57 57 Baiting Stephen
By the time the Imp showed up, carrying trays of snacks for his mistress, Gerry had left for the gym with a half dozen Witches following him, and Wolfe was lying on a lounger, drip-drying after a short swimming race with a few of the senior class witches.
In theory, the girls who had followed Gerry to the gym also just wanted to work out. It was merely a coincidence that they were doing it while either facing or showing off for him and a few other guys who had joined the group.
Wolfe took the tray of snacks from the Imp and whispered so that the nearby witches missed their topic of conversation. “I’ll take those for you. Do you know a spell to break through a magical disguise?”
“I do, but you have to be much stronger than the caster, and you won’t be able to change them back. But if you use a suppression spell, you can force them to show their true appearance for a while.”
“Not a bad idea. How is it done?” Wolfe asked.
“No idea. I never learned it, but I’ve seen it done both by demons and witches.” The Imp shrugged.
“Thanks for the info. Here, have a sandwich.” Wolfe offered him a snack off the tray, and the Imp smiled.
“She forbid me from taking them, but she didn’t say anything about accepting one I’m given.”
Wolfe assumed that was the case. Anyone with a troublesome Familiar gave detailed restrictions to stop them from becoming a nuisance. This particular Imp delighted in tormenting witches in small ways.
Not enough to get himself seriously reprimanded, but enough to leave his mistress constantly exasperated and stressed out. The Imp didn’t actually hate her, though, so he backed off before he pushed her too far and gave her a break.
“I will check for it at the library later. It might come in handy more than once if I can learn it.” Wolfe told the imp with a wink.
Stephen came over while Wolfe watched the flirting in the pool turn more and more blatant as the Witches gave up all pretense of swimming and moved on to just playing catch with the volleyball and rubbing up against the new arrivals.
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“Just for the view, this was a good call. Look at how happy everyone is, even though they just met.” The kindhearted noble sighed.
Wolfe nodded in agreement. “You got a lousy assignment for sure, and I would feel a lot worse for you if it weren’t my witch that you were sent here to steal. You seem you’re a decent guy, and I think there is a way that I can help you out if you will accept the help of a rival.”
Stephen looked suspicious, as Wolfe might be a Familiar, but as he said, they were very much rivals for Ella’s affection.
“If you tell me what the method is, I will consider it,” Stephen replied carefully.
“The problem is that you came in as some guy that the Coven picked for them to marry. If you had come in on equal footing with them, they would probably have accepted you right away.
I have a way to put you on equal footing with Cassie and Ella again, and it won’t cost you anything but a bit of manly pride. If you meet me in the library tonight, I can help.” Wolfe offered.
“I will trust your good intentions this time. If you’re truly willing to help me be with Ella, I will take any help I can get.” Stephen reluctantly agreed.
That wasn’t going to happen. Or maybe it would in a roundabout way, but certainly not in the way that Stephen Isabel or his mother might have been expecting.
Slowly, everyone exhausted themselves, and the decision was made to head to the cafeteria until the final room announcements were made.
The way the rooms were currently arranged, and given the number of new arrivals that would shake up the organization, there wouldn’t be many students who didn’t get reassigned a dorm room, but it should make the lives of the staff easier, as the Headmistress was adamant that the men stick to their cover stories and do manual work around the school like the transfer application said they were here for.
She wasn’t going to just accept the Coven’s interference on her territory without at least a few petty measures to ensure that the men made themselves useful, and that meant at least three teacher’s assistants for every class, new janitors, maintenance men, butlers and much more.
The work assignments were posted when they arrived in the cafeteria, though the rooms hadn’t been changed yet.
Gerry Isabel was assigned to work with the groundskeepers, while Stephen was made a teacher’s assistant to Professor Miranda, meaning that they would see him every afternoon.
Since Stephen was actually a witch, or at least Wolfe strongly suspected that he was one in disguise, that assignment could be a good fit.
Learning with the first years would give all sorts of clues about how to build strength and try to activate an aura, which would move Stephen straight from Teacher’s Assistant to becoming a student, even if it did blow his cover. If he weren’t willing to try it on his own, Wolfe would be more than happy to give him a little nudge along the way.
“I need to head to the library for a little while. Will you two be alright?” Wolfe asked Cassie and Ella once the room assignments were up, letting the witches know that they wouldn’t have to move.
“That’s fine. Mary had to move since Reiko got a new arrival from her family. I think Mary found herself a babysitter, not a potential pair, going by their interactions at the swimming event though. They look quite close.” Ella laughed, watching the pair interact with Pup.
It might just be because of the size difference, but Ella was right. He did look like her babysitter, despite being roughly the same age. They were a cute couple.
Unlike the petite lover of fluff, Reiko had gotten a butler who looked exceptionally stuffy and uptight, despite having multiple scorch marks from Flame already. The Lizard never was a fan of others touching his witch, and it seemed like this guy was a slow learner.
Wolfe excused himself to head to the library, intending to find the Librarian and ask about the spellbook storage directory or whatever method they used to sort things in there, so he could find the disguise suppression spell.
The library had most spells indexed by the book they were contained in, and to Wolfe’s surprise, he didn’t even have to search for this one. It was in the Adventurers Handbook, which he already had.
Wolfe borrowed an extra copy from the shelf where they were displayed and flipped to the indicated page. The circle wasn’t difficult, but it would only last a few minutes, and only a witch could activate this version.
Much more interesting was the spell on the very next page. [Detect Hidden] could reveal camouflaged items, beings hidden in shadows and low-level invisibility, which was a light based spell that simply projected the effect’s surroundings as if the item or person wasn’t there.
He had no Affinity for light type magic, but [Detect Hidden] could be done with Unholy Magic, though the Handbook warned of side effects from letting a Demonic Familiar activate the spell.
Suppression of the disguise was situational at best, but being able to see through disguises would always be useful, and it was possible that the side effects were more to do with the Familiar playing pranks on the witch with its enhanced senses than anything innate about the Unholy Element.
According to the author of the Adventurer’s Handbook, few things could match the level of pettiness possessed by a Demonic Familiar that didn’t want to do something.
Wolfe practiced the new [Detect Hidden] spell while he waited, hoping that Stephen would take up his offer and meet him in the library. It was a tempting offer, but there was no guarantee that he wasn’t just wasting his whole evening.
Wolfe’s patience was rewarded only a half hour to lights out, when Stephen came in looking for him, looking nervous but determined, the wholesome combination that had given Wolfe a good first impression of him as a potential rival before he began to suspect that Stephen was really a Witch in disguise.