A couple of hours later, Nammoi came for us, and Senqai sent me home with her, telling us to return in the morning. They had plenty of lab assistants and other servants with basic knowledge of magic, and enough people of intermediate sizes to interpret for those with the quietest, highest-pitched voices, so I was not needed. Nammoi and I passed a few quiet, restful days, going twice a day to ask the porter at Silinu's house whether our master had messages for us, and spending the remainder of our time exploring one another's bodies, or helping out with the care of those injured in the initial disaster or in accidents that had occurred since then. Once, Senqai sent us to retrieve a book from his library; otherwise, we were at liberty.

The larger giants huddled in the field outside of town were in a sorry plight, slowly dying of thirst since the lake had gone dry, and starving. The weather wasn't cold enough for them to freeze to death, but they suffered miserably until the smaller giants (including Nammoi) managed to sew together large numbers of blankets and sheets to make garments for them; even then, the largest giants had barely enough to shield their modesty, and were largely unprotected from the night air. There were two wizards and a lab assistant among their number, but by this point, they were too weak from hunger and thirst to be of much help with the research into a cure.

There was another, less numerous group of wizards working out of a larger house at the edge of town, this one consisting of those who had grown to a moderate extent, or had shrunk only slightly. They were primarily focused on learning to reverse the growth enchantments, while Silinu's group was focused on learning to reverse the shrinking. The smallest of the giant wizards visited Silinu's group once a day to exchange information on what they had discovered so far.

It was this group that announced their success first, and a good thing, too; a few more days would have been too late for Nysuna and the other starving giants outside town. When she went out to pump water one morning, Nammoi heard that they had succeeded in shrinking one of their number back to normal size, and that they were going to proceed with shrinking the largest giants at moonrise, followed by all the other giants in descending order. Nammoi hurried back to the house to tell me, and we went out to the field where the giants lived to see it done.

The smaller giant wizards constructed an enormous circle, over four hundred feet in diameter and nearly a mile wide from my perspective, around the huddled mega-giants; they cast tightly controlled fire-spells to burn the circle and symbols into the field -- using ash as a substitute for paint, which was unavailable in such vast quantities.

They set up braziers rather than candles, but even so, the braziers were scattered at such wide intervals that they seemed tiny in contrast to the ash circle and the poor, enfeebled giants lying inside it. The largest giant wizard who still had the strength to walk, almost thirty feet tall, paced around the circle, chanting and putting pinches of this and that into the braziers -- except for the words he was chanting, and probably the specific powders he was using, it looked a lot like the spell Senqai had been casting on the tiara all last month. Five other giant wizards all stood around the circle, one beside each brazier, and chanted what seemed to be a chorus to the spell.

For a while, nothing seemed to happen. Then Nammoi pointed out to me that the makeshift bra covering Nysuna's cottage-sized breasts was crumpling slightly. Moments later, we noticed a loosening of the less enormous mega-giants' coverings, and their reduction in size increased apace, faster and faster, until they had all returned to normal size.

Or so it appeared at a distance. We found out later that most of the people who had grown during the eruption ended up a few inches taller than before, once they were restored to approximately normal size. Nysuna had been a petite woman before, but now was taller than the average man. But all that was later. For now, a great cheer went up, from both the wizards and the spectators, and several people of approximately normal size ventured into the circle to offer water, food, and clothing to the shrunken and denuded giants. Nammoi returned me to the house, and then went out to help for a few hours; when she returned, she told me that she and many other moderately-sized giants would be restored to normal at moonset that night.

We made love for the last time at those relative sizes, and ate a late lunch, then went to inquire if Senqai had any messages or errands for us. A couple of hours after sunset, we went out to the field again -- they were going to use the same ash circle again, which was quite large enough to accommodate all the remaining giants in town, except for the wizards who would be casting the reduction spell.

Nammoi left me in charge of one of the largest shrunken people, a housekeeper from down the street named Ymin; she was just over three feet tall, and was there to watch her husband (who was a few feet taller than Nammoi) be restored to normal. I was too large to sit in her hand (or perch on her shoulder, as I'd done once or twice with Nammoi, though not for long), so she carried me in her arms like a baby, much as I'd done with Senqai. It was fairly dark, with the faint crescent moon just peeking over the horizon, and Nammoi was standing too far away for me to see her clearly, surrounded by a small crowd of other giants, many of them taller than she.

As the wizards began chanting and the lead spellcaster began pacing around the vast circle, Ymin proceeded to burn my ears with a much too frank confession of her and her husband's difficulties in recent weeks, and her envy of me and Nammoi. "It sounds like it's much easier, if people must go growing and shrinking, if the woman is the one who grows. I mean, for Kaifun and I -- it's just been impossible, you know? Even his pinky finger is too big to fit --"

I covered my ears and heard little more.

The spell proceeded, and as it neared its end, the giants began to shrink; as before, it first became noticeable with the larger ones, and then all of their makeshift robes and togas began to crumple as they reduced to approximately normal size.

Nammoi had brought a dress, underthings, and shoes with us, and left them with Ymin, who had also brought a change of clothes for her husband Kaifun. Once the wizards told us it was safe, we crossed the circle and met them coming toward us. Nammoi was still clutching her sheet-toga around her body, as was Kaifun. She took the bundle of clothes from Ymin and made shift to get dressed under the sheet without exposing herself. When she finally emerged from under the sheet, I thought the dress looked a little tight on her.

"Thank you, Ymin," she said, taking me back. Her hands were too small now for me to sit in one palm, so she held me in both, after draping the folded sheet over her shoulder. "Hopefully you and Qisum and the rest will be enlarged before long."

"I hear the tiny wizards are making good progress," Ymin agreed. "Perhaps it will only be a day or two longer."

So we returned to the house and went to bed. The next morning, after breakfast, we went to Silinu's house and inquired after Senqai. The porter, who had shrunk down to normal size along with Nammoi and others the night before, brought me to the lab, where I waited a while and then spoke with Senqai.

"We are very nearly ready to start enlarging people," he said. "Probably at sunset tonight, or sunrise tomorrow, we will do our first test of the new spell, and if it works, we will restore people in batches of a dozen or so, starting with the smallest."

"Wonderful, Master. Is there anything you need before then?"

"Not at the moment. Be sure to return before sunset."

Nammoi and I returned home for a little while, and then she left me and went to help take care of the weakened former giants who were gradually expanding their shrunken bellies with small amounts of food. When she returned, she reported that the lake was starting to refill. We went back to Silinu's house that evening. In the dining room, the furniture had been cleared away and a new spell circle had been painted and set up with candles -- very similar to the ash circle in the field outside town, it seemed, but on a much smaller scale; it was just wide enough for a normal-sized man to stand inside it, if he kept his arms close to his body. Six wizards, most of them a little taller than me, stood beside the six candles, and the tallest of Silinu's group of wizards, who was around a foot tall, was studying some sheets of writing. In the center of the circle stood the tiniest woman I had seen, about a quarter of an inch tall -- perhaps three inches tall relative to me. Senqai and the other wizards and lab assistants who weren't actively involved in the spell stood in a cluster a couple of feet away; I joined them.

When the lookout, a woman slightly taller than me who was posted on the windowsill, announced that the sun had reached the horizon, the tallest wizard of the group began chanting and walking around the circle, the six wizards standing by the candles joining in the chorus. Much as had happened the night before, nothing seemed to happen for a good while; then the tiny woman's scrap of toga grew tight on her, and she hastily loosened it before it burst. She grew rapidly larger, covering her private areas with her hands, until she seemed to be roughly normal size -- several inches shorter than Nammoi, who was taller than the average woman, though shorter than I normally was.

A normal-sized servant standing by the door offered her clothes, and the tiny wizards standing around the circle cleared the area so she could step out of it and hastily put on the dress, saving the other garments for later. The dress hung loosely on her, and I heard murmuring among the wizard spectators as she stepped over against the wall where measuring marks were painted.

"It is as we suspected," Senqai said. "She hasn't reached her full original size -- not by a good seven inches."

"Will that happen to all of us?" I asked.

"Probably. We will continue refining the spell, and hopefully those aftereffects will be less noticeable in most cases. In any case, even if we can make no further improvements, we will be less affected than her because we were shrunk less by the eruption."

They enlarged a handful of other minuscule people the following morning at sunrise, and posted a schedule for the enlargement of the remaining population of the town. I was to remain small for two more days.

But before that happened, we had other another surprise. That evening, when we returned from Silinu's house after checking with Senqai and finding that he needed nothing from us, we went to bed, and Nammoi placed me where I could do her the most good. However, as she became excited, it suddenly seemed to me that I was growing even smaller. (Situated where I was, I had nothing to compare myself with but Nammoi.)

"Stop!" Nammoi boomed. "Something's happening." I desisted from my attentions. A few moments later, Nammoi's hand lifted me up, and from my briefly heightened vantage point, I saw that she had grown larger again -- not so tall as before, but big enough that Senqai's grand bed was no longer so roomy for her. She set me down beside her, panting, and even as I watched, she stopped growing. A few moments later, she began to shrink again until she was more or less normal height.

"Are you all right?" Nammoi asked.

"Yes, just startled. What about you?"

"Well enough. Whatever caused me to grow, it didn't last long."

After some discussion, we decided that it would be best to wait until morning to ask the wizards what had caused that sudden growth and shrinking, unless it happened again. To keep me safe in case she suddenly grew again, she set me on my pillow on the bedside table, and we tried to compose ourselves for sleep. I heard Nammoi tossing and turning for some while after that; she wasn't the only one who had difficulty sleeping.

The next morning, we went to talk with Senqai at Silinu's house. I told Senqai and the wizards what had happened to Nammoi during the night -- omitting some embarrassing details, which, however, Senqai ruthlessly elicited from me with his insistent questions. "Was she asleep at the time? -- No? -- Resting, or doing something? -- What, then?"

When they had learned everything I knew about the matter, the wizards finally consented to tell me that the same sort of thing had happened to one of the other former giants, and one of the people they had shrunk last night. "All three grew or shrank under different circumstances," Senqai said, "but there is one common element: intense emotion or sensation, whether pleasure, anger, or fear."

"Will we all be prone to such changes after you restore us?" I asked.

"It's too early to be sure, but it's possible. We'll try to refine the reversal spell to prevent it from happening again, but we may not know if we've succeeded for some time."

After we returned home, we discussed the situation and decided that we had better not make love again until we knew more about what had caused Nammoi to grow. A day passed, and she did not grow again, but we heard about a few others whose eruption-enchantment had been reversed spontaneously growing or shrinking again under conditions of excitement or stress, and then returning to normal size (or as near as they would ever get) when they calmed down a little. Given the circumstances under which Nammoi had grown, I suspected there were others who were not reporting their experiences to the wizards.

Senqai himself was enlarged that evening at sunset, and returned to his house. By then, Nammoi had washed the sheets and cleaned up his bedroom, and we returned to sleeping in the guest room on the bed whose footboard she had broken during the eruption.

The following day, just before sunset, Nammoi brought me to Silinu's house again to be enlarged with several other people of about the same height, around four to six inches. I was one of the tallest of the group. The wizard in charge, who was one of the tiny wizards who had been re-enlarged the night before or that morning, directed us to gather in the wide spell-circle that nearly filled the dining room of Silinu's house, and to stand about a yard apart so we wouldn't bump into one another as we grew. Once we were all in place, the assistant wizards (including Senqai) took their positions beside the candles and the lead wizard began chanting and pacing around the circle.

My toga eventually started getting tight, and I removed the pins that held it in place; moments later, it slipped loose from around me, and I was naked, as were all the others gathered in the circle. They seemed to be getting closer, though I knew we were actually getting larger. I had to keep shifting my footing to avoid losing my balance; as my body got larger, my feet would be too close together until I shifted them outward a little. That kept me preoccupied at first, but I couldn't ignore the other people growing to normal size around me. It seemed that the people who had started out the smallest were growing the fastest, so that we all reached our final height around the same time -- and ended up standing too close together for comfort, especially given that we were all naked.

Finally, the wizards stopped chanting and blew out the candles, and the lead wizard told us we could leave the circle. We made haste to do so. Nammoi had brought a change of clothes for me, and as we approached one another and she handed me my clothes, I realized that I was now about two inches shorter than her, where before the eruption, I had been five inches taller.

I hastily put on my tunic, then pulled on my undergarments and trousers under it. Nammoi looked down at me affectionately. "It's good to have you back," she said, "even if... even if things are a little different now." Her voice was slightly deeper to my ears than it had been before the eruption, but still in the feminine range.

"We still belong to each other," I said. "This change makes no difference."

We embraced, then made our way back to Senqai's house.

We had a lot of work to do the following morning -- last-minute cleaning, as well as packing up Senqai's things (and our own) to travel back to the capital. When everything was ready, Senqai paid us our wages for the time we had spent in his employ. They were more generous than we had dared hope, as he paid not only the eighty lyn a day he had promised for the first twenty-one days, but a hundred and sixty lyn from the day of the eruption until the spell on the tiara was complete, and another eighty lyn a day for the time we remained in Eikalu after that spell was complete.

"I have no further need for your services," he said. "Once I return to the capital, I will conjure a couple of loshai and they will be adequate for my needs for some time to come. Do you wish to return to the capital with me, or seek work here in Eikalu? I know that several wizards are looking to hire servants, since their servants died after the eruption, or decided to leave after being restored to something close to their usual height."

Nammoi and I met one another's eyes. "What are the odds of another eruption happening soon after the last?" Nammoi asked him.

He shrugged. "I believe the closest together two major eruptions have ever been was about a year and a half. But minor eruptions sometimes occur close on the heels of one another, or before or after a major eruption -- sometimes as close together as a few days."

"What do you think, Qisum?" Nammoi asked. "If we work for a few months more here, we will have enough money to open a shop, like we talked about."

"Let's do it," I said.

So we wound up working for Shonnain, a wizard who resided in Eikalu for seven months of each year, and who had been one of the tallest people in town, perhaps thirty or forty feet shorter than Nysuna; she was just beginning to recover from days of dehydration and starvation. One of her servants had been killed, and the other was missing and presumed dead, after she grew huge and her house collapsed around her. Our duties at first included nursing her back to health, and then keeping house for her as she started over with a month-long spell that had been interrupted by the eruption. She did not pay us so generously as Senqai, but still far more than we could earn in the capital; well enough that when she returned to the capital and we left her service, we had enough to pay for a storefront, goods to fill it, and a few scant pieces of furniture for our own apartment above the shop.

Over time, Nammoi and I, and many of the others affected by the eruptions, gained some degree of conscious control over our growing and shrinking. We never grow or shrink quite as much as we did during the eruption, but it has continued to be a useful skill and a source of amusement in the years since. Nammoi recently gave birth to our first child, a girl, and she was less than three months old when she first demonstrated that she had inherited both my shrinking and her mother's growing. Senqai and Shonnain, with whom we have stayed in touch, assure us that she will probably learn to consciously control it around the time she learns to walk. We pray every day that it will be sooner than that.