In Over His Head Ch. 10

Then, she signed her full name name at the bottom in the customary scrawling style that all alchemists develop. At the moment the quill left the invisible surface after the last sweep of her signature, it turned completely black and then evaporated in a puff of smoke.

"Let's do this," she said firmly. She turned expectantly to face the gleeful little horned man who was again rubbing his hands together.

"Yes. Let's!" he agreed and he clapped his hands together with a thunderous boom, as the entire contract exploded outwards from behind her, and then coalesced back into a shimmering silver light in front of her. It hung there in mid air, pulsing and shifting colors through all the spectrum of the rainbow before settling into a dark pulsing purple. She stared it, wondering what kind of Magick it held, when suddenly the purple light swarmed forward over her, engulfing her completely. She had no idea her... transformation... would be happening so soon! She hadn't even mentally prepared yet.

It tingled, but it did not hurt. She was a bit alarmed, though, when she found her feet no longer on the ground as she slowly lifted about three feet into the air. She tried to remain calm, but her heart was beating harder and harder at the unnerving feeling of hanging in mid air. And that was how she felt... she did not feel like she was floating. She felt like she was hanging, as if some invisible being were holding her up by the scruff of her neck. And she was rising! She continued to be pulled upwards till she was nearly seven feet off the ground. She looked to Clavicus for some assurance, but his back was turned and he was walking... away from her?

Only the large dog stood facing her from below, not even five feet from where she had started to make her ascent. He had a (sad?) look on his face, at least she assumed it was sad. It was definitely not a happy face...

She called out to Clavicus as he hurried away. "Wait.. where are you going? Why are you leaving me like this?" she asked desperately. She couldn't stop the fear from seeping into her voice by the end.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME???!"

The little man paused, and turned around slowly as she rose even higher. The tingling sensation was getting stronger, and she had the strangest feeling, of it deeper down, in her bones themselves, as thought it had seeped inside her. Her skin felt tight, like it was stretching, too small for her body. Or maybe her insides were too big for her skin?

He looked at her, and he spoke. He spoke in the same carnival manner he had before, but bolder, bigger, as if he was talking to an entire audience of spectators. His voice boomed and filled the entire clearing, and then less then suddenly, instantaneously, he was RIGHT THERE. Standing in mid air in front of her only a foot away.

"Why you are getting everything you ASKED for, my dear!" He pointed at her dramatically and he put an emphasis on "ask" that made her heart skip a bit and her stomach drop. "You will be beautiful beyond compare, exactly as you specified! Your mind will remain as sharp as ever! And I promise you, you will be ANYTHING but short!" he promised her.

He was gesturing broadly with his hands as he talked, as if he was performing on a stage, and he took his little exaggerated bow again at the end. With his face still down she heard him all but whisper.

"There's only one teensy. Tiny. Little. Problem..."

He did not raise from his bowed position, but as he slowly raised his head toward her, Eydva was startled to see there was something wrong with his face. He was grinning, but the grin was too wide and too tall, inhumanly so, and it had too many teeth, and though they were straight and flat they were far too large, like a grin carved on wooden jester doll. It was a clear and deliberate reminder to Eydva that the man in front of her was no man at all, but something beyond her understanding from a world outside her own, and just as that terribly large over toothy grin was about to open and say something, the dog interrupted.

"You forgot to ask for it not to hurt," he said from the ground below them.

"ENOUGH!" Clavicus bellowed, in a voice that shook the ground, the statue, the trees and bushes. His face was normal again. He looked at her, and she thought she could see in his golden eyes flickers of remorse... concern...

"I'm sorry, my dear, but there is no other way," he said resolutely, palms open in oblation. "We forge ourselves through fire, blood, and tears. You are becoming something more. More than you were before. That always hurts." he said solemnly.

The dog and his master suddenly vanished, and Eydva was alone.

"Wha--" Eydva tried to call out to them, but was cut off mid word as the tingling sensation inside her bones suddenly began to burn.