Sharon and Jim made an appointment at the broker's, whose name was Callie Marine, for investment advice later that week. They had debated whether to be upfront over the phone or not, but figured that even if she did know something about magic, describing their experience would still be more likely to scare her than get her to help them. It turned out to be a moot point: they didn't get to talk to her, just a secretary.
Thus, the pair was nervous when it came time to go the broker. Sharon knew that Jim was in a worse place than she: he was going as a woman, his first time out to an important meeting since starting to wear female clothes in public. Still, the feeling of being watched and judged, as when she took Jim to buy clothes, hit Sharon again as they got directions from the secretary and made their way to Callie's office.
They went into the office and closed the door. Sharon noticed that the decor cleaved to the superstitious, with herbs suspended over the door frame, strange metal symbols fastened to the walls of the room, and a pot full of four-leaf clovers growing in one corner. Sharon was sure that if she knew more about magic, there would be even more signs. As it was, if she couldn't tell from the magical paraphernalia, she couldn't miss the shelf full of books about fortune telling, below the binders of stock prices and company information.
Callie was wearing a tasteful navy blue business suit with slacks. She looked about fifty, and had her graying hair pulled back in a bun. Despite her age, she was still quite striking, and Sharon had little doubt that when she was younger she was a beautiful woman. The only concession she made to whatever magic she possessed was in a runed silver ring, matching her silver earrings.
Callie said, "I was told to be expecting a Sharon McClellan and a Jim Dutil. Who might you be?"
Sharon said, "I'm Sharon McClellan."
Jim said, "I'm Jim Dutil."
Callie looked annoyed. "If this some kind of joke, it's not funny."
Sharon, noticing that Jim seemed to have frozen up, said, "I apologize for not being forthright with you, but we're not here for investment advice. We heard a rumor that you know something about magic, and well . . . our problem is of that nature."
Sharon could see understanding gleam in Callie's eyes. "Let me guess . . . this magical problem has something to do with 'Jim's' appearance.
"I don't normally do magic consulting. In fact, I've never even had anyone ask me about it before. What happened?"
Sharon narrated the story, starting with the package and the note, to Callie, who showed no reaction whatsoever. Jim stared at his hands, and every so often ran one through his hair. When Sharon finished, Callie said, "Hmm. Can I see this ring?"
Sharon produced it and laid it on the desk. Before Sharon could gainsay her, Callie reached out and touched it. However, as soon as her finger brushed it, Callie gasped, jerked back, and started shaking her hand.
Callie grimaced and said, "That ring appears to be emphatic about its owner. Sharon, can you provide a demonstration?" Sharon obliged, putting on the ring and making her eyes green.
Callie widened her eyes. "To be able to effect a physical transformation so fast . . . that ring has great power."
Callie closed her eyes and bowed her head, almost as if in prayer. "As such things are counted, I am not all that powerful. I study the foretelling of the future and some other minor magics. To be able to do that is far beyond my abilities. To be able to make a ring that gives an untutored user that kind of shape-shifting . . . it boggles my mind. Your ring, Sharon, is one of the great magical artifacts of the world. I've heard the rumors, but I would never have dreamed that I would see such before I died."
Jim said, "But can we use that power to turn me back?"
Callie said, "I don't know. I need to know more about the ring. Do you have the note?"
Jim smiled, and Sharon restrained an impulse to kick his shin: it had been his suggestion to bring it. "Here," Sharon said.
She read, "'Dear Sharon, I think you'll have fun with this birthday gift. Just put it on and you can change your body in any way you can imagine. You can only change your body, not your clothes, but other than that there are few limits on this gift. So long as you stay human and female, anything goes. If you take the ring off, you'll stay the way you are for a day, then change back to your normal self. Enjoy yourself!'"
Callie, who still sat in her meditative pose, said, "I see."
"What?" asked Jim, annoyed.
Callie said, "Magic has certain rules. For someone who does not know them, those instructions will be, perhaps, opaque. I think that note communicated more than you realize.
"The first and most important principle of magic is that magic is an act of the will, and the mind. The limitations that you must remain human and female probably mean human and female in mind, not in body."
"How do you mean? What does it mean to be human and female in mind?" Sharon asked.
"It means, for instance, that you couldn't turn into a gnat or anything else so small as to be unable to support a human brain, because a human brain is required for a human mind. Likewise, it would be impossible to enhance your mental faculties through the use of the ring. As for femaleness, gender is also rooted in the mind."
"It's true," Jim said. "All the transsexuals talk about 'gender dysphoria,' where their bodies and the social expectations placed on them don't match up with their minds. I think that's my problem, now."
Callie nodded. "Sharon, you could change into a male body, but it would feel wrong to you. As time passed, you would grow uncomfortable, and would want to come back to a female body. As he said, Jim is experiencing this effect now, in the opposite direction."
Sharon asked, "If you are mainly interested in telling the future, how do you know this?"
Callie smiled and stood, taking a book down from a shelf. It was bound in red leather and lettered with gold leaf; the title was Elementary Shapeshifting. "I've never practiced shapechanging magic, but I learned the basic principles. The limitations and problems I cited are well known to shapeshifters, and are not unique to your ring.
"There are probably other limitations. Some of those are included under a careful reading of the note. It refers to your body, not the bodies of others, which is why it doesn't work for anyone but you. Its powers are restricted to shapeshifting. I assume that, even with its potency, there are limits on the size and speed of the changes. Particularly, gross violations of physical laws, like the conversation of matter, can not be swift. It is also certainly limited by your imagination: if you can't envision it and don't understand it, it won't happen."
Sharon asked, "What do you mean?"
"If you were to try to turn into an alien, you wouldn't be able to, regardless of whether not they exist, because you don't understand the details of their forms."
Jim said, "If this ring has so many limitations, why did it change me?"
Callie shook her head. "I don't know. Magic is not always predictable, and I fear this is one of those cases.
"I can, perhaps, find out." She took a sticky note and scribbled an address on it. "This is my address. Come there, tonight at midnight, bring the ring and the note, and I will work what divination spells I know to see if I can decipher the mystery."
With that invitation, Sharon and Jim left to spend a few hours in suspense. Sharon was off work that night, luckily, and Jim had taken off the rest of the day, so all they were left to do was eat dinner and then fret. They were both relieved when at last the time came and they made their way to Callie's house.
They walked up and rang the doorbell, dodging three cats in the process. Callie appeared, wearing a conservative dress, and led them inside past another cat, then out onto the back porch and beneath a large tree. Then, without the slightest hint of embarrassment or trepidation, she began to strip, taking off her dress, then her panties and bra.
Watching their shocked expressions, she undid her bun and shook her hair out; it reached halfway down her back. Then she said, "This magic requires that we present ourselves unencumbered by the shielding effect of clothes. Now, sit with me in the circle: we need to form a triangle holding hands."
Jim and Sharon, after sharing incredulous glances, shrugged and started disrobing. When Callie saw Jim's penis, she chuckled, and Jim glared at her. When they were done, Sharon and Jim sat down in the dirt circle, crossing their legs and joining hands with each other. The soil fell uncomfortable against the bare skin of her buttocks, but moving made it worse, so Sharon did her best to stay still.
Callie sat down in front of them and lit a small pot that started to give off fragrant smoke. "Sharon, would please put on the ring? Jim, would please you hold the note?" They did so, and she continued, "All I need you to do is remain still. I will do the work, but you must not break my concentration or lose contact. If you do, it will be ruined and we will have to start over."
Sharon didn't know how long the spell took. Without a watch or any other way to track the time, all she could do was sit and try not to concentrate on the grit rubbing against her ass, the sweaty palms of her companions, or Callie's muttering. She looked at the stars, or rather the urban glow; the tree; the grass; she counted her breaths and the heartbeats of her companions; anything to relieve the boredom.
At last, Callie stirred, and as she did, Sharon gasped. Strands of misty light had started to appear in the night, and as she looked around, she saw that each object glowed with a faint aura of a distinct color. Callie opened her eyes and the auras and stands lightened, changing the mundane landscape into a maze of colored light.
Callie said, "All things have auras. The auras have meaning, if you know how to interpret them. The strands that link objects represent connections of different kinds."
Sharon now looked at herself. She could see her ring: it shone like a sun, burning with an argent light. A fainter line of the same color linked it to her heart. As she turned to look at Jim, she noticed a brilliant crimson strand leading from the center of her chest to Jim's. Around it, a thin strand of silver twined.
Callie reached out to the strand and passed a finger through it. "It is as I feared."
Alarmed, Sharon asked, "What?"
"One of the other fundamental principles in magic is sympathy, like affects like.
"You feel for each other. It's clear to read in this line: a connection of passion, of love. The link you share is so strong, though, that when Sharon called on the magic of the ring, some of its magic passed into you, Jim. That magic began to change you to match Sharon. You see, by the power of your feelings for each other, it sees you as an extension of Sharon."
Jim asked, "Will . . . will I turn into a twin of Sharon?"
"Possibly, but if so, it will take a long time. From the look of your aura, the ring has focused first on the most radical differences between you. In this case, gender."
"What if Sharon uses the ring to change herself? Will I change too?"
Callie paused. "I . . . I don't think so. The body can become desensitized to magic just like it can to drugs, at least when the magic is imposed from outside. I doubt your body, Jim, will accept more radical changes, like switching your gender again."
Jim started crying, and Sharon was holding back tears herself. "Is there anything you can do?"
Callie said, "I might be able to create a binding spell on the link that will stop further changes. That, at least, will prevent Jim from turning into your clone. More . . . ." Callie made an open gesture with her hands. "I am not a master shapeshifter. I could not hope to oppose the magic of that ring even if it were acting on me. On someone else, anything I could attempt would be useless.
"That, however, is not the only thing to see here." Callie pointed to the note. "The ring and note share only the most tenuous of connections. The maker of the ring and the author of the note are different people, and only distantly connected. However, the ring is bound to you, Sharon, and no one else. Whoever made the ring intended it for you."
"Now, the most important. The author, or at least a proxy, sent the ring to you, so he or she knew it was meant for you." Callie indicated an evanescent thread leading from the ring off into the distance. "Follow the connection, and you will find the sender and the next piece in this puzzle."
"How?" Sharon said.
"More magic, of course. Scrying, this time." Callie rubbed her arms. "Let us put our clothes back on, and we can go to my pool."
The pool was located in another part of Callie's large yard, its bottom lined with rocks. Callie directed Sharon to toss the ring in, and as the water rippled an image began to take shape out of the moonlight and starlight. Sharon saw a middle-aged man, asleep alone in a small bed. After a moment, it passed and the water was just water again.
Sharon said, "How can that image possibly help us?"
Callie held up her hand and went into the house. She came back with some charcoal sticks and began working on a sketch while gazing into the pool. Jim and Sharon waited, talking in low voices. Truth to tell, Callie's revelations hadn't affected them that much: they had been braced for the worst, and that was just about what had happened, since there seemed to be no chance of reversing Jim's transformation. The only consolation they had was that it seemed that it was safe for Sharon to use the ring, at least if Callie's analysis was truthful and accurate.
When Callie finished, she handed the sketch to Sharon and Jim. "This is the man you're looking for. I can give you one more clue to his position, and that's it."
Jim took the drawing, which was quite well-done, detailed enough for the man to be recognizable. They walked inside and then to a room with a detailed map of the United States on one wall. Callie had Jim lay the note on a compass inlaid into the floor, oriented to true north. She took the direction of the line leading off to the note's author, then made an approximate estimate of the line on the map. She took out a pad of paper and wrote down the latitude and longitude of her house to an accuracy of seconds, followed by a precise angle measurement of the line and several cities it traced near. Jim asked, "How do you know your house's position to such accuracy?"
"GPS," Callie replied. "That's the most help I can give you on the author of the note. You'll have to do the rest. Now, let me work that binding spell."
Sharon jumped in with something she'd been thinking about ever since she met Callie. "I . . . can you cast a love a spell on me?"
Callie raised her eyebrows. "A love spell? Whatever for?"
"I . . . I don't feel the same way about Jim that I used to. He's a woman, and, well, I'm not attracted to women. I was hoping that maybe you could cast a love spell on me . . . well, a lust spell at least."
Callie shook her head. "No. As I said, magic is a matter of will and mind. It is possible, though unwise, to dominate another's mind to make them feel or think your thoughts rather than their own. However, all such control is temporary and fades unless reinforced, requiring constant exertion on the part of the creator.
"Mind-work is dangerous and difficult, and I have not the skill. Moreover, even if I were to bend your mind into concupiscence for Jim, it would not last.
"The binding spell is the best I can do. I wish I could do something to help your relationship, but . . . you'll have to work that out on your own."
The binding spell turned out to involve tying a matching pair of knotted rings of twine around Jim and Sharon's fingers. As she tied the complex pattern of knots, she muttered as she had during the ritual under the tree, words in some language that Sharon didn't recognize. At last, she tied off the last knot and leaned back, closing her eyes.
"You can take off the twine rings, but keep them safe. If they're destroyed, the spell will be broken.
"I've done all I can. If you want more, you'll have to seek one greater in magic than me."
Callie looked exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes that hadn't been there earlier. Sharon asked, "Do we owe you something?"
Callie opened her eyes again and said, "No. Think of this as volunteer service on my part. Besides, you gave me the opportunity to see one of the great magics of the world, and that is something not many magicians can claim to have witnessed."
Almost as soon as she stopped talking, Callie closed her eyes and she began breathing more regularly. Sharon and Jim slunk out of the house and started driving for home, concluding that the poor woman had exhausted herself helping them.
Sun Oct 12 09:38:07 2003
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