A Summoning, Part XXIII

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Part XXIII
~Emperor, Part 2~

The old werewolf had five or six more rounds of customers, and each time he went to the front to deal with them and left Prama with a list of tasks to complete, or something to continue stirring or pouring at the least. She began to quickly get a feel for the sort of processes needed for some of the more complex potions he was working on. For as huge and intimidating as he was, Boreas had an extremely delicate touch; his fine motor control was astounding for his age, really.

One disadvantage she seemed to have here was a weaker sense of smell; the werewolf frequently sniffed at ingredients or mixtures and seemed to instantly know whatever it was he needed to know from a single whiff. Of course no chemist would rely on sniffing everything in sight, Prama thought, and surely there were ways to use her other senses to achieve the same result, given enough practice and teaching. That would come later, though; for now she was happy to have won the contest and eager to further prove herself worthy of his trust. Sure, they'd made an agreement that he would take her on as an apprentice, but it would be best for him to want her there. The more indispensable she became, and the more competent he saw her as, the easier it might be to get him to teach her more interesting and difficult potions sooner.

It was somewhere between six and seven when Boreas decided to close down for the night, heading back out to the front to change the sign in the window before returning to the alchemy lab proper. “Alright, we're done for today,” he said. “You mind coming this way for a chat?” he asked, waving toward a door on the wall perpendicular to the one that led to the front counter.

“Not at all,” Prama said. The werewolf took off his leather coat and gloves and stuck them on the coat rack; under his coat he had on a thick, long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans, both of which were mildly stained and distressed but free of holes. Prama supposed this was a second layer of protection, and resolved to imitate this kind of wear herself for alchemy work in the future. For now, she followed suit before following him into a small, living-room-ish area with a few moderately comfortable chairs. By then he was already sitting in one of them, and waved at another which partway faced it.

“Take a seat?” Nodding, she did this as well, leaning forward a bit in curiosity. What did he want to talk about?

“Miss Olivet, you show a lot more promise than I would've expected,” he said. “I admit I underestimated you at first. Don't think the job of an apprentice will be easy, or that you'll learn everything in a week, though. Even fast learners have limits.”
“Oh, of course,” she said, nodding. “I'm willing to stick with this until you say I'm ready. Magic in general is fairly new to me, to be honest, but I learned a long time ago to trust the expert in this kind of practical work.”

“That's what I wonder about,” said the old wolf. “You've got the kind of competence that can get a lot of good-paying jobs. You learn quick, and you know how to be careful. You're even pretty shrewd about dealing with other people, the artificial shyness or whatever it is aside. Money's an easy enough way to power if that's what you want. So knowing it's much harder than other paths, why do you want alchemy?”

“Huh. Well, you're right about one thing: I am interested in becoming wealthy,” Prama said. “But not quick. I want the kind of wealth that keeps on growing, the kind of influence where everyone looks at me and says 'there's someone who earned it'. Specifically, I want to be someone important in the magic world, rather than just among 'normal' humans. But I've also found myself hungry for challenges lately. An easy path just doesn't hold my interest. On top of that...”

“Uhh, first, how well do you think you can keep a secret?” she asked. “I'm not sure exactly how long this one needs to keep, and there are already quite a few in on it, but..”

“Prama,” he said, using her first name for the first time. “You probably heard wolves value honesty, right?”
“Yes?”
“An honest person can still keep secrets. There are several of my customers' secrets I'm keeping right now,” he stated. “The main trick is just to let someone know when they've asked a question you can't answer. I can keep your secret just fine.”

“Okay then,” she nodded.

“So: The 'powerful being' I mentioned before, isn't a djinn. I understand if it's difficult to believe this, but I had a key part in the—partially accidental—creation of a new god. Her name is Zotha, a goddess of—among other things—gratitude and change, and I was granted my trade for intelligence by her as a way of saying 'thank you'.” The werewolf's expression was inscrutable, but during this brief pause in her speech he waved for her to continue. “I've decided that I want not only to be self-sufficient, but to repay and support her as much as possible. That's why I need inroads with the world beyond the veil myself, and why I want my wealth and influence to come from my own efforts. Really, I could ask her to make a bunch of valuables for me to sell if I just wanted to be rich, but anything I gave her that came from her in the first place feels rather pointless.”

“Hmm. Is this Zotha's power associated with the color purple, by any chance?” Boreas asked after not much of a pause.
“Uh..yes, actually,” she nodded, remembering the glow of Jess's eyes. “Where'd that come from?”
“La Lune—my goddess of choice, and gen'rally that of werewolves the world over, prefers to talk to mortals through dreams involving a clear view of the moon. I was graced with such a message last night, but unable to fully interpret its meaning before now.”

The old werewolf spread his hand forward, as if drawing the scene out of his mind and into the air in front of him. “The moon showed me a great, bright purple flame in the midst of a forest. Whatever it caught, it changed. A viper became a dove, a sheep became a fox, and a lion became an owl. The rest went by too quickly to see, except for the flame approaching a great, spreading tree whose branches were dried and cracked. Before I woke, its blaze made the tree flower and bloom again before carrying on. I suppose, you must be the owl,” he stated, shrugging.
“Yeah..I can see that,” Prama said. She could think of decent interpretations for the other two, too. “So you think the tree was you?”

“Catch on quick,” Boreas said. “A great deal of focus was on this last part, and the dream felt like a request rather than a warning. I suppose a goddess of 'change' would have the power to make an old wolf young again?”

The bespectacled girl nodded. “I don't see why not. In fact, she's already made at least one person young again. If you want me to try, I could call on her power to do it here and now. However, in your position I'd want to be ready for her to say yes first.”

He nodded, then sat in silence for a moment, appearing pensive.

“I will admit I'd gotten used to the idea that I'd start to be useless soon. La Lune's blessing alone keeps me sharp enough not to kill myself making some potions these days, but it'd only be a matter of time before my hand became unsteady or my mind not as sharp. Wolves normally live, maybe twenty years longer than humans, when we work hard to keep ourselves fit for much of that time. But I have a hard time seeing what I would do if I couldn't work anymore. No, more likely I'd be too stubborn to quit and end up blowing up the whole shop at some point. A regular would come by a few hours later and find a smoking crater in its place.” He shrugged. “I'm not actually sure whether I asked La Lune for guidance on this. I know how humans think of deity, but she really isn't that kind of god, most of the time. Still, it seems she gave me an answer—or at least an option, anyhow.”

“You don't think she'd mind you getting help from some other goddess?” Prama said, curious.

“Don't look like it. If anything, that dream was encouragement. So I say, go ahead,” he said, lifting a hand toward her. “I'm not gettin' any younger otherwise.”
“Heheh. Okay...”

Prama spoke in the same familiar ritual-language again, reaching out mentally to Zotha and asking her to land the person sitting in front of her around 'young adult' if at all possible. What she felt through the connection as a purple glow suffused her hands from the wrists up was noticeably more than what had come for most of the wishes people had had on Sunday; it seemed that doing something like this took a bit more energy than usual. That was probably also the reason there wasn't a youth potion—or rather, if there was, it was likely beyond Boreas to make for one reason or another. But, especially with a goddess's help, the cost wasn't insurmountable. As far as being self-sufficient went, she had already reasoned that this was something he'd requested for his benefit, with any boon she felt from it a mere side effect. Anyway, she'd anticipated either needing or wanting to reveal the goddess's existence early enough to get permission through a series of texts with Jess that morning, which had naturally included an invitation from Zotha to 'bless' him if he wanted it.

There was a feeling that her hands were 'full'--that enough had come through to accomplish the request—and she spread them carefully forward in the werewolf's direction. He watched impassively as the light streamed out and coiled around his form for a moment like a big spring surrounding him, then finally pulled itself inward, seeming to squeeze up against his body even as it was absorbed. When it hit him this way, he took a sharp, long intake of breath, then let it out in a calm, slow “Fffffhh” as his features began to rapidly change.

Boreas's wrinkled, largely unshaven face rapidly smoothed over, losing hair and blemish alike, until it looked as soft and clean as a newborn's. Above that, his hair straightened out and softened a bit, beginning to grow longer, and the fur of his ears turned a bit thicker and fluffier, ending up looking like it had been freshly, carefully groomed. A slight shudder came to him after that, suggesting similar changes to the rest of his skin beneath his clothes, but given that his hair was already falling nearly to the shoulders in the sides and back, Prama guessed that the change was far from over.

Indeed, as the goddess's power largely finished entering his body, retaining itself as a visible, firelike glow across its surface, the old werewolf began to shrink—not in height, but certainly otherwise, with his shirt and the leggings of his jeans both bagging out around him a bit. He was looking down and watching as his shoulders narrowed, his arms and legs growing slimmer, and let out a low, confused-sounding “Rrr?” at the unusual sensations. Then his clothes began to shift too, the shirt pulling itself close against his shrinking body and splitting itself down the middle, buttons appearing to keep it fastened together, and the jeans turning to soft cloth and beginning to pull much tighter than before. Prama caught sight of fairly muscular arms and legs steadily slimming down, the sides of his belly caving inward, and his hips and thighs starting to push themselves out a bit.

Boreas's hair spilled out now to the height of his stomach, but was still growing; his legs squirmed back and forth slightly, his cheeks growing red, ears slowly lowering to the sides and his tail moving for the first time since she'd met him, just slowly back and forth. By now his pants had turned into a pair of dark blue tights, clearly outlining a small, still-shrinking bulge between his legs. “Rrf..rff..aa~aah..” After a couple of low barks, his voice changed, floating instantly into a deep, but feminine, low alto register. A black, pleated skirt seemed to grow itself out from under the bottom of his shirt while his hair began to fall across the chair and the base of his tail, seemingly triggering a change in the latter's fur not unlike that of his ears which included turning its tip white.

“Mnngh..” The werewolf gave a high gasp as the change of sex completed itself, then let out a couple of higher yips, her blush intensifying while her hips and thighs filled out much more than before, ending up as the lower third of a quite generous figure. Soft gray hair was pooling on either side of her now, and her shirt gained fluffy black ends to its sleeves, gloves the same dark blue as the tights pulling up to wrap themselves around her small, delicate-looking hands. A big black bowtie fixed itself around her neck as the shirt visibly pulled close against a slim, flat belly and grew conspicuously loose about the chest. Then...

“Rr~rRf..!” This bark seemed lower and calmer than the earlier yips, but her blush got worse again. “Hhhh...Ffffh...” Boreas made a clear effort to breath in and out slowly as her chest filled forward, the shirt hanging off of little bumps at first, then larger and larger breasts, until they finally began to stretch the material of the shirt and whatever was underneath it, seeming to force them to grow larger to accommodate. Her hair was so long now that bits of it trailed past the front of the chair to her calves, the tips of the silvery-gray locks threatening to hit the floor entirely, but it seemed to have finally quit growing now. Her new breasts seemed to give one final push, drawing a lower gasp from her lips as they did, which she let out all at once in a quick “Hahh,” and then the purplish glow faded out. The change was done—leaving Prama looking at an exceptionally tall, curvy woman who nonetheless seemed no older than she was.

Boreas looked down, examining her new appearance and running a gloved hand through her absurdly long hair for a bit before slowly standing up, rotating her shoulders and patting her sides a couple of times. “I feel..pretty good,” she said finally, her voice as dry and low as before, but quite distinctly female. “Young, full of energy, not aching anywhere. Not to undercut my gratitude for that, but, I don't suppose you could've warned me about this part?”

“Err..to be honest, it didn't occur to me?” Prama said. “Sometimes Zotha's power leans toward making the target of a transformation female, but not always—many times, in fact, it doesn't. I'm uncertain whether it's random or not. And, it is fixable.”

“Well, of course. I've made a few sex changing potions in my day,” the wolf-woman said, crossing her arms. “Never really saw the appeal of it, personally.”

“I meant Zotha can fix it. Willingly, through me, right now if you want,” the bespectacled girl clarified, putting a hand to her own chest.

“I don't see much reason to bother a goddess with somethin' I could do myself,” Boreas shrugged. “In't that what you were just saying?”
“I would consider this a distinct situation from that, where you'd just be asking her to fix a problem with her boon.”

“Hmm.”

Shrugging, the werewolf gently tugged at her hair, getting it out of the way to sit down again. “Tell me somethin'. You think you'd find it any easier to work with another woman?”

“Uh..I can't say that I've given the matter much thought,” Prama said. “I admit you look less, uh, scary that way, but I think the same would be true of a male form too, now?”

“What about if you wanted a potion, walked into my shop for the first time and saw me lookin' this way? Versus the 'old' look?”

“Well...I admit I'd be a lot less inclined to run back out in fear, myself. But—you don't think suddenly looking so, uh, different will scare off your usual customers?”

“Prama, The main things that appeal to my usual customers are my skills and my winning personality,” she said flatly. “Maybe I could give the 'image change' thing a trial run for a bit, is all, see if that attracts anyone new.” A hand went for her hair again, running through it. “Gonna have to do something about all this hair, though.”

Headtilting a bit, the short genius said, “I could show you how to tie it back, but I'm not sure that'd be enough with that much. Maybe you should just go for a haircut?”

“Mmn. I was thinkin' more in the realm of something that'd let me control its length at will. Shouldn't be too hard to attach it to the fur control I already have,” she said, taking off a glove and demonstrating: Black fur appeared and disappeared in a quick rippling motion.

“So a potion like that wouldn't work for a human, then, would it?”
The werewolf shrugged. “A little trickier, but possible, I think. Maybe I'll tinker with that tonight and show you what I come up with tomorrow. If you're planning to come in then.”

“Wh—yes, of course,” she said. “I have one afternoon class, but I can be here as soon as I'm done with that.

“Good.” Boreas nodded. “Meantime, you tell your goddess thanks for me.”
“I'm sure she already knows, but I will.”

---

Onida walked into her house after work to find Damon sitting upright on the couch, her tail wagging furiously. “Sis! Welcome home!”

“Uh, hi. I'm a little surprised you're awake already.”
“Um..I heard the car pulling in, so I ran downstairs,” she confessed. “It just kinda, like, happened before I really thought about it.”
“Well, at least you seem to be in a good mood,” she shrugged, continuing on to put the rest of her things down.

“Yes! I feel like, I've started remembering some stuff,” she said, eagerly getting up to follow. “It's um, mostly stuff from video games, but, some bits and pieces came back about my friends...about you. Our parents...”

“That's really good,” she said, pausing to give the wolf-girl next to her a genuine smile. “I guess something we're doing is working.”

“Yeah! Um..is Sam coming back tonight?”
Onida nodded. “I was thinking of asking her..or, him....whatever, in for dinner. In the end it's up to Sam, but I suspect the answer will be yes.”

An hour or so later, Sam did show up—back in the tall, lanky male form. “Welcome. You're back to normal,” Onida observed, waving him into the front door.
“Yeah, aaah...I had some video calls off and on today with people who're familiar with me. I'm not totally sure what the right time is to, aah, tell people in general I can do that, but not..right now, is all. I can change back if you want, though?”
“It really doesn't make a difference to me at this point,” she shrugged, leading him into the kitchen.

“Sam, Sam! I remembered stuff!” Damon said as soon as he came in, still sitting obediently in her chair at the table but clearly bursting to get up and tackle him or something.
“Yeah? That's good, isn't it?”
“Uh huh!”

For the first part of the meal, the conversation was mostly Damon going over some of what she'd managed to remember in more detail. Wanting her to be happy, and honestly sharing in the happiness herself, Onida let this go on that long before clearing her throat meaningfully to interrupt.

“Hmn?” The wolf-girl headtilted in her sister's direction.

“Sam, I have a question.”
“Yyeah?”

“A few, actually. How long are you planning to stick around and help Damon?”
“I, aah...I thought, as long as it took to get her back to normal. Or at least—like—mostly normal?”
“Uh huh. And how much does your hotel cost a night?” He winced before answering, which was as much of an answer as she really needed, so she went on: “I have a pretty good idea of the kind of money streamers make, you know. Particularly how much less it is when you're not actually doing your 'job'.”
“Yyyeah..but, I got some in savings still. And it's worth it, right?”

“Do you have the equipment to do it with you, if you had to?”

“Well..I mean, not my full setup, but I have a pretty good laptop, I've used it for that stuff before. It's just...”
“Hotel wi-fi isn't much use for streaming?”
“Yyyeeaah,” he nodded slowly. “What're you getting at?”

Onida took in a breath and audibly let it out. “Well, we have a guest bedroom here, and better Internet than the hotel, for sure.”

“Aah...sure, but..”
“As long as you're helping my brother—sister—whatever out, would you like to stay here?” she said.

“I mean—sure. I, I would. It'd be, it'd definitely help me out, but, I feel like I can't ask that of you,” Sam replied, clearly flustered by the offer. “Like, we just met yesterday, right? How do you know you can trust me?”

“First of all, you're the one asking that question. Do you trust yourself?”
“Aah, I—maybe?”
“Damon knows you and trusts you. And I left you alone with her all last night, at presumably her most vulnerable mental state, and you didn't do anything bad or weird. Right?” she directed toward Damon, who nod-nodded enthusiastically.

“Yep!”

“I have to work, and I can't be up all night and work all day. When I get a day off—next one this Saturday—maybe I can get away with staying up a night or two, but that alone isn't enough. Damon needs someone with her who knows her to help her recover faster, right?”

“Well, I think so?” Sam half-agreed.

“Then you're it. I can put something together for you to eat as a midnight 'lunch', just microwave it or something. And do breakfast and supper with you until she can stop being totally nocturnal.”

“..You aah, you didn't just bring this up on a whim, huh?” Sam said finally.
“I've been thinking about it all day. My mind is made up, so it's just up to you if you want to take the offer or not.”

Sam's ears folded down as he thought about it for a long moment, Damon distractingly leaning up toward him. Eventually he nodded. “I, in that case I'd very gratefully accept your offer. I-in fact it's probably not too late to grab my stuff and cancel the hotel for tonight, after supper. I really..hope I prove worthy of your trust, though.”

“Well, if you don't, you'll contend with something much worse than a werewolf.”
“Angry big sister,” Damon chimed in helpfully, seeming to vaguely recall an incident or two from their past. “Scary.”
“I-I'll be sure to keep that in mind.”

---

Anything big happen today, Master? They'd been in on-and-off communication throughout the day, but Jess still liked to check in on her favorite goddess as the sun began to set.

Nope. Thomas and Dai reached out to some more of our mutual friends, and I gave them some gifts they wanted, nothing too major.
Prama let me know she passed the test and worked with that alchemist all day, and then told him about you.

..And then gave him a blessing straight from me, Zotha finished for her. Riana was overjoyed to get Fox's message through Anika, and they went back to the hospital this morning. The majority of our original group of worshipers are pretty happy with their gifts by now, too.

Mhm. Now it's just people they spread the news to asking for stuff, and getting it..I suppose this is how we grow, huh?

Hopefully. Smooth sailing would be nice, but I anticipate that my 'nature' will produce some bumps in the road sooner or later. It doesn't help that I have a nagging feeling that I forgot about something specific.

Oh no! That didn't sound good. I'll go through everything I know about and brief you on it tonight if you want.

Thank you, but I don't think it's anything life-threatening. No need to panic even if I still don't remember it, I think.

That's..good, at least.