Clara pulled up her hood. It wouldn't be good to be seen around this part of town, or to be seen going into the workshop. It had a reputation.

She pushed the door open and was greeted immediately.

"NO SPIRIT MAGIC", a voice roared from inside.

Clara hesitated at the door.

The voice continued, "I CAN SMELL IT FROM HERE, NOPE. I DEAL IN CURSES, DIVINE ARTEFACTS GONE WRONG, BUT NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT, NO SPIRITS. NOPE. OUT."

The angry voice had convinced her. This was probably the right place to go for her problem—even if they didn't want her here.

Clara fumbled with the item in question, slipping it into a container.

In a quiet voice, she spoke into the doorway "I've put it away. May I come in? Please?"

A pause, before the voice replied "FINE. WAIT UP".

Clara opened the door fully and took a step inside.

The front of the workshop wasn't much to look at. The shop had originally been a food counter. Two tables, four chairs bolted into the walls, and a desk blocking off the rest of the room.

The owner of the shop pushed open the desk and closed it behind her. That, or someone who acted like the owner.

Taking a seat, she invited the customer to sit down.

"I'm Anna. This is my shop. You are?", she announced.

"Clara", she replied.

"Who sent you?" Anna asked.

"No-one. I... uh" Clara fumbled her words.

"There's no sign on the door”, Anna casually pointed towards the door, “Who sent you here?".

"I... uh.... the headmistress. She..." Clara’s voice trailed off.

"Ughh. Fine. Wait here", Anna replied before standing up from the table.

Anna pushed open the desk once more, returning with two cups of tea. "Do you want one?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

Anna marched out again, returning with another cup. "You won't want to drink from that one."

"Why?" Clara was holding a cup to her lips.

"It's not tea." Anna swapped the cups over, "This is tea. That one is for the kitty."

Clara looked around. No sign of a cat.

"He won't come if you look for him. Have you met a cat before?" Anna asked rhetorically.

Anna dipped her finger in the cup and began to draw out a circle on the surface of the table.

"That's? Ink?", Clara asked.

"Conductive ink, yes. Now, bring out that awful spirit." Anna waved her hands as if she was in a rush.

"But you said...", Clara hadn't expected help.

"I said I wouldn't help you directly, but I am curious." Anna replied, omitting that she owed a certain head teacher a favour—a big one. "Show me—take out the spirit."

Clara was going to ask "What sort of cat eats ink?", not about her spirit problem, but she decided to move on.

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"I made a wish", Clara began.

"Here we go," Anna mumbled. "Fucking spirits."

Clara carefully pulled out the spirit she'd put into storage. A golden apple, with a number of small bites taken out of it.

The protection circle began to boil and sizzle, but the spell held.

"I.. I... I'm not..." Clara began to stumble over her words.

"So, what does the apple do, where did you get it?" Anna asked.

"I made a wish, I wanted to be beautiful, well, admired. I... I found the apple in my back garden, on the old tree—no other fruit..."

Anna rolled her eyes. Of course there wouldn't be other fruit, the spirits were rarely subtle. Not just a golden apple, no, it had to come from a barren tree.

"Sooooo. Great, you became hot. When did the murdering start?" Anna had seen similar spirits before.

Clara spat out her tea. "No one has died!"

"Why did that old shithead teacher send you here?" Anna couldn't understand—it sounded too easy.

"Every time I take a bite, I grow prettier, but..." Clara tried to explain.

"You crave blood... You have to feed, what, what?" Anna began to list the usual suspects.

Clara began to whisper. "I... can't recognise people. I thought I had it under control, but I..." She looked away.

"Your entire love triangle unravelled, huh? Typical. Let me guess. You ate more of the apple, hoping that would fix things?" Anna asked with a sigh.

Clara nodded.

"Made it worse? Oh... and you must have said something else to that old fart of a teacher. Hmm." Anna drummed her fingers on the table.

Clara squirmed in her chair.

"Let me guess" Anna spoke, "You said someone cursed you because you were so beautiful, right?"

Clara mumbled something under her breath. Anna couldn't hear it, but knew she was right.

It didn't matter—the solution was the same. "Soooooooo. Eat the apple." Anna explained.

"What?" Clara did not expect a simple answer to her problem.

"Eat it! Complete the spell! La-de-da,” Anna waved her hands, ”it'll undo everything.”

Anna continued with a deadpan tone “The last bite will change you back, but at a price! You will lose everything you gained!"

"Really?", Clara asked eagerly.

"Of course. Spirits are cruel, but a bit... simple minded."

This is why Anna hated spirit magic—the cure was always inside of them all along.

Anna had the rule for a very good reason. Spirit magic always backfired, and people only ever asked when it was way, way too late to change anything. Usually after not one, but several people had died. It seemed about four was the number where the guilt became unliveable.

Clara's problem was surprisingly easy—no undead, no divine quests—just simple envy. People didn’t need Anna the engineer, they needed Anna the therapist.

"You'll need to eat all of it. Go on", Anna carefully pointed to the item in question, while avoiding touching it directly with her fingers. She pinched her nose, "It stinks", waving at it with her other hand.

Clara picked the Apple up and began to bite into it.

Her skin tightened, her eyes widened. Her shape changed in proportion, numerous times.

For a moment, it was as if an angel had descended. She had an ethereal glow around her.

With only the stem left to eat, Clara pulled out a hand mirror.

"Don't", Anna spoke clearly without raising her voice, very much implying ‘If you break it, you bought it.’

It took Clara a moment to decide, but she went with Anna's advice.

The glow shattered and she felt her body shrinking, skin regaining hair, wrinkles, warts, and all. Even her scars returned.

"You can look in the mirror now, if you'd like", Anna spoke with a gentler tone.

Clara hesitated, but checked anyway.

Waiting to see her old face, she was surprised. She looked the same as she did this morning, or near enough.

"It'll slowly undo. Over the next couple of years", Anna began to warn her.

"Oh my!" Clara put away the mirror, "Thank you! Oh! Kitten!" she announced. The promised cat had appeared.

The kitten was licking away at the edges of the now-dead circuit.

"Little tyke loves the taste of used ink", Anna scratched the kitten’s neck with a smile, "and I didn't do anything".

With a deadpan voice Anna continued, "The power was inside you all along, truly this was a lesson for us all from spirit world, surely we have much to learn about ourselves!"

Clara giggled, and stood up from the table. "You say it'll wear off, how long do I have?"

"Oh... no rush... a few years at least, hmm. I'd say you'll get as uglier as everyone else does, it's called ageing."

"What?" Clara paused putting on her cloak, "Wait?"

She had been in a little bit of a rush.

"Yep. Sad but true, sorry. Now the spirit magic has gone, you'll age like a normal person. Terrible." Anna continued in her deadpan tone.

"I..." Clara pointed to her various features, "I'm not going to change back?"

"Nope. Now get going. You have a love triangle to repair. Do you want help with that?"

"I'll be ok. I'm better at lies than curses," Clara grinned, "and thanks again. I know you did something to make it stick."

"I told you, I don't do spirit magic. Now, away with you—you still stink of it!" Anna waved dismissively and shooed Clara out of the shop, bolting the door behind her.

Thankfully, Clara's boon had been fairly simple to resolve.

Usually the spirits weren't so playful. She figured Anna must have picked up the apple as a child, but had only been tempted to use it recently. Something like that—maybe the spirit had a crush on the girl, who knows.

Picking up the kitten, she poured him into her backpack. If she didn't, he'd climb up himself—using his claws.

She double-checked the locks on the workshop's windows. The furnace was off, the kitten was napping, in her left hand she had her portable thermal lance, and in her right, her favourite sledge hammer.

It was time to pay a visit to the headmistress.