Convergence - The Last Science #2.2 - Heroes and Villains

B2: Chapter 19 - End of the World, Redux - II

  If Hailey was finally making her real public debut, she wasn't going out there looking like that.

  Jessica closed the private restroom door behind them and locked it with a satisfyingly loud click. As a secondary measure, she cast a spell on the door itself, pressing at the metal to wedge it into the frame. It wasn't going to open without some serious force behind it.

  Meanwhile, Hailey had dug out a pouch of chalk dust from her bag, along with a pair of moonstones and another pair of malachite. She handed the chalk to Jessica, who floated it out in a dusty haze. As Hailey set out the little candle holders at each point, the chalk landed in a perfect astroid on the restroom floor.

  "It's a good thing we don't have to clean up after," Hailey laughed. She was giddy with anticipation.

  Jessica rolled her eyes, righting one of the candle holders that Hailey had knocked over as she stepped into the center of the chalk. The gemstones floated out to each holder and landed with tiny clinks, echoing slightly off the tile walls of the room.

  As Hailey started, a thrill of danger trickled through her mind. Ritual magic was still a rarity. Even Cinza and her people tended to avoid it, with only a couple experiments involving the golems since their last disastrous attempt in Rallsburg. They all feared the potential consequences of a broken ritual. For Hailey, such painful results were always evident, of course—but even so, she had performed more successful rituals than anyone else in the world, as far as she knew.

  She closed her eyes, reaching out mentally along the lines of chalk to the gemstones. Unlike the normal process of just ripping energy out of them, the ritual allowed her to feel them in a more nuanced way. She could tell how the moonstone shaped her ability to change the color of an object, altering how it reflected light, while the malachite helped her shift the texture and composition. She drew them in, and in an instant she'd already changed the color of her hair. It was trivial to her now, starting at the roots and working her way down, shifting the structure of each strand to a shiny golden-blonde hue.

  With the number of times she'd practiced the spell, Hailey had eventually worked her way up to doing multiple tasks simultaneously. Just as she moved the moonstone energy into her hair, she also brought the malachite to change the texture and shape, twisting it just slightly so it formed natural waves instead of the plain straight hair she'd adopted.

  While she still held the malachite in her mind, Hailey sent it flowing around the skin on her face, washing away every freckle and blemish as she went. Suddenly, her skin was perfect—maybe even too perfect.

  She released everything with a gasp, her eyes fluttering open. The chalk dust had vanished, though the moonstone and malachite were mostly intact. Jessica set to gathering them up, but stopped as she glanced over at Hailey.

  Hailey looked in the mirror. She had gone too far, but could anyone really fault her for it? Every imperfection was washed away. It wasn't that she was suddenly an unbelievable, exaggerated form of attractive—it was still Hailey in the mirror—but it seemed like a perfect version of herself. Like she'd just had professional makeup done for hours to make her skin absolutely flawless, her hair perfectly clean and catching the light, her eyelashes just right, her lips soft and full of color. Hell, even her nose looked attractive, and she'd always hated her nose. Suddenly, it wasn't off-center anymore, or weirdly straight.

  And all of it was permanent.

  Hailey glanced at Jessica, suddenly feeling a little nervous. "Jess?"