Cameron To Candy

Candy and Marcus followed Eldrin deeper into the catacombs below the great Mage Guild Hall. They each carried a bucket. Eldrin had insisted they’d need it. Not long prior, the High Mage had shocked Candy and Marcus. Apparently all the material Cameron had shed from his body when becoming Candy had somehow bound together. What’s more, it had been kept there in the Mage Archives established in the underground catacombs. But infuriatingly enough, before he elaborated, he’d insisted on discussing the other matters they were there for.

“You won’t be able to focus on them after you see The Other.” He’d told them. So they sat and went through the other items, while Marcus fidgeted and Candy shook her leg so fast it became a blur.

"After your color vision changed, we went back through the spell archives. We finally confirmed what we'd suspected. When we examined the master template for the spell that changed you, we found it… stretched and broken.” He picked up a quill, then set it back down, searching for an analogy. "Imagine a ball of steel wool. Now grasp it at both ends and pull."

Candy nodded.

"At first it stretches a little. Most of it still looks like steel wool. Then the strands begin to thin. They stretch farther and farther until, eventually..." He spread his hands apart. "...they simply pull apart."

He held up the crystal plate containing the spell record.

"That's almost exactly what the template looks like now."

He traced a finger along the glowing spell. "Most of it is unchanged. Then, near one end, the structure begins to elongate. The strands become thinner, more distorted, as though something was pulling on them from very far away. And the normal yellow color became redder as it thinned." His finger reached the end of the recorded spell. "And then... nothing."

He lowered the plate. "The final quarter of the template is simply gone. Torn off. I believe that portion is in you now, melded into the new version of the spell and your own fibers.”

Marcus frowned. “So what does that mean?”

Candy asked, “Does that explain why the spell part you saw looked older than my own threads?”

“It might, unless there’s something else in there. It’s the most logical explanation, but until we can see a fuller picture, we can’t be one-hundred percent certain. As for meaning, it doesn’t change much really, be it the older or newer spell. It makes little difference.”

Candy and Marcus were quite a moment as they processed that.

“So,” Eldrin pushed forward. “You’d listed the penis spell used at academies as an item to discuss. Why is that?“

Candy huffed at the delay. Her... remains were here somewhere, and part of a near century old spell was in her. You couldn’t drop a bee's nest like that on someone and just keep going through the itinerary. Yet, there they were. “Yes, I hear it makes women, ah…grow one.”

Understanding crossed his face. “Oh.” He shook his head. “No.”

“So it wouldn’t work?”

“It isn’t real.”

She frowned. “What do you mean it isn’t real?”

“It’s illusion magic.” He said it matter-of-factly. “A very sophisticated illusion, certainly. It looks real. It feels real and reacts convincingly-”

“I'd take convincing! Seriously, I’d take anything at this point!”

“It wouldn’t take.” He gestured toward the scanner. “The spell is taking up too much room to share with that other kind of magic. Your magic fibers would reject it almost immediately.“

“And if they didn’t?”

“The enchantment’s temporary. It has to be renewed every few days. It’d be impossible to keep you supplied indefinitely.”

Candy let out a long sigh. “Gods damn it.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, then turned to Marcus, “And you had a matter of your own, didn’t you?”

“Uh yeah,” Marcus began, shakier than normal. “The thing is, well, it’s a uh, sensitive matter…” he glanced at Candy who was turning her attention to him as he hemed and hawed. “I uh… Er. Candy. Could you, maybe, would you wait outside for just a minute?”

“Why? I know what you’re going to ask.”

“It’s just, uh… a private, um, man thing…”

“I’m Cameron.”

“I know! I know… it's just.”

“Okaaay.” Eldrin cut in. “As amusing as this is we should move it along. Candy. Wait outside a moment, please.”

Candy rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

After she’d stepped out, Eldrin invited Marcus to continue.”Ok, Mr. Elwood. What were you trying to say?”

"Well. It’s…” he took a breath. “We’re required to consummate the marriage by the end of our first year. Why they won't just waive that for us I don’t know. And what that even means with her anatomy, I uh, I have guesses. Whatever it is, I don’t think I can go through with it on my own. I mean… I can do everything else the law asks. But asking me to..." He shook his head. "Knowing who she really is… that’s Cameron! She’s… he’s…" He couldn't finish the sentence. “It’s just, er, oral devotion is one thing. I can forget about, uh, certain things, long enough, but consummation? I mean, that’s really different, you know?

“Yes, I do see your point.”

"And if we don't..."

"They'll take her."

Marcus nodded once. “They could! I just, I could use… do you have anything that would help? You know…”

There was a short pause as the implication hung in the air, then Eldrin spoke.

“Say no more." He opened another cabinet and pulled out a small book whose title suggested it was all about this sort of thing. "I can help." Marcus gawked at the book. "It takes four weeks to brew." He removed a small blank label from a shelf. "Six, if you want full potency."

Marcus nodded. "We'll wait."

"I think that's wise."

A few moments later, Marcus stepped back into the hallway with Mage Eldrin behind him. Candy looked up from the bench.

"You done having a man conversation without your futafied best friend who already knew what it was about?” Candy asked pointedly, with a sarcastic shrug of her shoulders.

“Uh, yeah.”

Eldrin cleared his throat. “Now…” He hesitated, then sighed. “The Other. Follow me.” He stopped for a moment, then gestured at the door to a rock stairwell. “And each of you take one of these buckets.”

***

A moment later they found themselves walking deeper and deeper into the catacombs below the Mage Guild.

"You were approximately a two-hundred-pound man," Eldrin explained as they moved. Candy already knew where this was going. "You’re now approximately a one-hundred-thirty-pound woman, yes?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"Seventy pounds of matter had to go somewhere." He opened the folder.

"Doesn’t it just, disappear?"

“That’s not how magic things work. Usually the matter just shluffs off and degrades, like other biological matter. But for some reason, yours collected."

"Collected?"

"Into one… er, thing." His voice remained clinical. "Bone,” he turned a corner. "Muscle,” another left. "Fat,” a right. "Sinew, connective tissue, fragments of teeth. The spell condensed everything removed from your body into a single spherical mass."

Marcus looked horrified.

"Is it… alive?"

"Barely. It has no brain. No recognizable organs, or maybe, from what we can tell, shaved bits of organs. There's been no nervous response reaction to pain or movement or light. By all rights it should have died and decayed, but the magic is, well, somehow it’s sustaining it."

"...You've been calling it 'the other?” Candy asked, nearly gagging.

"Yes. We placed it in stasis shortly after the transformation."

"Has it..." She swallowed. "...Has it changed?"

"No."

"At all?"

"No. In fact, every time you've blacked out, every change you've experienced. Every shift like in your vision..." He shook his head. "It has never reacted. Whatever mechanism is changing you isn’t affecting it the same way. It simply... exists."

Candy stared at him. "I want to see it."

"You will; we’re almost there. But again, I must press that I really don't recommend this."

"I said I want to see it. I, I have to."

Eldrin sighed. "...Very well. Just keep your bucket on hand."

The top storage area gave way to older tunnels. They descended in silence for two more levels beneath the Guild. The tunnels were lined with lighting crystals, which switched from dim to fuller brightness as they approached. The air grew cooler.

Eldrin stopped before a heavy iron door. He looked back once. "Brace yourselves."

He opened it. The room beyond was dim except for a pale blue stasis field suspended at its center. Inside floated a grotesque sphere nearly the size of a wine barrel. It was larger than Candy would have expected. There was no face, nor recognizable body to speak of—only compressed anatomy. Pale sheets of skin folded over dense cords of muscle. Yellow fat trapped between layers of sinew protruded in seemingly random places. There were splintered lengths of bone half-visible beneath translucent tissue. Dark strands of red hair drifted weightlessly through the suspended mass. Here and there, tiny white fragments caught the light. They were made from chips of teeth and bone embedded among flesh that had no mouth or limbs left. As it rotated, Candy spotted a triangular patch of coarse hair… gods, was that her pubs? Is that why she was bare down there now? Did this explain where her leg and armpit hair went?

Candy stared for perhaps three seconds, then she doubled over and vomited into the bucket she’d been made to carry. Now she appreciated why. Seconds later Marcus did the same. Eldrin quietly closed it behind them.

"...I did try to warn you."

*****

Nearly ten minutes later, Candy finally accepted a glass of water with shaky hands. Neither she nor Marcus spoke.

"I don't expect anything to come of it," Eldrin said quietly. "If it ever reacts..." He tapped the folder. "...you'll be the first to know. The door's not locked and there’s a pulley to ring a bell… You know, just in case things… change. But I wouldn’t bet money on that.”

Candy nodded. She wasn’t sure what to think. Marcus finally stood. This was better than Eldrin had hoped for. The shock of seeing that flesh orb...

"Thank you, Mage Eldrin."

"My pleasure. Take your time; leave when you’re ready. And Candy, I want you back next month for more scans." Candy managed a nod, then stood next to Marcus. They made their way to the Guild Courtyard and stayed there for a few minutes, taking in the fresh air.

"Are you ready to head home?" Marcus asked after a while.

"Sure."

"He said he’ll make the potion for us. It'll just take a little while."

"That's fine." She said, absentmindedly adjusting her satchel. "We've still got a few months anyway."

Marcus nodded. Together they walked out the gates and disappeared into the afternoon crowd. Eldrin watched them through the window until they were out of sight.

"...Huh." He let out a slow breath. "That was a rough meeting." He knew they’d probably have a lot more questions once the shock had worn off. His stomach reminded him he'd skipped lunch. He returned to his desk, unwrapped a sandwich, and took an appreciative bite before pulling a thick recipe ledger from a nearby shelf.

Consummation Draught - Variant XII

He scanned the ingredient list as he ate.

"Boiled newt..." Another bite. "Powdered unicorn hoof..." He nodded absently. "Oyster juice..." His eyes continued downward. "Camellia disciplinis leaf… Hmm. One drop refined biomagic..." That, at least, wouldn't be a problem anymore. He glanced toward the reinforced cabinet where the coBra heads now rested. "Well," he murmured to himself, "those came in handy rather quickly." And there'd still be plenty left for barter later. "Magic snakes helping with his trouser snake," he chuckled a little to himself at his own wordplay.

He closed the book, finished the last bite of his sandwich, and began gathering bottles from the shelves, setting each one neatly upon the workbench. As he worked, his thoughts drifted back to the young couple.

"I really don't envy those poor kids." Then, with a quiet flick of his fingers, the first brewing crystal glowed to life.