It wasn’t fair, not really, she shouldn’t be the one kneeling on the bed, naked, the collar secured around her neck.
It was supposed to be Darcy, not her. Lidia had been in competition with Darcy since they day they had arrived at the School for Arcane Arts and this was definite not how it was supposed to end.
The first year at school had seen them both competing for the top grade in all of their classes. Their teachers had made it clear that the two of them were in a class above the rest of the students. They had even gotten praised at the end of year ceremonies by the head wizard himself for their talent and marks.
That year Darcy had nudged her out, only just though and Lidia had sworn she’d get even next year.
Which she did, taking top honours at year end and stamping her authority on the school. That she’d had to sabotage Darcy’s year end project to accomplish the feat was of little concern to Lidia.
And so now, in their third and final year of school, Lidia had devised the ultimate plan to humiliate Darcy once and for all.
Lidia had been researching in the “advanced” wing of the school’s library, reserved normally for teachers only but both she and Darcy had been granted access last year. She’d found a book of binding, a complete tomb on the art of tying a subject’s will to another’s. She’d grinned broadly as she read all the way through it, finding the perfect spell to cast to make Darcy her slave.
When she’d done so, she’d make the stuck up little upstart humiliate herself in front of the entire school during her year end presentation and ruin her life!
The spell itself wasn’t that difficult, a few simple ingredients, a few runes and an enchantment. She’d followed the steps perfectly, mixing the ingredients, drawing the runes on her left shoulder and right ankle and then placing the collar around her neck.
It had seemed a little odd, the collar, but the book had explained that the enchantment would infuse it with the binding and that all she had to do was place it around the target’s neck for it to bind them to her.
She had verified the book with every tick she knew, testing for forgeries and other tricks that might otherwise prove convincing. She’d even tried several of the less powerful, temporary spells in the book with success, and so she had proceeded.
Standing in front of her casting podium in her bedroom, she’d started the enchantment. The spell wasn’t in a tongue she knew, but it had the phonetics included like all complex spells did to ensure proper pronunciation.
She felt the magic surge through her, flow out of her body and in to the collar as she completed the spell and then everything get strangely calm.
She furrowed her brow and then looked down at the book, the words on the page swirling around in to an inky black vortex before solidifying once more. Unlike what had been written on the page, this new text was in English:
Dear Lidia,
I’m so glad that you have found this book and been true to character, eager to win no matter how.
As I’m sure it’s dawning on you by now, you have not won, in fact you have lost and lost badly. The spell you have cast has bound you to me, not the other way around and now it is time for me to claim my property.
Once you have finishing reading this, go to your bed, kneel down and look in to your scrying mirror. Take a moment to consider what has happened and then open a connection between us.
Your new Mistress,
Darcy
Lidia spoke the words and the scrying mirror in front of her shimmered as a new image appeared, that of her rival Darcy.
The blonde smirked back at Lidia for a moment and then cast another spell, the scrying mirror shimmered for a moment and the Darcy stepped through it in to Lidia’s room. Darcy stepped forward to the side of the bed and smiled as she looked down at Lidia.
“Oh my, this has worked better than I expected. Who knew you were hiding suck big knockers under those robes!” Darcy laughed as all Lidia could do was stare daggers at her.
“So, as you can see, my technique for forging documents has improved on the previous methods in several significant ways.” Darcy said to the auditorium, where the school was gathered and the three judges sat in the front row.
A faint round of applause came from her classmates, as far as year end projects went it wasn’t the most thrilling of topics and most had expected something more significant, or at least more entertaining, from Darcy.
The principal, the head judge, spoke up, “Yes, very impressive Darcy, but what practical applications would such a method have in this day and age.”
Darcy smirked, “I’m glad you asked principal Eagleclaw. I have prepared a case study on just that question. As you know I and Lidia have been in fierce competition with each other, and while I had no proof after last year’s catastrophic presentation, I’m sure that no would had any real doubt as to it’s origin. As such, this year I took some… precautions.”
Darcy paused for a moment and pulled out a ancient tomb, something that looked like it came straight from the advanced wing of the library, but was clearly much newer.
“This, was printed for me three months ago, a specific book with specific enchantments in it that might… interest… a certain type of person who was looking to sabotage someone in public. I then applied my new methods to it, making it a convincing forgery and then placed it in the advanced wing of the library.”
Several gasps and chuckles came from the students, the eyebrows of all three teachers were raised.
“As such, any honorable student that found it would of course read it as a curiosity, but would not try and use any of the enchantments contained inside. Of course, if someone did use them, well, I could certainly not be held responsible for the results.”
The students had started to get rowdy and principal Eagleclaw turned and shouted at them, “Settle down!”
Most did, a few remained restless.
“And the results?” principal Eaglecaw asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, I have to report that even after significant testing and probing by a determined student, my forgery stood up to all inspection. But perhaps it would be better if the student in question spoke for herself… Lidia, would you come out here please?” Darcy asked as she turned to the side of the stage.
Without hesitation Lidia stepped from the side of the stage, naked except the collar and heels that she had worn under her robes the entire day. The crowd went while as soon as they caught sight of her, hollering and shouting, whistling and grunting.
Lidia arrived beside Darcy, turned to the audience and then sank down on to her heels, placed her hands behind her back and began to speak.
“My Mistress’ skills and powers have proven too much for me. The book that she crafted was indistinguishable from the real. I spent weeks probing it and found to mistake, or error that gave it away. I believed it so much that I cast a spell blindly from it that had bound my will to hers, for all of time. My Mistress is the smartest, most powerful wizard I know and I look forward to server her for the rest of my life. As such, I withdraw my name as a student at this great institution.” Lidia said and then bowed her head.
At first, the clapping could hardly be heard through the ruckus, but slowly and surely it grew until it was the only sound that filled the auditorium.
