Blood Magic

2-8: The Man in The Mirror

.^^ the Crystal Mirror ^^

— James —

I woke up slowly, after passing out in the market, to find myself in a tub full of ice. I pulled myself up carefully, feeling the tension in my new body.

I paused a moment, reviewing that statement. 'New Body? What am I, a caterpillar?' I snorted, then looked in the mirror. '... fuck, I'm a butterfly, now.'

My ears wiggled, longer and noticeably pointed, now. My teeth were sharp, and my tongue was a pure shade of pink, which it had never been before. My skin hadn't paled much, but most of my freckles were gone, and my hair was brighter, even wet, extending down to the base of my spine. My face had become a little more angular, all my features coming sharply into focus.

I knelt next to the sleeping Athenos, and decided not to wake him just yet, as it was only about 1:00 in the morning. 'How do I know that? I can't even see the stars.' I hummed and chalked it up to magic, then saw the food on the counter, and suddenly felt insanely hungry.

I scarfed down the meat-pie, and drank the syrupy beverage that I immediately realized was broth from the meat, which, while disgusting, was actually enough to fill me up, surprisingly. I eyed the celery, wary of the normalcy of it, after the other two things held so much magic. I bit into it, and nearly gagged at the explosion of disgusting liquid, which I recognized immediately as liquid vitamins. I choked down the rest of it, realizing I needed the food, and then washed it all down with some water.

I decided to meditate, and see what else had changed in my body, other than my facial features. Immediately, I noticed my frankly haphazard sub-dermal armor had been dissolved, and distributed into my body evenly, in everything that contained Keratin, all my bones, hair, nails, skin, teeth, and such.

The density was slightly different in them, and only my skin had maintained the crystal in its original, non-Newtonian state. My bones were fully solid, and the fluid sacks between my bones and cartilage were entirely liquid, like hydraulics. My hair was designed like little braids of strong, solid material, microscopic... except I could see the structure of the pieces in front of my eye.

My eyesight focused minutely, traveling at a snail's pace down the hair follicle, until it's end. Then I smelled myself, and the room, and then the house, and everywhere Athenos and Mum had been. I smelled Rafaela, rather recently, and Athenos's alarm clock, a mixture of his apartment and metals and plastics.

I felt for the knob to adjust them, mentally, and slammed it down all the way to 01, to try to cope better. At least it wasn't a sensory overload anymore.

My own body didn't smell like anything, however. Nothing. I wasn't giving off a scent. I even tasted my own skin, (would have been embarrassing, if mum came in and saw me licking my arm,) but there was nothing.

"Huh... I guess that's cool." I grinned, then plucked some of my own hair, with difficulty, and placed it in my Bag, sitting on the sink. Then some more, into Athenos's pocket, just in case he ever needed my hair for a spell or something. I trusted him with it, and if I couldn't be tracked, that could become an issue, in the future.

I tried to cast magic, though, and paused. "Hmm... that's not good." The crystal was absorbing my magic before it left my body.

I tried again, directing the magic through my mouth, but my ribs absorbed most of the power, and all that came out was a puff of fire, which died quickly.

"Alright... magic is officially out of the question... what about my Craft?" I knelt again, and pulled out a piece of metal, carving a rune into it.