Shivt, Master of the Black Arts - Demon-born son of a witch

Geline, Mistress of the Black Arts - Earth-born student

Both bonded at CyDragonstake, which is no longer online

When Geline lounged around the school's rec room she thought she heard something odd. It was her friend Cavinna, rushing through the hall and up the stairwell.

"You won't believe this -" she gasped, "but there's a Master in the building. A real one."

"Real, you mean not like our instructors," Geline muttered with a smirk, "who are in fact masters themselves?"

"I mean a Master, like a natural master. He's so ... oooh!" Cavinna shook her head and gave a little exaggerated shudder of pleasure. "He's like, amazing..."

Geline rolled her eyes and leaned back down into the couch. Natural masters were rare, that was true. But then again, when she had been tested and brought before the Grand Council of the Arts, she was rumored to be one herself. Of course, why else would Cavinna have brought this to her attention? Other than he was 'amazing'. He had to be some kind of hunk to keep her all quivery like that.

Grinning, Geline finally decided to quit the video game, and head into the admin offices and see if this Natural had a name. Before she could reach the admissions/securing office, however, she heard voices raised in a bit of a tiff.

"I do not want that creature here - he is a blasphemy!" It was the head of the school, one of the trio of deans who made up the Council. The other voice was quieter, probably just a messenger of some kind.

"He ... told me to tell you that your school's title implies all the arts, not just some or one of them... Sir."

"We teach the high arts, the delicate ones, the white magic! You supreme little fool! Go and tell Master Shivt that his kind are not welcome on the basis of the corruption that they bring." He paused, and Geline heard the messenger draw breath, but the dean yelled, "That will be all! Go!"

The ninteen year old magic student Geline Raman's curiosity was absolutely drooling over itself. So Master Shivt was his name, and he was a Black arts master? Even better! Geline had never even seen one before - the Dean's caustic reproval of the poor messenger was proof of why.

She ducked before the messenger came from the office, and like the minx she was, Geline slunk along behind him down the hall. She was no different from the other students in the building, to the messenger, and he was terribly distracted. When they arrived to one of the smaller offices, he knocked and Geline took that moment to turn the other way and head down a side hall.

For about two feet. Then she turned and cast a spell of light-shifting around herself so she would not be seen walking back toward the room. When she heard the door open and close, then muffled voices, she went back into the hall.

This poor messenger, she thought, would be retiring early. Geline expected this Shivt to angrily bite his head off at the very least, but instead she heard a soft purring sort of sound. "That is so typical," said the voice. He sounded like the rustle of velvet over silk.

"He is so obstinate, and such a fool." Shivt said. He said something more, but with a softer voice and Geline did not hear him. Abruptly, the door opened and the messenger bolted out. Fleeing past Geline, but unaware of her presence due to the magical cloak she'd put up, he darted back down the hall and presumably to the dean's office once more.

Geline sighed, inaudible over the click of the door shutting on its hydrolic hinges. She hadn't gotten a look inside, but that wasn't terribly important. Just now, she wanted to test herself to see if this master was running any spells over the area.

She gestured and a sort of matrix appeared before her eyes - invisible to anyone else even without the shielding. She selected glyphs which she stored in the magical aura around herself, and they combined in the air to form a broad 'information seeking' spell.

When the seeker-spell crashed into Shivt's counterspell shielding, Geline was not at all surprised. It gave her a bit of information before collapsing.

But then she felt it turn on around her, sucking down another small bit of energy from her own stores - and she was utterly helpless to stop it. When she felt the info-seeker leave her, she dropped the invisibility spell, and waited.

She'd been caught at this kind of thing before, but never by such a competent individual. While she waited for the inevitable shout or door slam, she averted her eyes from the door.

But nothing happened. Shivt simply did nothing with the information he garnered from her turned spell. Furrowing her brows, the blue-eyed girl wondered a little and worried a lot. Why was he doing this? Didn't he realize she was there? Was he just going to sit there?

Of course. You're the one who is standing up, you may feel free to open the door or leave - it is your choice. I'm quite comfortable where I am.

Geline jolted a little, she had rarely felt anyone's mental voice, and least of all one which was so strong. The burn left by Shivt's voice was somewhat familar, though. She didn't know why.

She reached for the door knob, and let herself in without knocking.

Geline stood before the desk that this small office offered - she'd been sent to ones identical to this one when being punished for doing something stupid in the past.

The room seemed way too small to hold the man who sat behind that desk. Though he was no bigger in shoulder than Geline's uncle Toffer, he was lean and tall - she could tell this by how high he sat in the chair. So unlike the dean in his own identical one.

Shivt was clearly not human, or not entirely so. His furry black skin was the first giveaway. His oddly animalistic face was another. If he did not have the slightly split lip or the oddly large eyes, however, he would have appeared as a stunningly attractive black man. Light made his short velvety-fur shine in shades of obsidian and oil, but it was mostly a pleasant intermediate charcoal color. Geline gulped.

His short cropped night-velvet hair rose straight off his head, it looked as though it might need to be cut often - and Geline irrationally wanted to smooth it down for him.

He apparently knew that. Smiling with half his face and passive with the rest, Shivt continued to gaze with his molten-ruby eyes at the girl who had the audacity to spy on him.

"You've got a lot of power, White-hat." He said, voice just as velvety as his skin looked. He clearly had long or at least pronounced canine teeth, they seemed to have pockets in his lower lip, so they did not jut out. That would have been tacky.

"... White hat? I haven't graduated yet." Geline finally caught up with what he'd said instead of savoring his tone. When she saw the slight look of surprise on his face, Geline smiled a little back. "I'm supposed to be a natural," she said, and then blurted out without thinking, "someone said you were a natural Master." She half-gasped, but he didn't seem to be offended by that.

If anything, he seemed to like the attention she was giving him. He leaned back, making the chair groan with his strong form, and put his feet up onto the desk, while waving Geline to sit somewhere.

There was no other chair in the small office - Geline recalled that a day or so back there had been a big tossup in another part of the school that involved chairs, and apparently they had to snag ones from every part of the place just to give their students a place to sit.

She chose the side of the desk, close to his strangely shaped feet. The fur stopped just past his ankles and his feet were only two-toed, not quite hooves, certainly not jointed toes like her own.

Geline was wearing a standard dress for a white-art student at the school, a plated skirt and long-sleeved shirt which flaired out around the wrists, all in white. She habitually chose to wear no shoes, so she dragged her own foot up to the desk. She folded her knee and kept her skirt carefully down, but couldn't help noticing that Shivt - like all men - dearly wanted to see more than her shapely knee, ankle and foot.

"What brings you here, to our school, anyway? I mean, if the dean's only going to give you grief about it?" Geline said, finally regaining a sense of composure. Shivt emulated it.

"Your school has long been in non-compliance with the grand convergence's decisions to teach all arts at any available school."

This came as a surprise to Geline - there was a decision about this? There had been a convergence? When? And the deans had decided to ignore it?! "What were they thinking?!" Geline blurted out, and Shivt laughed.

"That is what I was wondering myself. It seems that they are not entirely up on things out here. Especially things like promoting obviously talented casters like yourself to her appropriate station."

The compliment left Geline with a blush and her eyes couldn't come close to his. She heard the messenger approaching the door, and without really thinking about it, she dropped back off the table and opened the door for him.

The slightly-built young courier jolted back a little, but then entered the room with a gravely confused look on his face. Geline smirked and caught the end of Shivt's own which faded when the messenger entered.

"I ... I think you'd best go talk to him in person, Master Shivt. He's quite ... stubborn."

"I know. You've done all you can. How many times did he raise his voice at you?"

"... Several?" Said the young man, and Shivt produced a pouch of money which apparently had quite a lot of coins in it. More than any courier would normally be getting. He left, not looking at Geline but clearly wishing he could ask how she dared enter.

When the door slid shut again, Geline tossed her head at the hallway. "I could escort you to his office, I've been there often enough."

"Why does that not surprise me, white-hat?" He stood, showing off a sleek long-legged body and very very little covering it up. He waited for Geline to precede him, and they went to the Dean's office.

The looks that Geline and Shivt got while walking the three or four minute track to the dean's office were precious. Both of them seemed to appreciate them well enough, Geline openly so.

"You might pull in that ego a little," Shivt said, quietly brushing up against Geline's side, "you might make your contemporaries jealous. Unless that is what you intend to do," he paused and waited for Geline's blush to come back, "which service I am certainly open to perform for you."

They reached the office a heartbeat later, and Shivt opened the door sharply and strode in unannounced. He put up some kind of air-block that kept the door open for a moment longer, and Geline took that as a cue that she would be required inside as well.

That was... more than an honor - it was a surprise beyond belief. But as she had always been composed in other odd situations, Geline kept her head on and entered. Silently, she stood slightly behind and to the side of the tall black-arts Master.

Shivt didn't give the dean half a moment to even consider complaining about either his rude entrance, or Geline's presence. Instead, the master let off a tirade of quiet words.

"I was made aware of your school's noncompliance no more than a month ago, Dean Ryaa, and I was also made aware that you had personally spurned the last three Black Masters' requests to be set into the curriculum here. That is beyond the last straw of unacceptable behavior, Ryaa, it is nigh upon illegal, especially considering how the Convergence went so well."

"It went well without me," the Dean said, growling, "and I hear, without most of the White arts masters in attendance as well."

Shivt made a little pshaw noise, and said, "it would not have been a convergence without them, Ryaa, do you think the dark masters so arrogant as to make this sort of arrangement without approval from their light counterparts?"

"It's exactly the kind of thing they're known to do," Ryaa said, turning red and standing, his fists balled up and propping him up against the desk. "It is precisely that which gives me every reason not to trust your so-called Convergence decision."

Shivt glanced away, he had hoped to sway this matter without resorting to his Art. Before he could say any more, however, Geline interrupted quietly.

"Sir, I know this isn't my place to ask, but have you tried asking the other Light masters about it? Surely they would confirm or deny the convergence's outcome." She gulped, she'd talked back to her instructors on occasion, but she'd rarely had the guts to say a word to the dean. He was ... rather blustery. This was no exception.

"Girl, you ought to be in your classes and out of my office. This is no place for a mere stude-"

"The girl is my attendant, and she'll remain, and you have not answered her question. It's a perfectly valid one." Shivt said, putting his strong hand onto Geline's shoulder for encouragement.

Geline wanted to either melt away to nothing, or run screaming away from the whole thing. Or, she gave a little thought, she'd like to run away with Shivt and then melt.

Later, came his soft mental voice. Fortunately Ryaa was a little preoccupied to notice the red her face had turned.

Ryaa sputtered a bit, and then managed to calm himself. "I have ... not." He glared at Geline. "The girl has been trouble for her teachers in the past. She's yours - keep her out of my hair."

"Why thank you for making that official," Shivt said, half serious but with an edge to his gaze and the sharpness to his smile that said he would never forget it.

Geline was a little worried with that statement, but she was now... what? A student of a dark master? What did that make her?

"I'll ask you that you do your research," Shivt continued, "and I will be awaiting your ... response, when you come to one. The correct response is that I will be given at least one sizable classroom and the funding within the school to begin instruction. As per the convergence decision." He iterated that last sentance as if by rote, and then turned Geline with that hand on her shoulder, leaving the room with her in tow.

"Why don't you show me the school," he suggested. "I've only just gotten here, and there are many places I'd like to explore."

"I think you might have trouble getting into the library," Geline grinned. "It's warded against people like yourself."

"Do you mean to insult my heritage or my choice of magics?" Shivt asked without glancing to her.

"Both," Geline said, a fierce smirk on her lips. He turned and met her gaze, and she was so relieved to see a cheerful glimmer in the rich red eyes that she giggled. "How about I show you to the central courtyard and we can go from there?"

"It sounds wonderful. Hopefully you'll run into some of your friends and you can properly gloat."

Geline laughed hard, when they were given the opportunity to do just that. The stares and glares and mutterings which followed the pair around the campus were well worth every moment.

They reached Geline's head magic mistress' room, and there was a class going on when Geline opened the door. Some blather about casting without provocation or some moral dilemma like that was stopped abruptly when they entered.

The mistress with her big white hat and her flouncy gown stood with a stunned look on her face, and she even dropped her chalk.

"Miss Raman! Take yourself to the dean's office immediately - and that - that -"

"That demon who's now my instructor? We just came from there. He's in a foul mood. I just wanted to tell you I'd be transferring from your class is all. Thanks - bye-" Geline was going to attempt to back out of the room quickly but instead bumped into the solid frame of her dark master.

He didn't let her by, instead he glanced at the ethical problem on the board and cleared his throat. "I was not sure they still taught those sorts of questions in the white arts, any longer." He said, and mistress Alenni turned to face her blackboard, then whisked herself back around just in case Shivt 'tried anything'.

"We do, I'm surprised that you'd know of them."

"You know, the misinformation that circulates around white arts schools is appalling. Do you honestly think that the dark masters won't teach exactly the same things, only with a different source of power?"

Mutterings around the room got going, and Geline leaned down into one of the nearby seats. This was going to be good - the mistress and her new master, head to head already?

They gave a good argument, but in the end it was clear that the white arts had been giving the dark ones a bad name. If Shivt was to be believed, of course. What had started as a clear cut argument by Alenni turned into a chattering question and answer session about how any art might be aided by the same moral or ethical soundness.

Satisfied, and pleased to see that her student was in good hands after all, Alenni dismissed Geline for the last time and suggested that she get herself tested by the convergence leaders next time she had the opportunity.

As they left the room, Shivt looked to be pondering that very thing.

"She's got a good point," he said, looking at Geline with a strange mix of manly-lust and magical-senses. "You are well past any student level, and your natural ability is far higher than most masters who have to read and study for their spells."

Geline pondered, and then said, "well I've learned a lot from books. But it was always stuff like how to ... organize myself, how to store things more effectively instead of the way I'd do it if I were left to myself."

"It is a very good thing you were able to come to the school then," Shivt said. "Too many natural masters are ignored as 'savants' and never given proper venues to practice and train."

"Then I consider myself lucky to have another master say so."

They walked in healthy silence, both happy with their current status in each other's eyes. Eventually, Shivt asked, "so where do you think it's likely to have this class I'm meant to be setting up? It seems that most of the good class rooms are taken."

"Oh, I think the first thing the dean is going to do is try stuffing you into a tiny back room somewhere."

"That much is obvious - that's why I stipulated the 'sizable' part the way I did. I can well imagine what my 'classroom' will look like if I didn't." He smirked and nodded toward a restroom, and Geline laughed.

"... I don't think I've introduced myself, properly," she said, holding out her hand. "I'm Geline Raman, I've been studying at the school for three years. I'm very pleased to meet you, master." She waited and Shivt finally took her hand.

He dipped down and kissed the back of her hand, dwelling there a little longer than any chivalrous man should - and glanced up at her with a playful look. When he straightened back up, he announced, "And I am Master Shivt, master of the black arts, some time teacher of black-cloaks. It is my pleasure to meet you, as well, miss Raman."

Geline's brilliant blue eyes fluttered and she blushed yet again. "Are you hungry? Would you like to see our cafeteria or ..." she chuckled, "head out on the town? You'd have to put something on, though..." She flickered her gaze down to his waist where his single piece of 'clothing' rested, a metallic brief that looked far more decorational than comfortable. She'd been unable to bring herself to stare at his rear end even while he was walking in front of her - she'd probably blow a gasket at that sight.

A slow and rather naughty grin spread across Shivt's face, but he did not choose to reply with his smooth mental voice. They went to the cafeteria, toured the rest of the campus until the late afternoon sun glared into the west-facing windows of the building.

"So it would seem that the day wanes," Shivt said, somewhat wistfully.

"Poetic," Geline replied. "Dare I ask if you've got a place to stay while you're waiting for the dean's response?"

"Actually I do," Shivt said, and he ignored Geline's slight deflation at that. It would do him no good not to add it, so he said, "would you like to -"

"I would be honored," Geline said, a bit too excitedly. She gave off a loud, nervous laugh.

"And you understand that until you're proven a Master you're my student, Geline Raman, that I intend to instruct?"

More slowly, she nodded, and said, "I do understand. I don't know what it is that you'd be teaching me, though. Debate skills noted," she grinned.

"Thank you. You'll get used to it." Shivt waved his hand and a portal spread open from its wake in the aether. "Come along, my student."

Geline couldn't see very well into the portal, it looked rather dark and her first inclination was to cast a light or vision spell. But she trusted her master, and stepped through behind Shivt.

Inside Shivt's portal, the briefest sensation of motion brought Geline to his side - somewhere 'else'.

"I've never gotten to play with pocket universes," Geline said, looking around. The portal was exactly that, a way from one world to the next. It was not the world itself, as she expected. The room that they stepped into from the dark portal was richly appointed and simply huge.

Wooden paneling reached to the arched ceiling, where marble completed the artistic appearance. Carved pillars of both wood and stone tried to touch the ceiling but were always left short of it. Two braziers of fire lit the far end of the room, while more conventional electric light came from a desk lamp on the near side.

Shivt grumbled to himself, and flicked it off. "I thought I'd turned this off." Geline snickered quietly as she continued to examine the huge room. There were two great doorways, one on the far end between the braziers, and another to their left leading who-knew-where. Scents of musk and flowers, the fire's coals, and immense age came to Geline's senses.

"Dare I ask where this place is?" She said, hesitant. Shivt shrugged.

"Would it bother you tremendously if I told you it was in Ohio?"

Geline snorted out a laugh, and Shivt chuckled a little.

"It's not. It's a pocket universe, as you pointed out. And you have been using them, by the way, you just have not been using them to their full potential."

Tilting her head, Geline asked, "in what way? Point me in the right direction, master, I'll go down that path."

"Your organizational glyph grid," he said, encouraging her to bring it up before her eyes. Apparently he could see it, or perhaps he simply knew what she was doing and could imagine it. "That itself is a pocket universe. A very small one, confined to your presence, and based upon your own aura as a power source."

"And your ... place here, it's what, based on something else?"

"It is not confined to my presence, nor does it draw exclusively upon my own magical reserves. If you watch, you'll see."

He waved his hand, and produced another portal. It was a small black circle, and he pressed his dark hand into it. Geline's eye was drawn to the far wall, where another small portal opened, and his hand emerged from it. "You're not watching correctly, try using your other eyes."

"Ah -" Geline said, and shifted her gaze to a magical spectrum. There, she saw a drifting haze of darkness where the portals were, and a thin line of black between them. His own power. But then around everything, and something 'beyond' the walls of the room, was also darkness. A pervasive, endless darkness.

"The pocket universe is in the power source itself?" Geline asked, and Shivt nodded.

"Yes, it is. Your own might very well be nestled in the light, while mine rests in the darkness."

"So it is just a power source, and not a means to an end?" Geline recalled parts of the argument he'd been putting up in her old classroom. "That's what I always felt, but of course I couldn't bring it up, not in there. I'd be shouted out of the school."

"A sad condition. But you'll be able to help me convince the rest of the students, once we start teaching."

He walked into the other room, beyond a silken drapery that the doorway concealed. Geline faltered in the room, alone. What did he say? What?!

You heard what I said, Geline and you are quite welcome to decline, but you're much more suited to helping me and give examples of what I will require students to perform, than merely being a student at the head of the class.

"Oh." Geline said, simply. She heard something in the other room, like a burbling sound. Curious, Geline stepped through the russet-orange curtain and saw another marvelously appointed room. This was all marble, slick and more brown in color than the pale grey of the ceiling in the main hall. Past the entrance was a wide flat central walkway, there was a set of large shelves and glass-fronted cabinets on the right, and on the left was a carved bath or pool - it was a pool to Geline, huge as it was. Shivt was in the slightly steaming water up to his neck, and looking like he enjoyed it.

He heard her enter, and raised his wet arm out of the water to beckon her near. She hesitated, and Shivt grimly smiled.

"You should never mistrust me with your life, your soul or your mind, my dear, certainly not because of my choice of arts." He said. "You ought to mistrust me with your body, however, purely because of my father's side of the family." At that, he smiled widely, bearing his fangs and such a feral beauty that Geline almost fainted.

"Um, I don't - I..." Geline stammered. In the back of her mind raced all the close encounters she'd ever had with any guy before - none of them compared and certainly none of them ended the way she imagined this would.

Shivt tilted his head and lowered his arm back into the water. "There are some towels in the cabinet, there," he suggested. "Why not take one of them, it's quite warm, and I won't bite."

"Now, why do I doubt your sincerity on that Master?" She said, and though she trembled slightly she found a thick cotton towel that smelled of mint, and drew it around herself while expertly removing her shirt and skirt. She could not help but think she was giving some kind of show as Shivt watched her, but she seemed to forget very quickly that he seemed able to read her mind and emotions as easily as if she were speaking them aloud.

He kicked up at the surface of the water with his heavy foot, splashing out a spray of warm water onto the marble and almost dousing Geline. She made an 'eep' noise and almost slipped - scooting her skirt and shirt out of the way of the water. "Almost got me," she said, snugging the towel around her midsection and removing the rest of her clothing discreetly. Her foot plished into the puddle of water, and she brushed it back into the pool.

Geline found the area near Shivt was carved into a shallow step, so she sat onto it. "How long would it take your fur to dry, anyway?" She asked on a whim, noticing that his fur was short but it matted down a bit with the water.

"Don't you think there is a reason I have a wall full of towels?" He indicated the many nooks each of which contained a stack of towels. They were mismatched, most of them colorful but some brightly white.

"What, do you like go out and collect towels during white sales?" Geline laughed, and laughed harder when Shivt said nothing and half nodded. "Well I guess that's got to be true. I don't want to know what kind of drains you need for that fur in here..."

"I do not shed," Shivt said.

As Geline relaxed a little more, she slipped down into the water, leaving the towel on the side of the pool, and dunking herself into the water. It was warm, especially compared to the chill of the portal they'd just gone through.

Surfacing, she found Shivt to be half asleep with his large eyes closed, head resting on the side of the pool.

"So, what sort of ... what's your father's side of the family like? Since that's the side I need to watch for?"

Shivt grunted a chuckle, and said, "static demon, a minor lord, pretty young actually. Most demons are ancient, but there are lots of them growing out of the new eras."

"... Static demon? What's that meant to be?"

"The son of an electricty lord and a feline huntress. Grandmother was a lightning elemental, on his side. And my mother was human."

Geline added this all up in her mind and came up with, "no wonder your hair sticks up like that..." But she had to dodge under the plume of water he splashed toward her instead of sticking around to gloat.

In the end, Shivt offered to dry Geline off if she'd comb down the hard to reach spots on his back for him. Nothing more naughty than that - and Shivt caught the relief from the girl in waves.

Geline let herself be watched as she dried her hair with yet another of the massive collection of towels. "You don't have a blow-drier, do you?" Geline asked, and Shivt made some noise indicating his distaste of the objects.

"Your cat side is showing," Geline said, with a grin.

"No, I just don't like how it leaves my fur all dry and crispy - it's vacuume cleaners I can't stand."

Laughing, he left the room and waited for Geline to follow. He had 'neglected' to return his skimpy loin decoration to his waist, and Geline buried her face into the towel she held to keep from burning her face off with a blush like that.

The evening went on with Geline finding some pleasant robes in a small room nearby, ones which Shivt apparently had worn himself (they smelled of his fur, she breathed in deeply and enjoyed it), finding a little bit to eat, and Shivt giving a few more words of wisdom to aid her in little mysteries of the universe.

How would she be his student if they were using different techniques? She could learn new ones, or just adapt to whatever felt right. She was a Natural after all, so everything he said had to be tempered with what felt right.

You'll learn as much as you can from me, and then you'll invent your own way. That is all I can say - it is all my own instructors could tell me.

What had felt like a burn in the back of her mind when he first touched it with telepathy now was an ache - but it was the ache of something that had been removed, as if his voice should have been there all along and had only just come back. It had a nook. Geline felt like she could listen to the tone or the tempo of Shivt's voice forever, if only he would continue. Geline's head nodded and she found herself blinking at Shivt's bemused expression across the big table.

"You're exhausted," Shivt pointed out. "Come along. Time for you to head to bed. I've got a course to plan..."

With alarming speed, several masters of the Light and Dark arts gathered at the school to dismiss the Dean and his two lackeys. They were replaced by two long-standing members of the staff, and one new black-cloak. It was no surprise to Geline that several of the older and more set in their ways instructors quit outright, but at least two more were convinced that if they remained they could somehow 'convert' the dark masters to their own ways.

Still others just decided that if Ryaa was gone, everything was right in the world.

For the next four months, Geline aided Shivt in any way she could, and was a bit taken by surprise when one afternoon a trio of mage guild judges arrived to watch her performance. Shivt was out doing some errand that she thought he was far above, and she caught on quickly that she was being tested.

The class went on with a mix of questions, lecture and demonstration, and Geline apparently passed whatever requirements the judges needed from her. When Shivt came back to the class (with an empty Snickers wrapper and chocolate stuck between his fangs) the judges conferred with him quietly. Too quietly - Geline saw one of them hastily erect a privacy barrier. At least one of the students attempted to break into it, and Geline warned them off with an 'ahem' and a carefully raised eyebrow.

"Your white hat, in honor of your abilities," one of the judges announced. "You don't have to wear it if you don't want to, it's one of those traditional things."

"I... thank you, mistress," Geline said, as the class quickly grew grins and muttered happily among themselves. "This is the tackiest thing I've ever seen..." The laughter in the class was joined by Shivt and the judges.

"Well, wear it if you wish, or hang it up. It's a symbol, you're a master now. I suspect you've been for a while, but we would never have known."

"I didn't feel like one until now," Geline admitted, as the class broke up for the afternoon. Shivt was playing with something on the computer, and ignored them all. "There isn't a way for me to ..." She glanced at Shivt, who was most likely prying into her mind but she couldn't tell.

"To what, dear?" The mistress asked, her own white hat transformed into a close-fitting cap with all white flowers perched on the side.

"To... learn the dark arts too. In theory, it's all the same thing." Geline's gut tightened, but the trio of judges looked at one another with more surprise than anger.

"It's been done, before, but not often. I do not know if you have that in you. You're an exceptional student of any art, I think, perhaps you and Shivt will find a way." She said, patting Geline on her shoulder. "We'll be in touch if you need us. Come visit us during the next Convergence, both of you. You'll be a good addition."

As they left, Shivt stood and pressed his fingers on Geline's chin, shutting her mouth which was hanging open ungracefully. She blinked, looked at him, and pounced into his arms with glee when she finally grasped everything they'd said.

***

Geline was all snuggly, that evening. Naturally. "If I'd known this was what it would take for you to pay more attention to me," Shivt said as she rumpled his fur the wrong way instead of combing it down as was his typical request, "I'd have invited them months ago..."

"I wasn't ready then. For that, or this..." She hugged down onto him, relaxing to his touch. "I'm glad you waited to ask."

"I didn't, they came all by themselves." Shivt said, shrugging off the shocked look she gave him. "Really. And would you stop pulling on that fur? It's sensitive."

A single hair plucked from among many made him wince, made Geline grin and giggle, and both of them forget the stresses of the day.

Later on, Geline came to realize that she'd not even bothered to head home in weeks - so comfortable in Shivt's presence and able to create her own portals to his pocket home. She looked around at one wall of the main hall, and as Shivt staggered through the room muttering something about 'vixen' and 'vitamine e suppliments' Geline decided that she could in fact add to the pocket universe, even though it was settled into the Dark magic.

'Just a tool,' she thought to herself. 'It's only a tool, power at the disposal of the user...' She brought up her glyph board, noticing that it was slightly stronger than before. "Well, that's new..." She said.

The glyphs she touched were for 'enclose', 'space' and 'generate'. The wall shuddered a bit, and Shivt wanted to run back through the room to see what the matter was - but he knew better. If something went wrong he could correct it after all. Geline's powerful touch sent the glyphs running - through the wall and into the blackness beyond.

The blackness expanded, shaped by the enclosure spell, bounded only by Geline's somewhat inexpert control. What she wanted was another side room with space for her own desk and such. She got a narrow but tall corridor that bent at the end. It was covered in something like cherry colored wood, but she knew that wasn't what it really was.

"That didn't work nearly as well as I wanted it to," she muttered. Shivt came to her side and pressed his hands onto her shoulders.

"You can make a room at the end of the hall - it's your hall. I haven't shown you my first room, now have I?"

She glanced at his ruby eyes, and shook her head. "No, you haven't. It's that bad?"

"It is so much worse you won't even believe it. I didn't have anyone to help me figure it out, either, so you're in luck. I think I've done a bit better with some practice." He waved at the big room and she nodded.

"What was it you were playing with today, in class?" She asked, offhand. It had been gnawing at her that he was so interested in something, typing away and then reading the screen, but he'd never mentioned what he was reading.

"Ah that," he said. "Yes. I've... found something you might like. I know I'm interested, anyway. Would you like to see another world?"

"You found another world on the internet? Do you get out at all?"

"No, it's ... I found a database that's maintained by someone on another planet. Maybe even on another reality. That's more likely given their history and locale."

"And... it is?" Geline said, finally curious.

He led her to the small monitor and keyboard, which was the single most difficult to maintain part of this pocket universe. It had to have a constant portal to the other worlds, giving it power, but also sending it information. It might vanish if not for those portals. Shivt brought up some links, and then turned the monitor Geline's direction.

"It's a, well, it's a dragon hatching. Do you want to go? I think it would be fantastic. Nexus world, not far from the pocket dimension anyway."

"A dragon hatching!? There are dragons - of course there are dragons, you're a static-cling demon." He made a silly noise, but she continued, "I'd love to. Where is it? When?"

"Where, is a place called Cy Dragonstake. It's a nexus world, so there's going to be a lot of very odd people from all different realities there. I hope. When, that's kind of up in the air. I think the eggs were just laid not long ago - two mothers, they're looking for people to ..."

"People to what?" Geline said, pressing into his chest and not looking at the monitor.

"People to bond to the dragons." He tapped his nail on the screen, and brought her attention to it. Geline's eyes focused on the request for candidates, and she gulped.

"That's a big responsibility," she said. "And we've already got the classes."

"But there is nothing saying that we can't do both. Come on, Geline, you and I both know we're bored stiff when the classes are over. And who is to say, this dimension here is outside of time, anyway."

"... outside?" She said, "no, that's not right. We get back to school-"

"Through the portal, every time. Otherwise, we'd get there just as we left it. So we might be able to pull it off, without anyone even knowing. Unless you'd want to fly to work..."

Geline laughed nervously, but then steeled herself. If he could do this then so could she - and she'd do it better than anyone had ever done before.

We both will, Shivt said, we both will.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT???

Geline stared at the big dragons, at Cydragonstake, and gulped. This wasn't quite what she'd expected, but then again it also looked like Shivt was also a bit surprised.

Because the big male, the sire of the Nero-sands clutch, was half a hydra. Winged, with more heads than necessary... And it was quite unnerving to the mages.

They were led into the chambers when the dragons eggs began to hatch. It all seemed very angry and quick, because Sherra was nervous that the hatchlings (or even the parents of the clutch) would attack people other than the candidates.

Geline supposed that if she was to be attacked she could easily defend herself with a spell. Shivt was obviously more suited to physical defense. A number of dragons - hydragons as they would be known, hatched and aggressively bonded.

One was a lovely dark green who had red stripes along her body. Several small neck nubs prodruded showing that she'd have a total of four heads. She snapped at Shivt, before looking at Geline carefully and chilly.

I do not like him, but I like you. My name is Atenu, and I have decided to bond with you. She reiterated, My name is Atenu.

"I gotcha..." Geline whispered, gently shoving Shivt out of their way. Several other dragon-hatchlings were fighting, so the pair exited the black sands alone.

Shivt watched his lover and her sharp dragoness leave, not quite disappointed because he knew there was something for him on these sands. He waited, patiently.

A number more of hatchlings came and bonded, angrily trying to eat one another or their bonds. When he saw the tall standing black and red dragon, with a set of numbs telling of five heads, Shivt stood proudly and with a slight twist of a confident smile on his lips.

The hydragon kicked at an egg before leaving the shell littered area, and heading toward Shivt. Well I have decided to bond with you even though I don't like whoever that woman who hangs around with you is. My name is Eusith.

"That's fine, Eusith, she won't like you either. Just like she wasn't too sure of me at first."

You think that I will like her eventually. You are wrong, the hydragon grumbled as they walked toward the kitchens and food. Shivt only grinned.

***

Their huge non-spacial palace had to be enlarged to keep two angry hydragons away from one another, and to house them at all was more of a chore than either mage had expected.

"How many more cows, Shivt?" Geline groaned, as she manipulated her glyph grid. "I mean, four? Five? How many do you think they'll eat before they explode?"

Shivt purred with a laugh. "Just get an even half-dozen, and let them sort it out."

Geline waved her hand, and 'stole' some cows from places far distant - they wouldn't be missed. Not that she cared.

Geline muttered an incantation and summoned up her clipboard for their class schedule.

"Look, today there are supposed to be circle challenges," she said. Shivt nodded.

"Are your kids ready for that?" He asked, red eyes glinting.

"You've trained them too, Shivt," Geline said, "so if you've trained my kids poorly you'll have to live with me. Angry." She licked her lips, and Shivt stood, opening their portal to the school.

"Then you've nothing to worry about, my dear, because I would rather go back to a hydra hatching with steak stapled to my skin than have you turn cold on me..."

***

They are disgusting.

I finally agree with you on something.

You do not have to. You can argue and I can hurt you.

AS IF! You could never harm me, you tiny little greenling!

The hydragons were grown after a year of careful attention by their bonds. They had been excersized regularly and shown the ways of flight, fighting came naturally to them.

I do not think you are good enough for me.

I know you're not good enough to worry about!

They harrmuphed around the pair of dens that had been manufactured out of nothingness for them, but remained civil long enough to pose for these images...