What do you do when the voice's in your head have joined a union and demand workers rights? Events unfold including but not limited to: Sarah waking up in a good mood (eventually). And Hannah's dreams involve a squid.. maybe.

“..Really?”

I jolted awake in bed.
My arms got caught in Sarah’s and for just a second I panicked.

My magic pushed forth and in a bright golden flash the room was covered in my new ‘fix it/heal it’ effect.

Mum batted her eyes frantically from the flash and quickly walked over to the window to shut the curtains tightly.
“..Early morning sun is evil.”

I had to repress a laugh at her mumble, from both relief that she’d come up with her own cover story for the bright light and genuine amusement.
The warm giggly feeling of pleasure inside me from having vented magic again probably helped my mood too, I’ve never really been a morning person before but I feel all warm and happy now.

Sarah grunted and rolled over, her arm slinging around my waist to tug me back to her chest.

Mum seemed a bit exasperated but surprisingly wasn’t trying to stop the situation.
She always used to get pretty angry when she caught us in the same bed as kids.
I guess, the fact that I’m now a girl could make a difference..
Maybe she’s not as worried about it?

“I take it she couldn’t sleep in her old room?”
My shoulders shifted slightly in the best shrug I could manage with Sarah clinging to me.
“She’s probably not used to sleeping alone, I used to struggle without your fath-”
Mum cut herself off mid-sentence, a frown forming on her face for a moment.
With a forced breath she seemed to dismiss the obviously bad thoughts that had risen from accidentally mentioning dad.

I tried not to stare too obviously as she brought a hand up to run through her hair and shifted uncomfortably.
“I’m going to work anyway, figured you should both be getting up. Sarah can cook you breakfast.”
She gave me a strained smile and rubbed one hand into the other self-consciously.

“I can make my own breakfast ya know?”

Mum gave me an odd look for a second and finally seemed to settle on just being amused.
“Sure you can Ari.. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

I huffed and shifted slightly in Sarah’s death-grip which did little more than make her grumble and pull me in for a more secure hug.
My face must have shown my annoyance because mum laughed openly this time and made her way to my bedroom door.

“Sarah always had a thing for cuddling her teddy-bears too tightly..”
She leaned against the doorframe a little and gave me a warm teasing smile.
“From the way she used to practically carry you when you were little, I thought we might have to rename you to suit your station in life.”

Her hand came up to cover her mouth a little and her eyes twinkled slightly in a way I’ve not seen from her in a long time.

“In the end I gave it up, who would be cruel enough to call their daughter ‘Teddy’.. I guess we could have gone for the longer version though..”
She squinted at me thoughtfully and ran a hand along the doorframe casually.

“It’s funny, I could actually see you as a ‘Theodora’, Dora for short obviously..”

My breath had caught in my throat and wouldn’t release from the moment she said that name.
Her smile was warm and happy but it didn’t help much.
I must have had a troubled look on my face because she quickly continued in a rush as if to reassure me.

“Ari suits you better of course. It’s a much better name in general, don’t mind your old mum, I’m just in a silly mood this morning. It must be having you both under the same roof again, it’s made me all nostalgic..”
I almost felt relieved when Sarah shifted in bed and squeezed me enough to force the stuck breath out of my lungs.

..There’s no way mum has ANY idea about Theodora?.. it’s all just one big coincidence..

She gave me one more smile and patted her hand on the doorframe as if signalling the end of the conversation.
“Right, I’m off. Have fun today. Don’t let Sarah sleep in too late Ari.”
With a wave over her shoulder she left the room and a minute later I heard the front garage door open followed quickly by the rev of her car pulling away.

As the garage door trundled closed I let out a sigh and tried to calm myself down.

It was just a coincidence.
She couldn’t POSSIBLY have ANY idea about Theodora, or any of my past-incarnations for that matter..

“Go ‘leep Alis.”
Sarah shifted her head a bit and pulled me back under the covers again, still seemingly asleep or at least unwilling to admit that she was awake.

I cringed a little when she used yet another name I really don’t want to think about right now.
Sarah’s usually careful to not call me ‘Alis’ anymore, ever since dad ruined it for us.
She must be barely half-awake, if that, to have used it so casually.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll go back to sleep Sare.”

Her head shifted and she squinted one beady eye at me for a moment then settled back down with a huff.
I huffed back at her automatically.
We used to make that noise if words would be a waste of effort in an argument.

I kicked my legs a little under the covers and pulled myself into the crook of Sarah’s arms a bit more.

Sleeping a little longer can’t hurt.
It’s not like we’re on a tight schedule today and Sarah DID have me up at three this morning..

My eyes squinted shut and I tried to push out my worried thoughts about mum and Theodora.

I’m just being silly.
I’m far too twitchy when it comes to my past-incarnations names.
It’s not like someone saying it is going to invoke her forward or something equally scary.

It’s just a name after all..

======

“Nice of you to drop by.”
The sarcasm from my own voice threw me off for a moment but after a second to process what was happening I shot to my feet.

She watched me with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“Ellie’s over at the council chamber, ask someone if you get lost.”
Without another word she turned her eyes away from me to look back down at the book in her lap.

It took me a little bit for my head to clear so I could work out what was happening.

One minute I was dreaming about.. something.. I can’t remember what.. I think there was a squid involved.. maybe.
Anyway, one minute I was dreaming semi-normally, the next I was here.. lying face down on the glowing white floor of my mindscape, surrounded by busy sounds and being talked down to by the same past-incarnation that met me the last time I came in here, minus her clipboard and tent this time though.

A scan of the area left me with no small amount of awe.
They’ve certainly been busy!

It’s barely been a few days since I was last in here and what was a shanty town of mixed tents, campsites and miniature buildings had progressed into a full blown city.
..Well.. town at least.. a relatively small town at that, but the buildings were bigger and looked a lot more permanent at least.
I guess there’s some kind of metaphorical meaning to all this development.

I should probably be worried that so much progress has been made in integrating my past-selves into my mind in such a short space of time, but all I can bring myself to feel is some small sense of pride.

As weird as it sounds, I trust them.

We have a pretty solid understanding between ourselves now.
I can’t feel any mixed emotions or anything either.
It’s a feeling which is usually more noticeable in here than in the real world, so if there WAS any real dissent or unease in their minds about the whole ‘council’ thing I should be feeling it by now..

“Follow the main street, council chambers are in the town center. If you reach the forest then you’ve gone too far.”
I shot a look at the incarnation and she glanced up at me from her book with a quirked eyebrow as if curious why I was just standing there.

Rosaline.. I think that’s her name.
I vaguely remember her introducing herself while her nose barely left another book.
Bit of an odd one, English but easy going enough to adopt a lot of modern mannerism’s as times gone on.
Not many past-incarnations can do that, they all seem to be pretty stuck in the past at times.

My eyes cut across the town within my mindscape again.
Just a little ahead of us the plain white floor gave way to a built up cobbled street with houses lining either side.
Far in the distance I could see some greenery mixed in around the roofs and buildings dotted around.

This must be what it’s like when you change your mindscape.
After I failed at doing it so badly I never bothered looking into the whole system properly.
What would be the point?.. I may have been in a bit of a bad mood at the time too.

“Go on, Sarah’s bound to wake up soon, we haven’t got all day..”
I shot her one more confused look.
“You know what’s going on outside of here?”

She gave me a blatant ‘are you stupid or something?’ look.
I wanted to be offended but what’s the point in arguing when it’s part of your own mind giving you that sort of look?

“Ever since we started settling in we’ve been sharing your senses to varying degrees of success. The council are happy, it helps them keep up-to-date on things.. I’d be happier if you read more though, I could do with some new material.”
Her hand came up with the heavy leather bound book she’d been reading before and she wiggled it lazily to show just how boring she was finding it.
“Third time I’ve read this one in the last few days alone..”

My mouth quirked a little in amusement.
“I’ll grab some light reading at some point and use a memory enhancement spell to speed read them for you. Any preferred genre?”
She huffed in a way that was eerily similar to my last exchange with Sarah and gave me an amused look in return.

“Drama, romance and the classics.. no Shakespeare though.. stupid old hack.”
For some reason she puffed up angrily for a moment but judging by how quickly she let the frustration on her face go away it was probably not directed at me at least.

I gave her an awkward smile and a salute in return.
She saluted me back, a smirk just peeking across her lips as she did so.
I got a few steps away from her before everything clicked in my head.

Rosaline.. Shakespeare..

My head swung to look at her thoughtfully but she’d moved from her previous seat and presumably slipped into her large two-story house.
The outside didn’t give many indications if my suspicions were correct, except for a balcony to the side of it that reminded me of the one we used in my high schools rendition of ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
That, and the odd Blue and yellow family crest above her front door…

“The all-seeing sun indeed.. I think Mercutio’s version is probably closer to the truth, she’s definitely pale and comes across as hard-hearted at first..”

Having spent part of yesterday hanging out with two un-awakened, honest to the powers, myths.. it feels like not much can phase me at this point.
It’s still a strange thought though.
I never really put much weight into Shakespeare’s work before, like most people I figured it was fiction.

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get the chance to sit down with her and find out what really happened from the one character I can think of from that story that didn’t have some kind of tragic death by the end of it.
The truth is often stranger than fiction, especially if when you consider she’s one of MY past-incarnations, and therefore a mage.
That’s one thing off the bat that wasn’t mentioned in Romeo and Juliet!

I shook my head and laughed at myself slightly.
Now’s not the time for that though.

I really should go find out what’s been going on in my head while I’ve been busy in the real world.
If the ‘council’ found out that I’d dropped in, however unintentionally, and hadn’t gone to visit them they’ll probably find some way to get revenge.

With one final look back at the house of an incarnation which, until recently, I would have labelled as a fictional character I moved on up the cobbled street.. on the hunt for some kind of official, government looking, building.

Shouldn’t be too hard to find..

======

“wow..”

It’s BIG.. very, very big..
It kinda feels like I should have been able to see this building above all the others in my mindscape.. or like.. see it from space or something?

I’m getting the feeling that a lot of my own expectations are being used when these buildings are being formed.
A lot of the houses I passed on my way here seem to be either stereotypically relevant to their owners in design or have parts to them that I recognise from things in my life, the balcony on Rosaline’s house for example, or that little townhouse on the corner with a pair of my favourite boxer shorts hanging from the washing line.

This ‘council chamber’ seems to have been based on the Klamath falls county court house I always walk past on the way to Fena’s shop.. only bigger.. a LOT bigger.

The roughly square red-brick building makes it easy to see where the entrance is because one side of it has a fancy curved, three story high, glass front with a load of railing caged steps leading up to its multiple glass doors.
The scale on this version is definitely off from the original, my mindscapes version seems to have a glass front that’s somewhere between six and eight stories high at least!

I’m tempted to think the size of the building has been taken from my childhood memories of it.
It always seemed huge to me as a kid AND it seemed to come out of nowhere every time we turned the corner on Main Street.
In all likelihood it IS taken directly from those memories now that I think about it..

Just out of curiosity I circled the building before going in.
The parking lot behind it is full of cars like the real one usually is.

I’d hoped if I had a look at the licence plates on them I could tell if the cars were from an old memory and what kind of year we’re talking about here.
Sadly the cars in the lot are just a mix of cars I vaguely recognise from daily life.

The sedan on the far side is the Martials old car, the one they got rid of years ago.
Sitting on its own to my left is the new shiny version of Sarah’s ‘Betty’.. so I can’t really judge anything of use from their presence.

After glancing through a few car windows and finding nothing of interest I moved back around to the front of the council chambers.
I guess I could ask Ellie when I get in there, she’s been pretty good at providing information about things around here for me.

Who knew that magically dividing your brains processing power between yourself and another version of you to help avert the mental overload that comes with having far too many past-incarnations in your head could also give you the mental equivalent of a personal assistant?

I jogged up the short set of steps leading to the chambers front doors , took a fortifying breath before pushing them open and stepping inside.

“Hi”
The sudden voice made me jump with a scream
I whipped around to my left and came face to face with.. my face.

It took me a moment of horror to realise that I should have anticipated that.
Everyone in here has my new face in one form or another.

“Zoete?”
The perky past-incarnation gave a giggle that sounded far too cheerful to suit my new voice.

From what I remember of when we met last time, she can’t really be blamed for being a bit odd.
She died young and never really got out of the ‘giggly, easily excitable’ stage of life experience.
I’m pretty sure if her death hadn’t also triggered her awakening before she breathed her last breath she wouldn’t even be in here in all honesty..

“Hi Boss, your late. The councils through the door on the right.”

My shoulders slumped a little.
There’s no point in arguing with her that I CAN’T be late to a meeting I wasn’t even INVITED to..
She’s got a rather simplistic view of the world from what I’ve seen.

“Thanks Zoete.”
She nodded her head frantically and with another giggle she skipped off to sit on a little stool tucked behind the support column by the doors.
The same column I’d so casually walked past without a thought a moment ago.

I took a few steps towards the door she’d indicated but paused enough to glance back at her.

She’d settled herself comfortably against the column and seemed to be trying to peak from behind it every few seconds with a naughty smile on her face.
She’s probably lying in wait for the next poor unfortunate incarnation to walk through the door so she can scare them like she did me.

I couldn’t help smiling at her.
At least she’s having fun, it must get kind of boring sitting around here just waiting to direct people.
..come to think of it, it must be kind of boring just being an incarnation in general?..

I wonder what they do with their time all day long while I’m busy.. ya know.. having a life?

Questions for another time I guess.
I know Rosaline reads stuff at least, her library seems to be limited to things I have memorised but it’s better than nothing.

The door opened into a surprisingly spacious room with a round table in the center, surrounded by chairs with a diverse range of incarnations sitting in them.
There’s only a few of them here but at a glance they seem to each be members of the different groups who don’t mix too well inside my head.

“Hurry up, we’ve been waiting.”
Ellie gave me an exasperated look and waved toward the open seat beside her.
I went to argue but she used my ‘don’t argue with me’ look somehow.

It’s surprisingly effective, even on me.

When I’d sat down and shared an awkward smile or two with the girls around the table Ellie banged a little wooden hammer on the table for attention.

“Boss is here, time to go over our notes from the formation and the last few days’ business.”
The girls around the table collectively groaned and started shuffling the papers in front of themselves.
“Introductions first.”

Ellie glance at me to make sure I was paying attention, then started quickly pointing at each girl around the table in a clockwise motion.
“The Meretrix Dexi, representing the Roman contingent and the lesser moral brutes..”

She must have seen the look on my face because she glared at Dexi before continuing in an annoyed voice.
“Don’t look at me like that, they CHOSE the name.”

Dexi seemed rather smug for some reason and buffed her nails on her yellow toga-like dress.

“Moving on, we have Hydna of Scione. She’s representing the Greek contingent and most of the girls who worked on or with water in their lives.”
She nodded to me and brushed a string of damp hair behind her ear casually.

I vaguely remember Hydna from the last time I was here and met everyone.
She’d come up to meet me with a larger group of Greek girls but didn’t say much.

Her hair still looks wet, which is kind of weird, I was mildly curious about it last time we met but it’s rather odd that it’s STILL wet for some reason..

“Isabella Bird, representative for the British contingent and the nomads.”
The girl she pointed to seemed oddly pale compared to everyone else and honestly appeared to be more interested in the book in her lap then me or the meeting in general.

I shifted a little in my seat and could just make out that the book was some kind of thick atlas.
It feels vaguely familiar, I think it might be one I looked at back in grade school.

“Representing the Celts, Scottish or otherwise, is Lady M. I’m sure you remember her.”
Everyone at the table smirked a little.
Lady M shot me an embarrassed look and seemed to be trying to tug her skirt down a bit under the table.

If this is the way they’ve been treating her for being stuck in that school uniform I’m going to have to let her out of it.
She’s suffered enough, I wasn’t exactly planning to punish her in the first place..

“Representing the French and the upper-class nobility we have Anise.”
The usually defiant French pain-in-the-ass gave me a bored wave and turned to mutter something to Lady M which made her go bright red in the face.

I shot her a warning look but she just gave me a mild glare back and poked her tongue out at me.

“Representing the Germanic clans and the Eastern bloc we have Greta.”
The surprisingly muscular girl that I specifically remember, ONLY because she gave me a painfully tight bear hug when we met, nodded at me with her tight smile.

Sitting awkwardly in the same type of executive office chair that everyone else was sitting in, she seemed even larger then she had the last time I saw her.
I know she’s technically the same height and body shape as everyone else but her arms are just worryingly muscular when compared to the thin, girly arms of the rest of us.

I’m not being sexist, we’re MAGES!
When have you ever seen a fantasy book, movie or computer game with a muscular mage in it?
..Even the men end up looking more girly then I do most of the time..

Magic is usually at the opposite end of the spectrum, training wise, to the ‘having muscles’ and ‘being in anyway physical’ types of activities.
It’s a stereotype for a reason, mages in general tend to be pretty squishy in the body areas of combat and stronger on the mental forms.

Fena is probably the most active mage I’ve heard of.
Her best spells tend to require some kind of punch or aggressive movement to cast.

I asked her about it, she actually created most of her spells herself.
The movement is directly built into the spells, she factors it into the spell calculations as a force multiplier.
That’s why I was so shocked when her flaming punch failed to break my ice dome yesterday.
Technically speaking, on paper at least, she should have had more than enough power to shatter not just the dome but ME in the process.

I’m still not sure how she managed to NOT kill me honestly.

Even the elemental equations wouldn’t explain it.
If anything fire has a force multiplier against Ice.
If I’d cast a water spell or something then sure, I would have had the advantage, but even THAT wouldn’t be enough to make up for her well-crafted spell.

Especially when mine was cast on instinct compared to her carefully planned and cast attack..

======

“Yoo-hoo, anyone home?”
I just managed to pull my head away before Ellie rapped her knuckles on it to get my attention.
Everyone was giving me sympathetic looks, aside from Ellie who just seemed exasperated.

“..If I may continue?”

My butt shifted slightly deeper into my seat and I nodded to her with what I hope was an apologetic look on my face.
She didn’t give an indication either way and just haughtily turned from me to gesture at the last two remaining girls.

“Blenda, representing the Scandinavian contingent and those who have suffered at the hands of men.”
Blenda was wearing a dress that looked like a more prudish version of the dresses I associate with German bar-maids above anything else sadly.

It’s probably some kind of traditional dress of her people but without open access to her memories within the mindscape I couldn’t tell you what it’s meant to symbolise or be used for.
I just recognise the style from pictures I’ve seen online, it looks the same as the stereotypical bar-maids do in general, just with less cleavage on display and being made from a rougher fabric with a longer skirt.

“..and lastly, Nitocris, representing the Egyptian contingent along with the Arabian Sea cultures and those scorned who sought vengeance.”

Nitocris seems a lot less uptight compared to the last time I saw her.
She was practically a pharaoh in her own time and she’d originally had the haughty demeanour that you would expect to see from one with so much power.

Now she looked calm but like Anise, rather bored about everything going on around her.

“Can we move on to ze point now? Be-fore Sarah wakes up?”
Ellie shot Anise an annoyed look but didn’t argue with her.

We kind of ARE running on borrowed time here, and I’ve still got to find out just how they pulled me from my dream for this meeting in the first place.

“Fine.. I open the floor for new busine-”
Ellie’s words were cut off sharply when Dexi, the roman rep, shot to her feet dramatically.

“NO MORE PANTIES!”

I sunk a bit more into my seat nervously and glanced around the room.
The girls, as a whole, seemed entirely too calm about her shouted statement and were all giving looks that ranged somewhere between exasperated and frustration.

Ellie coughed nervously and shot me an apologetic look.

“We will get to that Dexi, I told you I made it a point to be raised but I won’t do it if you continue to shout out like this..”
Dexi seemed to deflate a little and quickly sat back into her seat with the same look on her face that Sarah used to get when mum told her off for something as a kid.

“Sorry, I promised I’d handle it ya know? The girls are counting on me.”
I almost felt sorry for her with the hang-dog expression on her face but Ellie didn’t let us dwell on the topic for too long.
I think she just didn’t want to let us get side-lined again honestly.

“As I was saying. Any new business?.. no?.. good.”
She huffed to herself and shuffled her papers a little.
“First order of business, a request from the British contingent on propriety, motion seconded by the French. Bella, you have the floor.”

Isabella stood up and turned to me, the others at least pretended to pay attention to her but it was pretty obvious I was the one she would be speaking to directly.

“We, the morally just women of your mindscape, feel that your recent clothing choices have been far too.. risqué.”
To her right I noticed Dexi roll her eyes and a few of the others seemed a bit annoyed about her words too.
“We are part of a long line of proud, noble women who should present ourselves as such. It’s for that purpose, I request that you desist from showing your.. white and dark meat.”
She blushed heavily for some reason.

My mouth dropped.
A few of the girls around the table sniggered at the obviously shocked and confused look on my face.

Ellie leaned on to my shoulder with a poorly hidden smile.
“She means your breasts and your thighs.. it’s a Victorian thing.”
I shrugged her off my shoulder and felt myself flush a little in return.

“It’s not like I planned it or anything. It’s just the fashion these days, Sarah hasn’t helped with those shorts..”
A few of the girls nodded, Bella didn’t look impressed with my argument though.
“..okay, what was the general vote on this point?”

They all looked at me with confusion.

“you know.. that’s the point of having a council, isn’t it?.. so you can voice your problems and vote to see if it’s a majority, minority or rejected idea?”
For a moment no-one said anything, they all seemed to be watching each other to see who would be the first to admit their mistake.

“You all didn’t realise that? It’s pretty much the whole reason I suggested a council in the first place..”
A few of them mumbled something but most of them just seemed a bit embarrassed about it all.

“Okay.”
Ellie softly brought her little wooden hammer down to get attention.
“Votes for the suggested action about Hannah’s recent.. dress code?..”
Isabella’s hand shot up and Anise reluctantly rose hers too.

“Those against?”
Everyone else’s hand rose up in return.

Dexi seemed highly amused by it all, I get the feeling she was the one fighting the idea the most before I got here.
The Roman’s in my head seem to all share a certain.. slack view of morality when it comes to clothing and sex in general..

“Vote deferred, point can be risen again in three months’ time.”
Isabella looked pretty disappointed and slightly annoyed but Anise just settled back in her seat calmly, I get the impression she was only backing it because the ‘French contingent’ wanted to.

“The next point.. we should vote on it before putting it to Hannah this time I guess.”
Ellie shot me a questioning look and I nodded back.
That sounds like a good idea, it will save me some time later down the line at least.

“Point raised by Blenda, seconded by Nitocris. You have the floor Blenda”

“I suggest we take action against John. We know his weaknesses and he’s currently stuck in a passive state due to his brand. We can hit him where it hurts and get revenge at the same time.”
A few of the girls nodded and shot me some cautious looks.

“My proposal is that we look into human transmogrification and turn him into a girl, a young girl, one we can easily defeat in physical combat before exacting retribution.”
Her hard-line stance left me a little surprised, I noticed I wasn’t the only one with that reaction either.
Greta and Nitocris seemed to be in full agreement with her though..

Ellie appeared slightly reluctant to speak for a moment but eventually she coughed nervously.

“Any opposed with points to raise?”
A few of the girls looked at each other but didn’t seem ready to voice their concerns.

I put my hand up.
As much as I’m angry at John and I would love some kind of petty revenge, especially something ironic like turning him into a girl in return, there IS a reason I’ve not just blasted him into oblivion.

“John has wronged me, I acknowledge that, but it’s precisely BECAUSE of the brand you wish to use against him that I feel we should hold off for now.”

Everyone seemed to be focused on me now.
It’s kind of unnerving seeing all those identical looks of curiosity aimed at me.

“The brand was placed on him by old magic. It’s meant to be temporary, holding him back from being able to hurt me physically or taking any form of action which his own conscience considers aggressive or provocative against me.”
The dawning look of understanding on Blenda’s face told me that I’ve probably already got my point across where it matters.
“I need that brand to stay in place, preferably for as long as possible. The moment I take an action against him which my magic considers ‘fair retribution’ for his harming me within the temples grounds he will be released from the brand.”

I glanced around the watching girls with an imploring look.

“I’ve got enough on my plate at the moment as it is, I don’t need him going after me and my family all over again. As it currently stands, he’s neutralised into a mild annoyance.”
A few heads nodded in understanding.
“If I can get a handle on my emotions a bit better, I could even get some fun out of annoying him in return, with him not being able to fight back.. I promise we WILL get revenge on him at some point.. but I just.. I need some time to sort everything out first?..”
The girls all seemed to be considering my words carefully.

The first one to break the silence was the usually quiet Greta.

“Ve only attack enemy while you are strong h’and he is weak, use a ceasefire to build up for war.. da, that is the wise v-ay of a true warrior.”
Isabella puffed up a little in indignation.

“What of honor? It’s underhanded and a foul way to win a battle!”
Everyone, even her recent supporter Anise, gave her a strange look.

“It’s Max, we all have some kind of dealings with him and we all know what he’s capable of.. I’m perfectly fine with cheating to beat him eventually.”
Dexi settled back in her seat and folded her arms self-importantly.

I was a little surprised when Hydna, the Greek water girl, spoke up.
Judging by the looks on their faces a few of the others were surprised too.

“The only honor in war is victory. Any method to attain that honor is worth taking.. at the same time we should not prod the sleeping titan in our midst, Max is a potentially dangerous threat that is currently contained. I say we let him stay contained..”
No-one else seemed willing to speak up so Ellie shuffled her papers.

“The vote to take active revenge on Max.. John..”
She paused and looked mildly annoyed.
“As a side note, can we officially make a decision if we are going to refer to him by his true mage name or his current incarnation? Switching between names is getting annoying..”

Before they could start arguing again I made the decision.
“John, we call him John. It will annoy him more and I honestly can’t help but think of him as John when I see him. After twenty years of friendship it’s kind of a hard habit to break.”

Lady M grumbled something about ‘more like ten years’ but when I glanced at her she didn’t seem ready to repeat it so I let it go.

“John it is, those for revenge now?”
Ellie seemed a little annoyed when no-one seemed willing to raise their hand.
“All opposed?”
Nine hands went up.

After a moment where everyone stared at her Dexi reluctantly put her other arm back down.
She didn’t seem in any way embarrassed for having been so childish though.

“Point unanimously rejected. Open for re-discussion in six months.”

Ellie shuffled her papers again and seemed to be building herself up for her next words.
I think she’s developing a nervous habit or something with all the paper shuffling honestly.
“The final point to raise is from Dexi..”

Before she could reluctantly continue Dexi shot to her feet with a cheer and pointed a finger at my face, her whole pose demanding attention.
“No more panties! Their awkward, and confining and useless and-”
She stalled with a muffled grunt when Hydna reached up and put her hand over her mouth.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief, except for Dexi obviously.

Ellie put a hand up to her face and sighed loudly.
“From what I understand, a lot of Roman women along with the other groups that Dexi represents, including the ex-consorts, entertainers, tribal women and.. well, anyway they all used to go without underwear.. ever since they have started getting flashes of your senses semi-regularly they have been complaining that yours are.. uncomfortable?”

I got the sense that there was another set of words they used to describe them which Ellie was sanitising for my sake.
Judging by the look on Dexi’s face, she thought so too.

“I’m not going without underwear, no matter what.. I can look and see if I can get some looser things and we can see if tha-”
Before I could finish the peace offering my shoulder shook violently to the side.

I almost crashed into Ellie from the force of it.
Just on the edge of my hearing I could detect Sarah calling my name.

“That will do for now, we can discuss this another time, right Dexi?”
Dexi pushed Hydna’s hand away from her mouth and reluctantly nodded in acceptance.
Ellie gave her a warm smile and then glanced at me.

“Go on, before she gets annoyed, thanks for dropping in. It’s been nice to catch up, don’t hesitate to come visit when you sleep next okay?”
She patted my shoulder and let a grin slip across her lips.
“Some of the girls wanted to show you around the things that have changed in your mindscape since you were last here.”

I nodded to her and shot an apologetic look at the girls.
They all seemed to understand why I had to go so quickly at least.

With a mental push I forced myself back out of my mindscape and into the real world.

======

“Hannahhh, Haaannaahhhhh, sleepy sleepy Hannah.. Quick Han, the house is on fire!”

I jolted up in bed with a gasp and wildly swung around to look for signs of danger.
Sarah cracked up laughing, shifting her weight on the bed so she wasn’t practically mounting me anymore.

“I should have guessed using danger would wake you up Han. You’re a surprisingly deep sleeper, is that new? I swear you never used to be like that..”
My eyes settled on her sunny smile and I couldn’t help smiling back.
She seems to be in a really good mood this morning.

She’s also fully dressed.
I didn’t realise I’d slept THAT long.

“Com’ on Han, time to get up. Take a shower while I get breakfast done, then you can do your magic on my hair!”
Without another glance at me she slid off the bed and padded her way out of the room.

If I’m not mistaken she started humming some kind of tune by the time she reached the hallway.

She’s in a REALLY good mood for some reason.
Admittedly I’m not feeling too bad myself, for having woken up repeatedly and then spent the morning in my mindscape instead of dreaming, I feel surprisingly awake for once.

My magic is singing in my lines again, that’s a bit annoying but I’m in a good enough mood to ignore even that problem at the moment.
Not that I have to ignore it.. I’d almost forgotten.

With a single touch I lead a strand of magic from my core and swung it around my lines to collect more and more of the cold magic that had been building up in my body as one mass of raw power.

When it felt like I had enough I cycled it one more time and forced it out all at once.
My body shook with pleasure as the magic poured out of me from every area of my body.

I’ll never get bored of this feeling!
It’s so.. soo good!

The magic’s flow eased off and I collapsed bonelessly back onto the bed with a contented sigh.

I LOVE magic sometimes.
I love this bed.
I love the bumpy ceiling of this room.
I love Edith for changing my dangerous instinctive ice magic into THIS..

I feel all bubbly and happy.
If I could I’d wrap the whole world in a hug right now and never let go.

Everyone should get to feel this good!

======

It took me a moment to realised Sarah was leaning over me with an amused look on her face.

“Are you magic drunk again?”
Reluctantly I shifted on the bed and nodded my head a little in agreement.

For all it matters I might as well be.

I don’t think I want to tell Sarah that when I vent my magic like that it feels more like an intense, extended female orgasm then being ‘drunk’..
I especially don’t want her asking how I know what a female orgasm feels like!

..damn shower monster and his underhanded, yet perfectly shaped, pulsing showerhead..

“I’m okay.. lean a bit closer for a sec.”
She shot me a curious look but dutifully leaned in as if I was going to whisper into her ear.

My hand came up to settle on her head.
With almost all of my magic gone it took virtually no effort at all for me to dip into my lines and light up the three lines needed.
To simulate the surge of wild magic I’d had when casting on myself I pushed a second trail of power into the middle line.
If I’m right that line directs hair regrowth rate, so pumping more power into it should go from fixing split ends to actually growing the hair, like it did for me.

Before she could react my hand swept down from the top of her head to the end of her shoulder length hair.

“Han?”
Sarah sounded worried.
I just smiled at her reassuringly.

I could tell the moment the spell kicked in by the surprised look on her face.
It was kind of fascinating watching her hair grow down her back in rapid succession.

In less than thirty seconds her hair was just a little longer then my own current length.
Although the differences in our height and sizes made it look like we had roughly the same length to my eye.

Not a bad job if I do say so myself.. I thought I’d end up scrimping on the magic too much and having to cast it again but it seems that I got lucky on my first attempt.
Sarah’s mouth was open in shock.

Her hand slowly drifted down her chest following a line of hair that had tangled its way across her front.
Just as she reached the tip of the hair the last part of the spell kicked in and with a slight surge it curled at the ends, smoothing out to settle perfectly around her on all sides.

She gasped, shooting me a wide eyed look for a moment before she broke into a grin and dived at me for a squealing hug.
I managed to get my arms up to catch her but had to grunt when her full weight landed on me making the bed groan a little as well.

“That. Was. SO. Cool!”
Her hand fiddled near my ear for a moment and I could just make out her playing with her new longer hair.
“We have to see what other stuff you can do that’s this useful later!”

She dropped the hair finally and gave me a naughty grin.

Before I could stop her she swooped down and kissed me firmly on the cheek.
Without a moment’s pause she moved over and kissed my other cheek, rubbing her’s against mine to seal the deal.
It really HAS been years since she’s done that.

There was a point where a day wouldn’t go by without her doing her little kiss ritual to thank me for doing the littlest of things.
Admittedly that was back before pre-school, I wasn’t even sure she remembered doing it until now honestly..

“Com’ on Han, breakfast.”
She got up and helped pull me off the bed in the process.

“I’ll be out in a bit. I need a sh-”
Wait a minute..

Sarah gave me an odd look when I lifted my arm and sniffed my armpit slightly.
She REALLY gave me a strange look when I cupped my hand to my nose and breathed out with a sniff.

“huh.. this new diverted magic thing is amazing.. it fixes things, it heals things and it turns out it can clean things too.”
Sarah squinted at me in slight confusion.

“I’ve not had a shower or anything yet but I smell great and I feel clean!”
I stepped closer to her and breathed in her face.

She scrunched her nose automatically but the look eased off a second later.
“Mint?”

With a flip of my hair I gave her an arrogant grin and continued in my best ‘TV advertiser’ voice.
“Minty fresh breath. Try all new ‘Hannah’s vented magic’, it heals, it repairs AND it can replace all your personal hygiene needs.”

HA! Take THAT shower monster!

For the price of a really enjoyable, sudo-orgasm, every morning I’m never going to have to suffer through another shower ever again!
..I’m not sure if I’m more pleased about the ability to avoid awkward showers or the chance to vent magic more often for semi-legitimate reasons..
I think I’ve already mentioned just how GOOD venting my magic feels now..

“None of that Han, breakfast will get cold.”
I jumped a little in surprised but her words shook me out of my thoughts at least.

“Coming.”

She led the way like a conquering hero while I trailed behind, trying to not focus too much on the pleasure still rolling lightly over my body.
I’ve noticed that it tends to take a while to fade away completely, not that I’m complaining.

======

“So, now you’ve done your hair spell on me, what’s the plan for the rest of the day?”
I hesitated for a moment but voiced my thoughts anyway.

If she wants to do something else I can do it later after all.

“I want to clear some space under the elevator to plant a ward stone for the house if you’re up for it?”
She cocked her head to the side and chewed her bacon thoughtfully.

“I’ve heard of those, that’s the big rock thingy’s you put down to hide areas from normal people isn’t it?”
I couldn’t resist a wince at her overly simplified explanation.

While she’s technically correct in that ward stones CAN be used to obscure an area from anyone who’s not magically ‘white listed’ to have access, they do a lot more than that.

You can put practically anything into a ward stone if you’re good enough.
The Babylonians were experts on ward stones.
That’s how they managed to hide the hanging gardens so well.

Hell, the gardens are used to this day by the European magical union as a safe base of operations.

While the place looks amazing and so open, the ward stone it’s built around does everything from filter air, promote plant growth, simulate weather patterns, clean water, maintain masonry, hide the area in general from everything up to global satellites AND they’ve even managed to completely disintegrate rockets that have come a bit too close to the area without anyone outside noticing.

..I’d love to go there someday..

I know you’re not allowed to actually SEE the ward stone or anything but everything I’ve read about the place has people singing its praises for beauty, security and the general environment.

It’s a shame I couldn’t bring Sarah with me if I did go though.
The hanging gardens were a safe haven for mages during some truly dark times, as such, if you don’t have a magical core you can’t come in.
Most normal people who hit the ward line around them get instantly warped to the other side of the line with a minute-long memory charm and a slight confusion hex to send them away from the area.

“Wouldn’t a ward stone be a bit too big for our house?”

I shot Sarah a considering look but shook my head.
The stones are as big or small as you like.
One that will cover most of the forest around our house and even cover the Martials house should be just small enough to fit in the elevator shaft in the kitchen, if I do it right.

“Are you willing to help?”
Sarah shrugged and snagged another piece of bacon with her fork.

“Sure, what else am I going to do with my day? What do we have to do?”
I slid down a little in my chair and glanced thoughtfully at the ceiling.

I’ve got a LOT of calculations to do.
It’s going to take me days to get them all balanced and resolve any conflicts before I’d be willing to start making the stone.
If you mess up a ward stone things can get.. bad.. ‘the whole area your protecting squashed into a small heavy cube the moment someone disrupts your layline power source’ kind of bad.

Luckily I wouldn’t rely on layline power for ours.
I’m not an idiot..

It’s going to take a bit of work to balance an alternative power source though.
I suppose I could attach it to the power of Pan?
He’s the fae king of mountains.
We live pretty near a fair few mountains.

I’m not sure I want to chance drawing the attention of one of the higher powers though..

Power’s be praised, I’ve avoided them so far in this life but some of my past incarnations got on their wrong sides and.. well.. lets just say that one of the girls that Ellie is holding back for me spent most of her adult life as a goat.

I’m SO glad I don’t have to deal with her!
Spend enough time as a goat and you start going a bit weird in the head apparently..

“We need to send the elevator upstairs, then pry the doors open down here. I’ll only clear the area and set the pylon point for now. I need to do some maths before making the actual stone.”

Sarah seemed to perk up a lot more at the idea of playing with the elevator shaft.
She’s always been fascinated by it since we were kids.
Not that I can judge, I played with it just as much as she did.

We never DID find out why mum was so reluctant to let us use it.
I suppose she has her reasons but I don’t THINK she’s afraid of elevators or anything?

“Eat up then. We can have some fun with this after and you can do some more magic.”
Sarah smiled at me and I smiled back.

It’s nice that she’s so interested in seeing me do magic all of a sudden.
It’s even better that we are both feeling so comfortable and close again.

I’ve missed this closeness, I’ve needed it honestly.
I’ve really missed it all a lot actually, now that I think about it..

======

“Elevator up.”
She shot me the same naughty grin she would always do when we played with this thing as kids.

I laughed and rubbed my hands together slightly, more from feeling cold then nerves.
It’s kind of chilly at the moment, the weather finally turned a little I guess.
It probably doesn’t help that Sarah insisted we wear some of my ‘adventurer shorts’ for this.

‘It’s not an adventure without adventurer shorts’.. apparently..

It was kind of awkward when she realised I have slightly wider hips then her though.
I’d not had the heart to tell her that her shorts were cutting into me when I woke up after my change but she’s worked it out for herself now.

She huffed childishly over it but didn’t really seem upset, more amused really.
She made a big scene in a ‘woe is me, the big sister with the smaller hips AND breasts. Fate is a cruel mistress..’ angle.
If she wasn’t grinning throughout the whole thing I would have been a bit worried honestly.

She’s, surprisingly, a pretty good actress.
It probably comes with being on TV or something.

I wonder if the Hub provided her training in that sort of thing?..
It would make sense, from their standpoint at least.

“Stand back Han. I’ll wedge the door open.”

I grumbled at little to myself but didn’t directly argue with her.
I am fully aware that her body is stronger than mine.
She was always physically stronger than me, even when I was still in my male body.

From my position by the kitchen counters I watched carefully as Sarah wedged a screwdriver into the door gap and slowly eased the reluctant doors apart.
We’re kind of lucky the elevator is so old and low budget, I don’t think you can open the doors in modern elevators like this.. at least I hope you can’t?

Sarah’s opening them with worrying ease.
If you can do that to normal elevator doors then I’ve gained another form of transport I’m avoiding from now on!

You don’t want to know how easy it would be for a mage to throw a basic, low level cutting curse at the exposed elevator wires if they could get the doors above one open.
Hell, I don’t want to know and I’m a mage who could do that without batting an eye!

When the doors finally hit their ‘fully open’ limit Sarah grabbed the wedges we’d found in the airing cupboard and slid them into both sides to hold them tight.
She let out a relieved sigh and I copied the action instinctively.

Her eyes seemed to struggle to focus on the bottom of the maintenance pit under the elevator shaft for some reason.

After a moment her body went tense and she let out a surprised gasp.
With a glance over her shoulder she waved me closer.

I cautiously made my way to her side and peered over the edge.

My eyes instantly ached a little, in a way I normally only get when staring at.. oh..
Just to make sure I wasn’t imagining things I pushed a little magic into my eye lines and activated mage sight.

The pit lit up like a Christmas tree with the unmistakeably unnatural greeny-purple shade of wild magic.

Sitting at the very center of the shaft, approximately where I was planning on putting MY new ward stone, was.. a ward stone.
.. correction.. a BIG ward stone..

A big ward stone that seemed to practically GLOW with wild magic at a level that was making my eyes hurt from looking at it, even with mage sight activated..
“Holy crap..”

Sarah pushed my shoulder for attention and glared at me to explain.
I shrugged and stretched out on my belly so I could lean a bit closer to the ward stone.
For a moment I thought I was going to fall headfirst in to the pit but Sarah caught my legs and pushed them back down with an annoyed grunt.

“It’s a ward stone..”

She made another noise at the back of her throat which sounded anything but amused.
“I guessed that much genius, what the hell is it doing here?”

I squeezed my eyes shut tight and ran some calculations in my head.

This thing is OLD.
It has to have been here since we first moved in, if not before that.
There’s no way it could have gathered this much wild magic without having a lot of time to do it.

Wild magic isn’t some common thing you can pick up off the floor, especially in this area.
All the tree’s and nature around our house tends to leave everything with the clinging power of nature magic to it after a while.

Wild magic tends to only appear in deserts naturally.
Even then it’s only because the lack of any other kinds of active magic generated in the area stops anything from drowning it out and diluting it.

Well, I say it only forms naturally in deserts.. either that or at the sites of magic battles?
..Big magic battles..

The kind of magic battles which go down in history as mythic duels between the gods.
The kind of magic battles that tend to scar the very earth they take place on and leave an area wide mix of curses, which can linger for generations..

“This really isn’t the time Han, I can’t hold your stumpy little legs forever.”

A growl rumbled in my throat as a response but I know she didn’t mean anything by it, she’s just confused and worried.
She tends to make comments like that when she’s worried and no-one will tell her what’s going on.

I opened my eyes again and stared hard at the ward stone.
Mentally cataloguing everything about it that seemed in any way important.

“Okay, pull me up.”
She didn’t even bother taking my hand, instead she took the chance to just scoop me up by my waist and lift me bodily back onto my feet.
I think she got some kind of joy from the indignant squawk of protest I gave off.
Her momentary smirk said as much at least.

“So.. this is your area of expertise, what’s the deal with the magically appearing rock?”
I winced at her weak pun, as usual that seemed to only encourage her judging by the little grin she gave off after saying it.

“It’s old, this things powerful. I have no idea what even half of the enchantments on it are.”
My mage sight chose that moment to give up trying to work.
I winced and shut my eyes tightly to stem off the pain.

Having weak lines to my eyes SUCKS!

“I don’t recognise a lot of the languages involved, I can see a few more standard clusters though, at the very least there’s an ill-intent ward on it.”
Ill-intent wards are pretty recognisable, they have to be laid out in a specific pattern no matter what language you craft them in.

It’s always reminded me of a slightly wonky duck.. design wise.
Edith gets annoyed when I describe things like that but it DOES.

Sometimes when I look at a rune cluster it’s like staring up at the stars, I can see patterns and shapes that no-one else seems to be able to see in them.
Fena humoured me enough to look into it but we couldn’t find anything describing any kind of ‘runic pattern reading’ magical traits.

If it IS a real skill then I’m possibly the first person to have it.

“You okay Han?”
Sarah’s hand came down on my shoulder comfortingly.
I pushed my eyes open and squinted at her with a smile.

“I’ll be okay, it happens if I use mage sight too much.”
Her face plainly said that she wasn’t happy with me brushing it off like that.
Time to change the topic I think.

I coughed nervously and shifted my hips slightly.

“It looks like all the important wards I wanted to put up are already in place at least, I’ll have to give my eyes a few days to settle again and then take another look at the stone. I don’t like having such powerful active magic around us without knowing exactly what it’s doing..”
Sarah winced but nodded in understanding.

“Can’t I take some pictures of it for you? Then you could look at the markings on it at least..”

It’s nice of her to offer but that won’t work sadly.
Some of the wards will have left tell-tale signs or markings behind when they were placed but most of them are only visible under mage sight.

That’s under the assumption that her camera could even TAKE a picture of it.

With that much wild magic moving about the stone, the camera is more likely to explode then actually get a clear picture.
I’m not one of those weirdo cultists who believe ‘magic is alive’ or other such rot, but if magic WAS alive then she’d have to be a bitchy teenager with a bad acne outbreak!
That’s what it feels like at least, seeing how little it likes to be photographed.

The only way you could get a clear, useful image of the ward stone would be if..
..Maybe..
If I..

“Your camera won’t work, it’s too modern.. do you think you could find an old film camera somewhere?”
Her eyebrow popped up curiously.

“How old?”

She’s learning.
A few years ago she wouldn’t have thought to ask me that question.

“The older the better. Don’t get an antique though, those are expensive and I’m going to be modifying the crap out of it.”
Her eyes lit up with interest suddenly.

Who knew the way to get Sarah hanging on my every word was to discuss magic of all things?
I always figured she’d be a bit defensive about it, seeing as I can do magic and she can’t.
She’s not exactly got a good history with jealousy after all..

“You’re going to make a magical camera?”
I nodded and squinted my eyes a little more as my eyes flared up in pain again.

I’m tempted to forcefully vent my magic, to get a quick heal out of it, but normal healing magic has never helped with the pain when I strain my eyes.
It’s caused BY my magic, why would my magic fix it?

“That’s so cool! When you’re done with it can I borrow it or are you going to rent it out like the flute?”
I actually closed my eyes this time and brought a hand up to rub at the bridge of my nose.

“Sure, if you can get me two I’ll even make you your own one. It never hurts to have a spare.”
She squealed and bounced on her toes happily.

I huffed and tried to not wince as my eyes pulsed again.
We’re getting distracted from the main thing we should be talking about..

Mums place, our family home for years, has a pretty major ward stone under it!

That’s big.. that’s HUGE.. that’s.. that’s worrying..
We shouldn’t have a ward stone here yet, especially one that’s THAT old.

“You said the ward stone has an ill-intent ward on it right?.. that’s the one that keeps anyone with dangerous thoughts or who want to hurt someone within the ward from coming within range of their victims.. right?”

Pretty much.. ill-intent ward does what it says, it wards against ill-intent.
It’s mostly used to keep dangerous magical creatures away from buildings but it also works well to create a neutral area of non-combat.

If you try to pass the ward barrier while intending to hurt someone inside, it’ll bounce your ass back to Kansas Dorothy, little dog and all!

They’re hard to craft and even worse to power.
That’s why they’re so uncommon despite how useful they could be.
If they were easy everyone would have one.

“Well, if the ward protects from people who mean us harm.. how is John living next door?”

..ah… good point..
Very good point..
A very worrying and confusing point.. but good point nonetheless..

“I guess.. John doesn’t mean us any harm?..”

..wow..
Never thought I’d be able to say THAT sentence with a straight face..

John..
Asshole, ex-best friend who turned me into a girl and branded me after kidnapping Sarah to act as bait John.. HE doesn’t mean us any harm??

My hand came up again to rub at the bridge of my nose.
This time I’ve got a headache and I’m pretty sure it’s got nothing to do with my weak eyes.

Damn it John!
I was just getting used to the idea of hating you.. DON’T make me have second thoughts on that fact!

“Where are you going?”

It took me a second to realise that I’d started walking out of the kitchen while thinking.
After a moment’s hesitation I carried on walking.
I need this.
I need to find out just what the HELL he’s up to!

“I’m going to visit the neighbours. I’d recommend you stay here, just in case.. but I won’t force you.”

Sarah’s face showed her torn opinions on the matter.
I could tell that she wanted to go with me, just as backup if nothing else, but her logic was telling her to stay far away from the powerful mage who has proven to have a.. skewed moral compass.

“If I’m not back in twenty minutes, call Fena’s shop and hide in my new bedroom. I’ve warded the door enough to delay him at least.”
Without another look at her worried face I moved up the stairs and along the hall to the street-side front door.

“I just KNOW I’m going to regret this..”
The door opened easily and my eyes disagreed with the idea of staying open for a moment when faced with the midday sun.

“I swear, the first smug little word out of his mouth, I’m just gonna just punch him and leave..”

The street felt hot under my thin slip on shoes.
For such a cool day, the direct sunlight is surprisingly intense.

In the Martials driveway I could see the extra car parked up.
Just like it has been for the last few days.. at least it’s pretty easy to tell that he’s home..

“Ready or not John-boy, here I come..”