“Holy shit! Holy SHIT! We just teleported! This is so cool!” I looked around at my new surroundings as I freaked out. Estus had just teleported us out of their apartment to what they had simply referred to as a ‘more convenient place.’ What they should have said was that it was a god damned mansion though. We had appeared in a room whose roof was likely 20 to 30 feet above me. The entire place had a very dark, almost gothic, theme.

Red and purple tapestries covered a good portion of three of the dark stone walls. The fourth wall was made up of shelves from end to end, which were filled with all sorts of books and materials. I could see several unique skulls, jars of various minerals and liquids, assorted rocks, weapons, and even a small cauldron among many other tools lining them. Interspersed around the room were old looking sconces set into the walls that held balls of purple or red energy flickering in them. Looking a little higher, the walls seemed to be covered in constellations wherever they weren’t covered in paintings or the tapestries. The constellations even stretched across the ceiling in a dazzling display of artistry.

“Where was all of this when I wanted stereotypically magical places? Where even are we for that matter? Is that a hospital bed? Wait, is there someone on it? I have so many questions!” I had to stop myself from squealing as I continued to spin around taking in my new surroundings. There were several comfortable looking couches around the edges of the room, but even they fit the theme perfectly. Most had either red or black cushions, while their framing oozed gothic luxury. There were even a pair on either side of a large door that were completely purple save for the elegant silvered trim.

Estus grinned as they gave me the information I so desired. “This time I came prepared! I saw your questions coming a million miles away. This place belongs to Petunia, my…family friend? I think that’s the best way to describe her? Anyway, she’s rich as all hell, as you can see, and likes having her numerous houses have distinct themes. The hospital bed is part of the plan I mentioned yesterday, remember? It’s not a real person on it. We’re going to be using it to swap with Mely. Need certain markers on every part of both sides, which means we need power for the system on this side and we need this whole setup to plug in the same way as her bed does.” They paused, and turned to me.

“None of that is important as far as you’re concerned though. Feel free to spend a few minutes looking around the room as I double check everything. Please try not to step on the symbology over there though.” They pointed in the direction of the hospital bed, where I saw another couple circles with some shapes in them. At that thought, I looked down at the circle we had teleported in on top of and found it was actually carved into the stone beneath our feet. I guess when you had a house of your own you could set up a permanent teleport station that could withstand wear and tear. I wandered to the bookshelf-laden wall as Estus continued. “It’ll probably be fine, but I’d rather not add risk if we don’t have to. We’ll be teleporting Mel in there and moving her over to the bigger circle where both of you will be for the cancellation spell.”

“Sounds great. Ooh are these real skulls? I wonder what they’re all from. Oh and this dagger looks really cool. The curve is absurd though; maybe it’s not one of the ones for sacrificing. Assuming any of these are for that. I mean why wouldn't they be though, right? Why else have weapons all over? Oh wow, this is a gorgeous looking crown. Wonder if it ever belonged to royalty." I rambled to myself as I wandered down the wall before stopping at a shimmering book spine. "Ooh, now what’s this?” Without thinking, I tried to pull the book out of its spot, but found myself holding nothing and staring at a blank wall suddenly. “Um Estus?” There was no response as I spun around. “Well damn. Guess this Petunia character likes secret rooms too.”

The room I had appeared in felt tiny in comparison to the one I had just left. Not that it was small, but it was only a little smaller than my room at home. With how larger than life the last room had been, it felt completely out of place. There was a simple desk and chair against the far wall, with plants on either side. To my left there was a black chaise lounge with realistic vines printed on it. I stepped closer and realized that they weren’t just realistic prints, but were actually real living vines. I had no clue how they could survive in a room with no sunlight. In fact, the only source of light in the room was a single bright yellow light in a sconce on my right. I wrote it off as an oddity of magic as I had with so many things recently. There was a shelf with some writing materials and a few extra books below the light, but otherwise the room was surprisingly sparse.

“Well I have no clue how to get out of here so I guess I’ll check the desk.” I found the sound of my voice comforting in a place that felt so enclosed. I figured stating my actions couldn’t hurt if I was being monitored somehow either. There was a book open on the desk and I saw that the page was covered in symbols and notes. I ignored my curiosity for once, and looked around the desk, hoping to spy something with the telltale glint of enchantment on it. Seeing nothing, I turned to the small shelf to my right. After a quick look through the spines, I turned up with nothing yet again.

I turned to the chaise next without much hope. I tried looking underneath it and around it to no avail. I did find that the vines on it were surprisingly soft though; I could easily see someone taking a nap on the greenery-laden furniture given the right circumstances. I found myself envisioning someone laying on the couch with the vines curling up around them like a blanket. Shaking my head, I moved to the walls, running my hands over them as I tried to spot any sort of telltale glint. Still nothing. I even tried pulling on the sconce in hopes that it would teleport me back. Nothing worked.

With a sigh I collapsed into the chair in front of the desk. “If I were a badass rich witch where would I put something to teleport me back out of a secret room?” I tapped my fingers on the desk as I thought. “I already stopped it from being too obvious. Why would I have done that? So that I can keep intruders stuck inside until I can deal with them? That doesn’t bode well for me if that’s the case. Even assuming that were the case, I would want a backup for myself, no?” I dropped my head to the desk in frustration.

“You’re forgetting to take into account that most people I would expect would be actual magic users.” I jumped up, knocking the chair down and hitting my knee on the desk. I cursed my clumsiness as I spun around and found myself looking at a bemused middle aged woman. Her hair was a deep purple that paled as it got further from her scalp. She stood a few inches shorter than me and was wearing a shirt covered in flowers along with a full length green skirt. “Still, your logic was a lot more sound than the other people that have found themselves trapped in here. So tell me, Sophia. How did you find your way in here?” Her voice carried a charming hint of a Scottish accent that in other circumstances I could see myself asking a million questions about.

“I uh.” I gulped as her eyes pierced through me. “I was looking at the wall of stuff while Estus was making sure everything was set up? And I saw that the book to get here was shiny and wanted to see why it was enchanted? Well I mean I tried to take it out to look at the title since I probably wouldn’t have been able to read any of it, but I still wanted to try seeing what I could see. And then I was suddenly in here and I looked around but couldn’t figure out a way out. I guess it makes sense that you wouldn’t use the same method to get out if this is meant to trap other magic users. I guess in that case it would make more sense to either not use magic at all or hide it somewhere else?” I rambled as my mind whirred quicker and quicker. This woman was scary and I felt like I was intruding on her space. The way she was scowling at me was intimidating in a way that surpassed even Garth’s rare anger.

“Excuse me, the book was shiny? How does a girl that supposedly knows nothing about magic know enough to cast a spell that lets her see enchantments? Was Estus wrong about you? Have you been lying to them?” She stepped towards me menacingly and I tried to back up but the desk stopped me from doing so.

“I didn’t cast anything. I just kinda notice these things. Only reason I even know that it’s a sign of enchantment and not my eyes playing tricks is because Estus told me. They mentioned that I have a weird aura or something so maybe that’s what’s going on? I promise I haven’t lied to anyone…” I practically whimpered out my defense, feeling tears prick the corners of my eyes.

“You just…see enchantments all the time?” She muttered some words in another language under her breath. I felt the air start to shift but it stopped as soon as I felt it. She made a face and I moved to the side as she moved forward to pull a drawer open on her desk. “Let’s try this then.” She pulled out a small shimmering box and I tilted my head in curiosity. After fiddling with it for a moment, she muttered the same words as previously and this time I felt the air shift properly.

“What was that spell? And what’s with the magic box? Why’d the spell fail the first time?” the words left my mouth before I could think better of it. Petunia looked at me and pressed her lips together as she pulled 3 cylindrical pieces of clay out of the drawer. The shape reminded me of a pot, but they were each the size of a fingertip.

“The fact that you know that was a spell and that this is magical is odd but I don’t think it proves anything yet. Which of these is enchanted?” She placed the three balls down on her desk for me to view. I moved my head back and forth a few times before giving her a look of curiosity.

“If this is a test, it’s a bad one. None of them are enchanted?” I answered when she gave no sign of giving me a hint. She reached into another drawer and pulled out another three. “This is still a bad test, since all of those are enchanted. Shouldn’t you, like, mix them up or something? That way you can tell if I know the right ones?” I had spoken before she had finished what she was doing and she shot me an annoyed glare.

“Fine little miss prodigy. Turn your back and I will do as you ask. Since you’re so insistent on second guessing my intentions, I will tell you that I don’t feel like having to cast the spell to tell the difference myself if I don’t have to.” She huffed her aggravation. I resisted the urge to giggle as the woman slowly went from terrifying to normal and just annoyed in my eyes. I did as she asked and turned around. “Alright you can turn around now,” she grumbled a few moments later.

“Those two are enchanted. Also the one over there is enchanted.” I indicated the ones I was referring to as she stared at me. I fidgeted awkwardly as she continued looking at me silently.

“You’re an odd one Sophia. Either you're more unique than we realized or you're the best liar I've ever met. We’ll talk about this later. For now I think Estus needs your help with Melissandra. If you tell anyone of how you got here or ever return to this place, you will die, understand? And that includes telling your friends out there.” I nodded as she threatened me. She had re-entered her scary persona and having seen her in a more casual light did nothing to lessen how terrifying it was. She placed the mini-pots back into their respective drawers and then opened yet another drawer to reach into the back of it. I heard a click and a door opened behind me and to the right.

“Oh that’s genius! You use the tropes but then have one magic so that people expect the magic and then they don’t bother looking for more mundane options! Wait, Mel’s full name is Melissandra and not Melissa? That’s so cool! With a name that cool, I would be using it any chance I could get!” She rolled her eyes as she brushed past me towards the now open wall. I could have sworn I had seen the hint of a smile playing at the corner of her mouth though.

“You really are an excitable little thing aren’t you? No wonder you’re friends with those two.” She made her way into the hallway that existed there. I followed her until it opened up into another room that had a simple circle with a few symbols set up in a hexagonal pattern. “Join me and we can get back to them. Hopefully Estus can field the rest of your questions for me.” She dropped her voice to a mutter for the second sentence and I could tell it was meant more for herself than me. I grinned nonetheless as I joined her. She murmured some more foreign words and we were suddenly back in the main hall from whence I had come.

“Here’s your friend back, Estus. I’m stealing her when you’re done here though. She's quite the fascinating specimen. Since I’m here anyway I’ll stick around until then.” Estus looked surprised as Petunia walked to a couch nearby and collapsed into it.

“Oh sure. I suppose that works. I can’t believe how quickly you managed to disappear on me Sophia. You’re even worse than Mel was when she was a kid.” I pouted at the comparison, while Petunia laughed from her comfortable perch. Estus took a deep breath out before continuing. “Alright, so now that we’ve got that sorted out, maybe you can just...not touch anything until we’re done here?” I looked down at my feet, feeling even more childish as I suppressed the urge to argue.

Estus made a few final checks while I moved closer to the fake hospital bed. As I got closer, I saw that the entire bed was actually plugged into the wall. There were also several pieces of tape with symbols on them spread across the ends of each piece of the setup. I noticed an amethyst stone on the chest of the mannequin and found it mildly entertaining that Estus had gone so far as to put chords into its nose and mouth holes. I assumed all of this was to further simulate Mel's condition on the other side of the spell, but I couldn't understand why it had to be so elaborate. After all, when teleporting ourselves, we just stood in a ritual circle and said some words.

Shrugging, I shifted my attention to the currently vacant circle a few feet to the right of the bed. It held a seven pointed polygon that almost looked as if two squares were contorted into each other. At each intersection where the lines connecting every point met, the outer point of a concentric seven pointed star was placed. I tilted my head in curiosity trying to figure out the odd geometry.

"It's called a true faery star, deary," Petunia's voice helpfully added. I jumped at how close it was and found her to be standing right behind me. "It's a smart choice of symbol. Septagrams have always been a favorite of mine. Gets used in all sorts of spells since it's a great power base. Even you might be able to sense it when my favorite little historian casts those spells." She winked at me as I saw Estus blush lightly.

They quickly griped back, "really wish you'd stop calling me that. I haven't been little in a long time. And Sophia's felt much weaker spells, so please don't patronize her. Would hate to let slip Mel's old nickname for you." Petunia stepped back as if being threatened with decapitation.

"I concede, young trickster." She grumbled. Turning to me she added, "curiouser and curiouser. I'm starting to get excited for you to finish here Sophia." I very much did not like the look she gave me. With that, she retreated back to her couch as Estus nodded to me that it was time. They stepped closer to the circle and spoke what I would guess to be around two sentences in yet another language I didn't know. Sounded European though. As they finished, I sneezed and when I looked up again, a very real girl was lying in bed.

"Mel!" I rushed over to her side. She was as pallid as death and the only signs that she was alive were the readings on the machines by her side. I felt tears prick my eyes as I saw just how bad a state she was in. Seeing her like this felt wrong. "Let's get this over with." I said, turning to Estus. I didn't want to be responsible for her poor health a moment longer.

We rolled the bed carefully to the next circle as I felt anxiety claw at my gut. Standing in the circle with her, I could feel the sweat dripping down the back of my neck. I knew it would only be for a few minutes, but I was dreading going back to my old body. I let myself picture the body I wanted again as Estus began a much more complicated sounding chant in yet another language. How many did they know? I felt my hair stand on end as I felt tension building in the air. It mirrored my anxiety almost perfectly as they both grew. I closed my eyes as it continued. And continued. And continued. And I opened them as it went on, seeing colors surrounding Mel and me. They were swirling between the two of us as they slowly spread apart and I couldn't help but be awed by the display of magical prowess. My awe was quickly diminished when I looked over at a confused and now silent Estus.

The tension built for another few moments before it finally broke and I felt a wave of energy flow over me as the colors faded from view. I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut to avoid the incoming changes, but I knew it wouldn't do any good so I held them open. It was a good thing I did too as I saw Estus begin to collapse. I rushed over and caught them halfway to the ground, helping them go the rest of the way safely. They felt clammy to the touch, but they gave me a weak smile.

"Well this isn't what I expected to happen at all." Their voice was heavy with effort as they looked up at me. I tilted my head in confusion as they continued. "I was expecting you to look more masculine, for one, so I'm guessing it didn't work properly. Took a hell of a lot more out of me than I predicted too. Shit, this really complicates things, doesn't it."

"That it does." Petunia's voice once again surprised me as I found her at my side. "Your wee friend here is chock-full of surprises isn't she? That spell took almost five times the energy it should've would be my guess. You must have been practicing your Arabic since the pronunciation was near perfect." She walked over to the circle and inspected it as she spoke. "The symbols are too. Which means it has something to do with our subjects. I somehow doubt Melissandra did anything in her state so that leaves you, Sophia."

"Does that mean I did something wrong? Is that why there was a pulse of power? Is that also the reason I could see it? I mean it felt like it succeeded but I'm not exactly an expert obviously. And I never felt my body change which must mean it didn't work, right? My voice isn't lower either. Does that mean we need to retry? How did I cause it to fail? What happened?" I tried to keep calm but my anxiety got the better of me and I rambled off several questions at once.

"Calm down lassy, it's alright. Help Estus over to that couch and I can answer your many questions. Or at least attempt to since I won't know for sure until I study you more." Some color had returned to Estus' face as we had been speaking and I followed Petunia's orders. They were still unsteady as I helped them stand up, but we reached the indicated couch with relative ease, and I helped them lay back down. As I did so, she continued, "the spell succeeded in undoing the spell linking the two of you, but it seems it didn't do everything it was meant to do. Or perhaps it simply got twisted into something new. Tell me Sophia, do you feel at all different? Physically? Mentally? Spiritually? Whatever else might come to mind?"

I considered her words for a few moments before answering. "Um, maybe? I can't really tell. I'm most just feeling nervous I guess? Not that I haven't felt like that for days though…" I trailed off, trying to dig deeper. Part of me was relieved the spell hadn't fully worked. I knew that it needed to happen so that I wouldn't continue making Melissa sick but I liked my new body. 

Said body felt the same as it had before the spell. I could feel the weight of my chest as it shifted with each of my deep breaths. I could feel the air against my smooth legs and arms, both of which had been more sensitive to the feeling for a few days now. I could feel my— "wait, is my hair longer?" I asked as I reached around to my back. It was all the way down to the middle of my back, which was certainly new.

I let my thoughts flow through my mouth as I continued. "I guess my hair grew somehow? I guess that must be obvious to y’all. Shouldn't that be the opposite of what should have happened? I feel normal otherwise. I mean I guess I have a bit of a headache?" I realized my head was actually pulsing in pain. How had I not noticed that sooner? I winced as my acknowledgement seemed to make it worse as my attention was brought to it. "Oh ok maybe more than a bit? It really hurts." I grunted out the words as I found myself sitting on the ground, leaning against the couch upon which Estus was resting.

They chuckled weakly from behind me before talking in a soothing voice. "Oh a bit more than your hair length has changed Soph. This girl needs a mirror if you have any nearby Petunia. Just point me to some water first and I'll grab both for her?" I heard them sit up as they spoke but Petunia quickly shut them down.

"You will do no such thing Estus. Your mother would lose her head if I let you do so in your condition. Cover your ears for a moment lassy." She directed the latter statement to me and I complied hesitantly. She clapped twice and I mentally thanked her as even through my hands I could feel my head throb from the no ise. She motioned for me to uncover my ears. "I'd prefer if you both kept your mouths shut about this next trick. I dinae like to reveal so much, but you two youngsters are proving to just be a bundle of trouble. Fascinating trouble but trouble nonetheless. Oh and no questions." She gave me a pointed look and I reluctantly stayed silent.

A few minutes later, several vines slithered through one of the doorways with a pitcher of water, a few empty glasses, a hand mirror, and a vial of green liquid. I gaped as they moved towards us, with several working in tandem to pour some water into each glass. One glass was placed in both of my companions' hands, while the third was placed in front of me along with the pitcher. The vial was nudged into my hand and the mirror was held just out of my reach.

"Drink up, Sophia." I gave Petunia a dubious look as she continued. "A magical potion for what is likelly a magical headache. It tastes better than it looks, I promise. Then you can drink some water to wash it down and look at your reflection." I uncorked the vial and sniffed. Smelling nothing, I sighed and threw it back. Unlike the platitudes I was used to from doctors, it turned out she was telling the truth. The concoction tasted a bit like cucumber but was otherwise quite bland. I picked up the glass of water and took a large gulp of it before taking the mirror from the vine that had brought it closer.

For the second time this week, I found myself staring into a mirror that showed an unfamiliar face. When I looked for specific features, I could still find them, though most weren't the same as they had been last I looked. I wasn't sure if it was just the lighting, but my eyes looked to have actually changed colors slightly. Where before they had been a dull brown, now I found them deeply saturated with an amber ring around the outside. It felt strange looking into them; they looked different yet somehow more authentic. 

The next thing my focus fell on was my hair. It had always been a medium brown color but now as I moved my head in the light I could swear it had more of an orange sheen and I saw highlights of a deeper red in it. It reminded me of a darker version of Rachael's hair. With that thought, I noticed other things about my appearance that were similar. My nose was still my own but had the same button-like quality as hers. My smile showed off dimples that I couldn't ever remember seeing on my own face, but had spotted plenty on hers. As I continued taking in the changes to my face I realized we could probably pass off as sisters at this point. I found myself smiling at the thought. I said the only words that I could as I looked up at Petunia, "woah."

She smiled at the simplicity of my reaction as I heard a startled giggle from behind me. "Ha! That's the only sensible reaction I've seen out of you so far. I know I hadn't planned on getting involved in everything but I think now would be a good time for that to change so I can help. Tell me everything you two already know about Sophie's magical anomalies and what caused this entire situation. It'll make it easier for me to figure out what's going on. And if you could show me the spell that was affecting you, that might help too." 

Estus and I traded off explaining the events of the past several days. Petunia raised an eyebrow when she learned I had thought I was a boy up until a few days ago as well as the information that we had only met a few days ago, but otherwise stayed silent through our combined story. As we spoke of the spell, Estus pointed Petunia to a bag I hadn't noticed. She read through it a few times as we finished explaining what we had surmised and how it influenced our plan.

I had narrated most of the first half of the story, with Estus taking over for the past few days. As they spoke, I found myself going back over that time with what felt like new eyes. It all felt like so much now. There were several moments that stood out as off, but just thinking about Tuesday night now filled me with anxiety. While I still felt justified in my response to my friends, it felt out of character with my self image. It felt like something I normally would have joked away and felt bad about later. And the realization that I was trans felt rushed. It felt as if it had almost been…too easy? Too unearned? There had been so little back and forth; no self doubt. It felt as if I had made the realization without any of the baggage that should have accompanied it. I had screamed my gender to the city without ever thinking about anyone else. I always thought of others first though; how had that happened?

A hand on my shoulder interrupted my thoughts. "Hey. It's gonna be ok Sophia. Breathe slowly." Estus spoke in a relaxing tone and I found that I had begun to hyperventilate. I closed my eyes and focused on my breaths. As my breathing returned to normal, they asked, "is your head alright? Did the potion not work?"

"I forgot all about the headache.." I admitted. As I thought about it, I realized it was indeed simply gone. That potion had really done its job well. "I just started thinking about this week and Tuesday night and how weird I've been acting. Everything feels like it went so fast. It feels…" I trailed off, not knowing how to explain myself.

"As if you were acting like an idealized version of yourself? Like a version of yourself that seems better than the real you but isn't and therefore just feels strange and wrong?" I blinked up at Petunia, feeling my jaw drop in surprise. Before I could form any words, she continued. "You were right to undo the spell due to the mental effects but wrong about what they were. Your ego was not affected but rather it affected the rest of you. It made your body change to fit what you thought a feminine version of yourself should look like. Furthermore, it made you act in an idealized manner." 

At my confused expression she clarified. "Generally speaking, your ego was in control of your actions and therefore acted in accordance with the way it thought you should act. My guess is that this means that it prioritized your own needs to a fault while being polite when they were unaffected. Maybe you thanked people for simple courtesies more often and performed them as well. But when other people did things that hurt you, you defended yourself efficiently without worrying about how you affected them. When you caused pain to yourself, you aimed to fix it first and foremost. That is why you didn't let anxieties and what others thought of you cloud your judgment." As she continued, her accent began to creep into her voice a bit more.

"Long story short, the spell ended up making you more authentic to yourself. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it did mean you lashed out more than normal when you felt attacked. It probably all felt fast because normally you spend a lot of time analyzing what you think others expect from you and let that color your decisions. But again, you probably don't feel as if it was in line with your self image now due to it not being the real you. None of the issues plaguing you got solved. Now that it's worn off you're back to your normal self in a manner of speaking. Timid until comfortable: curious even when you know you shouldn't be; not particularly introspective until someone calls you out on something that fails to align with your self-image, etc." She stated everything in a calm but clinical voice. 

I had never felt so transparent and vulnerable as I did at that moment. Someone who was practically a stranger had described my normal thought process pretty flawlessly and I didn't know how to react. I stuttered the first letter of several different half baked thoughts a few times before Estus ruffled my hair. "If it makes you feel any better, she had a similar appraisal of me within 10 minutes of our talking about a decade ago. Guess it's a perk of being a few centuries old."

"Centuries?" I resisted the urge to jump up in surprise as the words processed in my mind. As she glared over my head at Estus, I pelted Petunia with questions. "Is that how you can control plants without words? How long have you actually been alive? Is that how you're so rich? Oh wait, are those rude questions to ask? Also, is the accent authentic or have you just been in Scotland a lot recently? How can you read people so easily? Did you read me that easily while we were still in that other room or was it since we got back up here? "

"Och, haud yer wheest," her accent made a full force appearance as she continued to glare at my friend. " Why'd ye have ta go and say that Estus?" She shook her head and took a breath as Estus began to laugh, returning to her normal cadence and accent while she held a finger up as if to silence me. "And What did I say about no questions Lassie? A woman’s got to keep some of her secrets. And even if that weren't the case, you've got way too many for me to answer." Estus laughed even harder and I found myself blushing at her words.

"Oh wait until you start casting more spells around her. She's gonna want to know everything about anything. Mel has created an absolute fiend by letting Sophia find out about magic." I looked over my shoulder as Estus spoke and saw a glint in their eye as they teased me. I stuck my tongue out and they grinned as they continued. "Speaking of whom, can I ask you to perform the swap back, Petunia? I don't think I have the power and I'm sure Lucian is going to start blasting my phone if we wait too much longer. Assuming the link portion of the spell is indeed cut, I mean?"

"Of course, deary. Let me double check that it worked properly and then I'll send her back. Oh and Sophia, will you be a dear and help me remove all those pieces of tape from the bed?" I stood up experimentally, and feeling fine, I did as she asked. While I did so, she cast a spell and reported that Mel and I were indeed unlinked. Furthermore, Mel was already showing signs of improvement as far as her aura went. A few minutes later, we had our dummy bed back and Estus received a message from Lucian verifying everything looked good on his end.

With Melissa out of the woods, Estus took a nap while Petunia examined me. She gave me more information about magic in general and was kind enough to talk me through the analysis spells she was casting on me. I tried to keep my volume down but there were several times that my excitement got the better of me, yet Estus managed to sleep through it all. Since Petunia still had her aura sight spell up, we started there. She confirmed that my aura was essentially creating a bubble around me, but through some further testing, we found that rather than pushing it, I was actually pulling all the nearby magic into myself. 

From there, we determined that my previous reactions were due to being too sensitive to magic. We also learned that my ability to see enchantments was only limited to the area around me. I couldn't see them outside of a five foot radius. The void space around me was a bit less than half that though. Petunia's best guess was that the glimmer I would see was a side effect of the drain I had on my surroundings. Given that information, she told me that it was likely that I could indeed learn magic, much to my excitement. She refused to tell me anything about how to do so though, muttering about how it would be a disaster and she didn’t want the blame.

Digging into that realm more, I learned most people could only use one sense to detect magic. For about 90 percent of the population, magic sense overlapped with another sense in a strange form of synesthesia. Most of those that felt it as a sixth sense had historically been looked down upon due to the lack of language and consensus around their experiences. Petunia determined another oddity about me was that I seemed to be one of the rare one in a thousand that had a combination overlap. It seemed my sense of feeling was primary but the feelings would bleed into my sight in some cases. 

As far as the spell was concerned, Petunia surmised that there were several factors at play. My passive ability to soak in magic had caused the spell to initially take more juice than it should have. While we may have been wrong as to the direction of the magic flow, Estus and I had gotten that far already. From there, Petunia figured that the cost increased further due to the mismatch between my true self and the wording of the spell. That is to say, due to my not seeing myself as a man, even on a subconscious level, the spell's focus on masculine pronouns made it use increasing amounts of energy to stay bound to me. My conscious realization only made that power drain stronger.

As far as the odd change of my appearance, we were still mostly at a loss. In talking about everything that I felt and saw during today's spell, Petunia surmised that the build up of energy was caused by my resisting the spell combined with the previous issues. The magic had to go somewhere and since I was trying to imagine a body I would prefer, it went into me. The mismatch between the two was probably just magic’s flair for the dramatic. Of course all of this was guesswork at best and I could tell Petunia was peeved that she couldn’t come to a more concrete answer. 

Interestingly almost all of her spells were in Gaelic. When questioned she gave the simple answer that it was the language that she was most comfortable with. I could tell she was hiding other information but didn't feel like it was worth pushing her.

With that wrapped up, we woke Estus and the two of us bid her farewell. She insisted on seeing both of us again, making a point of telling us we both owed her a favor. We were both exhausted from the day, but made our way to the hospital. We both checked in to see Mel, and after giving it half an hour, I took the first watch while Estus got some more rest.

I mostly spent the next few hours killing time on my phone. I spent a good portion of it looking up various poems for inspiration for the perception spell. A good portion of the time was also spent looking at memes and getting caught up with group chats and messages. I had to admit there was also a non insignificant period of time that I got distracted by my reflection or even just my newly long hair.

It wasn't until around one in the morning that I found myself getting tired. Luckily, Estus woke up around that time. After seeing how tired I was looking they told me to get some rest. They left to grab some snacks and I decided to stay up until they got back so I could get in on that action since I was absolutely famished.

I stretched as I waited. I had let my joints get way too tight and had to twist and turn, even bending over in hopes of feeling a little more limber. Of course, only as I straightened up did I glance over at the bed to find a pair of mesmerizing eyes appraising me. "Why do I feel like I recognize you, yet can't place you, oh girl with the fantastic ass?" She croaked out the words yet I could still hear her unique melody behind it.