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It was a stupid name, barely a change, but she had given it to me. That made it special, and is probably why I clung to it for so long. Let me introduce myself formally. I am Luca Munin, familiar of the infamous Lady Rya. And this is still her story.

The first few weeks of my trial transition were awkward to say the very least. I’ll start with the least embarrassing parts. More than once I rolled my ankle getting used to my new gait. It was a subtle difference but your hips tend to turn much more freely when walking with a female body than a male one, and especially when stepping down into the den area of the lab/living room I’d have to remind myself to splay my foot out just a little bit more or else risk a painful reminder.

Sitting down was also surprisingly challenging for a while. I was far more gifted in my rear than I had been before now, and that meant your ass hit the chair much sooner than you’d expect. That one at least didn’t hurt, but I always felt silly every time I accidentally slammed down into a chair or a couch. Lady Rya often snickered when she caught me doing it, but kept her other comments to herself.

The last thing was my chest. I kept running it into things, and I learned right quick how sensitive the girls were. Doors and corners were not my friends. Neither was the counter of the lab when I bent down to grab ingredients. I wouldn’t rate it more painful than getting hit in the balls, but I would consider it a close second.

Next, the more embarrassing stuff. I’ll spare you the details, but I quickly learned the new protocol for the bathroom. I learned that you wipe for both, and why you wipe in certain directions. I also learned that potions that cure infections taste like grape. I genuinely hadn’t considered that potions could be flavored before then, something I would become more acquainted with at a later time.

That all said, there was also something else much less upsetting that came with my new body. It was subtle at first but there was this unusual sense of calm that had come with it. For the first time in what felt like forever I felt like I could truly relax. In hindsight it was obvious why, but at the time I thought it had something to do with being Lady Rya’s bound familiar. Something about being tied to her magic must have kept me pacified. You would think that would have scared me, but it felt nice to have some actual purpose in life. You find comfort in the strangest places.

Each day started to blend, monday through saturday we would spend brewing potions and studying. We were always studying. Lady Rya seemed to be possessed with a kind of obsession with learning. I thought it strange then, when she already seemed so competent in her chosen fields. Rarely, I would see a customer come to pick up their order, but the vast majority of our clients ordered delivery. This meant me hitting the bike when it was local, or just straight up shipping the strange brews through USPS when they weren’t. I hadn’t realized how much magical contraband must have passed through the postal system over the years. I wonder if they ever knew. It was also strange to me that we traded in cash, and not some other magical currency like gold coins. I guess even Witches can’t escape the economy.

Going out was also a strange experience. I knew the town well from my time in it, but no one knew me. Or at least the new me. I made sure to always go out in the daylight per Lady Rya’s instructions, and I tried not to wonder why too much. Emphasis on tried.

Socially, it was a completely different world out there. Women were much more friendly to me, men much more interested. That interest manifested in strange ways. The college guys would often act up or act out to try to get my attention or impress me. They wanted to know what classes I took and why they hadn’t seen me around before and all the usual lines. I knew what they really wanted, and frankly it didn’t interest me. At least not enough to do anything about it.

I found myself… wondering a lot more than I used to. I don’t know how else to put it. Before becoming Luca, I hadn’t any interest in sex. I had put out for a few eager girlfriends who requested it, but I didn’t find it life changing or something worth obsessing over like the other guys did. But now I would be struck by odd thoughts like “I wonder what it’d feel like to be in his arms,” or “I wonder what it would feel like to kiss her.” These thoughts were quickly swatted away though. I knew better than to get involved with anyone, with things as they were now.

Things with Lady Rya also entered a strange standstill. For some reason I thought she’d be much more physical with me after our first encounter, but the subject of sex never came up again in those early days. That didn’t stop the wondering, or the way I felt when she stood near me. I remembered thinking her height a mere oddity when I was a man. Six feet is impressive, doubly so for a cis woman. Now that I shared her gender it was hard not to feel small standing next to her, and that sensation did something for me now.

If Lady Rya noticed my reaction to her being around me, she didn’t say. I supposed she got it all the time. She was a Carnal Witch after all, and wasn’t shy about showing her body in her wardrobe. Oddly, that was never what caught my eyes. It was little things that drew me to her now. The way the nightlight lit her face when she was deep in a book in the evenings, the little sighs she made when she was tired, the scent of her shampoo and soaps, a thousand little things awoke something almost feral in me. Something I didn’t understand, that scared me, and something I always made sure to hold back. In hindsight I’m sure she knew, we were bonded after all.

After about two weeks, I had adjusted to the new body for the most part. I didn’t know it yet but the next chapter of my strange life was about to start. It was a Tuesday, and I had been busy brewing potions for the entire morning. I had worked up a bit of a sweat hunched over the bench with my face in the heat of the bunsen burner. The order I was working on was a dozen potions for curing sunburn, something that felt simultaneously trivial and revolutionary to me. I was working on the last one when the sound came.

Bing bong.

I paused, losing my focus. The mixture began to boil over, quickly taking my attention back. I focused my mind on controlling the boil, and Lady Rya’s magic, through me, settled the mixture. I breathed a sigh of relief, then shouted over my shoulder. “Door!”

There was no response from Lady Rya at first.

Bing bong.

“Lady Rya, door!,” I shouted. Almost all of my attention was on the potion, it was so close to done.

Lady Rya emerged reluctantly from the back hallway, her hand resting on the corner of the wall. She wore a red sweater and a pair of shorts, giving her a bit of a lopsided look. On her face was a perplexed expression.

“I don’t know,” I said, trying to head off her next question. “I forgot if this was pick up or delivery. Maybe they’re new customers?”

“Luca,” Lady Rya said, the softness of her voice clawed my full attention to her and the potion boiled over onto the counter. “We don’t have a doorbell.”

I blinked.

Bing bong.

Lady Rya and I exchanged a look, and I pulled the beaker off the fire with a pair of metal tongs. I twisted the valve on the burner shut and the heat vanished.

I know you can hear me.

The voice was deep, and struck our ears in a strange way. I rose to my feet and slowly made my way towards the door.

I can’t exactly knock.

I reached for the doorknob cautiously, and cursed my luck that there was no peephole or window. The handle turned easily, but as soon as I cracked the door I was blinded by a flash of light as bright as the sun through the gap. I reeled back, flinging the door open as my hand whipped to cover my face. After a second my eyes adjusted to the light and I beheld our visitor

It was simultaneously easy to describe and indescribable. A ball of mist floated three feet off the ground outside our door. From within that mist shone a yellow light illuminating it and the surroundings. That light was the tricky part because while I can describe it in as few words as that, what I can’t capture is how entrancing the light was. Put simply it was beautiful, as if I was looking upwards into the next plane of being. Past that, my words fail me.

“My my,” Lady Rya said from behind me, having snuck up on us while I was distracted. “To what do we owe a visit from such an honorable guest?”

You are the one called Lady Rya, yes?

“In the flesh,” she said.

I have need of your services.

“Then come on in, make yourself welcome,” Lady Rya said, and stepped out of the way. She stared at me for a few awkward seconds before I understood I was to do the same. The entity floated in, bobbing slightly as if walking, then the door eased shut behind it on its own.

“Luca, dear, make some space in the den for our guest,” Lady Rya said, and disappeared into the back hall.

I looked to the ball of light again and could read no expression. Seeing nothing else to do, I complied, and picked up the mess of pillows and blankets that littered the lowered center of the room. The orb proceeded down into the space and nested itself on one of the available cushions. It must have known I was staring because it let out a laugh.

The sitting is just a formality. Space is a meaningless concept to me.

“Uh huh.” I nodded, unsure how to respond. Thankfully Lady Rya emerged from the back hall shortly with a stack of paper under one arm, and a tall wooden staff in her other hand. I had seen it leaning in the corner of her office before, but never saw her use it for anything so far. It was topped with a simple Silver ring, about the size of a tennis ball, that was looped through a hole that had been drilled through the end.

“So,” Lady Rya said as she sat down, “I have a few ideas, but perhaps you could enlighten us as to why an Elder Entity such as yourself would seek the company of a mere Carnal Witch.” She set the papers down on the table and magicked a pen to her hand, presumably from her office. I had grown used to that trick, it was simple once you knew how it worked. She could just pick things up from anywhere in her home as if they were right in front of her.

*I’m glad to explain, but perhaps you should tell your apprentice a bit about me first. I’m sensing the poor thing is confused. *

Lady Rya chuckled nervously. “Apprentice?” she asked.

I felt confused. Wasn’t that kind of what I was doing anyway? Why else was she teaching me?

Yes, the young woman with you. I’m sensing a similar aura from her, but much weaker. Wouldn’t that make her your…

The voice trailed off, then the orb flashed brighter twice.

Good Lords woman, this girl isn’t your familiar is she?

“Yes, she is,” Lady Rya said sheepishly.

You let a thinking feeling person be the mantle of your power? How could you be so careless with your equipment?

“Wait, equipment?” I asked

“Luca is a trusted partner of mine,” Lady Rya said, “If you know my reputation, you know I do things my own way.”

*I… I suppose that’s to be expected. Regardless, let’s return to the previous question. You left a mind in that shell and it’s confused. *

turned her attention to me, her eyes sparkling. “Well, Luca, you are looking at the final form of a Witch. When once attains true enlightenment, true mastery of their school, they may shed their mortal body and become one with magic itself. We call these diligent few the Elder Entities.”

It isn’t as grandiose as she makes it out to be, we’re equally as lucky as we are dutiful.

Surprising myself, I had a question. “So why wouldn’t you just make your body last forever then?”

There was an awkward silence between the three of us. After a few painful seconds, the Elder Entity broke it.

Meat ages and rots, this cannot be stopped easily. Furthermore, bodies can be killed. Your five senses are your whole world to you, and yet they are still so dull. You can barely gauge your surroundings and any rival assassin could take you by surprise easily and end your time before you even knew what hit you. This form is pure, Immaculate, and Immortal.

“Well there you have it,” Lady Rya said, a sly smile on her face. “Which brings me back to my first question. What would someone like you want of a Carnal Witch?”

I’m bored of it.

My jaw dropped. Its tone was so plain, so matter of fact.

“I see,” Lady Rya said, and began taking some notes down on her stack of paper. “And you’re hoping a Carnal Witch can devise some way to end the monotony?”

No. I want you, Lady Rya, to do something about it. Something only you can do, from what I’ve heard.

I looked to Lady Rya, her smile seemed almost smug, but I knew her better by now. That, and the speed at which she was taking notes told me that we were in for a long job.

There was another hall that led off of the livingroom area. If you came in from the back hall that led to our quarters, and followed the lab bench along the wall, you’d find it on the other side. This would bring you to the library, the largest room of Lady Rya’s domain. The room looked medieval compared to the rest of her living space. Stone floors, and custom made bookshelves lined the two story affair, with a catwalk serving as the second floor providing access to the higher tomes. By my math, if you followed the distance from the door to here, that would put you in the next door bar once you were upstairs. It was here Lady Rya first brought our guest.

“So, if i may ask, what is your name,” Lady Rya asked as she pulled several books off the shelves. I stood idly by, having no clue which titles she was looking for.

My name Is Leonard.

“Like the ninja turtle?” I asked, trying to be funny. He pronounced it lay-oh-nard, it was just missing the oh at the end to line up

The what?

“Sorry,” I said. Of course these people had no time for cartoons studying fucking magic. It really was two worlds.

“Now that’s curious,” Lady Rya said.

How so?

“Forgive me for assuming, but you seem to be from the Knowledge school of magic, correct? At your level wouldn’t reading Luca’s mind for the answer be as simple as reading a book?”

I suddenly felt far out of my depth. I knew magic could do just about anything this brought a new level of vulnerability I hadn’t been prepared for.

I do happen to believe in a thing called privacy.

I breathed a sigh of relief at that. A silence fell over the room for a bit as Lady Rya finished gathering her tomes. Once she returned to the two of us waiting by the door, I got a good look at the titles of the tomes she had collected. There seemed to be no connection between them, and that did not bode well for our next few weeks at least.

So, do you know how to do it?

“Not a clue,” Lady Rya admitted, and set her stack of books down on one of the two desks by the door. “But I am going to find out.”

Honest, I like that.

“Luca, be a dear and start up some potions for me?” Lady Rya asked. From the pile, she pulled her internal catalogue, which was our copy of what we handed out to customers before they made an order for a potion. Ours came with Lady Rya’s recipes for everything. I had a lot of the basic stuff memorized at this point, which meant most of the explicitly sexual potions.

Lady Rya rattled off a list of a dozen potions and had me repeat it back to her twice, as well as write it down before dismissing me. I left the two alone in the Library as Lady Rya conducted a formal intake interview with Leonard. Returning to the bench, I wasted no time lighting a match and cranking the burner on to get started.

It was a seemingly random list, but it made a weird kind of sense. Every one had a way of changing your appearance. I started with the tanning potion, then moved my way onto the muscle atrophy potion. Each took about ten minutes to complete, I was working slow because I had to follow the recipes. Everything went by smoothly until I got to the hair length potion.

“Sphinx musk and alligator fangs, mixed with cow hoof…?” I read aloud. Every once in a while the absurdity of what I was doing would creep in and catch me off guard. I really was like the cauldron witches from Macbeth, or the dwarves from the Ring Cycle. Just throwing random ephemeral shit in a pot and making nonsense with it. I dug around under the bench for five minutes, but could find no alligator teeth; which was wild to me as those should be dirt cheap. We hunted the things for sport after all, and all their teeth were fangs weren’t they? Why would there be any kind of shortage? Frustrated, I returned to the catalogue to see any kind of refuge, and by someone’s grace I saw a note scribbled in the margins serving as my savior.

In a pinch, one may substitute Phase Drake wings in place of alligator fangs, however this will also alter hair color.

Well, Leonard didn’t have hair so we were in the clear. Phase Drake wings we had plenty of, though you couldn’t tell them apart from butterfly wings without the jar label. At least to my eyes.

I finished brewing the potion, and ran into no further issues on the rest of my list. I corked every bottle and stacked them up in a milk crate before returning to the Library.

“Hey Luca, check this out!” Lady Rya said as soon as I had the door open. She had her arm inside Leonard up to the elbow and was waggling her fingers. Her movements cast spidery shadows on the walls all around her with Leonard’s light.

“Real mature,” I said with a sigh as I set the crate down next to her books. “I’m so sorry, Leonard.”

I don’t mind, it’s not like I can feel it.

“Yeah, for real. His only tie to the physical realm is the light he puts off.”

I paused. “So wait, why the hell did you make me make a bunch of potions then?”

“We’re in the experimental phase right now, anything is fair game,” Lady Rya said. She withdrew her arm from inside Leonard and rushed over to me. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s get started!’

The first trial phase was simple. Lady Rya stood back and took notes, and I was to pour each potion through the space Leonard supposedly occupied.

“All right, just tell me the name of the potion, and I’ll note a simple pass or fail,” Lady Rya said.

“Okay,” I said, and pulled the first potion from the crate. “Tanning potion.” I uncorked the bottle and poured it out. It passed cleanly through the ball of light and splattered all over the floor.

“Fail,” Lady Rya said.

I returned the empty bottle to the crate and grabbed another. “Nail color” I did the same, to the same result.

“Fail,” again.

I scowled, especially feeling like I had wasted two hard hours of work. Regardless, I pressed on.

“Nail Growth.”

“Fail.”

“Height.”

“Fail.”

“Teeth whitening.”

“Fail”

“Hair Length.”

To everyone’s surprise, the mixture slowed and pooled in Leonard’s middle before trickling out the bottom. It only held for a matter of seconds before splattering on the floor with the rest of the brews.

“Was that a pass or fail?” I asked after several seconds of silence from everyone.

“It was certainly something,” Lady Rya said thoughtfully.

Any ideas now?

“Too many,” Lady Rya said.

Perhaps we’ll ask your young “apprentice”

Lady Rya shrugged. “I see no harm in it.”

I thought hard for a few seconds. I had the basics of the scientific method down but this was magic. The two seemed like oil and water in my mind. I sighed. “I’m probably not a good ask for this one.”

Why is that? Surely you’re still open to the possibilities of the world at your age?

I hesitated, looking to Lady Rya for some guidance. She gave none, so I decided to be honest. “I didn’t grow up with this, I grew up in the other world. My understanding of things is strictly numbers, repeatable results, trial and error, and things you can physically touch. You know, the mundane world.”

Leonard was quiet for a while, and I worried I’d upset him.

*You’ve had quite the journey then. *

His voice reminded me of my high school English teacher. The only one of them that actually gave a shit about us kids, the whole reason I felt like I could make it in college.

While separated, the scientific method isn’t completely divorced from our world either. We too thrive on research and repeatable results, even if we have more variables in play than most could comprehend.

Lady Rya smiled silently and leaned back against the desk. “I think I see where you’re going with this,” she said.

Leonard flashed twice, a gesture I understood as a nod.

*Luca, I think you should spearhead the research on this project. *

“Wait, no, why me?” I asked, flabbergasted. “Did you not just hear me? I’m not a Mage or Witch or whatever you call yourselves!”

You are indeed bound, but those potions you brewed were of high quality. Even if you were not born into the talent, you have it now through your Mistress. With both of our guidance, I think you could solve my issue.

“Aren’t you here for Lady Rya though?” I asked, “Don’t you need her expertise?”

*I need her magic, but the how has yet to be solved. Make no mistake, this is a challenging task, but not because no one’s been able to before. No one simply wanted to go back to a mortal shell before me. I’m sure it can be done. Just as I’m sure you could figure out how. *

“I think this would do a lot for your confidence, Luca,” Lady Rya said, smiling.

Had I been lacking in that? I knew I was good when it came to potions, so surely that wasn’t what she was talking about. I thought again of my trips outside and the wondering. Was I really avoiding other people because I was a Familiar now? Or was it something else? Sure I probably shouldn’t start anything romantic, but I hadn’t even given anyone a chance to become my friend yet either. It struck me then that while I had changed my name and changed my gender, I hadn’t quite fully embraced the role of Luca yet. She was still so very shy, and that was something that had bled over from Luke. It didn’t feel right in this body.

“Fine,” I said, with a sigh. “I suppose we’ll start with the basics then?”

Basics?

“If we’re doing this my way, we’re doing this my way,” I said. “That means starting with the variables and making controls. Hold on,” I set the crate down and rushed back to the lab. I grabbed the three ingredients I had used for the hair length potion, and returned in a hurry.

“This was a simple potion. The obvious first step is to test the ingredients singularly before testing combinations of them.”

Lady Rya nodded, and Leonard blinked once, doing the same I figured.

“First was Sphinx musk,” I said and dropped a pinchful of powder in the air above Leonard. The flakes all fluttered to the ground unimpeded.

“No matter, next was cow hoof,” I said, and grabbed one of the shavings from the jar. That also plummeted through the light without hindrance.

“Last was Phase Drake wings,” I said.

“Wait, wasn’t it alligator fangs?” Lady Rya asked.

“We were out, you left a note,” I said.

Lady Rya looked confused, but didn’t say anything right away.

I pinched a few of the torn up wings together and dropped them into Leonard. To everyone’s shock, they caught in place and stood frozen in the air within his light.

So. What does this mean?

“I think it means that we found something that can interact with you physically,” I said. I turned to Lady Rya, “Do you have any books on Phase Drakes?”

Lady Rya’s smile returned. “I suppose I must, somewhere,” She said.

*The hunt is on then. *

Leonard glowed brighter, a gesture I understood to be a grin.

The first week was spent learning about Phase Drake biology, something that seemed eternally evasive despite the textbooks we had on them. They were little scaled things with butterfly-like wings, though the wings weren’t strictly needed for flight as they managed that without moving them. They stood maybe a foot tall on all fours, and despite some claiming otherwise, made terrible pets. They were dumb as bricks but their main magical ability made them impossible to contain. They were able to blink or “phase” through space freely. This meant that keeping them in a kennel was fruitless, keeping them at home was hopeless, and lords help you if you managed to get a feral infestation in your living space. You could lock your cupboards and fridge, but they would teleport as casually as breathing, and then breed like rabbits after eating all your food. They were, simply, pests.

The leading theory behind their annoying talent was that they simply stepped into another dimension and traveled a distance there before stepping back into ours. Something I found curious but unlikely.

“You don’t feel like your body exists somewhere else, do you?” I asked Leonard at one point.

No, I watched it fall from me as I ascended. It was buried with my family.

“That rules out one theory I suppose,” I said, setting my book down.

Oh?

“This won’t be a rescue mission at least, there’s still possibly a higher plane involved”

That makes a kind of sense. I often wonder where my soul landed, or if this is the true shape of one.

I returned to my studies, and had Lady Rya start ordering supplies. Primarily more phase drake wings to test with, but also I had her order an entire specimen to work with, already deceased naturally. I didn’t want to invite chaos. While waiting for those to be delivered, I began looking into other multidimensional beings and found a few more examples. The most promising of which was the Blink Squid, which had a similar ability that triggered after it inked. That one wasn’t suspected to dimensional travel per-se, but it seemed too similar to be ignored. Regardless, I had Lady Rya order some ink from them for posterity’s sake.

Once our supplies had come in, I decided to try an experiment. I started a potion brewing, and mixed in some Phase Drake wings, then once they had dissolved in the magic, I added a drop of Blink Squid ink, and immediately regretted it. The blackness of the ink escaped the beaker, and formed a sphere between my hands. What happened next took only a second, but moved in slow motion for me. The very air in front of me seemed to rip and suck inward. Into this hole tumbled the beaker, the burner, both sleeves on my blouse, and nearly my fingertips; which I just managed to keep out of the tear before it closed.

I sat blinking in the aftermath as the torn hose hissed gas at me. My arms suddenly felt much colder without my sleeves. Still in shock, I slowly twisted the valve off for what remained of the burner.

“Luca? What the hell was that?” Lady Rya called from the back hall, emerging a few seconds later.

“I think I may have opened a dimensional rift?” I asked, still unsure what I had accomplished.

Lady Rya rushed over, and seeing my torn blouse, grabbed my hands and counted my fingers. Seeing me in tact physically, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Maybe don’t do that again without asking me first?” She asked, it wasn’t really a question.

“Yes, Ma’am,” I said.

Seeing we were safe, Lady Rya forced a smile. “So what did we learn?”

“Mixing the two forces a blink effect?” I asked, still unsure.

“Which means…?”

“They… should be nearby…?”

“Good, lets go find them!”

Lady Rya took me by the hand and led me to the back hall. We started a thorough search of our living quarters, then her office. We found the remains of my blouse in a file cabinet of hers, as well as the bunsen burner, still intact. I breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn’t caused a fire, but the residual heat had browned some of the papers it landed in.

“So what were you trying to accomplish?” Lady Rya finally asked as we returned to the lab. She muttered a short spell and repaired the gas hose before setting the burner back on its counter.

“Honestly, I was trying to see if they would amplify their effect or fail to interact,” I said. “Turns out it was uncontrollably the former.”

“So that’s still progress. It means we have two mutually exclusive paths before us. Have you figured out what you wanted to do with this information yet?”

“Well, I was hoping you might be able to do something with your Polymorphic magic using a sample.”

Lady Rya blinked hard. “Wait, you mean build a body outright?”

I nodded. “Leonard said his old body is dead and buried so there's no recovering it right?”

“I…” Lady Rya fumbled for words. She grew frustrated and silent for a few seconds, then took a deep breath. “We need to ask Leonard if this is okay first. You understand this will mean he won’t be human, right?”

“I hadn’t considered that. I thought meat was meat to you,” I said, “I didn't mean any offense.”

“It’s okay,” Lady Rya said, and forced a smile. “Your idea could work, it just means changing the plan by a lot. Let’s go find Leonard.”

It wasn’t a long search, we found him in the library. It seemed a natural place for him, given his school.

Oh, you’re both here. I hope this means progress?

“Luca has a solution, but it’s not quite what you ordered,” Lady Rya explained.

You have my interest. Luca, what do you have in mind?

“Well,” I said, feeling sheepish. “I was hoping we could combine factors from several creatures similar to the phase drake, but it seems mixing them is a bad idea. So my idea was we use Lady Rya’s Polymorphic magic to fashion you a body out of one of the potential specimens. I have a feeling that you’ll be able to integrate with them given their unique physical properties.”

There was a long silence before Leonard spoke again.

And you’re certain you can do this, Carnal Witch?

“You were the one that sought me out,” Lady Rya said, “I can make you a body, and as long as I’m able to access your soul I can bring you back.”

A very big and expensive if.

“You wouldn’t be human either,” Lady Rya said, “You’d look like one for the most part, but certain anatomies would still present themselves that separate you from the rest of us.”

Leonard laughed, surprising both of us.

Honestly that’s perfect. I had grown bored of humanity before this.

“So you’re on board?” I asked.

What are my options?

“Well, the two options I’ve been working on are Phase Drakes or Blink Squids,” I said, “But there’s a few other promising options I could look into if neither of those appeal to you.”

Leonard seemed to think for a minute, growing dim. He lit back up as he began to speak.

I think I’d like to be a Phase Drake, if that’s alright with you two.

“Alright,” Lady Rya said enthusiastically, “Lets play Frakenstein!”

The project started simple, first we had to resuscitate the specimen we ordered, and that required something rather distasteful. Lady Rya explained that the body being alive, and the body being occupied were two separate states. When she brought me back, my body was still technically alive. With a deceased specimen like the one we had, we would have to dabble in Necromancy to breathe life back into the corpse.

The specimen lay on the table before us, the same one I had woken up on weeks ago, though this one was not strapped down like I had been. I felt a little envious despite myself. In life, it had walked on four legs tipped with sharp little claws, and bore a dextrous tail. Its body was shaped similarly to a cat, but covered in deep blue scales instead of fur. It bore the peaked head of a raptor, with a similar beak for tearing into prey or other found meals. It had ears, surprisingly, long and pointed ones angled backwards from its face. And finally its eyes were slit like those of a feral cat.

“We Carnal Witches hate necromancy,” Lady Rya explained as she opened a particularly dusty tome. I caught my eye in the full length mirror and saw I was fidgeting quite a bit. I had learned she called this room Lab 2, as the main lab was in the living room area.

“Ours is a magic celebrating life and the various joys it brings,” she continued, “Necromancy is all about controlling it, dominating it, extinguishing it and consuming it.”

“I didn’t realize there were rivalries in magic schools,” I said.

Lady Rya nodded. “To bring life back into a corpse, we must first offer life up to it.”

I froze, “Wait, how the hell are we supposed to do that? Do we have to kill someone?”

“No, thankfully for something this small a little bit of blood will do.” Lady Rya magicked a pen knife into her hand. “Luka, dear, would you mind giving me your finger?”

“Wait, why me?”

“Because you are my familiar. It would take far more of my blood than yours to bring this fella back.”

“What kind of sense does that make!?”

Lady Rya sighed, “Luca, you’ve been built from the ground up to be a magical reagent, you are purified and distilled. I only need a few drops of your blood because my magic is so concentrated in you. My own blood would take a liter or more.”

I sighed, knowing something like that would be the answer. Cautiously, I stuck out my hand and let Lady Rya take it. She extended my pointer, and pricked it with the tip of the knife. Blood pooled first in a pinpoint, then beading into a drop. Lady Rya held my hand out over the corpse before it and milked my finger, coaxing a few fat droplets to fall into the thing’s scaly hide.

Lady Rya spoke a few words from her book I couldn’t understand, and then let go of my hand. I looked at my finger and to my surprise saw it was no longer bleeding. Somehow the wound had closed. We stared at the Phase Drake for a few seconds as nothing happened. Then, very quietly, it began to breathe slow steady breaths. The thing’s life was brought back, but there was still no soul in that shell. At least not yet.

“Now the hard work begins,” Lady Rya said. “Luca, I’m going to get to work on our friend here, I need you to start brewing muscle growth potions and don’t stop until I tell you too. Bring them in here every time you make a dozen.”

I nodded. “How long do you think this will take?”

Lady Rya laughed. “I don’t know,” she said flatly. “You took me about a month to fix up, and another month to call back from the other side.”

I nodded grimly, and returned to the main lab, leaving her to start her work. I found Leonard in the den, seeming to relax on one of the couches.

Hello Luca, how goes the work?

“I think we’re in the home stretch, but this might… take a while…” I trailed off. I wondered if we were testing Leonard’s patience.

I have time, don’t fret about that. What does she have you doing now?

“Muscle growth potions, by the dozen,” I said, and sighed. “It seems that, and bleeding are all I’m good for around here.”

Hardly, Luca. You’re far more than that. Do you not realize the importance of being a Familiar?

I paused. I understood the basics but the mechanics of it still evaded me. “I suppose not? All I know is I’m bound to her will, she can kind of read my mind, and I’m useful for making potions.”

It seems Lady Rya isn’t as good a teacher as she is a Witch.

“What do you mean?”

Luca, a familiar is a font of power for a Witch. Each day the body produces mana, and it must either be spent or wasted. Let too much build up and wild magics can escape you, causing chaos and harm. Having a familiar is a stopgap for that. You’ve been modified to be a kind of reservoir for mana for your Mistress, each day her excess mana is funneled into you to be stored for later use.

“Why not use a cat or some other pet that takes less care?”

*Well… it’s a cruel fact of magic society that humans make the best familiars. Cats and owls used to be the fashion centuries ago, but having a familiar that can perform magic on their own proved far more useful than a simple storage unit. *

“I don’t understand, you mean there’s a whole underclass of humans serving as what, batteries?”

We try to be ethical with it, at least most of us do. My familiar was already brain dead before I converted him. I know a lot of terminally ill patients would rather live on in some form than die early.

“You said she left a mind in my shell though, is that not how it works?”

I won’t lie, your Mistress took a huge gamble in making you. She gave you full access to the majority of her magic, while allowing you free will. Do you see what I’m saying?

I went quiet for a second, pondering this revelation. I hadn’t thought of it like that. Lady Rya was certainly eccentric but now I understood just how much. I thought it strange she would pick me of all people, and the only thing i could think of that would draw her to me was the fact my body wanted to be female. It was a strange thing for sure, but nothing that seemed more magically inclined or anything.

I just plugged my magic into you and let your body go wild with it

No, there was more to it than that. Something about me had an affinity for magic, something to do with transformation. It struck me then, that Leonard might know a thing about transformations.

“What was it like, giving up your body?”

Leonard was quiet a moment. Then slowly, he began speaking.

It was… Euphoric, like my body was meant to be something else. All the physical sensations faded away only to be replaced with my new senses. I don’t see so much as I am aware of my surroundings. My magics also became much more powerful, as I no longer have a limit on the mana I use. Each mind near me becomes an open book which I may read easily. But, at the same time, there have been certain things missing from my life which… cannot be sated in my current form.

I looked up at him, feeling a kind of sympathy for him. I too knew what it was like not to fit into the form you were given, and I suppose he too had gone through a kind of transition. I felt sad that he had not found happiness in it though, and I wondered if I too might have the same problem one day. A strange thought struck me then, one familiar yet alien. I wonder what it would be like to kiss him?

I blinked hard and shook my head. Struck oddly by the thought, I felt it was disrespectful.

I uh…

Leonard sounded flustered. My stomach dropped. I had forgotten he could read minds.

I’m sorry for prying

My face went red. Unsure what else to do, I turned suddenly and rushed over to the bench to start my work “I’m so sorry,” I muttered and tried my best not to look his way as I lit the burner and started work on that batch of potions. Leonard said nothing more and let me work. After a few minutes, I snuck a peek over my shoulder and saw he had left the room. I sighed a breath of relief, then looked up to the catalogue again to double check the instructions and was surprised to find a new note in the margin.

“Smooth moves, ace”

I blinked and looked around to see who could have written it, then returned my eyes to the book and it was gone. Infinitely more suspicious, I began my work in earnest. “Don’t rub it in,” I muttered, half to myself, half to this book.

After the first batch was complete, I loaded them up in a milk crate and hoofed it back to Lady Rya and found her doing her hands on thing messing around with the Phase Drake’s anatomy. To my surprise, she had it mostly person shaped.

“Ah, Luca, perfect timing,” Lady Rya said, and plucked a potion bottle from the crate in my arms. She waved a finger and the cork popped out. She then held the bottle near the creature’s mouth and suddenly the fluid snaked out and flowed into its mouth. Slowly, the creature was force fed its own weight in muscle growth potion. After a few seconds, it began convulsing as its little limbs bulked up noticeably, as well as its abdomen.

Lady Rya reached out and began working the limbs longer, stretching the new mass out into bone and fat instead of muscle. Sensing something was off, Lady Rya spoke up again.

“You’re lingering Luca, but you don’t seem to have anything to say. What’s up?”

I sighed. “Oh nothing, I just made things incredibly awkward with our client to the point of him having to leave the room.”

Lady Rya paused and looked up at me. “How so?’

“I uh… I may have thought about kissing him while he was reading my mind.”

Lady Rya burst out laughing “Okay, and what did he do?”

“He apologized and left the room.”

“Typical men,” Lady Rya said. “Alright, if you were serious about kissing him, you should probably go find him.”

“S-serious?”

“If it was something you’d want to do you need to let him know, otherwise he’s going to get all bashful and self conscious.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m feeling!”

“Perfect, You’re on even footing then!”

I groaned, a thousand reasons not to leapt to my mind, and for once I didn’t hold back. “I barely know the guy, I shouldn’t get involved with a client, I’m a familiar which also complicates things, and I’ve barely been a woman a month so far, I have so little to offer him it’s not even funny.”

Lady Rya’s expression turned serious, “Hey, now, it’s okay. You know you’re allowed to kiss people other than me, right?”

“What?”

“I’m not your Mistress formally or anything like that, I figured you’d tell me if you were interested in that kind of thing. You being a familiar means you just need to be near me, not that you’re my actual property or anything. As for being a woman, honey you’ve always seemed like a woman to me, even the way you acted as Luke struck me more as what a woman would do than a man.”

I fumbled for words. Not my Mistress formally? Was that something I wanted? I didn’t know, not then at least. And had I always been a woman? That felt both true and not. I did feel much more comfortable in this body than otherwise, but was this really something I’d been waiting my whole life for?

“Luca, focus, you only have so long before he shuts off completely. He’s probably just as bashful about his body as you are.”

That struck a nerve, “Wait, for real?”

“Why do you think he sought out a carnal witch?”

I don’t know why it took so long to click, but it finally did. I scrambled for the door, and Lady Rya waved after me.

I knew I’d find him in the library. He had found a nice corner to hide in up on the catwalk. If he noticed my entry he didn’t say anything. I climbed up to the second floor and slowly approached him. My heart was racing despite myself, and I wasn’t even sure what I was going to say until the words came pouring out of my mouth.

“I do want to kiss you,” I said, surprising myself. My face went red again and I stammered for a few seconds before forcing the rest out. “You should know, though, I wasn’t always a woman…”

There it was. That’s what was holding me back. It felt unearned, I didn’t deserve anything like that until… until when exactly? I couldn’t think of an answer. I felt like I was tricking him somehow. Like I didn’t deserve to feel good in this body because I hadn’t earned it.

I… I see… Did your mistress do this? Or was this something you asked for?

His tone was hard to read. I could tell he was still embarrassed from before, but past that I couldn’t tell what was on his mind. “A little of both, I think.” I said.

He was quiet for some time, seeming to think. I flinched when he finally began to speak.

Luca, as long as you’re happy in your body, the rest doesn’t matter. I find you quite pretty, for what it’s worth, it’s just…

“Just…?”

*Luca I’m well over a hundred years old, and you’re what? Twenty? *

It clicked into place. This would go nowhere. This was the kind of relationship they warned young women about. I thought then about what I was really feeling. What did I really want? I thought to myself, what would Lady Rya say at a time like this?

“A kiss doesn’t have to be more than that,” I said, cautiously. “Sure it can lead to more, but I don’t think I’m looking for a relationship right now, not with you at least.”

Luca, what are you saying?

His voice held no malice, only confusion.

“I think… I think I’m just attracted to you,” I said. There. It was finally out there. “My body wants to do things with you… I want to do things with you.”

I… I see… Luca, if I had a body I think I’d want the same. But you need to understand we’d have to be very careful. I don’t want to take advantage of you.

“Then I’ll lead,” I said.

Leonard shone brighter, a smile as I understood it.

Then better hurry up on my body.

I nodded, and turned to leave. I had work to do.

The next few weeks flew by in a blur. It was much easier to brew potions when you were motivated beyond just orders. Lady Rya’s progress was slow, but steady. Each potion brewed added about a half pound of mass to our experiment, which she then distributed to the rest of its body to steadily grow, I got brewing time down to five minutes per potion, to the point where we were putting on a dozen pounds a day easily. After a week and a half we had it roughly the size we wanted and in the rough shape of a person. It was still covered in blue scales, and bore an unseemly beak, but the shape of the face resembled a person, as well as the shape of its hands. On its back were two vestigial little wings, each atrophied to the size of a dollar coin.

“Well, we could technically call this done,” Lady Rya remarked at our progress, “But we can make him much prettier.”

And so we did. We started with his scales, and found out that a hair thinning potion worked much the same way on then. After a few high potency doses of that, and some extensive plucking with a tweezers, Lady Rya had transformed the majority of the creature’s flesh into something soft and pale like a humans. She had left the forearms, feet, groin, and ears untouched as they didn’t seem to be affected by the thinning potions. Next we had to use some toning potions to get his pallid skin to a more human tone. Then we tried several variations of hair growth potions to try to get his hair and eyebrows to grow in. it took a few days of trial and error, but eventually we got him looking presentable.

Finally the day came to present our work to our patron and see what he thought. Leonard came into Lab 2 a little hesitantly, and beheld our results at last after nearly two months of hard work.

Tell me about this one.

“Well,” I said, “we started with a Phase Drake specimen and used a mixture of hundreds of potions and dozens of hours of polymorphing to get him into the shape you see before you.”

The final result was a man with shaggy blong hair and pointed blue scaly ears laying on the table before us. It had taken some work, but his face now looked completely normal, sans for his longer tongue and slit pupils. His chest and abdomen were toned, however his arms below the elbow were scaled and his fingers tipped with short retractable claws. His groin was barren, only a patch of scales surrounding a slit. The wings had been reduced to a single scale on each shoulderblade, and the tail was now a mere foot long. Similar to his arms, his legs from the knees down were covered in blue scales ending in claws.

I’m surprised.

“How so?” Lady Rya asked.

You were able to coax a human form from something so alien to it.

Lady Rya grinned. “Who better knows the topography of a body than a Carnal Witch.”

I uh… I have a question about the genital situation.

It was cute seeing someone else get bashful over my Mistress’ work. I was also curious, despite myself.

“This body is sexed male,” Lady Rya explained, “It has a sheath where its genitals stay inside of until arousal is achieved, after which it emerges erect for penetration. The same slit is where you would access your anus to receive penetration. Whichever your preference.”

I see…

He sounded bashful. Despite myself I had started blushing.

So how do we get me inside it?

“One of two ways, either you can directly enter it or we have to do some seance work to funnel your soul inside.”

Ah, I see. So we’re banking on my soul being exposed in this form then.

Lady Rya nodded. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Leonard hesitated, then floated over the table. He seemed to shrink somewhat.

See you soon, Luca.

The ball dipped into the vessel’s chest and seemed to disappear. There was about a minute of awkward silence while Lady Rya and I held our breaths.

I don’t think-

Leonard’s voice cut out and suddenly the body on the slab drew a ragged breath in. its fingers twitched and scraped at the table, leaving marks in the metal. Suddenly its hand flew up to its throat, and it began coughing.

Lady Rya took a step back and pulled me back with her, placing an arm between me and the creature we’d created. Suddenly her staff was in her other hand, held out at the ready.

Still coughing, the thing sat up, its eyes open and darting around the room wildly. The creature whipped its head to look behind it, and flinched back from its reflection in the mirrors. It turned to face us again, its slit pupils narrowing on me.

“Luca?” Its voice came ragged, as if it was the first words ever spoken by it. In a sense it was. I pushed Lady Rya’s hand aside and rushed the table.

“Leonard?” I asked, and placed my hands on his shoulders. He shivered at my touch for a moment, then seemed to relax. His breathing began to shallow and he turned his face down to meet mine.

“Lords I forgot how constant breathing was,” Leonard said, and chuckled.

Lady Rya sighed in relief. She let go of her staff and it vanished back to its corner in her office. “You’ll get used to it. Looks like we learned something about Elder Entities today.”

I laughed, feeling relieved.

“That we did,” Leonard said, “If you publish this little adventure you’ll surely get Academy recognition.”

Lady Rya shrugged, “Not what I’m looking to get attention for,” she said.

Leonard chuckled, “I suppose I’m not surprised.”

“Where did you hear about me, by the way?” Lady Rya asked.

“From a former mentor of yours,” Leonard said, “though I’d hardly call hers a recommendation.”

Lady Rya scowled briefly, but put her work face back on in a matter of seconds. “Luca, if you’ll give me a second I need to run some diagnostics on our friend here,” Lady Rya said.

Reluctantly, I stepped away from Leonard. He smiled at me, reassuring me, before turning his attention to Lady Rya.

“Alright, lets begin,” Lady Rya said, and summoned a pen light to her hand. She shone it in both of Leonard’s new eyes, then had him open his mouth and say ahhh. “We left your teeth a bit sharp, would you like us to fix that?”

“Not right now, thank you,” Leonard said “I think I might enjoy being a little less than human, if that makes sense.”

“Very well,” Lady Rya said, “Next will be sensation testing.” She raised her hands and held them on either side of Leonard’s head. She snapped her fingers on both hands, causing him to wince slightly.

“Check on both, though they are a little sensitive,” Leonard said.

“Good, we can dial them down later too if you decide to change things,” Lady Rya said. Suddenly in her hand was a long needle. “Hands please.”

Leonard complied and let out a soft ow each time she pricked his fingers in sequence. I couldn’t help but stare as his claws flexed and retracted each time he got poked. Something about them was transfixing. Satisfied with his pain response, Lady Rya turned her attention to his feet and did the same to his toes.

“Alright, you’ve fully mantled this body,” Lady Rya said with a grin. “Only test left is the more intimate kind, but I suspect my ‘apprentice’ is more than capable of helping you with that.”

“Wait what?” I asked.

“I’m in agreement here, what?” Leonard asked.

“We need to test your genitals out to make sure they work. Unless I read the room wrong, you two seem to have a little thing going on, no?”

Leonard chuckled to himself and shook his head. “This is hardly how you ask a lady out.”

My breath caught in my throat and a blush rose to my face.

“I’m not asking you to take her out, I’m asking if you want to have sex together,” Lady Rya said bluntly. “If not my magic can take care of things, but this way is generally more fun.”

“I’ll do it,” I said softly, then caught myself. “I want to do it,” I said more firmly.

Leonard blinked. “Luca are you sure?”

I nodded, “I promised I’d lead, right?”

Leonard smiled as a color rose to his own cheeks.

“I’ll take my leave then,” Lady Rya said, and stepped out of the room. She closed the door gently behind her, giving us some privacy.

I turned to Leonard and smiled. “I suppose I owe you a kiss,” I said, surprised at my own boldness.

Leonard stood up from the table, towering over me. Idly, I thought Lady Rya had outdone herself. Leonard took me in his arms and held me. I slid my arms around his back, feeling the warmth of his skin against mine. I could feel his scaled arms against my back, the felt surprisingly smooth.

We stood like that for a while, both of us working up the nerve to go further. Eventually it was me who broke first. I slid my hand around to his chest and trailed my fingers up to his cheek. I cupped his face and hesitated.

“Listen, this is my first time kissing someone since… well… you know…” I said, struggling to maintain eye contact.

“I understand, I’ll be gentle,” Leonard said and leaned down for me.

I let my hand slide to the back of his head and let my fingers tangle in his hair as I brought my face close to his. My heart seemed to stop for a second as our lips first touched. The whole world froze as I felt his warmth against mine. My heartbeat came back, pounding, and I kissed him deeper.

My fingers flexed on their own, knotting into his hair, and he let out a soft moan into my mouth, spurring me on. I slid my other hand to his waist and pulled him closer to me, pressing his belly against mine as I drank in his scent. It was strange, not flowery or sweet like Lady Rya, but more dry, like old leather. It was different, and I still liked it. It really clicked for me then. I liked both. That realization hit me in a strange way and I pulled back. To my surprise I felt a tear streak down my cheek.

“Luca, you’re crying,” Leonard said softly. Cautiously, he reached a hand up and wiped the tear from my cheek. “Let’s stop here.”

“No, I just,” I said, and went quiet for a second. “I’m okay, I’m just not used to wanting things.”

“Are you sure?” There was more in his voice. He was holding himself back, with some effort.

“Please, don’t stop,” I said.

Leonard nodded, and took me in his arms again. I fell into his kiss once more, and my head started swimming. My hands roamed his body as we kissed, grasping and tugging him towards me, feeling the tone of his muscles. Surprising myself, I found my hands on his butt, feeling the shape of his cheeks as I gave them a firm squeeze.

Leonard let out a soft groan, drawing a smirk from me. I’d found one of his weak points. Suddenly I felt his hands starting to roam in much the same way, drawing a gasp from me as he gently caressed my bust and hips. Fuck he was cute coming out of his shell, I thought.

His hands moved north from my hips, slipping under my shirt and once again finding my bust. He gave my breasts a gentle squeeze before his fingers found my nipples through my bra. I squeaked in surprise, and my thighs clenched together on their own. A fire lit inside my middle then, and slowly spread out. As Leonard built more confidence he seemed to take the lead more and more, and I liked it.

Leonard pulled away from me suddenly. “I’m having a hard time holding back.” He said and grinned sheepishly.

I grinned back, “I don’t want you to,” I said.

Leonard chuckled, “I can get a little rough,” he said, warning me.

“I might like that,” I said.

“I thought you were inexperienced,” he said.

“I said might,” I said teasingly, “I want to try new things, so what would you consider rough?”

Leonard was quiet for a minute. “Alright, if you’re certain, let's start with something light.”

He pulled me back into his arms and stroked me check before tilting my head away from him to the side.

“I’m going to bite you,” he said, “and depending on what noises you make I might go harder.”

I nodded quickly, my breath catching in my throat. This would hurt, I thought, his teeth would be sharper than a human’s. Gently, he opened his mouth and clamped his teeth down on my shoulder, right on the meaty part above the collarbone. I let out a gasp as the sting hit me first, then a deep ache as the pressure mounted. Sensations washed over me in sequence, first cold shock, then a strange warmth as I felt his arms tighten around me, then something else entirely as he seemed to purr into my shoulder. I felt small, and like I had been put in my place, but those sensations hit completely different with Leonard. Small felt safe, and my place was someplace I belonged to. I belonged to someone. Butterflies flooded my stomach and I let out something halfway between a moan and a whimper. That must have been what he was looking for because Leonard chuckled through his teeth and clenched down harder on me, driving me to squirm and gasp. Suddenly, I became aware that my panties were quite damp.

Leonard didn’t let go, and instead slid his arms up under the back of my shirt. Gently, he raked his claws down my skin, drawing more tremors from me. Just barely, I managed to get words out of my mouth.

“Fffffffuck….. Oh God……” I wheezed as I went totally limp in his arms.

Leonard growled softly as he bit just a little bit harder, then let up as he held me upright. “Someone is a bit of a masochist, it seems,” he teased.

“What the fuck was that?” I said between ragged breaths. I caught myself in the mirror out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see the damage. My shoulder was now a dark red in the shape of his mouth, with deep purple imprints perfectly marking each of his teeth. Somehow he had not broken the skin. He must have taken great care.

Leonard chuckled as his hands began to wander my body again. “Its a simple glitch of the brain, pain releases endorphins and your body rides the high off of that.”

I trembled at his touch, that warmth in my core now burning bright. Gently, Leonard tilted my head the other way and eyed my other shoulder.

“Fuck how I missed this,” He said with a sigh. He gave me just a few seconds to brace before he clamped down again, evening me out. This time my moans rose nearly to a scream. I worried briefly that Lady Rya would hear, then remembered she wouldn’t care. She’d probably encourage this in fact. That thought wore away the last of my inhibitions, and slowly, as fast I could manage while blissed out really, my hands found his groin. To my surprise I found something there.

Where had once been completely flat with a mere slit, now something thick and slimy had started to emerge from those curtains. My heart fluttered as my hands seized upon my prize. Leonard groaned and bucked his hips into me.

“Lords,” he said, breaking free of my shoulder, giving me just enough space to see his member slowly growing to full height. It had snaked out of his slit and pointed upwards proudly, tapered and pink. It excited me to think about what you could do with such an organ, how it would feel. I could feel how fast his heart was beating with each throb as it reached its full height. I knew I was in for a challenge, but I wanted it so badly. Seeing an opening, I slipped both hands around his shaft and began to pump him slowly.

“Luca, I…” He trailed off, completely lost in the sensation. I grinned, overjoyed at the opportunity to dish some pleasure back his way. He started slowly thrusting into my palms with each stroke. I built up speed steadily, but then suddenly Leonard cried out and gripped me tightly, his claws pressing sharply into my skin. Without ceremony, his cock began to throb and jump, then suddenly he painted the front of my blouse white with a rope of slick cum. He panted heavily as he finished in my hands. Surprised, I hesitated a moment, then a fresh blast of his warm fluid brought me to my senses and I began stroking him again, milking him for every last drop. His seed dripped down my front onto my pants, then on to the tile floor from there. Leonard’s panting turned to groans and I let go of him, letting him catch his breath. Slowly, his length began to retreat back into his slit.

“Sorry, I uh..” Leonard said between breaths, “I haven’t cum in like eighty years.”

I giggled, unable to help myself. “I’m sorry,” I said, “I’m not laughing at you, just the whole situation is-”

“Bizarre?” Leonard finished with a grin.

“Yeah,” I said. I felt a strange catharsis then. Something about making my partner cum felt so satisfying to me, I was in an afterglow-like state myself.

“We’re not done,” Leonard said, and looked up at me with a hunger in his eyes.

My heart fluttered, glad to hear those words. “I didn’t think I could last much longer with my clothes on anyway.”

“Well then take them off, girl,” Leonard said and laughed.

I obliged, and peeled the messy blouse and jeans off my body. I saw the stains had sunk deeper and painted my bra in dark streaks as well. Leonard stepped close and helped me out of my bra, then briskly pulled my panties down, leaving me fully exposed before him. I noticed the large stain in my painties, I knew I had been wet but not how bad.

Being naked in front of a man was a new emotional experience for me, and bashfully I covered my chest with my arms, feeling exposed. My face was beaming red, and I kept fidgeting from foot to foot.

Leonard seemed to drink me in with his slitted eyes. “Luca, you really are beautiful,” He said softly.

I fumbled for words, unsure how to process that new order of words. No one had ever called me beautiful before. It felt right, but also felt vulnerable, like this was something special to be shared with him. “Thank you…” I said, unsure what else I could say.

“I think it's time we took care of you, princess,” he said. That word brought a hitch to my throat and my heart quickened, “Now I think you should get up on that table and spread your legs for me.”

Without thinking I leapt into action, clamouring up onto the table where he had laid not twenty minutes ago. I hesitated a moment upon turning to face him, keeping my legs together.

“Something wrong, Luca?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

“No, I uh.. It’s just embarrassing,” I said.

“Nonsense, you deserve to feel good too,” he said, “but if you are uncomfortable we can stop.”

I shook my head, then after another moment’s pause, slowly spread my legs wide, laying bare my pussy for him. Leonard locked eyes with me for a long few seconds, searching for something. I gave him a nod and smiled. “I want this too,” I said, reassuring.

Leonard smiled, and knelt down before me. Even on his knees, he was still tall enough to bring himself eye level with my nethers. He placed a hand on either thigh, drawing a whimper from me. Undeterred, he brought his face close to my groin, then paused.

“Is this your first time down here too?” he asked.

I shook my head, “No… well, my first time for someone to go down on me,” I said.

“I’ll go slow then,” he said, and gently pressed his tongue against my clit. I could feel the heat rolling off from it, and it sent shivers down my spine. Slowly, he began to lick in small circles, seeming to gauge my reaction.

“Laonard, thats…” I said. It felt nice, but after such a high energy session it didn’t feel like enough. I let out a soft groan of frustration. “I need more.”

“If that’s what the Lady wants,” Leonard said, pausing. There was mischief in his voice. He withdrew his tongue for a second, then let its full length loll out for me to appreciate. I squeaked, surprised by its length, it hung a full four inches out of his mouth and seemed alarmingly prehensile. Before I could brace myself, it had lashed out and slathered my nethers with attention.

I moaned, then took a sharp inhale as a new sensation hit me. It was much different than fingers, this was thicker, and softer, but slowly Leonard began to slide his tongue inside my vagina. Helped by my own fluids and his saliva, he quickly buried his whole tongue inside me and began writhing his tongue around.

I gripped the sides of the table as I fell back, unable to remain sitting. My moans got louder as his lips met my groin, stimulating my clit while his tongue worked its magic inside me. Slowly, his movements became less random, more precise, and my breath caught in my throat. He began thrusting his tongue in and out of my depths while his lips worked my clit, it wasn’t long before my legs started trembling.

“Leonard, I… I think…” I couldn’t finish the words, he knew what I was trying to say. He redoubled his efforts and in a matter of seconds I came, clenching down on his tongue greedily, and to my dismay forcing it out of me. It was too soft to stay in while I came. Catching my breath, I looked up between my legs to see Leonard standing now, his shaft fully hard and throbbing again. Seeing the question in his eyes, I nodded. “Please… fuck me…” I said, barely managing to make the words.

Leonard brought his hips to mine, and with one hand angled his cock so it’s tip pressed against me. I expected there to be some resistance, but I was so wet with saliva and my own slick and he just popped in. He slowly slid himself up to the hilt and my eyes went wide. A new sensation: Full. I had never been stretched so wide before.

“Fuck, Leonard,” I gasped.

Leonard groaned and chuckled. “This is a little more than I’m used to using,” he said.

I chuckled too, “You can thank her for that.”

“I will, right after I’m done thanking you properly,” he said, and pulled his hips back. I whimpered and the sudden lack within me, but he obliged my neediness shortly and plowed back up to his hilt. I let out a fresh moan, and felt his cock throb in response. It struck me then, how much I was turning him on. Leonard quickly built up pace thrusting into me, eager to claim me. A new sensation was building in my nethers, it wasn’t like when Lady Rya played with my clit or g-spot, this was deeper, less focused. Equally as emotional as physical. I was being taken, and could feel every inch of his girth plowing into me. Instinctively, I wrapped my legs around his waist, wanting him closer, needing him closer.

Leonard leaned down and brought his mouth to my chest. I whimpered as he began to suck on each of my nipples in turn, not slowing his pace in the slightest. Suddenly I felt that stinging pain from before on my breast as Leonard sunk his teeth into me once more. Caught off guard, the sensation pushed me higher and I felt myself getting close again. Leonard panted and groaned against me, not letting go with his teeth. I lasted a matter of seconds before cumming again, gripping his shaft tightly.

“I’m cumming!” I managed to squeak out between gasps.

Leonard didn’t stop, his groans only grew louder. He let go of me briefly to catch his breath, then latched on to my other breast as he doubled his pace. My body shook uncontrollably, and I found myself being pushed out of one orgasm into another one.

“Again!” I groaned as my hips bucked against him, begging him to cum with me.

“Me too!” Leonard groaned, his mouth popping free of my breast.

He buried himself deep inside me, and I felt his cock begin throbbing. My insides grew even more slick. He pulled back and crashed back into me once more, and I felt his seed splatter out against my thighs. His claws dug into my thighs as he rode out his orgasm, pumping me full of his seed.

We sat like that for a while, my legs locked around his waist with his cock buried deep within me. After a few minutes we had finally caught our breaths.

“Lords, was this worth it,” Leonard finally said, breaking the silence.

I smiled. “I uh… Yeah,” I said. “I agree.”

We rested for a while before our senses fully returned to us. Leonard’s cock eventually retreated back within his body, and I slowly regained control of my legs. They felt sore from holding him so tightly.

“I suppose we should report our ‘success’” Leonard said.

I nodded. “Yeah, let me just clean up a bit,” I said. I picked up my ruined blouse and used it to mop up the rest of the cum that painted my thighs and groin. To my dismay, it looked like i wasn’t done drooling out his seed. Just how much had he cum? I did my best, and put my panties on to catch the rest. “Alright, I’m ready to go.” I said.

“You don’t want to put on more clothes?” Leonard asked.

“She’s not going to care.”

“Well, it seems an ample success,” Lady Rya said a bit smugly from the couch. We found her lounging there with the catalogue in her hands, thumbing through the pages.

“Full marks,” Leonard said, “I shall arrange payment soon, name your price.”

Lady Rya smiled. “Good, you’ll understand this is one of our more premium services.” Lady Rya snapped a finger and suddenly some clothes were in her hands. A pair of jeans and a white button up shirt as well as a pair of boxers. “I figured you’d want to reacquaint yourself with modesty before leaving this place.”

“Leaving so soon?” I asked.

“No, she’s right,” Leonard said. “It’s probably for the best.”

I looked down. I must not have been able to hide my disappointment very well, because Leonard spoke again to me.

“You have yourselves a lifelong customer, I’m sure this body will need maintenance,” He said, something in his tone and the way he said “maintenance” told me there were other reasons he’d come by. I looked back up, and forced a smile.

“Well, we’ll just have to take good care of you next time too,” I said.

Leonard took a minute to get dressed, then we said our goodbyes. He didn’t let himself linger long, making it clear it was farewell for now, not farewell. Once the door shut, and the quiet returned, I sat down across from Lady Rya, something on my mind.

“You look like you had some fun” Lady Rya said, eying the bruises on my chest and shoulders.

“I… Yeah,” I said, a little sheepishly. “I think I like pain.”

Lady Rya chuckled. “That’s because you’re tied to me, its hard for you not to enjoy physical sensations as you are. It’s also why you didn’t turn out worse for wear.”

“Worse?” I asked.

“I mentioned his teeth were sharp, from the color of those bruises you would normally have been bleeding from them, but your body is special.”

I thought about that for a while. She mentioned my body took to magic like it was made for it. Maybe that went further than just turning into a woman. Suddenly it started to make sense why Lady Rya offered me the opportunity in the first place.

“So what else did you learn?” Lady Rya asked.

I smiled and blushed a bit, “I definitely like boys too,” I said, surprising myself.

“I figured you for some kind of bi,” She said, “call it a hunch. What else? Surely you didn’t just hold hands up there with all that screaming.”

I blushed even more, but felt strangely compelled to answer. No, compelled wasn’t the right word. She wasn’t forcing me. I wanted to tell her, she was just coaxing me out of my shell.

“I think I prefer getting cummed in than cummed on,” I said.

“So you two got very intimate,” she said.

I nodded, “He also said some things that made me feel funny.” I said, “He called me ‘princess’ and that… I think that really turned me on.”

A sly grin crossed Lady Rya’s face then, “A shame about that age gap, you two would have made a cute couple.”

I paused, “Is that kind of age gap really such a bad thing?”

“You may not realize it yet, but you’re still learning how to be yourself, if you get tied up in a relationship with someone much older than you it makes it really easy to mold yourself into someone that fits your idea of their needs. It's really easy for people who should know better to take advantage of you, and for those that do to still do it anyway on accident. That’s not to say these kinds of relationships are impossible, but they are very very difficult to do right.”

I looked down and sighed. “I think you’re right. I enjoyed our time together though.”

“You made a good friend, and a good client for me. So thank you.”

A thought occurred to me then, as well as an echo of something Lady Rya had said before. “Lady Rya, just how old are you?”

“Wow, asking the dangerous questions today are we? How old do you think I am?”

I paused. “Well, you said you could stop aging,” I said. I remembered Leonard said that was extremely difficult. “I don’t think it's really fair to make me guess when that’s on the table.”

Lady Rya grinned despite herself. “I suppose you’re right there. I’m twenty two, but I've been studying magic since I was four. They usually start you at eight.”

I had no frame of reference, but that seemed absurdly young given her abilities. “When did you decide to become a Carnal Witch?”

Lady Rya’s smile vanished. What replaced it was a distant look. “I don’t really know for sure, my memory is kind of hazy from that time. I know it was no later than sixteen.”

That felt too early for me. “Why?”

“Thats easier to answer. It's because it was the least respected school of magic, not to mention it fit my style much more neatly. Much more than the polymorphism my teacher had planned out for me. I guess I did it to spite her, and it worked. She abandoned me the day I switched schools.” Lady Rya sighed, “You know, Hedonists get a bad rep, but they’re harmless in moderation. Any good thing in excess is bad, too much water and you drown, too many vitamins and you poison yourself. But as long as you’re not hurting anyone and not training yourself or your body into harmful patterns, what is the harm in indulging in physical pleasures?”

I supposed I couldn’t argue with that. That all said, the echo of what she had said earlier was still on my mind. “Say, you said something a while back about not formally being my Mistress,” I said, “what did you mean by that?”

“Oh, that. Well, I meant that while your will was bound to mine we’d not entered into an agreement for any specific dynamic, sexual or otherwise.”

“Is that why we never talked about sex again after that night?” I asked.

“Partly,” she said, “Luca I hold a lot of power over you so I need you to tell me if you want that kind of thing.”

That made a lot of sense to me. It was just like Leonard. But thinking back, just like with Leonard, I felt most excited when she had taken the lead that night. I had told Leonard that I would lead, and I did, to start, but we quickly fell into something more natural feeling, with him in control. That felt right to me. That turned me on. I knew then what I wanted, but I still struggled to make the words leave my mouth.

“Would you… I… um…

“Yes, Luca?”

“Would you be interested in… a more formal dynamic… like you said?”

Lady Rya smiled. “You want me to do things to you, like before?”

I nodded sheepishly. I had tried not to think about that night too hard before then, but all the emotions came flooding back to me at once. I felt small before her again and wanted to feel smaller. “I would like that a lot,” I said.

“I think I would like that too,” she said. I saw she was blushing a bit now. It struck me then that she found me attractive too. I hadn’t considered that a possibility and now it all came crashing down on me at once. “Would you rather be my pet, or my servant?” She asked.

“I think servant,” I said shakily. My heart was rattling in my chest making the words more difficult to form.

“Alright, dear, you can change your answer any time you want,” She said. Her smile broke into a grin, and suddenly she magicked something thin and round into her hands. It was a thin leather collar, thin enough to pass as fashion but I knew what it meant. It meant I would be property, formally. The thought excited me.

“This is a training collar,” Lady Rya said, “Once I put it on you, you will be in the trial period for becoming my submissive. There will be much to learn, but once you do, you will earn your own collar.”

Lady Rya undid the clasp and gestured for me to lift my hair up. I obliged and my heart leapt into my throat as she snaked it around my neck and clasped it shut. She had made it snug enough to always feel, but loose enough that I didn’t feel restricted by it.

“Good girl, you look so pretty in that collar” Lady Rya cooed. Butterflies flooded my stomach. Something about those words from her mouth felt so right to me. She stepped back, admiring my neck for a few seconds before speaking again. “Now this next part is the most important. I need you to pick a word for me and this will be your safe word. I’m going to cast a spell that will reverse our fundamental dynamic for five minutes if you say that word, so anytime you don’t feel safe or don’t like what I’m doing you can force me to stop. Okay?”

I nodded. It was a lot of power she was trusting me with. I remembered again how Leonard said she did things unorthodox.

“So what word would you like to use?”

I thought hard for a few minutes. This wasn’t a simple promise, it was binding according to what she said. It would have to be a word that didn’t come up naturally in conversation or one I wouldn’t accidentally say when I meant to say something else. Remembering her school’s rival, I could only think of one answer. “Necromancy.”

Lady Rya laughed, “That’s a good one,” she said. She waved her hand and suddenly her staff was in it. She muttered a few words under her breath and I could feel the air surge with some kind of energy. The ring on her staff lifted, then stood straight up for a few seconds before falling as she completed the spell.

“There,” she said, satisfied with herself. “Now, that all out of the way, your first order is this: You are to refer to me as Mistress or Ma’am exclusively from now on, understand?”

I nodded eagerly.

“Good girl,” she said. Again, those two words made me melt and my face went completely red. “Now your first task. Hearing you two going at it like animals has left me fairly hot and bothered myself, so I feel it’s only proper you take responsibility. Let's start training that tongue of yours, shall we?”

“Yes,” I said, beaming.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“That’s my girl,” Lady Rya said. She scooched up to the edge of the couch and spread her legs wide, then with a flick of her wrist, her pants and panties were gone. I couldn’t help but stare at her groin, she kept her business trimmed, and the folds of her labia were gapped slightly, as if inviting me in.

“Now, kneel.” She gestured with her finger at the floor between her legs, and I scrambled to meet her demand, scuffing my shin in the process. I leaned down but her hand stopped me. I looked up, confused and needy.

“Nuh uh uh,” Lady Rya scolded, “so greedy. This is training, so listen up.”

I nodded again, tearing myself backwards away from her honeypot. “Yes, Mistress,” I said softly.

“Now I’m going to teach you some general advice here for going down on a vagina, and I want you to practice on me. Don’t just lick all over until you know what you’re doing with a partner. You’ll want to focus on the clit, and try things out until you find a pattern your partner likes, see?” she rubbed her clit idly every which way, as if to demonstrate. This only spurred my need to be buried in her nethers more. I felt left out. “A good way to do this is by licking the alphabet, and once you get a good reaction from your partner, you keep doing that same letter, wherever you were at. Make sense?”

“Yes, Mistress,” I said. I felt myself trembling and realized how horny I was. I was astounded, after cumming three times already, that I could be so needy. Was this her magic? Or was this just who Luca was?

“Now you may start,” she said, and leaned back.

I dove in, eager to taste her and was not disappointed. It was salty and a little sweet, and utterly intoxicating. I caught myself before getting lost and remembered her words. Dutifully began to lick each letter across her clit starting with A.

“That’s it, just like that,” Lady Rya said and sighed. It felt right to pleasure her, it was only fair after all, after that first night. She hadn’t gotten off at all then, we had focused entirely on me. Now, it was my turn to focus on her. I rounded through K and into LMNO and suddenly she let out a deep moan. I felt her fingers lace through my hair and gently stroke my head. Was that the secret for her? I tried it again, LMNO, then each letter individually slowed down, but annoyingly I wasn’t able to get a second moan out of her. Reluctantly resumed my descent down the alphabet.

“You take coaching well,” Lady Rya cooed. Absently, her free hand dipped beneath her shirt and started playing with her nipple. I clenched my thighs tight, and stifled a moan of my own. Everything felt so right, but something started to feel different. I ignored it, focusing on my given task.

Finally Lady Rya let out a sharp cry. Seizing the moment I repeated the letter and drew more moans from her. U was her secret, back and forth. By now her juices were flowing freely and had soaked my chin. I grabbed her thighs with my arms and buried my face further, drilling her with my tongue, not letting her catch her breath.

“Luca don’t stop, good girl,” Lady Rya said between moans, then gripped my hair tightly, pulling me even closer to her. For a few seconds I couldn’t breath but I didn’t let that stop me. I kept stroking her with my tongue in that pattern until suddenly my mouth was flooded with her flavor and warmth. Lady Rya pinned me in place with her hand as she bucked her hips, cumming into my mouth as I eagerly drank her down. Finally, she gasped and let go of my head, letting me flop back onto my backside.

We both sat there panting for a few seconds, though I still felt so riled up I wanted to go again. Something about that sensation was familiar though, in an uncomfortable way. Before I could identify it, Lady Rya spoke up.

“Luca, your uh… it’s back,” she said, pointing at my groin.

I paused, feeling a new fear grip me, I looked down between my legs. It was definitely back. A little smaller than before, my penis had returned and was throbbing at full attention. There was a pool of cum beneath where I had been leaning, presumably Leonards from being forced out of me through the transformation. That had been the familiar feeling. Not horny, but having an erection. It was poking proudly through the waistband of my panties.

“What that… the hell?” I barely formed the words. I was so bewildered.

“What do you want me to do, do you want me to get rid of it?” Lady Rya asked, cautiously.

“But why is it back?” I asked her.

“Luca, your form is tied to your self image, I can control it at will but you control the default.”

I tried to process these words, but could come up with nothing.

“What were you thinking about? What kinds of emotions were you feeling?”

“Does this mean I’m not a woman!?”

“Focus Luca, you are not your genitals. What were you feeling just now?”

“I wanted to make you feel good,” I said. I suddenly felt very overwhelmed.

Lady Rya was quiet for a moment before speaking. “So that’s how you work then,” She said.

“What?”

“Luca, I think you shape your body to your partner. If it was just being horny, you would have had this happen with Leonard, but this happened with me.”

“So I grew a penis… for you…?”

“I think so, yeah. It must have made sense in the moment. You just had a precedent after all of how to please a vagina.” Lady Rya seemed to be working through the mystery just as much as I was. She sounded just as confused.

Feeling the moment pass, my erection began to wilt, and with some relief it began to revert to a vagina as well. The shaft began to shrink inward and my glans shrank slowly back into a clitorus, while my testes shrank and and withdrew inside me. That was a strange realization for me, that I felt relieved to no longer have a penis.

“That doesn’t make sense though, all I wanted to do was keep going down on you,” I said, “I didn’t even think about penises at all during that.”

“Then it must have been me,” Lady Rya said thoughtfully.

“How!?”

Lady Rya looked down. “I may have had cock on the brain a little bit from working so long on Leonard’s junk, then letting him get to use it.”

“So you did this to me?”

Lady Rya shook her head. “No, I think you picked up on it yourself. I think you got a lesser form of one of my innate gifts.”

“Please make sense,” I pleaded.

“Sorry,” Lady Rya said, “I’m what’s called an empath, I can pick up on people’s emotions and with a little effort, their thoughts as well. I’m a little like Leonard in that sense. Being plugged full of my mana may have given you a similar power.”

I paused. Me? Powers? Leonard had warned me about those, about how much Lady Rya was trusting me with. “So I was submitting to your desires…?” I asked, just barely managing to make sense of her rambles.

“I think so,” she said, then added, “I’m sorry Luca, I can only imagine how uncomfortable that made you.”

It had, but that was mostly out of shock, I thought. Deep down, I wondered if I’d be okay with something like that if she wanted it. Considering how into pleasing her I had gotten already, I suspected I knew the answer. But tonight wasn’t the night for that. The mood had ended, we were both too surprised to test it out. There was always next time though.

“I… I think I might be okay with this,” I said finally.

“Okay with…” she trailed off.

“I want to serve you, whatever that entails,” I said. I felt that was true, that was something Luca wanted for sure.

Lady Rya smiled weakly and pet my head. “Maybe next time then. I want to try things like that in a safe environment, not when we’re both fatigued from months of work, and you’re already worn out from a rough session.”

I nodded. “There will be more times,” I said, it was almost a question. I knew the answer but it still felt too good to be true.

“Yes,” Lady Rya said, “Many.”

I smiled. “Thank you,” I managed to say.

Lady Rya nodded and smiled fully. “I think we both need a shower now,” she said, and stood up suddenly. She offered her hand to help me up. I took it, and together we made for the back hallway to wash up. I thought briefly about the mess we had made in the living room, but that was tomorrow’s problem. I was beat. All I wanted to do was spend the rest of the night quietly, with my Mistress.