1. hobbies and interests
2. magic and illusion

“In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the
key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except
yourself.” -Jiddu Krishnamurti
Key to Happiness
By Lynx Klaw
Raven’s brow twitched and pulled into a frown as she came around. She knew something
was wrong even before she opened her eyes. She almost expected to wake up restrained
somehow; that was how these things usually went. They had been chasing Red-X because...
well, because Nightwing saw him leaping rooftops. Raven had a suspicion that was exactly what
Red-X wanted, but kept her opinion to herself. It wouldn’t help matters and Nightwing was
dead-set on capturing him, as usual. Not that she felt Red-X shouldn’t have been chased or that
he hadn’t committed a crime... the likelihood was far too great to let go. No, it just galled her
that Red-X knew that and purposefully harassed Nightwing with it.
She sat up and found herself unrestrained. Well, that was somewhat reassuring. As her
eyes took in her surroundings, however, her stomach dropped. The room was lit by torchlight,
with sconces jutting out of the wall, dangling chains holding bowls of a soft, white fire. It was
definitely magic; a simple spell could conjure elemental fire, which required no fuel and thus
produced no smoke. The caster likely gave it various conditions to regulate its heat and light. It
was a beginner’s spell, but always useful.
The room itself was beyond Spartan. The walls were plain, smooth, and uniform; it was
a mere box. A rectangular seal-like line that resided on one wall spoke of a door, but there was
no handle. She was laying on a series of throws layered into a soft cushion. The throws were
generic, though in varying colors; nothing special—just like the simple light spell. None of this
worried Raven.
The room smelled blank—neither of antiseptic like a hospital, nor smelled of nature or
city. She wasn’t sure what to think about that, but was glad they hadn’t decided to wipe the
room with Pine-Sol or something equally offensive. There was no sound beyond soft breathing
in the room, so it was likely sound proofed; the outside world might as well not exist. The
temperature of the room was... comfortable, neither warm nor cold. The overall feel of the room
was neutral. This didn’t bother Raven, either.
The entire room was white as paper... and so used. Someone had scrawled all over the
walls, but not with graffiti. She was completely surrounded by arcane symbols and shapes,
circles and lines. Raven recognized most of the symbols and stood up to examine them. That’s
when she noticed the floor covered in the same... The purple-haired girl’s eyes turned upward.
There, on the ceiling, were more inscriptions and designs. Raven’s insides squirmed and
tightened in anxious apprehension.
This wasn’t good. In fact, Raven would have gone as far to say this was bad—very bad.
She turned to the other occupant of the room.
About ten feet away from the demi-Demon, atop another set of throws, resided the one
and only bad luck mercenary, Jinx. The pink-haired girl was alive and seemingly uninjured, if
unconscious. The Titans had employed her a few times, much to their benefit. It had taken a
while to convince Nightwing that Jinx wasn’t one of the hardcore criminals... she was just
making a living the best way she knew how. The fact that Jinx was a regular hodge-podge of
activity also hampered her efforts. She performed random jobs for Deathstroke, lent security
services to foreign high rollers taking a vacation in America, took various repossession jobs, and
played cards with the Warden of JC Correctional on the weekends. Jinx had many allies, but few
true friends that she trusted...
Raven worked well with Jinx after their rivalry had been set aside. She couldn’t say she
was one of Jinx’s true friends, but there was something there. Their friendship was a very odd
one, compared to her friendship with the other Titans. The purple-haired girl figured it was
likely due to their common ground in the arts of magic. That didn’t quite cover everything,
however. She always sensed a strange, less-than-professional confidence from Jinx... a peculiar
degree of trust between them. Sometimes, she sensed a slight, practically subliminal anxiety
from the other girl. There was no lasting enmity between them and Jinx’s company was far from
disagreeable; in fact, Raven would say she didn’t mind the hex-caster’s somewhat whimsical
ways. However, outside of their professional partnership and easy friendship, Raven never gave
the girl enough thought to define those quirks. Of quirks, the pink-haired mercenary had many.
So long as they worked well together, that was enough. The fact that Jinx was here did
not vex Raven in the slightest. If anything, it made her position stronger. She had an ally.
Jinx rested on her side in civilian clothes, though utilitarian. She wore a black baby tee
with a cartoon, white-outlined, black bunny on the front; said black bunny had red eyes,
whiskers, mouth, and belly... Oh, and it had fangs. The shirt’s caption read ‘cute but kind of
evil.’ It fit the girl, Raven would admit. The thick, black belt was plain, but came with a bright,
silver buckle. Jinx had on a pair of purple cargo pants with some black and pink boots. Overall,
Jinx remained mobile and stylish.
The mercenary didn’t look troubled in her sleep, but the fact that someone managed to
sneak up on Jinx and get her here—wherever ‘here’ was—did not comfort Raven. It was
notoriously difficult to catch the sorceress unawares. A deeply paranoid streak ran bone-deep
through Jinx. When they were out in the field, Raven noticed early on that Jinx never slept in a
bed. She would lay on one, but never sleep. Whenever she was going to rest, she would take the
covers off the bed and stuff them somewhere in a corner, pad said corner with her pillow, and
pull her knees to her chest. Then the hex-caster would drape a blanket over her curled body, put
her head on her knees, and be asleep in less than two minutes.
Once the pink-haired girl was asleep, she would stay that way until something
happened... Otherwise, Jinx awoke promptly at 6 AM without an alarm. The mercenary claimed
it was an extremely adept internal clock. It was also near impossible to sneak up on her when
she slept. It didn’t seem to matter how quiet she was—something usually told Jinx someone else
was near. The one time she had managed it by floating instead of walking nearly got her
punched. As it was, Jinx suddenly popped up from her sitting position; Raven found herself
slammed to the wall by a hand on her throat before the covers completely fell to the ground. The
mercenary recognized her just a blink later and let her go, mumbling an apology. The demiDemon never attempted to sneak around the paranoid girl again...
At first, things were awkward, but she acclimated to Jinx’s habits over time. The pinkhaired girl’s attention to detail and her precise execution was more than worth any irregularities.
Besides, Jinx’s numerous quirks merely matched her own.
Between their various idiosyncrasies, they formed a strangely cohesive unit capable of
magic, melee, and strategy. Once again, Raven’s mind repeated: this was bad. Someone caught
Jinx by surprise and someone put them in a room Raven didn’t like. Said room looked
formidable at the very best, nigh perfectly and vexingly impassable at the very worst. Escaping
would take time, effort, and a truckload of patience.
In the meantime, Raven tried the direct approach. She blasted the door. The mystic
Titan’s eyes glowed with an unholy light and she summoned from deep within her a large well of
power from her soul-self... She hurled it, much like a battering ram, into that rectangular section
of the wall, but it yielded no response; not even a dent. It wasn’t that the walls of this room were
particularly hardy, either. It was the damnable glyph on the door and—more importantly—the
binding circle on the floor.
Raven wasn’t about to give up, however, and began canvassing the room, pushing with
her murky, mystical power, trying to find a crack in their cell that she could pry open. She
continued for several long moments to stretch her will across the whole of the room, but found
nothing. The demi-Demon could only push so much before the sheer force of it became
dangerous to wield in an enclosed area like this. She couldn’t risk herself or Jinx...
--Kamala came to as usual—immediately. She jerked upright, her feet under her and
placing her into a crouch almost instantly. Her head whipped around frantically. She couldn’t
remember going to sleep, which meant all was not well. Magenta eyes with wide, round pupils
swept across her new setting.
She was on a thick pile of very soft rugs, but the rest of the room was bare. Ground,
walls, ceiling... she took them in and noted the door-like structure; no handle, though. Light was
magic—elemental fire. Next, she noted Raven floating in meditation; she would get to her later,
she needed to case the rest of this place. Her eyes left the Titan, instead taking in the magic
element.
‘Oh... Not. Good.’
Kamala’s pupils slowly narrowed into tiny slits as she stared at the mass of geometric
designs and writings. The entirety of the room was covered in runes, glyphs, and ley guides—no
wait, the ley guides were actually just a smaller set of runes! There was also a rather
disturbingly intricate binding circle on the floor at the root of the energies’ flow.
‘Okay, okay... just work from the center out, like always...’
The binding circle took up most of the floor; large runes orbiting Jinx and Raven inside
this large, white cube. The whole thing appeared scripted in black paint or ink. The grounding
glyph resided in the middle of the room, feeding out of the binding circle’s runes. The ground
glyph sent the energy along what she first mistook for ley guides. They were actually what
appeared to be... channeling runes. It was antiquated by—by everyone’s standards, really, but
they were resilient due to their simplicity; no room for workarounds like there was in glyphs.
The channeling runes trailed out from the center of the circle of binding runes, traveled
up the walls about a quarter of the way before she saw nine ambience restriction glyphs. There
was a second set about three quarters of the way up the wall. That would keep magic from
bleeding out. On three of the walls, about halfway up, were constraint glyphs... Those were the
bars of their cage. And the lock? Resting on the door, the largest of the glyphs, was a
conditional ward.
The channeling runes ran all the way up the walls and onto the ceiling. Dead center of
the ceiling was a large glyph—almost as large as the conditional ward—set for some kind of...
magic funnel or something. She didn’t look at it too hard. That glyph was the tail end of the
spell that this entire room seemed geared to casting, anyhow.
‘Work from the center...’
From that ‘funnel glyph’ on the ceiling, more channeling runes lead back down the walls
to the grounding glyph in the middle of the binding circle. What the Hell? Well, that was the
loop. Everything followed proper direction—along the ley guides, even if they were done in
runes. A set of symbols ringed the room between the constraints and the second set of ambience
restrictions... Ugh, this hurt her head. She was sure those symbols, if she took the time to read
them, would be a release spell reinforcing the constraint glyphs. It meant they wouldn’t be
overpowering any single constraint to overload the circle. They’d have to overload them all, and
the sheer power required to do so would likely kill them both...
Finally, there was the dual-boundary, which defined the ‘working space’ of this spell. As
was typical, there was an octagon inside a circle. At least, she assumed such. The truth was that
the boundaries were set up across the walls and ceiling... If someone had drawn this entire
monstrosity of magic on a piece of paper, then folded said paper into a cube with all the writing
on the inside, Jinx imagined it would look something like this.
The summation was this: everything in this room flowed out from the binding circle.
And from there, redirected back into the binding circle. Someone had built an intricate,
sorcerous cage; it was self-containing, self-perpetuating. Its lock was a conditional glyph, which
meant something had to happen to act as they key. She had been to maximum security prisons
with less security than this. Kamala couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would bother to go to
such lengths.
Her eyes flared fuchsia. Sparks and arcs of pink hex-energy zapped along her body while
her hands practically flamed with entropic force. Someone snuck up on her—her, Jinx!—and
put her out. Someone kidnapped herself and Raven. Some asshole wannabe-wizard took a lot of
time to put her in this fancy little room.
It was too bad it was all going to waste.
--Raven opened her eyes after sensing the flare of entropy and broke out of her light
meditation. She watched Jinx as she glared at the conditional glyph. Clearly, she grasped the
situation. Nevertheless, she decided to put them both on the same page. They needed some clear
organization if they were going to get out of here anytime soon.
“We’ve been taken captive... I don’t know whom. The setup just-”
Jinx lashed her left hand out; a hex wave screamed across the room and slammed into the
conditional glyph. Normally, the mercenary’s inherent ability to enable mystical chaos would
seek out flaws in a magical system and break them down. A short-circuit in a faulty
motherboard, as Victor would describe it.
The entire room’s runes and glyphs glowed neon blue and seemed to blur and fluctuate.
After a couple seconds, the light faded... Her hex energy had done nothing. Kamala looked
dismayed. Her coral eyes blinked stupidly.
“-absorbs any mystical force we throw at it and ‘digests’ it; breaks it down into raw
magic to feed the strength of the spell,” Raven finished.
“...Fuck.”
Raven’s voice bordered on monotone, but Jinx could hear the annoyance in it. She
glanced back at the conditional ward, and then regarded their room. She rolled her shoulders and
shucked her disbelief and outrage at the situation; they wouldn’t help. Kamala donned her
mercenary professionalism like a suit of armor; her pupils rounded just slightly and the young
woman took in everything around her with a critical gaze.
“So somebody versed in this type of thing got the drop on us... and your teammates?”
Raven shook her head, “No idea.”
Jinx began walking around their room, slowly taking in the various runes; their precision
and measured spacing. It was too precise, too neat. The ethereal forces were often whimsical
and chaotic, given to randomness. Sorcery was often inexact and vague, and sometimes worked
more on theory and supposition than actual formula. In the occult arts, the general maxim was,
‘Sorcery: 75 percent Chance, 20 percent Will, and 5 percent Knowledge.’ Anybody who knew
their shit would tell novitiates never to build expectations or make assumptions concerning
forces of the supernatural. After all, this wasn’t math—it was magic.
Something didn’t add up.
“We’ll assume worst case scenario and hope for the best. Everyone’s locked up or dead;
we’re the only two with any hope of working this out. They need one or both of us for
something, or we’d likely already be dead or left out of this. It’s unlikely we’ll survive or be of
any use after the conclusion of this, so there’s possibly a time limit on our ‘free time.’ I don’t
know anyone this capable, so it’s extremely unlikely it’s the one of the usual rogue’s gallery on
the attack or a revenge bent. That means it’s an unknown enemy with unknown levels of
resource; we do know they have magical prowess. Our resources are limited and my hexes can’t
disrupt the magical field, implying that either something here is shielding the spell... or it’s
simply perfect and there are no flaws for my entropy to exploit.”
Already, Raven felt her spirits lifting. This was when Jinx shined; she took a scenario
apart, laid out all their facts, and almost unerringly found the best route. She always prepared for
the worst; this way, it was unlikely something would catch them by surprise. It also made things
seem easier when the worst wasn’t the case. And if it did become the worst case, they were
ready.
Jinx turned to her, “You take a look at this stuff while I was out?”
Raven nodded.
“What’re we looking at exactly?”
“It’s cliché, but effective. It’s a conditional ward; it won’t release until the condition is
satisfied.”
Kamala frowned, “So what’s the condition?”
The purple-haired girl was already shaking her head. This was where it got ugly. She
drew in a breath and plunged in.
“I have no idea. I haven’t worked through all the circles yet—it’s not in the binding
circle or the constraint glyphs. Whatever condition is sustaining the ward is somewhere in the
channeling lines...”
The hex-caster’s right eye developed a slight tic, “The channeling lines.”
“Yes.”
“The ones covering the whole rest of the room. The ones following the ley guides with
two sets of ambience restrictions... The ones running through the release spell inscribed in
runes—not expressed as a glyph, in runes—from floor to ceiling?”
Raven sighed, “Yes, Jinx. I would have exploited the release glyph if it had been
present... Whoever did this knew that and replaced the glyph with solid, rune-based channeling
to compliment the ley guides—which are also lined with channeling runes.”
“Raven, this is not good,” she said pithily, her frown deepening.
“I know.”
Kamala carried on, “Someone who knows enough to do something like this—someone
willing to take the time...?”
“I know, Jinx.” Raven turned and regarded the conditional ward imprisoning them with
narrowed eyes, “It means they know what they’re doing. They’re capable of just about anything.
We won’t likely know what they want until they tell us—if they tell us. In the meantime... if you
want to help me, start with the release runes on the walls leading to the binding circle. I’m trying
to work through how they set up the binding circle and conditional ward’s glyph. Work your
way in-”
The mercenary interrupted, “In? Who the fuck writes channeling runes inward? I know
the channeling flows whichever way it needs to and it doesn’t matter which way you write it,
but...” She ran her a hand through one of her hair horns. Then she squinted in irritation at the
ley guides spreading out from the grounding glyph, tracing one of them toward the walls—but
had to stop after eight runes. Read outward, the lines were nothing but gibberish. Goddamnit,
Raven was right. “You’d have to know exactly how long it was going to be to start from the
outside—from the last rune! I mean, what the Hell?”
The mystic Titan gave another utilitarian shrug, “My best guess is that they want anyone
looking at it to be frustrated. It’s more difficult to figure out how it works. It will take time, but
with both of us working from both ends, we’ll get the answer at the middle.
“This wasn’t something done with just research. Someone had to have pre-planned the
placement of every single rune in the channeling spell before they even began drawing the
binding circle. While they were at it, they kept in mind the placement of the binding circle and
the glyphs for the conditional ward, the constraints, and the ambience restrictions.
“None of that matters, however,” she insisted, even though the thought was slightly
overwhelming. How long did it take to put something like this together? How long would it
take them to go through it? In the end, Raven simply didn’t have the answer. She firmly
continued, “We need to find a flaw or loophole in the spell to exploit... That means going over
every rune in the channeling; tearing apart the glyphs’ functions; and analyzing every facet of
their binding circle’s purpose down to the last rune, glyph, and ley guide...”
Jinx’s expression became more determined, “Right. Gotta start somewhere.”
--A short time passed. The girls continued to scrutinize the ensorcelled room. Both had
frowns very evident from the complex setup achieved with such simplistic resources. Sure, this
room had to have taken time and planning, but it wasn’t a difficult thing to do, if one knew what
they were doing. What boggled their minds was just how their captor did it. The fact that there
were no inherent flaws—the dedication to accuracy—just compounded their problem.
Suddenly, Jinx angrily exclaimed, “That complete, fucking asshole!”
Raven paused in her deciphering. It had been relatively quiet as they worked through
their respective sides of the enchantments. Jinx’s outburst warranted her attention—at the very
least, to see what had incensed the pink-haired sorceress. Kamala’s face screwed up in
consternation.
“What is it?”
“I fucking knew there was a reason this didn’t look right,” Kamala spat as she jabbed a
finger toward the channeling lines, “You can’t even read it straight backwards. The goddamn
channeling is done by Three.”
Raven’s brows rose and—despite her knowledge that Jinx was more than capable in the
mystic arts—was unable to keep herself from questioning it. It wasn’t that she really doubted the
girl, but it seemed unlikely that someone would do something like that. The ludicrous features of
this room were starting to get to her.
“...Are you sure? By Three?”
“Yes, goddamnit—there are three concurrent threads of enchantment in these channeling
lines. Each enchantment is spaced everything fucking third rune! I’d have to start out, work my
way in, and then do it two more times for this line to make any sense at all!”
Kamala whipped around, her arms flailing in frustration as though to backhand their
captor. Her eyes blazed heatedly with hot pink hex and glared at the entire magical assembly.
Her teeth gritted and a quiet but insistent, felid growl filled the room.
“Backwards and by Three—the whole goddamn thing,” Jinx ranted, “It’s fucking absurd,
even if they figured out the exact spacing and number of runes, they made it flow properly in
triplicate without any conflicts! My hex would have disrupted it all otherwise.”
Raven reluctantly nodded, “And because they did it by Three, it automatically and
exponentially increases the power of the spell thrice over, hence why we can’t simply overpower
it... Each glyph touching the channeling lines is 27 times more powerful than it would normally
be.
“Worse, they’ve also used the same manner of numerical enhancements throughout the
whole of it. There are three constraint glyphs, and two sets of nine ambience restriction glyphs.
So whoever did this has things done the channeling and constraints by Three, the ambience
restriction by Nine...”
The purple-haired Titan could see the other girl getting more irritated, “So it’s 27 times
27 times... and also squared nine to the ninth-”
Jinx cut her off, “Don’t make me do math right now, my head hurts enough already.”
The mercenary girl paced the width of the room once and then walked to the far wall,
staring at the constraint glyph there. Rage bubbled up within her and she lashed out at her
prison. She viciously kicked the conditional ward, making their room briefly flare in neon blue
once again as it absorbed the force.
“This’s fuckin’ psychotic!” she snarled.
“Jinx,” Raven began soothingly. She had to keep the hex-caster calm—for her own sake
as much as Kamala’s. She could feel the waves of impotent anger and frustration rolling off the
other girl. Raven continued softly, “calm down. We can’t accomplish anything if we break
down.”
The pink-haired girl continued to seethe for a moment. Slowly, however, her eyes lost
their coral glow and revealed rounded pupils. Jinx looked ready to pounce on someone.
“When I meet whoever did this face-to-face...”
When Kamala trailed off, Raven was quick to interject, “Let’s get out of here before you
finish that thought.”
--Ten minutes later, Kamala rubbed her eyes and stopped looking at the runes. Reading
every third rune and trying to keep them in mind as she attempted to decipher even the first of
the three threads was more than annoying. It hurt. Her eyes felt strained and her temples were
starting to throb. She needed a break. Judging by Raven’s silence and the deep frown upon her
face, she imagined the mystic Titan wasn’t faring much better.
“Okay, I need a break.”
Jinx wandered over to a corner and sat down. Then she closed her eyes and took a few,
deep, cleansing breaths. Frustration was just beneath the surface and she was holding it back
only by her focus on the task. While it had worked to blot out most everything but what she
needed to do, taking a break brought it all back. For now, however, she refused to bother
contemplating the damn channeling lines.
“I’m not doing much better; I think I’ll join you. The binding circle is mostly selfreferencing, but I don’t see any conflicts,” Raven said as she took up in another corner, “If this
setup were only more... complicated, somehow... I’m sure we would have found something. All
they’ve done is woven simple spells together—in very intricate ways. Unless they made a rookie
mistake somewhere in all of this, I’m not seeing much in the way of exploits.”
“Nnf,” Kammie noised.
A silence draped over them for a few minutes before anyone said anything. Kamala
debated a short nap. The only problem was that she was getting a bit hungry; it was nearing
lunchtime, her internal clock told her, and the pink-haired girl didn’t like to miss meals. The
more time they remained inactive, the less they accomplished—and the hungrier the sorceress
would become. Before she could weigh the values of sleep versus work, Raven spoke again.
“What’s this...?”
Kamala lifted her head and stared inquiringly.
“There’s a sigil in my corner. It looks like a simple scrying sigil; tight bindings—nothing
new there—but it looks two-way. I can’t activate it, though; there’s a restriction in the circle.”
The mercenary frowned, “A two-way scrying-... You mean it’s a mage-phone?”
Raven blinked at her, assimilating the phrase. She’d never heard that one. At the purplehaired girl’s blank stare, Jinx smiled a bit. She scooted to the side and glanced at her corner;
there was a sigil in her corner, too. Kamala got up to check the other corners—it was the same.
“We jokingly call ‘em mage-phones ‘cause that’s exactly how they function. Before the
invention of phones and satellites, mages would speak over distance using simple, tightly bound
scrying sigils. Free, unlimited calling with long distance—days, nights, and weekends... but no
Caller ID ‘cause the sigils only dial to one ‘number’: the corresponding sigil or sigils.
Apparently, ours is a glorified PA-system.”
Raven nodded. She knew about the scrying sigils, but hadn’t ever given them any
thought. She watched as Jinx checked the other two corners. Then the hex-caster met her eyes.
“Obviously, they plan on speaking to us. Otherwise, these things are pointless. I can’t
imagine our captor or captors putting useless things in these rooms. This setup is entirely too
utilitarian and precise.” Kamala took a breath and made a suggestion that didn’t set well with
her, “We could just stop wasting brain cells on this room and wait for them...?”
Raven considered it—was heavily inclined to agree—but couldn’t bring herself to do
nothing, “Much as I’d like to, I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t at least make the attempt.”
Kamala bobbed her head, having already expected Raven’s answer. She stretched and
sighed, “Well... We might as well get back to work, then.”
--Sometime close to 11:30, the ‘mage-phones’ lit with soft, blue-white light. It
immediately caught the girls’ attention and they paused in their inspection of the room. It was
best not to lose their place and have to start over, after all. A soft hum sounded, and backlit a
voice that emanated throughout the room. Raven and Jinx gravitated to the middle of the room,
awaiting the inevitable.
“As you are no doubt aware, you are unable to leave this room. The chamber is warded
and the door will not open unless its condition is met.”
The voice itself was feminine, sounding average and adult, but not old. Its disposition
was calm and it spoke with an unhurried, assured tone. The personable nature did not belie
ulterior motives or mocking undertones. Overall, it didn’t sound like the typical villain.
However, it was firm and straightforward.
Raven kept her tone even, “What condition did you place on the ward?”
The forthcoming voice answered succinctly, “It’s a passion filter. It’s set to a certain
threshold that you must overcome before it will dispel. As an empath, I’m sure you understand
that you cannot trick the ward.”
Jinx frowned. This person had done their homework. Raven’s nature as an empath
wasn’t widely known. In fact, most of the world at large was unsure just what Raven’s powers
were. The public consensus was that she was a magic user, but that didn’t narrow anything
down—not with the vast and myriad fields involved.
“Passion,” Raven reiterated with a tone that hinted at her annoyance.
“Yes,” the voice replied.
Now Kamala dubiously glanced around the room, inspecting the setup. She wasn’t about
to scour the channeling lines to check if the voice’s answer was truthful. A headache wasn’t in
the plans, atop everything else that had been unexpectedly dumped on her. The mercenary
crossed her arms.
“And... how are we supposed to reach this threshold? You can’t just force someone to
feel something... Not without the proper wards, which aren’t included on any of these walls.”
Jinx paused, wondering if she should add more. What the Hell, she figured; maybe she could get
their captor to reveal something more. “We’ve checked.”
The voice seemed almost amused, “The threshold isn’t terribly high. I would dare say
that a few minutes spent kissing would meet the requirements of the ward.”
Kamala flushed hotly and brightly. She couldn’t help but let her eyes surreptitiously
slide toward Raven. She daren’t turn her head fully to look at the mystic Titan, lest her head
burst into flames. Her gaze quickly dropped to the ground, quietly contemplating their strange
situation.
Raven was less than pleased, “And what if we’re not capable of feeling passion?”
Jinx’s brows furrowed slightly, but she said nothing.
“You were carefully observed and selected. You wouldn’t be here if you were not
capable of meeting the requirements of these rooms, I assure you.”
“There’s more than one room?” Raven asked with a squint of disbelief.
The voice answered simply, “There are three leading to the main chamber.”
Kamala leaned closer to Raven and hissed, “Three rooms like this? One room like this is
intense; two is beyond obsessive. Raven... this is getting scary. This is not some idle shit.
Whatever this gal wants, she wants it bad—and it’s probably big.”
Raven nodded almost imperceptibly to Jinx, but continued to speak to their faceless
captor, “Why are we here? What do you want?”
“Actually, there are sixteen chambers in total, but you will only be seeing four of them,”
the unidentified woman corrected.
Kamala’s mouth opened, and then closed. Afterward, she blurted, “Holy fuck!”
There were fifteen rooms like this? And a main chamber to boot? It quite nearly shortcircuited Kammie’s mind. She almost asked how long it took the woman, but wasn’t sure she
wanted to know.
“The five branches of this structure each have three areas, housing couples like
yourselves. Once you pass through each of the three doors in your branch, you will enter the
main chamber. After everyone reaches the main chamber, you will be released.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” the mystic Titan prompted.
There was only a slight pause, as though the voice was preparing itself, “You are, for lack
of a better word, the battery for a rather involved spell. You will participate in its casting by
providing the necessary energies.”
“I am not going to power any spell without knowing what I’m helping to cast.” Raven’s
brow crept further down her face in indignation. “I’m not sure I’d help you even after I knew
what you were doing.”
“You’ll have to forgive me; I couldn’t risk your refusing,” responded the contritesounding voice, “If I thought I could accomplish this another way, I would have approached you
differently. Unfortunately, this is too important.”
Raven crossed her arms and positively scowled, “You’re being evasive. What spell are
we powering with these enchanted rooms?”
“It is a Demonic summoning.” The voice continued heedless of Raven, who inhaled
suddenly and sharply. The purple-haired girl’s eyes were wide and her jaw clamped tightly with
disbelief and outrage. “It’s not an overly complicated summoning, but it does take more power
than I have. Finding enough powerful mages willing to help me with this would have been
unfeasible, obviously. That is why I took the choice from you; I don’t need the other mages,
now... just the energy you will provide.”
The demi-Demon vehemently shook her head, “I am not helping anyone summon any
Demon!”
The voice sighed broodingly. Kamala thought she detected some impatience amidst the
disappointed exasperation. Jinx was letting Raven do most of the talking, as it allowed her to
focus more on the voice—on picking out anything that might help them. So far, the woman
sounded earnest, but Kammie would be the first to discard that. She wouldn’t take anything at
face value, just yet... not before they’d even seen, and possibly punched, this lady’s face.
“I suppose you are rather biased, given your nature and history. However, I know you
are well aware that Demonic summonings occur regularly around the world. What I am doing is
no large affair.”
The hex-caster’s only sign that she was surprised was a triple blink. Knowing Raven was
an empath and knowing that she was a demi-Demon were two different things. That level of
knowledge, which the League and the Titans kept quiet, wasn’t something most people found
themselves privy. Kamala didn’t know how Raven got her Demon blood, the likely sordid and
dark details surrounding the mystic Titan’s conception... but she knew where the purple-haired
girl got it. Jinx hadn’t pushed for more information after learning that the powerful demiDemon’s father was none other than Trigon the Terrible—the very Trigon that Raven had killed
two years ago during the crisis of his second, calamitous resurgence. She discerned it was a
sensitive topic, and trusted the mystic Titan to tell her when the girl was ready.
Raven took a calming breath, forced to admit the truth of the voice’s assertion. It still
didn’t sit well with her, though. She decided to ask outright for clarification, “Who are you
trying to summon?”
The amused tone returned, “Oh, it’s no one you would know... I am summoning a
Greater—a High Greater, to be specific. Nobody even close to your caliber of Arch, Scath, I
assure you.”
Kamala’s pupils rounded and she turned wide eyes to Raven, “Did... did the disembodied
voice just call you ‘Scath?’ As in the Arch Overlord of the Eighth Hell Dimension?”
“The Eighth isn’t a Hell Dimension, that’s just a misconcep-...” The demi-Demon shook
her head, “Look, that’s not important right now. We need to get out of here.”
“I have given you the necessary information to free yourselves, Scath. The chambers are
not overly complicated. I shall explain the requirements to pass to the next chamber as you reach
them, as I will do for the other four couples.
“That said, as there are four other couples, I will be doing a bit of multitasking.
Depending on how fast you move through the chambers, I might be busy with one of the others.
Please have patience.”
The voice had all the pleasant candor and mannerism of a restaurant waitress. Suddenly,
she imagined one of those anime waitress types with a cute, pink apron and a tall, blue wizard’s
hat as seen in Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Kamala shook her head. This was no
restaurant and their captor was no Mickey Mouse. The mental image was likely just a product of
her addled brain.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, some of the others are coming around.”
The light from the sigils swiftly faded away, leaving the two girls to their own devices.
Kamala blinked and shook her head again. She wasn’t sure she believed the voice. It was
entirely possible that, once they played their part, they would be sacrificed to the Demon or... or
any number of things! She didn’t like this anymore than Raven, but there wasn’t much else to
do. If it came down to the very worst case, Raven and she would have to fight this High
Greater—if the Demon was, in fact, a High Greater and not something bigger and nastier.
Speaking of Raven, she had learned something new today and needed the other girl to
clear some issues.
“...Raven?”
“Hn?” the demi-Demon all but grunted, still clearly galled by their captor.
“Why did she call you ‘Scath’? I thought that was Trigon’s title... I also thought you
killed him. As in no-more-Scath dead...”
Raven pinched the bridge of her nose and huffed, “You said it yourself, Jinx; Scath is a
title. ...There will always be a Scath. When I fought my father, I did more than destroy him. I...
I didn’t want him coming back, I was afraid I wouldn’t manage to survive if there was a next
time. I had to make sure he could never regather his essence and return.”
The sorceress acknowledged this with a slow nod, “Okay?”
“I knew if I left even a part of him to recoup, he might just coalesce—no matter how long
it took or how difficult it was. I was just so scared that he’d...” The purple-haired girl sighed
and forced herself to say it, “I did more than destroy his physical form; I devoured his ethereal
essence. I tore him asunder, drank from his blood, and snuffed the flame of his Demon-core...
Trigon no longer exists—in any sense of the word.”
Kamala hadn’t expected Raven to say something like that. A cannibalistic response like
that was commonplace in the Demon Realm, she knew, when confrontations were met with
embittered and lethal force. Where subjugation was not an answer, where quarter could not be
found, Demons would often absorb all that their opponent was and take that power for
themselves. Still, she knew that Raven had not grown up in that kind of setting; to do something
like that must have disturbed her greatly. Jinx knew that the girl had some fairly strict codes of
behavior—ones that went beyond merely being a Titan.
She’d been quiet too long. Raven shifted uncomfortably, obviously bothered by her
silence. Before she could say something, the demi-Demon nervously spoke up again to fill the
stifling lull.
“In... that way,” Raven finished, looking away from the pink-haired girl, “I gained the
mantle of Scath through—through Rite of Succession.”
“I understand,” she said.
Amethyst eyes turned to regard her with careful reserve.
“You couldn’t take that chance—I wouldn’t have, either. You did what you had to do.
Frankly, I think a lotta people would thank you for that. Hell, with your new power, you coulda
picked up where Trigon left off... but all you did was change things back to the way they were.”
Raven shrugged, “Most of the League is uneasy, now. They were worried before—about
how powerful I was becoming and how dangerous I would be if I gave in to my father’s
influence. ...It didn’t get better after Trigon’s final demise. All they saw was a demi-Demon
even stronger than Trigon.”
“The League always had problems seeing things from an objective perspective. I
imagine that’s pretty difficult when their heads are so far up their asses,” Kamala said with a
derisive scoff.
The mystic Titan tried to stifle her sudden and boisterous chuckle, but merely wound up
with an even more mocking sound of barely suppressed snickers. Jinx laughed outright at the
sound, which caused Raven to lose all composure. Their mirth didn’t subside for several
minutes. Every time their eyes would meet, one of them would begin to chuckle again, and a
new volley of chuckles and giggles would fill the room.
As the calmed, Kamala gently broached the topic, “Um... so about getting out of here?”
She tried to keep her tone light. Her stomach was full of butterflies and she fought back a
blush. She wasn’t sure where Raven stood, but she had always assumed the girl was straight.
Unfortunately, a disguised Dragon wasn’t a great indicator of sexuality. She knew, however,
that the girl wasn’t averse to relationships. That didn’t give her a clear picture of how to
approach the issue, though. Raven did state something about being incapable of feeling
passion—was that a way of saying she wasn’t interested?
“I hate to say it, but we’ll just have to keep looking over the binding,” Raven reasoned
with her usual deadpan tone, “At our current rate, that could take hours, maybe even a couple
days... That doesn’t even guarantee we’ll find anything. Failing that, I’m not sure what to do.”
So saying, Raven returned to her place by the conditional ward and resumed her scrutiny
of its workings. The demi-Demon missed the look of perplexity upon the hex-caster’s face. Jinx
hadn’t moved from her spot in the middle of the room to continue her own work.
That hadn’t been what she meant. Raven completely misunderstood her. The twinge of
frustration gave way to a slight anxiety; maybe the other girl understood her perfectly. Maybe
this was Raven’s way of shooting down the mere suggestion that they kiss. The more Jinx
thought about it, the more it aggravated her. Didn’t she warrant some kind of
acknowledgement—at least a straightforward declination? The mystic Titan just tossed the idea
out of hand and refused to address it.
The pink-haired girl stalked to the corner she’d initially sat in before their captor
contacted them. There she sat again and crossed her arms almost belligerently, not even trying to
help decipher the room’s warding. Kamala subsided into a silent, angry sulk.
‘She won’t even look at me. She’s just going to stand over there and pretend the whole
conversation with that bitch summoner never happened. Looking over those runes with that ohso-thoughtful frown, scrabbling for some way—any way—out of here... any way that doesn’t
involve some simple intimacy, of course. What the Hell? Seriously, our options are limited and
we can’t do anything from this room. We need to get to that main chamber!
‘What’s so bad about kissing me, anyhow? Am I just that repugnant to her or is it the
idea of kissing another woman? Raven never struck me as a homophobe, but this is more serious
than that!’ Jinx mentally ranted, her frustration growing with every passing minute. Her eyes
cut to the side, now staring at one of those stupid constraints, ‘There’s a High Greater Demon on
the way and she’s going to stand there staring at the wall because... because there’s something
wrong with kissing me? It’s not like it would even go anywhere! We’d do what we have to, like
always; I’m not expecting a date out of her or anything.
‘I mean, I wouldn’t mind if she wanted to date me, but this really isn’t the place or the
time to deal with that kind of issue. Just because I haven’t gotten up the courage to ask her out
myself doesn’t mean I’ll be all over her! ...What. The. Hell? Does she think I’d jump her like
some nymphomaniac bitch in heat? Or if she kisses me, that’ll somehow change her—make her
a dreaded lesbian? Like all of the sudden, she’d be stuck in a jar and labeled a freak?’ she
darkly wondered. Her fingers tightened on the arm sleeves where she crossed her arms,
clenching them and likely giving herself little, red hand-mark lines. ‘She didn’t say anything,
either! Didn’t even give the thought a chance, as if it could never happen—not in a million
fuckin’ years—and thusly, of course, it wasn’t worth the time to waste thinking on it. Like I’m
not worth the time to consider...
‘I thought we were allies. Hell, I thought we were friends. Now she’s just gonna make us
fester here ‘cause she can’t... can’t get her hands dirty or somethin’? Gods all, she’s gorgeous
but infuriating—so fuckin’ infuriating! I never thought I’d be this pissed at her, but come on!
Would it really be that bad?’ she silently seethed.
--Raven leaned forward and stared at the glyph in consternation. The requirement of
passion couldn’t be fooled, but perhaps the threshold could. She wasn’t betting on it, though.
How the Hell does one measure passion, anyhow? It was an emotion—and from speaking with
her own, she knew they didn’t exactly come with a manual and gauges. The longer she looked at
the room, the more infuriated she became.
The demi-Demon paused. That wasn’t right; she wasn’t feeling anything close to
infuriation. Aggravation was present, yes, but not fury... It was affecting her, though—was
permeating the air and clinging to her. She straightened, putting some slight distance between
herself and the wall, where she had been scrutinizing a smaller line of the glyph. Raven blinked.
Suddenly, she turned around to look at Kamala.
The girl wasn’t even looking at the channeling runes; she was back in the same corner
she had been when they were taking a break. Furthermore, she could sense a roiling frustration
steadily mounting within the sorceress. More disconcertingly, all that perplexing irritation was
aimed at her. Raven blinked again.
“What’s wrong?” she asked in a modulated, level voice. They didn’t have time to dance
around the issue if they were going to escape, so Raven forewent any tact.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Jinx succinctly stated, but her likewise flat tone clearly contradicted
her.
“Jinx...”
Kamala still refused to look at her, still glancing at some random part of the wall to her
left, “If you’d rather stay locked in here than stop the summoning, that’s fine, but I’m not going
to waste my time with this ward inspection shit. The woman obviously knows what she’s doing.
We’ll have to play by her rules to stop her.”
“I can’t, Jinx.” The mystic Titan took a calming breath, trying not to let the other girl’s
attitude get to her. “I already told both you and her that.”
Finally, the hex-caster glanced at her from the corner of her eye. When she spoke, her
voice was deceptively calm and even, “Why not? It’s not like it’d kill you. The moment she
mentioned us kissing, you balked. I at least deserve to know why we’re not in the second room,
by now. What’s wrong with me, Raven?”
Raven rubbed at her temples with the thumb and middle finger of her right hand, closing
her eyes briefly, “It’s not you, Jinx, it’s me.”
The pink-haired mercenary snorted at the cliché line.
“I ‘balked’—as you put it—at the mention of feeling passion, not at kissing you. I told
you about Trigon. You know that he used my emotions, both positive and negative, as a conduit
to influence me and gain purchase in this realm.” This seemed to knock Kamala out of whatever
acerbic attitude suffused her; she frowned at Raven. The heroine continued, “You also know
that I was raised to control my emotions; I’m stunted in that way. For years, I learned to
dissociate them from... everything. Now that he’s gone, I still have almost twenty years of
habitual repression to break. It’s not easy changing something so essential to me for all my life,
something impressed very, very deeply upon me by the monks of Azarath.
“When I say I can’t feel passion, I mean it in a very literal sense, Jinx. I feel things like
everyone else, but it’s comparatively muted. Passion is a strong emotion and I haven’t... I
haven’t gotten around to feeling that intensely, yet. I’m not even sure if I could keep control of
my powers if I did. It could be dangerous—I might wind up unleashing my soul-self and
purging the immediate area of all life or something.”
Raven shrugged, “I don’t know... I’m afraid to test it where I might endanger others. It
might seem silly to you, but when I want to feel—or when someone says or does something that
should make me feel... I go to my room. I hide there and let my emotions have their say. That
way, I can figure out just what, how much, and why I am feeling whatever it is... and if it’s safe
to feel that way.”
Kamala was staring at her.
“Doing that might seem simple to everyone else, but I’m just now learning to do that.
Most people have done it all their life. As such, it’s so natural to them that they don’t give it any
thought. I don’t have anyone to really teach me, so I’m learning by trial and error.”
After a moment of silence, Jinx sighed, “Sorry.”
“You didn’t know. Even my teammates are still in the dark—I don’t want to tell them
before I know I can safely feel like everyone else. Otherwise, they would feel disappointed or
pity me... That would be very uncomfortable.” She thought back to a recent occurrence, “Last
month I saw Nightwing and Starfire kissing. I felt something—I wasn’t sure what, but it was
big. I almost panicked; I teleported to my room as quick as I could before something happened.
“I let myself go, thinking I was angry. I couldn’t imagine why I was angry, but I let
myself feel it anyway. My Kinder- und Hausmärchen book exploded and I had to order another.
Eventually, after several meditation sessions over the course of four days, I discovered I was
feeling jealousy. It wasn’t for either of them, but for what they were feeling and how easily they
showed it to each other...
“I couldn’t—I can’t do that.”
Kamala grimaced, “I’m sorry, I just thought that... that you were disgusted or something
and-”
“Jinx,” Raven interrupted with a small smirk, “if all it took was kissing you to get out of
here, we would have already been through the door.”
The pink-haired girl flushed and looked at her knees. After a few seconds, she went out
on a limb, “Are—are you sure you can’t? I mean... what if we tried? At least then you’d know
if you could or not.”
“That... could be dangerous,” Raven hesitantly admitted.
“If you start to feel, er, overwhelmed, we could always stop and you could meditate to
calm yourself down, right?”
Raven considered it and nodded very slowly, “I suppose... I just don’t want to hurt you.
I told you what happened to one of my books. There’s nothing else here but you and me. I
wouldn’t like to see you explode.”
“Yeah, exploding isn’t really on my agenda,” Jinx remarked, her small grin returning, “I
still trust you to know if things are getting volatile, though. After all, it’s not like you’re a novice
at self-control.”
Kamala’s trust in Raven made the purple-haired girl smile a little bit. It gave her faith
that maybe everything would be okay. The two of them really did work well together, so
perhaps she would be able to do this. Maybe Jinx could help her with these feelings. She wasn’t
quite sure how, but the mercenary always seemed to get her in ways that few others did. She
could try this—if Kamala thought she could do it, she would try.
--“If we do this, can—can we go slow?” the purple-haired girl asked, shifting her weight
somewhat nervously.
‘Oh, God, she’s adorable. And she’s talking about kissing—me! She actually wants us to
kiss! This is awesome!’ the sorceress exclaimed to herself. She smiled brighter and moved over
to the mystic Titan. Stopping just a few feet from her, Jinx felt her insides flutter with
anticipation and a strange serenity. The calm spread through her and she assured the demiDemon, “Sure. We can go as slow as you want. We’ll do whatever you want to do, whenever
you feel ready to do it.”
Raven nodded, her eyes trailing away from Kamala, “Okay... S-so, um... how do we do
this?”
The bashful display partly puzzled Kamala, who tilted her head to the side just a bit,
“Hm?”
“W-well, I’ve never done any-...” she trailed off, a rosy hue blossoming across her pale
countenance. Finally, Raven just blurted, “I’ve never kissed anyone before.”
The hex-caster stared stupidly for close to ten seconds. The other girl fidgeted. As the
words finally sank into Kamala’s surprised mind, a series of half-formed thoughts and images
ran through her skull. Those vertical pupils slowly widened and she couldn’t help the wide grin
that split her face.
‘She’s never...? Really? That means... I get to give Raven her first kiss!’ Kamala nearly
hopped in excitement. ‘Oh, Vishnu, by your grace—many, many thanks! Whatever karma led
me here... thank you, thank you, thank you for every second of it!’
Nearing half a minute of silence, Raven was now staring at her strangely. No doubt, the
empath was sensing some very ebullient vibes swarming about Kamala’s mind. The pink-haired
girl was practically humming with gratitude and enthusiasm. The axe-murderer grin probably
didn’t help.
“Sorry! Sorry... I was just-” Jinx began, then stopped and tried to moderate her speech—
to keep slow and calm. It was difficult when she felt like bursting into a giggling jubilation. She
shook her head, “Never mind. It’s okay. I’ll show you. There’s a lot of ways to kiss, so don’t
worry yourself with ideas about the right or wrong of it.”
“But... in the old movies, they always did it the same way. There’s always that—that
swell of music that made it seem so dramatic and important and the whole embrace and the kiss
and... and y-you know...”
Kamala’s expression was serene as she waved that away, “Movie sensationalism—‘less
you got mood music, I guess. Even that has a limited effect. But I’ll tell you; sometimes a kiss
is so powerful, that even if there was a full symphony and a thousand cameras, it would all seem
to disappear.”
Raven stared unseeingly just over the mercenary’s shoulder, looking at something beyond
the walls. She appeared to be attempting to quantify Jinx’s statement, but only kept getting
random figures of ‘oh wow.’ Kamala wanted to give Raven that ‘oh wow.’ She wasn’t sure if it
would be possible, considering the things they had previously discussed... Nevertheless, the
sorceress was going to do her best to show the mystic Titan some magic.
“Don’t fret about that, though. Those kisses are super-special... usually from a superspecial person in your life. And don’t worry if the kiss isn’t like what you’ve heard—we’re not
going for broke here, so it probably won’t be going all intense, anyhow. ...Not if you don’t want
to,” she amended.
Raven nodded. Jinx put her hands on Raven’s upper arms, resting them lightly. She
smirked just a bit—but it was a lighthearted and genuine smirk. Raven liked it, honestly.
“Here, let’s break the ice.”
With that, Jinx leaned forward and rested her lips lightly against Raven’s own. She
remained only a few seconds and pulled back. She didn’t push and didn’t linger. Leaning back a
bit, she took inventory of Raven’s expression. The girl’s eyebrows had shot up and the demiDemon’s deep, purple eyes were staring almost shocked at the hex-caster’s coral-hued pair.
“There—now there’s no pressure. You’ve officially had your first kiss. Was that okay?”
Raven blinked and let out a slow breath, “I... I, uh... yeah, um—it was... Yeah.”
“Heh, weren’t quite expecting that, I guess, huh? Sorry. But it’s good you liked it. Do
you feel up to doing it again? Want to try a little bit more?”
Raven was quick, maybe just a tiny bit too quick in her opinion, to nod her assent.
“Try closing your eyes this time.”
The pink-haired girl pulled in again, taking half a step closer to Raven while keeping the
other girl in place by that light grip on the Titan’s arms. Their faces closed distance and the
demi-Demon’s eyes slid shut, hiding the polished amethyst gems. The kiss began as the one
before it, but persisted in length. Kamala broke a few times, but always renewed the sweet
touch. The girl’s lips were so soft, and Jinx couldn’t content herself with one, mere, simple kiss.
Raven didn’t pull away. By the third small kiss, Kamala found her rather inviting. The
purple-haired girl tilted her head up just a bit to increase the contact. Raven wanted more from
these simple touches. After gently planting several, lingering kisses to Raven’s irresistible
mouth, Kamala decided to up the ante and gave the girl a more insistent, but still chaste kiss.
The pressure incited a wonderful shiver through Jinx’s body—inside and out. She wasn’t sure if
Raven felt the same, but she did her best to give equal or better.
The Titan found that kissing Kamala brought up things unlike any other emotion she had
ever felt. The closest she could come was the serenity she felt when she meditated... but even
that was far too calm to describe this feeling accurately. It felt like a tingle that radiated out from
her lips, washing across her face like a cloud of steam and heating her cheeks, then electrically
crawling over scalp. Goosebumps alighted down her neck and her nerves slowly spread silent,
giggly babbles that worked throughout the rest of her body via her spine. This sensation wasn’t
uncomfortable or even overwhelming... It was surprisingly mild, but had invigorating potential
all the same.
Raven was content to allow this sensation to build, sure that it would transform into
something more. Jinx would do that for her—would show her which way to go. She hadn’t
really expected to enjoy this path as much as she currently was. All in all, the demi-Demon
allowed, it was a conversely pleasant experience.
Kamala did change the nature of their journey, coaxing Raven to tilt head up to her by the
increasing angle of several consecutive kisses. The concentration of her endearments slowly
began to focus on Raven’s lower lip with lighter, butterfly grazes until she moved in and
captured the protruding flesh between hers and tugging it gently. She let it go, only to repeat the
maneuver again, this time drawing it past her own lip and passing her tongue over it. Raven
drew in a slow, audible breath.
For a time, Kamala returned to their firm presses, reminding herself not to push too fast.
She didn’t doubt that her last action had roused a bit of Raven’s passion, but she was hoping to
ride a wave higher, not rocket up a ramp. They would get there in time if this kept up, and the
sorceress wasn’t in any rush to end things.
Jinx’s right hand was slowly sliding up and down Raven’s upper arm in a light,
reassuring motion. Her left hand was busy with rubbing a smaller area of Raven’s other
shoulder. As they continued to kiss, and the fervor with which they did so slowly increased, the
motions of her arms began to exaggerate and change as well. The right fell to the demi-Demon’s
elbow. Meanwhile, the left hand trailed along the top of her shoulder, and then slid to rest upon
the side of Raven’s neck. Her fingertips grazed the back of her neck and traced the nape, moving
Raven to shorter but deeper breathing. Conscious of not riling the Titan too quickly, fearing a
skittish reaction, the mercenary made no move to do more for several minutes.
This new level found the purple-haired girl on a higher ledge of delight—for Raven was
indeed delighted with these new feelings kindling inside of her. Jinx was giving her time to feel
and explore everything, to understand it and enjoy it before moving on. For all she was currently
feeling, the mystic half-expected to be at a breaking point by now. However, she felt complacent
and-... and surprisingly ready for more.
Then Kamala opened her mouth and gently licked at the seam of the other girl’s
accepting lips. It was not in the manner of a jab or a swipe, but much in the way a cat gently
paws at a door. Jinx entreated entrance—only that, and nothing more. It had its desired effect,
however. Raven’s jaw dropped just a bit, her lips parting to draw in another breath of stirred
expectancy. Kamala’s right arm moved, then; the hand slipped from her elbow to behind her and
settled upon the small of her back. The hex-caster drew her even closer, until their bodies were
flush and Raven could feel the warmth of the taller body through her leotard. It was as if Kamala
was trying to kiss her with her entire body...
Kamala’s other hand rose from her neck and tenderly cupped the left side of Raven’s
face. Raven leaned into the warm palm; a contented sigh escaped her. The pink-haired girl tilted
her head to the left, now pressing her open mouth to the nigh-dazed demi-Demon. Finally, her
tongue slid into Raven’s mouth, just a bit, and touched the girl’s own. Then it retreated and
repeated, continuing this almost teasing motion by degrees until the muscle convinced Raven to
play with it. Hesitantly, the purple-haired girl began to move her tongue, allowing Jinx to caress
it and lead it into reciprocal forays. Raven was silently sighing into the other girl’s mouth,
nearly panting with the rush of sensations beginning to burn inside her.
Raven’s hands felt drawn to Jinx’s sides, and so they went; there they held the pinkhaired girl just above the hips. Her fingers reflexively clutched at the fabric of Kamala’s shirt.
She couldn’t discern if it was to keep Jinx right where she was, doing exactly what she was
doing... or to provide an anchor, however tenuous, for fear of losing herself. Maybe it was a bit
of both. It did rather feel as though she could simply drift away—out of her body and nestle
somewhere deep within this kiss. That didn’t sound like too terrible a thing, just then.
‘Oh, Azar... Oh, wow. Oh, wow...’
‘Happiness...’ Raven started, but had to call more insistently to wrest attention away from
the kiss, ‘Happiness, please calm down. If you don’t settle, we might have to stop. I really,
really don’t want to stop...’
That warning made her building emotions ease just a bit in their frenetic nature, if not in
their intensity. The boiling feeling of excitement ebbed to a strong simmer. That was good—
Raven liked this intensity of emotion. Nothing was close to exploding and she was thoroughly
enjoying kissing Jinx.
For her part, Jinx was nearing a state of personal enlightenment. She would be content to
do this forever. It was almost rapturous, this bliss-filled, kiss-filled moment. She needed more,
wanted to be closer than close to Raven. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to melt into
the other girl. The hand on Raven’s back pressed just a bit firmer, until she could feel the other
girl from her knees to her lips, and still wanted more. Gods, she just couldn’t get enough of this
delectable demi-Demon.
The profound, almost soul-deep kiss set Kamala adrift in a paradisal sea until she was so
far out, she couldn’t see land. She could feel Raven’s warmth breaths brushing across her upper
lip and cheek, as heated as the emotions swirling inside her. That heat pooled in her belly; she
had moved beyond passion and now teetered on the brink of lust... Jinx somehow managed to
restrain herself, but knew that was temporary at best. It wouldn’t be long before the brewing
storm of her desire was upon them. She couldn’t push that on Raven, but it just wasn’t possible
for her to impede the steadily approaching prurience.
Raven and Kamala continued to kiss each other ardently, mouths working toward mutual
satisfaction, and it was several minutes before the purple-haired heroine noticed anything existed
beyond their all-encompassing, oral activities. Jinx’s thumb stroked her cheek in what seemed
adoration and the hand at her back slowly brushed up and down her lower spine with all the
comforting reassurance of a lover’s welcome home. The sorceress purred, the soft rumble
created minute vibrations against Raven’s chest. It wasn’t like a hum, and she barely felt it
where their mouths locked together. It was a unique and entrancing sound, a beautiful backdrop
to their kiss.
Beyond the physical, the emotions Raven felt sweeping off Kamala weren’t simple.
They weren’t the same kind of pleasures the demi-Demon was experiencing; there was
something weighty and personal that suffused and infused every emotion Jinx felt to an
exultant... almost exalting level. These feelings hadn’t—couldn’t have—developed over the
course of the past few hours. They were the same thing she’d envied feeling from Richard and
Kori, but this time it was all directed at her. Raven wasn’t sure what to think, but didn’t have the
mental faculties to examine anything, right now.
More aware of their actions than before, it was what allowed the demi-Demon to notice
the gentle bloom of light; it was a benignant, soft-white glow of the nearby conditional ward.
Cracking an eye open by the smallest of margins, she glanced out of the corner of her eye. She
felt a pulse of magic and saw the glyph grow hazy, semi-transparent, immaterial... then
disappear—along with a rectangular portion of the wall—to become a doorway to the next room.
She blinked lazily; it took her a full eight seconds to realize what that meant. Kamala’s
kisses were a potent factor of distraction and they addled her mind greatly... greatly and
wonderfully. She reluctantly pulled back from the kiss. The pink-haired girl’s forehead rested
against hers, and she could sense the wave of contentment and desire seeping from the sorceress’
whole being. Raven noted that Jinx’s thumb continued to gently and lovingly brush against her
cheek.
“Jinx-”
Kamala interrupted her with a couple of short, but bottomless kisses and Raven almost
fell into them. She was persistent and perhaps lucky to keep her senses long enough to get a
small portion of Kamala’s attention away from her mouth and onto her words.
“Jinx, the door’s open...”
“...Mm-hmm,” Kamala purred. It was a very small portion.
Raven found herself pulled into another lengthy and amorous clash. Their tongues
battled slowly with thrilling fervor. She almost considered pulling away and insisting they move
on, but that notion stood only a half-moment before Kamala’s tongue slaughtered it. All was fair
in love and war, after all. The purring swept away the corpses of her conscience’s army and
replaced them with an onslaught of enchanting kisses. Raven surrendered and let Kamala take
her spoils.
It was only when Kamala had to make a choice that she acknowledged the outside world.
It was either time to stop... or to move beyond this plateau—to attempt a seduction of this Titan,
this delicious demi-Demon. She knew that she wouldn’t force Raven into anything she wasn’t
ready to receive, however. While she might be able to overwhelm the girl’s sagacity and win
that prize, she wasn’t sure Raven was completely willing. If anything, Kamala wanted the girl to
take that journey with her fully lucid, not deliriously inundated in a tsunami of eroticism.
“Ji-...” the kiss-swollen lips breathed, “the—the door...”
Kamala didn’t try to speak; didn’t trust her own tongue at the moment. She worked to
get her breathing under control. Jinx wasn’t panting like a bitch in heat, but the sorceress knew
just how worked up she was. She smirked, considering how much their kiss merely exemplified
her earlier statement.
‘Super-special, indeed.’
--After a few moments, Jinx’s magenta eyes slid open; their pupils had rounded until they
almost hid the electric color. They focused on Raven, stared into her indigo hues. Her head still
resting against the mercenary, the heroine returned the gaze and saw the dark, liquid desire
swimming in their depths. The mystic Titan knew then and there that whatever Kamala felt for
her, it was far and away much more than the girl ever let on before. Sure, the kiss had been...
magnificent—and arousing, but that smoldering tempest of passion far exceeded Raven’s own.
She wondered if Kamala could have opened the door by herself with what she sensed.
As Jinx reined herself in, Raven finally caught her breath, “I, uh... We should talk about
this in more depth later, when we’re out of here.”
That seemed to clear Kamala’s fog and she leaned away from Raven with a forced calm,
nodding nervously. She imagined her feelings must be extremely transparent to the demiDemon, by now. Her eyes weren’t on the other girl; maybe on a wall, maybe somewhere on the
floor. They tracked worriedly and restlessly.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to... get so carried away, there. I’m normally not so-”
The heroine shook her head and cut off Kamala’s apology, “It’s fine—i-it was amazing, I
just-...”
Raven wasn’t clear on just what she had to say about it—even to herself—but she felt it
warranted some level of attention. There was no way she could simply forget about this, after
all. Whatever happened a few minutes ago, there was something to it and she wasn’t about to
just leave it alone. This was what she’d been sensing all along; it was the reason Jinx felt
differently about her than others, and why their friendship was different from that of her
teammates. It also threw into new light the extremely subtle butterflies of nervousness Kamala
had whenever they were alone. This was the root of all those quirks Raven had never before
questioned.
“For now, can you tell me why you never said anything?” Raven asked. She didn’t
explicate, it wasn’t necessary.
“I always... well, I thought you were straight. I didn’t want to say anything and make a
fool out of myself. Then everything woulda gotten awkward an’ it would stress on our
teamwork whenever I was hired for joint missions with you.” Kamala shrugged, “I’d rather keep
our friendship than destroy it by trying to turn it into something more.
“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here, either. What happened here was kind of...
an extraordinary situation. I’m not gonna push for anything or get strange around you. If you
wanna just go back to the way we were before all this, we can do that no problem.”
Kamala was lying, but she’d be damned if she admitted it. It would feel like guilt
tripping Raven into something. The last thing Jinx needed was some guilty conscience or wild
accusations flying during some future argument. It would be better to let Raven just believe she
would be fine with any decision they made.
Raven immediately declined that with a shake of her head, “No... no, I don’t think I want
to just stuff this in some dark corner. I’m not sure where any of this will go, but as I said: I think
we should sit down and talk about it later. We’ll figure out what we’re comfortable with having,
but it’s not going to stop our friendship.
“As for me being straight, that is a complication that was new to me when I first came
here. I left Azarath before I began my maturation phase—adolescence for a Human. As it turns
out, I don’t age like a Human. It would have been dangerous to draw my father to Azarath when
he sensed my body preparing for adulthood. So I left and came to back to the realm of earth and
men.” Here Raven snorted, though Kamala wasn’t exactly sure what part of that had been
amusing. The possibilities for someone like Raven were too numerous. The mystic Titans’
expression sobered, “Unfortunately, Trigon went to Azarath anyway and mostly destroyed it.
“Regardless, I was here—and I knew nothing about the world. The monks of Azarath
raised me to remain closed off from my emotions. There were... gaps... in my general education.
They didn’t even want me to think about the act of reproduction. I was never taught about it; I
never asked, either, because I was kept away from anything that might instill some kind of—of
dangerous curiosity or temptation.
“Any external influence that might give my father an edge had to be segregated; anything
that existed within me had to be crushed and severed. I never grew up with a bias or... honestly,
a knowledge that there could be more between people. At that point in my life, I didn’t even
have—wasn’t allowed to have—friends. How could I contemplate more? Back then, my life
was very... mechanical.”
Raven frowned, realizing the next part of her explanation was one she didn’t like
admitting, but she might as well put everything out there while she was still feeling forthcoming,
“In addition, it’s a well known fact that Demons don’t particularly discriminate—species, race,
gender—none of these really mean anything to them. To a degree, age has no bearing; if one is
mature, intelligent, and powerful enough to be blooded, they’re considered an adult. Physical
appearance might not factor in all that heavily, either.
“In following with that, you’ll understand I don’t easily discriminate, myself. It’s not a
matter of moral high ground; I just don’t really understand it. I never did... and sometimes I feel
like I still don’t. ...You could say that I don’t really have a sexual preference. I’m not even sure
if you being of a differing species or form would have made me bat an eye.”
Kamala canted her head to the side, staring at Raven as though contemplating something.
Raven concluded her recounting, “When I came here, I was twelve. I spent two years
observing life and learning about the things that I’d missed. All of it was still disconnected from
me, but I at least understood it—as best I could at the time. I’m aware of the various ways that
Humans carve up their lives, their need to order and categorize everything about themselves... I
just never felt like I fit into any of their formulae. I never felt a pull one way or another to any of
their—their sexual factions.” She flushed a bit and hastened to draw her bottom line, “S-so... If
you and I decided to attempt a relationship, gender would not be part of my considerations.”
Kamala’s face felt heated at the admissions and it made her feel almost high on the
elation and anticipation of the many paths that lied before them. A relationship with Raven
always felt so far away, but now it was looking like a very near development. The wording of
the monologue finally caught up to her.
Jinx’s face twitched to a smile as she fought down a wide grin, “...Sexual factions.”
Raven’s face began to burn.
“Don’t go getting all self-conscious, I think it’s cute. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t
march my army of amour on you. You’re safe from my legions of lust, battalions of bisexuality,
and soldiers of seduction.” She waited for Raven’s fit of chuckles to subside. “No, really. I’m
not gonna pillage your village unless you’re feelin’ Viking.”
The demi-Demon was still mirthful, but managed to frown slightly in confusion,
“‘Feeling Viking?’”
“Y’know, all frenzied and horny.” Kamala laughed, “I didn’t know you could turn that
deep a shade of red.”
“It’s among my more esoteric talents,” Raven muttered truthfully. When Jinx continued
to chuckle, she huffed embarrassedly, “Sh-shut up.”
The pink-haired mercenary’s mirth subsided into a soft smile, her eyes admiring Raven.
The heroine could feel it, and she wondered how she ever missed it. For that matter, how had the
other girl managed to hide it from her—an empath? Jinx was probably unaware of the heavy
emotions held in her gaze. Those feelings practically covered the room in a hazy fog and Raven
merely stood there—watching, feeling. On the other hand, perhaps the hex-caster was aware.
Kamala blinked and that look in her eyes retreated; that nigh paralyzing haze dissipating and
leaving the room feeling almost uncomfortably bereft.
Jinx swallowed, tried to find her voice, “Um... we should probably—the next, uh,
chamber.”
Raven nodded and the two moved quietly past the threshold of the first sorcerous
chamber. The second one was marked almost identically to the first, but there were two daises—
each measuring about a half a meter in radius and raised off the ground another half-meter. They
held position on either side of the binding circle, but did not touch it. Upon each dais resided
what appeared to be a small suitcase. Raven looked at them warily, wondering if opening them
would trigger something in the spell. She really couldn’t put anything beyond this bizarre
situation.
Of course, on the far wall, was yet another conditional ward. Both girls looked around
the room, but it was much like the last save the daises. They cautiously approached the
suitcases. They halted as the corners of the room blossomed with soft light; another set of ‘mage
phones’ activated.
“Congratulations on passing the first chamber; I didn’t doubt you would,” the voice
commented. Raven huffed, her arms crossing belligerently. The disembodied vocals of their
captor continued, “You should appreciate that this room is far simpler than the last.”
“And how is that?” Raven inquired with a level, but doubtful tone.
“You need only rem-... One moment, please.”
And with that, the mage phones’ light faded, leaving them with only the glow from
sconces and their chain-dangled bowls of elemental fire. With nothing else to do until the
woman explained the point of this room, Kamala decided to do some of her own inspections.
She flipped open the latches on one of the suitcases.
“Jinx!” Raven exclaimed, “Don’t touch those; we don’t know what they could do.”
“They’re not likely to kill us or anything—she mentioned a third chamber and then the
main chamber to boot... If we’re gonna get there, we can’t very well have our souls sucked into
a pair of suitcases or somethin’. Would kinda defeat the purpose, yeah?”
The suitcase Jinx currently inspected was red, had a pair of wheels and a collapsible
handle recessed upon its top. It had several zippers to a few compartments. Frankly, it looked
like their captor had bought it from Wal-Mart.
“Well, so much for arcane artifacts. Unless Wally World is enslaving the masses with its
mass consumerism... Oh, wait-”
“This isn’t the time to joke, Jinx.”
Kamala shrugged, “Gotta make the best of a poor situation, Raven. Besides, there’s
nothing to these things.” As she lifted hers, she saw what lie upon the dais beneath it. “Oh, hold
on... We got another glyph here. Tight bindings, like the mage phones. Looks like a...
translocation spell.”
Raven moved closer to inspect said translocation glyph with her usual placid expression.
Just what was their captor trying to concoct with these rooms? It was like a demented, magical
Rube Goldberg machine. What was the end goal of it all? How did any of this help her summon
a Demon?
“...For the suitcases, I imagine. The question is—what goes inside the cases?”
Neither girl had noticed the mage phones’ light returning until the voice interjected,
“Already ahead of the game, I see.”
Raven whirled around, startled; it did no good, as the sorceress confining them was not
physically present. Jinx’s head whipped to one of the mage phones and her hands reflexively
opened, dropping the suitcase upon the dais with a dull, clacking thump. The voice seemed
unbothered by their mistrust of the situation.
“I had to see to another couple momentarily,” she explained, “As I was saying, this room
is simple. Its purpose is to meet a requirement of my summoning. As you are participating in
this spell, you must be likewise prepared for it. Given that this is not the average summoning, it
necessitates more power and contains a different set of prerequisites.
“One of those prerequisites is that those involved with the spell must be skyclad. The
prerequisites extend to you and the others as the providers of power in this spell. You need only
place your clothing in these suitcases; they will be returned to you after the summoning is
complete and successful.”
Kamala snorted, “You’re just trying to get us naked, aren’t ya? This some kind of
elaborate, magical porno scheme to get us to screw or somethin’?”
The voice sounded flustered, “No! I didn’t make the rules of the spell, that’s just how it
has to be. This is just the best way I could find to keep everything intact. The translocation will
move the suitcases to a place where I can return them after the summoning.”
“Why do you need to use a more complicated summoning?” Raven practically
demanded. “Summoning a Greater Demon shouldn’t require anything of the sort.”
“It’s precautionary, Scath. I’m not taking chances with the summoning; I don’t want it to
matter where she is or... or what state she’s in. This spell is more powerful and also more
specific, summoning the Demon by true name.”
Raven glanced at Jinx. The woman had finally let something slip, however minor or
vague. This was the first they’d heard about the Demoness this woman was trying to summon.
There might be some reason that the entity in question could be difficult to reach—perhaps the
very reason why she might be in a poor state of some sort. Apparently, it mattered greatly to the
summoner that she attained this particular Demoness.
Raven canted her head slightly to the side, regarding the mage phone, “You want
someone specific, then.”
“Yes.” The voice succinctly admitted this, but quickly moved away from the topic. The
woman crisply reiterated, “Place your clothes in the suitcases; it will answer the conditional ward
and allow you into the third chamber.”
With that, the light of the mage phones faded.
“A—nd something tells me we just touched the heart of the matter,” Jinx remarked, “The
lady’s got somebody in mind. Why? ...That’s kind of impossible to figure out without the who,
though. She seemed a little worried when she mentioned the state of the Demoness. It sounded
personal...”
“I did rather notice,” Raven agreed.
“I don’t think this is some barter for power or the usual Demon dealing, Raven.”
“We won’t find out anything staying here. As much as I hate to help her with this, we
need in the main chamber. It might become necessary to fight the Demoness once she’s
manifest. She won’t have immediate access to her full power. If we can get to her before her
essence has a chance to access or rejuvenate her seka, we might be able to banish or destroy her.”
Kamala gently ventured, “We may not need to do either, y’know. We still don’t know
exactly what’s happening—why this lady doesn’t just want any Demon of Greater stature... but
this specific High Greater. Honestly, if she wanted power, why not go for a Lower Arch? And if
she just wanted to make a deal, why not the go for the Joe Average Median or High Median
Demon? Hell, if she wanted a minion, there’s like a hundred gajillion Lower Lessers out there...
“There has to be something else; otherwise, there’s absolutely no reason to bother with a
summoning via true name.” The pink-haired girl paused, just grasping the implications of what
she said. “Okay, that’s another thing. I don’t know of many Demons below the Arch rank that
have anything coming close to notoriety. I mean, there’s the odd herald or emissary of some
stronger Demon. And those ones aren’t usually named in any of the lore—not by true name.
“So... how’s this lady even know a Greater’s true name? Demons don’t like handing that
stuff out for free, y’know. They’re kinda... unreceptive, right?”
Raven nodded, but didn’t like where the thoughts led. A woman who sounded personal
about a Demon of fair standing, who knew said Demon’s true name... That just didn’t sound
good. It reminded the demi-Demon a little bit too much of herself.
“Either way, we’ll find out what’s what in the main chamber.”
So saying, she unclasped her broach and slid the cloak off her shoulders. With a lift of
her chin, the other suitcase opened. The heroine folded the cloak and placed it inside, and then
laid her ruby broach atop it. Clad in her boots, belt, and leotard, Raven’s figure was revealed.
Jinx stared, as she sometimes and surreptitiously did. At 5’5” and—to Jinx’s trained eye—
weighing in at about 110 pounds, Raven could have been the average girl. There were
differences, however: some subtle, others not.
Raven had a smooth figure, but the lines were hardened muscle, a tad more built than
Kamala’s lithe, dancer-like feature. The Titans’ training and her Demonic heritage gave her a
stronger build, the mercenary surmised. Raven’s skin tone was a natural, light grey—much like
her own—that goths round the world would envy. Then there was the girl’s shoulder-length
hair, which was a vibrant hue of indigo. It had a healthy, glossy quality to it, even though she
knew Raven was not one to spend lots of time brushing her hair. More benefits of having
Demon blood, she figured; if not, Jinx wanted the secret.
Kamala forced herself to stop standing there like a gawking idiot and pulled her shirt over
her head. Folding it and placing it inside her suitcase, she reached behind herself for the clasp of
her bra. Sparing a glance at Raven, her body once again froze. Likewise, her mind imploded in
a frenzy of thoughts—all of them immoral and licentious. It wasn’t her fault!
The ruby and gold belt now resided atop the cloak with the mystic Titans’ broach.
Raven’s powers moved to the invisible seam of her leotard and pulled down the zipper for her.
Pulling at the form-fitting layer, Raven exposed heretofore unexplored, pale flesh that looked
beyond exquisite to the hex-caster’s pink gaze. Pulling her arms from the sleeves and sliding the
material down her waist, she made short work of removing the leotard. The fabric slipped
partially down her legs before the demi-Demon stepped out of them.
It was a simple matter to step out of the small boots; it was to Raven’s pleasure that she
found the floor of the rooms not to be akin to metal in the arctic. The purple-haired girl didn’t
really know what the floor was made of—it was smooth, but had good traction... and at the same
time, was unlike any linoleum, metal, or wood she’d seen. While pondering this, she felt an
emotion that pooled warmly in her toned belly, almost causing her to flush. It was easy to
identify the source, and she turned to face Jinx. The sorceress had her hands behind her, but
were making no attempt to find the fastenings of her bra.
For her part, Kamala was enthralled by the gorgeous vista that held fast her eyes. The
landscape before her was fair as moonlight, a pale terrain rich with ample and voluptuous
topography. The felid, fuchsia orbs—having already taken in the full portraiture—once again
traced the detailed contours of the majestic territory. The slope of Raven’s neck curved
smoothly and followed the lay of her clavicles’ gentle ridges, which gave to the mountains of
perfection, capped with storm cloud grey peaks that begged for an intrepid explorer. The pinkhaired girl wished to delve into their valley, to find herself embraced between the montane
masses. That distracting digression would have to wait, though. The burning trail of her gaze
followed their declination in a general, southward direction, until she found the firm and flat
plains, filled with toned lines inside an extremely aesthetic frame. A shallow well, a natural
watering hole made Kamala thirst, but she persisted upon her path. Her travels led her to a cliff
and a cleft, the precipice and periphery borders of which were deliciously barren, without forest
or meadow. Not a single blade of indigo grass grew upon the lowlands of Raven. Kamala
yearned for a thorough expedition—to survey and trek and climb and descend and spelunk“Kamala...”
The sound of her name, her real name, jolted Jinx out of her magnificent reverie.
Blinking thrice, her eyes flicked up to meet the amethyst gaze. Immediately, Kamala’s face
grew hot and she knew she’d been caught... and worse, she hadn’t been at all discreet.
‘Subtlety, thy name is not Jinx.’
Her eyes twitched away from Raven, settling upon the shirt residing in her suitcase. It
proclaimed and accused, ‘cute but kind of evil’ and Jinx’s countenance blazed and darkened. It
wasn’t her fault!
“Sorry! S-sorry!” Kamala stumbled in her attempt to explain herself, grasped for worthy
portrayal. How could she begin to describe what Raven did to her? Remaining silent wouldn’t
gain her any favors, so she hastened to her reasons. “You’re just—really pretty...”
--Raven’s eyes slid over to Kamala, who seemed to have become a statue. The other girl
had frozen so completely that she worried something had actually put her into some form of
magical stasis. The fact that Jinx was breathing alleviated some of those fears. She watched the
girl’s eyes taking her in for a few moments before she realized that Jinx was ogling her.
The sorceress’ pupils had rounded slightly and the mystic Titan could almost feel their
trail along her skin. She flushed as Kamala’s eyes oh-so slowly dragged down her body,
lingering wantonly upon any and every detail that her eyes could greedily devour. Raven sensed
how awestruck the mercenary was, and silently wondered how she could possibly be this
interesting to anyone. Well, anyone not some barely pubescent boy looking at her like a fouryear-old in a candy store.
In some aspects, Kamala treated life like her own personal candy store. As flattering as it
was, she wasn’t a black forest cake. They needed to get through this ordeal. Then they would
address the topic of Jinx having her cake and eating it, too.
“Jinx,” she ventured, but the girl looked too focused to have even perceived the sound.
She tried again, this time with a bit more conviction, “Jinx...”
The hex-caster’s eyes continued to canvas her body, steadily heading southward. Raven
sighed in slight exasperation. Finally, she added a bit of volume to her adamant tone.
“Kamala...”
Jinx jolted as though someone had just flicked her ear. Her back ramrod straight, the
pink-haired girl’s eyes snapped up to Raven’s violet hues. Kamala’s pale visage slowly boiled
into burgundy as she realized Raven had been watching her visual groping.
“Sorry! S-sorry!” the girl apologized for the ocular molestation. The girl’s expression,
which only seemed half-apologetic, gave the impression that her mind and mouth were
formulating an excuse, “You’re just—really pretty...”
It was such a simple statement and didn’t even begin to cover a fraction of what she had
felt from the other girl. Yet, somehow, that mere declaration felt like the greatest endearment
she had ever heard. Raven found herself slowly mirroring Kamala’s impressive impersonation
of a strawberry. The words themselves were nothing special, to be sure, but Raven was fortunate
enough to be able to sense the full gravity and sentiment behind them.
It was strange; the demi-Demon had never felt anything like this from Jinx before. Ever
since their kiss, however, it was as though the enormous entirety and tidal force of Kamala’s
adoration and desire—the totality of which bordered on infatuation—became apparent to Raven.
The mystic Titan had no explanation for it, save perhaps that once Kamala revealed even a small
portion of her passion, she simply became incapable of holding the rest back.
Raven wasn’t sure how this made her feel. Her emotions were tangled in an immense
and voluminous mass of knots of unwieldy tonnage. Even so, it didn’t feel negative... just big. It
certainly didn’t reflect poorly upon Kamala, the girl admitted—not at all. Whatever it was she
was feeling, it was steadily growing. Despite the weighty, emergent emotions, Raven felt in
control and feared no dangerous repercussions.
‘Feels like Nevermore started a block party...’ Raven mentally shook the thoughts away
and focused on Kamala, “Um—thank you...” It felt like an understatement of her gratitude, but
that hardly mattered. For all the low-value terminology, neither one of them was ignorant of the
significance behind them. “You need to finish, though.”
===
END
===
Prompts
Raven: “Jinx... stop staring at my ass and get in here.”
--Jinx: “I was just thinking! You can’t blame me for thinking about it! It’s like when
someone tells you not to think about a pink elepha-”
--Raven: “I think we need to have that talk now...”
--Raven: “Se kam hal im...”
--Jen—nightshade scene