Your future patron will contact you after your report to the 5th sanctum
Patron? The 5th Sanctum? Warning bells were sounding off in Phineas' head. This was worse than being thrust into an apprenticeship without advance notice. But Phineas was tasked to apprentice to a new patron?
There were many spheres of magic, and innate magical power sufficed most through their lives as witches and wizards at both the Citadel and the rest of their lives. But Warlocks were of note as well. It wasn't forbidden knowledge, rather an uncommon occurrence, where magic practitioners made pacts with magical entities for more power. One could argue that the acolytes of the holy, divine 'gods' who altered their magic through devotion and worship was the more acceptable practice.
But Phineas had been sent to report at the 5th Sanctum, a justly named five times warded bastion where both professors and students at this level contacted the strangest realms known to magic. Areas that, with one wrong incantation or lack of fortitude, might spell the doom of the entire Citadel let alone the world!
And how had Phineas been made an apprentice in this way? Surely this must be some sort of mistake! Once Phineas had arrived at the cloistered entrance to the 5th Sanctum, he told the proctor in charge of admittance that they must have the wrong student.
"Fortescue, Phineas," the proctor read from a scroll. "No, you have indeed been summoned. Requested, in fact."
Phineas gulped. "Requested? By whom, what?"
The proctor just stared at him. "Discretion is of upmost importance with the 5th Sanctum. You will be protected during your contact within these walls, but we can no more explain to you the aspects of your patron better than they can explain it."
Phineas felt his stomach turn into a knot. This did not sound like it was in his skillset at all! This was a task for a different Fortescue!
"Come this way." The proctor led Phineas past an unsealed vault door into the 5th Sanctum. Low light glowed from flameless candles set in sconces along the strong, heavy pillars in the Sanctum, the very foundations of the greater Citadel in some respects. He was told to stand in the center of a large, warded circle.
Phineas could identify the glyphs along the circle for the most part, noticing ones of protection, summoning, and transportation but unable to discern the target realm this circle contacted. Overwhelmed, Phineas tried to protest but he was too late, the runes of the circle glowed brightly and Phineas found his consciousness shifted.
----
"Welcome, young Phineas! I shall be your new teacher!"
Whatever Phineas could have possibly thought of, whatever he had feared, absolute nothing could have prepared Phineas for what he found within the magic circle.
Especially not a classroom. Rather, the simple furniture of a classroom. A student's desk, a professor's desk, a blackboard.
And that was before he could fully comprehend the razor-toothed, golden eyed, fuzzy black demon lady looking back at him.
"...teacher?" was all Phineas could mouth.
He was doubly surprised that this response appeared to catch the demon off guard as well. "Is it too much? The graduation robes, the mortarboard? Definitely the latter, I knew I didn't have the horns to pull it off."
Horns was the understatement of the year as said by this husky voiced, feminine demon, as she looked to have a pair of antlers! The tassel of the mortarboard got caught as she tried to extract it from her head.
"Oh, close your mouth kid, I wasn't trying to scare you or anything. Think of our future prospects like any other of your classes. Only with a vastly different commute."
Politeness and sincerity is not what Phineas expected to experience when talking to a demon, let alone so casual of conversation. "I'm sorry, wait, what is going on here? Why do you want to teach me?"
"Have a seat, Phin. That cool for a nickname? 'Forts' sounds way too dorky," the antlered demon turned to hang up her robes on a coat rack made of bone spurs Phineas hadn't seen earlier.
As Phineas took the offered seat at the student's desk, he got a full look at his patron. A real full look.
"I like keeping things as casual as possible, Phin, so don't worry your mind all that much about the infernal magicks at work." Instead of taking her chair behind the desk, this demonic patron sat on the desk. Although she could have passed for remaining unclothed given the thick, scratchy black fur along most of her body, she was tightly squeezed into a vest that gave shape to her curves. Plump chested and tremendously hip heavy. Phineas found himself starring at how each mammoth cheek of her weighty butt and thighs overhung the corner of ornate professor's desk.
The demon caught him staring. "Mm, my form is pleasurable to you?"
Phineas was both horribly ashamed and aroused at the same time, trying to gather his thoughts. "Are you--some sort of succubus?"
"Am I a succubus?" the demon lady laughed, a mirthful jiggle in her lower regions. "Oh, that's a good one Phin kid. You're too kind, no really."
"I--huh?" Phineas, in the entirety of his magical education at the Citadel, had never expected his life would take a turn like this.
"Let me cut straight to the chase, kid. I need someone of your predilections to get me out of a jam. That which inflames your passions; The allure of a weighty female."
Phineas coughed. THAT's what this mysterious apprenticeship was about??!
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," the demonic patron said, introducing herself. "My name is Hesbeth. Although you can call me Beth, probably won't raise as many flags if you refer to me as such in the mortal realm. Co-Sloth and Gluttony demon."
"Hes-err, Beth?" Phineas was confused. The demon's name was Beth? "Co-Sloth and Gluttony demon?"
"I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Phin kid. You know of the demonic hells, places of internal punishment and booming figures of pain, hate, and monstrous appearances? That's us overplaying it, making a show out of the lower reaches. The demonic hells have become far more bureaucratic as of late. And the flow of demonic power comes down to a simple equation. We encourage sin to be spread throughout the world to gain power from the acts of sin in others. More sin, more power, capiche?"
"I, think I understand," Phineas said.
"But there's been some, restructuring," Hesbeth or Beth continued, "us demons used to have to worry only about one category of sins. Too much overhead, it turned out, and a lot of departments were culled. So although I stated out as a demon of Sloth, I got into the Gluttony gig as well after several jobs with that sin. Which is where you come in, my new and only student."
"Me?"
"It's simple, Phin kid. I need you to advance the cause of Sloth and Gluttony. I'm sure that latter one is right up your alley. That increased sin will get me more power, and more influence for your future lessons. It's a deal we can all benefit from."
Phineas had to be sure he was hearing this right. A glowing eyed, antlered, bottom-heavy fuzzy demon wanted him as a student to further the sins of Sloth and Gluttony?
"You get to live out your fantasies and I'll teach you magic no one has dreamed of yet. That is a pretty sweet deal, kid."
"Isn't there a catch?" It was said to be weary dealing with demons, as they always had ulterior motives. As much as the full explanation somewhat excited Phineas, he was ever a cautious one.
"No catch," Hesbeth said. "Well, not one that's easily explained from your side of the equation. Think of it more as forging new ground. As long as you magic folk have contacted demons, its been a even heavier workload trying to damn your souls along with that of the magic-less populace. I'm willing to bet there's a more lucrative avenue of sin to be had if I have a student, a partner on the other side to advance the cause more subtlety than the next 'Demonic Dark Lord' that gets his ass handed to him by a bunch of heroic champions."
As much as Hesbeth was downplaying this arrangement, Phineas couldn't help but think of the complications. Yet, for once in his life Phineas felt that his attraction wasn't something to be embarrassed by. If he looked at it like any other apprenticeship prospect, his 'predilections' as described by this patron had made him as viable a candidate no different than needing high marks in dueling or runes, for example.
After a long pause of weighing his options, Phineas gave in. "Alright, I'm in."
"Perfect!" Hesbeth lumbered off her desk. "I could squeeze you right now, kid, but it's only our first meeting."
"Squeeze?"
"Sorry, hug. That's what you heart-havers call it, right?"
"Heart-havers?"
"Now we're just getting distracted," Hesbeth said, scratching behind one of her antler-horns. "The Citadel where you school isn't aware of what our arrangement actually entails, so you need to keep it on the down low. Start looking for people with sins that need attention. Areas where a hint of Sloth and a pinch of Gluttony can take hold. Make friends."
"I guess I can do that, although what do you mean by future lessons?"
"That'll be scheduled in future, once you've opened some avenues, Phin kid. Remember to keep this on the hush."
"Ok, Professor, umm, Hesbeth."
"Beth, kid," Beth corrected. "Draws less attention my way."
"Sorry, Beth," Phineas said, as the sudden lurch of magic brought him back into the 5th Sanctum under the Citadel, his demonic patron having disappeared.
Being back at the familiar Citadel was a little disorientating, although now Phineas had been entrusted with a special mission, one that played to his desires. His life was about to change.
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