Chapter 372

There was a subtle air of anticipation throughout the entire brothel and the surrounding area when word got out about the upcoming orgy that my lovers and I would be attending. A decent chunk of the succubi in the brothel were people I've never met, so there was a lot of interest in an orgy with me involved after so many had taken an oath related to me. This kind of thing wasn't too irregular for the brothel, so announcing that it would be closed to the public for a private event wasn't that big of a surprise.

My lovers and I spent the last few days since our meeting with Sera Morrister relaxing and working on teaching Ayla magic. Since it was just Morrigan here, she asked me to help her teach so we could give Ayla two different perspectives, especially since her interest in magic control was so similar to my own experimentation with light magic. It's proven a bit more challenging for Morrigan than expected since Ayla was only a fledgling mage during System's End, but Grace reassured us that this was optimal if we wanted to share the learning process with others through Sienna. We were still only working on helping her learn mana sense at this stage, but that was a much easier step for succubi since it isn't that difficult to get a feel for it when you could see mana with your succubus eyes. It was still important to learn mana sense anyway, though, since we don't have the luxury of using our eyes when we want to blend in. Mana sense also worked in a bubble around the user, almost like a sensation similar to touch, so learning it also made you better at reacting to magic threats from behind.

Fortunately, the other skill required to learn how to wild cast didn't quite require mana sense to learn, though it would help her improve once she does get it. The easiest way to learn internal mana manipulation at this stage was by allowing someone to circulate mana through your body until you could figure out how to do it yourself. Since Ayla was so much lower level than us, this wasn't very difficult to do, but we did have to be careful not to overload her body with too much mana. The look on Ayla's face was pretty cute when she was focused, it almost looked like a pout. The first few times I saw her do it, I had to force myself not to giggle.

Ayla leaned back and sighed. "Why is this so hard? Magic was so much easier before!"

Morrigan gave her a sad smile. "Unfortunately, this is the way that I've always had to do it. I always envied the people who could just wave their hand and activate a system spell, but that's not on the table for anyone anymore."

With a sigh, Ayla flopped backward onto the bed we were sitting on. "Sorry, I'm whining, but I want to get to the fun part. Having to learn these two new skills just to tap into my mana again is the worst."

"It's actually three. You also need to learn the basics of wild casting, forming the spells once you've gathered the mana," Morrigan corrected.

Ayla just groaned in response.

"What's the fun part?" I asked curiously.

Sitting back up, she stared off into space as she responded. "I used to do this thing where I would cast a spell and... play with it? I would create a flame, then use my magic control to like, move it around, change how much heat it gave off, things like that. Right before System's End, I unlocked fire manipulation, but I barely got to use it!"

Morrigan giggled. "You know, Bella once told me a story about Lilith. When Lilith first learned light magic, she wouldn't stop messing with it. She spent hours just playing with little balls of light, moving them around, splitting them up, and changing their colors. By the end, Bella had to beg Lilith to stop so she could get some sleep!"

Ayla turned to me with sparkling eyes. "You've done stuff like that too?" she asked excitedly.

I chuckled and nodded. I held up a hand and created a ball of light, then manipulated it to split into six and slowly swirl outward. I changed each of them to different colors of the rainbow and then made them spin fast enough to create a solid ring of light. The entire time, Ayla's eyes were glued to the little trick.

"I spent a lot of time learning how to manipulate magic. It was almost more interesting to do stuff like this than to actually manifest the magic in the first place. I was so curious. I wanted to know how it all worked. Eventually, I got so good at light magic that I created my own spells," I said proudly.

Ayla gasped. "You created your own spell?! What does it do?"

Morrigan laughed. "She said spells, plural. She's created two. So far."

"No way! What do they do!?" Ayla asked, nearly vibrating in place.

I laughed. "Well, the first one is more or less a signature spell of mine. It's a secret though. You'll have to promise to keep it between us. Don't even show it to other succubi without my explicit permission, understand?"

Ayla nodded rapidly. "Yes, ma'am!"

"No need to call me ma'am, Lilith is fine," I said with a smile. "It's called light scribing. I can use it to animate images and make them move. Take a look." I held out a hand and let it draw a cartoony image of Morrigan I had doodled in the past.

Ayla looked intrigued, but also confused. "That's neat, but why do I need to keep it a secret? Drawing with light is pretty normal, isn't it?"

I nodded. "Practicing how to get better and faster at drawing with light is exactly how I created this skill, but there's something you're missing..."

Putting one hand on my tome of recollections, I held out my hand again. This time I drew a simple flame ritual circle above it. This ritual circle is a lot more detailed than the kind someone might try to draw without a lot of practice, but compared to a lot of the rituals I was used to casting this way, this was one of the most basic things I still bothered with. The spell animated the final shape of the circle, and the ritual consumed the magic I drew with to activate the ritual spell. A small but intense flame appeared in my palm and would continue to burn as long as I fed mana to it.

Ayla's eyes widened at the sight before flinching and meeting my eyes. All of her enthusiasm was gone, and a sense of dread had appeared over her face instead. I quickly cut off the spell and frowned. "What's wrong, Ayla?"

"Ritual magic," she whispered as if she had seen a ghost.

When Morrigan put a hand on the woman's shoulder, she flinched again. "Ayla, I think you might have an idea of why this spell needs to remain a secret from most people."

She nodded. "Ritual magic is also used... to summon demons. If cultists were able to use a spell like that... then demon summoning might be even more common... and easier too..."

I sighed. "Sorry, I guess I kind of forgot what you went through. You can see why I asked you not to share it with anyone though, right? Ritual magic is a surprisingly versatile discipline. People have only begun to scratch the surface of what it's capable of, and if this spell spreads, it would create an entirely new spellcasting discipline. There are some drawbacks and limitations to the spell, but I'm afraid of what cultists might do with it if it became well known. For now, it's something I'm keeping in my back pocket. I can do ritual magic in other ways too, so learning to build my own ritual circles is one of my priorities."

Ayla took a breath before scratching the back of her head. "Well... I can see the issue. Sorry for freaking out, but it just dredged up some bad memories... That's a rather interesting use for light magic though, it's not something I would have ever thought of."

I chuckled. "Well, no one had before me. Otherwise I wouldn't have been the one to create the spell."

"What's the other one?" Ayla asked, transparently trying to change the subject.

"The other spell is a bit more straightforward," I said with a nod. "It's called Brilliant Laser. It creates a directed beam of light so intense that it burns and destroys everything in its path. Theoretically, it should have effectively infinite range, but something about how magic works lowers its range to just really really far. I managed to relearn it since System's End, and it's still very powerful. Kind of dangerous to test and practice with, and hard to get off in a fight. It requires a lot of mana, so many enemies can sense it coming."

"Light can do that?" Ayla said with a puzzled look.

I laughed. "Light can do some pretty amazing things. It just hasn't been explored enough. I also have another spell that makes other offensive light spells affect anyone, not just shadow monsters. I think most people gave up on the magic before they worked at it enough to make it viable. Or at least, viable enough to be well known. When the system still existed, I was surprised by some of the spells I was learning toward the end."

Ayla sighed. "I wonder how far I would be now if I still knew that magic was possible." She held up her hand, likely imagining a flame appearing in her palm like I had demonstrated with ritual magic.

"What are your magic affinities, anyway?" Morrigan asked.

"Hm? Oh. I think they were fire, water, terra, and light magic. All four were major affinities, too. I actually had minor affinities in everything other than holy as well. I was so excited! I had just been tested in the mercenary building across the street the day after I became a succubus," Ayla replied.

Morrigan's jaw dropped. "Ayla... that means you have amazing potential... and you'd be a perfect fit for helping Lilith with her ritual magic too."

Ayla tilted her head, and her long ears perked up cutely. "Why's that? I know having four major affinities is pretty good, but that sounds like an overreaction."

Morrigan laughed and shook her head. "I really think you don't understand, Ayla. Firstly, three of your four major affinities are some of the most desirable affinities possible. Terra magic on its own would open a lot of doors for you, but both fire and water affinities as well means you have strong coverage over most types of offensive and defensive spells. Having minor affinities in everything else means you can activate ritual magic of nearly any type, just like Lilith. Learning ritual magic is going to have to be a priority for you once you can get wild casting down."

"Having light magic would usually be considered a dud, but I have some powerful light magic spells I could probably teach you as well," I added. "It's almost like you're a perfect student for me, in the long term."

Ayla beamed. "So, you'll continue teaching me magic even after we finish getting the stuff Sienna needs?"

Morrigan laughed and looked at me. "Looks like we're both getting an apprentice. Maybe you should give up and just add her to the harem now."

"Really?" Ayla asked excitedly.

I groaned and rubbed my face. "Don't get ahead of yourself. Everyone has to agree first, and we should at least wait until after the orgy tonight."

"Aww, look at this little cutie, how could anyone deny her a spot?" Morrigan asked, dragging a now blushing Ayla onto her lap.

"I think you're gonna make your other apprentice jealous," I said, shaking my head.

"Nah, Raya will understand. If anything, I'll have to make sure Raya doesn't steal her away from me." Morrigan chuckled as Ayla squirmed on her lap.

"So, like, that means I'm invited to spend some time with you during the orgy then?" Ayla asked hopefully, making Morrigan break into laughter.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. You're lucky you're such a cinnamon roll. I don't think anyone will complain. You're gonna have to impress my other lovers too, though. Everyone has to agree if you're gonna join my inner circle. Keep that in mind."

"But I have a chance though, right?" she asked with a big grin.

I shared a look with Morrigan. "See what you've done to her? You've got her hopes up."

Morrigan waved it off. "Even if she doesn't get in, she's pretty much guaranteed to be a friend with benefits. She's gonna be our little mutual apprentice, now."

"Hey! I'm not little! I meant to be this size!" Ayla protested.

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You went through the transformation. I know for a fact you wanted to be that short."

Ayla looked away with a huff, but the blush on her face told all of us that she couldn't argue with that logic.

"By the way, what's a cinnamon roll?" Morrigan asked.

I sighed. "It's a form of baked good... Maybe I'll have to give Sibyl the recipe. Or maybe we can find a baker that could make one around here..."