Cameron To Candy

Candy stepped into the Royal Mage’s Guild carrying her satchel tucked beneath one arm. The receptionist looked up from her ledger.

“Mrs. Elwood?”

“That’s me ¹unfortunately. I have an appointment with Mage Eldrin. My husband’s on his way.”

“He’s just finishing another consultation. You’re welcome to wait.” Candy nodded and set the box carefully on the counter. The young woman glanced at it. “May I ask what you’ve brought?”

“A gift.”

She lifted the cloth. The receptionist jumped before catching herself.

“…Right.”

Candy covered it again. “Sorry, maybe I should have warned you. They’re for Eldrin.”

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate… whatever they are.”

The Guild was quieter than Candy expected. Long hallways stretched away beneath high stone arches, lined with portraits of former Grand Mages. Some wore elaborate robes. Others held staffs or books. Nearly every plaque listed some achievement that had apparently changed magical history.

Grand Mage Douglass Glassmere

Perfected the modern diagnostic magic fiber scan still used throughout Paddlewick.

Archmage Rowan Embermere

Standardized long-distance ward synchronization between cities.

Mistress Hermiane Whipwand

Creator of the Never-Fade Tattoo ink mixture.

Candy glared at that one. Mistress Whipwand, one of the Moonglint clan, and she had their characteristic silver eyes. Cameron had tended to avoid silver eyed people, a habit that had not changed as Candy. She’d always found them to be rude.

Further down hung the oldest portrait in the hall. The paint had darkened with age. The man depicted looked exactly as history insisted great men should look. Broad shoulders. Strong jaw. Flowing robes and so on. One hand rested upon an enormous unfinished barrier of glowing stone and light.

Grand Archmage Heathcliff

Architect of the Great Anti-Magic Barrier.

Candy studied him for a moment. Just Heathcliff, no second name. That was common back then, or so it was said. The demons had killed so many Stichari that there weren’t enough people left that a second name was needed to distinguish one self from anyone else.

She looked closer. There appeared to be several layers of paint. She imagined it’d been touched up through the years. Probably more, with a hair color change there, maybe clothing alternating with the times and their conceptions. History had a habit of polishing its heroes until they all looked the same.

“I wonder what you really looked like,” she mused.

“Candy.” She turned to see Eldrin standing in the doorway, sleeves rolled to his elbows. “My apologies. Another appointment ran long.”

“No problem.”

He noticed the box as they entered his office. “What’s this?”

She set it on his worktable and folded back the cloth. He stopped.

“CoBra heads.”

“Huh,” he leaned closer without touching them. “They’re pretty well preserved. Where’d you find them?”

“I’m glad you think so. Marcus and our friend Greg killed them on our property a bit ago.”

“That’s rather unusual seeing them this far north. Well, it’s just as well you killed then. It’ll spare them from freezing to death next winter.”

“That’s what I thought. Or they’d try to find warmth and end up in someone’s house. They could kill a whole family.”

“That they could.”

“I figured you might be able to use them.”

“Well, I certainly have several ideas just off the top of my head.” He carefully examined one of the fangs. “The venom itself has value. Military alchemy. Medicine. Certain restoration tonics.” He looked more closely. Candy waited. “As you must know, the venom carries concentrated biomagic.”

“So I’ve heard. I don’t know the specifics like “bio” but I hear it’s potent.”

“Concentrated organic magic, also known as biological magic, and yes,” he finally looked up, “rather rare. Extremely potent as you say. It’s very useful in a number of ways.”

“So jackpot.”

“Quite.” She smiled. “I’m not sure how I’d apply it to a cure for you though,” he admitted after a moment. “I imagine it’s what you’re hoping for.”

She deflated, just slightly. “That’s disappointing, but if you can’t use it on me, use it for barter that’ll help me in other ways”

He looked at her quizzically.

“You know how these things go,” she continued. “Somebody says, ‘Man, I have this tough case and I just can’t crack it.’ Someone asks what he’s done so far and the first guy says, ‘Well… I tried using the Orb of Oxilotil and nothing happened.’ Somebody else says, ‘Have you tried the Ring of Rules?’ ‘No, but I substituted a Black Lotus.’ Then somebody says, ‘No, no, no. You need the sword exelcior,’ and another guy says, ‘shoot I got it stuck in that stone over there yesterday’. And someone else goes ‘well then get an infinite stone of regress’. And then you say, actually I have pure coBra magic, you know, if you’re interested…”

Eldrin cocked an eyebrow. “Yes, that’s how we all talk. Truly, your understanding of our terminology is uncanny. You really missed your calling as a mage.”

Candy laughed. “Okay, okay. Yeah, I might not know anything about magic, but I do know office politics. Quid pro quo. You give somebody something when they need it, and later they owe you.”

Eldrin was quiet for a moment.

“Your understanding of our terminology notwithstanding…” He looked back at the coBra heads. “…that’s actually not a bad idea.”

“I’ve had jobs,” she said with a shrug and sly smile.

“I can tell.” He lifted the box. “If you’ll excuse me, these belong somewhere considerably more secure.” Candy nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

He disappeared through a reinforced door at the rear of the exam room. Eldrin brushed his hands together.

“Now then…” He gestured toward the familiar crystal-lined examination booth. “Candy, if you’d step inside. After your recent… er, issue, at the bathhouse, I’d like another look at those magical fibers.”

Candy sighed. “I figured. Back into the glowing box.”

“I’m afraid so.”

She stepped inside and the glass crystal door shut behind her. As she layed down the crystal panels began to hum. The familiar web of pale blue light spread across the chamber.

“Hold still,” Eldrin called from the adjoining room.

She heard crystals clicking into place, followed by the soft hum of enchanted machinery. Somewhere beyond the wall, glass rotated against crystals. Every so often he adjusted another dial, and the humming changed pitch.

Candy shifted her weight.

“Don’t move.”

“I wasn’t—”

“Quiet, please.”

She sighed and stood still. Several minutes passed.

“Huh.”

Candy frowned. “Huh what?”

No answer answer came. Only more clicking, Another adjustment and Finally the humming faded.

“All right,” Eldrin called. “You can come out.”

The door opened. Candy stepped back into the room where Eldrin was studying the glowing viewing globe on his desk. The swirling image inside slowly faded as he reached over and pressed a crystal set into the wall.

The front bell rang. Moments later Marcus stepped inside, brushing dust from his sleeves.

“Sorry,” he said. “I got delayed. What’d I miss?”

“Not much,” Eldrin replied. “I received your coBra gift, and we just finished Candy’s scans. Your timing was actually quite good.”

Marcus nodded toward the viewing globe.

“So? What have you learned?”

Candy folded her arms. “Last time you found more activity around my eyes. That ended up being from my color blindness getting fixed. So what’s changed this time?”

“Hmmm,” Eldrin mused, the room was quiet for a moment as he studied the image. “That’s curious.” He gestured toward the globe. “All of your magic fibers are vibrating more than usual.”

“What, what does that mean?”

“It’s difficult to say what’s actually changed, if anything. They could simply be… agitated.”

“But I definitely feel off.”

“I believe you.” He folded his hands together. “Obviously something affected you. I simply can’t tell to what end.”

“Well, that’s no help.”

“I realize that,” he sounded genuinely apologetic. “I’m sorry. I can only report what I see.”

“Wait, that’s it? That’s how you do it? You just, look and see what you see?”

“Well yeah, what else did you expect?”

“With all this advanced stuff,” Candy gestured around, “I thought there’d be something more official! Like, I don’t know, like ‘you’re fibers are vibrating at a rate of fifty per minute’. Not, ‘uh, everything looks like it’s moving!’ I mean, come on!”

He touched the globe again, enlarging part of the image.

“Well, that would be… useful, if it could. Perhaps one day it will. I did find two new tears, though.”

“Where?”

He pointed. “Your head, probably your brain specifically.”

Candy frowned. “So… what does that mean?”

“It might mean something affecting your head.” He hesitated. “Or it could be affecting your entire body. As I said, everything is agitated right now. It’s very difficult to separate cause and the affected area from general magic background noise.”

“Oh, boy.” Her stomach tightened. The dream about Marcus. Calling herself Candy, if only halfway. Until now she’d convinced herself they were isolated incidents.Now she wasn’t so sure.

A thought struck her. “Can this thing actually see inside me?”

Eldrin looked up. “It sees your magic fibers.”

“No, I mean…” She gestured vaguely at herself. “My organs. My stomach. Everything.”

“Only the magic fibers corresponding to them.” She made a face. He studied her for a second. “…Are you worried something’s changed inside?”

“Yeah.”

“What? You think you grew ovaries or something?”

She grimaced. “Yes, actually! Disgusting thought, but yes! Or, something female that I don’t want in there.”

Eldrin blinked. “Hmmm.”

She pointed toward the scanner. “If you can see the magic fibers, couldn’t you just… tweak it so it sees the organs too?”

He actually stopped to think about it. “Huh.”

“What?”

“I’ve never needed to.” He rubbed his chin. “The Healers’ Guild would absolutely love that.” He looked genuinely thoughtful. “I should add that to my development list.”

Candy snorted. “Great. So another ten years?”

“If we’re lucky.”

He reached over and another image blossomed into the air between them. It resembled a transparent three dimensional outline of Candy’s body. Several small golden points glowed within it. Two were near her eyes, one in her chest. Now two more appeared within her skull.

“This,” Eldrin said, “is every place we’ve managed to see beneath your magic fibers. It took a bit but we managed to create this image and update it whenever your fibers shift enough for us to get a deeper look.” The image slowly rotated. “I’m building a three-dimensional model overlapping your body’s image.”

“Out of holes?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes. They’re represented in gold, for now.” He indicated the five glowing points.“We only had three before today.”

“And now?”

“We have five.”

She looked at the floating image. “So we’re making progress.”

“Slowly.” He let the projection fade. “Which is why I’d like to scan you once a month from now on. And if anything feels different you contact me immediately. We’ll get you into the scanner as quickly as possible.”

“…Okay.”

Marcus had been quietly watching the entire exchange.

“Is there anything we can do more actively?” he asked. “Anything you can give her maybe?

“You know,” Candy cut in with a scowl. It occurs to me, you both know who I really am. You could say he and Cameron.”

The two exchanged glances. Marcus shook his head to say, You tell her! I have to go home with her!

Eldrin shook his head. “Sorry Candy, the ministry requires us to address you as Candy, a woman. I know it sucks, but there you have it.”

“But-“

“Anyway, to your question, Marcus, if this follows the pattern we’ve seen, we could attempt to aggravate her magic fibers deliberately.” Candy didn’t like the sound of that. “But her condition is so volatile that I wouldn’t risk it unless we absolutely had to.” He folded his notes closed. “I think we’re better off catching these naturally.”

Marcus’s shoulders sank slightly.

“I was afraid you’d say that.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint.” The room was quiet for a moment. Then Eldrin glanced down at his notes. “Now then…” He turned a page. “There are a couple other matters we should discuss. The spirit animal.”

“Yeah what the hells is that about?” Candy demanded.

“Cleavendale has a lot of experience with transformations of, well, all kinds. But one of the most notable are Therian transformations. Velvet Tailwind specifically has the highest concentration of therians, beast kin, furries, were-people and so forth in the Cone.

“Good for them, but what does that have to do with me?”

“When people are stuck and transformed against their will, they must have ways to turn back.”

Candy nodded slowly. “So if they know how to turn people back from that..”

“Right. They know your condition is not the same as theirs.”

“…But?”

“But they believe the underlying process is similar enough that one of their restoration methods may apply.”

Candy leaned forward. “Go on.”

“It was designed for people whose bodies no longer fit their concept of themselves, typically due to a magical transformation.”

“Like me.”

“Precisely.” He opened a folder containing several neatly copied letters. “They’ve stripped away nearly every therian-specific component of the ritual. The only piece they insist cannot be removed is the spirit guide.”

Candy frowned. “Why?”

“That I do not know, but it’s safe enough. You’ll drink the potion. It will place you into a trance, and if it works, you’ll meet whatever serves as your spirit guide.”

“And if I find it?”

“If it agrees to help you, you’ll snap out of it, your aura will be altered into a new magical one, and we cast the second half of the restoration ritual.”

“And if I don’t?”

Eldrin shrugged gently. “Then nothing happens.”

“So it’d be a complete non-starter. Candy sighed. “So… homework?”

“Yeah, I suggest reading about spirit guides.”

Before she could answer, Marcus jumped in. “Actually… my cousin works in Velvet Tailwind.” Candy turned toward him.

“Oh?”

He nodded.

“One of her coworkers is a hucow. I contacted her after we received the Guild’s letter. She’s trying to arrange a meeting.”

Candy stared. “You didn’t tell me that. A meeting with Sylvie?”

“I didn’t want to get your hopes up but yeah, Penny said she’d ask.” He smiled faintly.

She glared. “Uh-huh.”

“That’s wonderful.” Eldrin agreed. “Just keep in mind not every Therian knows about transformation. Most in the city at this point are several generations into theirs. In fact, assuming they do is a bit of a social faux pas. You might want to—”

“Thank you,” Marcus said hurriedly, "but it shouldn’t hurt to ask.”

“I mean, it sounds like it could—“

“She’d say no if that were true,” Marcus cut Candy off. She glared harder. He seemed too insistent on this. Before Candy could say more the front desk admin Candy had talked to earlier entered.

“Here you go, Mage Eldrin. The metrics on the scans for Mrs. Elwood. Also the latest readings from ‘The Other’. No change.”

Eldrin's eye twitched almost imperceptibly. “Thank you,” he said with forced calm. "Now then, the second question you had, Candy?”

“Wait… what's the other?”

Eldrin took a slow, deep breath and exhaled. “I’ve meant to discuss this with you, someday, but,” he shook his head. “It wasn’t relevant and we thought it would come to an end on its own. Also, frankly, it can be very disturbing.”

Marcus and Candy looked at each other, then, turning back, Marcus asked, “What is it?”

“I suppose this is as good a time as any. Candy, er. Eh, look, when you were first transformed into your feminized state, do you remember what happened? All the flesh and bone, fat, sinew and other material that was discarded off your body when you were shrunk down?”

Candy shuddered. It hadn’t exactly been painful, but the experience, it was awful in a way even she, despite being a former scribe and prolific reader, simply did not have the words to describe.

“Yes,” she answered, her breathing unsteady. “I remember, most of it. I think. It all, it happened so fast but, but yeah, I, uh, do. Why?”

He looked her directly in the eyes with a seriousness she hadn’t seen from him before, but there was a hint of sadness, or maybe... concern?

“Didn’t you ever wonder what happened to it all?”