Charia stifled the impulse to pinch her nose, rub her eyes, or message her forehead. She contemplated using magic to ease her headache, but she was sure that would only make it worse. Not to mention, it would show weakness to the other members of the council. She was the de-facto leader of the CWC. The Central Witch Council. A position she had hard fought for and was easily enough to lose.

"Next!" Charia shouted out and the previous witch agent slung back to her seat. It was a debriefing day. Once a month, the council was apprised of current matters concerning cases that threatened to expose magic to mundanes.

A mid-twenties woman stood up from the peanut gallery and walked before the council. As all agents, she looked prim and proper in her three-piece suit. The pants and jacket were black. As was the fedora most witches of the CWC wore these days. Charia missed the times a witch could wear a traditional robe. The agent also wore a blue tie. Marking her as an agent of the investigative branch.

"Amanine Dristle," the agent introduced herself while giving a curtsy. "Today, I am presenting the case of Richard Hampton. Now known as Ricky Hampton. Mister Hampton was - and I quote - cursed by an upset witch. This curse changed the gender of Mister Hampton to a woman and gave her an extraordinary gift."

As agent Dristle hesitated to continue, Charia lost her patience. "Out with it. If this Hampton fellow was mundane before, the ability can't be that strong."

"Well. She appears to have daydreams. Even before her change. Imaging garments made out of latex. Now-" Dristle now looked truly uncomfortable. "Her daydreams now lead her body to manufacture these garments within itself."

"What do you mean by: within her body?" fellow councilwoman Desirah Thorntree spoke up.

It was clear that Dristle wanted to be anywhere but here. Her blush colored her face scarlet. "Her, well, uterus had been repurposed by this magical ability. Once a daydream occurs, a rapid drawing in of ambient magic occurs and results in matter generation."

"In other words, she is giving birth to garments," Charia summed up before Dristle could sink into the floor by means of embarrassment.

"Yes, councilwoman Bridgewed."

Charia gave a nod. Time to move this along. "Has the responsible witch been found?"

"No, Miss Bridgewed." Dristle looked about ready to flee the stage but held her spot. "The event occurred five years ago and-"

"Five years?" That outburst came from Beldise Longrow. The witch heading the surveillance branch of the CWC. "Why are we hearing about it only now?"

"Miss Hampton and her then girlfriend - now fiancé - were very good at covering their tracks. They opened up a second-hand shop in downtown San Francisco specializing in garments made out of latex. From the outside, it appeared to have no anomalous behavior and Miss Hampton took pains to never demonstrate her ability to customers."

Charia nodded along. At least, they had the decency to hide the fact that magic was real from other mundane people. Still, if this Ricky Hampton had been found sooner, they might have been able to lift said enchantment. After a year, it would have been nearly impossible to untangle it from her soul. Much less so after five years.

"So, five years of hiding," Charia spoke up. "How did they mess up and brought themselves to our attention?"

"They didn't." A bolt statement until agent Dristle explained. "I was in San Francisco for another assignment and felt the massive flow of ambient magic when Miss Hampton used her gift. I reported it to my supervisor and got the go-ahead to triangulate the source. I managed to do so after three weeks."

Charia's face remained impassive, but internally, she was impressed. Detecting such a dip in ambient magic was hard enough. Tracking the source down was even harder. Three weeks appeared way too quick to accomplish such a task. Charia filed away Amanine Dristle's name as a witch to look out for. Good agents are hard to find and she might prove useful in the future.

Beldise Longrow leaned forward. "While unusual, it appears to be of low priority. I am curious, agent. What further actions would you recommend?"

Charia nearly revealed her own surprise by glancing at councilwoman Longrow. The surveillance branch's duty was to monitor neutralized threads. In other words, Beldise and her branch would take over monitoring Miss Hampton. It was up to them to decide how to proceed. For Beldise to ask the opinion of an agent, she must have spotted Dristle's potential too.

"As stated, Miss Hampton was already flying below attention." Dristle straightened a little up. "We got her cooperation by giving a small concession. Giving her a legitimate ID. We would have provided one nonetheless, just to cover up that a man had turned into a woman by magic, but Miss Hampton doesn't know that. She agreed to play by our rules and will cooperate with further control visits. As such, I recommend that active surveillance is not needed."

"I think we skipped a step." That Desirah Thorntree spoke up was a rare occasion. Now, she had spoken up twice in one debriefing. Charia marked it down as curious. "Who caused that malicious enchantment in the first place?"

"Miss Hampton attributed it to a woman she dated at that time. A Miss Sally Arvington. We tracked Miss Arvington down. One of those new age wannabe witches that are too proud to use the Wicca term we coined for mundane wannabe witches. It appeared to be a dead end, until-" Dristle took out a photograph and used magic to project a larger version of it into the air. "Going through social media posts of the night of the incident, we flagged this woman."

The woman in question wasn't clearly identifiable. Turned to the side, one could see blond hair that was in tight curls. Reaching down to the neck. Dristle pulled out a second picture and enlarged it too.

"We spotted her on another social media post outside of Miss Hampton's apartment. Possibly to witness the fallout. I admit this might be a coincidence, but right now it is the best lead we have."

"It's a start," Charia said and was ready to decree the matter closed for now. The rest, the investigative or surveillance branch could handle. But another woman stood up. Her green tie marked her as part of the surveillance branch. That couldn't be good, but Charia remained calm. "Yes?"

"Agent Lisanna Corsand," the woman introduced herself. "There might be a connection to my case."

Normally, the surveillance branch was the lowest in priority. Usually reserved for those agents no one else wanted. Many viewed the assignment to it as punishment. Rarely, a matter of the surveillance branch had to be reviewed at a meeting like this.

That Miss Corsand was here spoke of the support of Beldise Longrow. And the fact that someone might have messed up. Feeling her headache worsen, Charia waved agent Corsand forward nonetheless.

Agent Dristele stepped aside and gave Corsand space on the stage. Lisanna wasted no time. "My unit is responsible for the surveillance of the offspring from the Streukat line and-"

Charia held up her hand. This was worse than she had expected. "Not everyone is familiar with the Streukat line. As that disaster happened eighty years ago. Please summarize it for your fellow witches, so they all know what hornet's nest we step into."

"Of course, head councilwoman Bridgewed," agent Corsand immediately replied. Shifting gears without a hiccup, she started on another topic. "The Streukat line was a male-centric witch line that bred over generations a supernatural ability into their offspring. Their hereditary powers manifested two-fold. Enhanced pheromones that attracted and sexually aroused women. Usually followed by exposing said women to semen produced by these male witches. Exposure to it was highly addictive. Effectively enslaving them. It was barely tolerated as long as they went after mundane women. Once they targeted witches, the CWC was forced to step in."

"The Streukat line relies on being male," Corsand continues. "They were defeated by being transformed into women. In fact, the used enchantment targets their offspring too. So, they only bear girls. Now, here lies the problem. A woman named Lizbeth McGuire has awoken her heredity gift, despite remaining female. We have evidence that her pheromones are active and that one woman, her former boss, was enslaved by Lizbeth."

"How is that possible?" Charia demanded to know. "Has she turned into a man?"

"Now, that is the crucial part. She didn't." Lisanna pulled out a picture and used magic to create another enlarged hologram. It showed an unremarkable woman that had the same haircut as the previous pictures. The only noticeable features were freckles and blue eyes.

"This individual is known to us as Colette," Lisanna continued." She dared Lizbeth to wear a strap-on with a phallic imitation as a means to boost confidence. This phallic instrument appeared to fuse with Miss Lizbeth and become part of her. Turning to flesh and blood, and allowing her to produce semen. Therefore giving her access to her hereditary gift."

Lisanna pointed at the picture of Colette again. "The original phallic instrument was provided by the individual known as Colette. We believe the ability to fuse and unfuse the facsimile was enchanted to the original instrument but appeared to become a native addition to Lizbeth's abilities."

"This situation is troublesome," Charia admitted and even to herself, it felt like an understatement. "What actions has your surveillance team taken so far?"

"We have placed means of surveillance inside the apartment and Miss McGuire's workplace. All mundane so far." Lisanna gave a quick glance to her superior, Beldise Longrow, and then continued. "We currently hesitate using magic in the vicinity of Miss Lizbeth. As far as we know, she is not aware that Witches exist. For now, we held back on more active means. Miss Lizbeth shows an unusual amount of restraint. She had her awoken abilities now for over three months and has not expanded her harem of enslaved women past her former boss. We believe she still has an active conscience and may be amicable to working with us if approached correctly."

Again, Desirah Thorntree spoke up and deepened Charia's suspicion of her. "This Colette. She appears to be the source of this outbreak. What else do we know about her?"

"Not much." Lisanna looked uncomfortable admitting that. "Her connection we deducted from overheard conversations. Colette appeared to be acting as Miss Lizbeth's friend. However, the phone number used by her was disconnected and her Facebook page was deleted. We managed to reconstruct this picture from the backup servers of said website."

The second piece of a puzzle Charia hadn't known the CWC was supposed to solve fell in place. Connecting a low-priority case to one that could potentially blow up in their face. Charia knew of one other instance of the Streukat line causing trouble. With nearly disastrous consequences. Not just for Witches, but humanity in general. They had to be careful in determining how to proceed.

Just as Charia was about to speak up again, another witch stood up. This time, it was a male witch of the investigative branch. Those were rare as most witches were women. Hesitant, he stepped forward. Charia waved him on. She didn't have all day.

"Albestair Crowspite," he introduced himself. "Last month, I presented a case here of a witch who used a spell to link instruments of sexual gratification - sex toys - to paying customers. Allowing them to share senses with these implements. The case is closed and the witch was punished. However, this witch claimed she got the spell she used from another witch. The description given matches these pictures."

Charia didn't like where this was heading. Two more Witches stood up and made themselves known. However, Desirah Thorntree held up a hand. Making them stop. Wordlessly, she placed a case file onto the shared desk of the council.

A shudder went through Charia as she read the case file's title: The Sherman Incident. That Thorntree happened to have the case file on her person was troublesome. Yet Charia believed this was just the tip of the iceberg of the shitstorm they were about to enter.

Thorntree opened up the case file and paged through it. No explanation was needed. Every witch on the council was familiar with it. A witch by the name of Penny Velberta had used an unknown spell to detach male genitals and link them to a new host. One Beatrice Sherman. Beatrice used her influence over the witch Velberta to acquire hundreds of male genitals. The victims appeared then to slowly turn into women. Sperm produced by these detached genitals appeared to be highly addictive. First claiming the witch Penny Velberta and later the first two teams sent to contain the host Beatrice Sherman. Containment was achieved but didn't last.

Thorntree paused on a page that was half a year old. Every councilwoman knew about the contents, but Desirah felt it needed pointing out again. The page confirmed the suspected link of Beatrice Sherman to the Streukat line. Explaining the unusual properties that the host later exhibited. That information could have helped, but without it, over fifty witches had been lost. Charia's predecessor among them.

Desirah Thorntree wasn't done. She opened up to a new page. It was one Charia was unfamiliar with. It was a report not a week old. A team trying to uncover how a low-grade witch like Penny Velberta could cause such an incident stumbled onto a curious fact. Penny had shared an apprenticeship with another witch named Colette. No last name. Said Collette appeared to be a ghost. Most documents about her appeared to have vanished or were forgeries.

Anger welled within Charia. All these cases appeared to be connected. The common nominator was a witch named Colette. And Desirah Thorntree had known about it and remained quiet. Until now. Charia knew it was a string she had to pull on. But not now. Not in front of junior witches. The time was to act. More puzzle pieces had been revealed, but Charia would be damned if she believed it was all of them. Quick and decisive actions were required.

"Agent Corsand." Charia fixed on Lisanna with her gaze. "You are to request two assault teams of the punitive branch immediately. They will be your backup. Once they are in place, you are to contact this Lizbeth McGuire. Preferably through an intermediate. Male and mundane would be best. Cooperation would be appreciated, but not required. Your main task is to get informed about this Colette. By any means necessary. Once this task is done, you will spearhead the task force that hunts down that witch."

Lisanna Corsand gave a deep bow. "Understood, head councilwoman."

"Agent Dristle." Charia's mood lightened a little as she saw the junior witch twitch in surprise. "You are to assemble a task force from the unassigned agents of the investigative branch. Working in parallel to agent Corsand, you are to put the boots on the ground and find me leads. This Collette appears to target witches of low skill or persons of below awakening magical potential. Go through all known witches that cause trouble periodically. Find out if they have a common nominator. This could be the witch known as Colette, or it could be someone else. We cannot dismiss the possibility that this Colette doesn't work alone."

Charia now addressed all the witches in the room. "This has the highest priority. As such, this meeting - and the rest of the reviews- are adjourned to tomorrow. Dismissed."

The witches scattered. Charia could hear the many whispered conversations that surely would revolve around today's revealed facts. Rumors would run rampant. Even Charia couldn't prevent that.

As the room emptied, only Charia and Desirah remained.

"We have to talk about your predecessor." Desirah sounded for once not hard and unyielding, but compassionate.

"What is there to talk about?" Charia asked and hoped to not hear an answer. "She sacrificed herself and others to neutralize Beatrice Sherman. It is done."

Thorntree opened up a new page in the Sherman file. The very last and newest addition. It showed an aerial picture of a red landscape. Surrounding a white milky lake were strange buildings. Charia didn't even need to read the report below to know it was Mars.

The councilwoman's face drained of blood. "Shit!"

"Exactly." Thorntree closed the case file. "We need to prepare. This could mean war."