Valin couldn’t help but let out a scream as half of his room was reduced to rubble. Luckily, whoever or whatever had cast the spell was concerned for the safety of the occupants, for there was another spell being cast; Some kind of absorption/portal type of thing. Even as he watched his clothing, his computer, his television and half his books sucked into oblivion, he couldn’t help but be impressed; To coordinate and cast such powerful spells in succession took incredible skill. It soon became apparent why the spells were so skillfully cast; As the rubble disappeared, it revealed Valin’s entire clan, in full regalia, arrayed outside what was left of his room.
There was complete silence as he and the collected Alethea clan stared dumbly at each other. It was only when Valin noticed his brother Edrin gaping openly at his bare breasts that he turned beet red, before jumping back on his bed and pulling the blanket around him. It was like a caricature of a nightmare; Here he was, surrounded by his whole family, clad in gleaming crimson living metal, while he was completely naked.
He didn't have much time to be embarrassed. Before he could blink, all his immediate family was surrounding his bed, glaring down at him.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SON?!” His father bellowed. He was a powerfully built man, about Valin’s former height, with the trademark flame red hair of the Aletheas. His face was a mask of fear and rage. Valin would have been touched if he hadn’t been so terrified.
Valin didn’t know what to do. How could he possibly explain this? Transformation magic was forbidden, and far beyond what he was capable of before he changed. Not knowing what else to say, he replied in a small, quavering voice. “I-I am y-your son!”
Valin heard his mother let out a small gasp, accompanied by looks of shock and confusion from the rest of the gathered crowd. Whatever they expected to hear, it wasn’t this.
“That’s impossible.” His mother said bluntly, but there was a twinge of doubt in her voice. Come to think of it, why had the whole clan gathered outside of his room in the first place? There must have been something preventing them from getting in, something that they detected. Some kind of barrier? A barrier strong enough to repel his entire clan put together?
If that were the case, it was no wonder that they had all gathered here, trying to break through it. Valin hadn’t studied much of the theory or history of magic beyond what had been required to pass the exam, but he knew that barriers were hard to create. So if creating such a barrier were possible, surely this strange transformation was possible too? That’s what he’d have to convince them of.
“My name is Valin Alethea. I was born on August 9th, 20XX…” Valin continued to rattle off everything that he could think of about himself. The faces of his family softened as he continued, he even managed to get a giggle out of his mother as he mentioned “the papaya shaped birthmark on my left… Well… I don’t know if it’s there anymore….” And twisted his head around to try and take a look at his butt.
“Well…I think that’s enough to be going on with for now,” His father said. He looked relieved and tired as the tension drained out of him. “I’m not entirely convinced of all this, but there’ll be plenty of time to nail down all the details later.”
Just then, one of Valin’s many cousins, a small, mousy haired girl, pushed her way into the room, looking breathless and panicked. “T-The Guard! They’re here!”
Everyone turned to stare in the general direction of the front door. There was muffled shouting, followed by a sudden bang and a small shockwave that everyone felt. At this, there was a sudden commotion as the assembled clan charged out of the house to meet this new threat.
Valin stayed huddled in bed for a moment, before shaking his head. Why shouldn’t he go down and see what’s happening? He grabbed a t-shirt off the floor. It looked like the only article of clothing that had survived the incursion into his room. Thankfully, since it was made for a much larger body than he had now, it covered all the important bits.
He pulled it on and stepped softly over the wreckage and down the stairs. The shouting seemed to have started again. He could make out his parent’s voices and a few others. One seemed to be the person his side was yelling at, a deep voiced woman. There were a few more that he couldn’t recognize, but one stood out: His uncle, the senator.
He got to the front door. It was wide open. As quietly as he could, he slowly inched his head around the doorjamb. What he didn’t take into account was his new hair. It fell across the threshold, catching the light.
He heard a gasp and someone yelling, “There! What is that?” and then the sound of about two hundred heads turning to look at something. He caught the eye of his mother, who visibly sagged.
“THERE!” The deep female voice bellowed, pointing directly at Valin. “THERE! Evidence of whatever deranged experiment you people were performing here! Turn it over now, or we will open fire!”
Valin’s heart caught in his chest. Had the guardswoman seen his pointed ears? He watched as the air started crackling from the power that the two sides were summoning. In all his life, he'd never felt such power. The feel of two groups of tremendously powerful mages was as enthralling as it was terrifying. The thought of watching his whole clan fighting a full scale battle against the Guard sobered him up quickly though. He couldn’t let his family fight this fight. Not because of his mistake.
“WAIT!” He yelled.
“I-I’ll go with you,” He said nervously. He walked through the crowd of his relatives, staring after him. He saw his mother embrace his father, quietly weeping into his shoulder. His father looked pale, as if he was fighting to keep it together.
Too late to think about that now. The instant he made his way past his family a pair of manacles flew to his hands, followed by fetters for his feet. Then it was a gag, a mask, and a set of earplugs. They must have been ensorcelled, for he had lost all his senses, save touch. He felt two pairs of hands grab his arms roughly, and shuffle him off. He had no idea where he was being dragged off to. Soon enough, he felt the telltale tingle of teleportation, and he was whisked off to who knows where.
—
Valin looked around. The restraints had been removed in transit, it seemed. The room, or rather cell, he had been teleported to was a small rectangular box that couldn't have been more than 10x10 feet. It had a bed, a desk, a sink, a chair, a toilet and a mirror. It was well lit by spell, as Valin couldn't see a light source. He noticed a sliding switch on one of the walls, most likely for raising and dimming them. There were no doors or windows to speak of. It was perfectly silent.
Valin knew about these rooms. They were luridly described in movies, books, television shows, as one of the cartoonishly evil methods of torture inflicted by or on villains. Confine someone to a small inescapable prison, supply them with food and water, then watch them slowly go insane from the isolation.
Valin’s mind raced. Was that what would happen to him? Were they going to leave him here until he died of old age? Would he die of old age? He had no idea what had been done to him by that … being. Who knows what kind of changes might have been inflicted upon him? He sat on the bed and hugged his knees, shivering with fear.
—
Two hours later, nothing had happened. Valin had checked all the stuff to see if it worked, tossed and turned on the bed for a while, and stared at his reflection in the mirror. For a while, he examined his new body, even knowing that he was probably being watched.
It was endlessly fascinating, this new female body of his. The smoothness of his skin. The curve of his hips. The way his breasts jiggled when he moved. Even the loss of his penis and testicles, and the attendant gap between his thighs was interesting its own way.
But even this couldn't distract him forever. His shivering had gotten worse. At this rate, he really was going to go insane. He didn’t dare use his magic, he had no idea if he could control it enough not to drown himself.
He was just about to turn off the light to try and sleep, when he felt a very familiar sensation. Or was it familiar? Instead of being doused, it was like he was being dried. Soon he felt a shifting sensation in his abdomen as his organs started to rearrange themselves. He watched, fascinated as his crotch started to tingle, and before long, his clit was swelling up, his ovaries were pushing out of his slowly sealing vagina, and then he was male again, his penis and testicles dangling between his smooth thighs.
From there, the transformation he had experienced a few hours earlier played out in reverse. His breasts shrunk and receded into his chest, his body expanded back into its usual proportions, his face reshaped, and his hair retracted back into his skull. He watched as his normal, masculine body reasserted itself.
Or had it reasserted itself? He looked in the mirror and was surprised to see that his hair hadn’t changed back to its usual light brown. It was purple, just like the base of his female form’s hair! He looked down and blushed as he noticed that his pubic hair had assumed that same purple color, along with the rest of his body hair. He idly wondered what Ariadne would think of this change the next time they spoke.
He was so distracted by the hair that he almost didn’t notice that his ears had changed as well. They were slightly smaller than before, but they still retained the same points that they had when he had been a girl.
Valin felt a tingle again, but this time it was another teleportation. He found himself bound to a cold metal chair, blindfolded, though not gagged or deprived of hearing. It wasn’t long before a loud, distorted voice boomed over the interrogation room he had been transported to.
“PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME FOR THE RECORD.” The sound of it jarred his ears. It was almost painful.
Valin squirmed in his chair. He had seen enough crime dramas to know that you shouldn’t say anything when being interrogated by the government.
“PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME FOR THE RECORD,” The voice repeated. The sound saturated his brain. Before he knew it, the words were pouring unbidden from his lips.
“My name is Valin Alethea,” he spoke in a dull, flat tone. It was getting harder and harder to think.
“WHERE WERE YOU AT 9PM ON MAY 21….” The voice droned on, but Valin wasn’t conscious of it. He was vaguely aware of the strange, hypnotic voice, and the fact that he was replying to it, but he seemed to be in some kind of drugged stupor. He had no idea how much time had passed when the fog clouding his brain started to lift. He was just starting to get his bearings when he was grabbed roughly, and all the restraints from when he had been brought in returned: He was blind, deaf, and mute again. He was manhandled off to some other place, then once again he felt himself teleported off to who knows where.
When he arrived at his new destination, his bindings had been removed. He looked around and saw that he was on a teleport dais. There were two guardsmen standing on either side of it, trying not to stare at his strange appearance. He was pleased to see that he was wearing pants now.
There was the sound of a door opening, and another guardsman came in. Of higher rank, it looked like, though Valin wasn’t sure. “If you’ll come with me, Mr. Alethea?” The guardsman asked.
“Uh… sure.” Valin replied, nonplussed. He was pleased that he was no longer being treated like a laboratory specimen, but he was more confused than ever.
He was led into a spartan windowed room, with a desk and a couple of chairs. It was dark out, but was it the same night that he’d left his house? There was no way to tell. He sat down, but he didn’t have long to wait. A minute later, the door opened, and someone he recognized walked into the room.
“Arcturus?” he asked uncertainty. Arcturus was his cousin, the son of his uncle Talin, the senator. He didn’t know him very well, in fact, he doubted that they had ever said more than two words to each other, but it was still nice to see a friendly face.
Arcturus nodded. “It’s good to see you alive, and… mostly yourself.” He glanced up at Valin’s ears and hair for a moment. Valin blushed and looked down.
“First things first. Hold out your hand.” Valin did so, and Arcturus held out a small, pen-like device and held it to Valin’s fingertip.
“This will sting a bit,” Arcturus said, and he wasn’t wrong. Valin jumped slightly as a needle shot out and pierced his finger, producing a small droplet of blood. Arcturus quickly swiped a test strip across it and inserted it into his smartphone. It beeped a few seconds later
A few seconds later, he smiled grimly. “We’ve got them.”
Valin blinked, curious. “What?”
“They used some kind of hypnosis magic on you: I’m guessing to interrogate you. Did you lose a long track of time while you were imprisoned?” Arcturus asked.
“Um… yes.” Valin shivered. He knew that such things were highly illegal: it could get one thrown in prison for life, or stripped of your magic, or both. There were always rumors and conspiracy theories that the Sodality used such things, but he never thought that he’d be subjected to them himself.
“We’ll be able to use this to secure your release. It was inevitable anyway: once we found out that you had changed back, they’d have to let you go eventually. I’m guessing someone wanted to wring as much information out of you before you were let go.”
Valin didn’t bother to ask how his family had found out that he’d become male again: He knew that they were well connected. He was more interested in the reasons behind his abduction.
“How did they find out about my… uh… incident?” Valin asked.
“It looks like they detected a devil incursion on a scale hither to undreamt of, and scrambled the Guard. They weren’t expecting anyone to be alive at the scene, and you know what happened next.”
Valin paused to consider. The woman he had met didn’t seem anything like a devil, but apparently there was an incursion detected the moment she appeared in his room?
“So… it was a devil that did this?” He asked, gesturing to himself.
Arcturus shrugged. “If it was, it’s unprecedented. Devils have never been able to make barriers, or perform any type of magic as we know it, beyond making portals and using their specific element.” Valin nodded.
“I need to get back to the capital. I should have an update for you tomorrow. If all goes well, we’ll have you out of here in no time,” Arcturus said, flashing a reassuring smile. A moment later, he had gotten up and left.
Valin didn’t have much time to consider their conversation, as a guard immediately came in and led him away to what looked like a low budget motel room. He was surprised, he expected to be in another cell. Though given that the door was locked behind him, he supposed that it was. Not that such a door would be much of a barrier to a mage. They must not expect me to make a run for it, Valin thought to himself.
Valin jumped on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He was going to get out, apparently. For the first time, he allowed himself to enjoy his gift. A smile broke out on his face, and soon he was laughing, sobbing tears of joy. He had gotten what he wanted. This magic… this gift… He could feel it inside his body, still as a calm lake, and as deep as the ocean. He wanted to call on it again, let it pour out of him. Even as disciplined as he was, it was hard to resist the desire to let it free, especially considering how little there was to do in here.
He yawned. Suddenly he was struck by how tired he was. There had been so much adrenaline pumping through him that he’d forgotten that he’d been up for… How long had he been up for? He still had no idea, and they had declined to give him a clock. At least he had a window. He looked out and saw a half moon soaring over a vast, trackless desert. “Figures they’d use a place like this,” He said, before rolling over and falling asleep.
—
He awoke to a loud knocking sound, and someone opened his door. Light was pouring into his room from the window. “Your friend is back,” the guard said in bored monotone, before leading Valin back to the little conference room he had been in before. Arcturus was there, looking very tired. Had he been up all night? Valin was touched by the effort he was putting in to obtain his freedom.
Arcturus smiled when he saw Valin. “It’s done. You’ll be out of here as soon as we get your consent to the deal we struck.”
Valin sighed with relief, then slumped down onto a chair. “What kind of deal?”
“Basically, the government wants to study you. Only for about four hours a week, mind.” Arcturus said, catching the expression on Valin’s face. “The PM made it very clear that she was willing to accept the consequences of keeping you locked up if we didn’t grant her this much. It’s a good idea, in any case. We have no idea what’s been done to you, after all, and the government will have access to resources that we don’t.”
“I suppose I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“Not as such, no.” Arcturus smiled apologetically. “Don’t worry. It’ll be in a place that we control. They won’t be able to pull a stunt like last night a second time.”
Valin nodded. He supposed it was a small price to pay for his freedom.
“Also, we got access to the record of your interrogation. From your answers, the nature of the questions that they asked, and from information we’ve been able to glean from other sources, we’ve been able to piece together what happened.”
Valin nodded, waiting for Arcturus to go on.
“One of their dimensional monitoring stations detected a metaphysical incursion from your home. It was of a pattern and power they had never seen before. They thought it was an error, so they ignored it. Then a second monitoring station detected the same thing. That's when they scrambled the Guard. Between that and the transformation you described, the government is very intrigued,” Arcturus said.
“What was wrong with the transformation?” Valin asked.
“You know transformation magic is forbidden, but do you know why?”
Valin froze. In all the excitement, he hadn't even considered that aspect of his change. Arcturus must have taken his silence as a no, because he launched into an explanation.
“It's incredibly difficult to do correctly and incredibly dangerous for the subject. To do what that creature did to you would normally take a team of about twenty experts, working in concert for half a day. That kind of intuitive transformation magic just doesn't exist. There's also the fact that your magical capacity has been expanded. People have been trying to expand a human’s innate magical capacity since it was discovered that we all had one, and it's never been done. Until yesterday. Add to that the ridiculously powerful barrier that the being created and you can see why everyone’s freaking out.”
Valin stared at Arcturus. He was starting to get the sense that his life was going to get much more interesting.
