I lightly pounded my head on the dinner table, groaning in frustration. When I was done with that, I let out a long sigh and put my glasses back on.

“Are you done now?” aunt June asked me with an amused look.

“For now,” I responded. “But I reserve the right to release my frustrations at any time. I think next time I’ll try for a primal scream.”

“Just give me warning before you do,” she told me, now smirking.

I just let out a sigh and said, “I never thought I’d have to study just so I could get ready to go to school…”

“Well, you are coming into the semester a little late,” aunt June explained for the third or fourth time. “I’m just trying to get you caught up a bit before you get there.”

I nodded at that, knowing what she meant but still not liking it. Ever since I’d agreed to go to the Academy yesterday, aunt June had been drilling me on all the kinds of things I’d learn in order to get me ready. Yesterday had been mostly Touched history and the theory of how magic worked. Now she was starting up into sorcery.

“Every touched has a talent,” aunt June explained, slipping into lecture mode. “The first time you touch the source of magic, it forms a pattern on your being. That pattern is the blueprint for the effects your magic will have. All you have to do is draw magic energy through your pattern and you get your talent…a single spell you can cast at will.”

“And I got one that makes me look like a bimbo,” I muttered, knowing it was a bit of an exaggeration. It made me look hot and busty, but at least I didn’t look stupid when I used my talent.

“Most women would kill for that talent,” aunt June responded with a faint smile. “I was always jealous of Helen’s talent. Being able to turn people into frogs has its uses, but it doesn’t do much to help you get a guy.”

“I do have a good talent,” mom said as she stepped into the room and looked us over. “But don’t act like you’re jealous of me. You’re a sorceress and look over twenty years younger than you are.” Mom gave aunt June a look of envy.

“There are benefits to being a sorceress,” aunt June told me with a broad grin. “Lots of them.”

“Like being able to copy anyone else’s talents,” mom said with a sigh. “Or being able to live forever.”

“Not forever,” aunt June corrected her with a smug look. “Just a bit longer.” Then she turned to me and said, “The more powerful you are as a sorceress, the longer you can extend your life. I’ll probably live to be three or four hundred…assuming nothing happens to me first.”

I stared at aunt June, having known that her magic let her slow her aging quite a bit but I hadn’t realized just how much it would add to her life span. Then I understood what she was really trying to tell me, that I might be able to live a lot longer as well.

“Wow,” I finally said.

“Now go away,” aunt June told mom with a shooing gesture. “We’re trying to work here.”

Once mom had left the room again, aunt June continued her lecture. “Most Touched can only pull enough magic to use their talent. The thing that makes a sorceress different is that we can pull more magic. And since we have extra magic to play around with, there are a lot of things we can do with it. We can create new patterns to guide the magic and create other effects than those our talents give us. Admittedly, most of these spells were originally copied from other people’s talents.”

For the next hour, aunt June told me a lot about the theory of how magic could be made into different spells while I listened intently. Most of what she was telling me was old information, things I’d picked up from her and mom while growing up. However, she was giving me more details and putting it together in ways that I hadn’t really considered before.

“But if it can take an hour to cast a spell this way,” I asked her in confusion. “Then what good is it?” Then I quickly added, “Besides, I’ve seen you cast spells immediately.”

“No,” aunt June told me with a smile. “What you’ve seen me do is invoke a spell.”

I was confused for a moment and then remembered her showing off some of her magic to me when I was a kid. “This is because of those token things you told me about, isn’t it?”

“Right,” she told me, looking pleased. “You can cast a spell, then right as you finish, you can sort of freeze dry it for later. You can store it into some kind of physical item that we call a token. Then when you’re ready, you can sort of add water and use the spell.”

With that, she reached into her purse and pulled out a small stack of white business cards and set them on the table in front of me. I picked them up and noticed that instead of having her name on the cards, they had various words on them such as ‘BE’ or ‘Escape Clause’.

“These are some of my tokens,” aunt June explained. “Paper is one of the most common things that sorcerers use to make tokens out of.”

“So these are all spells,” I mused, more thinking aloud than asking since I already knew the answer.

“This one,” aunt June said, tapping her perfectly manicured nail onto the card that said ‘Escape Clause’, “is a spell to get away from trouble. It teleports me about twenty yards away from wherever I am. It’s hard to really control though so I’ll only use it in an emergency.”

“And this one?” I asked, pointing to the card that said ‘BE’.

“That stands for Breast Expansion,” aunt June responded with a smirk. “It has a copy of your mom’s talent in it…” With that, she picked up the card and said, “Abra kadabra.”

Suddenly, the business card crumbled to ash in aunt June’s hand and a second later her chest started to swell larger. She only grew a couple cup sizes, but it was definitely noticeable since she always dressed to show off her assets.

“See,” aunt June said smugly. “All I have to do is activate the token and it releases the spell.”

I was used to mom’s breasts suddenly growing so this wasn’t really all that impressive. Still, knowing that this wasn’t her talent but that she had done it with a spell did make it more interesting.

“Not all of my tokens are paper,” aunt June told me, still smirking a bit. “I mean, paper is easy to use but it gets destroyed when you do. If you know how, you can make permanent tokens…ones you can use over and over again.” She tapped the gold bracelet on her wrist and said, “Most of my jewelry doubles as tokens, holding a spell in it.”

“Really?” I asked in surprise, noting that aunt June usually wore a decent amount of jewelry.

“Sure,” she responded with a grin. “In the old days, they used to use staffs and wands the same way, but I find jewelry is MUCH more fashionable.”

“So, you can make tokens out of just about anything?” I asked, growing more and more curious about these tokens.

Aunt June looked thoughtful for a moment before responding, “Just about, though it takes special preparation to make ones that can be reused.” Then she fingered her bracelet as she continued, “Oh, and some people believe that you have to hand make the tokens yourself as some sort of art piece for them to work right. Personally, I think that is mostly elitist hogwash.”

“I guess that’s good,” I told her with a wry smile. “I’m not exactly very artistic.”

“Me either,” she admitted. “At least not with that kind of thing. My art is more in the performance…”

I nodded at that and said, “Which is why you’re a stage magician.” Then I frowned as I considered something. “Since you have real magic, why aren’t you working a big show in Vegas?”

“Because the other sorcerers would never allow it,” aunt June pointed out, her expression serious. “We Touched still have to keep quiet about what we really are, especially after we went through so much trouble to convince normal that we don’t even exist. Most normals probably wouldn’t take news of our existence very well. Think witch burnings. I can use magic in public, as long as everyone thinks it’s just a trick. But if I get too much attention or too much notice…” She shuddered at that. “Let’s just say, I occasionally make some intentional mistakes every couple shows in order to throw off any possible suspicion.”

“Now back to tokens,” aunt June said, stirring me back to the topic she was trying to lecture me on.

We continued talking about the different types of tokens and how to use them for the next hour or two. Aunt June even suggested that I start thinking about what kind of tokens I might want to use. Of course, I’d already begun doing that the moment she’d shown off her own.

“Before you go to the Academy,” aunt June finally told me. “I want you to be able to cast at least a basic spell. It’ll take a few days to finish getting all the paperwork done, so we’ll keep practicing until then.”

“Okay,” I responded with a sigh.

Though I’d been looking forward to learning magic, I hadn’t realized just how much work it would take. And even more, I hadn’t expected aunt June to be the one to push me at it. She’d always been the fun and laid back aunt, but I had a feeling that I was going to be seeing a whole different side to her now.

I stared at aunt June for a moment and took a deep breath before broaching the topic that I’d been thinking about since yesterday at the mall. “You said that you could get a spell to try changing me into a guy again…”

“I don’t have it yet,” she assured me with a slight frown. “But I assure you, we’ll try it out as soon as I get a copy of it. Now be patient…and don’t get your hopes up.”

“I’m not,” I lied.

Aunt June gave me a skeptical look at that. “Well, until the spell arrives, you should probably try getting used to your new body.” Then she gave me a mischievious look and said, “I want you to use your talent.”

“What?” I asked in surprise.

“The more time you spend in your enhanced form,” she explained, “the less dramatic your normal one will seem.”

I snorted at that and responded, “By that logic, I should be spending all my time as a succubus.”

“Not a bad idea,” she teased. “But for now, I think your normal enhanced form should do.”

For a moment, I just glared at aunt June, then I grumbled for a moment before activating my talent. A moment later, I felt my body beginning to shift and change again. My clothes, which had fit perfectly, now became tight on me, especially across the chest.

“Oh frell,” I blurted out. My bra had already been uncomfortable, but now it was painfully tight.

I glared at aunt June again while she just laughed, then I hurried to my bedroom to change clothes. A few minutes later, I came back wearing clothes that were the right size for my current form. I gave aunt June yet another glare while she just smirked.

“I suppose you’ll have to think ahead,” aunt June told me, making no attempt to hide her amusement. “This is exactly why I always say a woman needs to have multiple outfits handy.”

“Bite me,” I grumbled, knowing that my voice had changed along with my appearance. It now had a sexier and more feminine quality about it. I suddenly realized that if I said that to a guy while looking the way I did right then, he might very well try to taking me up on it.

Aunt June just looked me over and nodded. “Not bad. You really do make a beautiful young woman you know. You’d look even better though if you dressed up for it and used a little makeup…”

“Aunt June,” I protested in horror at the idea.

“Don’t worry,” she told me with a smile. “I won’t make you do that…yet. But from now on, I want you to use this form when we’re working together. I think it will help you get used to having a female body…and help you get over the distraction it may cause when we’re working magic.”

I stared at aunt June in horror, suddenly regretting my agreement for her to be my sponsor. “Mom,” I called out loudly for the only help I could get, “Aunt June is trying to make me look like a slut…”

“You won’t get any help there,” aunt June said with an even bigger smirk than the one she’d already had. “Helen and I made an agreement that she won’t interfere in how I teach you magic. Now sit down missy because I have a lot more to teach you.”