In the morning, Lukas awoke before Alena did. Even asleep, she looked tired. The past week had taken a lot out of her, and she hadn’t gotten any support for her campaign against the prefect. He felt so bad that he hadn’t been able to contribute. It was his job to support her, wasn’t it? What kind of husband was he going to be if he was so caught up in his own affairs all the time?

Lukas climbed out of bed and started changing quickly. He had to get dressed before Alena woke up and saw the extent of the changes to his body. How long would he be able to hide this from her? He didn’t know, but he was too frightened of her eventual reaction to tell her about it just yet.

When Lukas finished pulling on a thick cloak, he heard Alena stir and mutter, “Good morning, my love.”

“Good morning, Alena,” he replied, leaning over the bed to kiss her.

Alena placed her hands on Lukas’ cheeks and asked, “Are you sure you should go into work today? You still look kind of pale.”

“I’m fine,” Lukas assured her.

“I’m just worried that you’re sick and don’t realize it.”

“I appreciate it, and I promise that I’ll take care of myself. But I have to go into work early. I’ll see you tonight.”

Being at work wasn’t much better than being at home. At first, Lukas refused to take his cloak off. No matter how warm it made him, Lukas didn’t want Marius to be able to see what was happening to him.

But it eventually got to be too much. Lukas took off his cloak and set it aside before picking up his tools. He heard Marius’ tools stop and could practically feel his gaze.

“Lukas,” Marius said slowly, “does your current appearance have anything to do with magic?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Lukas lied, not taking his eyes off of the lock he was working on.

“Even your voice is a little different.”

“I’m just dealing with a cold.” A cold sweat was breaking out on Lukas’ forehead. “I’ll probably be fine in just a few days. Probably.”

Marius was quiet for a while before adding, “You can tell me the truth, Lukas. I won’t judge you for being affected by something outside of your control.”

“…Thank you.”

The bell out front started to ring and Marius stepped out to meet with the customer. Lukas released a deep breath and braced himself against the table. This wasn’t working; he couldn’t hide what was happening. And of course Marius had guessed that it was magic. Everyone would, since Lukas hadn’t hid that he had been in a magical accident.

“Zisald,” Lukas muttered, “these changes absolutely can’t be reversed, can they? Even if I were to go and find a magic-user somewhere outside of Marusta, there’s nothing they could do, is there?”

“No,” the specter replied. “The effects are permanent. This is your form now. And I suspect you know that it's not finished.”

Lukas cursed. How was he going to explain this to people? How would his parents react when they found out? Especially his father… There was no way that Lukas could tell his parents until he had someone with him to give him emotional support. Which meant that he would have to tell Alena sooner rather than later unless he just wanted to avoid his parents forever.

Not that avoiding his parents forever wasn’t a tantalizing option.

“Lukas,” Marius said, entering the room again, “I need you to go with the client to help them at home. Take your tools and I’ll get the supplies you need.”

Lukas nodded and put his cloak back on before picking up a bag. He filled it with his tools and then accepted another bag from Marius. The customer, a balding man, was tapping his foot impatiently in the front room.

“I’m ready to go,” Lukas told him.

“About time,” the customer muttered, turning and walking right out of the shop.

Lukas followed. He needed to pay enough attention to figure out the way back when he was done, but couldn’t help letting his mind wander just a bit. He’d been having a rough couple of days, after all. Maybe Zisald would remember the way back for Lukas.

“Someone is following you,” Zisald said suddenly. “A tall man with a stubby nose in a guard uniform.”

Lukas, curious, glanced back behind him. There was indeed a guard following him. One that Lukas recognized, because he had been one of the guards who ransacked his home. Claus was his name?

“That can’t be good,” Lukas muttered.

“What was that, boy?” the customer asked. “I can’t hear you when you whisper.”

“Nothing, sir!”

***

It was impossible for Alena to concentrate on anything. Her work performance had suffered so much over the past week. Every document she read just caused her eyes to glaze over. Her family was starting to notice, and twice now her parents had suggested that she take more time off.

But she couldn’t do that. If things turned sour, Lukas and her would need all the money they could scrounge up to flee the town at a moment’s notice. Even if they couldn’t save enough to comfortably start over, Alena would be damned before she gave up a chance to make their escape a little bit easier.

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in!” Alena called out, still writing.

Her parents entered.

“Alena,” her mother said softly, “we need to talk to you about something.”

“I’m fine, I promise.”

“No, you’re not,” her father replied as they approached her desk. “But that’s not what this is about. People have started to talk. You’ve built a reputation for opposing the prefect.”

Alena’s pen stopped.

“What is this about?” she asked calmly.

Her mother said, “Honey, we’re just worried about you. It’s not safe to go around accusing people that powerful of misdeeds. It could really land you in trouble.”

“We just have your best interests at heart,” her father added.

Alena chewed her tongue before responding, “I have the right to speak my mind about the government if I so choose.”

“What you’re doing is dangerous,” her father insisted. “I know you don’t like the prefect for some silly reason, but just let the matter die and try to live a happy life.”

Alena took a deep breath, and probably would have given them a good verbal lashing if there hadn’t been a knock at the open door.

“I have some forms that need filling in,” Zensi said. “We’re under a time limit.”

“Very well,” their mother said, before turning to Alena and pleading, “Don’t make things worse for yourself, honey.”

They left Alena alone with Zensi. Alena started muttering under her breath and snatched the papers out of her sister’s hands. Zensi stayed standing at the edge of the desk.

“You’re doing a good thing,” she said, catching Alena off-guard. “Mother and Father don’t understand, but I do. Just… please try to keep it low-profile. I don’t know what I’d do if the prefect took his anger out on you.”

Alena, her inner flame doused for the moment, nodded and replied, “I’ll try, Zensi. Thank you.”

Once again, Alena found herself wandering around the forum after work. Guards were positioned at regular intervals. None of them seemed to be watching her today, at least. Unfortunately, people still weren’t willing to listen to her. Everyone was either too afraid of upsetting the prefect or genuinely didn’t care about what he was doing.

When one couple scurried away from Alena, she sighed and sat down on a small stone bench, pulling at her hair.

“Finding it difficult, are you?” someone asked from the next bench over.

Alena turned to look at the woman, whose thin lips were pressed into a hard line. She had her nose in a book and seemed completely disinterested in Alena. Her dress was a burgundy silk affair with quite a few trimmings, exposing her wealth.

“People around here don’t want to hear the truth,” Alena replied.

The woman lowered her book and turned to look at Alena. For a moment, neither said anything as her eyes bore into Alena’s. Then she returned to reading.

She said, “Don’t be so loud with your protests. People are starting to remember you, Miss Kappel, and that’s not a good thing. Keep this up and before long you’ll be in some serious trouble.” Alena started to chuckle, getting the woman to glance over at her and frown. “What’s so funny?”

“Everyone in this town is the same,” Alena responded. “Oh, sure, people talk big about needing to be politically active and standing up for what you believe in, but only when it’s actually defending the status quo. Well, I’m not content to live in a world where somebody can fuck around with my freedoms just because they were born into power.”

“The Prefecture isn’t entirely hereditary,” the woman replied pointedly. “Torbin Siegert had to be approved by the city council, and if he steps down, a general election will determine who the next prefect is.”

“If,” Alena replied. “And there’s no way he ever would. Not that man. I won’t stand for it. I’m actually going to fight for what I believe in, and I will keep shouting from the rooftops if that’s what it takes to get people to listen. I don’t care what you or anybody says.”

When she finished, Alena was fuming. The other woman nodded slowly, then closed her book and stood up, revealing herself to be nearly a full six feet tall. Without another word to Alena, she walked off and disappeared into the crowd.

***

It was getting late in the day. Lukas should have just gone straight home and started preparing dinner. Fortunately, Claus hadn’t waited for Lukas to be done with the job and wasn’t following him when Lukas returned to Marius’ shop. And Zisald hadn’t seen him since then.

Lukas needed advice from someone that he trusted. He needed to talk to someone about this before his girlfriend or parents found out what was happening. Marius might be safe to tell, based on his reaction earlier that day, but even that was uncertain.

The scent of fish filled Lukas’ lungs. He had to resist the urge to sharpen his teeth. Raw fish didn’t sound so bad, and he was getting hungry. Lukas stopped walking and shook his head. What was he thinking? The magic was getting to his head.

Lukas knocked on Herbert’s wooden door and pulled the hood of his cloak up. His stomach churned as the door opened. Herbert’s eyes fell on Lukas without a spark of recognition.

“Hello, miss, how can…?” He stared at Lukas’ eye for a moment. “Lukas? What happened? You look so different.”

“Not that different…” Lukas mumbled, shuffling uncomfortably. Was it really so much more obvious to someone who didn’t see him every day? “Can we speak in private?”

“Yeah, sure.”

They found a small alley between two stone warehouses. Lukas glanced around, making sure that they weren’t being spied on, before taking off his hood. Herbert’s eyes widened a little.

“Is it that drastic?” Lukas asked, patting his head to make sure he didn’t have any extra ears.

“I saw you last week, Lukas,” Herbert reminded him. “You’re almost a completely different person. Tell me what happened, now.”

Lukas took a deep breath and the truth started pouring out. He explained the whole story about finding and absorbing the eye, then meeting Zisald and trying to ignore them. Herbert’s face grew pale as Lukas described the specter.

“Eventually, I started listening to them,” Lukas said. “They showed me how to summon up the magical power and use it to do… different things. I’m connected to the wild magic in the world now, and according to Zisald there’s no way to separate myself from it; I have to learn how to control it.”

“Why… Why do you look like you do now?” Herbert asked, his voice hoarse. “It’s not infectious, is it?”

“No! Of course not! It’s just…” He couldn’t tell Herbert the full truth. “The more I use the magic, the more it flows through my body, and it… soaks into me. I’ve gotten to the point where I can feel it happening. It’s slowly changing the way I look to be more… like this.”

“Why? Why would it change you like this? And why haven’t you stopped using it? You need to go to the town wizard and tell him, right away! He has to have a way to stop this.”

Lukas shook his head.

“I can’t tell Gunter. Heaven only knows what he’ll do to me. And I haven’t stopped using the magic because… I kind of like the way I look now.”

Herbert was shaking his head in disbelief.

Finally, he said, “You can’t come around anymore. I need you to stay away. Don’t come near me or my family, Lukas. Not while all this is happening.”

“Herbert—!”

“I mean it!” Herbert took a few steps back. “I don’t know what any of this magical nonsense is or how it’s messing with your head, but I want no part of it. Until you get rid of that eye and go back to normal, you need to stay away from my home.”

He stormed off without waiting for a reply. Lukas just watched, arms hanging limply by his side, tears welling up in his eyes. Zisald was standing nearby, watching blankly, no doubt judging Lukas for this decision.

Lukas began the long walk home. Was this how it was going to be with everyone in his life? The magic really had ruined everything for Lukas. And now somebody knew about the transformation. How long before the word got out? Could Lukas trust Herbert not to share it with other people? He had thought that he could trust Herbert not to freak out.

“I’m not going to be able to hide this from Alena,” he muttered, partially to Zisald but mostly to himself. “I have to tell her before she figures it out on her own. And if she leaves me—” His vision grew blurry from tears. “—then I guess that’s it for our relationship. But the longer I don’t tell her, the worse things will be when she does find out.”

He’d do it tonight, after dinner. That would give him enough time to muster his courage and come up with something to say. Alena deserved the truth. Lukas owed her that much, at least.