Codex

"Uhh." She shook her head, then spoke very quickly, "Okay, uhh. You two. Stay here for a minute. I'll be right back. Don't move." She walked back towards the black curtain, pulling it open and slipping through. She poked her head out from behind it, "Seriously. Stay. One minute." then plunged back into the darkness behind the curtain.

Shop girl

The black curtain whipped shut behind me as I tore down the back hallway of the shop.

"Damn it, damn it." This wasn't supposed to happen! Well, it had to happen sometime. But I didn't think this soon! Not for a long time! At least not until after I was dead.

My shoes clicked against the hard marble floors, echoing through the nearly endless arrangements of shelves in the restricted section. Everything in here was too dangerous to be kept where people could mess around with it, and it was all safely locked away behind shielding charms and anti-theft hexes. Everything but that damned book.

As I approached the very back edge of the shop, I found him in his usual posture, hunched over at his desk with his nose right up against some book. Occasionally he'd look up, think for a moment, write something down in his notebook with his angry scribble handwriting, then continue reading.

"Master, there are two girls here, in the shop. They-"

"How many times do I have to tell you?" He marked his page and closed the book, turning his chair around to face me. His tone shifted to one of sincerity "You don't have to call me that, Anna." His blue eyes sparkled in the little light there was flickering from the candle on the table. I keep telling him he should just use a lamp or something, but he's kind of old fashioned that way. He smiled at me, deepening the wrinkles on his face. It seems like every time I look at him he's gotten a new one.

"Right. Sorry. Obeus, the girls-"

"That's better." He said, relaxing a bit. He leaned back in his chair, brushing some of the long grey hair out of his face, "Now, tell me, what was it?" His usual relaxed demeanor made him a very difficult person to get angry with, but I guess I was just trying really hard today.

"One of the girls. The book... It responded."

He said nothing, though his brow furrowed. He turned back to his desk and reopened his book, continuing to peruse its pages.

"Mas- Obeus? What should I do?"

With his nose still in the book he responded, "You already know what to do." He picked his face up and gave me the same smile as the day I met him, "Give them the book."

"But... They're just girls!" My voice was beginning to rise "They have no idea what-"

His face got very still for a moment, "Anna, we have been waiting for this for a very long time now, and I don't think I have to remind you why we don't keep it locked up with the others. If the book has found its owner then we have one job." He stood up, approaching me and putting his hand on my face, running his thumb against my cheek. He smiled that damn un-hateable smile of his, "Give them the book."

Julie

Shop-girl had taken off through the curtain, leaving Emma and I to stand there and wait for her to come back. I was getting kind of worried.

"Ooh! Ominous." Emma said, zooming her attention in on the book that elicited such a strange reaction from shop-girl, "What do you think it does? I'm betting on spellbook."

"Would it kill you to be serious for five seconds?" I said, examining the book along with her. The eye-shaped gem in the center had picked up a slowly pulsing glow from behind it, changing its color to bright teal as the light shined through.

"Excuse you? We are in an actually magical magic shop. Yes it would kill me."

"You just got zapped by the spooky, important-looking magic book on the counter! Don't you think-"

"Ooh! Hello handsome!" Emma had caught sight of something over my shoulder and started walking up to it.

"Emma! Come back, the girl said don't move!" She was walking up to a huge full-length mirror that had been propped up against the shelf, too big to be fit onto it.

"Relax Jules! It's like five feet. Come check this out!" I followed her over to the giant mirror where she was making poses at herself. Except... It wasn't her. The reflection in the mirror was a guy, about her height, with the same color hair, except it was much shorter. In fact, the only big difference between them was his guy-ness. Over her shoulder I could see another guy in the mirror, kind of tall, cut jaw, mid-length wavy-brown hair, green eyes. I tilted my head a bit to try to get a better view, and he followed my movements.

"Woah..." I let out, carefully stepping closer to the mirror. His eyes were staring deeply into mine, "They look just like us..."

"Except they're dudes!" Emma lifted her shirt to show off her belly, her male counterpart mimicking her actions, "Check it! Dude-me has abs!" She ran her fingers over her stomach, watching with relish as the boy in the mirror did the same, "Turn around a sec! I gotta see if guy-me is packin'!"

She let her shirt fall, bringing her hands to the button of her shorts. Thankfully before she could do any more we heard the sound of cloth whipping around behind us. Shop girl had returned, looking a little bit calmer than she had when she left. She looked around, concerned for a moment before her eyes fell on us.

"Oh, you found the Mirror of Pawsredneg." She walked over to us, though remaining behind the counter, "It shows you what you would really look like if you'd been born a guy. Or a girl, depending."

I took another glance at guy-me. I didn't feel like I was staring at another person. It was still me, just wearing a different body.

"Anyway," She said, trying to get our attention "if you guys would come back over here, I have a few things I have to ask you."

I tugged Emma away from the mirror by her shoulder where she had still been trying to see if she could see her mirror self's nipples without revealing her own and lead her back to the front of the counter.

"So, what's up with the book?" I ask, genuinely curious. She cringed a little as I mentioned it.

"I'll explain in a second. First." She turned to Emma, holding up a finger "Where do you live? I mean, do you live with your parents? Family?"

Emma and I respond at the same time, our voices overlapping, "We're roommates."

Shop-girl gives a little sigh of relief, "Oh good. Okay, that makes things easier." With a little bit of hesitation, she picks up the book off the counter, holding it out to Emma, "This is yours now. There are no real rules, but you should probably wait until you get home before you open it." Emma takes it with both hands, holding it close to her chest like a child would a new puppy. Shop girl turned to me next, "I know you're her friend, so I'm asking you to look out for her." She addressed us both "Look out for each other. And you especially," She said, pointing a finger in Emma's face "try to be nice."

"Aren't I always?" She asked the room, to be greeted with silence, "Soooo..." She said, her voice trailing off "Free book?"

Shop-girl smiled, for some reason it looked like sympathy, "Free book."

"Woo! Free book!" Emma shouted, holding it above her head and heading for the exit with a spring in her step.

Before turning to follow her, I face the girl behind the counter, "Thank you." I smiled meaningfully at her. She just waves me goodbye.

I do a little half-run to catch up with Emma by the front of the shop, and before too long we're stepping through the arch of beads again, walking back to my car to head home.

Shop Girl

I step out from behind the counter to watch the two girls leave. They manage to make it back to the entrance without getting distracted or lost, which is more than I can say for most customers. I glance over at the mirror, grimacing at my reflection. The thing had a nasty habit of stripping away my illusion charms.

The figure in the mirror was male, and couldn't possibly be mistaken as anything but. He stood completely naked, 6' tall with muscles rippling out from everywhere. His deep red skin was shiny and smooth, and a pair of horns curled out from the top of his forehead like a ram's. The only thing more inhuman about him than the hooves that held up this giant mass of man was the mammoth cock that hung between his legs almost to his knees.

I hated being reminded what I was. I sigh and glance away, back to the entryway where the two girls had since departed.

"So, Emma and Julie..." I chuckle to myself, "You two have no idea what you're in for."

Chapter 2

Julie

The entire drive home Emma just sat next to me in the passenger seat with her legs crossed, the book in her lap, her eyes fixed on the gem set into the cover while shitty pop music buzzed quietly through the radio. It was clear that Emma had jumped into the whole magic thing with a great deal more ease than I, as I was still getting some spooky hoodoo bad juju vibes from the whole situation. Whoever ran the undercover magical society did not go around giving out seemingly cursed magical tomes to teenage girls.

When we parked at the house Emma leaned over to me with her hands making grabbing motions, "Keyskeyskeys. Gimme." I dropped the keys into her hands and she took off to the front door with them and her new treasure. She disappeared inside before I even got out of the car.

Okay, so a quick rundown of The House. It was big. Like, massive mansion huge. It's got every kind of room that you'd expect some fancy pants mansion to have, a parlor, a library, an indoor pool, a personal theatre, and a fuckton more other rooms than we know what to do with. Emma and I live here, alone, just the two of us, no mortgage, no jobs, no school or college classes. This slice of heaven was brought to us in full by Emma's awesome uncle. He was a super-rich eccentric, and he pretty much raised Emma single handedly until he died. Very sad. Dark times. But he left her everything. How I came to live here is a different story that I might tell later.

By the time I'd gotten inside she was sitting in the middle of the living room floor with the still-closed book in front of her, staring at it. Without looking up she addressed me as I walked in.

"Should I open it?"

"You should most definitely not open it." The question of what kind of magical wonder could exist inside that book tickled the back of my mind, but my cautious side was getting the better of me. Or something else was.

"I'm gonna open it."

Even after saying it, she didn't move, her gaze focused on the eye in the cover. I crossed her and threw myself onto the couch, trying to seem disinterested. Why should I care? It's not like I got given a magic book.

It continued on like that for almost a minute, me watching her, she watching the book, not much movement other than the occasional sniffle. After a few minutes of "opening the book", she fell backwards onto the carpet and groaned.

"UUUGHH! This shouldn't be this hard!" She threw herself forward, her hands flying to the book, then hesitating again, "I'm just gonna open it!" Her hands didn't move.

"You should make a series on how to open books. You'd make millions."

"Shut up." She said, her hands still frozen on the cover. After a few more seconds she turned to me, "You should open it."

"And take whatever voodoo curse that thing is loaded with? No thank you. It's your magic book, anyway."

"Aw, don't be like that." She stood up, leaving the book on the floor and tossing herself onto the couch next to me, causing the whole thing to jerk, "This is our magic book. It just kinda... zapped me. We don't live in a universe where static electricity declares ownership of objects. If we did everyone would have carpets and the price of wool socks would go way up." That got me to smile. She punched me lightly on the shoulder, "Now get down here and help me open the stupid voodoo book."

"Fine. But if your letter from Hogwarts comes in the mail tomorrow and mine isn't right next to it we're not friends anymore."

She laughed, "Get over here you muggle." We both moved ourselves down to the floor, sitting side by side, cross legged in front of the book like a campfire. We just stared at it for a few more seconds.

I put my hand on the cover, and she puts hers next to mine, "On three?"

"On three."

"One..."

"two..."

"THREE!" At the same time we threw the cover of the book open. I don't know what either of us were expecting but any of our possible imagined usherings into the world of magic were let down. Inside of the book was *Gasp!* paper. With squiggles on it. The entire first page was covered from top to bottom in these weird swirly lines that I guess were supposed to be some kind of letters, except they didn't really form words, more like Chinese characters, like each little segment was separated from the others.

I shrugged "Well that was anti-climactic. Emma?" When I looked over at her she was staring wide eyed at the page, "Emma? You okay?" I knew it! Voodoo hex.

"No way... This is crazy..." She just stared open-mouthed at the page.

"What's crazy? The squiggles are crazy?"

"What? Wait, you can't see them?"

"I see squiggles. Are we looking at the same squiggles?"

"No, like, the feeling! Look" She grabbed my shoulder, pointing at one of the collection of swirly lines that to me kind of looked like a snowflake, "Right there, you don't see that?"

I squinted hard at the paper. Just a bunch of ink on a page, "I see the snowflake squiggle."

"No, not the squiggles! The- Damn it this is weird. It's like I can feel them. What they're supposed to mean. There aren't any words or pictures just..." She stared at the page for a few seconds, her gaze completely captivated by something I couldn't see, "It's like they're shooting what they mean into my brain!"

Emma was right. I'm a muggle, "Well what does it say? Translate."

She crunched up her face in a focusing gesture, bringing her face closer to the page, "Each one of them, they all do a thing. Like... Oh. Heh. But this one... Oh that one too..." She looked up from the page, her face contorted in a mischievous smile.

"What?"

"Okay so they're all like, spells, right? Except they all do some kinda' sexy thing."

I squinted again at the page, trying to derive the meaning of the lines now that I had some context, "What kind of sexy things?"

She jammed her finger into the first squiggle "So this one, spell one on page one. It makes you horny. This one," She slid her finger across the page to something near the middle "makes all your clothes disappear, or invisible, or something. And this one, right next to it! It changes your clothes to whatever you're thinking of!"

"That last one doesn't sound sexy."

"You just don't have the right mind for it to be sexy." She turned back to the book, flipping the page and thrusting her attention into it, "Ooh this one looks- Hah! That's- Oh... Oh wow..." Her eyes were darting up and down the pages, her brain going a mile a minute trying to soak up all the information. Excitedly she looks up at me, "Who wants to be the guinea pig?"

I throw my hands up "Whoa! Not it!"

"Aww come on! I'll do something vanilla! I wanna see how it works!" She gave me her best puppy-dog face "Pleeeeease?"

Damn that face, "Fine." I say, scooching around the rug, adjusting my position to sit across from her "But I keep my clothes on, understood?"

"Woo! Magic time!" She plants her face back into the book, looking for something that (I hope) would be mild enough, "Maybe this... Nah. Hmm... Ooh, definitely saving that one for later... Oh! I guess that'll work..." She brings her hands up above the book in a wizardly gesture, "This one's perfect. Ready Jules?"

"No." I say, wincing at whatever kinky fate Emma had imagined for me, "Go whenever."

"Alright... Here we GO!" She throws her hands out at me, and out of reflex I clench up.

Nothing happens. Emma looks back down at the book, confused, "Aww, what gives?"

I chuckle, "Maybe that spell is too high for your level. Or you don't have enough mana. Does it have any magic words?"

"Shuuush. Maybe I have to be touching it?" She puts one hand down on the page, the other pointed out at me.

A sudden arc of white/blue light jolts from her fingertips, crashing directly into my chest. A cry of bewilderment bursts from me as I tense up, my arms pulling up to my chest out of pure reflex. After the initial shock, I open my eyes to see Emma staring down at her hand, little tendrils of light still twisting off the tips of her fingers and disappearing into the air.

"Woah" She said to herself, flicking her hand like she was putting out a match and watching the vapor trails dissipate. She looks back up at me "You okay?"

I had no idea. I look down, taking careful inventory of myself. Arms, check. Legs, check. My mind darts down the list and everything seems to be in working order. I was a little surprised that I didn't have like, a second head, or a third boob. I looked up at Emma to see her excited face staring at my chest, making me re-evaluate my last guess.

Looking back down I saw what she'd been staring at. Two little bumps were popping out from the front of my hoodie. I unzipped it enough to see two incredibly bright high-beams screaming out to the world for attention through my shirt. My ruined bra was still stuffed into one of my hoodie's pockets, but I don't think even the combined might of all three of those layers of fabric would have been able to conceal such raging nipple hard-ons.

"Yeah! Take it off!" Emma said, letting out a wolf-whistle.

I zipped myself back up, feeling a little vulnerable, but the twin bumps were still blaringly obvious through the grey cloth, "Is that what you-?"

"Yep! I found this little gizmo at the shop that did pretty much the same thing. Pretty cool huh?"

"You..." I let my brain veer past the imagined images of Emma alone in a kinky magic shop before continuing, "It just makes nipples hard?"

Emma's face fell hard at my clearly unamused tone, "Well you can suck the fun out of anything if you say it like that. The point is it WORKS!"

I leaned back and braced myself against the rug with my arms, then returned to my original position, feeling a little over exposed with my brights on, "When does it, er, stop?" My eyes kept dropping back to glance at them, somehow surprised every time to see that they were as hard as the last time I looked.

"Uh," Emma said concerned, her face diving back down to the book and scanning over it for a few worrying seconds before coming back up, "An hour. See? Nothing to worry about! Just a little harmless kinky magic fun between friends."

My face dropped back down to stare at the nubs staring up at me. I guess an hour of hard nipples wasn't the worst fate to be shackled to. I looked back up, "Can it do anything a little more... useful? Like, I don't know. Clean the dishes? Or conjure food or something?"

Emma was apparently eager to prove her new toy's worth, because as soon as I finished she jumped up.

"Right on it!" She picked up on the page she left off on, slowly finishing reading the spells on that page, turning it over, and starting to scan the next ones. She muttered under her breath "Show... Me... Food spells..."

Apparently the book had heard her, because as if a sudden gust of wind had blasted through the room, the pages began to turn at blazing speed, causing Emma's hands to jump away from it. The blur of paper looked as if it was flipping through thousands and thousands of pages, far more than the little book could possibly contain. A split second before it stopped, I noticed that more pages kept flooding out of the inside of the back cover and falling through the inside-front when they rustled past. After a few seconds it stopped, lying open in front of Emma's crossed legs as still as if she had simply opened it like that.