructors found that it was because he wouldn't work with cadavers and what it would take to animate them. To him it was desecration of the highest order.

But he did take Application and Mechanics to Black Magery as an alternate class because it dealt with the theory, so he could get the underlying foundation of how it worked without actually having to practice it.

The professors thought if he stayed for four seasons he'd have earned his Archmage status well before the normal eight seasons it normally took for very gifted students. To them it seemed like a good deal for a promising student. Archmages were rare and they really wanted to make him the next one.

Because he doubled, and sometimes tripled, up on classes, he didn't party at all with any of the other students. He didn't go out drinking, he didn't whore around with some, and he didn't partake of any of the charms offered by the campus coeds.

Like any other school some were unbelievably attractive, and some weren't, but because he was different almost all of the ladies all seemed to put the offer out there once they saw him.

But thank goodness he took Application of Blue Magery early the first month to learn the basics of how to use counter spells to see through glamour's.

Otherwise one would have thought the campus had nothings but well built voluptuous babes walking all over it. But whenever he compared Andrea to them he was proud to know that she didn't have to put on glamour to be beautiful. She was the real thing.

It was with a total shock that he got Andrea's letter about the party.

He lived for those letters. It was what drove him to work so hard to finish faster. But the chance to be back with her for a few days wasn't something he was willing to pass up.

The first month a lot of the students made fun of him because he was so big. It wasn't that he was the tallest, because there were a few who topped over 6'2 to 6'4. It was because of his darker complexion and the fact that he obviously used his body, which was hard muscle, for manual labor, and his hands showed obvious calluses on them.

But all of that stopped after he accidentally blew out a wall during their first gauging of the strength of their abilities.

Well to be honest the targeting dummy was in front of the wall too and it was vaporized, and that pretty much put an end to the teasing if he was the local hired hand who wandered in looking for a field to plow.

Aric also seemed to endear himself to the various support staff, like the schools maintenance department.

After the last class of the day, he found the maintenance personnel standing and staring at the rubble created by his fireball earlier that morning. It was two men and one woman.

He asked if he could help and they told him students didn't need to worry about something like this, he needed to concentrate on his studies.

As they were talking he casually asked if that was their wheel barrow, when they said yes he got a shovel and started filling it and asked where he needed to dump it.

They started to protest until he pointed out that he doubted that they could stop him from helping, and he was always taught if you make a mess you're responsible for cleaning it up, so point the way and he could have it cleaned up in no time.

As they worked through that afternoon he knew he had made three new friends.

That story of his willingness got around the staff like a wildfire burning in dry brush. It was various selfless acts like this that made all staffers who came across him trust and respect him over the months he was there more than any student they had met to date.

He never told any of the other students that he was the famous Battlemage most of them had heard about recently. Most of them thought he just awoken late in life and that a rich patron sent him here, and once he returned, he'd work as a lowly guard somewhere.

But he did believe that some of the instructors knew different. And if they did, they respected his right to privacy by not talking about it with him.

After six months of consistent work, his control, power speed, casting, and array of spells were pretty impressive. He even developed a few new ways to cast complex spells, but that he kept to himself and never told anyone.

He was experimenting with what he called "stored memory" spells.

He found a way to cast all but the last syllable and leave it un-cast in his memory and wait for the right time to use it. But the way he figured out how to do it allowed him to call that same spell over and over again.

He couldn't store many pre-casted spells that way right now, but a few big ones at the ready never hurt.

And while he was only committed to two seasons the instructors want him to go for Archmage status. They were impressed with turning out the schools first Archmage in only four seasons, half the time it was estimated to take for him.

But now he needed to go back home for a visit and check on his friends.

He needed the break from school, to check on Daven, and any chance he could to be with Andrea he would jump at. After her last kiss the night he left, he had to start sleeping on his back because he would find himself hard and trying to make love to Andrea in his sleep.

And he was looking forward to going home and seeing all his friends.

Wouldn't Aaron be surprised that even while at school, for all these months, he still found time to practice with the sword and his unarmed combat for two hours a day, morning and night.

He bet that Aaron would challenge him to a match just to prove to Aric that he was getting soft training as a mage. Wouldn't he be surprised? He just couldn't wait.

As Andrea was getting dressed for the ball being thrown in Aric's honor she was getting nervous and her thinking was all over the place.

"What if this doesn't work? What if Aric see though us? No, it has to work. I'll just get Aric somewhere secluded alone and find a way to make him want me so bad, that I'll just finally pretend to give in. He won't know what hit him if I do this right. I'll put on one of the best dresses that Daven bought for me to wear when I visited him, and I'll ravage Aric before he knows what happened," thought Andrea.

And it was those thoughts which brought a smile to her face.

The dress she chose to wear that night was one of Daven's very favorites to see her in.

It was a pale blue dress, which matched her eyes, that was strapless, but hung just off the shoulder. It had an underlying bodice that was fitted to show off her trim waist to its fullest. But the bodice was hidden behind material so that the final appearance given to the viewer was that the dress just flowed tightly with her figure.

Because of its lifting nature it also made her breast sit up, and with her breast size and her small waist, it was hard for any male facing her to carry on their side of any conversation she started.

Daven liked it because he could reach in and fondled her breast or hike up the dress quickly for sex. It was easy access from both ends.

Her hair was hanging around her head loosely but stylishly.

She also had done her eye shadow and wore her lipstick as a deep red. Daven liked this color of red on her when she gave him blowjobs. Aric should as well, she thought, he is male after all.

"Wouldn't Aric be surprised that I now wear a little more makeup? When he left I was only wearing just lipstick, but tonight I'll go all out. It's a good thing Daven likes me to do myself up and I now have plenty of practice. I have all I need here bring Aric to his knees," she thought with a smile.

Her parents weren't exactly sure they wanted her leaving the house dressed and looking like this. They were worried that some noble would try to run off with her.

But after she assured them that not only Aric would be there to protect her and make sure nothing happened, but the crown prince was also looking out for her as well.

Her parents looked at each other during her comment about the Crown Prince. Didn't she always hate him? When had that changed they wondered.

Soon after the discussion started, the carriage sent by the Prince appeared at six pm sharp to pick her up was there, and she traveled off to the ball in Aric's honor.

As she sat in the back she smiled as she thought about how wicked she looked and how tonight would be the night that changed Aric and her relationship.

In some ways she was glad of her time with the crown prince, but now that it was over, Aric would reap the benefits of all those things she learned.

Aric was very surprised at the turn out.

The Prince even had a tailor on hand who spent all day making Aric a suit that would fit him perfectly for the ball.

Aric just wanted to go home and spend some time with his friends, maybe a quiet moment or two with Andrea first.

Even though the first thing he wanted to do was go see Andrea, Daven convinced him to wait till tonight. That they should wait to see each other in some fine clothes, dine, and really enjoy themselves. That waiting to see each other until tonight would make a really good impression he said.

He stood over to the side of the table, looking over all the food on it. He kept his goblet filled with only fruit juice. He still didn't have a taste for alcohol and the juice served the same purpose to quenching his thirst.

As he looked over the table, he heard a slight murmur going on behind him. As he turned too look, it was all he could do to not drop the goblet that was in his hand.

It was clearly Andrea approaching him, but he didn't remember her looking as clearly sexy as she did tonight.

The way she walked reminded him of a snow leopard on the prowl.

"Who had done her makeup? When had she started wearing makeup? She normally only wore lipstick. She didn't like ponytails anymore? When had she changed her walk so much? Where was the shy girl I left? I was only gone six months," he thought.

The look she gave him was feral, almost hungry in nature.

After months of training he subconsciously shifted into spell detection mode, but didn't seem to detect any glamour or spell about her!

This was all Andrea!

Aric wasn't sure if that made him nervous or excited.

Excited because she was clearly still the most beautiful woman in the room and she was walking over to him. Nervous because he wasn't sure what made her change so drastically while he was gone, and that really bothered him not knowing.

As Andrea came up, she took a deep breath, smiled, and greeted Aric. Her voice seemed like she was trying to make it low and throaty.

While he did admire what that deep breath did for the cleavage of her dress, again he was curious why her manner of speech changed.