Welcome to the Library (Multiple TFs) (Patreon)

A story I wrote to introduce my most recent OC properly. A student of magic in a place he shouldn't be stumbles out of the academy and into a strange, infinite library...

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Gabriel checked his map again. The academy library’s layout was confusing at the best of times, and that was when there were librarians on standby to guide him around. It was the way of things when it came to the kingdom’s premier magical academy; half the buildings were designed by spatial magic focused alumni who collaborated with mental magic focused alumni to create the most confusing and deviously laid out buildings they could as strange tests on the students that came after them. The idea was that all you had to do was call for directions, and an imp would guide you around - they wanted to see how long it took people to ask.

The faculty had a laugh of it, but it was certainly a pain for students. Especially students sneaking into places they weren’t supposed to be because they really needed to study for a magical theory test the next morning. Gabriel looked at his map again; it was a curio from his previous birthday, something a friend had bought him. A magical, self-updating map. Ah-hah! He’d taken a wrong turn, he realized, three lefts back.

Gabriel tried to look around for some sign of where he was now, but with only a small light spell to guide him, all he could see was row upon row of books. The Academy Library was bigger on the inside than the outside - it had to be to accommodate the largest collection of magical knowledge within a thousand miles.

He found a small plaque. Great, he could use that to orient himself! If he was in the history section it wouldn’t be too far from the theory section, or if he were in the section with the experiment records he’d be a bit farther but have a clear straight-line path…

“Curses And Cursed Items” the plaque read. He looked down at his map. That was… probably on the other side of the library from his destination. How had he even walked that far? Damned architects…

There was nowhere to go but forward, he decided. This time, he looked very very carefully at the map, and at the different turns in the path between the endless rows of shelves. He would be sure to make it. He didn’t need to call for directions, both for his pride and especially because that would alert the teachers that someone was in the library after dark. Gabriel didn’t need help!

And he was lost again.

This time when Gabriel looked at the map… it didn’t show much of anything useful. Sure, it hadn’t been showing much useful before, but at least it had been staying still. Now, the wizard in training felt nauseous looking at it, as the layout it projected seemed to reconfigure itself before his very eyes. What kind of hell-library was this!?

Gabriel was just about ready to throw the map to the ground in frustration, turning back around and… that wasn’t the path he’d come on. He’d been so careful, so precise, he knew what the path he came from looked like. That was, of course, secondary to the fact that the path behind him simply ended suddenly. He’d blinked, and now he was at a dead end.

Maybe he should call for help after all. A scolding would probably be better than staying lost. They might go light on him since it was for academic purposes, right?

Taking a deep breath, he decided that he had no other choice. He would, begrudgingly, call for help. “Hello!? Could I get some directions?” he called out into the empty library.

There was no puff of magic, no sudden appearance of a purple imp. The enchantment should have been over the entire library - it was built into its very shape. And yet here he was…

He nearly leapt out of his skin as a light flickered on down the path. It wasn’t his own magelight, more of a warm natural color, which meant someone else was there. Or something. It was irrational to think that anything could be down here with him, but then, it was irrational to think that the library could suddenly rearrange itself without an active spell being cast on it. He wasn’t in a rational frame of mind.

The young man was on a narrow path with no route behind him and only one way in front of him. It was a choice between either approaching the light, or sitting there and waiting for something to happen. So it wasn’t really much of a choice at all, really.

As he approached the light, he realized his feet weren’t stepping on wood anymore, but some hard, dark stone substance. And the shelves, they didn’t hold only books, but small boxes, trinkets and curios. He got closer and closer to the light with every passing step.

He hadn’t realized how deeply claustrophobia was setting in until the shelves suddenly broke into an open, well lit room. He felt like he could breath again after holding his breath for who knew how long.

There were more shelves going every which way from this ‘room’ within them, but also more paths. The light came not from magic, but from what appeared to be a lantern hung on a table, although he couldn’t see any fire inside of it. The room itself seemed to be something of a lounge, with several such lanterns positioned on tables and at soft chairs to give ample light for reading.

And Gabriel wasn’t alone.

A woman was there - and not one he thought was human. The light glinted off her hair in a way that put him in the mind of metal, and lupine ears twitched on top of her head along with a tail visible sticking out from the side of her chair. Her whole appearance seemed almost split down the middle; behind a set of round spectacles were one purple and one green eye, her hair was split between bronze and silver, and her elegant dress was similarly split to her eyes. She was reading something intently, with a grin on her face, and didn’t seem to notice his presence at first. He cleared his throat a bit.

The woman suddenly slammed her book shut and put it face down on the table, face flushing. “Huh, what!?” she stammered, blinking a bit too rapidly as she tried to recompose herself.

“Uh, ahem, hello…” Gabriel said. Alright, the intimidation factor was gone. “Hi, I’m Gabriel… I was wondering if I could get some directions…?”

The woman cleared her throat, standing - she wasn’t too tall, actually, although her heels helped. “Eh-hem. Welcome, scholar of the unknown. You stand in a position few have before, and as keeper of the accursed and forbidden I welcome you to this culmination of your long search…”

Gabriel looked at her awkwardly. Maybe he should… play along? “I, uh… thank you, keeper…” he said. “I… perhaps came too hastily, when I put the puzzle together… so I was wondering if you could perhaps-”

“Of course,” the wolf woman interrupted, “I will guide you through the halls. Be warned, however - take nothing here lightly. This dimension houses knowledge both great and terrible, for good or ill. It is my duty to prevent those who would abuse such secrets from ever leaving…”

“Of course I wouldn’t abuse anything!” Gabriel said too quickly. “In fact, maybe I should get to leaving… I, well, perhaps I wasn’t adequately prepared… I, uh...”

The woman looked at him blankly for a minute. “Uh… right this is off script, normally people don’t want to leave that fast... it’s been so long… usually the others just pop in and out through the… right, I’ve had this done before…” she coughed. “The Arcane Sanctuary has something of a mind of its own. It’s layout is endlessly shifting and changing, both to protect it’s secrets and to accommodate new ones. There is no singular exit anymore than there is a singular entrance. The way it works is I have to guide you to some bit of knowledge you seek - then, an exit shows up once you have it.”

Gabriel nodded. He must be having some fever dream or something. That was the only scenario that made a lick of sense. “I… ok, I guess… magical theory stuff? I was looking for that in the library before…”

The wolfgirl’s eyes flashed, as her expression shifted from embarrassment to a more serious tone. “What magical and technological level is your society at? Is this a medieval sort of world, or is it an information age with some new-discovered magic…”

“Excuse me?”

“Robes… academy… right, I recognize the world, I can get you the appropriate books.” she nodded to herself, turning to her table and picking up her lantern. As she approached a dark hall, there was a bit of an eerie look to her in the warm light. He had no idea how her hair and ears worked, being metal, but they shined in a strange way. “Oh, right, I forgot to tell you my name. Luna Lupa, keeper of the Arcane Sanctuary and forbidden knowledge. My friends call me Lulu though! Keeps things from getting confusing with the twins… right, you don’t know them. Anyway, shall we go?”

“Could I… wait here?” Gabriel asked. He didn’t know that he wanted to go back into those shelves.

“Nope. Knowledge won’t come out without the one seeking it. And besides, I doubt you want to stay in this spot alone, do you?”

Thankfully despite the young wizard’s worry, the shelves were wider and more spaced apart as Lulu guided him through the strange locale. He focused mostly on her as he went, not wanting to look away for a moment and end up cut off.

For all that he wished to just go back to the dorm and crash, Gabriel was beginning to realize something. The place was saturated to the brim with magical power. Now that he wasn’t alone, he didn’t feel quite so frightened. He might not know Lulu, but her presence did mean he could look around.

He’d been thinking of the place as an extension of the library. But that wasn’t quite correct. It was partially that, yes, but it was also filled to bursting with magical artifacts. He could feel the magic pulsing off every book they passed, every weird looking object. Or in some cases, objects with no magic at all acting as if they had it - how else would that fireless lamp be producing light but magic? And yet he could feel none from it.

“You can look around, but you have to be careful!” Lulu called back to him. They were in a section where there were fewer books, more strange objects. “Most of these items are enchanted, and a lot of them are cursed! Oh, but I can tell you about any of them that really catch your eye - that one contains the phylactery of an ancient lich looking for a new host, you shouldn’t open it.”

Gabriel sheepishly put down the box he’d been about to look inside. He was a student of magic - of course all this was interesting to him! They passed maybe a dozen more various artifacts, like a stone emitting constant chill on one side and constant warmth on the other, and one box with voices speaking from inside of it right into his mind. Lulu occasionally interjected with trivia about the origins of the items, the occasional warning if it was anything that would result in imminent death.

They hit an intersection, and Lulu paused to take stock of their location. As labyrinthine as the place was to Gabriel, the wolf-girl seemed to have no issue keeping stock of their location or where they had to go even though she’d claimed the labyrinth always was shifting. “Hmm… think we gotta take a minute here, the path is shifting up ahead and if we wait a couple minutes we can get a shortcut.”

“How big is this place…” Gabriel said, as he deposited himself on a convenient bench and shrugged off his robe - all that walking had him sweating. Endurance wasn’t most wizards’ strong suits even when not accompanied by stress.

“Probably infinite?” Lulu shrugged. “There’s stories, and then those stories are their own dimensional planes with their own stories, and so on and so forth. So many worlds, so many places to get artifacts from… I shouldn’t go into the details, it makes my head hurt, nevermind yours.”

“...I’ll take your word for it.” The young wizard sighed. This was feeling both more and less like a fever dream with every moment that passed and every word she said.

As they were waiting, an object that seemed out of place caught his eye. It was a fancy mirror, a full body one, seemingly stuck to the side of a shelf. He found himself drawn towards it as Lulu waited patiently, heels tapping against the floor.

At first the mirror was clouded, and he could hardly see anything. But then he could start to make out an outline - himself? He certainly recognized the school uniform. But something was weird, something that became clearer and clearer as the mirror’s image grew more defined.

“Oh, the Mirror of… some name or other, the guy was a bit of a pompous prick and kept adding more words on top of it.” Lulu said, noticing Gabriel’s attention to the mirror. “That’s a super cool one. It’s like a window into alternate dimensions!”

The image in the mirror grew clearer and clearer. He saw some elements that looked like they could be him, but they couldn’t be, could they? Sure, the person in the mirror had the same eyes, hair color, a fairly similar face… they looked like they could be related, sure. But he didn’t have a sister.

“The wizard who made it was the most powerful spatial wizard of his world though, so maybe he deserved a bit of arrogance. He never found this place despite looking for ages, but while he was looking he discovered the existence of alternate realities.” Lulu continued. Her face had practically lit up as she spoke - she was enjoying herself. “So, naturally, he did what any arrogant prick would do with that knowledge, and tried to see if he was just as successful in other worlds. He ran into a problem, though, what was it…?”

The woman in the mirror put a hand on it at the same time as Gabriel did. She made the same confused expression. And then the woman in the mirror started to change.

Gabriel watched the slow change. He saw her hair grow shorter and shorter, while her face shifted to gain more hard lines. He saw her figure shift and change, thickening around the waist. Her clothes shifted to fit, a short skirt and blouse shifting into pants and a t-shirt.

“Something about how that other self in the first one he looked at was, well, dead… and then how he started to connect too hard…”

The young wizard had hardly noticed that the woman in the mirror wasn’t the only one changing by a long shot. His own progress had been in tandem with hers, a face softening to femininity, a figure shifting and contorting to match. His pants pulled upwards and fused into a short skirt, while his shirt grew tighter and a bit more elegant in the form of a blouse. He was so engrossed in watching that strange woman in the mirror that even as his hips flared out and his shoulders narrowed, he wasn’t aware.

It was only when he felt a sudden weight on his chest that he thought to look down, and saw that breasts had blossomed and swelled. They weren’t huge by any means, but they were there and they certainly hadn’t been moments prior. “Ah!” he gasped, cupping them in his hands - they couldn’t be real, could they- “Ohhh-” they were very real, he discovered as he squeezed them tightly. They were on the smaller side but damned if they weren’t sensitive.

“Yeah, it connects you to that other version of you, and well, if you look too long you start to… well, swap…” Lulu said, not seeing the problem.

“Could you hel- ah!” Gabriel put a hand to his throat as he realized his voice wasn’t his own anymore, being lighter, breathier, more feminine. He groaned suddenly as he felt something down between his legs, pulling inwards… he reached down just in time to moan loudly at the contact with a new womanhood, as his genitalia inverted.

In the mirror, his alternate self was having much the same reaction, if in reverse - much as Gabriel had become a woman, his alternate had become a man. “Oh, right, sorry.” Lulu said, pulling the former male away from the mirror. “If it’s any consolation, you’re very cute!” She looked in the mirror, seeing what looked like a wolf-man with odd hair doing much the same as she was. She gave her alternate self a wave before ducking away.

Gabriel looked down at himself - or herself, really. She felt that that was more appropriate now, her mind having shifted with her body. She was cute; her tied into a nice braid, her uniform well fit to her figure. She didn’t have a bombshell body but she had to admit she looked kind of nice… “Well… that happened…” she groaned.

“Yep! I told you to be careful of the artifacts Gabriel! Gabriella? Whatever, yeah.” Lulu said. “Well, what’s done is done. The path ahead is open! Be careful this time, ok? I might not notice in time to save you!”

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They left the narrow shelves into a wide open corridor, and Gabriella couldn’t help but feel relieved. There were still shelves, but they weren’t so thick - even if they were still somewhat confined they didn’t feel like it anymore.

Gabriella tried to focus on the path, following Lulu’s swishing tail and not looking around her. But it was too interesting, she kept finding more and more artifacts she was curious about. Some of them were the peak of what was possible with magic - and others simply broke the rules of magic as she knew them. She knew professors, nevermind other students, who would actually kill to take a look at just a few feet of shelf space from this endless archive. “Honestly, this place is too interesting… is there any way to get back once I leave, maybe a bit more prepared?”

Lulu grinned. “Isn’t it just? So many artifacts from so many places! Stories upon stories upon stories! I’m glad that someone came here and isn't looking for world domination for once.” she said. “It’s kinda hard to end up here intentionally. It’s… how do I put this, it’s connected to all places of forbidden or secretive knowledge, and you have to be in the right sort of mindset - a clear goal that you cannot seem to otherwise achieve helps, but honestly, the details are fuzzy.”

“That makes sense…” Gabriella nodded. “I came from a restricted section of the academy library…”

“Yeah, that’s the sort of thing it usually is.” Lulu said. “The ‘rules’ are a bit fuzzy honestly, and some places act like entrances for one person and not for another, and… well, it’s complicated. But you probably could find a way back, but not if you’re actively looking for it.” She paused, ears perking up and tail standing on end. “Now, the endless shifting does get kind of weird around here,” she cautioned, “It makes it hard to track down where certain types of artifacts are honestly. But I think we’ve just entered a cursed object section, so you should try not to touch or look at anything.”

“Right, right…” Gabriella said - cursed? That didn’t seem good... if they were anything like the power level of some of the weird enchantments she’d seen thus far, an outright cursed artifact might be strong enough to kill with a look!

She focused straight on the ground, not looking around no matter how interested she was. She followed the click-clacking of Lulu’s heels on the floor, and tried not to pay too much attention to anything else. One foot in front of the other-

The bookshelf hit her in the face. Or rather, she walked into it. She cried out as she stumbled back, falling on her rear end and scrambling to dodge a few dislodged books. “What the… Lulu? Are you there?” she called out. In front of her was a dead end with a bookshelf.

There was silence for a moment, but then she heard a muffled voice. “Gabriella? Are you alright!?” Lulu called. The Arcane Sanctuary must have shifted once again, and separated the two of them. “Hold tight, I’m going to come right there. Shouldn’t be too hard…”

For a moment, she just sat there, wondering what the heck she was supposed to do - how could she navigate back to her? But she couldn’t just wait there, now could she? What if it shifted further and got her even further away from her guide? So she stood, and carefully, cautiously started walking towards where Lulu’s voice had come from.

She quickly realized her earlier strategy of “not looking up” wasn’t going to work if she wanted to navigate. She nearly bumped into several more shelves, littered with arcane objects and probably cursed ones. So she had to look up and really hope that nothing caught her… eye…

As a wizard (witch?), Gabriella could see magic - and there was so much swirling around this section in particular, it was captivating. She found herself taken in by the maelstrom of magical power - some she could recognize, others completely incomprehensible. Maybe from other worlds?

She tried to focus, but every new item just drew her deeper into her trance. She found herself picking a few off the shelves, examining their magic. The first few were harmless, but her luck ran out when she touched a black collar.

The collar seemed to come to life in her hands and leapt at her, closing around her neck. She pulled at it, but she suddenly started to feel very relaxed as it’s magic did it’s work. She sank to her knees, panting as it rewrote her body. Her short hair started to grow longer, much longer, falling down to around her rear end as new ears formed on her head - short, floppy little ears matching the bright gold-blonde shade that her hair’s roots had turned to and that was spreading across her hair.

The transformation wasn’t just to her hair, either. Her body shifted too, fur growing in tufts around her wrists and ankles, her body beginning to shift to a shorter scale even as her mammaries and rear swelled. Her panting grew more intense as something pushed against her pants, growing, until forcing a tear in them to accommodate her new tail.

Her clothes could barely keep up with the changes to her figure, quickly tearing themselves apart to accommodate her bust and bottom, leaving her naked but for the fur covering her vital areas. She sat there in a daze as her mind began to shift - she was a good girl… a good girl…

“Hey, Gabriella!” Called a familiar voice. The new dog-girl perked up, turning to see Lulu there. “What did I say about cursed items?”

Oh, had she been a bad girl…? “You said to be careful… but they were so cool…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. You just picked up a cursed collar. I’m happy that it was something so mild!”

Gabriella blinked. She remembered what she was, where, and blushed furiously. “I-I… um…”

A hand was suddenly on her head. “There, there. It’s fine.” Lulu reassured her, petting her head gently. Gabriella’s tongue lolled out of her mouth and her eyes crossed - ooooh that felt nice…

The petting stopped as quickly as it began, leaving Gabriella whimpering for more. Before snapping herself out of it anyway. “W-We should go…” she stammered.

“We should.” Lulu agreed, leading the way forward again.

“And here’s the Magical Theory section, for your world anyway. There’s different ones for other ones… anyway, you should be able to find some pretty comprehensive books here!”

They’d traveled far, and long, and Gabriella was a bit more female and golden retriever-y than she had been when she’d arrived, but they’d finally arrived at the section that would let them leave. “...Would this be considered cheating?” she asked awkwardly.

“I don’t know.” Lulu shrugged. “We have a copy of your university’s rules but it’s pretty out of date.”

Well, she’d come this far… and really, at this point, she wasn’t super regretting it. There was so much cool stuff in the Arcane Sanctuary. But she finally could just… go home, and deal with things.

She took some time to pick out a book. Lulu assured her that, with time being a bit flexible in that dimension, she had all the time she needed. She found one that struck a balance between easy to understand and relevant for what she needed - it was surprisingly easy to find, but she supposed with the long history of magic there had to be someone writing about it in a less dry way.

Once that was done, Lulu nodded to her. “Now, you just have to pick a direction, and we’ll head out!”

“Just like that?” Gabriella asked.

“Just like that.” Lulu said. “We’ll go down the paths for a bit and find a door, then we’re fine.”

Gabriella wavered a bit, but picked a direction and began to walk. As she continued, she wondered if she would be able to find this place again. She hadn’t been looking for it the first time, and you had to get to it looking for something else… but now that she knew about it, how would she not think of falling into the Arcane Sanctuary every time she looked for knowledge?

She wasn’t learning magic to use it, really. It wasn’t for cosmic power or to throw fireballs. It was because she loved to learn, and there were few subjects more rewarding to learn. And here she was in quite possibly the greatest repository of knowledge she’d ever see, and she was leaving with a test prep book.

“This is weird,” Lulu muttered. “We should have left by now… I wonder what the place is trying to pull…”

“Huh?” Gabriella had been zoning out in thought. As she turned to Lulu, she stepped through an arch that hadn’t been there when she first looked, and started to slide. Her legs gave out as she found herself suddenly on a slope, tumbling down.

“H-Hey!” Lulu called after her, but the path seemed to shut behind her - another trick as the Sanctuary rearranged it’s layout.

Gabriella slid down in darkness - it didn’t hurt, but it took a while. Was this her way out? This wasn’t a door.

She eventually tumbled to a stop at the bottom of the slope, and stood up to find herself in a dark room. She lit up her magelight, and sighed in relief - nothing was in there with her. It wasn’t a trap or anything. Just a trick of the Arcane Sanctuary.

The witch was in what looked like a dusty storage room. There were assorted artifacts in there, as well, and she wondered what sort of category this room fell under… but nothing seemed wrong.

She walked through the dusty storage room until she saw a light ahead. Was it Lulu again? She rushed towards the light…

There was simply a pedestal there. It wasn’t too ornate, but it shined with magic - and it seemed so empty. The moment Gabriella laid eyes on it, she felt deeply sad that it went unoccupied. She knew intellectually that it’s curse had grabbed her, but she couldn’t really care. She found herself walking towards it.

What would it do when she filled it, she wondered? Probably keep her there forever. But was that so bad? She’d been starting to think she didn’t want to leave anyway.

The dog-girl stepped onto the pedestal. Once she turned to face away from the wall, her feet froze in place. She knew what to do next - she crouched down in a sort of canine-sitting posture, hands on the ground between her legs. Once her fingers made contact, they started to turn too. The grey granite color crept up her skin, transforming her rapidly. She was turning to stone, and she was a little confused at how calm she was about the prospect.

But it didn’t matter, the cursed pedestal whispered in her ear. She wouldn’t have to think about that anymore. She wouldn’t have to think of anything but looking pretty. She liked to look pretty. She stuck out her chest proudly, arousal dripping between her thighs at the thought of being looked at and admired. The stone sped up it’s transformation, locking her hips and shoulders in place and making certain her posture was carved in stone. Then, it started to take to her torso.

It was only as it was crawling up her neck did she wonder if she’d made a mistake. She wondered if Lulu would find her, or if she’d be lost in the labyrinth? She hoped the wolf-girl would. She was nice, so she deserved to have a pretty statue to look at…

It had hardly been a minute since the stone fully solidified when Lulu came in. “She should be somewhere… around… oh.” she said, looking at the dog-girl statue with a lewd, pleased expression on her face. “...Well, found you.” she said lamely.

How had that happened? This section hadn’t been anywhere near the part they’d been in when she checked last. Sure, the Sanctuary did work strangely, but still. “What gives? The rules say that once they find what they want and if they don’t go power-mad, they get to leave!” she demanded of the empty air.

Of course, there was no response. She sighed, rubbing her temples. This was the problem with dealing with intelligent locations. They hated to communicate. “Well, I don’t think she went nuts. She was really interested in all the artifacts, but I’m pretty sure that was the same way I’m interested in them all.” she muttered.

Yeah, that made sense. So not power mad. So why couldn’t she leave. “...I wonder, did she want to stay?” she muttered to herself.

The Arcane Sanctuary couldn’t speak, but she could swear she felt the air warm, just a touch.

“She could have just said so.” Lulu fumed. She walked up to the statue, patting it on the head a bit. “Good girl. Let’s just… there we go.” she reached out a hand to the side, a book appearing in it with a pen acting as a bookmark. She looked at the title - Gabriel in the Arcane Sanctuary. Bit boring of a title, but oh well. “Well, let’s give this one a proper ending…”

Lulu flipped open to the page where the story stopped - Gabriella’s thought ceasing, as she turned into a simple inanimate object. Well, wasn’t that a boring end to the story? She clicked the pen.

For a moment, at least, all was still. There was simply a pretty, realistic statue of a dog girl. But then a movement, a grinding of stone on stone.

The statue began to move, slowly, but purposefully.

The statue began to think again, slowly, with all the patience of granite. New eyes opened. This was not to be it’s fate. Or rather, her fate. For she was an individual again - a thinking being, wondering what she was.

The statue’s eyes opened. The grey, blank stone faded, replaced with gleaming gemstones.

This had been a tragedy, a final act twist - but it didn’t have to remain this way, as the lupine keeper turned her magic on her former friend. She’d wanted to remain in the Arcane Sanctuary, and so she shall - but not as a mere decoration. She would be a part of it, a new being without any regrets.

The statue unbent it’s legs, beginning to stand.

All places that keep dangerous knowledge have guardians. And Luna Lupa could not work alone. A new life, a new friend - maintaining that old spark, the desire for knowledge that led all to the Sanctuary in the first place. The former statue thought, and knew what she had become - and knew what she would be from then on. And she lived happily ever after.

Lulu ducked to the side as the statue jumped at her. “Luluuuu~!” she giggled. “You saved me didn’t you? You made me!”

Lulu smiled at the newly made golem. Gabriella still looked like her dog-girl self, but made of solid stone animated with magic. “I just gave your story a happy ending. You wanted to stay here, and now you can. You’ve become as much a part of this place as me.”

“Oooh! Thank you so much! Thank you!” Gabriella said, moving to hug again before Lulu raised a hand. Instinctively, she sat down. Lulu took the opportunity to pet her again, the touch making Gabriella’s mind go blank with pleasure, tongue lolling out and panting despite the fact she no longer had to breath.

“Now, I guess we have work to do. If you’re not taking that book with you, we should put it back…” Lulu said, withdrawing.

“Oh, I can do it!” Gabriella stood, and bolted back towards the magical theory section. She’d gained the same near-perfect knowledge of the Arcane Sanctuary’s layout that Lulu had, and a body that could never tire - a perfect keeper’s assistant.

Lulu smiled as she watched her go. It was always fun to have new faces in the Sanctuary...