4.03 – Sabina’s Special Room

4.03 – Sabina’s Special Room

Sabina held the potion vial up to the air, inspecting the swirling red liquid with a critical eye. She frowned, and Zoey’s heart skipped a beat. Had she messed up?

“It’s poor,” Sabina said, shaking the vial. “Clearly the work of an amateur.”

Zoey stared at Sabina, distraught. That had been ... more direct than Zoey had expected. Sabina tilted her head, pausing, as if confused at Zoey’s reaction.

“You are an amateur,” Sabina pointed out. “Perhaps not even that. A stark beginner. And in that regard, you’ve done quite well. Much better than expected.” She paused. “Ah. I should have led with that. I apologize.”

Zoey stared at Sabina a second longer, then laughed and relaxed. Well, she had known the tall, antlered woman for a bit now, so it wasn’t like she was surprised. Sabina’s lack of grace in social situations was well established. Her pride stung, still, but as Sabina had said, she was a ‘stark beginner’. There wasn’t anything to take offense at.

Alchemy was the sort of skill that took ages to improve at. And she’d said Zoey had done ‘well’ and even ‘better than expected’. The flip side to Sabina’s brutal and sometimes clueless honesty was that she could trust the praise. So, she’d done horribly, but all beginners were expected to be bad. And for a beginner, she’d done quite well.

“That’s good,” Zoey said. “Honestly, I’m just glad I got through it. I was getting worried near the middle. And then bottling, that it’d actually catalyze.”

It felt like she had been tackling catastrophe after catastrophe during the brewing stage. Her rune afforded her plenty of instincts in identifying what was wrong, but much less so how to solve those problems. But even so, with minimal guidance, she’d managed a small pot of healing potions—about six vials’ worth. And sure, health potions were one of the easiest recipes in existence, but progress came in small steps.

Sabina hummed in understanding. “The chaos of the brew is one of the most engaging aspects. One of the reasons I love it.” At Zoey’s dubious look, having found the situation quite stressful, Sabina said, “Once you get to upper-level brews, you’ll understand.”

“If you say so.”

She’d grown an easy familiarity with Sabina over yesterday’s, and now today’s, lessons. Though Sabina remained as cool and clinical as ever, the two of them were starting to build a repertoire, a comfort around each other.

“Now,” Sabina said. “Let’s get cleaned up and try something more complex. Go ahead and throw that out.”

The health potions Zoey had made were effectively worthless, and so Zoey had known it would be thrown out rather than saved and sold as merchandise, but she winced anyway. Sabina’s frankness was endearing most of the time, but not all the time. She couldn’t have put it slightly more delicately? That was Zoey’s first brew ever ... and straight into the sink, disposed of? It made sense, but still. Oh well.

She and Sabina started cleaning the many utensils and equipment they’d dirtied while brewing. While scrubbing down the equipment and scrubbing out the vials, Zoey brought up a topic she’d been chewing over.

“How much do alchemy runes vary, anyways?” Sink-water poured down as a backdrop noise. Zoey scraped and scrubbed while Sabina dried and laid the tools out on racks.

“You’ll need to be more specific.”

“You say that a lot.”

“Because you’re vague a lot,” Sabina said pointedly.

Zoey laughed, and while Sabina didn’t do so—or even smile—Zoey was learning to read the granite-expressioned woman. The quick retort was playful, by Sabina standards, even if it lacked the usual indicators.

“Can a person’s overall class affect their alchemy rune?” Zoey tried again. “Their ‘path’, or whatever.”

Zoey had been more specific, like Sabina had asked, but Zoey also winced at doing so. Because Sabina was a brilliant woman, and so, when Zoey asked questions like these, she always read the intent behind them.

This room. It didn’t leave much up to interpretation. She looked around, stunned, at the furniture. A shelf was filled with sex toys, many of which Zoey couldn’t identify. A metal rack was tucked in the corner, the sort of contraption a person would be tied up and hung from. All sorts of restraints and leather straps scattered the room. Zoey looked up, and in the ceiling-mirror’s reflection, she saw her wide-eyed expression—and Sabina, snapping on a pair of clinical white gloves.

“You’re distracted,” Sabina said matter-of-factly. “I’ve caught you staring at least a dozen times. This is a problem. I can’t have a distracted student. So, I will rectify this issue, and in the process, perhaps we can answer some of your questions.”

“My ... rune,” Zoey said dumbly. “How it might differ from a normal alchemist’s.”

“Indeed.” Having finished donning her gloves, Sabina tugged off her lab coat, revealing her daily clothes. As her curvaceousness even in the unflattering work wear had suggested, she had a lot going on.

The sight of Sabina undressing, even in a tiny, irrelevant way, hammered in, finally, what was happening. Zoey’s cock stirred, swelling in her pants.

Sabina noted it, expression not changing. She approached, arriving to Zoey’s side. “Let me preface things,” she said. “In most circumstances, I prefer to extract pleasure, not experience it myself. This will be one sided.” She moved down Zoey’s body and tugged Zoey’s legs into position, strapping those down, too. “This is fine?”

It took her several moments to find a response. “Uh. Yeah. Okay.” She was reeling from the twist in events.

Seriously. Where had this come from? Their morning lessons had progressed without a hint of anything sexual, Zoey had thought. Sure, she had accidentally admired the stern older woman’s body a few times—as she’d just been accused of—but Zoey hadn’t made any advances, overt or otherwise. She hadn’t even thought Sabina had noticed. Clearly, counting on Sabina’s observational skills to be lacking had been idiotic.

But how had today taken such a turn?

Was it really as simple as Sabina wanting to help ‘remove distractions’? And discover the intricacies to Zoey’s class?

The existence of a sex room attached to her bedroom suggested probably not. Zoey’s appraisal of Sabina was, clearly, slightly off. She’d halfway figured Sabina was ... asexual or something. Maybe, still, she was. Or something close? She had said she preferred to extract pleasure, not experience it.

“You asked me, yesterday,” Sabina said, “whether semen made an effective potion base. I replied it had been tested and found inadequate. But perhaps ... hm. A person’s class—the composite quirks of their rune or runes—do affect the general alchemy process. Sometimes drastically. Considering your class? Perhaps ...”

Sabina’s hands went to Zoey’s waistband. Holding scalding eye contact, her fingers finagled the button free, popping her pants open. She gripped the sides of Zoey’s pants and tugged down. Zoey, her head still fuzzy from shock, wiggled side to side to help her pull them down. Sabina left the article bundled at her shoes.

Sabina tilted her head, taking in the size of Zoey’s bulge. It was noticeable even through loose pants, but wearing only underwear to cover it, now, the truth of the situation made itself clear. Fourteen inches. A monster. It peeked out of her underwear, stretching toward her knee.

“I have, of course,” Sabina said, “theorized what your class is. You arrived to me with such perplexing ingredients, and with such uncommon biology. How this would combine with a rune of alchemy ... your curiosity isn’t yours alone. Semen. Perhaps for a libidinous class like yours, an alchemy rune would make use of such a potion base.”

Sabina tilted her head.

“As such, we need to collect.”

Zoey’s heart skipped a beat.

“Additionally,” Sabina continued, unruffled as ever. She wasn’t even blushing. “You’ve been distracted. It is, admittedly, flattering how much you stare, but you need to be focused on your studies.” Sabina gave her a stern look. “On my tutelage. So. Relieving you serves multiple purposes.”

Sabina rested a cool, gloved hand against the exposed tip of Zoey’s cock head. Zoey groaned, having become almost agonizingly worked up. Mostly, it was the fault of how surprising the situation was. Zoey squirmed in place, only to be reminded how firmly her arms and legs were strapped down. She’d almost forgotten. The restrictiveness of her positioning, again, made her heart slam faster. Pinned down. Unable to leave if she wanted to. Why was that so exciting?

“So,” Sabina said. “Let’s solve a problem, and answer a question. I do prefer being efficient.”