CHAPTER 156: BODY-WRITHING SYNERGY

The Arcane symbols were a complicated sort. The type meant to frustrate the mind and improve a Mage’s Enlightenment to edge them closer and closer to advancement into another Magic Circle.

The Grimoire opened in front of Cynthia had to have been her copy of the Kragsten family’s interpretation of the Arcane Codex.

The Arcane Symbols floated around Cynthia’s form for a while before they sank into her forehead one at a time. With each added symbol, Cynthia’s expression became more and more scrunched up and she only relaxed after the last symbol vanished into her head and she could truly allow herself to assimilate the knowledge within the symbols for her Enlightenment.

Cynthia was in her cross-legged position for more than a quarter of an hour and only stopped when her Mana finally lost the uniformity granted by her ’Focus’. When she opened her eyes slowly, she didn’t appear at all disappointed; she was elated!

She had nearly doubled her best time with this particular set of Poses and had just proven to herself that having a partner to perform her poses with improved its effectiveness, increasing the duration of her ’Focus’.

She looked at Caius who had crossed his legs as well and had a Grimoire open and placed on his crossed legs. He used both his hands to form seals and cast Arcane symbols that he only let appear for a few seconds at most before they vanished and he cast others.

Cynthia could tell it wasn’t just an errant, offhand practice. She confirmed this when Caius cast two Arcane symbols and brought them together for a combination which they held for a few seconds before breaking apart.

Caius nodded after this and, with a twirl of his fingers he retrieved a pen from his storage ring and noted the brief combination he had managed before sending the pen back into his storage ring to cast more symbols.

’Spell creation,’ Cynthia thought as she watched him.

Having lived a considerable number of decades as a fairly accomplished Mage, she knew of spell creation. She had created a couple of spells herself but, it’s hard to take that practice seriously when you hail from a Family like the Kragstens.

There were mounds upon mounds of legacies to be inherited. All of which were at her fingertips. There’s just hardly a reason or drive to create spells of your own when you have such at your disposal. Also, how much hope did she have to innovate better than those powerful Mages of old that had made her family as illustrious as it was?

Anyway, while she didn’t always dabble in spell creation, she knew enough to detect a sophistication in what Caius was doing. Especially the ease with which he cast Arcane symbols in their raw, barely interpreted forms to make combinations.

Of course, immunity to being Mind-broken by the Arcane Codex was an advantage of being a Vampire but, as Cynthia didn’t know of this secret Caius was keeping, he just came off as incredibly talented.

To be fair, that wasn’t entirely untrue.

Even if one could read through the Arcane Codex in its natural state without getting mind-broken, it still takes a level of talent to be so capable of making combinations as Caius was currently doing.

In the minute Cynthia spent watching him, he made five more combinations which he took note of in his Grimoire before he seemed to finally notice she was longer mediating on the Arcane Codex.

He looked up at her and smiled.

"You’re done."

"No, please. Don’t let me interrupt you," Cynthia said and gestured at his Grimoire. She meant that. She didn’t mind watching his attempts at spell creation.

"Oh, I’ll get back to it some other time," Caius said with a nonchalant wave and a smile as he snapped the Grimoire shut and sent it into his Storage Ring before he continued,

"It’s not why we’re here, after all."

Cynthia frowned at that.

"Yes. Not why we’re here..." she said in a mellow voice.

"What’s wrong?" Caius asked.

Cynthia eyed him for a while and then sighed as she shook her head.

"You’re here to learn from you. But it seems, with what I’m now discovering of my Poses, that I’m learning from you instead."

"And that’s bad?" Caius asked lightly.

"I don’t know," Cynthia admitted and there was about one minute of silence before she added as she looked off to the side,

"This was just not what I had in mind when I was seeking permission to do this."

"Fair enough," Caius said, "What Lochxen Professor would be proud of the idea of learning from a student?"

Cynthia’s eyes returned to his face then.

"This is not a matter of pride, I assure you. I’m fine with learning new things from unexpected places.

I just detest the idea of losing sight of the original goal. We’re already at risk of it and we’ve only just started."

Caius laughed.

"Nonsense," he said, "It’s like you said; This is our first lesson. It *should* be dedicated to the foundations. Not just of what makes a good Combat Mage but also what makes a good Teacher-Student Relationship."

"True," Cynthia admitted, "It’s just—"

"You think you’ll be tempted," Caius said.

"Tempted to do what?" Cynthia asked in a very defensive tone. A moment from earlier when her and Caius’s lips had gotten far closer than was appropriate, flashed brightly in her mind just then.

Caius shrugged.

"You think you’ll be tempted to spend half of our lessons performing your Poses with me as your partner and the other half using the focus you gain to try and achieve Enlightenment."

"Oh," Cynthia said looking a bit ashamed at where her mind had gone. She nodded her head and said,

"It’s a valid concern."

"Not to me," Caius assured her, "You showed me those poses to offer me an alternative for Mediative acquisition of ’Focus’. By performing the poses together, we’ll achieve that."

Cynthia rolled her eyes,

"Your complementary poses are ineffective. Your Mana Points are unaffected by them."

"So let’s work together to perfect my Complementary poses. If having a partner worked well for your poses, you think it wouldn’t do the same for poses I came up with in minutes?"

Caius of course actually had no intentions of ’perfecting’ his poses. For one, as a Vampire, he didn’t have Mana points to be stimulated and the poses he’d be forced to perform would just be uncomfortable and useless.

For another, the poses were perfect as they were because the goal was only to complement Cynthia’s poses. He was merely making himself a tool to become indispensable to her and achieve the closeness he needed for his own aims.

The reason he suggested ’perfecting’ the poses was that he knew how much Cynthia wanted to continue.

The few times they had partnered up for the poses had enamored her to the idea but she was trying to hold herself back because she didn’t like being the only one benefiting when she was supposed to be teaching him.

In essence, the obstacle was that she was a good teacher who was taking passing on knowledge seriously. Of course, there was also her agenda of ensuring he did not become a Mage-Knight.

Caius’s suggestion tossed Cynthia into deep thought and then she said slowly in the tone of someone whose brain was grabbing hold of the bit of rationalization for something she already wanted to do.

"Well, if it’s mutually beneficial, I suppose we might as well see just how far we can go with it."

Caius smiled at his success.

"Exactly what I’m saying," he said, "If the poses are what you want to spend all our Extra Lessons doing, I’m at your service."

As he said that, Caius bowed his head forward with his arms spread out in a comedically theatrical show of submission that caused the Combat Magic Professor to chuckle.

"Dedicating an hour or two to perfecting the Poses is fine enough," she said with a smile,

"We will strive for balance. Important as Focus is, there is a lot more we can and will dedicate our time together to. Lest we lose sight of our goal."

...

Despite saying that, the rest of that day’s Extra Lessons were spent on Poses or, as Caius preferred to refer to them, Dances. With Cynthia growing more and more comfortable pressing her body against Caius’s in the intensification of her Poses. She showed off set after set so Caius could create complementary poses so they could perform them together in body-writhing, near-lascivious synergy.