Magnus helped me get ready for my big re-introduction. We were at the Lochlaron estate in the Scottish lowlands, but Liam was off providing emotional support to Cassie at some sort of family gathering. She was slated to take an increasing role in the family business - Petersen Rare Earths - and needed to discuss college plans with her father. He, of course, insisted that she go to his alma mater, but Cassie wasn't sure about the whole college thing. What did college have, after all, to a girl who, if she wasn't in the top few percent of all coven witches (already an elite group), it was only because she'd been practicing it for less than two years? Well… she and her old man would talk it over, and this time she would be the one in control.

"Is this dress better? Or is it too revealing?"

"Hmm… let me check," Magnus said. He approached me, towering above me despite my substantial heels. In what had to be a jiu-jitsu move, he clutched me, lightning fast, and then ran a hand right up my dress, hiking the hem and massaging at my inner thigh, where he knew I liked it.

"Magnus," I whined. "You suck at this."

"Sorry, you're right." He sighed. "It all looks amazing on you… if you don't want to look drop dead sexy, then I suggest the muumuu."

"I'm serious! I want to look classy enough to be presentable… you used to be a girl… which would you go with?"

Magnus's face went serious, his brow knitting. He scratched at his chin and paced between the different options. He pushed the blue dress to the side, considered the other two, and then lifted the olive green one with the pearly sheen to my body.

"This one," he said. "With the 'madame executive' jewelry. You'll look like a pretty young entrepreneur or something like that… everything else is way too suggestive…"

"So you're saying this one is your least favorite?"

"It makes me the least likely to ravish you in front of everybody, yes. Is that a new ring?"

He took my hand and examined it, slim and silver shot through with red and blue - I'd crafted it myself with some pretty advanced matallomancy. "I made it myself. But you're changing the topic - I won't look too serious in it?"

"It's a good balance - serious but still sexy. It just commands authority. It says: I'm hot, but I'm in charge. That's not bad, right?"

I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek - he still had to stoop considerably for this, but I had the boy well-trained. His face was smooth from his shower and the spice of aftershave filled my nostrils. "Thank you. Now go make yourself handsome-er… we've got twenty minutes."

He growled into my ear: "Twenty minutes is enough time to…"

I swatted his ass. "Go! I'm serious!"

I was nervous as hell - this would be the first time that anybody from my old family (aside from Vince) had seen me as Natalie. It had been a while - far too long - and I missed them. But it had taken a while for Vince to work through the remnants of the Gangling Men's contracts - when the Gangling Men disappeared, their contracts lost their teeth (there was nobody to enforce them) but that didn't mean the effects automatically vanished. It took some doing for Matt and Matilda Warner to remember their son. And, when they approached Vince to ask after me, he knew it was time.

Cassie had told her father about our quartet, and he'd been none too pleased - what would people think? Didn't she know what the liabilities were? Magnus had told his mother, and she'd been excited that he'd found a fulfilling relationship that worked for him. And Liam hadn't got a chance to tell the duchess because she'd jetted off to Tahiti hours after the after-graduation party wound down. Given her lifestyle, it would have been deeply hypocritical not to be fine with it. Now I was about to make reintroductions to my family and, as the minute approached, I turned into a little stressball. When Magnus strolled back in, looking dapper in his evening jacket, hair pulled up in the little man bun that I teased him about but somehow looked debonair on him, it took him a good three or four minutes of massaging my back before I sighed in relief. Then he went lower…

"Ahh…" I groaned. "S… stop. I'm not having my parents catch us in flagrante delicto."

He kissed my neck and pulled me to my feet, walking me over to the mirror so I could make last-minute adjustments to my appearance before heading to the great hall to receive my parents. It struck me how odd my parents would find it, me looking tiny and feminine, standing next to the broad, manly Magnus, and looking a full decade younger than I ought to have looked, and with an age-appropriate warlock lover to boot. Vince and Fabiana proceeded the 'rents by a good few minutes, so I had advance warning. My cousin and his ex-fiancée rekindled their relationship, though I noted that Fabiana wasn't wearing a ring… so I guess they were taking it slow.

"Your mother's prettying herself up," Vince said. "She freaked out a bit - I forgot to tell her we were coming to a castle… she was terribly embarrassed that she'd look like a 'classless Americano' in front of royalty."

My eyebrows went up. "Classless Americano?" Fabiana shot me a panicked look and nudged Vince, who muttered half of an excuse. I nudged Vince, too. "So… you're Fabiana… and I'm guessing you're Vince?"

Vince-who-looked-like-Fabiana nodded, grinning bashfully. "We had a bet that nobody would notice."

"Who won?" Magnus asked.

"Since I messed up, I owe this grinning idiot six hours at his time of choosing," Fabiana-who-looked-like-Vince said. She cursed under her breath. "Americanos? What was I thinking?"

"It's not a transformation spell?" Magnus asked.

It almost certainly wasn't, because they looked exactly right. They even moved exactly right. Then I noticed something glittering behind Fabiana's ear and, since she looked like Vince, she wouldn't be wearing an earring unless there was a reason for it. I reached up and ran my finger along the symbol-studded surface, feeling the faint pulse of magic about the thing. "It's a body-swap device?"

Vince nodded - there'd been a plethora of magical artifices on the market now that the Gangling Men didn't have most magical devices on lockdown. Most of them were older pieces that had been sitting unused in hidden stockpiles, though new ones were also making their way out into the world, too. Cassie, Simone, and I had done some fiddling, ourselves. This body swap device was different from anything else I'd seen, though I'd probably be able to make a workable version with a few days to troubleshoot.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Magnus asked.

I nodded. "I'm definitely building one of these." With my newfound wealth, I'm sure I could have bought or commissioned one, but you didn't learn much buying artifacts off of other people, and I was always looking to learn new things.

Fabiana winked at me. "Well… don't tell your parents about the you-know-what, or I owe Vince another six hours. I think he likes my body better…"

"I like them equally," Vince stated, perhaps a bit too emphatically, and flashed a perfect, bashful smile. Then Fabiana shushed him, because my parents were entering the hall.

"I think I saw this place on television," mom said. "You know that show that was on a few years ago? The reality program about the royals?"

"Manor House on PBS, wasn't it?"

"No, no… something modern. The girls in my classes were taken by the one boy. Liam, I think… how do you suppose they got a castle like that here?"

Vince hadn't told them about the castle, so I don't suppose he'd explained that we were, in fact, in Scotland, either. The maddening thing about magic being real is that most people wouldn't believe you, even if you told them. Even if you did an impossible feat in front of their face, they'd pass it off as being street magic 'tricks' and not real magic. Surely, though, at least somebody in my immediate family must have been walking around with some magical mojo, because how else to you explain a once-in-a-century witch coming out of a painfully normal South Florida family?

Apparently, that was dad (which made sense, I suppose, because Vince, who was Aunt Gloria's son, had plenty of mojo, too)…

"Vince, what gives? I thought you said Martin was here…"

Fabiana nodded. "I know it's a lot to ask, Uncle Matt, but this beautiful young lady here… she's Martin."

Both of my parents squinted at me, and I suddenly realized that this was a horrible idea. That I should have left well enough alone and forgotten about my old life. But somehow, my real father managed to recognize me through all of the monumental changes. The moment his eyes adjusted to the relatively dim light inside the cavernous entryway, he squinted and his jaw dropped. He ambled over to me, wrapping me in a great big hug.

"Martin? Good lord, what's happened to you? You're skin and bones!"

I wasn't skin and bones - I was in excellent shape and had jiggly bits in all the right places. "I thought the fact that I was a seventeen year-old girl might be a good enough reason? It's good to see you, dad."

"Martin? What do you mean that's Martin?" Mom said.

"It's, um… " my father held me at arm's length, beaming. "I figure it's some of that newfangled magic that everybody's talking about. Look at her… it's… it's the same Martin…"

"I go by Natalie now… yeah, it's me." Convincing the 'rents that I was their former son wasn't going to be as challenging as I'd feared.

Mom wandered over, concern and confusion on her face… but she apparently recognized enough of me to see through my form, too. "I… I think you're right, dear. Natalie, honey, why didn't you call? Don't you know that we were worried sick? For all I knew, you were dead in a… oh! This is the castle from Real Royals. I'd recognize that family crest anywhere… is this your castle?"

"Not quite… it's my boyfriend's castle," I said. "Not Magnus. My other boyfriend - he's in Colorado now with my girlfriend."

"It's just the four of us," Magnus clarified.

"That sounds… complicated…" dad said.

Magnus shrugged. "It works itself out and keeps us plenty busy. We've got a very nice dinner ready if you folks are hungry."

"Famished," mom said. She reached out and took my hand - hers was significantly bigger than mine and, at five-foot-four, my heels only closed half the difference in our heights. Then she pulled me into a hug, her body much larger than mine. It was strange, and our relationship wouldn't be what it had been before, but it felt good. I showed her into the dining room, reciting for both parents the history of the Lochlaron tapestries in their glass display cases as we passed.

+++++

Cassie and Liam returned to the Lochlaron estate toward the end of supper. We heard them come in… or, rather, we heard Cassie squealing and giggling, upon which Liam bellowed: "Unhand my manhood, scandalous wench!"

"Um… hi guys!" I shouted from the dining hall.

There was mumbling and more giggling, and then Liam and Cassie wandered in, looking slightly embarrassed. I think Liam had more lipstick spread around his face than Cassie had on her lips, and she had to magically mend her dress's broken shoulder strap to keep it from flopping down and exposing an acre of glorious boob.

My mother leaned over and whispered: "I hope you four are using protection."

I sighed. "I'm a witch, mother. We do as we please."

"Well… I’m not driving out all this way at the drop of a hat to look after grandchildren. So just be careful."

By the time my parents left, my anxieties over reintroducing myself to the family had all but vanished. As we retreated from the dining hall to let the servants clean up, Liam suggested to Magnus that he could use his opinion on something upstairs. While they wouldn't turn Cassie or me away, this was a subtle hint that Liam wanted a little one-on-one time with Magnus. Whether that meant two glistening Adonises thrusting away in the throes of passion or simply that he wanted a few minutes of respite away from the super-dose of girl that Cassie and I provided, I can't say. But I'll give you one guess which one I liked to fantasize about more.

That was fine - Cassie had to some things to say to me, too. We changed out of our dresses and into clothes suitable for the rolling hills of the lowlands at evening time. Even in the summers, evenings there were cool, so I wore a little shawl and burgundy hiking pants. They were snug in the seat and Cassie kept on sneaking in squeezes as we walked out into the hills, but that was nothing unusual. On one squeeze attempt, I intercepted her hand, and she seemed fine with that. Our fingers interlocked and she slid in close until I could rest my head against her shoulder.

She sighed. "I have to start helping with my dad's business… I'm the future of Petersen-Wheeler Rare Earths, apparently."

"What about your brother?" Cassie's brother, Artemis, had always been the heir-apparent, or at least that had been my understanding. I wondered what had happened.

"After a year at Stanford, he's declared that he's going to be an artist and wants nothing to do with rare earth extraction and purification."

"Is he at least good at art?" I asked.

"Pretty good," she admitted. "He's pretty good at lots of things. But it means I'm going to have to spend a lot of time away… I'll have to learn the business until I start college in the fall, and then I'll be busy with that." She sniffed. "Fucking Artemis… he's a selfish idiot. I thought I wanted this, and all of a sudden I hate it. I mean… we might not get to see one another much…" Then Cassie gasped.

She'd gasped because I'd just dropped to my knee and held out a ring - a silvery loop, simple enough, but shot through with red and blue whorls of changing patterns. I'd spent quite a bit of my spare time poring through my symbology and crafting a matching pair, one half of which now sat on my own slim finger. "Cassie, I want to invite you to my sanctuary. Wherever you are in the world, I want you to come there at the end of the day and make it yours, too. It's not home if you aren't there."

Cassie took the ring in her hand and marveled over it for a minute before kneeling and holding my face with trembling hands. "Are you being serious right now?"

My heart thudded in my chest - was she about to reject me? In for a penny in for a pound: "I've never been more serious about anything. I… please don't be mad… but I took one of your hairs and one of mine and twined them into the ring - they're sympathetically bound. Wherever you are, I'll be able to feel you and you'll be able to feel me." I struggled to my feet, suddenly feeling very unsure of myself. "I way overstepped my bounds… I'm sorry, Cassie. I can destroy the rings… I know you and Liam have a special thing…"

Cassie stayed on her knees, her brow twitching with barely-constrained emotion. "I love Liam," she said. She glanced to her ring. "I love Liam, but he didn't sacrifice his life for me. He didn't bring down a century of evil and terror to get me back - nobody else did that… nobody else could have done that but you." Finally, finally, she slipped my ring over her finger. In that instant, I could feel the life and the power in her, could feel the faint thud of her heartbeat through the sympathetic link in my own ring. She pulled me into her embrace, twirled me about, and touched her ring against the standing stone we'd just reached.

In a flash of light, we were in a crystalline chamber, silver fluting and glass-clear quartz glittering and glowing like the inside of a chandelier. It had been the second room I'd fashioned out of Byron Bryce's old sanctuary. I'd replace the estate one room at a time and then expand the hallways even farther, adding as many halls and rooms as I cared to. Next up? A nice, big, private shower. Whenever Byron changed back from being a worm, if Amanda ever changed him back, my 'grandfather' would find that I had far more control over the place than he had, or had ever had. But for now, I'd just managed the bedroom, a cozy hallway, and my crystal entry chamber. Lashed up to some of the higher crystals was the big banner I'd written out with my own hand: Welcome Home, Cassie! Her presence triggered a little ward in the banner and it popped out a glitter of magical confetti in the shape of a heart.

"I… I love it… this… this is your sanctuary?"

I shook my head. "No. It's our sanctuary. The boys can visit as often as they like, of course, but it's ours, yours and mine. Cassandra Petersen… and Natalia Cadence Storm."

Cassie gasped, her eyes going wide in the realization of what I'd just done. I'd just given Cassie my True Name - the name that would give her immense power over me, should she ever wish to exert it. It was the name that no witch must ever reveal, and I'd just given it away, breaking the very first rule of our new covenant with Starlight.

Cassie leaned down and whispered in my ear: "Cassiopeia Cadence Bright. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Natalia."

Then she swept me off my feet and lifted me into a smoldering kiss, lip on hot lip as she carried me into the bedroom. We'd go on to share that bed with Liam, Magnus, and many others. But for that night, it was just the two of us, and it felt like a wonderful eternity. And I might have thanked my lucky stars, but I didn't because I knew better: what the two of us shared was magical, and there is no coincidence in magic.

The End

…For Now

OvidLemma

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