When I woke up, it felt like I had the best dream in the world. Finally being turned into a girl by a magical witch, one that somehow knew of the nightmares that have been plaguing me for weeks on end. I had to go over my entire body to make sure that it was all still there, my curves, my cleavage, my hair, my equipment downstairs. It was all there. All of it was real. Which meant that I would be able to become a legitimate apprentice to a witch and learn actual real life magic. How was it possible that this hadn’t become public knowledge???? Roxy could answer those questions later, it was time to munch on some food, quit work, and have an actual wonderful life full of magic and maybe even cute girls. Gosh I had to ask if I could turn my housecat Janice into my familiar, how magic even worked in the first place, why this goddess kept appearing in my dreams and a billion other things that I needed to know.
It took me 3 hours to get everything done. My boss was shocked that I basically told him to suck a fat dick to get fired on the spot. But it worked and it got me into a position where the call I would be making to Roxy could go as smoothly as possible. There was a part of me that wished there were more people who I had to break ties with but I sadly never got the opportunity to befriend anybody so deeply that it would be required and my family hasn’t been talking to me since I came out to them a few years prior. I felt a bit nervous about picking up the phone, my fingers shaking as I slowly dialed in her number into it. After a few rings she picked up, something bubbling in the background as she cursed to herself.
“Roxy’s cab service how can I help ya?”
“Hey Roxy it’s me, Myra, the girl you drove back home and gave the gender change tonic to. I wanted to talk about the offer to become your apprentice.” I said, my voice shaking a bit.
“Are you sure about this? As I have told you last night, you will get the gender change potion free of charge even if you don’t want to join.” she said, a slight bit of concern in her voice.
“Everything has been handled, nobody will ever even notice I was gone.”
“All right then, then I will come pick you up in about an hour or so?” she said, somebody in the background saying something before replying. “Nevermind, it will be about two and a half. Just do whatever you usually do before I arrive, alright?”
“Okay, until later.” I said, hanging up.
I then waited around, twiddling my thumbs and playing a few games. Which turned into a binge session until I forgot what time it was, forgot that my body was that of a girl and forgot that I was about to become a witch. Ooops. Time to shut everything down and get into Roxy’s car.
We were slowly driving towards Roxy’s home, my mind was racing with questions that I felt were ready to explode out of me. Finally, I was unable to keep silent.
“Am I allowed to ask questions already or do I have to wait until we are at your witches den?” I asked, looking excited at Roxy as she steered the Trueno through the thick forest.
“I suppose I could tell you the basic rules about magic before we arrive, that would make it a lot easier for you to understand your first lessons. Is that okay with you or did you want to ask a different question?” she said, turning down the electronica that came from the speakers.
“YES! Gosh yes! Magic is so awesome and it's real like how does it work tell me EVERYTHING.” I was nearly jumping out of my seat, giggling about what was in store for me, what I would be able to do once I was a real witch.
“So you probably have a lot of ideas about how magic works, you know about Harry Potter whether you read it or not, maybe the Percy Jackson series comes to mind. But sadly magic simply can’t be very flashy because of how magic works in real life. The more you try to change about something, the more energy it requires to accomplish it. Energy is in everything and everyone, it is what gives us our life, as it flows through us and makes us come to life. Small changes can be achieved by the air alone, maybe a bit of blood, but as you go up in scale it becomes more and more expensive, so a wise witch would rather use their magic over small periods of time rather than using up her own life energy to fuel her magic in a big burst. Everything that walks on this earth has energy in it, small beings and non sentient beings not having as much as beings who are. By that you’d think that humans would win out but I believe currently we are below 4th place. Above us are Giraffes, Elephants, Bears and most of all the larger wildlife in the sea. Whales are just a very big pool of energy and we small humans can’t compete with that.”
This explanation continued on for the duration of our long trip to Roxy’s place, describing how sigils work, how to pick a patron deity so that magic would take effect, how to brew potions, spells, spell scrolls, transfiguration, blessings, the inconsistencies of magical items, and spell rebounds, until there was steam coming from my ears at the wealth of sheer information that was given to me by Roxy. Most of the things she said didn’t even make sense to me at all and at some point she must have seen I was getting confused, telling me that I would understand once we had a few lessons together
“This honestly all sounds way more complicated than it really is, at most it’s like a booklets worth of content.” she said as she parked the Trueno in front of what looked like a small brick and mortar store, with a washed out yellow sign saying closed adorning the brown oak door. There were no markings as to what the shop was even selling, or any other information other than it being closed.
“What kind of store are you running? Some kind of tourist trap?” I inquired, giving Roxy a puzzled look.
“Sex toy shop hun.” Roxy said without any hesitation, making my jaw nearly drop to the floor. “Just kidding, it's simply a shop for witches to get their goods. A witch has their needs, and I am more than happy to provide help…. For a good price. People know what they want when they are coming to this store.” she answered, opening up the front door. It was a rather plain looking store as far as magic is concerned. A few odd jars here, a few crystals there, but not really anything that would not be found in the general hack store. This could be a candy store if they changed out the goods. “The actual good stuff is behind here.” Roxy said, revealing a door that was almost perfectly hidden behind a bunch of fake empty boxes, that went further into the store.
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The stuff behind the hidden door was legitimately magical. There were brewing apparatuses lying on tables that seemed to all be working on different potions, having rather vague descriptions engraved on them like ‘potions of reversion’ ‘potion of acceleration’ ‘potion of healing’ while others were far more descriptive ‘gender change potion’ ‘extending life potion’ or ‘invisibility potion’.
“So this is the brewing room, here is where I cook up all the potions that are sold to people in need. The labels engraved on the tables is because I kept mixing up which table was working on which kind of potion, which ends up with me either messing up the potion. OR WORSE it creates an entirely new potion that has adverse effects.” Roxy explained as I took in the tiniest of details in the room, trying to figure out how the stations worked as if it were a puzzle waiting to be solved. She then took one potion into her hand, shook it violently before removing the cork and drinking it all at once.
Roxy began to flex her muscles, growing bigger and bigger as she grew one head taller. At the end of her transformation she was a buff beefcake that could probably lift me up with just one of her arms. It was magical. “Impressive, eh? Only a fraction of what potions can do, some of which you have already experienced yourself. This one is a bit more permanent, usually in use for people with degenerative muscle disease buttttttttt it can be used for personal use as well. Permanency would be at about 3 months, until then at least a sip every 2 weeks or else you will lose the effect. Now if you would follow me again.” she said, already going up a large spiral staircase.
When we emerged at the top it seemed like we somehow entered a whole new world. There were blue crystals floating in the air, chalk laying all over the ground with a circle that seemed to glow faintly. A large metal table was to the side, letters written on many pieces of paper that were strewn all around it, with pencils placed neatly in a mug with an old timey ship compass pierced into the paper. I poked the crystal that was currently flying towards me at a very leisurely pace, sending it spiralling towards the ground as it broke on impact.
“Please don’t touch them, they are very fragile.” Roxy sighed, hearing a bit of frustration from her.
“Oh, sorry…” I said, looking at the blue dust that was dissipating into the air.
“So this is the room for sigils and pentagrams, if I remember correctly this one is…” she muttered, stepping into a Pentagram.
It started to glow a very light blue, the crystals reacting to it as they started to turn a pale white before shooting out electricity into Roxy. I was terrified, but my whole body was locked up, keeping me in place as I saw whatever ritual my new mentor was currently demonstrating to me. She remained calm, sitting down as her hair started to float into the air and her eyes were swallowed into a sea of darkness. At some point she started to whisper silently before she got up, the color in her eyes and hair returning as the crystals began to stop surging energy into her. The smile she had on her face was big, seemingly content with what she saw. “Gosh that felt refreshing. The pentagram you see on the floor there is for finding, as La Shay’ puts it, her ‘lost sheep’. It lets me find more trans people that might be willing to join the coven. There are a lot of uses that pentagrams have but not now, now let’s continue our tour and then we will come back once that lesson is on.” Roxy went further along, slowly opening a door further into the seemingly endless shop of wonders.
Roxy seemed very giddy as we stepped into the next room, looking over to me as we entered a room filled with books, whole shelves full with them that lined all the walls in the room with scrolls stretched out on old wooden tables. Jars were set up neatly in what looked like cupholders at the side, filled with what seemed to be blood… My barf reflex wanted to kick in but I was able to recover, simply pointing towards them when my mentor saw me clutching my stomach. She seemed shocked, her expression full of guilt.
“OH! Oh gods no that is not human blood that is pig blood that I get for free from the butcher down the street please don’t be scared.” she said, visibly feeling guilty as I was able to calm myself down.
“There are already witches, so I thought vampire isn’t too much of a stretch.” I muttered out sheepishly, Roxy nearly bursting into laughter. She composed herself, a giggle still escaping her mouth.
“Vampires have been extinct for about 500 years by now, ever since Vlad Tepes the third tried to spread the blood plague across Transylvania and failed miserably.” Roxy explained, with an expression so deadpan I couldn't tell if it was a joke or actual fact, but since pressing further on the matter is not something I wanted to do I moved along with my mentor, huddled up in front of one of the old oak tables as she released the scroll that was attached to it. She took it in one hand, placing the jar of pig’s blood in the other.
“La Shay’! Grant me your fury!” She yelled out, inhaling a lot of air before shooting a fireball from her mouth. The jar of pig’s blood was completely empty, as if it was never used. I stood there, wide eyed as Roxy smiled widely.
“How did you do that!?” finally escaped my mouth, my excitement reaching near limitless levels.
“Oh, it is a simple scroll, these are pretty much spells that you cast when you have the scroll with you and something that you wish to use as an energy source. Technically you could use your own life energy but that is a BIG waste of energy and should only remain as a last resort. Now onto our last stop before we have our first lesson.” My mentor said, going even further up, this time on a staircase made out of granite. At this point I was certain that this store was far bigger inside than it was from the outside.
“Come on! We don’t have all day.” Roxy shouted, making me go faster as I quickly forgot my last thought.
It was as if Roxy tried more and more to impress me with how much magic is capable of. There was a gigantic garden that was consuming the whole room. There were four trees in the corners of the room, three little sheep munching on some grass with a river going down the middle, seemingly into nowhere.
“This is the transfiguration room. This is where we are going to spend most of our time for the first few lessons, as transfiguration is the basis of most of our magic. Almost no Energy required as long as you let the change happen gradually. . Let me once again demonstrate.” said Roxy, sitting down next to a sheep as I saw her eyes change again from the human to the sheep ones that I had when the potion transformed me into a girl. I didn’t even check if I still had them. My mentor beckoned me to sit down next to her, carefully watching her again as I saw the muscle mass that she gained from the potion slowly fading, her body going back to her old self as the air around us started to feel colder. After a while she was back to her former self, getting up and shaking off every piece of grass that was now on her. Seeing her change back into her small, soft form using nothing but a bit of the heat surrounding us was truly amazing.
“Transfiguration is one of the most potent types of magic there is. It works on nearly everyone and everything, as long as a high enough source of energy or the right amount of time is given. We will spend many lessons learning this type of magic before we move onto greater things. But for that we will have to do something before we can continue the first lesson. It is time to talk about deities.”