The St. Csilla Academy in New England was one of the premier schools of wizarding, parapsychology, esoteric culture, and thaumaturgical engineering in the region. While it was not a part of the Ivy league it still enjoyed a decent reputation and a fair amount of renown having been the alma mater for several prominent figures in the magical world.
Margot Wallace of the Boston Wallaces was the fourth of the family’s children to be sent to the school. One of a long line of Wallaces that had attended the school since its founding in 1952, after the “grand curtain” fell when society was made aware of the presence of the paranormals and superhumans in their midst. Receiving them with gratitude due to their aid in defeating the third reich and their demonic allies at the end of world war two.
For her the school was a prison. Her mother was missing. Her father was dead. Her Aunt and Uncle, who currently helmed the Wallace household, had sent her to the school to keep her out of sight and under control. Her parents were at fault for her family’s treatment of her. Her parent’s statuses just high enough to create a complicated circumstance in the family’s inheritance schemes. To avoid future problems, Margot’s Aunt and Uncle took measures to keep her from becoming a threat to their own children.
Margot’s natural powers had been stunted and scattered. A portion of her once prodigious talents being torn from her and implanted into her cousins to nourish their own powers.
Now, while the young witch was still technically a magical being she was only barely so. Her keen mind and inborn true-sight, allowing her to see, observe, and learn about the world of wonder that surrounded her. All while, she was forced to live knowing that she would never be able to take part of the world.
For years, the young woman accepted this as her lot in life. Then she found out that the procedures that stole away her supposedly “out of control” powers had also diminished her lifespan leaving her with only a handful of years to live. This discovery lead the young woman to take drastic action. Doing something that she might not have done otherwise. She didn’t want revenge she just wanted to spend her last few years, freely and happily, as the mage she’d been born to be.
In the magical world there were witches and wizards who relied on their own powers, others who relied on the power of certain symbols, places, or concepts, and others who relied on other beings. As far as the magical community was considered whether one’s power was sourced externally or internally was immaterial so long as one was indeed powerful, and any bad deeds involved were properly hidden.
As such, it would be wrong to say that Margot’s desperation had sent her down an unorthodox route. On the contrary, there were countless magus households throughout the world who relied on familiars, or patron beings.
Where Margot went adrift, stepping off the beaten path, was creating her own homebrew ritual to summon the being of power. Forced to get creative because the safer routes required resources that her status as disfavored child wouldn’t allow her to attain even if she’d had the money to pay for them.
The last ingredient was a grimoire holding a record of unknown beings that were rumoured to be powerful, but not instantly antagonistic to the world of men. A book that incidentally appeared to have my name in it...somehow.
I fixed that problem by eating the associated pages and swallowing the data therein. Now if this world had any other written works that held my name and concept in them, the data would disappear from there as well.
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I stood staring at a mirror. Taking a good look at the new me. I was tall. Roughly 6’9’’, which was the shortest I could ever make one of my adult alternate bodies before it turned into active shapeshifting. Which would have meant expending a portion of my power with each passing second just to sustain that smaller height.
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Taking on a new form was a bit like telling a story to the world for certain being there were certain things that the universe simply wouldn’t believe. Considering how large I “really” was, I was probably lucky that the universe let me smaller than planet sized, so I couldn’t complain too much.
I was also muscular because if you’re making a new body for yourself, you might as well make one that can lift a few pounds and won’t get winded running for the bus.
In terms of aesthetic my appearance was normal, I wasn’t ugly, but I was nowhere near what I usually looked like. I was plain. An ordinary man with an ordinary face. Which was probably for the best, it would suck not to be able to do a simple errand without causing the people around me sanity damage.
My skin was light brown and clear of blemishes. My hair was thick and dark and somewhat shaggy. My eyes were black. Pure black. No irises, just two gloomy black islands floating in two clear seas of white. I can’t even tell you how much power I’d have to expend to change them.
My teeth were straight, if somewhat predatory in arrangement and shape. My mouth was a bit too wide. My tongue a bit too long and serpentine. My eyes were a bit owlish. My ears were pointed and for the life of me I couldn’t get them to be not pointed, this was another issue of interference from the universe.
Ultimately, though, I looked alright. So long as the average person didn’t look too closely, though I probably wouldn’t pass for human, at least I’d pass for mortal. The new Monty was looking pretty good. I whistled. Tugging on the blazer, my new partner got for me after she’d regained consciousness and realized that I was still naked.
Posing a bit because, it’d been a while since I’d been a physical existence with a reflection to look at. I winked at myself.
“Do I look good? Or do I look good?”
A small voice spoke up, behind me.
“S-, Sir...I’m sorry if you’re not pleased with the clothing...Unfortunately, this was the best I could find.” said Margot. Trembling.
I frowned and then realized what the problem was. I resolved the issue by fully retracting my aura within myself. I probably should have known that would be an issue but I hadn’t been thinking about it. I literally just said that Margot was basically a normal person, so she would have had no way to resist the pressure I was radiating.
“The clothes are fine.” I said. Trying to give the woman a reassuring smile.
“Ah, er...Thank you. I’m glad you’re, pleased.” said Margot.
I continued scrutinizing my new body for a moment more. Then I turned around to face my young contractor.
“Come here.” I said.
She responded by making a scared animal noise. After assessing that I was no longer leaking any of aura, I clucked my tongue and then repeated the worlds, putting a bit of weight into them.
“Come here.”
She walked over. Her stride shuffling and slow as if she were being drawn against her will. She wasn’t being drawn though. I can swear that on my life. I find mind control distasteful and generally avoid using it.
Once she made her way over to me. I placed my palm on her head, my hands sinking into the thick, slightly, somewhat pleasurably fluffy red hair atop her head.
Looking inwards, through my mental databases I looked up various schematics, charts, and logs concerning the makeup of the typical human body, and the makeup of your average spellcaster. I gazed at the girl began reading her akashic data.
Akashic data was information created and collected by the akashic plane. The akashic plane was a super-reality that intersected most of the known cosmos recording all the information that could possibly ever be recorded.
If you want to have a good idea of what it was like, it was basically like the encoding and meta data in a game. Each object in the cosmos, down to the smallest particles, was associated with lines and lines of code that certain beings like myself could read and interpret.
It didn’t make me omniscient but it got me close...Of course that all assumed I was actually paying attention. If I didn’t both to take the time to read the data, I would ever be slightly more knowledgeable than the average guy. By the way, this same data was how I learned my Summoner's backstory so I could exposit it at you.
I read Margot’s akashic data. I looked up this world’s akashic record for the general makeup of human bodies. I compared it to the data stored inside my head for the bodies of humanoid beings from other worlds.
At which point, I expended all the energy I had left fulfilling the young woman’s wish. Knocking her out and then remaking her from the inside out so that the damage to her body and spirit would be undone. Making her spirit much sturdier than she might have otherwise been because I kind of wanted to stick around which meant making it so her connection to me didn’t burn out her mind and leave her a brain dead hollow husk. This took roughly eight hours, and I figured I’d probably have to double check my work later.
“Whew...Man, this has been like going from having a nap to running a fifty kilometer marathon. Okay, I’m about to pass out for a little bit. ‘You’ can do magic now so, yay for you...I’m probably going to need to feed when I wake up so you have a week to get me some high-grade magic crystals to eat...and about twelve pints of your blood, you might want to figure that out.” I said. Grumbling.
With that said, I closed my eyes and ceased existing. Completely dematerializing the body I’d spent so much time and energy creating because I believed the best way to stay safe was to make it so that nothing could actually touch you.