---Entry 24/Divination 4/Esther's Earthly Educating---

Dear Gretel,

The next few entries will be fairly normal ones, spread across a few days and outside of the trinity's brain trust. Though as vast as the experience was, it took a memory spell plus the brain trust to piece together every last detail I could muster to record, recording the events of the rigorous classes I experienced starting from that first today. "Rigorous" of course isn't nearly enough a descriptive-enough word to describe everything that happened today, but I was looking for a word that combined the definitions of "dangerous," "crazy," "deceptive," and couldn't find one. I settled on rigorous not because of accuracy, but because if today was going to become the standard going forward, I'd rather call it rigorous.

Early in the a.m., Esther drove me up to the Angeles National Forest. I saw dawn cracking from laying down in the passenger seat, my head resting in Esther's lap as she drove; fortunately Esther's driving made it as smooth as possible, even though we could've hit a few major bumps the way she stroked the hair of my sleepy head, putting ideas into my caressed head to slip her pants down and give my tongue access to her before directing both of us to the backseat where she'd blow me afterwards; I'm happy sleepy me opted to not even try as I might've forgotten to instruct Esther to pull over.

By the time we arrived, the light of sunrise put a nice shine on the testing setting she had in-mind for me. There were a few tourists and avid hikers around like usual; I sort of envied them as I loved hiking in the area too sometimes, a great place to stroll and clear my head in solitude if the drive was worth it. Knowing this was more of a field testing, I got out of the car to stretch my legs, arms and torso to really wake myself up. Dressed in a long-sleeve shirt, shorts, and hiking boots, I was deliberately indistinguishable from everyone else present, with the exception of Esther herself. The way she was dressed in slack and a decorative top meant more for shopping than hiking, I should've known that she wouldn't be joining me; the other indicator was the sympathetic smile she gave me, the "hoping for the best" kind that stopped any questions I had, but produced many as she got back in the car and drove away without a word.

Witchy teachings have been known to be cryptic, but this was a step further. I wasn't even told what I was being tested on today, just left at the beginning of a long trail I was supposed to walk through, to catch a glimpse of what I should be tested on. More cautious than annoyed, I started onto the path, keeping a watchful eye on some sign or sense leading me to what was to be my trial. Hungry and still fighting off the drowsiness from earlier, which was hard due to a building sense of boredom after a full hour of walking, I started to wonder what I could be tested on in a forest. Pyrokinesis was my first thought, being made to prevent a forest fire, or maybe Divination in reaching out to a tree having to do with an ancient ritual I could tap into pertaining to the lesson. No clues from the thousands of trees I looked closely at gave me any indication of what I should be looking for. 

I must looked like some strange sleuth to the hiking couple I was closest to by distance. I was constantly stopping to observe what could've been a sign, yet they never strayed too far away from me. A couple of glances their way told me why, how the man was slowing their pace and shooting glances my way he thought I didn't notice. It was getting close to the second full hour of hiking and searching when I felt low on energy, and almost decided to make a little detour in the lingering couple's direction. He was okay-looking, but she was much more appealing; an easy plan quickly formulated for taking both of them off the beaten path and playing with both, or playing cuckold with him watching. I was about to backtrack slightly and walk up to the woman, giving her a brief wave of Concilium to ready her for the hot kiss and rubbing between her legs to get her started (in retrospect, manual hypnosis should've been the way to go, but hunger plus impatience made me begin to take the easy way out, even if my energy was precious), when something shining off in the distance caught my attention. From the clearing, something, a specific shape, flashed from the distance at me; from far away, I could tell it was a specific shape. 

Getting my head back into gear, knowing the guy was still trying to keep his leering eye on me, I walked up the woman he was with.

"Excuse me, but I'm taking a national park survey," I told her in a friendly voice, giving her a smile that made her smile, despite the discomfort of me taking her hand.

"It's a one-question survey about seeking rest while hiking," I told her, refusing to let her form the prerequisite ability to decline or seriously question my assertion. "On the trail, do you ever sleep? On the trail, do you ever sleep? On the trail, do you ever sleep?"

I kept asking the same questions, only altering how I asked it with emphasizing the word "you" and "sleep," stroking her hand repeatedly before getting a non-verbal answer from the lost hiker.

"On the trail, do you...ever....sleep!" I yanked her sleepy body to me after a minute, keeping her upright and in my grip as the guy watched, stunned. I just gave him a playful, come-hither look, and an upright mass of male putty walked eagerly into my grasp.

"The answer to your questions are 'yes, I hypnotized your girlfriend,' and 'yes, I'm interested in sex,' so listen carefully how this is going to play out for a three-way..."

He willingly gave me his ear to which I gave a slightly-longer induction, slipping in easily from being delivered from a hot, breathy voice. 

With both under my immediate control, I so wanted to fuck with both of them the way I mentioned before, but that shiny object in the distance kept me focused, and I just convinced them to walk away and forget I ever existed, but not without suggesting to one of them to be interested in cuckolding later on (I forget which, but it doesn't matter; she deserves sex and he doesn't).

Once they were away and the coast was clear, I focused on my Transmutation ability, felt my energies phasing forward toward the location I wanted to be. It didn't come immediately, and I felt more of the transition with how tired I was, but I landed almost a mile away from where I started. I looked around for where the source of it could be, knowing it wouldn't be obviously shiny so close.  I knew it was square or rectangular-shaped from a distance, which was odd considering very few things in a forest would be. It took me looking up in the trees above to see something all-too familiar lying on a branch in the trees - a framed photo of adolescent me, Ma, and Aunt Maggie in a photo, my favorite photo in existence. 

I observed the branch it was laying on from every angle I could, noting how thin it was compared to others surrounding. It wasn't thin enough that a mild breeze could make it move, but it wasn't thick enough to guarantee it would hold my weight, which is what I deducted the task to be. Telekinesis would be too easy, and no other wonders really called for a solution here, lest burning down the forest to get a photo seemed like a good idea. Transmutating on top of a tree branch was an elite test of witch powers for sure, as even the most experienced have been told that they need sure footing to land on when performing it. And as strong as the branches looked, I could only assume the same risk would apply, so my best bet was to get to the branch, grab the family photo, and have enough unpanicked presence of mind to teleport back to the ground.

With the objective clear, I took a deep breath, and transported myself to the branch, which was a shakier prospect than I expected. I crouched but my torso wobbled and wiggled, and so did the photo I was a few feet from. Worst of all, the cracking of the wood communicated that the branch was not going to hold me for more than a few minutes, so steeling my resolve, I took the longest stride I could towards the branch, arms outstretched. I may have leaned forward a little too much to get it, which made the branch snap altogether. Within the same second of time, I grabbed at my photo, felt gravity pulling me down with nothing under my feet, and Trannsmuted myself back to the ground, or tried. I never seen a witch teleport herself into midair, and I never wanted to see myself do that; it's pretty damn horrifying, especially if you can see the fallen branch falling above you. 

I blacked out before either the ground or the branch hit me.

***

The darkness I lost myself to was actually comforting, disassociated from the fall I took, or the state of my body after the fall. It was a lot more pleasant to stay in the darkness and rest and not think about what could've been yet, especially with the calling from that darkness reaching out to me.

"Do fallen witches stay down?"

"......" the sound of a voice got my attention, though I couldn't respond.

"Do fallen witches stay down?" it repeated as I remained silent. Though it was hard to muster a response, what really kept me silent was the way the question was asked and repeated. It struck an old fear in me I haven't felt since I was really, really young. The pause endured only from the fear of who was talking to me from a great beyond.

"Ma....?"

"You can stay down there if you like. Or you can get up and reach your expectation."

It sounded too much like my mother's old "uplifting" sternness.

"Rise now......Érzi"

***

My eyes popped open in a panic (partially for reasons I'll explain later) to find I was looking up at the high tree lines and semi-cloudy sky. I dreaded to raise my head up and begin to search my waking body for signs of injury; to my utter surprise, I felt fine, and couldn't see any signs of anything broken. What's more, the weight on top of me that I assumed was part of the fallen branch was actually a brownish-furred rabbit looking down at me curiously. Behind it was signs of the broken branch halved by the impact of the fall. As my hand reached up to touch the rabbit to remove it, a touch of Divination hit me, showing me the fall circumvented by some magical force breaking my fall, and the portrait I should've been panicking over not seeing around me safely floating away elsewhere. Glimpses of the vision gave me the impression that it was all Esther's doing, and the longer I touched the sizable rabbit, the more of her I felt. How it hopped over a little to nuzzle at my face told me she'd manifested herself into a furry little guide for me.

I slowly rose from the ground, with the Esther-hare in my arms, enjoying the little kisses it gave, only able to assume I passed the Transmutation trial somehow. Not sure if I got points off for having to be rescued in my evaluation, but that seemed as arbitrary as how I was being tested to begin with. 

My stomach growled loudly to remind me the last meal I'd had was almost a day ago. Big, startled rabbit eyes looked up at me as I looked down at hers, hungrily; she took the hint and hopped out of my arms, not to run away, but to satisfy her own cravings by munching on the nearest patch of leafy greens.

"I oughta eat you for that," I threatened with narrowed eyes. The bunny had the nerve to look at me innocently before hoping away a few paces, and then looking back at me before hopping some more. It crossed my mind to finger myself for a power boost to turn her back to human to make her eat me the proper way for a morale boost, but my desire to actually uphold the unspoken syllabus made me groan in frustration. Trying to get my mind off of cravings of all kinds, I followed as it led down the path. It became a light jog keeping up with Esther, half-wondering what the next test was supposed to be, or if the first had really come to completion. Vitalum Vitalis came to mind rather easily as I thought about how nice it would be to "borrow" some energy from some animal just to keep up with the faster one leading me to wherever. "

I found I was in worse shape than I expected as we finally made it to a clearing leading to a shimmering pond, of which I was going to find out if it was actually drinkable or not. The bunny looked at me and back at the pond as if communicating delivering a reward. I heartily accepted, taking a few steps towards it before something shot out from nowhere in-front of me. Esther the bunny hoped out of the way just in-time, avoiding the sharp fangs of a hunger wolf; it looked at me and at the rabbit, judging which was going to be its prey. The weak energy I exuded from my outstretched arms seem to discourage me as the target, while the wide-eyed rabbit knew she was chosen. I hit the wolf with a small burst of Telekinesis, giving Esther a head start before the wolf tried to chase her down again. 

I started to run again to keep up with the hunt, ready to kick myself moments later for forgetting what I was just tested on. Transmutating myself ahead of the chase, I bent down to catch Esther in my arms, underestimating how close the wolf closed the distance as the wolf leapt and pinned me down. It was hard as hell holding back the wolf's vicious attack with one hand with Telekinesis while protecting something soft and cuddly with the other. The wolf got in a few scratches and nips at my wrist from a distance, nearly getting close enough to bite fingers off the hand holding him back with invisible energy before I could push him a distance away. As I looked down to make sure I didn't crush Esther with a panicked grip, my eyes widened as I saw the wolf got close enough to get a good scratch across her side, drawing blood.

I Transmuted us away before the wolf could lunge again, almost fainting the moment we arrived as I realized how worn out I was in doing so; back-to-back transmutating takes a serious toll, especially if your rusty and the body hasn't gotten used to phasing multiple times within the same span of a few hours. I was worn out enough to let the rabbit slip from my fingers and take off without me; no idea if Esther the rabbit had a plan with taking off, or just let animal instincts run wild, but she took off and I yelled after her as I tried to move sluggishly. When I caught up to where she could be, standing over a ridge, I noticed the idiot rabbit had gotten herself cornered, right in the center of the wolf's den; plenty of bones and mangled bodies strewn about to prove it if the circling pack of wolves closing in didn't. Running on empty, I didn't see how I could transmutate to Esther, and then immediately after, without making some kind of fatal mistake, with or without the wolves' help. Despite labored breathing, I miraculously hadn't been noticed yet. Operating totally on improvisation, I reached into my pants for some stimulation, after I reached down into the ground for a handful of dirt. That got a few of the wolves' attention, who saw me as a juicier meal; they didn't see much of anything as I blew into the handful to create a storm of earth obscuring everyone's vision, even my own a little. I don't think anyone's ever tried a dirtstorm instead of a sandstorm, but it did it's job as I practically buried the den in a layer of dirt. 

Acting purely on faith and hope, I reached out hoping beyond hope that Esther hadn't moved, and that despite the dirting, I ran past all the disorientated wolves and grabbed the mass I hoped was Esther, and transmuted us out of there. Opening my eyes, it seemed like we got far away from the den, and I had my rabbit that looked too weak to shake the dirt off of her, still bleeding. Practicality frought with my emotions for the well-being of the slave who'd devoted herself to me; I was on the verge of crying for the demise of one of my trinity as the wounds looked convincingly too deep, and the hollow shell I magically felt told me there was little I could do, that even sacrificing myself in the attempt could've killed both of us. Asking myself if killing myself to save her was going too far, I answered by laying her on the ground and practicing Vitalum Vitalis for the first time in years, giving energy I didn't have into Esther to heal her wound. The last breath I remember taking, I got a glimpse of the rabbit coming back to life, and strangely enough, the real Esther cradling me in her arms as she looked down on me with a matronly smile.

***

The rest of the day passed me by as I woke up with a start, next to a bonfire, and Esther across from me, eating something and stroking the rabbit I assumed was her that whole day.

As noticed me awakening with a glare, angrier than I ever remember being at another witch. She gave the same matronly smile as she pointed to something near me; my head turned to see a container filled with food and a bottled water. Satiating hunger instantly trumped anger as I ate with my hands and ravaged my way through a large chicken salad, and downing the first water bottle in record time.

"You know, I'm still planning on eating that rabbit," I told Esther with a wolfish stare.

"After all the trouble you put in saving her?" she asked, having the nerve to feign innocence.

"You know I thought it was you, and I don't know whether to eat you or make you eat me right now," I joked, though I loved how my look inspired hope of the latter; the hand that wasn't stuffing food in my mouth tantalizingly drifted downward, teasing her with the possibility of giving her tongue something to taste. That plus a hypnotic stare across a fire must've risen her temperature enough for blush to show on her cheeks.

"I'd like that...but..."

"But what, biddable biddy, you don't want my witchy pussy?"

The way she almost folded and crawled over gave me life I'd needed all day, knowing she was my only slave around, knowing she could serve me with no competition. But closing her eyes to breathe deep and make a decision, hers went in a direction I wasn't quite expecting.

"Do you remember me at all, from many years ago?"

Esther's question sort of stunned me, as there was always something familiar about her and her shop from the moment I first stalked her, which felt like an eternity ago. She sensed the I was searching for the motive for her peering question.

"We're not sure which of us figured this out in the brain trust, but in our connecting in service to you and preparing these preliminary trials, one of us thought of a way to further the future we want. We could change the future by making stronger connections to you, individually, something meaningful to each of us for you, and for you to us. Mine was the recognition of the fact that I actually met you, years ago, not as the dominant witch you are to us, but as the budding girl who looked up to all of us, accompanying a pairing you know very well," Esther said as she showed me the picture I nearly died trying to save.

She handed it to me as I was still contemplating, and as I took it, an involuntary bout of Divination hit me. I was taken back to the six or seven year old me, looking up at Ma and Aunt Maggie, in Esther's spice shop, as Aunt Maggie was introducing Ma and me to Esther. Though the ethereal view, I was shocked to see how much younger Esther looked, pretty as hell in her thirties, and proven that she'd aged well into today. She looked at me with almost a proud gleam in her eye, speaking words that made sense to the younger me, making kid me smile, knowing that I was going to be a new generation of powerful witches that would keep the tradition going. 

Current Esther let go of the family portrait, and the past connection was severed, but was still very fresh to my senses, and something I opted to ensure I never forgot again.

"....I can't believe I'd forgotten that, forgotten you. How I picked you out later in life, why did I never put it together?"

"Memories can be funny that way; it still shocks me how long it took me to remember you. You were so young back then, you never realized your potential. But I saw it in you, and knowing you were to be raised by Maggie and her apprentice, I knew your tutelage would be in good hands. But I could've never imagined...now," Esther admitted, blushing again.

"Neither could I, how you're under my spell, but also that I've come under your tutelage," I admitted.
 
"Fate does love her humorous complications," Esther noted, watching me bite my tongue over having choice words for fate again. "But how I wish I met today's you back then."

"Oh really? Are you sure younger you could handle adult me? A stronger, sexier Cherish walking into the shop of a lesser-experienced, not-so-wise Esther," I queried as I crawled around the fire to her, like a panther stalking prey, but mystifying her with entrancing, graceful movements. "You'd be caught off-guard, happy to see another witch who is unlike the current generation of posers, you're encountering a trailblazing witch you could be proud of, with an ambitious eye, unafraid to make the most of her power and take what she wants. And what if of all the spices in that shop, she preferred you?"

I crawled up to her face, as she backed away with little resistance, already lost in the imagination I set with merely the magic of suggestion.

"Any witch worth her salt would've defended against a sensual attack, unless they really wanted it. But you just let me lean into you, you let me....taste you...." I kissed her deeply between assertions.

"Mmmmmm....just the right amount of pepper, that brings flavor to my tongue, consuming you until I'm satiated," I kept kissing her, and she began leaning into me, moaning open-mouthed into the kiss as I tweaked her nipples.

"The Divination in my touch tells you you're going to be tattooed there soon, marked with 催眠的, because deep down, you know it's inevitable. Deep down, you know I'm fated to be your 催眠師, your hypnotist, your superior, the one you love and serve without reservation or choice."

I stopped the kiss, and licked her lips erotically, watching them quiver as I lathered them in a layer of hot words over my saliva.

"There's a language of submission deep within you now. You never knew you could understand it, let alone speak it, but if asked to produce words on command, the ability is at the tip of your tongue.  What are you, Esther?"

"....Cuī...mián...de..." 

"Hěn hǎo de," I praised my bilingualist.

"And who am I?"

"...Cuīmián shī..."

"Tài hǎo le," I loved how she understood the words without understanding, trembling all over from my approval shaking a core destined to be mine.

I'd gently pushed her down to the ground and continued to kiss her while straddling her, the rabbit only moving a few feet away, oddly enjoying the show.

"How good it could've been back then to taken by me? But is it as good as being mine, right here, right now?" I asked and answered the rhetorical as I slipped a hand under the dress she still wore, hiking it up to have more access to the body I loved playing with. She responded perfectly to every touch as I'd programmed her, but there was something noticeable in the air of sex between us, something reassuring, something stronger than what was. The connection between us as we scissored each other just hit us hard. I tossed some of our combined juices to the fire, and watched it burn higher.

"Let fate do as she pleases,
Let nature do as it intends.
Let yourself feel time's irrelevance,
Let yourself embrace how lovingly your will bends."

She came screamingly-hard as my incantation hit her with a thrusting grind. 

I was on the verge too, but in feeling myself having one or not, something in me told me to wait, to let it subside, to make my pussy wait longer for the thing it demanded. Against all of my staunch hedonism, I held back. As Esther was coming off of her high, I simply wrapped us in the sleeping back she'd brought, and had us sleep together as one, bonded even closer than before, letting the brightness of the possible future light a pleasant fire within me as we fell asleep.