Enemy Within

After we made it back to the Academy, we had less than an hour before the curfew rang. So we all separated and went to our separate dorms. It was a good day, and a great night, and I was very sexually frustrated. Fionna was waiting for us, or rather she was waiting for me to come back.

“You smell like sex. Did she leave you guys at all during the night?” Fionna said after she approached me.

“We were together all night,” Kanae said.

“Why do you smell like sex?” Fionna said.

“I'm really super, super horny. I need something to calm me down, Do you have any Cupidita Nightleaf? If I don't get some relief soon I'll go into heat. This is a real emergency,” I said panting.

“Oh my Goddess! What did they do?” Fionna turned and grabbed Kiera, the closest girl to her.

“They didn't do anything, except sit next to each other. Really close. They did some kissing and teasing,” Kiera said.

“He was super aroused most of the night. It was super cute and ultra sexy. Then, I did this to him, to release his tension, but it seems to have really increased my own. It was a lot of fun, and exciting, in the bathroom at the pub,” I said, making a stroking motion with my hand, barely holding on to my consciousness.

Fionna called up a card, and added a spell to it, and then said, “Here, this is a pass to be out after curfew, Go to the nurse and have her wake professor Mugwort, and tell the professor you have an emergency and need Cupidita Nightleaf, to prevent a dragon from going into heat on campus. Go, as fast as you can!”

“I'll begin massaging you, come to my room I have a table, That should help you hold on,” Fionna said.

Kanae and the girls blinked out towards the nurse. When they got there they had to wake her up,

“We need Professor Mugwort. This is an emergency!” Kanae nearly screamed at the nurse.

“I'm in no mood for pranks young ladies ...,” the Nurse began. Kiera showed the nurse the pass card, and her expression changed.

“Yes, Professor Mugwort, right away, what's the nature of the emergency?” she asked.

“We have to prevent a dragon from going into heat on campus!”

“Oh my Goddess! Next time lead with that!” The nurse said as she blinked out, and blinked back about a minute later.

It took them five minutes to talk professor Mugwort into taking them seriously. It then took the professor another ten minutes for professor Mugwort to produce the Nightleaf. The girls grabbed him and blinked right into the dorm. The Dorm alarm went off, because, yes professor Mugwort was not an authorized visitor, and it was after curfew. They rushed the professor up to Fionna's room, which Deirdre was in the process of wrecking, in the throes of pre-heat, and in partial dragon form. Professor Mugwort was almost able to get some Nightleaf into Deirdre's hand, when the outside door to the dorm burst open, and the Academy Guard bolted in.

“What's going on here!” Ordered the lead guard.

“Give yourself up quietly, if you know what's good for you!”

The professor managed to get the Nightleaf to Deirdre who was strangely drawn to it and shoveled it into her mouth. Just then the guards came in, saw the mess of a room, Fionna, the girls, and Deirdre who was calming down and mostly back to her dragonkin form in clothes that were mostly in tatters, and the professor next to her. They leapt forward and threw the professor on the ground, and began to use magikal restraints on him.

“Stop!” Fionna yelled with magikal amplification.

“Everything is under control now. Please, release Professor Mugwort. He is here administering medicine to a student. Please leave, so the students can get some rest, and this student can get further treatment,” Fionna said.

“But the alarm? We are required to file a report,” the guard said.

“Yes, I understand. I will file a complete report with the Headmistress in the morning. The students were fetching the professor for medical assistance, but were unaware of the alarm and proper procedures to grant the professor admission at this hour. This is a highly sensitive incident. Make sure to properly mark and seal your report,” Fionna said.

“Yes ma'am. Good night ma'am,” and the guards left.

“Well, that was a disaster. How did you know about Cupidita Nightleaf, miss Deirdre?”

“From some brothel workers when I was much younger. Thank you for stopping my cycle,” I said.

“What were you thinking? No you weren't thinking,” Fionna said.

“I'm sorry, I still don't know what happened, or why. I'm not very experienced with romance, and all that,” I said.

“How can you say that when you knew about Cupidita Nightleaf, and how to do what you did?” Fionna said.

“I've had training in what to do, but have never done anything. I've never dated anyone. Never been on a date. Never kissed, or been kissed until mere days ago. Never spent more than a few minutes next to a boy besides Darby and Fergus. These are all my first experiences. Sure I saw lots of stuff spying on people in brothels as a little kid, and saw some brothel workers prevent a dragon going into heat, but never had any first-hand knowledge of any of it. I was completely alone from the age of three until I met Kanae, except for the few months I knew my master, a very elderly mage in the woods,” I said.

“You've never been in heat before? But your over sixteen,” Fionna said.

“Why would I go into heat, there was no one for me to breed with?” I asked.

“No one. I understand,” Fionna said.

In the morning, Fionna made Deirdre stay in bed, and the rest of us went to classes. The news of the medical emergency for a student was all over campus by the time we arrived at class. After the first class Fergus and his friends found us, having figured out that Deirdre was the student with a medical emergency.

“Deirdre is fine now, she's resting today. No we can't tell you what happened. The Queen has ordered complete silence on the matter,” Kanae said.

Rumor spread that an assassination attempt had been made on the life of the princess. How did they come up with these rumors?

After School a royal carriage approached and Deirdre was brought before the queen, alone.

“Hello, Deirdre, you've had some excitement, we hear,” Matilde said.

“Yes, just learning the ins and outs of dating, love, sex, and puberty, without the benefit of any parental guidance. It's very exciting. Almost as dangerous as trying to create an invisibility spell,” I said.

“Oh, have you tried that?” the queen asked.

“Oh, yes, and almost died. I can't say I recommend anyone try it,” I lifted my blouse and showed her my scar.

“Oh, my, you were fearless,” Matilde said.

“I was uneducated, and desperate,” I said.

“Hmm, yes, a terrible mix,” she said.

“Did you call me here to lecture me about my sexual misadventures?” I asked.

“No. To discuss, marriage, mating, and children,” she said.

“I am not ready for any of them,” I said.

“You need to do something, you are a ticking time-bomb. Sixteen years of age, never in heat, never mated, no sexual experience, except a hand-job in a pub bathroom stall,” she said.

“I will have a solution in a few days. Spells, a magik item, and medicine. I will take precautions, and learn what I need to learn to understand why this happened, but preventing another occurrence is easy enough,” I said.

“Very well, but I have arranged a fiancé for you,” she said.

“Can't say, I haven't expected you had, for a while now. I'd rather pick my own. My current boyfriend is a possible candidate. I'm obviously very attracted to him,” I said.

“Yes, that much is obvious, Are you prepared to mate with him, then?”

“I am not ready to mate, it's too early. I must be sure. It is a lifetime choice, for me. I will not have the benefit of the more lax attitudes that humans have,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

“I am.”

“Would you not even care to meet the one I have chosen?”

“Does he know?” I asked.

“He does not.”

“His age?”

“He is twenty-three.”

“Send me his info, and why you chose him. I promise I will consider it seriously, if you stay on the level with me,” I said.

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“Very well. You may return to your dorm then, for now, Return in three days and convince me of your solution to that time-bomb between your legs,” Matilde said.

“Thank you my Queen,” I said.

“Oh, you know manners,” Matilde said.

“I do try, my Queen, but I fear I will never attain perfection in my etiquette,” I said.

“No, probably not,” Matilde said.

I was returned to the dorm. The next day, I returned to class. I was flooded with well-wishers and questions about the assassination attempt. I convinced no one that anyone was trying to assassinate me. Then during third period Royal Etiquette class, just before the professor arrived, a Darkness arrow flew through the class window and crashed though my protective barriers piercing through my right shoulder as I moved to avoid it. I landed on the floor, and muttered,

“Oh Goddess not again.”

My guards surrounded me as best they could, Fergus and Eoghan rushed to my aid. The professor arrived, and moments later the Queen's Royal Guard, and the Academy Guard rushed in. I was rushed off to a secure facility. Where healers began working on my injury.

“Please someone bring me my personal doctor Darby,” I said.

Darby arrived a few minutes later.

“Darby, heal me please,” I said.

Which he did in a few seconds, the entire room standing dumbfounded by Darby's healing powers.

“Is it safe to return to class? I'd like to resume classes, if possible,” I said.

“No, we are to escort you, and your companions, to the Queen,” a Royal Guard said.

“Fine.”

A few minutes later my companions and I were on our way to the Queen.

“You, you couldn't wait to see me even a day, Miss Deirdre?”

“You are my Queen. How can I ever get enough? Nay, it surely is impossible, to get enough of your magnificence my Queen,” I said.

“Such adoration. But on a more serious note, have you any ideas who are behind this?”

“We were in the process of tracking them down and dealing with them, but we ran out of summer vacation. Go ahead, and bring the Queen up to date on our investigation, Kiera,” I said.

Kiera told her of our activity over the summer, and the progress we had made, and showed her all we had compiled, as well as some more that Kiera had been slipping in, whenever she had a chance.

“We don't know if this attempt is from this organization, nor what other locations they might have in the city, and elsewhere. What we do know is they are definitely part of the Orphean cult organization. It is far from dead, and they are very actively trying to kill us, or perhaps just me, and damn the collateral damage and deaths,” I said.

“We will give this to our agents in the field,” Matilde said.

“Is there more, my Queen?”

“It appears you are no longer safe in the Academy,” Matilde said.

“Not a problem your majesty, I will implement my countermeasures. I had them off, as the Academy seemed secure enough, but now that we know we have an enemy within, I can deal with it myself. Worry not I will capture this assassin if she is still on campus,” I said.

“You seem awfully confident for someone whose defenses just failed, and left you with an injury,” Matilde said.

“I had my defenses on their minimum setting. My life was never in danger. I used to face far worse than this every day, before I met Kanae. However, it's interesting the would be killer now knows my weakness, dark magik. It will take more than that to kill me though,” I said.

“I find you rather overconfident. What if the killer were in this very room?”

“Then they'd be very dead now,” I said and held out my hand palm up and my defensive golems began landing on my palm.

“How? How have you penetrated the Castle security to place your own?”

“I placed all these the day we first met. You were an unknown threat. I have simply never retrieved them. It's much more difficult to retrieve them from a secure area than it is to place them,” I said.

“Is that all of them?”

“Oh Goddess, no. They are all over the castle now. I will retrieve as many as I can when I leave, unless you wish to take command, and ownership, of them?”

“You would give them all to me, to discover their secrets?”

“They are not all that special your majesty, but very useful. Pour a little mana into this device, and you will take ownership of them. This sigil will recall them all, and this one here will release them. Likely, some are in places even I couldn't penetrate. This sigil brings up a screen, and you can learn everything you need to make use of them, and see the state of your entire estate that they have reached. It's all rather intuitive and easy to master. You can even designate officers to do it all for you, without giving up control. So they can never be used against you,” I said.

“That's quite a piece of work you have there, and this is what you are going to implement at the Academy to protect yourself, and companions?” Matilde asked.

“Yes, one of my tools. I have more layers I can add. Many I no longer need, as I've grown much stronger over the years. I have been building my defenses for thirteen years, I am not easy to kill anymore,” I said.

“I'm beginning to see. You are much more than I thought you were. Very well, I will trust in your ability to defend yourself. Find the enemy within the Academy, and bring them to my staff, my Red Knight,” Matilde said.

“As you wish, my Queen,” I said, and we left.

We returned to classes, in time for the last two classes of the day. Students were in awe of my apparent lack of fear after what they all thought were two assassination attempts nearly back to back. However, the students weren't all that anxious to get too close to me. Which was actually perfect as any assassin now had almost ideal conditions to strike at me. Two days later they did. Another Dark arrow was launched at me, but my defensive system was in place, and I merely pointed my hand in the direction of the assassin, and, it appeared, I had counter-attacked and taken down the assassin, locking her in a block of ice. But that was more theater than anything else. The defense grid had already done everything before I pointed my hand at the assassin, except the extra spell of sealing the immobilized assassin in a block of ice.

The assassin was handed over to the queen's guards. Then life returned to usual on campus. Nothing like a flashy and effortless apprehension of an assassin to calm the nerves of a crowd. Then Saturday came, and we had scheduled a training session with Fergus and his friends.

“So, I hear you are all A Ranked adventurers. How do you find time between classes and studying,” Selene asked.

“We are not allowed to take any jobs before mid-terms, and can only take jobs after mid-terms if we have no more than two B grades. School comes first. Also, a new rule is we must get prior permission to take on quests when we are on summer break,” Kanae said.

“Wow, that's strict. Why the new rule?” Fergus asked.

“We took on an SSS Ranked unlisted quest over the summer, which skirted the then existing rule through a loophole. The Queen was kind of pissed.”

“You took on an SSS Ranked quest? Did you succeed? What was it?” Tomás asked.

“We were more than successful. We can't tell you what the quest was, the quest has been classified as a State Secret,” I said.

“Had anyone else ever taken on that quest?” Selene asked.

“Many have tried, the core part of it, over the years,” Kanae said.

“Tried and failed?” Fergus asked.

“All who attempted it before us have died. It was an extremely dangerous task. We almost didn't take it,” I said.

“Do you ever fight in full dragon form?” Selene asked?

“No. I haven't gone full dragon in quite a few years,” I said.

“I'd really love to see you in full form,” Selene said

“Me too!” Kanae said.

“We all do,” Kiera said.

“I do too,” Fergus said.

I looked around the arena. It should be large enough even for the Red Queen.

“Alright. I admit, I'm a bit curious myself, how much I've grown. You all need to clear the arena area, though,” I said.

I walked to the middle of the field and transformed.

Everyone was staring at me with their mouths open.

Then, Selene spoke first, “OMG! You are magnificent! How are you so huge! You're an SSS Ranked Dragon!”

“I want a ride! You promised me a ride!” Kanae said.

“Me too!” Fergus yelled.

“Cool your hormones Lover Boy. Me first!” said Kiera.

What am I a Circus ride? I dragon mindspoke to them all.

“Dragon Mind speak! So cool!” Eoghan said.

“I have never seen anything as beautiful and magnificent,” Tomás said.

“Hey, watch it that's my girlfriend, you're talking about,” Fergus said.

“How are you this large at your age, my Princess?” Hestia asked.

I turned my head to look at myself. How am I this large? I must be fifteen meters in length. I can nearly see out of the arena. I must be over four meters in height. My color is now deep Crimson, with black sparkles as if I was covered in sparkling black dust. I had grown into my color. The color of a Red Queen.

I laid down.

Kanae, climb up. I did promise you a ride.

“Yippee!” Kanae screamed.

Kanae climbed up, and I secured her with magik, so she wouldn't fall, and shielded her from the worst of the wind to come.

You are secure and safe. You need not worry about falling, or dangerous wind.

I spread my grown and massive crimson wings, also having that sparkling black dusting appearance. I shoved off, the dirt beneath me spraying over the field. I powered off, forcing the air beneath my wings to give me lift. Up, I flew over the arena, the battlements, and the city. My shadow falling on the citizenry below. Hestia and Vulcana transformed and followed us. They were both about a third smaller than I was, even though they were close in age.

“Raaawr!”

“Whooooo!” Kanae screamed in delight.

I began to circle around the city. All eyes on the walls were on me. Shocked expressions on them all. Kanae waved at them as we flew past. Then up in a spiral I flew, until the whole valley was in view. Up. Up. Up, I flew, High into the sky. I flew through a cloud and Kanae laughed. Then we leveled off, and the entire kingdom lay below. The city looked tiny and sparkling. I let us glide slowly down.

“This is amazing,” Kanae said, tears of joy falling on my scales.

Then I began to descend.

Oh, look, cows. Should I grab on?

“Don't you dare! He he he,” Kanae said.

I lowered ourselves outside the gate.

Permission to return to the Academy?

The guards looked stunned, and then the lead guard said, “Permission granted.”

Landing was a lot more difficult, than taking off. At least for our friends. The wind from my wings forcing them to hold onto bolted down things.

I laid down, and Kanae jumped down.

“My turn!” Fergus said.

Oh? Do you dare? You can't wait to ride me, Lover? I mind smoke, exerting the tiniest bit of pressure.

“I, uh, oh! I dare!”

I huffed at him, blowing some hot air through his hair.

So be it, my love. I will allow you to ride me. In this way, I said.

Fergus jumped up onto my side and climbed up. I secured him, and gave him a ride.

“You are so amazing Dee! This is amazing! This is incredible!” Fergus said after he calmed down enough to speak.

We then returned, in a replay of Kanae's ride. With one minor difference. When I landed, the Queen and Headmistress were there with furious expressions on their faces.

I laid down and Fergus got down.

My queen.

“You! Are! Grounded!”

“You have one month's detention.”

I transformed, and knelt before the queen.

“Yes, my Queen.”

“I understand, Headmistress.”

“What were you thinking! The whole city has seen you! We've spent more than a year concealing your truth, and you just revealed everything, for a joyride to impress your boyfriend!?”

“I apologize, your majesty. That was not my intent. I may have gotten carried away. It has been seven years since I saw my true form. I guess I got caught up in the excitement. I apologize. Sincerely,” I said.

“Oh Great Goddess! If you weren't so damn cute! You're still grounded, and, and, and I'll think up something for your misbehavior,” Matilde said.

“You still have detention. I won't be swayed by your childish charm either,” the Headmistress said. They turned around, and started walking away. They started chuckling, and laughing, and then bawling laughter.

“Does that mean sparring training is canceled?” Selene asked.

Everyone started laughing.

“They didn't say we couldn't.”

“Sorry I got you into trouble,” Fergus said.

“Me too,” Kanae said.

“I got myself into trouble. You both have nothing to apologize for,” I said.

“You owe me a ride when you are no longer grounded. You let Lover Boy get in line in front of me,” Kiera pouted.

“Yes, sure, once I'm no longer grounded. That may be a long time. The Queen will probably have me muck out the stable for a month, and haul timber from the forest as a beast of burden, or something equally vile,” I said.

“She wouldn't?” Selene asked shocked.

“Dee, is teasing us. The Queen wouldn't do that, probably,” Kanae said.

“I don't know, she was pretty pissed. At first,” Kiera said, chuckling.

And three days later, I got a summons from the Adventurers Guild to report to the Guildmaster. We sent a reply that I couldn't as the Queen had grounded me and I couldn't leave the campus, or do any extracurricular activities. A day later the Guildmaster came to our dorm.

“Salutations Guildmaster,” I said.

The guildmaster pulled out an old evaluation chrystal.

“It's time to update your level. No use trying to disguise it. This chrystal will know,” she said.

“Limit break,” I said.

“Level 131. You're promoted to rank SSS. Thank you for your candor, Princess Qin. Have a nice day, let us know when you are available for quests,” the guildmaster said.

I should have probably seen that coming.