“Glad you got a replacement.” I sat on her bed, reclining against the wall.
She turned in her chair, one brow raised. “Really? Not going to ask me who they are, or how many, or whether or not we’re having wild orgies?”
I winced as my body and soul responded viscerally to the thought of Izzy partaking in awild orgy, especially one where I was involved.
“Also, where did your wings go?” she asked. “I’ve noticed… others… who have wings sometimes and not others. How does that work?”
Good, a question I could answer without thinking of Izzy naked and panting with lust.
“Most of us who have wings can vanish them when we wish. They… sort of retract into our bodies and come out again when we want them. I tend to keep mine hidden unless I’m alone. In general, most others will do the same. Elves don’t like being reminded they can’t fly.”
She cocked her head. “Does anyone from Seial have wings?”
I quirked a smile. Izzy was a fast learner. She’d already picked up a few details about this world and retained them.
“Only shifters with a flying animal form. Otherwise, nope. Though… anyone who’s mastered transmutation magic could give themselves wings if they wished. Most don’t though, because just having wings doesn’t impart the knowledge on how to use them and they’d look like an idiot trying to learn.”
Her eyes looked up and away, thinking, remembering. “And dragons… they’re not from any realm… or all of them?”
“Allis a better way of putting it thannone. They’re primordial beings of air and earth and fire, beings of all three fae realms. Theycouldhave wings in their human forms, but most don’t, they find it… degrading… to see their wings so small. They’d rather just revert to their dragon form to fly.”
Izzy nodded. That seemed to firm things up for her.
“And speaking of transmutation… shall we begin today’s lesson? I’d love to insert my massive knowledge of magic inside you.” I gave her a wicked grin.
Izzy rolled her eyes. “If only it was as easy as you blowing your load in my mind.”
I laughed at her vulgar comeback to my heavy-handed innuendo. Blazes, but I loved how lewd Izzy was, never ashamed to talk dirty. It made me want to get this silly study over with so we could move on to more pleasurable pursuits.
I didn’t think she’d go for it, still standoffish around me, but a sex-demon could hope.
“Okay, let’s begin.”
We spent the afternoon going over what Izzy had missed so far this semester, as well as the even more basic stuff most people in this realm knew from a young age. As hoped, Izzy was a quick study and soaked in information, making plenty of notes on the more complex subjects.
I decided to end with a review of the basics, asking, “What are the four elemental tenets?”
Izzy answered right away. “Earth binds and breaks. Water alters and solidifies. Air clarifies and baffles. Fire blazes and consumes.”
“And that means?”
“Earth magic is used for binding people or things, restraining or subduing them. It is also used to break such bindings.” She mused for a moment, that same distant look in her eyes. “Apparently, I have a binding on me, to hold my human form. Someone must have put it on me when I was a child. Could my parents have done that?”
“They wouldn’t have been able to do it themselves… do you know why?”
“Nymphs don’t have earth affinity?”
“Exactly. They’d have needed and elf to do it. Some dwarves can, but it’s less common among their kind.”
“Huh,” she muttered with a grimace. “Does that seem likely? That an elf would help them like that?”
I gave a scoffing laugh. “Depends on the elf, but no, not likely.”
Her perplexed looked matched what I felt. It made sense that if Izzy had appeared to be human her entire life someone had bound her form and power, restrained them, but as for who and why they’d have done it… I had no clue.
Izzy sighed, then continued reciting the meanings of the elemental tenets. “Water is used to alter a being’s properties but also can keep them from changing. That’s why tritons and undines and nymphs can change their forms so easily, right?”
“Spot on,” I said with approval.
