Too much of a good thing

Being a succubus, she was attuned to the use of seduction from others. Only a truly charismatic and skilled succubus could obscure the telltale signs of magically-induced enthralment. If it was mixed in with old-fashioned courtship and a mutual passion, it was harder to pick apart.

"You know, you could really hurt someone with that."

She kicked open a nearby stepladder and arranged the boxes so that they would fit perfectly, like tetris blocks. Her desk and her bed could be a mess, but her notes and her teaching were perfectly neat and tidy.

"And you could hurt yourself."

It seemed like it wasn't going to be a lecture of bending at the knees than using your back to lift up heavy objects, or to have two people lift it together. She folded up the stepladder with a loud clack. Her eyes gazed right at Sebastian. He had a pretty face, but right now, she was more frustrated than pleased by his aesthetics.

"If seduction were classified like food colourings, you'd be FD&C Red No. 4. As artificial as it gets, delisted by the FDA and banned in Europe."

"What game are you trying to pull, boy?"

"I'm Ms Reva. Nothing escapes me." Her eyebrow twitched when she noticed that Sebastian's voice was having a different effect, on both her and the boy, but the boy was more vulnerable than her. It was usually dangerous to try and touch a someone under the spell of seduction. It was akin to trying to wake up a sleepwalker, but the effects were emotionally worse.

She glanced at the boy that wandered back to Sebastian, like a moth to a flame. She crinkled her nose slightly in disgust. What a pitiful sight for a love-dazed boy. She couldn't say she recognised his face.

"I'm saying that your powers are influencing this student, and you're making your control over him stronger, whether you intended to or not. Are you aware of this?"

It seemed that he wasn't. Laverna eased up on her attack. If he didn't know how to start it, then of course he wouldn't know how to turn it off. By then it would be useless if it was intensifying this quickly. Laverna remained calm.

"You shouldn't let it progress any further. Try and focus on something else, like reciting a poem, maths problems, grammar structure; anything."

"Oh honey." Laverna buried her face in one hand. "This is probably worse than I thought." Those that were worthy of going through Hell (literally) to become a succubus were rarely unaware of their seduction taking effect on others. On Earth, the phenomenon of blissful ignorance seemed to be more prevalent.

This was also the dangerous thing about seduction. Letting go of someone was not easy, under magical influence or not. If someone had enough control, they could do it successfully. Instead, it ended up as a hot mess.

She rushed over to the victim. He was still breathing, so at least the boy's powers were not lethal.

"You stay here. I'll be right back, and don't panic."

Laverna ran away as fast as she could in her practical high heels. Two minutes later, she came back with a phial with a milky lavender concoction. She pried the unconscious boy's lips back and administered at least half of it through his mouth.

Once he regained unconsciousness, he seemed incredibly complacent, and didn't seem shocked, angry or confused for having being abruptly broken off from Sebastian's seduction.

"Are you alright? This boy told me you lost your footing and you crashed into some boxes. Everything's okay now, but you should go to any classes you have, or study in your spares. Loitering around here without teacher permission can result in demerit points."

It was an elaborate lie, but the least she could do was to save two students some grief. Once the boy left, Laverna explained.

"It isn't memory alteration. If something triggers it, he may remember it. I suggest to not see him for at least a week or more." She turned to Sebastian. "Is this the first time this has happened? Your enthralment powers going out of your control?"

"You're right. This isn't supposed to happen." Laverna's voice didn't sound like she was agreeing with him completely. It had a more critical air about it. She kept her voice low, nor did she tell him that he needed to calm down. That tended to aggravate those already furious. "You have the ability to seduce, but you don't know how to use it."

"Come into my office for a bit."

It sounded like Laverna was going to do something. Be it write him a slip for detention, give him some kind of punishment like rake the lake clean of leaves or pick up litter, it probably would seem small compared to telling the Headmistress about what happened, or issuing a note to his guardians, or anything along those lines.

Once he entered the room, Laverna slid the door shut and locked it.

"What's your name? Please take a seat."

Laverna whipped out a notepad and a pen.

"I'm here to help you. I doubt the Power Classes would help you with your powers, but I will. I've been in a similar situation to you when I was first starting out. Do you know how your power works, at least? Let's try to figure it out."

((2 day delay I'm so sorry T_T Explaining powers are super hard.))

"Sebastian Grey. What a literary name," she remarked, smiling just a little. He had a poetic face, almost; with very delicate features without looking too feminine. It almost sounded like the name of a character out of a book. Maybe not that book that starred a protagonist named Anastasia Steele.

"As I said, I'm Ms. Reva. You can call me Laverna or Ms. Reva, but I'd prefer Laverna." While she liked to use her title as an extra edge to intimidate students sometimes, hearing herself be called 'Ms. Reva' made her feel too much like her mother.

Laverna listened intently to Sebastian's explanation on how his Seduction worked. She thought about this for a moment while she took down notes, so that she would at least get all the details right.

"I see." She put down her pen. "This sounds like self-affecting power. That's the first strange thing. It changes peoples' perceptions of you by altering something in yourself – the click –. This is opposed to you changing how people perceive you, or how they would think of you, by making the 'click' happen in their mind."

"The second thing is that it seems to require an auditory cue to activate. It's not all that strange, since a lot of Enthralment powers work through language. The more noteworthy thing is that it's a vital component to your power if you're aware of the change in your voice. I was, when I was listening to it."

What do I do?

"I'll try to explain how you're made vulnerable to your powers, and that's why strange boys kiss you and whatever." Spreading mononucleosis was the last thing on Laverna's mind, but it could be very bad, especially during exam time.

"Most spells require a user and a victi– I mean, target. Now, I said this was a self-afflicting power. At least, it sounds like it. Let's think of it this way: if your powers were represented by a candle, what would happen if you lit it up in a room with moths?"